Work Text:
Sitting in a half-broken plastic chair under constantly flickering fluorescents in the local community hall on a Thursday evening wasn't your original plan for the week, but here you are. The judge had deemed the little outburst from a few weeks ago 'aggressive and unnecessary', you deemed it perfectly acceptable. In your defence, listening to the fourth screaming old woman in a row complaining about how her milk wasn't steamed right was just enough to tip you over the edge. But honestly, it's surprising it took this long to begin with. Working in a coffee shop definitely has its perks, but the downsides far outweigh them.
"So everyone, thank you all for coming. My name is Yamato, let's go round the circle introducing ourselves, shall we?" A tall, brown haired man scoots his chair over to join the circle from the edge of the room. His words are almost robotic, you can tell he's said this many times before. He gestures to the left, nodding to the girl sat next to him. "Let's start with you."
The girl sighs and it's clear that, like you, she does not want to be here. Her spiky blonde buns bounce slightly as she throws her head back and looks at the ceiling. "Temari. Someone got on my nerves. Here I am." She's brief and direct with her words, clearly finished speaking and almost scowling as she looks back to Yamato. He looks to the next person before moving methodically round the circle, slowly making progress until the dreaded moment arrives. His gaze reaches yours, and with a forced yet kind looking smile, he silently encourages you.
"Okay, hi, my name is-"
The door barges open with swift force, thudding into the coffee table placed inconveniently next to it. "Ah shit, sorry, am I late?" A tall, slim man walks through the door. His silver hair is stiffly gelled back. It pairs well with the shit eating grin on his face. He pulls a chair from the corner of the room, scraping the legs across the floor the whole way. The noise is jarring. Really jarring. Without even realising it, you're staring white hot daggers his way as he saunters over, taking his sweet time before settling into the space to your right. He sends a smirk your way, almost purring as he continues. "Sorry babe, didn't mean to interrupt. I'll carry on for you though."
Babe. Babe? A pit of vile anger begins bubbling in your stomach as your hands find themselves clenching together. You don't know this guy, and he has the audacity to call you babe? You don't know him, but your fists want to know his face very much.
"Uh, I guess we're doing the whole introducing thing, so hi, my name's Hidan. I'm here because I allegedly harassed some people but honestly, I think it's all bullshit. I'm only really here because I can't be bothered with doing actual time again so... Yeah." He looks far too pleased with his self-introduction as his smirk has turned into a faux innocent smile. The room is silent, awkwardly so, only a few awkward shuffles break the deafening silence. Hidan doesn't seem to care at all, already looking to the next person in the circle, expectantly waiting for their introduction.
"Okay, thanks for that Hidan, that was very... Enlightening." Yamato clears his throat before shooting an apologetic look your way. As if by some divine intervention, he allows the introductions to continue around the circle. Not one person looks happy to be here, which is completely understandable in your opinion, until your eyes land on the irritating man next to you. His weird excitement has you riled up so easily, it's sped your usually steady leg bounce into an agitated frenzy.
As the evening bears on, Yamato delves into many self help, self soothing, and self mindfulness tips. You've heard them all before and while it's good in theory, it offers no real help in practise, but it's easier to just nod and smile. Whatever gets the evening done quicker. Unfortunately, this mindset isn't shared by Hidan. He seems to have at least one countering point to everything Yamato says, and everything he says is with a cocky tone of self belief and assuredness. It's mind blowing, really.
Luckily, the buddy exercises see you teamed up with the person sat to your left instead, Naruto. He's only young, maybe 16 at most, and you honestly can't help but wonder what he could have done to have ended up in this class. He's excitable and kind, even if his oversharing gets a little repetitive at times. The pair of you breeze through the exercises, but you're absolutely sure you notice him tearing up during the quiet meditation. Oh well, whatever keeps him quiet.
Mercifully, the evening draws to a close as Yamato stands up and claps his hands together, before speaking up, "Well everyone, I think we've learnt some valuable skills today, bear these in mind until I see you again next week, okay?" The way he says it sounds as though he's begging to a degree. "You all know how to contact me if you're ever struggling." He adds. You can tell he doesn't really want to be contacted, but it's nice that he offers anyway.
You're half way through your bee-line to the door before you hear that voice again. "Woah not so fast babe! You should give me your number, I'm sure we'd have plenty to talk about."
It's him. That same cocky tone is back and the smirk is practically audible. The first thought in your head is to just completely ignore him, but you find yourself whipping your head around before you have time to react properly. Instead of deciding to grace him with a proper reply, you deem it acceptable enough to send a look his way that just reads absolutely not, before carrying on with your swift exit.
A few days later, you've swapped fluorescent lights for a fluorescent orange vest. It's itchy, unflattering and baggy in all the wrong places, but the supervisor for your first session of community service insists it's 'mandatory safety gear', and you have no interest in prolonging this experience. It's really not worth it. At least you've been spared the burden of having a partner, a small saving grace of the morning, leaving you to scrub in peace. The park is quite peaceful at this hour on a Saturday, the early morning sun shining, birds chirping, and a light breeze that smells faintly of cut grass and chemical solvent. You could almost pretend this was voluntary.
As much as you appreciate the various scribbles of 'EAT THE RICH!!', and other similar sentiments among the miscellaneous doodles, it's oddly satisfying watching the paint slowly fade away. You're getting into quite the rhythm, monotonous as it is. Humming a quiet tune, you try to enjoy the experience as much as possible.
Some crunching of the gravel path behind you distracts you from the accidental zoning out you were doing while cleaning. Instead of taking a look, you check the time. An hour has almost passed already?
"Ah, nice of you to join us," You hear the supervisor pipe up, "You do realise this hour will need to be worked back". Curiosity piqued, you turn to look at the newly unfolding scene.
Him.
Your heart drops, it's time to say goodbye to any peace and quiet you had gotten used to for the past hour. If your first introduction to the silver haired idiot stood giving the supervisor snark was anything to go by, then you're in for a very long day. Eyes fixed on you like you're a damn beacon in the dark, he's sauntering over. Jacket tied around his waist, because clearly he must think he's too cool to wear it like everybody else. You silently curse yourself for finding it attractive.
"No way! You're here too babe?" That cocky tone again! At least it's got you forgetting all about any fleeting earlier attraction you may have had towards him, "Must be fate, huh."
"Must be my punishment from the universe." You retort, already tired of the interaction, "As if this wasn't enough penance already."
He scoffs. "Don't be so hostile, we gotta work together." Of course. Why would it go any other way. "Now uh, what are we doing? I kinda ignored everything that guy had to say. Way too fucking boring."
You roll your eyes, chucking a spare sponge his way and nudge the bucket and supplies towards the middle. He picks them up, and comes right up beside you, inspecting everything you're doing. Nodding and breathing right down your neck, he points out every spray you make with the cleaner, every motion you make with the sponge. Much to your dismay, he ignores all three preliminary warnings to 'just get on with your own section' and it's all too much.
"Oh my fucking god, can you give me some space?!" That all too familiar angry bile is building in your stomach as you snap, people like him are the reason you're here in the first place and it's making the whole thing too much.
Resisting the urge to throw the sponge in his face, you back away, dropping it instead with a thud. As you come slightly more to your senses, turning around, you see that there are no nosy eyes on you. A cigarette finds its way from the pouch in your pocket to your mouth and you fumble for a lighter.
So much for managing your anger.
Hidan throws an almost sorry look your way as you come up empty handed. He pulls out a lighter and holds it out towards you. "Here."
You accept the gesture, snatching the lighter from him. Flicking the lid open, the Zippo sparks to life. A few deep inhales and mental reminders to keep your cool later, you feel a small wave of calm wash over you. Tossing it back to him, he nimbly catches it, and sparks his own up. He collapses into a cross-legged position on the floor, a cautious few metres away from you. He says nothing, but that familiar smirk creeps onto his face, totally unfazed by your reaction.
His calmness isn't the typical reaction that you'd come to expect after having little outbursts, and it's slightly flustering. As you finally respond, "Whatever. Just stay over there." You join him on the floor, happily keeping your distance.
"I can't lie babe, I didn't expect that. You were so quiet in anger management." He leaves the statement lingering in the air, as if waiting for you to reply, but you don't. "But I guess you wouldn't be there for no reason."
You still don't dignify him with a response, instead opting to sit and finish your cigarette in relative peace. Luckily he takes the hint, he doesnt continue on. He finishes up himself, and to your surprise, he grabs the cleaning supplies and gets to work on the wall. You're almost disappointed he doesn't keep talking.
Joining him, you settle into an awkward rhythm together. Neither of you say anything for the next few hours, but the progress made on the wall is obvious. Hidan is humming some tunes quietly as he goes, and you recognise some of the melodies. Perhaps this counts as progress? Sort of. Break time rolls around, and honestly, you're just glad to numb your brain with some time zoning out scrolling.
By the afternoon, the awkward silence has shifted, replaced by a mutual quietness. It's interrupted from time to time with the odd remark from Hidan, and you almost catch yourself laughing at one of them. Time seems to speed up as you continue in this rhythm, a calm understanding between you until the end of the day, you don't say goodbye to him, but you offer a quick half smile before leaving.
The next few days are the same, little moments of small talk and the occasional joke littering the silence between you. Hidan shows up, usually late, much to your annoyance. At least he eventually starts to make up for it by working extra hard. You start to feel glad when he does eventually show up instead of, but you convince yourself it's just that the work goes faster with the two of you actually there.
By Wednesday morning, his habit is growing old. Checking the time, it's now quarter past ten, start time is supposed to be eight! This is by far the latest he's been so far, you make a mental note to give him a piece of your mind when he finally shows up. Before you finish imagining the angry things you'll say to him, a tap to your shoulder startles you.
"Sorry I'm late... Again." It's Hidan, and this time he looks genuinely remorseful, albeit while waving a coffee in your face. He continues. "Truce?"
Your hand betrays you as you welcome the caffeine. A smile creeps onto your face, betraying you even more, as you take a sip. "Thanks, Hidan." It's amazing. As a barista, judging a good coffee comes naturally to you, but damn. He got you here.
"No problem babe." Hidan returns, the nickname has stuck, despite your original protests. Maybe you're starting to like it? No. It's definitely a case of Stockholm Syndrome or something. Yeah, must be.
The day blurs by, followed by the rest of the week and before you realise it, the wall is finally clean. The supervisor barely acknowledges the feat, dismissing it as if it were nothing, before informing you of your new assignment. Hidan was to be sent to an area just a few miles away, clearing rubbish and debris from some wasteland that was due to become a building site. You're to go back to that damn community centre, apparently it needs to be decorated, and you seemingly got lucky.
Only three days left of this until you're back to being a regular, fully free citizen again. Feels weird. Even weirder is the strange sadness at the realisation that you won't be paired up with Hidan any longer. You've grown comfortable with him, the teamwork, the weird chemistry bubbling up that you've decided to stop pretending isn't there.
You turn to him, speaking up before he has chance to, for once. "So, I guess this is it then."
"Doesn't have to be though babe," That familiar smirk again, except this time, it doesn't make you cringe. You don't feel like launching a sponge in his face, or dismissing him with a hostile remark. You smile. "Maybe we could grab a coffee or something? I don't know, whatever you're into I guess?"
You don't respond straight away, instead choosing to laugh quickly at his almost shy way of asking. It's a break from his usual aloof and sarcastic character, but you welcome it, it's kind of endearing. You finally reply with an honest smile. "Yeah, okay."
"No shit?! Alright then babe," He seems genuinely happy as a smile replaces his previously awkward demeanor. "So, can I finally get your number then?"
"Of course you can, stupid."