Enjoy!


Kakashi wakes in an unfamiliar place, years of training force him into pretending he's still asleep. He concentrates in trying to figure out his own state first, he can figure out where he is and how to get out after that. Experience tells him that what he's feeling is chakra exhaustion, he feels like sighing in exasperation. The good news is that other than the symptoms of chakra exhaustion, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with him. Nothing new, anyway.

As soon as he's sure of that, he tries to figure out where he is. His sense of smell tells him that there's someone who is constantly around wherever it is that he is right now and that he's alone. He feels a spike of worry and fear before he wrestles it back down. Where's his team? He needs to find out, he won't be leaving them behind and he very much doubts that they left him, as well.

He cautiously opens his eyes and they confirm what his nose has already told him, he's alone in a room. It seems to be a living space; as foreign as it is, there are enough similarities in the place for him to be reasonably certain of that deduction. As he looks around he realises that he's in an apartment that has to be owned by a civilian, by the lack of trapping at least.

He's thinking about standing up and making an escape when the door to what he now learns it's the bedroom opens. A young woman steps out of the room wearing a hideous pink hoodie and holding a pitcher full of water in one of her hands. He blinks at her and prepares himself for some kind of reaction when she simply ignores him and goes on ahead to the glass doors leading to the balcony.

What?... He decides it's not the time to question his luck and tries to stand up but the sharp pain in his chest stops him. Right. Broken ribs, he should probably take care of that. By the time he's managed to sit up with his back supported by the arm of the couch, the young woman is back. She's got lightly tanned skin, dark brown eyes that for some reason look like honey under the right light and black long hair braided down her back.

She's a civilian, of that he has no doubt anymore. It's obvious by the amount of noise she makes as she drags her feet along the floor in obvious tiredness. She's tiny too, he thinks amusedly. Maybe a couple centimetres above a meter and a half.

She comes straight to him and Kakashi doesn't even try to stop the reflex that has him capturing her wrist as she reaches for him. He feels the amusement bubble inside him as he notices her staring blankly at his hand. He doesn't let go when she tries to pull her hand back, by now curious about her reaction. What a strange little civilian.

Of course, it doesn't hurt to know that even injured as he is, this little civilian is hardly a threat. She frowns at him in a mixture of confusion and affront and he almost laughs. What will she do now? She leaves the pitcher on the side-table beside him. Is she going to try to force his hand away? She's not going to manage it but he won't stop her from trying.

She flicks his hand and he blinks at her in surprise.

"Behave," she reprimands him. "I'm trying to check your fever."

Kakashi can't help the expression that crosses his face. In all his life, he has never encountered a civilian who would scold him like that. Not one who he doesn't know well enough or isn't a client, anyway. Most civilians, even in a hidden village, are too wary of ninjas to act so casually with them.

When she reaches for him again, he doesn't stop her even if he doesn't release her either. She seems to be okay with that at least because she doesn't complain. A part of him rebels when she takes off his forehead protector even as he allows it to happen. His hand follows hers as she leaves it beside the pitcher on the side-table.

She actually does check his fever, he thinks, halfway between exasperated and amused. A little fever has never stopped him before. This time when she pulls back, Kakashi lets her go. He wonders if she's used to finding random strangers on her couch or if she's just going along with it because she's still asleep enough that she hasn't processed things yet.

Kakashi has always been too curious for his own good and he's not above taking advantage of the situation when possible. He needs about a week before he's in any condition to do anything. The woman comes back with a damp towel and proceeds to wipe his face with it. She's mothering him which is equal parts exasperating and awkward. It has been a long time since he's had anyone to do it for him.

Kakashi looks at her as she sits down by the table and decides to wait until she's awake enough to be rational. He really wants to know if finding strangers on her couch is common for her.

Her eyes lock with his as she stands up but she speaks before he gets to ask his question. "Why do I do this to myself?"

He would like to know the same. Still, he watches in silence as she comes back to him.

He doesn't stop his protest as she takes the blanket away. He might find the mothering awkward but he will take the advantages and he liked being warm, thank you. She shushes at him before she begins to tuck him in with a new blanket, of course, she does. This woman has no common sense or survival instinct, for that matter. He doesn't drop his eye from her hands, though. Years of learned paranoia won't let him.

The woman makes an annoyed sound and he turns to look at her face. She's frowning at his feet. Why? She takes his shoes off. So she will find it in herself to get annoyed at him for putting his shoes on her couch but not for randomly crashing on it?

Her priorities are all mixed up, he thinks. He believes she's done mothering him when she finishes tucking him in but she checks her fever once more. He's not sure what is happening anymore, maybe he cast an illusion on her? After all, he's not sure how he ended up in her couch, to begin with.

If that is the case, it's not a good idea for him to question her motives. It might dispel what subtle compulsion he placed in the hypothetical illusion and he doesn't feel the need to risk it. He watches her go around her morning, marginally sure that he won't be getting his answer anytime soon. How long is it going to take for her to wake up? He's not sure this is normal civilian behaviour. He guards them, sometimes he assassinates them. But for the most part, that is the most interaction he has with them.

And she's coming back to him. If she checks his fever again, he will rebel. She doesn't.

"I'll be back with some medicine and food, ok? Rest now." She lets him know as she hands him what seems to be the TV remote. Except that her TV is far bigger and flatter than any other he has seen before and the remote has too many buttons. Why does it need that many buttons?

He's distracted of his inspection of the remote by a hand on his hair and his mind short-circuits. What? Minato used to do that but when he did it was more to annoy a smaller Kakashi or maybe tease him a little bit. This feels more like petting and he's not sure what to do with it. So he focuses his eye anywhere but her. A tug on his hair has he looking back at her under protest and she smiles at him before turning to leave.

He stares at her until she goes out the door.

He decides to stay, uncomfortable he may be but having someone nurse him back to health in an unfamiliar place is useful. Of course, she's been gone for about an hour when boredom finally gets the better of him. He knows he's a terrible patient but sometimes he thinks that people forget what genius actually means. They stuff him in a white sterile room with nothing to do and expect him to stay put. His mind means that other people's version of doing nothing is impossible to him.

His Icha Icha seems to have been lost at some point during the fight that landed him here, so that avenue is closed but she did give him the strange control and left the weird TV on for him. He latches onto that distraction. Who knows? It might be useful. A couple of minutes of playing around with it and Kakashi is satisfied that he can use the thing and starts investigating just what he can do with the strange TV.

He's been playing around with the different options and is just about to open something called YouTube when his ears tell him she's about to open the door. She comes back with her bun all askew but she smiles at him as soon as she catches sight of him. So she's just going to roll with it? Is this whole thing normal to her? She makes no sense.

"Did you find anything interesting in YouTube?" She asks him as she goes to the kitchen. He assumes that she'll be leaving the groceries there. She doesn't come back, though and after a little while his nose tells him she's cooking.

She comes back to the living room after a little while. The text under the picture asks him: Who is Kate Bishop? He doesn't know either, should he investigate?

"Do you feel well enough for scrambled eggs or should I make you some chicken soup?" She asks him.

When he doesn't answer she rolls her eyes at him.

"Alexandra Fernández. You can call me Alex, Mr Stranger." She waits for him to introduce himself in return so he doesn't, he likes being contrary. The reaction of other people is always so amusing.

She just sighs and comes closer. She checks his fever again and his irritation with it must show on his face because the newly dubbed Alex laughs at him. "You have only yourself to blame," she taunts him. "You could have answered. Scrambled eggs it is. Don't go all grumpy on me." Alex saunters back to the kitchen with laughter in her voice and now he does feel a little petulant.

He's almost given up on this whole YouTube thing by the time she shows up back in the living room with two plates of food in hand.

"Nothing interesting, huh?" She murmurs to herself and Kakashi doesn't bother to answer. "Give the control here, would you? I'll pick something."

He gives her the control as she goes to sit down on the floor. She clicks on one of the pictures displayed on the screen and a video starts to play out. So every little picture on the screen was a video? How many videos are there? And, how much information can he gain using this YouTube thing?

He's barely done thinking about the possibilities when he notices she has minimized the video. Alex seems to be almost done with her food and as she glances back at him she makes a face. "You need to eat, you know? You won't get better if you don't."

He eyes-smiles at her and answers: "I don't like fried things." Kakashi is holding up the fried flattened yellow thing next to his eggs for her to see. He wonders about her reaction. Kakashi knows most people would find this insulting and get annoyed but this woman is anything but normal.

Alex makes an obviously fake scandalized expression and answers. "You don't like patacones? For shame, Mr Stranger. How dare you?" She takes the patacón from him, though, and eats it as he deadpans at her. Alex rolls her eyes at him. "You said you didn't want it! What do you like with your eggs, then?"

Kakashi turns to protect the rest of his food from her and informs her in fake sternness. "Why, toast and bacon of course."

She deadpans at him right back and Kakashi holds the judging stare with a blank one of his own. "How healthy," Alex tells him but she's standing up before he can answer. "Fine. But you'll be getting some berries with it so I can pretend I made you a healthy breakfast"

Kakashi considers that and decides it's fair. He's not worried about poison, his nose can pick most of it up and even if it was odourless enough, he has now discovered she likes to steal food. He'll have her steal a bit of everything before trying it.

He's watching something about a woman called Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by the time Alex comes back. On her hands is a plate with bacon and toast and a small bowl Kakashi assumes contains the promised berries. It does.

"Politics, huh?" She asks him but she doesn't seem to be expecting an answer and he doesn't volunteer one. He's still trying to figure out what the reason behind the interview is and what did she run for, anyway.

What does any of that to do with her new political position? It makes no sense to him. The interview it's almost over when he finally figures it out. This people vote on who would represent them in this thing called "Congress" and so he now would like to know how much power does this "Congress" have.

Do they get to vote on other political figures or only on their representatives of the "Congress". How odd. He's not sure where he is and it's not as if the entirety of the Elemental Nations are mapped out but having missed an entire civilization, especially one as advanced at this, sits ill with him.

Is this the only one? Are there more? Are this hypothetical undiscovered civilizations a threat? How much of a threat are they? Is it possible to have them as allies? How useful an ally can they be? There are too many questions and too little answers.

She moves to steal one of the berries for him and he allows it. Kakashi waits for a couple of minutes to see if there's anything wrong with her before he starts eating from the bowl while discreetly moving the rest of his food closer to her.

He repeats the process until she's tried a bit of everything, she doesn't seem to notice. Too concentrated on watching the videos. Kakashi doesn't complain but he doesn't pay attention to the videos either. He's too tired to force his brain into trying to figure out another country's political structure. He will do it later.

"So, got anywhere to go, Mr Stranger? Because I don't really mind housing you but I'm sure someone is already looking for you." The woman tells him. He blinks at her but she's not looking at him, her gaze firmly locked on the people dancing on the TV screen.

"No," he answers, deadpan.

She startles and turns to look at him. "No?"

There's a question in her words and Kakashi knows he can use the slight spark of compassion creeping into her features. "There's no one."

There's something sad on her eyes as she looks at him. "Nowhere to go?" She asks, waiting for confirmation to what she already seems to suspect.

Kakashi allows it and nods. It's not entirely a lie, he has nowhere to go in this strange country. Not until he finds his team anyway.

She sighs and he redirects his attention to her. "Fine," she tells him, conflict on her face. "You can stay here until you get better, Mr Stranger. But no longer than that."

Kakashi knows it's bullshit even as she says it. As long as he behaves in such a way that she finds him to be nice but in a bad situation, she won't throw him out. He can read it in her behaviour even if she doesn't know it about herself or pretends otherwise.

He simply nods in return and she smiles at him. Kakashi closes his eyes and tries to rest even if he knows he won't be able to fall asleep with someone he doesn't know being so close to him.

He only opens his eyes as she stands up to pick up the plates. He doesn't protest as she mothers him once more and when instead of getting back to him, she goes to where he assumes it's her bedroom, he finally tells her. "Kakashi Hatake."

Alex startles and turns to look at him. "What?"

Her question bothers him a little and he sighs in annoyance. "My name. It's Kakashi Hatake."

She smiles at him, dark hair catching the light through the window. "Well then, Kakashi. I hope you get better soon."