[do not] Lie to me - tobidei

CHAPTER 6 - Here I go Again

Obito's POV

"Could it be... that your art is a ripoff?"

"Tobi..." Deidara is seething with rage. Tobi has gone too far this time.

The artist throws a few bombs in Tobi's general direction while screeching incomprehensively. Obito still seeks to annoy his partner from time to time despite their newfound (and unspoken) proximity, but he now feels somewhat bad for insulting Deidara's art in that way. He does not understand his obsession with explosions and animal designs, but he does find them very pretty.

When he finds Deidara again he is setting up camp in a small cave. He does not look in Tobi's direction and silently leaves to get some lumber for the fire. Obito seems a glimpse of a sad look on his partner's face as he passes by him. I fucked up, is his first thing that comes to his mind. Obito waits for him for hours there but he has no sign of the blonde nin.

He follows his chackra trace and finds the artist crouching besides a small creek. He is so fixated on his reflection on the water that he does not notice Tobi settling in the dirt right beside him. Before he starts speaking, Obito mentally slaps himself. Why do I care? Why am I here trying to make him feel better when I should be worrying about how the plan is going? Teamwork, yes, this is about teamwork. Nothing else.

"Senpai." He comes off a little too serious for Tobi.

"I'm not in the mood, hm"

"Tobi is worried, his senpai is too quiet. Did Tobi do something wrong?"

"Did you mean what you said earlier today?"

"Of course not senpai."

"Well, I think you did. All you people do is act like everything I do is crap. My village did, my sensei did, my old friends and even you now."

Obito stays silent.

"I don't care if everyone is too dumb to understand what real art is, but I am just... fucking tired of being snubbed by the people I..."

Deidara now looks at Tobi's mask with tears in his visible eye.

"...That I trust"

To say that Obito blushed underneath that mask is an understatement. His face was burning. Trust? He knows nothing about me, not even how I look, how can he trust me? Deidara looks away and gets up.

"Forget about it Tobi, hm. It's all bullshit, we need to focus on your mission and rest now yeah."

As the artist is about to go away, Obito makes a split second decision and grabs Deidara's arm.

"I like your art." Too out of character, but fuck it. "I might not understand it completely, but I really think it's special."

If it was not for the dark, Obito could swear he saw a light red tint on his partner's cheeks and a small smile.

"Thank you, Tobi. I guess, hm."

"Let's get back to camp silly senpai. It's getting really dark here."

Back at the cave, each one lies on their respective futon. Obito's heart is still racing. He feels like he is an idiot child back at the academy again, littering Rin with compliments just to see her smile. He grabs the necklace out of his pocket and looks at it. It does resemble her eyes, but also something else: a big explosion on the sunset. He squeezes it and puts it away.

All of the sudden a realization comes to him: he feels worse than the academy times. His chest might as well explode and his belly twists every time he even thinks of yellow, blue or explosions. He turns around to see Deidara sleeping peacefully on the other side of the fire.

His senpai saying that he trusts him brought up so many questions to Obito's mind that he cannot help to get anxious. Not only did his partner trust someone he knew nothing about, but the masked one could also not help to feel happy about. Why was he so happy about that? Deidara is a hobby, a distraction at most. Right?

Obito swallows thickly. There is no use in denying it any longer. He does not love to annoy Deidara. He fucking loves Deidara.