When Hidan woke up the next morning, he immediately wished he hadn't. His head was pounding, his stomach was churning, and dear Jashin why was the sun so bright? Now he understood why Kakuzu had been acting like such a little bitch when Hidan had discovered him hungover; this was pure hell on earth.

Whimpering, Hidan eventually rolled onto his side to look at the clock by his bedside. 10:34, meaning he hadn't slept in too late. Maybe he could go back to sleep for a little while…no, better to get some water and aspirin in his system as quickly as possible. Groaning and fighting waves of nausea, the Jashinist sat up and slowly swung his legs over the side of the bed. "Need water," he mumbled to himself as he ever so slowly stood up and began the long trek from his room to the kitchen.

Fritters was mercifully still asleep; Hidan thanked Jashin for that, since the bird's innocent squawks would no doubt have made Hidan's headache that much worse. His forced his aching limbs to walk into the kitchen and retrieve a glass from a cabinet above the sink, which was promptly filled with cool water. He extracted a bottle of aspirin from another cabinet and quickly took two, praying that they would kick in and soothe the overwhelming pain in his skull soon. For now though, he had more important things to worry about; for example, exactly what had happened after that sixth shot of vodka last night.

Sipping on his water, Hidan tried to piece together the events of the night before. There were patches he couldn't remember at all (though he seemed to recall getting into a fight with someone at his mom's bar), then Kakuzu was suddenly there for some reason, then he was back home puking and drinking water and puking it up again, and then he was crying and Kakuzu kissed him-

Hidan nearly dropped his glass as the full force of the memory hit him. "Holy shit, Kakuzu really kissed me."

Ok, there was no need to panic. This was probably a good thing, right? It meant the miser actually cared about Hidan and wanted the zealot in that way, despite his frequent protests to the contrary. For the first time, it had been the miser to initiate something romantic between the two of them. Their kiss, albeit drunken and impromptu, represented a step forward for the two of them.

On the other hand, they'd kissed despite the fact that both of them had boyfriends. Hidan was a lot of bad things: an academic delinquent, a runaway, a petty thief, a loudmouth with foul language, and an all around frequent pain in the ass. One thing he never thought he'd become was a cheater. And that's exactly what he was now, excuses of drunkenness be damned. The worst part was that he couldn't bring himself to feel too broken up over it, even though he knew that he should be overwhelmed by guilt right now. He and Deidara had been on the rocks for some time, and a breakup seemed imminent to him. Moreover, when he kissed Deidara it always felt nice, but it was nowhere near the league of incredible that he'd felt from Kakuzu's kiss. The relationship with the blond was all but over to him.

Still, that didn't mean that he and Kakuzu would just magically get together and live happily ever after. Kakuzu still had a boyfriend, for one thing; for another, there was still the age difference that the banker kept harping on about. That barrier simply couldn't be overcome for an entire year, and there was nothing either of them could do about it.

Hidan took a seat at the kitchen table and sipped at his water. So what were they supposed to do now? It had been hard enough trying to return to a normal dynamic with the banker after Kakuzu had woken up in the middle of the night to find Hidan kissing him, and the sexual tension between the two of them had never entirely dissipated. Now that it had been Kakuzu to make a move on him, despite the fact that everything in their lives dictated that such a choice would be a bad idea, Hidan had no idea how things could return to normal. Hell, what even constituted as normal now? He and Kakuzu were going to need to have a long talk about that. Speaking of…

Hidan had yet to see Kakuzu this morning. That shouldn't be surprising, since Kakuzu was usually at work by 10:30, but Hidan had the sneaking suspicion that Kakuzu was in no better shape to go to work than Hidan was to go to school. The Jashinist groaned at the realization; Iruka was probably going to be calling tonight demanding to know why Hidan hadn't been in class today. Somehow, he doubted the excuse of sleeping off a night of drunken mistakes would go over well with the principal.

Pushing that thought aside for the time being, Hidan got up from the table and went to Kakuzu's room. A quick peek inside told him that the banker was out; but had he really gone to work?

A sudden beeping from his cell phone distracted the Jashinist. Maybe Kakuzu had left him a message? Hidan returned to his bedroom and scooped his cell phone off the bedside table and checked his messages, seeing that he had two new texts. The first was from Kakuzu last night, explaining that he was at Sasori's. "Well that answers one question." Hidan scrolled down to the next text and immediately felt his stomach drop. The message was from his mother and simply said, 'Call me when you sober up.'

Gulping, Hidan dialed the number for Rocko's Bar and Grill and waited for someone to pick up. To his horror, it was Marin that answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi mom-"

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!" Marin screeched, forcing Hidan to hold the phone at a distance. "Never in all my life have I been so ashamed to call you my son! How dare you sneak into our storeroom and get drunk! You're seventeen for Jashin's sake, you could have ended up in juvie if your roommate hadn't picked you up! Oh, and when exactly were you planning on telling me that this 'friend' of yours is at least ten years older than you?!"

"He's only seven years older, damnit!"

"Oh like it really makes a difference!" Marin snapped. "You lied to me, you little brat! The next time I see you I'm gonna give you such a noogie that it'll drill a hole in your skull and give your brain some much-needed air!"

"Mom, just listen!" Hidan begged.

"Your excuses will have to wait," Marin responded, tone completely devoid of mercy. "I'm meeting with Kakuzu in about fifteen minutes, and if he can't explain himself properly I'm calling the police."

"Shit."

"Language!"

"Just…I'll come over later and we'll talk. Please, don't fucking call the cops until then." Hidan didn't know what he would do if Kakuzu got arrested; hell, he didn't even want to consider that possibility. Surely his mother could see reason and wouldn't go berserk, right?

"Fine. But you both better explain yourselves." And without another word, Marin hung up.

Hidan set down his phone and flopped backwards onto the bed. Just what he needed to go with his hangover. "Jashin damnit. Kakuzu, for once in your life please don't be a total dumbass."

-n-

Kakuzu was having a less than stellar day. It started with him waking up on Sasori's couch, continued with a phone call from Hidan's mother demanding that he come down to Rocko's before it opened to have a chat, and now insisted that he pay for a cab because Sasori was completely knocked out and had hidden the keys to his truck somewhere. All this before noon.

Kakuzu quickly paid the cab driver when he arrived at Rocko's and took a moment to compose himself before going inside. This was easily the most stressful moment of his life, even beating out when he found Hidan kissing him in his sleep. "Come on, man up," he muttered to himself. "You always knew that someone was going to find out; just be glad it wasn't the cops or your boss."

Nervous of what was waiting for him inside the bar, Kakuzu knocked on the employee entrance instead of simply barging in. Marin answered after the second knock, a frown already set on her face. Not a good sign. "Come in," she said, motioning behind her. "We're alone, so don't worry about anyone listening in."

Kakuzu followed Marin inside to a small table with two chairs near the back of the room. True to her word, the bar was completely empty. The TVs were turned off, the blinds on the windows were shut, and a soft jazz song played over the speakers above his head. He tried not to think about how much this situation reminded him of interrogation scenes from old detective movies and took a seat. "I know you're probably upset and confused," Kakuzu began. "But I promise you, there's a very good reason your kid is living with me right now."

"I'm listening," Marin stated, taking a seat across from the miser. "How about you start with the part where my son tried to rob you?"

Kakuzu's heart skipped a beat. "How did you-"

"Hidan was a very talkative drunk," Marin explained. "I just need you to fill in a few gaps in his story."

Well, the cat was out of the bag now. All that planning with Sasori the night before, gone to waste. Thus Kakuzu was forced to tell Marin the entire story from start to finish, from their initial introduction to Hidan's move-in to Hidan's job to their being evicted (twice) to Hidan's return to school to their big fight to Hidan getting a boyfriend and finally to their drunken accident (hey, why bother hiding it now?). Marin took it all in stride, not saying a word until Kakuzu had finished his story. "If my son wasn't such a moron I wouldn't believe half of what you just told me," she bluntly stated. "Really, I thought I raised him better than that."

"I promise you, I never wanted any of this to happen," Kakuzu sincerely stated. "At first I just felt sorry for Hidan, but then he kind of grew on me. Like some impossible to kill foot fungus. Please don't call the cops."

"Listen, I'm grateful that someone as kind and put together as you has been looking out for my kid, really I am," Marin began. "But the fact that you two are becoming romantically interested in each other worries me. You're seven years older than him, and Hidan's just started to get his life back together."

"I've told him we can't do anything until he's legally an adult," Kakuzu insisted.

"Be that as it may, last night he got fucked up and there was a slip-up between you two," Marin argued. "What if that happens again? And what if it gets to the point of not being a slip-up anymore, but something you actively initiate?"

Kakuzu opened and closed his mouth a few times, but no words came out. He didn't have an answer, although he desperately wished he could say something. He couldn't promise that nothing would happen between him and Hidan, because he honestly had no way of guaranteeing that; last night was proof of such. "I wish there was something I could say to reassure you," he stated. "I promise, I'd never hurt Hidan."

"Then can you please do something for me, and for him?"

"Name it."

Marin took Kakuzu's hand into her own, eyes pleading and lips set in a grim line. "Remove the temptation. Tell Hidan to move back in with me."