Alternative title: uncomfortably forced bonding sesh. Sorry this took so long; exams and suchlike got in the way. Also sorry it's kindof a cliffhanger, but I'll have the next one up soon.

The land of the creeps freshened up and baby faced shaved

Put your eyes on me and I know a place where we can get away

Just say I want you, exactly like I used to

'Cause baby, this is only bringing me down

____

Having spent hours the previous afternoon catering to Ino's various Homecoming-shopping-related whims, Sakura found herself buried in homework at what could only be considered an obscene hour of the night. Aside from a sarcastic Facebook update (Sakura Haruno wonders how many APs it takes to get to the center of an all-nighter), she was completely on-task, so by 4am she could safely call it a night without worrying about abject failure in 3 different classes.

Needless to say, her alarm did not survive the following morning. May it rest in peace.

Her first two classes passed in a complete daze. Luckily for her, Gai decided it was of the utmost importance to educate his students on vitality and youth "before it was too late," so she didn't have to exert much effort anyway.

She was especially proud of herself for staying awake through History, and even successfully appearing to pay attention. At least, she thought she was successful...when Kakashi called her over after class was done, she started to have second thoughts.

"You look terrible," he informed her.

She grinned. "Always the charmer, huh...anyway, yeah, staying up until 4 in the morning does that to a person."

He crinkled his one visible eye good-naturedly. "Just wanted to make sure you didn't need a pass to the nurse or anything. Oh, and I have that quiz for you; if you can make the necessary corrections and then take a new one, I'll give you a B." She nodded. "It's in the closet, in my bag...could you grab it for me?" He added.

She walked over to the closet on the other side of the room. Either her lack of sleep was affecting her motor skills, or the doorknob was being especially obstinate...with a fierce tug, she wrenched the door away from the wall. After a few seconds of searching, she gave up. "I don't see it..."

Kakashi strode over and opened the door wider to peer in. "Huh, that's weird, I was sure it was in there. And damn this door is heavy..."

Sakura squinted into the semi-darkness (what kind of classroom has a closet this big anyway?) and leaned forward. "Wait, wait, I think I see it-"

In her half-dozing state, she was unable to balance herself in time before she tumbled into the closet. Kakashi panicked, thinking that she had fainted. "Sakura!" he cried, and fully entered the closet, kneeling over the drowsy girl and propping her up against the far wall. "Are you OK??"

She blinked sleepily, her head spinning. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine..." A sudden realization hit. "Wait, Kakashi! Don't let the door-" it swung shut with a heavy creak and clicked ominously into place- "close..."

Kakashi rubbed his hand through his hair with relief. "As long as you're OK, don't worry about it. I'm sure I'll be able to force it open."

---

"Kakashi, it's been 10 minutes. Don't you have a 4th period class? If we bang on the door..."

He shook his head wearily (10 straight minutes of trying to force open a locked door that clearly belongs in a castle, not a school, will do that to a person). "It's my break period..."

Sakura shook her head in a vain attempt to clear out the cobwebs. "So what you're saying is..."

"We're stuck here for at least another hour."

---

Several apologies and an uncomfortable silence in which our heroes tried to figure out exactly how they could sit down without any excessive or inappropriate touching later, Sakura's head was dangerously close to Kakashi's shoulder, and her eyes felt like solid gold life-size elephants (heavy). They were both leaning shoulder-to-shoulder against the back of the deceptively small closet, with the tips of their shoes brushing the door. When they thought they heard potential rescuers, they smashed the soles of their feet against the door. However, no noise had been heard in quite some time, hence Sakura's dangerously fluttering eyelids.

Eventually, they both succumbed to the drowsiness of a warm crowded closet.

---

At least a half hour passed before they both began to stir. Kakashi was the first to open his eyes, and upon realizing how they had shifted during their slumber, became very, very awake very, very quickly.

This sudden jolt of awareness was mostly due to his realization that while their positions had started out quite innocently, they were no longer that way at all. Sakura had somehow flipped so she was more or less straddling his thigh, with her arms smushed against his chest and her face buried in the crook of his neck. Somehow while he was asleep, his arms had snaked around her back and curled in her hair a little bit, holding her in place (he mentally berated the traitorous appendages).

He thanked whatever God was listening that he didn't have an, er, wood problem, and tried to disentangle Sakura as gently as possible. Unfortunately, as soon as he removed his arms, she began to stir. Her hands curled into his loose button-down shirt, and she tucked her head down under his chin. Then, she opened her eyes and realized exactly where she was, whose scent she was inhaling deeply and whose chest she was enjoying the feel of against her cheek.

She tripped off his lap hastily, and even in the dim light, Kakashi could see that she was blushing fiercely.

"Uhm," she began.

He couldn't help it, and laughed out loud. She looked so cute and ridiculous, tumbled over with sleep tousled hair, glowing cheeks, and a small smile tugging at her lips at their situation.

"Don't worry about it. We were both asleep, these things happen." He checked his watch. "Well, we're stuck here for at least another half hour...in a closet full of school supplies. I bet we can come up with some way to pass the time."

She laughed, her blush finally fading. "What, is talking to me that horrific of an idea? I'm hurt..." Then an idea hit her. "Well if you're going to be anti-social, I'm going to entertain myself by drawing what I bet you look like under that mask."

She scrounged for a minute before she located the necessary paper and glow-in-the-dark crayons (thinking, we're in a high school for God's sake, why the hell are there glow in the dark crayons?! Oh well, convenient for me), and set to work. He chuckled, and provided several poses for her to sketch before setting to work on the details of the face.

While she was hard at work, Kakashi thought about their relationship. It had long since transcended just plain old student-teacher. He wondered if he should be worried. They were definitely friends, and if she were a little older and he a little younger...if he weren't her teacher... He had stopped trying to deny having feelings for her a while ago, because it was useless to pretend he didn't feel anything when the opposite was clearly true.

He knew better than to make a move; that would be stupid and risky. It could compromise his job and, more importantly (to him), his friendship with Sakura. But at the same time, he couldn't help but wish and hope...maybe, if she made the first move, or gave him some hint...if they could keep a secret until school was out...

Kakashi shook his head frustratedly. This line of thinking wouldn't do any good. There was no point in building up hope, only for it to come crashing back down again. Not that he wasn't used to disappointment; at 29, he had faced more hardships in his life than most people do in their whole life. Still, though...he just wondered, sometimes-

Sakura's excessive throat-clearing interrupted his musings. Once she successfully captured his attention, she proudly waved her art in his face, and burst out laughing at his widened eye.

One of them featured a Kakashi with toothless gums like an old man, and a nose that looked suspiciously like a...much less appropriate part of the body. Another one featured buck teeth (with a carrot in his hand and bunny ears, of course) and no nose at all (at which he raised an eyebrow questioningly. She shrugged and replied with "You never know...").

In the last one, she didn't bother with a detailed sketch of his face, but instead left it blank except for NON-CONFORMIST in block letters covering the same territory as his mask. He smirked; she wasn't too far off with that one. Not that he'd ever admit that to her...

"So," Sakura said. "You gonna keep me in suspense? Or tell me which one is right?"

He gave an amused snort. "None of them, thank God. Can you imagine how terrible it would be to have bunny ears? Or enormous letters instead of facial features..."

Sakura deflated slightly. "So then why DO you wear that mask? You can't be that ugly..."

Kakashi grinned. "You wanna know why? Okay, fine, I'll tell you. It's the opposite; I'm just so drop-dead sexy I wouldn't be able to keep the girls off me if I didn't wear this." She interrupted his explanation with a snort of her own.

"No, you don't even understand," he continued, ignoring her teasing disdain. "I'm like... the hottest Jonas Brother crossed with Zac Efron, Heath Ledger, and Johnny Depp."

She burst out laughing at this. "With white hair?"

He frowned. "Silver. It's distinguished looking."

"Ha. Is that why you dyed it that color? You thought it'd make you look sophisticated?"

Kakashi sniffed indignantly. "I'll have you know this color is 100% natural. As is the volume and body, in case you were wondering."

"Prove it," Sakura said, smirking. As soon as the words were out, she blushed furiously, but didn't retract the comment.

Kakashi was completely taken aback. On the one hand, he would absolutely love to take this bait- didn't it basically answer the question that had been torturing him for months now?- but on the other hand...totally inappropriate.

Finally, he decided. What the hell, life is short, and I may just be in love with this girl.

"Do you really want me to?" He asked, making his voice dangerously low and leaning a little closer to her. Sakura swallowed at his tone, thinking, I am a BIG girl. For lack of a better response, she whispered into his ear, "Maybe I do."

Kakashi felt like the air was getting a little heavy for his liking, and decided to lighten the situation. "Well unluckily for you, I don't feel like flashing my armpit quite yet; it's a little early in this relationship for something that serious..."

Luckily for him, she took the cue. "That's true, you should at least take me out to dinner first."

They both grinned and felt a little awkward, and that was about to be that except that Kakashi was just burning with curiosity, and decided to open another can of worms.

"Sakura, this might seem odd. I know I'm not really one for deep, heartfelt conversations, but I've been feeling...that is, I've been getting these signals... I'll put it this way. Now is probably the best time for this. If you've got something to say to me, I think you should say it to me. Now."

___

Kings of Leon. If you're actually considering checking out the band, I'd suggest Closer, Manhattan, and/or Use Somebody; I Want You is a little harder than the others to get into.

Also, I did more of Kakashi's point of view here than usual; sorry for switching back and forth all the time, it was the only way I felt like I could really capture both of their experiences.

Next chapter: More awkwardness and terrible but necessary coming out of the closet jokes!