People Are Troublesome

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine.

"Shikamaru? Are you alive in there?" Shikamaru shifted his eyes so that they temporarily made contact with Naruto's to convey that he was, indeed, alive and went back to looking down at the textbook.

People were probably concerned because he was actually choosing to read rather than slack off or sleep like he usually did. He wasn't normally someone who dwelled on things or got overly deep in thought but today he was completely blank in there. Thoughts had been inaccessible to him for a couple of days and he had gone about his usual day to day tasks with little to no reaction.

For the past two days, there had been absolutely no sign of Hidan near Shikamaru's house or even near the school. They apparently were both keen to forget what had happened.

Shikamaru didn't go into any detail about this, only lightly touching on it occasionally and pushing it back when it did decide to surface. While at school this was easy; so many distractions and people around. At home things got a little harder.

"Where's Hidan? I haven't seen him in a while." Of course, if someone decided to bring up Hidan, it did make things difficult.

"Probably in his home." Shikamaru wasn't going to further it if he could avoid it.

"Do you think he's ok?"

"If he wasn't, he would have phoned me." I hope. He hadn't thought about the possibility of Hidan being in trouble.

"Maybe you should go and check on him?" Naruto was probably trying to help but he still got given a dirty look.

"Why?"

"Because he's your-."

"He's not just my friend. And I'm not going to go racing round there whenever he doesn't come in to school." Annoyingly enough he sounded more concerned that he had meant to.

"So would it be ok if I went round?" Shikamaru stared at him. He wasn't sure he should encourage someone to go and pester Hidan. But if something was wrong…

"I'll give you his address and phone number." Less responsibility for him this way. "… Make sure you wear padding." Especially around the vital areas.

"I thought he wasn't as bad as he used to be."

"He's not… It'll probably be fine." Although he couldn't be sure that Hidan wouldn't be pissy again. Especially if he'd been drinking.

"Hmm…" Naruto eyed him up warily. "So what do I say to him?"

"How would I know?"

"Well you've been acting weird so I guessed you guys had a fight or something."

"We didn't fight." It could probably be considered the opposite of fighting.

"Dammit Shikamaru!" Naruto suddenly slammed his hands down on the desk, silencing the previously chattering classroom. "You need to be open about your feelings!"

"Naruto! Stop distracting everyone from their work!" Iruka launched a book and hit Naruto hard in the face. At least that would distract him his annoying behaviour.

-Page Break-

Shikamaru sighed as he sunk down into his chair, picking up a forkful of spaghetti and shoving it into his mouth, ignoring the sound of his father and his drunken friends playing cards. Yoshino was also in the room and staring at the TV as she ate. Both of them were quite happy to think their own thoughts as they blocked out the irritating yelling.

School had been finished for three hours now and at the end of the day, Shikamaru had watched as Naruto headed in the direction of Hidan's home. Ever since then he'd had that increasingly hard to ignore sickening sensation in his stomach. It was making it difficult to eat since the nausea was sapping at his appetite.

Hidan was difficult to get information out of but that didn't mean that Naruto couldn't; that guy was gifted at talking to people who had problems. He probably wouldn't tell any of the others anything that he had heard, but just having Naruto knowing freaked him out. He'd not reacted to the kissing or even tried to stop Hidan and was feeling increasingly guilty about it. No one would think that he should feel guilty, but it didn't stop him.

The problem was, he'd never even considered the possibility of someone feeling that way about him. Heck, he'd never thought about anyone else in that way.

So he likes me… Why? What did I do? Yes he was nice to him but not to the extent that it would inspire feelings of love. He just couldn't understand it at all. When did that even start? But these questions were less pressing to him right now.

What do I say to him? The thought of telling Hidan that he didn't like him in that way made him uncomfortable. This wasn't entirely because he was worried about hurting Hidan, but also because he couldn't be sure that it was true. The kiss had been nice after all…

Ahh… Why is everything so troublesome? Shikamaru sighed again and pushed his half-eaten plate of food away from him. He tried watching TV to numb his unusually active mind but then he started thinking about Hidan and how cute he had looked when he had been embarrassed.

Damn. Shikamaru stood up and moved away from the romantic drama Yoshino had stuck on the TV; more romance was the last thing he needed. A science textbook. Those are cold and logical. That would be exactly what he needed.

He picked one off the pile of books as he entered his room and dropped onto his bed. Flicking through the sections of cell processes suited him well. It was dry and boring and involved little imagination at all.

A loud clatter outside in the back garden startled him and he nearly dropped his book. It seemed Shikaku and friends were taking their stupid party to the back garden now. With a groan, Shikamaru shoved the book to one side and stomped over to the window. He may as well yell at them and maybe drop some things on their heads. Why should they get to have a fun night when he was stressed?

He dragged the window open and glanced down. No one seemed to be in the garden area though the chairs had indeed been knocked over. Shikamaru just hoped they weren't playing that stupid hide and seek game again. He would have to get the hose in that case and that would involve too much effort for him.

A sudden crack just below him sounded and Shikamaru looked downwards, just as a hand lunged up from the darkness and gripped onto his windowsill. He almost fell over to get away from the figure pulling themselves into his window.

"There you are, you shit!" Oh fuck.

"What are you doing here?!" He'd ask why Hidan was pulling himself into the window instead of going to the front door but he was kind of used to this behaviour. He was more curious as to why Hidan had decided to come here when before he had been avoiding him.

"You never rang me or anything! Prick!" He's drunk. Fantastic. The slight slur didn't give it away as much as the lurching movement as he swayed in place.

"You didn't phone me." He couldn't see why he should be the only one in trouble.

"You weren't even worried about me! You shent your friend round becaushe you couldn't be fucked!" Hidan had started off sounding very angry but slowly his eyes were getting tearful.

"It wasn't like that." He was definitely feeling guilty about not checking on him now but he didn't want to admit that it was because he was too scared to talk to him right now. "Why are you so angry anyway? You were the one who ran off."

"Shut up!" Hidan looked very indignant at having his kind-of cowardice pointed out and tried to flip Shikamaru off. It would have succeeded if he hadn't flung himself forwards as he lifted his arm, throwing himself onto the bed.

"You should really be careful." Mainly he was wondering how long it would take for Hidan to pass out so he could stick him in bed; he wasn't going to leave him while he was conscious and in this state.

"Jusht shut up!" Uh oh. There was definitely some sniffling going on there. If he started crying then Shikamaru would not know what to do.

"Hidan?"

"You made me feel sho shtupid! I fuckin' kished you and then I ran off and you didn't even call me so I thought you thought I was pathetic and you didn't wanna talk to me!" The whining gradually increased.

"I-."

"I don't know why I fuckin' bothered! It was shtupid." The hiccupping sound he made confirmed that he was indeed crying right now.

Shikamaru didn't know what had happened when Naruto had gone round and he had no idea what to do now. If he did nothing though, it could make Hidan worse. He crouched down near him and reached out, placing a hand on Hidan's back and slowly rubbing him.

"I don't need your pity!" Hidan whimpered in a very pitiful tone.

"I know." And then he had to ask. "Why are you crying?"

"Becaushe I'm shtupid."

"You're not stupid." I'm the one who's stupid. He didn't feel ready to say it aloud.

"Can you forget it? That shit I did."

"Why?"

"Becaushe it was a mishtake. Shouldn't have done it." There was a cutting pain in his chest, made more uncomfortable when he realised it was there.

"…I'm going to ask you something. And I need an honest answer." It was worth a try; Hidan might be so drunk that he wouldn't remember half the conversation they'd had.

"Fine! It was me!"

"What did you do?"

"I shtole your shirt lasht month! It smelled really nice!" Oh… That explains that mystery. Now he felt even more awkward.

"That wasn't what I was going to ask…" Hidan went tense and Shikamaru removed his hand from his back. "Do you… Do you like me?" Hidan was quiet a while and barely moved. The longer the silence went on, the more Shikamaru regretted directly addressing the issue. It was a fairly certain thing but he still felt stupid for asking. He was so stuck in his own awkwardness that he was only just aware of Hidan mumbling back at him. "What did you just say?"

"…I do. Like ya I mean."

"Oh," was all he could manage to get out.

"Well, not like…. It's more… infatuated, I think?" That is definitely stronger than liking.

"That's an… interesting word."

"And you? You gonna reply?" Hidan had now buried his face in the duvet so was quite muffled, but his meaning was clear.

"I…" What do I say? His head was just a cloud of indecision and he couldn't even speak. His thoughts were starting to overwhelm him. "I don't know."

"How the fuck can you not know?" His shaky voice was sounding angry again.

"Because I don't… I just… I've never thought about it."

"You've had two days." Slowly Hidan looked over, red-rimmed eyes narrowing in his direction.

"I've kind of been in shock." Shikamaru sighed.

"I'm shorry… I'm a shitty fuckin' friend." What? "You don't need this shit. You could get someone nice. I should jusht go." Hidan attempted to get up from the bed in spite of his foot being tangled in the duvet. He just slumped back down, looking miserable as he did.

"Hidan…" So many things he wanted to say from that, but none of it he felt he could say.

"Why am I such a fuckin' pain? Why the fuck do I bother?" He was tearing up again, this time not bothering to hide it. "I jusht bother everyone around me!" Where is this coming from? Shikamaru had never known Hidan this bad. Drinking always made him more vocal about his thoughts and these were more negative than his usual.

"You don't bother me."

"I'm a shitty human being! I fuckin' hate this." He was gripping on his sides and shaking somewhat and Shikamaru froze. What could he really do? He didn't know how he could help at this point.

Why does he think all this? Is it because I ignored him? No… This is a little ore deep set. I should have done something. It was a little late for regrets now though.

Hidan was drunkenly moving again, trying and failing to extricate himself from the bed, getting increasingly frustrated and upset as he failed. Shikamaru grabbed Hidan's arms, causing the man to freeze.

"What have you been doing?"

"I don't know… I felt kinda shtupid… so I had a drink. And another drink. And then shome more." Ah.

"…Have you spent the last two days pickling yourself in alcohol?" A pitiful sniff answered this question. Hmm… This I can deal with.

"Ok Hidan, lie down." He pointed to the bed and looked determined.

"But I wanna go home."

"Not until you sober up a little. Now lie in the bed." Shikamaru rolled his eyes at the out of focus stare and started pulling Hidan's shoes off. His co-ordination was not going to be adequate for this today.

"I'm jusht annoying you again."

"No you're not."

"You're just shaying that."

"No I'm not."

"Liar."

"I love having you around. I always do." It was usually humorous, even if it was awkward.

"You do?"

"I do… I really do…" Shikamaru realised how much he had. "I think… I think I-." Shikamaru was interrupted when Hidan flopped to the side, eyes closed and breathing deeply.

…Oh. Well. Shikamaru sighed and pulled the duvet so it covered him. Now he just had to wonder how much Hidan would remember in this morning.