All That is to be Expected

She was an idiot. Tenten couldn't give it another label, because standing in the middle of enemy territory waiting on a renowned terrorist to make his merry way to this designated clearing was just the definition of a bad idea.

Will you marry me?

That note. That damn note. It was hiding in her pocket, together with that ring she still couldn't bring herself to put on, even if it was absolutely beautiful and blatantly expensive as hell. The moment he got there, she was going to throw it in his face, lay down the law with a few explosives and pointy objects, and deny it all later. Threats were playing on loud speakers in her head.

'They'll never find the body.'

'I'll castrate him first.'

'Which mind games will screw with him the most I wonder?'

She fiddled with a kunai; not out of boredom, but from frustration, paranoia, irritation, impatience, anger… and maybe, just maybe a little anticipation. She told herself that was only because, after so many years, she was finally going to rain down hell on that bastard's ears. She told herself that she was going to really let him have it today; he would come here expecting some tearful, heart-felt confession and she was going to walk away with his head sitting pretty under her arm and finally make a real name for herself.

She swore that was the case.

Just in the distance, she could begin to read a chakra signature. It started as a tickle at the edge of her senses; it was toying with her—no, he was toying with her—because it was taking it's own sweet time to get close enough for her to clearly feel that yes, Deidara had arrived. She silently fumed at him, accusing him of being horrendously late and yes, it had given her time to lay traps and then no, he hadn't been there for hours so she had to wait to watch him spring them. It gave her much pleasure to hear the criminal accidently spring a few on the way in—her axe on the north perimeter, the poison gas halfway in, and the tripwire with pitfall and kunai and bamboo javelins a hundred yards from their meeting place. If nothing else, it gave her some satisfaction for being made to wait so long.

He still strolled in barely ruffled, grinning like she'd gone and said 'yes' already.

Which she wasn't; she definitely wasn't saying yes.

"Ten-chan, you're early, yeah!"

"You're late, bastard," and even if she spat it out as venomously as she could, she still hid in the trees and refuse, refused, to go to him just yet. She told herself, 'I'm still deciding how to cook you; I'm considering whether to just turn you into sashimi now, or wait until you let your guard down even more and boil you alive.' He grinned and nearly pranced as he listened to her.

"Ah, it's been too long since I've heard Ten-chan's voice, after all," he laughed giddily.

"You do realize that I could just kill you now, right?"

She had a clear shot of his chest. Whether he knew that or not, she wasn't sure… but it was most likely that he did. The thought seemed to take his excitement down a notch, but he was still smiling. It was a little painful, a little lonely, but all sorts of sincerity she never thought to see from him.

"Ah well… I suppose if you did it wouldn't be unexpected, yeah."

… And dammit, if that didn't make all her determination just fly out the window…

AN: Okay, since this one has gotten quite a bit of attention lately, here's why the last part took so long: lack of interest. The DeiTen craze came out of nowhere like, in the last year I guess... and before that, there was like, nothing. No reaction. There were what, maybe three DeiTen stories before I posted the ones I've done? That, and someone said something quite rude to me on the other ShadowLark set, and it kinda doused my determination.

I've moved halfway across a country and transferred colleges since then. It's been a trip. Still, here it is! The question would be...

IS THE ENDING ENOUGH? DO I NEED ONE MORE PART? Sorry, yeah. I don't know either. XD