Hinata curled around a pillow, sitting with her back against the end of her bed. Neji took her father to one of his usual retirement activities, so the house was quiet, but she couldn't even eat. She was so anxious. Hidan didn't have that problem.

Hinata wasn't sure what he did all day, but once she got back, he was able to take a shower and change into what she had grabbed out of the school's lost and found. She had never been thankful for how big teenagers grew and how forgetful they were with their things until now.

"You kept that?" Hidan pointed past her.

Hinata turned her head to see the Jashin origami necklace he had sent her years ago hanging off a tack on her desk. Her face turned red. Why was that embarrassing? He sent it to her. Did he not expect her to keep it? Was she more embarrassed because it was hanging by her bed? "I… don't think I have thrown out anything that you have sent me."

Hidan snorted as she lowered her face into the pillow. "I had to leave my wall behind. It had all your little pictures. I wonder if they will put me in the same cell when I go back."

"... Are you going back?" Hinata barely lifted her head to be heard clearly.

Hidan raised an eyebrow. "Not ready to get rid of me?"

Hinata shrank. She didn't like being teased about this. "I just don't know why you didn't run."

"I belong in prison. If I am out, I'll probably just cause some carnage until they put me back. Why the fuck not?" Hidan sat back on his hands and sighed, looking at her with his head tilted. "You're just too pure and clean. I'll fuck you up if you keep me around."

Hinata pressed her lips in a line and dipped her face into her pillow. She was sure he was right. She was sure that she had already let him be here for too long, and she was one slip up from having to explain to her father and then the police why he was in her room.

But was she too pure? Would a pure person spend years swapping letters with a criminal? Would they ask them for help? Wouldn't she ask him to leave and call the police if she was a good person?

Had he already poisoned her? Or was she always like this? Was it genetic? Could she blame this on her father?

No, that would give her father an out, and if he really did kill his brother, then he deserved to hold the guilt. As she probably should for this.

It was wrong, but she just wanted to sit here and talk to him about nothing for a little longer. "You didn't reply to my last letter."

Hidan tilted his head back. "Did you put another food rant in it?" Hinata cracked a smile and shook her head. "I was distracted. Tell me what was in it."

Hinata felt some of the sickening feelings lift out of her stomach as she pulled her chin up to sit on the top of the pillow to explain the contents of the last few letters.

Shit.

This stupid girl was cuter than he thought she would be.

Hidan hated to admit it because it would make him not want to leave, but there was something about the way she hid her face that reminded him of how she would skirt around her embarrassing stories in her writing. He felt his face twitch when he wanted to curse when he didn't need to because of the way she pressed her lips together to keep from saying anything about it. Ugh, her visibly trying not to scold him worked better than her actually getting after him.

He needed to get out of here. Maybe prison made him soft. Maybe he should have gutted a few more people. There were plenty of confirmed awful bastards, but he didn't want to be beaten with sticks, and more trials would be long and boring. It just wasn't worth it when he could torment them every day instead.

A door slamming made Hinata flinch and hold her pillow tighter. "I think my father's home. Stay here."

Hinata inched toward the door and pressed her ear to it. Closing her eyes to hear the footsteps, she peeked out when another door slammed shut. Turned her head back at him and then slipped out.

… That couldn't be normal.

"I don't know," Neji whispered, rubbing his temple. "He's gotten paranoid. He freaked out and accused me of going through his office, and when I told him I didn't, he didn't believe me. Then I mistakenly asked what he would even be worried about in there, and he…"

Hinata chewed on her lip, looking down the hall toward her father's room.

"Can you talk to him?" Neji asked.

"That's a horrible idea." Hinata countered.

Neji waved his hand down the hall. "He might be going through something. He never raises his voice. Maybe we should get Hanabi-sama to call him."

Hinata wasn't sure that was going to make anything better. She was sure now that she must not have put the file back perfectly.

… If she confessed to her father that she snooped, would he confess to the murder? Hinata knew she could be wrong, but why else would he hide the will he was cut out of?

"Not today. I don't think he is coming back out." Neji sighed. "I haven't seen any letters lately."

Hinata blinked at him. "I think Hidan got himself in trouble, and he's lost letter privileges. I'm surprised it hasn't happened before."

"You don't see that as a red flag. You know… other than the whole confessed murder?" Neji looked tired. He didn't want to talk about this any more than she did, but he felt the moral need to.

"Neji-san. I have never once denied that he was the definition of a red flag. I'm writing letters, not dating him." Hinata huffed toward her room, but before she could close the door, she jumped to find Hidan just inside the door with a smug smile on his face.

Hinata pushed him back with a hand in the middle of his chest and closed the door behind her, letting her frustration with him being so close to the door wear on her face. Hidan smile just got wider as he lowered his face. "Am I a red flag?"

"Do you think you're not?" Hinata countered.

"I am the reddest fucking flag. So why did you keep writing?" Hidan cocked his head to the side.

Hinata was suddenly very aware of the position she put herself in, with her hand still on his chest and him leaning over her. Her face inflamed. That's not how she should be thinking of this! Hinata flinched back. Hidan blinked at her reaction before snorting and covering his face to stay quiet.

Now, Hinata was more embarrassed. Couldn't he just ignore it?

This girl was ridiculous.

Well, now Hidan could definitely say that she wasn't a murder groupie. Hinata's pout wasn't helping him find her reaction less funny or making her look any less cute.

"Shh." Tossed a pillow at him as she hiked a leg under her to sit on her bed.

Hidan got his laugh under control. "Damn. I mean it, though. What made you keep replying?" He sat by her bed to lean his arm on it.

Hinata chewed on her lip as she looked down at him before she tried to focus on her hands picking her sweater. "Because I didn't believe a word you said in the trial was the real reason you did what you did."

Hidan laid his head down to listen.

"I knew… one of your victims, he was a creep, and I heard a few more were worse. I know why the prosecution would keep that out of the trial, but why would your defense, unless you didn't want anyone to know." Hinata's eyes flickered up. She was ready to be wrong, but she probably knew him better than anyone at this point. She could tell if he was bullshitting.

Hidan winced. Fuck. It wasn't like telling her the truth would hurt. What was she going to do, tell on him? But fucking hell, it was embarrassing. "I am not a saint, sweetheart."

"I know." Hinata rubbed her finger over the end of her sweater. "But you did something about it when no one else would."

Ugh, don't make him into a hero. "Fine. They were all fucking horrible people, but they all deserved to die."

Hinata nodded with a small smile. That was not the reaction a school teacher should be having. Maybe she wasn't as innocent as he thought. "I can't tell you how often I have seen something happening and wished someone would do something about it. You did." She flattened her hands out to keep them from fidgeting. "I can't say I wish I could do the same, but I can't say it hasn't crossed my mind."

Hidan cracked a smile. He could see it now. Her in a floral dress that she taught small children in, covered in blood with a 'look what you made me do' pout on her face over the body of a terrible parent. "I don't think you could do it."

Hinata eyed him. "No, I couldn't."

Jashin, let him save this girl.