Chapter 10

We melt into each other with phrases.
- Virginia Woolfe

It is a gorgeous late summer evening and Ino is getting ready to have dinner with cousin Kiku and her husband. She's in a great mood; today has been wonderful, no Jashin, no deaths, and plus, Kiku is an incredible cook and she's promised to make that cherry tomato salad that Ino likes so much…

Just as she waltzes out of the bathroom after her shower, Hidan clambers into the apartment through the window, back from doing god-knows-what, god-knows-where.

"Hi Hidan," says Ino musically as she brushes past him in her towel, wafting flowery shampoo and steam.

"…Hi."

Hidan follows Ino into the bedroom, looking more and more morose as he takes in her bubbly mood.

"You're ditching me tonight. Again."

"Yep," says Ino, perching herself in front of her vanity. "What gave it away?"

"You're fuckin' happy," says Hidan.

Ino laughs. "Aw. Sometimes I'm happy when I'm staying in with you."

Hidan collapses onto the bed languidly, watching as Ino towel-dries her hair. "Oh yeah? Like when?"

Ino glances up at him and has to deliberately avoid falling into a stare, because for some reason he is looking very attractive right now, lounging amidst the rumpled sheets – shirtless and pretty and toned… However, the grumpy-ass expression on his face somewhat ruins the effect.

"Like when you're asleep and I don't have to endure your grousing," says Ino. "Then I'm happy."

As expected, his eyes immediately flash violet offense at her. Ino turns away to hide her smirk but he catches it in the mirror. The offense dissipates and settles into something closer to impishness.

"So… you creep on me when I'm sleeping," says Hidan.

"Pff. Not in the way you're thinking," says Ino. "You wake me up with your snoring constantly… so then I just lie there and fantasize about suffocating you."

"Fuck you, I don't snore," says Hidan.

Ino untangles her damp hair. "Oh my god, yes you do."

"Whatever," says Hidan, gesturing dismissively. "That's not even the interesting part of your story."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," says Hidan. "The part where you fantasize about me, that's interesting."

"Ew, no I don't," says Ino. (This is a small lie. Kind of. She just thinks about him, sometimes, in very general terms, because he's so pretty and all…)

"You just said you do, angel-slut," says Hidan. "Tell me more about this suffocating thing. It sounds kinda hot."

Ino combs out her hair and gives him a look over her shoulder. He contemplates her with a lazy kind of flirtatiousness, which compels her to respond in kind, if only to remind him that she's way better than he is at flirting.

"Well…" says Ino with a seductive half-smile. "Sometimes I'm lying awake, and… I feel so alone, you know?"

Hidan wiggles his eyebrows at her. Ino fights to not burst into laughter.

"And you're there – so close to me, but…"

"But what?" asks Hidan when she trails off.

Ino bites her lip slowly. "But I can't – do the things I want to. So then I imagine what it would be like to lean over you and feel your breathing…"

"Yeah?" says Hidan when she trails off again. "This is getting good. Continue."

"And then I imagine that I…"

Ino feigns hesitation and shyness and looks at the floor.

"That you what? Fuck, stop interrupting yourself."

"I imagine that I…" Ino takes a deep breath, as though to steel herself enough to make a naughty revelation. "…Stuff a pillow into your face and hold it down until you spasm out your death-twitches, then I drag your corpse out and put it through farmer-boy's combine, and you become fertilizer for next season's corn. The end."

Hidan does not look impressed. "What–?! You little–"

Ino holds up a finger. "Actually, no, not corn. How do acorns grow? If you became fertilizer for those, it would be, like, irony or something…"

She promptly drowns out Hidan's virulent response with the hairdryer.

VVV

It takes Ino a good twenty minutes to dry her hair, because she has a lot of it, and plus, she's doing some fancy styling with a round brush, just because it will take longer and therefore aggravate Hidan further.

When she's done, her hair falls in thick, wavy strands all the way down her back, like a mermaid's, or a nymph's, or an angel's, maybe.

"Hey, beautiful," says Hidan when the dryer is finally switched off and he can get a word in edgewise.

This is not the first thing that Ino expected to hear from Hidan after her latest stunt. She was expecting something of the –bitch or –slut variety. She looks up at Hidan questioningly.

"I need you to come here," says Hidan.

"Why?"

"Just come here."

Ino studies him, but he doesn't appear to be plotting anything too nefarious, lying there like the lazy sexy asshole that he is.

She approaches the bed cautiously.

"Closer," says Hidan, watching her with a sly glint of amusement in his half-lidded eyes.

Ino creeps closer, suspicious now.

"Sit. I'm not gonna bite you, goddamn," says Hidan.

"You've tried to before," points out Ino, quite rightly. She makes sure that her towel is well-secured before she seats herself on the bed next to him. "What is it? I have to get dressed."

"Gimme your hand," says Hidan. "I need to show you something."

Ino has a hunch as to where he might be going with this, but then again, no, he's a priest of Jashin, not a fourteen year old boy, he wouldn't…

Yeah, he would.

"Hidan!" says Ino when he pulls her hand to the hard-on that he was hiding in his pants.

He laughs uproariously at her surprise. Ino shakes her head at him.

"Really," says Ino.

"So acorn? Or more like, zucchini or some other vegetable shit…"

"Idiot," says Ino instead of answering. (It is definitely more like zucchini or some shit, but Ino has known this since she first saw his interesting bits, so she is able to look disinterested.)

He laughs some more. It's kind of contagious. Ino's disapproval turns to amusement.

"I'm going to have to tell Jashin about this outrageous behaviour."

"Go ahead," says Hidan, readjusting his pants quite shamelessly. "Either you're above the normal rules, or he has a fuckin' blind spot where you're concerned."

"I'm his angel," says Ino haughtily as she makes for the closet.

"It's kind of unfair, actually," says Hidan as Ino flicks through her dresses. "…Where are you going, anyway?"

"Dinner," says Ino. "And you aren't invited."

"I know," says Hidan. "I'm never invited."

For whatever dumb reason, the way he says this makes Ino feel sad. But she has good reasons to exclude crazy-priest from her social circle, such as the fact that he would gladly kill off most of them.

"It's just a dinner with my cousin. You'd die of boredom."

"Oh, it's with your cousin," says Hidan, looking immediately more cheerful. "Thought it was Farmjizz."

"He's going to be there too," says Ino. "Kiku asked me to invite him…"

"Oh," says Hidan, and his sudden cheerfulness veers to grumpiness. "Great. So you're ditching me to hang out with that dork again."

"Yep," says Ino. She holds out two dresses. "White or black?"

"Black," says Hidan without hesitation. "The colour of betrayal."

Ino rolls her eyes. "Drama queen."

"Ditcher."

"Whatever," says Ino, draping the black dress onto the bed and grabbing some panties from a drawer. "Close your eyes, because I'm about to get naked."

Hidan covers his face with his hand, leaving generous gaps between his fingers.

"Peeking is a sin," says Ino, biting back a smile because he's being stupidly obvious about it.

"I'm not peeking," says Hidan. "My eyes are closed."

"Whatever," says Ino with a shrug. "It's your soul's everlasting salvation that's at stake, not mine."

She lets the towel drop and slips on her panties and bra. Hidan says nothing, though his jaw clenches in a very interesting way.

"Done," says Ino a moment later.

Hidan lets his hand fall and Ino thinks that he couldn't have been watching her after all, because she would've felt his gaze how she's feeling it now, like a touch…

She slips into the dress under his watchful eyes. She is quite resplendent in black; the contrast makes her bright.

"Zip me up?" asks Ino, backing towards the bed.

She doesn't hear him move behind her to help, so she looks over her shoulder to find that Hidan is eyeing her bare back appreciatively.

"Nah," says Hidan. "I think it looks better like that."

Ino rolls her eyes. "Great. I'll tell them it's a fashion statement."

"You do that."

Ino sits herself on the edge of the bed with her back to him. "Get up and help me, you lazy bastard."

Hidan shifts to a seated position beside Ino with a sigh, like she is being so demanding. Then, instead of zipping her up, he draws a finger lightly from the small of her back to her neck. (And gives her some quickly-suppressed shivers as he does so.)

"There," he says.

"Gee, thanks, Hidan," says Ino, feigning imbecility.

"Anytime," says Hidan.

"If I go like this, farmer-boy gets to see more of me," says Ino.

"So?" says Hidan, from somewhere just above her shoulder, so she can feel his breath on her skin. "He already gets to see all of you. And touch you. And every-fucking-thing else."

Ino turns to look at him and is surprised to find his face very close to hers.

"Why are you so bitter about him…?" she asks, searching his eyes.

"I'm not bitter," says Hidan. He reaches his arm behind her and sullenly pulls up her zipper, as though this would somehow prove it.

"Then why do you resent him so much?"

This close to Hidan, Ino can see that his gaze has turned to a moody purple. "He doesn't deserve you."

"So you're jealous," says Ino as she rises to her feet and adjusts the straps on her dress.

Hidan rises as well, too annoyed, apparently, to keep lounging carelessly.

"He's a fuckin' random guy," says Hidan. "Why does he get to have you? What did he do so goddamn right in his life? What god does he worship?"

"What does it matter?" asks Ino, slightly exasperated. "You can't have me anyway. Because of the god you worship."

There's nothing untrue in these words and Ino certainly did not say them with the intent to injure. But Hidan looks at her, then, unguarded for a moment, and she sees that he is hurting. His eyes are filled with a kind of distressed uncertainty and confusion that almost pains Ino to see, which must therefore be close to unbearable for him…

Ino is not really an empathetic person, but occasionally, she has these moments – moments like this, when she doesn't need to activate her technique to feel the currents of confusion and hurt that are making him ache right now.

And – unusually – she regrets her words. And – also unusually – she actually, truly, feels for him.

So she surprises the hell out of them both when she reaches her slim arms around Hidan's neck and pulls him into an impulsive hug.

He is shocked into immobility for the first few seconds – long seconds, to Ino, who wonders if this was a mistake – but then he slips his arms around her waist and pulls her in towards him, and rests his cheek on her shoulder, and she knows that it wasn't.

His skin is warm under her bare arms and his breath even more so where it brushes along her shoulder. He feels good to her, and she knows that she feels good to him, because they're both in the prime of their lives, and beautiful, and strong. The flat of her tummy is flush against his, her breasts press into his chest, he is all lean hard muscle and she is all toned curves, and their heights line up just so, and they fit gorgeously together, a heart in a reliquary, an idol in a shrine…

She knows that he can smell her shampoo and her soap warmed by her skin, which is probably why he nuzzles his face into the side of her neck – unless he just wants an excuse to pull her in closer to him, which he does anyway, and she doesn't begrudge him this, because it feels quite wonderful, this togetherness – it feels right.

They hold each other in this tight embrace for a long time, the angel-girl and the priest-boy, and many unsaid things pass between them; his longing for her and her acknowledgement of it, her daydreams about him and his prayers about her, a shared understanding that, in a different world, in a different set of circumstances, they might have been something more than the worshipper and the worshipped…

Hidan leans his forehead against Ino's and looks down at her, his gaze heavy with devotion and want and worry.

"Wonder-girl," he says, "what are you doing to me?"

And Ino's heart thrills a little, though she doesn't know why.

"I could ask you the same question, priest-boy."

He huffs out something amused and stares at her mouth and then finds her eyes, and his are full of a yearning and confusion that makes his face even more beautiful, and Ino kind of wants to melt.

Hidan's hand slides up her back to the nape of her neck and then Ino's fingertips find their place on his shoulders. Their breaths mingle and they are so lost right now, together, in each other more deeply now than during any of Ino's mind games, because in this moment it's not their spirits or wills that are touching, it's their souls.

And Ino finds herself wanting to push herself to her tip-toes and kiss him hard, except there are a thousand reasons why she shouldn't; his religion, and farmer-boy, and she's leaving in a week, and he's crazy, and Jashin, and and and…

Ino swallows hard and turns away. Hidan stares at her profile for a while, then he rests his cheek on her shoulder again, sighing out a long breath of mingled disappointment and relief, and maybe brushing his lips with almost imperceptible lightness against her skin, too, Ino can't be sure.

"…I need to finish getting ready," says Ino.

"You do that," says Hidan, letting go of her, which leaves her feeling oddly bereft. "I need to pray."

VVV

It is late when Ino returns from her dinner. When she opens the bedroom door, she sees that Hidan is already asleep, looking devastatingly innocent, curled up on his side with a pillow in his arms and an unusually serene expression on his face.

As she slips out of her clothes – with movements that are not quite as graceful as usual; she has had a few glasses of wine – Ino reflects that, if he'd only keep his foul mouth shut sometimes, and temper the crazy heat in his eyes, he could pass for an angel just as well as she does.

She washes up and brushes her teeth as quietly as she can, then she climbs into bed next to him.

Her side of the bed is cold. Ino shivers once or twice, then asks herself, with the kind of deep philosophy borne by wine, why she should be the only one to suffer here. How is that fair?

She edges a leg towards Hidan's side, which is, as she suspected, toasty-warm. Ino cackles evilly to herself before rolling to his side and sticking her icy feet into the warmest possible places.

"Motherf–" says Hidan, jerking awake. He looks around in a daze and sees Ino giggling next to him in the penumbra of the bedroom.

"Why are you so fuckin' frigid?" he says, scooting away from her.

"Because it's cold in here," says Ino. "Hey. Stay close. Warm me up, you jerk."

"No. Get away, you're like ice..."

"Fine," says Ino, settling into the space that Hidan recently vacated. "I'll just take your warm spot."

He stares disbelievingly at her from the edge of the bed, half-asleep still, but definitely more than half-annoyed. Ino nestles into his pillow with the self-satisfaction of a cat and stares back, daring him to do something about it.

"I'll just make a better warm spot," says Hidan. "So fuck you."

"Fine," says Ino. "Now shut up. I'm sleeping."

"You're sleeping? You're the one who woke me–"

"Shh."

Hidan mutters something rude and leans over Ino to steal her pillow, since she has his. This puts him momentarily in a very vulnerable position, hovering above her with his arm outstretched and his bare ribs just inches from her fingertips…

For whatever slightly-tipsy reason, Ino really feels like tickling him.

So she does.

He is very ticklish, and, to Ino's delight, he giggles, which is hilarious because he has this whole hardass judgement-serving killer-priest thing going on.

"Stop," says Hidan, or maybe it's closer to a breathless shriek.

"Oh my god," says Ino, tickling him ruthlessly, "listen to you."

Hidan says something that is probably supposed to be a stream of hair-raising swearing, but it comes out as disconnected syllables interspersed with squeals.

Eventually, he manages to get grip on each of Ino's hands and press them into the mattress above her head.

"What," says Hidan, fighting for breath, "is fucking wrong with you?"

"That was hilarious," says Ino, laughing. "You giggle like a little boy, it was so cute…"

"It wasn't cute," says Hidan. "It was fuckin' torture."

"Torture?" repeats Ino. "Well then. Praise Jashin and let me continue until you die."

He looks down at her, uncertain as to whether this is sincere or teasing, and Ino looks up at him, and smirks, and confirms that it's the latter.

To head off his preaching, Ino decides to distract him by running her bare leg down his. It works exceedingly well; he looks down at her and notices that she's only in her underwear and rolls off of her immediately.

"Don't," he says, moving to the side of the bed formerly known as Ino's.

"Don't what?" asks Ino innocently, throwing a leg over his hip now that he's beside her.

"You know what," says Hidan, sliding his hand down her leg and gripping it at the ankle to remove it from his vicinity.

"No I don't," says Ino, throwing her other leg across him.

"Angel-girl."

"What?"

"You gotta stop making this so hard for me."

"Mm," says Ino. "Word choice."

"What?... Oh. Fuck."

"You'll have to ask more nicely than that," says Ino. "And besides, I'm seeing someone."

Hidan pushes her leg away and doesn't answer, opting instead to stare at the ceiling. Ino can see that he is not enjoying their repartee any more, and that she, perhaps, pushed it too far. Slightly contrite, she pulls her various limbs back towards herself.

"Sorry," says Ino. "Wine always makes me want to climb all over m- um, people… and I had a little too much tonight."

She presses her fingers to his mouth before he can lecture her on the sins of alcohol. "No. I needed it to get through that dinner. Trust me."

Hidan brings up a hand to nudge her hushing fingertips away from his mouth. "That bad, huh?"

Ino notices that he keeps her hand nestled under his on his chest – and she also notices that he tries to look casual about it, so she chooses not to make a remark.

"Pretty bad," says Ino. "It started out fine, and then Sonkei started talking about how amazing it would be if I stayed here longer… and I think Kiku was in on it too, because she was all 'oh yes, I could use your help, do you have to go so soon' – which is even more annoying, because she knows more than anyone that I can't…"

Ino sighs. "Anyway. It wasn't fun after that, when I understood that they had an agenda and they were kind of ganging up on me. I just played dumb and bubbly and said how much I missed home... god, farmer-boy, why do you have to be so in love, just, why..."

Instead of agreeing with her and going on a tirade about 'Farmjizz,' Hidan surprises her by shrugging. "Can't really fuckin' blame the guy for that."

"How so?" asks Ino, nonplussed at this unexpected defense of Sonkei.

Hidan stares at the ceiling in a pained kind of way.

"It's... hard not to love you, angel-girl," he says eventually.

Ino studies him in the dark. "I really hope you're not speaking from experience."

There is a beat of silence.

"No," says Hidan.

"Good. Don't."

He is still holding her hand to his chest, and Ino has a moment of doubt, because under her fingertips, she definitely felt his pulse accelerate. She doesn't push the issue, however; things are complicated enough as is.

They lie in silence for a while, and, eventually, Ino drifts off to that half-awareness between sleep and waking.

Then Hidan whispers in the dark.

"I saw you in my prayers again."

And Ino, not sure how to answer this, squeezes his hand and says nothing.

VVV