Title: chocolate ice cream
Summary: Obito looks up as an ice cream cone is shoved in his face, arching an eyebrow at the silver haired stranger. "Here. It looks like you need it." [au]
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Obito has never gotten along with his parents, or the rest of the Uchiha family and its ridiculous obsession with inbreeding.
He doesn't hate his parents, and they don't hate him, but they just… don't work out so well. His mother keeps trying to hook him up with a girl (his seventeenth cousin or something—yes, the Uchiha clan is that big) and Obito keeps declining.
And not because of Rin, either; of course not. He got over his crush on her a while back, and while they're still close, they're more like siblings. It's just he's never been fond of incest.
His favorite cousins, Itachi and Sasuke, understand. When they first met, Itachi had remarked, "You don't act like an Uchiha." And while that was hardly the first time someone had told him that, Itachi had been the first not to say it in a disdainful manner.
"Yeah," Obito had agreed. "I wasn't born with a stick up my ass."
Itachi, instead of being offended, had actually cracked a tiny smile. That had been the beginning of a beautiful friendship between two cousins.
Sasuke, on the other hand, had simply raised an eyebrow, glanced at the surrounding Uchiha, and had said firmly, "I like you better than the rest of the clan—except Itachi-nii, of course."
Naturally, Obito had taken a liking to the (then five year old) kid immediately.
Now, the seventeen year old finds himself sulking on a park bench about a block away from his home, glaring at the ants passing by his feet on the cement sidewalk. He can hear kids laughing and horsing around on the playground, but pays them no heed.
Footsteps approach, but Obito ignores them until they stop beside him.
Obito looks up as an ice cream cone, chocolate, is shoved in his face, arching an eyebrow at the silver haired stranger. "Here. It looks like you need it."
"Are you in the habit of buying food for strangers because 'it looks like they need it'?" Obito asks, but he takes it anyways.
"At least I didn't poison it," the stranger retorts, talking a seat next to him. He's wearing a dark blue scarf (in the summer, sheesh) that covers the lower half of his face, a headband across one of his eyes, and he looks about a year or two younger than Obito.
"I can't be sure of that," says Obito, yet he can't bring himself to care and settles for eating his ice cream, sliding the silver haired stranger a glance as he scoops up some ice cream (vanilla) out of a cup instead of a cone. (Weirdo.)
The stranger gives him an amused hum, clearly noticing the look Obito gives him. "I'm Kakashi Hatake," he states out of the blue. The name sounds mildly familiar and at the same time, ridiculous. (Scarecrow in the field? Really?)
Unsurprised at all by the random comment, (since Kakashi seems to be a weird guy), Obito replies, "I'm Obito Uchiha."
"Uchiha? Explains why you look kind of familiar."
"I know right?" Obito snorts. "Due to the ridiculous amount of inbreeding in my clan, we all look the same."
"Ah. Is that your problem? Being married off?"
"How did you know?" Obito asks, mildly surprised.
"I put two and two together. I got four. It's not all that hard. Oh, and Itachi Uchiha's my kohai. He mentioned something the other day about something happening in the clan; about somebody who refused to marry or something and stormed out the next moment."
Kakashi's name clicks in Obito's mind. Several times, Itachi had mentioned a "Kakashi-senpai" at his school. "Itachi's my cousin! Has he mentioned me at all?"
Kakashi coughs and suddenly his voice becomes a ridiculously close imitation of Itachi's. "'Oh, this? I got it from Obito.' 'Obito's going away for a week…' 'Sasuke was keeping me up all night saying he missed Obito.' 'Are you a genius? You're even smarter than Obito.' He brings you into every single one of our conversations."
Obito feels a twinge of affection for his cousin. "He's still a cute kid, though."
"That, he is," Kakashi agrees. "It's pretty damn tough, being in junior year about four years too early. I'm also acquainted with his little brother Sasuke; instead of you, he talks about Itachi. Every. Single. Damn. Minute."
Obito snickers into his hand while Kakashi buries his face in his hands briefly, looking very pained. "Oh, and I'm just curious, why does Itachi call you senpai, anyways? You're in his grade or lower, aren't you?"
Rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, Kakashi looks away with an embarrassed huff. "Maa, you see, I'm actually already out of college. Sometimes I swing by some school to help, and I met Itachi at his school."
Obito chokes on his ice cream, leaning forward a little in surprise and ending up with ice cream on his face. Kakashi looks sheepishly at him and hands him a napkin, patting his back. "Sorry."
Once he wipes the ice cream off his face, Obito waves it off; college? That's pretty freaking amazing. "Nah, it's fine. You didn't mean it. That's cool. Say, do you live around here or something? I haven't seen you around, even though you say you go to the Konoha High School often."
"Yeah, I do." Kakashi points in a vague direction lazily with his plastic spoon. "Live in that direction over there with my dogs. And maybe it's just because I usually work with the people my age or younger."
"Dogs?" Obito inquires, immediately curious. "How many?"
"Eight."
"Eight—man, you are so damn lucky. I love animals, but my parents are completely against having animals in the house."
"That must suck." Kakashi laughs slightly. It's a nice sound. "But I've grown up with dogs, and because of that, Itachi says I'm more dog than human. Besides, they're good company, especially if you live alone."
He lives alone? Obito wonders privately, but doesn't comment on it, nibbling on the edge of his cone. "I wish I could move out, but it's like it's against the law for an Uchiha to move out of the compound unless for a job or something. Sheesh."
"How so?" Kakashi tilts his head slightly, raising his only visible eyebrow. "I mean, it can't be that hard to find a cheap apartment and move in, right?"
"That's what they'd like for you to think," Obito mutters mutinously. "The entire clan, sans Itachi, Sasuke, and a few others, will flip their shit. Trust me, I'd rather live with my parents for the rest of my life than deal with the entire Uchiha clan's melodrama. Especially Fugaku-dono."
Kakashi winces around the spoon in his mouth. "Ouch."
"I know, right," Obito sighs. "Imagine Sasuke throwing a titty-fitty. Then multiply that by about a thousand times, and you've got Fugaku-dono throwing a mini fit."
"…how, exactly, do you know this?"
Obito closes his eyes and runs a hand through his messy black hair. "…I may or may not have said I wanted to move out that one time."
Kakashi offers a small noise at the back of his throat. "…ah. That must have… sucked."
"Doesn't help at all that the entire freaking Uchiha clan hates me because I don't act like one of them."
"If it's any consolation, I've been there too."
"You know, I'm reaaaally tempted to make a Big Bang Theory reference and ask you exactly how that's consolation, but I think I'll refrain," Obito coughs while internally pondering what, exactly, Kakashi means by that.
"Big Bang Theory?" Kakashi asks, sounding bemused. "You mean the theory about how the universe was created?"
"No, I mean the TV sitcom."
"There's a sitcom called Big Bang Theory?"
"How did you not know that?" Obito demands. "You living under a rock your entire life? A dog shaped rock?"
Kakashi laughs sheepishly, rubbing his neck. (Absentmindedly Obito notes that Kakashi seems to do that when he's nervous or embarrassed.) "I don't own a television. I'm not into movies or the such, either. I really only use my computer for some work and stuff. Most of the money I have is spent on paying rent, food, and on my dogs."
Before Obito can reply, a phone goes off with the tune of some classical song, and Obito jumps as Kakashi casually receives the call, setting the phone on his ear and turning in the opposite direction. (Huh. Classical music?)
"Hello?"
The person on the opposite line says something that Obito can't pick up, and Obito coughs quietly, turning away to give Kakashi some privacy despite his curiosity.
"Oh. Okay. I'll be there in ten minutes." Beep.
Kakashi turns back to Obito. "Sorry, Obito-san. I have to go. I have a job to do."
It's only now, when Obito hears Kakashi refer to him with an honorific (Obito-san just sounds plain weird), that he realizes that Kakashi hasn't used his name even once until now, and that he's the same. "Just 'Obito'. And, uh, do you want to meet up again some time? I know a nice coffee shop."
"Are you asking me out, Obito-sa—Obito?" Kakashi inquires with an amused smirk as Obito chokes on what's left of his ice cream cone. "I'm kidding, Obito. That'd be nice."
Kakashi digs around in his pockets and procures a pen and post-its and scrawls something on one before handing it to Obito, which he takes. Pulling off the top post-it and keeping it, he writes his own phone number and returns the pen and paper to Kakashi.
"Well," Kakashi says awkwardly, fidgeting slightly after pocketing the paper and pen. "See you?"
"Yeah," Obito replies, equally as awkwardly. "Well, have fun. See you, Kakashi."
As the other heads off, disappearing around the corner and tossing his empty cup of ice cream away, Obito smiles faintly. Weird guy… but I like him.
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a/n: awkward as fuck ending hooray.
I'll probably write a sequel to this from Kakashi's POV just because I can and I understand that there're loads of unexplained things in this fic.
Oh and btw I didn't even bother proofreading this thing. Feel free to point out anything you dislike and any errors you found…
Reviews are loved.