Author's Note: Thank you for the all the interest in this story so far. Thank you for all the feedback on this story.
Sorry for the long hiatus. Updates will still be sporadic.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters. I do not own the title of the fic; that belongs to Pierce the Veil.
Bedless
'Cause you don't even know you're an angel
Foolish am I for the times I come and go
These stars defy love, so I close my eyes
Over the And sleep inside your worn-in bed outline
-Pierce the Veil
Chapter 4
Hinata
Over the next few weeks, Hinata and Kakashi fell into an easy routine. He worked a few hours six days of the week, while Sunday was reserved for rest. Before Kakashi, Hinata opened on Sundays just to keep from being alone.
Now, they were both busy enough during the week, she felt like she needed to recharge just one day.
This Sunday, she decided that her flat could use a facelift in the kitchen. Hinata had always dreamed of a beautiful French kitchen, in buttercream with periwinkle blue cabinets. The hardware store had some markdown gallons that were close enough.
With everything all prepped, Hinata was just starting to roll the fresh paint when the doorbell rang to her flat. Hinata exerted all her willpower not to drop the paint roller into the dish and spray everything with buttercream yellow.
The doorbell never rang. Ino usually called before she showed up.
On shaky legs, Hinata went to her intercom.
"Y-yes?" she asked. What if it was Naruto, after all this time?
"Good morning! It's Kakashi."
Relief flooded through her.
"Oh, Kakashi." She didn't know how to ask him what he wanted, without being rude.
"I was wondering if you would like some donuts. I got them fresh from the bakery on the corner."
Dinah's Donuts. Her mouth began watering.
"Okay, I'll buzz you up." The flat above the bookstore had been more than one apartment at some time and then converted into a larger single.
On the outside stair, she heard his heavy tread. Conflicting feelings waged war inside her as she waited for him to show up. No one, save Ino and possibly Sai had been into her inner sanctorum. Now, she had been bought for the price of a few donuts.
In for a penny, in for a pound.
He knocked on the door and Hinata took a few, slow deep breaths. This was no different from him coming in everyday to work.
She opened the door. He was waiting on the other side, large white box held out in offering. The heady scent of sugar and grease made her feel a little light-headed.
Naruto used to do things like this for her, back when they were first dating. Her chest constricted for a second.
"I thought you might like a treat Himawari," he said, pulling his mask down and smiling.
She moved aside and let him walk past her. He stopped a few feet away. This comforted Hinata, that he wasn't just going to move around in her space without asking.
"Sure. I was just getting ready to paint my kitchen, so we might have to eat in the living room."
"Really? Do you need any help?"
Did she? It had been a long time since someone had volunteered their time. When Hinata and Naruto had moved into their flat, he had spent a lot of time helping her fix the place up. Only, if she recalled, it was on his terms and not her own.
That strange flutter ruffled her chest again, the one not connected to anxiety.
"Oh, well I-well-I couldn't ask you on your day off," she told him.
"I'm not doing anything special today. It wouldn't be a problem."
Hinata bit her lip and glanced at the donuts resting on the coffee table.
"Well, if it won't be a problem, then sure. Would you like some coffee?"
"That's up to you. I don't want to impose."
"We spend a lot of our time around coffee. It's not a problem. I'll be right back." Hinata paused for a second. She felt so awkward, because it had been so long since she had someone of the opposite sex in her home alone. "Make yourself at home." There wasn't much of anything he could get into that would reveal her secrets.
Kakashi
When he had gotten off work on Saturday, he had stayed up most of the night writing. The story was pouring out of him now.
His heroine was coming out of her shell at the bookstore, getting to know the people in the small town and throwing themed parties to raise the money to keep the store open. There was a small love interest in the background in a man who comes to browse the books every day on his way to his doctor's practice, but Kakashi didn't think he resembled the love interest at all.
When the sun had started rising, Kakashi's belly had rumbled something ferocious. Donuts had sounded wonderful, as that's what his characters were having during a particularly riveting conversation about their pasts.
Dinah's were the best and he knew the store was right near Himawari's place.
On purely a spur of the moment decision, he found himself walking up to her flat above the bookstore. Kakashi had no idea what possessed him, but he was glad she had at least let him in and needed his help. If he had been in a book, this would have been something to move the plot along.
He could hear her moving around in the kitchen.
Filled to the brim with nervous energy, Kakashi stood up and walked around, investigating his surroundings.
The living room was decorated simply but inviting. Books were stacked around in various stages of completion. He glanced at some of the titles, noting they ran primarily to cozy mysteries. Something was lacking.
Cheap art prints, possibly from secondhand stores. Flowers and vases on tables. Things all neat and tidy.
Pictures.
There were absolutely no pictures of Himawari with anyone or doing anything. No family. No friends.
A black and white picture near a doorway caught his eye. He cast a backwards glance toward the kitchen, but Himawari was still busy.
Ultrasound.
While Kakashi didn't have a lot of experience with pregnancy or children, he did know an ultrasound picture when he saw one.
He could see the grainy formations of a head and tummy, a little fist raised. A little life; a miracle.
Himawari had never said anything about children. Perhaps a relative's? Friend's?
Kakashi glanced at the patient name in the corner. Uzumaki, Hinata.
The name didn't mean anything to him. He moved on.
Hinata
She returned with two cups of hot coffee and small saucers to see Kakashi moving around her living room, picking up books and flipping through them.
"Do you read mysteries?" she asked, sitting back down.
"Sometimes. You're going to laugh, but I really like to read romance."
"Really?" She selected a cream-filled donut covered in powdered sugar.
The bite was heaven, melting in her mouth. She moaned.
"I've found your weak spot, huh?" Kakashi asked.
"Oh yes. I know yours, you know mine." She licked her lips, trying to get the last morsels of sugar.
"Fair is fair."
Talk turned, as always, to books. Hinata knew she was being a little more open than she usually was, but it felt good. Right, somehow – almost healing.
This was how normal people lived their lives as adults.
Kakashi helped her in the kitchen, where their talk subsided into a shared quiet save for the wet slick of the paint rollers. He painted the cabinets and her the walls.
"I guess it is takeout tonight," Hinata said, looking around the still-drying kitchen.
Beside her, Kakashi yawned. He had dark circles around his eyes and his stubble was moving past four o' clock into the shade.
"Could I take you out?" he asked.
"I've imposed on you enough," she told him. "You look beat."
"I am. But, a guy's still gotta eat right?"
She mulled it over for a few seconds. "Yeah."
"Come on. I won't make you go too far. There's a ramen stan-"
"No!" Hinata said, a little more sharply than she intended.
Kakashi quirked an eyebrow at her for a moment but didn't pry.
"So, no ramen. Pizza then?"
"If that would be okay."
Hinata hated the smell of ramen. She tried not to eat it these days.
They stepped out into the chilly night, moving at a casual pace towards the pizzaria few blocks away.
The night was beautiful, hardly any traffic on the roads, and the streetlights casting a cheerful orange aura around everything.
"I really appreciate you helping me today," Hinata told him.
"No problem." He yawned. "Anytime."
She still felt awkward, but it was more like that "first date" awkward. If this was a romance novel, he would have taken her hand.
No, he was taking her hand.
"Don't want to lose track of you while crossing the street," he said, giving her bare hand a small squeeze. She liked the contrast in their hands, rough against smooth.
Once at the pizza place, they ordered a pie to share. Hinata had to smile because Kakashi was fighting to keep his eyes open.
"Why are you so tired?" she asked.
"I may have stayed up most of the night," he told her, stifling another yawn.
The question was out of her mouth before she could stop it: "Doing what?"
"Writing."
"Writing? Are we going to stock any of your books Mr. Hatake?" she teased.
"Maybe. I'll have to see how this one turns out."
Kakashi
Himawari had insisted they share a cab when they left the pizzeria. Kakashi thought it was nice that she genuinely cared that he made it home safely.
Once the cab had dropped her off, he pondered the day in the stuffy silence of the car. It had been like a first date; a real first date, not one from his fantasy world. Just "hanging out" as the kids called it.
Uzumaki, Hinata.
He had meant to ask her about the ultrasound picture but didn't want to pry. This was the most open and honest he had ever seen her.
The name still nagged at him though. He wrote it down in a notebook he kept in his pocket.
Perhaps he would google the name, simply to ease his own curiosity and so that he didn't bother her. Kakashi tried to convince himself this wasn't cyber stalking.
Once home, he kicked off his shoes and gave Uzumaki, Hinata one more glancing thought before he collapsed onto bed.