Kakuzu sat in the kitchen drinking coffee. He had just finished reading the economy pages from the morning's newspaper and now he was waiting for Hidan to finish with his rituals. He didn't think anyone else would be awake since Kisame and Itachi, who were usually awake before noon, were on a mission to gather information about the wind monster. However, he was proven wrong when Deidara came in.

"Morning Kakuzu, un..." he mumbled. "...morning", the miser briefly answered. He had thought Deidara would be someone to sleep until the afternoon, unless woken up. The blonde looked like a sleepwalker as he went to pour himself some coffee.

Kakuzu shook his head. He never wanted to waste time in sleeping any more than necessary, but Hidan had managed to increase his need of sleep. He didn't complain, though...

Deidara sat to the opposite side of the table and banged his head to the wooden surface, without bothering to lift it back up. For a moment, Kakuzu thought he had fallen asleep, but then he groaned quietly.

"What's wrong with you?" the miser finally asked. Deidara still kept his forehead pressed to the table when he answered:
"I'm having the worst headache in my whole life so far and I'm tired, yeah." "Going to sleep would help you with that, you know", Kakuzu said.

"Really, why didn't I think of that?" Deidara asked, voice thick with sarcasm. "Oh, yeah. Because my annoying excuse of a partner is having nightmares, un!" Kakuzu snorted. "Just throw him out. Since when it has been a problem." "Since he became too pathetic to be thrown out, un", Deidara mumbled.

Kakuzu was about to say something when his very bloody partner stepped in to the kitchen. "Oh, fuck, that felt good", Hidan said and smiled widely. Deidara looked up to give him a glance, but looked away pretty quickly.

"Just blow yourself up, un", he said. "It'd be an artistic sacrifice for once." Hidan frowned. "You don't know a fucking thing about the art of sacrificing to Jashin-sama, so I could say you don't know a fucking thing about art."

Deidara almost choked on his coffee. "Your blood and guts are not art! Art is a blast, un", he announced after coughing the liquor out of his lungs.

"Naw, blondie", Hidan laughed. "This fight was yours and the puppet-boy's, it's not going to start again between us, once it's finally over." Deidara snorted, but didn't continue arguing. The comment about how Hidan saw something positive in Sasori's death stung, but he knew the zealot hadn't meant it like that.

Hidan turned towards Kakuzu and smirked at him. "You appreciate my art, don't you?" Kakuzu narrowed his eyes at his partner and flatly said: I'd appreciate you cleaning up after your sacrifices. There's blood everywhere." Hidan's smirk widened as he walked closer and eventually sat to Kakuzu's lap, so that they were facing each other. Kakuzu just looked at him, not stopping him, but not encouraging either.

"But 'Kuzu... I know you like it when I'm bloody", Hidan said suggestively. That's all Deidara heard. Which he was incredibly grateful about, though their body language told him a lot more he wanted to know. Hidan kept whispering into the miser's ear.

Suddenly Kakuzu gripped the zealot's shoulders non too gently and crushed their lips together. Their tongues fought for dominance, neither winning or losing, until their passionate moment was interrupted by Deidara, who cleared his throat rather loudly. They pulled away from each other reluctantly to glare at the blonde.

"Your room is that way, yeah", he said and pointed towards the hallway. Hidan was panting slightly as he turned back to his lover. "I'll be there", he said and left the room. Kakuzu looked after him for a moment, slurped down the rest of his coffee and followed without saying a word to Deidara.

The blonde sighed and slumped back to his previous position with his forehead against the table. Now he definitely wouldn't get any sleep. His and Tobi's room happened to be right next to the 'zombie brothers''. And Hidan was a really noisy uke.

"Deidara-sempai?"

Deidara groaned again. "What do you want, Tobi, un?" he asked. Tobi stood at the doorway, not knowing what to do. "I'm sorry", he finally said. "That sempai didn't get to sleep."

Deidara lifted his head to stare forward for a few seconds, before looking at Tobi. "You say that often nowadays, yeah. That you're sorry", he noted. Tobi nodded and sat next to the bomber. "Sempai hasn't been himself after Sasori's death", he said carefully. Deidara opened his mouth to snap at him, but instead let out a deep breath. Yelling at Tobi wouldn't help...

"We were close, yeah", he ended up saying. "Of course I haven't been myself." Tobi hung his head. "Sorry, sempai..." Now Deidara snorted. "Stop saying that already! It's not your fault, un", he said a little louder than he had meant to. Tobi flinched slightly. "I'm so..." he begun but froze in the middle of the word.

Suddenly he stood up and said: "Tobi wants to... Swim." Then he just walked out of the room, leaving Deidara to stare after him. Soon the masked ninja came back, just to the doorway. "Are you coming, sempai?" he asked. The bomber had no idea why he agreed to go swimming, but in a moment he noticed himself doing so. "Yeah."

......... ......... .........

Kakuzu was panting heavily and shaking. He looked down at Hidan, and if he hadn't been so tired, he would've grown hard again. His partner was even bloodier than before and sweaty, panting and shivering. And he looked unbelievably sexy like that. Kakuzu's arms were supporting him above the Jashinist, but he feared they wouldn't hold any longer, so he let himself fall next to him and wiped some blood from the corner of his wounded zealot's mouth with his thumb.

"Hidan..." he murmured. Hidan turned his face towards him and sighed. "Seriously, I'm so not fucking walking straight in a week!" he announced. Kakuzu chuckled. "Since when has it bothered you", he noted. "Never", Hidan admitted with a smirk. He pulled the miser closer and gave him a gentle kiss.

It was the first gentle thing between them in last hour's time, but that was how they both liked it. The nuzzling time was afterwards.

And there Kakuzu was again, needing to waste time in sleeping even though he had woken up just few hours ago. Though he didn't see it as such a bad thing anymore, when he got to sleep next to his lover. But of course, he wouldn’t admit it, not to anyone. They weren't hiding, obviously, but no one else but Hidan knew how soft exactly he had gotten towards the zealot, and vice versa. It was their secret.

......... ......... .........

"Tobi..." Deidara said with a frown. "What do you dream about, hm?" Tobi gave him a confused look and tilted his head. "What do you mean, sempai?" he asked. "I mean, when you have nightmares, yeah. What are they about?" Deidara clarified. "Umm... Do you really want to know?" Tobi asked in somewhat unsure tone.

Deidara's frown deepened. "What's happened to you, Tobi?" he asked. "Usually you are telling everything without a question and whining about your stupid nightmares, un." Tobi shrugged. "I don't want you to hate me, Deidara-sempai. I don't want to bother you", he said very uncharacteristically.

Deidara was speechless. He didn't expect such words from Tobi and certainly not in that tone. He wouldn't have admitted it to Hidan, for example, but he was a little worried.

"Tobi, I don't hate you. Yeah, sure you're an annoying idiot, but just be yourself", he said. "You make me feel guilty, un." He could've sworn Tobi was frowning at him. "But why would you feel guilty?" he asked. Deidara sighed. He had no idea what to say to that.

There was a long silence between them. Then Deidara said: "I feel guilty if you try to be someone else than who you really are, just to please me, do you get it un?" Tobi blinked. "Yeah, but... Sempai, I really like you", he admitted shyly. That comment caught Deidara completely off guard. Now he definitely didn't know what to say. Or actually he did know.

"The truth it...and if you say a word about this to anyone, or you're dead... I like you, too, yeah." It hurt to admit it, he hadn't lied when he said that he and Sasori were close, but his Danna was dead now. Tobi was very much alive, especially now.

"Really..? Sempai, I... Sempai likes me too!" he shouted in awe and shot up. Deidara also stood up and slammed his palm on Tobi's mask. "Shut up, un!" he hissed and blushed. "Are you brain-dead? Don't yell like that!"

"Do we have a secret now?" Tobi asked still happily, but more quietly. Deidara had to relent and smile. "Secret, yeah." Tobi also smiled under his mask and stroked at the blonde's hair gently. "If that's how you want", he said, in lower and more serious voice. "My Deidara." Deidara blushed even more, but leaned towards Tobi's touch almost unconsciously.

The black haired man was half a mystery to him. He knew there was something more to Tobi than what he showed, and there were moments like this one, when Deidara felt it clearly. He had just admitted himself, that he loved those both sides of his new partner.