Okay, I know this story is moving through the months pretty fast, but don't worry! It's not over for quite some time! :) And oh yeah, this has taken a while to get up because for some reason, it doesn't show when you read it, even though if I do Live Preview, it shows... thanks to Al-theFreak for pointing that out...this is weird. :S
Happy Holidays!
Konan sat shivering in her bed in the middle of the night, on December 16th. There were two feet of snow outside, and the wind was forcing the cold air and snow through the unfixable, unpluggable crack in her window.
She was wearing every sweater she had (two), her woolen tights over leggings, four pairs of thick socks, gloves under woolen mittens, a knitted hat, and she had wrapped the blankets around her. And she was still unbearably cold. Finally, after an hour more of this, she gave up. Gathering all her blankets, and stuffing her feet into her boots, she padded down the hall, wondering who would most likely be awake.
She didn't dare try Sasori's room, because she had a funny feeling that due to the cold, eh and Deidara would be...ah...sharing body heat... and she didn't want to interrupt them. She didn't try Itachi, because she'd seen Kisame sneak in there when she'd gone to fetch an extra blanket from the closet. She also didn't try Kakuzu or Hidan because...YAaaGH! Is everybody together in here?
Konan took a deep , heart beating loudly and she didn't know why, she silently pushed open the door to Pain's room. She crept in, ready to sprint out immediately. She saw him, and gasped quietly; he didn't seem to be cold at all! He was lying on his front, his face sideways on his pillow, one arm flung across the bed, the other one dangling down the side. His blankets only covered most of his legs; his back and shoulders were completely exposed. Konan felt a embarassed blush creep over her cheeks.
She stepped closer, wondering if he'd be mad if she woke him up. And if she did, what would she do? Say 'Hi, I was wondering, could I sleep with you?' No way. She stood there, debating, for almost ten minutes, before, with another sigh, she sat down next to his bed, and huddled around herself, pulling the blankets up over her neck, and burying her face in them. Suddenly, Pain gave an odd, sleepy snort, and his hand dropped down off the bed, hitting her in the cheek. Konan froze; was he awake? She decided that suddenly she didn't care; his hand was sooooo warm. Carefully, she removed one of her hands from its glove, and tentatively held Pain's with it. He was so warm...Konan didn't realize she'd fallen asleep, leaning her cheek against the hand she was holding.
About an hour later, Pain woke up, suddenly a little cold. He felt something on his hand, and he looked, and there was a dark figure curled up beside his bed. He frowned, and flicked on his desk light. The second he saw the blue hair, he knew it was Konan. By the looks of it, she must have been freezing; she was wearing her boots, a woolen hat ( that had fallen off), four pairs of thick socks, probably a load of sweaters and shirts, and was wrapped in two blankets and her sheets. Pain grinned; she had probably wanted to wake him up, but had been too shy. He sighed happily, and stepped out of bed, gently sliding his hand out of her if he should sleep with her on the floor or on the bed, he watched her sleep. She looked really peaceful, but the blue tinge to her lips told him otherwise. He suddenly got a huge urge to kiss her, but surpressed it for the moment. He decided that it would be warmer, on the whole, if she slept on his bed. In one fluid motion, he had bent over, scooped her up, and put her down gently on his bed. Her only reaction was to turn her head and mutter something that sounded like 'Turn off the horses'. Pain grinned again, lay down next to her, grabbed his blanket and tucked it around her so the heat wouldn't escape, and then he slowly put his arms around her and closed his eyes. He fell asleep just like that, with Konan curled up beside him, her head next to his on the pillow.
The next morning, Konan opened her eyes very slowly. She wondered drowsily if being so cold last night had just been a dream; she was very warm this morning. Blinking, she realized that her face was inches away from somebody else's collarbones. Heart pounding, she realized that somebody else's arms were around her in a hug. She looked up. Pain's face was very close; Konan could see the reflection of her eye in his piercings. His eyes were closed, and he was very much asleep. His soft breath fanned on her face, blowing her hair slightly. She stared up at him, unsure what to think. She tried to remember what she'd done last night. She'd come into his room, found him asleep, then sat down beside his bed, holding his hand and...fell asleep? So that meant that he must have woken up...seen her...maybe thought she was cold...moved her...and kept her warm. She blushed as she looked at him. This close...he was even sexier then he was far away...Konan squeaked and blushed a furious red when he muttered something and rolled over...on top of her!
"Um..." she wasn't sure if she should wake him up, but judging by the fact that she couldn't breathe, she decided that for her own safety, she had better sweep her shyness under the rug.
"Pain...Pain! I can't breathe..." He didn't stir. Konan took a deep breath (the biggest she could manage, considering her lungs were being squashed)
"PAIN! WAKE UP!" she shouted, and he jumped almost a foot in the air, eyes snapping open. He was so startled, he rolled off of her, straight onto the floor. Konan couldn't help herself, she started laughing. Then, when he looked up and saw her, she laughed harder. She began laughing so hard she couldn't stop. This was no girly titter, or a hee-hee-hee. This was a big, fat MAN laugh. YEah!
She began laughing at herself, and then laughing about Pain falling off the bed, and then laughing about how she couldn't stop laughing...she kicked her feet and waved her arms above her head, laughing so hard it was beginning to hurt, and the shrieks of laughter were starting to get hysterical. Pain had, by now, picked himself off the floor, and had started to laugh at her, because she looked so silly, clutching her stomach and laughing so hard that she began to cry. Konan was worried she would never be able to stop; "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAaaaa...HAAHAHAHAHAHAa...HAHAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAHAHAHAaaa..." Then she began to cry from laughter; "HAAAHAHAHaaaa...WAAAAHAHAHaaaa...WAAAAAAHahahaHAHAHAHA...WAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHaHAHAAaaaaa-"
She was cut short by a pillow slapping into her face. She clutched it to her face, still laughing. She rolled over, laughing and laughing and laughing until she fell on the floor with a painful thump. She finally stopped laughing, and sat up, breathless, and still a little hysterical. Pain was still laughing, and Sasori was standing there, only wearing boxers, with his hands on his hips, and a early-morning scowl on his face. "I don't really want to know what you two were doing, but some things are just too noisy to ignore. So shut up." He said, and then left, slamming the door. Konan looked to Pain, who was trying to laugh quietly and was failing. Konan got to her feet, and replaced the pillow back on the bed, blushing slightly.
"I...I'm sorry. For waking you up." she explained when Pain looked at her questioningly. He shrugged and shook his head.
"It's fine. I'm sorry for squishing you." Konan smirked at her feet. And then she remembered.
"Oh, and um...thanks for...uh...letting me...erm...yeah...sorry." she said, and Pain grinned, looking like he was about to laugh again.
"It's fine. But next time you're cold..." Konan looked at him. He grinned at her. "Just wake me up, okay?" Konan grinned back and nodded.
As she left to get dressed, she suddenly realized that she was inexplicably looking forward to getting cold at night again. She shook her head at her weirdness, and began the irritatingly long effort of taking off the clothes that had been supposed to keep her warm. They still hadn't done as good a job as Pain's body...Konan blushed furiously, and began telling herself off out loud for being so weird.
"...honestly, anybody would think you thought he was hot the way you keep blushing like some moe boy-adoring girl...So what if he's hot? No reason for you to get all oooohh about it...Seriously, you're starting to freak me out, and I'm...you...me...whatever...If you keep acting like that around him, I bet people will start saying you like him...Konan and Pain sitting in a tree..K-I-S-S-OHmIGoD!"
Konan had just flung the door open, and there stood Pain, looking veryy amused.
"...I-N-G?" he finished, raising his eyebrows, and Konan flushed dark red, told him to wait a moment, she'd forgotten something, slammed the door, dropped her bags and yelled really really loud in the man-voice she'd been practising after getting teased about her girly shriek.
"!"
She shook herself, threw some books around the room, picked up her bags, opened the door with a winning smile, and began to walk briskly to her first class, which, fortunately, wasn't with Pain...OHGODIMSCREWED...Konan was muttering angrily to herself all through the day, warning herself about the dangers of talking out loud.
"You know...you're talking to yourself..." Deidara told her awkwardly during lunch, and she thanked him for warning, her, then continued to do the exact same thing.
It was gonna be a long day.
Decorations for the Christmas Holidays began. Classes were stringing holly around, and creating christmas trees of almost everything -Tsunade's Christmas Craft Idea was that not a single real tree be used, so classes were making them out of everything else; paper, metal, wood, fabric, wire, string, cardboard, fur, plastic, clay, and almost everything in between. The only irritating factor to these decorations was that people began clumping beneath the mistletoe, making it awfully difficult to pass through halls un-kissed.
Ino was the worst. She would leave classes early, saying she was getting water one minute before the bell, then leap under the nearest mistletoe in the direction she knew Sasuke would be taking (she had memorized his schedule) Itachi was laughing as he told them that his little brother had started getting to classes late by specifically taking the longest route there, or leaving the classroom really late.
Normally, Konan would have asked why he couldn't just walk under the mistletoe without kissing Ino, if there was a huge hoard of people around, but after watching Deidara walk under one he hadn't seen, with a random second year going the other way, she knew it was impossible; Shizune (the one who had made these ingenious devices) had used motion sensors to detect two people meeting under the ugly-looking plant. As soon as both got within a foot of each other, tall metal walls would shoot out of the walls on either side of them, with a carefully painted message; Kiss and the walls will go away. If they didn't get less than an inch away from each other within thirty seconds, the walls started closing in, squishing them into a kiss. And then they would go down. But not before.
Konan had not really minded the mistletoe, because she wasn't too concerned about kissing anybody, and she never got stuck within the walls. But poor Deidara had walked unawares into the mistletoe trap, and was forced to kiss the little second year girl. He had spent the entire next class apologizing to Sasori, who was sulking. Konan had solved their little fight by dragging them both into her room, and locking them in, telling them to make up and make out, or she would leave them in there and prop a chair against the door connecting to Deidara's room. It had, of course, worked, because Konan knew that no matter how much he flirted with her and everybody else, Sasori loved Deidara too much to really get mad at him, and she also knew that Deidara loved Sasori too much to let him stay angry at him. Problem solved.
On December 18th, Konan was walking innocently down the hall with Sasori and Itachi, on the way to choir (her class would be performing on the last day of school before the winter break) when she spotted the students coming towards them. She saw Pain loping towards her, and she waved. Neither of them, in fact nobody except Sasori had noticed the mistletoe that was sneakily positioned above them like a ninja.
"Hey, where are you-" Konan began before she was cut off by Sasori, who pushed her ahead of everybody. She careened forwards, and seemed to have forgotten how to get her balance back, when Pain automatically (he ended up catching her a lot) reached out and pushed her upright again, grinning. Until the familiar squeak of metal sliding into place interrupted the chattering gaggle of students. Konan looked around, wondering who was stuck in the box...until she realized it was her. And Pain. Oh crap, crap crap. Konan didn't know what she was doing; she seemed to be looking everywhere else but at him, and she jumped in shock when she heard Sasori's voice above the silence that seemed to have abruptly fallen as soon as the metal walls had cut off the stream of students.
"Hey! Konan! Hurry up and kiss him! I hate waiting!" he said, and Konan froze. She looked slowly up at Pain, who was looking at her with an expression on his face that clearly read; Do you wanna...uh...? Konan blushed. She was about to move towards Pain to get it over with, when the walls of the box started moving towards them, squashing them against each other. Konan gasped as she began to have trouble breathing, squashed against Pain's chest. She looked up, and their eyes met. Konan's desperate, his...they had that same odd something in them as they always did. Konan suddenly didn't care if he freaked out. She liked him, and she was getting crushed, so what the hey. She stood on her toes, and closed her eyes. She was so close...and then she lost her nerve.
She was about to open her eyes again, when his lips suddenly crashed onto hers, kissing her softly. Konan froze. He had kissed her. He had kissed her. And what was she doing? Standing there like an idiot. She mentally slapped herself, and then began to kiss him back. He grinned, then kissed her deeper, fiercer. The box, for some weird reason, didn't stop squashing them, and Konan gasped as the walls sqashed her hips painfully against him. Pain seized the opportunity to slide his tongue into her mouth. She didn't stop him, although she got a weird idea to bite it. She finally got used to the kind of gross thing in her mouth, and shivered when he slid his tongue along her own. She had never kissed a guy before (embarassing, at sixteen), so she wasn't used to these things, but she kissed him back as best as she could, trying to make him understand that she really really liked this. Even though it felt weird. That was probably because his piercings were really cold against her face.
She tried to put her arms around him, but accidentally put her hands up his shirt by mistake. Or accidentally-on-purpose. Whichever. He didn't seem to mind- he threaded his fingers in her hair. She was starting to get dizzy and breathless, partly because the air was being squashed out of her lungs, and partly because she just couldn't believe that this was actually happening to her. Suddenly, Shizune's voice came over the intercom;
"Uh, sorry...to the people stuck in the mistletoe box...it seems to have overheated, or something, so...so I need to check that out! Just...ah...I'll tell your teachers that you might be really...really late to class...so, um, get comfortable!" Konan was comfortable. Sort of. The fact that her knees were squashed against Pain's didn't matter compared to what was happening.
Konan had decided that she had a huge crush on her friend in mid-October. She had done her very best to keep it as unknown as possible from him, because she thought that if he knew, it would make things awkward. And yet here he was, making out with her when they could be just squashed. Not making out. But they were. The voice in Konan's head was cheering. OH YEAH! WHO ROCKS! WHO'S MAKING OUT! WHO'S MAKING OUT WITH SEXY-PAIN! OH YEAH! IT'S ME! WOOT WOOT WOOT!
Konan eventually had to pull away to try and breathe. She was breathless as she looked up at Pain, who was staring down at her with the same...something...that he alwayd did.
"I love you." he said, hugging her in the tight space. Konan stared at his shirt (the only thing she could see) Wha-a-a-a-at? WHAAAAT? Love...l-o-v-e her? Wha-a-a-aaaaAA?
"What?" Konan finally asked, her quiet voice muffled by his chest. He laughed (banging her head vaguely against the wall as he did so) and made her look at him. Her face was full of confusion (also she was blushing like a tomato. But that's normal), and his was filled with amusement and The something. Konan had been calling it The something for a long time.
"I love you. I love you, Konan." he said, grinning at her, his hands still in her hair. She blinked. Well, it didn't seem like a slip of the tongue. She frowned slightly.
"You...love me?" she asked, making sure that he meant what he said. He sighed, and kissed her quickly, sliding one hand down to her back to pull her closer (were it possible, as Konan's boobs were already compressed to about two sizes smaller.) Accentuating almost every word with a kiss, he said (in a very convincing voice); "I-Love-You,-Konan-Amega." Then he pulled away and looked at her, still looking amused.
Konan was looking at him, thinking.
"Well, I don't think that you're just having fun and completely stealing my first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh kisses. And you don't look like you've sustained a major head injury. Soo..." she broke into the elated, beaming smile she'd been trying to supress all through her sentance. She brought his head down, laughing at his surprised face as she kissed him. He, of course, kissed her back, and they were back to making out in a tight space. Finally, Konan pulled away again, looking at him shrewdly.
"How long do you think you've been in l-o-v-" Pain cut her off with a laugh.
"Well...you really want to know?" Konan thought.
"As long as you don't say 'last week', yes, I want to know." Pain laughed again.
"What a coincidence, it was last week!"
"Really?"
"No, silly. Well, when I first saw you asleep in drawing, I thought you were really pretty." Konan blushed, looking down. "And then when you woke up, you were really funny and smart..." Konan blushed more, still staring at the bottom-left-corner of the tiny box. "But...I think...that it was when I saw you in that sexy samba dress that I really-" Konan interrupted him with a sharp poke, and he laughed.
"Well. I'll be sure to take every precaution to make sure that you never see me wearing something like that ever again." she said sternly, and he laughed and pretended to beg her to change her mind.
"So...what are you going to tell everybody else?" Konan asked, and Pain frowned.
"What do you mean?" he asked, and she rolled her eyes.
"I mean, are you going to tell them that we spent most of the time that we were trapped in here making out...(Konan blushed furiously)...or are you going to tell them that we just stood here, squished, until Shizune finally remembers we're in here and gets us out?" (Konan suspected that Shizune had already forgotten that there were two trapped students blocking one of the main hallways. Pain shrugged.
"Well...we could not tell them that we...Are we dating?" he asked, and Konan raised her eyebrows.
"Well I don't know. You haven't asked me out yet." Pain laughed, then took one of her hands in both of his solemnly.
"Konan Amega...?" Konan stifled a giggle with her other hand. Pain continued as if he was asking her to marry him.
"Would you do me the extreme honour of being my girlfriend?" Konan paused to think, already knowing what she would say, but she felt like prolonging the moment.
"Uhm...let me think...ah...er...um...Well...I suppose that I could do you that honour..." she said, and Pain sighed. Konan frowned.
"What?" He looked down at her, looking sad.
"Well, if you don't actually want to..." Konan was amazed that he had taken her seriously, for once.
"You idiot!" she said, and he laughed as she forced him down and kissed him fiercely. She broke away quickly, still keeping his face close to hers.
"What made you think I'd say no? I've been crazy about you since October, and you thought I'd say no? Does Cinderella say no to Prince Charming? Does Emily say no to Victor?" Konan asked dramatically.
"No, but Emily was dead, and Victor was already engaged, so...it didn't work out." Pain objected, but Konan just flapped her hand at the interruption.
"Oh, poo. It doesn't matter, as long as you promise not to dump me in two weeks." Pain laughed.
"Two? How about in sixteen hundred thousand weeks?" he asked, kissing her quickly. Konan sighed.
"Okay. I'll circle it on my calandar as the day my world collapses into dust." she said, and kissed him, still laughing.
Let's just say, it was a long time until they were freed from the metal box. But neither of them minded that much...
They ended up completely missing their class, and they still arrived a little late for lunch. They grabbed what was left, and made their way to their normal table. On the way, Konan overheard Ino gossiping, and scowled.
"...apparently, she fucked him right there in the mistletoe makeout booth! Yeah! Yeah, I know. I think she might have broken it on purpose..." Konan kicked the leg of Ino's chair, making her spill juice all down her shirt.
"Oh...sorry.." Konan said, and kept walking, Pain laughing next to her. When they sat down, there was a huge tumolt of whistling and applause. Konan, who had sat between Pain and Sasori, was seriously regretting not sitting next to somebody else; Sasori was pelting her wuith questions like; "So, did you break the walls on purpose, or did they really break by themselves?" "Wow, making out for more than two hours...I'm not sure that even I can top that!""Are you two dating now, or is it an affair?" "Konan doesn't really need her room now, does she? I could put my junk in there, 'cause she'll be in your room, right, Pain?" and "I'm so glad all my matchmaking efforts weren't in vain." Konan finally told him to shut up, and he laughed.
In gym classs, when Konan was changing, Sakura came up to her and asked nervously if it was true that she was dating Pain. Konan sighed happily.
"Well...he did ask me out, and I said yes, soo...yes! Yes I am. I am Pain's girlfriend." Konan said proudly. Somehow just saying that, and knowing that he loved her made her feel happier than the thought that dance was over, and it was dodgeball now. Sakura hugged her.
"I'm really happy for you, Konan! I was so sure that he liked you! And good one, on Ino's shirt...!" she said in a stage whisper, and Konan laughed. They left the changeroom, and sat down with the rest of the class. Asuma was, as usual, sitting on his chair.
"Okay. Because we had to hold the dance show two weeks early, (because Neji and Hinata were going away, and didn't want to miss it) Term 3 for gym has officially started. Dodgeball." he said, twirling a medium-sized red ball between his hands. "We're gonna play several different kinds of dodgeball, and then have a tournament at the end of the term. The team that wins gets to have a pool party." Everybody cheered, except Konan, who had never learned to swim properly.
Finally, Asuma split the class up into two sides of 18, and they separated to either side of the gym. Asuma laid out six dodgeballs in the centreline, explained that they would first play old-fashioned dodgeball; you get hit neck down, you're out. Catch the ball, the other person's out. Konan wasn't too nervous; although she couldn't throw far, she had once given a boy a black eye with a beachball, which is pretty hard to do. She could also dodge quite well. She reviewed her team while Asuma explained the rules; Sakura, who was really strong, Pain, who could apparently throw a dodgeball across a soccer field, Sasori, who had the best aim in the class, Naruto, who was...energetic...and a load of other fifth year girls and fourth year people Konan didn't know. But, they would probably do okay. Hidan was on the other team, however, with Sasuke, Ino (who was good at dodging, darn her) and some of the others, who Konan remembered as being good at volleyball. Asuma blew his whistle, and they all sprinted forwards to grab the balls (lol).
It was starting to be the most violent game of dodgeball Konan had ever participated in. A tiny fourth year girl was sent off with a broken nose. Several people had almost thrown up from a ball to the stomach. Konan herself had hit a fifth year girl in the back of the head by mistake. Konan had just gone to get a ball from the back of the court, and when she turned around, a ball that seemed to be going sixty miles an hour hit her straight in the chest. She had caught it, so she wasn't out, but DAMN that hurt! A few boys laughed (she had been hit right in the boobs), but her eyes were glued on the one who had hit her; a fourth-year boy who was laughing loudly. Konan was seething; he had purposely hit her there, for fun! God, boys are irritating! They obviously don't know how much a ball to the boob hurts!
She ran forwards, and with a loud snarl that was most unlike her, she released the ball hard and fast. Luckily, he wasn't that far away, so her short-distance power was in full force. The boy's eyes rolled up in pain, as he keeled over; she had hit him directly in the balls. All the girls laughed, while all the boys looked pityingly at the collapsed fourth-year. Konan strode over to Pain, humming happily.
"Remind me never to hit you in the chest, would you?" he asked, and Konan laughed. As the game wore on, all the mediocre players were gone, leaving Konan (who was amazed, and quite scared that she was still on), Pain, Sasori, Naruto, Sakura, and several fast fourth year girls on their side, and Hidan, Ino, Sasuke, a fourth year Konan knew to be Rock Lee, Temari, and a couple fourth year boys and fifth year girls. Asuma had turned on the sound system, and Motley Crue was thundering out of the fuzzy speakers. Konan couldn't help singing along as it went; GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS! red lips, fingertips, GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS!
Konan snatched up a ball, aimed, and threw it at Ino. It caught her in the stomach, and she went down with a girly squeal. Next second, Sasuke had aimed for Sakura, who had dodged it quickly. Then Hidan got Sasori in the chest, and Naruto was hit by Rock Lee. Konan hit Hidan on the arm, and he went off with quite a bit of swearing, earning him twenty pushups. Sakura finally ran forwards, yelled CHA! (which made Konan giggle) and got Sasuke out. Pain got out Lee, and several other fourth years. Finally, there was one left. Sakura got him out, and they won. Asuma made a few changes, so Sasori was on the other team in exchange for two lame players. Then they started again...
Konan sighed as she took off her gym strip; she was going to be covered in bruises the next morning.
Konan was beginning to get stressed out for various innocent reasons; first of all, the school was closing for the two-week holiday in three days, and she had nowhere to go. She had considered begging Tsunade to let her stay at school, but the thought of sitting in her drafty room with hardly any food and no heating was too horrbile to think about. She couldn't stand the idea of asking her friends if she could stay with them, because she didn't want to intrude. And her father, being the family man that he is, had gone off to Paris, probably to indulge himself with a new girlfriend or something. And her mother...was not allowed long-term visiters in the mental state she was in. So Konan would probably end up sleeping outside a gasstation on Christmas eve. The second reason that she was losing it was that her choir would be performing on stage during the school's Christmas closing ceremonies, and she had foolishly signed up for a solo. Not just any solo. She would be singing I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus...ALL BY HER FREAKING SELF! (except the chorus, naturally) Shit!
And there was a christmas dance party on the last day, too. And you could only get in if you found out who your secret santa is; and it could be anybody in the school! Konan shook her head. Secret santa presents were handed out this afternoon. There was a very strict procedure to how to find out who your secret santa is; if you were caught telling anybody -anybody at all, even your socks- you were disqualified, and had to rake out the ash from every fireplace in the whole school. There was one hint in the card sent by the secret santa, and it had to be something incredibly vague; not like, 'I sit next to you in drawing.'. It had to be something like; I'm the last person on earth you would sleep with' or, 'I secretly had a crush on you two years ago.' So you basically had to ask around and figure out who it was before the last day, the day of the dance, or you wouldn't get in. And not getting in meant basically, not seeing all your friends one last time before the doors of the school shut for two weeks. Konan was worried; what if she had no idea whatsoever who her secret santa was? What if her hint was so awful that somebody else couldn't figure out that their secret santa was her?
Konan groaned and put her head in her hands. And then she looked up, embarassed, having completely forgetten that it was 'silent reading'. She began reading her book again (she hadn't looked at the pages since ten minutes ago). It wasn't that it was a bad book, that wasn't it at all. She loved Bad girls don't die. She was just so preoccupied that she had forgotten that she was actually supposed to be doing something, instead of staring at the ceiling in distress.
"Hey, how's the singing going? Ready to rock the world?" Pain asked teasingly, sliding an arm around her as they walked to lunch. Konan snorted.
"Oh, yeah. Totally. I am ready. You just wait. This world is gonna rock so much, you'll probably wake up in Australia." she said, and he laughed. He always laughed, and that was probably one of Konan favourite things about him. Besides the innocent facts that he was hot, a great kisser, and she didn't call him SEXY-PAIN in her head for nothing.
"So, where are you going during the holidays?" Pain asked casually, and Konan wondered if she should tell the truth, and beg for a place to stay, or just...pretend she had somewhere. She decided on the latter, to save what dignity she had.
"Oh, uh, I'm...staying with a friend." Pain nodded, looking at her out of the corner of his eyes as they pushed through the stream of students.
"Cool. I'm staying at Sasori's place. He and Deidara put their money together (Deidara's family's pretty rich) and bought some kind of apartment."
"Sounds fun." Konan said, nodding as they grabbed lunch and made their way to their usual table. "So, I can't believe you forgot." Konan said, grinning as Pain looked confused.
"Forgot what?" he asked, and she gasped in fake scandilization.
"You forgot our anniversary! Our one-week anniversary, silly! How could you!" she asked hysterically. Pain looked at her shrewdly, and then he laughed.
"Dear God, how could I have done such a thing! I'd better repent."
"You'd better." Konan said, laughing as Pain pretended to clutch his chest and fake-scream I'm SORRY!
"No, but I actually didn't forget." he said casually when he was done. Konan was surprised.
"Really? I would've thought that one week wasn't that important." she said, and Pain grinned.
"Yeah, I know. But still. Happy anniversary, darling." he said, in a 60's sitcom voice.
"Oh, John dear, you remembered!" Konan said, playing along and hugging him, dropping her apple onto a first year's head by mistake. After retrieving it with a flurry of apologies, and telling Pain to shush (he had been howling with laughter), Konan briskly walked across the hall and sat down next to Deidara.
"Hey! You excited to dress up as Santa?" she asked teasingly (on the last day of school, everybody had to dress up as something Christmasy, or Hannukah-esque. Just dress up, basically. Konan was considering being a candycane, or an elf. Deidara shook his head.
"No...I think I'll be a reindeer instead, yeah." he said. Sasori, who had heard, leaned over.
"Yeah, Dei-baby, be a reindeer...way cuter." he said, with a wink. Deidara looked at him, grinning.
"Yeah, Sasori. What were you being again? Oh I remember. A Gingerbread man, right? Sooo sexy, yeah." he said, and Konan and Pain roared with laughter.
The Secret Santas were picked in gym. Everybody got changed, anticipating some violent dodgeball, but they sat down, ten feet from each other, as Asuma walked around and handed out slips of paper with a name a photo of the student that they would have to write a clue for and give a kiss to (instead of a gift, there was a kiss-on-the-cheek thing. St Misery's a weird school. Enough said.) Asuma blew his whistle, and everybody unfolded their papers. There were a few cheers, but mostly groans as everybody looked at their paper. Konan looked at hers sadly; Sasuke Uchiha. At least she knew him. It wasn't that bad. Everybody stuffed their papers into their pockets and bags, and lined up for dodgeball.
During the game, Konan was distracted, not being able to help wondering who had gotten her. She was so distracted, that she was hit directly in the face by Ino. She went off, and when Sasori, Hidan, Pain, and Sakura all aimed at Ino at once, and she went down with a shriek, Konan came back on (they were playing a variation of dodgeball), only to be gotten off again by Naruto. She shook her head when Pain pointed at Naruto, as if to say want to come on again? Konan wasn't in the mood to get black and blue again. She was to preoccupied about thinking of something that only she would know to write as Sasuke's hint. She finally decided on the fact that Ino had once stolen a pair of his boxers, and kept them under her pillow. Sakura had told her this, and had also said that only Sasuke, Ino, and herself knew this. And now Konan did. It shouldn't be too hard for Sasuke to figure out that Sakura had told her, but it wasn't easy, because Sasuke didn't know Konan knew. So it was perfect.
The next morning in the first class, the teachers handed out everybody's hints. Konan unfolded hers nervously. And then she gasped loudly, making a few people stare at her. She didn't care, she was staring at the paper in disbelief; how could anybody know this without reading her mind? She re-read the clue again and again, still not understanding how anybody could possibly know this about her. Konan; you call your boyfriend SEXY-PAIN in your mind. Konan could not believe it. How could this be happening? She had never ever ever ever ever said SEXY-PAIN out loud. How could anybody know?
Her head snapped up as somebody in the first row (Tenten) asked Kurenai if they could discuss clues with people, and Kurenai said yes, as long as they didn't quote the clue exactly. Konan bit her lip thoughtfully; her secret santa had known that Pain was her boyfriend (Oh yeah! Who's SEXY-PAIN's girlfriend? That's right! Me! Boo-yah!), but that wasn't too hard to figure out, since the story of the mistletoe make-out had travelled across the school like wildfire (small school's suck for things like that). So he or she didn't neccisarily have to know her personally to know that. But in order for them to have gotten close enough to hear her saying SEXY-PAIN, they would have to be in at least one of her classes. So that narrowed it down to the fifth and fourth years. And, Konan thought, examining the writing more closely, it was most likely a boy, or a very careless girl, judging by the laziness of the knew the writing of most of her friends...Hidan's drunken scrawl, Itachi's perfect lettering, Pain's...what was Pain's writing like again? Konan's eyes widened; she didn't know most of her friends' writing! So it could be one of them. But it could also be somebody she'd never spoken to before...Konan sighed; this was going to be soooo complicated. At break, she started her research. She grabbed Hidan, and began to interrogate him.
"Hidan,"
"What, Konan-bitch?"
"Have you ever heard me say something...weird...about Pain?" Hidan frowned.
"Like, 'what the fuck, Pain, you dick?' No." Konan rolled her eyes, and let him go, deciding that it probably wasn't him. That left her with...Sasori, Deidara, Itachi, Kakuzu, Kisame...and almost everybody else in fifth and fourth year. Perfect.
Konan lay face-down on her bed with a disappointed sigh; she hadn't gotten any closer to figuring out that she called Pain SEXY-PAIN in her head. She might as well just give up...Konan rolled over with another sigh and- fell off her bed.
"OW!" She shouted, sitting up and rubbing her shoulder, which she'd banged on her bedside table. Deidara opened their connecting door, and walked in with a yawn.
"Hey Konan. You okay?" Konan groaned as she crawled back onto her bed.
"No..." she grumbled, and Deidara sat down on the floor, evidentally wanting more of an explanation. Konan sighed and rolled over again, careful this time to stay on the bed.
"I just hit my shoulder on a table falling off my bed, I have a solo to sing in two days that I'm freaking out over, and I can't figure out who my secret santa is."
"That sucks, yeah." Deidara said bluntly. Konan grinned, in spite of herself.
"Yeah, it does." And I still didn't mention the fact that I'm gonna be alone at Chrismas, she thought to herself negatively, but shooed the thought away.
"Well, I could try help you with your Secret Santa, if you help me with mine, yeah." Deidara suggested, and Konan said sure, so they both sat on her floor and sighed. Konan went first.
"Okay. So my secret santa...I've narrowed it down to being a boy or a girl in the fifth or fourth year, possibly one of our friends...but possibly not. Most likely in at least one of my classes." Deidara stared at her.
"That's not really narrowing it down at all, yeah." Konan laughed hollowly, and said 'I know.'
"So, the clue is basically something that I call somebody in my head. Like Hidan calling me Konan-bitch. Imagine if he only said that in his head, not out loud. How the hell did somebody find out what I call that person?" Konan asked desperately. Deidara looked bemused.
"I have no idea, yeah. Are you sure you've never ever said it out loud without realizing it?" Konan grinned.
"Well, if I have, I haven't realized it, have I?" Deidara laughed.
"Well, I'm not sure if this helps, but sometimes, you talk in your sleep, yeah." Konan froze. And then it all made sense. She leapt up and hugged Deidara, cheering.
"THANKYOU! Thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou! I still don't know who it is, but at least I'm pretty kind-of vaguely certain that it's one of us! YAYY!" Deidara laughed.
"Good. Now that you're cheered up, you can help me, yeah." Konan nodded seriously.
"So, my secret santa hint is pretty vague. It's basically saying that whoever is my secret santa knows about a certain...thing...I have. Like, if somebody knew that you have your tattoo. Or that Hidan has a permanent scar on his ass. You know, something like that? So this person knows that I have it, but I don't really show a lot of people, and I doubt he'd really see it, seeing as I don't really take my shirt off, yeah." Konan frowned.
"What about in gym? Wouldn't they see it when you changed? Or here, when you shower? When you sleep?" Deidara suddenly grinned.
"Hey! Thanks, Konan! I think I might know who it is now, yeah!" He left, with another thanks and a good-luck-on-your-practically-hopeless-case. Konan grinned; if she had said it in her sleep, than it had to be one of her friends who had written the note. Perfect.
During lunch, every single one of her friends were commplaining about their secret santa hints.
"What in the mothafuckin' world is this stupid assface talking about! I've never fucking done that!" Hidan shouted furiously as Itachi and Kisame sighed, both also having procured rather impossible Secret Santa hints.
"What's yours like?" Konan asked Pain, and he sighed.
"Well, it's pretty confusing," he admitted. "My clue is pretty random. It's like...let's say it was for you." Konan nodded. "Then it would be like, 'You fold your origami flower out of 100% recycled paper'" Konan frowned.
"But...how would they know that?" she asked, and Pain sighed.
"I know! It's driving me crazy." he sighed before Sasori pounced on them.
"Soooo, how're your secret santa things going?" he asked slyly. Konan and Pain sighed heavily, and Sasori laughed.
"You better hurry up, idiots, because we've all gotta go to the dance together!" he said enthusiastically, then went off to throw his lunch garbage away. Konan was left to her own, irritated thoughts before she was tapped on the shoulder. She looked up, and it was Sasuke.
"Are you my secret santa?" he asked, and Konan nodded, flabbergasted. How the heck did he find that out so quickly? Is he some kind of freakin' GENIUS! Konan sighed, stood up, kissed him on the cheek, and he walked away as she sat down, scowling. Pain raised an eyebrow.
"One week and you're already cheating on me? Tsk tsk, Konan." he said, shaking a mocking finger at her, and she shook her head with a smile.
"Oh, yes. I'm having an affair. Sorry to drop such a bombshell." she said teasingly, and Pain gasped in mock-horror before Konan kissed him on the cheek. Pain snaked his arms around her, preventing her from pulling away. She was quite squished, and didn't bother trying to eat; it would probably only fall on her lap, due to the unfortunate angle of her arm.
"Get a fucking room, horny bastards!" Hidan called from down the table, and Pain laughed.
"That's okay, Hidan. I like it fine here, but thanks for your concern." he said, and the others laughed. Then Konan remembered her secret santa; she had only asked Hidan so far! She broke free of Pain's grip after explaining that it was important, and began walking around the table, asking people if they'd either ever heard her sleeptalk, or if they'd heard her call Pain something weird. All of them said no, except one: Sasori was smirking as he said that he'd heard her sleeptalk, and call Pain something weird. Konan grinned and sat down next to him, excited that she might not have to strain her brain every hour over the Secret Santa again.
"You have? Really? Do you...remember what it was I said?" she asked, and Sasori nodded, grinned.
"Oh, yeah, I remember." he said, raising his eyebrows at her teasingly. She was on the edge of the bench, hoping that Sasori would be the one...
"You called Pain SEXY-PAIN in your sleep." Sasori said loudly. Konan felt like she'd been hit with a brick. And then she blushed like a firetruck, looked straight at her knees, and punched Sasori in the ribs. He coughed on his salad, and she grinned in vindictive glory. That IDIOT! I bet EVERYBODY heard that! Pain did, at least...Konan raised her eyes very very slowly, head still bent, face still hidden by her hair...and...Pain was grinning. He was resting his elbows on the table, hands over his mouth as he rested his head on them, but he was definately grinning.
Konan blushed even more furiously when Sasori leaned over, whispered 'I'm your secret santa, Sunshine.' and kissed her on the cheek. By then, most of her friends were laughing so loudly that other tables had looked around to see what was so funny. Konan finally decided to move. She stood up, face bright red, and walked stiffly back to her seat beside Pain. She sat down next to him (albeit about two feet away) and stared once again at her knees. How dare that little PISSMOUTH say SEXY-PAIN so loud? It was my SECRET name for Pain! Not something I wanted broadcast across the entire SCHOOL! YARRRRGH!
Konan had barely realized that she had seized hold of Sasori's imaginary head, and was making violent gestures in the air with it as she muttered things like 'beat him to a pulp,' and, '...rue the day he EVER heard me say SEXY-PAIN...' Pain finally interrupted these sessions of violence by dragging her back next to him, and turning her to face him. He was still grinning as he began drumming a little on her knees (a kind of cute habit he'd developped).
"Are you embarassed?" he asked in a teasing voice, and Konan scowled.
"Well duh! It's not every day you find out that something that was supposed to stay in your head was discovered while you slept, and then announced to practically everybody you talk to." she huffed, and Pain grinned.
"Well, would it make you feel any better if I told you what I call you in my head?" Konan's interest was piqued.
"Is it funny? Or is it like Konan-bitch?" she asked, using Hidan's nickname for her (if you could call it that) as an example of not funny names for herself. Pain grinned.
"Don't worry. It's not like that." Konan grinned as Pain took a deep breath.
"I call you...Hottie-Konan." he said bashfully. Konan choked on her juice.
"E-excuse me?" she asked, laughing. Pain laughed, too and slung his arm over her shoulders.
"I'm not saying it again out loud until you call me sexy-Pain." Konan blushed.
Dang it.
Konan opened her eyes. It was 7am, the last day of school before the holidays. It was probably going to be the last time she was relatively warm before the holidays, too. She had taken to sleeping in Pain's room, because hers got much too cold at night. Every time, she would sit down next to his bed, freezing, and fall asleep, and then every morning, she would wake up nice and warm because he'd woken up and moved her up onto the bed with him. This morning was no different. Pain was asleep, his arm across her waist and his head barely two inches away from hers. Konan sighed; she wasn't looking forward to leaving the warmth of the bed; the floors were icy, and the shower took at least two minutes to heat up sufficiently to step in without shrieking.
Konan sighed once more, and then scooted down, worming her body down the bed, sliding free of his loose grip around her waist. She fell out the back of the bed with a thump, indignant; what kind of bed doesn't have a backboard, or whatever the thing at the end that stops you falling out is? She got to her heavily-socked feet, and crept out of the room, glancing back once more, grinning, at Sexy-Pain's sleeping form. She walked silently to her room, locked the door, grabbed her towel and soap, stepped into the bathroom, put up the Don't come in, asshole! sign she'd made a few weeks back, stripped, turned on the shower, and stepped in when steam began rising. She sighed with gratitude as the hot water showered upon her.
Today was the day. Today was the day that she was going to sing I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus practically by herself. Today was the day that she would get her first report card of the school year (gym and all the other courses had like six to nine terms, but marked half of them together so they'd only have to organize two report cards. It was weird, but less stressful; if you sucked at something in term one, you'd only have to do it for a month or so, then move on to something else you might be good at, to bring your mark up.) Today was also the day that she would leave St Misery's with some of her stuff, and go and find a place to stay. Maybe she could stay in a hostel, if she volunteered to clean the bathrooms without pay. Urgh. Konan grimaced as she stepped out of the shower, now clean, and grabbed her towel. She didn't want to lavish herself with self-pity, but she wasn't looking forward to spending Christmas Eve behind a dumpster. Not fun.
She counted all the presents she'd bought/made and smiled; seven. She stuffed them under the mini dorm Christmas Tree. They would all take theirs home and unwrap them on Christmas. Konan was quite pleased with herself; she'd wrapped the presents with paper she'd made herself, so they looked rather pretty and hand-made. Of course, she'd ruined the effect with plastic stick-on decorations, but nevermind. Konan stepped back into her room, and took out the outfit she was supposed to wear for the choir performance. Classes had all been cancelled, and there was a long assembly with performances by the dance, drama, music and choir classes and Tsunade's 'special surprise'.
Konan held up the outfit. It wasn't bad. It was...festive. That was the only adjective she could think of as she looked at the Snowflake-esque clothes. There were sheer white stockings, shiny grey pumps (why did she have to wear heels! Damn the fashion design student who had thought of this!), sheer white elbow-length gloves, two silver metal flower hair clips (Konan's favourite part of the outfit), and a pale, pale grey dress that looked kind of greek. It was above-knee length, and it had an empire waist, and no sleeves or straps. It was quite pretty, and it hung off her body in a way that made Konan want to spin around so it would fly out like a big skirt does. It wasn't too tight or low-cut or anything, so it wasn't bad. Konan put it all on, and looked in the mirror. She laughed out loud; it would've looked way better on a blonde, even Ino-bitch; her bright blue hair was a little off-setting compared to the silver and white. But it was kind of a cute outfit; Konan felt like she was going to be in a play or a pageant instead of a simple choir performance. She was just starting to take back her accusations on the designer's sanity, when the door to Deidara's room opened, and Sasori walked out (uh huh. What were they doing last night? :3) shirtless, wearing only his plaid boxers (which were a little low.)
Konan coughed pointedly and looked away. Sasori (who had probably not noticed her standing there) jumped, pulled them up, and looked at her. And then he grinned.
"Wait right there, sugarplum fairy. We need this outfit on film." And then he dashed out of the room to grab the camera. Konan rolled her eyes and began putting on her blue eyeshadow and black eyeliner, and fixing her labret. As she looked at the outfit again, she decided that the only thing it was missing was a wand. And maybe some wings. Sasori returned, still grinning, and ordered her to stand up. She did so, grinning as he took pictures. He handed the camera to her after, saying he was having a shower. Konan sighed, and reviewed the lyrics to the song she would be singing in two hours. In front of the whole, fat, stinking school. GAAAAAHH! Konan was about to have a mental breakdown, when she thought of something fun to do to take her mind off of things.
Slipping off the heels, and putting her furry black slippers back on, she walked quietly out of her room, into Pain's room. She snuck closer, and took a picture. Giggling silently, she did the same in everybody else's room. Hidan was lying spread-eagled on his bed, with Kakuzu. Deidara was sleeping silently, looking cute, on his bed, where there was a dent indicating that Sasori had just vacated the spot. Next she found Itachi in Kisame's room, asleep on the tall blue guy's chest. Konan rolled her eyes; everybody was together now. She tiptoed back to her room, just as she heard Sasori turn off the water. A sudden idea struck her, and she hid on one side of the bathroom door, camera in hand, and a mischevous grin on her face.
She listened, stifling laughter, as Sasori hummed slightly to himself as he dried off and put his boxers back on. He opened the door, and jumped in surprise and fear as there was a shout of laughter and a loud click and a huge white flash. Konan took picture after picture, the first of shock, the second of surprise, the third of irritation, the fourth of a sigh of relief, and the fifth of Sasori rolling his eyes and walking back to Deidara's room, saying 'You are so weird.' Konan laughed herself silly, thinking with glee of the moment that those precious photos would be developed. Fun-neey. Konan was still giggly as Pain came in, still sleepy, caught her in a hug, and laughed as he fell forwards onto her bed, squishing her. "Good morning to you, too." She said, and he laughed before kissing her.
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