Yo. Thanks to everyone for the reviews. I appreciate them all! Zabuza comes back for a visit, and Kakashi realizes just how much they have in common. Later.

Fire and Ice

Kakashi woke to the knock of the front door. He realized just how small Akira's house really was when he saw that the whole place consisted of almost nothing but a kitchen, a bathroom, a single bedroom, and the main room. He went to open the door before Akira woke, hoping that the person would leave after finding out Akira was asleep. Kakashi held his white sleeping yukata closed because it was too big to tie with a single cord. Akira didn't have a smaller sleeping yukata for him. He finally slid the door open and stepped back to see Zabuza glaring at him.

"Took you long enough…and what the hell are you wearing?"

"A sleeping yukata, and he's asleep. Come back later."

He slid the door closed as fast as he could, but Zabuza put his foot in the way.

"I told you he's sleeping."

"What, you think I came here for the old man? I don't care about him. I came to see you."

"Not my house, so I can't let you in. Not like I would, anyway."

"I wasn't asking to come in."

Zabuza pushed past Kakashi into the house, and he didn't try to stop him. He knew Zabuza wouldn't hesitate to start a fight, and he couldn't afford to be seen as too much trouble. The previous day had worn down his pride, but he was still just as stubborn as Zabuza.

"What do you want? Don't you have a job to do…like assassinating another innocent?"

"For your extremely outdated information, I don't assassinate people anymore. I pretty much wander from village to village, living on whatever I can. Nice to see you don't have those brats following you at your heels anymore."

Kakashi's shoulders slumped at the thought of his students, his losses heavy on his mind. Zabuza took the hint and backed off, but his interest in Kakashi wasn't yet clear. Kakashi could feel Zabuza's eyes slowly making their way down his face and neck to the exposed portion of his chest. They snapped up to meet the exposed blue eye that radiated Kakashi's deepest inner workings, Zabuza's gaze piercing into him with a fierce intensity before looking at Akira.

"I see we have a visitor! There are no ill feelings from yesterday's confrontation, are there?"

"Of course not. I just wanted to see how an old acquaintance of mine was doing."

Zabuza's reference to him gave him enough reason to leave the room and get dressed. He knew he had unwillingly caught Zabuza's attention, and he wasn't so sure he didn't want it. He returned to the main room and served breakfast, but Akira spent most of the time talking rather than eating.

"So, you said Kakashi-kun was an acquaintance. You certainly don't appear to be friends."

"We're not. He happened to be protecting the man I was hired to assassinate. That's how we met…and we haven't seen each other since."

"Well, it's nice to see that you're both alive. It usually doesn't turn out that way, you know."

Kakashi could almost taste the irony in the conversation, though he did see it as interesting.

"Things got…complicated. We had to have a rematch due to a…very tricky maneuver on his part."

Zabuza grunted and straightened his posture.

"I had a job to do. I wasn't going to just leave."

"Yes, and I ended up defeating you…twice."

Akira caught a glance of Zabuza's glare at Kakashi and took it as his cue to leave the table.

"If you'll excuse me…I have some vegetables to tend to in the garden."

The truth in Akira's statement didn't hide his real intentions from the shinobi seated in his house. He smiled and left, receiving a small bow from both shinobi before closing the cage on their unseen battle. Kakashi ignored Zabuza's glare and collected the dishes from the table. He knew Akira would want them washed immediately, but Zabuza wouldn't stop staring at him like that…evaluating his every movement. Kakashi hated it.

"You said you came to see how I was doing, and I'm doing quite well. You can go now."

Kakashi entered the kitchen and put the dishes in the sink as he prepared to wash them. He had started thinking of what to cook for lunch when he noticed Zabuza's presence behind him. 'Why doesn't he just leave?'

"Do you need something?"

"You can't talk and wash dishes at the same time?"

"You're annoying. You have no legitimate reason to be here, yet you insist on staying."

"We need to talk."

"We are."

"Don't toy with me, Kakashi-kun. You know what I mean."

"Don't call me that."

Kakashi knew exactly what Zabuza meant, and he found it to be slightly disturbing. Zabuza had placed his hands on both sides of the sink, and Kakashi could feel his breath on the back of his neck. He normally considered such a distance too close for comfort, but he wasn't uncomfortable. The gesture was actually comforting when he took into consideration the events that were taking place.

"Don't be arrogant. You're a servant now, remember?"

"Well, at least I haven't dropped to your level."

Zabuza sighed. Kakashi continued ignoring him and washing the dishes, hoping the Mist shinobi would take the hint and leave. 'He's so stubborn…not to mention irritating.'

"Fake it all you want. Tell me…has it even occurred to you that you'll never see them again?"

Kakashi finished washing the last of the dishes and gripped the counter, his knuckles turning white as his hands shook.

"You have no village, no friends, no family…nothing. That's what you've become. Sound familiar?"

He pushed against Zabuza's arm, but the man's grip on the sink wouldn't budge. He wouldn't budge, and Kakashi couldn't duck fast enough to get through.

"No, now let me through."

"No. The both of us have nothing…and you want to keep acting like everything's okay. Do they teach you to ignore your problems in that pitiful village?"

"Let. Me. Through."

"I'm not just another bad dream that you can wake up from, or another problem that you can ignore. I'm not leaving."

Kakashi's heart rose to his throat as he let out a strangled cry that sounded like a cross between a yelp and a sob. He wasn't going to cry. Not in front of him. 'There's nothing I can do. I've tried to think of something, but it wouldn't work. It hurts…the pain won't stop.' He covered his mouth with both hands in a desperate attempt to calm down, his efforts causing his body to shake.

"You think this is a problem that you can fix?"

"I never said I did."

"Then you need to go."

"Actually, I need to stay. Your idea of a solution is to just let the both of us to live alone as we drown in the misery of our lives."

"So you want us to live together and fight like dogs instead of doing what we've done for years?"

"It's better to live together like dogs than to die alone like invalids. You want me to leave, knowing what I have in front of me?"

"We don't know each other. It's better that way."

"It became twice as hard the moment we saw each other. I can't leave when I know that I have another chance."

"You have no chance with me."

Zabuza turned him around, their faces only centimeters apart.

"I'll come back."

The full extent of his mistake hit Kakashi when Zabuza closed the front door, his pain spreading through him like a disease. He was left there, standing in front of the kitchen sink, to contemplate the consequences of melting Zabuza's heart.

'I hope you do.'

TBC

Mazuiko: I do not think there were any new Japanese words in this chapter…if there were, please let me know. Zabuza will return! Kakashi saw Zabuza for who he was…a person, not a monster. In chapter 5, Kakashi sees another side of our favorite Mist assassin, and Zabuza begins to discover the warmth he's been missing. The angst shall continue, and the romance will begin. Yay!