Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, this scene would be canon and animated by now. Ah well. At least Shippuden’s starting this week. Close enough.

A/N: Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Maelstrom

VVVVVVVVVV

“Stay, Senpai…”

VVVVVVVVVV

The frigid, plump droplets of April rain plummeted against the stone walls and grimy windows.

Deidara, cocooned snuggly within the confines of his comforter, breathed slowly as one lone, smoky-blue eye stared into the endless torrent, his hair unbound and draped over his pillow. The pitter-patter of the downpour hummed against the glass, its lullaby silent yet wild, devoid of rhythm. The seconds, the minutes, the hours passed by in a sloth-like manner, slowly urging the blonde’s eye shut.

Just a little longer, just a little deeper…

“Senpai…”

…just keep ignoring him…

“Senpai…”

… just go to sleep already, you goddamn gnat…

A small fingertip nudged firmly against his shoulder blade.

“Sen-“

His eye opened in a flash, the creases of his brow furrowing into each other.

“This had better be worthwhile, you dumbass, un,” Deidara growled lowly.

“Um,” Tobi whispered sheepishly. “I can’t seem to sleep, Senpai.”

His eyes narrowed dangerously, fingers twitching hungrily for clay.

“Well, what a damn shame. You mind pestering Itachi for a spell or two? Because I’m sure he’d love to help, un.”

“Um, he’s leaving on a mission tomorrow, so I think he needs his proper rest right now.”

And apparently, Deidara didn’t. Some days, the explosives-expert rationalized that this kid possessed the common sense of a fly.

One that gained some sick satisfaction out of buzzing in his ear, no less.

In the middle of the night, on top of that.

And while he was trying to cope with a bout of mild insomnia, of course.

Someone’s internal systems were going out of commission tonight, in the messiest of manners.

“Tobi,” he hissed, “Go back to sleep before I do something... ventilating.”

“But the rain keeps me up. I can’t, Senpai.”

“Just do it, un. What the hell’s wrong with rain, anyhow?”

“It’s… I- you’re going to think I’m a coward for this…”

“You’re no stunt junkie, dumbass. Spit it out.”

“Well, um…” Tobi murmured as he twiddled with his thumbs. “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been antsy around thunder and lightning, and… it’s only worse when I’m trying to sleep.”

Deidara’s eye twitched for a moment.

“So… you’re barring me from my sleep because you’re a pussy around thunder?”

“More or less. I’m really sorry, Senpai, but… it frightens me.” His voice was shaky, hauntingly so, as he whispered to Deidara’s back.

There was silence on Deidara’s end for a long minute.

Hesitant, Tobi began to turn for his sheets until he heard the harsh rustling of linen beside him. Before he could say anything, a calloused hand clamped tightly around his wrist and towed him towards the door, their footfalls echoing softly in the halls while the blonde muttered curses between breaths.

“Stupid fucking kid, un… Can’t believe I’m doing this…”

“Deidara-senpai, what are-“

“There’s nothing wrong with rain, you retard, un,” Deidara replied as he slid the door into the courtyard open and yanked the young missing-nin out into icy rain.

Tobi instinctively yelped at the sudden exposure of his bare chest to the chill of the evening storm and clutched desperately onto the shoulder of the disgruntled man beside him.

“Knock it off, un. Just listen…” he ordered, his eyes turning wistful as he turned his face to the clouds.

As if on cue, a blindingly blue rod of lightening cracked the looming darkness, a drum roll of thunder following not soon after, which only made Tobi’s trembling whimpers jump up an octave or two. He opened his mouth to protest against another minute spent in the rain.

He looked at Deidara.

He was still, his face stern with concentration. His shoulders were drooped low, streaks of golden hair falling in rivulets over them. The set of his jaw was hard to decipher, floating somewhere between ardent observation and… and…

Wonderment.

Something struck within the core of Deidara whenever it rained, Tobi realized, something that made his otherwise stone heart convulse with life. Rain, to him, was the very cornerstone for his art. Within the curtain of water that poured from the heavens came some sort of collage of explosions, of booming and leaping to life. After weeks of drought and cruel, garish sunlight, the frail, half-wilted viscaria that stemmed among the long grass about them seemed to perk up, rejuvenated under the awaited shower, as drops splattered and danced –exploded- on the petals, on the leaves, in the puddles, on the mud, through his undone, unkempt hair, on his high, pale cheekbones, down his slender neck, over his cream-colored sternum and his uncovered pectorals…

Tobi breathed, his intake of air shuddering, his exhalation just the same.

There was a ceremony of combustion within Deidara, as well, far more captivating than the storm.

His grip on Tobi’s wrist had slackened, his calloused fingertips hovering slightly over his pulse, almost in a tender hold. A translucent frame of chilling liquid conformed –beautifully- to his nose and chin, softening his appearance, almost seeming a sculpture himself. His eyes were half-lidded, glazed over with something foreign, a miniscule spark –Oh God! That small flicker of emotion Tobi craved and ached to see from him!- glowing in his mountain-fog blue irises, waiting for the right moment to flare to life, as the damp clay squished under his bare feet.

The clay…

Without the rain, there was no clay.

Without the clay, there was no art.

Without the art, there was no Deidara.

Without Deidara… without Deidara…

Tobi closed his eyes, turned them to the side.

“It’s alright, Senpai. You don’t have to stay,” Tobi whispered into his shoulders. He could feel the muscles hidden in the smooth planes of his neck quake in response.

Deidara tilted his head downwards, eyes lingering on the smaller boy. “What, and leave you cowering here? You wouldn’t last out here for a seco-” he sneered sarcastically.

“The rain helps you sleep, doesn’t it?”

Deidara was silent.

“Un.”

Tobi was smiling.

“Like a lullaby, a song… something you could dance to if you felt like it.”

“Hmm. Call it what you want…”

“You… nevermind what I said. You don’t have to go.”

“Keh. So what do you want, chicken-shit? You want me to stay or go? I swear, you’re so anno-“

His words were cut short, forced back to whence they came as Tobi pulled down Deidara's face to his -maskless- one and his yearning, desperate, wet lips clamored over his own.

They were gone as soon as they came, reappearing over the crook of his neck.

Deidara gasped, partly out of surprise, partly out of revulsion… almost fully out of sudden want.

“Stay, Senpai…” Tobi sounded as though he was breathing the words out. His scarred fingers sought Deidara’s. “… and waltz with me.”

Lost within the explosion –the combustion, the outburst, the maelstrom, the tempest, the hellfire- of it all, scrambling for control against the infallible change of tides, he obeyed.

Steps and steps. Among the mud, within the rain, between ravenous kisses, amidst skin against skin, they stepped, a spin here, a stop there. Steps and steps and more steps. Steps that lead them and misguided them all at once, that took them around the viscarias and the lemongrass, ushered them back through the stone halls, threw them into a flurry of strewn sheets, of questing hands, of damp skin against damp skin, of stifled moans and ragged gasps of moist air.

The frigid, plump droplets of April rain continued plummeting against the stone walls and grimy windows.

VVVVVVVVVV

“…and waltz with me.”

VVVVVVVVVV

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Argh. I could do better. XP

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