My Pet Peeve

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine.

"Stupid inanimate objects!" Yes it was childish but Hidan was going to blame the shoes for him tripping over. His revenge was to throw the specific shoe that had tripped him across the hall.

Frankly, his mood was the lowest it had been in a while. This was for a variety of reasons, all to do with his boyfriend's general attitude recently; something that he was struggling to understand.

Shikamaru had never liked being overly physically intimate but this was just the way he was. Hidan could accept this. He wasn't exactly perfect himself after all. But in the last week this had changed. Whenever he went to touch the smaller boy, Shikamaru just let him. There were no complaints and no resistance either.

At first he'd thought this was a good thing. After all, Shikamaru seemed to be starting to trust him. But the more this went on, the more he noticed a problem. The guy was emotionally more distant. Even when he touched him, he wasn't all there. And no matter how much Hidan tried, the guy wouldn't talk about it. Whatever it was that was bothering him, it was something too important to reveal to his boyfriend.

This thought pissed him off further and he stalked into the kitchen. Most people would comfort eat with chocolate or other snack foods; Hidan used sliced ham. Yes it was pretty bad but he didn't care. He just sat on a chair in the lounge, stuffing ham in his mouth and glaring at the wall.

"Well, well. I bet you're proud of himself." Ino sauntered in with a smirk. He knew what she was talking about. If anything, it made him worse.

"I don't know what you mean."

"I think you do. You got the most emotionally constipated guy on the planet to sleep with you! How'd you do it?" Ino had been waiting for this for a while. Shikamaru had always been so emotionally distant; he needed to learn to trust people more.

"I asked." Hidan glared. It had literally been that easy. He'd expected some complaints but had received none. Of course he'd enjoyed it but he could tell Shikamaru hadn't really.

"Really? But you've been asking for months!"

"I know." He grabbed a small pile of ham and shoved it into his mouth. Even food wasn't making him feel any better. Surely this was a crisis level situation.

"Hey… are you ok?" Ino had realised something wasn't quite right here.

"I don't know…" It was hard to know how to feel right now.

"Is there a problem?" She did sound genuinely concerned.

"Again I don't know." He definitely didn't have any problems (aside from the stalker) so it had to be his boyfriend.

"So it's all Shika then?" He didn't even have to say anything. "What's he doing?"

"He's being… offy." Finding the right word was really hard.

"Isn't that normal for him?" The guy had been offy since child hood.

"This isn't normal. He's being so fucking weird. He's letting me just do shit and you know what he's like." She nodded. "And he's so fucking distant! It's like he's not even there."

"Have you tried asking him?" Hidan scowled. "Ok, stupid question. Want me to ask?"

"Will he tell you?" Admittedly it would hurt that he couldn't get the boy to talk to him but she was one of his oldest friends and she could solve his problems for him.

"Maybe? It's worth a try. If not, I'll get Choji."

"Well as long as he talks. Thanks Blondie."

"Anything to help the yandere!" She received the empty ham packet to the forehead. "Ow!"

Shikamaru didn't get home until a few hours after he'd said he'd be back. Normally he would rush home since Hidan liked being around him; this was a sure sign that something wasn't quite right.

"Evening Shika."

"Hey." Shikamaru yawned and slumped next to Hidan on the bed. He was sitting as he usually did but there was none of the usual easy chat. For once, Hidan was self-conscious.

"How was it then?"

"As usual. Do anything?"

"No." Aside from moaning about Shikamaru of course.

"Do you want to do anything tonight?" This gave him an idea.

"There is one thing…" Hidan put his arm around Shikamaru's shoulders and pulled him close. There was no scowl.

"If that's what you want." And no complaints either. Now there was one more thing to do.

"If you're ok with it." He knocked the smaller boy back on to the bed and pushed down both of his hands. Sitting above him, he could look right down into Shikamaru's face. He looked kind of blank, perhaps even uninterested. Not only was he showing no interest, he was actually lying to him. Hidan let go of him and stood up, walking away and sitting on the desk chair. This at least provoked some kind of response from the apathetic one.

"Why did you stop?" He was satisfied that he had caused some confusion.

"Because you don't give a shit and I don't want to fuck someone who doesn't give a shit about me." And there. He had said it.

"I do care." His voice was quite feeble though.

"Bull. Shit. You go off whenever I touch you. What the hell am I supposed to do about that?"

"Go of? I'm always like that." Shikamaru was showing some guilt though.

"Don't lie to me. You can't pull that kind of crap and expect someone to take it." He was going to stand up for himself here.

"I really don't know what you're talking about." And now he wasn't even making eye contact. Hidan walked back over and grabbed his chin, pulling his head up so he was looking him in the eye. "What are you doing?"

"Tell me nothing is wrong."

"Nothing is wrong."

"You're lying." And he had thought he could do it straight to his face.

"I'm not."

"That is fucking bullshit Shika." He let go of his boyfriend's chin and stalked across the room to the book shelf, throwing several of them across the room. This helped.

"Don't start attacking the furniture!"

"So that's worth an emotional response, but not when I'm upset. I'm not as important as a few fucking books!" Yes he was becoming hysterical.

"Just calm down!" Shikamaru went to go over to him but Hidan was not having any of it.

"Why should I? You're the one fucking with my head!" More than angry, he was becoming upset. "Why do you have to lie to me? I don't fucking need this bullshit! If you don't like being near me, then fucking tell me!"

"Of course I like you!"

"Do you? I'm having a hard time believing that right now. I can't deal with it Shika. I'm tired." Hidan didn't want to lose him or to be alone. But being treated like a moron wasn't worth it.

"Hidan, I'm not fucking with you! I just-."

"You just what?" He hadn't wanted to be right. He'd known something was wrong but confirming it made it worse.

"Look, I… I can't talk about this right now." Shikamaru was about to walk out but he beaten to it.

"I get the picture! You don't want me around! I'll just fucking leave then!" Hidan stormed out of the bedroom door. He didn't care that Shikamaru was shouting after him, he needed to get some space between them. Even though he knew that something was wrong, the guy didn't trust him enough to talk to him.

Yes it was cold outside and there were people there, but Hidan could not be in there anymore. Ino tried to shout but he was out of there. And of course he slammed the door as hard as possible. The bastard could pay to fix any damages.

-Page Break-

"Hidan!" By the time he got to the top of the stairs, the door was already closed. He had completely fucked up this one. Ino appeared, slowly clapping with a deadpan expression on her face. "What?!"

"Nicely done there."

"Just shut the hell up Ino." He didn't want her judging him on top of everything else.

"What have you been doing to Hidan? He's been worried for a while."

"He told you?"

"He said you were being weird with him. That's not really fair Shika. Hidan isn't exactly stable. And now you've made him worse!" She knew exactly what to say to get maximum impact.

"I wasn't being weird!"

"What were you doing then?"

"…Ok, I was a little different but not that much!" That was a bunch of bullshit and he knew it.

"You were acting weird and evasive when he asked you. Great way to deal with your boyfriend who is highly neurotic with trust issues. And who has childhood issues with abandonment. Nice Shika."

"…" The guilt was just piling on top of him.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

"I just… I was worrying he'd leave ok? Because he's really… you know?"

"So because he has more self-confidence, you think he'll leave. Wow. You'd rather he was a miserable ball of nerves? Or did you like him being all reliant on you?"

"Yes, ok! I like him when he's upset! I'm a horrible human being!"

"You said it, not me. Why is that a problem?"

"Because I'm not good enough for him Ino. And he might realise that." There was a feeling of a weight being lifted as he said this.

"Oh my god… You're being needy! That's adorable."

"Again, shut the hell up Ino."

"So you let him screw you so he'd stay."

"Basically…" Not that he hadn't enjoyed it. He was just awkward about things like that.

"And you thought he wouldn't notice you freezing up? You are an idiot. You should have just told him the truth."

"But I didn't want to look like an idiot!"

"And what do you look like now?"

"…I get the irony, yes." There was a more pressing issue now. "Should I go after him?"

"Probably not. He needs to chill out. Plus it's not like he has anywhere else to go."

"True…" He wanted to talk to him now but this current state of affairs was his fault. All Shikamaru could hope was that Hidan would come back soon.