Epilogue

Half a year later

"Man, this sucks!!!" Hidan barked as he kicked aside a large stick from the jagged ground. The piece of wood dashed trough the air and left a small thud somewhere distant.

"Oh, when are you gonna quit complaining?" Itachi sighed and glared at the heated jashinist who glared back twice as hard.

"Shut it, Itachi! You don't even have to walk by yourself!"

That statement was true. The weasel was tightly snuggled into the side of Kisame's head as the shark gladly carried him through the narrow wood. Kakuzu walked two steps behind Hidan, quietly keeping his thoughts for himself.

Approximately, the four of them had been lost in this wood for an hour. You couldn't claim that neither one of them exactly approved the idea of taking a camping-vacation, although arguing was more or less out of the question. Konan, along with Deidara and Tobi, had practically forced the rest of the group into taking the weekend of for this particular purpose. Never would they'd imagined it would end up like this; lost in this wood and not the slightest idea where they were heading.

The somewhat dark clouds had just hidden the last sunlight on the sky and a chilly wind blew past them at a fast pace, causing the all leaves to dance around wildly. The jashinist quickly brought both his hands to the top of his head to prevent the dammed wind from destroying his hairdo.

"Mother-fucking wind!" He growled and stomped hard into ground. "I hate this shit!"

"Ugh, Hidan be quiet already! No one cares about your stupid hair." Kakuzu sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Shaddap! This all thing is your fault anyway!"

"How is it MY fault!?"

Earlier this afternoon

"Yahoo! Camping, camping! Can we unpack the tents now!?" Tobi sang joyfully as he danced pass the trees, unable to be still if even for a minute. Overexcited as always, he happily spun around in small circles and managed to move forward at the same time.

"We'll unpack as soon as we arrive on the spot." Pein muttered. Not even a bit positive.

"I told you, this thing is fucking stupid." Hidan complained from the back, already sick of walking, even though they had only travelled by foot for ten minutes.

"Well, you're not exactly making it any better!" Sasori snapped back at him. The red-head also belonged in the group of those who found this trip extremely pointless. His boyfriend on the other hand gladly sang along with Tobi, fully enjoying the trip.

"Cheer up; it'll all get better once we arrive, un."

"I'M SO BORED!" Hidan groaned from the bottom of his lungs.

"Can't you just shut up!" Kakuzu said angrily from behind, unable to withstand the regularly irksome voice right in front of him.

"YOU shut up!" Hidan said as he spun around and thereby forced the tanned man to stop as well.

"Don't just stop like that you idiot!"

"Idiot!? You want a fight!?" Hidan said as his eyes turned into battle-mode.

"Bring it on…" Kakuzu evilly growled as both of them tightened their fists and raised them as if to punch one another.

"Guys!" Kisame pleaded as he turned around to halt them, automatically causing Itachi to turn around as well seeing as their hands was at the moment tightly connected. "Can you PLEASE not do this here? We all know how it ends up anyway."

Hidan flinched back and tried his very best not to flush. "H-he started it!"

"You're so mature Hidan." Kakuzu sighed.

"Asshole!"

"Cut it out."

"Never!"

"Ugh…" Kisame sighed as he shook his head tiredly. No point in trying any further. "Let's just get going…" He said as he turned back around, only to face nothing but the wood. Silence took over the place as they all four dumfounded just stared at the empty space right in front of them.

Without anyone noticing, the rest of the gang had completely vanished, leaving neither sounds nor evidence on which way they could have taken. The scenery around them looked all the same no matter where they turned, unfamiliar trees and stones, not even a proper pathway were to found. It all looked identical.

"…Eh?"

Back to present

"That is completely YOUR fault, Hidan! Don't even think about blaming me!"

"It is NOT! And I won't argue about it with you anymore!" The jashinist snorted.

At the time Hidan had finished his sentence Itachi raised his hand for Kisame who did the same and high-fived the successful moment. Hidan glared hatefully over at the now smiling couple.

"Oh, go to hell."

Their journey through the foreign area continued for surely another half an hour. Itachi more or less fell asleep on Kisame's back while Hidan had lost all interests in complaining any further, something that the others felt was highly gratifying.

The drizzle that'd occurred ten minutes ago had now developed into a pouring rain that quickly turned them all soaking wet. The ground was mud-spattered; something that didn't accurately simplified their brave attempt to get out of this mess.

"We're doomed…" Itachi sighed, unable to sleep any longer in the heavy rain. Kisame and Kakuzu only sighed tiredly as their heavy footsteps forced their way through the muddy ground.

"Do you here that sound?" Hidan's dozy voiced asked as he swayed from side to side, drowsy eyes facing the grey sky.

"I hear rain…" Itachi mumbled, pretty much in the same state as Hidan. "Lots and lots of rain…"

"No…" Hidan used his willpower to shake his head; all for nothing since Itachi's eyes was half-closed and unfocused to anything but the so called road in front of them. "It sounds like somebody's calling us…"

"Hidan, you're hallucinating." Kakuzu sighed as he almost tripped over the drenched silver-haired one who was only inches ahead of him.

"No, wait!" Kisame said as he stopped, causing the rest of the group to hold up as well. "I can hear it too…"

"I think I do too but it's so vague…" The tired weasel whispered as he listened out for the voice to come back.

"GUUUUYYYS!!!!!!" The sudden strength of the voice caused all four of them to jump as they turned their head to the left. There, only fifteen meters away from them, stood a king-size cottage totally unpredicted. All of their tired eyes widened at sight of Tobi jumping up and down right outside the building, waving his arms. "HERE! WE'RE OVER HERE!!!"

After being brought into to warmth and given blankets and several cups of hot tea, they all managed to recover decently well within less than twenty minutes.

"Seriously… " Konan sighed as she rolled her eyes and served Hidan yet another cup of tea. The jashinist was comfy placed in front of Kakuzu, leaning against his chest with the bigger man's legs around each side of his own. A big blanked covering both of their bodies. "Getting all lost for over an hour, do you have any idea how worried we were!?"

"Like you guys are any better!" Hidan spat. "What's with this luxury-cottage, I thought we were supposed to be camping!?"

"Yeah, we were! But SOMEONE-" Konan glared over at Pein. "-though it would be much nicer to reserve this classy, so called cottage in case something would happened!" She turned her upper lip up in an irritated face.

"And SOMEONE was awfully right too!" Pein said and glared back. "You want to tent in the pouring rain, fine! But count me out!" The leader closed his eyes and took a sip of the smoking tea. The blue-haired woman just sighed once more and headed back to the kitchen.
Although the cottage was too small to be called a house it still had room for four proper bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room with a large open fire. None of them had become conscious of when the evening had turned into night so quickly. Outside the sky was already dark, starts were almost visible behind the thick clouds and the wind lightly smacked against the windows every now and then. The crackling wood from the fire created a peaceful atmosphere which neither one of them had any urge to break.

Inside one of the rooms, Zetsu and Tobi had already fallen asleep. The younger man closely cuddled into the Schizo's chest, mumbling inaudible words about hamsters and candy.

Unable to keep his eyes open any further, Deidara was the next one to head for a bedroom. Dragging his Danna along with him, the two artists left the already quiet living room. Another half-hour went by and in time Pein and Konan went to bed as well.

Itachi had already fallen asleep, leaning his head against the shark's warm shoulder. Eventually, Kisame came to the conclusion that carrying his lover to the bed wasn't such a bad option after all. He said goodnight to Hidan and Kakuzu as he lifted Itachi into his arms. Without waking up, the weasel grabbed a hold of Kisame's shirt and pressed his face against the cloth as he lovingly got carried into the bedroom.

The room was just as quiet as it'd been before Hidan and Kakuzu became the only one left. They still remained in the same position as earlier, neither of them even thinking about withdrawing from their place. The wind still breezed by the window, now and then disturbing the pleasant cracking sound the fire yet managed to make. Maybe it was just imagination, but he could swear the feeling of Kakuzu's heart beating steady against his back caused Hidan's own heart to pick up its speed.

"Kakuzu… " Hidan mumbled after some time, while staring in to the dancing flames.

"Hmm?"

"All the dammed rooms are taken." He muttered without removing his attention from the fire.
Kakuzu didn't give an immediate respond but waited a couple of seconds before he smirked to himself. "You have something against sharing the living room with me?" He mumbled while discreetly stirring closer to Hidan's neck.

"And what is that suppose to…" His voice stopped when he felt Kakuzu unusually kindly place his hand on Hidan's cheek, only to turn them face to face.

Hidan was well aware of the fact that all this warmth would prevent him to resist Kakuzu's gentle movements. Judging by his nature, resisting was his most common action. Although judging by his heart, these moments were what he truly longed for. A light blush soon covered his cheeks and the jashinist closed his eyes while the other man slowly joined their lips together in a light kiss. Kakuzu's lips were warm and more arousing then Hidan had remembered them. It had been a while since Kakuzu last kissed him.

He repeated the action numerous times, slowly placing soft kisses on Hidan's lips before he moved over to kiss his jaw line, travelling all the way to his ear. The jashinist was rather stunned by how devoutly Kakuzu chose to caress him. Their touches was always so violent, not that Hidan didn't enjoy it, in matter of fact he loved every single second of it. Yet this time was so different. Hidan couldn't stop himself from whimpering when Kakuzu's warm mouth caught his earlobe and seducingly started to suck on it.

"Kakuzu…" Hidan whispered as his lover traced his tongue along the shape of Hidan's ear, once more causing the jashinist to flush madly. Kakuzu smirked; he already had all of Hidan's weak points figured out.

"Is something wrong?" Kakuzu's dark seme-ish voice whispered into Hidan's ear, creating a massive amount of butterflies in Hidan's stomach as the smaller man's body became stiff.

"Not really, I was just wondering when you're gonna slam me to the floor and rape me brutally?" Hidan said in a kind off sarcastic voice even though his statement was more than serious. If the tanned man continued this he would turn crazy. What he didn't except was the strange reaction from Kakuzu. The tanned man combined a growl with a sigh as he got up from the floor and laid himself down on the couch, leaving Hidan rejected on the floor. The jashinist quickly turned his head around in his direction, wide-eyed.

"Fine, you can have your un-loving relationship and sleep on the floor." Kakuzu closed his eyes bitterly.

The coldness caused something inside the jashinist to hurt. Hidan's gaze sank a bit as he got up to his feet. It wasn't his intention to make Kakuzu act like that. Sure, the tenderness had been a bit odd from their usual behavior but he obviously hadn't hated it.

The gloomy abandoned teen slowly crawled up on top of Kakuzu, resting his head right under the larger one's chin as he placed his hand over the warm chest. They always pissed each other around but when they actually fought like this Hidan couldn't help but feel miserable.

"Sorry…" He whispered. A cold hard wave of rejection made his heart sting when Kakuzu didn't bother to respond. Sadly he hid his face in the other man's neck as he fought to keep his breathing balanced. "Come on…" He pleaded while his fingers clutched into the fabric of his shirt. "I said I'm sorry. I don't want an un-loving relationship, come on. I loved that affection, it was wonderful. Please, I want you to do it again, I confess. What more do you ask?"

Kakuzu stopped Hidan's desperate blathering by pinning him down to couch, hugging him closely, breathing in the smell of his hair. The jashinist heart suddenly warmed up again as his arm's enfolded around Kakuzu's neck, his mouth slowly forming a small smile.

"So, can you make up your mind?" Kakuzu whispered into the pale-skinned neck.

"Kiss me…" The silver-haired one silently asked. Kakuzu obeyed his wish and passionately kissed his lips. The kiss was deep, so deep Hidan felt like it was the most amazing kiss he'd even received from Kakuzu. He dizzyingly looked in to the green eyes as soon as they parted, his lover gazing right back.

"Hidan…" Kakuzu whispered while his hand travelled up under the jashinist shirt, lovingly caressing his torso with his long fingers. "I don't care what you say; tonight, I'm going to love you fondly." He smirked and once again filled Hidan's heart with heat. The jashinist returned the gesture and smiled back up at Kakuzu.

"Yeah, please do."
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