Red Velvet & Cotton Candy

We're Already Late

Chapter 1

Deidara was uncomfortably laying on the wooden floor, trying to sculpt the legs of his angel masterpiece with his bare hands. His position looked awkward especially with his dirtied limbs, and messy hair with clay everywhere.

Deidara's shirt was formerly white, but now, had a mess of different colors around it and a piece of clay in every corner. The clay spots were due to him unconsciously wiping his hands on his shirt every time he was distracted when forming sculptures. His jeans, on the other hand, looked fairly clean and new. He didn't really mind his messy shirt anymore; he was already used to its usual messy appearance. He took a quick look at his partner/best friend.

The duo were in their art studio cautiously trying to finalize their art commissions for the grand opening of a new art gallery. They have been working all night, and are currently running on adrenaline. It felt kind of like a runner's high, but for an artist. An artist's high, Deidara would call it. For Sasori running on artist's high was no big deal, he was fairly used to the intense feeling of sudden energy and then a sudden feeling of fatigue afterwards, but Deidara, on the other hand, "Eh, Danna, yeah!" The blond idiot whined. He stumbled backwards, almost kicking his sculpture in the process.

Sasori glared at the blond laying on the wooden floor. He was sitting on his stool with a paint brush at hand. He was silently adding details to his almost completed painting for the exhibit. He, too, was wearing a completely indistinguishable colored shirt with different colors of paint shattered around it. But the messy shirt he was wearing did little to faze him at all, those shirts were usually worn for art purposes anyway.

"I told you that we have to finish these commissions by next week." The impatient redhead said in return. Hoping that the conversation was over, Sasori continued to paint his almost finished masterpiece. His other commissions—such as the life size puppets of two lovers that were sitting side by side by the corner—were completely finished and ready to be submitted.

"But it's just a quick trip to Aroma!" The blonde replied. Aroma is known to be the best coffee shop in their area of Tokyo, and the nearest one to their home.

The redhead continued to talk, not once stopping to look at the idiot blond sprawled on the floor and opted to continue working on his art piece. "Why don't you just ask Maria to make you some coffee? Isn't that why we hired a maid in the first place?" Sasori eventually decided to look at his partner to glare at him. Deidara gave him a grin in return, but with him facing Sasori upside down, it looked a bit lopsided.

Maria was a former chambermaid that the Akatsuki met during their annual—pretty much monthly—vacations out of the country. They met her in Portugal. The group grew quite fond of the little brunette, and offered her a job as their personal maid in Japan since they were currently searching for a new one in the first place—all thanks to Hidan. She was reluctant to take the job at first due to the large sum of money they offered her. Also, they were a pretty weird group of friends. What kind of jobs do these people do to get that much annual income to pay a personal maid that much in the first place? But she agreed nonetheless. It was still a high paying job either way, and they didn't seem like the type to do bodily harm to anyone.

Sasori was quickly becoming impatient with the blond. First, they had to finish their commissions two weeks before the Sanin Art Gallery opens, and they were already a week late. Second, it was Deidara's fault why they were late in the first place, dragging him to that blasted amusement park. And mark his words that amusement park will rue the day it opened, especially after what those brats did to his favorite shirt. And now, he wants to waste more time by going to a coffee shop and takeout coffee that can be made here by someone who's job it is to cater to the Akatsuki!