Numb: Chapter one
Disclaimer: I wish I did, but I do not own Sasuke or Kakashi. I don't own Iruka or Kurenai either.
Full Summary: Hatake Kakashi has it all, a well-paid job, a beautiful wife who loves him more than anything, a huge house in the best part of town, an expensive car. Yes indeed… everything in his life is perfect. That is until a young, confused drug-addict stumbles in head first and shatters everything. However, sometimes a person needs someone to help them leave the past behind and rediscover a new future that should've been all along. But will it be too late for Kakashi to save this boy?
Author's notes: I'm back with some more Kaka/Sasu goodness! I just can't stay away from this pairing; I love it far too much! It's like an addiction! So, you can expect the usual multi-chapter fic from me, full of drama, angst and man-sex. I hope you guys like it! :)
Oh and Sasuke won't be so young in this story, he's 19 and Kakashi is meant to be 38, but he's a very sexy 38-year old mind you, lol. Considering the extra dark themes and drugs and such in this fic, I don't think it's appropriate to have Sasuke too young.
WARNING: Contains yaoi, drugs, self-harm and other dark themes. If you are put off by any of these, please do not read!
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(Kakashi's point of view)
With the music blasting from the speakers, I can feel the thumping sound of the bass vibrating my insides to the core. Covering my ears won't do any good, and neither would taking a seat somewhere else. The music in here is too damn loud. It doesn't help that it's awful as well, probably reject 80's dance B-sides from the sound of it I'd imagine. I let out a sigh and try to focus my thoughts on something else, something other than this, but I can't even hear myself think let alone concentrate. Not that there is anything really decent to concentrate on anyway. The pretty girls know to stay away from this place, unless of course they enjoy getting hit on by greasy, middle age, overweight, balding men who think that their 70's style polyester shirts with open collars are stylish. I, for one, may be somewhat middle aged, but I'm certainly not balding and my body is in excellent shape thanks to putting in hours at the gym five days a week. I don't wear polyester either. The reason I'm here? Iruka…
It's his turn to choose where we go tonight and unfortunately for me he loves this place. Personally, I hate this club and everything about it. Rubbing my temples in annoyance I take a deep breath to calm myself down, but the thick cloud of second hand smoke encircling my head makes we want to gag. I will grin and bear it though because I've been dragged here by my best friend in order to celebrate the fact I've been promoted once again at work. The thought makes me break a smile. Yes, another promotion and another rung up the corporate ladder. I'm almost at the top, in fact, at this rate I'll be the favourite to take over the position of vice president of the company this time next year, as the current one is planning to start up another business. The competition for the position will be stiff, but I have a damn good shot at it! But here I am in a dingy, dirty club in the worst part of town; it doesn't really fit, does it? I'd try to suggest to Iruka that we should leave and go to one of the trendy cocktail bars further up the town, but there's no hope of that. Iruka doesn't feel comfortable in those places, besides it looks like he's having too much fun here.
I shake my head and let out another sigh at the sight of my friend making an ass out of himself on the dance floor, pulling out all of what he thinks are his best moves as he tries to impress some woman he's just met. It's painful to watch. Iruka is usually so sensible, but once he has some drink in him, his wits fly out the window.
Looking at my watch I decide to give it five more minutes then I'm going home. I should arrive back home just before midnight and Iruka can stay here with his other friends. He's in 'the zone' so there's no way he'll leave this early even if his house was on fire. Suddenly my trouser pocket starts to vibrate and instinctively I reach down and pull out my ringing phone.
"Kurenai," I smile to myself and quickly jog to the exit, narrowly avoiding some drunken idiot stumbling in my direction. The burst of fresh air feels amazingly refreshing against my sweat covered body as I finally get to leave that hot, stuffy bar. For the first time that night I dare breathe in deeply.
"Hello love, are you ok?" I ask, a smile spreading across my face.
"I'm fine, I was just wondering when you would be back. Do you want me to stay up for you?"
"It's alright; you don't have to stay up just for me. In fact, I'm about to leave and come home just now. I can't take anymore of this shit hole."
"Why do you keep going there then?" her gentle voice sounds from the other end of the phone.
"You know Iruka loves it there, and I got to choose the last place we went too so I guess I had no choice. I will see you soon though."
"Great! Oh! And I have a little surprise for you!"
"A surprise? What is it?" I beam; I do enjoy my wife's surprises.
"You will just have to wait and see!"
"I guess I will," I smile again before hanging up, my mind immediately thinking about what that 'surprise' might be.
I've been married to Kurenai for two years now, but we dated for a year before that. In fact, it was my father who introduced us and we've been together ever since. She is actually a daughter of one of his very wealthy friends, and as much as I resisted my father's attempts to set me up with someone he deemed 'acceptable', i.e. the same social standing as ourselves, I found it hard to resist Kurenai. There's something almost magnetic about her that draws people in; I couldn't keep away. She's stunning too. Shiny locks of soft black hair that I can't resist touching frame her round, delicately beautiful face. And her eyes, those eyes are magnificent, crimson red in colour and never failing to pull me in deeper every time I gaze at her. A smile is permanently spread across my face at the mental image. Thankfully I can go home now and leave Iruka to his partying. I'll send him a text later to let him know that I've left, not that he'll even notice I'm gone anyway. Besides, my battery is low so it'll have to wait until I get home. Why didn't I charge my phone before I left the house?
Grabbing my car keys from my pocket, I attempt to open the door, and right now I am extra happy I didn't have anything alcoholic to drink. I don't fancy waiting around here for a taxi by myself. It's a good thing I brought the 'other' car too; I don't think it would take long for my rather expensive Mercedes to get its windows smashed in this part of town. I don't like this area at all, so I rarely ever come here, only when Iruka decides he wants to drag me to that damned club of his.
A sudden, unexpected cry causes me to drop my keys.
"Get the fuck off me you bastards!" a panicked sounding voice yells. "I said NO!"
Now, I have two choices here. I could get into my car, drive off and get as far away as possible from this potentially dangerous situation, but no, I decided to head down that dark alleyway to see what was happening. I guess it was instinctive, I didn't even realise I was running to help before I was half way down the ally and almost knocked over by a small figure moving rapidly towards me. I grab him without thinking.
"Let go of me!" he cries, kicking me hard in the shin. The sudden jolt of pain shoots up my leg and he gets his wish, I immediately let go and he continues on running. He doesn't get very far though, in an instant another man appears from seemingly out of nowhere and knocks him to the side, his head colliding painfully against the wall before he collapses to the ground. He tries to get up again, but he's knocked off balance by a forceful kick to the ribs.
Shit. I'm frozen to the spot, my heart pounding. What the fuck have I gotten myself into? Why didn't I just get into the car and drive away as fast as I could? Oh why indeed.
"Where is the goddamn money you worthless little shit?!"
"I don't… it's not… I mean…"
Another kick to the ribs. I cringe at the sound of those heavy boots colliding with the boy's side, knocking the breath clean out of him. Oh fuck, what do I do? My heart continues to pound against the inside of my chest. Have they noticed me? Do they know I'm here?
"Who the fuck are you?" An irritated voice sounds from behind me.
Shit.
"WHO ARE YOU?" They yell again, this time I turn around. Well, at least I've distracted the guy who was beating up that boy, that's one good thing about this situation I guess.
"I'm… um….
"Not meant to fucking be here!" the voice sneers at me, the speaker stepping towards me threateningly. I back away, desperate to get away from this situation. Thoughts of Kurenai flood into my head. What if I never see her again?
"I guess so… yes. I'll just be on my way now and…"
"How much did you hear?"
"Huh? Me? Oh nothing…" I try to cover the fear in my voice, but I don't think I'm doing a very good job at it. I'm sure they must be able to hear my heart pounding too; it's loud enough to nearly deafen me.
"Yes you'd best be on your way or else you'll be experiencing this…" the boy's attacker laughs mockingly as he kicks the boy once again, causing him to cry out once more.
I can't just walk away and pretend this isn't happening, can I? I look down at the boy; he's leaning against the wall with his knees tucked up against his chest and his arms shielding his face. It's dark and I can't make out anything other than his quiet sobs. I can't see what state he's in. Oh fuck! What the hell do I do?
"So are you going on your way or not?"
"I'm… um…"
I take a deep breath and pray I'll live to see tomorrow.
"I… surely t-there's no n-need to be…"
"To be what?" One of the men sneers at me and moves in closer. My heart begins to race even faster than I ever thought was possible. My chest tightens and I struggle to hold myself together, but I manage to force the words out.
"Look, um… I'm sure the boy has… um… learned his lesson and he won't…"
"LEARNED HIS LESSON?" One of the men yells at me.
Oh fuck… why didn't I just leave when I had the chance?
"This little shit borrowed money from us and it seems like he can't pay it back. And this isn't the first time either!"
I don't know why I decided to say what I did next. Perhaps it was because I felt sorry for him, or because he was looking up at me with a look of desperation in his eyes. Or maybe it was for more selfish reasons because I didn't want to live with the guilt of not helping him, or not knowing what would happen to him if I left. Or possibly I'm just a downright decent person. Would they kill him? It seemed likely. I'll never know for sure why I said what I next; however then again, how was I to know about all the trouble it would cause?
"W-what about if I… you k-know… paid his dept off, would you leave him alone?"
And that was how Uchiha Sasuke found his way into my life. If I'd known what I do now, I would have run a mile at the first chance of getting out of that difficult situation. Oh why didn't I just run?
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"So what is your name then?" I try to break the uncomfortable silence between us as I drive him home. He hasn't spoken a word since I dragged him into my car. He didn't want a lift home, but I wasn't about to leave him there on his own after what happened, it seems like the boy has an impressive talent for getting himself into trouble. Who knows what the hell would have happened if I'd left him.
"I didn't need your help you know, I could have got out of that on my own," he scorns, refusing to look at me.
"Oh really?" I state in annoyance. "It didn't look that way to me, it looked like you were about to get your ass kicked."
Silence.
"So do you have a name?"
"Sasuke."
"Nice to meet you Sasuke, I'm Kakashi."
Silence.
I give up trying to talk to him; we can just sit here in complete silence until I dump him off at his house, the ungrateful little brat. He just cost me a few hundred, he could at least have said thanks. He sits pretty much with his back to me, his face cupped in his hand as he fidgets restlessly while trying to occupy himself by staring out of the window. He could be lying dead or seriously injured somewhere just now if it wasn't for me, you would think he'd at least make an effort to show some sort of appreciation. It's not every day a complete stranger agrees to pay off your dept for you! Still, I wonder how he came to get involved with those people anyway, what did he need their money for? I guess this is another thing I'll never know as it was enough of a struggle just finding out his name. He looks young too, how did he manage to get himself caught up in that?
"Shouldn't you be in bed for school tomorrow or something? What are you doing out so late anyway?"
"I'm older than I look!" he snaps, before spinning around to glare at me, but immediately turning away again to resume staring out of the window.
Well, it seems like patronising him a bit is the best way to get information out of him.
"What, like 16?" I smirk.
"I'm 19 actually."
"Then shouldn't you know better than to go off borrowing money from strange, dangerous looking men?"
"I needed it! Ok! I didn't have any other option, now shut the hell up! You don't know a damn thing about me and you have no right to ask either!" he sneers, his tone becoming more and more irritated by the second.
"Oh I'm sorry, I thought I just saved your ass back there. Surely I have some right to know what I just spent my money on."
Dear God give me patience, this kid is really starting to piss me off.
"I told you I didn't need your help!" he cries in response. "Stop questioning me! It's none of your business!"
"Alright, fine," I hiss. "But the next time you find yourself stuck up shit creek without a paddle, don't come crying to me."
"I won't."
"Good."
I immediately focus my full attention to the steering wheel before I crash the car out of blind rage. I can not believe the nerve of this kid! I hope I never fucking have to set eyes on him again after this. What a waste of my goddamn hard earned money… and petrol! Helping out some brat who doesn't even have the audacity to say thank you, I wish I'd left him there to get his shit kicked in.
"Look… I'm sorry…" he utters almost inaudibly. "Thanks…"
"Huh?"
Is he thanking me?
"um… you're welcome." I reply, still in a bit of shock but thankful to finally get some recognition for my random act of kindness, however insincere it might be.
The rest of the car journey was made in silence. Sasuke continued to stare out of the window with his back turned to me, and I continued to drive deeper into the bad neighbourhood to drop him off home. He's very restless and fidgety, it seems that he can't settle at all, but I guess after what he's been through I can't really blame him. Maybe he'll calm down a bit when he arrives home.
I can't resist the urge to quickly peer over to have another look at him. I have to admit that he is a very pretty little thing, striking I might say. His skin is milky white, raven-black hair falls across his smooth, boyish face, brushing gently past those soft pink lips. He doesn't look 19, I wonder if he's telling me the truth. Either way if I was a girl I'd be all over him. His small frame is hidden beneath a tattered looking baggy black hoodie; his jeans seem to be old and washed out too, there's some blood stains on them from earlier too. Well, I guess if he's running about borrowing money from people just to get by, he's not going to be too bothered about going out and buying himself some new clothes.
I'm not sure why but that protective element comes over me again; I really want to take him out and buy him some new clothes… or something. I quickly shake the thought out of my head. What am I thinking? As if that ungrateful little brat would even thank me for it? Well… he might. Fuck! Why are these thoughts still entering my head? I mean, I still don't know why I choose to help him in the first place. It was a spur of the moment thing; the words exited my mouth before I even had a chance to properly think things over. I just don't understand and the more I think about it, the more confused I get.
"What?" He snaps, immediately breaking my thoughts. Oh crap, how long was I staring at him for? He must have caught me.
"Nothing. Are we near your house yet?"
"It's the next left."
"Ok."
I steer the car around the corner and I'm shocked by what I see. Is this where he lives? Is there even electricity? We drive up to a dilapidated block of flats that barely look fit to live in. Windows are broken and layers of graffiti, old and new, stain the grimy, old brick walls. I can't leave him off here, can I? Wait a minute, no, surely he doesn't live here. There must be another building just along the way or something.
"Let me off here," his voice trails off in a defeated tone.
"Is this where you live?"
"Yeah…"
"Really?" I stare at the crumbling building in front of me, my eyes wide with shock.
"Yes!" he cries. "Just fucking let me out, ok!"
That feeling comes over me again, the one I can't understand. Why should I care so much about this kid? He has nothing to do with me; I have no obligation to look out for him or freaking mother him for that matter. Once I dump him off here it's not like I'm ever going to see him again and I'm sure he isn't going to want to see me again either. So then… why does it bother me so much?
"Look, before you go," I state and quickly pull a notebook from the side compartment of my car. "This is my phone number…"
"I don't have a phone."
"Ok… this is my address. If you need anything, you can find me here." I scribble my address down on the scrap of paper and attempt to hand it to him.
"Why do you care?" he looks at me suspiciously. "Nobody gives a shit about me."
"Please just take it."
He snatches it roughly from my hand and without looking at me, he rapidly exits the car and slams shut the door. My heart drops as I see him limp his way towards that run-down shack of an excuse for a flat, hunched over and clutching at his sore ribs. Yeah… he actually lives there and he's more hurt than he's been letting on.
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"Kakashi! What took you so long?" Kurenai snaps at me as I come in through the door of our house.
"You shouldn't have waited up for me…" I sigh.
"I had no idea where you could have been! Your phone was off, you could have been lying dead in a ditch or something!" she shrieks.
"I'm sorry, my battery died…"
"So where have you been!"
I'm still running on auto pilot just now, but I manage to catch my tongue before the truth slips out. No, there is no need to tell her about Sasuke, she would just freak out if she knew the circumstances under which I stumbled across him. She doesn't need to know about the money either. I make that much anyway she won't notice it missing. I could always say that I spent it on clothes or car stuff or something.
"I thought I was taking a short cut home, but I took a wrong turn and it took me ages to find my way again," I lie, hopefully convincingly.
"Ok…" she eyes me suspiciously for a moment, but after a few seconds she seems to accept the excuse. "Well! I know it's late, but don't you want to see your surprise? You deserve it for earning yet another promotion!"
"Huh… um… ok…"
"You go to bed, I'll be with you in just a minute," she winks at me suggestively and quickly disappears off upstairs, her soft black locks swaying behind her.
What she said didn't really sink in, but I make my way upstairs anyway. I look around my home, the space and expensive furnishings almost make me feel sick to my stomach after seeing that poor boy's living arrangements. Thank goodness I didn't see the inside! I probably would have grabbed him and brought him home with me, kicking and struggling the entire way. Fuck sake! There I go again! Why can't I stop thinking about him? He's rude, difficult and very ungrateful; surely I should want to forget about him and never set eyes on him again! Hell! I should probably be forcing him to pay me back every damn penny! The thing is that I do want to forget him though, but for some reason I just can't
Before I even realise it, I'm upstairs and in the bedroom. I let out a sigh and kick my shoes off, removing my trousers and unbuttoning my shirt, before flopping down unceremoniously on top of the bed. I shut my eyes and prepare myself for an uneasy night's sleep.
"Well… what do you think? Do you like?"
My eyes shoot open.
Kurenai is standing at the door, leaning seductively against its frame, her breasts barely covered by a thin layer of red lace and ribbons. There isn't much to the bottom half of this, erm… ensemble either. A small triangle of see-through material just about conceals her, sort off. My first thought is how bloody much did this barely-existent garment cost, secondly followed by oh my God! She makes her way towards me, innocently fiddling with her hair, but that look in her crimson red eyes that suggests she's going to jump me at any second.
Kurenai is a beautiful woman; she could have anybody she wanted. Even in her mid-thirties she looks just as amazing as she did in her twenties, she hasn't aged at all. That long black hair frames her delicately feminine face, the movements of her slim and toned body are graceful and elegant as she climbs slowly onto the bed, stopping only when her lips are about to touch mine. God she's beautiful, every man's fantasy… but I'm just not in the mood. My thoughts are elsewhere, straying too close to a certain raven-haired boy that I so desperately want to forget.
END OF CHAPTER ONE
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Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I admit that the story is a bit slow to start, but it will get more exciting as it goes on as the characters will have plenty of personal issues to tackle, especially Sasuke. Poor Kakashi is going to fight with his sexuality a lot too! Please review and let me know if I should continue or not. If I get enough interest I'll start work on the second chapter, and hopefully continue the story on to the end. Please let me know if you think I should keep going. This story will most definitely contain lemons of the yaoi variety, but not for a few chapters yet.
Thanks so much!
Laura xx