Ink.
He stands alone,
He stares down at two figures,
A nameless man with blue eyes and yellow hair lays in front of him, bleeding on the grass, A gaping wound on his chest.
A woman with red hair lays next to the man, an identical wound on her chest and stomach,
A baby with whiskers screams in the darkness of the night.
The sacrifice of two legends.
The birth of a miracle.
He stands alone, watching it all unfold, hands covered in blood and eyes crying salty tears that mix with the blood on his face.
_________________
Kakashi jolts awake and curses out loud as dizziness hits him like a truck and pulls him back down on the mattress again. He hits his head on the headboard with a thud and a hiss and slides down onto the pillow pitifully.
He presses the inside of his palm flat on his left eye and stares up at the ceiling with a mix of growing frustration and confusion.
What is going on in his head??
What are all these..visions that he sees in each of them-
He groans and rolls over. The pillow was extremely comfy against his cheek but it didn’t let him hide from all the thoughts that attacked him frequently.
He rolls over in the bed multiple times before giving up on trying to sleep again. He glances out of the window and notices that it was still dark outside. He blearily opens his eyes, gets up and switches on the light. The clock on the wall read that it was just four in the morning.
Kakashi sits in his bed motionless. He doesn’t know what to do. Sleep would now be elusive and would evade him even if he tried to catch it. The sun would rise in a few hours so maybe he should just wait until it does. But one of the perks of being incredibly restless is that Kakashi could not not do anything unless his brain actually felt like shutting down for a bit. Right now, his brain was not interested in doing so and had unleashed its thoughts and questions which banged on all surfaces and crevices of his head.
How amazing.
Kakashi groans, scrubbing a hand over his face, as he comes to the conclusion that he was truly, incredibly bored and he did not know what to do about it.
He stands after a while to walk around in his room. He sits down again, unhappy that his room was far too short for him to pace like those worried characters in various novels he had read.
He lays back on the bed and stares up at the ceiling, letting his thoughts conquer him.
They run amok in his head, scribbling all over the walls of his mind with colours that clash against each other and blend at the points they meet. The questions paste themselves to various surfaces and run away before his brain can swallow them to further delve into them and find answers for them,
The colours the questions paint on the wall bleed from the wall to the bottom of his mind. No..not the bottom of his mind..It clings to something invisible, unwilling to be swallowed by Kakashi. It didn’t want Kakashi to know its counterpart- its answer. It clings to that invisible support and pours itself all over his head, confusing his brain by repeating itself over and over again in a pattern that was both crude and intricate. They spread like parasites and get away before they can be executed or dissolved.
They behave like pests which know something important but are too proud to divulge this knowledge.
Then Kakashi hears something- it starts to laugh-
The door opens with a bang. Outside the door stood the easily distinguishable form of the Alpha. Kakashi rolls his head to watch the Alpha who stands at the door wearily. His right cheek was read thanks to being pressed by his hand perhaps, There is a gentle swipe of ink across his face, the ink , black and rich like burnt charcoal, contrasting his pale, delicate features. The Alpha’s hands too were coated in the same ink.
Ink- just like the ink that was running and dripping in his head. Just like the dark paints that scatter his thoughts and slowly drown him in the swirling whirlpool of questions.
Ink paints everything. Ink- Ink- Ink -
Bleeding questions-
Hidden AnSwERs
Do you want to know?
The ink bleeds - he starts to whisper back-
A harsh slap rings in the room. It takes Kakashi a moment to realise that he had in fact been slapped. His face had rolled over and was now looking at the other side of the room with the window. Then he gets slapped again-
This time, he hits back. He lunges out his hand and cleanly lands a punch on his opponent's jaw who tumbles over the bed and lands on his knees with a strangled yelp.
“Are you back, you asshole ? or is it the asshole inside you who is with me right now?”
The ink clears immediately, bringing back proper shapes with proper borders. The ink doesn’t drip or pour; it simply vanishes as though someone had wiped it away.
His brain finally registers that he had in fact lashed out at his benefactor. Said benefactor sat on the floor, back leaning against the bed frame, one knee propped up to support his arm, his other leg lay on the floor, spread out, his other hand rested on the inner thigh of the leg which lay on the floor. His face was facing Kakashi, his delicate features twisted into a scowl, his jaw clenched, azure blue eyes glaring up at him, for once without any kind of shield to hide itself from the world. It was the first time Kakashi has been able to gaze at those blue eyes without them being immediately covered.
Kakashi had initially imagined that they were covered to shield Gojo’s eyes from the world but perhaps it was the other way around.
Kakashi stares, and maybe he had stared just a bit too long,
“Okay. You’re taking too long.” Purple flares in between long fingers and Satoru glares at him.
But Kakashi continues to stare.
The purple glow somehow not bothering him at all.
And stare.
The purple glow dims,
A shame for the glow truly did help bring out the other’s delicate features.
He thinks before simply curling into himself and whispering,
“It’s me..the asshole you know.”
Then his mind shuts down, blinds closing all around it to surround it in complete darkness.
___________________________________
The next time he wakes, he doesn’t remember the dream as vividly as before. Nor does he remember the ink that surrounded him with questions.
He wakes up and finds himself swamped under layers of blankets. He stretches and unfurls his body to get it moving, He pushes himself up on his elbows and curves his spine to look around the room. No sign of the Alpha…
Now normally in books, the one who barges into your room in the middle of the night and beats you up has the decency to wait until you wake up unless you meant nothing to the other guy.
Now that wounds him deeply,
The blankets were the only evidence that the Alpha had intact entered the room. Oh, and perhaps the smarting bruise on his face would also point in the same direction. He wonders if the bruise was evident on his face.
He rolls onto his back with a sigh, now he has to get up but he doesn’t want to. He feels like he has been sent through a shredder even though he only has wrestled with the numerous blankets thrown on top of him and lashed out on his housemate while being half asleep.
Not anything productive or important had happened then. He sighs and rolls onto his stomach. Now. Ideally, he should drag himself out of bed-
“Kakashi. Get up. It’s noon. I’ve been waiting for two hours.”
Kakashi rolls back onto his back and turns his head just so to stare at the intruder. He would glare if he had the energy but evidently he does not.
Gojo stares back, eyes shielded from Karachi with gauze wrapped over them.
Odd.
Gojo’s eyes were rarely hidden from view completely when he was within the walls of their shared apartment.
Kakashi blinks, breaking the one sided staring competition, well he assumes it is cause he can’t exactly see the Alpha’s eyes.
“And why should I get up, your highness?” He drawls a moment later,
“Because, I want to spar with you.”
“Me? With all my dangly, weak, lanky limbs?”
“Yes.” The other says with a tone that seemed to not want to entertain a single argument. If Kakashi had been a more energetic and less depressed man, he would have accepted this challenge without any hesitation and would have argued his heart out, but unfortunately he was not such a man and there was no hope for him to be so.
So Kakashi picks himself up from the comfortable mattress and drags himself to the washroom attached to his room. He first wets his toothbrush and presses the tube of toothpaste to push out a small amount of paste onto the white brush of his toothbrush. He then lifts it to his mouth and scrubs the paste with the help of his toothbrush. He then rinses his mouth with water and spits it out after letting it confect all the lather in his mouth, leaving a gentle tingling sensation on his tongue as he does. He places the toothbrush aside after inspecting his teeth for a moment. Then he rinses his face with water and soap. He scrubs his face gently and rinses the tracks of soap on his face before drying it with the towel he keeps for drying his face.
Then he walks back into the room and observes skilfully that the Alpha was still there.
“What’s for lunch” Kakashi asks,
“A spar with me.” The other answers,
“Does not sound promising.”
“You’ll love it.” The Alpha grasps his wrist and pulls him along to somewhere he doesn’t know,
“I mean, I could cook for us -“
“No. “
And that was that. A pout graces his features as he was dragged away by a weirdo alpha who used lots of gauze as a blindfold.
_______________________________
What exactly was a spar-in the normal dictionary it means -fighting someone without landing any blows; as a form of training - it definitely did not mean going head to head with a guy with a proper fighting style. Did Kakashi mention no heavy blows were supposed to be thrown?
“Why” Kakashi heaves, hands on his knees to stop himself from buckling over, “are we doing this again?”
The apartment had some kind of gym - or whatever empty room in it which was where they were ’sparring’ or rather it was where his housemate was beating the crap out of him.
“You’re weak.” Comes the easy answer, and ouch, that hurt, “You’ll never survive if we don’t train.”
A scornful remark lies on the tip of his tongue but instead he corrects his stance and lashes out at the other , throwing a punch aimlessly,
The Alpha easily side-steps it and goes about correcting his punch and muttering something along the lines that he was telegraphing.
Kakashi kicks him in response and this time the Alpha doesn’t comment, after all not every guy can comment after being almost kicked in the balls.
Kakashi would have been smug if he didn’t receive a punch to his abdomen in response.
_______________________________________
After who knows how long, Kakashi is on the floor, gasping for breath as he stares up at the wooden ceiling. If this was a book or a graphic novel, he would have received some sort of power up after a time skip. Then he wouldn’t have to go through the damn training arc - but no! This is the damned reality were he has to spar with an Alpha on an empty stomach after having a stupid dream- he did sleep well though - but no that’s not the Kakashi - why should -
“Are you going to lie there for the rest of the day?”
And wow- what a damn jerk he has to put up with-
“Yes.” Kakashi replies to the other, still staring at the stupid ceiling because his whole body is-
“Well that won’t do-“
“I don’t care.”Kakashi drawls,
“It’s for your own-“
“No. I don’t think I want to do anything right now. I don’t care if it’s good.”
“Kakashi, it’s my job to-“
“If I die -in the next twenty four hours- I die. I am not getting up, Gojo-sama.”
“Well, that just might turn out to be true…”He hears the Alpha mutter,
“What? Is someone out to get me?” He asks, turning his head just so, so that he could see the other properly,
“Something like that.” The Alpha responds after a beat, then he sighs and tugs the gauze around his eyes loose. It slides off his sweaty face and pools around his neck.
“Interesting..why though?” Kakashi cannot help but ask,
The Alpha merely raises a brow, giving him an ‘isn’t that obvious look,’
Kakashi sighs, “..No, Gojo-sama. Your raised eyebrow does not answer my question.”
The Alpha snorts, “ The reason is pretty stupid.. you needn’t worry-“
“But I will, Gojo-sama, no matter how stupid it seems to you,” Kakashi cannot help but drawl, “ It’s my life on the line after all,”
“Drop the ‘sama’” The Alpha says, despite the grin which tries to flicker its way up his face , “And it really is stupid.” A beat, “They’re afraid of you.” He finally says, answering his question,
The answer makes Kakashi raise both his eyebrows,
Scared of him ?
Scared of a guy who can’t guarantee anything good in life? for himself or anyone around him?
Kakashi snorts,
“Idiots..”He mumbles,
“Indeed.” Comes the easy response, “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go eat the takeout I ordered for both of us,” And yet, the other helps Kakashi stand and drags him to their shared apartment. Kakashi really badly wanted to go limp when they were halfway there but he decides that he doesn’t have the energy to do so.
_______________________________________
(After they arrive )
….
“What is this.” Kakashi asks, staring at the protein shake dumped in front of him along with a random assortment of cooked vegetable,
“Your food.”
Suddenly Kakashi feels the urge to strangle the Alpha who sat opposite to him eating some sweet monstrosity. He has not eaten anything since morning -and this.. this is a mistake..-
“And why did you select this?”
“Your weak. You need to build your body.” The Alpha says, unwrapping a candy and popping it into his mouth.
“You’re eating candy and lecturing me-“
“I’m invincible. I can eat candy. You cannot. When you have a technique like mine, which you never will 'cause my technique is genetic but -“
“Just stuff your mouth with candy, I like you better when your mouth is shut.” Kakashi hisses, sipping the protein shake and stabbing at a broccoli which had done him no harm other than being bought by a man he sorely wants to strangle.
_________________________________________