A couple days later, Konan woke up in the morning to see her breath fogging in front of her in the dark.
"Jesus!" she exclaimed, sitting up and immediately regretting it – the air in her room was freezing. She gathered all her blankets around her like a floppy beetle shell and scuttled to her chest of drawers, hopping from foot to foot on the icy floor. She pulled on three pairs of socks, pulled up another pair of sweatpants over her pyjama bottoms, and pulled two sweaters on over her sleep shirt.
She checked the time on her alarm clock and sighed – she had woken up two hours early. She put a hand by the radiator, frowning, but it was on – just feeble, apparently, in the face of the sudden cold snap. She padded over to the window and gasped: the fields surrounding the school were buried in snow, which was still falling thick and fast.
All thoughts of going back to sleep gone, she hurried to her bathroom, taking all her blankets with her, and turned on the shower, waiting until steam filled the room to undress, then hopping in. She made a plan for the day as she shaved her legs, humming to herself, excited; the holidays were never a big deal for her, but she did love snow.
Twenty minutes later, she was heading out of the dorm, wearing two pairs of thick wool tights under her uniform, a thick sweater, gloves, and a coat (as she had suspected, the hallways were also freezing). She got to the front doors right as Shizune, wearing a floor-length puffy coat and fluffy slippers, unlocked them, and ran out into the snow, laughing.
She walked all around the school, taking pictures of the snowy building and snow-capped trees, and a few selfies of her trying to catch a snowflake on her tongue. She sent them to her mum in an email, with a message hoping it was snowing where she was, too.
She was late to lunch, joining the others when they had mostly finished eating.
"Were you outside?" Pain asked her, smiling and brushing snow out of her hair.
"Yeah! It's so beautiful out there!" she said, biting into a warm bagel. "I hope I can go out again before it melts, but I have to finish that stupid fucking angel," she grumbled.
"Ah, the Christmas spirit…" Sasori said, winking at her when she rolled her eyes at him.
Much of the school had already been decorated as students finished their projects early, looking forward to spending the weekend on other things. There were huge silver snowflakes hanging from the ceiling, massive trees throughout the halls, decorated with blown-glass flowers and bells, woven stars, hand-made swans, and embroidered winter birds. One of the hallways was set up with a snow machine and glittery silver mist – the work of Mei and Itachi, Konan figured. There were beautiful murals of snow-capped mountains, ski resorts, reindeer, snowy owls, and old-fashioned cozy village scenes.
Mistletoe had been positioned at strategic locations in the busy corridors, which seemed to make everyone overexcited, even though hardly anybody actually kissed under them. Most people who had a crush on someone seemed to gather there under increasingly suspicious pretences. It was hard to act natural when there were ten people standing around you, all also pretending to be looking for something in their bag, or pretending to be texting, eyes constantly flicking up to check for the person they were waiting for. In the end, it just created traffic in the hallways for no good reason. The only exciting thing that happened was that Sakura had shoved Naruto out of her way, straight into Hinata, who had been passing under the mistletoe. Hinata, who presumably had thought Naruto was barrelling into her for the purposes of a kiss, promptly fainted.
Aside from spending all her spare moments folding her giant paper angel, Konan was attending extra practices for the holiday concert, as her choir class would be performing. She was relieved she didn't have a solo, and wasn't too stressed about it, but she had, in a moment of insanity, agreed to be in Ino, Sakura, and Temari's performance of Jingle Bell Rock – the 'Mean Girls' version. They'd assured her that it was just a bit of fun, as hardly anyone actually comes to the choir performances anyway, so she wasn't as stressed about it as she had been about the dance showcase, but she did have to get her costume together for it.
The school had also set up Secret Santa candygrams for the last two weeks of school before the winter break. During first period, everyone was handed a small piece of paper with a name from someone in their year on it, and they had to send that person a candygram with some sort of secret or hint on it, so they could guess who you were. Once you solved it, you took a picture with your Secret Santa, and that picture was your ticket into the winter dance.
Konan got Sasori, which made her laugh. She could probably think of a hint for him without too much trouble. She headed to the nearest candygram table, which was set up in the main entryway, chose a candy cane, wrote Sasori's name on it, trying to disguise her handwriting, and then her hint: You're a cross between Charlotte and Samantha. They had watched Sex and the City pretty recently, so it was probably a pretty easy one for him to get, but she didn't want it to be too hard, anyway. She finished her angel after school, and Kurenai helped her to hoist it up and mount it on the wall.
The next day, Naruto went class by class, dressed as Santa, handing out the Candygrams.
"Ho, ho, ho!" he said, tossing one to Konan. She read her clue excitedly.
You have nip piercings. (They're cute!)
Konan frowned down at the paper, starting to go pink. It could be any of her friends, but she wasn't sure who among them would specifically bother to tell her they were cute. It was possible it was a girl in her gym class who might have seen something while she changed… or maybe somehow someone had overheard her friends talking about it, if they had done so? She was mystified.
At break, Konan met the others in the main lobby outside the cafeteria, where a crowd had gathered around a photo booth that had been installed. It looked really cute – it had been decorated to look like a gingerbread house, complete with a door coated with 'icing'. Friends and couples were going in to take their pictures, then sticking them up on the wall behind it. Konan bounced on the balls of her feet, grinning as she looked for people she recognized — Sakura and Ino had gone in, beaming at the camera, kissing each other on the cheek, doing peace signs. Sasori seemed to have managed to drag Deidara in, as there was one normal one of them smiling, and then three of them making out.
Konan tried to catch Pain's eye, hoping to go in with him, but before she could ask, Sasori slipped an arm around her and pulled her away from the group, against the wall.
"Are you my Secret Santa?" he asked.
Konan's jaw dropped. "Hey! It was that easy!?"
Sasori laughed at her. "Um, yeah, it was that easy. Nobody else I know watches that show, Konan."
"Well, Deidara watched it with us!"
He just raised his eyebrows at her.
She sighed, rolling her eyes. "Fine, fine. You need a picture?"
"Please," he said, raising his phone to take a selfie, his tongue sticking out. Konan copied him.
"Thank you," he said sweetly, patting her on the head, "for making it so easy."
"Yeah, yeah," she muttered, turning to return to her friends, but Sasori held her back.
"By the way, has Pain fucking asked you out yet?" he asked, keeping his voice low.
Konan sighed. " No."
Sasori facepalmed.
"But I mean," Konan said hurriedly, "I was busy, and then he was going to, I think, but there was the whole thing with you and Deidara, and then I was sick, and then I was busy, and now…"
"Konan, you're an angel. If I were you, I'd have kicked him in the face by now for being such a blue-balling pussy."
Konan laughed. "Well, I mean, I could just ask him, though. I just haven't found a good moment, I guess."
Sasori rolled his eyes. "You guys and your moments. " He looked over at Pain, who was laughing at Hidan, who was trying to drag a very unwilling Kakuzu into the photobooth. "You going to get a photo with Pain in there?"
"I mean, I'd really like to…" Konan said, blushing a little. "Or even, would you and Deidara take a picture with me? That could be fun…"
Sasori ruffled her hair, giving her a tiny pitying smile that made her feel about two inches tall.
"Babe, if you don't have a picture with Pain by tomorrow, I'll take ten with you. And they'll all be me crying over how sad your situation is."
Konan snorted, then, catching Sasori's expression, exclaimed, "Are you serious!?"
"A thousand percent."
Konan rolled her eyes and walked away from him.
Okay. By the end of the day, I'll have taken a nice picture with Pain. As friends. Or, if I'm really lucky, he'll ask me out and then maybe we can take a really cute picture together…
Her eyes travelled back to the wall of photos. Sasori and Deidara kissing, Ino kissing Sakura's cheek, Temari's arms around Shikamaru, Asuma kissing Kurenai's forehead… Konan felt herself turning pink, imagining getting a similar photo with Pain.
Whatever it takes! Please, please, please…
At lunch, Pain never appeared, apparently trying to finish a project in metalshop.
That afternoon, they played dodgeball in gym class, and it was girls against guys, so she and Pain were on opposite teams and she barely had a chance even to say hi.
After classes, she had to rush to the theatre for the choir performance. There was a much smaller crowd than there had been for the dance showcase, which was a huge relief, but her friends had kindly shown up, even though she'd only mentioned it to Deidara. They clapped politely after her class's holiday medley performance, but were cheering and catcalling wildly when she, Ino, Sakura, and Temari took to the stage in their pleather Santa outfits and miniskirts to 'Jingle Bell Rock,' which meant she couldn't keep a straight face and kept giggling throughout the performance.
Hidan took a polaroid photo of her and the girls in their outfits, and she headed back to her room to add it to her collection while Pain headed back to the metalshop, muttering about an end-of-term project.
Konan broke off a piece of scotch tape and looked for a good place for her latest photo. Her collection was getting pretty big — nowhere near the size of Sasori's, but it was taking up a lot of space on the wall above her chest of drawers. There was the one of the boys posing and making stupid faces by her butt in the string bikini; Konan and Hidan posing like bodybuilders in their dance costumes; the one of all her friends linking arms; Pain winking with bunny ears; her, Sasori and Deidara drinking a milkshake; her, Itachi, and Kisame in a totem pose by the greenhouse; her and Sasori in facemasks, cucumbers over their eyes, holding mimosas; the one of her on Hidan's shoulders after winning at pool; one of her looking pissed off in all her floaties from the swimming unit; Kakuzu holding her upside down, pretending to shake her for lunch money; Konan braiding Deidara's hair on his bed; her on Pain's motorbike; her, Sasori, and Deidara all tucked up sick in the megabed, and a selfie Pain had taken of them both on a night ride, sticking their tongues out at the camera.
Her eyes fell on the silver stud in his tongue, shining in the camera flash, and she bit her lips, sighing. She flopped backwards onto the bed, closing her eyes.
That day in the clearing…
He had been so close, they had been so close. His hands cupping her face, his warm thumb stroking her cheek, his breath fanning gentle on her face as he had leaned in, the smell of him, so familiar, the warmth of his body, and if she'd just leaned forward a little more… His lips soft on hers as he leaned to kiss her through the opening in the motorbike helmet, but gone too fast… She imagined running her fingers through his hair, holding him still, their lips meeting, her mouth opening, imagined the cold metal of his piercing sliding against her tongue…
She sat up suddenly, fanning herself.
Okay. Okay, It's going to happen. We'll take a picture. And then I'll ask him out. I HAVE to, otherwise I'm just perving over my friend like a creep…
At dinner, however, Pain had an incredibly long conversation with Itachi about the plot holes in Lost, and Konan wasn't able to get a word in . She looked across the table glumly at Sasori, shaking her head at him in answer to his inquiring look. He rolled his eyes in response.
As they all headed out of the cafeteria after dinner, Konan, heart beating a little faster than usual with nerves, took Pain by the hand to hold him back. He smiled at her, raised an eyebrow.
"What's up?"
"Um, I was wondering…"
God, this is so stupid. It's just a picture.
She took a deep breath. "Would you take a picture with me? Please?"
A tiny frown crossed his face. "I'm not your Secret Santa, though."
Konan felt herself turning pink. "No, um… in the booth…" she said kind of lamely, gesturing at the wooden gingerbread house.
His expression cleared at once. "Oh! Yeah, for sure!"
"Really!? You will!?"
"Yeah," he said, grinning and giving her a funny look. "Have you been waiting to ask me or something?"
She turned away, her cheeks reddening more. "...no…"
"Aww," he said, laughing and sliding an easy arm around her shoulders. "Sure, let's take one."
Konan bit her lips, trying not to smile too widely, glancing around as he guided her inside the booth; nearly everybody had left the lobby by now, and there was no line for the booth, which was lucky.
"Oh wow, this is so cool!" she said as the door shut behind them with a click and she sat down.
It was surprisingly roomy for a photo booth, with a little bench seat, a glittery blue backdrop framed by velvet curtains on either side, and a little stand holding optional props, including santa hats and candy canes. The ceiling was criss-crossed with string lights.
"Look at this, this is so fun!" she exclaimed to Pain, pointing at the moulding along the ceiling which had been made to look like icing, like they really were inside an actual gingerbread house. The walls themselves were also beautifully carved to look like giant biscuits.
"You're so cute," he said, shaking his head and looking at the sheet of instructions taped by the black screen, where presumably the camera set-up was hidden.
Konan flushed, burrowing her hands in the sleeves of her sweater.
Ask me out, then! Ask me out if you think I'm cute! God!
"Looks like we just press this button, and then there's a countdown and it takes four photos," Pain said, sitting back and putting his arm around her. "Ready?"
"Uh-huh," Konan said, looking at the preview screen and trying to fix her side bangs quickly.
Wait, wait, wait, I should ask him out before the photos otherwise he'll just leave oh GOD why am I so bad at this!?
"Um–"
Pain pressed the button and an intricate set of three clockwork wood-carved reindeer slid one at a time across the beam at the lower edge of the screen, counting down.
Konan hitched a smile on her face as the flash went off. She just copied whatever pose Pain did, so they smiled, then had their tongues out doing devil signs, then peace signs, then silly faces.
"I guess it prints them outside," Pain said, pushing on the door to leave.
Oh no…
"Huh," he said, pushing again. The door didn't move.
"Is it stuck?" Konan asked, leaning forward.
"Um… Maybe…" Pain pushed hard on the door. Nothing. He felt around the edges for a lock or a quick release. He pushed again. He kicked it. It didn't budge.
"Should we call for help?"
"I guess," Pain sighed, then banged his fist on the door several times. "Hello?"
They listened; it seemed completely silent outside. Pain knocked several more times as Konan called for help. Nobody came. As they stared at the door, they noticed the thin crack of light beneath it suddenly extinguish; the lobby lights had gone out.
"Well that's unhelpful," Pain said mildly.
"It's not even that late," Konan said, checking the time on her phone. "Why would the lights go off?"
"Maybe maintenance is short-staffed and they cleaned it earlier or something."
"Um, are we stuck in here, then?"
"Um…" Pain said down again, running a hand distractedly through his hair. "Maybe for a little bit."
"I could text Sasori or someone," Konan offered.
"Sure, yeah, I'll see if Itachi's around."
Konan texted Sasori: Hey, the door's stuck on the photo booth. Could you come let us out? ;0
After a minute, a reply came through: LOL sorry I'm super busy. Have fun.
Konan rolled her eyes at the ceiling. "Nevermind, I'll text Deidara," she muttered. "That piece of…"
Hey, Pain and I are literally trapped in the photobooth in the lobby. Pls come open the door?
"Itachi's on a bus with Sasuke going holiday shopping," Pain sighed, starting to text someone else.
Deidara replied after a couple minutes: Hey Konan. Do you have to pee or anything?
Konan frowned down at the phone. No? Not yet ? Are you busy? We are trapped btw. Need help uwu
Don't uwu at me lmao. Yeah, Sasori told me not to let you out unless it's like an emergency.
Konan stared at the message.
WTF? We're stuck! What do u mean Sasori's telling you not to let us out!? She typed back.
Don't u want Pain to ask u out tho, Deidara responded.
Konan glanced at Pain quickly and angled her phone screen away in case he could see it.
…I kind of didn't want that to be a hostage situation though!?
Lmk if u have to piss tho I'll come let u out
Konan heaved a sigh. "Do you have to pee?" she asked Pain dully.
"Uh, not yet?" he said, distracted, his own thumbs whizzing across his phone screen. Konan nodded and sighed again.
Well now I just feel like a massive creep though. I could just lie and say we have to pee!
Good point. Nvm text someone else if you have to pee, I can't trust u.
Everybody's busy!
LOL okay phone me like twenty times if you have to pee.
DEIDARA
Sasori will get mad tho... Just ask him out! Ask him and then you can be free immediately!
….. Pls help me uwu
No uwu
Konan sighed again and switched her phone off.
"Hidan and Kakuzu are at their fight club, and Kisame isn't answering," Pain said. He raised his eyebrows at Konan. "How about Deidara?"
Konan bit her lip. "Um, he said he could come in a bit, he's just in the middle of something."
Pain rolled his eyes. "Of course. That's better than nothing, though."
"I guess it's nice to hang out, though. You've been really busy," Konan said, taking her sweater off — it was getting kind of warm in the tiny booth.
"Yeah, you too," Pain said, glancing at her.
"I wanted to say, by the way, your dance with Hinata was really good! It was really, um… sexy."
She smiled up at him. His eyes were so beautiful under the soft string lights. He looked embarrassed, shrugging.
"I mean… thanks. Yours was," he shook his head. "Pretty fucking amazing, Konan."
Konan grinned at him. "Hidan said he had fun, at least."
"Yeah, I bet he did," Pain murmured.
"It's really hot in here," Konan said, fanning herself.
"Hopefully it won't be for too long," Pain said, pushing again, futilely, at the door.
Konan bit her lips, gathering her courage.
Okay. He literally can't escape. I feel kind of creepy, but might as well take advantage of the circumstances!
"Um, I was thinking earlier today about the… conversation… we were having in the clearing, when you were teaching me to ride your bike?" She began, shifting a little closer on the tiny bench.
Pain closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, flexing and clenching his hands. Konan's eyes fell on a vein running up his arm, on a burn mark he'd gotten from metalshop on his inner wrist. She swallowed.
"Uh huh?" he said.
She looked into his face. Feeling her gaze, he opened his eyes and looked back. They were so close together, she would hardly have to lean forward at all…
"You were going to kiss me, right? I know you did, but before that you were like… you know… going to…"
It felt like she was breathing harder than necessary. She wondered wildly if the photobooth had any air holes. Her eyes fell on Pain's lips as he licked them. She looked back up and saw by his expression that he'd seen her watching. A corner of his mouth lifted in a smile.
"Yeah."
He leaned down, tilting on the bench so he was facing her, and pressed his forehead against hers. Konan parted her lips unconsciously, her eyes back on his lips, thinking how his snake bites would feel against her skin, thinking again about that fucking tongue piercing… Without totally thinking about it, she put her hand on his thigh.
He inhaled sharply and let it out in a small laugh. "Okay, Konan…"
"Uh huh?"
She felt stupid, completely intoxicated by him. She could smell his white musk aftershave, the faint smell of woodsmoke that stuck to him after his woodworking class.
Pain grinned at her. She looked up, meeting his beautiful violet eyes, so close. She felt the heat in her face and knew she was blushing.
"I had this whole thing planned to ask you out," he said ruefully. "I was going to ask you to hang out tomorrow . I had this whole set-up, because I've been meaning to ask you for like, weeks ." He shook his head. "And I waited so long, so everything had to be way better because it's you and you've been so patient, and I really wanted it to be special…"
"That's nice," Konan breathed, only half-listening, "but you can just ask me now, and then please kiss me, and then we can still do that nice thing you planned?"
Pain leaned closer, sliding his hands into her hair, his gaze dropping to her mouth.
"Okay," he whispered.
His lips found hers. They kissed softly, parting and then coming back, eyelashes fluttering, glancing at each other, checking in. Konan cupped the back of his head and sucked on his lower lip, her teeth scraping it. He tilted her head to the side, pulling her into him. Konan gasped into the kiss and he opened his mouth, his hands tightening in her hair as the intensity almost instantly ratcheted up. Konan nodded against him, her hands blindly seeking his chest, pulling herself closer to him. She breathed into him and he slid his tongue into her mouth. She shivered, letting out a small moan and his grip in her hair tightened. She gasped, feeling the metal ball of his piercing graze her tongue.
Her heart was pounding so hard it felt like the blood was thrumming inside her body with each beat. She felt Pain pulling her closer, lifting her, and she helped, getting to her knees and straddling him, sitting on his lap. She slipped her arms around his neck, suddenly in control of the kiss, leaning down for him, licking into his mouth as his hands stroked up and down her back.
She pulled back suddenly, remembering—
"Wait, so, so…" she panted, gazing into his eyes, feeling almost drunk on him.
"Please be my girlfriend," Pain breathed, biting at her bottom lip.
"Yes , yes," she answered breathlessly, kissing him again, sliding her tongue against his, burying her hands in his hair.
A few minutes later, the camera flashed several times again. They broke apart, looking at the screen.
"What… did you push the button?" Konan panted, glancing at Pain's knee, which was close to it.
"Nope," he said, nosing at her collarbone. "Maybe it's on a timer?"
The door swung open.
Konan and Pain both shielded their eyes against the sudden brightness of the lobby, whose lights seemed to have come back on. Konan scooched off Pain's lap, back next to him on the bench, blinking.
"Hey, you two crazy kids," Sasori said in an amused voice. "You're free to go."
Konan squinted at him. He was holding a book in one hand, and two photosets in the other. He handed the pictures to Pain as he stood up and got out, stretching. Konan followed him, half-blinded by the light.
She looked around; the lobby looked totally normal, except there was a small desk lamp plugged in in the corner, where two chairs had been set up as though someone had been sitting with their feet up. Her eyes fell to Sasori's finger, holding a place in his book.
Was he… hanging out here, reading, the whole time!?
Pain was inspecting the photobooth door, still a little pink in the face. "Did you push something against the door, or what?" he asked Sasori, annoyed.
Sasori scoffed, heading back to the lamp and unplugging it. "Please. I just locked it."
Konan gaped at him. "You had the key?"
Sasori rolled his eyes. "Duh. I helped make it. It's a group project." He looked directly at Konan, raising an eyebrow at her mussed hair and rumpled shirt, which she quickly straightened. "You're welcome."
He gave them both an ironic wave and left, heading down the hallway toward the stairs to the dorm rooms. Konan looked at Pain, who had a hand pressed to his face in embarrassment.
"I'm gonna fucking kill him," he muttered, shaking his head. "Here." He passed Konan the two sets of photos.
The first was the one they had posed for. Konan felt herself going red again looking at the second set, which showed her on Pain's lap, curled into him, hands in his hair, his hand up the back of her shirt, kissing deeply, then looking around in confusion at the camera.
"If we put these ones on the wall," Konan said, waving the posed pictures, "And I keep these ones, if that's okay…"
"Totally."
"Do you wanna take another set so you have one, too?"
Pain raised an eyebrow at her. She grinned at him.
"I mean, I'm not gonna say no…" he said, smiling and following her as she headed, giggling, back into the booth.