#asuma

“Aw, I’m so happy for you.” She laughs heartily. “I’m going to tell Mother immediately. You know she always worries about you. Now she no longer needs to look for possible suitors. Although she’ll probably keep looking, just in case.”

You laugh along, your heart squeezing. It’s nice to be so well cared for.

“Oh, by the way,” Suzume hands you a few letters. “These came for you. Mother turned down the heating as usual.” She hesitates, leans in, her voice lowered. “Are you thinking about moving out? I won’t tell Mother if you’re still thinking about it.”

“Oh,” you hesitate. “I haven’t thought about that, yet, to be honest. I probably should, rent isn’t cheap, and I’m sure others are looking for a place.”

“Ah,” Suzume shrugs. “We don’t mind.” Her face lights up as she jokes. “Just think how Mother could brag if the Kakashi lived in one of our apartments. She’d be floating on clouds.”

-

Upstairs is cold, just as Suzume had warned you about. 

You keep your jacket on as you wait for the heating to kick back in, laugh at the fact that your sheets have been changed and your shelves have been dusted.

Unlike most Shinobi, you don’t live in one of the apartment blocks near the tower, each apartment an exact copy of the one before. The rent there is cheap, and you used to live there for a year or two after making Chunin, but you’ll most likely never go back.

Sure, the Tao family is inherently nosy, and the rent is a little higher than most Shinobi are used to. But they care well for you, as a family would. 

You look around. Imagine Kakashi living here, amidst flowery curtains and a pink bedframe. Wonder what Tao-san would say if she could hear him curse at night when he stubs his toe on the bedframe. Or what she would think of all the dog hair one person can leave, not to mention the mess he makes when he shaves. 

Ah, you miss him already. 

You don’t sleep well that night. 

You miss Pakkun’s soft snores and the warmth of Kakashi’s chest, your favorite pillow. 

You miss waking up to Bull’s rumbling stomach and a kiss. 

The coffee tastes different here. The floor is much colder underneath your naked feet.

-

“Hey,” Kakashi leans in for a quick kiss, using a tower of instant Ramen as a makeshift hiding place. You giggle at his antics and lean into his touch. You’ve missed him.

“Hey,” you reply fondly, picking out a few flavors to store in your cupboard at home. It’s not the healthiest food to eat, but it won’t expire, and so far, you’ve always managed to boil water.

“Did you miss me?” He asks, leaning into your space. He keeps his voice light, like this is just another joke, but you can tell that he cares about the answer. 

“I did,” you tell him sincerely, brushing your thumb over the pink dusting his cheeks, barely hidden by his mask. “Coffee tasted different without you.”

“Mhm,” he nods, at a loss for words. “Same.”

“Yeah?” You smile. “Good.” 

“Since when do you eat instant Ramen?” He asks as he watches you, hands pushed into the pockets of his jacket. You count the seconds until he reaches for you- and there he is, one finger hooked into the waistband of your trousers. 

“It’s handy,” you explain, satisfied with your choice, shuffling out of the aisle. “It doesn’t expire, and I only need water. It’s good to keep on hand.”

“I’ve never seen you eat instant Ramen, though.”

Your smile turns a little crooked. “I only eat it when I’m not with you, so-”

You can tell he’s furrowing his brows even with the hitai-ate hiding them from view.

“You can cook. I’ve seen you do it.”

You laugh. “That’s not it. But have you noticed how often I’m at your place?” You’d been wondering about it. If you should bring it up or not. You don’t want him to panic, but maybe, if you keep the conversation light…

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kakashi asks, and there’s that undertone there you’ve learned to look out for. He’s ready to pull back into himself, and you make sure to smile and take his hand as you wait for him to settle.

“I like the way it is right now,” you remind him gently. “I’m just saying that I prefer having instant Ramen whenever I want it instead of having to figure out if the vegetables I bought a week ago are molding in my fridge or yours.”

“Oh,” you watch as the tension slowly bleeds out of his shoulders. “That makes sense.”

“I think so, too. Do you want to make miso soup for dinner tonight?”

“Yeah, I’d like that. With Sanma?”

You laugh. “If you insist. Oh,” you perk up at the idea. “I’ll get something sweet for dessert.”

-

You left your bag back at your apartment, and you’re regretting it now.

It’s getting late, you’re tired, still feeling stuffed from dinner. Kakashi’s rubbing circles into the pads of your feet and you could fall asleep right here, right now, if not for the stupid bag.

“What are you thinking about?” Kakashi asks, holding his book toward you so you can turn the page for him.

“I need to get my bag,” you grumble, still not moving. “And I either have to do it now, or tomorrow morning before I leave for my mission.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” you curl a little further into the pillows. “I don’t wanna get up right now.”

“Then don’t.”

You huff. “But then I have to get up earlier tomorrow.”

“Then don’t.”

“Kakashi,” you whine, “I can’t start coming into work late!”

“Why not? I do that all the time.”

You try to kick him, but you’re lazy and tired, and he’s been getting better at reading you. 

“Stay the night, will you?”

You huff. “It’s not like I had any other plans.”

“You did. You left your bag at home, thinking you’d get it later.”

“No,” you argue stubbornly. “I fully intended to bring it, because you get whiny when I try to leave after dinner, but then I saw you waiting for me outside, and I got excited.”

The corner of his mouth twitches, and you would have missed it if he’d been wearing his mask, but he’s stopped wearing it around you for a while now, at least when you’re at his place.

“You’re making fun of me,” you complain as dramatically as possible, and he laughs, the sound quiet and rich.

“A little,” he admits, and you pretend not to notice that he’s stopped rubbing circles, his thumb drawing lazy hearts into the soles of your feet instead.

-

You’ve known Kakashi for a while, now. 

You’ve shared a bottle of Sake in the apartment he held as an Anbu, all the drawers filled with nondescript weapons, the mattress a little too hard to be called comfortable. 

You slept on the floor of his tiny bedroom in the apartment he shared with Guy for that one miserable year neither of you wants to talk about. You’d been friends then, close, but not quite touching, unless you reached out to switch the wet towel that kept his fever in check or he had to put yet another bandage on your bruised cheek. 

You’ve known him for long enough to witness the growth of his bookshelves, have earned his trust to the point he doesn’t mind lending you one for a particular boring mission. You’ve had a key to his family home for years, only ever used it to feed his dogs or make sure he’s not walking when he’s supposed to be in bed instead.

But this feels different.

This key has your name on it - god knows how he’s managed that - dangling from your keychain with a tiny silver heart attached to it. It’s cute. Reminds you of the jewelry you used to wear as a kid. 

You could ask him how he did it. Snatched your keys from your bag in the short time it took you to walk in, and while he’s making conversation at the same time, too.

But you don’t. You don’t quite want to know. 

Instead, you let the silence linger a you pick it up, admire the tiny silver heart a little longer than necessary, until Kakashi presses his weight into you like an impatient puppy.

“What do you say?”

“To what?”

He blows his breath against the shell of your ear. “The key, of course. What do you think?”

“Ah, well, I wonder what it opens.”

“My heart, of course,” he jokes, but he doesn’t pull back. His voice turns a little lower, his mood a little more desperate. “Move in with me?”

And you could joke around a little more. After all, you’ve got a perfectly good apartment for him to move in with you. But you don’t. 

You knew it would turn out this way if you persevered, if you loved, if you hoped enough. Knew it ever since you turned up to check on him all these years ago, and he blinked up at you, feverish and lonely, and asked the only thing you needed to be asked.

“Stay?”

-

Suzume watches from her window, waving with blazing cheeks as you carry box after box down the stairs. She’s supposed to help her mother, but the two of them are too busy ogling your helpers. There’s Genma, flaunting a new haircut, and Guy, who’s trying out a shorter uniform for the summer. Raido, who doesn’t stop complaining, and Asuma, who smokes one cigarette after the other, ordering the rest of you around.

“It’s called organising,” he explains when Raido asks him about it. “One of us has to do it and just be glad it’s not Kakashi.”

“I didn’t know you had that much stuff,” Anko mutters from her perch, just another friend who refuses to lift a finger. 

“Oh, I don’t,” you admit. “Don’t tell them, but Kakashi asked his Genin Team to fill my apartment with random stuff so the boys get a good training in. My stuff is already at his place anyway.”

Anko’s laughter rips through the sunny afternoon. To their demise, none of the boys take notice of it until it’s too late.

- 

“Morning,” you mumble, shuffling into the kitchen and Kakashi’s arms. “Why are you up so early? And why are you up and out of bed?”

“I had a weird dream,” he mumbles, eyes locked onto the coffee machine. “We were fighting over the coffee machine.”

“We were?” You ask, getting comfortable in his lap. “Why?”

“Because we kept mine, but you wanted to keep yours.”

“Sounds fake,” you press a kiss to the underside of his chin. “Tell me more.”

“When I finally remembered which one of our friends got the coffee machine, you left me for them.”

“I left you for Anko?” You rub a palm over his naked chest. “I’m sorry, that must have hurt.”

“Anko?” Kakashi blinks, slowly slipping out of his post-nightmare-haze. “I thought we gave it to Guy?”

“No, Guy doesn’t drink coffee. Anko bought it because she wants to build a poison machine from it. Like a coffee machine that makes poison, you know?”

Kakashi blinks. Shudders. Kisses you deeply.

“Our friends are weird,” he points out when he’s satisfied, smiling. “You know that, right?”

“Show me your friends, and it will show who you are,” Pakkun points out nasally from the doorway. “Are you finished already? I want breakfast.”

-

Join my Taglist

@kaykaystrings @tsxkishimx @rory-cakes @cookielovesbook-akie

@a-girl-cant-decide-on-a-name @alexxavicry @theferretkids

@animegamerfox @applepie972 @qardasngan @born2diegirl

@darthferbert @kyluskaye @integers @somatchajade @dog55teeth

@missmadness123 @17chuuya @katbug37 @bijuu-naginata