Poisoned

Sasori slammed a mess of substances onto his desk, profanities forming on his lips every few seconds. He had been trying to avoid this. Working nonstop for almost three days, he thought he'd be able to do it. Unfortunately, mother nature had won this round.

The puppeteer let out a frustrated sigh and looked up at the window. With all of the snow, he could only see out of the top half of the window. And what was still visible would probably be covered by morning. Turning back to his supplies, Sasori took out a syringe containing a small amount of poison. Something he had been working on for weeks. The redhead had absolutely no idea what it did and needed to test it on someone before the next mission.

Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem. As an S-ranked criminal, he had no problem with grabbing some kid from the nearby village to test his poisons on.

But with more than four feet of snow on the ground, he wasn't going anywhere.

Sasori sighed again, tossing the syringe in the air, catching it casually before it hit the ground. There was no doubt Pein was going to want to get them working again as soon as possible. And since Deidara could have them travel by air, there was only a limited amount of time before he was going out again. With no way to test any of his poison, that was a problem.

Maybe I could ask Deidara if he'd get someone for me…Sasori dismissed the thought as soon as it entered his head. The brat whined every time he'd bring in a test subject, so why would now be any different? Why won't you let me help you, he'd say. You don't trust me, do you?

The puppeteer rolled his eyes. The stupid kid was always getting in his way and…That it! Sasori very nearly dropped the syringe on the floor before turning sharply on his heel and rushing out of the room. Deidara would be stupid enough to fall for it; that was something the redhead knew all too well. If he acted friendly enough beforehand, he'd have the kid wrapped around his finger.

"Deidara!" he called out, practically running into the living room. Said boy was curled up on the couch, a blanket thrown over his figure.

"Hi danna, un," Deidara replied calmly, wrapping the blanket tighter around himself. Kakuzu was far too cheap to allow the Akatsuki to pay for heating, so they had to settle on whatever could be found around the base.

Sasori sat down beside his partner, tucking the syringe into his cloak pocket. "Not making any sculptures today?" he asked, noticing that the bomber didn't have any clay with him. He already knew full well that it was too cold for Deidara to properly make any explosives.

"My hand mouths won't come out, un. I can't mix my chakra with the clay, un," the blond murmured, frowning. "I'm bored."

And that's what Sasori had been waiting for. "Deidara, do you want to help me with something?" Said teen thought for a moment before nodding. "Good. I'm working on a new poison, and I need someone to test it on."

"If you're going to try and kill me, try and be a bit more discrete about it, un," the blond grumbled.

Sasori couldn't help but laugh. "I'm pretty sure it's just a hallucinogen. All I'm testing is to see how powerful it is." Okay, maybe that was a little bit of a white lie. But…he was positive that the poison wouldn't kill him.

"I dunno, un. You're not lying, are you, un?" Sasori shook his head, and his partner sighed.

He didn't want to resort to this, but desperate times called for desperate measures. "Please, Dei?" he begged, grabbing hold of the bomber's hands. "I need to get this tested before our next mission." Deidara sighed, slowly pulling his hands away. He honestly didn't know how to respond to this. On one hand, it was completely unlike Sasori to actually beg for something. But at the same time, he wasn't completely sure that his partner wasn't trying to kill him.

"I…don't know if you're going to try and kill me, un," The blond murmured.

Sasori frowned. This wasn't working as planned. "Even if I wanted to, do you think Pein'd let me get away with it?" Deidara shook his head. "Exactly."

"Fine, un…"

~~

"Are you sure this is a good idea, un?" Deidara asked, trying his best to hold his arm steady in front of the puppeteer. He was kicking himself for agreeing to this. This wasn't a good idea. It wasn't like he'd never seen what the other test subjects looked liked afterwards; blood shot eyes, barely able to walk, coughing up blood…

Not really his cup of tea.

Sasori held the syringe to a vein in his arm. "It'll be fine." And without giving the blond a chance to say  anything else, he stuck the needle tip into the vein, releasing the poison into Deidara's bloodstream.

At first, Deidara just sat there, expecting immediate pain. A few minutes passed…and he felt absolutely nothing. His partner just sat there, waiting for some sort of reaction as well. Another ten minutes, and he still felt perfectly fine.

Maybe it was a fluke, Deidara thought hopefully, moving to stand up. "I'll let you know if anything happens, danna. I'm going to go and get my blanket, un."

The redhead could only watch as he left the room. Nothing…he had spent so much time working on the poison, and absolutely nothing had happened. Certainly he had made poisons that were supposed to take effect days later, but this was supposed to happen quick. If not, how would he use it in battle?

Sasori groaned. Either way, he was going to need an antidote just in case. Better get back to work.

~~

Two days, and Deidara still hadn't shown a single symptom. Only being a quarter of the way into making antidote, this was good news for Sasori. However, that didn't make the fact that his poison was a complete and utter failure any better.

The puppeteer scrawled yet another update on the experiment before flipping his notebook shut. This had never happened before. Either he had really screwed this up, or Deidara was a freak of nature. He couldn't help but fell like the latter was more likely, though.

Sasori reached for his cup to take a sip of coffee. He had been sitting at the kitchen table for almost two hours, and by now, the drink was ice cold. Regardless, he finished it off and placed the cup back on the table. Might as well get back and--

"Sasori!" a voice called out, completely interrupting said man's thoughts. Maybe he spoke too soon. "Get your ass out here!" An enraged Kisame stormed into the room not a moment later, a handful of blond hair locked in his iron grip.

The redhead took a deep breath. This was either going to be fantastic, or a complete disaster. "Yes, Kisame?" he replied as calmly as he could manage. Eyeing his partner who was now on the floor, he could only guess what had happened.

"If you're going to drug the kid up, at least keep an eye on him. He fell off of the couch, tripped over the coffee table, and tried to latch onto Zetsu," the shark replied, tossing Deidara in front of him. When Sasori rushed over to get him, he couldn't help but raise a brow.

It was as if his partner didn't even know what was going on. He stayed sprawled out on the floor, almost as if he were in a daze. It was a moment before his eyes finally landed on Sasori's face, and when they did, the blond began to giggle. "Danna, Hidan took my blanket, but it's okay because it's all warm, un," he slurred. "I was gonna fight him, but I must've dropped my clay on the way into the other room, 'cause I don't have it anymore, un." Deidara's eyes couldn't stay focused on the puppeteer's face. They stayed in place for a second before looking at the door way, then at Kisame, and then back at Sasori.

The shark turned and left the room, muttering something about how the both of them were crazy.

Sasori sighed, helping the blond get into a sitting position. When he moved his hand, Deidara tried to lean back again, only to be caught before he hit the ground again. "Deidara, did you fall off of the couch or…trip over anything earlier?" the redhead asked calmly. Yeah, the poison was definitely taking effect.

The blond lifted his hand to his face, almost as if he were trying to tap his chin. Rather than doing so, however, he ended up jabbing himself in the cheek a few times before letting his arm fall back down. "Maybe, un," Deidara giggled, now reaching up to try and touch Sasori's face, only to end up grabbing at thin air. "I don't really remember, un."

"…Maybe I should get you back to our room."

~~

Sasori collapsed onto his bed, making sure that Deidara was still across the room before he shut off the light. The redhead threw the covers over him not even a moment later, and began drifting off to sleep. Finally, he could just relax and…

"Danna, un?" Damn it.

"Yes, Deidara?" he asked, his voice sickly sweet. This had better be good. If not, he'd have to tell Pein that he was unable to stop himself from brutally maiming his partner.

The sound of heavy footsteps crossing the room didn't comfort him any. "I'm dizzy, un."

"Then maybe sleep will help," Sasori hissed through clenched teeth.

"I can't, un." Groaning, the puppeteer rolled over and looked up at his partner. He was expecting the blond's usual stupid grin, or some sort of sheepish smile. Not bloodshot eyes and a haggard face. "Do you have an antidote done yet, un?" he asked hopefully.

"No. I'll try and finish it tomorrow, okay?" Sasori was about to roll over and try to go back to sleep, but couldn't help pitying his partner. "Since you're awake, go and get me something out of the second drawer of my desk," he requested, sitting up in bed. It wasn't until the blond nodded and began stumbling towards the other side of the room that Sasori realized what had just happened. "Wait, forget it. I'll get it myself." Knowing his luck, Deidara would end up grabbing some sort of lethal poison.

"Okay, un." He collapsed to the floor, barely aware of what was going on. This wasn't good. Sasori hauled himself out of bed and moved across the dark room, quickly grabbing a sedative from his desk.

"This should put you out for a good eight hours, okay?" Deidara half nodded. The redhead didn't need to worry about him struggling, as it didn't seem like his partner was even aware of the needle being pressed to his vein.

"Hey, what's going--Ouch!" the blond screeched, attempting to hit the sedative away. Rather than connecting with the syringe, the teen's hand hit Sasori on the side of the head, causing it to snap in the other direction.

Drugged up or not, Sasori had to admit that the kid still had a pretty strong arm.

"Deidara, you might want to get back in your…oh. Or you can fall asleep on the floor. That's fine, too." Sasori sighed. Might as well move the kid back onto his bed. The last thing he needed to worry about was Deidara being in even worse shape than he was now.

In one swift move, he had managed to pick the bomber up and drop him back into his own bed. Landing on top of the covers, Sasori didn't even bother trying to move him. He said his body was warm earlier, didn't he? That was good enough.

Climbing back into bed, Sasori could only hope that the sedative was going to work.

~~

Sasori poured a cup full of iodine into what was already a concoction of multiple chemicals and herbs. Still nothing. The antidote hadn't even come close to nullifying the poison. And now that the poison was actually working, he was being timed. With Deidara acting drunk twenty four-seven, he was constantly chasing after the teen to make sure he didn't get himself in trouble.

"Danna, I'm going to go and take a shower, un," Deidara announced, trying to sit up from his bed. He stumbled forward for about three steps before crashing to the ground. "I'm fine, un," he slurred, attempting to pick himself up.

"Of course you are," Sasori said, not even bothering to look up from his desk. By now, he was used to his partner stumbling around the room. There was no point in even looking as long as he didn't try to leave the room. Not like he'd get that far, anyway…

"I'll be out in a few minutes, un." Another crash, and the puppeteer sighed.

"Don't give yourself a concussion."

Sasori heard the water turn on without any problem, and since he didn't hear his partner fall, it meant that everything was probably fine. Either that or he managed to fall with enough grace to keep the redhead from hearing it. That was fine, too.

Well, it was fine…until a blood chilling scream tore through the air. In a moment of panic, Sasori nearly threw his concoction across the room. What the hell was that?!

The redhead didn't need to think about it too long, because not even ten seconds later, Deidara burst out of the bathroom wearing a baggy pair of pants and viciously trying to get the water off of his skin"Shit, un!" he screeched, flinging water droplets all over the room.

"Deidara?" Sasori managed to choke out, but it was completely ignored. The blond was too busy attacking his skin. Not good. Desperate, the puppeteer grabbed onto his partner, only to have him begin screaming at the top of his lungs. "Deidara, shut up!" he hissed, clamping a hand over the younger man's mouth.

The two stayed like this for a few minutes, until Sasori was positive that the bomber wasn't going to scream again. Slowly, his hand slipped away from Deidara's mouth. Said boy immediately sucked in a shaky breath and let himself fall against Sasori. "Water…burning, un…" he choked out, eyes desperately searching the redhead's face for some sort of comfort.

"…That's not good." Sasori wrapped his arm around his partner's bare shoulders, mildly surprised when he didn't make any attempt to move.

"Danna, you're cold, un," Deidara gasped out, throwing his arms around the redhead. With his own body burning, this felt fantastic. "I feel like I'm dying, un."

The puppeteer bit his lip. Yeah, he was really going to need to hurry this up.

"Deidara, go…dry yourself off some more or something. I'm going to go work some more on the antidote, all right?" It took him a minute to process what had just been said, but finally, the bomber nodded and dragged himself to the other side of the room.

~~

Finally. It had taken him almost three more days of mixing substance after substance together, tying Deidara down so that he wouldn't stumble off and get himself killed, and only about four hours of sleep, but he had finally done it! In his hand was a small vial of what was hopefully a successful antidote.

The door to Sasori's room swung open, and his partner stumbled in, laughing like a madman. He made his way over to the puppeteer, trying to hold onto whatever he could for support. Only inches from Sasori, Deidara lost his footing and fell forward…right into his partner.

Sasori tried to push the blond off of him, but he wouldn't budge. "Danna, un," he said dreamily, his arms slinking around the older man's torso.

"Deidara, are you all right?" Well, wasn't that a stupid question…of course he wasn't all right. The teen had been drugged for almost a week, and he had absolutely no idea what was going on.

He giggled and rested his chin on Sasori's shoulder. "I love you, danna, un," he slurred, tightening his grip on his partner.

The redhead's eyes widened, and as an immediate reaction, he threw Deidara to the floor. What the hell?! "Deidara, I'm going to give you the antidote now, okay?"

Without a chance to even process what happened, Sasori was very nearly tackled by the blond. "Danna, you're amazing, un," he giggled. "Am I gonna be…uh…normal, un?" he said, losing the words in the middle of the sentence.

"Sure," Sasori murmured, "I don't have to use a syringe this time, so it should be slightly less painful." He handed the vial out to Deidara, but when he refused to take it, the redhead was confused to say the least.

"Kiss me, un," he managed to say, grinning widely. At the very words, Sasori's jaw nearly dropped. He had to be kidding. He had to be. "I won't take the antidote unless you kiss me, un," he threatened, although Sasori could tell that he wasn't going to last much longer.

Either way, drugged up or not, he was still as stubborn as ever. "Deidara, just take it. You're going to stay like this if you don't take the antidote," he lied, like if he were trying to convince a child to do something for him. This was ridiculous.

"You'll…you'll be the only one that has to put up with me, un," he slurred, barely able to make it over his own words. Damn, the brat had a point. "Besides, no one'll find out about it, un." Sasori would have argued further. He would have never agreed to it…had he not spent the past week babysitting his partner.

He pulled off the top of the vial before bringing it up to his lips. "I'm not going to let you try anything funny here." Pulling Deidara close, he poured the liquid into his own mouth. Before the blond knew what was happening, Sasori pressed his lips firmly against his partner's.

Almost immediately, Deidara opened his mouth, letting the puppeteer push the antidote into his mouth. As soon as he was sure that the bomber had swallowed the antidote, Sasori pulled away, inhaling deeply.

That was something he had expected before going into the experiment. "Danna, I'm tired, un." Oh, thank goodness. The antidote was supposed to knock him out and fix him by the time he woke up. Assuming that it was making him drowsy already, it was working wonders.

"Okay, come on, then." Sasori picked the bomber up, placing him gently on his bed. "I'm going to go and--"

"Danna, will you sleep next to me, un?" Deidara asked quietly, looking up at the puppeteer's face with half open eyes. It probably would have been a lot easier for him to say yes if the teen didn't look exhausted and have horribly bloodshot eyes.

"Um…well…"

"Please, un?"

Sasori sighed. "Fine, fine," he grumbled, crawling into the bed and laying next to his partner.

~~

"Danna, what happened, un?" Deidara groaned, sitting up and immediately looking at the desk. When he saw no one there, he thought that his partner had gone to pester Pein about their next assignment. "Oh, I guess he--What the hell, un?!" the blond screeched, nearly flying out of the bed when he saw Sasori next to him, watching his every movement with a bored expression on his face.

"Well, the antidote worked," the redhead commented. "I haven't seen you with this much energy in more than a week."

"…I'm not going to ask why you're…whatever, un. What happened, un?" Deidara inquired, sitting himself on the floor. It was still as freezing as ever, and he didn't see his blanket anywhere in the room. Probably back in the living room or something.

Sasori thought for a moment before shrugging. "First, you tripped over a bunch of stuff." Okay, not so bad. "Then, you started acting like you were drunk for a couple of days." Slightly worse, but still not too horrendous. "Then your skin became supersensitive from the poison, and you nearly killed yourself taking a shower." …Slightly worse. "And when I went to give you the antidote, you…"

"Yeah, un?" Deidara said, waiting for his partner to continue. It couldn't have been that bad…right?

Sasori looked away before continuing. "You essentially rushed in, told me you loved me, and refused to take the antidote until I kissed you."

For a moment, Deidara said absolutely nothing. Then, a deep blush began to scatter across his face. "I did what, un?!" he screamed, rising to his feet. "You didn't actually do it, did you, un?" The redhead began to rub the back of his neck, and Deidara groaned.

"Hey, you told me to sleep next to you, too," Sasori said, smirking. Now that his partner was back to a somewhat normal state of mind, he had no problem making fun of him.

"You're…kidding, un…" The puppeteer shook his head. The whole thing was hilarious, actually. Especially since Deidara didn't remember a thing.

"I really wish I was." That wasn't a lie. Really, if he could have erased that whole string of events, he would have.

Deidara sighed. "It's a shame I can't even remember it, un," he murmured, shrugging. Wait, what? Sasori rose a brow. Had he just heard that right?

The only thing that did was peak Sasori's curiosity. "Oh?" Deidara strode over to his partner and sat himself down on the bed. It didn't really take a genius to figure out what the blond was thinking. With his face like an open book, sometimes it was easy to even figure out what he was about to say. And unfortunately, this was one of those times.

"Danna, this is probably going to sound really stupid, but…I do love you. It's kind of unfortunate that I was too drugged up to remember my only kiss with you, and the fact that I confessed to you while I was all…weird, un," Deidara murmured, eyes looking at Sasori for a moment before darting away. He was embarrassed, to say the least. His face was turning even redder…almost the same color as Sasori's hair.

What was he supposed to do now? Deidara wasn't going to let him get away without responding. Even though he tried, Sasori couldn't bring himself to think about this in a technical manner. "I…um…" Rational thought wasn't going to get him anywhere.

Without even trying to process what he was doing, Sasori leaned forward and gave the bomber a quick peck on the lips. "We'll give it a shot, is that good enough?" Judging from the grin that broke on Deidara's face, it was more than enough. It may be fantastic, or it may fail miserably. But as long as the redhead was giving it an honest try…that was all that mattered.

"Danna," Deidara began, twirling a strand of his hair as he spoke. "You can use those stupid kids from the other villages now, un."

"Yeah, I kind of figured."