一瞬 💥

athena “i offer you my friendship, not a loan to be repaid” “my, how very generous of you, to offer me this gift” “are you testing the limits of my patience with you?” “i would very much prefer to think we both know better than to let old grudges stew forever” “yours is a brazen plan of action and i admire it”

demeter “i’ll aid your plight, why not?” “you’re in the winter of your current stretch of life, aren’t you” “surely you feel the warmth within you giving way?” “offend me, and i’ll drain the last traces of color from those cheeks of yours” “you are entirely too young to have had meaningful experiences with loss, pray that you never have to learn”

zeus “your lapse in judgement here is not so easy to forgive, yet easily punished” “commendable of you to live through that” “you seem in dire need of some assistance, so of course i dropped what i was doing and then sought you out as quickly as i could” “such strange alliances we forge these days” “you honour me, as you well should”

poseidon “hoh you look positively in atrocious shape, there” “why, you’re bleeding everywhere! here, let me try and do something for that” “you think that you’ve a chance in hell without my help, am i to understand?!” “it seems to me your strength outweighs your smarts, there” “ah, i can’t stay angry! let us call all that unpleasantness back there water under the bridge, what say you”

aphrodite “if you lavish me with gifts, why, what am i to do but give you something in return” “ah, dearest, but it stirs my heart to know you care so deeply for our wonderful relationship” “dearest, why, your heart rate’s fluctuating wildly, has it really been that bad up to this point?” “now, dearest, surely there’s no way that could have been one of the wiser choices that you’ve lately made?” “do not anger me again, or i might come down and kill you there myself!”

ares “i trust, from time to time, you stop to ask yourself how come you choose to fight” “the hunt is but a prelude to a war, is that not so? “you interrupt me once again, you know i do not care for that, i warn you to stay out of my affairs” “a successfully conducted war is certainly a cause for celebration, is it not?” “i trust the violence i have wrought on your behalf has been quite satisfactory?”

dionysus “hey, cheers for picking up the tab, there, now, i cannot exactly pay you back, though i could give you this!” “did i do something to deserve this, man, because i thought that we were getting on just fine, better than fine, but this?” “really, man? after everything we’ve been through together, this is the gratitude i get?” “know what, man, i’m not even angry after that, what was i even going off about, do you recall…?” “let’s say we’re settled up now, and go on being best mates just like before, yeah?”

hermes “whoa you’re a hot mess, there, what happened getting here?” “you ever get the feeling life’s been moving all too quickly for you? “out of all special delivery recipients i’ve had over the ages, here, i’ve got to say, you’re the most interesting one!” “a little awkward, having to pretend we just met” “you’re rather slow, if only somebody could help you out with that”

     IT DIDN'T CHANGE ANYTHING.   IT DIDN'T SAVE ANYONE.   THERE WERE JUST TOO MANY FORCES AGAINST IT.   BUT IT STILL MATTERS THAT THE LOVE WAS THERE

“ well there’s definitely something wrong with you, yeah. ” the words are muffled against the heel of deidara’s palm. it’s a half – hearted grumble at best, given because it’s expected. deidara sits, slouched, face smushed into his hand, and risks a puzzled glance up at itachi. where’s this coming from? before the look can turn into a stare, though, deidara throws himself back so he’s lying on the ground, one arm pillowed under his head. he closes his eyes, but the soft tension between his brows betrays his show of nonchalance.

“ you make it sound like you think there’s a world where the two of us could have been right. ”

it’s — laughable. deidara scoffs and his eyebrows press further together. he tries to imagine it, but no matter how he arranges the puzzle pieces before his mind’s eye the image ends up with them in conflict. the one where those crimson eyes still serve konoha and deidara detonates and bleeds on orders makes his stomach twist so violently he turns to his side so that his back is to itachi. one blue eye flutters open but doesn’t see — deidara is still looking elsewhere.

he can’t imagine being anywhere else, anything else, and still being himself. deidara brings his free hand to his face and watches the grotesque grin that greets him. it’s not that lolling tongue that he carved out of his palm that makes deidara beastly, he knows; it’s how he devours earth and spits out carnage and calls it ART, calls it HAPPINESS, calls it FREEDOM. itachi is partly right: deidara’s soul is wrong, but it’s also true, and that makes it right. deidara was always meant to be shrapnel. he doesn’t know what itachi’s meant to be, but maybe they’re supposed to get caught in each other’s sharp edges.

now deidara laughs, but it’s a bark of hot air rather than sound. “ what? don’t tell me you think we could have been FRIENDS. and here i thought those eyes of yours helped you see clearly, yeah. ”

The instant barb was met with a fleeting smile, gone so quick one would question whether it had ever been there at all. It was so typical Deidara, yet at the same time it reminded Itachi of someone else, someone now long gone. It was the teasing retort one might expect of a sibling - or someone close enough to one. Shisui would have made a quip like that.

His momentary lapse in his typical stoic expression was, however, missed by the blond. Deidara's stubborn refusal to ever look at him or meet his eye for longer than a glance blinded him to the humanity he might find, the lingering traces of the person he used to be before the world shaped him into this... ghost.

"You don't think it's possible?" A world where he was right. It was a nice dream, to think that somewhere, a world existed where he wasn't painted as a monster, where he could live a peaceful life with the family he had loved so deeply he'd had no choice but to destroy them before they destroyed themselves.

Onyx eyes studied the tense form of the blond, Deidara's back now firmly turned to him. Always hiding, afraid to let anyone look too deeply. He wondered what the blond was thinking, what darkness he called into question. Did he, too, think of an alternate universe where the choices he'd made had turned out differently? Or was he truly as comfortable in who he was as he liked to appear?

it's a relief when itachi confirms what deidara knows to be true: they cannot be friends. if the other had insisted otherwise, it would have been just another mind game or form of mockery, and deidara's in no mood for the way itachi can pull him by the strings and still act above it all. though maybe that familiar spark of anger would have been better compared to this strange discomfort sitting deep in stomach. the weight of it anchors his voice down and deidara can't will himself to yell, to shatter this moment between them that feels oddly genuine, even though he wants to.

" so you want, what — a truce? " deidara huffs. " isn't that already what's happening? we work in the same organization. i'm just not going to pretend to like you whenever we cross paths. "

that's putting it lightly, even deidara knows that. he's made it no secret that he wants itachi dead, that nothing less will soothe his wounded pride since their first meeting. he's impulsive, emotional, but not usually the type to snarl and threaten to sink his teeth — all four pairs of them — into someone's throat from just one look that rubs him the wrong way.

it's just itachi who makes deidara feel too big for his own skin.

maybe that's why itachi's suggestion feels so wrong. not friends, but not enemies either. it feels too lukewarm. maybe it's fine for itachi who never cares about anything, but deidara can't just take his feelings and settle them into something neat and comfortable. he won't be able to rest until he's proven his art is superior to the sharingan.

breathe - muse a holds muse b closely to help them wind down after a stressful day/event

stop - muse a holds muse b back from walking back out into the fray

melt - muse a holds muse b’s face gently, drawing circles into their cheeks with their thumbs

acceptance - muse a kisses muse b’s forehead and lingers

redemption - muse a holds muse b’s face together and rests their forehead against them

home - muse a pulls muse b closer until muse b’s face rests in the crook of muse a’s neck

finale - muse a wraps themself around muse b to keep them from harm

classics - muse a tends to muse b’s wounds with more care than necessary

honesty - muse a wipes muse b’s tears away from under their eyes

recovery - muse a rubs muse b’s back repeatedly to help work tension out their body

anxiety - muse a intertwines their fingers with muse b’s to ground themself

repose - muse a languidly slips into muse b’s arms while muse b is lying somewhere

subtlety - muse a gently brushes their hand over folds and wrinkles on muse b’s clothing

intimacy - muse a braids/brushes/works knots out of muse b’s hair

domesticity - muse a rests chin on muse b’s shoulder to read/see what they’re holding

second-nature - muse a runs their hand through muse b’s hair who’s leaning into them from behind

casual - muse a slinks their arms around muse b’s to sit closer

wounded - muse a sways muse b and themself back and forth as a soothing mechanism

care-taking - muse a rubs muse b’s arms repeatedly to get some warm into them

excuses - muse a brushes their thumb lightly against muse b’s rub some dirt/dust/etc away

courting - muse a rests one hand on muse b’s back and holds out the other for muse b to hold to help them climb up/down something