Chapter Text
The first thing Deidara registered was the smell of breakfast. Itachi was standing over the bed with a tray of food, gentle smile in place and eyes soft. Deidara was always a mess in the morning. His hair was matted in the back and his eyelids droopy. There was usually some eyeliner he had missed when removing it the night before smudged onto his cheek but Itachi always insisted he liked Deidara the most like this. Real and sleepy and imperfectly beautiful.
Then Deidara registered the boy standing next to Itachi. He had a round face and a shock of raven hair that made his pale skin seem almost porcelain by comparison. He had a bright smile on his face and his little goggles dangled around his neck as he ran to Deidara and jumped on the bed.
“Dei, wake up! Tobi made breakfast and…” the boy’s voice was faded, like he wasn’t practically on top of the blonde. He kept repeating something about breakfast, his voice getting louder but still not any clearer and Deidara felt the odd sensation of realizing he was dreaming. He took one last good look at Itachi’s face before being shaken awake.
The boy was indeed on the bed with him, shaking him awake with a panicked look on his face. The angelic smell of breakfast was forgotten as a burnt smell reached his nostrils. It assaulted his senses before Deidara realized, in a panic, that something was burning.
“Tobi tried to put it out!! Tobi tried! Tobi was trying to make you breakfast!” Deidara ignored the boy’s cries to, instead, jump from his bed and rushed to the kitchen.
He popped up the extremely charred waffles from the toaster, using an oven mitt to wave away the smoke. They hadn’t caught on fire yet but they did leave a terrible odor throughout the apartment.
Tobi was right behind Deidara, ringing his hands nervously. He was quiet as Deidara fixed his mess, which was odd for him- being quiet.
Once Deidara’s heart had slowed down a bit now that they were not in immediate danger of burning their apartment down, he turned to Tobi. He saw the boy shaking, ringing his hands together in that way children did when they know they’ve done something wrong.
“Hey, hm.” Deidara got on his knees before the boy. They were eye level now as Deidara gently took hold of the boy’s arms. Tobi’s eyes were watery and he looked shaken up. “What happened? You know you aren’t supposed to make food by yourself, hm! You could have gotten hurt, hm.”
Tobi nodded numbly, tears threating to fall. Deidara sighed and pulled the boy into a hug. He wound his arms around Deidara’s neck tightly and the blond stood, bringing the boy with him in his arms. He propped Tobi on one hip but the boy refused to remove his tearstained face from the crook of Deidara’s neck. The blonde rubbed the back on his little orange footy pajamas and waited patiently. If this kid had taught Deidara anything it was to have more patience.
“What happened?” Deidara tried again, moving towards the cabinet to make some cereal. He was now a master at making cereal with one hand.
Tobi looked at the cereal choices in the cabinet, muttering a small request for Fruitloops. Deidara obliged, grabbing the colorful box and the milk that was already on the counter. It seemed Tobi had tried to pour a glass of milk as well. He only got the glass half full though as the rest was all over the counter.
“Tobi tried to make you breakfast.” The boy repeated, watching the milk be poured into two bowls of rainbow O’s. “Tobi wanted to be nice.”
Deidara put the milk back in the refrigerator and made a mental note to grab more soon. He placed both bowls on the table and looked at Tobi.
“You’re always nice, hm.” He placed Tobi back onto the floor so he could climb into his chair and eat. “You’re almost as good a cook as I am though, hm. We make food together so you can remind me when something’s burning, remember hm?”
Tobi giggled at the memories of their cooking adventures. Deidara always burned something so he made Tobi his personal helper. And he was Tobi’s.
Deidara laughed too, happy to see a smile back on the kid’s face.
“So no more cooking by yourself, alright? We got to stick together, hm.”
He got a bright smile in return as Tobi shoveled Fruitloops into his mouth. “Okay.”
Today was going to be a long day.
This summer was turning out to be a bit hectic; what with Tobi getting older and Deidara being on his own now. He shouldn’t have expected anything less than chaos constantly.
The blonde stumbled into the day care, nearly getting hit in the face with the door, as he followed the boy inside. Tobi’s favorite day care staff had come back from vacation today and Tobi was unbelievably excited to see him. How the hell does this kid always have so much energy in the mornings, hm? Deidara thought to himself as Tobi looked back at him impatiently and urged him to hurry up.
The usual, sweet smile of Hinata Hyuga did not greet him at the check-in desk though. Instead, the bored eyes of the raven haired man Deidara knew all too well stared back at him.
The man made his way around the desk and ruffled Tobi’s hair as a reflex, not even looking at the boy.
“Hey Obito.”
“What are you doing here, un? You don’t even work here.” Deidara inquired, glancing behind the desk again to make sure Hinata really wasn’t there. She was easy to miss sometimes, being so quiet.
“Hi Uncle Sasuke!” Tobi greeted, waving his hand enthusiastically. Sasuke ignored the boy in favor of answering the other man’s question.
“Naruto was running late so I drove him to work. He was excited to see Obito again so I’ll go get him.”
Sasuke leaned his head towards the direction he knew Naruto would be and shouted, “Naruto! Obito is here!” He crossed his arms and waited for the blonde boy to make his way from the back rooms as Deidara glared.
He didn’t like Sasuke at all. They had never gotten along- not when he and Itachi were friends, not when they started dating, not when they got married, and especially not now that Itachi was gone.
“You know he doesn’t like being called Obi-“ Deidara’s hushed complaint was interrupted as an energetic blonde emerged from the back, arms open and excited look on his face.
“Tobi!” Naruto exclaimed excitedly at the little boy as Tobi jumped into his arms. “How have ya been? I’ve missed ya!” Tobi went on a rant, telling Naruto everything he had done in the last week when Naruto had been away. The blonde nodded at the other two adults and lead Tobi into the classroom, still listening to the boy talk animatedly.
“Bye Tobi! Be good, hm!” Deidara called as he watched the boy disappear behind his classroom door. He didn’t say anything to Sasuke as he turned to leave, not wanting his negative attitude ruining his chaotic morning even further. And it had really been a terrible morning so far. Mornings in the Iwa-Uchiha household were usually a mess but today was worse than usual.
Tobi insisted on wearing some ridiculous outfit, Deidara didn’t have time to blow dry his hair, Tobi didn’t want to brush his teeth and then got tooth paste all over this clothes so he had to pick a totally new ridiculous outfit to wear, Deidara couldn’t find his keys, and then they had arrived at the preschool late. On top of all that, Sasuke was there and it had really soured Deidara’s mood.
Sasuke looked very much like Deidara’s late husband Itachi and the fact that Sasuke did everything in his power to piss Deidara off didn’t help. The raven had never been a fan of Deidara and even after him and his brother had married, Sasuke and Deidara were still like cats and dogs. It broke Itachi’s heart that his most beloved brother and his husband couldn’t get along and for that reason alone, Deidara always tried to be nicer to Sasuke now. Deidara had never like Itachi’s little piece of shit brother either but for Itachi’s sake, he would at least try to be civil. It was the least he could do after Itachi had passed away.
Deidara tried to shake the irritable feeling that came with looking at Sasuke’s face as he made his way into his studio. His art studio was a sanctuary and it almost immediately calmed him if not a little bit. The blonde dropped his stuff onto the desk in the room he shared with a fellow artist, not even paying attention when he phone fell out of his bag and onto the floor.
Fuck it. I have a life proof case. He thought to himself as he walked away to get started on his current project. He took a deep breath, breathing in the smell of fresh clay and newly cut wood. The smell of the paint and other supplies almost making him immediately feel at home.
The clay under his fingers was where he belonged, on this stool, in this studio, with the clay running on his hands as the figure of a raven took shape in from of him. This was art.
The calm atmosphere disappeared as his studio partner came in, punctual at always. He was scheduled to come in an hour later than Deidara and he always came in at exactly 9am. His name was Sasori and although Deidara admired the craftsmanship that went into the man’s art form, he couldn’t help but think it seemed too precise. Art was about fun mistakes, all mismatched edges and explosive personality shining through your project. But to Sasori, art was more mathematic, symmetrical. If one piece of wood was not exactly like the others, it was useless. Making puppets seemed like an interesting concept to Deidara and the potential for that art style was limitless for fun but Sasori was a perfectionist.
If Sasuke and Deidara were like cats and dogs, Sasori and Deidara were like oil and water but neither could agree on which of them were oil and which was water. They didn’t agree on anything and Sasori often ridiculed Deidara’s art style. That was one thing that Deidara would not stand for.
“Morning Brat.” Sasori greeted Deidara with his rude nickname, the blonde scowling at the mention of it.
“I had a bad morning. I don’t need your shit today man, hm.” Deidara told him, perhaps a bit too loudly from across the studio. “You just stay on your side and leave me alone, hm.”
This was going to be a longer day than Deidara thought.