nisacharakj (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nisacharakj) wrote2011-05-27 04:21 pm
nisacharakj) wrote2011-05-27 04:21 pm
[FIC] Unprofessional (3/?)
Title: Unprofessional
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
insomniackj
Type and Genre: Het/Yaoi (because it doesn’t have to be either/or); Drama/Romance
Rating: NC-17
Characters: Kakuzu/Hidan/Terumi Mei and others
Summary: Kakuzu is manager of a successful modeling agency. The only legitimate relationship he has is with his work. But that soon begins to change when a new model is taken into the agency and more than one person attempts to modify his definition of the concept of ‘a relationship’.
Warnings: Explicit/heavy scenes as the story progresses; crack pairings; Het and yaoi; and lastly, this is an AU setting, so do expect some OOC-ness.
The familiar slamming of the front doors alerted Damian to Kakuzu’s presence. Glancing at the time, he realized it was almost a quarter to eleven. Kakuzu had been late a couple of times in the four years Damian had known him, but never had he been this late. He figured Kakuzu was going to be particularly grumpy now. More so today than ever, especially because his beloved Rolls Royce had been scratched in the accident. Damian regarded the sound of his heels clacking against the polished granite as a cue to grab another cup of coffee.
He leaned against the counter, pouring out the usual black coffee straight from the coffee machine that was hitched to the wall in the tea room. There was nothing special about the coffee they had here: plain, black, cheap. What went into the coffee machine every two hours was the same stuff you would find sitting on the shelves of any Walmart store. The sugar barely tasted like sugar and the cream never really creamed unless you added about eight sachets. Milk was either low-fat, or non-fat altogether, and Damian wondered why he even bothered adding any milk to the blend, sometimes. It didn’t taste of anything, really. Furthermore, coffee tasted like plastic if left in for too long. That usually happened around three in the afternoon on Sundays, when you were the only one at work and the guy you asked to bring in your tea had stepped outside to make out with his girlfriend in the parking lot. And Damian usually worked Sundays…
Sometimes he envied the employees at the other notable modeling agencies he’d visited. Some people went to great lengths to instill a sense of elegance and class in their workspace as a means of reflecting what they did, but with the Mizukage Modelling Agency, everything was toned down to be just practical. Not a cent was used in excess of the budget when it came to things like coffee, water, and the basic refreshments. Mei would occasionally throw a party or treat her employees with something special, but that was only Mei, and she would willingly do such things out of the goodness of her heart. But Kakuzu was in charge of the finances and general management of the entire company, and he maintained that unless they were spending on a project, it was company policy to exercise thrift.
Mouth forming a thin line, Damian made sure that Kakuzu’s coffee was as black and tasteless as he could make it. He didn’t think Kakuzu deserved a rich cup of coffee for the crap he made them drink here.
When the coffee filled up to about three quarters of the way to the brim, he stopped, swirling the contents. It took him a few tries to get the mug to swirl right: Kakuzu had the weirdest mug he had ever come across. It was red and had a cartoon version of a lion stretching towards the base. The animal’s tail curved up to form the handle, which happened to be ridiculously small, and the detail given to its ceramic fur made holding it a little painful. How Kakuzu got his fingers through that space, Damian could never understand. When asked about where he had got it from, Kakuzu had replied that it was from a garage sale. He had picked it over a blue mug with a swan’s neck bent into a handle. Apparently, he did not feel comfortable holding an animal by its neck and instead had found that holding one by its tail would feel more humane, so the lion won by default. Also, it cost only twenty five cents.
Damian held the lion by its tail and stepped out into the hallway, meeting Kakuzu halfway there. Before his partner could even open his mouth to suggest he let the coffee boy know he wanted a cup, Damian pushed the mug into Kakuzu’s hands. Kakuzu stared down at the mug for as long as he could hold on to the base without burning his palms, and then nodded, accepting the coffee and proceeding to gulp down a good portion of it in one go. His face contorted into an expression of painful distaste. Damian resisted the urge to smirk.
“He’s had plenty of time to read the document three times over. You should go in there and quiz him on it.”
Kakuzu narrowed his eyes, not really amused by the comments. Sure, he was running late. But he really didn’t need to be reminded every few minutes. If Damian continued, Kakuzu was pretty sure the man would be leaving the building without a face tonight. He slurped up the remaining coffee, face contorting into the same pained expression as it burned his throat on the way down. “Is Nigel in?” He began to walk in the direction of Nigel’s office.
Damian followed. “Of course he’s in. He’s making use of our high speed internet to gather minions for his Horde army.”
Kakuzu rolled his eyes. “Didn’t know he switched from the Alliance.”
Confused, Damian glanced at Kakuzu. “Alliance?”
His partner shrugged, dropping the conversation altogether. If he had elaborated on the subject further, he would have had to expose the fact that he had spent a few hours with Nigel playing as a night elf on World of Warcraft. To be honest, he had found it rather interesting, if not a little bit addictive. They had used the company server to log in to their own accounts from different computers, and then teamed up to raid another group. Kakuzu remembered being rather upset with how little of the loot he could carry, and had gone on a virtual rampage slaying mushroom people in the hope that one of them might leave him a bag or two to put in all the loot.
They were now at Nigel’s door, and Kakuzu pushed his way in, disregarding the notice that asked to knock first.
Nigel swiveled in their direction, scowled, and pulled his chair back into position in front of the computer. All that time spent designing those signs to keep Kakuzu out of his office just proved to be futile. Nothing would stop Kakuzu from entering whenever he wanted to, even if he installed an electric fence, laser traps, and a space cannon.
Minimizing the screen (which was tuned to WoW) and pulling up a more work-related program with one hand, Nigel reached out with his free hand and pulled out a black folder. This he handed over to Kakuzu, not once looking up at him. Kakuzu took the folder from him, placing his empty coffee mug on a stack of papers behind him. He leaned against the intern’s cluttered desk.
Kakuzu was right when he assumed that Nigel would have Hidan’s complete bio and background ready by morning. This was every reason to allow the kid to play whatever he wanted – Nigel always got the work done on time. If Nigel asked Kakuzu for better coffee, he would have willingly made arrangements for it. But Nigel didn’t drink coffee (much to Damain’s chagrin) and opted instead to bring his own supply of Pepsi to work. He lived on Pepsi and Cheetos. Again, Kakuzu had no complaints: none of what he brought to work was out of the company budget.
Kakuzu skimmed through the contents of the folder, pausing to admire some of the photos of the model. It was then that he realized the man had violet eyes. They seemed to change color with the angle of light, ranging from violet to hues of pink and one instance of almost blood red. A few of the bio data made him raise his eyebrows, though. “Hn. Thanks, Nigel.” He pushed himself away from the intern’s table, casually making his way out of the cluttered office and into the hallway, en route to the conference room. Damian followed quietly, but turned to his office halfway instead of continuing on to the conference room.
Nigel pulled up his WoW screen again and typed in an apology to his online friend for disappearing in the middle of the battle. When eventually he reached out for some cheat codes he had written down the other day, he noticed Kakuzu’s red lion mug sitting on a stack of documents he needed to hand over to Mei today. Pursing his lips and setting them in a straight line across his gaunt face, he lifted the mug, only to find that he had to peel it away from the paper, a dark ring of coffee stain on the right hand corner of the document mocking all his hard work.
x.X.X.x
Kakuzu attempted to iron down some rather notable wrinkles in his shirt with his hand before he stepped into the conference room. It was rather embarrassing having to conduct an interview wearing the same clothes he dined out in the previous night. He was sure the smells of the Italian restaurant and all it had to offer were trapped in the fabric. For all he knew, he might smell like pizza and Mei’s perfume to Hidan. Even his pants were creased, and no amount of smoothing them down would tame the stubborn creases. In Kakuzu’s opinion, Damian should seriously think about investing in an iron; he couldn’t find one at his place. He couldn’t help blushing again, though. Why had he agreed to spend the night with Mei at Damian’s place?! He wasn’t even sure how loud they’d been. Chances are they probably were pretty loud, and Damian might have heard everything. Kakuzu screwed his eyes shut, forcing away the memory of it all.
Having pushed away any thoughts that involved Damian listening in on them the previous night, Kakuzu opened his eyes, took in a deep breath, straightened up, and held the folder against his shirt, covering up the stubborn creases as best he could. Peeping in through the crack in the door he had opened by a fraction, he could clearly see Hidan’s sliver mop of hair just slightly peaking above the back of the chair. From where he stood, it looked as though Hidan seemed to be still reading that contract. He had to take a moment to collect himself once again when he remembered what had ensued between this new model and himself at the bathing station the other day. Could this day get any worse?
Kakuzu quietly shut the door behind him and quickly strode over to a chair opposite Hidan, hoping that the model wouldn’t notice his less than impeccable attire this morning.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said, pulling out a chair and sitting down in it, not bothering to lean over and shake Hidan’s hand. He placed the folder he brought with him neatly on the table in front of him, at perfect right angles to the edge. In fact, he adjusted the folder a few times until it was sitting exactly the way he wanted it to be. That was a minor case of OCD Kakuzu was working on – on his own, and not with any psychologist’s guidance, mind. Kakuzu maintained he couldn’t afford to spend on counseling when he had to deal with maintenance and gas for his Rolls. When Mei came close to proving him wrong without a doubt one day, he threw in a vaguely related fact that taking care of the Rolls made him feel manlier than seeing a shrink. Hence, he opted to willingly spend on the car and promised to try and take care of his minor disorder on his own.
Hidan eyed him, noticing the crumpled shirt front. He took it to be a result of the accident Kakuzu had had this morning and assumed it was the seatbelt that caused all those wrinkles. But that didn’t explain the wrinkles on his sleeves… Kakuzu was suddenly conscious of the other man’s eyes on him and he fidgeted in his seated, tugging at his cuffs and collar, pulling his shirt down at the waist and smoothing down the front again.
Hidan raised an eyebrow. That shirt was too wrinkled to have been in an accident first. “I would have said ‘it’s fine’ if you hadn’t been more than two hours late.” He frowned up at Kakuzu, slightly offended that the man had disregarded their interview for some romping early in the morning. He had a good idea who he was with, too. He’d seen them at the onsen together yesterday. Hidan would have forgiven Kakuzu had he really had a plate full of obesity instead of sex. Seriously.
Kakuzu sighed. “I know. There was an emergency I had to look into early this morning and then I met with an accident on the way here.”
Hidan rolled his eyes. “Emergency my ass.”
Kakuzu arched an eyebrow at that, not entirely sure he was liking this guy’s attitude. But then again, what right did he have in a situation like this to hold him against it? It was his fault he was late, and Hidan had every reason to be pissed off at him. Punctuality was one of the key attributes you were expected to have when in the fashion and modeling industry. “Alright, let’s get this over and done with, then?” He eyed Hidan through the corner of his eye as he opened up the folder and pulled out Hidan’s information.
“Yeah, we can. Just that I’m real thirsty right now.” Hidan turned to peer outside through the gaps in the blinds. “I asked for a bottle of chilled mineral water two hours ago…”
Kakuzu exhaled, annoyed. “I’ll remind Anna to get it for you.” He pressed a button on the phone that sat in the middle of the finely polished ebony table. A girl on the other end answered the call. “Anna, could you get our guest a bottle of chilled mineral water, please? Thank you.” He didn’t wait for any response from her, but cut the call immediately. “Okay, why don’t we get started in the mean time? I take it you’ve read the contract?”
“Yeah. Are you going to quiz me on it?”
Kakuzu stared at Hidan for a few seconds, wondering if he was just being snarky and sarcastic, or whether he was actually serious about it. Hidan looked like he was ready to take a test… “No…” he said, slowly.
“Good.” Hidan smirked. “Because that’d just be plain weird.”
Indeed it would be. No arguments there, Hidan. Kakuzu only nodded vaguely, turning to a copy of Hidan’s resume his previous representatives had sent to them prior to yesterday’s closed ‘auditions’. Of course there hadn’t really been any audition per say, but that’s what they liked to call it here at the Mizukage Modeling Agency. “So, what made you switch from theology to modeling?” This had to be one of those extra weird resumes he had ever come across.
Hidan made himself comfortable in the big chair he was seated in, bringing his hands to the table and letting his fingers lightly drum on the edge. One leg sat folded against his other knee. “Well, in theology, we had to learn about the different world religions and philosophies. And by world religions, they never included the ones less heard of, like Jashinism, which are more often the more important ones. It’s just that people are fucking retarded in general so they all follow the popular ones. And the worst part was that everyone else who attended the course was either a hippie or some World Peace and Religious Tolerance group member. It was fucking ridiculous working with those loons so I quit. Took up modeling instead because hey, why not, right?”
Kakuzu listened to the man’s story with borderline interest, until he came to the last part. Here, he leaned back in his seat and placed his hands over his stomach. “I see. So you took up modeling because it was the only other option available, am I right?” Hidan opened his mouth to speak here, but Kakuzu had already leaned forward, hands now resting on the table, fingers intertwined. His gaze was hard, trained directly on Hidan’s tyrian purple eyes. “May I take this opportunity to remind you, Mr. Hidan, that here at MMA, we take modeling very seriously.” He stressed on the ‘very’, almost pausing soon after he’d uttered the word. “It is more than just a career. It’s a lifestyle. And it is my job to ensure that we hire the most dedicated, hard working individuals.”
Hidan now leaned forward as well, mimicking Kakuzu’s pose. He looked right into Kakuzu’s eyes, staring at him with the same intensity. “And that’s why you’re looking at the most hard working, dedicated, best looking, most confident guy for the job. Did I mention I can work under any fucking circumstance? ‘Pressure’ doesn’t even exist in my vocabulary while I’m working. All I ask is that I have a constant supply of chilled mineral water – I won’t accept any other kind – and that the rest of the crew better be able to keep up with me.” This was said with such unwavering conviction that Kakuzu found himself admitting to himself that he was impressed. He leaned back in his seat, relaxed now as he continued to listen to what else Hidan had to say. “And it wasn’t that I took up modeling because it was the only other option available. Tch. I bet I would qualify for medical school if I applied. Seriously.”
Kakuzu tapped the back of his pen on the open folder, a side smile on his features as he observed the young man in front of him. “Alright.” To be honest, he found that information quite comforting, and his gut told him that Hidan would deliver good on his statement. Kakuzu brought his right leg over his left, ankle resting on knee, and casually twirled ninety degrees in his chair. Pen still in hand, he rapped it twice on Hidan’s resume. “What kind of modeling are you interested in and why?” It wasn’t that Hidan would be given much of a choice in the upcoming project, but Kakuzu felt he should ask anyway. Protocol, he told himself. But he’d always work his way around models’ preferences and convince them to take part in anything and everything the agency had to offer. With Kakuzu, there was no room for respecting personal opinion. Everything was business.
“Mostly fashion.” By now Hidan had slunk back in his seat. “Focusing on editorial, runway, catalog… Anything, really.” He sent a somewhat suggestive little smirk Kakuzu’s way. “And glamour.” Of course Hidan would do glamour. He had a body to kill for and the sexiest bedroom eyes ever. This Kakuzu noted, eyeing the candidate’s torso from where he sat. Hidan seemed to have picked the best possible t-shirt for his interview. The simple black fabric did much to tease the viewer with generous hints of what was underneath – perfect tone and contours. Kakuzu found himself measuring the man’s dimensions in his head, imagining that very torso he had laid eyes upon the previous day at the bath house. Somehow, it looked more appealing today than it had done yesterday. He figured it was probably something about how the t-shirt was almost a second skin, but not quite so tight either. He imagined how it would be if Hidan were to roll up that t-shirt, beginning at the hem, inch by sexy inch of perfect stomach and abs exposed until the bunched up fabric was sitting tight just above those perfect pectorals.
Hidan noticed the engrossed look on the manager’s face and smirked wider, subtly adjusting himself in his seat, giving Kakuzu a little more to imagine as those muscles moved fluidly. This, too, Kakuzu noticed. And imagine he did – for another half a minute or so before snapping back to reality. He cleared his throat. “Glamour, yes.” He took down notes beside some of the bulleted points Nigel had printed out for him. “We’ve been looking for a model who has the ideal make and personality for a project we’ve been working on since the beginning of the year and, I must say, you seem to fit the category quite well. Which is why we asked you to come.” There was just a hint of a smile on Kakuzu’s lips when he looked up at Hidan then, while in truth he was still rather distracted.
Hidan lifted an eyebrow. “So you’d already settled on me even before I told you I would do glamour?” He chuckled. This man is unbelievable.
Kakuzu nodded. “Yes.” However, noticing Hidan’s reaction, he felt he needed to ‘explain’ his reasons for choosing prior to gaining permission from his model. “Well, like I said, the moment we saw you, we deemed you perfect for our causes. This was one of the reasons we picked the steam baths for the auditions – which weren’t really auditions, I admit. You have the body we’re looking for, and you definitely have the face. And with all that, we figured there was no way you wouldn’t be doing glamour. I’ve been in this field for quite some time now to know what kind of model I’m looking at with just one glance.” Here, he stopped for emphasis, and turned ninety degrees back to his original position, facing Hidan directly. “We just had to call you for an interview to make sure you had the ability, beyond your looks, to fulfill our criteria.”
Presently, a young employee walked in with Hidan’s chilled mineral water. She was the same employee who’d brought in the croissants earlier. Hidan dived in and picked up the bottle of water, ripping off the plastic seal immediately. “About time. Been more than two hours since I asked for some water. Like I said,” he turned to Kakuzu, “…if your crew can’t keep up with me, then I’m just getting out of here.”
Kakuzu spared the girl only a sideways glance before he pulled out another sheet of printed paper from his folder. “Anna, make sure you hang around after your shift today. I need to talk to you. Three o’clock will do?” Anna only nodded. She knew this could only mean a termination, and it was high time for her to start looking elsewhere for a job. When she left the conference room, she sent Hidan a venomous glare, which Hidan caught. He returned said glare with only a smirk.
Kakuzu listened for the soft click of the door before saying: “Let’s talk about your availability. You must know already that MMA is an exclusive modeling agency, and by signing our contract you agree to let MMA have twenty percent of any work you find outside the agency.” Hidan gulped down about half the water in his bottle. “This also means you may find work elsewhere and be involved in other projects at the same time you have a project going on with MMA. But priority would be MMA work and we do have an extensive range of projects that require a good deal of traveling. So I must ask: do you happen to have any reservations against travel? Fear of heights, airplanes, or other issues like family?” He had already ticked the boxes next to the bullet points that read full time and travel.
Hidan gulped down the last of his water, angling the rim of the bottle to his mouth, forcing down the very last drops of water out. “Nope.” He smacked his lips, bringing the bottle down to the table. “I’m fine with traveling and working full time.”
“Good.” Kakuzu pretended to take down notes. “Also, you may have to work seven days a week, and we usually don’t stick to a nine to five timetable.” Kakuzu intended for this information to be a statement and not a question, but Hidan leaned forward…
“Just so you know, I don’t work on Tuesdays.”
Kakuzu looked up. “Excuse me?”
Hidan gently hit the butt of the bottle against his chin, now sitting on the very edge of his seat. “I said I don’t do Tuesdays.”
“And why is that?” Kakuzu leaned back in his seat, pen rapping impatiently on the table again.
“It’s my day off. You heathens take Sunday off because it’s your day to pray, I need my Tuesdays.”
Kakuzu resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “First of all, I am an atheist and therefore feel no need to take Sundays off. Second, and most importantly, I just told you we work round the clock. No exceptions.”
Hidan leaned back in his seat. He pushed the contract Damian had made him read towards Kakuzu. “Well then, I’m sorry. Guess I’m not your guy.”
Kakuzu almost visibly jumped at the gesture. How had everything gone from absolutely perfect to spiral down to this? Hidan was nothing short of perfect for the job; there was no way he was going to lose him to another agency. If they lost Hidan, they would have to give up the project. This in itself would cost them a few hundred thousand. And he wasn’t going to think about the many millions they would simply hand over to whatever other agency that was given the project once MMA was replaced. He thought about this for a bit, weighing over the consequences of letting Tuesdays off for Hidan versus finding a new model for the project altogether. But finding a model would take them more time, and they had already spent the first few months of this year looking for the perfect face. Kakuzu glanced at the man before him. Hidan was like gold to a goblin: there was no way Kakuzu was giving him up. Who knew the bastard was religious?!
“Alright.” Kakuzu fiddled with his pen before saying reluctantly: “I suppose we can work something out about relieving you from work on Tuesdays…”
Triumphant, Hidan grinned. “Sweet.” He pulled the fat contract towards him. “So where do I sign?”
Kakuzu leaned forward, pointing out to a spot on page 32 with the back of his pen.
x.X.X.x
It was Friday and things were well under way at the MMA. Hidan stretched his arm over the wooden box he was leaning against for the fiftieth time that day. He held the pose for a few more shots before scowling at one of the photographers, sitting up, and shooting off. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing shining that fucking light of yours in my face? How the fuck am I supposed to keep my eyes open for the shot with that thing in my face, you tell me!” The crew at whom this insult was aimed at mumbled an apology and readjusted his equipment, shining the light on a less intrusive spot on the backdrop now.
Hidan sighed dramatically before stretching once again, grasping the edge of the box and tightening the muscles on his arm. He angled his head just right and dug one of his feet into the straw on the floor of the stable. However, it wasn’t long before he scowled again, snapped his head in the direction of the camera crew, stood up, walked over to one particular cameraman he seemed to dislike, and knocked the equipment off him. “How long did you expect me to wait in that position? It’s not like the box is made of marble, you know, it’s fucking splintered!” He jabbed the man in the chest. “What would it take to get it into your pea brain that all you have to do is click that little red button when I strike a pose, and not wait ten fucking minutes because by then I just may have got a nasty splinter, or a sunburn, or Jashin only knows the sun may have changed positions in the sky so you won’t have the same shadow play?!” Purple eyes now glowed almost blood red. “Grow a few brain cells and show me that you’re competent, why don’t you, you worthless piece of shit!”
Mumbling curses under his breath, Hidan stormed off to the rest station, sitting down in a chair under an umbrella. He kicked open a cooler box and rummaged through it for a bottled of chilled water. Finding none, he kicked down the entire box, letting all its contents spill out onto the sand below. “Why don’t we have any water? Oi! Can I get a bottle of water here?!”
One of the crew in charge of refreshments came running towards him, a bottle of chilled mineral water in hand. Hidan couldn’t have held the bottle for more than just a few seconds before he held it up to the girl’s face. “You call this ‘chilled’? Why don’t you look up the meaning of the word in a dictionary and then come get me some water, bitch.” The girl gasped, hopping back one step as he slammed the bottle of water at her feet with such force that the cap shot open and slightly-less-than-chilled mineral water gushed out its mouth, darkening the sand.
Furious, Hidan turned to Kakuzu (who happened to be standing next to Mei, watching the entire scene unfold). He pointed an accusatory finger at the manager. “I told you I wasn’t going to work for you unless your crew can fucking keep up with me!”
Kakuzu chuckled, nodding in the model’s direction. “You did!” He waved at him. “Keep up the good work, Hidan. I’ll see to it that the others follow through.” Hidan gave him a scowl that read ‘not good enough’, then turned to kick the cooler box further away.
Kakuzu cleared his throat and clapped his hand twice, immediately getting everybody else’s undivided attention. “See to it that Mr. Hidan gets what he wants when he wants, please. I don’t want to delay the shoot any longer. We have a plane to catch at 5.00am tomorrow, and this better get done here or someone’s going to have to pack their bags and set out for good.” There was a general murmur and vague nods as the crew got back to work, and settled for waiting on Hidan, hand and foot.
“Quite the spoiled brat we have on board, mm?” Mei was smiling at the little bit of drama that Hidan had displayed moments ago. Sometimes it was good to have some drama to look forward to when you came to work.
“Hn. But he is good, and he does have a point.” At this, Mei looked at Kakuzu. He shrugged. “At least the part about our camera crew. We really need to get someone new on the team.”
“I agree,” she said, turning back to the photo shoot. “It’s been tough since Steve left us. The rest of them don’t really get along without him.”
“I was thinking of Ino…”
Mei turned to face him again, a little surprised at his suggestion. “Ino? The intern?”
“Yeah. Why not? She’s got a good eye for mood, colors, and composition. She did well on the last project we were working on. I think she would work well as a permanent member of our photography unit.”
“Yes, but isn’t it a little too soon?”
“I think she’s ready, Mei.”
Mei only watched him closely for a moment longer before smiling to herself and silently slipping her arm in his. A little alarmed by this gesture, Kakuzu glanced down at her, avoiding eye contact, but watching how her arm crooked within his. She brought her free hand up to gently grasp his bicep. “Kakuzu.” She led him away from the rest of their crew and started to walk towards her trailer. “Tomorrow would be the last time I’d get to see you in four months.”
He laughed. “If I didn’t know you better, I would have said you sounded rather heartbroken.”
She smiled, stepping into her trailer now and tugging Kakuzu to come along. “We need to talk about our agenda for when I get back.” Of course, with Terumi Mei, it was always about business. Kakuzu exhaled slowly, relieved that she really wasn’t upset about leaving him for four months. He stepped inside, full of ideas for what they should start on next.
x.X.X.x
Two months later, Kakuzu was in Thailand, shooting the third phase of their project. Hidan had stopped being an insufferable pain in the ass to work with (much to the joy of almost everybody on the team) ever since he had come down with a bad stomach bug during their stay in India. That unfortunate episode cost them a week of filming. He also stopped insisting on chilled mineral water. This, too, was due to his encounter with the Indian stomach bug.
When Hidan had walked into the restaurant, he had no idea that asking for bottled water was probably the safest route to survival. Instead, he had fussed and complained and somehow managed to convince the waiters there that he wouldn’t accept anything less than what he asked for. And so the waiters, local men who were more than willing to please the foreign customer, had set out in search of this ‘chilled mineral water’. When they returned, they brought Hidan’s water in a golden pitcher. Impressed, Hidan even took a photograph of it.
The water was poured with great ceremony and reverence, and Hidan had been amazed by this mini ritual. Needless to say, so was the rest of MMA crew, who looked on in awe beside him at their table. The waiter who served them insisted that it was the purest mineral water taken straight from the Ganges, the holiest river in the land. Hidan, unaware that the Ganges carried the pollution and excrement of a few hundred million people, drank it all up… only to end up severely ill within four hours.
Needless to say, this unfortunate event led to Hidan losing a considerable amount of weight, which worried Kakuzu immensely. His healthy complexion had taken up a sallow tone, which no amount of make-up could hide. His beautiful eyes had dimmed and their color lightened – they no longer looked as expressive as they used to on film. Afraid of catching another bug, Hidan had refused to eat or drink anything for a few days. Afraid of falling behind schedule another month, Kakuzu had somehow managed to convince Hidan to eat and beef up by threatening that he would not be able to leave the Indian subcontinent unless he got better. That was all the motivation Hidan needed to start eating again: he had no intention of staying over any longer…
Thailand had been good so far; Hidan had stuck to the menu (Kakuzu and Damian had made sure of that). However, it was Monday once again, and the star of the show was refusing to work Tuesdays.
“Hidan, we’re already far behind here thanks to you getting sick in India. We can’t really afford to waste any time!” Kakuzu stood at the doorway to Hidan’s hotel room, frowning in his ninth attempt to try and sway Hidan into working the next day.
“Listen, Kakuzu. First of all, it wasn’t my fault I got sick. Those weirdos served me human shit in a golden pitcher and called it mineral water, alright? I was poisoned! Second. We agreed I can have my Tuesdays off. We signed a fucking contract. It is set in stone. So now what’re you on about? It’s ten thirty in the night and I need to get to bed, so stop wasting my time.” Hidan sat on the edge of his bed, arms crossed and pouting, staring hard back at Kakuzu. He knew that giving up one Tuesday meant giving up the rest of his Tuesdays.
Frustrated, Kakuzu stepped inside and closed the door behind him. “What do you want me to do? Do you want me to beg? I’ll beg if it means you’ll get to work tomorrow.” He was ready to do anything at this point. But if he had to beg, he was going to make Hidan pay for it in some way after the shoot.
Hidan looked at him incredulously, taken aback by the offer. “No, I don’t want you to beg.” And as an afterthought, he added: “Although that would be nice…” Seeing Kakuzu’s frown at that latter part made him grin.
Kakuzu took a seat beside Hidan on the bed. “Listen, Hidan. I respect your right to practice whatever religion you choose to follow. I understand that you’re a very religious guy and need the day off to do… whatever it is you religious people do on Tuesdays, but… We are talking about a two and a half million dollars here.” His voice, by now, had become patronizing and condescending, and he couldn’t help it – he just happened to get that way when situations turned out to be such. In Kakuzu’s opinion, if two and a half million dollars wasn’t telling you how important the task at hand was, then you deserved to be treated like a child. “Two and a half million,” he stressed again. “A good part of that goes into your paycheck. And this is an international project, hosted by WAA. This is guaranteed to get you fame that only a super model could dream of. I mean, tell me how many models with only three weeks of prior experience lands an opportunity like this?”
Hidan listened to all this, the tone of his manager’s voice grating in his ears. “So now you’re pinning all the hard work on yourself and basically saying that I’m just a fucking prop with no real talent, is that it?” Violet eyes glared accusingly at Kakuzu.
Kakuzu shook his head. “No. No.” He resisted the urge to use his fists to get through to Hidan. “All I’m trying to say is that if you don’t work tomorrow, we will fall behind again, and we can’t really afford any more delays with the tight schedule we have. This is a big project and we’ll have to let it go if it isn’t done right.” He sighed, frustrated. “Do you not want to work on this project?”
“I do. But we agreed—“
“I know we agreed to letting you take Tuesdays off, but Hidan, can’t you please make just one exception?” There was a pause before Kakuzu found himself almost at the verge of losing it completely. “Just, just…!” He clenched his fists. “What do you want? What do you want from me? Name anything, I’ll give it to you.” This was very unlike him, but desperate times called for desperate measures…
Hidan thought about this offer seriously for a minute of two, smirking to himself as he formulated a plan in his head. “Anything?” He asked again, as confirmation.
“Anything,” came the response in an affirmative tone.
“Hmm…” Hidan pretended to think about this for a while longer until he finally put down his request in two simple words: “Kiss me.”
Kakuzu sat there, waiting for something else to follow those words because… he hadn’t heard that right, had he? When none seemed to follow, he croaked out: “Excuse me?”
“I said, kiss me.” Hidan waited patiently for a response from the manager.
A short note of laughter and disbelief. “No,” he said, getting up and making his way to the door. In a matter of seconds, he was out of Hidan’s hotel room and heading straight down the hallway to his. When he turned the corner, he ran into Damian, who had been on his way to check on how things were going with the ‘persuasion’.
“I take it he said no?” Damian rubbed his shoulder where Kakuzu had banged into him. He followed the taller man into his room. Kakuzu was already on the bed, shoes and all, clutching his head with both hands. Gingerly, Damian took a seat on the far corner of the bed.
Kakuzu groaned. “Can’t we just let him not work tomorrow?”
“I can’t believe you let him not work on Tuesdays in the first place!”
“Can we please stop blaming this on me?” He pressed his fingers in circles into his temples, relieving an oncoming migraine. “How much would it cost us? I need the exact value.”
Sighing, Damian pulled out the sheet they had been working out their losses if Hidan didn’t agree to work tomorrow. He glanced at Kakuzu one last time and then said: “One million six hundred and fifty two thousand without the additional two and a half million if WAA makes good on their threat to pull out. So that makes four mil—“ He didn’t have to continue: Kakuzu had already left the room in a panic.
Damian tossed the paper onto the bed and ran after him. “Kakuzu! Please try and refrain from bruising or bloodying him up. We need him intact for—“
“I got it!” Kakuzu cut him off. He strode off towards Hidan’s room as Damian watched and rapped on the door.
Hidan had a feeling Kakuzu would be back and, now only in his towel and on his way to shower, he turned around at the sound of the incessant knocking and huffed. Mumbling indecencies to himself, he finally got to the door, turning the handle and opening it. He only had time to register Kakuzu’s presence before the man leaned in and kissed him on the cheek… And in a flash, Kakuzu had turned around, ready to leave.
“Oi!” Hidan reached out just in time to pull Kakuzu back inside and shut the door behind him. “What the hell was that?”
“A kiss. You wanted one. So see you at work tomorrow.” He turned around again to unlock the door. He seriously wasn’t going to stick around for more, especially when Hidan in just a towel was giving him dirty thoughts already.
“Not so fast, tough guy.” Hidan couldn’t keep from laughing at how Kakuzu was taking all of this. “That wasn’t a kiss. I was talking about a real kiss. That there wasn’t even close.” He crossed his arms, watching Kakuzu stop against the door. “You won’t see me at work tomorrow. Not when that’s the kind of kiss you can give your top model.”
“If you don’t come to work tomorrow, I will fire you,” Kakuzu gritted out, back still turned to Hidan.
Hidan scoffed. “Sure, why don’t you? Without me, it’s only 2.5 mil to worry about, yeah?” He knew they couldn’t fire him. He was well aware of their situation, and he was exploiting it as best he could.
Kakuzu visibly flinched at the mention of money. He knew he was trapped. They couldn’t afford to fire Hidan. Not only was he the best they’d ever had, but he was also their last resort. He felt like an idiot for letting Hidan in on this little secret. The professional thing to do would have been to be discrete and always give his employees the impression that they were not indispensable. But Hidan was someone who thrived on flattery, and it had to be done, he told himself, over and over again as he regretted leaving a gaping hole in his plans for Hidan to come back and bite him in the ass with blackmail. As of now, he had nowhere to turn to. So, giving up, he turned around, back leaning against the door, and looked at Hidan long and hard. “Fine,” he mumbled. He’d kiss him properly.
Hidan couldn’t help but smirk at this, and he stood in front of Kakuzu, waiting. And again, Kakuzu found himself wanting to hook his finger in that flimsy little towel that barely held onto Hidan’s waist and pull it right off…
Kakuzu eventually leaned in, hesitant at first, but finally letting his lips touch Hidan’s. When he felt Hidan smile into the kiss, he contemplated pulling away. However, Hidan brought up his hand to Kakuzu’s neck, holding him down in position for much longer than the manager would have anticipated. Kakuzu wasn’t going anywhere until he could prove to Hidan what it was about him that had their boss coming back for more.
Faces now merely a centimeter away from each other, Kakuzu stared right into those tyrian purple eyes that seemed to burn fiercely back at him in the dim light of the room. He tried pulling himself away from that intense gaze, but found himself locked into place by Hidan’s remarkably strong grip. Of course, Kakuzu could have pulled himself completely free, but something made him stay.
“I’m not agreeing to work tomorrow until you show me what it is that keeps Mei coming back to you for more,” Hidan whispered fiercely, breath fanning Kakuzu’s skin.
At this, Kakuzu grinned. “In that case, a kiss is not going to suffice.”
Hidan returned the grin with one of his own. “It’s a good place to start.”
Kakuzu felt his stomach do flips at the sound of that voice. With Mei out of the picture for so long, his body seemed to be gearing up faster for what was to come. Of course a kiss was a good place to start; it was the best, really. Agreeing wholeheartedly to the arrangement now, Kakuzu leaned in and closed the gap once again, lips crashing into Hidan’s as he brought them together in a frantic kiss. Hidan’s fingers buried themselves into Kakuzu’s hair, clutching at the long brown locks and pulling Kakuzu closer to him. When he ran his tongue firmly against the manager’s lips, he met with no resistance.
In a matter of moments, Kakuzu had pushed Hidan back onto the bed. How or when it happened, neither one had any idea.
Kakuzu’s mouth found Hidan’s neck, working its way systematically down the model’s perfect chest, while Hidan’s hands fumbled with the manager’s jeans button. When Kakuzu was at those pectorals he admired so much, he stopped to flatten his tongue against sensitive skin, listening to Hidan gasp softly in response. Grinning against pale flesh, he roughly encased that spot with his lips, sucking hard on it before stopping to give it a little nibble. The low groan Hidan gave him in return was enough to make his body tingle.
Meanwhile, Hidan’s hand had left Kakuzu’s stubborn button and gone to unzip him instead, eager fingers slipping inside the new-found opening and running up and down the manager’s clothed manhood. He couldn’t help a low, lusty moan when he felt Kakuzu in his hand, all the while imagining how it would feel inside him. He had never stopped thinking about that ever since that first day he’d rubbed up against him. By now, Kakuzu’s mouth had once again found his neck, and the breathy exhale he received against his neck in response to the touches sent goosebumps rippling over Hidan’s flesh. He slipped his fingers through the waistband of the other man’s underwear, now touching him full on, squeezing him, stroking him as best as he could manage within the confines of those pants.
Kakuzu growled against Hidan’s skin, biting down on his shoulder when he felt those encroaching fingers slip right inside and massage him. He made sure he didn’t leave too many noticeable marks on Hidan, though. He still needed to work tomorrow! Now kissing him properly, he slid one hand down Hidan’s chest, feeling it rise and fall with every ragged breath he was taking. He let his hand slide down further, memorizing the man’s body by touch until his fingers met with the knot on Hidan’s towel. Letting his fingers pass the knot undisturbed, he went lower, searching… until he found the point of overlap. Kakuzu gingerly slipped his hand under the fabric, meeting with warm skin. Hidan visibly tensed, moaning pleadingly into Kakuzu’s mouth, begging for him to touch him right there.
And Kakuzu obliged.
Long fingers curled around Hidan’s length, stroking, squeezing, teasing under that towel while Hidan moaned, increasing the pressure in his touches while he still had his hands inside the manager’s pants. Kakuzu rolled his hips into Hidan’s touches, relishing the contact. Hidan felt the other man grow harder in his hand, and it amazed him as to how big Kakuzu really was now. Impatient, Hidan sat up, both hands now undoing the button on Kakuzu’s jeans. Kakuzu pulled his hand away from Hidan, straightening up and looking down. The awkward position didn’t allow him to lean over Hidan any more.
Hidan looked up at Kakuzu, lust-filled eyes shining almost red under those half closed eyelids. Kakuzu only had time to decipher a lazy smirk on Hidan’s face before he felt himself taken in completely by that hot, wet, greedy mouth of his. “Fuck!” he whispered, hand going to Hidan’s shoulder as a means of steadying himself. Hidan only moaned around him, sending vibrations all throughout Kakuzu’s manhood as he took in every single inch of him, almost gagging as the tip touched the back of his throat. Kakuzu could only watch himself disappear every now and then as that mop of silver hair moved back and forth. At one point, Hidan let himself glance up at Kakuzu. When he met those glazed emerald eyes, Hidan grinned, now dragging his teeth down the man’s shaft. Kakuzu shivered, and shivered some more as that skilled tongue now twirled and dipped and teased places only Kakuzu would have known about himself.
Kakuzu bit his lip, getting impatient by the second, wanting to impale this perfect specimen of a man, drive completely into him until he screamed his name. “Nhh…” He clutched at the mop of silver hair and pulled Hidan’s head back. He pulled down on Hidan’s hair further, exposing that perfect porcelain neck of his. Making quick work of the knot on Hidan’s towel with his free hand, he leaned in, tongue dragging itself wetly along the curve of Hidan’s neck, stopping to feel the man’s adam’s apple bob up and down once as he swallowed. When he came to Hidan’s chin, Kakuzu hissed: “Turn around.”
Hidan felt himself twitch down there at the sound of that voice. Grinning, he let Kakuzu loosen his grip on his hair, and then flipped onto his stomach on command. On his hands and knees now, Hidan looked back at Kakuzu from over his shoulder, pushing his ass up to the man’s groin and grinding against his need. “Nnghh fuck…!” Oh he wanted that. All of that…
Kakuzu was momentarily blinded by this display (and also by how good it felt on him). When was the last time he’d fucked a guy? He couldn’t remember. It had definitely been too long. Gripping Hidan by his hips, he took a moment to marvel at how perfect every single part of this man’s body was. He figured he might have to rethink his opinion about Mei’s ass… Still looking over his shoulder, Hidan watched as Kakuzu positioned himself and slowly began to enter him, his dick still wet from that coating of saliva he’d given him.
Hidan immediately pushed his head into the sheets below and groaned, one hand reaching behind to push against Kakuzu’s thigh, pushing him away for a moment. Kakuzu stopped, pulling out completely. Jashin, he thought, biting his lip as he now gripped Kakuzu in his hand and guided him, rubbing the tip, moving it in tight circles as he teased himself with it. Kakuzu took this as a cue to take matters slower.
By the time Kakuzu was fully sheathed inside Hidan, the latter was moaning like a porn star. Tears stung the corners of Hidan’s eyes with every thrust that followed, and his moans rose in volume and frequency, carrying on along the corridor and wafting right into Damian’s room. Whoever designed the building had very limited knowledge of sound waves and how they travelled through closed spaces.
Damian lay in bed, pillow pressed to his ears as he tried to drown out the noise and get some sleep…
Author:
insomniackj Type and Genre: Het/Yaoi (because it doesn’t have to be either/or); Drama/Romance
Rating: NC-17
Characters: Kakuzu/Hidan/Terumi Mei and others
Summary: Kakuzu is manager of a successful modeling agency. The only legitimate relationship he has is with his work. But that soon begins to change when a new model is taken into the agency and more than one person attempts to modify his definition of the concept of ‘a relationship’.
Warnings: Explicit/heavy scenes as the story progresses; crack pairings; Het and yaoi; and lastly, this is an AU setting, so do expect some OOC-ness.
The familiar slamming of the front doors alerted Damian to Kakuzu’s presence. Glancing at the time, he realized it was almost a quarter to eleven. Kakuzu had been late a couple of times in the four years Damian had known him, but never had he been this late. He figured Kakuzu was going to be particularly grumpy now. More so today than ever, especially because his beloved Rolls Royce had been scratched in the accident. Damian regarded the sound of his heels clacking against the polished granite as a cue to grab another cup of coffee.
He leaned against the counter, pouring out the usual black coffee straight from the coffee machine that was hitched to the wall in the tea room. There was nothing special about the coffee they had here: plain, black, cheap. What went into the coffee machine every two hours was the same stuff you would find sitting on the shelves of any Walmart store. The sugar barely tasted like sugar and the cream never really creamed unless you added about eight sachets. Milk was either low-fat, or non-fat altogether, and Damian wondered why he even bothered adding any milk to the blend, sometimes. It didn’t taste of anything, really. Furthermore, coffee tasted like plastic if left in for too long. That usually happened around three in the afternoon on Sundays, when you were the only one at work and the guy you asked to bring in your tea had stepped outside to make out with his girlfriend in the parking lot. And Damian usually worked Sundays…
Sometimes he envied the employees at the other notable modeling agencies he’d visited. Some people went to great lengths to instill a sense of elegance and class in their workspace as a means of reflecting what they did, but with the Mizukage Modelling Agency, everything was toned down to be just practical. Not a cent was used in excess of the budget when it came to things like coffee, water, and the basic refreshments. Mei would occasionally throw a party or treat her employees with something special, but that was only Mei, and she would willingly do such things out of the goodness of her heart. But Kakuzu was in charge of the finances and general management of the entire company, and he maintained that unless they were spending on a project, it was company policy to exercise thrift.
Mouth forming a thin line, Damian made sure that Kakuzu’s coffee was as black and tasteless as he could make it. He didn’t think Kakuzu deserved a rich cup of coffee for the crap he made them drink here.
When the coffee filled up to about three quarters of the way to the brim, he stopped, swirling the contents. It took him a few tries to get the mug to swirl right: Kakuzu had the weirdest mug he had ever come across. It was red and had a cartoon version of a lion stretching towards the base. The animal’s tail curved up to form the handle, which happened to be ridiculously small, and the detail given to its ceramic fur made holding it a little painful. How Kakuzu got his fingers through that space, Damian could never understand. When asked about where he had got it from, Kakuzu had replied that it was from a garage sale. He had picked it over a blue mug with a swan’s neck bent into a handle. Apparently, he did not feel comfortable holding an animal by its neck and instead had found that holding one by its tail would feel more humane, so the lion won by default. Also, it cost only twenty five cents.
Damian held the lion by its tail and stepped out into the hallway, meeting Kakuzu halfway there. Before his partner could even open his mouth to suggest he let the coffee boy know he wanted a cup, Damian pushed the mug into Kakuzu’s hands. Kakuzu stared down at the mug for as long as he could hold on to the base without burning his palms, and then nodded, accepting the coffee and proceeding to gulp down a good portion of it in one go. His face contorted into an expression of painful distaste. Damian resisted the urge to smirk.
“He’s had plenty of time to read the document three times over. You should go in there and quiz him on it.”
Kakuzu narrowed his eyes, not really amused by the comments. Sure, he was running late. But he really didn’t need to be reminded every few minutes. If Damian continued, Kakuzu was pretty sure the man would be leaving the building without a face tonight. He slurped up the remaining coffee, face contorting into the same pained expression as it burned his throat on the way down. “Is Nigel in?” He began to walk in the direction of Nigel’s office.
Damian followed. “Of course he’s in. He’s making use of our high speed internet to gather minions for his Horde army.”
Kakuzu rolled his eyes. “Didn’t know he switched from the Alliance.”
Confused, Damian glanced at Kakuzu. “Alliance?”
His partner shrugged, dropping the conversation altogether. If he had elaborated on the subject further, he would have had to expose the fact that he had spent a few hours with Nigel playing as a night elf on World of Warcraft. To be honest, he had found it rather interesting, if not a little bit addictive. They had used the company server to log in to their own accounts from different computers, and then teamed up to raid another group. Kakuzu remembered being rather upset with how little of the loot he could carry, and had gone on a virtual rampage slaying mushroom people in the hope that one of them might leave him a bag or two to put in all the loot.
They were now at Nigel’s door, and Kakuzu pushed his way in, disregarding the notice that asked to knock first.
Nigel swiveled in their direction, scowled, and pulled his chair back into position in front of the computer. All that time spent designing those signs to keep Kakuzu out of his office just proved to be futile. Nothing would stop Kakuzu from entering whenever he wanted to, even if he installed an electric fence, laser traps, and a space cannon.
Minimizing the screen (which was tuned to WoW) and pulling up a more work-related program with one hand, Nigel reached out with his free hand and pulled out a black folder. This he handed over to Kakuzu, not once looking up at him. Kakuzu took the folder from him, placing his empty coffee mug on a stack of papers behind him. He leaned against the intern’s cluttered desk.
Kakuzu was right when he assumed that Nigel would have Hidan’s complete bio and background ready by morning. This was every reason to allow the kid to play whatever he wanted – Nigel always got the work done on time. If Nigel asked Kakuzu for better coffee, he would have willingly made arrangements for it. But Nigel didn’t drink coffee (much to Damain’s chagrin) and opted instead to bring his own supply of Pepsi to work. He lived on Pepsi and Cheetos. Again, Kakuzu had no complaints: none of what he brought to work was out of the company budget.
Kakuzu skimmed through the contents of the folder, pausing to admire some of the photos of the model. It was then that he realized the man had violet eyes. They seemed to change color with the angle of light, ranging from violet to hues of pink and one instance of almost blood red. A few of the bio data made him raise his eyebrows, though. “Hn. Thanks, Nigel.” He pushed himself away from the intern’s table, casually making his way out of the cluttered office and into the hallway, en route to the conference room. Damian followed quietly, but turned to his office halfway instead of continuing on to the conference room.
Nigel pulled up his WoW screen again and typed in an apology to his online friend for disappearing in the middle of the battle. When eventually he reached out for some cheat codes he had written down the other day, he noticed Kakuzu’s red lion mug sitting on a stack of documents he needed to hand over to Mei today. Pursing his lips and setting them in a straight line across his gaunt face, he lifted the mug, only to find that he had to peel it away from the paper, a dark ring of coffee stain on the right hand corner of the document mocking all his hard work.
x.X.X.x
Kakuzu attempted to iron down some rather notable wrinkles in his shirt with his hand before he stepped into the conference room. It was rather embarrassing having to conduct an interview wearing the same clothes he dined out in the previous night. He was sure the smells of the Italian restaurant and all it had to offer were trapped in the fabric. For all he knew, he might smell like pizza and Mei’s perfume to Hidan. Even his pants were creased, and no amount of smoothing them down would tame the stubborn creases. In Kakuzu’s opinion, Damian should seriously think about investing in an iron; he couldn’t find one at his place. He couldn’t help blushing again, though. Why had he agreed to spend the night with Mei at Damian’s place?! He wasn’t even sure how loud they’d been. Chances are they probably were pretty loud, and Damian might have heard everything. Kakuzu screwed his eyes shut, forcing away the memory of it all.
Having pushed away any thoughts that involved Damian listening in on them the previous night, Kakuzu opened his eyes, took in a deep breath, straightened up, and held the folder against his shirt, covering up the stubborn creases as best he could. Peeping in through the crack in the door he had opened by a fraction, he could clearly see Hidan’s sliver mop of hair just slightly peaking above the back of the chair. From where he stood, it looked as though Hidan seemed to be still reading that contract. He had to take a moment to collect himself once again when he remembered what had ensued between this new model and himself at the bathing station the other day. Could this day get any worse?
Kakuzu quietly shut the door behind him and quickly strode over to a chair opposite Hidan, hoping that the model wouldn’t notice his less than impeccable attire this morning.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said, pulling out a chair and sitting down in it, not bothering to lean over and shake Hidan’s hand. He placed the folder he brought with him neatly on the table in front of him, at perfect right angles to the edge. In fact, he adjusted the folder a few times until it was sitting exactly the way he wanted it to be. That was a minor case of OCD Kakuzu was working on – on his own, and not with any psychologist’s guidance, mind. Kakuzu maintained he couldn’t afford to spend on counseling when he had to deal with maintenance and gas for his Rolls. When Mei came close to proving him wrong without a doubt one day, he threw in a vaguely related fact that taking care of the Rolls made him feel manlier than seeing a shrink. Hence, he opted to willingly spend on the car and promised to try and take care of his minor disorder on his own.
Hidan eyed him, noticing the crumpled shirt front. He took it to be a result of the accident Kakuzu had had this morning and assumed it was the seatbelt that caused all those wrinkles. But that didn’t explain the wrinkles on his sleeves… Kakuzu was suddenly conscious of the other man’s eyes on him and he fidgeted in his seated, tugging at his cuffs and collar, pulling his shirt down at the waist and smoothing down the front again.
Hidan raised an eyebrow. That shirt was too wrinkled to have been in an accident first. “I would have said ‘it’s fine’ if you hadn’t been more than two hours late.” He frowned up at Kakuzu, slightly offended that the man had disregarded their interview for some romping early in the morning. He had a good idea who he was with, too. He’d seen them at the onsen together yesterday. Hidan would have forgiven Kakuzu had he really had a plate full of obesity instead of sex. Seriously.
Kakuzu sighed. “I know. There was an emergency I had to look into early this morning and then I met with an accident on the way here.”
Hidan rolled his eyes. “Emergency my ass.”
Kakuzu arched an eyebrow at that, not entirely sure he was liking this guy’s attitude. But then again, what right did he have in a situation like this to hold him against it? It was his fault he was late, and Hidan had every reason to be pissed off at him. Punctuality was one of the key attributes you were expected to have when in the fashion and modeling industry. “Alright, let’s get this over and done with, then?” He eyed Hidan through the corner of his eye as he opened up the folder and pulled out Hidan’s information.
“Yeah, we can. Just that I’m real thirsty right now.” Hidan turned to peer outside through the gaps in the blinds. “I asked for a bottle of chilled mineral water two hours ago…”
Kakuzu exhaled, annoyed. “I’ll remind Anna to get it for you.” He pressed a button on the phone that sat in the middle of the finely polished ebony table. A girl on the other end answered the call. “Anna, could you get our guest a bottle of chilled mineral water, please? Thank you.” He didn’t wait for any response from her, but cut the call immediately. “Okay, why don’t we get started in the mean time? I take it you’ve read the contract?”
“Yeah. Are you going to quiz me on it?”
Kakuzu stared at Hidan for a few seconds, wondering if he was just being snarky and sarcastic, or whether he was actually serious about it. Hidan looked like he was ready to take a test… “No…” he said, slowly.
“Good.” Hidan smirked. “Because that’d just be plain weird.”
Indeed it would be. No arguments there, Hidan. Kakuzu only nodded vaguely, turning to a copy of Hidan’s resume his previous representatives had sent to them prior to yesterday’s closed ‘auditions’. Of course there hadn’t really been any audition per say, but that’s what they liked to call it here at the Mizukage Modeling Agency. “So, what made you switch from theology to modeling?” This had to be one of those extra weird resumes he had ever come across.
Hidan made himself comfortable in the big chair he was seated in, bringing his hands to the table and letting his fingers lightly drum on the edge. One leg sat folded against his other knee. “Well, in theology, we had to learn about the different world religions and philosophies. And by world religions, they never included the ones less heard of, like Jashinism, which are more often the more important ones. It’s just that people are fucking retarded in general so they all follow the popular ones. And the worst part was that everyone else who attended the course was either a hippie or some World Peace and Religious Tolerance group member. It was fucking ridiculous working with those loons so I quit. Took up modeling instead because hey, why not, right?”
Kakuzu listened to the man’s story with borderline interest, until he came to the last part. Here, he leaned back in his seat and placed his hands over his stomach. “I see. So you took up modeling because it was the only other option available, am I right?” Hidan opened his mouth to speak here, but Kakuzu had already leaned forward, hands now resting on the table, fingers intertwined. His gaze was hard, trained directly on Hidan’s tyrian purple eyes. “May I take this opportunity to remind you, Mr. Hidan, that here at MMA, we take modeling very seriously.” He stressed on the ‘very’, almost pausing soon after he’d uttered the word. “It is more than just a career. It’s a lifestyle. And it is my job to ensure that we hire the most dedicated, hard working individuals.”
Hidan now leaned forward as well, mimicking Kakuzu’s pose. He looked right into Kakuzu’s eyes, staring at him with the same intensity. “And that’s why you’re looking at the most hard working, dedicated, best looking, most confident guy for the job. Did I mention I can work under any fucking circumstance? ‘Pressure’ doesn’t even exist in my vocabulary while I’m working. All I ask is that I have a constant supply of chilled mineral water – I won’t accept any other kind – and that the rest of the crew better be able to keep up with me.” This was said with such unwavering conviction that Kakuzu found himself admitting to himself that he was impressed. He leaned back in his seat, relaxed now as he continued to listen to what else Hidan had to say. “And it wasn’t that I took up modeling because it was the only other option available. Tch. I bet I would qualify for medical school if I applied. Seriously.”
Kakuzu tapped the back of his pen on the open folder, a side smile on his features as he observed the young man in front of him. “Alright.” To be honest, he found that information quite comforting, and his gut told him that Hidan would deliver good on his statement. Kakuzu brought his right leg over his left, ankle resting on knee, and casually twirled ninety degrees in his chair. Pen still in hand, he rapped it twice on Hidan’s resume. “What kind of modeling are you interested in and why?” It wasn’t that Hidan would be given much of a choice in the upcoming project, but Kakuzu felt he should ask anyway. Protocol, he told himself. But he’d always work his way around models’ preferences and convince them to take part in anything and everything the agency had to offer. With Kakuzu, there was no room for respecting personal opinion. Everything was business.
“Mostly fashion.” By now Hidan had slunk back in his seat. “Focusing on editorial, runway, catalog… Anything, really.” He sent a somewhat suggestive little smirk Kakuzu’s way. “And glamour.” Of course Hidan would do glamour. He had a body to kill for and the sexiest bedroom eyes ever. This Kakuzu noted, eyeing the candidate’s torso from where he sat. Hidan seemed to have picked the best possible t-shirt for his interview. The simple black fabric did much to tease the viewer with generous hints of what was underneath – perfect tone and contours. Kakuzu found himself measuring the man’s dimensions in his head, imagining that very torso he had laid eyes upon the previous day at the bath house. Somehow, it looked more appealing today than it had done yesterday. He figured it was probably something about how the t-shirt was almost a second skin, but not quite so tight either. He imagined how it would be if Hidan were to roll up that t-shirt, beginning at the hem, inch by sexy inch of perfect stomach and abs exposed until the bunched up fabric was sitting tight just above those perfect pectorals.
Hidan noticed the engrossed look on the manager’s face and smirked wider, subtly adjusting himself in his seat, giving Kakuzu a little more to imagine as those muscles moved fluidly. This, too, Kakuzu noticed. And imagine he did – for another half a minute or so before snapping back to reality. He cleared his throat. “Glamour, yes.” He took down notes beside some of the bulleted points Nigel had printed out for him. “We’ve been looking for a model who has the ideal make and personality for a project we’ve been working on since the beginning of the year and, I must say, you seem to fit the category quite well. Which is why we asked you to come.” There was just a hint of a smile on Kakuzu’s lips when he looked up at Hidan then, while in truth he was still rather distracted.
Hidan lifted an eyebrow. “So you’d already settled on me even before I told you I would do glamour?” He chuckled. This man is unbelievable.
Kakuzu nodded. “Yes.” However, noticing Hidan’s reaction, he felt he needed to ‘explain’ his reasons for choosing prior to gaining permission from his model. “Well, like I said, the moment we saw you, we deemed you perfect for our causes. This was one of the reasons we picked the steam baths for the auditions – which weren’t really auditions, I admit. You have the body we’re looking for, and you definitely have the face. And with all that, we figured there was no way you wouldn’t be doing glamour. I’ve been in this field for quite some time now to know what kind of model I’m looking at with just one glance.” Here, he stopped for emphasis, and turned ninety degrees back to his original position, facing Hidan directly. “We just had to call you for an interview to make sure you had the ability, beyond your looks, to fulfill our criteria.”
Presently, a young employee walked in with Hidan’s chilled mineral water. She was the same employee who’d brought in the croissants earlier. Hidan dived in and picked up the bottle of water, ripping off the plastic seal immediately. “About time. Been more than two hours since I asked for some water. Like I said,” he turned to Kakuzu, “…if your crew can’t keep up with me, then I’m just getting out of here.”
Kakuzu spared the girl only a sideways glance before he pulled out another sheet of printed paper from his folder. “Anna, make sure you hang around after your shift today. I need to talk to you. Three o’clock will do?” Anna only nodded. She knew this could only mean a termination, and it was high time for her to start looking elsewhere for a job. When she left the conference room, she sent Hidan a venomous glare, which Hidan caught. He returned said glare with only a smirk.
Kakuzu listened for the soft click of the door before saying: “Let’s talk about your availability. You must know already that MMA is an exclusive modeling agency, and by signing our contract you agree to let MMA have twenty percent of any work you find outside the agency.” Hidan gulped down about half the water in his bottle. “This also means you may find work elsewhere and be involved in other projects at the same time you have a project going on with MMA. But priority would be MMA work and we do have an extensive range of projects that require a good deal of traveling. So I must ask: do you happen to have any reservations against travel? Fear of heights, airplanes, or other issues like family?” He had already ticked the boxes next to the bullet points that read full time and travel.
Hidan gulped down the last of his water, angling the rim of the bottle to his mouth, forcing down the very last drops of water out. “Nope.” He smacked his lips, bringing the bottle down to the table. “I’m fine with traveling and working full time.”
“Good.” Kakuzu pretended to take down notes. “Also, you may have to work seven days a week, and we usually don’t stick to a nine to five timetable.” Kakuzu intended for this information to be a statement and not a question, but Hidan leaned forward…
“Just so you know, I don’t work on Tuesdays.”
Kakuzu looked up. “Excuse me?”
Hidan gently hit the butt of the bottle against his chin, now sitting on the very edge of his seat. “I said I don’t do Tuesdays.”
“And why is that?” Kakuzu leaned back in his seat, pen rapping impatiently on the table again.
“It’s my day off. You heathens take Sunday off because it’s your day to pray, I need my Tuesdays.”
Kakuzu resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “First of all, I am an atheist and therefore feel no need to take Sundays off. Second, and most importantly, I just told you we work round the clock. No exceptions.”
Hidan leaned back in his seat. He pushed the contract Damian had made him read towards Kakuzu. “Well then, I’m sorry. Guess I’m not your guy.”
Kakuzu almost visibly jumped at the gesture. How had everything gone from absolutely perfect to spiral down to this? Hidan was nothing short of perfect for the job; there was no way he was going to lose him to another agency. If they lost Hidan, they would have to give up the project. This in itself would cost them a few hundred thousand. And he wasn’t going to think about the many millions they would simply hand over to whatever other agency that was given the project once MMA was replaced. He thought about this for a bit, weighing over the consequences of letting Tuesdays off for Hidan versus finding a new model for the project altogether. But finding a model would take them more time, and they had already spent the first few months of this year looking for the perfect face. Kakuzu glanced at the man before him. Hidan was like gold to a goblin: there was no way Kakuzu was giving him up. Who knew the bastard was religious?!
“Alright.” Kakuzu fiddled with his pen before saying reluctantly: “I suppose we can work something out about relieving you from work on Tuesdays…”
Triumphant, Hidan grinned. “Sweet.” He pulled the fat contract towards him. “So where do I sign?”
Kakuzu leaned forward, pointing out to a spot on page 32 with the back of his pen.
x.X.X.x
It was Friday and things were well under way at the MMA. Hidan stretched his arm over the wooden box he was leaning against for the fiftieth time that day. He held the pose for a few more shots before scowling at one of the photographers, sitting up, and shooting off. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing shining that fucking light of yours in my face? How the fuck am I supposed to keep my eyes open for the shot with that thing in my face, you tell me!” The crew at whom this insult was aimed at mumbled an apology and readjusted his equipment, shining the light on a less intrusive spot on the backdrop now.
Hidan sighed dramatically before stretching once again, grasping the edge of the box and tightening the muscles on his arm. He angled his head just right and dug one of his feet into the straw on the floor of the stable. However, it wasn’t long before he scowled again, snapped his head in the direction of the camera crew, stood up, walked over to one particular cameraman he seemed to dislike, and knocked the equipment off him. “How long did you expect me to wait in that position? It’s not like the box is made of marble, you know, it’s fucking splintered!” He jabbed the man in the chest. “What would it take to get it into your pea brain that all you have to do is click that little red button when I strike a pose, and not wait ten fucking minutes because by then I just may have got a nasty splinter, or a sunburn, or Jashin only knows the sun may have changed positions in the sky so you won’t have the same shadow play?!” Purple eyes now glowed almost blood red. “Grow a few brain cells and show me that you’re competent, why don’t you, you worthless piece of shit!”
Mumbling curses under his breath, Hidan stormed off to the rest station, sitting down in a chair under an umbrella. He kicked open a cooler box and rummaged through it for a bottled of chilled water. Finding none, he kicked down the entire box, letting all its contents spill out onto the sand below. “Why don’t we have any water? Oi! Can I get a bottle of water here?!”
One of the crew in charge of refreshments came running towards him, a bottle of chilled mineral water in hand. Hidan couldn’t have held the bottle for more than just a few seconds before he held it up to the girl’s face. “You call this ‘chilled’? Why don’t you look up the meaning of the word in a dictionary and then come get me some water, bitch.” The girl gasped, hopping back one step as he slammed the bottle of water at her feet with such force that the cap shot open and slightly-less-than-chilled mineral water gushed out its mouth, darkening the sand.
Furious, Hidan turned to Kakuzu (who happened to be standing next to Mei, watching the entire scene unfold). He pointed an accusatory finger at the manager. “I told you I wasn’t going to work for you unless your crew can fucking keep up with me!”
Kakuzu chuckled, nodding in the model’s direction. “You did!” He waved at him. “Keep up the good work, Hidan. I’ll see to it that the others follow through.” Hidan gave him a scowl that read ‘not good enough’, then turned to kick the cooler box further away.
Kakuzu cleared his throat and clapped his hand twice, immediately getting everybody else’s undivided attention. “See to it that Mr. Hidan gets what he wants when he wants, please. I don’t want to delay the shoot any longer. We have a plane to catch at 5.00am tomorrow, and this better get done here or someone’s going to have to pack their bags and set out for good.” There was a general murmur and vague nods as the crew got back to work, and settled for waiting on Hidan, hand and foot.
“Quite the spoiled brat we have on board, mm?” Mei was smiling at the little bit of drama that Hidan had displayed moments ago. Sometimes it was good to have some drama to look forward to when you came to work.
“Hn. But he is good, and he does have a point.” At this, Mei looked at Kakuzu. He shrugged. “At least the part about our camera crew. We really need to get someone new on the team.”
“I agree,” she said, turning back to the photo shoot. “It’s been tough since Steve left us. The rest of them don’t really get along without him.”
“I was thinking of Ino…”
Mei turned to face him again, a little surprised at his suggestion. “Ino? The intern?”
“Yeah. Why not? She’s got a good eye for mood, colors, and composition. She did well on the last project we were working on. I think she would work well as a permanent member of our photography unit.”
“Yes, but isn’t it a little too soon?”
“I think she’s ready, Mei.”
Mei only watched him closely for a moment longer before smiling to herself and silently slipping her arm in his. A little alarmed by this gesture, Kakuzu glanced down at her, avoiding eye contact, but watching how her arm crooked within his. She brought her free hand up to gently grasp his bicep. “Kakuzu.” She led him away from the rest of their crew and started to walk towards her trailer. “Tomorrow would be the last time I’d get to see you in four months.”
He laughed. “If I didn’t know you better, I would have said you sounded rather heartbroken.”
She smiled, stepping into her trailer now and tugging Kakuzu to come along. “We need to talk about our agenda for when I get back.” Of course, with Terumi Mei, it was always about business. Kakuzu exhaled slowly, relieved that she really wasn’t upset about leaving him for four months. He stepped inside, full of ideas for what they should start on next.
x.X.X.x
Two months later, Kakuzu was in Thailand, shooting the third phase of their project. Hidan had stopped being an insufferable pain in the ass to work with (much to the joy of almost everybody on the team) ever since he had come down with a bad stomach bug during their stay in India. That unfortunate episode cost them a week of filming. He also stopped insisting on chilled mineral water. This, too, was due to his encounter with the Indian stomach bug.
When Hidan had walked into the restaurant, he had no idea that asking for bottled water was probably the safest route to survival. Instead, he had fussed and complained and somehow managed to convince the waiters there that he wouldn’t accept anything less than what he asked for. And so the waiters, local men who were more than willing to please the foreign customer, had set out in search of this ‘chilled mineral water’. When they returned, they brought Hidan’s water in a golden pitcher. Impressed, Hidan even took a photograph of it.
The water was poured with great ceremony and reverence, and Hidan had been amazed by this mini ritual. Needless to say, so was the rest of MMA crew, who looked on in awe beside him at their table. The waiter who served them insisted that it was the purest mineral water taken straight from the Ganges, the holiest river in the land. Hidan, unaware that the Ganges carried the pollution and excrement of a few hundred million people, drank it all up… only to end up severely ill within four hours.
Needless to say, this unfortunate event led to Hidan losing a considerable amount of weight, which worried Kakuzu immensely. His healthy complexion had taken up a sallow tone, which no amount of make-up could hide. His beautiful eyes had dimmed and their color lightened – they no longer looked as expressive as they used to on film. Afraid of catching another bug, Hidan had refused to eat or drink anything for a few days. Afraid of falling behind schedule another month, Kakuzu had somehow managed to convince Hidan to eat and beef up by threatening that he would not be able to leave the Indian subcontinent unless he got better. That was all the motivation Hidan needed to start eating again: he had no intention of staying over any longer…
Thailand had been good so far; Hidan had stuck to the menu (Kakuzu and Damian had made sure of that). However, it was Monday once again, and the star of the show was refusing to work Tuesdays.
“Hidan, we’re already far behind here thanks to you getting sick in India. We can’t really afford to waste any time!” Kakuzu stood at the doorway to Hidan’s hotel room, frowning in his ninth attempt to try and sway Hidan into working the next day.
“Listen, Kakuzu. First of all, it wasn’t my fault I got sick. Those weirdos served me human shit in a golden pitcher and called it mineral water, alright? I was poisoned! Second. We agreed I can have my Tuesdays off. We signed a fucking contract. It is set in stone. So now what’re you on about? It’s ten thirty in the night and I need to get to bed, so stop wasting my time.” Hidan sat on the edge of his bed, arms crossed and pouting, staring hard back at Kakuzu. He knew that giving up one Tuesday meant giving up the rest of his Tuesdays.
Frustrated, Kakuzu stepped inside and closed the door behind him. “What do you want me to do? Do you want me to beg? I’ll beg if it means you’ll get to work tomorrow.” He was ready to do anything at this point. But if he had to beg, he was going to make Hidan pay for it in some way after the shoot.
Hidan looked at him incredulously, taken aback by the offer. “No, I don’t want you to beg.” And as an afterthought, he added: “Although that would be nice…” Seeing Kakuzu’s frown at that latter part made him grin.
Kakuzu took a seat beside Hidan on the bed. “Listen, Hidan. I respect your right to practice whatever religion you choose to follow. I understand that you’re a very religious guy and need the day off to do… whatever it is you religious people do on Tuesdays, but… We are talking about a two and a half million dollars here.” His voice, by now, had become patronizing and condescending, and he couldn’t help it – he just happened to get that way when situations turned out to be such. In Kakuzu’s opinion, if two and a half million dollars wasn’t telling you how important the task at hand was, then you deserved to be treated like a child. “Two and a half million,” he stressed again. “A good part of that goes into your paycheck. And this is an international project, hosted by WAA. This is guaranteed to get you fame that only a super model could dream of. I mean, tell me how many models with only three weeks of prior experience lands an opportunity like this?”
Hidan listened to all this, the tone of his manager’s voice grating in his ears. “So now you’re pinning all the hard work on yourself and basically saying that I’m just a fucking prop with no real talent, is that it?” Violet eyes glared accusingly at Kakuzu.
Kakuzu shook his head. “No. No.” He resisted the urge to use his fists to get through to Hidan. “All I’m trying to say is that if you don’t work tomorrow, we will fall behind again, and we can’t really afford any more delays with the tight schedule we have. This is a big project and we’ll have to let it go if it isn’t done right.” He sighed, frustrated. “Do you not want to work on this project?”
“I do. But we agreed—“
“I know we agreed to letting you take Tuesdays off, but Hidan, can’t you please make just one exception?” There was a pause before Kakuzu found himself almost at the verge of losing it completely. “Just, just…!” He clenched his fists. “What do you want? What do you want from me? Name anything, I’ll give it to you.” This was very unlike him, but desperate times called for desperate measures…
Hidan thought about this offer seriously for a minute of two, smirking to himself as he formulated a plan in his head. “Anything?” He asked again, as confirmation.
“Anything,” came the response in an affirmative tone.
“Hmm…” Hidan pretended to think about this for a while longer until he finally put down his request in two simple words: “Kiss me.”
Kakuzu sat there, waiting for something else to follow those words because… he hadn’t heard that right, had he? When none seemed to follow, he croaked out: “Excuse me?”
“I said, kiss me.” Hidan waited patiently for a response from the manager.
A short note of laughter and disbelief. “No,” he said, getting up and making his way to the door. In a matter of seconds, he was out of Hidan’s hotel room and heading straight down the hallway to his. When he turned the corner, he ran into Damian, who had been on his way to check on how things were going with the ‘persuasion’.
“I take it he said no?” Damian rubbed his shoulder where Kakuzu had banged into him. He followed the taller man into his room. Kakuzu was already on the bed, shoes and all, clutching his head with both hands. Gingerly, Damian took a seat on the far corner of the bed.
Kakuzu groaned. “Can’t we just let him not work tomorrow?”
“I can’t believe you let him not work on Tuesdays in the first place!”
“Can we please stop blaming this on me?” He pressed his fingers in circles into his temples, relieving an oncoming migraine. “How much would it cost us? I need the exact value.”
Sighing, Damian pulled out the sheet they had been working out their losses if Hidan didn’t agree to work tomorrow. He glanced at Kakuzu one last time and then said: “One million six hundred and fifty two thousand without the additional two and a half million if WAA makes good on their threat to pull out. So that makes four mil—“ He didn’t have to continue: Kakuzu had already left the room in a panic.
Damian tossed the paper onto the bed and ran after him. “Kakuzu! Please try and refrain from bruising or bloodying him up. We need him intact for—“
“I got it!” Kakuzu cut him off. He strode off towards Hidan’s room as Damian watched and rapped on the door.
Hidan had a feeling Kakuzu would be back and, now only in his towel and on his way to shower, he turned around at the sound of the incessant knocking and huffed. Mumbling indecencies to himself, he finally got to the door, turning the handle and opening it. He only had time to register Kakuzu’s presence before the man leaned in and kissed him on the cheek… And in a flash, Kakuzu had turned around, ready to leave.
“Oi!” Hidan reached out just in time to pull Kakuzu back inside and shut the door behind him. “What the hell was that?”
“A kiss. You wanted one. So see you at work tomorrow.” He turned around again to unlock the door. He seriously wasn’t going to stick around for more, especially when Hidan in just a towel was giving him dirty thoughts already.
“Not so fast, tough guy.” Hidan couldn’t keep from laughing at how Kakuzu was taking all of this. “That wasn’t a kiss. I was talking about a real kiss. That there wasn’t even close.” He crossed his arms, watching Kakuzu stop against the door. “You won’t see me at work tomorrow. Not when that’s the kind of kiss you can give your top model.”
“If you don’t come to work tomorrow, I will fire you,” Kakuzu gritted out, back still turned to Hidan.
Hidan scoffed. “Sure, why don’t you? Without me, it’s only 2.5 mil to worry about, yeah?” He knew they couldn’t fire him. He was well aware of their situation, and he was exploiting it as best he could.
Kakuzu visibly flinched at the mention of money. He knew he was trapped. They couldn’t afford to fire Hidan. Not only was he the best they’d ever had, but he was also their last resort. He felt like an idiot for letting Hidan in on this little secret. The professional thing to do would have been to be discrete and always give his employees the impression that they were not indispensable. But Hidan was someone who thrived on flattery, and it had to be done, he told himself, over and over again as he regretted leaving a gaping hole in his plans for Hidan to come back and bite him in the ass with blackmail. As of now, he had nowhere to turn to. So, giving up, he turned around, back leaning against the door, and looked at Hidan long and hard. “Fine,” he mumbled. He’d kiss him properly.
Hidan couldn’t help but smirk at this, and he stood in front of Kakuzu, waiting. And again, Kakuzu found himself wanting to hook his finger in that flimsy little towel that barely held onto Hidan’s waist and pull it right off…
Kakuzu eventually leaned in, hesitant at first, but finally letting his lips touch Hidan’s. When he felt Hidan smile into the kiss, he contemplated pulling away. However, Hidan brought up his hand to Kakuzu’s neck, holding him down in position for much longer than the manager would have anticipated. Kakuzu wasn’t going anywhere until he could prove to Hidan what it was about him that had their boss coming back for more.
Faces now merely a centimeter away from each other, Kakuzu stared right into those tyrian purple eyes that seemed to burn fiercely back at him in the dim light of the room. He tried pulling himself away from that intense gaze, but found himself locked into place by Hidan’s remarkably strong grip. Of course, Kakuzu could have pulled himself completely free, but something made him stay.
“I’m not agreeing to work tomorrow until you show me what it is that keeps Mei coming back to you for more,” Hidan whispered fiercely, breath fanning Kakuzu’s skin.
At this, Kakuzu grinned. “In that case, a kiss is not going to suffice.”
Hidan returned the grin with one of his own. “It’s a good place to start.”
Kakuzu felt his stomach do flips at the sound of that voice. With Mei out of the picture for so long, his body seemed to be gearing up faster for what was to come. Of course a kiss was a good place to start; it was the best, really. Agreeing wholeheartedly to the arrangement now, Kakuzu leaned in and closed the gap once again, lips crashing into Hidan’s as he brought them together in a frantic kiss. Hidan’s fingers buried themselves into Kakuzu’s hair, clutching at the long brown locks and pulling Kakuzu closer to him. When he ran his tongue firmly against the manager’s lips, he met with no resistance.
In a matter of moments, Kakuzu had pushed Hidan back onto the bed. How or when it happened, neither one had any idea.
Kakuzu’s mouth found Hidan’s neck, working its way systematically down the model’s perfect chest, while Hidan’s hands fumbled with the manager’s jeans button. When Kakuzu was at those pectorals he admired so much, he stopped to flatten his tongue against sensitive skin, listening to Hidan gasp softly in response. Grinning against pale flesh, he roughly encased that spot with his lips, sucking hard on it before stopping to give it a little nibble. The low groan Hidan gave him in return was enough to make his body tingle.
Meanwhile, Hidan’s hand had left Kakuzu’s stubborn button and gone to unzip him instead, eager fingers slipping inside the new-found opening and running up and down the manager’s clothed manhood. He couldn’t help a low, lusty moan when he felt Kakuzu in his hand, all the while imagining how it would feel inside him. He had never stopped thinking about that ever since that first day he’d rubbed up against him. By now, Kakuzu’s mouth had once again found his neck, and the breathy exhale he received against his neck in response to the touches sent goosebumps rippling over Hidan’s flesh. He slipped his fingers through the waistband of the other man’s underwear, now touching him full on, squeezing him, stroking him as best as he could manage within the confines of those pants.
Kakuzu growled against Hidan’s skin, biting down on his shoulder when he felt those encroaching fingers slip right inside and massage him. He made sure he didn’t leave too many noticeable marks on Hidan, though. He still needed to work tomorrow! Now kissing him properly, he slid one hand down Hidan’s chest, feeling it rise and fall with every ragged breath he was taking. He let his hand slide down further, memorizing the man’s body by touch until his fingers met with the knot on Hidan’s towel. Letting his fingers pass the knot undisturbed, he went lower, searching… until he found the point of overlap. Kakuzu gingerly slipped his hand under the fabric, meeting with warm skin. Hidan visibly tensed, moaning pleadingly into Kakuzu’s mouth, begging for him to touch him right there.
And Kakuzu obliged.
Long fingers curled around Hidan’s length, stroking, squeezing, teasing under that towel while Hidan moaned, increasing the pressure in his touches while he still had his hands inside the manager’s pants. Kakuzu rolled his hips into Hidan’s touches, relishing the contact. Hidan felt the other man grow harder in his hand, and it amazed him as to how big Kakuzu really was now. Impatient, Hidan sat up, both hands now undoing the button on Kakuzu’s jeans. Kakuzu pulled his hand away from Hidan, straightening up and looking down. The awkward position didn’t allow him to lean over Hidan any more.
Hidan looked up at Kakuzu, lust-filled eyes shining almost red under those half closed eyelids. Kakuzu only had time to decipher a lazy smirk on Hidan’s face before he felt himself taken in completely by that hot, wet, greedy mouth of his. “Fuck!” he whispered, hand going to Hidan’s shoulder as a means of steadying himself. Hidan only moaned around him, sending vibrations all throughout Kakuzu’s manhood as he took in every single inch of him, almost gagging as the tip touched the back of his throat. Kakuzu could only watch himself disappear every now and then as that mop of silver hair moved back and forth. At one point, Hidan let himself glance up at Kakuzu. When he met those glazed emerald eyes, Hidan grinned, now dragging his teeth down the man’s shaft. Kakuzu shivered, and shivered some more as that skilled tongue now twirled and dipped and teased places only Kakuzu would have known about himself.
Kakuzu bit his lip, getting impatient by the second, wanting to impale this perfect specimen of a man, drive completely into him until he screamed his name. “Nhh…” He clutched at the mop of silver hair and pulled Hidan’s head back. He pulled down on Hidan’s hair further, exposing that perfect porcelain neck of his. Making quick work of the knot on Hidan’s towel with his free hand, he leaned in, tongue dragging itself wetly along the curve of Hidan’s neck, stopping to feel the man’s adam’s apple bob up and down once as he swallowed. When he came to Hidan’s chin, Kakuzu hissed: “Turn around.”
Hidan felt himself twitch down there at the sound of that voice. Grinning, he let Kakuzu loosen his grip on his hair, and then flipped onto his stomach on command. On his hands and knees now, Hidan looked back at Kakuzu from over his shoulder, pushing his ass up to the man’s groin and grinding against his need. “Nnghh fuck…!” Oh he wanted that. All of that…
Kakuzu was momentarily blinded by this display (and also by how good it felt on him). When was the last time he’d fucked a guy? He couldn’t remember. It had definitely been too long. Gripping Hidan by his hips, he took a moment to marvel at how perfect every single part of this man’s body was. He figured he might have to rethink his opinion about Mei’s ass… Still looking over his shoulder, Hidan watched as Kakuzu positioned himself and slowly began to enter him, his dick still wet from that coating of saliva he’d given him.
Hidan immediately pushed his head into the sheets below and groaned, one hand reaching behind to push against Kakuzu’s thigh, pushing him away for a moment. Kakuzu stopped, pulling out completely. Jashin, he thought, biting his lip as he now gripped Kakuzu in his hand and guided him, rubbing the tip, moving it in tight circles as he teased himself with it. Kakuzu took this as a cue to take matters slower.
By the time Kakuzu was fully sheathed inside Hidan, the latter was moaning like a porn star. Tears stung the corners of Hidan’s eyes with every thrust that followed, and his moans rose in volume and frequency, carrying on along the corridor and wafting right into Damian’s room. Whoever designed the building had very limited knowledge of sound waves and how they travelled through closed spaces.
Damian lay in bed, pillow pressed to his ears as he tried to drown out the noise and get some sleep…