Working

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine.

Monday was going to be a very awkward day. Kakashi had left early on Sunday morning so by the time Obito woke up hanging half off the sofa and drooling, the boy was gone. This was good at the time since it meant he wasn't going to have to deal with him all day but it did mean he had to deal with knowing that he'd let the boy leave after yelling at him.

This wouldn't be an issue at school now that they'd finished their deal but they were still likely to be together at work. Kakashi may have changed shifts with someone again but if he hadn't they'd be sitting there for three hours in awkward silence.

He'd had a very happy Sunday playing games and lazing like a sloth on the floor. But now it was Monday morning and Obito only felt dread. Attempting to feign illness sadly didn't work. He'd used the milk and carrots routine too many times for aunt Mikoto to fall for it.

There was no doubt that he was in a bad mood when he got to his form room and slammed the door open as he walked in. The class didn't even pay attention to this, and even his friends barely batted an eyelash to him head-butting the table.

"Ok now that you have sufficiently concussed yourself, what's wrong?" Anko didn't even look up from the magazine she was holding.

"My life sucks that's why. And what the hell is that?" The type of magazine she was holding momentarily distracted him from his moaning.

"It's a bunch of paper with assorted pictures and text printed on it and stapled together to form a collection of articles, sold for eighty shiny pennies."

"I know what a magazine is!" She was in one of those sarcastic moods and so was likely to be tiring to deal with. "Why are you reading it?"

"Because there was a story about two sisters who screwed the same guy and she was curious." Ibiki was currently staring at his DS.

"Oh… I thought you hated women's magazines. You called them Satan's ass paper the other week."

"I do hate them. But I also like laughing at them which is acceptable." With this proclamation she pulled it up in front of her face and continued reading.

"So why are you angry?" Ibiki was still kind of interested.

"I had a fight with Kakashi and so it's likely he's gonna be a complete dick."

"You guys are always fighting. And you've only known each other a week."

"Yeah… But this was worse than usual." Obito didn't want to say too much about inviting him round to his house and he also wasn't going to mention his dad. Just because he hated the boy's guts didn't mean he was going to start spewing his secrets to everyone.

"Alright," Anko put the magazine down and leant forward, "what did you do?"

"….I pulled his mask off." Ibiki dropped his DS and Anko started choking. "I know!"

"Wow…What did he look like?"

"A person? I'm not telling you anything else, it's bad enough already." Technically he had apologised for the mask ripping thing but the full on conversation they'd had about Kakashi's dad would be too revealing.

"Well you really screwed up this time."

"I know."

"Seriously you are a horrible person."

"Yes, thanks for that."

"You are vile."

"You've made your point! Why are my friends so shit?"

"Hey! I am an amazing friend!" Obito scowled at her but it didn't seem to lessen her arrogance. She'd always been self-confident. "And yeah, you will need to grovel. Seriously."

"Grovel? You think so? Cause I was thinking this was more of a mid-level apology kind of situation."

"You screwed with his head, you re gonna have to kneel at his feet and beg."

"Maybe give him money."

"…Well thanks guys." The one thing his friends could be relied upon to do was be brutally honest.

With the addition of the guilt that Anko and Ibiki had inflicted on him, Obito felt he ought to fix things at lunch. They were both quite different and normally unlikely to socialise and so Obito didn't exactly want to befriend the guy. Sadly he also knew enough from things he'd picked up from Asuma and Kakashi himself to have some pity for the guy. Obviously not that much because he was quite up himself but at the same time enough to be apologising.

Clearly his home life kind of sucked as he was so scared of being associated with his dad. And having his whole complex about this being mocked by someone who barely knew him was going to annoy him.

At the start of lunch he left everyone else to go and find food and headed to the classroom Rin was last in. as she shared quite a lot of classes with Kakashi, this was a good place to start. Sadly this was the art room. Now this wouldn't be a problem most of the time but sadly, the art teacher was fucking insane.

Her name was Mei Terumi and she had a thing about men. Of any age. Now she wasn't likely to start a relationship with a student because she wasn't stupid, but she enjoyed the flirting anyway. General opinion was that she was a sadist and liked it when they squirmed.

Because of this, Obito displayed extreme caution when entering the room. Mei was on the other side of the room in deep conversation with Rin of all people. This was a relief as she often ended up in deep conversation with teachers. Kakashi had just finished packing away from the look of things and was picking up his bag to leave. When he saw Obito was watching him he paused and raised an eyebrow at him.

Well I guess he doesn't look mad? Just as he was about to approach the other boy, he was stopped by a very terrifying force.

"Well hello Mr. Uchiha." Oh shit. The art teacher had finished her conversation with Rin and had now practically jumped on him.

"Hello!" He was so nervous he practically squeaked.

"Just the person I wanted to see." Uh oh. "Could you help me carry these boxes to the faculty room?"

"Err…" He glanced over at Kakashi who gave him a little wave and left the room, clearly amused. That asshole!

"Well?" She crossed her arms and leant forward, forcing her breasts up.

"Ok!" Anything to get away from this woman. He grabbed the stack of books and practically marched down the hallway at a speed that even she was struggling to keep up with.

After he escaped from the woman he cursed internally. He'd completely lost Kakashi and been sexually harassed by a scary middle aged lady. This day was not going well. He considered searching for the masked one but decided against it. He'd just have to deal with him later.

-Page Break-

As always Kakashi was at work first, something that Obito could never explain. It was some kind of strange wizardry. After a mumbled greeting they sat in silence, Kakashi with a book, Obito with a magazine. There wasn't as much antagonism as there had been before but it wasn't overly comfortable either. On the plus side, Kakashi hadn't switched shifts with someone else again, meaning he couldn't be that angry.

This was probably one of the best shifts he'd ever had since he wasn't being yelled at and wasn't being angry himself. In fact they didn't communicate at all until a customer came in. The sum of this conversation involved Kakashi saying 'Pass me a bag' and 'Thanks'. He was so relieved that he sat back, pushed the stool backward and nearly fell off. The only thing that stopped him was grabbing onto Kakashi.

"What are you doing?" He'd grabbed Kakashi's arm and ended up twisting the guy around.

"It was an accident!"

"If there is something stupid to do, it's always you that ends up doing it."

"I can't help being born a klutz!" As a child he had often fell off of things in the playground.

"Maybe you could sit over there so you don't drag me down with you." Obito sighed and pulled his chair over slightly.

"Happy?"

"Yes." Silence resumed for a few minutes. Oddly enough it was Kakashi was the one to break the silence. "Did you have fun?"

"What?" He was so startled at being addressed suddenly he almost jabbed himself in the eye with a pen.

"With the lovely Ms. Terumi." The tone of his voice was unmistakable.

"What do you think?"

"You shouldn't have gone in there. It was foolish."

"I am well aware of that." This was so weird. The boy was starting up the conversation for once. "Why are you doing that?"

"I always read."

"I mean the talking! You never talk to me what the hell?" There was no reason for him to be annoyed.

"Well you weren't talking to me."

"…But you hate taking." He'd made this very clear over the course of the last week.

"Usually I do. You were being too quiet though." This was such a contradiction that Obito nearly fell off his stool.

"Make up your mind!"

"With what?"

"The talking! Normally you complain!" It was just confusing to him.

"I don't always dislike it." And he wasn't even looking up from his book.

"But you hate me!"

"I have some dislike for you, there is a difference."

"Is there?" His brain felt like it was about to implode. "Every time we talk you get pissed at me."

"And you don't get angry with me?"

"Well you always say things that wind me up! What's with all this bullshit you're pulling?"

"You being quiet is just plain creepy."

"Well thanks… and you didn't even talk to me at school, you just left me to be screwed with by her!"

"Because you deserved it."

"Ok maybe I did some things that made me deserve it… But why are you being so weird?"

"…I didn't exactly… dislike some of the things you said the other night, ok?"

"What?" This was just so confusing.

"I didn't hate when you said I shouldn't wear my mask. It was… decent of you."

"I see…" But you were really pissed off at me! This was when Obito began to freak out. After a years of watching horror films and weird documentaries on the paranormal, Obito had a very active imagination which led him to believe that he had fallen into some kind of twilight zone. What else could explain this sudden change in personality?

"Why are you doing that?" Kakashi did sound more like his usual self when Obito began poking him with a pencil.

"You are an imposter." And now he was pulling his usual expression.

"Why?"

"The real Kakashi wouldn't act like a decent person!"

"I wasn't being that nice!"

"Nice enough to creep me out!" I guess he does look pretty pissed off now.

"I was saying I appreciated what you said, that wasn't being nice! You praise a dog for good behaviour!"

"Ok you are definitely not an imposter." Kakashi rolled his eyes and looked back at his book. The acting like an asshole wasn't good but was more like what Obito was accustomed to. Even if now he wanted to punch him in his smug face.

I can't believe Asuma thought this asshole liked me. This was apparently nicer than he normally acted towards people. And why am I always feeling bad about the shitty mask thing?

Possibly because of the genuine depression Kakashi had seemed to feel about the resemblance to his father, Obito felt like a complete asshole for pulling it off. It wasn't like he was lacking in things he felt sensitive about.

I guess I don't know how bad he feels about looking like his dad… Gah! Why am I being so fucking soft?! And now he began to bash his face into the counter.

"Why can't you express your frustration like a normal human being?"

"I don't know!"

"Try not to get blood on anything because I will make you clean it up." Obito scowled at the mask dick. Although normally he looked angry or bored, today he could swear he was slightly amused by all this.

"Are you laughing at me?"

"At your idiocy."

"I'm not stupid, I just think differently!"

"Ok guys, it's closing time." Both jumped slightly at Hiruzen appearing from behind the curtain. Time had gone weirdly fast today. "Thanks for the hard work."

Kakashi was out of the door first and by the time Obito emerged from the shop, he was out of sight. At least this meant he didn't have to deal with a long awkward walk home with the guy. Although this work day hadn't been as bad as the rest.

I don't even know what's going on anymore!