unmasked ⇌ tobidei

unmasked

One hello can take away the pain of a thousand goodbyes.

And I could feel myself falling deeper. Falling in love is not rational. It's madness. A beautiful, wonderful, moment of magnificent insanity. I promised myself, after Rin I would never fall so hard again; until now, how have you made the fall feel like flying, Deidara? I tried to shake off these thoughts, there was no point in hiding myself anymore, not from him. Shaking, I slowly let my guard down and let my arms fall limp to the floor, no longer attempting to hide my face. He had a shocked look on his face, his eyes piercing through me as he examined every flaw, every scar, every emotion conveyed through my odd-looking eyes.  
"I'm hideous, I know; you don't have to look at me like that." I confided, my Sharingan deactivating so I could meet his gaze with my night-coloured eye. He seemed to still be speechless, his eyes refusing to look away from mine. 
"How long were you there?" I asked quietly, my eyes diverting downwards. 
"Y-You acted weirdly back there so, as soon as you left I followed you... I was planning on knocking and apologising but... I-I heard your real voice and one thing led to another." He explained, no longer searching through my eyes for answers. 
"Okay... I'd prefer if you didn't tell anybody else about this. After all, you're the only living person to see my face in eighteen years." I smiled, a hint of animosity behind my words as I discretely threatened him. 
"Of course I wouldn't tell anyone... Are you okay though, Tobi?" He asked, his eyebrows furrowing in concern for me. 
"Tobi isn't my name." I smiled again, "Well, this was a nice conversation. You should get going now." I said, watching his every movement carefully. The slight twitch of his lip, his left eyebrow raising, the soft breath of air he let out upon hearing my words, I concluded he wasn't expecting that. 

"Tobi, you're not going to explain?" He asked me, anger evident in his voice.
"Why would I have to explain anything to you, Dei?" I responded, watching him become confused again.
"Dei...Why are you calling me- You know what, never mind. You don't have to explain, I just think I would understand this more if you gave me one." He countered. I sighed and pulled him into my room as he was still hovering next to the door, I made sure the door was properly shut this time as I slammed it.
"So you're actually going to- Woah!" Deidara let out a sound of exclamation as I had pinned him against the door suddenly, holding up the much smaller boy by his neck, a kunai pointing at his jugular.
"Listen closely, Deidara. I'm trusting you with my deepest, darkest secrets if I tell you this. I'm a dangerous man, and a strong one. I could kill everybody in this hideout here, but I need them all for my plan to work, and I need you..." I trailed off, my words echoing the truth I wanted him to hear, "Self-trust is the essence of heroism, Dei. But I think I trust you with this, because when you share hidden parts of yourself with someone else, you're trusting that person to hold the secret sections of your heart... I'm trusting you to hold the secret sections of my heart, and to love the parts I thought were unlovable." I instructed, refusing to look at him, "Got it?" I asked, he didn't speak a word, my eyes widened when I looked at him. The colour had drained from his face due to the tight grip I had around his neck, the kunai had grazed against his neck many times. I gasped slightly in shock and let go so he could drop into my right arm, he gasped for air and a wave of regret rushed over me.
"I'm sorry, Dei. I got carried away." I apologised quietly, fighting the urge to blush as I watched him helplessly rest against me as he fought to breathe.
"What the hell..." He gasped between breaths, his eyes looking into mine, a look of betrayal buried deep within them.

"Got it?" I repeated myself. He weakly nodded, his breathing still shallow and unusual. I gripped his shoulder and placed him on the bed, so he could rest while I explained.
"I don't know how to tell you this, so I'm going to have to show you." I informed him. And with his nod, I began undressing.
"Ah- What are you doing?!" He exclaimed, looking at me with wide eyes. I didn't answer him, I just watched his facial expressions as I took off the cloak, then the gloves - revealing two different coloured hands. Then my shirt came off, revealing the fact half of my body was in fact, not mine. One half of my body was a ghastly, bleached white colour.
"I was in an accident, I thought I was going to die..." I said to Deidara, trying to control my wavering voice as I turned away from him, looking at myself with hatred in the mirror that stood opposite the bed. 
"Then my best friend ripped out my crush's heart... Both physically and literally." I grimaced, the memories of that day flooding back into my mind. I turned back to Deidara, his face was emotionless but his eyes always gave him away, that one visible sea-coloured eye, always filled with so much expression.

"That's a very vague explanation." He drawled after a few moments of looking into my eyes. I shrugged my shoulders and sat next to him, he looked at the white side of my skin carefully. I slowly reached for his face, warily caressing his cheek with my bleached white hand. 
"It's just...somebody else's cultivated cells. It's not going to hurt you." I stated softly. I looked into his eyes again, but this time I couldn't contain what I was truly feeling. 
"You look... so new. So unfamiliar. I don't know how you taste, how your hands will press against my skin, how you'll breathe. What if I never see you like this again?" I whispered, moving closer to him, to my surprise he also moved closer. Our lips mere centimetres apart. "I can see the apprehension in your eyes, the wanting. You don't know either. In your mind, I'm also an uncharted territory. Isn't it perfect?" I said in a quiet, low voice. I glanced back up to look at his eyes, almost like I was asking for approval with my eyes. His eyes met mine before slowly closing, gently grabbing onto my hand that was still holding his face. I let out a sigh of relief, allowing our lips to meet, and it felt like everybody said it would, it felt like lightning. It felt like fire within my bones. It felt like my soul has touched the water of the Heavens itself, like every part of me that came from a dead body, was alive again. Our lips slowly parted, blushes both evident on our faces. I smiled at him, genuinely this time, and leant back into kiss him. Only this time, he didn't kiss back.

"What's wrong?" I asked, my speech muffled as I was too scared to remove my lips off his.
"I-I don't even know you, Tobi- That's not even your name, you're a stranger to me. More than ever before." He exclaimed, moving his lips off mine.
"Our souls aren't strangers, you feel it too, our spirits aren't strangers. Tell me what part of me is stranger to you and I'll destroy that part of me... Obito. Obito Uchiha is my name!" I countered passionately, desperation evident in my words and eyes.
"I-I-" He began, but I cut him off again.
"Tell me you felt it too." I almost pleaded, placing my other hand on the back of his neck, "That moment... you stole all the air from my atmosphere, you made my heart pound with the might of all the planets. That was when I knew, you are worlds more, than just a first kiss-" This time I was interrupted by Deidara, interrupted by his lips crashing into mine. I couldn't help but smile against his lips as I gently kissed back, his kiss was full of fire, passion, I could tell it was the first time he's ever felt like this. My kiss was gentle, secretly wishing with every passing second, Deidara had stolen my future moments of loneliness. Deidara parted the kiss to say something,
"Who knew you had such a way with words? I would've never have guessed you were such a hopeless romantic-" I cut him off with a more rough kiss this time, causing him to fall back onto the bed, a noise of shock muffled against my lips as I hovered over him and continued kissing him.

"Hey guys, Pain wants you two to- Woah! What the-" Hidan had come barging through the door, his jaw dropped in shock as he saw the scene. I quickly put my mask back over my face, luckily he hadn't seen my face, Deidara was a different story, he was lying breathless on the bed, a blushing mess.
"D-Did Tobi's genjutsu work on Hidan?" I quickly returned to my normal demeanour, hoping he was fooled.
"I know what a genjutsu is, and that wasn't one... You freaks." Hidan rolled his eyes, closing the door. I pulled my mask back off, looking Deidara back in the eyes. A few seconds passed, and we busted into laughter, smiling widely at each other like fools. 

True life is lived when tiny changes occur. Deidara was a tiny change that allowed me to live a full life again.

[hope you enjoyed!! this is the first story i'm publishing so feel free to give feedback, good or bad :) i hope i didn't rush the ending]