"You know, Sakura-chan, I know you like watching sunrises with people."

"Yeah!"

"So why'd you bring wooden scrooge over there, hm? I can barely get him out of bed in the morning for missions."

Sasori rolled his eyes and kept his eyes on the dark, distant horizon. Sakura hugged his unfeeling arm. "'Cause Sas'ri-san promised! Righ', Sas-ri-san?" she exclaimed. He stared into her wide, giddy eyes for a few seconds before disdainfully turning his head to the side.

"Tch."

Deidara and Sakura shared a grin. They sky was still a steady shade of dark blue, the sun having yet to flash the first of its yellow rays. A comfortable silence enveloped the three of them as they patiently waited for dawn to come. Deidara molded a piece of clay between his fingers and Sasori fixed one of the weapons in his arm, but Sakura...

She stared out. The stars... the stars...

Would she really become one of them?

"Dei'dra-san, Sas'ri-san?"

They looked at her.

"Yeah, un?"

"Did you ever love someone you don' love no more?" she questioned. Deidara eyed her curiously.

"That's a kinda weird question. Outta nowhere, too," he said as he scratched his cheek. "Where'd you get that from, hm?"

"Hidan-san read me a story this many days ago," she replied as she cheerily held up four fingers. "This boy loved this girl lots and got her a really pretty ring! But she got sick 'fore the wed... wed... wed-din'? And went to th' sky. The boy kept cryin' and sayin' I shoulden' have loved her lots and that's wrong, righ'? Hidan-san didn' know nothin' 'cause tha' din' happen to him b'fore. Do you know?"

Deidara thought to himself, trying to think of any sort of experience he had that could answer her question. But none came to mind, so he shrugged and sighed. "Sorry, Sakura-chan. I don't know about it either. What about you, Danna, hm?"

Sasori was silent, his head tilted toward the worlds above. He made no sign of having heard them.

"... Danna?"

The sun started to stretch up in the distance, a thin arm in the blanket of night that still covered the vast nowheres. Sasori let out a long, drawn own breath and met Sakura's patient stare. He ignored Deidara's look, both of them knowing fully well that he had no need to breathe, and he'd done so out of an off-habit from his human years. "The man in the story was a fool. If he had truly loved her, he would have never said those things."

"But he loved her lots in the book," she said. "People say mean things when sad."

"He might have been sad, but that's no excuse. He should've never said that about her—he should've been happy, grateful even, for all the time he spent with her despite watching her die from her sickness," he said, steel hammered at the edges of each word. Sakura knew no better and listened dutifully, but Deidara was a different story. "Pathetically useless he might have been, but it didn't give him the right to say those things."

Emotions Deidara didn't even know his partner had sweltered up to the surface. There was a glassy look in those eyes, but it might as well have been the protective coat to prevent wood from splintering. But if he wasn't this carcass, this husk, this empty tool, he would've looked like he was about to cry.

But puppets didn't cry.

"... He never regretted loving her. Not even for a second, even though he'd said all those things. Even though she never got to wear the wedding dress with the swirl of cherry blossoms at the bottom. Even though she never go to wear the ring he made for her."

The sun was now over the horizon, shining brilliantly with its misty orange light. Sakura reached out and took hold of Sasori's wooden hand.

"It wasn' in the story. The wed-din' dress," she mentioned, her head cocked to the side. "That's a diff'ren' story, huh, Sas'ri-san?"

He glanced down at her. "... Yes. A different story. My mistake."

A little while later when the sun shone high above them, Sakura stayed curled against Deidara's chest with her face buried in the base of his neck as she breathed quietly in her sleep. Both he and Sasori still sat on the rooftop, though the former couldn't help but play the latter's words over and over in his head.

Deidara looked to his side and at Sasori's oddly peaceful profile. "What was her name, Danna?"

...

"Kaede."

He nodded, satisfied for the moment, and changed the subject. "So the book that asshole read to Sakura-chan... should we tell him to stop reading books like that to her? I mean, some of them seem kinda out of her age range, hm."

"She'll learn about all of it eventually, so what's the point of putting it off? Perhaps that idiot had half a mind to teach the girl something useful," Sasori replied smoothly. "One day, when she's older, she'll look back on this day and be glad she learned this."

"Can you even imagine an older Sakura-chan, un? Damn, makes me feel old just saying it."

"You sound like an old man already, brat—talking about her like you're her older brother."

"Psh! I'm close enough to one!"

Sakura, who feigned sleep, bit her lip to keep from crying.

::

EDITED 2.28.18