Chapter 4

The trip home had felt long. Very long. Neither my boss nor I said much during the short drive. He only told me what had happened after my "lights went out," as he had so thoughtfully put it – not. Apparently, Kakashi had gotten the gun away from the robber and laid him on his stomach and sat on his back, twisting his arms behind his back so that he would have to struggle a great deal to get out of the position Kakashi had put him in. The police of course took over when they arrived and Kakashi had gone to check on me. Oh, what I would not give to have been awake at that moment! When the robber was removed from the store, they had brought me to the back where I had a medical examination, which explained the bumpy plaster on my right eyebrow and why Kakashi had said what he said to me before walking away. I had gotten 7 stitches and my boss claimed that they could see all the way into my skull before they had closed up my flesh wound. No matter if he was telling the truth or not, it still hurt like hell and I was definitely going to need some painkillers of some sort.

When he had dropped me off, I entered my apartment and went to bed, immediately, not bothering to take off my clothes. Not even my shirt that was soaked in sweat. It was not until the day after the incident I got to see how screwed up my face had become. I was in shock after seeing my own reflection in the mirror, to say the least. My right eye was swollen, yellow and blue. I decided to close the damaged eye and keep it that way, since I could not see much with it anyway.

As I stood there, looking at myself in the mirror, I could not help but begin to study myself. I was not a very attractive man. Actually, I was kind of ugly. I had a highly visible scare across my face starting from around the middle of my check, going over the bridge of my nose and ending on the middle of my other cheek. My hair was a little too long and I was afraid to wear it down since it might have made me look like a girl. So I always wore it in a high ponytail, but with the hair gone from my face I looked a bit chubby. Also my eyes sat a little too close to each other and they were dark brown which gave me a kind of distant and silly look. They were empty. Or blank, yeah, blank was a better word for it. Last, but not least, I had gotten myself another scare. When the stitches came out, my eyebrow would be cut in half for the rest of my life and I would have another noticeable scare on my face. Great, just great. The swollen eye did not exactly boost my self esteem either. And when I came to think about it, there was not much I really liked about myself. Not my looks nor my personality. I was known to have a short fuse and I could be pretty cheeky if I did not care to hold it back. Maybe that all explained why I did not have a girl friend. A fugly, hot-headed low class nutcase, who would want someone like me when I did not even have money? I for sure would not want me. I would have to be rich just to get someone in my own league.

I looked down at myself with a sigh, pulling off my shirt that still had huge, dark spots by the armpits, back and chest. It smelled worse than anything I had ever let my nose near and it made me want to puke. Kami, could you be more disgusting than I was? I threw the blue shirt in the corner of the bathroom, taking a look down at my upper body once again before turning my attention to the mirror where I could get a better view of it.

"I'm hopeless, ain't I?" I asked myself, studying my flabby muscles. I was weaker than most men. There were probably a lot of women that were stronger than me too. Lifting my arms and trying to flex my non-existing muscles only made it worse. Nothing. I could only see loose skin and fat.

I turned my back towards the mirror and looked over my shoulder to see if I would have any luck finding something similar to muscles there. But I found nothing. I tried not to take it too hardly, but it was not easy. Defenseless, that was what I was. I could not even protect myself against that robber. I had to be rescued by someone else. And not just by someone. But Hatake Kakashi himself. I was so embarrassed that I did not even want to look at myself in the mirror for another second. Instead, I pulled down my pants and the rest that was covering my private parts, quickly connecting my ass with the cold toilet seat. My shit smelled worse than a carrion - even my insides were rotten. Oh, what a lovely body to be trapped inside.

I looked down at my feet and discovered that I was still wearing my shoes and socks and I figured it would be better if I just washed it all at once, so I kicked off the shoes of my feet and yanked the socks off as well, not forgetting about the pants and the tight boxers. I threw it all onto the shirt in the corner of the bathroom so that I had a pile of smelly clothes that had to be washed as soon as possible. I raised one arm and stuck my nose near the armpit, quickly sniffing it a few times. Yuk, my clothes was not the only thing that needed to be washed. But I could not take a bath as long as I was on the toilet, so I had to hold on just a little longer.

I bore my elbows into my thighs and rested my head in the palms of my hands, looking down at my feet.

"Good grief," once again a confrontation with my disfigured body had overwhelmed me. The toe next to my big toe was longer than it was supposed to be. It was a little longer than the big toe, but only on my left foot. Great, so my feet was repelling too and they did not even look a like. Could I get anymore asymmetric? I did not want to know if they smelled as well because they probably did and I would have been able to smell them if it was not because I was currently filling the bowl with stinky slurry.

I finished what I was doing and took a bath immediately after. When I had put on some clean clothes, which by the way was the last clean set I had left, I took all of my neglected laundry and put it in a bag. Someone needed to go to the laundromat and that someone was me.

After doing a couple of other things like brushing my teeth and such, I grabbed the bag with the laundry and walked down to the laundromat. But as I had noticed already, it was my "lucky" day and the laundromat I was used to go to was closed due to sickness. Fantastic, now I had to walk even longer, at least I knew where there lay another laundromat near by.

I found the other laundromat in less than ten minutes and fortunately it was not closed. There were a lot of free washers and I just picked the first thing handy. Washing all of my clothes would take some time, so I decided to go and sit by the window while I was waiting. Time went by a bit faster if I looked at other people. There were not many people out on the streets at this hour, though. It was only Tuesday and it was about 11 O'clock so most people were working, unlike me. I was supposed to work, but my accident had made my boss show some compassion for once, though I would rather be without it. I was not very good at sitting still – and this might sound a little weird to some of you, since I am always daydreaming and therefore not doing what I am supposed to, but that is not the point. I think of different things when I am not working. When working, I see a lot of people and I can just imagine how their lives could be like, in contrast, when I am alone, I always end up reflecting on my life or something like that. Not particularly my favorite thing in the world to do. Since my life sucked pretty badly.

I glanced out of the window, seeing someone I had not expected to see. Was he just popping up everywhere I went or was I unconsciously stalking him? No, it could not be that. It had to be a coincidence.

But something was wrong. Or maybe not wrong, but strange at the very least. Kakashi looked paranoid. He was constantly looking over his shoulders, twisting and turning, like he was making sure no one had followed him or was spying on him. What was he doing?

A man walked up to him and stopped beside him. They started talking as Kakashi pulled a bundle of money out of his jacket, handing them to the other suspicious guy. It looked like he was counting and approving the amount of money. He nodded and stuck his hand under his jacket and as Kakashi he pulled something out, but this was not money, but a thin package. He gave it to Kakashi, who hid it in a bag he had taken with him. When the package was safely placed inside the bag, he threw it over his shoulder, still holding onto it with one hand. What was this all about? He was not dealing... drugs... was he?

When the man had left, Kakashi directed his steps towards the laundromat I was sitting in. Quickly, out of embarrassment, I jumped away from the window and tried to find a place to hide. He was coming closer and closer with every second and I was having a hard time finding a good hideout. Before it was too late, I ran to the opposite end of the room and hid behind one of the washers.

Kakashi entered the laundromat and walked towards a washer near the back, purposefully. He was not standing far away from me when he let the shoulder strap of the bag slide down his big arm. He was what you could call muscular.

He opened the bag and pulled out some clothes, which he stuffed into the washer. After starting it, he turned around and leaned his back up against it, closing his eyes. I wondered what he was doing. Was it his way of killing time? Sleeping? Or was he thinking? If he was, then what was he thinking about? I would love to be inside his head and find out what he was thinking.

I realized how close he actually was to me and thought it would be better to put some distance between us. Still squatting, I began to sneak forward. I looked behind my shoulder to check if he was still standing with his eyes closed. Unfortunately for me, I did not notice the boxes of washing powder standing in front of me and I knocked right into them, the whole tower collapsing around me. I looked up when the last box had hit the ground. A few people were standing in their place, staring at me. The only one who had moved out of his place was of course Kakashi. He stood right beside me, looking down at me. I blushed.

"Hey, it's you!" he said and sent an eye-smile down at me.

"Y-Yes, it's me," I did not know what else to say. I was surprised when he suddenly stretched out his hand towards me.

"Here, let me help you," I only just raised my hand a bit before he grabbed it himself and dragged me up on my feet again, "So, how is the head?" he sounded so casual when asking. He squatted down and began to pick up the boxes and stack them the same way they were stacked before. For a short while, I did not do anything else than look down at him, until it hit me that I should probably get down there and help him clean up the mess I had made. Why was he even helping me?

"F-Fine... I guess?" I faltered out when I had squatted down beside him.

"That's good to hear, I was worried that he had hurt you badly," he was talking in a happy tone, but did not look at me. Was Hatake Kakashi worried about me? I felt slightly more comfortable around him than I usually did. Was it because of the change of setting or could it be all the things that had happened lately that maybe had brought us closer together? Maybe he just had that relaxing effect on people.

I had been distracted for some time so I had not noticed the pain in my head, but now I did, because he reminded me that I was hurt. Not wanting to lose face to him, I pretended like it did not hurt, "No, I'm perfectly fine," I tried not to stutter and it seemed like it was actually working for once.

When we had finished rebuilding the tower, we both stood up and straightened our clothes. He looked at me and sent me his signature smile.

"So, I didn't know that you did your laundry here?" of course he did not know, we did not even know each other. He was a lot better at this chit chatting thing than I was. I never understood why people had to ask so stupid questions. But I did not mind, as long as it was him asking. He listened when you spoke and sounded genuine whenever he said something, no matter what it was. I had never talked to someone like that.

"I usually do it at Sally's, but it was closed today."

"Really, how come?"

"Someone was sick or something. But I guess it doesn't matter when there's another laundromat right around the corner."

"Yeah. So, when are you going back to work?" he sure asked a lot of questions, but I managed to answer them without stuttering, even though I was not used to talking to him.

"Thursday, I think," I looked down at the floor and crossed my arms. Everything felt so cozy when Kakashi was there. His laid back attitude towards everything and his relaxed way of standing, it just made me feel comfortable. It was so strange. I was never like this when talking to people I did not know.

"Cool, then maybe I'll stop by and check on you," What did he say? Had he just said he would come and check on me? "But I gotta go now, my clothes are clean. See ya'," he said and walked to the washer and took out everything and put it in his bag again. I had not even noticed that I had been there for so long that the washers were done. We had talked for much longer than I thought and when adding all the silent moments where we just stood beside each other and the time before he came, it actually made sense it was later than I first thought. I walked over to my washer and took out my clean clothes as well. They smelled delicious now.

I looked over my shoulder when the door of the laundromat was opened and a bell rung. It was Kakashi who was on his way out. He looked over at me and raised his hand and made a farewell gesture. I did the same and he smiled at me before exiting.

oOooOooOo

Okay, I've been up all night to get this done! So please, don't hate me if I have made some stupid mistakes. I've already corrected the once I found myself and they were really stupid, but that is just what happens when you are tired and writing.. So it's nine in the morning and I think I better go to bed.. Well, hopefully you enjoyed his chapter and I hope to get some reviews with your thoughts of it :)

See ya' soon :D!