"How could this work?" Pein is saying, face expressionless. He sits at the head of the dining table, stern gaze fixed upon all of his members. He may not know it, but I can see his hands curled into tight fists under the table. Stress seems to emanate off of him in large, dangerous waves.
I feel like I've stepped out in front of a train-and lived.
Deidara rubs my arm absently, gaze glued to the freshly shinned table. I sit in his lap, curled into a ball of self-pity, with my cheek smushed into his chest. Tobi sits beside us, fiddling with his fingers. I'm getting some sort of strange vibe from him, but I can't make out the meaning of it yet. He and Pein keep sharing indiscreet looks, so I assume it's some sort of communication. Danna, strangely enough, refused to even come to the table. When Pein called the meeting and announced the problem, my favorite ginger stood, said something along the lines of, "This is ridiculous", and promptly left the room.
I think I can hear him tinkering with his puppets upstairs, but I'm not sure.
Itachi sits next to Deidara and I, almost sandwiched between his brother and my boyfriend. There's an almost nonexistent grim set to the corners of his mouth. Sasuke seems to share the same expression, only his brows are puckered.
Hidan has a very large, very angry scowl etched into his features. "You're seriously going to decide that we have to go back now? After I've just had a fucking kid? You're fucking joking, right?"
Konan ducks her head. "There are factors we are trying to consider. You being a father is one of them." Her voice is soft, barely above a whisper.
"I'm sorry," Kisame starts, shaking his head, lips pressed into a firm line, "But I am not leaving Alice."
"Same here, un." Deidara's arms tighten around my torso. "I'm not leaving Lex."
I don't say anything.
Kakuzu lets out a grunt. He sits across from us, looking fairly bored and irritated. Kakashi sits beside him and Tsunade sits beside Kakashi. Both look over at him, a look of unease twisted upon their features.
"Why don't we just take them with us?" The miser quirks a brow.
I sigh. This is where I step in and complicate things. "Because Tj and Danny are still in high school. They can't legally take care of themselves and if Alice or I were to leave, they'd be put into foster care-which is absolutely ridiculous being that we have millions set aside just for them so they could totally live on their own."
"And we aren't sure that if we were to come up with something to take at least Tsunade back to our world that it wouldn't affect us." Konan adds grimly. "For all we know, we could all get sucked in and something could happen so that we lose our memory-" More and more hysteria builds up in her voice.
Pein places a hand on her shoulder. Konan cuts off, mid sentence, and squares her shoulders. Her head dips, hair falling forward to hide her eyes. My lips tug into a frown. I'd never seen Konan so...emotional before.
Something crashes against the floor in the other room. We all stiffen, heads twisting towards the door, just in time to see Naruto shove his head in, a cheeky grin stretched across his lips. "That was nothing, don't worry, dattebayo."
Sasuke, Tsunade, and Kakashi all sigh softly, shooting the sheepish blonde a dirty look. Kakuzu twitches with annoyance. "That better not have been anything expensive."
"It wasn't, it wasn't~" Naruto sings as he disappears back into the family room.
"Tch," Kakuzu settles back into his chair. It's obvious the miser doesn't trust the foxy demon, but is willing to believe in his reassurance until Pein releases the rest of the Akatsuki, at least before going to investigate.
