At the business in which Kakashi worked at, the employees discussed having a celebration party for their sudden successful jump in the business world. Assuming that it wouldn't hurt anything, Kakashi volunteered to have the party at his house.
"...really."
"Yes, really."
"You're just - having a bunch of people from work come over here and half of them are strangers to you."
Kakashi stood in the kitchen peering at his childhood best friend and housemate, Obito Uchiha, trying to explain to him about the celebration. "Well this could be a chance to meet them...and maybe you could get some friends yourself." The Uchiha picked up his mug and took a sip from it, "I doubt I would be able to make any sense of their business talk..." Kakashi sighed slightly, "Look, it's only for one evening; I'm sure you can manage. Maybe Madara or someone could keep you company while-" "No way; not when he can embarrass me in front of everyone...which I'm sure he'd try..." Obito grumbled, grimacing at the different scenarios that he thought of in his mind. "Fine, fine, it was just a suggestion. But-" The Uchiha stopped lifting his mug mid-way and raised an eyebrow, "...but?" "...I need you on your best behavior. No going on your little rampages like you always do when you're angry," Kakashi replied. A small chuckle came from the raven before he took and quick sip from his mug, "No promises." Kakashi had a slight feeling that he would regret having this celebration at his house sooner or later, but for now, he hoped that everything would turn out all right.
At about five o'clock Thursday evening, Kakashi's co-workers started to arrive, all of the knocking on the door and getting up to answer it slowly starting to get to him.
"Hello."
"Hello Kakashi! It's so nice of you to take such a responsibility by allowing us to celebrate here...I guess we all owe you one."
"No need, I just thought it would be nice for a change. Come on in."
He stepped aside to let the woman in, closing the door behind her. The living room wasn't full just yet, but there was no telling on how many more of Kakashi's colleagues were to show. Meanwhile, Obito stood on the staircase, leaning against the railing and clutching a plastic cup in his hand. Gazing around at the small crowd, there was no one he could recognize, making a small feeling of alertness form in the back of his mind. Like they say, you never know. "Hey, don't drink all of my fruit punch, you." The Uchiha turned his head to see Kakashi standing there.
"This is only my second, relax."
"Your second and your last. You should drink more water."
"Water's too bland."
"...honestly, sometimes I think you might have a sugar addiction."
Obito shrugged. "Probably."
Sighing slightly, the silver-haired male moved away from the staircase and made another loop around the room, occasionally stopping to ask if anyone needed anything or to just make small talk. Everything seemed to be going as he hoped it would, so far.
Later in the evening, all of the guests assumed to arrive had come, and the celebrations commenced. Kakashi stood somewhere in the crowd hoarded in his living room, making small talk with two women who worked in the printing department and one of their husbands. A few moments passed and another louder knock was heard at the door. "Oh, excuse me for a minute-" Stepping away from the trio, he made his way through the crowd to the door, muttering apologies when he accidently bumped into someone, and opened it.
"Hello?"
"Hey."
"Oh, Madara...what are you doing here?"
"I need to go out for a bit. I thought I could trust leaving Swirly in your care."
"Ah, yes- wait, Swirly?"
"Hello!" Swirly's head popped out from behind Madara, waving a hand at him.
Kakashi inwardly filled with dread. "Oh, well...I guess I wouldn't mind..." Madara nodded at him, "I'll try not to take my time. Swirly, make sure you listen to Kakashi, understood?" "Yes, Madara-san!" he saluted at the older Uchiha, walking up to Kakashi on the doorstep. Madara nodded once again and walked away, leaving the two to step inside. "Oouh, what's going on in here? Is it a party?" Swirly asked, gazing around at seemingly enormous crowd in the room. "Well, sort of. It's a celebration party for my business co-workers," Kakashi replied, "You can help yourself to the snacks and stuff in the kitchen-" "Is cousin Obi here?"
Shoot. He asked the dreaded question. Kakashi had two options: either leave Swirly to find Obito for himself, or save the torture (until later on after everyone left at least) and show him to Obito now. "Uhh...yeah. Over here." The two made their way over to the staircase where Obito was still perched, not surprisingly with a cup full of more fruit punch. "Obito-!" The many voices in the small room made it extremely loud, so he tried to raise his voice and reach his comrade. "Obito-!" The Uchiha heard him the second time and turned his head to see what he wanted, but was shocked to see his in-law, Swirly, standing beside him. "Wha-" he glanced around and leaned toward Kakashi a bit with a violent hiss, "What is he doing here?!" "Madara had to go out and he didn't want to leave Swirly all by himself, so I said that I could watch him!" Kakashi called back. With a tug to the silver-haired man's arm, Obito lead him down the small hallway between the kitchen and the living room for a more private conversation and to avoid yelling, Swirly tagging behind them.
"I thought that you were just having co-workers here tonight," Obito said, putting stress on 'co-workers' and throwing a glance at Swirly. "Look, I told Madara that I would watch him while he was gone, and here he is. And you're starting to get your temper," Kakashi stated, giving a cautionary glance at the raven. Obito 'tsk'-ed, "You don't even know what my temper is...can't we just leave him with Ino or something?" "Ino is out visiting with her boyfriend for the week; you know that. Can't you just get along for one evening, please?" Grumbling, the Uchiha turned his head to the side, thinking about his options, which were very little. "I...suppose I could..." he finally managed to say. "Thank you, Obito," Kakashi spoke gratefully, "Now I really should get back- I'll check on you guys later." With a quick glance over his shoulder, Kakashi was gone, leaving Obito and Swirly to themselves. Obito silently glared at his annoying in-law, waiting for him to do something.
"...so...what should we do now, cousin Obi? Should we play a game?"
Silence.
"Or maybe...we could make a blanket fort and defend it from invaders..."
Grumbling.
"Or, hide and seek, we could do that! Can we, cousin Obi, pleeeease?"
"...sure." The sheer "enthusiasm" in his voice was made very clear.
"Yay!" Swirly cheered, "Okay, you hide first, cousin!"
While he turned to cover his eyes against the wall, Obito just stood there and silently sipped the punch from his cup while the "Five, six, seven..." nagged at his ears. "...nineteen, twenty! Ready or not, here I co-" Swirly paused as he turned around to go questing for his cousin, but saw that he hadn't moved from his spot. Laughing slightly he said, "Cousin Obi, you're supposed to go and hide! All well; it's my turn!" Bounding off down the hallway to hide somewhere, Obito mumbled before taking another drink, "Good riddance", and walked back out into the living room.
Much later, the mere thought of Swirly still hiding somewhere crossed the Uchiha's mind. He proposed that he should look for him, incase Kakashi came and asked about his whereabouts. "Swirly?" he called out, gazing over the crowd in the living room but finding no trace of him. Assuming that he wasn't within the partiers, he searched the rest of the house for his annoying cousin – hoping that he hadn't gotten into anything that he shouldn't. "Swirlyyy..." Obito's voice trailed off as he walked down a hallway. Suddenly a sound came from a slightly opened door. The raven cautiously moved toward the door, trying to prepare himself for the worst, whatever might be in there-
"Swirly! Get out of the toilet!"
"But cousin Obi—"
"Out!" The Uchiha swatted at his cousin who had been playing in the toilet. For some reason, he had a fascination with bathroom topics— Swirly moved away from the toilet and had his back up to the door, which started to close as he backed into it. Obito grumbled and rubbed his temples, "I've had about enough of you, already...I wish Madara would just hurry up and— ""Uhh, cousin Obi?" his cousin interrupted his out-loud thinking. Slowly he turned to face Swirly, irritation in both his gaze and his tone, "What?" A white finger was pointed at the door, "It's stuck." Obito blinked and pushed him aside, "What do you mean it's stuck?" He fumbled with the doorknob but to no prevail, causing him to panic slightly. There was no way that he would stay locked in here with someone like Swirly – his sanity would definitely be gone by the time he got out. "No, no, no, no..." the raven muttered to himself, "Not like this—" "Not like this what, cousin Obi?" Swirly tilted his head at the words. "I'm not going like this! Never! Kakashi!" Obito wildly banged with his fist and shoved himself against the door, "Somebody open the door!"
"Let me help, cousin Obi—"
"Don't! Just – don't touch anything! Just..."
He walked backwards until the back of his legs touched the tub, and he took a seat on the edge of it with his head hanging in despair. "Why me...why..." Swirly frowned and sat on the floor, hugging his knees. "I'm sorry, cousin Obi..." he apologized. A few silent minutes passed before the nonsense talk started to pour from his lips, and Obito knew that he was nearing the end.
~~
"Bye, thanks for coming," Kakashi called out to the last of the partiers, retiring home for the evening. He closed the door as soon as they disappeared from his view and looked around the living room. It wasn't as trashed as he thought it might be, but enough that some slight clean-up was needed. The party had gone fairly well, and Obito had kept his temper under decent control – Wait. Obito. Where had he run off to anyway?
"Obito?" The silver-haired man wandered around the now quiet house, peeking into the doorways and pacing the halls. He later found himself in the last hallway left, and surprisingly one of the doors was closed. But...wasn't this a bathroom...? His hand twisted the knob and the door flung open, "Obito?" His eyes took in Swirly first, sitting on the floor. "Oh, hi Kakashi-san! Cousin Obi and I were just talking," the white man spoke, "But...I think he fell asleep..." "Fell asleep?" Kakashi blinked and peered around the edge of the door at the Uchiha slouched over on the bathtub. He actually looked more dead than anything. Kakashi made his way over to Obito and shook his shoulder, "Obito? Are you okay?" There was no sound from the raven, which made a feeling of panic start to arise within him. "What...happened exactly?" Kakashi asked, looking over at Swirly. "Oh, well we were playing Hide-And-Seek and I hid in here and kind of started playing with the toilet which made cousin Obi mad...but then the door closed and the knob wouldn't move, so we were closed in," the other replied. Sighing, Kakashi realized what must have happened. Swirly must have really gotten to him while being locked in a room with him for so long that Obito had lost it. They would all have to learn from this mistake.
"Well...you'd better get going, Swirly. Madara should be home any time now."
Swirly nodded and stood up, "Thanks for having me over, Kakashi-san! Bye cousin!" He waved to Obito before running out and heading back to Madara's place. Obito was lifted up from his perch on the bathtub by Kakashi and carried up to his bedroom. He would have to thank Obito sincerely when he woke up for all of the trouble that he had caused him, and for trying to keep his temper under the best control that he could muster. Thanks to his cooperation, the party was a success. Next time Kakashi would have to think twice about having any event at his home, especially if Swirly were to be present. Things could go the same as they did tonight – and he wasn't sure if he or Obito wanted a repeat session anytime soon.
