A/N: I do not own Naruto or affiliated characters.

I originally wrote this as a contest entry on deviantArt, and you can still find it on there. In summation of the author's comments on dA, I wanted to address the three artists of Akatsuki idea as well as writing a shipfic. The timeline may be screwed up, but I hope you won't let that be a distraction. Enjoy!

Konan barely remembered her last day off. She only thought about it because Sasori had still been alive then, and they'd shared a room, with his attention devoted to repairing his puppets and hers to the projects she attended to when she had the time.

Less and less time as the days went by.

It was a rare sunny and humid day in Amegakure when Pein allowed himself a few hours of real sleep. The tower was strangely quiet, given the guests awaiting their new missions. Konan slipped down the stairs and into the cool basement.

Konan found Deidara perched on Sasori's seat, staring at the ceiling. His chin was propped on one fist, and his other hand was playing absently with a small piece of clay.

"Are you expecting an attack in the Akatsuki's basement?" she asked, with a touch of irony. He started - it might have been the first time she'd spoken directly to him - and laughed uncomfortably.

"If Sasori-danna worked here, he probably left some traps, hm."

"If you wish, I could disable them." He blinked at her, uncomprehending. "You were closest to him, and so you inherited his possessions." Deidara nodded and his gaze fell to the floor.

"Nah... maybe some other time. Hm."

"As you wish." Konan passed by him and looked at her project, still unfinished after years in the works.

It was a pair of wire trees with great spreading branches - Sasori had helped after finding her cursing at her first few failed attempts - fixed to a large board. Impossibly small origami flowers were attached to both; one with tiny magnolias, the other with tinier cherry blossoms. Many of the branches were completely bare, and she hadn't even begun with the leaves yet.

Among the roots sat a minuscule red origami scorpion.

Before she realized it, a long sigh escaped her lips and Deidara had slipped off of the stool and was standing next to her.

"... I see why you wouldn't want to blow that up, hm." Konan turned her head to find him staring at her, expression unreadable. "How do you make them so small?"

"Patience. Practice." She took a seat and reached for a square of paper, splitting it into quarters with a wisp of careful chakra. From there her fingers deftly manipulated one of the pieces until a tiny flower sat in her palm. She offered it to Deidara, who accepted and examined it almost with reverence.

Konan started folding the last quarter before Deidara spoke. "Can you teach me?"

It was her turn to feel confused. "...Why?"

He grinned. "Gotta learn from fellow artists, hm."

#

Barely weeks later, a golden swan reposed in the wire branches as Konan sat alone in the tower's basement.

#

The next time she saw the wire tree, she had run to hide from the tower's visitors. Dealing with Hidan and Kakuzu on behalf of Pein sounded revolting: neither had respect for death, as both had so successfully avoided it.

So she ignored Pein's summons and set to work, folding and carefully gluing flower after flower to the branches. The absorbing task quickly soothed the nausea that had built up and she soon forgot its cause.

Until a pair of heavy feet began stomping down the stairs and paused at the door. Just long enough for her to realize who it was.

Hidan burst into the room, scythe balanced carelessly on one shoulder.

"Hey, Konan, Leader-sama told us you have our mission," he said, sauntering over to her. She bristled at the lack of a honorific and turned back to the half-finished flower in her fingers, though her hands were trembling so much she couldn't continue.

"Go ask him for it," she snapped, setting down the origami and clenching her hands in her lap, avoiding eye contact. "He can brief you himself."

"Hey-y. I usually have to say something like an asshole before you get all bitchy. What is it? 'That time' of the month?"

Of all the people to deal with when she had memories so strong of the dead all around her...

"'That time of the month?' What do you mean?" Her temper - which had been unusually short in recent days - was close to snapping.

Instead of doing the obvious and therefore Hidanlike thing, he squatted down and peered up at her face, an expression close to concern on his own.

"Someone dicking around with you besides me? Pein being a shithead bastard and leaving the seat up?"

She laughed in spite of herself and found her throat choking up, her eyes watery.

"You... you..." She threw the half-formed and now-crumpled flower at him. "Ahhh." It hit his shoulder and bounced off harmlessly.

Hidan snorted. "Feel better?"

Konan took a deep breath and wiped her cheek with the inside of her wrist. "...Yeah."

"Nobody gets to fuck around with you besides me, got it? I'll kick their heathen shit-for-brains outta their skulls."

"...Why?"

"Because they're not me." He seemed bothered for a second, but then stood up and shrugged nonchalantly. "You can get back to making useless pretty shit after you give us the mission scroll."

Konan sighed and pulled it from a sleeve. Hidan snatched it and swaggered off.

The moment had passed.

#

A few months later, a silver-gold origami boar wandered the ground beneath the wire trees.

Konan no longer added flowers or even visited the room.

A graveyard was no place for the living.