Silver Lining

Thanks again for all the great reviews! Your support is what keeps this thing rolling, and I’m glad everyone is enjoying it so far. I’ve started work on a fanart for this chapter, so look forward to it with the next post.

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Chapter Four: A Want Unwanted
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When Sakura awoke early the next morning she had to prevent a startled squeak and the instinct to jump out of the bed, because the first thing she saw when she cracked open her eyes…was Deidara, a lot closer than he’d been the night before. And he hadn’t moved - she had. Apparently her subconscious thought it a good idea to worm closer to her bedfellow in her sleep, either for extra warmth or just some long denied human contact. But her bedfellow happened to be male. Her bedfellow happened to be Deidara.

Thankfully she woke up before her body worked its way close enough to touch him, because having him wake up to find her smooshed against him would be just a tad bit awkward for both of them. She slowly and carefully shifted back to her side of the bed and crawled out with as little shuffling as possible. Just then he made a muted murmuring sound and rolled over, tucking his arm up under his chin. She smiled a little, because he actually looked rather adorable like that. But then her eyes widened slightly as she realized that had he moved just moments ago, they would now be face to face and his arm would possibly be thrown over her rather than where it was now.

The mission was one thing, but something like that happening when no one was around but them was more than she wanted to think about. Strange vibes were already passing between them enough as it was. Feeling slight embarrassment at what could have happened and an urgency get out of the room before he woke up, she grabbed her pack and padded silently toward the bathroom.

An hour later when Deidara woke up and wandered groggily out of the bedroom, he found the patio doors open and Sakura sitting at the small breakfast table with her chin resting in her palm, gazing out at the ocean. There was a room service cart near the patio door and there was quite an impressive and delicious looking breakfast laid out on the table.

“Morning,” she said evenly, looking up at him as he took a seat.

His eyes wandered amusedly over the small feast and her half empty but still largely portioned plate. “Hungry?”

“Aren’t you? We never ate dinner last night you know,” she remarked before taking another bite of toast.

“That’s because you fell asleep, yeah,” he teased, and set about piling food onto a plate for himself.

“I didn’t mean to. You could have woken me up.”

He simply shrugged and started eating. He noticed she was watching him with an amused expression and he stared back at her until he swallowed his food. “What?”

“I’ve never seen you with your hair down.” It was true. During her time as the Akatsuki’s ‘hostage’ she had never seen any of them except for Itachi in the mornings until breakfast when they were already dressed and ready for the day, and the few nights they had to make camp they all just slept as they were. So it was odd but nice to see him in such a natural and relaxed state in the dark tank and pants he’d slept in, his long hair loose around his shoulders and slightly mussed. A few strands still hung over his eye, but most were carelessly tucked behind his ear. She liked the look, it was more personal, and it somehow made her feel closer to him.

He merely chuckled and gave a small shrug before turning his gaze to the gently capping waves and the flock of birds diving for their morning meal. The silence between them was comfortable as they enjoyed the calm and simple beauty of their surroundings.

Deidara had never seen the sea until he left his village and began to travel the world. He loved watching the birds that flocked the shores and feeling the wind on his face that left the slight taste of salt on his skin. He had been happy staying with Kisame in the shark’s house that overlooked the ocean, living a quiet life neither of them had ever expected to have. But he also felt restless, like he wasn’t ready to stop and stay in one place just yet, like there were other things he needed to do and see. He blamed it on boredom and his own free-spirited personality.

And now he was glad he hadn’t stayed put on that island, because if he had he would never have found the pink haired woman sitting next to him again. Was it coincidence? Or was it fate to meet her again like this, and that was why he felt the need to continue living the shinobi life when he should have been glad to be done with it all. She seemed to be lost in some way, cast adrift in a world that was too ugly for someone with her heart and spirit. She had no one, and she was drowning in her loneliness and sorrow. Was he meant to be her lifeline, in some way or form? He’d never been one for philosophy unless it concerned art and he never pondered the meaning of life, but now he couldn’t help but wonder. Sitting here with her was calming, peaceful, and made him remember how much he liked waking up to this every day. Maybe someday not far off he would go back to that house by the sea where an enormous shark-man who liked to drink and fish lived, and maybe this time he would stay. Maybe…if she wanted…he would take her with him.

“It’s so tranquil and relaxing here, like a sedative for the soul. I never really thought about it before, but I think I could spend my life living by the ocean; going to sleep at night to the sound of waves crashing, and waking up to a view like this,” Sakura murmured softly, pulling Deidara out of his thoughts. He looked over at her with a soft, thoughtful smile that made her curious as to what he was thinking right then. “What?”

“I was just thinking the same thing, yeah,” he said quietly.

Her lips pursed slightly. “Then why did you leave Kisame’s? Didn’t you say it was too boring for your wild and untamable personality?” she teased.

He smirked. “I liked it there, there just wasn’t anything to occupy me and keep me entertained.”

His gaze had suddenly become more piercing, and she had a small feeling there was a hint of innuendo in his words. Could he be…? No. She brushed the thought aside with a small chuckle. “Oh, I don’t know, Kisame can be pretty entertaining at times,” she mused.

He laughed. “Especially when he’s drunk, yeah.”

“That’s for sure,” she said. “So how do you think we should go about stealing the sword?” she asked after a moment.

He thought for a moment. “Well, we should find out as much as we can about the exhibition and where the sword will be kept before, during and after the event, maybe how it’s being transported and by who, and if any of Shingo’s guards are shinobi, yeah.”

She nodded slowly, thinking over all of their options. “Blueprints,” she said finally. He gave her a questioning look, and she explained. “We should get ahold of the hotel’s building plans. If we have the blueprints, we can see every detail about where the event is being held, and any storage facilities that may be holding the items before and after their showing. It may even be here now, or if it’s not, with the prints we can see any loading docks or drop points where it might be delivered to. We can even get an idea of possible escape routes. Then once we know those things, we can go from there.”

He looked fairly impressed. “That’s a pretty good plan. But how do we get ahold of the hotel’s blueprints?”

“Well they will probably be kept in a restricted access area, most likely the security manager’s office, and possibly locked up. The lock shouldn’t be any problem for us; we just need to get in to where they are being held. So maybe today we should snoop around a little, pretend that we’re just taking in the sights and seeing what there is to do around the resort, until we find out where the security office is and then sneak tonight when everyone’s left and steal them,” she finished.

He nodded, liking the idea. “And while were looking around we can scope out the security to see if any of them are shinobi and what sort of quality they are, yeah.”

“Alright then. We can go whenever you’re ready,” she said. He nodded and they finished the rest of their breakfast, talking idly and enjoying the antics of the diving birds.

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They spent the day walking around the hotel and observing all of the facilities and amenities they had supposedly paid so much to enjoy while on their ‘honeymoon’. The resort was huge and it took them all of the morning and part of the afternoon to cover all the ground and discover the location of the security office. With a simple shadow clone/henge combo to impersonate one of the security staff they learned that the blueprints for the hotel were indeed kept in that office, in a locked file cabinet. The fact that they were locked up meant there was probably something displayed on them that a regular employee or guest should not know about.

They ate lunch at the restaurant they had passed the night before, and much to Sakura’s delight the food was just as delicious as she had assumed it would be. To say she didn’t eat the most high quality of meals anymore was a bit of an understatement, so it was a welcome change.

The rest of the afternoon was spent casually strolling around once again, arm in arm or with Deidara’s arm casually slung over her shoulder, locating and assessing Shingo’s security force. The majority of them were regular civilian security guards hired to deal with the minor issues among resort guests. But farther back into the employee access areas they snuck into they saw some rougher looking men, particularly around the storage facilities. These guys looked like hired mercenaries and didn’t wear hotel staff uniforms. A few were low-level shinobi; Sakura and Deidara could detect their chakra either because they weren’t any good at hiding it or they simply didn’t care. But that meant they had to conceal theirs more carefully and at all times in order to keep their cover in tact.

When night fell and things quieted down around the resort they prepared for their task. They sent two shadow clones to dinner to sit in plain view of the security camera and then split up. Deidara returned to the room to grab his scope for its night vision and heat sensor capabilities and then snuck into the storage buildings to see what was currently in them and get a better idea of just how well guarded these artifacts were going to be.

Sakura headed for the now minimally staffed security office and cast a genjutsu on the night watch sitting around a camera monitoring station before opening the door and slipping inside. She passed the four spaced-out guards that had a loop of the last five minutes playing in their heads so they would think no time had passed and deftly picked the lock on the manager’s office door. Once inside she located the file cabinet, picked that lock as well and searched through it for the hotel’s building plans. She found the rolled up prints in the larger bottom drawer a minute later and quickly concealed them, shut the drawer to lock itself, and relocked the manager’s door.

On her way out she looked at the security monitors out of curiosity and located the screen filming inside the restaurant. She watched for a moment, strangely fascinated at the image of her clone and Deidara’s eating dinner and laughing about something. They really did look quite natural together. Then her eyes widened as she saw Deidara’s clone reach across the table and grab the hand of hers, drawing it toward him and pressing his lips to the backs of her fingers, while her clone blushed and smiled adorningly at him.

The real Sakura was blushing too as she watched the copies on the monitor. Damn it. She’d instructed her clone to order her something good to eat and act friendly to the other clone, not like she had the hots for him! She was going to feel that when she dismissed her copy; whatever the fake Sakura was thinking and experiencing right now would be transferred to her when the jutsu was released, and she felt a small flutter as she wondered exactly what that would be like. But then she realized Deidara would get the same information when he released his, and she found herself preemptively embarrassed.

Inner Sakura was giggling deviously.

That settled it; she was not leaving her clone alone with his ever again if she had anything to say about it. In fact, it was probably a good idea to get back to the restaurant as soon as possible before their flirting by proxy got any more embarrassing, however convincing it may be. Still, tonight had been a success on her part at least, and with a final glance at the dazed looking guards, she quickly and silently left the office with a satisfied smirk, releasing the genjutsu when she was far enough away. It was almost too easy when dealing with civilians.

She met up with Deidara at their agreed location behind the restaurant a few minutes later. He looked irritated. “Did you find anything?” she asked as he walked up.

“No. There was nothing there, yeah. Nothing at all, unless you think extra surfboards and volleyball nets are relevant somehow,” he grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest and frown-pouting at the waste of his time.

Her brow furrowed slightly. “Then why do you think there were so many guards standing around there earlier?”

“Who knows? Maybe it’s their break area or something, yeah. There were none there tonight, except for one regular civilian security guard on patrol.” He glanced at her and gave her a quick once-over. “Where are the plans, hmm? Did you go back to the room already?”

“No, I’m not just going to walk around with a big roll of blueprints under my arm,” she replied dryly. She pulled out a folded object from the back of her skirt’s waistband and handed it to him.

He unfolded it and looked at the advertising flyer of the antiques exhibition they had received at check-in. He smiled once he recognized what he was holding. “Pretty clever, yeah. You’re really good at object henge, I can barely feel the chakra tracings and the detail is right on. How did you get such a close match, hmm?”

She pulled out another folded object, unfolded it and began to fan herself lazily with the real flyer as she smirked mischievously at him.

He grinned and shook his head. “I take it back, yeah. Cheater.”

She gave a small dry laugh and took the disguised blueprints and folded it back up with the flyer. “There’s no such thing as cheating when you’re a ninja,” she said airily.

“True,” he admitted with a wry smirk. “I’m hungry. Do you think our clones left us anything to eat in there?”

Sakura’s expression darkened at the thought of her misbehaving clone. “They better have,” she mumbled, ignoring Deidara’s puzzled look as they rounded the corner and headed for the front of the restaurant.

They switched with their clones one at a time by way of restroom intervals. Sakura was glad she was alone when the memory/sensory receptors hit her as the clone vanished; it was bad enough that the other patrons of the restaurant could see her sitting at the table by herself and blushing furiously at the phantom memory of Deidara’s lips on her hand, it would be ten times worse if he was actually there to see it. What the hell was wrong with her anyway? It was just a little kiss to the hand! She was a grown woman, not some schoolgirl who got all silly from even the slightest interaction with a boy. Man. With really nice, soft lips. Stop it! Then she saw Deidara coming back to the table, looking slightly put-off and at anything but her and was he blushing? Well, at least she wasn’t the only one. His clone had started it after all, so he was probably more thrown than she was. She hastily stuffed a large forkful of food into her mouth so she wouldn’t have to say anything right away.

He sat down and after a moment they began to talk about random things as they finished their already half-eaten meals, both of them following a mutually unspoken agreement to pretend the clone incident never happened.

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They didn’t spend long at the restaurant as they needed to go over the blueprints tonight and decide their next plan of action. Back in the room Sakura promptly ordered dessert from room service since she was still hungry after only half a meal, and once it arrived they sat on the floor with the plans spread out over the coffee table and pored over them while enjoying the coffee and double chocolate cake she’d ordered.

“These things are a pain in the ass to read, yeah,” Deidara remarked for the fourth time that night after several hours of inspection and finding nothing unusual.

Sakura nodded absently, her eyes still scanning over the large sheet in front of her. This was a very large hotel and there were dozens of map-sized prints to look over. “Mmph!” she mumbled and leaned forward over the table. Deidara looked at her curiously and she tapped her finger over a spot on the plans as she quickly swallowed the mouthful of her third slice of cake. “Here. In the basement level, you see it?”

He leaned closer and peered at the spot she was pointing at. “There’s a second stairwell in the basement when the emergency exit maps around the hotel only indicate one. And…this one leads down, not up.”

She nodded and looked up at him with a glint in her eye. “There’s a sub-basement that’s not listed anywhere and not detailed on the hotel’s plans. Now why do you think someone would want to build a secret sublevel to a place like this?”

“That’s where the exhibition items are being kept,” he smirked, catching on to her excitement.

“And that’s where we’ll find the sword,” she said smugly.

“We need to get down there, yeah. That’s what we’ll do tomorrow night then.”

Sakura’s neck was stiff from hours of peering at the blueprints, and she stretched tiredly as she looked at the clock on the wall. It was already after midnight. Deidara got up to stretch out as well, and her eyes followed him as he stood. “So what are we gonna do tomorrow until nighttime then?” she asked.

He shrugged and looked down at her with a teasing grin. “Enjoy our honeymoon? This place was made to entertain people after all.” She gave him a small smile and stretched her legs out into a wide V now that he had moved. “Do you want to use the shower first?” he asked.

“No go ahead. I’m gonna look over these a little more and see if there’s anything else we might find useful.” He nodded and walked toward the bathroom, and Sakura took another bite of cake as she turned back to the blueprints.

A little while later the bathroom door opened and she heard Deidara shuffling around and looked up, and promptly clenched her teeth to keep her mouth closed. The blond man had come out of the bathroom only half dressed. His dark pants hung low around his slender hips and his shirt was tossed over his shoulder, leaving Sakura a full view of his naked torso. She tried her best to look away and not gawk at her friend and mission partner, and failed miserably. Inner Sakura screeched at her to for once just shut up and enjoy the view. She had never seen him like…this, before. He wasn’t bulky and ripped, but neither was he tight and wiry. He was somewhere in the middle, on the slender side, with lean definition that was proportional to his body size. All of this was easy enough to tell with his shirt on and she already knew these things, it was just that with the shirt off it was…enhanced.

She was just beginning to recover from the initial shock of seeing him like that when he brought the towel he was carrying up to absently rub at his hair and his abs flexed with the movement, and Sakura suddenly became very interested in the stitching on the hem of her skirt. Why did he have to come out of the bathroom like that and why did his pants have to ride so low and when the hell did Deidara get so hot?

But then she’d always thought him attractive, hadn’t she? Even when there had still been a lot of tension and potential hostility between them she’d noticed how good looking he was. It was just that her main focus had been on Itachi at the time. The dark and mysterious Uchiha had had such a magnetism about him that he would draw all the attention in the room even if all he did was sit there and stare off into space, as he often did. It was hard to notice anything else. But these were not thoughts she wanted to be having about her very recently reunited friend and mission partner. She didn’t want to have these thoughts about anyone. Their mission cover and their forced proximity and now the incident with the clones were just getting to her, that’s all. She most definitely did not want to think about those strong looking shoulders or those smoothly muscled abs or those lips that were –

“All yours, yeah.”

Her head snapped up and she may have made a tiny squeaking sound in the back of her throat. “What?”

“The shower?” he clarified, giving her an odd look.

“Right,” she said quickly, standing and making a beeline for the bedroom to grab her things while avoiding looking at him. Then he removed his shirt from over his shoulder and something caught her eye, causing her to halt in front of him. He had a strange tribal-looking tattoo covering his entire left pectoral. She tilted her head a little as she looked at it, and he made an amused sound and smirked at her curious expression. The markings were sort of familiar, it almost looked like… “Is that a seal?”

His smirk widened to a grin. “Mmhm.”

“What is it sealing?” she asked, looking up to meet his eyes.

Now he was positively beaming. “It’s my masterpiece. My ultimate jutsu, superior to all my other art,” he explained, and she could hear the pride and enthusiasm in his tone.

She peered at the seal some more, stepping a little closer to get a better look. Like many jutsu seals it formed a design, and this one looked like a grinning mouth, directly over his heart. Oh damn. “This unseals another- ?”

He nodded. “It sure does, yeah.”

Her eyes widened slightly as she imagined what that would look like. Very strange and a little frightening actually. But Sakura was a medic, and her natural sense of morbid curiosity ran stronger than most people’s. She reached out hesitantly, glancing up at him in question. “Can I?”

His expression changed to surprise and then a soft lopsided grin formed on his features. “Sure,” he said with quiet amusement.

She stepped closer and tentatively touched the one of the black zigzag markings. She always found it fascinating how seals looked just like regular if somewhat abstract tattoos, yet concealed such powerful, bizarre and sometimes terrifying things. “Wow, this is really cool,” she murmured, and his soft huff of laughter rustled her hair. She recalled what he’d said before, and about what she knew of him and the way he thought about things. Her brows creased slightly. “Your masterpiece…you would become the ultimate expression of your own art…”

He smiled down at her, his pale blue eyes shining. “It would be beautiful; a perfect moment of magnificent art. I’d go out with a bang, yeah,” he said with quiet excitement.

She was quiet a moment as she thought about it, and her look became wistful. “I get it. And I’m sure it would be incredible to say the least, but…I still hope you never have to use it.”

His expression softened at her sentiment and something in his eyes made her want to blush, so she looked back down at the seal again. She gently traced her fingertip along one of the longer lines causing the muscle to ripple slightly under her touch, and she smirked softly. She could feel his breath fan lightly against her hair and it was then she realized how close they were standing, and that her little bout of curiosity may have crossed over into something more serious. Her eyes trailed slowly from where her hand touched his chest down his torso and flat abdomen, and then she blinked quickly. She did not just do that! He stilled, and she realized that yes she just did and he had seen it. Shit. What the hell was she thinking?

With as casual an air as she could manage, she dropped her hand and stepped away without meeting his gaze again. Feigning nonchalance, she muttered something about going to take a shower now and quickly made her way into the bathroom, ignoring Deidara’s unreadable look and the way his eyes followed after her. When she came out sometime later she was relieved to find him asleep.

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The next morning Sakura brushed off any residual awkwardness from the night before and refused to think that things were anything other than normal. She was on a mission, and she needed to stop getting so worked up and focus like the professional she was. She had to stop confusing her gladness to be reunited with her old friend with the act they had to put on for the job. She needed to stop worrying that the things that were happening translated into anything other than their cover, because they didn’t, and they weren’t going to. Period. She was not going there again, ever.

Deidara noticed her cool and almost curt behavior in the morning and decided not to bring up anything about the night before. He didn’t know what he would say as to his part anyway, so if Sakura wanted to pretend none of it ever happened that was fine with him for the time being. The clone incident had been embarrassing. It knew the situation and he’d instructed it to make it convincing but he hadn’t expected it to do something like that. He knew the thoughts the clone had been having and he was damn glad they’d gone back when they did or he may have had some apologizing to do to Sakura.

He wouldn’t deny he was attracted to her, he always had been. But just how deep that attraction ran was still unclear and was starting to bother him. She was a friend, the first real friend he’d ever had, and he wasn’t sure if Kisame even counted since it was more of a grudging bond over time than a natural kindred spirit. But she had never shown any indication of attraction to him until last night, and he didn’t know what to think about that. He was getting highly annoyed with the entire situation because he wasn’t used to being embarrassed, or confused, and confusing was exactly what the pink haired kunoichi was being at the moment.

One moment she would seem happy, and he could see through to the girl he’d known years ago. She would start to smile, or laugh, and then something would trigger a change in her eyes and the wall would come back up and she would either turn cold or simply withdraw into herself. Truthfully it drove him crazy when she did that. That inner fire should never be cut off like that. It was a travesty, an injustice to her bright spirit. Every time she caught herself starting to let go of some of her despair she would freak out and dive right back in. She didn’t want to be happy, that was clear enough to see. And he couldn’t fucking stand it.

But what could he say to her? What could he do? He knew why she had become like this. She was still grieving, and she didn’t want to move on. And he was partly responsible for the eventual loss of everyone she cared about, so did he even have a right to try and help her? Not that he would know how anyway. And there was that damn guilt again. He didn’t like how she made him question and contradict himself. But she didn’t do it on purpose so he couldn’t even blame her for his inner agitation. The only thing that was clear to him at this point was that he wanted to help her. But how? He wasn’t good with this kind of thing, no matter how genuinely he cared.

Neither of them wanted to talk about what was on their minds, or even admit that anything was troubling them at all, so in another unspoken agreement to keep everything simple they went to breakfast and afterward walked to the small town that supplemented the resort to check out the sights and possibly get more information.

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“It’s hot as hell out here, and we’ve been walking around all day,” Deidara grumbled as they walked through the afternoon streets of the quaint little town. “Let’s go find some shade, yeah.”

“Good idea. I think I see a park down the road a ways,” Sakura said, and their sluggish pace picked up a bit at the prospect of sitting down out of the heat.

The park was really just a large grassy area with some trees and a small playground, and in the center was a large flat area with fountain jets shooting upward from the ground. Several kids and even some adults were playing and running through the water streams, their shouts and laughter carrying across the small recreation area. They passed some more kids jumping rope and found a spot somewhat distant from everyone else under the shade of a cluster of trees.

They dropped the assorted bags they had been carrying and took a seat with mutual sighs of relief from both the heat and walking. Deidara sat back resting his weight on his hands and stretched his legs out, and Sakura sat next to him and slouched with hands in her lap and her legs crossed before her. They sat in comfortable silence for a while, watching the people running and laughing through the fountain.

After breakfast they had come into town and found a small carnival that offered year-round entertainment for resort guests. They had the whole day to kill, so they watched a couple of the live acts and performances, but couldn’t really play any of the games since the fact that both of them could hit any target with bull’s-eye precision no matter how small or how fast and erratically it moved would make them look just a little suspicious. But Sakura enjoyed herself in the petting zoo, and Deidara had a bit of sadistic fun at the dunk tank where his dead aim was not as conspicuous, and without really attempting to even won a small stuffed monkey, which he promptly shoved at a highly amused Sakura.

After that they had lunch in a small local café where a still sadistically amused – and secretly flattered – Sakura sat her new stuffed animal in the center of the table where it mocked him all throughout their meal.

The afternoon had been spent shopping in local boutiques for some more appropriate things to wear on their ‘beach vacation’. Deidara had grumbled and fussed, and Sakura had argued that she didn’t like shopping either but it was necessary since they didn’t look much different than the mercenaries they’d seen the day before so he could just shut up and deal with it like she was. He still grumbled, although more quietly and less frequently than before.

Sakura had stuck with her plan to get a wider variety of colors to soften her tough kunoichi look, and was now wearing a strappy pastel green sundress and simple thong sandals. It had been a long time since she’d dressed this casually or femininely - not counting the kunai strapped to her upper thigh of course. Deidara had been a bit less diverse in his choices for new wardrobe, because he had been a missing nin since he was thirteen and hadn’t worn civilian-styled clothing since he was a small child. He’d looked with utter revulsion upon the assortment of tropical-print shirts and anything with bright colors, but eventually they found a few things that didn’t make him want to detonate the entire store in disgust. Now he was wearing a simple white T-shirt and muted green cargo shorts.

Sakura rummaged through their shopping bags and after a moment brought out her prize stuffed monkey and set it in her lap. Deidara glared at it. “Do you have to keep bringing that thing out, hmm?”

She looked at him and his frown-pout and smiled. “Aww, come on, it’s cute.” She twisted the arms back and forth, making it do a little dance in her lap. “I don’t know what the big deal is; it’s not going to ruin your tough-guy image, which you shouldn’t even be trying to maintain while we’re here. Besides, you’re supposed to be my husband right? It’s only natural that you would try and win me a stuffed animal at the fair, Tarou-kun,” she teased.

He pouted some more. “Whatever.” But he didn’t really mind, because at least she was enjoying herself for once, even if it was at his expense. That was, until she set the damn monkey on top of his head with an evil giggle. He glared at her in mock anger and grabbed the offending plushie and swatted at her with it. She caught him by the wrist with one hand and snatched her toy out of his grip with the other. She grinned playfully and leaned a bit so her upper arm rested against his, still holding on to him.

She turned his wrist over to casually look at the back of his hand. His hands were not like most shinobi’s; they were still somewhat rough but not heavily nicked and scarred, with slender yet strong fingers. They were the hands of an artist, of a sculptor. And that’s what he truly was at heart, wasn’t it? She looked at his nails, no longer black as they had been in his time as Akatsuki, and she smirked. “I was so sure it wasn’t nail polish,” she said in a disappointed tone as she scraped her nail over one of his.

He looked at what she was doing and laughed. “Of course it wasn’t nail polish. That’s ridiculous, considering what exactly Akatsuki was and who its members were, yeah.”

She twisted his fingers absently for further inspection. “So it was a jutsu, then?”

“More like the side-effect of a jutsu, one that linked us all together along with our rings and let us receive summons and hold meetings without actually being there.”

“The holograph thing?” she asked without looking up.

“Yeah. It was one of Pein’s freaky jutsu and when he died it stopped working, not that we were using it by that time anyway. After a while they began to fade and eventually turned back to normal.”

She nodded and they were quiet after that, but she didn’t let go of his hand and he made no move to pull it away. She knew she should let go, that she probably shouldn’t have grabbed his hand in the first place, but she didn’t want to. She didn’t know why she was thinking like this, she knew it was a bad idea and she didn’t want to get too attached to anyone again. But it was Deidara, and to be honest she was already attached from that brief time they’d spent together eight years ago. There was still a connection between them, and she found herself comforted by it now more than ever. He’d always been able to cheer her up when she was down, had always been able to make her smile. Even now, when she had thought she would never smile again or have reason to, he put her at ease and she found herself relaxing for the first time in many years. She’d never really appreciated how bright and energetic and alive he was. But for a long time now everything had seemed deadened and dull until he was unexpectedly thrown back in her life, and he was like a fresh wind that cleared away the fog. It worried her, and she didn’t know what she would do if things got pushed to a level she couldn’t go to, but for now she just wanted to feel that sense of comfort and pleasantness again.

His fingers brushed lightly against her palm and a moment later she felt a sharp flutter inside as their fingers twined. She looked down at their loosely locked hands and her heart gave a small thump. She wasn’t sure which one of them had done it; it may have been her who unconsciously slipped her fingers between his, but it may have been him. She couldn’t tell anything from his body language because he hadn’t tensed at all when it happened and she definitely couldn’t bring herself to look up at him right now. He seemed perfectly fine with holding her hand like this, and she couldn’t say she didn’t like it. Still not meeting his gaze for fear of what she might see there, and once again feeling like a silly schoolgirl for getting worked up over small gestures of affection, she took a slow deep breath and relaxed against his side with her head on his shoulder.

If she had found the courage to look up at him in that moment, she would have seen him grinning like an equally silly schoolboy.

They sat quietly like that for nearly an hour, and eventually the park began to clear out as the pre-dusk haze set in and people retreated indoors. Late afternoon was always the hottest part of the day and even in the shade they were starting to sweat. Then Sakura had a brilliant idea.

“Hey! Let’s go get some ice cream!” she chirped, pulling Deidara out of his lazy stupor.

“Okay…” he said indifferently. It was too hot to get excited about anything other than a great big explosion…as long as he didn’t have to get near the heat.

She stood up and used their still-joined hands to tug him up after her. “What? You don’t like ice cream?”

He gave her a look. “That’s a dumb question, yeah. Who doesn’t like ice-cream?”

She smiled playfully. “Well let’s go then, I saw an ice cream shop earlier when we first came into town. Then after that we can go back and chill out in our air-conditioned room until night falls and it’s time to go snooping.” She let go of his hand and picked up her bags after stuffing the plush monkey back inside.

She sure was in a good mood. He wondered if it had anything to do with how they’d just been sitting, and the thought made him smile again. “Alright.” He looked at her quizzically as they started to walk. “You sure eat a lot more than I remember, yeah,” he teased.

She shrugged. “If you knew what my diet has been like for the last few years you wouldn’t blame me.”

They made their way unhurriedly to the edge of town and found the sweets shop Sakura had seen that morning. They made their purchases and stood outside under the sidewalk covering with their rapidly melting treats. This was the kind of simple activity ninja rarely got to do, especially since the war, so even with the nearly unbearable heat and rivulets of sticky melted ice cream running down their wrists they were really enjoying themselves. Civilians took it for granted, but it was fun to walk around and do nothing like normal people for once. Not that they would want to do it every day, but still. They talked about random unimportant things and Deidara made a conscious effort not to watch her eating the dripping cone, and when they were finished she moved away to toss their napkins in a nearby trash bin. When she came back they just stood for a minute, not ready to leave the cover of shade.

“Deidara…” Sakura muttered in a low tone.

He glanced at her sharply when he heard her tone, but he kept his casual demeanor. “Hmm?”

“You see those guys across the street, in front of the bar?”

He did. He’d seen them a while ago, but they were just lounging around with a few beers so he’d ignored them. “Yeah, they’re the same guys we saw around the storage building yesterday. They aren’t doing anything worth noting. I could go for a beer right about now myself,” he smirked.

“True,” she said, still keeping her voice low and her posture casual. “But they’re ogling me.”

He looked at the men again. They sure were, and they weren’t being subtle about it. They looked like a pack of drooling dogs, and even from here he could hear them murmuring to each other. He gave a small chuckle, though inside he was not amused. “You get ogled all the time, Sakura. It’s not that strange.” he pointed out.

She tried not to roll her eyes and instead turned to Deidara and placed a hand on his arm. “Yeah, yeah. But it is a bit strange that my husband would just stand there and do nothing while a bunch of sweaty thugs undress me with their eyes,” she said pointedly.

Oh. Right. “You want me to kick their asses or something?” he asked with just a hint of eagerness.

“No,” she huffed impatiently. “Don’t start a fight. Just…do something…you know…show some male possessiveness, or whatever it is you men do.”

…Oh.

He’d never felt inclined to act possessive over a woman before, but as he continued to watch those pathetic excuses for shinobi across the street look at Sakura like she was nothing better than a sex toy he didn’t think he would have much of a problem putting on that display. He put his arm over her shoulder and after a moment wrapped his forearm around the front of her chest to hold the other shoulder as he shifted to stand behind her. She smiled sweetly in return, and they acted as if they hadn’t noticed the men across the street at all.

Despite the little display of ‘ownership’ the men across the street didn’t stop staring; their conversation only became louder as if they were trying to goad the rival male holding on to their prey. After a moment Sakura suppressed her surprise as Deidara wrapped his other arm around her midsection just below her ribcage. She could feel his chest pressing flat against her back now, and she brought her hands up and held onto his forearm to complete the look of the affectionate couple. But she could also feel him getting angry.

“Deidara…”

He merely grunted that he’d heard her.

She turned her head so she could look up at him. He was now openly glaring at the drunken men. “That’s a little too much male possessiveness,” she warned.

“Hmm?”

She squeezed his arm lightly. “Stop acting so malevolent,” she smiled, as if she’d just said something adoring to her husband.

He made an amused yet rather threatening sound. “Oh it’s not an act, yeah.”

She sighed and rubbed his forearm soothingly. “I know that. But we don’t want them to know that. You can’t pick a fight, especially not with these guys. These are the guys our cover has to be most convincing to, and you’re supposed to be a regular civilian. The last thing we want is for them to see you glaring and come over here to start something with you. You’re about ten seconds away from an angry chakra flare and they may be shit ninja but if they feel it we’re screwed. So calm down, ok?”

One of the drunker men made a lewd and obviously sexual gesture at Sakura and Deidara actually emitted a low growl, so she rubbed his arm again and leaned back into him, tilting her head upward to see his face again. “It’s not like you have anything to really be possessive about right? They have to realize just by looking that I would never be interested in any of them when I have you,” she said softly. She’d meant it figuratively, but she realized it had come out sounding like a lot more, and she blushed.

But it worked, because his aggressive aura disappeared almost instantly and he tilted his head down toward her with an unreadable look. Their faces were really close now but she couldn’t turn away because they were being watched very closely, and she felt her blush deepening with every second. Then there was a new wave of offensive and deliberately loud comments drifting across the street.

“He looks like a woman. Maybe she’s secretly into girls.”

“Someone should show her how a real man looks and feels.”

Deidara stiffened, and Sakura groaned inwardly. If they were going to insult him directly she didn’t know how much longer she could hold him off. Didn’t these idiots see she was trying to save their lives? No, because if they had any idea just who they were messing with their cover would be blown, not to mention they wouldn’t have had the balls to even look at him if they knew who he was. Thankfully he didn’t have any clay with him. “We should just leave now…” she suggested.

He didn’t answer, but after a moment his hold on her tightened minutely and he bent his head down to her. “Turn around,” he murmured next to her ear.

His breath tickled against her neck and ear and despite the heat she felt a shiver run down her spine. She wasn’t sure what he intended, but when he said it like that she couldn’t really bring herself to say no. She turned slowly, and his arms loosened to let her and then casually wrapped around her waist and pulled her into him, and he turned them so that he leaned against the railing with his back to the street. Her palms rested flat against his chest and she could feel his heartbeat, just slightly elevated, the same as hers. This was not exactly necessary for their act, but she couldn’t deny that it felt very nice. Nor could she deny that she was attracted to him any longer. It was no good and it would only cause problems, but she couldn’t help it; being around him made her want to let go of everything she was holding on to and just feel positive about her life and her future again. She couldn’t do that, and she felt guilty and torn up just thinking about it. So why did she feel so compelled to act upon her thoughts and feelings? Why did she keep allowing it to go one step further than it should?

His hands began to slowly stroke up and down her sides and lower back, and with a small inaudible sigh she let go for just a moment and let her forehead fall to rest against his collarbone. He held her closer and bent his head slightly, and she felt his hair brush against the side of her neck. She closed her eyes. It felt so good to touch someone again, and be touched in a way that was not harsh or hostile. She had missed it, the simple act of touch. And she had missed feeling cared for and cared about. She hadn’t thought about it or realized how much she’d denied herself those simple human needs, but now that she had them again after so long it hit her; just how isolated and lonely she’d been.

“So Sakura…are you secretly into girls, hmm?” he said after several moments, and she could hear the teasing smirk in his voice.

She huffed a soft laugh and lightly slapped his chest. “Not that I’m aware of. Please don’t kill them...”

He chuckled and linked his hands together at her waist. “Naw, it would be way too easy, not even worth the sweat I’d break in this heat, yeah. Besides, I have better things to do.”

She raised her head slightly to look over his shoulder at the disgruntled men. They were finally giving up since they couldn’t see her around Deidara and their taunting and leering efforts were unsuccessful. She glared at their backs as they stood and stumbled back inside the bar. “Like what?” she asked, hoping she wasn’t biting into some sort of innuendo.

He stood up from the railing and she straightened with him as he let one arm fall away. “Like hanging out in my nice cool hotel suite and maybe order some room service, yeah,” he said. She smiled, and with one hand still on her lower back he looked in the direction of the now empty bench in front of the tavern with a smug leer, and then they turned and began their walk back to the resort.

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