Reality Check: A Deidara Love Story

Chapter 22: Time

"No..." Deidara gasped, his eyes widening as he snatched Rai's hand up again, placing her bloody palm back on his cheek. "No, Rai, you can't close your eyes! No, Rai! RAI!" Horror dawned on him as her hand slipped out of his again, falling back to the floor next to his crumpled heap.

"RAIII!"

He continued to scream her name, his sobs breaking his cries, tears falling and washing away the liquid from Rai's face. "You can't... leave! You can't die... on me! No! Rai... Rai, oh, Rai..."

Leaning down, Deidara touched his forehead onto hers and let his large tears roll off his long lashes, falling right onto his lover's closed eyes. His hands held her cold cheeks tightly, desperately grasping for any warmth that would be left.

"I promised you that we'd... that we'd be together," he weeped, his heart in fragments. "I promised that I'd be by your side, yeah. But I can't seem to... keep my... promises... Rai, please, wake up! I love you, Rai, I love you so much! Please don't leave me...!"

Though no matter how much Deidara called out Rai's name, she would not answer, and she would not open her eyes. They stayed closed, and much to his despair, he realized that he would never again see her smile.

Her wonderful, beautiful, cheerful smile that would always bring one to grace his lips also - but now it was lost in a sea of regret. Despite any bad times she'd go through, she'd always try and force on a smile. When she couldn't, she would try and bring one to others.

...Wasn't that what she'd been doing all along?

Then... why wasn't Deidara smiling?

"Dammit!" Konan swore, wiping her slicked hands on her shirt. "Where the hell did Kisame go with Hidan?!"

"I'm right here, I'm right here!" Hidan called from the door.

"I am too," Kakuzu said, stalking inside with the Jashinist. "How's her condition?"

"She's fallen unconscious. Now get over here, the both of you!"

"Unconscious...?!" Hidan ran over and cowered over Rai's side, peering over the girl with worried eyes. "Oi! Oi, bitch! You can't be dead, can you?! Wake the hell up!"

"Get away!" Deidara snarled, lifting his heavy head. His cheeks were stained with griefstricken tears, but the look in his eyes were ferocious and livid. "All you've ever done is hurt her, un!"

"Deidara, you're the one who needs to step away," Konan growled. "The people I need right now are Hidan and Kakuzu. You'll only get in the way."

"Rai is my girlfriend! There's no way in hell I'll step away, yeah!"

Konan's orange eyes flashed dangerously as she whipped them over to the blonde and glared at him. Only then he realized that she, too, had been fighting back tears the entire time she'd been trying to stunt Rai's bleeding - and only then did one escape. She furiously wiped it away with the back of her hand and only created a streak of blood on her face, but her voice dripped with venom nonetheless.

"If you want her to live, then move!" she ordered, and Deidara did, stumbling backwards on his bottom. His lips pulled taut with anger as he forced himself to not latch back onto Rai's body and he watched Konan work with the other two Akatsuki members, her whispering fast and intricate instructions to them.

Deidara continued to inch backwards until he had bumped into something, flopping backwards onto his back. He groaned in frustration and sat up again, wiping away the wetness from his cheeks.

"Oi - what the hell?!"

As he twisted to glance at what he had bumped into, he realized that it was the body of a man - and there was another laying right next to it. "Fucking - !"