Story Title: Shelter
Rated: PG (because G seemed too pansy and PG-13 was pushing it)
Status: Complete // 300+
Summary: [Iruka/Kakashi] Iruka chances upon the legendary Hatake Kakashi.
Steve's Notes: Written for the kakairu100 community. This week's prompt was serendipity. I maybe went over the 300 word limit. D:
Disclaimer: Naruto © Kishimoto Masashi
Iruka visits them once a year, late in the spring when the flowers begin to open and the last of winter melts away. It is the perfect time for beginnings, for the past to end and the future to start. It is the perfect day to remember his father's warm smile and mother's comforting embrace, their love crystallized in his memories. It is the perfect moment to say goodbye, again.
Outside the early morning is gray with soft rain and the air is filtered clean. The drops beat dully on the white plastic of his umbrella, dolphins swimming and flipping along the edge. Very few people are awake; sleep and rain muffle the normal bustle of Konoha. Step by step, the village shrinks to a single path lined by trees before even that ends in a slab of tall granite with rough edges and bold, polished, brave names.
Only when he looks up from his cold toes does he realize he is not alone.
Blood is crusted down the length of the other man's arm and splattered across his white vest like wilted brown-red blooms, and the professional bandages that cover his skin are tinted pink. His silver hair clumps and sticks to the exposed portion of face, his porcelain mask is clenched in one clawed fist, and a dirty, torn strip of cloth covers one of his eyes. It would be impossible not to know he is the infamous Copy Cat Ninja, Hatake Kakashi.
They say nothing as Iruka kneels, tracing first his mother's name, then his father's. They say nothing when Iruka stands and shelters both of them under his umbrella. They say nothing when it is time for Iruka to leave, and the rookie Academy teacher presses the handle of the umbrella into the ANBU's free hand, because no words are needed as Iruka's heat and life seeps into Kakashi's icy grip as he accepts the gift.
Iruka walks away without looking back. But, later that day when he returns home and the rain has dissipated and the sun begins to warm the cold earth, he finds his umbrella leaning expectantly against his front door with a note that simply reads, "Thank you."
end.