*six days later*
"Pein…?" A soft voice came from the opening door.
Pein glanced up and saw Konon standing there, small tears in her eyes.
"What's wrong?" He stood up immediately, and went to her. He held her head in his hand wiped the tears away with his thumbs.
She smiled a little. "I want to make a request to leave the Akatuski for a little while."
"Why? We need you here Konon." He gave her a confused look.
"No you don't." She shook her head a little. "I've done all I can here; even more. But you don't need me. No, not anymore. You have her now. If you care enough to look for me, you know how to contact me. And also," she stepped closer to him, wrapping her arms around him. "I've always loved you." She whispered before kissing him tenderly.
In that moment, Yamino was just at the door, peeking through the cracks of the door, long enough to see Pein wrap his arms around Konon.
Pein pulled her closer and deepened the kiss.
Yamino Mitsukai
I ran.
I ran as far and as fast as I could.
Away from the office; from my room. From him and her. I ran till my lungs burned from crying and running, stopping me at the door to the common room.
I stood staring blankly at my son. He sat on the floor by Hidan's feet, playing with some kunai's. I didn't move an inch, until Akuma looked up at me. He stood up and ran towards me, hugging my legs tightly.
"Mommy…" He murmured.
"Go play." I pushed him away and towards the kunai's.
Hidan was watching him with clouded eyes, which darkened more when he saw me.
"Hey, are you ok?" He stood and approached me. No one else but Akuma was in the room, so I immediately wrapped my arms around him.
"Oh, Hidan. I'm such a fool." I cried into his chest. He patted my back and stroked my hair.
"No you're not." He said. "Tell me what's wrong, Dark."
I sniffled a little, wiping my nose with the back of my hand. I began to tell him the whole truth about my past loves, with Akuma's father, and of course Pein and this whole mess with Konon.
He never said a word while I spoke, through choking sobs that prevented air from coming to my lungs. He held me closely to him, nodding and listing, while patting my back. Not a single gesture to try and get me to hate myself more for choosing someone not of our religion. When I was done crying as hard as I could, he lifted my chin, and stroked away my tears.
"I'm sorry Dark." He said. "But, I can't do anything about it."
I sobbed again. "I know, but please, don't leave me alone anymore Hidan. Keep me away from him, and from Konon. Just stay with me."
He nodded. "I never will leave you." He kissed the top of my head softly.
Not thinking clearly, I stood on my toes and kissed him back. It was slow and smooth, and his arms encircled me closer and pressed me to him.
"Mommy, why are you sad?" I felt Akuma tug at the hem of my dress, pulling me away from Hidan.
I smiled down at him, and snatched him from the ground.
"Don't worry about me." I said. "All that matters is that you're with me now."
Akuma snuggled up to me, resting his head on my shoulder.
I followed Hidan to the sofa in front of the T.V. and snuggled into his side while he channeled flip.
An hour passed and the whole common room was packed with the Akatuski members, some were asking questions about the child, others were polite enough not to say a word to me. We all sat surrounding the small television set, a strange program playing on the fuzzy screen. When Akuma was finally sleeping in my arms I nudged Hidan and he stood up. People protested as we stood, craning their heads to see the T.V., but we moved swiftly out of the room. He went down the winding hallways of the cave hideout till we came to a small entry way. An animal hide was attached to the outside as a sort of door. Hidan moved into the side and held it for me while I went in.
There were countless images etched into the walls, things such as ancient prayers and pentacles were engraved into the side. Dried blood was on a few walls and was in the shape of the ceremonial reaping pentagram, commonly known as the Reapers Penta. It was a simple drawing, with an upside down triangle and a circle surrounding it.
I smiled a little. "You are such a little nerd." I said and laughed quietly.
Hidan only shrugged. "I'm loyal to the Religion." He said, simply.
He walked to the other side of the room; where another bear hide hung, hiding a small travel sized cot packed with more hides and a few over stuffed pillows.
"You two can sleep here." Hidan said.
"What about you?" I turned to him.
He shrugged again. "I'll sleep on the floor."
"You don't need to do that, Hidan. Sleep on the bed with us."
His smile turned sly. "I can live with that."
I smiled in return, simply because his perverted comment reminded me of how sweet he can really be.
I sat Akuma on the bed and tucked him snugly amongst the hides and turned back to Hidan.
He stood there almost awkwardly, looking everywhere and anywhere but at me.
"Hidan," I said.
He nodded, but said nothing.
"Hidan, look at me." I said. Obediently, he glanced my way. I walked up to him and grabbed his face in my hands.
"Don't try to avoid me."
"I'm not." He said defensively.
"Yes you are. Only a few weeks ago you were begging me to take you back, now all of a sudden you're acting like I'm poison."
He could only shrug it away.
"Talk to me Hidan."
"I've just been thinking a lot." He said, still not looking at me. "About you. And the kid. About a lot of things."
"Does it bother you that I started a new life after we split?"
He nodded.
"Well, don't let it."
Then he looked at me, a fire in his eyes. "Why shouldn't it bother me?"
"Because it was only one sided, and it wasn't my side." I said.
He huffed.
I frowned and crossed my arms, deep in thought. So the idea of me birthing a child to someone else greatly affected it him. I never once thought how much it would bother him, but then I never really thought of anyone but myself. While I thought, my mind drifted aimlessly, until a new idea came to me.
"Hey, do you want to play a game?" I asked.
He stared at me, like I just said the dumbest thing in the world.
"Come on. It'll be just like old times."
"I don't know…" He stared off blankly.
"Come on, I'll be it."
He scowled a little.
"Fine, I guess that's ok."
No one
Loud crashes could be heard down the hallways near the common room, along with shouts and cries.
Everyone peeked through the entry ways of the rooms they were in and quickly ducked back in when something blurred by. They turned their heads to the blur and saw Yamino picking herself up from the crumpled wall.
"That's not fair!" She cried, pointing dramatically at Hidan.
"Since when is getting even fair?" His smirk was smug.
She glowered for a moment and vanished from sight.
"Shit." Hidan murmured. He looked at Angel's end of the hallway, but there wasn't a sign of her.
Suddenly, her dark hair appeared behind him, seeming to transform into a sort of mane, when her foot came into contact with Hidan's ribs.
He flew across the other side of the hallway, and through a single wall of stone.
"Tag you're it!" She declared exuberantly. She watched him fly through the wall with a wide grin on her face.
"Tag?" Kisame's voice came from the common room.
"Uh-huh." She nodded in his general direction. "We used to play it all the time." She laughed a little. "Wanna play?" She finally looked at him.
Kisame's face turned pale and he stepped away from her, backing towards the common room.
"Not that kind of tag; no thank you. I'd like to keep my head." He said, holding his hands up.
She laughed again. "No silly, you'd be on my team, and I never lose."
"What's the point of this game?" Sasori approached her, giving her curious stare.
"Whoever gets tired first loses."
"No thank you ma'am." Kisame said, still shaking his head at the thought.
She shrugged. "You're loss."
Just then, Hidan's head peeked through the hole in the wall, revenge in his eyes. He set out a charge towards Yamino, and she dodged it neatly, jumping into the air and somersaulting on to the ground.
"Come on, Hidan. You're getting sloppy." She teased and ran off.
"Do you think we should warn leader-sama?" Kisame leaned toward Itachi expectantly.
He only shrugged; the only one not seeming to be disrupted by the noise.
Deidara's over heard this and stood up. "I'll tell him." He said and walked off to his Pein's office.
Pein
"You basically just used me." Pein glared at Konon over his shoulder.
"No, I would never do such a thing to you." She sat up from her perch on his bed.
"You knew I wouldn't allow you to leave, so I did the one thing I didn't want to do." Pein said to her.
"Well, you weren't protesting." She crawled over the bed to where he sat on the corner, touching his shoulder. "You know I love you."
"Well. I don't love you. Not now, not ever." He stood up, cringing away from her touch. "You made me betray the one I care for." He grabbed onto her blue hair-which had been pulled from its ponytail- and glared down at her.
"Pein, you could have just let me go." She grabbed on his hands, but he refused to let her go.
He tossed her away from him, on to the other side of the bed. He bent to retrieve his pants and was putting them on when there was a hesitant knock on the door.
"Leader-sama?" It was Deidara's small voice.
"What do you want?" Pein snapped (obviously agitated) while he looked for his shirt.
"There's an issue in the common room, hmm."
Pein huffed and turned back towards the deflated Konon.
"I want you out of here by the time I get back. I don't want you in my room, or in my office." He said and yanked the door open, slamming it shut.
