A/N: The story about the formerly extinct tree that is told in this chapter is one I heard myself several years ago. I'm sure I lost some of the details, but I remember clearly the gist of it. One could probably look it up for themself, if they felt so motivated.

So, have fun, and I'll meet y'all in the end notes.

.

Yahiko

A harsh clap of thunder shook the abandoned building just as Konan and Deidara got in. They were dripping with the rain that had suddenly started to fall a few minutes before. Konan didn't seem very bothered. She directed people to search the base, particularly the area under the broken corner of the roof, for leaks while Deidara took deep breaths and stretched in the open space of the lobby.

A quick check of the weather forecast revealed that the storm was going to be staying for several hours. "There goes the rest of today," Sasori said.

There was an awkward silence after that. Hidan and Nagato were both absent, and everybody else had had their fill of socializing for the day. In the silence, Konan cleared her throat. "I have Ruta's permission to read all the offline documents he has." She glanced at Deidara, who nodded. Sasori narrowed his eyes slightly, but did not object. This was such a better plan than her previous one. She beckoned for Deidara to follow her, both as reassurance to everyone else and in order to congratulate him in private.

Yahiko got an idea. "Hey," he called. "Speaking of reading, I have books. They come from another world!"

"Another other world?" Kisame asked incredulously.

"Yeah, a third one. I'll go get them."

I might not have mentioned that before. Have I? Better now than never, I guess. Yahiko went to his room and bent down to pick up his entire stack of library books. He paused. Were the top few off center? He straightened them before picking up the stack. He didn't care excessively about order, but he appreciated it well enough to put in the effort to make minor possessions look good.

He straightened them again out of reflex after he put them down on the lobby desk. "Sorry about not saying anything before."

"It's fine," Kisame said. Yahiko appreciated that. The shark man took the top book. "Now that I think about it, Konan never said anything about nature spirits. Should've realized they don't come from her world."

His voice, normally so distinct, sounded muffled beneath the sound of rain drumming against the front of the building. Deidara would have had to strip naked to avoid hypothermia had he been caught in that. Without needing to say anything, they all decided to move to the kitchen. All except Samehada, who was left napping on the chair.

"This one isn't like Konan's world," Yahiko said to Kisame as they walked. "None of the books mention anything dangerous to us. Not unless we do something terrible to provoke them."

Kisame leaned back against the counter next to the fridge and opened the book he held. It was the Complete Encyclopedia. Yahiko kept it on top for ease of reference. "Spirits of the world's waters," Kisame murmured to himself. He flipped to the corresponding pages. "Huh. The spirits look like animals associated with whatever they live in?"

"That's what people saw, the very few people who can see spirits," Yahiko clarified. "They might not have any specific shape. That could just be what people expected or something."

Kisame studied the illustrations. "Hell of a detailed expectation."

"Have you ever read H.P. Lovecraft?" Itachi asked.

"Uh, no."

"There are illustrations accompanying his stories. They are very detailed. Artists can do incredible things from imagination."

Kisame shrugged. "These pictures are old style." He showed Itachi the decorative border of stylized vines surrounding each one.

Yahiko looked and found the rest of his book stack gone. There were more than five books, but Kakuzu and Sasori had each taken multiple. Kakuzu closed the second of the books from this world. "That's just hocus pocus and conjecture."

"I thought it would help me open my mind," Yahiko protested.

Sasori appeared to have read nothing more than the table of contents from the tall stack next to him. "Are you studying that first?" he asked. He gestured to the Encyclopedia.

"Of course I am. I should understand what I'm dealing with before anything else." And the idea of trying to talk to invisible spirits is scary.

Sasori took a book from the pile. "You really should move onto the instructional manuals for dealing with them. You can learn a lot about what something is from how you're supposed to treat it."

Yahiko swallowed. "Okay. Just don't ask me to try any of this."

"Of course not." Sasori looked 100 percent serious and sympathetic. Yahiko relaxed.

"Notice what else is missing," Itachi advised Kisame. "Mentions of ninjutsu. This book cannot possibly be from Konan's world. No one in her world can ignore the impact chakra and ninjas and related things have on their lives."

"Why are books from completely unrelated worlds showing up here?" Kisame bared his teeth. This aspect of their situation sounded very suspicious.

"Kisame." Itachi laid a hand on his forearm. "Konan did not know about the vampires, either. Or the demon boy. We are already a hybrid of two worlds. Why shouldn't there be other worlds besides our two?"

"If living bicycles can be here, anything can," Sasori agreed.

Kakuzu crossed his arms, but not in an aggressive or defensive way. With the symbol's effects warded off, he was able to think more flexibly. He still wasn't happy about adding more complexity to their lives though. "These things had better not come knocking on our door."

Kisame flipped through some more pages. "The people who collected this information were people who could see the spirits. I don't see a single layman's report in here so far. They don't do much, apparently."

"Good. They should keep not doing that."

Yahiko fidgeted. "So, what do you guys think?"

Kakuzu and Itachi looked at him. "About what?" asked Itachi.

"About…" About what? "You know… whether or not I should be trying to talk to them, and stuff." His words were failing him again. He had taken on the role of contacting nature spirits, like Sasori had taken the role of negotiating with bicycles. That role was something special and distinctive that only he had. Now that he was alone, and Nagato was not like a part of himself, was this individual distinctiveness good? Was he being his own person successfully?

"You're kidding." Sasori stared at him. "After this morning? When that river spirit reacted to your chakra and whatever is in the lake felt like the spirit did? You have to. Whatever is in the lake likes you, and by extension, me. Let's keep it that way."

Whatever is in the lake likes me. Wow. That was a big compliment. A powerful force of life and joy liked him? Yahiko couldn't help but smile. It made the entire world look more beautiful to me. That's what I want to make other people see. After experiencing its powers, it had become something of an idol to him. He wanted to be like that lake-thing. He giggled in warning, then hugged Sasori. Sasori hugged him back. "Glad to help."

When Yahiko released him and retreated to a respectful distance, Sasori looked back at everyone now looking at him with his blankest stare. "What."

Kisame closed the book over one of his fingers and put it down. "I thought you didn't like hugging." His eyes darted around, examining every part of Sasori's body.

Sasori allowed himself to be so scrutinized. Now that he had the ability, it felt good to use it. "I know the thing in the lake likes me because it healed me. What the incubus did to me is gone now."

"Of course," Itachi said. He said it in the voice of one who is just realizing that they should be able to say Of course, because something should have been blazingly obvious. "I learned a few days ago from the bartender that the lake is one of several sites around here where people can go to have their soul healed. Of course it has that power." How had he not considered what practical meaning that information could have?

"What. The. Fuck." Kisame glanced around at everything. "You're saying the creepy, unnatural, wrong thing that makes a lake move in ways it shouldn't is actually helpful and nice?" As if he could believe that!

"No," Kakuzu said. "Hidan told Samehada to stay away from the lake while he is in it, because when he emerges everything in the lake is dead. What if everything is dead because their life force was stolen?" Kakuzu sounded horrified. "The lake didn't heal you because it wanted to. It healed you because it's a godsdamn reservoir of souls."

Kisame went very, very still. "Same and I went swimming in that lake. It felt really good, like I was more connected to myself than I've ever been before."

"A lot of fish and algae died to bring you that experience," Kakuzu said. Kisame looked ill.

Yahiko's shoulders slumped. It sounded like the healing properties of his chakra had done nothing. But he still got credit for bringing Sasori to the lake and helping him gather the courage to put his hand in the water. Nagato always says I should credit myself for other people's brave decisions when they make them because of me. I don't understand how that reflects on me at all, but I can try.

"May I ask, how did it feel?" Itachi activated his Sharingan while he waited for Sasori's answer.

Sasori took a moment to answer. "It felt like a wave sweeping through me, and then irritation going away. Like I'd been reacting to something the whole time, and I stopped."

"Is it still gone?" Yahiko asked. He hoped so.

"Put an arm on my shoulders again," Sasori requested. Yahiko did so. "Hm. It doesn't feel as aggravated as it did before, but this doesn't feel as natural or easy as it did when I was at the lake, either. Some of it's worn off."

"Maybe my chakra did help!" Yahiko removed his arm. "My chakra wears off."

Sasori elbowed him. "Maybe."

Itachi deactivated the Sharingan. "Interesting."

"What's interesting?" Kisame demanded.

"I wondered how healing a soul works. This one case doesn't tell me the answer, but it is interesting to hear that it feels like a wave. A wave of energy?"

Sasori tilted his head. "Kind of. It was like the cool feeling you get when you relax some part of you that was bent or tense for too long."

Itachi blinked. "That's not a wave of energy. That's a wave of matter, from restored blood flow."

Sasori shrugged.

"So it may be possible that soul material was actually injected into you."

"Or souls flow like blood does and it unblocked it," Yahiko added.

Itachi shook his head. "I don't know enough to conclude anything."

Kisame was reading again. "I vote for people seeing what they wanted to see. Most of these water spirits look like ducks and other things that live on water, and the only one that doesn't looks like a generic fish. You know, the kind a child would draw. Not an actual living fish."

Itachi looked over his elbow. "It is a very eloquent drawing to my eyes. What would a real fish look like?"

Kisame began to explain that the fish lacked nearly all type-specific characteristics. Yahiko heard enough to understand that the fish had a shape like a certain type of fish, but it lacked other features that a real fish of that family should have, and then Kisame's explanation got too technical for him to latch onto. The words really did seem to pass in one ear and out the other. That didn't feel good, so Yahiko grabbed the top book off Sasori's stack of instructional texts and began to read.

How to get them to help around the house? Yahiko almost put that one back before reading a single word. But there was a chapter on gardens, and that reminded him of something he had thought about people of this other world being intimately familiar with spirits from their daily lives. On second thought, he decided to read the book after all.

Sasori selected one that seemed the most applicable to bicycles and sat on the counter to read it. Kisame and Itachi left the kitchen to pore over the Encyclopedia more thoroughly. Kakuzu, having nothing else to do, settled on reading the books of hocus pocus so he could warn impressionable children which parts to stay away from. Samehada yawned in his sleep.

A gentle, sleepy quiet filled with the background hum of heavy rain settled over them. Nobody felt alone. It was perfect.

Nagato

Hidan and Nagato were not at the base because they saw no reason to be. On its own, the rickety structure they were in could not have been trusted as a safe shelter. However, the demon boy had gone to such trouble to acquire books and other things for his charges. Because of that, it was safe to assume that the building would not be allowed to flood with rainwater.

"Throwing paper airplanes was fun for a while, but there really isn't a lot for living people to do here," Nagato murmured. He sat in the children's room, which was one of the few rooms that had books. But they were all very simple books for the youngest of children, not anything he could find interesting. The demon boy had selected items based on what would actually be useful to his guests. On the one hand, kudos. On the other hand, everything was meant for sick people and little kids. What was a healthy young man to do? "Hidan, do you have any ideas? Hidan?"

"Shush." Nagato turned to find Hidan reclined against the wall with his phone to his ear. He waved for Nagato to stay quiet. "Heyo. Is the doc in?" He proceeded to do something that sounded an awful lot like setting up a medical appointment for the next day. "Testing." Pause. "Everything. Just fucking everything." Pause. "Maybe check the rest of my blood while you're at it? Can you do that?" The answer must have been yes, because Hidan silently pumped his arm in victory before confirming the time and hanging up.

"Fucker took off before the storm," he explained. "So there's nothing today, just when I'm sitting around bored out of my skull. Shit."

Nagato was grinning so wide his jaws felt like they were about to split. "Were you just making an STD appointment like I suggested?"

Hidan smirked at him. "I said I planned to."

Something about Hidan's smirk made Nagato feel all warm inside. "I'm glad you did."

"Me too." Hidan's triumphant smirk faded. He stared off into the distance. "I haven't forgotten. Some nights, when I'm not there to remember it, my body's running around without me and eating small animals or some shit." He licked his lips and frowned. "As long as I'm getting tested for one thing, might as well get my blood checked too. Gotta find out how many blood borne diseases I have, or if not, why not. You're right about how sick I should be. Why am I not?"

Nagato smiled at him. "You're probably right. There must be something about you protecting you from the consequences of a diet that includes blood. Maybe your kind have a superpowered immune system, or your cells have mutated identifiers that make it even easier to find and repel invaders, or something. A blood test might not catch it, but I'm sure there is something."

Hidan shivered. "Nagato?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad the people here don't notice shit. Did you hear about that tree that used to be extinct?"

Nagato sidled closer so he could sit at Hidan's right arm. "Tell me."

"There was this tree, and scientists all thought it was extinct," Hidan began. "But then someone found it growing like any other tree in a random shmo's backyard. Scientists were super happy. But then…" He hesitated, wincing as if the next part was too terrible to say out loud. "Word got out.

"Ordinary people found out that there was this last of its kind tree, like a scientific celebrity, in this person's backyard. You know what ordinary people do to celebrities? Like that, except this was a poor, defenseless tree.

"Tourists came, from everywhere, totally just fucking ignoring the fact that this was somebody's house they were trespassing on. Didn't fucking matter. Just had to see that tree, take photos with it, tear off a piece of bark or a twig as a souvenir…" Nagato fought back nausea. He could all too easily imagine, based on the way Hidan writhed as he said the last sentence, people doing the same thing with chunks of human flesh. Hidan was sheet white.

"I heard that scientists got armed guards put up there, and people were still…" Hidan swallowed. "Nagato… If people knew about us, we would be that tree."

Nagato realized he hadn't taken a breath for too long, and gasped for air. "If the government didn't get us first."

Hidan shook his head. "Even if they did. Armed fucking guards, remember? Then there's the rest of our lives. Everything we owned or lived in would be…"

"I agree." Nagato hugged his knees. "I've never dared to think about it before because I knew. What if people did notice us? I knew the answer would be bad."

Hidan put an arm around his shoulders, drawing them together. "I'm glad we have this crazy fucking town to protect us. It's fucking nuts, but it's home."

He started to laugh, which made little sense because everything he had just been saying was very serious. He noticed and stopped himself. "Hey! Go away, pipsqueaks." He shooed away invisible ghostly children. "So, where were we?"

Nagato's cheeks were warm. He reached up to touch Hidan's hand where it circled his shoulders. The weight of his arm also made Nagato feel warm inside. "Home."

"Yeah." The quiet, soft way Hidan said that word, like a breath of warm air on his cheek, convinced Nagato that he should not look at Hidan's face. He kept his eyes on Hidan's hand, which was soon joined by Hidan's other hand and some extra weight as Hidan fully embraced him.

Reflexively, Nagato embraced him back. He had only ever been hugged this way by his parents and Yahiko. For his entire life beyond childhood, he was used to hugs being a combination of pleasant warmth, pleasant desires, thoughts and memories that straddled the line between pleasant and painful, with the extra burn of feelings that were not pleasant but rather spicy, and a mess of other complicated things. His cheeks were warm and his thoughts were scattered, but he was well used to it and completely functional. "What's this for?"

"I was bored," Hidan whispered. "And this is the least boring thing I can imagine."

I agree. Nagato closed his eyes, breathed in Hidan's scent, and allowed himself to relax into warm arms. They were in a secluded place where they could be seen only by ghosts, in a storm that gave them all the time in the world. Nothing better to do, nowhere better to be, no one to say that this was anything special or strange or meaningful at all. Cuddling like this could be just as ordinary as sitting under a blanket with a book. Yes. Ordinary. Nothing special at all.

I would really like it if this was my definition of ordinary, Nagato thought, before allowing himself to think nothing at all.

Hidan

This kind of embrace was nothing like Hidan's definition of ordinary. He was used to hugs being either completely platonic, in which case they were just warm and comforting, or something else, in which case they were electric and filled with pain (the good kind) and burning and wild heart-racing excitement, and resembled grappling matches more than hugs. His teeth would be bared, and he would be purring.

This was entirely different. His heart did not race, his teeth were not involved, and there was no pain or burning or electricity. Yet he felt wide awake and filled with enough energy to travel a supercontinent, and it was impossible to be bored. The warmth of Nagato's body was soft and comforting, but also incredibly fascinating. After only a short while, it became impossible to tell where his body ended and Nagato's began.

Hidan was not surprised when his phone rang. The storm was heavy, lingering, and made every place into a den of seclusion. That was the perfect kind of time for some friends of his to make plans.

Nagato moved his arms, breaking the illusion of having one body. Hidan sighed. "Sorry. It'll be quick." He gave Nagato one last squeeze before getting up and walking away to another room. He had already, based on that phenomenon where he lost track of where his body ended and another's began, been sure enough of his conclusion to settle the question in his mind. The regret he felt as he walked away only reinforced that certainty. He knew for sure why this embrace felt so much more than ordinary.

"Heyo."

"Hey." The voice on the other end belonged to someone who knew his body intimately. Inside, outside, every part of it except for the lips. Lips were different. Like he had explained to Nagato, kissing had more to do with the inside of the soul. The voice on the other end of the phone was a good friend. Or at least, they had been before the Akatsuki had raised Hidan's standards for a friend. Now they were an okay friend. In neither case had they, or any of the half-dozen other people waiting on the other end, ever known Hidan's soul better than his body.

"You available?" Of course he was. With this storm overhead, everyone was available. That's why they had gathered for an evening of entertaining each other.

This is awkward. Hidan swallowed nervously. Why was it suddenly so hard to speak? It wasn't as if he hadn't thought the exact words he planned to say many times in the past couple of weeks. It wasn't as if other people hadn't used them, and he was pretty sure he remembered speaking them aloud at one point. But it was suddenly very difficult to say them when saying them also meant acting completely out of character. Making a huge change in how he lived. I know they'll be supportive. They're great buddies, they would never even tease me. But I'm acting so unlike myself here. That's weird on its own!

"Hidan? Are you okay?" See? They have my back. But it was still scary to do something so drastically different from anything he had ever done before. Hidan had the feeling that his nice, casual and cherished friends with benefits-ships with these half dozen people were all about to suffer. He didn't want that. But not even he could stop himself from changing into a new person. They would just have to adapt.

"I...I can't come." He had never turned down an invitation before. I've changed more than I thought…

There was a pause on the other end. "What?"

"I… I'm not going."

More hesitation. Now they must be feeling just as awkward. Hidan felt bad for making his friend feel awkward. "Um...okay. Is something happening?"

No way around it. He was going to have to speak. Hidan swallowed again and forced his mouth open. "It's not gonna be any good. I… Um, I…" Breathe! "I'm in love."

There was another pause, but a short one. "Really? Hey, congrats!" Hidan nearly melted. Maybe being the sort of person who turns down shit like this won't ruin everything. I hope. He immediately began to plan more platonic hangouts where his new responsibilities to the Akatsuki would not be a problem.

"Yeah, hey, a lot's been happening over the past couple of weeks. Call me back. I want to just...talk about it." He could not remember if he'd ever just talked about his life with any of them before.

"Yeah. Um...sure. You know where I live." Back to awkwardness. I'm losing parts of my life again. That idea made Hidan's heart race. He'd lost the entirety of eight years once. He never wanted to go through that again.

"Thanks. See you."

"Yeah. Hey, tell them I said hello. I'm happy for you. Really."

"I know."

*click*

I lost whoever I was when I was eight. Am I going to lose who I was a month ago, too?

Hidan took a deep breath and reminded himself to ask different questions, the questions he often posed to others when they were upset. If I do, will it be worth it?

Konan. Kakuzu. Nagato, and Yahiko. Deidara. Kisame. They needed him to be different. The others, too, who he hadn't counted would likely need him in the future. They all needed a version of him that would give up things in order to stay, not a version of him that was always technically available but never there unless called. And yes, they were fucking worth it.

He put his phone back in his pocket and returned to Nagato's side, where the redhead had been waiting patiently for him. I've never really had people wait for me before. He was all too glad to return to Nagato's side. I'm here!

Nagato initiated the embrace this time. "If you don't mind me asking, what was it about?"

Hidan squeezed him tighter for reassurance. "Just a friend of mine from before asking if I wanted to meet up."

"Will you?"

"No. I'm not the sort of person for that anymore. I hope he stays my friend."

Nagato squeezed him just as tightly. "Oh, gods. Even you?"

Hidan knew something was going on in the metaphorical sky. He would have to be more than blind to miss what was going on between his favorite Sun and Moon. "Yeah. Even I change. That's the kind of shit that happens when people change."

"I hope it ends well."

"Me too." I don't know if I was only thinking about you and Konan. "Me too." I'm not letting Sunshine drift away if it fucking kills me.

They closed their eyes and relaxed into each other's arms, coming as close as possible to sleep. It was bliss.

.

A/N: I only thought of Hidan's newly-introduced friends a few months ago for my own entertainment. Now they're officially in, because how did I not seriously think about his life before the start of this story until now? Gah!

Hey, I said this story would be full of shipping in chapter one. The fact that it's also full of other things does not detract from that. There's more to be introduced still.

This chapter will probably be a bit late, because I promised an omake last week and I'm going to fulfill that promise goshdarnit.

.

Virginity

Hidan sighed and adjusted his pants. Wow. He was 15 years old, and he'd just had a dream come true. Seeing a person, bring at her side, the ducking and weaving and play of flirting, making all of him feel warm and buzzy... He had never felt that before. Now he wanted to fulfill another much-desired dream, which was to cuddle.

"Wanna cuddle?" he asked.

The girl he was sitting with in the forest, hidden away beneath trees and bushes, glanced up at him. "Um...okay." Hidan felt like shivering and shaking. That wasn't a true Yes at all.

So he stayed where he was and did not attempt to cuddle. "What's wrong?"

She readjusted her skirt, smoothing it out as if he hadn't just seen everything that was under it. "Isn't that what people do after they, you know..."

"Yeah, and we just did," Hidan said. He had felt warmth and pleasure at the sight of her, the ducking and weaving and playing had built it up to a roaring fire, and now he was all warm and giddy with the remnants of a fire that he didn't want to go out. It would go out too suddenly if they just walked away like nothing ever happened. He wanted to nurture it a little more with cuddling, allow it to go out gradually and gracefully. Like the emotional high of a movie - he absolutely refused to move on to another video or activity right after finishing a movie, for the same reason. The influence of it had to be given time to soak in, or else a significant part of the experience was wasted.

"What?! No!" Hidan felt his heart take a sharp and painful leap, and she looked scandalized. "No, this was just... Fun."

"Fun with someone else, that's totally different from anything else you can do with anyone else..."

"I haven't lost my virginity," she insisted.

Hidan blinked. "Yeah you have."

"No! That's only when you go all the way."

"You didn't?" Hidan was a little hurt, but more than that, covered with shame. He'd thought he was doing well. Had he somehow failed? "I thought..." Oh no. Did she feel not safe with me? Did she think she had to fake it? Oh no, I didn't want to make her uncomfortable. He'd thought he didn't need to worry because he would feel it if anything was wrong. Had his own feelings overshadowed hers?

"What?" She seemed confused.

"I thought you did go all the way..."

"Huh? Oh, no." She flushed, and Hidan picked up a reasuring glow of pleasure. "I mean... You know, all the way. All clothes off, chance of getting pregnant..."

"What does that have to do with virginity?" Hidan asked. "Losing virginity is like a big life-changing moment, right? Another person making you feel that good is a life-changing moment. I only felt that in dreams before. Dreams come true: what else would it be like?"

He felt a great sensation of shrinking, of chilling, of falling backwards and curling up and hiding. "No," she pleaded. "No. I should save that for someone I really want to spend the rest of my life with. I shouldn't... I just thought you were really cute. I don't love you or anything."

Hidan shook his head, fighting past the cloud of guilt. "No. You can still feel like that in the future, right? I didn't ruin anything. Nothing's gone. I get it if you want someone you really like to have been there for big times in your life, but, how could that happen?" 100% of his most important people had not been around for the biggest moments in his life. As disappointing as that was, he could easily console himself by thinking that he could have the pleasure of sharing them. Getting to tell stories of the most important things that had ever happened to him was a great consolation.

"But it's wrong..."

"Why?"

She shrugged. She had no answer to that. "My mom just says I should never bring boys home ever. That's just how it is."

Hidan smiled. "What if you did that with some guy and you didn't feel anything, like it didn't change your life at all? Would that be losing your virginity?"

She hesitated. "I think so..." But his words had made her doubt that.

"That's a lousy definition of it. How can something be important if the definition of it doesn't include changing your life?" Hidan sat next to her in case she was more open to cuddling now.

She looked up at him. Her eyes glimmered as she swallowed softly. "You think the fun is important?"

"I think it's all that matters," Hidan told her. "I've never been in love. That's another virginity I'll lose someday. I hope." He shivered.

"Another virginity?'

"Yeah, there are all kinds of life-changing things."

She leaned against his arm. "You think that's what I should look for? Life changing? Love? Fun?"

Hidan put his arm over her shoulders. "Yeah. Your mom sounds like she doesn't know it for herself. It sounds like she has to have other people tell her if an important thing like that's happened. That's sad."

She leaned in and pulled his arm tighter against her. "I... I guess this feels kind of life changing."

Cuddling made Hidan feel very relaxed and warm. The blaze was fading, shrinking down to glowing embers, but still there and radiating heat. Hidan was not done receiving the unique joy of this experience. It was perfect, just how it should be. "Me too. I'm really glad." He put his other arm up to hug her.

She hugged him back. "That's a pretty great idea. You think it could ever actually happen?"

"Don't expect anything less," Hidan told her. "You deserve good things."

She promptly asked him out. He accepted. As they talked more and her standards changed, nothing physical happened between them ever again, and Hidan made sure to declare explicitly that he was okay with that. She eventually dated someone else, with his enthusiastic congratulations. They stayed in touch for several years until she graduated from high school, got her first job, and made several other changes to her life. One of those changes was moving away. He met her at the airport.

"Thank you." They embraced tightly. Her flight was going to be called soon.

"For what?"

"Looking back, I think my mom was really unhappy with my dad. She seemed so harsh, but maybe that was a way of dealing with the way she never quite looked happy. I could have been unhappy too, if not for you."

He squeezed her tightly. "You know I have to, right? If you hurt, I would hurt too. I can't put up with that."

She laughed. They pulled apart to say goodbye. But suddenly, she stopped. "Hey. Have you lost your other virginity yet?"

"Which virginity is that?"

"Falling in love."

Hidan shifted uncomfortably. Nobody was like him. Nobody had any parts of their past missing, or felt other people's feelings, or could really understand him on that level. "No. Not yet."

She looked him in the eyes and smiled. "Tell them, whoever they are, that Anne loves them and will personally fly back here to break their arms if they break your heart."

"Keep weight training," Hidan advised. "You're going to need it to break all those arms. Could be a bunch of them."

Her face twisted. "Try not to fall in love with 5 people at once. I mean, I'll still break their arms for you, but..."

"I'll keep it down," he promised.

Just then, her flight was called. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye. I'll remember. Promise."

"Promise." Then she was gone.