Bursting Red

His hands wrapped around my own and from the back of my palm I could feel the gentle lapping of an eager tongue. “Here.” Bringing my hands up he used his fingers to unfold my fist and he placed my open palms over my wide eyes. “Don’t look until I say it’s okay, understood, hm?”

I nodded in a weak response. Even behind my hands my eyes stayed open and when the wind blew it chilled the saliva smear that ran across my knuckles, I focused on the wet spot and tried to block out the loud and desperate sound of explosives. One, two, even a third sounded off and I wondered what the wreckage below us looked like. I wanted to peek but knew I would regret it as soon as I gave in. In front of me Deidara let out a loud bark of a laugh in which followed shortly another violent bang. It was always all or nothing with him. A slight brush against my neck and automatically, I moved my hand to grasp onto the rare crystal in fear it would slip off of the thin chain. Deidara-kun had gone out of his way and snuck out during my last mid-day nap, when he returned he held in his hand a small box and proudly slipped it between my folded arms. He couldn’t wait so he woke me up. Inside was a small round crystal looped onto a fine silver chain, he said he chose it because it was the same bright hue as my eyes and with it he knew it could prove to be a token of his admiration towards me.

To be honest, I cherished it more than anything I had ever been so fond of.

“Deidara-kun, he’s-he’s burning!” The blonde boy turned towards me hastily, narrow eyes and parted lips. The man staggering less than sixteen feet below us was racing around in jagged skits, his arm completely consumed by flames and his face a mask of absolute terror. He was dying slowly, every nerve shaking with response to the burning flame that hugged his body. “Do something!” My shouts were lost in the sound of the building collapsing.

“I thought I told you not to look! This is the exact reason why, Nezumi, you stupid girl.” He spat out angrily at me. “I’m never going to hear the end of this, hm.” He turned himself back around and forced the bird like creature we were seated on even higher into the somber sky. My heart ached and I forced my hand around the jewel to tighten, he didn’t mean it. The wind rushed down against me and we spiraled higher and higher until we were lost in the dense fog that was a cluster of clouds. Funny how much better I was able to breathe when I wasn’t surrounded by heavy ash and burning debris. I fell backwards onto the back of the bird and closed my eyes.

He said nothing but I knew he heard me crying.

We were barely brushing the sky now, slowly floating through the clouds like a paper boat on a settled lake. I opened my eyes to cyan skies and absolute white fields. It was breathtakingly beautiful and yet I couldn’t focus on anything but the terrors I had witnessed. I should have listened to him. Slowly I moved my eyes over to where Deidara was sitting, his shoulders were jerking and he was muttering what I could only imagine were slanderous words intended for me. I was endlessly frustrating him with my reactions to his ‘art.’ A poor excuse for murder, but I would never say it. I propped myself up on my elbows and saw he was binding his hands as quickly as he could manage. When a pink tongue slipped through the folds in the bandage and looped the cloth down to his wrist he growled and angrily threw the gauze off into the air. It floated gently out of sight.

“What frightens you more? The death and destruction or me, hm?” He stared straight ahead so I couldn’t see the look on his face, I would have been a lot easier to answer if I could have.

“It’s not you Deidara-kun, it could never be you. It’s…it’s the things you do that scare me. But not you.” I sounded unsure even to myself. He turned his head partially so I could see his downcast eye and deep frown.

“Of course not, hm. You said you loved me right?” I perked up, off my elbows and crossed my hands in my lap. My heart jumped, would he say it?

“Y-yes.”

“Then I see no problems here. Nezumi-kun, don’t leave me. Please.” He turned back away from me and all I could do was stare into the endless sea of empty sky.

“Never.”

Sometimes, when we were drifting in the sky so softly, I just wanted to fall back and roll right off of the tail of this bird. Falling back through cotton ball clouds like I could fly on my own. Without wings like some kind of miracle…until I met my sudden end. I glanced over my shoulder and was thrilled when I saw I couldn’t quite see the ground. But when his hand wrapped around mine I was pulled back out of my noir thoughts and I managed a tight smile.

His palm dripped saliva onto my palm and I had to clench my teeth to stop the bile from rising. Without another word we dipped in the sky and flew towards our next destination.

----------

“Are you not sleeping tonight?” I asked from the bed. It was huge compared to my small frame and I desperately wanted him close to fill the space.

“Not tonight, un. I’ve got too much to think about.” He said from his seat in the window. Another hotel, another view. It was all really the same, what else could he be looking at?

“Do you…want to talk about it?” Sweetly, he inclined his head towards me and smiled.

“I wouldn’t want to burden you more than I must. Go to bed, hm. You need it.” I was tempted to push farther but decided he was being nice enough to say no politely, so I dropped it with a nod. Against the pillow I watched him stare out the window, one foot was dangling off the edge of the window seat and every now and then it tapped the wall lightly. Before I fell asleep I caught him humming that same lullaby he sometimes did when he thought I was sleeping. It made my dreams sweet and sound.

I woke up to find the room empty. There was a note on the bedside and from where I was I could see his neat script written in red ink.

Don’t make too much noise, someone is looking for us.
Meet me five miles north of the town bridge in an hour,
I need to take care of some things before we leave.
Don’t speak to anyone, be safe.

Looking for us? Or him? I crumpled the note in my fist and buried my face deep in the pillow. I wasn’t surprised to find out someone had caught up with us, we weren’t exactly trying to be sly about it. Rolling out of bed I stole a quick shower and pushed what little things Deidara and I owned into my over the shoulder bag. Looking around I was pleased with myself to find I had erased all evidence we had that linked us back to this hotel. I even went so far as to gather up the loose amount of clay he had lying around and flush it down the toilet. Now I was faced with a different problem, I realized as I stood outside the hotel looking around, I didn’t know where the town bridge was. Not to mention, Deidara said I shouldn’t speak to anyone. So there went asking for any kind of directions. A slight breeze roamed the streets, lifting my light yellow sun dress up around the bottom of my undergarments and no matter how hard I tried to push it back down it kept drifting upwards. My white shoes were dusted with the red colored dirt that covered the streets and one of my navy blue knee highs were slipping to pool around my ankle, I wanted out of this village soon. The people in this village liked to stare and it made me nervous to think that any one of them could be the ones after Deidara and I.

“Excuse me ma’am, have you seen my son!?” I turned to come face to face with a rather distressed looking woman. Her hair was a mousy brown and cropped short and her eyes would have been a pretty startling blue if they weren’t bloodshot from crying.

“No, I haven’t seen any children as of today. Gomen nasai.” I went to turn away but the woman gripped my arm roughly, pulling my face a mere inch from hers. “Uh, ma’am please!”

“Where is my son!? I need my boy back!” Her nails dug deep in my arm and I squirmed away with wide eyes. This village was something strange and frightening. I shook myself loose and ended up with four red claw marks running down my arm. The woman clawed at her own face, screaming at me and reaching out before me. Her son’s name was Kitio and he was only three, she told me through her many sobs. I stumbled backwards and for some reason I couldn’t drag my eyes away from her. Her faced turned into one of absolute terror and she pointed an accusing finger behind me. “It was you! You took my boy didn’t you?!” Before I could turn around my back hit a very sturdy surface and a pair of strong arms wrapped around my fragile frame to keep me from falling.

“Me? No ma’am, it wasn’t me who took your boy. Zetsu must have eaten without us.” A deep voice said with a slight hint of amusement. The arms tightened and I craned my head to catch a glimpse of a red and black cloak emblazoned with clouds. “If you don’t watch where you’re going girl you’ll end up in the jaws of something truly out to get you.” I was released, or really shoved forward to my knees. When I looked up I was met with two towering men and a shorter, wider man. All wearing the same cloak. The one who had spoken grinned down at me from under his straw hat and I shuddered back to rest on my hands. He skin was a bluish tint and he held a large, bandaged sword attached to his back. His headband was of a village I didn’t know, but I couldn’t really see the entire plate. I did notice however, it had a very deep gouge cut through the emblem. These men couldn’t be good shinobi.

“Kisame, this girl is not worth our time. Keep moving.” My eyes shifted and immediately I looked away. The man who spoke had black hair and startling red eyes that looked more fitting for a demon than a man. If he even was. Deep lines ran down from his eyes, as if he hadn’t slept in a good while, although it didn‘t detract from his hard yet attractive face. The third didn’t speak but instead peered down at me maliciously. I couldn’t move. The man named Kisame laughed and took a step forward in sync with the scarlet eyed man, followed shortly by the quiet one. They stepped around me and past the sobbing woman, ignoring the chaos around them.

“This village is better off dead anyway. What a waste.” I heard the short one say as they stepped farther and farther away. Deidara, he was waiting by now. I stumbled upwards and grabbed my bag to take off running in what I hoped was the direction where the bridge was. It took several minutes but when I padded across the bridge I was out of breath and faced with a very bored looking shinobi.

“Hm, even when we are in potential danger you still can’t follow simple rules.” He cast a sideways glance at me and smirked. It was hard to tell when he was being plain mean or just being Deidara.

“I’m-I’m sorry. I ran into some shinobi…” His head snapped towards me and my shoulders were suddenly in his grip.

“What shinobi? What were they wearing, hm?” His eyes were urgent and his blonde hair slithered in the wind. Under his earthy scent I could smell a hint of copper blood.

“Cloaks, red and black I believe. Why? Who are they!?” My voice was getting higher and the panic was setting in. Maybe we were worse off than I came to believe.

“Fuck, I knew we should have left yesterday, hm. I don’t know who they are,” he grabbed my hand and took off running, I was falling short behind since my breath was already nearly out. “But they’re looking for me. I don’t know if they want to kill me, hire me, or what but I know they’re no good. Hm, we need to run faster onna.” His free hand moved and when he opened it a stark white bird flitted around. He threw it, muttered a few words and when the smoke cleared stood our getaway. I scrambled on awkwardly, as where Deidara jumped on and stood like he was standing on solid ground. I was convinced I would never get used to this. Never changing, always running. It was moments like these that I missed home and wondered what my family was doing. If they even cared to remember me. “Nezumi-kun, everything is fine, un. I promised didn’t I?” I nodded. Even thought I knew it was impossible to keep every promise ever made. “In the mean time, our next stop is two days from here. We’ve got another assignment waiting. Have you ever heard of the village of prayer, hm?”

I suddenly felt nauseous. Wrapping my hand firmly around the crystal necklace I reminded myself this wasn’t really him. That Kinjutsu must have played with his mind. It altered his hands, was it that hard to imagine it altering his mentality and stability? Hardly. “No, I haven’t.”

“Me neither. Hm, guess that’s a good thing right?”

“If you say so, Deidara-kun.” Casting my eyes below me I realized how far up we really were. Like an angel without wings…what I wouldn’t give to free fall it all away sometimes.