In the week that followed Kakashi noticed a bit of a change in Naru's pattern of behavior and knew that it was his fault that she seemed to be trying too hard. The half lie he'd told had woven a fairy tale like romance that the girl was desperately clinging to and trying to remember.
And because he had told her that they more than just friends, she'd taken up this peculiar and intriguing new habit of randomly slipping her hand into his and from time to time and shyly kissing it. Once in the morning in greeting. And again at night before she went to bed.
It was cute really.
In an awkward and utterly shocking way since she always seemed to catch him so off guard before doing it. Then there was the other things. The stuff that embarrassed him so much that his hair stood on end and he lost his ability to speak for hours at a time.
One of them happened when she was talking to him a few days ago and while he hadn't been paying attention. She'd been trying to say something about lamaze classes (or was it something intresting about her breasts and how the milk production process worked?) and leaned in and lost her balance causing her lips had grazed the shell of his ear.
The jolt of her lips against his skin startled him so badly that he ripped the hard cover parenting book he'd been reading in half before he slowly turned his head to look at her out of the corner of his eye. Causing him to now give her his total and undivided attention now that his reading material had been properly and inhumanely disposed of.
He saw her make a rather hasty beeline for the hallway, her face pink with embarrassment, and didn't see her again until lunch time.
And even then she seemed unusually nervous and refused to look him in the eye until he leaned across the table and kissed her on the corner of the lips. He felt his heart accelerate in his chest and his breath faltered for a moment as his stomach got this weird fluttering feeling in it.
He wasn't exactly sure what had possessed him to do so- maybe he had just thought it was the best way to let her know that everything was okay. Whatever the reason; he hadn't pulled back when he should have.
Instead he'd shifted a little more and sealed his lips over hers, thoroughly shocking the hell out of the both of them as he brought up his hands and framed her face as he kissed her before catching himself and pulling away. Feeling deeply disturbed by what he'd just done yet not understanding why.
And refusing to kiss her again even when she came up to him later on that night before going to bed and sort of shifted from foot to foot nervously and asking him if he'd kiss her again. However because the kiss earlier had caused a peculiar reaction in him he felt it best not to do it again until he could figure out what the reaction was about. Or at least that was how he felt about it.
Which was why he'd taken her hand in his and brushed his lips across her knuckles then walked off. But he hadn't missed the hurt look on her face. There was no way that he could miss it, not when he was living with her.
Which was why he stayed in the guest room that he'd moved himself into until his guilt finally got the better of him and slipped out and silently making his way to Naru's room to rectify things. He was careful not to make any noise since he didn't want to get caught doing what he was about to do, but he felt that he owed her this small thing.
So as soon as he reached her room he took a second to observe her through the small crack to make sure that she was finally really asleep before slowly making his way inside and stealthily made his way over to her bed.
She was sleeping curled up on her side with the covers partially kicked off as usual and he felt his lips quirk up at the corners a little bit before he carefully grasped the covers and pulling them up to her shoulder then leaned over her, bracing one hand on the bed next to her head he leaned down and very gently skimmed his lips across the curve of her cheek then quickly pulled back.
His heart was suddenly beating like he'd just run a marathon and his palms were sweaty. And before he left the room he caught his reflection in Naru's dresser mirror. His face was beet red.
Just what the hell was going on with him? He wondered as he carefully made his way back out of the room and back to his own before collapsing onto the bed and whimpering.
The next morning at breakfast he'd opted to pretend like nothing had happened either the day before or last night and asked her if she would like to set a date and start planning their wedding. He'd told her that money wasn't an issue, so she should plan out her dream wedding and later that day when they went out; Kakashi took Naru to look for a wedding dress or something.
They looked at fabrics, colors- He wondered if she wanted something simple or intricate. He bought her some pearls and an lovely hand carved white mother of pear hair comb with flecks of opal powder on the flower petals and little pale off mint green emerald leaves. It was a beautiful piece and it would fit Naru perfectly at their wedding next week.
To say that being seen leaving the shop with Naru had set certain rumor mills to spinning full throttle would be an understatment.
By the time two of them had returned from their outing at about noon so that Naru could rest, they found several of his former Anbu teammates and a majority of the rookie nine had come by for a visit. Annoyingly, they had come all at once which pissed Kakashi off to a degree since it meant that Naru wouldn't get her noon nap in.
"Kakashi! We heard an interesting rumor!" Genma said playfully.
"Good for you- Now leave." Kakashi said absently as he handed Naru the little boxes with her stuff in them and rudely shoved some of their visitors aside so that he could unlock the door and let Naru in. Some people tried to get close to her, to ask her about the rumors circulating about her and Kakashi however the copy nin was having none of that shit since someone might say something they shouldn't and walked over to one of his former Anbu teammates and used his chakra to zap him unconscious then handed him off to one of his other friends and gave the man a warning look.
"I said for you to leave." Kakashi said warningly.
The man gave a nervous sounding laugh and picked his buddy up and turned around and started down the steps. "We're gone man, just don't throw any kunai at our backs." Kakashi nodded his head curtly and watched them go before turning his attention to the rookies standing there watching the exchange with a bit more interest than they should have.
"What do you kids want?" He asked after a moment or so, his tone laced with impatience.
"W-We heard a rumor that your marrying-" Kiba started to say and Kakashi held his hand up to silence the young man and snapped.
"Let me do you kids a favor. The rumor about me marrying Naru is true. Just like the rumors of her pregnancy. Now since I don't know everything that's being said about us, I can only assure you that I'm doing my best here to take care of her... It's her nap time now and she'll not lay down and rest while any of you are here. So please leave and come again in smaller groups, preferably some time in the afternoon once she's rested. You can visit with her then."
"Actually Kakashi-sensei we sort of had a few questions about what happened a month ago-" Neji said and barely had time to react before Kakashi buried a kunai in the wall next to his head, just a hairsbreath from his face and snarled at them.
"Never. Mention. Anything. About. That. Again. Or I'll take great pleasure in murdering you." He pulled the kunai out of the wall and with a menacing glare disappeared into the apartment to make sure that Naru was laying down.