My Pet Peeve

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine.

It was only a few small words from Ino that set off this whole chain of events. They'd been eating breakfast, staring blankly at each other in the way that people do early in the day. Conversation didn't go past a few grunts until Ino who was flipping through the paper suddenly shouted;

"Fireworks!" It was like a gun going off after that silence and the echo effect of the tiled room had most of them flinching.

"What the fuck blondie?" Hidan had both his hands over his ears and was giving her the most hateful look he could muster. This was ignored by Ino who was smiling pretty widely.

"There's a firework display on tonight!" She held up the newspaper which confirmed that yes, there would be fireworks.

"And?" considering that they had them in this area pretty often he didn't get why she was so excited.

"I haven't seen any in ages, we have to go!"

"They do have food stalls." Choji's face had a dreamy expression at the idea of all that food. It seemed he was keen.

"We haven't been to one here before either." They'd usually been busy or visiting home every time.

"I guess…" Shikamaru was apathetic towards the whole thing. On top of the effort of going, Hidan was unlikely to be pleased. Large crowds were his pet hate after all.

"We have to go!" Hidan jumped up and slammed his hands on the table.

"See, your boyfriend gets it." Ino was pleased with the extra support whilst Shikamaru was confused by the defection. This was the one person he thought would be completely against this whole scheme.

"You actually want to go?" Probably the fool doesn't know what they are.

"I've never seen fireworks before dumbshit, I've always wanted to go."

"You haven't?" Ino looked horrified. "Then we have to make tonight fun. Right, Shika?" The look on her face indicated that pain would be imminent if he gave the wrong answer.

"I suppose…" This was taken as complete agreement by Ino who began firing off phone calls to other people. Shikamaru glanced at Hidan who didn't even look nervous. He seemed excited like a small child would be.

"Are you sure about this? There will be a lot of people there. And fireworks are pretty loud too." He doubted he needed to point this out but he wanted to ensure the boy was completely prepared.

"I know that." Hidan rolled his eyes. "I could hear the fucking things from my house."

"I just didn't expect it to be your kind of thing is all." It sounded like a load of his most hated things combined. All it needed was vegetables.

"You think my mother ever took me? Or Kakuzu? I've always wanted to go and see some fucking fireworks." There was a far off look in his eyes as he said this.

"You should've told me, I could've taken you before." He did have doubts about Hidan's capacity to handle things. This didn't mean he would stop him however. Even if he had failed to sit through a movie.

"What's it like?" Hidan seemed just so eager. It was pretty adorable. As this didn't happen often, Shikamaru decided to enjoy it while it lasted.

"Well there's food-."

"What kind?"

"Toffee apples, assorted meat stuff. The usual crap. And then some shitty fair rides, loads of people, and obviously fireworks." He hadn't described it in the most flattering way but it hadn't put Hidan off at all.

"Guess you've been to a lot."

"Mainly when I was younger." Of course Hidan had never experienced it and so it would sound really interesting to him.

"Might be kind of fun…"

"Hopefully." He knew some degree of freaking out would occur at some point.

-Page Break-

"Why is it so cold?" It wasn't even dark yet and his hands were frozen. It was a massive pain in the ass. In comparison, Hidan was wearing a thin jacket and if anything felt warm.

"Because you're a pussy." The guy was still buzzing with excitement. It was starting to weird him out since it was so different to his usual behaviour. He hadn't been worrying about it at all.

"You should exercise Shika! It will increase your body temperature!" The amount of pep shown by Lee had all of them staring suspiciously. Steam was practically rising off of him. If he started doing any of his exercises, the group had agreed in advance that they would throw things at him until he stopped.

"I'm good." Hopefully the green clad one would take an interest in someone else. His prayers were answered when Sakura appeared. Lee was instantly all over her, interest in anyone else forgotten. You had to admire his tenacity when most people would've given up by now. She'd been turning him down for at least a year.

When their small group had assembled they walked en-masse towards the coast where the fireworks would be. There were a fair amount of people heading in the same direction, many of them families with small children. Because of this Shikamaru kept glancing at Hidan and hoping he wouldn't do anything to piss of their parents. Luckily he didn't start swearing but he did grab onto the smaller boy's arm.

"I think you're starting to cut off the circulation in my arm."

"…" He received a glare but the grip lessened slightly. As expected there were plenty of people there when they arrived.

"Why do they fucking swarm everywhere?"

"Because they are crowding around all the rides?" It had been almost certain but Shikamaru knew there was no hope of going anywhere near the ride area.

"You want to wait over there while I get food?" He gestured to a grassy area just away from the main chaos. Although plenty of people would be watching the fireworks from there, there was more space for them to avoid everyone.

"You better get me something fucking amazing for this."

"Fine." Twenty minutes later and with a toffee apple each, they sat on a wall surveying the proceedings from a distance.

"Feeling ok?" Hidan had been very quiet since he'd returned.

"Yeah…" At least the toffee apple was good. "Sorry for screwing up your evening."

"You aren't. We don't have to be close to watch the fireworks, they're better far away. And all those stalls are really shit."

"I hope the fireworks are pretty fucking awesome." He still sounded eager even if he was attempting to hide it.

"You're very cute sometimes." This was said without thinking and he could feel his cheeks going red as it hit him. It was a great mistake to let Hidan know when he was being cute since it meant he would use this to his advantage.

"Did you just call me cute?"

"No…"

"You think I'm cute." He had a smirk starting up. It was nice to hear things like that from your boyfriend after all.

"Only when you're not being a complete prick."

"Don't ruin it with bullshit." Hidan was planning on pushing Shikamaru off of the wall to amuse himself but just as he went to do this, the first firework went off. The noise was unexpected and he ended jumping and falling back off of the wall. Luckily it was a short wall.

"That was pretty smooth."

"Shut up." He pulled himself back up and stared up at the explosions. Shikamaru couldn't really concentrate on watching then since Hidan had subconsciously gripped his arm. He didn't seem to be scared though. The expression was more akin to awe than anything else. By the time they were finished he had loosened his grip slightly but was still staring upwards.

"You like?"

"They were fucking awesome."

"And yet you hated the cinema?"

"That was a load of dickheads on a screen. Those were explosions in the sky! How the fuck can you compare that?" At least he was happy.

"They do have them good here." At home they mainly had the ones his dad used on special occasions, usually consisting of two proper explosions and one slightly low to the ground that required the presence of a fire extinguisher. After a short argument between his parents, the firework show would be over.

"Wish I'd done this sooner." He then looked down at the mass of people. "Except for all the assholes."

"Usually an issue when going outside."

"Where are the rest of the twat brigade?"

"Down there?" He wasn't going to comment on the new name. For a moment they surveyed the writhing mass of people.

"…Fuck that."

"Agreed." It would be a massive pain in the ass to go searching for people.

"We are gonna get some food though, right?"

"That is all you think about isn't it?"

"That is untrue."

"Oh?"

"I also think about sex." He had absolutely no shame, shown from the way he announced this loudly in public. Luckily they were in a quiet spot.

"I've said it once and I'll say it again, think before you speak." This was probably asking for too much but he could hope.

"Shut up and buy me a hot dog." He was pointing at one of the food stalls. Shikamaru wordlessly went over and did as asked. It would keep him quiet for a few minutes. He'd hoped anyway.

"This is pretty good practice for you." And he was smirking as he said this. He had expected this but it was still embarrassing.

"Don't even go there."

"Damn prude."

"I'm normal, you guys are the ones with problems." He was unlucky in that he was surrounded by these people.

"Do we have to walk this way? There are too many damn people!" He hissed at a few of them, which meant they were given a fair amount of space on the pavement.

"Are you going to complain the whole way home?"

"Yes."

"For the love of-." Shikamaru grabbed Hidan's arm and tugged him down a side road. The back roads were dimly lit and damp as hell but at least there were barely any people. "Better?"

"You're nice for a dickhead." He ruffled the Nara boy's ponytail.

"Just hurry up, I'm cold." This seemed like a good chance to Hidan who put his arm around the smaller boy and pulled him over. "It's kind of hard to walk like this."

"Want me to carry you?"

"…Yes." Normally he would be too embarrassed for this but he was lazy and his feet were starting to hurt. Not to mention the fact that he'd been doing stuff for Hidan all evening so now it was his turn.

"Really? You're not fucking with me?"

"Just hurry it up before I lose a limb to frostbite. And carry me on your back, not like that!" He had seen him going to pick him up bridal style.

"Killjoy."