3rd POV:
A week past, and Taki stuck around Zetsu, Deidara, and Tobi mainly. Everyone else just observed her, silently.
She had been cleaning up the house, from the kitchen, to the living room, to the halls, and bathrooms.
When they weren't there to see, she would clean and organize their rooms. Every day, when they came back from their missions, they would find a little flower on their beds.
The flowers, along with their meanings, were changed everyday.
Zetsu, concerned, looked at his garden often to see if Taki was somehow cutting his flowers and using them to put on their beds.
Of course, she hadn't taken any of his flowers. Which only meant that every day she purposely went outside to look for a specific kind of flower. It made him wonder how long it took her to find those flowers, just for them.
Each day's flower had a different meaning. Bluebell, "thank you". White camellia, "I've been waiting for you", ect.
Taki would even go out every morning, and water Zetsu's garden. Sometimes he went with her, sometimes he didn't.
For them, it was a nice little surprise that always brought smiles to their faces.
Even though they were all technically adults, they never picked up after themselves that often.
Out of all of the Akatsuki, Itachi and Kisame were the best at cleaning after themselves. Often they would have the others clean up, as well.
She would also cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner for them. She never complained when someone made a mess without cleaning after themselves.
She just silently cleaned it up, as if she was a robot programmed to do so.
She was almost like the mother of the organization, cooking and cleaning.
Except she never once complained, never frowned, never cried, never pouted, and most certainly made sure not to bother anyone.
She almost never talked to anyone except Zetsu, Deidara, Tobi, and on occasion, Konan. She didn't want to annoy anyone by talking to them.
They never once dared to treat her like a maid or servant. They all treated her with the utmost respect, as she had given them without hesitation.
~•~
Taki was alone in the hideout, as everyone else was gone on a mission.. except for Sasori.
Although she did kind of want the day to herself anyways, she thought that Sasori might want some company.
She sighed, getting up from her bed and almost forgetting to do so, took a shower. It was still pretty early, and she hadn't gotten very much sleep.
In fact, lately she hasn't been getting very much sleep at all. It wasn't on purpose that she didn't get in much sleep.
She always went to bed around ten. She just couldn't sleep until like three. Then she would naturally wake around five or six.
Taki rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and again almost neglected doing simple things such as brushing her teeth and hair. (She never wore makeup, as most people told her that she did not need it because she looked so pretty without it anyways.)
She brushed out her long, long hair, and put it up in a half up ponytail. (Like Deidara, I guess.)
She finished getting ready, putting on a white cami, throwing a grey sweatshirt over it. She tugged on some baggy black pants, and exited her room.
She walked down the hallway, over to Sasori's room, finding the door slightly cracked.
She slowly opened the door, just enough to peek inside. She saw Sasori, working on his miraculous puppets on a desk surface, facing away from her.
"Um.. Sasori?" Taki called out softly. She had never spoken to him before, so she was very nervous about angering him.
Sasori's head turned slightly to look at Taki, then continued to work on his puppets.
"Hm?"
Taki pushed the door open a little more, and walked over to Sasori. She walked slowly and cautiously, as if it was a minefield.
She stopped five feet before him, and looked down. She shoved her hands in her sweatshirt pockets nervously.
"Mm.. I just.. thought.. that maybe.." He turned his body, so he was fully facing Taki. He raised an eyebrow.
"Maybe.. you wanted someone to talk to, or something.." She immediately squeezed her eyes shut, and took a step back, as if she was expecting him to hit her for asking him a ridiculous question.
For a split second Sasori looked at Taki with a feeling of sadness for her, he knew that she was afraid of him.
His face returned to its emotionless state, you couldn't even tell it was ever otherwise.
He turned back to his work. "Go away, brat."
Sasori instantly regretted using those words that he so freely used with Deidara when he annoyed him.
However, he did not apologize, as it would negatively affect his pride, and dignity.
Taki's eyes were brimmed with tears. Refusing to let them fall, she silently wiped her eyes. No one in the Akatsuki ever saw her cry, save the first encounter with them, and she intended to keep it that way.
When Sasori continued to ignore her, Taki sighed softly, and walked away. "Sorry, Sasori-danna.. I promise it won't happen again."
She mumbled this more to herself than him, as she did not expect him to hear her anyways. But he did. When she shut the door, he leaned back on his chair, and sighed.
His heart broke at the thought of making about the most nice, and kindest person in the world sad.
I was supposed to be her friend, not her enemy. Great going, Sasori. Wonderful first impression on Taki.
Sasori groaned, and looked down at the puppet he was working on. He had the main body structure down, now before he would detail it, he needed to figure out what he would make it look like.
He was running out of ideas for puppet designs. He had already made puppets that looked like everyone in the Akatsuki.
He thought, and thought. When he was about to give up, a sudden thought crossed his mind.
How could he forget? There was still one person he hadn't made a puppet of.
He pulled back the curtains slightly, and looked out of the window into the backyard. Perfect.
Taki walked outside, with a watering can. She immediately shivered at the cold.
She dumped the can into the lake on the edge of the garden, filling it with water. She then continued to water the surrounding plants that belonged to Zetsu.
Little did she know, that a certain redhead was watching her from the window above.
~•~
Taki's POV:
After watering Zetsu's plants, I went back inside. I walked into the storage closet to put back the watering can.
I made my way back to my room, making sure to check if there were any areas that needed cleaning.
I pushed open my door, and just as quickly, closed it. I laid on top of my bed, and stared up at the ceiling. When I knew that there was no possibility if anyone watching, I wept.
Tears welled up in my eyes, and I willingly let them fall. After about a minute of silent crying, I started to sniff.
Sniffing led to more tears, and that led to making some noise. It was unintended, but the sounds of my sobbing could be heard, echoing through my room. It was a loud type of cry.
Why did Sasori not like me? Did I annoy him, was I a bother to him? Stupid Taki. I knew that I shouldn't have spoken to anyone but Zetsu, Dei, and Tobi-kun. Look what you got yourself into.
In the middle of my tears, I started hiccuping really loud, and I tried to hold my breath to make the noise go away. It only resulted in light-headedness, and a small headache. I took out a small book out of my night dresser, and jotted some stuff down.
Sasori's POV:
I walked down the hallway once I had finished my puppet, I needed some fresh air. On the way to Zetsu's garden, (which, I had never paid attention to until I saw Taki watering it) I thought I heard some weird noise in Taki's room.
I pressed my ear to her door, and listened. My eyes widened when I realized that she was crying. In all the time she had spent with us, I had never seen or heard her cry.
It started out pretty soft, then it got louder, and louder. I could hear it being muffled, probably by her pillow.
Then it stopped. All was silent. I stepped away from the door, and walked over to Zetsu's garden. I was in awe of how.. beautiful it was.
I sat down on the edge of the bridge that crossed the lake. I brought my knees to my chest, and wrapped my arms around them. I stared into the water below me, and thought.
I never knew that my rude and disrespectful comment had gotten to her that much. I did know that I absolutely needed to apologize.
I wanted to figure out a way to make it up to her, without making an embarrassment of myself.
I don't really know how to 'act properly around women', as Konan would put it. I was actually a lot better than most of the Akatsuki, though.
Tobi was Tobi. Women either found him incredibly annoying, or they didn't mind him. Taki was most likely the latter.
Deidara respected women, so most of the time, they respected him. Actually, I take that back. I've never once seen a women respect Deidara. He hadn't encountered many women in his life, but every single one had dissed him every time.
Even Konan doesn't like him that much. But she puts up with him, because, well.. we all live together.
Taki seemed to treat him like he was his older brother, or something.
He was kind to Taki, and somehow, got her to spill her secret on her crush. I guess that Deidara isn't that bad when he's not being annoying.
I must admit that I had felt a little jealous of how close Taki was to Deidara. I puzzled over why I'm thinking about this stuff in the first pace. I'm a puppet, for Kami's sake!
Zetsu.. well he had a crush on Taki, so of course he was nice to her. I don't even know how that's possible, seeing as he isn't even human. He also knew about Taki's crush.
I wanted to know her crush too. I was going to start by process of elimination. It wasn't Deidara or Zetsu, or Konan. Three down, six to go.
My thoughts turned back to Taki's current state. She probably was incredibly scared of me now. I let out a sigh, and buried my face into my knees.
What have I done?
I felt something warm on my shoulder. I looked over to see a pale hand was on it. I traced it all the way over to Taki's face.
I stared at her. She was giving me a closed eye smile, and if I hadn't heard her, I wouldn't have known that she had cried at all.
She sat down next to me, and hugged her knees, mirroring my posture. "Mm.. I'm sorry, Sasori-danna.. y'know, for bothering you."
She looked into the lake. Her head still facing the water, her eyes averting to me every now and then.
I took a deep breath. "No." Taki's head turned to look at me in confusion.
"No.. you shouldn't be the one apologizing. It was very rude, and disrespectful of me to tell you that. I'm.... sorry." I whispered the last part, turning away from Taki.
I saw Taki scoot closer to me, until we merely touched. "Oh Danna. All is forgiven. Most men don't have the courage to apologize, so even if you hadn't said it, I would have forgiven you."
I felt her head rest upon my shoulder. We both looked out into the forest across the lake. The sun still hasn't risen yet.
"You don't have to call me Danna. Just call me Sasori." We continued to look over the lake.
"Um.." I started. Taki's head adjusted to look at me. "Actually, if you wanted to.. spend some time with me today.." I heard a tiny squeal escape Taki's lips, and she hugged me.
"Thanks, Sasori." She mumbled. She stood up, and stretched. "I'll go take a shower!" She ran off back into the house.
Didn't she just take a shower?