A Thousand Mornings [Deidara Love Story]

XI - The Past

“You’re acting as though I was the last person you’d expect to see here, un.” Dei-Dei said, stepping into the darkness of the abandoned building I was in. Realizing that I was staring at him, I closed my mouth quickly so I wasn’t gaping so plainly at him -  he could see me now that the lunar light was flooding in through the door. Standing up quickly, I wiped off my eyes with the heel of my hand; he probably already heard my pathetic breakdown, I didn’t want him to also see my tears.

“I-it’s not that... it’s just, I wasn’t expecting anyone to come here. Least of all someone from the Akatsuki...,” I explained myself, quickly grasping a passive look to mask myself with.

 “Leader-sama would probably get angry with me for coming here, wouldn’t he?” Dei-Dei said with a smirk growing on his face. I was surprised - he was acting a lot different than he did at the Akatsuki base; he was acting more like... how he did in my memories.

 “Why would he? You’re not doing anything out of line here... are you?” I wondered.

 Dei-Dei guiltily looked down at the rotting floorboards, “Actually, yes, I am. You probably didn’t notice as I hid my chakra even from Leader-sama himself, but I listened in on the conversation the two of you had in your room earlier, un.” I felt my eyebrows rise; the more he said, the more I kept getting surprised, “I knew that this mission he sent you on was much more than anything you’re used to, so I took it upon myself to make sure you completed it.”

 “You... followed me?” I repeated, astonished. He seemed shocked by my choice of words, but that was basically what he did, wasn’t it?

 “In a matter of speaking, I suppose I did, un...,” Dei-Dei admitted, scratching his cheek with what seemed like sudden embarrassment. I guessed I called him out when I said that - but I was merely speaking truth when I said that. He returned his hand to his side and continued explaining why he was here, “Anyway, I’ll only help you until after Daiki is dead; the least I’ll do for you after that is give you directions as to where the exchange point is.”

 I squinted one of my eyes at him, “Why are you helping me? Before when I followed you to the room the other day, you seemed to not care about me at all. What’s with the sudden change of mind, Dei-Dei?”

 “I told you to quit calling me that, un!” Dei-Dei snapped, causing me to jump back with a start. He seemed to catch himself and he sighed, putting a hand to his forehead, “Though... the way I treated you was a bit unfair of me, I have to admit. It’s clear to me that you must have mistaken me for someone else and probably heard the nickname that... she gave me, un.” My heart seemed to fall back into the pit of depression that Dei-Dei already pushed me down into. I was very confused with the way he was acting... I didn’t care right now if he didn’t believe me when I said I was his friend from long ago - all I cared about was why he was deciding to give me aid when he was clearly so horrid to me before? Well, I suppose he also showed kindness when Hidan was about to slap me yesterday... but no matter how long and hard I thought about it, I had no other choice but to wait until he finished what he was going to say. I would figure out his patterns later.

 Yet our conversation was cut off short when there was a noise coming from underneath the floorboards of the abandoned building. Dei-Dei skirted over toward me, signaling me to keep quiet as we snuck into the shadows of the abandoned building. One of the rotting floorboards was thrown open and somebody poked their head out from beneath it. He looked around for a bit and since my sight was cut off, giving a boost to my other senses, I could clearly hear perfectly well the distinct sound of a kunai clanking against another one. He probably heard us talking earlier and thought us as enemies - but we were clearly not here to start any fights.