People are Troublesome

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine.

Why does he keep doing that? It's troublesome. Generally, when someone came round to your house, it was because they wanted to talk to you. Although he was odd, Shikamaru had thought he'd started to understand his weirdo friend, but this was kind of unexpected.

"Do you want something?" Shikamaru turned to look at the scowling face only centimetres away from his own. Hidan let out a loud huffing noise and moved back, still glaring.

"No." He sunk his chin into his hand and tilted his head to one side, still furrowing his brow.

"…I'm going to get a drink." Hidan 'hn'ed' and Shikamaru made a temporary escape from the weird atmosphere clogging up his room.

Maybe he feels weird about talking about all that stuff… He hadn't seemed it before but Hidan had gotten gradually quieter as they had approached the house of Nara. Or maybe he's embarrassed. He had admitted to liking being around him too.

Neither of those things would explain the staring. That strange, scowly, lack-of-personal space staring. It was just so odd. And it wasn't like Shikamaru was great at this whole socialising thing himself; he understood the basic social cues but not enough to speak fluent madman.

This is just going to be a long night. At least it was late enough that he could use sleep as an excuse. Sleep… with that guy staring at me… Very likely.

And as soon as he re-entered the room, the assault of the eyeballs continued. It was like Hidan was trying to work something out, but what this was he had no idea.

"So… We should probably go to sleep now. You can have the bed." Since you will probably whine if you don't.

Hidan had no response to this other than to fall onto his side, arms crossed and still watching him.

Ok… Shikamaru, even after turning off the light and facing the other way could feel the eyes burning into the back of his head. Ugh. Just perfect.

As expected, he got next to no sleep, waking up at six in the morning whilst Hidan remained blissfully asleep in the bed, small scowl still present. It was tempting to wake him up and deny him sleep but then he'd have to put up with the staring again so he chose to slink out of the bedroom and to the relative safety of the downstairs.

I hope he'll have gotten over that by the time he wakes up. He couldn't take more school days with random Hidan staring; the first few times were bad enough. Perhaps I should make him wear a blind-GAH! Shikamaru practically propelled himself to the other end of the sofa as he noticed the Hidan crouched next to him.

"Stop doing that!" It was just creepy at this point.

"Why are you up so early?" So you're ignoring that first statement.

"Because I couldn't sleep."

"That sucks." At least it seemed like some kind of return to normalcy. Though Hidan did make a huffing sound once again, after a quick glance at Shikamaru.

"…What do you want for breakfast?" If he's going to pretend he's not weird, I am too.

"Food."

"Helpful." I'll just give him any old crap. That'll teach him. "Are you going to be gracing us with your presence today?"

"If I feel like it." He yawned and laid back, eyes bleary and hair all over the place. His attention was now focused on the ceiling lamp, rather than Shikamaru.

"Just make sure you don't go along with anymore of Ino's schemes," shouted Shikamaru from the kitchen.

"Like?"

"Just no more kissing!" Crap. Why did I have to say that? There was a loud clattering from next door. "What was that?"

"Your table hates me. Fuck you." …Ok. Nothing unusual there.

Shikamaru wasn't sure how to feel. On one side, Hidan wasn't staring at him anymore. On the other, he kept scowling at inanimate objects and huffing again. This made the walk to school kind of entertaining when people unused to Hidan thought he was glaring at them.

"Do you enjoy scaring small children?" That last one had almost ran back the way they came.

"Why?" For a moment his usual perplexed expression appeared, but after only a few seconds of eye contact with Shikamaru, he furrowed his brow and looked forward once again.

"Because you keep glaring."

"Sorry I'm so creepy."

"…I was actually worried about you. Are you feeling ok?"

"I'm fine." That is definitely a lie.

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"Ok… You know you can talk to me though, right?" Even if I know nothing about this kind of thing.

"I will if I have shit to talk about." Well that's all I can do for now.

School was, as usual, a tedious and troublesome task for Shikamaru. Teachers constantly giving him extra work and whining at him was a pain. The worst part was when he did well in a lesson and got smothered in praise. Like that would actually make him want to work harder. At least his Hidan deterrent helped a little.

"So if I told you to lick the bottom of Kiba's shoe, would you do it?" It was English and as often happened, they were crowded around a small table for a group project. Hidan had been included this time and was staring in bemusement at Ino.

"If you paid me, I guess?"

"Would you strip and run round the school?"

"I think he'd strip for free." Shikamaru felt a foot encountering his shin and grimaced.

"Don't make sound like a fuckin' whore!"

"So you've seen him naked then?" Ino was wriggling her eyebrows.

"I get hot at home."

"I don't ask for it before you start."

"I wasn't going to!" Her pout suggested otherwise.

"Why are we having this discussion anyway?"

"Because I want to know how far you'd go." Kiba was looking at Hidan with a kind of impressed look. He just shrugged. It seemed he wasn't sure why it really mattered.

"Just do your work dumbass."

"So you can sleep in peace?"

"Exactly." Shikamaru leant down on the table, head on his arms and eyes closed.

"Lazy shit." No one stopped him though, Shikamaru always slept. It was just the way it went.

Indeed, he had a nice long sleep and was deep in dreamland (he was a cloud floating in space) when he felt a weight on his head. He narrowed his eyes but kept them closed. He was not being tricked this way again. Until a finger flicked him on the nose.

Slowly he let his eyelids open. The classroom was quiet… too quiet. And Ino and Kiba weren't there. The only person who seemed to still be there was currently watching him with big purple eyes.

"Why are you waking me up?"

"Cause we're halfway through lunch and I'm bored." Shikamaru sat up and a notebook fell off his head.

"What?!" He could the sounds of people in the distance. "Only halfway?" He slumped down again. "Wake me up when it ends."

"Hey! I'm bored!" Shikamaru fixed his eyelids firmly shut and ignored the pitiful whining. His forehead was flicked.

"I don't particularly care." He could try if he wanted, but Shikamaru's tolerance for Hidan had greatly increased after all this time.

Silence fell, proof that the silver haired lunatic was planning something. Hopefully he'd get tired of this and move elsewhere. He could have easily left at any time so Shikamaru didn't know why he hadn't. Another weight was now on his head. A warmer, softer one. One that started moving slowly across his hair.

"…Are you petting me?" I cannot open my eyes right now. Eye contact would make this a hell of a lot weirder than it already was.

"Your hair is kinda soft… I didn't expect it ta be so soft." Hidan was running his fingers through Shikamaru's hair properly now, gently, weirdly intimate. For someone who hated touching so much he was really touchy feely today.

"When do you think you'll stop?" He hoped his arms were hiding the probably crimson cheeks right now.

"I don't know…" Shikamaru opened one eye, going very tense. Hidan was close, leaning right in and staring at him. His expression was strange; softened but perplexed.

"…Please stop…" Because it was really making him uncomfortable.

The hand was removed and Hidan leant back, still watching with his head tilted on one side.

"Why did you do that?" Without thinking, he raised a hand to straighten out the hairs on his head. It hadn't been unpleasant but it had freaked him out.

"I don't know…" Hidan's face slowly crumpled into a confused scowl as he focused on the desk, glaring at one of the penises that had been carved in by Sai.

"…Do you think we should go and get some lunch?"

"Yep." Hidan shot up and was out the door before Shikamaru had even gotten up. It seemed he was just as keen to get out of the way as he was.

-Page Break-

"Shika!" Shikamaru suddenly started up from his seat at the sudden yelling in his face. Ino was stood in front of him and holding a plate of crisps. "You alive?"

"If I don't smell yet, I'm probably alive." He grabbed a handful of the crisps and shoved them into his mouth to imply that he did not need any more conversation right now. Ino rolled her eyes and walked away.

He'd sat in the corner of Ino's room where no one else would bother him. Clearly what had happened had weirded out Hidan too because he was actually socialising with others instead of sticking to Shikamaru as he had been.

Shikamaru was avoiding looking in the direction of the weirdo, instead gazing at walls. This was normal for him so no one could really suspect anything. He hoped… He dared a glance.

Hidan was watching Kiba apparently explaining something, his eyes completely glazed over. It was probably pretty boring judging from the facial expression. And then suddenly, Hidan's eyes locked onto his and he had to look away. He didn't think he could quite deal with eye contact right now.

After a suitable time had passed, he chanced another look in his direction. Hidan was now glaring at Kiba, a small blush starting to grow over his cheeks.

…So it really affected him too. Yes that made him feel a little better but also odd. Why had he done that? What was the point?

"I'm gonna head home." He couldn't exactly relax here.

His friends let him just go since he always did this and so his escape was swift. He'd thought. Until he felt a hand on his shoulder, halfway down the street. Hidan had followed and from his scowl, he was not happy.

"Do you want something?"

"Don't leave without me you motherfucker!" He hissed like some kind of feral cat.

"It isn't like you're talking to me much right now."

"Still no excuse!" He pouted.

"…" Shikamaru carried on walking. If that asshole wanted to follow him then he could. He heard a loud groan and then stomping as Hidan carried on.

Why is doing this? Surely he's as awkward as I am right now? Doesn't he want to escape?

The difficult to deal with silence was occasionally broken by loud sighs and huffs from behind him. Eventually it became too much to deal with; it was just so annoying. Shikamaru spun around and Hidan suspended all motion.

"Ok, what is happening?" If he was insisting on being around him while in this mood, he was going to have to tell him the reason.

"Nothin'!"

"You're being really weird!" For him.

"I'm not!"

"Don't lie to me. I know what's normal for you and what isn't and this definitely isn't. Tell me why you keep doing this."

"It doesn't matter." Hidan was furrowing his brown and avoiding eye contact again.

"If it didn't matter, you wouldn't be acting so weird."

"I can't say! I barely fucking know!" And he sounded incredibly frustrated with this state of being.

"Will telling me make you less confused?" Because he was getting tired of it all. Hidan stared at him, his eye twitching with the effort to think.

"…Maybe."

"Then tell me."

"…Ah!" He threw his bag to the ground. "How the fuck do I do this? How the actual fuck?" This was aimed more at himself than at Shikamaru.

"Take your time…" He just hoped it wouldn't take too long; he wanted to get back to bed.

"…Can you promise that whatever it is, you won't get all pissy with me?" He looked vulnerable now and hesitant.

"I promise. I don't care what it is, I just want you to stop with the staring." Being around someone doing that could be tiring when you weren't usually very sociable.

"Ok… I… I… Fuck!" Hidan huffed.

"Maybe it would be easier to write it?"

"No…" Hidan looked at him for so long that he started to feel uncomfortable. "Oh fuck it."

"What are y-?" Hidan had suddenly grabbed his shirt and yanked him over. There was little chance to get some words out before lips were suddenly pressed against his. Shikamaru froze completely. Hidan was kissing him again and this had not been prompted.

He was so tense that for a moment both of them stood motionless, cold lips touching. And then Hidan started to relax into him, moving his hands so they rested on Shikamaru's shoulders and tilting slightly. It wasn't until he felt a nibbling on his lip that Shikamaru felt the tension leaving his shoulders. Then he leant into it, returning some of the pressure.

For a moment they were stuck like that, completely oblivious to anything else in the world. And then there was a sudden moment; a mutual realisation of what they were doing. They pulled away from each other, staring in silence as they tried to work out what the hell had just happened.

Hidan was the first to move, grabbing his bag and turning around, he basically ran for it, not once looking back.

Shikamaru did not hesitate for very long before he decided to do the same and start walking to his home before his brain had enough time to comprehend the situation.