People are Troublesome

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine.

From the moment he first got to school Shikamaru knew the day was going to end up being as crappy as the last couple of days. First there was Hidan, then all of his friends were texting him asking about his 'new boyfriend' and now he walked in to see Ino and Kiba sitting on his desk. He'd been avoiding answering calls and replying to texts but it was hard to avoid talking to people at school.

"Hey Shika." Kiba had a smug look on his face and was clearing looking forward to what was about to come.

"I should've known!" Ino was less subtle. "You've never been interested in girls. But why didn't you tell me? I thought you would've at least told your closest friend about this!"

"Firstly I'm not gay, second all the women I know are annoying, and third even if I was gay I wouldn't tell you any of it."

"But who was that guy?" Kiba was practically in his face now.

"My… cousin." It seemed the best explanation. The truth was too weird for him.

"I didn't think you had any cousins." He didn't and he couldn't help but curse the closeness of their families.

"He's like a cousin. His family's friends with my parents. I haven't seen him for years and he only came down for the weekend." Luckily he could think up excuses pretty quickly when he needed to.

"So you guys were just innocently sitting in your room." Ino was giving him one of her suggestive looks. He'd long ago learned that it was best not to look guilty. Instead he walked up and sat at his desk.

"You can imagine whatever you want." It was what she was going to do anyway. Kiba was probably going to start but luckily Iruka walked in, sending all the fools scuttling back to their seats. At least Choji never bothered him about any of this.

Hidan wasn't there as usual and Shikamaru was glad of that. Whenever that guy was around something seemed to go wrong for him. Although after the phone call it seemed that he didn't even need to be there. Ino kept wiggling her eyebrows at him and drawing pictures of him embracing random guys. He assumed it was him anyway. Her drawings sucked.

Two lessons in and he was considering going home. He was stupidly tired and his friends weren't helping the situation. Not to mention the fact that it was Asumas class. The man had attempted conversation a couple of times when the class had quieted down but he had just ignored him. Hidan eventually showed up towards the end of the lesson, not even looking at Shikamaru. This just bothered him further. His day had been ruined yet the guy barely noticed his existence.

But he had to admit Hidan wasn't the one who kept giving him crap. By the middle of the day he'd stopped replying. Ino and his other friends realised he was getting annoyed so left him alone. Kiba seemed to be missing the part of the brain that worked this kind of thing out.

"So can I be the best man at the wedding?" Even pretending to sleep wasn't working now.

"When I get married you can be the doormat."

"So are you the top or the bottom?" This wasn't even deserving of a reply. "In case you don't what that means, it's-."

"I know how it works!" He gathered up his bags and started walking off. "Where are you-? Ow! You bitch!"

"Don't take it too far you jackass!" At least it seemed Ino and Sakura were standing up for him. In the meantime he was going to find somewhere better to go.

In the end he chose the library. It kind of sucked since it was full of asshole kids who apparently loved the sound of their own voices but at least they didn't care what he was doing. Even if it did worsen his headache. He slumped down on the desk and closed his eyes in an attempt to drown it out. When the sound suddenly died down twenty minutes later he wasn't too bothered. Either the librarian had flipped out or something more interesting was happening somewhere else. When he opened his eyes he could see Hidan at the other side of the room.

Well that's just perfect. Although he was in the far corner of the room he still felt too close for comfort. Something troublesome was bound to happen with that one so close. After a while though things were still mostly silent. Even the librarian seemed to have escaped. Shikamaru opened one eye to see how close the crazy one was. Very close it seemed. Hidan had decided to sit opposite him and was staring. Of course he nearly fell of his chair as he jumped up. There was a very long and awkward silence.

"…Do you need something?" A pretty reasonable question to ask.

"No."

"I see…" Why were you staring then? Sadly he wasn't quite brave enough to say that. Even after being caught out he still didn't stop. Shikamaru grabbed a random book and pretended to read but even then he could feel eyes burning into him. "Are you sure you don't need anything?" Hidan just shrugged.

How helpful. Getting up to leave sounded good but he didn't want to move from his comfy spot. Being this close to a known psycho wasn't great either though. Especially knowing that if he said anything awkward he'd probably be beaten. It was then that he noticed Hidan still had the same bandages on from the other day.

"…Shouldn't you change those?" It didn't matter who it was, if someone was being an idiot he felt obliged to point it out.

"How the hell would I know?" He even dared to look at Shikamaru like he was a moron.

"…Maybe you should check it's healed?" His health problems didn't bother Shikamaru that much but he had too much of a conscience to let the idiot get an infection.

"You do it if you're so bothered." What?! Hidan held out his arm and just looked at him. It took a lot of self-restraint not to tell him where to stick it.

"Fine." Anything for an easy life. No one was near enough to see what they were doing so he was glad of that. Physical contact with this guy felt awkward enough.

"Your arm looks fine." At least then he wouldn't have to put any more on. He didn't want to have to touch the boy that much.

"Hn." And not even a thank you. Shikamaru could feel his eye twitching as it usually did when someone pissed him off. Major anger wasn't common for him and he usually held it in.

I am not moving. He's the one bothering me. He tried to lie down again but he kept feeling the staring and so sleep was pretty much impossible.

"Why don't you read something?"

"What the fuck does that mean?" Hidan took it as well as expected.

"You must be bored to be staring at me." He knew he wasn't that interesting to stare at.

"I was working out what gender you were." This was pretty unexpected.

"…Why?"

"You look feminine. And you're reading a book on fucking dresses." Shikamaru finally noticed what the book he'd grabbed was on and quickly pushed it away.

"That was an accident. I'm completely male and I'm not a cross dresser before you ask." It was like talking to Kiba in some ways.

"Prove it."

"What?!" This time he couldn't help shouting slightly. Hidan was staring at him with occasional glances to his trousers and Shikamaru scowled.

"I said prove it." …This guy should spend some time with Sai.

"No!" He was going red. "What the hell is wrong with you?" He regretted it after he said it. This was a question that you just shouldn't ask Hidan.

"Fuck you." He grabbed hold of Shikamaru by the shirt and it seemed punching was imminent. Unlike last time he just didn't care.

"Well what is it? Why can't you just smile once in a while and act like a decent person? Why have you got to pull this kind of thing? Is it really that hard?" This was very satisfying to say. Especially as it seemed to surprise Hidan so much he'd gone speechless. He rarely got a reply probably.

"How the fuck would I know?" Hidan then released him and stormed off. This was kind of weird but not as much as the very obvious pained look he'd had. It shouldn't have been surprising that the guy could get hurt yet it still shocked him.

…Damn. I feel kind of bad now. It felt odd to be pitying someone so rude and hateful. He could remember what his mum had said when he'd mentioned Hidan at home for the first time. 'You don't know what makes him that way'. And despite having been threatened just minutes before he still felt guilty.

-Page Break-

"What's wrong with you?" Sasuke, Sakura and Kiba were all staring at him. English had broken his brain and every now and then he kept staring back at Hidan. The guy had been sending scowls his way the whole time and it was making him feel worse.

"…Nothing. Just English."

"Ok…" Sakura continued to give him side glances but mostly they left them to it. Until Kiba noticed.

"Why is the psycho staring at you?" This caused the others to notice.

"Wow, if looks could kill…"

"What did you do?" Sakura looked worried.

"It's kind of complicated…" This would involve explanations of Saturday and so he didn't want to have to deal with everyone going on about that.

"He's probably gonna kick your ass now." Kiba was smirking.

"Just shut up." A swift kick to the shin stopped the smirking but it did cause a kicking war to erupt.

"Kiba stop being a dick."

"Hey! Why do you guys always blame me?"

"Because it's always your fault." Sakura jabbed him with a pen. "Get on with it."

"Shika's not doing anything!"

"Yet he's still more useful than you." Although it was amusing to see Kiba being given hell he was still distracted by Hidan scowling. By now some other people had noticed and it was getting weird.

"What are you going to do about that?" Sasuke tilted his head towards the angry one.

"I don't know… I think I'm gonna have to apologise."

"You're going to apologise? Christ, what did you do?"

"It's hard to explain." And now he knew he was going to have to try to apologise to him. Although he didn't know why he was really upset, it was definitely what he'd said. Why did he come over though? What did he want?

Shikamaru wanted to catch him at the end of the lesson but the boy had disappeared by then and so he had to seek him elsewhere. The lockers seemed a good place so he stood and waited. Considering how quickly he usually tried to escape making contact with Hidan, it was weird that he was trying to find him now.

It wasn't until he was starting to daydream that the locker next to him slammed open and Hidan stood and glared. Clearly he resented having someone else in his space.

"Hidan?" This was kind of nerve wracking and he really wanted to run but sadly he was too polite.

"What?" There was a lot of hate in his voice and he almost stepped back. The boy was moving things round in his locker and not even looking at him.

"I… Um…" What do I say? I don't even know what to apologise for!

"Just say it and piss off."

"I'm sorry." He dropped the bag he was holding.

"…What did you just say?"

"I'm sorry?" Hidan was staring at him now. "I think I upset you, right? I'm sorry."

"…"

"…Are you ok?" A normal question but this still brought continued staring. "…Ok, well I have to go now so…" When this was met with no resistance he walked off occasionally looking back. Hidan continued to stare and it wasn't until he left eyesight that he sped up to get out of there.

Why does nothing that this guy does make sense? Most people would acknowledge that someone was talking to them even if he was still annoyed. I am never going to understand him.