Konan drummed her fingers on her desk, frowning as she lazily turned the pages in her report. The file may have been six pages long, even after decryption, but the entire thing could have been summed up in three words: no movement yet. Growling as she reached the last page, the Falk hurled the report across the room, watching as the file collided with the wall and sent papers flying everywhere. "Sacrebleu."

The woman's sulking was interrupted by Pein entering the room, looking first to his leader and then to the poor, abused file now lying on the floor. "Things are not going well at the mine?" he clicked.

"Not even a hint of movement," Konan snipped. "We have agents on the lookout around the clock, we've bugged their communication lines right down to the sticky notes on their billboards, we've done everything but there is nothing to show for it!"

"Patience dear," Pein begged. "That human's find was a huge break for us. We need only wait a little longer for answers. In the meantime, how are our fellow VUM branches doing?"

Konan's frowned deepened at the inquiry. "That is another problem, my dear."

"Something happened?"

"Nothing too out of the ordinary. It's just…the front on the Western Highlands hasn't reported to me in nearly three days."

"They're only required to make reports once a month though," Pein reminded his commander.

"Yes, but that new girl they have working communications is so paranoid about anything happening to her unit that she calls in nearly every day. I've been telling her for months now that such frequency isn't necessary, but…"

Pein felt a hint of unease blossom in his stomach. Falks, like humans, were notorious for having difficulties changing their ways (unless humans were involved, supposedly; it had been years since he'd read that human excuse for a science journal). Still, he reminded himself, a few days were nothing to worry about. Hell, their own communication lines had been down for nearly a week when a six legged buggle-whopper had chewed through their wires to nibble the copper underneath. "I see no cause for alarm now. But perhaps if we fail to hear from them in a week, we can send a group to investigate?"

"That is the plan," Konan confirmed. "But for now, I could use a hot bath and nice dinner."

"Care for company?"

The inquiry made Konan smile for the first time all day. "With you? Of course."

-mm-

"Surely Sasori is joking," Tobi stated.

"No, I'm serious!" the redhead asserted. "He didn't say anything, but Hidan acted like they were having a conversation. Back me up on this, Deidara."

"But if I back you up, you'll be too far away from the table to eat, un."

"Deidara, it's a figure of- oh, never mind. Just eat your…whatever the hell this is." Currently the trio of Sasori, Deidara, and Tobi were in the mess tent, eating lunch. Rations in the camp were running low, due to their supply drop being delayed by inclement weather, and as a result, the camp cooks were getting rather creative with whatever was left.

"Good thing they didn't serve too much," Tobi thoughtfully said. "Tobi lost his appetite after the first couple of bites."

"Not like you can eat much anyway," Sasori noted, looking to Tobi's wrist, which was currently in a splint. "What happened?"

"Oh! Well, Tobi was assigned to desk work, but Tobi's wrist got sore, so now Tobi has to use his left hand for everything." Sasori had a distinct feeling that the soldier was pouting behind the mask that he was now allowed to wear on the base. "It sucks."

"At least you've been given a job," Deidara griped as he choked down his food. He and Sasori, due to their involvement with the NADSRaD computer, had been told to lay low and do as little with the other members of the base as possible, lest they accidentally leak pertinent details to spies, real or imaginary. "Danna and I are still on lockdown like Hidan, un."

"Where is Hidan?" Tobi wondered. "Shouldn't he be suffering here too?"

"Don't know, don't care."

-meanwhile, in the dorms-

Hidan was sitting on his bed, ruffling through the bag containing what few belongings he'd managed to salvage from his room before the evacuation that destroyed the human's ship. A plate of food sat nearby, waiting to be eaten by him. The Jashinist knew that if he didn't get to the food soon that it was sure too completely cool off, and at this point, he wasn't sure if his meal would taste better hot or cold. For Jashin's sake, what kind of food combo turned your dish purple-orange?

At last the male grabbed what he had been seeking and extracted it from the sack, holding his prize up triumphantly: a bottle of ketchup. "Finally, maybe I can make this shit edible."

A shuffling noise beside him caused Hidan to turn, but not before hiding his ketchup against his chest. The noise had come from none other than Kakuzu, who had also taken his meal back to their shared room, since leaving Hidan alone for too long was out of the question. Upon realizing who it was, Hidan humph'ed and poured a large dollop of ketchup on top of his food. The first bite confirmed that, while he was still eating one star cuisine, the red sauce helped it go down without gagging. Speaking of…

Kakuzu had begun coughing, bowing forward and thumping his chest as the first bite went down. Hidan was about to make a rude comment on a tough guy like Kakuzu not being able to handle a little cafeteria food, when he noticed the Falk's face.

In order to eat his dinner, Kakuzu had removed the lower portion of his mask, exposing tanned skin for the world to see. What had caught Hidan's attention, though, were long, jagged scars running down Kakuzu's cheeks, scooping down to his neck and twisting around the right side of a mangled lump in the middle of his throat that had probably been a functioning Adam's apple at one point. Hidan had previously noticed minor scrapes and scars on the Falk's hands; now he had to wonder exactly how many more scars were being covered up by his guard's clothing.

As fate would have it, Kakuzu chose that moment to look up from his meal to Hidan and notice the Jashinist was staring at him. A moment of realization hit Kakuzu, before his expression hardened and he looked away. He knew that look all too well; both Falks and humans were subject to staring at a freak like him.

Hidan didn't need his newly acquired skills at reading Kakuzu's expression to understand what had just happened, and for the first time in a long while felt like an ass. Sure, the Falk was a major pain in his ass, and moreover a Falk, his sworn enemy…but there was never a good excuse to stare at a person's scars, particularly if the person in question was sensitive about them.

The Jashinist now had two options: either go back to his dinner and pretend this never happened, or apologize. The first option was out of the question; even he wasn't that big of a jerk on his worst day. But Hidan had a feeling that if he just said, "I'm sorry," to Kakuzu, it would sound forced or expected, and thus still leave an awkward air between the two. Surely there was a way out of this.

Kakuzu, meanwhile, was continuing to poke and nibble his food, looking increasingly sick with each additional bite he forced down. He seemed bound and determined to ignore Hidan for the duration of his meal, no matter how foul his food might be. In fact, he almost didn't look up when he heard the zealot say, "Here," until a mysterious bright red bottle was shoved in his face.

Kakuzu reflexively grabbed the bottle, looking it over before glancing up to a somewhat sheepish Hidan. "It's ketchup," the Jashinist muttered, shifting his weight from side to side in an uneasy manner. "Dump it on that shit to make it taste better."

The Falk gave the human an odd look, somewhat confused by Hidan's actions. They'd be stuck eating this garbage for at least another week, so why bother to share this mysterious sauce with him? Unless…was Hidan attempting to apologize?

"Look, if you don't want it, just give the damn thing back," Hidan growled, holding his hand out expectantly.

Deciding to give the little idiot the benefit of the doubt, Kakuzu squeezed a small pool of ketchup onto his plate, dunking a small bite of food into it before eating. His eyes widened ever so slightly at the taste, chewing for a few moments before swallowing, this time without gagging. Immediately the Falk poured out a little more, this time directly onto the food, and went back to eating.

"Better, right?" Hidan asked as he retrieved the bottle. "Just don't tell anyone else, or we're gonna have to go back to eating that shit plain." Kakuzu gave the Jashinist a flat look and pointed to his throat, as if to ask who he was going to tell if he had no voice. Hidan was a bit worried he'd made another misstep, but there was no look of anger or malice on Kakuzu's face. Now that Hidan was in on his little secret and had tried to make up for his earlier blunder, the Falk seemed willing to give charge a little more leeway. "C'mon, you're telling me no one else can read your body language like me?" A shake of the head. "Seriously? Well damn." Kakuzu merely rolled his eyes at Hidan's swearing and went back to his dinner, not enthusiastic but not dreading the food.

And as the two sat together, dining in silence with the ketchup resting nearby in case it was needed again, for the first time since they'd been forced to stay together, neither party felt any sort of animosity towards the other.