A/N: Alright! First, and hopefully only, chapter to undertake the whole publishing process from Google Doc to posted chapter on a computer other than my one at home. I say hopefully because that messes with my saving these documents in a neat and orderly way. When I get out of the hospital, I'll have to remember to copy paste this chapter into Word, where I don't normally have to remember that because saving it as a Word doc is part of the process. Having to remember things is hard. Grr.

On that note, hospitals are great places to be if you're prone to distraction. I've read at least 4 books, possibly 5, over the past week. It would take me a month to do that at home because home is so much more distracting. Interestingly, part of that distraction appears to be messing with my emotions. I haven't had any particularly high moods here where I feel really inspired to and by physical tasks like riding my bike or washing the dishes, but I also have not had any random low moods where I am unwilling to speak. ANY. Some kind of tired feeling where I do not feel like talking was a daily or almost daily occurrence at home! I did have one time where I was unable to speak, but that was just after receiving bad news, and it wore off surprisingly quickly, like, within 15 minutes. Normally, I just spontaneously feel like that for no apparent reason and it lasts longer.

What is going on in my home environment?

At any rate, I have made one really good discovery since arriving here. I like having my head petted very much. I do not feel anything from petting my own head and I've never had anyone pet me before, so I didn't know that. But the tech has had to change my electrodes a few times, and when he gets the ones of the side of my head around my ears it feels really good. If anyone reading this knows where to find people that would agree to pet me in real life, let me know!

.

General

Several hours later, the intense rain lessened and began to stop for brief periods of time, allowing Hidan and Nagato to return home. The demon insisted that they carry backpacks full of squirrels with them. "Hey!" Hidan shouted as he entered the building. "Annoyance hazard!"

"Uh oh." Kakuzu immediately began to gather the books. Nobody resisted; Kisame slammed the Complete Encyclopedia shut in the middle of a fascinating section and ran to turn it in. Yahiko was on his way to his room when the squirrels burst into the kitchen. They flowed over the counters and had all cupboards open before anyone could stop them. Thankfully, the door of the fridge was too heavy for them to open, though they did try.

"Demonic creations," Nagato repeated as he moved. "Demonic creations." Nearly everyone groaned. The only exceptions were Sasori, who was too busy uttering curses under his breath as he found that his chakra strings could not attach to the rodents, and Konan, who was not in the habit of expressing frustration as long as she could help it.

Kakuzu used his threads in place of Sasori's strings to hold them. He winced when one squirrel managed to twist far enough to bite at his thread, but held fast. Hidan surmised that the demon boy, being somewhat more of a rules-follower than he had been before, would allow the game to end much the same way it had started. "Back you go." Once all the squirrels were stuffed back into the backpacks, the backpacks ceased to move. Nagato tossed them outside and confirmed that they turned back to darkness and flowed up the street to the hospital.

Yahiko poked his head into the kitchen when he had heard no chittering noises for a full minute. "Are they gone?"

"Yes." Kakuzu pushed all his disgust aside and kept the bitten thread out for examination. It was already healing, but he still felt a little something when he prodded it. He was reassured to find that they had sensation. If they were going to take the place of proper body parts, they could at least have the decency to pretend to belong.

Konan asked Hidan if he had gathered any more information from the demon boy in exchange for the squirrels. "Nope." Hidan shrugged. "Should I have? He already let us hang out and shelter there for a bunch of hours. I figured there had to be some payment for that."

"While we were sheltering there, we learned some things," Nagato said. "He has a very well-stocked children's room. All the ghosts seem happy. He's really settling in and being responsible."

"Aww!" Yahiko couldn't help but smile. "I knew he had to have a sweet side!" Nagato remembered to snap a picture just in time.

Hidan got a strange look on his face. "Hey, are you two free to hang out?"

Nagato was confused for several seconds before it finally soaked in that Hidan was gesturing to him. Why? They had just returned from an extended hangout! Does he really want to spend that much time with me? I can't believe it. But he really seems to… Nagato smiled shyly and nodded.

"Okay." Oh man! If Hidan hadn't been gone for so long, I could have spent some alone time with him in my room with nobody bothering us. Yahiko really had been more interested in spirits, though. It would have been a good opportunity, but only on another day where he was prepared to talk about complicated personal things. There were others days where what he wanted would get done, and nothing was any worse for spending this day on another task. There was absolutely nothing to worry about. But he could not avoid feeling guilty and berating himself. Shouldn't I still have taken advantage of the time, though?

Hidan got them both moving, out of the kitchen and into his room, where he closed the door. He still had a strange look on his face. Nagato decided to ask why. Once they were all sitting on the bed, he asked Hidan, "Hey. Are you okay?"

Shit! Think of a plausible lie! Half truth! Hidan certainly wasn't going to share the real reason he had gathered them both here, which was to test himself to find out if he just really appreciated Yahiko's company or felt something more. I want to find out if I like him that way, which is connected to the phone call, so… "A buddy of mine called earlier. I don't see him that often, so the last time I spent any time with him was before Konan showed up. A lot's changed."

Nagato sighed. He was sad to hear that, but relieved too. With Hidan, there could always be something much worse going on. "Is that why you wanted to talk to us? Because of friend issues?" *sigh* I was going to say it plainly, but at the last second… I am such a coward. I wish I could be more open. Why can't I? With my two best friends in the whole entire world, no less?

Yahiko cleared his throat and looked down at the floor. "I, um, have some news."

There was an awkward pause, during which he realized that, thanks to looking away, he'd missed that Hidan was going into another room just as he said that. He flushed. Hidan came back from the bathroom without his scythe. It was a little wet and he did not want it to drip anywhere. He flipped himself onto the bed between Nagato and Yahiko, slung arms over both their shoulders, and asked, "What's the good news?"

Yahiko giggled. Now he was in the mood to spend some time alone with Hidan. It was a proven fact that Hidan made everything less awkward. "Well, as you know, I'm trying to talk to spirits. I made progress there today!"

Nagato smiled. "What kind of progress?"

"I went to the river and put my hand in the water, and released chakra, and I felt the water pulling at my hand a little. It liked my chakra."

"Who the fuck wouldn't?" Hidan asked rhetorically.

"Hidan's right," Yahiko said. Now he struggled not to smile because if he did his jaw was going to fall off. Nagato took another picture. That forced Yahiko to bury his mouth in Hidan's shoulder to hold himself together. When he had, he took a deep breath and said, "You know the lake? It has something in it that's bigger than a spirit."

"Hidan." Nagato indicated Hidan with his head. "He was the one making the lake slosh around that one time, remember?"

"No, no." Yahiko shook his head. "I mean, yeah, but there's still something in the lake now. All the stuff he releases has to stay there, right? It's kind of like a giant really powerful spirit on its own. The lake's still really powerful even when he's not in it."

Neither Nagato nor Hidan could find any fault with this reasoning. Hidan wrinkled his forehead. "Mkay. So there's a residue in the water. What's that have to do with spirits?"

Yahiko suddenly felt very stupid. "Well, um, it's not just a residue. It's like a thing in the lake. Like a giant spirit."

"Uh…" Nagato blinked. "Are you saying the lake's still alive?"

"Maybe." Did I not realize that was important? How oblivious am I?

Nagato stayed silent. Hidan wrinkled his forehead again and made thinking noises. Suspiciously, he asked, "Is it friendly?"

"Yeah! It likes me."

"Okay!" Hidan's face cleared and he looked like a child again. "Cool! Wait a sec. Does that mean I accidentally created life?"

"I don't know?" Does a collection of life force count as a life if it doesn't have a body and it's a blend of lots of little life forces?

"Shit." Hidan gulped. "I never expected spirit kids! What the fuck do I do to take care of a spirit kid? They don't teach you that in sex ed books."

Nagato patted his hand. "You already take care of a demon kid. You'll be fine."

"That's different though."

"Why?"

"He's adopted. I'm just not comfortable with anything except adoption. I know there's not supposed to be a difference, but the idea of bio kids makes my stomach flip."

"Kakuzu thinks it's a collection of souls taken from everything that's dead when you wake up. So it's not really yours-yours. It's not, like, descended from you." Yahiko was starting to lose track of what exactly they were talking about, but he hoped his contribution was helpful. He adopted the demon kid? When?

Hidan relaxed. "Oh. That's better. I still should look after it though."

There was a knock on the door. Whoever it was did not open the door immediately after knocking, which meant that it was Konan. "Hey, how are things?" Hidan asked. Is the universe conspiring to put all my favorite people in the same room? Yes! That'll make it so much harder to tell about Sunshine though. Eh, do I even care?

Konan opened the door, stepped through it, and closed it behind her. She stood in a formal way as she announced, "There is important news about the lake."

Hidan nodded. "Sunshine just told me. Chock full o' life force, explains all the dead things, still alive so now I have to pay child support."

"It also possesses the power to heal souls," Konan added. "It has long been regarded as one of the sacred sites of this town because all the sacred sites of this region are places where souls can be healed."

"Really?" Hidan took his arms off of Nagato's and Yahiko's shoulders so he could lean back and look up at the ceiling. "Does that mean I literally fathered a church? Man, shit gets complicated when your kids are ambiguously alive."

"Not a church," Konan replied smoothly, as if the entire conversation hadn't veered into a comedic version of the Twilight Zone. "People of no particular affiliation go for a swim there if they need to, and only then. There is nothing centered around it as there is for a traditional holy site."

Hidan narrowed his eyes in concentration. "Hmm. It would be annoying to have people stomping all over my territory, so that's good. But it might be lonely, and that's not good. Is it lonely?"

"I didn't feel anything and it didn't do anything to stop us from leaving," Yahiko answered. I know Hidan's weird, but does he really think he's related to a collection of spirits in a lake? He's not a spirit. He's human. Humanish, vampiric, I mean. He told himself to remember Hidan's proper species in the future. But that proper species was still a flesh and blood human, not a spirit, so how could he be related to a spirit? Wait, Konan confirmed that we definitely have souls. Since they for sure had souls, did that mean the definition of human included spiritual aspects? What was the meaning of the word 'species' when souls were part of the mix? I have no idea what I'm talking about! How am I supposed to respect Hidan's species now? I guess I should just go along with whatever he says.

Hidan had just finished saying something neutral and pleasant. Now he turned the conversation around, asking Konan if anything interesting had happened. "No," she replied. There had been nothing suspicious, overly revealing, or unusual in Ruta's documents. Though she had found an entire folder with stories in it, old ones, to judge from their quality. The only thing overly revealing or unusual was Ruta himself, who should rightly have hidden or destroyed those things. "Not yet." She was still reading those and every other document she could access in the hopes of gaining some insight into that strange cat person.

"Aw. Hey, wanna hang out later?"

Konan tilted her head. "Is everything all right? You seem quite desperate for company."

"I'm kinda reevaluating all my personal relationships," Hidan muttered. Now that was suspicious. But he could be expected to tell her later.

Konan nodded her head in that miniature bow she used, and left. "What's going on?" Yahiko asked. "Is that friend of yours okay? What did he say? Did he say anything?" Or is there nothing to say because he just could not understand you? Things you can't talk about at all? Yahiko sat on the verge of tearing up, ready to sympathetically mourn if he needed to. Or was that if he got the chance to?

Hidan shrugged. "Didn't need to. I'm the one who did all the saying. I turned down something I've never turned down before. I'm different now. I don't know how to handle that. I've never been this different before."

Yahiko sat very still. I've never had the courage to do all the saying.

Nagato held Hidan's hand. I planned things I've never planned before.

Neither of them admitted what they were thinking, not in each other's presence. But Hidan felt it. Welcome to the club. It was amazing to have that kind of understanding. Maybe Konan was right. Maybe he was starving for company. Or rather, starving for the kind of understanding he'd rarely had before. Who else would hear anything he had to say about losing all his memories from his childhood, shouldering other people's burdens, and not having a tail even though he should, and respond with, "Welcome to the club"? Nobody. There was no club. There hadn't been.

Hidan wrapped his arms around both their shoulders and drew them in for a double hug. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his left side. Yahiko was warm and reasonably soft and good to hold. His hair tickled. He smelled like himself, and that was very, very good. The way he relaxed into the hug without any reserve was so like him, and he was fascinating. So fascinating. About as fascinating and reassuring as Nagato.

I did describe him as kissable. Yes, everything made perfect sense. Hidan purred. "I love you guys."

"Aw, you too," Yahiko immediately replied.

Hidan laughed.

Deidara

Obviously, with nothing else to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon, everyone knew about the lake by dinner. Hidan was teased mercilessly about child support and irresponsible parenting, which he joined in on without a trace of distress. Kakuzu and Kisame performed the valuable service of reminding them all that this was supposed to be horrifying. Konan continued to suggest practical ideas as if there was nothing unusual at all. Deidara just had to ask her why.

"Why do you talk about a lake being alive like it's no big deal, yeah?"

Konan took a sip of her tea before answering. "Because I must."

Deidara opened his mouth, remembered how many cries of horror he had stifled in the field because if he stopped to let them out he would die, and closed his mouth. Then he opened it again. "Can you teach me how to do it, hm?"

Konan shook her head. "It is not a skill that can be taught."

"Then what do I do?"

"You have lived. Therefore you already have skills that are not taught. You have no need of me." She walked away before he could possibly have protested.

Deidara took a deep breath to calm his racing heart, which had not calmed for a single second since he had learned that the lake might be capable of delivering life force. She's right. I can handle myself, yeah. I can do this. What do I do to calm down?

There was only one answer he could think of. Blowing up gears with Sasori. Moving Stitchy. Talking with Laurie about his troubles. Crap, yeah. I have to directly face my fears, don't I? He would rather have tried to pretend there was nothing to fear, or done something distracting in the hopes of his fear lessening by itself. But those things had no history of working, ever, so they were not possible answers. He always had been a very hands-on person.

But his experiences had changed him in one crucial way. He now knew that he needed more than one set of hands. He grabbed Sasori. "Hey, you want to check out something weird?"

Sasori held up a hand, so they waited until he had finished his sandwich. When he was done and the taste was beginning to fade from his tongue and the recommended 7 seconds had passed, he said, "Sure."

You have no idea how much I like your stability, hm. Sasori was very different from Deidara in temperament, and comforting for that reason. Deidara even appreciated the way the engineer directed their movements as they left the base: he made them stop entirely, then, when the sky seemed clear, decided they should move at a quick pace that was like a jog but stealthier and steadier. The kind of pace a wolf would move at, or a ninja. Deidara would have made up some mishmash of running, walking, and other things on the fly. This was better.

"I thought you were referring to the lake," Sasori commented. It was a neutral comment, lacking surprise or any insinuation that Deidara should have been referring to the lake. And he did not go on to assume where they were heading. Deidara was glad for that, too.

"Hey, thanks, yeah."

"For what?"

"The way you leave everything so open, yeah. I could say anything."

Sasori smiled. "Thanks."

"And for helping me out, hm. Structure and stuff."

"Safeguards are important."

What would have happened to me if I'd never met him, hm? Deidara suspected the answer was nothing he wanted to think about. He sped up their pace.

The extended traveling time, most of it in dead silence, with the air flowing around his face and having to adjust his movement to little obstacles in the road and his muscles stretching and his lungs working, with mind fully concentrated on the intricate and absorbing task of moving, did more for Deidara's state of mind than any amount of meditating could have. It was even better than flying with Konan in the forest. By the time they reached the park and found the clay owl undamaged under the trees, Deidara was able to be excited about what he was going to try. "The idea I had is completely weird, yeah," he told Sasori as they mounted the owl. "If anything happens, it'll be fucking insane!"

Sasori seemed to take him at his word with as neutral an acceptance as he had before. That lasted for half the flight. As they left town and entered the forest, angling slightly westward, Sasori's arms tightened around Deidara's midsection. "No. Dei, no."

"You promised."

"Not this. I didn't… You have lost your mind."

"I think I want to," Deidara said. He was still breathing hard though he did not need to. His voice filled with a deep fervor he had not felt enough of in a long time. "If having my mind about me means being scared…"

"I'm not asking you to be scared," Sasori hurriedly said. "Just please find a space for other people in your thrill seeking. Do not force me into that thing, for example."

Deidara landed on the shore of the lake. "I wasn't going to, hm."

"For the love of every god there is, Dei…" Sasori's face was pale and he shook as he climbed down from the bird's back. "What are you going to do? Aside from stare at how wicked insane this is?"

Deidara felt nerves coming back, whispering about how he was messing with forces above his place, how he could not know what he was doing, how he should go back home like the little human he was. But that was a proven strategy for not moving past fear. He shoved them aside. "It's okay. There are other people that can help me handle things, yeah." I believe that. I do. Is that what Laurie was asking about when she talked to me about faith?

Sasori stared at him. "Help you handle what? And how? How can anyone possibly-"

"Come on!" urged the demon boy from Deidara's other side. "Go, go, go!" He yanked on Deidara's sleeve. "I've been waiting a super long time for this!"

Deidara pulled his sleeve away. Sasori stared at the demon boy. "I stand corrected. I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me. I must have entirely forgotten where we live."

Deidara flashed him a quick grin. "Don't worry, yeah. I'd forgotten about him too." Does Sasori know about Hidan yet? Should he? I know Konan doesn't want us talking about it. But not even to Sasori? He's the least judgy guy around here, yeah.

Sasori's worried look indicated that he did not know who Deidara had been thinking of if not the demon boy. I'm gonna make her give me permission, yeah. He's Sasori. I shouldn't need permission. It felt good to think like his old self again! Of course he would never act so irresponsibly, but just thinking of defying rules made him happy.

Those things - happiness, adventure, and loyalty - were what filled his chakra as he told Clay to wade into the lake.

Finally, life-infused water covered the bird's feet. Then its ankles, then its legs, up to the level of its wings. Deidara made it spread its wings, and it looked as if it was taking a bath. Just a normal giant bird taking a bath.

Deidara held his breath.

They saw…

Nothing.

Nothing unusual appeared. No sparks or flashes of light, no splashing water, no sudden urges to scream. Nothing. Just a giant white bird with black stitches holding its wings out and pretending to bathe.

Sasori dared to take a breath. "It didn't work. That's great. It is wonderful news. Now we can all go home."

It can't be that simple, hm. For one, we live where we live. This place is bananas. For another, the demon kid isn't complaining. The boy stared at the bird, not with rapturous excitement, but certainly with sustained attention. He must be seeing something worthy of attention.

"What are you looking at?" Dei asked.

The boy grumbled and shuffled his feet. "It's not a golem like I wanted." He stopped. "But it is kinda cool."

Deidara looked at his bird again. "So something is happening, hm?"

Suddenly the boy's full weight was sitting on his shoulders. He stumbled, swayed, but kept them from falling over. "You are hereby required to do lots of cool things with this bird," the demon snarled. "Required. Lots. Got it?"

"Yep." Not a good idea to argue with superiors, and here, he's definitely my superior. Deidara stumbled backward as the weight instantly vanished from his shoulders. He caught his balance and looked around. The boy had disappeared.

The demon boy was gone. In his absence, Deidara noticed the chirping of early insects. He called Clay back from the lake and ran a hand over the owl's sides. His clay felt no different. He stood as a statue when not made to move, as before. Deidara hopped up onto his back and flew in circles over the lake. Clay responded as he always had. The kid's right, yeah. Doing lots of things is the only way to see what's happened. Flying in circles isn't enough to reveal anything, yeah.

He landed and sat down next to Sasori, who was already sitting on the shore of the lake. "Nothing, hm."

"Mm."

Whatever Sasori might have thought of this experiment, he didn't say. Early insects and night birds became the only sound around. Deidara thought of taking Clay somewhere else, wanted to test him more, but was held back by Sasori's example. Eventually he had to calm down inside. When he did, he noticed how restful it was. This is nice, yeah.

Where would I be without him?

Nagato

Hidan shared with them his thoughts. He started with the question, "Do you guys want to hear about sad things?" Nagato and Yahiko recognized this as a question of great importance, whose answer would decide a great many things. They nodded.

The story Hidan told took them well into the night. Not because it was long, or very complicated; in fact Hidan paid barely more than lip service to the essential parts. He spent much more time elaborating on something or other that was related to what he was talking about, but not directly. He spent many words and several minutes of long and elaborate description on the pain he'd felt after 9/11, for example, but only a single sentence to say, "You really think anyone else would understand something like that?"

Nagato finally had to hold up a hand. Hidan had gotten through several examples of things other people wouldn't understand and some angry grumbling, then switched immediately from curled up and grumbling to spreading his arms around both of them and expressed how truly amazing they were. It seemed like a good place to stop him before he ran off the rails again. "You're welcome. After all that, I get how much we must mean to you. I'm glad I've helped."

Yahiko was beaming and tearing up at the same time. "What he said."

Hidan squeezed them both. "It's kinda nice to have nice people around. It's totally different from what I'm used to. You guys are fucking excellent."

Nagato thought he really did understand what Hidan felt. He, too, could not imagine talking and embracing and being together this way with any other people. This kind of personal talk about how they felt? Where could that be found? Nobody else would really understand, would they? If they did, they would not respond right. He couldn't imagine Kakuzu being welcoming and reassuring, even though the older man likely did understand the pain of losing friends. Nagato was keenly aware of what Hidan had been aware of. Welcome to the club. This kind of understanding was like a drink when he was parched, too. Hidan was not touching any of their skin directly, so Nagato held his hand and squeezed it while summoning up more of this feeling of relief. Hidan would understand. He did, as evidenced by his fond smile.

"I feel like I can take on the world," Yahiko said.

Hidan nodded. "Fuck yeah!"

Hidan… I can't imagine a world without you. A place like that would be so dark and lonely. How could I stand it? Nagato watched him look at Yahiko so cockily, as if it was self evident that the world could be conquered. I don't want to try to be brave without you.

Yahiko was still talking about how strong he felt. Was something about that important? Nagato watched him and Hidan make grandiose plans for what they would do if they were in charge of the world, and it clicked. Hidan was in charge of the world, in a way. And there were some who did not like that.

A flickering warmth began to build inside. He, too, felt as if he could take on the world, and now he had something to fight and someone to fight for. Hidan cut himself off midsentence and turned to look at Nagato. "Moonlight?"

Nagato's mouth closed and face firmed. His chakra gathered, ready for use. In a low voice, he reminded Hidan, "The vampires hate you."

Hidan shook his head. "You don't need to keep me safe. Not if it means anything you're not ready for."

Are we ready? Hidan's idea had to be treated with proper respect, so Nagato dutifully considered it. Logically, we've learned much about the real situation, and Itachi went over possible ways to explain it to the vampires with us. We have things to tell the vampires now. Practically, we're prepared emotionally and mentally, and there's little risk of the vampires physically attacking. If they do, I have my powers, and we'll bring backup like last time. We won't get any readier by waiting. Nagato nodded back. "Oh, I'm more than ready."

Yahiko's face had firmed too. He looked so much like a man that Nagato swooned when he nodded. It was okay because Yahiko was looking at Hidan at the time, so he didn't see how Nagato's shoulders slumped as he sighed. Nagato sat up again in time to exchange confident smiles with him. They were ready.

"We've already gone over what to say with Itachi," Nagato said. "Now we just need to get our cloaks, freshen up our appearance, and assemble some backup like we had last time. Deidara and Kakuzu are still our best bets. If the vampires aren't happy with what we have to say, which they probably won't be, we can escape through the sky. No problem at all." He only said that because he had no way of knowing that at that moment, Deidara was flying circles above the lake, on a quest of his own that it would not be wise to disturb.

.

A/N: That's a Lemon Tree reference! "I'm sittin' here in a boring room, just another rainy Sunday afternoon..." I like the song. I have it memorized.

Alright! Vampires! Yeah! Can't wait to get back to them. Churning with ideas for how the scene's gonna go already... Rrr.

See yall next week!