Naruto Fan Fiction / Naruto Shippuden Fan Fiction ❯ Every Light on this Path is For You ❯ How to Fix an Uchiha ( Chapter 7 )

Disclaimer: The characters, items, places etc of Naruto are property of Masashi Kishimoto. These objects are used without permission for entertainment only, not for making money. No infringement is intended.

Chapter 7: How to Fix an Uchiha

Deidara waited worriedly on the foreign doorstep, hoping he had followed the right route. He had a pretty good memory but it had been a long time since he'd last visited the house in question, and he was beginning to have his doubts he was even in the right street.

The door opened and he sighed in relief, wondering how low he had sunk to be happy when Uchiha Sasuke's face greeted him.

"Sasuke," he spoke, putting a hand to his mouth in alarm as his voice cracked and unbidden tears flooded his eyes. He angrily blinked them away, annoyed they were even present, let alone in the presence of the younger Uchiha.

"You'd better come in," Sasuke told him, eyes narrowed in perceptive... concern? Deidara wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes.

"Itachi wants to throw me out," he blurted out quickly the moment Sasuke closed the door. "He thinks it's the best thing for us, yeah. He thinks he has to give me up because he can't give up the complex but he's stupid, he doesn't understand, he-"

"Whoa," Sasuke halted, holding a hand up to him. "Stop. I get the picture, but I'm not sure what you want me to do about it."

"I need to talk to your father, yeah."

"Why?"

"I need him to tell Itachi he doesn't have to be perfect!" Deidara explained desperately, eyes frantic as he silently begged Sasuke to help him. "I'd have called from home but Itachi told me to leave, so I did. I told him I'd come back in one hour and we'd talk again about it."

"I can't guarantee Dad's going to say that," Sasuke replied, looking a little awkward. "He likes his perfect little son."

"Itachi explained how things were with you guys as kids," Deidara told him quietly. "I'm sorry, yeah. That must have been horrible."

Sasuke shrugged indifferently. "I don't really care," he replied honestly. "I wouldn't recommend calling him right now, by the way- he's pissed off about my suspension."

"What about Itachi's?"

"I didn't tell him," Sasuke murmured. "The college didn't because he's older and I wasn't going to get him in trouble with Mum and Dad- that wouldn't be fair given the circumstances."

"If I go back in an hour without something useful to back me up, he's going to throw me out," Deidara replied in despair.

"I'll come with you. I can be the 'something useful'."

Deidara eyed him suspiciously. Sasuke wouldn't meet his eye, his cheeks flushed a little pink with the words.

"You'll help me?" Deidara asked, wanting some clarification- mostly to make Sasuke squirm, of course, but partly because he could barely believe his ears. "You'll convince him not to do it?"

"I'll tell him he's a moron," Sasuke remarked. "That's all I can offer. I can't change his mind if it's set. Come on- we can walk together."

Once they were walking briskly back towards Itachi's, Deidara finally gathered the courage to ask the question that had been on the tip of his tongue since they had left.

"Do you really hate me or is it all for show?"

"I despise you," Sasuke intoned casually.

"Can you tell me without the snarky comments, yeah?"

"No, I don't hate you," Sasuke remarked after a moment, glancing across to Deidara. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to be your best friend any time soon."

"That's good, yeah. I was worried we might have to start being civil with each other."

"Never in a million years, Blondie."

Deidara smirked at that, keeping silent until they arrived back at his and Itachi's place. They had ten minutes to spare before Deidara's one hour deadline but Sasuke was apparently having none of that, snatching the key from him and opening the door regardless.

"Oi," he called as soon as he was inside. "Itachi!"

He received no response. Deidara indicated the direction of the bedroom, following Sasuke as he set off towards it and yanked the door open harshly to enter. Itachi was lying on the bed facing away, jumping as the door slammed open and spinning around to face them both.

"You are the biggest idiot I have ever met," Sasuke raved as he stalked to the bed, throwing himself down next to Itachi. "Honestly. I shouldn't be involved in all of this but unfortunately, you kicked your boyfriend out and apparently you guys have no other friends he could have visited or something. What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Straightening things out," Itachi replied, his voice small.

"Messing things up, Itachi! Deidara is willing to work with you, right? Who says any other person would do that for you if you found someone else?"

"I don't want anyone else!" Itachi snapped at him. "The point of doing this is because I can't be in a relationship like this!"

"I am so fed up with hearing about this fucking complex," Sasuke told him bluntly. "Stop shaping your life around perfect or imperfect or whatever- just enjoy yourself! You're young and you're in love- be sappy and stupid or whatever makes you both happy!"

"If I could do that, don't you think I would be?" Itachi attempted to argue, but his voice was tight and shaky so he didn't continue his sentence.

"You're thinking too much into it. Stop concentrating on it and it might just become easier to do."

His eyes fell on the shredded paper that was still littering the floor, reaching down to pick a couple of pieces up. It made no sense to him, so he turned to Itachi for an explanation.

"The exam. I failed it."

"Hallelujah," Sasuke praised flatly, throwing the paper up like confetti. "You're capable of being a normal person after all. Re-sit the exam and move on with your life."

"Dad's going to hate me," Itachi snapped at him, but there was no malice present in his tone.

He covered his face with his hands instead, shaking visibly and unable to continue what he was going to say. Sasuke's face softened and he moved quickly to embrace him when it became obvious Itachi's control on his composure was beginning to slip.

"He isn't," he said gently. "I promise you."

"He probably already hates me. He still hasn't called about-"

"About the relationship you're trying to end?" Sasuke filled in brusquely when Itachi cut himself off. "Good job, moron."

He said no more, keeping hold of his brother as he fell apart in the most controlled manner Sasuke had ever seen. He was shaking as though he should be sobbing, yet he wasn't. His eyes were glassy, but the tears didn't spill over.

He simply stayed in Sasuke's comforting arms, his breathing hampered slightly while he projected only mild discontent, yet he seemed more broken than Sasuke had ever seen.

Control, perfection, facades- the only things that weren't a complete lie in Uchiha Itachi's life were Deidara and himself.

It hadn't escaped his notice that Deidara had slipped from the room, even if Itachi seemed oblivious to it. He had a faint idea of what he was planning to do, despite Sasuke's earlier warning, and he had no intentions of letting Itachi hinder it.

Deidara was indeed in the living room, phone in his shaking hand as he flicked through the phone book for the Uchiha family number. He found it and summoned the courage to let is dial, managing to do so after a few moments and swallowing rapidly as it rang.

"Hello?"

Uchiha Fugaku himself. Deidara cursed inwardly- of all the ways to fix this, he had to come up with this one?

"Is anyone there?"

"Hi," Deidara spoke up. "I'm Deidara- did Itachi mention who I am?"

"Ah," Fugaku uttered. "His partner."

"That's me, yeah." He opened and closed his mouth a few times before finally sighing and gathering his nerve. "Look, I don't know how to say this so I'll just come out with it. If Itachi wasn't as perfect as he seems to be, would you still love him?"

The silence that followed the question was deafening, but Deidara thanked that he got an answer at all. He had been fully expecting to be hung up on.

"What kind of a question is that?"

"Please just humour me," Deidara near-begged. "You praise him when he's perfect, right?"

"Of course. I'm proud of my son."

"And you rewarded him for it as a child?"

"Yes. You'd better get to your point quickly, boy."

"When he wasn't perfect, what did you do?"

"I don't recall such an event happening in my memory," Fugaku replied sharply. "My son is intelligent and a fast learner. You have ten seconds to make your point before I hang up on you- you're testing my patience."

"Don't hang up!" Deidara pleased. "Please! This is really important, yeah. Itachi... He has this massive complex about being perfect. It started when he was a child because he felt you didn't acknowledge him-"

"Why hasn't he spoken to me himself?" Fugaku cut in. "What nonsense is this?"

Deidara opened his mouth to reply but found himself met with a dial tone, slamming the phone down in frustration and quite unsure why Itachi gave a damn about the opinion of such an asshole.

He calmed himself down, reminding himself that bonds between most children and their parents existed even if one or both parties tried to pretend that it didn't. He felt a pang of remorse for his own father, who was who-knew-where in the world now. He quashed the bitter, vengeful part of him that suggested that lying in a gutter somewhere would be a lovely start, knowing deep down a small part of him did still love him regardless.

Fugaku might be a jerk, but he at least cared in some way. Deidara exhaled, wanting nothing more than to get lost in his sketchbook, drawing until he had only a scrap of pencil left in an effort to get some of what he was feeling out of his mind. He reached for it on the table, the idea very tempting, but he stopped himself before clutching it.

Itachi needed him. Sasuke might have been holding the fort right then, but in reality the talking that had to be done needed to be between the two of them.

He wanted a hug. The feeling made him want to cry as he slipped back into the bedroom- all he wanted to do was curl up in the bed and just hug his stupid boyfriend while scratching out the word 'perfect' in every dictionary of the world.

Itachi was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking a lot calmer than he had been when Deidara had left. Sasuke had been talking quietly, his voice halting as Deidara re-entered.

"I'm going home," he murmured softly. "Stop sabotaging yourself you idiot. Call me later, right?"

He brushed past Deidara without a word, leaving the artist to give his partner a small, nervous wave. Itachi didn't respond so Deidara walked over, clambering into the bed and curling the covers around himself with a sad sigh.

"I don't want to talk," he uttered when he realised Itachi was looking at him. "Please. If you're going to make me leave I'm not going anywhere until we've just ignored the world for a while, yeah."

Itachi stared at him almost as though he hadn't registered the words but he eventually got under the covers as well, hesitantly wrapping his arms around Deidara and curling up against his back.

Deidara resisted the urge to both smile in delight and cry in anguish. The acceptance of his proposal meant one of two things- either Itachi genuinely wanted the embrace, or he was granting the last request before he made him leave. Right then, he simply basked in the contact, content for that moment that he didn't care to ask for the answer.

"Deidara?"

It seemed he was going to get one, however. Deidara declined to give a response, hoping Itachi would get the hint.

"I don't know what to do," Itachi whispered, audibly distressed as he buried his head into Deidara's neck. "Deidara- what am I supposed to do?"

"Just stay here with me," Deidara suggested. "Don't think about it, yeah."

"I can't stop thinking about it-"

"Itachi," Deidara interjected loudly. "Please! Shut the hell up, yeah?"

He hated to be harsh but it worked, silencing his partner's words and leaving him to breathe shakily onto his neck. Deidara closed his eyes in satisfaction, aware of how fake the 'happy' scene he was living was right then and caring very little about changing it.

He smiled bitterly- he was becoming more like Itachi every day, content with facades and trickery to get through life. He promised himself that he wouldn't let it happen anymore after this, ignoring the thought in his mind that told him he might not have to worry if Itachi carried his threat through.

He wouldn't. He wouldn't kick Deidara out- ideally Itachi would come to his senses, but just in case he didn't Deidara had a plan. It involved a set of forgotten handcuffs and his own wrist, and he smothered a chuckle as he thought about what he had in mind. If Itachi wanted him out the house then he'd have to detach the frame of his bed as well.

Chapter End