The boring, almost empty house which was left to dust for some time (one could never be sure how much it actually was, in Tsukuyomi) became crowded again when a nonchalant Obito and a hardly breathing Deidara entered. The artist had already realized that his body fatigued way more since he'd been in this dimension; that's why he felt sleepy so often. The walk back from the mine exhausted him, and when the taller man closed the front door behind them, he leaned against a wall panting.
"Care for some water?" the dark haired nin asked quietly while opening a drawer on a piece of furniture that hand't been there before. That was actually the first phrase said by Obito since they started walking. Seemingly, when he didn't have to put up the 'good boy' act, he was a silent person. The artist regretted every complaint he ever made about Tobi not shutting up. The silence gave him the chills, that man gave him the chills.
"I'm fine." the blonde answered after a minute of spacing out, oxygen finally reaching his lungs.
"You don't seem fine to me." the other man commented. He finally found what he was looking for in the drawer, so he closed it. He put a glass bottle full of water on the table and sat down before opening it and drinking a few sips. His pride made him refuse, but the bomber did watch that bottle with a bit of envy...
"Now, Deidara. Can we sit down and talk calmly about how you managed to visit me here?" Obito started after taking a breath with his elbows resting on the table and fingers entwined under his chin.
"If this is what you want to know, I'm going to disappoint you, Uchiha. I have no idea, un."
"Where exactly and how did you wake up?"
"A little further from here, in the desert. And I felt really knocked out and dizzy." the blonde artist rolled his eyes while sitting down at the opposite side of the tea table and answering the question.
"What's your last memory?"
"My death." he said with a rather quiet tone, not looking Obito in the eye. He inwardly cursed himself. He shouldn't feel guilty, damnit! The man in front of him stood up, walking towards the window to look out absently once again.
"You really are just a replica. What I wonder about is how you sneaked into my subconscious..."
Deidara couldn't react in any way. His brain, still working normally, assured him about his identity, but what if he only believed he was real and the Uchiha was right? As an artist, he thought a lot about philosophy, but the question of existence was something he rather wouldn't dig into. It always ended up bringing uncertainity and fear of death. His greatest technique was suicide, he couldn't be afraid to die!
"I suppose you cannot get out of Tsukuyomi since you would've left a long time ago, if you could, so I should technically be able to do whatever I want with you." Obito continued, Deidara snorting at the cockiness of his words.
"As long as I don't blow you up, un." in normal context that could come off as a joke. And, for the artist's surprise, the tyrant lifted slightly the corner of his mouth, like he had a minimal intention to smile or chuckle.
"Since you won't spill information, I'll tell you a little something about Itachi." the Uchiha said, going back to his usual attitude. Deidara's eyes instinctively widened with hatred. Even that name caused him goosebumps.
"He killed all the other members of our family in order to protect the Hokage. The Uchiha wanted to take Konoha over and he got an order to annihilate the clan. Actually, I was the one helping him." the blonde's breath hitched. No, there was no way for that to be true.
"What about his brother, un?"
"That's the surprising part. Sasuke-kun was the one he loved the most in the world, so he couldn't kill him. Instead, he decided to become his target in order to make him stronger. Makes sense, doesn't it?" Obito took a break here. An expression of shock replaced the one on the bomber's face before.
"That's what I said about you not knowing a damn about Uchiha."
"In the end, even someone like Itachi acted according to his bonds..." Deidara muttered silently.
"And I'm sure every man does so." the dark haired man added.
"I wonder about that. I hadn't had bonds since my mother."
"Believe me, nonexistent bonds are better than broken bonds."
Now the standstill of time was almost tangible. The silence was deafening and for the first time, Deidara experienced harmony in this world, like that man and him were sitting on two plates of a scale and they had just found out the way to stay in balance.
"Why do you say that? At least you have something to remember." the blonde said hesitantly after staying in silence, musing on the earlier conversation
"And it's painful. To boot, since this place changes according to my thoughts, I keep on seeing flashbacks everywhere."
"What do you mean?" Deidara blinked.
"Places and visions remind me of someone I've lost" the dark haired Uchiha never once looked at the artist who stared at his wide back all along. When Obito turned around, Deidara awkwardly acted like he was contemplating the 'spectacular' gray ceiling above his head.
"Well, we lose people, I guess you have to put up with it, un." the blonde was only trying to sympathize with him, but it only sounded nonchalant from his mouth, especially considering that he rarely had any bond in his life.
"Put up with it?" the taller man repeated quietly, but his voice was full of rage. His fist landed on the table, making the other recoil and wonder how the furniture piece didn't break.
"Put up with it?!" this time he shouted. Uh-oh, Deidara thought, sensitive spot.
"What do you know about losing someone important?!"
"I know well enough, Uchiha. Calm down." the bomber said, trying to sound cool instead of frightened, which he actually was.
But what came next was completely unpredictable. Deidara found himself laying on the floor in an instant, the other nin holding him down with a painfully tight grip. He was in complete panic, his limbs numb from the squeeze under Obito's hands. Even his mouth hands hung ajar, tongues sticking out.
"Wanna tell me about it, Deidara? So, who was that, the one you've lost? I hope it's not Sasori... is he?" the dark haired man held up his chin, letting go of his left wrist, to lock their gaze. His smile was mocking and malicious.
"G...get off of me, un!"
"Why, do you only like this kind of thing with him?" a single finger trailed down from Deidara's chin to his neck, then his chest. The artist shuddered in disgust and tried to free himself wiggling and pushing his attacker away with his free left hand. He failed, only getting himself more tangled up with the Uchiha who leaned down further.
"Let me go, you jerk! Let me go! Now!" Obito chuckled, making the blonde man's face red with humiliation and anger.
"It was just a blind guess, but you are blushing... Did you two really have that kind of relationship? That's kind of amusing" Deidara just couldn't bear to hear all those crazy assumptions any longer. Still, he couldn't do anything but speaking.
"We've never done anything weird! Never once! You're completely wrong, asshole!" the bomber couldn't figure out where he got the courage to yell all that in Obito's face, who apparently got knocked out by the shock. The dark haired nin's hold loosened but he stayed there, staring at the nothing in front of himself.
"I've let myself go again. Since I have always had to keep up the act strictly in the real world, I've used this place to express myself freely. I will try to avoid these incidents, but you'll have to watch your mouth." that arrogance made Deidara's blood boil. But this time, he knew the once-masked man lost his self-control. His past's a taboo, he noted to himself. He felt no need to say anything. He snatched his right hand away from the other's grip, standing up and brushing dust off of his black cloak.
"Where are you going?" a calmed down Obito asked, as he headed towards the front door.
"To my territory, un."
The forest on the other side of the clay mine resembled the one from before quite a lot, except it had some bigger rocks casually sprawled on the ground. Deidara wondered if he really was so bored he could notice such a small change... He decided he would explore everything past the line dividing him and Obito, but then again, it was the same as staying in one place since everything was alike. His wrists still had red marks on them ever since that 'incident' (as the Uchiha had named it). He was so hard to understand! He knew people often lost control because of pain, but he never thought it was that much... But something interrupted his train of thought. He felt a light patting on his ankle, something soft and bouncy.
"What the hell, damn Uchiha?!" he yelled, pissed, turning around, but there was no trace of said man. He looked down at his feet, trying to figure out if he was just hallucinating or there really was something. Well, there was. A small, round, lilac thing was climbing up his right leg. Deidara shook the creature off in shock. He thought there weren't any animals in Tsukuyomi... Looking around, he wondered how hadn't he noticed them before; there was a whole bunch of them scattered in the woods and their color also stood out in the middle of all the gray ground and black trees. The artist couldn't find the right word to describe them; they were round and fist-sized, with four ridiculously short legs and two black eyes which looked like holes. The animals moved around slowly on the ground and there were also some on the trees. Deidara hesitantly picked up one of them to examinate it better.
"I wonder if this means Obito's imagining small, purple... things." he bent down to return the creature to his habitat.
As more and more purple animals showed up, the blonde man ended up observing them while walking and not paying attention to anything else. And the first moment he remembered to look around, his jaw dropped. He almost had to close his eyes, all that color blinding him. Suddenly, a path in front of him had appeared out of nowhere, cornered with more trees at the two sides. But even though they were apparently the same, black, dead-looking trees he had seen everywhere, these had oranges on them. And not just a few; every tree was loaded with them, so much to cover the branches completely. Also, they seemed to be oddly shiny, like the light of the sun was hitting them, but then again, the one in this world was black. The orange-trees illuminated the road between them, which Deidara walked down with amazement. He was too curious to resist and stepped at the side of the path, picking a fruit from the closest tree. It had been long since he had last eaten... He started peeling it with the teeth of his hand mouth, but after the first piece of skin came off, he threw away the orange horrified. The inside was black. After making sure there was nothing creepy in the fruit (besides its color), he picked it up again from where he dropped it before, and peeled it completely. It turned out to be a completely ordinary orange, if it wasn't for the black inner part. The bomber took a section, staring at it mistrustfully. Oh, right, he couldn't die... He took it in his mouth. It tasted delicious, better than anything he had eaten while he was still alive. The artist was so eager to have more of it that he devoured the rest with his hand mouths. He decided he would take another one with him.
The road of the orange-trees was longer than expected. The more Deidara walked, the darker it became, and when he finally reached the end, after the last pair of trees, he surprisedly realized he was inside a cave. The blonde artist started wondering if he was just dreaming all this. It was kind of dark, but he could see where his steps led, thanks to the light emanating from the fruit in his hand. Somehow, this change of scenery seemed less reassuring than the boring woods. In a forest, you could flee in many directions if you happened meet something unexpected. In cave, there's just one way. And if it's blocked, there's no way to get out. Furthermore, if there was a cave, there should be at least a hill, but mostly a mountain out there. If the ceiling collapsed on Deidara, he would live forever, buried alive, which was far worse than dying. He could now sympathize with Hidan.
I apologize for the strangeness of this episode, it might read as an LSD-trip since I'm only writing down scenes as I imagine them. The downsides of being an airhead. Also, the screwed-up quotation marks make it abundantly clear which my previous account was, but whatever.
16/07/30 Edit: Quotation marks fixed.