--I got Captured by Deidara--

--By: Terrier.Z--

--Chapter Twenty-one: Falling into the sky--

Flight. It's something that everyone –farmers, merchants, kings, beggar, priests, and atheists- dream about. At one point in their lives they'll look up at the vast expanse of space above them, void of any movement- save for an occasional bird. Being weightless, free of any and all restraints to hold you back- flight. What does differ among people is how they imagine their ability to fly. Some people use contraptions to soar to the skies. Others flap their arms –personally I'd find that awkward- and swim through the air. Or maybe they sprout wings from their shoulder blades and propel themselves through the sky with huge feathery wings or great leathery bat wings. I, myself, fall into the last of the three, but Deidara didn't need to dream- he already could fly.

A gibbous moon, suspended by invisible wires, peeked out from behind the clouds. Wind was hurtling across the heavens in attempt to fling me off Deidara and fling both of us off. Terrified, I was clinging to Deidara in way I'd have found undignified in any other situation. But, you know what? I'd rather be undignified then splattered on the ground, dead, in a fashion horribly similar to an egg thrown with tremendous force towards a nice, sturdy brick wall. Yes, eggs and I are very alike when it comes to what happens when treated with violently furious forces.

Despite the whipping winds, Deidara was warm. Only a supernatural, unholy force could've ripped me away from Deidara at that moment. I was currently snuggled, no not snuggling…I was just clinging to the robe that just so happened to be attached to Deidara's se-nice, coincidently, warm chest. I had been just coincidently snuggled like that for the past half hour or so, ever since we took off…err… landed on the bird.

Sudden turbulence rocked Deidara's bird off course. I don't like this…what if I slip and fall off." I shuddered.

"You won't, hm. What type of man would I be if I let you fall off?"

"You'd be the 'very-poor-example-to-all-those-aspiring-young-male-kiddies-out-there' type of man."

"No," Deidara interjected, "I'd be something even worse then that, hm! I'd be a-"

"A horrendous abomination to all who possess a Y-chromosome and a definite candidate for eternal damnation in the deepest gorges of hell!" I exclaimed with just a little too much enthusiasm.

"Uhh…yes, one of those, hm." He confirmed with a nod of his head. Strands of his blonde hair tickled my face; I had to wrinkle my nose, about to sneeze.

Automatically, I shot back. "So you're a horrid abomination?"

"No, don't twist my words, I was just agreeing with you on your point that-"Deidara paused to think of how to words a sentence so that I could take any implied meanings from it.

"Sorry, sorry," I lightly apologized during his pause, "Reacting like that is just so habitual to me…it's really a very bad habit. Please just ignore comments like that, and just go about the conversation."

"Hate to break it to yah Tori, but we don't have many civilized conversations. We mostly only have arguments."

"Hey! That is defiantly not true…" My sentence died off as it hit me. We did only ever argue, just like a real couple! Hell, if people didn't know better, they'd easily mistake us for a couple just like the bathhouse attendant! "Then let us have a civilized conversation!"

"We can try at least, hm! Don't know how long the conversation would last though." Deidara said leaning into my ear.

Taking a deep breath I scooted out from Deidara's protective embrace and turned, awkwardly -for I was now cling onto the bird for dear life-, to face him. "Kind, sir, is you would be so kind as to up hold a refined and morally strict conversation with myself, I would be ever so grateful. So please, confided in me how many other individuals have had the delightful opportunity to come up here as well? Ten? Fifteen? Twenty-five hundred and thirty-one?

"You're the first conscious passenger I have ever had the 'delightful opportunity' to take flying, hm." Deidara replied in a pensive manner.

My eyebrow twitched. "Unconscious? Care to explain that further?"

"Sure I will explain it! Just for you Tori! If I have to hide a body or kidnap someone I've flown them away before, hm."

I couldn't tell is he was being a little or totally sarcastic. "Kidnapped?" Wait a minute he kidnapped me before, "So I…"

"Oh, yes…Come to think about it you were flown into this region by me, hm. You were asleep the entire time and you drooled on my travel cloak too! You must have been dreaming about something, or rather someone…" Deidara ended suggestively raising a brow.

"I was secretly waging war against you even while sleeping! You'd have had to an extra load of laundry then and spent more time away from my cave! Thus I'd have had more time to plan my escape!"

"If only you could fight as well as you make excuses…you could easily take over a country, hm." He said matter-o-factly

"Pffft. Lands boring! I wanna rule the skies!"

"But there is no one up here, hm!"

After a moment of serious thinking I replied "Think about it Deidara, you have accomplished what all those primitive mortal humans could only dream about for endless centuries. You can fly! And you can go flying any time of day or night that you want too!"

"So?"

"So…so…so what?" I waited for Deidara to make a point.

"If I am the only one u here it is kind of boring, hm."

"But I am here with you!" I retorted.

"I am talking about when you are not here. Then it is very boring and bleak, hm."

"But it should be a constant challenge to stay atop the bird."

Deidara gave me a funny look before saying, "It helps if you use chakra to stay on."

I cringed, remembering at one point it would have been basic instinct to me to latch on with chakra to every thing I touched .Taking a deep breath I started to intertwine my charka with the clay.

The silence stretched on for a minute or two. I felt a need to carry on a conversation- argumentative or civilized it didn't matter.

"Really, you've never taken someone up here? I can't believe that! It's great once you get use to it!" I spread my arms out and grinned into the wind.

The wind was rather loud, but I think I heard Deidara cover up a laugh and a moment later he said "Who would I take up? Sasori? Not likely, even if I could get him to come out of that shell of his, there's the little fact that he hates me, hm!"

Furrowing my brow I started thinking. Shell? Like that huge hump Sasori had was just a shell? Or was that just a figure of speech? Realizing I'd been thinking a bit too much I improvised with a thoughtful sounding question. "Well, didn't your fellow genins want to go flying?"

"My teammates had a running gag that'd I sabotage it so that they'd fall off, hm."

"Oh my god...You, as in the akatsuki member with explosives up his sleeves –literally-, had a genin team!" I burst out as if it where some magnificent epiphany. Well, to me at least, it actually was a sort of revelation; Deidara came from a normal place. He was not from another dimension or assembled at some freak-assembly factory.

"Tori everyone has a genin team! International regulation requires it, hm."

"Yes, yes, but lots of people ignore the regulations! My village had-"Stopping dead, I wondered if I had been about to jeopardize my own village's security.

"Hidden Earth cheated the system on the occasion too, but for the most part we went by the book, hm.'

"You horrible criminals!" I exclaimed with mock sincerity. "Any way who was on your team? What were they like?"

"Uhh…Why do you want to know?"

"Curiosity." I replied truthfully.

"I'll tell only if you share too, hm."

Letting out a huff, I rolled my shoulders. Being up in the sky was awesome and all- seriously I was flying- but my muscles were getting cramped and my left leg was falling asleep. By the time we landed I was going to be so stiff; hopefully Deidara would be stiff too so it wouldn't be to embarrassing and we could all laugh together about it as we hobbled around trying to get our blood circulating again.

Eyeing Deidara with suspicious look I agreed, but made sure that he had to share first.

"Well, hm! What do you want to know?"

"Every minute detail of your life, but for now share about your genin team. What were…well…what are their names?"

"Natsuko and Fuyuko, hm. They were a little off the wall in a different sense then you though, Tori. They pretended to be twins, always wore the same outfit. Both of them died their hair and wore it the same each day. They made me dress up too. Sasori thinks they're fashion might have rubbed off on me a bit though I don't see why.

I only picked up on the first part. "You had two girls on your team? That's…unusual."

"What don't tell me you are jealous now To-ri?"

"Jealous? Ha! Of What? Two wannabe twins who knew you maybe a decade age? I laugh at the very notion. Hahaha…."

Deidara burst out in real laughter. The bird suddenly didn't seem too steady as it swung through the sky. My stomach turned to butterflies and I reached for a handful of Deidara cloak to feel more secure. Deidara all of a sudden felt a little too smug.

My eyes narrowed. "Did you do that on purpose? If you did that was…that was incredibly corny and cliché. I keeled over giggling mid-sentence. If Deidara had not reached out and steadied me I would have tumbled, still giggling, off the edge and fallen into the sky.

When hauling me back to the center of the bird I took notice of Deidara's hand. Squinting in the poor light I scrutinized Deidara's palm, or more specifically the mouths making faces at me. There were no apparent seams indicating a surgeon had implanted the mouth…Deidara naturally had mouths on his hands. Maybe he came from that factory after all. The mouth waggled its tongue at me. Bewildered I jerked away.

A thought seeped into my mind and before I got a chance to screen it I spoke. "Can I poke it?"

"What?" Maybe he honestly could not hear me. Maybe he was being a jerk. Maybe he was trying to come up with a response.

"Never mind, never mind."

"No what did you say, hm? You look embarrassed now…"

"NOTHING! I said nothing at all. Don't think naughty thoughts Deidara!"

"I am just stating a fact. You look flustered. Come on what did you say, hm?"

"I said…look at the sun isn't it pretty?"

"The sun? Tori, it is the middle of the night."

"The sun can still be there! We just can't see it right now! But how do you know it is still not all pretty? Haha! You don't, that is what! Your just confused and not making sense! You should know that the sun never truly goes away just as the earth rotates we don't see it or something because we're facing the wrong direction. But, but the sun is still there!" It almost sounded like I was talking about myself as I rambled on.

"Damn it! All you girls are all insane! Insanity must come when a person lacks a Y chromosone, hm!" Deidara's facial expression was priceless- beyond compare- somewhere between an exasperated sigh and an angry laugh.

My heart violently quivered for a second before melting into a puddle. Deidara raised an eyebrow at my expression. Words –and facial expressions- failed me. I gave a bewildered Deidara the biggest bear hug my tiny skeletal frame could manage.

When I leaned back I noticed Deidara's suggestive smirk. "Am I that sexy, hm?"

"What, What? No…you're just...a participant in…the…" I mumbled out.

Why, oh why is it so difficult to be honest with myself? It is not like anyone can read my mind and know my inner thoughts- thankfully- so I should just admit 'it'. Deidara is attractive…very attractive. This is what's called being in denial is. It makes things very unnecessarily complicated and embarrassing.

I redirected my gaze, blushing and babbling some incoherent thoughts, toward a patch of towering clouds illuminated by the moonlight. Awkward…very awkward. The bird arched into a tight circle. My chakra let up for a second and I started to slip. In a moment of terror I buried myself back into Deidara's chest. He chuckled lightly and wound his arms around my waist pulling me closer. Realization dawned on me. He'd done that on purpose! I made the mistake of looking back up.

Our eyes locked. Something in the atmosphere changed- and not the weather atmosphere.

Gravity seemed to be pulling is together. Deidara's warm body was pressed up against me. If I had been anywhere else I probably would have ducked under his arms and ran off, but I was on a bird. A bird that was flying hundreds of feet in the air. I was trapped. My mind was too muddled to decided if that was good or bad thing.

My heart was betting off on a disjointed rhythm at a pace that was defiantly not healthy as Deidara slowly pressed his lips against mine. I leaned into the kiss, my head spinning. One of my hands attached itself to Deidara's hair and the other rested on Deidara's back. I'd kissed guys before, but not like this. Maybe it was altitude sickness. Deidara wandering attentions made his bird flutter about unguided for several minutes.

Inside I was going berserk when Deidara untangled himself from me- I couldn't sort through all of my thoughts and emotions. The distance didn't last long as Deidara wrapped an arm around my shoulders and rested his left cheek upon my head. I stifled giggle, but let myself smile until my face hurt and kept smiling some. I felt Deidara grinning into the top of my head as he held me.

--Skip ahead a few minutes--

We passed through yet another low cloud. Dew drops caught onto every surface. I was officially soaked. Opening my mouth to complain, a jolt coursed through my body leaving my blood sizzling and my hair standing on end. Searing pain, with which I was too familiar, burned my flesh. Brunt flesh has a horribly recognizable scent to it. Smell it once and you will never forget it.

"Oh shit!"

"What was that?" I asked worried about a new enemy attacking.

"The static in the nearby clouds- it has reached a rather dangerous level."

"But clay counteracts lightening!"

"Yeah, but it can still fry us, hm!" So I wouldn't be a flattened egg yolk I could be a flying fried egg yolk! Even better.

"Now then..." I began slowly, "What do you suppose we do?"

"We will have land, hm. Once on the ground we can head for the nearest town and formulate a new plan from there."

"Where is our final destination anyway?"

"No idea. Like I said, hm, we can go formulate a plan. I made this bird in a rush- I am surprised that it even lasted this long. This bird was designed to last for thirty minutes and we are now pushing on forty five minutes, hm. So get ready, because we are going to have to attempt a crash landing! "

"WHAT?!" I yelled. Partially because of the roaring winds and partially out of racing emotions. "DID IT EVER OCCUR TO YOU TO MENTION THIS TO ME, OR AT THE VERY LEAST, REMIND YOURSELF THAT THE BIRD WAS GOING TO DIE?"

"No, evidently not, hm!" Deidara replied calmly his brow furrowing, his grip on my arms tightening.

"WELL…WELL…THAT WAS A VERY BAD THINKING DEIDARA!"

"And that was very bad grammar Cla-Tori!"

"AND THAT WAS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF A VERY BAD MEMORY!"

"No that would be an example of a bad short term memory, but a good long term memory!"

"THIS IS REALLY BESIDE THE POINT DEIDARA!"

"That is an odd statement coming from you of all people, hm!"

Grrr…

What ever emotion I was displaying on my face at the moment caused Deidara to look away over his shoulder. I still can't figure out if that was a bad or good thing. Maybe a mixture of both.

"WELL TRYING TO GET KILLED IS WAY OVERRATED!" I said while rubbing my hands then blowing into them. Deidara hugged me into his chest and then the bird started to dive. "IT HURTS A LOT AND IT IS DANGEROUS. OH, OH! AND IT HAPPENS TO BE VERY PAINFUL AND THE CHAN-"

Deidara quickly kissed my cheek and flashed me a brilliant, reassuring smile that sent my heart into a panic mode of another sort. Only a tinge of fear was left to torment my brain. If Deidara planned to get us killed, it at least seemed he planned to do it with me, but my confidence in Deidara exponentially multiplied. I couldn't help the silly grin that planted itself on my face.

The birds wings collapsed and we dove. Streaking at a breakneck speed, the lights speckling the earth below grew ever brighter. Momentarily, I wondered if he was going to pull a parachute or two out of his pocket. I doubt Deidara had any real control over his bird at this point. We were in freefall.

And even better than flying with Deidara, I decided still grinning from ear to ear, is freefalling Deidara, because in freefall Deidara was clinging onto to me as well.

--End --

--Word Count: 2,994 --

A/N: Yes, I am alive. I didn't wander off the edge of the map or meet some other unfortunate demise. As always this is not perfect. I have made mistakes, and I will go back and fix the ones that I find. : ) Tell me what you thought of this and be honest; I can handle critiques.

--UPDATE: As of July 9, 2008 this story is going on hiatus. Writing for me is entertainment- not a chore. And this has become a chore to update. Thus I probably won't update. I should say 'dicontinued', but who knows what I will fell like in the future? To those who have been faithfully waiting for updates thankyou and a sincere sorry.

Mentally I feel much different from when I started this and I don't connect with the story like I use to. So even if I did write I feel it wouldn't be as good- thanks to this years English teacher my style is different too. I'm not going to dumb down, or attempt too dumb down, my writing so it sound like a person who I was a year ago.

DO NOT review in response to this. I will be angry if you do. Reviews are meant to critique a writer- not beg and ask for updates. If you review in response to this chapter that is ok- and remember DO NOT review in response to this update on the story's status. Thank you for your support and sorry that it is going to be left like this.--

-Terrier.z