Naruto Fan Fiction / Naruto Shippuden Fan Fiction ❯ The Path to Christmas ❯ Christmas, The Time For Secrets ( Chapter 2 )

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 2: Christmas, The Time For Secrets

"So let me get this straight. Why, exactly, did I need to come with you to pick up some pens?"

"Because, Sasuke," Itachi sighed. "I had to pretend you wanted my company for your own Christmas shopping. I didn't want Deidara getting suspicious since as far as he's aware I've finished mine."

For the second day running Itachi was back at the shopping centre, though he felt more relaxed this time. Deidara had come to bed at three am and declared one of the canvasses complete already, though he refused to show Itachi until they were all done.

"But you didn't have to actually bring me," Sasuke complained. "I hate Christmas shopping. I order everything online in November, you know that."

"Did you get anything for Deidara?"

Sasuke snorted. "Of course not."

"Do you really mean that, or are you just trying to sound like a jerk?"

Sasuke faltered and looked away. "I didn't really know what to get."

"So we do have a reason to be here," Itachi replied, satisfied.

"Maybe you can get him something that goes with the markers I've got? How about Kisame- you know he'll show up at some point, don't you?"

"I completely forgot about Kisame," Sasuke sighed, smacking a hand to his forehead. "Fine, you got me, I have shopping to do."

They ventured into the art shop to pick up the markers, Itachi thankful that they hadn't somehow been lost or destroyed as he collected them from the clerk.

Glad they were safe in hand, he went further into the store to find Sasuke. He found him at the stand where he'd originally picked up the Copics, frowning at the price tag for them.

"Did you really spend that much on felt tip pens?"

"They aren't felt tip pens," Itachi replied, even though he agreed. "They're high quality markers, Sasuke."

"They look like felt tips to me. You could have just bought a pack from a stationer's, surely?"

"No Sasuke," Itachi sighed. "Did you find anything?"

"No."

Itachi scanned the shelf, eyes falling on something on one of the lower ones. He knelt down and grabbed it, offering it up to Sasuke. Sasuke took it, eyeing it carefully.

"A case to put them in?" He remarked as he opened it up and glanced inside.

"It goes with my gift and it'll stop them getting lost," Itachi shrugged, getting up again. "Sound good?"

Sasuke shrugged and headed for the till. "If you say so. I'm not wrapping it though, you can do that."

"At least write a tag out."

"For heaven's sake, I don't even like the guy," Sasuke hissed as he shoved money at the clerk irritably. "You write the fucking tag."

"Sure," Itachi replied. "I'll be sure to sign it with love and put lots of kisses on it."

"Asshole. You've got really sarcastic lately."

"Deidara said the same thing," Itachi chuckled as they headed out the shop. "It's the medication messing with my sense of humour I suppose."

"I meant it as a good thing. Deidara probably did, too. Now where, Itachi? Something for Kisame? What do you buy a guy who spends most of his time underwater with the fishes? What did you get him?"

Itachi opened his mouth to reply but stopped, realising he couldn't say without Sasuke perhaps realising his own gift was similar. Besides, he didn't even know what Deidara was going to paint. "I can't say."

"Why not?" Sasuke asked curiously, eyes narrowed.

"I just can't."

"How on earth does whatever you got him relate to what you've got for me? That's the only reason I could see for secrecy."

"Drop it Sasuke," Itachi pleaded.

"You're no help!" Sasuke snapped at him, glaring as they walked. "I have no idea and I refuse to walk around here in the cold with all these crowds trying to find something. Can't I just look online and order-"

Itachi had stopped abruptly, Sasuke realising and doing the same. He followed Itachi's gaze, realising the reason for the slight smile creeping up on his brother's face immediately.

They were standing next to the card shop Itachi had been in the previous day, but the window display had been changed. Today, the star of the display was a rather large collection of cuddly sea life.

Sasuke had shot inside already, leaving Itachi to catch up with him at the inside display.

"Perfect," Sasuke remarked with a grin as he lifted a stuffed octopus out of large container of toys. "Is there a shark? He likes sharks, right?"

"Maybe," Itachi replied, helping him shift through the fishes and starfish to finally locate a blue shark near the bottom. He held it out, leaving Sasuke to take it triumphantly and head for the till.

"That was easy. It's like they knew we were coming."

"They didn't have those yesterday," Itachi told him, feeling slightly put out.

He watched Sasuke pay for the toy, thinking back to his own cuddly shark, won by Deidara at the arcade. It had pride of place on his bedside table. Occasionally he even snuck it into the bed. It was soft and cuddly! He refused to feel bad for that!

As a second thought, Itachi backtracked and paid for the octopus as well. It was unique and he couldn't pass it up, giving it to Sasuke to add to the shark.

"All done?" Sasuke asked once they were standing in the middle of the shopping centre with no apparent direction to go.

"Seems so," Itachi agreed. "Did you fancy getting lunch or something?"

"Sure," Sasuke smiled. "Why not?"

Itachi returned home to find art supplies spread across the living room and Deidara yelling at him to get out before he'd even opened the door fully, causing Itachi to swiftly close it and once again retreat to the bedroom.

Sasuke had kept his word about not wanting to wrap the gifts he had chosen, but he did at least let Itachi buy tags when he paid for the octopus and agreed to write them out in the car.

At least he now had something to do while in exile. He busied himself with the tartan paper he had bought, admiring it as he neatly cut perfect lengths of it off, only to find he didn't have sellotape. He searched his desk, finally finding some in a drawer, wondering if Deidara would yell at him if he attempted to get coffee. It had been cold outside, after all.

He decided not to risk it, wrapping Sasuke's gifts for him and adding the usual bow and curled ribbon. He checked over the gift tags to make sure Sasuke hadn't been unnecessarily inflammatory on them, pleased to find he hadn't.

He'd even scribbled a 'Merry Christmas' message on each one, much to Itachi's surprise. He fixed them to the gifts and set them on his desk out the way, pleased. He'd put them under the tree when he wasn't banished from the room it was in.

Next was his gift to Deidara. He wrapped the markers with equal perfection, writing a nice but not too sappy message on the tag before attaching it with the curled ribbon, adding a slightly larger and frillier bow and putting it with the others.

Realising he didn't have much else he could do he set about studying. He'd been assigned plenty of work for the Christmas period- he'd already cleared a huge chunk of it on the first few days off before Deidara had flat out told him to spend a few days not working.

He absorbed himself in his studies, glancing up in shock as the bedroom door flung open an hour or so later and Deidara appeared with a grin on his face.

"Another one complete," he remarked, his fingers and face covered in paint. "I enjoyed that one, yeah. Do you have any family photographs anywhere, and no you can't ask why."

"I do," Itachi shrugged, turning back to his work and trying to ignore Deidara's paint covered hand smearing the residue on his white door. "Don't you dare deface them if I tell you where to look."

"I had no intentions of doing so."

"Then there's a box in the built-in cupboard behind me with that kind of thing in it. Be careful and wash your hands before you even think of going anywhere near it."

Deidara slipped off to do so, leaving Itachi to quickly clean the door. He hadn't been able to ignore it, the paint taunting him as he tried to work. Deidara laughed at him as he came back, heading for the aforementioned cupboard.

"There a lot of boxes in here," he remarked. "Which one?"

"The one labelled 'photographs' I would imagine."

"You and your sarcasm again," Deidara lamented as he shifted through the boxes. "What colour is the box? How big is it? Those kinds of things would be helpful, yeah."

Itachi pushed him aside and pulled a small white box from one side, handing it to him. Written on it in Itachi's neat handwriting were the words 'photographs and childhood'. Deidara grinned and set himself down on the bed, opening it carefully. Itachi, unable to leave him unattended to work, sat next to him.

It had been a long time since he'd seen the contents of the box. He'd shut them away in the cupboard the day he moved in, and hadn't looked at them since. He had to smile a little as Deidara pulled out a photo of him and Sasuke, sitting side by side on a beach. Sasuke was a child, three or four, and happily building a sandcastle while Itachi watched him with a small smile on his young face.

"Is that the beach we went to?" Deidara asked quietly.

"That's the one. We used to go there a lot."

"You guys were pretty cute kids. Even Sasuke, yeah."

"I'm sure he'll be thrilled you've been looking at his baby photos," Itachi remarked with a sigh. "What are you looking for?"

"I can't tell you that. Aw, did you draw these?"

He picked up some pieces of paper with bad childish drawings on them. One was of a calico cat, which made Itachi chuckle and take it from Deidara.

"This is Mitzy," he said. "Our childhood cat. Sasuke was allergic when he was born so we had to re-home her. I must have been four or five when I drew this."

"It looks it," Deidara said cheekily. "Get on with your work, I don't want you hanging over my shoulder and looking at what I'm doing, yeah."

Itachi reluctantly let him continue to look alone, too distracted to work now. Instead he just stared at the paper in front of him until Deidara exited the room with some photographs in hand.

Itachi immediately got up and took out the box his boyfriend had been kind enough to put away, leafing through it. They had spurred nostalgia in him, and he wanted to keep that flame alive.

By the time Deidara slipped back into the room a couple of hours later Itachi was feeling rather emotionally drained.

He'd shifted from nostalgia to sadness that it had taken so long to sort things out with his family, to anger at himself for letting his issues go on so long, to frustration at the whole situation right back to sadness again before he'd given up and shoved the box back in the cupboard.

He was curled up under the cover, sitting up with his back against the headboard and his knees to his chest, thinking.

"Everything alright?" Deidara asked tentatively from the doorway, keeping his paint covered hands to himself this time.

"Yeah," Itachi sighed, giving him a sidelong glance. "I should know better than to drag up old memories, that's all. Are you done now?"

"I'm done," Deidara confirmed. "For now. It's getting late- did you want me to cook dinner?"

"I can manage now I'm allowed back in that part of the house," Itachi teased, giving him a smile to show he didn't mean it. Besides, without a recipe Deidara's cooking was atrocious.

"The canvas is hidden in the bathroom out the way, yeah. It's not finished yet, I'm going to work on it tomorrow."

Itachi eyed him sceptically. "You can't keep it there and expect to banish me from it, that's ridiculous. Why did you put it there?"

"I couldn't think of where else to put it!" Deidara argued. "It's still wet! I couldn't bring it in here, I couldn't leave it in the living room, the kitchen wasn't suitable because I knew you'd want dinner- where else was I going to hide it?"

"Somewhere I'm not likely to see it?"

"Tell me where, then!" Deidara huffed, folding his arms and glaring.

"Why don't you bring it in here and we'll take the duvet and sleep in the living room?" Itachi suggested. "I'd say I'll sleep alone in there but that seems a little over the top."

He wanted to remark that the whole idea of having a small canvas painting take up an entire room was over the top, but his bit his tongue. Deidara however seemed thrilled, grinning and nodding his agreement.

"We can put the Christmas tree lights on to sleep with," he suggested. "It'll be romantic! Okay, go back in the living room and I'll bring it in here, yeah."

Itachi dragged the duvet and pillows out and threw them on the living room floor, eyeing them for a moment before simply throwing himself down onto them with a sigh. Christmas time, he told himself, was always far too much trouble than it was worth.

The following day Itachi woke up feeling stiff and uncomfortable, despite the fluffy duvet they'd slept on. He dragged himself off the floor to the sofa and massaged his sore neck, realising Deidara wasn't in the room.

He decided not to pursue it, getting himself coffee first just in case his boyfriend decided to waltz in and banish him once more. He was just finishing it and his toast when Deidara reappeared, grinning and giving him a small wave.

"I decided to take over the bedroom today," he remarked. "That's more convenient than this room, right?"

"It's appreciated," Itachi replied. "How many do you have left to go?"

"I'm about to start the last one now, yeah."

Itachi blinked in surprise. "Really? What time did you get up?"

"I didn't sleep much. I wanted to get these out the way so you wouldn't worry. Besides, it's been fun- it's been a while since I was able to paint like this, yeah. Everything for college is based on a syllabus so it has to be within a certain subject matter."

With those words he vanished once more, leaving Itachi to stare at the now closed door with a small smile on his face. At least he now had access to the kitchen, bookshelf and the television, giving him something to do. He couldn't study, but that was probably a good thing.

He selected a book from the shelf and settled on the sofa to read it, curling up with the duvet around him. He rarely had lazy days but that day he decided to take one, at least until Deidara was done with his painting. He was quite looking forward to seeing what he had come up with, too.

The tiny part of his mind that had set alarm bells ringing at the prospect of his boyfriend painting for his loved ones also needed to be silenced by seeing for himself that Deidara was, indeed, capable of behaving like an adult.

It was close to midday when Deidara finally emerged, looking triumphant. "Itachi," he called as he opened the door. "I'm done!"

Itachi looked up from the book he was still enthralled in, having not moved since he'd picked it up that morning. It was one that had been sitting on his bookshelf for a long while that he'd been meaning to read, and he'd been sucked right into it.

"Done?" He echoed, finally setting it aside. "Can I see?"

Deidara nodded, putting a finger up to indicate that he should wait there as he left the room once more. Itachi waited expectantly, seeing him return with two of the smaller canvasses first.

"This one is for Naruto," he said, handing it over. Itachi studied it, eyes widening at how impressive it was. Deidara had used acrylic paint to draw a nine tailed fox, much like the one Deidara had won from the crane machine but intensely fiercer, surrounded by trees and radiating evil.

"He's going to love it," Itachi nodded, a smile on his face. Deidara had always displayed that he was good at art but he'd never been a conventional artist, favouring more abstract ways of expressing himself unless it was a rough sketch in his sketchbook.

Deidara beamed and handed over the second small canvas, disappearing to presumably get the others. Itachi was left with a beautifully drawn and watercolour shaded shark, grinning with realisation that it was for Kisame.

"You said once he liked sharks," Deidara said as he re-entered once more, only the other smaller canvas in hand. "The one for your parents is still wet, I'll bring it through in a minute. Here."

Itachi set aside the shark to take Sasuke's canvas, feeling a small amount of trepidation as he did so. He glanced at it and all his worries melted away, confronted with a superb acrylic painted Skyline car.

It was a car Fugaku had agreed to buy if Sasuke passed his driving test the first time, since he was such an awful learner driver. Fugaku didn't expect him to do so but Itachi wasn't so sure.

Sasuke had done nothing but rave about the idea of owning the car for a week when their father had first agreed to it, so he wouldn't put it past his brother to brush up and make sure he passed his test.

"He wouldn't shut up about the car, yeah. I made it a little abstract- I hope that's okay."

"It's fine," Itachi nodded, noting the wheels were exaggerated to give the car a slighter meaner look. "It's more Sasuke's style this way, anyway."

Deidara had already gone to fetch the last canvas, carrying it to the table and setting it down carefully when he returned.

"Don't touch it," he said quietly. "I really hope you like this one, Itachi."

Itachi got up and headed over to it, glancing down and feeling a gasp escape his throat. Since the canvas was bigger Deidara had been able to make it more detailed, and he had clearly done so.

A beautiful sky and a sunny day greeted him, a picnic spread across lush green grass with four figures sitting on a red and white chequered blanket. Mikoto and Fugaku were seated together on it, smiling and looking at their two sons.

Sasuke was younger than he was now and chasing a butterfly while Itachi, also looking younger with slightly shorter hair and a more youthful appearance, stood near him with lightly folded arms and a smile on his face.

"I needed reference for what your parents looked like because I couldn't remember well enough, then I realised I had to make you guys younger since I had photos for it," Deidara was explaining, but Itachi was barely listening.

He still had his eyes glued to the wonderful canvas in front of him. "It's a sign that you're all going to be closer now, yeah. Do you think they'll like it?"

"They'll love it," Itachi nodded, finding his voice and swallowing past the sudden dryness in his throat. "It's beautiful."

"This is the one I got up early to finish," Deidara explained. "I was too tired last night and I just had to stop, but I wanted it done. When it's dry you can wrap it- the others are already good to go."

"I will," Itachi replied. "Deidara- thank you so much for doing this."

"I enjoyed it," Deidara shrugged, but he took the thankful hug from Itachi without complaint along with the grateful kiss.

"Now go on, wrap them so we can put them under the tree. It's looking a bit plain under there- you might want to move those ones on your desk too, yeah."

"I hope you didn't touch those," Itachi warned as he gathered up the smaller canvasses.

"No," Deidara replied, suddenly looking excited. "They were for me?"

"Two of them. I'll bring them in if you promise not to touch."

"Touching presents is the most fun part!" Deidara pouted, but Itachi's stern look soon had him sigh and nod in agreement. "Fine, I'll just look then."

Itachi nodded in satisfaction, heading into the bedroom and admiring each painting once more. Deidara had really outdone himself, and he felt suddenly guilty for not believing in him right from the start.

As he reached for his roll of tartan paper he stopped and frowned, realising the edge had been cut off in a rather jagged, unclean manner.

He knew he hadn't done it, since he always cut cleanly in straight lines against the paper's design, frowning slightly in confusion. It had to be Deidara, but why?

"Why did you cut some of my wrapping paper off?" He asked when Deidara appeared in the doorway moments later.

"Oh- I needed some paper for dabbing my brushes on," Deidara explained, looking a little sheepish. "Sorry. I saw it right there and just grabbed it, yeah."

Itachi opened the second drawer on his desk, unimpressed. "There was plenty of paper in here."

"I only took a little bit! You're just pissed I didn't cut it straight."

Itachi didn't respond, not wishing to say his partner was right. Instead he tidied up the edge on the paper and cut a perfect strip off, wondering whether he needed to wrap the canvasses in bubble wrap first for safety.

Behind him Deidara murmured something about putting the bigger canvas near the window to dry, leaving before Itachi could warn him about not opening the window on bitterly cold winter days and letting all the heat in the house out.

Chapter End