Chapter 17

My body was shivering partly because I felt cold and partly because I was in shock. A trace of water was left behind me from my dripping clothes and hair as I practically glided over the slippery cherry wooden floor towards the next door in the corridor with my shoes and socks in my hands. I had gotten out of the water as fast as I could and if I had not been close to the edge of the pool, it would probably have become a pretty embarrassing situation for me.

Why had Kakashi done it? I had already told him that I did not feel like swimming and yet he still chose to tug me down into the pool. If he had seen what a bad swimmer I was, I would rather die than having to face him ever again. The shame would be too great.

I know what you must be thinking, how are you not able to swim properly when you are a freaking Japanese dude and you live in a country surrounded by water? For those of you who are wondering, no, I did not have a pool like that when I was younger and no, I had never been in one of the other rich kids' pools since I did not really get along with them. Neither did I have parents, supervisors nor guardians, or whatever you want to call them, who had ever taken me to the beach or any other places like that where normal kids went when I was still young and docile. It was not that I was a complete moron when it came to swimming, I had tried it a few times before and I had brains enough to figure out how to paddle like a dog if nothing else worked, but Kakashi's action had just flabbergasted me and I was not ready to make a fool out of myself in front of him once again. So when I had gotten out of that pool, I had left without a word because frankly, I did not know what to say.

I could not imagine what Kakashi must have thought of me at this point. I had not exactly given him much to work with lately. I had just left like some diva whenever I felt uncomfortable. What a total loser I was, but can you blame me? I mean, it felt like everything was constantly working against me, like Kami wanted me to fail in everything I did.

I knew that I had to start talking to Kakashi again in time since it would make working together a hell of a lot easier and it was better for my psyche as well, he just caught me at all the wrong moments.

Slowly, I took a look inside one of the rooms on the second floor of the house. I had been looking for the bathroom for nearly 10 minutes without any luck and yet again this was just another bedroom. Sighing, I walked on to the next room, feeling quite uncomfortable in my dripping wet clothes. I had opened the door to both empty rooms, but also rooms where people were busy with getting it on. The next room was one of those. Well, not exactly - there was someone in there, but he was alone. Even though he did not appear to be satisfying himself like many others were doing at this party, I still felt that it was better if I just swooped out without letting him know of my presence, but before I got to close the door, the man turned around and looked directly at me. It was Hidan. I had not even noticed because the lights in there were subdued.

"Iruka-san, you are soaked," thank you for the information, Hidan, I really had not noticed that myself.

"Yeah, I fell into the pool, I'm sorry about that. I-I was just looking for the bathroom," Hidan put something on the bed which he had been holding when I first walked in. I was not sure of what it was, but it looked like a frame of some kind.

"Well, come in then. I'll lend you some dry clothes," I did not really feel like going in there since the atmosphere appeared a bit strange to me. Hidan almost seemed... sad?

He went over to a bureau and started placing some clothes on top of it. I looked behind me to see if anybody was around, watching me, but when it did not look like it, I stepped inside the room and closed the door behind me.

"I think this will fit you," he said when closing the drawer he had searched for clothes, laying his hand on the clothes on top of the bureau to indicate which clothes he meant.

"Thank you, that's very kind of you," this was not the time to be polite and tell him that I did not need those clothes because truth to be told, I was freezing, though, I was not sure if it was out of fear or because I was actually cold. No matter what, it would feel nice with some dry fabric against my skin and hopefully it would make my goosebumps go away.

"Wait here, I'll just get you a towel so you can dry yourself up before putting those clean clothes on, alright?" I nodded and he left the room to get the towel.

At first, I just stood there doing nothing, but when I saw a shiny, silvery jewelry on his nightstand, I could not help myself from walking over there and look at it. That symbol. It was that circle with the triangle in it again. He had a huge painting and a piece of jewelry with the same symbol? This symbol had to mean something to him and I was mentally slapping myself for not remembering where I had seen it before. It was so annoying when I could not place things I already knew about.

I reached down and touched the small necklace. It was so smooth and I wondered if it was made out of white gold. At least it looked expensive, even though it was a pretty simple piece of jewelry.

After looking at it for a while, I moved on to the thing on the bed, which reminded me of how snoopy I could be sometimes. I had been right, it was a picture he had been holding. Quickly, I snatched the frame containing a photo from the bed and started examining it. There was a man, a woman and a young boy on the picture. It looked like it was a family, mother, father and child. The man had short blond hair that was combed back so it stuck to the top of his head in a classic hairstyle. He stood beside the woman with one arm wrapped around her waist. She was beautiful and unlike the man, she looked Japanese. Her long black hair reached down longer than her breasts and her big brown eyes smiled at the camera, just like the child in the picture was doing with his reddish eyes. He had hair even shorter than who I assumed to be his father and it was almost white in comparison to his parents hair color and it pointed out in all kinds of different directions from his head. That had to be Hidan. It looked like him.

Suddenly, Hidan came back into the room and I dropped the picture back on the bed, but he had already caught me looking at it.

"Here you go," he said, throwing me the towel, "You can change behind the shoji screen if you want to," I was pretty thankful to him for suggesting it himself so I would not have to ask for permission. We did not talk at all while I was changing and when I appeared again from behind the screen, Hidan was sitting on the bed, looking at the picture.

"I don't mean to be snoopy or anything, but is that you and your parents?" I straightened the black button down shirt he had lend me as I waited for his answer.

"Yeah, it is. I'm a pretty handsome kid, aren't I?" he tried to sound as cocky and self absorbed as always, but he could not hide the sad tone in his voice.

"If you don't mind me asking, where exactly are they now? I just can't imagine that they would approve of a party like this. I know I wouldn't if this was my house," Hidan kept staring at the picture then spoke flatly.

"Dead," I could not believe my own ears.

"Dead? But I thought-" I stopped myself from finishing a sentence I would probably regret later. Were they really dead? He had made it sound like they were still alive when talking about them. Was he just denying the truth or was he lying? Then I decided to rephrase since Hidan had begun to look pretty blue, "Are you alright?" I sat down beside him and tried to make eye contact, but he did not look at me. This was how you were supposed to do when comforting someone, right? I was not really sure of how to deal with the situation, but I had to try.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I just get a bit emotional when drinking sometimes. I guess I just miss them," I nodded understandingly.

"What happened? I mean, you don't have to answer if you don't want to," I had never really had anyone to talk to about my problems, only one person, but that was a long time ago so I was not sure if it was okay for me to ask. But as far as I knew, people were supposed to feel better after talking about the things that made them sad.

"It's okay, I don't mind telling you," he kept staring at the picture as he continued, "It was back in 2004, the year where I finally turned 18. We had just spent Christmas together with my aunt and her son when my mother and father went on a winter vacation, which my father had given my mother as a Christmas present the day before they took off. We always traveled a lot so I did not mind them taking a trip together without me and I decided to stay with my aunt and cousin till they were supposed to get back a week later," he took a second to take a deep breath, this was clearly hard for him to talk about.

"You don't have to continue," I said soothingly, but he just shook his head lightly.

"No, I have to learn how to deal with this so if you don't mind, I would like to continue," the recognizing sound I made in my throat let him know that he could continue if that was what he really wanted. He then exhaled heavily, "Okay. At the 28th of December, I got a call from Thailand. It was from a friend of my father's who worked for the United States' government. At first, I thought it was something about work, but when I heard the tone in his voice, I knew something bad had happened. He told me that a tsunami had swept over the city, which my parents were staying in, just two days before and they had gone missing. Can you imagine what that was like for an 18-year-old kid to process?"

I knew about the pain he felt or at least I could relate to it. I was not sure of how it felt to lose your parents since I had never had any to begin with, but I had lost the most precious person in my life and I would never forget what that had driven me to do, "No, I can't imagine that," I replied, trying to sound understanding. This was not about me, it was about him, so I would not try to steal the spotlight from him.

He placed the picture on the bed and looked at me for the first time during our conversation. He was not crying, but you could tell that this was a touchy subject by the intensified look he gave me.

"He didn't call me again until three day later on New Year's Eve. My parents had been found dead on the side of a road in a ditch. I had no idea what to do after that 'cause it all happened so suddenly. My father's family all lived in the United States so it would be difficult for me to stay with any of them. My mother and father had only moved to Japan 'cause he was an important businessman and the USA's direct connection to Japan so I didn't really know his side of the family that well, even though we had gone to visit them quite a few times before. My aunt thought that it was better for me to stay with her and my cousin at least until the funerals were over since she didn't want me to go back to this big empty house alone. And so I stayed and didn't go back here until a few months later or so. I couldn't stand being here, though, and ended up moving to the US after graduating. I lived with my grandparents for almost a year, but then I started missing Japan since that was where I had spent most of my childhood and finally I decided to return here. I've lived in this house ever since because I just can't find it in me to sell it."

"You miss them a lot, don't you?" his chin dropped to his chest and he looked down at the floor.

"I miss them so much, though, I never really cried about it or anything. But I would without a doubt give up everything they have left me, the big fortune, the house, everything just to get them back. I just tend to get a bit lonely when living in this big house all by myself."

"That's understandable. You lost them without even getting to say goodbye," almost the same way I had lost my best and only friend – without getting to say goodbye properly .

The next few minutes were dead silent. I could tell that Hidan had gotten a huge burden off his shoulders by telling me everthing that had happened, but now he needed something or someone to cheer him up. After hearing Hidan tell the story of his life, I had gained a whole new respect for him. He was like me. He was not alone and I was not either. We kind of had each other, he just did not know that yet.

Slowly, I scooted closer to him, placing a small kiss on his cheek. His head shot up from his chest immediately and he looked at me with surprised, widened eyes. I was not even sure what I was doing myself, but if I had to try and explore this gay thing, I figured Hidan was not the worst person in the world to try it out with after all.

"What was that for?" he asked, a small, unsure smile appearing on his lips. I shrugged my shoulders and smiled back.

"I guess I'm just taking you up on your offer," he raised one brow as I spoke, tilting his head a little to the side like he was thinking something like: damn, I did not expect that.

"Are you sure? You shouldn't do it out of pity, you know," I nodded my head and tried to appear sure of what I was doing.

"I'm not doing it out of pity. I'm doing it because you offered and because you got me curious," he straightened his back a little and put on a wider and more expectant smile.

"Really? Out of all the people here, I never expected you to be gay," it cut me to the quick when hearing him call me that. I still did not know if I was gay or not, which was why I was going to do what I was about to do. I needed to find out if I was or not, but as long as I was not sure, it did not feel right when he called me that. I let it slide, though, and leaned closer to him instead.

He looked down at my mouth then back up at my eyes as I approached and he smiled perversely. That guy could go from sad and emotional to horny in the blink of an eye. Or maybe he was just happy that someone came to take his mind off things? After all, it was a lot more fun being happy than being sad, right? Not to forget that he was pretty drunk, which was probably why he had told me all that in the first place.

I captured his lips with mine, slowly crawling up on his lap and sitting on it with bended knees and legs placed on each side of his legs on the bed. He responded immediately by grabbing my ass and pulling me closer to himself so that our chests met. Maybe I had moved on a little too quickly? But on the other hand, I did not want it to be all awkward like if he would have to show me what to do and when to do what. Besides, this was the position Kakashi and I had sat in, only then the roles had been reversed and I wanted to try what it felt like to be where he had been all while I did not mind that the situations were alike so that I could compare them afterward.

"You sure don't waste time," Hidan said after breaking the kiss, but moved in for another one instantly without allowing me to answer. I did not know what to answer anyway so it did not really matter. Instead, I moved in to caress his left ear and I noticed that he had a remarkable split on the side of his ear in the outermost cartilage. Weird.

After only a few minutes of kissing, I could conclude that this was not really something for me, at least not with him. I constantly felt like someone was staring at us and I thought that I heard something sounding like a creaking door, but when I glanced over at the door, there was not anyone to be seen and the door was closed. But the this feeling of being watched mixed with Hidan's teeth banging against mine were enough for me to stop what I was doing on the spot.

I leaned back, away from him, and sent him an apologetic look, "I'm sorry, but I can't do this after all," Hidan did not look too disappointed and did not move out of the position he sat in – both arms behind his back with his hands on the bed for support to his upper body.

"I figured as much. It didn't really feel like you were enjoying it anyway. Oh, and please don't apologize, I'm totally okay with it," he beamed me his signature teeth-smile as I got off his lap.

"I think I'm gonna go home and get some sleep now," I felt bad for seducing him just to dump him a few seconds after, but this did not feel right for me and I did not want to force myself into another situation like that.

"You shouldn't walk all the way home, just grab your stuff and I'll drive you. I'm feeling kinda sober after all of this," he got up on his feet, but I motioned for him to sit back down.

"It's okay, I don't mind walking. It's not that far away and I could use some fresh air."

"Oh... Do you want me to walk you home then?" Hidan was a whole other person once you got past the wild first impression most people probably got when meeting him. The real Hidan was caring and thoughtful and seemed like a very loyal friend. He did not even appear all that stupid anymore, but I guess the way he usually acted was the only reason why I had figured that he was not all that clever, but that night had turned my picture of him upside down.

"Nah, I'm okay with walking alone. I don't think I'm gonna get jumped or something like that, but if you had a plastic bag or something that I could borrow for my wet clothes that would be nice," Hidan nodded and found a bag for me. We did not speak again until I was on my way out of the door.

"By the way, Iruka-san," he started and did not finish until I looked over at him, "Thank you," I sent him a small smile. I knew what he was thanking me for, but I really did not think that there was any need for that since I had not done much else than just listen, but on the other hand, if nobody ever listened to him, because of the mask he was wearing when being around other people, I figured this must have meant a great deal to him. Imagine if I had not found a drunk, emotional Hidan that night. I could not even picture how the night would have been like without it and I was actually pretty happy with the outcome of the party. I might not have achieved everything that I came for, but I did talk to Kakashi and I did get closer to one of his friends, at least I think this whole experience had gotten us just a little closer, and I had gotten to explore the idea of being with another man for the first time after that night with Kakashi. I mean, that was something, right?

"You're welcome, Hidan-san."

oOooOooOo

Not much to say about this chapter other than I'm not very proud of my languages in this one -_-' It sucked so badly.. This always happen when I write on a story for too long! Hopefully it won't be like this throughout the rest of the story 'cause that would be a pain.. Man, I just wanna write the perfect chapter, you know? But that's never gonna happen so you'll have to settle with chapters like these.. At least I hope that's enough for you ^^...

So, I would love to hear what you think of it :)

Don't know when the next chapter will be up since I haven't started on it yet, but it won't take too long 'cause I'm catching up with my homework and hopefully there won't be too much school pressure after Friday. Si I might get to write something in the weekend..

That's all for now.. See ya' :D