Chapter Text
When Obito chases the little punk into a dead-end alleyway, he stops at the mouth of it. He watches as Deidara twists and turns, looking up at the too-high pipes that he cannot reach.
“Nowhere left to run,” Obito says when Deidara turns around.
“C’mon, synth,” Deidara says with a grin, “you’ll let a poor kid go, wouldn’t you?”
“Not when said poor kid directly disobeyed the orders of his superior, no.”
Deidara laughs, cold and bitter. “I handed in my two weeks. How is that disobedience, yeah?”
“Your employment contract states that it will last for up to half a year after termination,” Obito says. “Did you not read the fine print?”
“Well,” Deidara replies. He clears his throat and looks up at the pipes he can’t reach again. “I clearly didn’t.”
“You’re going back to see Madara.”
As Obito takes his first step, Deidara runs toward him. Obito stands still, braces himself, and lunges at Deidara when he gets close enough.
“What were you aiming for, exactly?” Obito asks. Deidara struggles in his grip and gives up after a while.
“Thought I could surprise you and then slip away, hm,” Deidara replies.
“Didn’t work.”
“Yeah, I can see that, genius. Did they not hook you up with a new processing chip when they put you under the second time?”
“Your bomb didn’t hurt my head.”
Deidara sighs. “Were you born brainless, Tobi?”
“I thought I told you… I wasn’t that great at school, but I managed—”
“That was a rhetorical question, hm.”
Obito huffs. “We’re going back.”
He drags Deidara out of the alleyway and onto the main street. The passersby glance at them and then look back down at their devices. A cook walks toward them with two bags of trash both his hands.
“Fuckin’ tin can,” the cook mutters under his breath when they pass him.
Obito looks at him and then looks back at the road. The car door opens when he approaches. He yanks Deidara toward it.
“Ouch, you’re being very rough. I thought you’d treat an old partner with a little more respect, hm.”
“I don’t remember you treating me with much of that while we were working together,” Obito replies.
Deidara shrugs. He ducks his head and sits down.
“You gotta earn your respect, yeah,” Deidara says when Tobi sits down in the driver’s seat.
The belts buckle themselves.
“Right back at you.”
Deidara laughs. The car starts up and turns out of the small street.
“That was good,” Deidara says. He leans back against the plush car seat and crosses his arms. “That was the first good comeback I’ve heard you say.”
“I will take that as a compliment.”
“You should. That’s the first time I’ve heard any type of personality come from you, Tobi, hm.”
Obito grips the steering wheel. The car is on autopilot.
“What happened to you, man?” Deidara asks. “I know you’re still in there—some part of you, at least.”
“Life happened,” Obito spits.
Deidara raises an eyebrow. “Wow,” he says. “Did you just get angry at me?”
Obito stares blankly ahead. The stoplight turns red. The car slows to a halt. There are only a few people crossing the streets—all of them are staring down at their devices, smiling.
“I did no such thing,” Obito says.
“Sure. Then I can ask one more question, right?”
Obito closes his eyes. His grip on the steering wheel tightens.
“Who’s Rin?”
The light turns green. The car starts up on its own but Obito turns off the autopilot. When he fails to move, the cars behind him honk and flash their high beams. He drives and stops the car by the side of the road.
“Where’d you learn that name?” he asks.
Deidara sits up. He lowers his arms and puts both hands on his thighs.
“I read it in your file,” Deidara says.
“You stole company property?”
“No, you idiot. I read it when they assigned you to be my partner after Sasori broke down, hm. I like to know who I’m dealing with.”
“You violated company policy.”
“As if that company doesn’t violate every other policy set by the old world, yeah.”
“It’s the old ways,” Obito says, “that’s why they are cast out. They’re outdated.”
“I think being allowed to walk around without a chip in my head and experiencing the actual, physical world around me is quite reasonable.”
“The chip doesn’t track you and the simulations are simulations, they are never advertised as anything else.”
“You’re right on the second half, I’ll give you that, but you’re literally the glowing blue arrow on maps, hm.”
“That is incorrect.”
“Oh, yeah? Then tell me why it took you five weeks to find me when it only took you an hour to grab Hidan?”
Obito clenches his jaw. He turns around and puts his synthetic arm on the back of the passenger seat. His lone, dark eye looks at Deidara. Deidara tries his best to focus on his real eye and not the way the white, sleek metal reflects the city lights.
“The city is small, but there are a lot of hiding places,” Obito decides to say. “You just happened to find all of them.”
“I got lucky, is that it?”
“Yes.”
“I dug out my chip an hour after my last day,” Deidara says. “I blew it up during my last act, hm. But you knew that the moment I went offline.”
Obito nods.
“Don’t pretend,” Deidara says. He presses on the release button and the seatbelt retracts. He slides forward, putting his hands on both headrests, and leans his head close to Obito’s.
Deidara glances down at Obito’s radios and, after taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, Obito turns them off.
Deidara grins. He leans just a little closer.
“It’s alright,” Deidara murmurs. “People die, shit happens. That’s what life means. Our lives are so short, Tobi, we need to live every moment to the fullest. If nothing bad ever happens to us, then what’s the point of trying our best?”
Obito opens his eyes. Deidara reaches out and traces the edges of his replacement eye. Obito winces.
“Without any challenges, you don’t stop to appreciate the little things in life, Tobi.”
Obito leans into Deidara’s touch.
“Tell me, did you ever even look at Hong Kong before you had to hunt for me?”
He shakes his head.
“You didn’t even know that we have a Ferris wheel by the pier, hm. And the abandoned carnival.”
“I remember the carnival,” murmurs Obito, “my father used to take me there when I was a kid.”
Deidara slides his hand down and cups Tobi’s synthetic cheek. The metal is cold and smooth to touch. He rubs a thumb along where the cheekbone is supposed to be.
“It’s the little things, yeah,” Deidara replies.
Obito looks into Deidara’s eyes.
“You have both eyes,” he says.
“Of course, I do,” Deidara replies, “I wasn’t going to pay an extra twenty grand to get the transplant done, yeah.”
“But you had the thing—”
“It’s stick-on.”
“Oh.”
Obito continues to look and look, and then he realizes Deidara’s eyes are focused directly on him. He holds his gaze until he feels dizzy.
“You should join us,” Deidara mutters, lowering his gaze. “We really need someone like you on our side.”
“What are the benefits?”
“There’s no healthcare insurance if that’s what you’re asking, yeah.” Deidara pats Tobi’s side, the metal underneath his dress shirt clanks. “Say goodbye to the pristine state these bad puppies are in.”
“They’re my best features,” Obito says.
“It’s sad that you think that.”
“Alright,” Obito says, “then what do I get for risking my life and joining you?”
“My sister can steal you a better processing chip, hm.”
“I can turn on autopilot again.”
“You get to hang out with the second-in-command. I heard he’s a pretty cool guy.”
“I wouldn’t say that—”
Deidara grunts.
“—but I did feel the most human in twenty years after being paired with him.”
Deidara grins. “So, are you in?”
Obito looks at him and considers the way Deidara’s soft hands feel against him.
“I’m in.”
“Good,” Deidara says. He moves away from Tobi and gestures to the displayed route on the car monitor. “You need to get this car as close to the North Point Police Station as possible, then I’ll walk you through the next steps, yeah.”
Obito starts the car manually. “Why am I not surprised that you planned this?”
“It’s the little things, Tobi,” Deidara says with a grin. “It’s always the little things.”