Until recently, it had completely and totally escaped Sakura's notice that Kakashi-sensei, for someone who kept himself so fully separate mentally and emotionally from other people, his personal space bubble was incredibly small.

For instance, he had a general habit of petting his student's heads (mostly Sakura, actually), patting people on the shoulder (well, again, mostly a crying Sakura), and invasively reading over your shoulder (this one was really only herself, because she of all the other people he knew actually read frequently). The last of which was most annoying, as he did it so quietly with his ANBU skills that you never noticed until twenty minutes later.

And also he was doing it right now.

"Kakashi-sensei, please back away." Sakura shut the book and turned around to glare at her ex-sensei. The fact that they had grown much closer during Naruto's recent absence due to training and also the fact that she could crush him with, indeed, one finger, allowed her to be firm with him and not get in trouble. She didn't use the suffix anymore for the most part. But sometimes it fit the moment. She couldn't really say why she used it when she did.

"Oh, but Sakura-chan! You were just getting to the good part!"

Their recent closeness, however, did not cause him to change the suffix that he used with her.

"How would you know what the good part is?"

"I read that story before."

"Then why are you reading it over my shoulder now?!"

"...I was curious about what you were reading! I can't have my little student reading smut!"

His one visible eye shut in what she knew must have been an innocent smile.

Like he was innocent at all. How dare he accuse her of reading smut! Then she glanced guiltily back at the book, and realized that yeah, um, romance novels did qualify as "smut". Then again, Icha-Icha Paradise wasn't exactly good clean fun either...

She raised an elbow as though she was going to elbow him in the gut, and he backed off quickly.

"Whoa, Sakura-chan. No need for super-strength... Just trying to be a good father-figure for my dear little student-"

Sakura lowered her stance, softening (Kakashi alone knew that her dad had recently died of a heart attack, Naruto's training had begun before then and he was gone, and she hadn't seen a need to tell Sai), but then remembered she had to be firm. And he wasn't her teacher anymore.

"Don't read over my shoulder."

Under his mask, she was pretty sure he was grinning. She could see the form-fitting mask move, and what she assumed were his lips twitching.

"Can't make any promises."

She raised a fist.

He shrugged, assuming his usual cool air.

She picked up her book again.

"Don't do it, Kakashi."

"Hm." A general acknowledgement that he had heard her, but not an acknowledgement that he would follow her advice.

And good advice it was, because she was itching to punch something at this moment. They were waiting for Sai, who was late. Because he was in the hospital. Which, alone, was not good, but it was made worse by the fact that it was Sakura's fault.

Not that she regretted it.

Sai had stood her up on her very first date. Which was why she'd punched him. So, yeah. You might say she was irritated at this moment.

Not to mention what was more annoying was that Kakashi, who knew everything about everyone (especially the things they'd like to keep secret), probably knew. But he was complacently waiting for Sai, and Sakura, who had brought her book since she'd known neither of them would show up on time, was waiting for him to make any comment that showed he knew about it.

But he was very good at this so far, and had only vaguely mentioned, "Huh, Sai's late today", and sat down to wait without another word. And of course, he decided to bother Sakura, which was always oh-so-much fun.

Not today, it won't be.

"Kakashi."

"Sakura-chan! You are reading smut!"

Absentmindedly turning the pages to keep up appearances as she instead focused on her current woes, she hadn't realized she'd stopped on a very... risque scene.

"Look who's talking. Where's your smut today?"

"I decided to read some different smut."

"Oh, really?"

"Fine. Tsunade had a raid and confiscated all of my Icha-Icha books."

"Hmph."

"That's not to say your smut isn't good. It's very good. But I do recommend the Icha-Icha books. They're quite smutty and good."

"Kakashi..."

"Oof." She'd punched him.

"I'll put chakra in it next time..."

"Okay, Sakura-chan."

A couple of minutes later, though...

"Kakashi!"

It came out as more of a whine than she had intended.

"I haven't got anything better to do, what with Sai not here. And I'd rather not train without him."

Here it came. The question.

She waited.

And... it didn't come.

She was shocked, but went back to her book. She'd been fully prepared to lie to Kakashi and say that she had absolutely no idea of where Sai might possibly be.

But it seemed that he didn't want to hear her say it.

Under his mask, again she saw Kakashi's mouth move.

"I had a plan for today's training, too. And it involved all three of us." He sighed.

Sakura ignored him. She was getting more and more annoyed by the moment, and perhaps going back to her book would help.

No sooner had she turned one page, though, than she noticed Kakashi at her shoulder again.

That. Was. It.

"Argh! STOP IT!"

Kakashi stood up slowly. From where she had flung him at the nearest tree trunk.

"Aw. It hurt you? Good."

She went back to her book, but again wasn't reading.

This time, instead of sneaking up behind her, he came straight around in front of her and kneeled so they were as close to level as a six-and-a-half-foot-at-least guy and a five-foot-four-and-one-quarter girl could get.

He then moved her book out of the way so she could see his face, and he could see hers, but she turned it away, because she was going to start crying soon.

Which she had told herself she wasn't going to do.

But she was going to start crying because Sai wasn't here, crying because she'd been horribly, embarrassingly rejected less than than 24 hours ago (and she had been so strong about it before and not cried), and then because Naruto wasn't here to help cheer her up. And then maybe she'd start thinking about Sasuke, which would make her cry even more.

"Sakura, look at me."

He wasn't using the suffix, but she was too angry and too ready to cry to think about that right now.

"No."

"Sakura, I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For bugging you, I swear I didn't mean to make you c-"

"D-don't say it. I'm not going to cry. And I wasn't crying because of you, anyway. You know why I'm crying. So quit pretending like you don't."

He sighed.

"I'm sorry Sai stood you up."

No. She would not cry. And she would not look at him, either, because she could hear the concern in his voice and she knew that if she saw it in his eyes then she really would cry.

"Sakura..."

He put two hands on the sides of her shoulders and stood up, pulling her up along with him nearly effortlessly.

"Kakashi...?"

And then he pulled her in for a hug. Which opened the floodgates, pretty much, and she began to sob and hiccup and sniffle and whimper into his shirt. She realized with dismay that her eyes also turned puffy and red, but that wasn't quite so bad as her nose, which began to leak in a most unladylike manner.

Kakashi sh'd her gently and stroked her hair.

Kakashi's never like this, she thought, surprised. But then, after thinking about it, it made sense. As cold as he could be to other people, Kakashi never failed to cheer her up. Her ex-sensei was a truly kind and warm person when he needed to be, and only once had he lied to her about things being okay. And then they all had learned their lessons, and now he never needed to lie anymore to cheer her up. Even when things were hopeless, Kakashi somehow picked out the bright side, even if just for her.

Eventually, she stopped crying, and he pulled away.

Oh... his arms were so warm...

"Sakura, I'm sorry for today."

"Not your fault I incapacitated our third team member."

"True." He sighed heavily. "Well, I think that occasionally hard-working ninja such as ourselves should take a break."

She looked up at him.

"Really?" she asked in a high-pitched, nearly squeaky tone. She desperately, desperately needed a break today.

He nodded, and sighed.

"And Sakura... maybe... what Sai did... maybe I can..." He looked away, and was that the faintest hint of a blush that Sakura could see on the parts of his cheeks that weren't hidden by the mask? "Maybe I can make it up to you."

She frowned, still not understanding.

"What I mean to say is... I'm not really your teacher anymore, and you're a grown woman and all that-"

"Even though I just left snot and tears all over your Jounin vest?" She said it before she had time to think.

"Yes. Despite that... fact, you are 18 and I am not your teacher anymore and I... would like to know if you want to go on a date... with me... to, er, make up for Sai so rudely standing you up."

He wasn't looking at her at the moment, in fact he was looking off to her left a ways, and rubbing the back of his neck in such a nervous manner she couldn't help but love him even more.

Wait.

Wait. Did she just think, "love him even more"?

Did that mean that she loved him?

He was evidently growing nervous by her silence, but it wasn't obvious, only to her. But she wasn't dwelling on it- instead, she was thinking about everything, really.

How Kakashi always trusted her, and yet was there to save her when she fell short. How kind he could be. How warm his arms had felt around her just now... and how really right that had seemed...

"If you don't want to, just say so, I can understand where it might be awkward to go on a date with your former sensei..."

Kakashi was seriously getting nervous now.

And the look on his face from what she could see...

She couldn't find the words to thank him, so she just hugged him.

"Huh?"

"Yes," she said into his vest, then grew bolder and pulled back to see his eyes. "I'd love to go on a date with you... unless it's just a pity date."

His mask moved, and she could see from this angle it really was a smile.

"It isn't a pity date, Sakura. Not at all."

His tone was so different... and yet, it was the same as ever. She smiled and intertwined her fingers through his, and they walked off down the path together to Ichiraku's.

Somehow, Sakura knew that this was going to be the perfect first date.

Tell me what you think, please! :) I love reviews.

Thanks for reading! :D