It took a few moments for Sasori to realise what it was that Mikansei seemed so shocked about; smirking as soon as he did so. Relaxing slightly, he opened his mouth to explain, when Mikansei cut in a second later,
“I knew it was armour...that you had been wearing before, Sasori-san. But...”
“It helps deal with any weaknesses I may have with being a puppet master—which is why I wear it most of the time; to the point where some people don’t think this is really me.” He responded simply in elaboration of her point, shrugging slightly along with it.
Nodding, Mikansei attempted to force away the heat that was rising in her cheeks, just like it had done earlier that day, glancing down at the ground to help her do so. Before—without even realising it—the armour had almost acted like a barrier between them both, and had given not only Sasori, but Mikansei herself a form of defence against the strange feelings that had begun to surface within them. It hadn’t truly been him; she couldn’t truly connect with him like that, and so it made things easier for her. But now she had seen what he really looked like...
She couldn’t focus on anything but how good-looking he was.
Watching her as she looked away, the unusual sweetness she was showing in her body language and facial expression hit Sasori hard, and he found himself smiling absentmindedly at her. Her reason for knocking on his door was unknown to him, but he didn’t care. The more he spent time with her, the more he saw of her true self, and it caught his attention more than anything in the world ever could have done. But as a noise sounded out from down the corridor, he remembered where he was—and who he was sharing the building with—and it occurred to him what he was doing, forcing him to question softly,
“Uh...what are you doing here, Mikansei-chan?”
Everything coming back to her at Sasori's question, she was knocked out of her trance and straightened up fully, helping her return to normal. Fully returning eye contact now, Mikansei was reminded of needing to replace her bandages—and do it quickly. If Sasori saw what was going on with her arms...so rapidly she answered,
“I just wanted to thank you for today, Sasori-san. You know, for helping me and working together on the mission.”
“Mikansei...it was teamwork. That means there’s effort on both sides—and therefore you don’t need to thank me, as you did just as much work. If anything, I should be the one thanking you. For agreeing with my opinion on art when we were talking.” He shot back simply, shrugging at her thanks and hiding a smirk at her continual attempts to do so, only to get stuck in finding words to say to Mikansei as she responded with a small smile,
“I meant it, Sasori-san. I really did—don’t think that I didn’t. I have no reason to lie. More things last forever than Deidara thinks. True, your puppetry interests me, but I tried not to let that influence me.”
Staring intensely back at her, it was all he could do to murmur quietly,
“I can show you whenever you like; remember that, Mikansei.”
Now both of them fell into silence, caught in each other’s gazes. Why it was so hypnotizing, neither of them could figure out, but it became incredibly hard to try and break away. He was treating her like she was special, and it wasn’t like how she had been when Tanju picked her out to be this perfect weapon; it felt better than that. Tanju had done it because of what she could do—because of what she was—but Sasori was saying it because of something different. It wasn’t clear to Mikansei what it really was, but she knew it was something good.
Sasori couldn’t really comprehend the fact that he was actually getting a chance to get closer to her. He had thought he would have to try and extend a hand of friendship towards her; do so slowly in order to make sure she didn’t close up like she had done before. But now she was saying she wanted to know more about him; she wanted to reciprocate the curiosity, and the idea that there would be similar feelings in both of them seemed a strange fact to Sasori. Abruptly he was filled with a weird sense of hope and optimistic anticipation at the image of spending so much time with Mikansei—and time that would be between the both of them alone—with no hint of another person like Itachi or Deidara. She was all that he could concentrate on, and whatever the others might think if they came down the corridor now, he didn’t care.
All that mattered was Mikansei.
A thought that ran through his head once again as she suddenly jerked slightly, blinking in surprise and confusion at what was going on with her body. She realised that the pain in her arms had faded completely, and smirked once again at that fact, shaking it off to turn her attention once again to Sasori, no longer having to worry about changing her bandages. But within seconds of thinking that, she had dropped to her knees, clenching her fists in pain, and a moment later she was out completely, collapsed in Sasori's doorway.
Widening his eyes in shock, he bent down to see if she was alright, calling her name gently to see if she would wake up. Checking her pulse, he felt it was as normal as it could be, frowning in confusion as to why she had suddenly fainted. The battle hadn’t hurt her in the slightest; she was good enough as a ninja to not let that happen, not to mention Sasori himself wouldn’t have let her get hurt to begin with. Though it wasn’t until he began to check her entire body for injuries that he froze; finally seeing the true cause of her collapse.
The bandages wrapped around her arm; bandages that had started off white...were now turning red. Blood red. It took only a moment for all signs of white to disappear, leaving nothing but entirely blood-soaked bandages coating her arms. Gritting his teeth in concern, he scooped her up in his arms and took her inside his room. Apart from her arms, there appeared to be nothing wrong with Mikansei, and it wouldn’t be until he could find out any more about her situation that he would go and get one of the others to help.
Laying her down on his bed, he checked her pulse quickly once more, and finding no changes, he leaned down to her arms and began to unwrap the bandages. A strange sense of anxiety filled him as he did so, almost scared at what he would find beneath, only to feel a shiver run up his spine as the wounds were revealed to him. They weren’t simple injuries that had been inflicted with a weapon such as a kunai or senbon needle. It was almost attacking her arms from the inside out, peeling away the skin and disintegrating the muscle tissue within. It wasn’t normal, that was for sure, and closing his eyes with a frown, Sasori shook his head. He should have known that something was really wrong. He should have tried to help more.
He’d known something was hurting Mikansei from the beginning; but no, he just pushed it aside and let it go on. She had had those injuries to begin with, continually kept rubbing her arms subtly afterwards; trying not to make it look obvious. Sasori had noted all these things, but had thought she would say something with time. But he doubted even she herself had known that she would have collapsed. There had been confusion on her face as well when she first jerked—though she certainly knew more than he did about her injuries.
But Mikansei wasn’t keeping it from him any longer.
Not if it meant she’d get hurt.
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