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FOLLOW YOUR ARROW
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Hidan sat at the dining table in Itachi's decent-sized apartment. His face contorted in barely restrained frustration, rapping his fingers against the surface covered entirely in stacks of manilla folders, some old and worn and overflowing with the papers and documents inside, others new and still mercifully thin.
Itachi sat behind him across the room on one of the two perpendicularly arranged loveseats, humming to himself and painting his toenails.
The albino took a second to write something down one one of the papers, sighing heavily after he did so and resting his forehead on his free hand.
The Uchiha smiled to himself, continuing with his business until the moment came when his roomate went hysterical from sitting still and concentrating for so long.
Hidan had burst through the door at a quarter after 9, (nearly giving the poor man a heart attack) throwing himself dramatically to the ground and kissing the floor repeatedly as he proclaimed his undying love for Itachi's apartment.
The Uchiha had come racing out of the kitchen only to be punched rudley in the arm by the now ranting albino, and before he had the chance to ask him what the hell his problem was, Dr. Hoku himself stepped calmly through the door that the man before him had left wide open, effectivley making the front portion of the apartment cold to to touch and spreading the snow that had started heavily falling all over the entry way.
After the Doctor had handed his still grumbling roommate a breifcase and informed him that if he lost any of the paperwork within he would beat him within an inch of his life, nodded a silent hello-goodbye to Itachi, and let himself out, the Uchiha received a loud berating for not answering his phone and forgetting to give Hidan a ride back home.
"Some fucking friend you are! I have to endure a never-ending day of pure fucking hell with that asshole and then practically have to beg for a ride home! He was going to make me walk, Itachi, WALK! You know what happens to albino's in snowstorms!? You never find them again!"
Itachi had been far too confused to do anything but studder out an apology and mentally kick himself. That explains the feeling he'd had that he was forgetting something all afternoon. He could hardley believe he'd forgotten something so important. Then again, he'd finally gotten Kisame, that dense piece of walking sex candy, to kiss him... and then again, and again and again until they'd become one big mass of hands and legs roaming over each others bodies while draped over the man's workdesk. Anyone would be a little ditzy after that...
But he most certianly couldn't share this wonderful occurance with his best friend and roommate now. Damn, he'd been so looking forward to telling someone. After all he'd only spent half a year working his way from random stranger to trusted best friend on the man's relationship list. Getting through the friendzone had been one hell of a battle...
"And look at this! He gave me fucking homework, 'Tachi. GODDAMN HOMEWORK! I HATE HIM! Fucking stupid asshole! As if busting my shit for him from 4 in the fucking morning to 9 at night weren't enough, I have to stay up and do even more of this shit! What kind of fucking slavedriver did you sell my soul to!? That's gotta be illegal or some shit, seriously!"
This had gone on relentlessly for another hour and a half, and somewhere in the midst Itachi had just gone back to the cleaning he'd been doing previously.
.
Finally the pale man had worn himself out, begrudgingly sitting down and starting on the rediculous amount of papers he was to go over. Itachi hadn't pressed him for information, knowing just from the man's terrifyingly calm attitude that he had had a terrible first day at the clinic.
The Uchiha finished his last toe, smiling at his work. Really, he could get a second job doing nails. Not one drop out of place, no smudges, the deep 'twilight purple' was applied perfectly to each glossy toenail.
The sound of a lighter came from the dinner table, and the smell of cigarrette smoke flooded the house shortly after, making him crinkle his nose and turn to glare at his roommate.
"I believe I've asked you to go outside if you insist on doing that."
Hidan twisted in his chair to look at him wearily. "Fuck off, I had a shit day."
"That doesn't mean you need to poison me."
"Hey, I'm practically stoned off the smell of your fuckin' nail polish over here. So don't even start with that crock of shit the media brainwashed you with. It ain't any fuckin worse than the rest of the trash society does. "
"Hn."
"Hn is right."
There was another agitated silence as he puffed on his cigarette.
"Care to talk about it?"
"What's the point..." Came the immediate reply.
"Well, at the very least tell me what happened after I left."
Itachi was curious, to say the least. He had already gathered that Hidan had been on his best behavior for the fact that Dr. Hoku had not mentioned his tendancy to shout and curse unneccesarily. But just when he'd come inside he'd been acting his usual self, and the stoic doctor had not seemed phazed at all by it.
And he did somewhat agree, the hours that man kept were borderline rediculous, sending Hidan home with paperwork hardley seemed reasonable. Maybe he had been wrong about the man after all...
"Bullshit. Bullshit happened."
"What kind of bullshit?"
"Dammit 'Tachi will you just leave it alone? I'll tell you later I just can't fucking think straight right now and I've gotta do all that assholes extra work."
Itachi slowly rose from his seat, offering a sympathetic smile to Hidan, turned back around and studying the papers again. He moved to the table gracefully despite having his toes flexed up so as not to ruin the polish. He sat down in the chair adjacent to his roommate and opened the top of a folder to take a peek.
"Don't fuck anything up, for the love of God." Hidan muttered, gaze flicking up momentarily to the new presence.
"Are these the patients files?" He asked, closing the worn cover gently.
"Yeah. I have to go through all of them page by fucking page and make sure their bills have been paid."
"That doesn't sound so hard... " The Uchiha stated softly.
"And if they're not paid I have to call their fucking insurance company and find out why. Unless they don't have insurance. Then I have to try to fucking call the patient and get them to fucking pay, and they just keep hanging the fuck up!"
"I can try to help, if you'd like..."
Hidan looked up at him now, eyes shining with excitement. "That would be the best fucking thing ever, Uchiha, seriously. I only got ten of the fuckers done all day at work because you have to talk to a goddamn machine the whole time and if you do manage to get a live person they don't speak fucking English."
Itachi gave a light laugh at this. "You sound so grown up Hidan. It's adorable."
"I'm an adorable guy." Hidan breathed out absently, leaning further over the current paper he was overlooking and squinting. "Fuck. Fucking Medicaid. I hate Medicaid. Barely pays for shit despite all their hype. If I ever get old enough to have to have Medicaid, fucking shoot me."
Itachi stifled another laugh while he organized the files to make an open space for himself. Working at the local Mental Health (though it was now called 'Behavioral health' due to political media) facility in the area as he did, he occasionally had to do this very same thing when all the secretaries were too busy to handle it for him. It amused him to no end to hear his immature best friend talking about such things, and making sense to boot. Dr. Hoku certianly was whipping him into shape to make this much progress with the stubborn zealot in only one day. Hell, Itachi had been trying since the day Hidan moved in to pursuade him to quit smoking, and his progress on the matter was so little that it wasn't noticeable to anyone but himself. Maybe he should bring it up next time they visited.
His brow furrowed in thought now.
That brought him back to wondering why the man would put so much stress on his new employee, seeing as the Uchiha had already warned the man what overloading the albino would do in his own subtle way.
Why, giving him a few of these clients to check out wouldn't concern him so much, but all of these? In one night?
And not even a night, he reminded himself, Hidan went to work at four in the morning, which meant even if he went to bed directly after coming home, he would still get only 6 hours of sleep, seeing as Itachi made him get up an hour early to make sure he was properly dressed and ready.
He looked up to study his rommate, noticing the exhaustion lines beneath his eyes.
Hidan was an insomniac anyway, due to his previous drug use and mental disabilities, but those hours were still unreasonable. He made a mental note to have Kisame twist Dr. Hoku's arm into letting his secretary arrive at a decent hour in the mornings.
"May I at least ask why you're so keen to do it all right now? You have all weekend."
Hidan answered without looking up at him, circling something with a red ink pen. "If I don't do it now then it won't get done. You should know that better than anyone, dumbass."
This surprised him even further.
One of Hidan's best qualities had always been his ability to stick fast to anything he decided he was going to do. Something that's not easy at all for someone suffering from as many problems as he was.
That being said, it wasn't the determination that surprised him, is was the fact that he felt he needed to be so determined in the first place. He hadn't been anywhere near this intense when he'd come to visit him earlier, in fact he'd seemed curiously at ease about the whole situation.
Something had obviously happened between the two co-workers after he'd left. And damn it, he was going to find out what it was, by whatever means neccesary.
However, Hidan had asked him politely (in his own way) not to inquire about it anymore, at least until they finished. And if there was anything Itachi was known for it was his extreme patience.
So he accepted this response, and went about scanning over the paperwork.
"I wouldn't inform Dr. Hoku that I helped, if I were you." He said instead.
"No shit, Sherlock. He'd kick me in the balls for letting anyone else see his precious clients' confidential shit."
"Well, not how I was going to say it, but yes. I may be in the same grouping of work as he is, but it's best not to test theories until you know him better."
"Oh I already know him plenty. He's an ass, pure and simple. A sadistic, self-righteous ass."
Itachi considered this for a moment, staring suspiciously at his roommate. He said nothing more though, only went back to helping his friend with his 'homework', as he called it, wearing a wry smile as he did so.
-o-
Hidan didn't even notice. He'd hardley been attuned to what had been said between them at all since he'd finished his ranting. It had pretty well drained what energy he had left after that day of pure hell.
At the very least he could thank God for letting the first one be on a friday. There was no way in hell he would survive another day like that one.
His brain felt like it was seriously shooting off sparks and zapping the inside of his skull every time he tried to make a logocal thought. That old bastard had definitely crammed every inch of his head full with new knowledge, and trying to remember it all was driving him crazy. Not so much the actual act of remembering it, but the fact that he so desperatley felt the need to do so.
He wanted to prove that stupid old fuck wrong, make him eat his words like the goddamn vitamins he probably had to take every morning. But there was more to it than that, and he didn't know what. Like when you were trying to remember someone's name, it's on the tip of your tongue and you swear you're so close to figureing it out that it becomes an obsession until you solve the puzzle, yet it still dangled just outside your reach.
That's what it was. Some concept being held just beyond his grasp by his own concious.
There was not one single thing in this entire world he found more irritating than being failed by his own mind, and yet he had to deal with it on a daily basis.
And people wondered why he was so temperamental all the damn time.
He propped his head up with his left hand again, using his right to scan the documents, matching dates, names, policy numbers, just as Dr. Hoku had showed him. Looking for any that had no match, setting those papers aside in the 'to-be-called' list, making sure to make a note of which patients file they needed to be returned to.
In all honesty it was an easy enough task, just mind-numbingly tedious. And if there was one thing in this world Hidan was known for, aside from the cursing and shouting, it was his absolute lack of patience.
'Fuck my life...' He thought to himself, not able to muster the energy to say it out loud, sighing and turning his head in his palm to awkwardly rub his tired eyes.
He was used to rarely sleeping, just like his eating habits, they've been poor for as long as he could remember. Being tired rarely affected him anymore, though it used to be a terrible burdon. That was one of the reason he'd been introduced to the hardcore drugs he got involved with.
When faced with snorting cocaine, and therfore keeping your job you needed to pay the increasingly overdue bills by staying awake throughout the day, or passing out on the job from the lack thereof... well, he liked to believe anyone would have made the same choices. Getting hopelessly addicted to it and losing his job anyway and being locked in a mental facility/rehab for months had obviously not been part of the plan, but at least those dark days were in the past.
Life's a bitch, no matter who you are.
"Are you alright, Hidan?" Itachi's gentle voice said, snapping him from his thoughts again.
"Yes dammit." He snapped back, before he could stop himself. He lifted his head to see his loyal friend stareing at him, concerned.
"I can help you with these tomorrow, I'll make sure you don't procrastinate. You look exhausted." The raven-hair said back, not offended at all.
"Fuck that. I don't wanna do shit tomorrow but lounge around in my underwear and watch that movie I Tivo'd*."
His roommate crinkled his nose at this."Ugh, warn me when you do. I don't want to be anywhere near this house. I read the description on it. Forgive me but imbred, cannibalistic, serial killers don't give me a thrill, just a stomachache."
"Tch. Pansy. I bet I if I invited that creepy shark-fucker-wannabe over he'd watch it with me."
"Hn. His name is Kisame, for the hundredth time, Hida. And I doupt he'd be interested in watching mindless garbage like that."
"Well I'll just bust out my director cut of Jaws* then. He'd cream his panties."
The Uchiha's face tightened at this, as if he were struggling to express two different feelings, but not sure which one to pick.
Hidan laughed at this and tossed his pen playfully at the man, who caught it easily and set it aside.
"I'm just fuckin' with ya 'Tachi. Calm your tits. I don't want anything to do with that guy. He's weirder than me, and I'm a fuckin' weirdass."
"I won't argue with that." Itachi said. "All that aside though, I'd really like you to get some rest. You've shown more than enough integrity in this job oppurtunity. I know you don't like to stop in the midst of a project but you shouldn't push yourself, you'll bring on another attack."
Hidan rolled his pigment-less eyes, sighing heavily. "Jesus fuckin' Christ can't you get off my ass? I'm fine. Cross my heart. Now give me back that pen, it's Kakuzu's." He stood and reached across the table to retreive the object, only to be thwarted by Itachi, who snatched it and held it out of reach.
"Kakuzu? You mean Doctor Hoku."
"Yes, dipshit, that's his first fuckin' name. Give me my goddamn pen."
"You're on a first-name-basis with the man you claim to be Satan?"
"Well I'm not gonna fuckin' call him master! Hand it over Uchiha!"
"If you promise me you'll stop after you finish the one you're on, I will give it back."
"Go to hell!"
"Very well then." Itachi stood from the table and stepped back, and Hidan swore, slamming a fist onto the open spot he'd been working at.
"You're starting to get really goddamn annoying with this shit! Stop telling me what to do all the time!"
"I don't understand the harm of at just letting it sit for a few hours. It's not going to get up and run away."
"I want to do it now."
"Hidan, I know it doesn't seem like it but this is self-destructive behavior. Even a blind man could tell that you're exhausted."
"Why are you making such a big fucking deal about it!? God you're such a woman! Quit nagging and just let me do what I want!"
"Then at least tell me why you want to do it so badly. If I understand your reasoning then I'm more likely to leave you alone." Itachi said, moving sideways around the table when Hidan tried to side-step it and swipe the pen back.
A snarl ripped from his roommate's throat then that made the Uchiha jump and widen his eyes in fright.
"I FREAKED OUT ON HIM OKAY!? " Hidan shouted, "I flipped the fuck out and started shouting at him just like with every other fucking job I convinced myself I wasn't gonna fuck up! And he sat there and took it and then when I tried to walk out with what little dignity I had left before he could kick my ass out on the curb, and he fucking stopped me. He stopped me. I almost gave up another fucking job in some stupid fit of self-pity, and he, stopped, me."
Itachi stared back at him for a bit, and Hidan sighed and ran a hand through his hair before slipping silently back to his spot.
Fuck, why could people just leave him the hell alone? He loved Itachi, honestly. When he had been homeless and wandering around aimlessly, all hope of recovering from the mess he'd made of his life, spending his days sulking around, waiting to die because he was too much of a coward to just off himself, the Uchiha had not only welcomed him into his home, but insisted that he stay no where else but here.
Since then the guy had done nothing but go insanely far out of his way to do everything within his power to help his old friend, and yet Hidan continued to push him away and resist.
He sighed heavily, God, his boss was right, he was such a fucking jerk. Like he needed another reason to hate himself...
Itachi silently moved to his own chair, and then leaned over the table to gently place the pen next to the file the zealot had been working on.
"He... I don't know. He said some shit that really got to me. I told him not to bullshit me and he didn't bullshit me. He thinks I'm a worthless piece of trash, he didn't say it but I know that's how he feels. I know that's how everyone feels, but something about him, you know, I want to punch him in the fucking face more than I've ever wanted to to any of those other shit-talkers. He's so fucking... GOD I don't even know! He's like everything I hate all packed into one body! I have to prove him wrong Itachi. I'm not goddamn worthless. I'm not."
Itachi only continued regarding him in patient silence, expression blank, but charcoal eyes urging him to continue.
"You know me the best, you know I try my damndest, but that's not enough. If I give myself a break, I'll trick myself into slacking off and he'll lord it over my head until I'm so fucking ashamed of myself that I will quit. I can't do that anymore. I know I say it every damn time I get a chance to prove it, but this is the last fucking straw. It's like God but that fucker on this earth specifically to fucking challenge me. I have to beat him."
He stared at his roommate, eyes hard with renewed determination, and Itachi finally smiled at him.
-o-
"Well see now? That's all you had to say. Let's get this shit done okay?" He grabbed another folder, having already finished the last one. Hidan was a slower-than average reader, and Itachi was above-above average. He would probably be doing most of the work through no fault of Hidan's, but he didn't mind. Who wouldn't be inspired after that little speech?
When the albino didn't immediatly return to the task at hand he looked up to him in question, finding the pale man barely restraining laughter.
"What?" He asked honestly.
Hidan snorted in his attempt to control himself. "You still sound so fucking weird when you try to cuss. You make it so awkward, seriously."
Itachi felt his cheeks burning. Well, that was certainly a 'fail', as they say.
"Well... thank you for your honesty. I'll work on it."
"Or... y'know. You could just not do that."
"And what's wrong with me cursing? You swear enough for the entire population of Earth."
"It just doesn't work for you. You're too prissy." Hidan chuckled, going back to reading through the papers.
Itachi's brow fell in slight irritation. "I can swear just as colorfully as you, if I felt like it."
"I seriously doubt that, you're a barbie doll." His 'best friend' replied without looking up.
"I wish you'd stop putting me down like that, at least I accept the way I am." He said, probably with more attitude than was needed.
Hidan stopped and looked up, eyes narrowed. "The fuck is that supposed to mean?"
Itachi gave him a dark smile. "Nothing... just... pointing out the obvious."
It was so painfully obvious that it took quite a bit of strength for the slightly younger man not to say anything. Hidan had always been an oblivious person, oblivious to other peoples feelings, and even to his own occasionally. As much as Itachi would love to point out and tease the man with the fact that the reason he was so struck by Dr. Hoku was because he liked him, it wouldn't do any good. In fact it may very well ruin his new zeal for bettering himself in the older man's eyes. Knowing Hidan the way he did, if Itachi introduced the thought to his friend now, the idiot would be so disturbed by it that he would go to any means to ruin any chances of it becoming the truth in his eyes.
"Tch. Whatever, Uchiha."
"Hn."
"Back at'cha."
"Get back to work."
"JA FUHRER!"
"And really, stop speaking in languages you don't know. You just sound ignorant."
"Hey! I fucking know German!"
"You only know that one line and some curse words."
"Well, that's all I need to know. S'not like my ass is ever leaving the country."
"Obviously not. You can't smoke on an airplane, after all."
"Oh hey, that reminds me! FUCK YOU!"
"No thank you."
The two sat in silence for a moment, Itachi's eyes flicking across the paper at a constant pace, not even pausing as he circled each error.
Hidan looked down at his paper, but couldn't focus enough to actually read it. His fingers drummed on the table, seconds dragging by like minutes. The raven-hair did his best not to be bothered by the albino's restless behavior, knowing well what was bothing him now. He mentally kicked himself for mentioning it. Hidan had been doing so well too...
Finally the man slapped his palm down and stood up.
"Dammit Uchiha, now I gotta have one..." He pulled the small box from his pocket and began to sit back down before his roommate's head shot back up.
"Don't even think about lighting that up in here, Hidan San. Go outside."
"Awwee 'Tachi come oooon." The man-child whined. "It's fucking cold out there. My nipples with fall off!"
He rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. "Fine, but at least go stand by the back door and blow the smoke outside. I can't stand that aweful smell."
"Deal." His friend chirped, taking off into the kitchen.
Itschi went back to work, fighting his smile. Damn that man, it was so hard to be upset with him for any reason, even a perfectly justified one.
Perhaps that was why Dr. Hoku had taken his own form of interest in little Hidan.
Itachi thought this wildly entertaining, and also incredibley promising. Perhaps the elder man could do the impossible and make a man out of his immature friend. Whether they ventured beyond that, well, only time would tell. That, and just a teeny bit of strategic meddling.
After all, that's what friends were for.
.
-o-
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Saturdays.
Kakuzu hated Saturdays.
The only day he hated more than Saturdays were Sundays, when everyone lazed about with the rediculous excuse that some made up person in the sky deemed it a day of rest. What a waste of perfectly good time.
The older man had woken up and immediatly been in an especially sour mood. His bed was terrible mussed, due to his tossing and turning all night. And that had led him to the decision to just wash the whole bedspread instead of trying to make it back up. But of course, somehow, one of his red shirts had ghosted it's way inexplicabley into the washer, and now his white sheets were a soft sort of magenta-ish pink.
He'd quickly thrown them in the trash.
After discovering he was out of coffee, and that the paper boy threw his newspaper on top of his awning again, his mood had been steadily decreasing. He'd tried relaxing, he'd tried reading, he'd even tried watching T.V. which he never did unless it was the weather channel. Nothing was helping.
Finally when 3 in the afternoon came around, at a complete loss for anything else to do, he bundled himself up and went out to start his car and let it warm up, and to scoop the brand new layer of snow off his sidewalk and driveway.
It was windy, and still so cold that the snow was still powdering, not having the chance to melt down and become heavy yet. This was a blessing for the old man, as well as a curse. It made it light and easy to shovel out of the way, but then with every gust of wind, sent little flakes flying into his face, stinging like atomic shards of glass and slipping beneath not only his scarf, but his coat and sweater too, right down to his skin.
His breathy swears had pretty well turned into a constant growl by the time he deemed it finished, and got into the nice, warm, vehicle. The neighbor boy used to shovel snow for him, but he had to go and move away to some esteemed college like a brat. As if the one here in town wasn't good enough. A degree was a degree, dammit.
So he had to do the laborous task himself, which would be fine, because he wasn't some lazy, spoiled, kid. But sometimes his back like to give him troubles when he had bad nights like the one he'd had and being out in the snow made him kind of tired...
Not because he was old, just because he had a bad mattress, and he always worked long hours. He most certianly wasn't getting old.
40 is the new 30, after all. Even though he wasn't 40 anymore...
After that he'd made a trip to the general store to get the various neccesseties he couldn't live without, then stopped by the grocery mart to get a bare minimum of groceries. Then he'd gone home, put everything away, put new sheets on his bed, made something to eat.
... And now he was standing in the foyer grinding his teeth in anger.
Good lord, he hadn't felt so unsettled in years. He'd mused with himself often that he'd simply out-grown the ability to be bored. But damn it all if that wasn't exactly what he was!
Maybe he shouldn't have loaded Hidan down with all his work. Obviously he should have kept some for himself. In all honesty he'd just been upset with the brat because he'd had to give him a ride home. As if dealing with his incessant tantrums and vulgar mouth all afternoon long weren't enough torture. The man was twenty two, for the love of Abraham! And yet he was mooching off that Uchiha boy and bumming rides from work. He didn't even want to know how the moron got the money to support his smoking.
Never in his life had he met a more immature adult. Hell, he knew children, toddlers that had more intelligence than that idiotic wonder.
Teaching him how to charge the insurance agencies had been a nightmare, to say the least. Showing him how to go about matching up each bill receipt with an appointment date had been hell. And trying to explain his general work ethics to the man so he could start working the patient scheduling... well, he'd given up on that one. He'd had to stop and rip the appointment book from the mans hands and go back to his office and squeeze on his stress ball for a good half hour to keep from just smashing the dense idiot's skull into the desk.
Kakuzu didn't mind questions, really. All of his interns had had to ask questions, he was a doctor, he was used to being asked questions. But Hidan's questions... Well, it was safe to say the doctor was no longer a believer in the phrase 'There are no stupid questions.' Because, without a doupt, every single one of them that the insufferable little shit had asked had been undeniabley fucking stupid.
And every time the moron couldn't understand something, he had to launch into some asenine rant, as if it were the scheduling book's fault that it had spaces for appointments at 9:30 and 9:45 but not 9:40 or 9:35.
There was no Doctor's appointment in the world that lasted only 5 minutes!
He blinked himself out of his rage-filled reminiscing.
DAMMIT! The brat was even ruining Kakuzu's day off with nothing but his memory!
He stormed through the livingroom, down the hall, and into his bedroom, glaring around at the contents of the room in an angry search for something, anything to do to distract him until he could go to bed.
His eyes landed on the clock. It was only 5. Fucking hell he still had another 5 hours to go before he could even have a chance of falling asleep.
There had to be something to do to help pass the time... something he hadn't done in awhile. Like... like... like what though?
A sudden ringing had him turning to look out into the livingroom, confused for only a second before he realized that it was his phone.
That was strange, he rarely ever got calls on Saturdays.
He quickly made his way too it, looking at the little screen on the front.
'Kisame H.' It read.
He raised a brow, That was even stranger. He was usually the one to call the man...
Then his spirits skyrocketed, and he found himself smiling as he flipped open the phone and lifted it to his ear. If Kisame was calling him, that meant he had to have found some loophole that would allow him to get that insufferable idiot out of his workplace and out of his life.
"Yes?"
"Kakuzu! Oh hey, I uh... I didn't actually think you'd answer."
"You're lucky, you caught me in between tasks." Just a small lie, not like it would hurt anyone. Besides, Kisame was the last person he wanted to explain to that he couldn't seem to stop being pissed because his new employee kept popping into his head. "Have you found anything out?"
"What? ... OH! Oh, uh, no man. All I managed to pry up is maybe if you had him take a piss test and he had drugs in his system. But Itachi says they've been having him do regular blood-testing down at ABHC*. I mean, they can't give out his confidential information like that, so he could still be on them for all we know. But I mean.. Itachi.. he lives with the guy, he'd probably be able to tell if he were. So I guess it's a shot, but not a very good one."
Kakuzu sighed into the phone. "You're ability to error so terribley on a job you've been doing for years astounds me, Hoshigaki."
"Yeah yeah, I know..." He replied, and If Kakuzu weren't mistaken, it certianly seemed like the man was upset about something. And for him to be upset enough for for the resident asshole to notice, then perhaps it was worth asking about. After all, he'd decided yesterday that he needed to inform his ocean-loving friend that he may have been rash. But then again, that was before he'd had to endure the real Hidan. At the end of the day he'd been mentally beating the shit out of himself for doing such a bloody stupid thing.
"Hey! I guess that means I owe you one huh?" Kisame said before he had the chance to inquire about his melancholy tone, which was not suddenly chipper again.
"Why don't you let me buy you a beer eh? It's been awhile since I've actually talked to you without this phone stuck to my head."
Kakuzu was thrown completley by this suggestion, and for the first time in years, was speechless.
"C'moooon buddy! It'll be like back in the day ya'know? I know your uptight ass could use some relaxation more than anyone's."
Finally recovering, Kakuzu's reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Why don't you go with that Uchiha boy?"
There was a few heartbeats of silence on the other end. " Well he's... he's busy..."
Again with the distraught undertones. Kakuzu sighed audibley.
"Hey Kakuzu, we're pretty decent friends right? I mean, not trying to be sappy or anything. We've known each other forever though, ya know?"
He rolled his eyes, Oh for the love of- "I suppose so, yes."
"Alright, Then have a few beers with me. You need to get out and go somewhere other than that office. I'm going fucking stir-crazy over at my place you're the closest friend I have to my own age... I mean, why the fuck not?"
He took a moment to null this over. He'd wanted something to do, and here Kisame was offering something to do. It was Saturday, slightly after 5. He literally had nothing to do here, no reason to decline.
But he hadn't had alchohol in... well it felt like years, though he knew for a fact that he'd relented to having a twelve pack on his birthday... Which he'd drank alone, at his house...
Damn, maybe he was getting old...
His eyes clenched shut as he mentally kicked at himself over and over. "Fine. Only because you do owe me... Where do you want to meet?"
"Alriiight!" Kisame said loudly, and Dr. Hoku had the distinct notion that he had probably thrown his fist into the air like some teenager. "Just meet me down at Trophy's*, it'll be just like the old days. Hah!"
"Fine. I'll be there in a minute." He grumbled, slapping the phone shut as Kisame thanked him and blabbered on like a fool.
A bar. Shit, Kakuzu hadn't been to a bar in years upon years. Frankly he was a little surprised Trophy's was even still open. It was where he and Kisame had always gone in their college days.
Well, it's not as if they were going there with the same intent as back them. There was no sexual agenda, just a couple of old friends hanging out.
He sighed and went to the coat closet to bundle himself back up.
If this turned out to be another terrible mistake, Kisame would be eating his his teeth.
A/N-
Wooow, that's not a very good stopping point at all, lol. WTF WIERDO!?
I know, sorry, it's just really fucking late, and I'm goddamn tired, and I wanted to get this posted so I could start on the next chapter while shirking my responsibilities at work. xD
Haha, SO! I don't have much to say, mostly because I'm fucking pooped. So I'll just skip the long author's note and tell you I love you guys, I love your reviews, they make me so happpyyyy! Keep giving me your feedback, even if it's bad, idec.
Thanks for reading, forgive any mistakes, and see you next chapter!
Tivo*- is a copywrighted name, I didn't make it up I just used it in a sentence in a fake story. Please don't sue me.
Jaws*- A movie about a bigass shark that eats people. Also trademarked. Again, don't sue me.
Trophy's*- The name of the liquor store here in my lil' ol' town, only it's a bar in this story. I'm uncreative, I'm sorry. T-T And also, don't sue me.