.
.
"You have pretty eyes," Rin says.
She's resting her head on the pillow, lying on her side and her face close to Obito's. Carefully she touches the sides of his face with her fingertips. The scars on his skin are soft in places where he had been cut by jagged rock; thin, translucent pink lines criss-cross the mottled, disfigured parts, those places thick and rubbery and bumpy. Obito beams at her. She leans close, lets her lips brush his, before pulling back, quietly. "Your lashes are long," she says, studying them. "I guess all Uchihas' are."
She settles back, lets her fingertips ghost over his cheekbones. "Have you always been this pretty?" Rin says. Obito laughs softly.
"Pregnancy's making you crazy," Obito says. He touches his forehead against hers. "I'm not pretty."
"Handsome, then."
"I'm not that either."
"Is it because of your scars?" Rin says. Obito smiles, shaking his head.
"I'm perfectly average," Obito says. He shifts her close, quietly. "Kakashi is better-looking."
"You can't tell because he's always wearing a mask."
"There's irony in that, isn't it?"
Rin's gaze shifts from his face to his neck, the triangle of muscle that reaches jaw to sternum. She traces the line of strap muscle there, lets her fingers ghost over the hollows above his collarbone. "I think you're more muscular than other people," Rin says.
Another laugh. "I'm not."
"You are." Rin palms his shoulder, rubs her fingers along the divets of muscle attachments, the firm bumps of muscle of his arm. "You know when we were kids, I thought that you were good-looking?"
"No you didn't."
"Yes, I did. But then you'd start yelling about being an Uchiha and future Hokage and people would think you were being weird and annoying."
"Hm." Obito rests his hand on her head. "You didn't think I was annoying?"
"I didn't." Her fingers find his sternum. "I felt bad for you."
"Because I obviously wasn't going to be Hokage?"
"Because you were insecure," Rin says, and she shifts to look at him. "You were lonely. I remember how you'd sit by yourself on the park bench, crying. But then you'd put on your goggles and start blustering about how getting hurt is super manly. I became a medic nin because of you."
Obito sighs quietly. "I was annoying," Obito says. His lips brush against her forehead. "You were my only friend. You were the only one who was kind to me."
"Gai liked you," Rin says.
"Gai likes everybody. And mostly he just hung around me because he wanted to fight Kakashi."
"Everybody wanted to fight Kakashi." Rin settles on his chest again. He strokes her hair, thoughtfully.
"Did you know you used to talk about Kakashi to me?"
"I probably did."
"All the time, you did," Obito says. "You even knew his shoe size. You stole his shoes from his locker, you told me."
"I was leaving a note to confess to him, there wasn't any harm in looking."
"You know what they say grows relationships?" Obito says. "Constant exposure. It's time and propinquity."
"Mm. What are you saying?"
"I'm saying we probably wouldn't be together if you hadn't been haunting me."
Rin looks up at him. He smiles softly. "I don't mind," Obito says. He shifts her close. "Of that whole mess, this is the only good thing that happened."
Rin furrows her brow. "You know that's not true," she says, frowning.
"I appreciate the sentiment, but you're letting current circumstances color your perceptions. I highly doubt you were secretly in love with me back then."
"I cared about you." She snuggles against him. "I told you already, I'd probably have pity sex with you."
Obito laughs softly. "And then you'd be with me after that?"
"Yeah, I told you."
He strokes her arm with his thumb, thoughtfully. "For what it's worth," he begins, and Rin looks at him, "for what it's worth, I was just happy you were friends with me."
"Really?"
He nods quietly. "As long as you were in my life somehow. That alone made me happy."
"Is that why you let me go on and on about Kakashi?"
"Mm, well I figured I wouldn't mind being the guy you'd complain to once you two got married."
Rin laughs, nuzzling his head. He kisses her hair and shifts her closer.
"I wish we could have sex," Rin says, shifting. Obito laughs.
"It's okay," Obito says. Their foreheads touch again. "I like this better anyway."