People are Troublesome
Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine.
"Welcome back to the shithole." Ino had even made a banner with this written on it.
"Thanks?" Unlike yesterday, Shikamaru hadn't bothered to go and get Hidan this morning. Last night he had simply nagged at the boy until he'd agreed to come in tomorrow and left it at that. He really did want him to be here. This was unsettling since normally he didn't care what other people did, and Hidan was particularly irritating.
The fact that the boy didn't seem to have showed up annoyed him a lot, but he chose not to say anything about it. Making out that he cared would cause more problems.
"Did you enjoy your day in the love nest?"
"The love nest?" He didn't really want to know what kind of fucked up fantasies she was having; especially those that involved him.
"You who avoid people and hate effort, are choosing to spend time with someone. And that person said he wanted to screw you-."
"As a joke." This needed adding since no one seemed to grasp this vital fact.
"And he sleeps in your bed-."
"Not with me." Most of the time anyway.
"It still seems very suspicious." She even dared to look at him as if he was hiding something.
"In your rotten brain maybe." The fact that they had shared a bed and held onto each other was an event he was planning on forgetting. For now.
"True… I have more fun that way though."
"You're hopeless." There wasn't much that could be done for Ino. Choji was a very patient person to put up with it.
"Where is the lovable madman anyway?"
"Sleeping? How would I know?"
He suspected that Hidan wouldn't even bother to show up so he was surprised when he appeared just as their first lesson was starting. After only a few moments hesitation, Shikamaru went and joined him in the corner. Even the teacher looked surprised but as it was Kakashi, he quickly went back to not caring.
"You're here."
"You told me to come." As always he spoke in that direct, childlike tone.
"I'm just surprised that you did it."
"It's weirder that you're over here instead of with your friends." This was an opinion probably shared with everyone else in the room. Other people probably hadn't seen Hidan hold a conversation with anyone before either.
"They can deal without me." And after thinking for a moment he added, "plus I thought we'd agreed that you were also a friend of mine."
"True…" For some reason Hidan became really interested in the desk at this point. Not that Shikamaru minded. He was enjoying watching the ceiling.
It was a weird day for Shikamaru. Although he didn't plan on avoiding his friends, he ended up spending every lesson with Hidan. In some ways it was more relaxing since he wasn't being moaned at by Ino. It did however, ruin the plan he had for trying to get Hidan to spend time with other people, and so at lunch he stopped the other boy before he could disappear off somewhere else.
"Where are you going?"
"Somewhere quiet." He seemed confused by the relevance of the question.
"Come and see my friends."
"Why?"
"Because I told them about you and told them not to act weird with you."
"So don't be mean to the weird kid?"
"…If you want to put it that way." There was no point in bullshitting things with Hidan since he was the kind of person who got straight to the point. Messing around just confused him.
"If you want me to go." He didn't say anything else and so Shikamaru headed to the usual spot, with the quiet one following behind. Walking with Hidan had its advantages since the corridors cleared from his 'glare.' His friends didn't make a fuss but they did go silent for a moment.
"So you know Hidan." He gestured at him. "I'm going to sit down." And he went to his corner and sat down at long last. It was almost funny to note that Hidan was giving him a look reminiscent of a puppy sitting in the rain.
"So Hidan," Ino started. "You and Shika were together all day yesterday. What did you guys do?" Oh shit. Shikamaru was trying to communicate telepathically not to say anything. No matter how innocent it was, she would jump on something like this. She'd paired up two of the boys in another class because they shared each other's food for god's sake.
"Slept." And as usual, Hidan was brusque.
"All day?"
"Hn."
"In the same bed?" She had a huge grin on her face.
"Yeah." Although she'd wanted it, she hadn't expected this response and so it was a shock.
"What?! Really?!" Ino made sure to give Shikamaru a really sly look. "And did you spoon?"
"Spoon?" Hidan had gone from his scowling facial expression to a slightly confused look.
"You don't know what spooning is?" Ino was distracted from her discovery by this. Hidan shook his head. Now he was no longer scowling, he actually looked oddly adorable. Shikamaru wasn't thinking this of course. "It's when you lie next to someone and put your arm around them, pressing yourself up against their back."
"Oh… No, we didn't do that." Thankfully he was being literal. The relief was sort-lived. "We faced each other."
"What?!" And now she was on Shikamaru. "You lying bastard! You said you weren't gay!"
"I am not! It was cold and we weren't touching when we fell asleep!"
"So you did it in your sleep? So adorable." There was no point in reasoning with her. "Oh, you just wait until Sakura gets here."
"Yay." He had to glare at Hidan, something that didn't go unnoticed. As Sakura arrived, Hidan went and joined Shikamaru on the ground.
"Are you mad?"
"No."
"Why are ya mad?" And now he was being perceptive.
"Please don't tell Ino this stuff."
"Why?" Seeing her response in the last few minutes hadn't told him enough.
"Because she will use it in her fantasies because for some reason, she enjoys pairing up random males."
"Oh… so don't tell her anything?"
"No."
"Ok." At least he listened. After Ino had talked to him with no ill effect, Kiba decided to be brave.
"Hi guys!" His faked smile didn't hide the fact that his voice had gone high-pitched.
"Hello Kiba." Hidan didn't say anything, choosing instead to stare. He knew he would've been disconcerted too.
"So how are you guys?" He tried to ignore all the glaring but as Shikamaru knew, it was pretty intense.
"I am sick of school and I've barely been in it."
"Well it does suck… And you Hidan?"
"Hn?"
"…How are you?"
"Alive."
"Oh." Not much could be said to that.
"I think he wants to know how you feel, not your status Vis a Vis life."
"Oh. I'm not dead so it's good."
"…" Kiba was struggling to continue the conversation so Shikamaru decided to help.
"Kiba could probably help you with that level on Sonic."
"What?!" Hidan was finally interested. "Can you?"
"Which level?" Kiba nearly backed away from Hidan's eager face.
"The one he was trying to do when you were there."
"Ohh that one. Maybe?"
"Will you show me?"
"Ok? Oh, we could do it tomorrow since everyone's meeting up?"
"Good plan." This could mean Hidan was stuck in with everyone, forcing more socialising.
"Hn." And all of a sudden Hidan toned it down again.
As no actual problems had occurred, the others soon forgot that Hidan was there and so got on with their usual. In fact, Hidan was really quiet, staring out into space.
"Are you ok?" It was hard to concentrate on relaxing when he was very conscious of Hidan sitting silently beside him.
"Hn."
"…That doesn't answer my question."
"I'm fine."
"You don't sound fine." He sounded pretty tense in fact.
"I'm tired." And he stood up. "I'm gonna go home."
"Now?" He knew the guy didn't care about school, but still.
"Yeah. See you tomorrow." And off he went, leaving Shikamaru confused.
"Why'd he leave?"
"Was it a lovers tiff?"
"No. He was tired." And seemingly worried about something.
But he didn't have time to worry about Hidan right now. The last lesson was Biology with the wonderful Asuma. Since the man had phoned him yesterday, it was likely he would try to start a conversation with him. This was something he didn't want to deal with today. Not ever in fact.
Shikamaru wasn't normally the type to hold a grudge. Hating people was a major effort so he usually wouldn't bother. But in this case there were extenuating circumstances. Betraying someone's trust and pretending it was to help them was a cruel thing to do.
From the start of the lesson Asuma kept glancing at him and every time Shikamaru tried to pretend he hadn't noticed. The problem was that Asuma was a teacher and so he could use the irritating method to get Shikamaru to talk to him.
"Can I see you for a minute, Shikamaru?"
"What about?"
"The work you've missed." It was hard to argue with this excuse. Feeling irritated, he stayed sitting whilst the rest of the class filed out until it was just him and Asuma.
"What have I missed then?" When he saw the way Asuma was looking at him, he knew it wasn't going to be about work.
"It's not really that. I know you keep up easily." As expected.
"What do you want then?"
"I know you're angry with me but you know as well as I do that I did it for your own good. I was trying to help you."
"'For my own good.' How do you know what's good for me?" He hated that phrase so, so much. It implied that he didn't know what was good for himself.
"You were bored Shikamaru. And you haven't been working hard either."
"So you're going to ask them to give me more work are you?" He wasn't sure why he'd even liked this guy in the past.
"I just think someone of your talents should be pushing themselves more. You're a smart boy, you could do so much." Asuma had always been so nice and yet now he was being kind of a condescending jerk.
"Has anyone asked me? Did anyone think to ask me if I wanted to do a lot? Maybe I'm happier being average?!" Shikamaru didn't like losing his temper. He was going to be exhausted when he got home because of it.
"You're lucky enough to have an amazing mind; don't you want to use it?"
"No! I don't care about doing anything amazing. All I want to do is be normal, ok?" Have an average job, an average marriage, an average life. Why anybody wanted any more he didn't know.
"When you're older-."
"Don't bother." Shikamaru stood up.
"Shika-."
"Just leave me alone." And now he stormed out of the lab, ignoring the bearded bastard. Just because he was smarter than the average person didn't mean that he had to do all these amazing things with his life. It was plain ridiculous.
I wish I was like Hidan. He never has to do anything.