My friend and I have created a messageboard dedicated to Kakuzu/Hidan - the link is in my profile and it'd be totally awesome if you checked it out and became a member! There will be fic and fanart, a place to get constructive criticism and, of course, general talk about our favorite zombies!
To Leo – As I have said before, I will reveal it when the story has made more progress. I can't tell you how many chapters it will take because I simply do not know yet – I have plans, but I also like being spontaneous when I write, which throws these plans over many times. You'll have to wait and see. Even if I knew, I would not tell because it would ruin the story.
--
„Eh? Who are you?"
Hidan kept staring at the man who had just come out of the front door of the apartment building. He knew that this guy had been in their particular apartment because he had seen him and his mother when he had gotten out of bed to go to the bathroom; they had been drinking wine together in the living room.
It's why Hidan had snuck outside. He knew what happened when his mother had male friends over, and he didn't want to hear it. It always sounded like they hurt her.
The man – tall, sort of lanky, with unkempt blond hair, a three o'clock shadow and a cigarette hanging from his thin lips – blinked in confusion before something dawned on him. "Oh, you must be Aya's son! Shouldn't you be in bed? I bet you have school tomorrow."
The eight-year old glared at the man. "Why would you care? You're not my dad."
The man was obviously taken aback by the straight forward remark and hateful glare; he looked a little nervous when he walked towards Hidan. "Where's your dad?"
"Mommy said he's rotting in hell." He got up from the swing he had been sitting on. "Are you coming back?"
The blonde couldn't meet the boy's eyes. "…No."
Hidan smirked, and the man was astonished by how bitter an eight-year old boy could look. "At least you're honest. I'm sick of hearing 'I'll be your new Daddy'."
"Hidan!" Both looked at the front door, where Hidan's mother now stood, dressed in only a bathrobe and her hair in disarray. "Come back inside, you have school tomorrow."
--
Hidan woke up at half past five in the morning, bathed in sweat. He quickly shook his head, grabbing his pack of cigarettes from the nightstand, and opened the blinds to step outside onto the small balcony attached to his room.
It was the eighth of August, the first day of the new school year for Asuka and Ryou, and the school hadn't risen yet, but Hidan could tell that it was already starting to. He let out a long yawn, pulled out a cigarette and his lighter and thus started his new daily routine.
After his morning cigarette (which he wasn't allowed to smoke inside the house), he went to take a shower, got dressed and woke up Ryou – Asuka woke up on her own with the help of an alarm clock.
By 6:15, he was in the kitchen, cutting up fruits for some fruit salad and making whole-wheat sandwiches with a combination of cheese and vegetables on them for the kids to take to school. A few minutes later, Ryou came downstairs, and Hidan gave him a bowl of cereal with soy milk – one of the things he had learnt on his first day as the new nanny was that Ryou was lactose intolerant.
Hidan sat with Ryou at the breakfast table, drinking coffee and thinking about what he needed to do after breakfast. Ryou had showered after Hidan and now it was Asuka's turn in the bathroom, so afterwards, all they needed to do was pack their school bags and Hidan would walk them to school – something he found entirely stupid, but Kakuzu insisted they walked so they'd get some air and exercise before school.
On the first morning Hidan had played the nanny, Asuka had come down immediately after getting up to eat before showering – but apparently, she had forgotten that Hidan was there and was incredibly embarrassed about him seeing her in her pyjama consisting of a t-shirt and shorts, her hair messed up and marks from the creases of her pillow over her face. Since then, she had started to shower and style before coming downstairs.
At precisely 7:15, they left to walk to school. It was only a matter of 5 minutes by bus, but by foot, it took them around 20 minutes. Asuka chatted merrily, arm hooked into Hidan's, but Ryou was walking sort of behind them and remained quiet, which kind of worried Hidan a little.
"Everything okay, kid?"
No response.
"Ryou?"
"Huh?" The eight-year old blushed, looking up. "I'm sorry, I was…"
"It's okay." Hidan studied the boy. He was walking ridiculously slowly, his face was pale and he didn't look the least bit enthusiastic about going back to school, unlike his sister. Poor kid; he had hated going to school, too – especially before he had gone to Akatsuki High.
They eventually reached the school gates and Asuka gave Hidan a hug before running over her friends. Ryou was more hesitant. Hidan kneeled down in front of him and ruffled up his hair. "What's wrong, kiddo? Don't want to go see your friends?"
"U-un… yes…" The brunette boy bit his lip before turning around and walking towards the school building.
Hidan stared after him for a few more moments, thoroughly confused by the boy's actions, before shaking his head and leaving.
--
While the kids were at school, Hidan was alone in the house. Kakuzu, as a surgeon, worked irregular hours, so there might come days when he wasn't, but for now, he could use the time to sit on his laptop and write.
Damn it, if only he didn't lack the inspiration to write the last page…
--
After hours of boredom due to lack of inspiration, he had to leave again to pick Asuka and Ryou up at school. When he arrived, Asuka was already waiting at the gates.
He raised an eyebrow. "Where's Ryou?"
She frowned at him. "I don't know, he hasn't come yet. Maybe he had to go to the bathroom."
"We'll wait a few minutes." Hidan leaned against the gate, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. "How was school?"
"Mai-chan has this super cool new mp3 player, so we listened to music together and watched videos on it, but then that stupid Ayuzawa-kun reported it to a teacher and it got taken away! God, he's such an idiot, he always teases us!"
Hidan smirked half-heartedly. The problems of 12-year old girls… "Maybe he likes you."
"N-no way!" She blushed, looking away. "He's such a nerd!"
"Your Dad used to be a nerd when he was younger, and now look at him." He paused. "Ryou's still not here… Does he have a cell phone?"
They were just about to start looking for him on the schoolgrounds when he finally arrived, panting heavily.
"Geez, about time!" Hidan crossed his arms over his chest, seriously annoyed. "What took you so long?"
"I…" He bit his lip, staring down at the ground. "I lost my watch…"
Asuka groaned. "Damn it, Ryou, Grandma gave you that for having a good report card and you already lost it?!"
Ryou looked about ready to burst out into tears, and Hidan thought it was kind of pathetic. He sighed heavily. "Stop picking on your brother and let's get going."
--
Since Asuka was once again out of pocket money and her father's birthday was only three and a half days away, she decided to make a nice photoalbum for him starting at his birth until now.
So after she finished her homework that day, she went up to the attic and started looking through boxes labeled "photos".
She had to admit that it was actually kind of fun; seeing her grandmother in eighties outfit was simply hilarious, and admittedly, her father was a handsome teenager. There were photos of the family, class photos from first grade on, some vacation photos…
And then she found a box labeled "Akatsuki".
Asuka knew that "Akatsuki" was the school Kakuzu had spent his last three years before university at. Technically, she had enough photos, but it sure wouldn't hurt to peek inside… there might be photos of Hidan, for all she knew.
Polaroids – lots of them. The first one had a pretty blue-haired girl with two boys, one of which had orange hair, and then there was one of a blond boy and a redhead. The same blond boy was then tackled by a black-haired boy wearing an orange mask, and then finally someone she recognize: Itachi-san. She hadn't known Itachi-san had gone to Kakuzu's school; he was his lawyer.
And then – bingo! Hidan!
Wow. She barely held back a squeal. Hidan had been such a cute teenager! Less muscles, but still very athletic looking without being scrawny, his hair was in his typical slicked-back style. His eyes were a little wider, more cheerful looking, but he was frowning at the camera anyway.
The next one showed Hidan and her Dad together, eating ice cream. Well, eating one ice cream. Together. Hidan was holding a cone, and Kakuzu was taking a bite from it, which made Hidan look extremely pissed off in the photo.
Pff, typical for her father. Such a freeloader. He'd rather steal his friends ice cream than buying his own.
Then there were some winter photos in which her Dad had a snow ball fight with his friends, wearing an ugly puke-green jacket.
In the last photo, Hidan was wearing the too-large puke-green jacket. Okay. Kind of confusing. Her father, being so kind as to lend someone his jacket? So not happening.
She flipped through more pictures, more from winter, one with her father and Hidan in Santa hats, and then winter turned to spring and brought with him –
A picture of her father and Hidan kissing.
--
"Asuka, we're home!" Hidan sighed, lazily carrying the shopping bags inside. "Asuka-chaaaan… You hungry?" He tilted his head to look down at Ryou, who just shrugged. "I think she wanted to go to the attic to look at photos…"
--
"Hey, dickhead! Dickhead, look!"
"What?" As soon as Kakuzu turned his head, warm lips were pressed to his enthusiastically. His eyes widened in surprise, but it quickly turned into a pissed off expression, and just at the moment he wanted to push Hidan back, something went flash.
Hidan pulled back, grinning, and gave a thumbs up to Kakuzu. "Hope ya don't mind that I borrowed your camera!"
"You can't just go around kissing me," the brunette hissed, "what if someone sees?"
"Then someone sees." The silver-haired boy rolled his eyes, shaking the Polaroid picture. "It's not a big deal, seriously. Oh, hey, look."
"That picture looks like I'm the one attacking you."
Hidan snickered, grabbing a marker from his back pocket and quickly writing on the white part underneath the photo.
I know you love me, jackass.
Kakuzu rolled his eyes, grabbing the pen and photo and scribbled underneath Hidan's messy handwriting: One day, I swear I will kill you.
--
"Hey, you have a surgery in an hour, wake up."
Kakuzu rubbed his eyes, slowly sitting up. "I wasn't sleeping."
"Sure you weren't." Tsunade smirked at the brunette. "So who are you going to kill?"
"You if you don't shut up soon."
"Kakuzu. Pacemaker surgery. Want one?"
--
She had no words. She really didn't. There it was, the picture of them kissing with those weird phrases written underneath, and suddenly all the other pictures seemed to make so much more sense – the pictures where their knees were touching as they sat, how they were always next to each other, how they were always, always always, somehow touching…
Holy shit.
Holy fucking shit.
Was her father gay? Was – holy shit. Holy shit. Had Hidan moved in because they were together again? Was Hidan here to replace her mother? …What about her mother? If her father way gay, why had he married her?
"Asuka-chaaan…"
"Don't come near me!"
Hidan raised an eyebrow, slowly walking towards the girl. "Shit man, what's got you screaming? I was just gonna ask what you want for dinner, seriously… What do you have there?"
"Go away!"
"Ugh, Asuka, what the hell is wrong with you?" He frowned and took another step towards her before his gaze fell on the thing she was holding. His eyes widened when he realized what it was. "Oh. Shit."
"That's all you have to say?!" She waved the photo around. "What is this?!"
"Shit, girl, calm down! Stop freaking out, okay?!" Hidan glared at her. "Are you some kind of homophobe? Cause shit, I can explain this."
"I'm not a…" Her hands were shaking, and her eyes stung uncomfortably. "I'm not a homophobe, Dad always – wow, now this makes sense… but… he's my Dad! I – I had a mom and a dad, and not a dad and a dad! If Dad's gay, why did he marry Mom?!"
"Look, Asuka-chan – Asuka-chan. Sit down, okay? And stop yelling at me, seriously. Think you can do that, kid?"
She took a deep breath, wiped over her eyes and nodded. Hidan hesitantly neared her, and only when he was convinced that she wasn't going to freak out again did he sit down next to her.
Awkward silence.
After a few moments, he reached for the picture and studied it, his face appearing indifferent. "Heh… This was on my 18th birthday."
Asuka stared at him as if he had suddenly grown two heads. "I am going through a family crisis and you're remembering your 18th birthday?!"
"Fair enough." The silver-haired man paused. "That bad, eh?"
She glared at him. "I just learned that Dad might have never loved Mom and actually takes it up his –"
"Oh," Hidan smirked, "if you think he 'took it, you don't know your father that well."
"Great. Let me rephrase it." Her glare darkened. "My should-be role model took it from my Dad, which is obviously so much less mentally scarring."
He grinned. "You certainly got your Dad's talent for dry remarks."
"Why are you being so calm about this?! I just found out your big secret! You're here to be our Dad now, aren't you?!"
Hidan stared at her for a good ten seconds before bursting out laughing. "Me? Become your Dad? That's rich!" He flicked her forehead. "Look, kid, Kakuzu and I broke up when we graduated. We're friends now, and we don't intend to be more, okay? Just friends. As for your mom… I have no idea what that was like because I didn't see Kakuzu for 20 years, but as far as I know, your father's bi, not gay. Feeling better now?"
She sighed, looking at the photos again. "It's just weird, you know? I'm not against gays or anything… but wouldn't you feel weird if your dad turned out to be gay – bi – whatever?"
Hidan shrugged. "Dunno, I never met my Dad. But hey – your dad works so much, I doubt he'll ever have the time to date someone again, so you don't need to worry. Are you cool with it?"
She chewed her lip, and Hidan couldn't help but think about how different this Asuka was; the girl he had known her to be before was cute, giggly and girly – this temperamental, sassy girl with an attitude appealed to him a lot more though.
"I don't know," she finally said. "It's like, weird, but… I'm not mad, just – just shocked! And it's… it's weird."
"You should talk to him about it, y'know." And since when was he a parenting guru, anyway?
"Are you crazy?! I can't –"
"Whatever floats your boat, but I don't have the answers you want, so it's him you have to talk to, seriously."
Asuka chewed her lip again, and Hidan wondered if it was a nervous habit of hers. "How did… can you tell me how you…" She clicked her tongue, annoyed by her own confusion. "How did you get together?"
The silver-haired man sighed. "Ask your father that. I have no fucking idea how much he wants you to know. Now, Ryou's probably wondering where the hell we are, seriously, so come on, let's go."
"I'm staying up here, I'm collecting photos for a photoalbum for Dad's birthday." She pulled the photo box up again, starting to pick up more.
"Alright." He shrugged, getting up. "What do you want for dinner?"
"I don't really..." Her eyes widened at the next photo. Hidan. Under the shower. Naked. With his back to the camera, but she could see his, err, rather nice, behind. "…care?" She quickly clamped her hand over the photo, face turning bride red.
Her father was not only bi, her father was a pervert!
And she now had the perfect blackmail material.
--
I'd really appreciate some concrit for this, since I was very unsure about Asuka's reaction.
