The next morning went as usual, except for the dream… I had no dream. When I woke up I felt better than usual, probably because I didn't have that nightmare. I went to the Kia stone and picked up the rose, it smelled so good to me. I summoned Pakkun again out of curiosity.
"Pakkun can you smell this?" I asked.
"Yes, but it just smells like a rose to me. Why have you been asking me these questions lately? Are you testing me?" he asked.
"no… nevermind, go home." I said a bit distracted and began to walk to the training grounds.
I didn't realize that I was still holding the rose, I quickly returned it to the stone, that's when I realized she was standing there.
She looked at me and smiled politely. "I'm sorry, I'll leave. I don't mean to disturb any grieving." She said and was about to leave.
"You don't have to." I said, "You were here first. I'll leave." I said and started to leave.
She smiled and nodded, the smell overwhelmed me, I wanted to run up to her and hug her just to smell her more.
As I was walking to the training grounds I saw signs for a festival on the outskirts of the village. I figured I'd go on my second to last day off from Anbu. I went to my apartment to get ready for it, I decided to wear jeans and a dark blue long sleeved shirt. I began to walk to the festival on the way there I thought about who would be there, I hoped my fangirls wouldn't annoy me.
At the festival I went to a stand for some hot cocoa, since there was jutsus made to make it snowy and the river ice for iceskating. Gai walked up to me,
"Kakashi! Hello! Are you enjoying yourself here at the festival-"he started but on instinct I walked away because I knew what he was going to say and quite frankly it bored me. It was probably rude of me but I can't help my instincts, he's too annoying.
Asuma saw me walking alone after a few minutes and walked up to me to start a conversation about the Anbu and how things are going. He told me what mission he just got back from and I told him what I've been doing on my week off, I left out the details of the girl and her smell. In mid conversation I caught a whiff of her smell, she was at the festival. I couldn't tell where the smell was coming from and Asuma noticed that I was no longer listening to him.
"Kakashi? Are you ok?" he asked.
"Do you smell that?" I asked.
He looked at me questioningly but smelled the air.
"Now that you mention it the air does smell interesting but its probably just from the festival… why do you ask?"
"Its nothing, nevermind." I said shrugging it off.
Asuma stood up, "I'm going to go ice skating. C'mon, it'll help get your mind off of whatever is distracting you." He said and I hesitated at first but sighed then nodded.
-maybe it will help.- I thought.
I was just ice skating around the rink and out of boredom I started to Ice skate backwards. I bumped into someone and turned around, "Sorry-" I started but noticed I bumped into her.
"That's ok, I wasn't watching where I was going. Aren't you the one I saw this morning?" she asked.
I nodded and she smiled. She looked cute, she was wearing jeans with a pink long sleeved shirt and a yellow scarf.
She held out her hand, "I'm Valentine. Pleasure to meet you." She said.
It took me a second to register but I shook her hand,
"I'm Kakashi Hatake. Pleasures mine." I said and she smiled. Her smile was so beautiful.
"Would you like to get some hot cocoa with me?" I asked when she shivered.
"Sure." She said and we started on our way to the hot chocolate stand.