Is this what having a father feels like?
It was a rare day when both Sakumo and Kakashi were in the house at the same time. In fact, neither of them expected to run into the other inside the house. They stared, quite awkwardly at each other.
......Kakashi was almost tempted to close the sliding door in his father's face. He didn't, because he's mature, obviously. Kakashi will admit though...he'd been avoiding his father, unintentionally.
It was he who spoke first.
"Father..."
"Kakashi.."
.............
'Okay, this is getting ridiculous.'
"Is it your break day-?"
"Did you just come back from-?"
Kakashi fumbled nervously with his scarf, uncharacteristically.
"Can I get around you for a moment?"
"Ah! S-sorry Father." He made room for his father to walk by him. Kakashi turned to continue on his path.
"Kakashi, where are you going?"
He tensed up just a little.
"I was going to go for a walk....is..is there something wrong?"
Sakumo frowned but shook his head. Kakashi only noticed the paper bag in his father's hands when he clutched it tighter to his chest. Sakumo seemed to open and close his mouth for a few moments as if trying to gather his words.
He finally spat them out, hesitantly and as if he were choking on them, "I was wondering if you...wanted to make lunch....with me?"
Kakashi's heart squeezed in his chest, and something fond, yet melancholy takes over his lungs. He doesn't remember if his father had ever asked him that in the past. After he had shunned his father, they hadn't really ever talked again. They certainly never spent time together.
Kakashi cursed at his younger self, for adding to the misery and abuse his father went through. It wasn't just the village that hurt him. It was Kakashi too. He was going to do better. He had failed so many people, but he won't. Not this time.
His father waited for his response, looking as if he was waiting for a harsh rejection.
"Yes!", oops, he didn't mean to yell, "Yes, I would like that, Father."
Sakumo nodded and gestured for Kakashi to follow him. They made their way into the kitchen, where Sakumo put down his bag of groceries. He pulled out a carton of eggs.
"Well...we were running low on breakfast things, how does a brunch sound?" Sakumo tilted his head downwards to glance at Kakashi.
He nodded seriously, "Sounds yummy."
Kakashi's stomach rumbled, His ears felt warm. He knew he was forgetting something this morning. His father said nothing, but Kakashi watched as his mouth twitched with a suppressed smile.
Sakumo started unpacking the rest of the things he brought, laying them out in a line. Kakashi perked up at the sight of pancake mix.
He rushed off to find a chair to drag to the counter. Sakumo smiled a little to himself and got set up with bowls.
The loud screech of wood against wood marked Kakashi's return. Kakashi's strong enough to have carried the chair, but it wouldn't have gotten him the slight shaking of his Dad's shoulders that dragging it did.
He hopped up on the chair, tall enough to reach the counter without struggle. He gazed upon the ingredients as someone would a battleground.
Kakashi determinedly stirred the pancake batter. He wasn't going to mess it up this time like he did when he and his team cooked together. (He won't admit it, but he looked fondly upon the mess they had made.)
"What have you and your team been up to recently Kakashi?"
Kakashi's expression soured just a little. "We recently got back from a C-rank mission, guarding a merchant wagon to one of the little towns outside Kohona. we were stopped at this little river and Obito thought it would be funny to throw me in." Kakashi glared down at the mixing spoon in his hand, willing it to combust.
"Obviously I landed on top of the water, but that idiot wouldn't stop laughing." Kakashi doesn't even know how Obito had snuck up on him without noticing. It totally had nothing to do with the fact he was distracted by the dog the merchant had brought with him.
Kakashi then grinned beneath his mask, a little sadistically. He giggled in that unnerving way only little kids can.
"So I tricked him by hitting him with an earth wall and launched him into the lake."
Kakashi waved his spoon in the air, slightly splattering the counter with his antics, "But then Rin pushed me back in! She had this smug face on her that Obito and I didn't like so we pulled her into the river by her ankles."
He turned to look at his father, who, while exasperated, was smiling at him. Kakashi quite liked it when his dad smiled at him.
"I'm glad you and your team are getting along." Kakashi went quiet and stared down at his spoon, thinking.
He was glad, too. He hadn't felt this much joy in well...a while. With the war, and all the serious missions he'd been on before he and Sakura went to the past....he hadn't really had the time to be happy.
He knows that this period of peace is ending soon. He wished it would stay long enough for Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke to grow up happy.
"Hey, Dad....do you want to come on my walk with me?"
Sakumo's face lit up in fragile hope. Somehow it made Kakashi feel worse. He was such an asshole of a kid.
After they had finished their brunch, they set out on their walk. Kakashi didn't really feel like walking into town (in fear of running into a young Maito Guy), so he pulled his father with him into the forest of trees that surrounded the Hatake compound. Hesitantly, even though he knows it's just him and his dad here, he lowers his mask.
He takes in the onslaught of forest smells with a small headache, his small body still adjusting to his senses. He can smell the deer that were here at dawn, and the mice that had danced through the green underbrush. He could almost taste on his tongue, the honeyed smell of the wildflowers that tangled themselves between the roots of the looming trees.
The look in his Father's eyes is soft. It reminds him of the little wildflowers that surround him. It reminds him of the cotton that falls from the cottonwood trees that tickle his nose and make him sneeze. It reminds him of a warm bed after a long mission. Kakashi decides he loves that look in his Dad's eye.
Because Kakashi decides he hasn't filled his little shit quota of the day, he launches himself at his dad and nips his nose. His dad, not expecting it, falls to the ground. Soon he too is nipping at his son as they tussle playfully in the forest. His dad barks a laugh when Kakashi attempts to pull his ponytail with his sharp little teeth. Kakashi shrieks a laugh when his dad has his mouth clamped on his wrist.
They come back from their walk, covered in dirt and leaves, but happy and smiling. Laughing together. Kakashi sits contently on Sakumo's shoulders, mask down as he buries himself in his father's filthy hair. Each lungful of air is filled with the scent of his Dad.
He feels when his Dad laughs at him because he can hear Kakashi taking those lungfuls. He was less nervous, now that he's spent his energy, he doesn't even know why he was so scared in the first place...it's not like his Dad could have stopped him even if he really wanted to.
"Hey, Dad..."
"Yes, Kakashi?"
"I think I wanna build a pack of my own, instead of using the wolf contract....is that okay?''
Sakumo pulls Kakashi from his shoulders and cradles him gently in his arms. He looks into his son's eyes.
"Of course it's okay."
He gives Kakashi a kiss on the forehead and continues walking. Still holding Kakashi as if he were something precious. He cries, just a little at the feeling