[LOG] A Day In The Life Of... [Part 1 of 2]
Characters: Hidan and Kakuzu
Date: January 15
Location: Their shared apartment in Cena; various locations
Rating: R
Warnings/Notes: Language, Violence
Summary: Just another day…
"Fuck."
Knees cracking as he unfolded himself from his kneeling position, Hidan slowly unwound the length of rosary beads from around his palm, the blood only flowing sluggishly now in comparison to steady stream from when the knife first slid easily across his skin. Depositing the symbol of his faith onto the small alter, he absently wiped his hand against his thigh before wandering out of his room in search of a more corporal sustenance. Food for the soul came first of course, everything else came later. Ingrained habit had him blatantly ignoring the silent man in the room as he swaggered into the kitchen, bending over to rummage through the refrigerator with a dissatisfied grunt.
"Hey shithead, where the fuck's all the food? I'm fuckin' starvin' here and it was your turn to restock dammit."
"If you're addressing me, put some clothes on first, then we'll talk." The other man in the room rumbled out in a uncaring tone, his thin lips curving downwards in the slightest degree at the newspaper spread out before him on the table, ignorant of the blatant name calling and vulgarity of how he was being addressed. It was due to habit and the unrestrained patience he had towards people like this that made him hold back in retorting back in a black language of his choice.
No, patience was the wrong word.
Rather, Kakuzu hated that word. And he hated even more, the word that defined the both of them altogether.
Partners.
"Otherwise, you're welcome to sniff it out like the rats."
"Of course I'm addressing you, fucktard, sure as hell ain't talking to my own damned self. And what the hell do clothes have to do with the fact that I'm hungry? Just 'cause you ain't got a dick sure as hell doesn't mean I gotta go out of my way to keep from offending those delicate little eyes of yours." It took quite a bit of effort but Hidan refrained from lobbing what he assumed was a molded hunk of cheese at the back of the dark head currently engrossed probably in whatever financial news that could be found in that piece of shit newspaper.
Truth be told he couldn't understand why the bastard bothered, it was hardly as if any of it truly mattered, being as though not one of their shared nor solo business ventures were legit enough that whatever information the newsprint held, it wouldn't do him any good in the slightest.
"Tell ya what, you tell me where the food is and maybe I'll think about getting dressed. Nice little trade off."
A stony silence was the reply to Hidan's offer, Kakuzu barely hearing what the other had to say. Financial-wise, the newspaper reported none that was worth looking at. Curia, having only the districts to meddle with themselves and no outside influence, could be used in the perfect example of a financial monopoly by the government. When the government had the holds on any businesses made within the Blue and White, there was nothing worth reporting than the increases of taxation again and again. It sickened Kakuzu to even look at those pathetic figures on the paper, having no meaning at all.
But only on rare occasions did a column slip into the newspaper unnoticed, right under the censor and provide some useful information worth looking at. A slim column of text was what captured the dark man's attention at the moment, causing the scars near his lips to stretch in unison in a rare satisfied curve before relapsing to their original states. Although it was propaganda at its best, the column condemning the usage of "miracle pills" only refuted its own purpose, having done quite the opposite and raised the hope and interests of those of such drugs. And that was where the business opportunity starts.
Returning the first page back on top, Kakuzu stood up from his spot, barely giving Hidan a passing glance as he moved past the shorter man to rummage through the cabinets.
"You're making a fucking mess. Clean it up, put on some clothes and then you'll get food." He commented darkly at the dark stains that he caught trailing out of Hidan's room. The smeared, yet bloody nevertheless, hand print on his partner's pale skin failed to escape his vision as well. It was no lie that Hidan did his part of the job well, Kakuzu having caught himself being subtly impressed with Hidan's capabilities. Which was the only reason why he tolerated any of this "Jashin" bull anyhow.
Inwardly, Hidan was fuming. Would it really kill the bastard to give him some sort of a viable reaction? It never failed that no matter what it was that he did, it was brushed off with that cold, collected manner that irritated the living hell of him. Every once in a blue moon, he was able to ruffle those leaden feathers to his liking but it was a rare occasion to be sure. The absolutely worst of it was this, the condescending tone that just set Hidan's ire and made him just that much more likely to keep pushing the other man until it elicited some sort of blow out or until Hidan got bored, which was more likely the later rather then the former. As such was the case now, Hidan's stomach was getting restless and he just wanted food.
With a deftness that even the most seasoned pickpocket in Cena would envy, he had flashed out a hand and snatched up the silk -who the fuck wears silk in Cena?- handkerchief that was crisply folded and tucked into the pocket of the impeccable suit worn by his associate. It was one more interesting facet to this partner of his. For being the financially prudent man that Kakuzu was, he had a particular fondness for dressing to the nines, and only in the best of the best. No matter how many times Hidan had seen it, seeing Kakuzu splattered with the blood of his latest 'donor' while still carrying off that prissy ass demeanor? Abso-fuckin'-lutely Priceless. (Having to hear him bitching about the cost of cleaning the fabric afterwards? Not nearly as amusing.) Even still, it was hardly enough of a reason to desist, the delicate fabric sticking to the tacky blood stained on his hand even as he bent down to swab mockingly at the stains trailing through the room, the decorative fabric doing more to smear the blood around rather then actually cleaning it up.
Feeling rightly accomplished, he tossed the destroyed scrap of fabric so that it fluttered to rest on top of the cleanly folded newspaper even as his lips turned up haughtily.
Mentally, Kakuzu had half expecting the man to either throw punches but never anticipated the fact that things would turn against him in this way. It did not bother Kakuzu one bit that the mess on the floor was worsened (there was an advantage in being the accountant of Akatsuki and deducting these things from the members' paycheck wasn't something he was hesitant in doing) but exactly with what was used to do so. Even if he could hack off several digits off of Hidan's next paycheck in retribution, Kakuzu did not take lightly the damage to his own personal items.
"Go ahead and try to sniff it out then," he coldly informed Hidan, stepping away from the empty cabinets to pocket the soiled silk handkerchief. Besides, sooner or later his Jashinist partner would realize that the money used for this week had been used on the hookers they owned in the building next door. Thin was one thing, but having the merchandise show more bone than flesh was not a smart move in such business. Seeing that the both of them were joint owners in this particular franchise (even if Kakuzu would rather Hidan take over it), it was appropriate that Hidan take the consequences of profit costs on his head as well.
Hidan should have known that his actions would have led to that particular reaction, but it surely didn't stop the cheeky grin from withering to a more than displeased scowl.
"What the hell? There's nothing here to sniff out! We had a deal dammit! One week I do food, you do booze, next week switch. Fair enough so that I'm not screwed by you bein' a cheap sonuvabitch moochin' off of me and your stingy ass doesn't have to fork out as much money with me takin' up some of the slack. S'not fuckin' rocket science ya bastard and this was your week. The last time I forgot you tried to have my ass evicted and my name is on the fuckin' lease!"
He was easily working himself into a fine fit of rage over the whole incident, the whole scenario like a thousand others that had taken place before. Hidan would provoke, Kakuzu would respond in his own fashion, thus provoking Hidan and the cycle continued on until one of them walked stormed off or if Hidan was lucky enough, they ended up beating the living hell out of one another, the original argument forgotten.
The yelling, the fighting, the violence.
It was a welcome change of mind when he needed it, having suffered a large amount of profit cost that day or such. It proved to be a challenge when your punching bag punched back, yelled profanities back at you and then tried to convert you to a completely unheard of religion. But now was not the time, and all Kakuzu did was keep his grim face on, having heard the same arguments again and again. Tearing off the suit jacket he had on at the moment (the very same one that was still on him after last night's job) and throwing it on the bed, Kakuzu switched to a thin black cotton dress shirt. Everything he wore was simple, neat and nothing extravagant. Best of all, he never had to pay for them.
Straightening his collar, Kakuzu stepped out of his room again, a package of potato chips flying straight out of his hands and smack dab right into Hidan's face, abruptly turning off the racket. For now, anyways.
"When you're finished talking to yourself and eating that, I suggest you get your ass downstairs and next door as soon as possible. Otherwise I'm sticking the troublesome whore from last night first, with or without you." The echo of the slammed door indicated Kakuzu's abrupt exit, leaving Hidan alone in the apartment by himself.
*~*~*~*~*
Perhaps in another incarnation, the woman cowering at his feet might have been a beauty.
As it were, she was barely pinging on the 'pretty' scale, the years obviously had not been kind. Not something you normally heard in regards to some 17 year old girl. Hell, when Hidan had first sighted the broad she'd been hot, freshly run off to Cena to piss off overbearing parents or some shit, but here of late she had been getting all these crazy thoughts in that fluffy little head of hers.
"What th' fuck made you think you were any better then the rest of these bitches huh? Who put that fool thought in that empty space between your ears that you didn't have to get your ass on the street like the rest of them, that you didn't have t'get to work just because you didn't feel like it, huh bitch-cakes? HA! There's at least two broken ribs t'the contrary...got anything else you wanna share that you don't think we already know?", he cackled, punctuating each question with a sharp kick.
And the best part of it all, they didn't even have to do this in sight of the other girls. Her shrill cries carried through the thin walls of the building as if they were paper, leaving the others with a very vivid image of 'This Could Happen To You'. Lowering himself so that he was balanced on the balls of his feet, Hidan twisted a hank of the unwashed hair around his fist, yanking her up so that they were face to face for a moment before forcing her head to the side to look at his silent partner.
"Y'know, that's not even touching on the money you've been hoarding girly. Heard you been saving up, thinkin' you were gonna make a run for it. That bastard over there? Well, he's just a lil' touchy when it comes to people fuckin' with our finances ya see? And when he gets pissy, then I gotta deal with his ass and that makes me pissy so ya see where we're going with this, right?"
There was no pity in Kakuzu's eyes as he looked over to where Hidan and the whore was, barely hearing his self being mentioned. The whore was in a mess, having sported a bloody nose and several broken bones from last night's events. Having noticed lesser money in the account for quite a while now, Kakuzu had immediately gone to interrogate every girl, after. Apparently, the girl seemed to have been one of the least liked ones in the ring. Being beautiful and blessed with good looks was a curse around here.
A certain sense of paranoia settled in his mind after the episode. Which was the very reason why no pity nor mercy was given back to the girl, only the glint of the long dagger that flashed now and then as he toyed with it in his right hand.
If it was his choice, the woman would've been already gutted open, being devoid of any internal organs that were of use on the market. Even so, the only pity Kakuzu could muster was the one given for her piercing blue eyes and the effect he had seen from the customers from them. They wouldn't be much use to them after he and Hidan were done with her. The unsettling paranoia and his own need for self-satisfaction against her betrayal against the business overcame anything else, needing to be settled first.
But at this point if Hidan kept kicking where her vital organs were, there probably wouldn't be enough organs to salvage in the end.
"I need her blood, Hidan. Try not to get carried away by your antics and waste it all."
"Quit yer bitchin' bastard, should be fuckin' grateful I'm not fightin' ya for the worthless carcass but I wouldn't insult Jashin-sama with this piece of shit. Not even worth the blood needed to sacrifice the broad." Just to reiterate his point of not quite giving a damn about Kakuzu's warning, he added an extra kick to the girl's stomach.
It had been one of his favorite girls that had tipped him off to the bitch's escape. Simple enough to lavish a little more attention on one or two of the girls and they were cake in your hand. And you always had an inside ear just in case of situations like this. Of course after a while the chosen few got entirely too comfortable with their role and got above themselves, eventually finding themselves to be in the exact same position as this unfortunate one, but at least there was always ten more girls in line to replace the one.
Besides, it sure as hell didn't hurt to breathe new life into their inventory every so often. Kaku-bastard was always a little more easier to swallow especially after those times of culling out the dead weight, the extra cash lining his pockets from the disposal of old stock went a long way in making him easier to deal with.
Hidan would always feel a little more blessed around those times himself, the sacrifices lining themselves up so nice and pretty like always left him with an extra bounce in his step around those times.
The response was less than reassuring, but Kakuzu wasn't one to use his mouth with comebacks and he always deposited such memories of annoyance in his memory bank for a better use next time. But even so, the swift turns of the dagger stopped its intensity for a fraction of a degree less only to be stopped fully when Kakuzu embedded it into the nearby wall, tired with handling the thing at the moment. Instead his attention returned to the rolls of money to his left on the end table of the lounge, painted red with the girl's own blood. Fingers changed their rigidity at the touch of the green paper, almost acting as if caressing a baby, slowly and carefully.
The rubber band was slipped off and the numbers started to pile into Kakuzu's head, adding into the sweet sum with each flick of his fingers on the edges of the bills. This would keep him occupied while waiting for his turn at the girl after Hidan.
Fuck knows, how long he was going to take with that mouth of his.
Further ignoring the other man in the small room, Hidan roughly shoved the girl over onto her back before kneeling back down to straddle her hips. His lips curled at the gasping pleas for her life, the broken ribs moving of their own accord around the heaving lungs. Twig like wrists were easily caught and pinned above her head with absolutely no effort, his nose dragging along the underside of the girl's jaw in a mocking intimate gesture before stopping with his face directly over hers, a rather insane light illuminating violet eyes as he took in the girl at his complete mercy. The sadistic leer didn't waver in the slightest as nimble fingers withdrew a knife from a sheath at his calf, bringing the blade up so that panicked eyes could catch the glinting metal before it slammed down through the palms of her hands, digging easily into the soft aged wood of the floor.
Another knife was withdrawn from seemingly nowhere even as a strong hand gripped the girl's chin, holding her firmly in place though she didn't seem to be too keen on moving with the sharp tip of the knife ghosting just underneath the delicate golden lashes lining those pretty blue eyes that had lured in so many customers.
"Maybe if you stopped all that blubberin' girly and started beggin' for forgiveness, Jashin-sama may have mercy on your pathetic ass...cause I got news fer ya, you sure as hell ain't gonna find any here. Shoulda thought 'bout it a little more before ya tried to fuck us over bitch."
A quick flick of his wrist ripped yet another screech from the girl even as her sight was ripped from her, Hidan's face, ecstatic in his tormenting being the last thing she saw in this lifetime.
The last screech of pain made Kakuzu look sideways at his partner, only to make it face-on when he noticed the rather bloody eyehole adorning her pitiful features now. A soft curse was uttered under his breath, both because of Hidan and himself, having fallen under his greed again. Although he let such a vice reign freely now and then, dictating his body as much as it wanted, there were times when Kakuzu wished it could control itself in times like these.
A sickening crunch of wood followed the ejection of the long dagger, having been pulled out by Kakuzu as he stepped forth from the shadows covering him. The dim light shed from the red neon signs transparent through the polished glasses on the bar did nothing to make the area around Hidan and the girl brighter, but it did better than pure blackness. It didn't take much light to do what he was aiming to do, anyways. With the amount of body count he had on his hands from cutting out various organs, here and there, it was all ingrained in his memory.
The long dagger whistled through the air again as he stepped forward, the only sign of his impatience. For now.
"Blue eyes are hard to come by these days. But idiots like you aren't in scarcity at all. Before you impale anything else I need off of her, I suggest you finish now."
"Heh, I suggest you not to get your panties all twisted in a knot. Bitch-cakes here isn't going anywhere now are ya darlin'?" Long time experience had Hidan disregarding the blatant warning in his partner's voice, opting to drag the now bloodied tip of the knife down the girl's face instead, the shallow cut leading from the oozing eye socket down to just under her chin. The maniacal grin on his face was only exaggerated due to the whirring of Kakuzu's dagger, an irritated tic if there ever was one.
Perhaps if it were anyone else he wouldn't have paid any mind at all, but there was a reason the two of them had been shoved together. Perhaps not the original reason they were partnered up but the reason they remained was because neither had managed to kill the other yet. Rumor had it that all of Kakuzu's partners prior to himself ended up missing, or not even necessarily missing but slaughtered in his usual tell-tale fashion. Hidan's own sordid past had shown his proclivity to working solo, but for whatever reason, constant threats and random attempted homicides aside, they seemed to work.
That surely didn't to stop Hidan from trying to push Kakuzu as far as he possibly could. No one ever accused him of not having a death wish.
"Lets see, two corneas would have brought you what, couple of hundred each?" he asked conversationally, pulling the knife slowly down the girl's body as he sat himself back up, snagging the tip of the blade over stained clothes. Switching the blade from his left hand to his right, he tugged the shirt up slightly to show bruised flesh, the knife tip now tracing an idle design over her left hip. "What would a kidney get you? As you've often pointed out, I only need one, so assuming she only had one...," he then drove the knife in to where he could assume a kidney would be, "..How much would that have brought ya, shithead? Though I can't claim to be nearly as precise as you here so that might have just been the both of them...Oh well!"
"The cost of a kidney varies. Your life does not." Came the curt reply before Kakuzu's fingers and weapon finally went into action.
The dagger stilled as its owner rotated it so its sharp metallic point was touching the pale skin of Hidan's neck then tracing a hot, red line upwards toward the hanging lobe of his ear in one fluid move. Blood thinly poured out immediately, lining the cut and Kakuzu had half the mind to take off the ear altogether but that would give the white-haired ass more excuses as to not hearing Kakuzu's demands in the future very "well". The girl had stopped screaming a couple of seconds earlier, having probably choked on her own blood or maybe even fainted from the amount of pain from Hidan's administrations. Either way, with the amount of blood pooling out on her body, she had little time to live. At most, Kakuzu could only collect three or four pints of blood at this point.
If Hidan was going to pull this shit on him now, god help him, the next time they went off on a bounty trip, he was going to make the man sleep in the streets with the filth, a very compatible setting for his language. There was no use wasting money on an idiot like this, and even so the dagger point trembled slightly under the curve of the Hidan's ear before Kakuzu flung it towards the girl's forehead, watching the blade sinking right in the middle, silencing her forever. It had to end this way more than once, otherwise the both of them would be here all day, witnessing the extent of his partner's torture techniques.
It wasn't a mercy killing. It was the consequence of pushing his patience and expecting him to be silent about it.
"Now you're fucking done."
"Aww, now you've gone and hurt my feelin's bastard. You had your chance to go at her so don't be gettin' pissy with me just because I'm enjoyin' myself."
A single fluid movement had his knife ripped out of the cooling corpse and scraping over the adam's apple of his partner, the blade pressing dangerously underneath his chin. "Though next time I'll be the fuckin' judge of when I'm done or not you sonuvabitch. Interrupt me again and the next time it'll be you in her place ya fucker, orders or no orders. Don't know what bug crawled up that stingy ass of yours and died but last time I checked, I don't fuckin' answer to you any more then I do to anyone else." To emphasize his words the knife dug in just that much deeper, cutting in deep enough to draw blood so that Kakuzu's mingled with that of the whore's on his blade.
Fever bright violet eyes bore into the placid green ones as both stood their ground, not giving either an inch.
The last time Kakuzu remembered seeing his own blood and being at some sort of physical danger was around his early career as a freelancer, having being held up by his own partners in an inside job. Before then, the hardship had turned his body in a scar gallery, each pale skin exhibiting some sort of story of struggle and his failure to become the best. Some of them healed and disappeared by his body's own will. But when that started, Kakuzu would etch the same line across the skin with a razor, over and over again. Whatever it would take to make the scar stay there, forever a reminder to never fall in the same mistake again. There was nothing a simple stitch of needle and thread could fix afterwards.
That sharp pain registering through his mind was hardly a stranger at this point in life, sometimes even a welcome challenge. But with Hidan on the other side of the blade, the source of his impatience and headache ever since this morning, was anything other than welcome. The taller man could feel the underlying skin on his chin split open, making an influx of blood to rush to his mouth. Teeth gritted for a second before Kakuzu expelled the blood in his mouth and spat it in Hidan's face, in the same movement his left hand flying upwards to clench tightly on Hidan's, gripping it with a bone-crushing pressure.
"Don't get pompous, you ignorant ass. Threats have no affect on me and neither will your attempts in silencing me." Instead of pulling out the dagger, Kakuzu embedded the blade into his skin a couple of centimeters more, solidifying his claim. It lasted for a second before the dagger and hand of Hidan was pulled out, releasing strings of blood following afterwards. Wrenching the hand still in the palm of his, Kakuzu twisted the rotary bone of the wrist to a degree where fingers could no longer properly hold the blade and with another jerk, Kakuzu forced the fingers in his grip to fold backwards, resulting in the sickening crunch of displaced bones.
There were few things in this life that gave Hidan such an outrageous amount of pleasure. The way that life slowly bled out of the eyes of those sacrificed to his God even as their blood vacated the lifeless shell. That wonderful feeling he got while he was out doing Jashin-sama’s work in spite of all the godless heathens, their screams of eternal damnation ringing musically in his ears. And most definitely being able to incite such a reaction from his more often than not, dull companion.
It was nearly enough to make a grown man cry.
The sneer curling his lips slid easily into a sadistically pleased grin that never wavered even as he felt that sweet rush of pain when the small bones in his fingers were dislocated, his tongue flickering out to swipe at the blood speckling his face, catching what stained his lips.
"That's the pot calling the kettle black ya fucker. But isn't it nice to know that you're still alive? Can't tell me that didn't feel fan-fuckin'-tastic to just let it go instead of stewin' in it just to keep up that prissy bitch facade of yours. There's only the illusion of control Kaku-bastard...I just don't feel the need to pretend like you do but in the end you're no better then me and that fuckin' burns your ass doesn't it? Ain't no point in hidin' it, might as well enjoy it for what it is," Hidan purred, the hand not caught in the crushing grip rising to wrap itself around Kakuzu's throat threateningly, his thumb pressing just under the oozing incision to dig into his windpipe. "And ya know, the longer we stand here like this, the bitch is still leakin' onto the floorboards and those precious organs are dyin' just like yer profits."