KakuHidan: Enjoying the quiet
"You know, if you paid a bit more attention to what your opponent does I would end up sewing you together on a much lower rate."
Hidan said nothing.
He sat next to Kakuzu, cross-legged, his left arm resting in his partner's lap. Hidan's eyes squinted a bit when he felt a familiar tugging just below his elbow.
'Great ', he thought. Now he had a) his arm cut off, b) Kakuzu sewing it back on, and c) his partner scolding him. Though the amusement in Kakuzu's voice was rich. When he thought it through, Hidan found that he probably should be glad the stitch-man wasn't angry at him. But right now he really wasn't in the mood to think things through, so he just sat there, his face turned away from Kakuzu, resting on his right hand and sulked.
That had been one nasty fight, and was it his fault that that stupid dieing Anbu had decided to cut Hidan's arm off with his last breath? Most certainly not! And, really, how was he supposed to expect that DIEING man that was lying on the fucking floor to freaking throw that whatever-it-had-been?!
Kakuzu felt a smile tugging at his lips when he heard Hidan cursing under his breath. His voice was too low to understand the exact words, but the meaning was rather clear. The stupid zealot had managed once more to get a part of him cut off. Strangely enough it didn't annoy Kakuzu too much this time. He normally would be angry at Hidan for wasting time – and therefore money. But it had been so long that he'd had to sew his bitching partner back together that he couldn't quite bring himself to be angry. At the moment, he was merely amused.
When he felt Hidan's eyes on him, he looked up from his work to see his partner staring at him. Too late he realized that he was too slow to hide the amusement in his eyes and replace it with the general look of annoyance his partner would always receive.
Hidan's eyes narrowed slightly. "Why are you not angry? And more importantly, why aren't you beating the crap outta me?", he asked.
It sounded so suspiciously that Kakuzu felt like laughing. At the same time he cursed Hidan for being so observant. But he felt too… what was the word? He just felt so… plainly amused. Not in the mood for fights.
"Why, would you like that better?", he asked teasingly.
Hidan's eyes grew wide at Kakuzu's tone, clearly he had expected something among the lines of 'Just wait until your arm's back on'. He eyed his partner while said continued his work.
"You're not going to hit me?", he asked unsure.
"You're saying it so suspiciously that it's almost an insult!", Kakuzu laughed (!!). "But no, I don't think I'm gonna hit you. Not because of the arm, anyway."
Hidan seemed to realize slowly that he wasn't going to get beaten, and started to pick up on Kakuzu's mood a bit hesitating.
"So the chance that I'll get hit for something different still stands?", he asked lightly, almost airily.
"I guess I could come up with something," Kakuzu said, and, after some thinking, he added, "I guess I could punch you for that stunt you pulled yesterday."
Kakuzu looked up at Hidan just quickly enough to see his pale face whiten even more as the blood withdrew from it for a moment. That startled Kakuzu a bit. Was he scaring Hidan? Was the immortal really frightened? Of him? Hidan wasn't afraid of anything, let alone a bit of punching!He was immortal, for heaven's sake! But his partner had already looked away again, falling back into silence. The mood had changed so quickly forth and back…
Hidan grumbled a bit into his hand on which his head was now resting again, staring into the forest. The short light mood Kakuzu had lifted him in hadn't last for long. He was sulking again. Or something near.
Admittedly, he was worried a bit. Yesterday, he had simply sat down in the middle of the wood, stating that if he'd walk one more single step he'd die. Unnecessary to say that it had ended in Kakuzu dragging Hidan along the next miles by his hair- NO! It hadn't. And that had confused Hidan deeply. Kakuzu had sat down beside him and said that they might as well rest, so they had! For a moment, Hidan had thought that he was kidding or something, but… well…he hadn't.
Hidan hadn't been so stupid to think that Kakuzu wouldn't punish him. Of course he knew that he'd get shit for that, sooner or later. He'd thought that maybe Kakuzu had just not felt like beating him. But he knew he was going to get it today, or tomorrow, or maybe the day after… Kakuzu wouldn't forget.
"Hidan?", he heard Kakuzu call out softly.
Just now he realized that the uncomforting tugging in his arm had stopped. Unwillingly, he turned his head to face Kakuzu.
"What?", he asked reluctantly.
"What is it?"
"Nothing."
Kakuzu looked into his eyes for a moment, before he spoke again. "Come on, I'm not going to hit you."
"Really?", Hidan couldn't help but ask.
He could swear he saw Kakuzu smile underneath that stupid mask. "Really," he confirmed.
Relieve spread through Hidan. He would actually get away with it!
"So now," Kakuzu said after a long moment of silence, "try to move your hand."
Hidan blinked confused, then his gaze dropped to his arm. Oh, yes, he'd forgotten, it had been cut off... He made a small effort to move, intending to circle his hand, but his wrist wouldn't obey.
He looked up in slight panic, "It doesn't work!"
"Relax, Hidan," Kakuzu said, hearing the fear in his partner's voice. "Just relax. Give your body some time."
Kakuzu shifted to sit in front of Hidan, then took his re-attached hand in both of his, holding it firm, but not too tight.
"Do you feel me?", he asked, not bothered by the sound of that question. "Warmth? Pressure?"
Hidan seemed to concentrate, and finally, relieve was reflected in his face, and he nodded. "Yes. It's warm. I think it gets stronger the longer I wait."
Kakuzu nodded, "See? Your nerves are growing back together, so the feeling improves. Just give it some time."
"But why does it take time at all?", Hidan asked.
His partner looked at him dumfounded, so he hurried to explain, "I mean, I saw you sewing Sasori's hand on, back when he still was human – or parts of him. And he could move it immediately after you were finished. But I still can't move it!"
Kakuzu blinked a bit surprised. No way he would admit it, but Hidan was actually… observant.
"Well," he hurried to answer the question, "If you were paying that much attention, then you might have noticed that it took much longer to reattach Sasori's hand than yours." Hidan nodded. "Well, that's because Sasori isn't dispose of your great healing abilities. If I had sewed his hand on the same way I did with yours he still wouldn't have been able to use it at all, because the muscles and nerves wouldn't grow together just like that. I had to sew every single muscular fiber back together, every o so small vain, and even the thinnest nerves. It was one hell of work, you can imagine how angry I was when I realized that he had replaced his hand with one made out of wood."
"With you, it is so much easier. All I have to do is sewing the skin, and the rest will grow back together after some time. It wouldn't make sense to sew it as carefully as Sasori's hand, because you're healing so fast that I could, after ten minutes of sewing, remove the threats after two minutes of healing."
"So you mean if you'd sew it more carefully it would heal even faster? So fast that sewing it carefully wouldn't really pay off? And that I can't move my hand because I'm better than Sasori?", Hidan asked.
Kakuzu sighed, "That's one way to put it, yes."
Even if it wasn't the point of what he'd been telling at all… But still Kakuzu had the impression that Hidan had grasp what he'd told him. He startled a bit when he suddenly felt something soft brush over his hand. When he looked down, he saw that Hidan traced non exciting patters on the back of his hand that was still covering Hidan's smaller one with his free hand. He looked at his partner quizzically, slightly astonished by his actions, but the zealot looked down on their hands thoughtfully.
"Could we," he heard Hidan ask with a rather quiet voice, something that was unusual, "Could we stay like this until I can move my hand again?"
Kakuzu gasped inwardly. The way he'd said that… He couldn't believe that someone as loud as Hidan was capable of being so… shy.
"Why would you want that?", Kakuzu asked, and he really wanted to know the answer.
"It's just…" Hidan looked up, "The two of us not shouting at each other, you know?"
Kakuzu slowly nodded. Yes, that surely made sense.
Who would have thought that Hidan enjoyed the peace?