"Ouch," Hinata brought her hand back down to her lips, sucking away the small prick of blood welling to the surface of her skin. Damn that abnormally spiky twig. Shaking her hand as if to shake away the small pain and thoughts of possible infection, she grabbed the next branch and pulled herself up further.

Finally satisfied with her position in the tree, she sat down on a fat looking branch and rested her back against the large trunk. She peered down into the construction sight below her; it was an eerie sight, up by herself in the lone tree that stood in the centre of it all. She shook the feeling and looked up at the dark, clear sky that was still reluctant to show any appearance of stars.

She crossed her legs and closed her eyes, the night air was cool the breeze was minimal; she didn't need to have even brought her sweater that was currently wrapped around her waist. She fiddled with the dangling arm sleeves, then untied it and brought it up to her face, it smelt like Naruto.

Hinata blushed and buried her face in it even more to push away those thoughts. It was embarrassingly pathetic, honestly; she was utterly infatuated with him, and he…he barely talked to her, let alone noticed her. She had even gone as far as to 'forget to give back' the sweater he had kindly leant her one night while a whole group of their friends had gone bowling.

But still…it was so hard not to love the blond boy; he was so kind, boisterous and beautiful. A never dimming ray of sunshine to her, and tonight, she maybe even would've been able to spend the night with him. She sighed wistfully, he had thrown a party that she would've gone to if it weren't for the frustrating fact that she was a good girl. She didn't party. She didn't go get utterly smashed. She didn't go to the house where the town's (adorable, funny, kind, and generous) miscreant was throwing a party, especially if her father had any say in the matter. Which of course, he did.

She knew it was hopeless though, he had only eyes for Sakura, she had seen the way he gazed at her, the tender way that was far beyond lust. Hinata couldn't blame him though, Sakura was an incredibly kind and beautiful girl who Hinata was sure would've gone out with Naruto if she wasn't worried about hurting Hinata's feelings.

She couldn't keep doing this. Reluctantly, Hinata let the sweater slip through her fingers and get caught on a branch below. She had to let go and stop being selfish, Sakura deserved Naruto and Naruto deserved her; there was no point in denying anymore. She knew that before she had kept telling herself this, but this time, she was resolved. Absolute.

A loud bang exploded the night's quiet stillness and nearly jolted Hinata from the giant tree she was perched in. Darting her head out from the branches, she watched with horror as the last of the blast receded and died. What the hell was happening? Grabbing a branch, she swung down and scrambled down off of the tree with more speed she knew she had, only to end up falling onto her knees and hands. She clambered to her feet and brushed the dirt off of her knees and palms as she sprinted to where she had seen the explosion happen.

When she had finally reached the area where the explosion had impacted, she hadn't been expecting to see a young man peering down at the miniature crater thoughtfully. He looked a couple of years older than herself, a single bright blue eye was visible, the other was hidden behind blond hair that was tied back into a half ponytail.

He glanced up at noticing her presence, "Yeah? Who are you?" He gave her a bright, friendly smile and wiped soil off of his palms and face onto his pants.

Hinata openly gaped and pointed an accusing finger at him, "I-I could ask you the same question!"

Without skipping a beat, he grinned, "I'm Deidara, yeah." He glanced back at the large whole in the ground, "And you?"

A sudden gust blew, causing her hair to fly in every direction and a deep shiver to run through her. "I'm-I'm…Hinata." She added quietly and felt strange for suddenly admitting this to a total stranger. Shouldn't she be a bit more wary?

She was surprised when he stuck out his hands to envelope her own petite one to vigorously shake in turn, his smile never diminishing in the slightest, "Very pleased to meet you, Hinata-chan."

Hinata inwardly recoiled, how did this man (or did he count more as a boy?) have such gall as to be so forward and bold that he referred to her on such informal terms? Slipping her fingers out of his firm grip, she hid them behind her back, "Why are you here?"

"Why are you here, yeah?" He picked debris out of both his and hers hair and fired the question back at her, "You shouldn't be hanging out in this construction yard at night, yeah."

"M-my father owns this site, for y-your information." Hinata stammered and flushed as his hands swept against her scalp and so intimately brushed through her hair to clear the tangles and twigs that had gotten stuck in her descent down from the tree.

He snorted, "I should've guessed you were a Hyuuga. The eyes gave it all away." Another thick breeze brushed past them and Deidara combed a hand through his longish hair, "But I'm pretty sure that daddy wouldn't want his little girl out and about at this time, yeah." He grinned cheekily and wiped the back of his hand against his cheek, leaving a dark smudge against his otherwise flawless skin.

She turned a furious red and crossed her arms across her chest, shivering again as the wind began to pick up, "I come here to think sometimes…he doesn't know I'm out." She regretted it immediately that she had said that, what if he was some psycho who would take that as a chance to kidnap her and do God knows what with her because she wasn't expected at home?

Instead of snatching her up, he grinned wider, "Oooh, rebel." His hands were then stuck into his pockets and he developed a barely noticeable slouch.

"But who are you? What are you doing here?" Hinata blurted out in attempt to divert the attention away from her.

"I'm an artist." Deidara puffed up his chest proudly, "A good one too, yeah."

Hinata raised an eyebrow, "…What type of art?"

He finally managed to produce a vaguely uneasy look, "Oh…you know. I do a couple of things with my art…" He trailed off indefinitely and took out his hand out of his pocket to show her an extraordinarily detailed clay sculpture of a hooting owl. He opened his palm further and pushed it towards her. Hesitantly, she took it within her grasp and was worried her grip may shatter the delicate looking artwork into pieces.

"You did this?" She cradled it between fingers as it were real and looked up at Deidara with appraising eyes, "I-it's amazing!" She gently ran her finger along the tips of its wings and stared into the blank holes for eyes.

"It is, isn't it?" He refused to take it back when she offered and folded her fingers back over it, "Keep it, yeah. It's yours, Hinata-chan."

Hinata didn't ask if he was sure or if he was serious; she didn't want to give it up, it was such a magnificent piece of work. Instead, she clutched it closer to her chest and gave him an appreciative nod, "Thank you."

Deidara gave her an eager grin, "I'm glad you like it so much, Hinata-chan."

She was suddenly reminded of the disturbing crater lying just behind Deidara and frowned up at him, "But what are you doing here?"

The blond bit his lip in indecision, "Can I trust you with a secret, Hina-chan?"

"Depends." Hinata answered warily and wrapped her arms around herself, the wind was really picking up.

"I won't tell you if you don't promise…" He egged her on and leaned closer.

His sudden intrusion on her personal space sent her into an internal frenzy, "Okay! Okay, I promise!" She agreed and shuffled away from him.

"Come here then, yeah." He grasped her hand and pulled her along to an empty area in the site and stopped suddenly, "I guess this would be good enough to demonstrate with, yeah." He twirled back to Hinata and gripped her other hand too, excitedly, "I promise that it will be fantastic. You now get to see my other artwork that I'm even more proud of." He pulled her away from the area and hid them both behind a bulldozer.

"What are you doing?" Hinata demanded and sneezed, ruining the effect.

"You're cold?" Deidara asked, tilting his head and removed his hands from hers to place them onto her bare, chilled shoulders.

Right, she had left Naruto's sweater stuck in the tree. Smart. Deidara shrugged off the zip up hoodie he had been wearing and placed it around her shoulders, "Here. It's warm, yeah." Hinata was sure that even without the sweater being so thick, it still would have been remarkably warm due to his body heat being retained within it.

She snuggled up in it; it had a very natural smell. The smell was not of cologne, just of his sweat, a sharp, spicy smell that Hinata supposed was his soap, and a masculine scent she couldn't place her finger on. Zipping it up, she looked back up at him and was surprised to see how muscular his arms were, she had assumed that his build would have been slimmer and scrawnier due to his slender legs that were clad in dirty jeans. She looked back down at her fingers that were nearly hidden from within sleeves that were too baggy and big for her, nervous that she may have been caught staring, "Thank you."

"No problem, yeah." He looked back at the patch of empty earth that they had previously been standing at, "Are you ready for this?"

Hinata nodded, a sudden excitement taking over and jittering through the veins of her fingers and arms. Deidara produced yet another sculpture from his pocket, this time a viciously snarling dragon that looped around from its head to tail in intricate waves. Using his free hand, he pushed Hinata behind him, "Now watch."

Hinata watched in horror as he tossed it far into the blank space of earth, how could he destroy such a beautiful piece of artwork so carelessly? She didn't even have time to shout before Deidara enclosed her in a caging grip, shielding her from the sudden explosion that rattled through the ground and sent waves of heat through the air. Deidara ducked down further behind the bulldozer, yanking her down with him quickly and pulling her closer to his chest.

The blast receded and when Deidara finally deemed it safe to get up, he let her go, a satisfied grin set on his face. Hinata didn't even get up from the dirt she was sitting on; she was in too much of shock. Her eyes widened when she looked up at him and she cried, "What was that? What the hell was that?"

Even this didn't faze him in the slightest, "It was beautiful, wasn't it?" He nearly skipped back to the crater and stared wistfully down at it, "One of my finest, yeah."

Hinata finally regained her composure and meekly shuffled up to behind him, cautiously peeking from behind his shoulder at the hollow space in the earth where the explosion had been, "This…this is your artwork? B-blowing things up?"

He didn't turn around, but she could tell from his sagging shoulders and his voice that had sunken a level in tone that he was…disappointed. "You don't like it?"

Hinata was suddenly reminded of a father's day when she had sent her father a card that she had poured her heart and soul into to create. When he had received it, he had given it a disdainful look, "What is this?"

"Y-you don't like it?"

She didn't answer right away and instead thought about the blast again. The bang had been loud, but the way it had sounded off and the way the earth had rattled with it made it seem nearly rhythmic, she was sure that she had even seen green and blue hues mixed in the fiery detonation. Choosing her words carefully, she nodded, "I think…I think it was incredibly artistic. I've never seen or experienced anything like it."

He grabbed her hand again and pulled her back to the bulldozer, grinning wildly. "Really? I've never met anyone else who's agreed with my artistic sense, yeah." She watched as a shiver ran through his spine, "I'm excited."

"Wh-what are we doing?" Hinata asked, her fear returning to her at the words that he had just spoken.

He ducked behind the machine and offered her a clay scorpion, "Throw it."

Hinata stared down at the clay sculpture in horror, he was expecting her to begin blowing things up too now? She was about to push it back to him, but as soon as her fingers touched the smooth clay, she knew it was something that needed to be done. The jittering sense that ran through her body earlier returned and she wondered if this was what it felt to be…bad.

Her fingers hesitated in his opened palm as she scooped it into her hand. This feeling was foreign and uncomfortable for her, but not entirely unpleasant, it was something that banished the monotony in her life and felt her feel more alive than she had before. Determinedly, she clutched the cool scorpion in her hands and nodded.

Deidara smiled widely and crouched down to the ground, giving her a thumbs up sign. Her fingers brushed the lump in her pocket that was the owl and she paused, "Deidara-san…that owl…will it--"

"Blow up? No, I made that one with normal clay, yeah." He waved his arm in the direction of the crater impatiently, "Now just throw it!"

Hinata felt the beginnings of a rebellious grin poke at the corners of her lips as she threw the clay sculpture where Deidara had tossed his. She threw herself down onto the ground before the scorpion made impact and let the blond boy next to her pull her in close to him. She was disappointed that the one she had just thrown left a smaller blast, but it left no damper on her excitement.

"Good job," Deidara murmured and let his hands slide away from her waist that he had been clutching close to him.

"W-won't people have heard that? All three of th-them?" Hinata asked breathlessly and took the offered hand that helped her up from the ground, "They'll send cops, you know."

He merely laughed at this, "I'm actually quite adept at escaping the cops, yeah." He wiped a smudge of dirt on her cheekbone away with the pad of his thumb.

"Yeah? W-well I'm not!" She could feel her excitement disappear and fear and dread flood in its stead.

As if on cue, she could hear the wailing of sirens in the distance quickly approaching. He seized her hand, "Then I guess I'll have to take you with me, yeah."

Hinata's feet dug into the ground for a moment automatically, the Good Girl that was programmed into her was starting to finally kick in. Deidara turned his head and gave her an expectant look, his one visible eye urging her to come along.

After seeing enthusiastic look he gave her, she gave her Good Girl a swift kick in the ass and closed her fingers around his, grinning wildly as they sprinted away from the site as fast as they could.

I...love...DEIHINA. I do. Really. It's great, there aren't that many...and that makes me sad. But I'll still write SasuHina, so...not to worry.

Ciao,

MissLe