Kakashi is sure that he has found his team, it took a little longer than he thought it would but that can be dealt with later. He finds their trail on the woods surrounding the city and he finds himself deeply amused by the idea of his team camping for months while he had been living in Alex's apartment. The climate in this place is not necessarily bad, even if the temperature is starting to drop as time goes on. An apartment is still better, though.

He has Pakkun on security detail for Alex, just to make sure the target will not follow through with his threats. With any luck, nothing will happen but if it does, Pakkun can make sure the man loses them somewhere. Kakashi finds his team in the middle of an ambush which is great in the sense that obviously, Pakkun won't have to deal with the man if he's here. It's bad news, however, in the sense that his team is getting ambushed and they're not doing so well.

There are some seals surrounding the site, which tells him the missing-nin had the site carefully prepared. Some of the seals seem to be neutralizing Genma's and Anko's poison. Pulling it from the air. Others are doing the same for Asuma's attacks. Redirecting the wind in such a way that the attacks end up damaging them more than they damage their objective. Which means that their combined attacks with Asuma have been rendered useless. The missing-nin is nowhere to be seen, however.

It might mean that the man is not even here to begin with which means bad news all around. Kakashi thinks it more likely that the target is well-hidden and observing as things unfold. It would be aligned with the man's psych-eval and what Kakashi himself has observed from the man.

He lets himself sink through the ground, making sure to be as subtle as possible and carefully makes his way to the first seal from underground. Breaking it would mean that the whole chain will destabilize and the consequences of that are both unknown and very likely to be dangerous. What Kakashi can do, however, is make it so that the energy expenditure is far higher. That will force the seals to expire faster as well. His team will just have to endure the random attacks until then.

Kakashi is not sure how long it takes but when he emerges back to surface he's tired enough not to appreciate that the first thing he sees is his team fighting some sort of deformed creature. Kakashi just happens to be in perfect position to slit its throat. So he does. He's tired of this asshole's seals. He's gone and is taking his team with him.


Alex wakes up under two other bodies and wonders for about a second about the possible kinkiness of the situation before remembering that they can only be Martin and Diana. It takes a bit of wiggling around to gain freedom but she does manage to escape. Alex takes some sweatpants and a hoodie randomly, puts on Diana's jogging shoes and someone's sunglasses and she's out the door.

She ends up stopping at a little cafeteria on her way because damn it, she needs the coffee and it might help with her slight still drunk issue. A pug shows up out of nowhere and goes inside beside her. Alex blinks at it in surprise but doesn't stop it. The dog is wearing a blue shirt with a small logo on the back and the metal plate Kakashi has. Alex assumes it belongs to someone who is friends with Kakashi and that's all she needs to know right now. Her brain is still not working properly.

She caves quickly when the pug puppy-eyes her and buys some treats. Even then, she still shares some of the meat of her sandwich. Damn her weakness for everything canine. She still likes her dogs bigger, though. Still, the adorableness is strong on this one. The pug follows her all the way home, Alex doesn't mind. Kakashi can deal with this shit.

Alex makes her way back home still somewhat drunk despite her best efforts and definitely exhausted. There's yesterday's leftover makeup on her face, glitter on her hair and last night's dress is hidden under her friend's hoodie and the sweatpants she stole from someone. Not sure who. She only bothered to fix her lipstick and put on sunglasses to hide the mess. Ask her if she cares. Please.

So when she finds a ragtag group of people chilling on her living room and seemingly uncaring about how they're bleeding all over the place she just blinks and decides she's going to roll with the bullshit. Anything else requires way too much effort. They all stare at her and Alex nods to herself. This is Kakashi's fault. She knows. The hangover she's going to have too, she decides. Kakashi can take the blame for all the shit.

When Kakashi opens his mouth to speak, hands hiding something behind the back of her couch, Alex interrupts with a heartfelt "fuck it".

He startles by the vehemence of her words

She rolls her eyes and continues. "Kakashi, I love you. Really. I adore you. You're one of my best friends and no one does assholery as masterfully as you. It's awesome. That being said: I'm too sleep deprived to deal with this shit. And maybe a little bit drunk. You're on your own. I'm off to bed." Laughter follows her as she leaves.

She gives zero fucks.

"Pakkun, what are you doing?" Kakashi says and Alex whirls around because: what?

Except the pug turns around and answers, deadpan: "We're off to bed."

And Alex is done with this day because the cute little pug just spoke and how is this her life? She's sure she's slightly drunk, not high. She doesn't do drugs.

The pug, Pakkun it seems, is making his way to her room and when she doesn't follow, he asks her: "you coming?"

She goes off to bed. One does not simply ignore cute little talking pugs. It's a rule, she's sure she read it. Somewhere.

This is Kakashi's problem and he damn well can deal with it. Still, she screams at him from her bedroom. "You better clean up all that blood, asshole!"

Alex doesn't really care about the obvious teasing noises on the other side of her door. She's so very warm on her bed and there's Pakkun to cuddle with, he smells pleasantly nice. She tells him that and he thanks her while making himself more comfortable in her arms. She doesn't mind.

Maybe if she takes Pakkun with her to her parent's house, he can translate for her. Alex has long wondered about the obsession with the ball and why no avocado tree survives. Something to think about.

Alex wakes up hours later, still somewhat tired but not really drunk anymore. Not hangover either, thank the powers that be that she thought to eat and drink a lot of water on her slow-paced walk home. So, mainly, thanks to herself. Go, Alex! She rules.

It takes a while to untangle herself from the bedsheets without waking Pakkun but she manages. She takes a hold of Kakashi's shirt that is now hers. Thank you very much. She's never giving it back. It's stupidly comfortable and warm.

She puts on grey shorts under it and a sports bra because some decency needs to be kept and she's not feeling the hoodie. Alex finds them sitting on her couch marvelling at the menu. Which what? Who are these people? Still, she smiles and greets the lot of them before going to look for Kakashi because now she's awake enough to be curious and she knows who has the answers.

She finds him in the kitchen, going through all they have on the fridge and she rolls her eyes because there's no way they'll be able to feed all five of them with that. Alex still waits until he comes to the same conclusion and turns to her. She puts herself on his space and he bends so she can kiss his cheek.

Alex smiles at him. "Pizza, Kakashi. That is the answer."

He rolls his eye at her mock solemn tone but Kakashi still makes his way to the computer so they can order without having to talk to people. Alex follows after him and hugs his shoulders as they order.

She wants to ask but as she pulls back so they can better look at each other and she can ask, he pulls her back to him with his arm. "Later."

Which fine, but there better be a good explanation as to why there is injured people on the apartment.


Kakashi can feel their eyes on him as they order. He knows that his explanation of who Alex is and what they're doing inside her apartment is not going to be enough now. Kakashi doesn't do the whole touching thing, they believe, and yet here he is letting himself be touched and touching back.

It's not his fault, however, that they never bothered to ask him why that is. He's a bit annoyed even if he knows he's not being entirely fair. They couldn't know his instincts would have gone crazy if he would have had to go around smelling of other people and having these people smelling of him. It had been easier when he was very young. He had his father then, his smell has always been stronger on Kakashi. Stronger than any other people's smell and so it was easier to know who was pack and who wasn't.

He had Minato afterwards, of course, but the man had been only ten years older than Kakashi. Still a teenager when he found himself responsible for his Hatake student. Kakashi himself had been too young to understand that it wasn't that the blond hadn't wanted to carry his smell or have Kakashi carry the blonds, it was that the man didn't even understand what Kakashi had needed and wanted.

Minato had probably thought that Kakashi was looking for a replacement for his father and had, understandably panicked. The blonde had been 15, nowhere near old enough to raise a . Young Kakashi had, instead, thought that Minato wanted a teacher-student relationship but no pack.

The man had been pack, anyway. Kakashi had always been unbalanced, however, always a little insecure about his welcome because they had been pack but never behaved like it, rarely even smelt like it and Kakashi himself hadn't known what to do with the whole thing. Alex tugs gently on his hair and he takes his eye off the screen to look at her.

She mock-frowns at him and then arches her brow as a silent question. Kakashi only tugs her closer and she sighs but kisses his forehead. One hand on his cheek and the other still hanging over his chest with her forearm resting on his shoulder. Between their closeness and her hair covering them from view, they have a bit of privacy.

When she pulls back, she doesn't do so all the way. Alex whispers at him: "ok?"

Kakashi nods at her.

She looks like she's not sure she's buying it but she leaves when he gives her a small push. Alex disappears into the bathroom. A little later, Kakashi can hear the shower running.

Kakashi doesn't let them ask their questions and instead starts explaining to them how to operate the TV, knowing that it's very different to what they have back home while telling them about all the information they can find by using it. He can't seem to escape Anko's attempts to tease and touch him, though. And the only thing that stops him from getting her to stop by force is Genma's own efforts to distract her.


Alex comes back to the living room after her shower to find a Kakashi who looks like he might just snap and murder someone any second now while the other woman in the room, a lady with purple hair, is doing her best to crawl into his lap.

Alex can feel her brows climbing all the way up. Yeah, ok. That's not going to fly in her apartment. Kakashi turns to look at her as soon as she's in front of the lot of them. She looks back at him, a little bit of mischief and a little bit of anger in the corner of her mouth. Kakashi says nothing.

The woman turns to her and asks, not caring a bit about inside voices, or manners, for that matter: "Hey! Who are you?" She has to move away from Kakashi to point at Alex the way she's doing it and Alex takes the opportunity. She drops on her friend's lap and looks up to him with a smile, tongue between her teeth.

Kakashi radiates amusement even if he doesn't show it. Still, he doesn't protest her new self-appointed mission as a meat-shield against over-enthusiastic purple-haired ladies. He pulls her to him by surrounding her waist with his arm before he lets himself fall back, slouching.

Alex slaps his leg as a protest for the sudden movement and he chuckles. When she raises her head to look at him, he rests his other hand around her neck. She doesn't mind as much as she used to and he likes it, so she allows it. She rests one hand against the arm on her waist while he looks for the remote with the other. The guy with a beard at the other side of Kakashi gives it to her and she thanks him with a smile.

"Show or documentary?" She asks even as she's already looking for the documentary category.

Sure enough, Kakashi's answer doesn't surprise her. "Documentary".

Alex rolls her eyes. It's not that she doesn't like documentaries, it's just that she likes to watch shows every now and again, too.

Kakashi steals the control before she can pick something, though. She doesn't protest, it's not like she's planning on even trying to pay attention. Alex cuddles closer, making herself comfortable, and looks for something to read on her phone. Cutting any possible social interaction because now she's annoyed at these people with their pushy ways that bother Kakashi.

Alex ends up falling asleep somewhere around episode two of Dirty Money and doesn't even mind it that much. She has already seen it, anyway. She wakes up with a start a little later, though. There's someone inches away from her face and Alex's first instinct is to flinch back, the second is to throw a punch. She does both things. Her punch catches the lady right on the throat.

The woman falls back and Alex moves with her, intent on following in on her attack. She can't, there are hands holding her back but before she can move to get rid of them, she hears Kakashi's voice telling her to stop. So she allows herself to be pulled back, she extends her neck to better accommodate the hand settling on it but doesn't take her gaze away from the purple-haired woman still on her floor.

The man with a beard is standing like he's not sure if he should put himself between them. The one with the brown eyes and the needle between his lips is simply looking at all of them, expression neutral. They're both ready to move, she recognizes that. She's been training in martial arts long enough to be able to tell.

Alex hums, half to force herself into calmness and half to feel the hand on her own throat. She lowers her hand half-way through. It's a neutral position, it makes it easier to move said hand every which way.

There's a part of her angry enough to want to continue this fight but she keeps herself under control. She's never been good with threatening body language and it's not like she enjoys being woken up. Those two are a terrible combination. She lowers herself into a crouch and feels Kakashi follow her as he does the same behind her. Alex can't help the smile that makes her mouth twitch and she reaches for the hand on her own throat. She leaves their joined hands where they are.

Both women look at each other for a little while, Alex doesn't speak. She doesn't trust her own temper at the moment, doesn't trust the anger she can still feel trying to escape her control. What a terrible way to wake up.

The other woman speaks first. "If you didn't want to share the dick, you should have said so."

The smugness on the other woman is so thick that Alex can almost touch it, the belief that she can make Alex lose her head. Either out of fury or embarrassment at such a crude comment.

Alex almost laughs because the insult was lazy, to begin with, and she has heard far worse from her own sister. A sister whose opinion, arguably, matters more than this stranger's own.

So Alex smiles, all teeth and barely concealed mocking tones. "Alright, I don't want to share the dick."

The other woman blinks, surprised. When she opens her mouth to say something else, Alex dismisses her by turning to Kakashi.

"I think I'm off to the gym," Alex tells him, she kisses his cheek the same way she does every time she leaves. When she pulls back so she can pick up her stuff, Kakashi lets her go.

He still calls her back before she can actually go through the door. "Take Pakkun with you."

She arches her brow at him and then at the dog when Pakkun is suddenly beside her but she concedes easily enough with a roll of her eyes.


Kakashi watches Alex leave and ignores the tension in the room. He's already at a wit's end with his team and the fact that they don't understand the reason behind it does little to calm him down. Anko's humour has always tended to the sexual and Kakashi has never minded that, he has, however, never liked her tendency to rub herself on him. He did not care if she does it to other people but he won't let her do it to him.

Kakashi doesn't appreciate someone he's not all that close with invading his space and that is without taking into account the fact that he has no desire to carry her smell around. So he had stopped her. When his various and clear attempts at both telling her and showing her that he won't stand for it had gone on unheeded, Kakashi had made it clear to her in a very violent manner.

Anko had avoided him for months and Kakashi has to deal with Kurenai's silent disapproval of him to this day. Kakashi doesn't particularly care.

He has no idea what has made Anko start her antics once more and the only thing that had stopped him from ending it the same way he had before was Genma's and Alex's interference. Alex's solution of simply putting herself on the space Anko had been trying to occupy had been both surprising and amusing. Still, it had only worked until Anko noticed Alex fell asleep.

The idea that Alex's answer to waking up to someone so close was to hit said someone is another surprise, not that Kakashi is complaining. It means she actually has some survival instinct. Kakashi has wondered, she had seen nothing wrong with accepting a strange man into her home, after all. And a bunch of bleeding and dirty people this morning. It's a little worrying.

Maybe he should talk to her about trapping the place, he's not sure if she's going to like the idea but until now she rarely denies him what he asks for. She might let him, he loses nothing by asking, he's come to find out. Anko's rant about just what she will do to Alex "next time" has him coming back from his musings.

Kakashi has tried to be patient with the woman, he understands the insecurity and hurt hidden behind the rude behaviour. That doesn't mean that he will stand by while she bad-mouths and threatens his pack.

Alex had said "together" and Kakashi accepted. That means quite a big variety of things. Asuma and Genma are doing their best to calm her down but Anko is riling herself up. He has their attention as soon as he steps closer to them.

Kakashi knows his body language, as calm as it pretends to be, is not even close to being friendly. He ignores both men and watches with something close to satisfaction as Anko backs up for every step he takes closer to her. Kakashi doesn't rush it. He simply follows where she goes. There's more primal instinct in him at the moment than anything and he doesn't feel kind. It takes a while but she has backed herself against the wall and Kakashi invades her space, being particularly careful of not touching her.

Alex doesn't have his nose but having Anko's smell on him doesn't sit well. Neither does the idea of transferring that smell onto Alex when she comes back. He lowers his head close enough to Anko that she can hear him when he whispers. "You won't do it again." He waits until she nods numbly at him before backing up.