Ten Out of Ten- Tenten AU

7.

  Tenten woke up for the first time in a long time, relaxed. Her limbs ached and some parts of her were still sore, but her body felt well rested. Her eyes opened to see Deidara facing her, his hand absentmindedly combing through her long brown hair, now unbound from their buns to fall down her back.

  Tenten couldn't resist a twitch of her lips as their eyes locked. "We should do this again sometime," Tenten said, moving closer to his chest as Deidara rolled his eyes.

  "I never pegged you down as someone who is this needy for sex, Tenten," Deidara muttered. Tenten only winked at him.

  "Don't tell me that you didn't enjoy it," Tenten murmured, running her fingers through his long, blond hair, "I thought you liked things that went out with a..."

  "Kami, don't you dare make that same pun again—"

  "—bang," Tenten finished, eyes glittering while she smirked.

  "Oh, you're going to get it—" Deidara growled before the scowl turned into a smirk as he lunged at her. Tenten yelped as she felt him pin her to the bed before he started tickling her sides. Tenten squirmed, laughing uncontrollably as she wheezed.

  "S...stop it....I'm tickl..ish—" she gasped between breaths but Deidara was utterly merciless, being the S rank shinobi that he was.

  "Do you give up, un?" He stopped for just a second.

  "Fine, damn it—" Tenten wheezed, "I give up."

   "Too bad, un—" Deidara replied as he began to tickle her again.

   Nearly a good twenty minutes passed by, ending with Tenten who looked drained and Deidara, who somehow ended up getting socked in the face multiple times.

  But eventually, they consented to lie down next to each other. Tenten rested her head against his shoulder while Deidara had his arm encircled around her waist. They just stayed like that, as Deidara stroked her head again while Tenten pressed herself against his warmth.

  After a while, Tenten spoke. "Do you have any plans for the future, Deidara?"

  Deidara knit his eyebrows. He had to admit, he never really thought about what he'd do. It was just that in the Akatsuki, things were run in a specific way and there was no room to think of the future when one could die tomorrow. "I don't know, un," he shrugged, "I guess maybe show off my art some more."

  Tenten snorted, "You're probably going to destroy everything in sight."

  "Oh yeah, then what about you?" Deidara challenged, "what's your plan for the future?"

  Tenten became quiet for a moment. She then sighed, "When I was five, I had this one dream: to show that a woman was just as strong as a man. So I trained my hardest and poured all of my blood and sweat into my training. I'm not sure what I've accomplished so far, but I ended up killing a bunch of people and becoming a part of the Akatsuki. Now...I guess I don't know what I want to do—at this point, it's kind of exhausting to just live."

  "I know what you mean, un," Deidara replied, staring up at the ceiling, "it's like you're on a path that you can't go off of, right?"

  Tenten nodded, staring up at the ceiling with him.

  "Well—" Deidara cleared his throat uncomfortably, "I guess...maybe one day, we can...uh...uh....maybe get..."

   "Married?" Tenten finished for him.

   Deidara closed his mouth, cheeks brightening. "Yeah, un."

   Tenten remained quiet. Both of them knew how impossible it was, but for once, perhaps they both wanted to dream of such foolish things. If they got married, if they started a family within such a bloodthirsty organization, what good would it do? Their children would be convicted just because of their relation to their parents and they would spend the rest of their lives running. Both Deidara and Tenten knew what a horrible feeling it was. Being robbed of a sense of belonging, to be persecuted and have people want nothing more than to have you dead. The people who didn't want you dead only wanted you to further their own purposes, treated you less than human beings.