Stranded (Chapter 4)
Disclaimers: Not mine.
"That, was absolutely beautiful," thin lips curving upwards, Kakashi gave Iruka a venerating look as he applauded, the gesture slow and quiet but absolutely genuine. It had been long since he last heard something as wonderful as that, as if the music itself was speaking, singing, crying even – when it revealed a past tale of unrequited love, narrated the whispers of broken hearts and recited the unbreakable ligature between two lovers. Now that he thought of it again, beautiful was not even close to what he had in mind. No words could ever describe the sheer beauty of the music. Such tranquillity and serenity, he had always thought that these were impossible for him to find in a city as hectic as Tokyo. But somehow, right here, right now, with high quality sake perfecting the tantalizing play of traditional music by a very, very attractive geisha - he had found them.
"Thank you," the reply from Iruka, was as expected, soft – like the caress of gentle summer breeze, the touch of poshly cashmere and the taste of high class sake – it gave the most pleasing sensation to his sensitive hearing, and Kakashi liked it to bits. He could not seem to get enough of that addictive voice. And he vaguely thought that perhaps he never would, not in a lifetime, especially not when said voice was currently producing some soft chuckling noises which rang out clearly in the secluded area. Beautiful? Totally.
Oh right, he could not leave out those eyes that drawn his attention at the very first place now, could he? Those wide, innocent doe eyes which were currently shimmering in a barely visible glint of arrogant gold instead of the usual warm brown under the soft glow of the red lanterns. It made Iruka looked a little less imperturbable and a little more veritable – as if the gentle, polite façade that the geisha had been wearing all the time was peeled off the very first layer. It excited him, and he could not wait to peel off the next layer, and the next, curious and wanting to see exactly what Iruka was composed of in the very core. With that being the sole reason, he asked, voice not sounding placid but seductive instead.
"Come here?"
The reply that Kakashi received this time around was a couple seconds of comfortable silence which was followed by a smile – a smile that stretched the not very full lips into a thin line and narrowed the wide brown orbs into happy crescents, very contagious indeed. And Kakashi found himself smiling in return as Iruka nodded and lifted his talented fingers away from the koto, standing up and walking towards him with the lean hips swaying ever slightly at every harder step. Iruka had looked stunning then, surreal even, especially when it came to the soft gold glint in those pair of clear orbs. Kakashi simply had to stare. It was too much of a waste if he forgot this very beautiful sight in front of him, so he willed his brain to memorise it, seeing that he clearly knew he would regret if he could not recall this in the future.
"Kakashi-sama, do you know that it's bad luck to pour sake for yourself?" the sake cup clutched on his right hand was gently taken away from him by Iruka at the same time the soft voice rang out yet again. Surprised at the sudden question, Kakashi remained silent and chose not to answer. But instead, he gave the geisha a smile as he put his strong arm across Iruka's shoulder and pulled the geisha closer to his side, warm. The familiar scent of jasmine invaded his nose soon after, just like what he had anticipated earlier, and the quiet sigh of contentment that slipped past his lips was not even bothered to be stopped by him. Nights like this were rare, so he preferred not to say a thing as he closed his eyes and simply revelled in the other person's warmth together with the soft scent of jasmine that lingered around.
"Kakashi-sama?" a gentle call of his name, together with the honorific that Kakashi had somehow grown accustomed with, was all it took to make Kakashi changed his mind about not-talking.
"I'm not who I am today because of luck, you know? It's all about capabilities," toying with the delicate embroideries on Iruka's kimono collar, Kakashi replied idly as he met Iruka's eyes once in a while to glimpse at the gold glint, occasionally dipping his fingers into the wide collar accidentally just to get a touch at the bare tanned skin. His fingertips tingled with little jolts of warmth whenever they came in contact with Iruka's skin and the tingling sensation spread from his fingertips to his entire being, warming him up inside out. The fact that Iruka did not squirmed or tensed under his touch, but instead leaned even closer to him and rested his head on his shoulder just made the whole night thousand times better than it first started.
"I see… Do you mind if I say something then?" Kakashi tensed up a little at the slightly out of place question, but it was more of curiosity rather than shock. It seemed that Iruka could always catch him off-guard with unexpected actions and replies, but he was not complaining. He had not met a person who was completely unreadable by him for a very long time, and Iruka happened to be one of those that he could not read no matter how hard he tried. It kept his enthusiasm in check, plus it provided him with the best amusement he could get – ergo, he was not going to complain anytime soon. Nodding his approval, Kakashi moved his single hand further up to cup the geisha's cheek and tilted Iruka's face upwards to meet his. A pair of warm brown with hints of gold met a sole grey so dark that it was almost black and Kakashi thought that his reflection in those calm and clear pools was perfect.
"Say whatever you like, Iruka," purposely drawling the geisha's name in his deeper and huskier voice just because he wanted to, Kakashi smirked and carefully hid the lust that remained uncovered underneath the seemingly plain sentence. He gave the geisha a closer look then, his thumb tracing absentmindedly at the very end of the scar that sliced across Iruka's nose. And he surprised himself when he thought that the scar was actually not hideous at all, especially when he compared it to one of his own. If anything, the scar just added a dash of originality and individuality to Iruka, with the slight bumpy feeling on the otherwise smooth face being so addictive that it made him traced the spot repetitively just because he felt the compelling need to feel. However, his trance of action stopped in a halt when he heard what Iruka said next.
"Arrogant bastard."
Okay, that was NOT expected. At all. Frozen, Kakashi stared at the geisha who was grinning cheekily in front of him, proudly showing a row of straight white teeth and two pointy canines that dug into a slightly plump lower lip. Shocked? Surprised? Yes, totally. But it was not because of the fact that Iruka had just called him a bastard. He was long familiar to that name as it was used on him pretty often – especially by Asuma – so the actual problem did not lay there. In fact, there was no problem at all. He was just surprised that he managed to take off another layer of politeness off Iruka in such a short time. And he was enjoying every minute of it.
Spacing out in his own little world, Kakashi barely felt the slender forefinger that was poking his chest playfully, trying to gain his attention with the periodical touches. "You told me to say whatever I like, Kakashi-sama," Iruka pouted, pursing his pair of lips out and up, purposely making them looked fuller than they really were. And at that moment, Kakashi thought that Iruka looked absolutely endearing and adorable, not to mention downright kissable with the batting long lashes and pouting lips.
Restrain, Kakashi. Restrain.
"Kakashi-sama?" another call of his name, this time with a tone of tentativeness and unsureness – as if the geisha thought that he had said something that offended him. Kakashi knew that he had to amend this as soon as he saw the arrogant gold slowly faded away from the pair of expressive orbs. He had grown fond of the aggressive gold glow in Iruka's eyes and it just would not do if the glow dimmed. Thus, giving Iruka a toothy grin as a signal that he did not mind a thing that Iruka had just said, Kakashi ticked the pointy nose gently as he asked in a nonchalant manner, "Maa… How am I arrogant?"
"You don't even believe in luck," the sultry reply came immediately, and the faded gold slowly came back to life in the brown orbs, lighting up the dark pools in small streaks of glimmering shine. Success. Feeling glad, Kakashi smiled and gave Iruka a dismissive shrug as he tried to reach for the sake cup once again. Unexpectedly, a pair of warm hands stopped him by entwining their fingers together in a firm hold, not letting go even if Kakashi retracted and pulled back a little. But no matter how good and how warm that had felt, Kakashi simply could not stop the frown that formed on his pale and almost unseen forehead, not understanding the reasons behind Iruka's action.
"Even if you don't believe it, I want you to have good luck. No matter now or in the future, I wish all the best luck for you," looking at Iruka pouring the sake for him, with the slender fingers clutching the sake bottle in a loose hold and the caressing voice rang out so clearly in the quiet area, Kakashi suddenly had a bad premonition. A very bad one at that. It seemed that the thing – whatever thing it was – that he had for Iruka was not restricted to pure lust anymore. And he just realised that. He wanted to know the man better, wanted to spend time with him, wanted to peel of every single layer of façade that the geisha wore and wanted to know exactly why Iruka wished him good luck even though they barely knew each other.
"Why?" he asked then, not teasingly or nonchalantly but dead serious and so quiet because he wanted to know the reasons, badly. He was quite the loner in his twenty seven years of life. Being a genius since forever, graduated from world top university with a master degree when he was twelve, obtained his phD title in the studies of finance and economics when he was seventeen – he had never gotten the chance to mix with people of his own age range. He was always the youngest among the circle of people whom he met. And those people who were heavily out of his age range never bothered to befriend him either. He really had no one close except his childhood friends like Asuma and Gai – who were not quite the prodigies but close enough. He had only them and a few others, whom he basically could count with his ten fingers. And he was not exactly proud of it. So, he could not understand why Iruka even bothered about his luck when he was just another customer.
"Because I wanted to," Iruka gave his answer so quickly, it seemed that the question which he asked was not even worthy to be thought about. Kakashi was again taken aback by what Iruka had said, even more when he heard the continuation of Iruka's explanation. "Because if you gain good luck, you'll come back to me for more. And I want you to come again," with that said, Iruka served the sake for him, a hand placed under the cup while the other held the rim gently with his long slender fingers bent in the most delicate way. The placating smile that Iruka showed him at that moment was pure brilliance and Kakashi could not do anything except melting right at the spot. He so totally took the bait.
"You want me to visit you again?" finally regaining some of his composure after battling hard with himself not to kiss those lips just yet, Kakashi downed his sake before he asked in an uninterested tone despite the fact that he was screaming out "God yes! I'd love to come back to you!" secretly in his mind. Iruka just smiled in return – gentle and beautiful – as he took the now empty cup away from Kakashi's hand and again entwined their fingers together, his other hand placed flat on Kakashi's chiseled chest right on top of the thumping heart.
"Yes. Please?"
It took a total of less than one second for Kakashi to agree.
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A/N: Credits to DarkAuroran for pointing out the sake tradition. It's considered as bad luck if one pours sake for oneself so I cleared that up in this chapter. I can't reply to fellow anonymous reviewers but I do appreciate the reviews you guys dropped for me. Very much love, thank you. Enjoy the new chapter! One more thing, am I moving the plot too slowly?