Reality Check: A Deidara Love Story

Chapter 17: Shopping

~Third Person's P. O. V.~

Deidara opened the door of Rai's room to find her curled up in the corner, her face buried in her forearms settled on her knees. Her ponytail had fallen out, letting the umber strands hang all around her frame. He could hear no sobs, but from her quivering shoulders he could see she was frustrated.

"Rai?" he called gently, shutting the door with a small click behind him. "Are you alright, un?" No reply came, to which he sighed and trudged over. Silently, he took a seat beside her and nudged her shoulder with his.

"Hey," he tried again, "you can talk to me, yeah."

"Just go back and eat," Rai urged, her voice audibly shaky. Deidara shook his head and played with a piece of her hair, tucking it behind her ear.

"Not unless you come with."

"Eat without me. I'm not hungry anyways."

"...The food's already almost entirely gone. There's no point, un."

"Just go," she insisted, scooting away from the blonde without even one glance upwards. "Surely you guys would like to continue your battle, wouldn't you?"

"No," he protested. "Anyways, what's wrong? Tell me. I can help you, yeah." Rai finally lifted her face and looked at Deidara through long strands. Her eyes were rid of tears, though her eyebrows were furrowed, lips pulled back into a pout.

"Nothing's wrong," she claimed, forcing on a pained smile. "I promise you. Just leave me."

"Baka," he teased, moving her hair out of the way. "You're lying."

Her face fell, shoulders sinking. "It's not that important anyways..." She shook her head in disdain.

"I have all the time in the world to listen, yeah."

Giving him a wistful look, Rai shrugged. "I guess, it's just..." she brooded. "When I saw everyone enjoying their meal together so happily, I thought we were just like... you guys were just like family. Everyone had the most amazing smiles on their faces as they ate the food I cooked. The feeling was very uplifting."

"I don't see the problem, un?" Deidara asked.

"Well, when everyone started fighting, it was just like... my - my parents."

His eyebrows shot up. Her parents. She'd never really spoken about them in detail. "Your parents?"

"That's right. I love them both equally and so much; but they've fought so many times, a divorce paper was always on hand. I never had much... peace in my childhood. Now I never see them, but I guess I just wanted us all to be together. I wanted us to be happy together. So when I saw you guys fight, I didn't want..."

She laughed humorlessly. "Nevermind," she said. "Don't worry." Calmly she gave Deidara a warm smile and leaned on his shoulder.

"We can't be happy without you, yeah," he claimed. Inside him, suspicion was arising, though he smothered it.

Rai shrugged and leaned her cheek on her arm again. "No. I'll just stay here."

"You're squishing me, Kakuzu!" a voice suddenly cried out from in the hallway.

"No, you're just a fucking wimp," another scoffed.

"Shh!" many more chorused.

Many scuffles and grunts of struggling were heard to the point where Rai's bedroom door began shaking and trembling. After a few moments the door caved and in stumbled the Akatsuki.