Chapter 7

I stood by the window, looking out at the park that was located not far from the supermarket. It was in the middle of the cherry blossom season so the Sakura trees were in full bloom. It was such a beautiful sight.

A young couple walked through the park hand in hand. The guy was saying something to the girl with a wide smile on his face. I had never been able to lip-read so I could not make out what he was saying, but no matter what he was talking about it was something that made the girl laugh and cling to his arm as they crossed paths with a bunch of teenagers that were sitting under the biggest cherry blossom in the middle of the park. Those children looked like trouble makers and I guess they actually were since most children around their age should be in class at that time.

One of the boys among the group of youngsters kind of reminded me of myself. He wore his presumably shoulder length hair in a high ponytail just like me. He was jumping around, making a fool out of himself while trying to impress the girls that were watching him. A real yob.

The boy jumped up in the air and grabbed onto one of the fragile branches of the sakura tree. He swung his body back and forth roughly and the flowers loosened. The wind was strong that day and caught the flowers immediately after they had let go of the branch they had been attached to. They flew in different directions, spreading themselves all around the park.

It looked like one of the girls were scolding at him, probably because he was ruining the beauty of the tree. She did not appear mad, though. Playful was more like it. He let go of the branch and landed on the ground with a huge smirk plastered to his face.

Sometimes I really appreciated the fact that the park lay so close to my work. Watching the various people visiting the park was a good way of killing time. It was one of the things I usually did whenever I was on a break or if I just needed to space out for a short while. It was no different that day, except that I had not spent my breaks this way lately because of a certain person.

Whenever I was going on a break – and even if I was not going on a break – Kakashi asked me if I wanted to go and grab a smoke with him. As you might have guessed already, I could not pass on his offer. Not one single time. There was a good and a bad side to this, though. The good thing was that I got to talk to him. We did not talk a lot or anything, but it was something at least. The bad thing was that I was afraid that the smoking habit was slowly growing onto me. I had not bought any cigarettes myself yet or smoked at home or alone. I only smoked with Kakashi whenever he offered it, but since he smoked quite a few times during our shifts, I too got to smoke a couple of cigarettes a day. I never intended to become addicted to it and I was starting to think that that was going to happen if I was not careful. I had begun to inhale properly half of the times I took a drag – that alone said something about the whole situation.

But right now, as said, I was doing what I usually did on my breaks. You want to know why? Because Kakashi was late... again. He had been late every single day since he started working here. I had tried to talk to him about it, but I did not like to sound too bossy, so I let Tenzou do most of the work, even though he rarely noticed Kakashi's absence. I did not know if Kakashi was aware of that fact and that he was just taking advantage of or if he was the kind of person who was always late. Regardless of his reasons, he was late today and even later than normally.

"Hey Iruka-san," when you speak of the devil he is sure to appear – just to use a cliché.

"Hey Kakashi-sama, y-you're particularly late today," I stated with a slight stammer as I turned to face him. His eyes were curled up in a smile as always.

"You know, you don't have to call me that. We have been working together for over a week now, you shouldn't address me so formally," he chuckled, avoiding to be held responsible for being late yet again.

"Oh, I'm sorry," an embarrassing silence fell upon us and we both avoided each others looks. These awkward moments appeared a bit too often if you asked me.

"So... Ohm," he started and scratched the back of his neck, "last day of training, right? What are we gonna do today?" Our eyes met again. He sent me a small smile and I did not like what I was about to say.

"Well, your last day of training was actually yesterday," I tried not to sound too disappointed and stuck both of my hands in my pockets to create a relaxed and cool look. I probably just ended up looking like an insecure schoolboy.

Kakashi gazed at me surprisingly and answered, "Really? Oh, I didn't know."

"Training only takes a week," I shrugged my shoulders as I walked past him, heading for the vegetable department to get back to what I was doing before my break had begun. To my astonishment, he followed right after me.

I figured it was better if I pretended not to notice, I did not want to appear thrilled about it or anything like that. If I wanted to be his friend and be seen as an equal, I had to get rid of my dog-like behavior. Let him come to me and not the other way around, right?

When we got to the vegetable department, I began checking through the apples to see if there were any bruised ones among the fresh supplies. At first, he just stood watching, but after I had looked over my shoulder and gotten eye contact with him, he spoke, "Iruka-san?" I had already turned back to the apples and simply replied him with a "Mmm?"

"I-I don't know what to do," he sounded pained by the fact that he had to ask for instructions now that he was actually done with the training.

"Kakashi-san to checkout 4," a man called over the speakers. I looked over my shoulder again and saw that Kakashi was looking up at the speaker like it was actually talking to him.

"I guess you do now," I chuckled slightly and he looked down from the speaker and back at me.

"I guess I do," he said with a small smile and walked to the checkout like he was asked to do. This was going to be weird. I did not have to train him anymore so he would be around, but we would probably not get the chance to talk anymore. I did not dare to start the conversation and why should he come and talk to me now that he did not have to any longer? If I still wanted to pursue my plan of becoming his friend, I would have to find another way to maintain the contact between us. But what could I do?

As said, me beginning the conversation was out of the question, which meant he had to talk to me first, logically. So, the next question was how I got him to talk to me. That was a though one. I could bump into him on his break on purpose and make it look like a coincidence? Or maybe... no, it was stupid. How the hell was I going to make him talk to me without me having to say something first? On the other hand, why should I not be able to talk to him as long as I kept the conversation on a professional level? Then I could hope for him to direct the conversation into a more casual direction, but would he do that? It sure was a better plan than trying to make him talk to me.

The next time he did not have anything to do, I could ask him to help me out with something that was a job that required two pair of hands. Then there was a bigger chance that we would begin talking casually like we had done during his training. Yeah, that was a good plan – so far.

Quickly, I finished sorting the bad apples from the good ones and began searching for something I could ask Kakashi to do with me. It was not easy, though. Most things could be done by only one man or else it was something that would not take more than a few seconds to do. I needed more time than that.

I looked around for about 4 minutes before I figured Tenzou would not be too pleased with me if he caught me hanging around doing nothing. Every time I was done with something, I took a couple of minutes to search for that four hand required task, but it was impossible and I was beginning to think that I might as well just give up. I had no idea of how I could get in contact with him. I could not ask him to go and grab a cigarette with me since I did not want to encourage him to smoke more than he did already and if I could avoid it, it would be better for me too. But then what?

I brushed the left sleeve of my uniform away from my watch so I could see how long there was till I got off. It had stopped.

"Damn it," I whispered to myself and flicked the glass of the watch a few times. Kami, I hated this watch. It always died out on me! Not that I had expected anything else when buying it. It was a pretty cheap watch, which I actually got even cheaper because of the discount I got for being an employee. Yep, I had bought my wristwatch at a freaking supermarket. That only underlined just how low a budget I had.

"It's 18:00," my head shot up and I looked right into the eyes of my silver haired colleague.

"What?" I asked confusedly.

He pointed at my watch and answered, "It's 18:00 o'clock. That's what you were wondering, right?"

"Thanks," was it because of my bewilderment over his constant sudden appearances or that he always spoke out of context that I never understood what he was talking about?

"I was going out for a smoke, wanna join?" he held out a cigarette in front of me, just like he always did when asking me. In the beginning, that was not the tempting thing about his offer. Back then, it was all about getting the chance to talk to him. But now? Now that cigarette had also become a small factor that had something to do with the outcome of his question.

"Sure," I said, not caring that I had already used my last break. Tenzou would not notice anyway and what he did not know, would not hurt him.

I had a strange sensation in my fingers when stretching them out to take the cigarette. They were tickling, like they were longing to hold onto that cigarette. When he gave it to me, the sensation disappeared an it felt like my fingers had found peace. This could not be a good sign.

My focus had been distracted for a moment, but when we went to the back, I finally began thinking clearly again. Kakashi had just asked me to join him for a smoke. And it had happened quiet often for the last week, sure, but it was different now. He did not have to ask me anymore. At least he should not feel like he had to. He had no reason to ask me. So was he actually asking me? Was it because he wanted me there? I could not help but feel kind of... honored? I know, it is pathetic, but that was how I felt.

We both lit our cigarettes and we were standing with our backs turned towards each other as always. I still had no idea why he would not show his face and I did not intend to ask him since it seemed to be a touchy subject to him.

I sometimes imagined how it would feel like to lean up against his strong back. Well, I did not actually know if it was strong, but it looked like it and I had seen him lifting different things and I must say, most of the things he could lift, I could not even lift a centimeter above the ground. Hell, he could even lift more than Tenzou could! And Tenzou was pretty strong, so that should speak for itself.

The smoke entered my lungs and began poisoning them, I did not even notice that I had inhaled until after it was too late. In a way, I did not even care anymore if I inhaled or not. It felt kind of good, after all.

"So, what are you doing tonight?" Kakashi suddenly asked out of the blue.

"Ohm, not much, I guess," it was embarrassing to admit that I did not have anything to do on a Friday night. I know, I had to ask him the same question in order to be polite, but truth to be told, I did not mind knowing what he was up to. I had wondered what he did on nights like these. Sure, I knew he loved to party, at least I think that was what all the booze was for? But where did he go, who did he go with and what did they do?

"I'm going out with a couple of my friends. Nothing out of the ordinary, but I'm sure that it's going to be a blast," he chuckled quietly. I racked my brain to find an appropriate answer, but what were you supposed to say to something like that?

"Cool, sounds like fun," I chuckled along, but it did not sound as sincere as I intended to do.

We did not really speak after that, mainly concentrated on our cigarettes, which was sort of nice, actually. The silence was not as tense as it used to be.

When it sounded like he had dropped the fag on the ground and was putting it out with his shoe, I took a last drag before getting rid of my fag as well. He was still faster than me at smoking a cigarette and I did not want to stand out there alone so I always put mine out right after him no matter how far I had gotten with it.

He walked up beside me and his mask was already back on, just as it usually was when he finally decided to show his front to me again.

He was smiling at me, for some unknown reason and I did not know where to look or if I should say anything so I just looked over his shoulder and waited for him to say something.

"One of my friends are holding the preparty," he started and I looked at him confusedly. Why was he even telling me this. Were he trying to brag or something? Was this just another one of his incoherent outbursts? I had completely misunderstood him and I was not prepared for what he was about to say, "If you give me your number, I can text you when we're heading for the club. That is of course only if you want to join?" The smile never left his eyes and he stared right into my overwhelmed eyes that clearly reflected just how much he had caught me off guard.

Was Hatake Kakashi asking me... out?

oOooOooOo

I hope the length of this chapter made up just the tiniest bit for the huge delay.

I'm sorry it took me so long and I promise to do my best to prevent this from happening again. I have an excuse, though – this was published so late because I had no idea how to get to the next point of the story and I had actually already written a whole chapter, which I ended up deleting since it sucked so badly. So, there you have it. I know, it's a bad excuse. I'll just shut up and get on with the story. Sorry!

So, will Iruka accept Kakashi's offer? Or will his lack of confidence get in his way :o?...

I guess you won't know until I decide to reveal it for you ;D lol, hahaa xD!

Well, I guess that's it for now. Thank you to everyone who is reading this! Please review and I see you all again next time :D!