[Closed Log] Swing Swing from the Tangles...
Who: Deidara & Hinata
What: They discuss secretive matters. Such as Mr. Weasel.
Where: The park
WhenWarnings: Dei is a lying stupidface and Hinata's just stupid. AND GASP. a complete lack of angst.
She couldn't go back up now.
There was something dirty about revenge and now that Hinata had begun to get a handle on that concept, she wasn't ready to go back up to heaven before she'd finished with this business. So she found herself wandering from place to place to place, each as ugly and as pretty as the rest, from brownred building to long expanse of concrete to grassy lots surrounded by glittering metal carriages. Everything glittered and was gold.
Fool's gold.
Hinata liked this particular grassy lot, though, was entertaining. There were long plastic buildings with little parts called slides. But the best part was the swing. She swung her legs back and forth gently, trying to mimick the movements of the small boy beside her. She wasn't doing very well, but it was something to pass the time and help her forget that her stomach was rumbling angrily. She tried taking an apple from the store, but she'd gotten discplined and had been forced to run away.
No. She needed paper to exchange for food, but she wasn't sure where to get paper. She was stuck.
"Swing...swing....swing," Hinata muttered to herself, like a helpful mantra or a cute ditty.
There was something so ridiculously boring about living in a skyscraper with a bunch of demonic murderers that Deidara sometimes couldn't handle it. Well, mostly he couldn't handle Tobi, but that was a given. No one could handle Tobi. Or maybe it was just him. He didn't know what it was. The orange, the 'senpai's the doing things without asking. And people told Deidara that he was annoying sometimes. He was frankly quite surprised that Itachi hadn't eaten him yet. But then, he'd probably get indigestion.
So Deidara had decided to walk to the park. He liked it there, mostly because he could scare away the little kids pretty easily and swing as much as he damn well pleased, and no one said anything about how he was short and would get lung cancer and how they'd done his laundry wasn't that nice? No.
But the swings were all filled up and Deidara had actually been waiting patiently for one of the little kids to get off before he started his routine of harassing the shit out of them. They weren't moving though, and he was getting impatient, and generally when that happened he ended up going somwhere and blowing something up. Yet that was highly inappropriate, and he really just wanted a moment to swing--besides, who said that angels got unlimited time on the swingset, huh?
Oh, right. He thought. Angel.
She was sitting there muttering to herself, and though he didn't remember her at all from Heaven (he hadn't been there long), she looked like she wasn't one of those that would get up in his face just for existing. So, Deidara pushed off the tree he'd been leaning on, snuffed out his cigarette, and ambled over to her.
"You going to share that swing, un?" He asked somewhat politely.
Hinata glanced up at him in surprise, her eyes wide and hiding nothing. He was a small man, and he smelled of something acrid, something sharp and something slightly tasty, if you close your eyes and ears.
"I-I think if y-you...erm...sat on my lap we would...fall over," she replied quietly, reaching up to twirl a strand of her hair nervously. She wasn't really one for strangers, and this man struck her as vaguely familiar. Those sorts of people tended to be fallen angels, but not all the time, so she decided not to bring it up.
Although...he might know about The Weasel. She put on her Very Sneaky But Must Stay Calm face, but it was a little crooked. It was the first time she'd tried it on, after all. There wasn't exactly a lot of room for spying and being a ninja up in the Lord's abode.
"...but I'm willing to try. I guess."
Deidara eyed her thoughtfully, slightly unsurprised that she hadn't taken the hint to move and had instead actually offered to share. It brought him back. Heaven was like the playground, except without the bully that pushed you down and took your marbles and punched you in the face when you wouldn't give up your lunch money. It was the type of playground were there were only little girls and they all liked one another and played hop-scotch and shared their dollies and brushed each other's hair. In other words, totally gay and annoying.
He snorted and pointed to the kid in the swing next to her. "You want to go play baseball, un." He said to the boy, flicking his finger upward and watching as the boy stood mid-swing.
"But I don't like baseball.." He muttered as he began to walk in the direction of the nearest baseball diamond. Wherever that was.
Deidara sat down in his vacated seat and got a bit of momentum going before he looked over at the angel-girl next to him. "So, what's up, Angel." He said, feet lifting to the sky. "Don't your sort usually hang out on public malls handing out pamphlets and bibles?"
Hinata bit at her lower lip and stared at the dirt beneath her feet. Her white shoes were getting dusty and brown, and she leaned over to rub at the rubber with her fingertips. Nothing.
As she did so, she made the little boy instead go see his mother and ask her about a good, balanced lunch. If he paid too much baseball, he might get all tired out and run out of water. She'd realized that humans really have quite a lot of water inside them, and that isn't important to keep that all inside. Suddenly, she got a revelation.
That's why crying was bad. It was leeking important water, and if you cried too much you must deflate like a balloon. Ah, Hinata's expansive knowledge of the physics of Earth was coming in handy at last.
Glancing up at him at last, she studied him carefully. "My sort? I...erm...don't come on Earth too m-much, really. I know Temari goes to the mall, and things, but...um, I don't own a bible. So I can't help her. I asked her once, and she gave me that Temari look that means that she really doesn't like anything and I told her sorry and she went away." Hinata's speech tended to either go irritatingly slow or too fast, often a quick succession of the two.
He was swinging, and he was making it look so easy.
Drat.
What was this girl talking about?
Deidara grunted because it was the only real response he could make to something like that. She was babbling on about someone or other and he couldn't really follow the whole thing because not only did he have no idea who this someone or other was, but this angel-girl had a way of making it difficult to concentrate on what she was actually getting at. Or maybe she wasn't getting to anything---and that could have been the problem right there. He couldn't see where this was going because it wasn't going anywhere.
"You know, un," he said after a minute of swinging, having let a long silence draw out between them like he sometimes did with Tobi when the other was being particularly stupid, "since you haven't been here very long I can excuse it, but here's something. Listen." He pushed aside a strand of blonde hair that had fallen through his eyes, "When you're trying to make a point or something, you can't do it by using someone I don't know, un. It's like...it's like if I fucking start talking about Tobi to you, and you don't know who Tobi is, do you? And I wanted to tell you what not to do, and I said 'Don't do it like Tobi' but you don't know who Tobi is, so is that helpful to you, un?"
He let out a breath. Hopefully she was actually listening to him, because usually when he went to the trouble of explaining something to someone (Tobi) he was ignored. And that usually made him irritated, and Deidara would have liked to enjoy his time on the swings. Because he really did need a break from stupidity for a few minutes.
Hinata often listened, and she really did try her best to understand everything being said, but every so often things just got lost in translation. She realized that people go tired of that quickly, but she really was trying her very hardest. That often wasn't enough, but in the end, it was all she could manage.
"But I wasn't...erm, telling you to not do it like Temari. I was saying that she goes to malls. But if you want to know about Temari, I can...erm, tell you. If you want...or you can tell me about Tobi. Is Tobi your...uh...hn....best friend?"
Hinata moved as she talked, trying to mimic his motions. He was swinging his legs, check. Leaning back and forth, check. But she was only wobbling back and forth quickly, and she stopped before she fell off her seat and some little child scuttled up to steal it before she could regain her balance.
Dear Lord, were children really necessary?
"Are you often helpful?" she asked, then, at an attempt to be sly. See, that was obviously code for can you help me with my problem, and be right quick about it, too. He looked like a fairly smart person...or...non-person.
"No" Deidara snapped to her question, a little insulted that she thought he could be friends with someone named Tobi of all things. Anyway, Deidara didn't really have friends in a general sense. Or any sense, really. "Anyway, I don't want to hear about Temari." He said after a moment, not really knowing what a Temari was anyway, and not really caring. At least this girl had listened. And responded even if she was arguing. See, there was something of a problem with his current circle. Tobi didn't listen to him, period, and Itachi (who Deidara was never sure about) was around to talk at, he never responded. It was rather aggrivating at times, really. That was why Deidara thought he preferred to be alone.
Sometimes.
Recovered from her last question, Deidara stopped pumping his legs and let the momentum of the swing carry him. He wondered if she was asking because of the swing---there was something definitely wrong there with how she was moving her legs, and Deidara almost wanted to get up and show her how to do it properly. She looked like she was going to shoot off the thing and into the dirt, and while he would have laughed and been amused, it was just kind of embarassing that a member of his own race couldn't even master swinging.
But maybe it was something else, and Deidara left jumping to conclusions to Tobi. "Often?" He said, raising a pale eyebrow. "It depends, un." The grin he gave was purely lecherous, and the way his light eyes sparkled could hardly be termed holy. Sure, Deidara was helpful. For the right price. "What do you need, Angel?" He asked, voice honey-sweet.
But Tobi made her think of small creatures, like rabbits and possibly toads. And all creatures deserved unconditional love, and on and on as the Word of God spoketh. But you didn't have to be best friends with everyone, so Hinata allowed his vehement response to pass.
Hinata decided to give up on swinging all together, and simply dug her white-ish sandals into the dirt. It was hard to do too many things at one time sometimes. And she had to be sneaky, and that just wouldn't work if she was teaching herself to swing. His voice, it made her feel warm and cuddly (or what she thought warm and cuddly would be like if such a thing had ever happened to her). He was being nice.
She smiled, and it was a real smile. "I need to find someone, that's all."
An angel in need of finding someone? How interesting.
Deidara tilted his head to the side thoughtfully, observing her. From her position--perhaps not now, but up there---she had a rather perfect vantage point to the entire world. If he could recall one thing about Heaven, it was how easy it had been to locate humans and other angels when they were on earth. So that had to mean that who she was looking for wasn't an angel. And what was a pretty little thing like herself doing, looking for a demon? It gave Deidara all kinds of tingles, and the way his lips curled almost exemplifed that.
"Looking for someone, hm?" He replied thoughtfully, still smiling in that soft way that made people trust him. He knew how to work his face and words, anyway, though recently he hadn't needed to and it would seem he was a bit out of practice. Oh well---what better way to get back into shape than to try his powers on an angel?
"Maybe I could help you, un." For a price. But that would come later. Maybe he was feeling generous. Perhaps she would just owe him one, sometime down the road. "Who would you be looking for, un?"
Hinata's smile widened somewhat. Oh, Lady Luck was on her side today. What were the chances that she'd find someone lovely to help her look for Mr. Weasel? So what if those chances were slim to nil--in Hinata's world, nothing was slim to nil, and there was hope around the corner. Always.
Maybe that was the failing. She believed in what she preached.
"What's your name, first? I'm Hinata. And...it's kind of a secret, you know? So...you have to promise to be confidential...Very hush hush. Like...say, a present. It's that kind of a surprise."
It wasn't really, since Neji would be far from pleased when he found out, but he might be a step closer to pleased than usual.
It took a bit of effort to keep his eyes from narrowing, but Deidara was a master and he smiled generously and put his hand out for her to take in the way that humans introduced themselves. "I'm Deidara." He said with as much politeness as he had ever used in such a situation. She seemed rather intent upon this, and that was good--perhaps he could rope her into something after all. Who knew how much power he could get from an angel? He'd never really tried before; he preferred to leave that part of the past behind him. But Itachi was always eating them for a reason, so maybe he was onto something there.
A surprise though? She was looking for a demon to give him a surprise? What kind of angel was this girl, anyway?
Deidara had to admit he was a bit intrigued, though. She didn't exactly look like the kind of girl that would be looking for that kind of party. But people often surprised him, so Deidara stopped swinging entirely and turned so he was facing her, the metal links of the swing twisting precariously. "And what's your name?" He purred, "And the name of this...person you'd like me to help you find."
He was like a kitty cat, and she was almost inclined to pet him. His hair looked nice and soft, sort of like Naruto's. Both of them were very nice to her, and that made her happy, and so these people made her happy. Not being complicated the essence of all things Hinata.
"Hinata, I said," she replied, feeling more and more comfortable with...Deidara. Drawing a small circle with the tip of her sandal, she tried to find the perfect words to describe whom she was looking for.
"Well...Mr. Weasel's strong, but he doesn't have a machine gun." Her eyes widened as she pleaded with him. "I will be really grateful, really, and if you need favors I'll help if I can, but only...um...nice favors, because...well. You know. Is that okay? Can you help me?"
"Right." He said smoothly. Hinata.
Since she was apparently so pleased with his offer to help, Deidara's mind was already going over exactly what type of payment he wanted to exact from her. There was no specific outline for this type of thing--after all, they were all pretty much in it for themselves--but in general, the goods were supposed to be split up between the members of Akatsuki. Deidara was usually pretty good about that, but what the hell--Itachi was a bastard and eating angels left and right and he didn't share any of that power so...
Wait a minute. Mr. Weasel?
Deidara was pretty quick. Despite the air he could give off sometimes with his various creative ideas, he wasn't one of those people that you could put much past. And weasel kind of rang a bell. Throwing all the rest of what she'd said out the window (because really, who was he to think about it? A favor was a favor. He did one for her, she owed him something. That was how it worked.) he leaned forward on his knees and allowed his smile to soften.
"Mr. Weasel, hm?" How very very quaint. "I think I might be able to help you there, un." A pause. "You wouldn't happen to be talking about someone by the name of Itachi, hmm? Tall, red eyes, slightly insane?"
Slightly insane? He had to be, to leave Neji in that condition. "Yes. Is he really...that tall, though? Tall people are a little...erm...intimidating."
She did the instinctive and placed that bump of skin on her thumb between her teeth and nibbles as she thought for a bit. She didn't want to owe this Deidara anymore than she already did, very nice or not. Like a child, she'd been told to never trust his kind. But he was so nice to her, and he'd probably offer her some candy if only she'd get into his car.
He kept smiling at her.
She couldn't help smiling back.
"...." Deidara said, trying to keep the smile on through the realization that Itachi probably wasn't really that tall, but seemed tall to him because of the fact that Deidara was slightly...shorter. Than some others. Which some people never failed to point out to him at the most inopportune of times (READ: ever.) He wasn't going to let it affect him at this moment though, and just nodded shortly. She was short too, it seemed, so it wasn't like she would notice if he was exaggerating a bit.
"Well, he's kind of intimidating anyway, un." He said thoughtfully. Actually, now that he thought about it, Deidara realized that if he actually helped her find Itachi, there was no way he was getting repaid. Itachi would eat her on sight and he would get all the benefits to Deidara's hard work. "You know, you might want to take someone with you." He said. "It makes him easier to talk to." Not really. And what did she want with Itachi, anyway? He was the last person Deidara would want to talk to, really. All tall and silent and boring.
"Well, anyway, un." He said, brushing aside the problems that weren't his own. If she was intimidated, that was her problem. He was just giving information, and if it just so happened that she made it out alive, good for her and good for him. "I could probably point you in the right direction. Give you an address, if you know what I mean. I happen to know the man personally, un."
Hinata clapped her hands together in an instinctive action of joy. Why couldn't she ever meet people like Deidara more from time to time? She couldn't help but come full circle and just crowd Neji, like she usually did. Maybe...maybe it was time to move away, flee the nest.
Neji's hair does not resemble a nest--
"I...I don't know who I would ask. And I am sure that I will...erm, be alright. In the end." She was sure of no such thing, but she didn't want to worry her new friend. "Does he like baked goods, maybe? Like in that story about the black as ebony girl, where the old witch brings an apple to make her open the door. I can bring some chocolate cake!"
Well, maybe that wasn't the brightest idea. She'd end up eating most of the cake herself, so logically she should take him something that she'd hate. Maybe some....Jello. That way he could have it all.
Wait. But she wasn't supposed be bringing him food. The whole purpose of this exercise was to give him a stern talking to with her sword with those flames and leave knowing that he knows better than to attack angels for no good reason. Food didn't play a big role, so it didn't matter if she ate some of the cake, since he wouldn't have time to eat it. So she could get chocolate cake. Good.
"Uh..." she glanced around her uselessly, trying to spot a pen. "I don't have anything to write with. Or on...so, erm...I can't remember it, either."
It really didn't strike her as odd that this man would know the infamous Mr. Weasel personally enough to know he's tall and intimidating until that very moment. "Wait.....um...are you his manservant?"
"He likes chichi dango." Deidara supplied with the hint of a thoughtful frown. He didn't know if Itachi would like cake. Or if he liked chocolate. The thought that he might, though, was always there. After all, he seemed to have something of a sweet-tooth.
But Deidara hardly thought that Hinata could woo Itachi with food. He would probably eat the cake and have her for dinner. Not that it much mattered--Deidara couldn't really bring himself to care one way or another. Even though she seemed like a kind girl, was reasonably pretty and probably had some holy asset that he was just overlooking, Deidara didn't really find himself caring about. Well. Anyone. Aside from himself, that was. And that was a pretty big job, caring for himself.
He was about to say that she didn't need a pen (rather slyly) because he knew just how to put the information into her head, and was leaning in to do so by pressing his lips to hers when she said that.
"Am I his what, un?" He said, sitting back abruptly. What the hell? She was stuck way back there because they didn't even use that word anymore. Actually, Deidara wasn't quite sure what it was equated with these days, but the fact that it had the word servant in it made it more than apparent to Deidara that whatever it was, he wouldn't agree with.
"No, I am not, un." He said. "I'm not Itachi-kun's anything, actually." And then with some sense of irritation that wasn't really malicious, he swiped a pen out of thin air, grabbed her small hand, and wrote the address of the Akatsuki hideout on her hand. It was about time they moved, anyway, and after this, they would have to. Deidara hoped their next lair was in a volcano.
Hinata would probably correct Itachi and tell him that one was supposed to eat dinner first. Sweets ruined your appetite.
Smiling again, she glanced down at the handwriting on her palm, trying to memorize as much as she could, in case it got smudged. "Chichi...dango..." she muttered. "Could you put that down, too? This human body is silly with retaining information."
Slightly surprised by his adamant need to deny her suggestion, she wondered how you could be personally aquainted with someone and not being their anything. They weren't even friends? Well, if they were, he might tell Mr. Weasel all about the surprised, and that would ruin quite a bit.
He wasn't smiling anymore, and she felt bad.
"...sorry."
He wrote Chichi-dango on her hand and watched the pen disappear with her quality of happiness. Deidara smiled again, though, picked it up with ease as if it were nothing. "Don't be sorry, un." He said, and though it was a little forced, it didn't sound it. He was getting a bit tired and this whole being nice thing was probably not going to turn out like he wanted it to, anyway. Maybe Itachi would owe him, though, if he did get to eat her.
"I'll remember you, Hinata-san." He said with a nod, "Maybe I'll look you up for a favor later, but if you need me...now that you know my name you should be able to find me, un." He stood up from the swing and put the pen in his pocket, taking her appearance in once more. Again, he wondered what she was doing looking for Itachi. He wouldn't say anything to the fallen seraphim, of course. Itachi was an ass and whatever this little girl could dish out, he deserved what he got. Maybe not if he ate her, but it worked otherwise.
"Have a good day, un." He said. That had physically hurt, but he'd gotten it out without dry-heaving and that was enough. Quickly, though, Deidara turned around and headed in the opposite direction, composed and natural.
What: They discuss secretive matters. Such as Mr. Weasel.
Where: The park
WhenWarnings: Dei is a lying stupidface and Hinata's just stupid. AND GASP. a complete lack of angst.
She couldn't go back up now.
There was something dirty about revenge and now that Hinata had begun to get a handle on that concept, she wasn't ready to go back up to heaven before she'd finished with this business. So she found herself wandering from place to place to place, each as ugly and as pretty as the rest, from brownred building to long expanse of concrete to grassy lots surrounded by glittering metal carriages. Everything glittered and was gold.
Fool's gold.
Hinata liked this particular grassy lot, though, was entertaining. There were long plastic buildings with little parts called slides. But the best part was the swing. She swung her legs back and forth gently, trying to mimick the movements of the small boy beside her. She wasn't doing very well, but it was something to pass the time and help her forget that her stomach was rumbling angrily. She tried taking an apple from the store, but she'd gotten discplined and had been forced to run away.
No. She needed paper to exchange for food, but she wasn't sure where to get paper. She was stuck.
"Swing...swing....swing," Hinata muttered to herself, like a helpful mantra or a cute ditty.
There was something so ridiculously boring about living in a skyscraper with a bunch of demonic murderers that Deidara sometimes couldn't handle it. Well, mostly he couldn't handle Tobi, but that was a given. No one could handle Tobi. Or maybe it was just him. He didn't know what it was. The orange, the 'senpai's the doing things without asking. And people told Deidara that he was annoying sometimes. He was frankly quite surprised that Itachi hadn't eaten him yet. But then, he'd probably get indigestion.
So Deidara had decided to walk to the park. He liked it there, mostly because he could scare away the little kids pretty easily and swing as much as he damn well pleased, and no one said anything about how he was short and would get lung cancer and how they'd done his laundry wasn't that nice? No.
But the swings were all filled up and Deidara had actually been waiting patiently for one of the little kids to get off before he started his routine of harassing the shit out of them. They weren't moving though, and he was getting impatient, and generally when that happened he ended up going somwhere and blowing something up. Yet that was highly inappropriate, and he really just wanted a moment to swing--besides, who said that angels got unlimited time on the swingset, huh?
Oh, right. He thought. Angel.
She was sitting there muttering to herself, and though he didn't remember her at all from Heaven (he hadn't been there long), she looked like she wasn't one of those that would get up in his face just for existing. So, Deidara pushed off the tree he'd been leaning on, snuffed out his cigarette, and ambled over to her.
"You going to share that swing, un?" He asked somewhat politely.
Hinata glanced up at him in surprise, her eyes wide and hiding nothing. He was a small man, and he smelled of something acrid, something sharp and something slightly tasty, if you close your eyes and ears.
"I-I think if y-you...erm...sat on my lap we would...fall over," she replied quietly, reaching up to twirl a strand of her hair nervously. She wasn't really one for strangers, and this man struck her as vaguely familiar. Those sorts of people tended to be fallen angels, but not all the time, so she decided not to bring it up.
Although...he might know about The Weasel. She put on her Very Sneaky But Must Stay Calm face, but it was a little crooked. It was the first time she'd tried it on, after all. There wasn't exactly a lot of room for spying and being a ninja up in the Lord's abode.
"...but I'm willing to try. I guess."
Deidara eyed her thoughtfully, slightly unsurprised that she hadn't taken the hint to move and had instead actually offered to share. It brought him back. Heaven was like the playground, except without the bully that pushed you down and took your marbles and punched you in the face when you wouldn't give up your lunch money. It was the type of playground were there were only little girls and they all liked one another and played hop-scotch and shared their dollies and brushed each other's hair. In other words, totally gay and annoying.
He snorted and pointed to the kid in the swing next to her. "You want to go play baseball, un." He said to the boy, flicking his finger upward and watching as the boy stood mid-swing.
"But I don't like baseball.." He muttered as he began to walk in the direction of the nearest baseball diamond. Wherever that was.
Deidara sat down in his vacated seat and got a bit of momentum going before he looked over at the angel-girl next to him. "So, what's up, Angel." He said, feet lifting to the sky. "Don't your sort usually hang out on public malls handing out pamphlets and bibles?"
Hinata bit at her lower lip and stared at the dirt beneath her feet. Her white shoes were getting dusty and brown, and she leaned over to rub at the rubber with her fingertips. Nothing.
As she did so, she made the little boy instead go see his mother and ask her about a good, balanced lunch. If he paid too much baseball, he might get all tired out and run out of water. She'd realized that humans really have quite a lot of water inside them, and that isn't important to keep that all inside. Suddenly, she got a revelation.
That's why crying was bad. It was leeking important water, and if you cried too much you must deflate like a balloon. Ah, Hinata's expansive knowledge of the physics of Earth was coming in handy at last.
Glancing up at him at last, she studied him carefully. "My sort? I...erm...don't come on Earth too m-much, really. I know Temari goes to the mall, and things, but...um, I don't own a bible. So I can't help her. I asked her once, and she gave me that Temari look that means that she really doesn't like anything and I told her sorry and she went away." Hinata's speech tended to either go irritatingly slow or too fast, often a quick succession of the two.
He was swinging, and he was making it look so easy.
Drat.
What was this girl talking about?
Deidara grunted because it was the only real response he could make to something like that. She was babbling on about someone or other and he couldn't really follow the whole thing because not only did he have no idea who this someone or other was, but this angel-girl had a way of making it difficult to concentrate on what she was actually getting at. Or maybe she wasn't getting to anything---and that could have been the problem right there. He couldn't see where this was going because it wasn't going anywhere.
"You know, un," he said after a minute of swinging, having let a long silence draw out between them like he sometimes did with Tobi when the other was being particularly stupid, "since you haven't been here very long I can excuse it, but here's something. Listen." He pushed aside a strand of blonde hair that had fallen through his eyes, "When you're trying to make a point or something, you can't do it by using someone I don't know, un. It's like...it's like if I fucking start talking about Tobi to you, and you don't know who Tobi is, do you? And I wanted to tell you what not to do, and I said 'Don't do it like Tobi' but you don't know who Tobi is, so is that helpful to you, un?"
He let out a breath. Hopefully she was actually listening to him, because usually when he went to the trouble of explaining something to someone (Tobi) he was ignored. And that usually made him irritated, and Deidara would have liked to enjoy his time on the swings. Because he really did need a break from stupidity for a few minutes.
Hinata often listened, and she really did try her best to understand everything being said, but every so often things just got lost in translation. She realized that people go tired of that quickly, but she really was trying her very hardest. That often wasn't enough, but in the end, it was all she could manage.
"But I wasn't...erm, telling you to not do it like Temari. I was saying that she goes to malls. But if you want to know about Temari, I can...erm, tell you. If you want...or you can tell me about Tobi. Is Tobi your...uh...hn....best friend?"
Hinata moved as she talked, trying to mimic his motions. He was swinging his legs, check. Leaning back and forth, check. But she was only wobbling back and forth quickly, and she stopped before she fell off her seat and some little child scuttled up to steal it before she could regain her balance.
Dear Lord, were children really necessary?
"Are you often helpful?" she asked, then, at an attempt to be sly. See, that was obviously code for can you help me with my problem, and be right quick about it, too. He looked like a fairly smart person...or...non-person.
"No" Deidara snapped to her question, a little insulted that she thought he could be friends with someone named Tobi of all things. Anyway, Deidara didn't really have friends in a general sense. Or any sense, really. "Anyway, I don't want to hear about Temari." He said after a moment, not really knowing what a Temari was anyway, and not really caring. At least this girl had listened. And responded even if she was arguing. See, there was something of a problem with his current circle. Tobi didn't listen to him, period, and Itachi (who Deidara was never sure about) was around to talk at, he never responded. It was rather aggrivating at times, really. That was why Deidara thought he preferred to be alone.
Sometimes.
Recovered from her last question, Deidara stopped pumping his legs and let the momentum of the swing carry him. He wondered if she was asking because of the swing---there was something definitely wrong there with how she was moving her legs, and Deidara almost wanted to get up and show her how to do it properly. She looked like she was going to shoot off the thing and into the dirt, and while he would have laughed and been amused, it was just kind of embarassing that a member of his own race couldn't even master swinging.
But maybe it was something else, and Deidara left jumping to conclusions to Tobi. "Often?" He said, raising a pale eyebrow. "It depends, un." The grin he gave was purely lecherous, and the way his light eyes sparkled could hardly be termed holy. Sure, Deidara was helpful. For the right price. "What do you need, Angel?" He asked, voice honey-sweet.
But Tobi made her think of small creatures, like rabbits and possibly toads. And all creatures deserved unconditional love, and on and on as the Word of God spoketh. But you didn't have to be best friends with everyone, so Hinata allowed his vehement response to pass.
Hinata decided to give up on swinging all together, and simply dug her white-ish sandals into the dirt. It was hard to do too many things at one time sometimes. And she had to be sneaky, and that just wouldn't work if she was teaching herself to swing. His voice, it made her feel warm and cuddly (or what she thought warm and cuddly would be like if such a thing had ever happened to her). He was being nice.
She smiled, and it was a real smile. "I need to find someone, that's all."
An angel in need of finding someone? How interesting.
Deidara tilted his head to the side thoughtfully, observing her. From her position--perhaps not now, but up there---she had a rather perfect vantage point to the entire world. If he could recall one thing about Heaven, it was how easy it had been to locate humans and other angels when they were on earth. So that had to mean that who she was looking for wasn't an angel. And what was a pretty little thing like herself doing, looking for a demon? It gave Deidara all kinds of tingles, and the way his lips curled almost exemplifed that.
"Looking for someone, hm?" He replied thoughtfully, still smiling in that soft way that made people trust him. He knew how to work his face and words, anyway, though recently he hadn't needed to and it would seem he was a bit out of practice. Oh well---what better way to get back into shape than to try his powers on an angel?
"Maybe I could help you, un." For a price. But that would come later. Maybe he was feeling generous. Perhaps she would just owe him one, sometime down the road. "Who would you be looking for, un?"
Hinata's smile widened somewhat. Oh, Lady Luck was on her side today. What were the chances that she'd find someone lovely to help her look for Mr. Weasel? So what if those chances were slim to nil--in Hinata's world, nothing was slim to nil, and there was hope around the corner. Always.
Maybe that was the failing. She believed in what she preached.
"What's your name, first? I'm Hinata. And...it's kind of a secret, you know? So...you have to promise to be confidential...Very hush hush. Like...say, a present. It's that kind of a surprise."
It wasn't really, since Neji would be far from pleased when he found out, but he might be a step closer to pleased than usual.
It took a bit of effort to keep his eyes from narrowing, but Deidara was a master and he smiled generously and put his hand out for her to take in the way that humans introduced themselves. "I'm Deidara." He said with as much politeness as he had ever used in such a situation. She seemed rather intent upon this, and that was good--perhaps he could rope her into something after all. Who knew how much power he could get from an angel? He'd never really tried before; he preferred to leave that part of the past behind him. But Itachi was always eating them for a reason, so maybe he was onto something there.
A surprise though? She was looking for a demon to give him a surprise? What kind of angel was this girl, anyway?
Deidara had to admit he was a bit intrigued, though. She didn't exactly look like the kind of girl that would be looking for that kind of party. But people often surprised him, so Deidara stopped swinging entirely and turned so he was facing her, the metal links of the swing twisting precariously. "And what's your name?" He purred, "And the name of this...person you'd like me to help you find."
He was like a kitty cat, and she was almost inclined to pet him. His hair looked nice and soft, sort of like Naruto's. Both of them were very nice to her, and that made her happy, and so these people made her happy. Not being complicated the essence of all things Hinata.
"Hinata, I said," she replied, feeling more and more comfortable with...Deidara. Drawing a small circle with the tip of her sandal, she tried to find the perfect words to describe whom she was looking for.
"Well...Mr. Weasel's strong, but he doesn't have a machine gun." Her eyes widened as she pleaded with him. "I will be really grateful, really, and if you need favors I'll help if I can, but only...um...nice favors, because...well. You know. Is that okay? Can you help me?"
"Right." He said smoothly. Hinata.
Since she was apparently so pleased with his offer to help, Deidara's mind was already going over exactly what type of payment he wanted to exact from her. There was no specific outline for this type of thing--after all, they were all pretty much in it for themselves--but in general, the goods were supposed to be split up between the members of Akatsuki. Deidara was usually pretty good about that, but what the hell--Itachi was a bastard and eating angels left and right and he didn't share any of that power so...
Wait a minute. Mr. Weasel?
Deidara was pretty quick. Despite the air he could give off sometimes with his various creative ideas, he wasn't one of those people that you could put much past. And weasel kind of rang a bell. Throwing all the rest of what she'd said out the window (because really, who was he to think about it? A favor was a favor. He did one for her, she owed him something. That was how it worked.) he leaned forward on his knees and allowed his smile to soften.
"Mr. Weasel, hm?" How very very quaint. "I think I might be able to help you there, un." A pause. "You wouldn't happen to be talking about someone by the name of Itachi, hmm? Tall, red eyes, slightly insane?"
Slightly insane? He had to be, to leave Neji in that condition. "Yes. Is he really...that tall, though? Tall people are a little...erm...intimidating."
She did the instinctive and placed that bump of skin on her thumb between her teeth and nibbles as she thought for a bit. She didn't want to owe this Deidara anymore than she already did, very nice or not. Like a child, she'd been told to never trust his kind. But he was so nice to her, and he'd probably offer her some candy if only she'd get into his car.
He kept smiling at her.
She couldn't help smiling back.
"...." Deidara said, trying to keep the smile on through the realization that Itachi probably wasn't really that tall, but seemed tall to him because of the fact that Deidara was slightly...shorter. Than some others. Which some people never failed to point out to him at the most inopportune of times (READ: ever.) He wasn't going to let it affect him at this moment though, and just nodded shortly. She was short too, it seemed, so it wasn't like she would notice if he was exaggerating a bit.
"Well, he's kind of intimidating anyway, un." He said thoughtfully. Actually, now that he thought about it, Deidara realized that if he actually helped her find Itachi, there was no way he was getting repaid. Itachi would eat her on sight and he would get all the benefits to Deidara's hard work. "You know, you might want to take someone with you." He said. "It makes him easier to talk to." Not really. And what did she want with Itachi, anyway? He was the last person Deidara would want to talk to, really. All tall and silent and boring.
"Well, anyway, un." He said, brushing aside the problems that weren't his own. If she was intimidated, that was her problem. He was just giving information, and if it just so happened that she made it out alive, good for her and good for him. "I could probably point you in the right direction. Give you an address, if you know what I mean. I happen to know the man personally, un."
Hinata clapped her hands together in an instinctive action of joy. Why couldn't she ever meet people like Deidara more from time to time? She couldn't help but come full circle and just crowd Neji, like she usually did. Maybe...maybe it was time to move away, flee the nest.
Neji's hair does not resemble a nest--
"I...I don't know who I would ask. And I am sure that I will...erm, be alright. In the end." She was sure of no such thing, but she didn't want to worry her new friend. "Does he like baked goods, maybe? Like in that story about the black as ebony girl, where the old witch brings an apple to make her open the door. I can bring some chocolate cake!"
Well, maybe that wasn't the brightest idea. She'd end up eating most of the cake herself, so logically she should take him something that she'd hate. Maybe some....Jello. That way he could have it all.
Wait. But she wasn't supposed be bringing him food. The whole purpose of this exercise was to give him a stern talking to with her sword with those flames and leave knowing that he knows better than to attack angels for no good reason. Food didn't play a big role, so it didn't matter if she ate some of the cake, since he wouldn't have time to eat it. So she could get chocolate cake. Good.
"Uh..." she glanced around her uselessly, trying to spot a pen. "I don't have anything to write with. Or on...so, erm...I can't remember it, either."
It really didn't strike her as odd that this man would know the infamous Mr. Weasel personally enough to know he's tall and intimidating until that very moment. "Wait.....um...are you his manservant?"
"He likes chichi dango." Deidara supplied with the hint of a thoughtful frown. He didn't know if Itachi would like cake. Or if he liked chocolate. The thought that he might, though, was always there. After all, he seemed to have something of a sweet-tooth.
But Deidara hardly thought that Hinata could woo Itachi with food. He would probably eat the cake and have her for dinner. Not that it much mattered--Deidara couldn't really bring himself to care one way or another. Even though she seemed like a kind girl, was reasonably pretty and probably had some holy asset that he was just overlooking, Deidara didn't really find himself caring about. Well. Anyone. Aside from himself, that was. And that was a pretty big job, caring for himself.
He was about to say that she didn't need a pen (rather slyly) because he knew just how to put the information into her head, and was leaning in to do so by pressing his lips to hers when she said that.
"Am I his what, un?" He said, sitting back abruptly. What the hell? She was stuck way back there because they didn't even use that word anymore. Actually, Deidara wasn't quite sure what it was equated with these days, but the fact that it had the word servant in it made it more than apparent to Deidara that whatever it was, he wouldn't agree with.
"No, I am not, un." He said. "I'm not Itachi-kun's anything, actually." And then with some sense of irritation that wasn't really malicious, he swiped a pen out of thin air, grabbed her small hand, and wrote the address of the Akatsuki hideout on her hand. It was about time they moved, anyway, and after this, they would have to. Deidara hoped their next lair was in a volcano.
Hinata would probably correct Itachi and tell him that one was supposed to eat dinner first. Sweets ruined your appetite.
Smiling again, she glanced down at the handwriting on her palm, trying to memorize as much as she could, in case it got smudged. "Chichi...dango..." she muttered. "Could you put that down, too? This human body is silly with retaining information."
Slightly surprised by his adamant need to deny her suggestion, she wondered how you could be personally aquainted with someone and not being their anything. They weren't even friends? Well, if they were, he might tell Mr. Weasel all about the surprised, and that would ruin quite a bit.
He wasn't smiling anymore, and she felt bad.
"...sorry."
He wrote Chichi-dango on her hand and watched the pen disappear with her quality of happiness. Deidara smiled again, though, picked it up with ease as if it were nothing. "Don't be sorry, un." He said, and though it was a little forced, it didn't sound it. He was getting a bit tired and this whole being nice thing was probably not going to turn out like he wanted it to, anyway. Maybe Itachi would owe him, though, if he did get to eat her.
"I'll remember you, Hinata-san." He said with a nod, "Maybe I'll look you up for a favor later, but if you need me...now that you know my name you should be able to find me, un." He stood up from the swing and put the pen in his pocket, taking her appearance in once more. Again, he wondered what she was doing looking for Itachi. He wouldn't say anything to the fallen seraphim, of course. Itachi was an ass and whatever this little girl could dish out, he deserved what he got. Maybe not if he ate her, but it worked otherwise.
"Have a good day, un." He said. That had physically hurt, but he'd gotten it out without dry-heaving and that was enough. Quickly, though, Deidara turned around and headed in the opposite direction, composed and natural.