Guys. Thank you for the reviews. Seriously. Just... thank you. It feels all tingly-dingly inside.
Obito took a break after he had finished to tell his story.
"I swore that I would love Rin forever, and decided to keep that promise even after she died. You wanted to hear something about me and here it is."
"My sympathy, un." it wasn't the most breathtaking feedback Deidara could give, but it was still the kindest thing he had said to Obito so far. They still sat on the hill in the middle of the mine since the cave-incident. Even if his injury was healed, the blonde felt too weak to walk to the other man's house. The Uchiha had offered to carry him, obviously getting refused.
It was still not clear to Deidara, how they came to tell each other childhood stories while he healed. He remembered asking who was Obito's Mysterious Person, and the guy explained it with a bunch of slice-of-life little stories about him and his team. The artist had to admit, he made a good guess earlier, in the cave. From the description, Rin came off as pure and innocent. Of course, she might have had bad sides too (which Obito wouldn't have noticed anyway), but let's face it: people don't really have the time to do anything wrong if they die as teenagers.
Deidara found himself gazing at Obito's ruined face. He had already heard about what happened to him; what he missed was knowing how exactly the other felt while it happened. He was missing out on the whole emotional spectrum of the issue. Yes, they were telling each other about themselves, but their interaction was distant, like they were just sharing information. And it built up an odd kind of frustration in Deidara.
"It must have been hard for you to leave everything behind." Deidara commented, making the taller man turn his head to him.
"Oh no, it wasn't. After I saw Rin die, I stopped caring about anything but my plan." Obito answered. His face didn't show any kind of emotion, confirming what he said.
"Your plan?" the blonde furrowed his brows.
"That only concerns the outside world, it's a topic I'd rather not speak about."
"Oh, right." to avoid situations like the one before, Deidara was very careful not to insist on sensitive spots when he talked to the Uchiha.
"Now that you mention it, I think I've met that Kakashi, un."
"Ah, really? How's he?" Obito asked with an extremely annoyed tone.
"I didn't exactly ask him; I fought the guy, he's the copy nin, right? In my life, I've always wondered why he had a sharingan, un."
"Could you defeat him?"
"I barely got away. He cut my only remaining arm off with another eye jutsu of you damn Uchihas." Deidara fisted his hands, still feeling rage towards said ninja. And for some unknown reason, the raven haired man's forehead wrinkled too in anger.
"Everything makes sense then." Obito sighed. "Remember when I went to collect your arms with Zetsu? The one near the place where you were hiding wasn't there before; I accidentally found it laying around in Tsukuyomi when I went to meditation state before. When I take an object back from here, sometimes, it ends up somewhere else." Deidara huffed a little, hearing 'Tobi' had made a fool out of him that time.
"So you're saying..."
"Yes. Since Kakashi's left eye is technically mine, he can transport anything to this world with his jutsu."
Deidara wrapped his arms around his knees, wondering if he should know or remember something more. Then something struck him.
"How did you bring my arm back to the real world, un?"
"It has its own ways..." Obito closed his eyes; Deidara noticed he did it every time he had to recall something complex.
"Would it work with people, too?" the blonde asked hopefully.
"I cannot tell you that. It goes easily with objects; I only have to grab what I want to transport while I go back or just use kamui, which is rather risky. But it's different with a human with a soul." the artist's eyes which had glimmered with enthusiasm a few seconds before they returned to being dull. He lowered his head in disappointment.
"Anyway," Obito added ,,You're nothing but a replica of your real self. You might disappear if I try to take you back."
Deidara stared at the colorless ground for a while. He forced himself to find the best words to what he had to say, with the raven haired Uchiha waiting for a reaction. He collected himself and said it with one breath.
"But you wouldn't mind that, would you?"
"Mind what?"
"Making me disappear. I'm ruining the balance of your 'beautiful world', un!" he said those two words with a strong sarcasm. Obito stared blankly, with an undeciphrable face.
"It's not like it changed a lot from when you appeared..." he muttered under his breath.
Deidara couldn't tell why, but his blood was boiling. Maybe it was the standstillness of everything, maybe the complete lack of emotions; anything it was, it made him mad. He was a person who carved anger and violence since his childhood and it became hard for him to live without it. He had to let it out somehow, and an Uchiha was the best occasion to do it.
"How nice of you, acknowledging my presence that much! I'd like to remind you that if I'm a replica, the fact that I'm here is your doing! What the hell do you want from me, even after my death? Do you hate me so much that you want to torture me for all eternity? Or are you mad because I'm the first person who hates your people instead of seeing them as almighty gods just because of some eye jutsu?" Obito was a little struck as the smaller man stood up in the process of shoving his hatred in his face.
"Deidara. I'm not mad and I don't hate you." he sighed.
"Oh, really? You don't hate me?" the blonde artist let out a small laughter. "That's a pity, because I hate you. And you disgust me, your oh-I-am-so-almighty attitude disgusts me, your coolness disgusts me, I hate everything about you! You can do whatever you want to shut me up, but I will talk as long as I can...!" the dark haired man's muscular form sat exactly as before, not moving by an inch. Deidara's words echoed in the mine's round form, the sound of them reflecting from every direction. But Obito didn't utter a word.
"Why don't you say anything?! Damn you, un!" the blonde resembled more a hysterical child right now. He charged, preparing a fist to punch the other violently right in the scarred part of his face. The attacked hopped up and grabbed his wrist in the last moment.
"You seem to have healed." he stated, Deidara trying to hit him with his other hand, which got blocked in turn.
"Now listen..."
"I don't care, I don't care about anything you sa-"
"DEIDARA. Listen to me." said blonde tried his best to escape, but Obito's strenght was too great for that.
"After musing on it, I decided to forgive you, either for almost killing me and destroying Rin's sanctuary. I don't see a reason why you could be mad at me."
"Do you want a reason?" Deidara grunted in a low tone. "There it is. Your right eye is the reason."
"Should I tear it out?" Obito asked almost nonchalantly. Blue eyes widened.
"W-what?"
"Would it make any difference for you if I got rid of my sharingan? Or do you want the rinnegan to get the same fate? Should I stumble around blind, completely unarmed, so that you can destroy me in whatever way you want?"
"What are y-you aiming at?" the blonde's voice was trembling, both his hands caught in the Uchiha's.
"I'm trying to prove to you that it wouldn't make any difference. You wouldn't stop hating me, even if I was weaker than you."
"That might be right." Deidara scowled.
"So what should I do to make you stop?"
"Since when do you even care?!" the artist shouted angrily.
"I don't know why, but I do!" Obito responded, unconsciously raising his voice "Since I've found you, I haven't gone back to the human world. You make this place look like... there's actually something here. I've never been here for so long." the smaller man seemed calmer now, even a little ashamed for his reactions earlier. Suddenly, he felt a lancinating pain in his head and winced, almost falling off the cliff while stumbling.
"I'm carrying you now, want it or not." Obito stated, letting go of his wrists and stepping in front of him.
"Don't think... Cough... about giving me a piggyback-ride!" Deidara grunted, coping with his urge to collapse. The dark haired Uchiha ignored the complaints and picked him up. The weakened blonde wrapped his arms around his neck in order not to fall down. With a few jumps, they were in the forest leading to the house.
While he brought him home, Obito became aware of Deidara's growing body temperature. When they arrived, the artist already had a fever. Stepping inside the house, grey walls and dull light awaited them. Not wasting time, the raven put the other man down on the futon and went out in the other room, returning with a bottle of water after a few seconds.
Deidara was red and sweating, unconscious as thought he was sleeping. Sometimes he hissed or moaned out. The whole display was worrying Obito; he still couldn't explain why, though. While chasing after the blonde, he had time to think. Deidara wasn't a pathetic being and it was his mistake to treat him as such. He also wasn't what the Uchiha would define a 'boring person'. The misunderstanding between them until then was probably due to their reciprocal ignorance of their points of view. Apparently, an artist couldn't think like an cynic and vice versa. Or could Obito change that? This curiosity was the reason he was now curing the sick blonde, and yes, even caring about him.
"Nh..." another febrile sound left Deidara's mouth. His state only got worse until their arrival. Obito was now trying to give the ill man water for the fourth time, but he kept on spitting it out. He had even tried with the hand mouths, but it didn't change anything.
"Shit." he cussed. His once gloved hand went to Deidara's forehead, controlling his temperature once again. He was so hot Obito felt he might burn his hand. But the moaning and sweating seemed to get lighter in that instant. The blonde slowly opened his eyes, meeting mismatching ones filled with anxiety.
"What's going on, un?"
"Don't move. Drink some water." now that he was awake, the dark haired man could finally keep his only company from drying up.
"Your hand's... cold..." Deidara muttered, still not completely awake.
"Sorry!" Obito quickly removed said limb which he had left on the other's head awkwardly.
"No, it felt good... Kept me cool, un..." he said, closing his eyes again. Hesitantly, the taller man reached out to Deidara's face again, only caressing it this time. He flinched, horrified with his own actions. What the hell was that? Aside from everything, that gesture looked very gay... Not that Obito was one to care about that kind of thing; everyone deserved love and avenging their loved ones, same or different sex they were. But he loved Rin. He didn't even dare to admit what exactly made him doubt that, but he knew oh, so well. He hadn't had any interest in anyone asides from his eternal love in his life. Other people were objects to him. He was now starting to realize how cruelly he had lived, despising the rest of the world for Rin's death. When someone bothered him or got in the way of his plans, his first reaction was either killing them or torturing them, in case he could get informations out of them. He was too busy to be interested in sex with the enormous amounts of work the Akatsuki required and the general aura of distrust in the world towards him, being a rogue nin who constantly wore a mask.
Since he also did many things which bothered Obito, he got the urge to just kill off Deidara many times, too. But he couldn't do it anymore, even if he had to.
Because the artist had a personality he was interested in now, so he couldn't see him as an object. The moment he cast a lethal jutsu on him, he would remember his sick love for art and explosions, his hatred for Uchihas, his sentences ending with 'un', his hand-mouths, everything.
Deidara coughed, as if he felt Obito's thoughts directed at him. Snapping out of it, the dark haired man remembered what the other had said earlier and placed his hand on his cheek. He wondered what would happen if it went lower... Would Deidara even notice, or was he too knocked out? He could check this way... Yes, that was only checking. Obito's fingertips moved slowly to the creamy neck of the other man. He suddenly wanted to know what it smelled or tasted like, and he already felt depraved. Seeing the other keeping on his slumber peacefully, he lowered his palm on his chest, above his heart. It was beating, even though Deidara was dead. Of course, he was a replica, he needed to remember that. The Uchiha closed his eyes, concetrating on the sound. He wished it wasn't fake. He wished he really had someone beside him after all of those years of not loving anyone in the world of the living.