The light was harsher than usual today. At least to Kakashi's tired eyes. When would humankind finally create a dark mode for reality? It's the least they could do for the night owls if wearing sunglasses indoors was so frowned upon. Kurenai was talking shit about him being grumpier than usual and that he should at least try to look professional, but he tuned it out together with the rest of the white noise in the office. It wasn't his fault his brain got flooded with ideas at inconvenient times and he had to stay up late to add a feature or two to one of his games. Plus, he didn't care, they still had ten minutes left of lunch break and since Kurenai dragged him back to their chairs already, he was gonna spend his precious break in this exact position, legs on the desk, chair leaned back, his Icha-Icha over his face to cover his eyes from the light.

He felt someone softly poking his hair and he groaned as he uncrossed his arms and pulled off the book from his face. "Kakashi, how's it going?"

His non-crush from the finance department was looking to him upside down and he felt his mood improve considerably. "Yo, Obito, fine and you?"

"Great, hi Kurenai." They exchanged some words as Kakashi readjusted his position, trying to use the chair for its original purpose, instead of a makeshift bed. "Kakashi, I was thinking about what you said, and I bought Resident Evil 4."

"Really? Awesome!" He always felt proud when he could convince someone to play a game he liked, it's like he was luring them into a new gateway drug, but in a good way.

"Yeah, not sure if I'll have the time to play but…" Obito shrugged his broad shoulders in a timid way that made Kakashi's heart skip a beat. "Life's too short or whatever."

"You should bring it over, play during lunch break and after work."

"Geez Kakashi I have actual friends to have lunch with, I'm not an old man like you."

"Shut up asshole."

"You're too easy. Alright we can play it later then. See ya."

"See ya." He waved back as he saw Obito go back to the elevators. So handsome. It's a shame he had to take his scent with him, could Kakashi trick him into giving him a shirt or something? It would be nice to have something that smelled this good at hand. People used incenses and candles, Kakashi wanted Obito's shirt, it's reasonable enough, isn't it?

During his musings he could feel Kurenai's stare burning holes on his face, so he purposefully ignored her a bit more, checking out Obito's form as he charmingly talked to other people Kakashi never saw before in this company, even if he'd been here for longer. When the elevator chimed and Obito entered it, he decided he was satisfied with the level of annoyance he inflicted on Kurenai already and turned to asked her in the most neutral tone possible. "What?"

"When did you become such BFFs?" Her big red eyes were twinkling with excitement. That was never good news.

"We're not BFFs, and who says BFFs in this day and age? You're getting old Kurenai." Kakashi twirled in his chair to face his monitor with finality, which only annoyed her more.

"Don't try changing the subject! Tell me everything!"

"There's nothing to tell, we were both working after hours last Thursday and we talked a bit, nothing much. That day I was working on-"

"Nothing much." She interrupted in sly satisfaction. "Hum, I see."

"And what, pray tell, do you see Kurenai?"

"I see that he's hot, and you see that too."

"Do you want me to tell Asuma you're going around calling other guys hot?"

"Don't! Try! Changing! The subject!" She swatted his shoulder at each word. "I know you think he's hot. I know your type."

"I don't have a type." He had a type. It was Obito. Obito was his type.

"You so have a type, and your type works in finance and wants to play Resident Evil with you." He hated how much Kurenai knew him.

"Shut up moron, he's an alpha too."

"Yeah, and very much, his scent is not strong, maybe he's in suppressants, but it's very alpha-like." Kurenai mentioned off handedly looking genuinely sad that they couldn't date, always wanting to play the matchmaker just because she already found the love of her life.

"Wait, you…don't think his scent is strong?" Kakashi asked confused by her comment, but she just shrugged it off as if it was obvious information.

"Not at all, is very average, don't you think?"

"Actually, I thought it was very strong. Are you sure? Maybe you can't tell because you're bonded with Asuma?"

"I don't think bonding interferes with being able to smell other people, only on how they affect you. Besides, if his scent was strong to the point of being an issue, the company's doctor or Obito's boss would have said something. You know it's unprofessional not to take care of this stuff."

Kurenai was probably right, he had less knowledge about this stuff because for one, he avoided all and every doctor that wasn't Rin, and secondly, he wasn't very inserted on the dating world because of his atypical alpha presentation and his very, very specific and uncommon preferences.

Still, it was the same for Obito, wasn't it? He thought Kakashi's scent was strong while nobody else thought so, what was this? Maybe they had similar pheromones that's why they were more sensitive to each other? Because just like Kurenai mentioned, even if they were able to smell each other (and in Kakashi's case, he thought Obito's scent was wonderful) they weren't affected by each other, at least not in a traditional omega-alpha dynamic (Kakashi was most certainly affected by Obito, in the sense that he wanted to be absolutely fucking pounded by him, but Kakashi was used to being a sexual deviant already and would keep that inside his head).

"Yeah, you're right, must be something with my nose." He dismissed it.

"You do have a sensitive nose, the mask and all…" Kurenai let the subject go easily as they nodded to each other, promptly returning to her dream scenario. "It's such a shame, you would look good together if you were bonded. With your white hair and his black hair… your skin- oh my god, you'd have the cutest babies!"

Kakashi laughed humorlessly at her. Not the baby talk again. "Ma, Kurenai, this baby talk is for you, who is married, not me, ok?"

"Sorry, still, such a shame, one of you could be an omega and you'd have the cutest babies. I'd be an awesome aunt, I promise!"

"Yeah." He wished he was an omega, just the thought of Obito impregnating him made Kakashi's whole body heat up. Such a shame indeed. "Focus on your babies, ok Kurenai? Don't push it on other people."

"C'mon it's not like that, I just love kids! And I want a big family!"

"Kurenai, this is the 21st century and children are expensive." They delved into the same discussion they always had. Where he had to tell Kurenai that six children are too much, and they would have to move to the countryside because she would be homeless in Tokyo with six kids and so on and so forth. Good for her that she and Asuma were on the same page on the number of kids thing. Maybe the old Hiruzen will help with the costs too, he looks like he would spoil his grandchildren.

Kurenai kept teasing him about Obito in the following weeks, as they began spending more and more time together. His non-crush was always dropping by to say hi, inviting him over for lunch, sometimes coffee breaks, passing by when he was leaving, and if they were both in the office until late, they would play some games too. And she kept poking fun at him. Kakashi felt like... like he was making a friend. At the ripe age of 28, who'd have thought? But Obito was just so easy to talk too, he felt comfortable around him.

To be honest, he felt more than comfortable. He felt amazing around him. Obito would smile at Kakashi like he was having the most fun ever in his life, and he knew it was a salesperson smile, but he couldn't help but to be smitten by it. And Obito teased and annoyed him so much, finally someone who could understand his love language, that's just how Kakashi expressed friendship, by being annoying, and Obito punched back as good as he got.

And there was the scent thing. He doesn't know why, but Obito's was the strongest scent Kakashi's ever felt, and it was divine, he couldn't put into words, it was almost like cologne. And when they were close and especially when they were alone, Kakashi felt himself relax and almost go into a daze with how comforting it was. And there was the fact that Obito was fucking hot, and every bit of the dominating-without-being-an-asshole type of alpha that Kakashi had always fantasized about. But he was an alpha. And alpha wanted cute, petit omegas, who were built to take them, born to love them. Not another alpha. Not Kakashi. So he tried to keep his non-feelings to himself, and appreciate that even as only a friend, Obito was pretty awesome already.


Was it weird he couldn't get enough of Kakashi? Because he couldn't get enough of Kakashi. Whenever he arrived at the company a bit early, he'd always swing by the tenth floor before taking the stairs. And when he was leaving too, after all, it's always better to have company when commuting back home. Coffee breaks too, he'd usually invite Genma, but sometimes he'd be walking around the tenth floor and he'd just use the opportunity to catch up with Kakashi. It wasn't because his scent was mesmerizing. It wasn't because he was beautiful. It wasn't because Obito had a crush on him, which was not true.

Besides, it was perfectly normal. It was just two people becoming friends in a work environment, all very natural. They had shared interests after all, like video games, men, teasing and abusing each other verbally. Regular stuff. And Kakashi was an asshole, don't get him wrong, but not in the bad sense of the word. He was a fun asshole. He was just someone who liked teasing the others and did things his own way, which was something Obito always admired in any person, this independent spirit of not caring for anyone's opinion. He was once like that too, maybe a few lifetimes ago.

And for a week now, he'd been trying to work up the courage to ask Kakashi for lunch. Since he changed jobs and wasn't in the bank anymore, his lunches became free slots, as he didn't need to worry about clients anymore, pampering them with expensive lunches, instead, he could just go out with the rest of his team. And even though he'd been usually tagging with Genma wherever he went, he started thinking of inviting Kakashi out too.

"Yo, Obito, what you want for lunch today?"

"I don't know Genma, I'll check with you later."

"Dude, what are you so busy with every day before lunch?"

"What?"

"You're always like, 'oh I'll see it and let you know' then last minute you just drop by. It's cool, don't worry, but it would be nice to have a heads up to plan ahead."

"Oh, sorry Genma, I didn't notice. It's just…" Obito apologized but didn't know what to say about this.

"What? You have a daily meeting? We can work around that, no biggie, man."

"No, it's cool, it's just… I'm trying to get lunch with this person."

"Uh… this person?" Genma smirked at him and Obito cursed his choice of words. Genma leaned into him peering over his screen to check the company's messenger in an annoyingly curious way. "Who? Who is it?"

"Oh, it's just Kakashi." As if it made any sense describing that gorgeous man as "just Kakashi", but any more than that and Obito would look like he had a crush on the guy, which he didn't.

"Oh Kakashi." Genma waved away and his interest was cut short. "By the way you said it I thought you had a crush on the office already."

Genma was getting dangerously close to something that was completely, absolutely not true, but Obito still looked like an idiot denying it. "No, no, not at all, no, we-"

"Just ask him man, It's Kakashi, he's chill."

"I know it's-"

"I know, I'll text him." Genma fished out his phone from his pocket and typed a quick text. Did this mean that Genma had Kakashi's personal number? Like? What? Why? Were they this close? Like? How did they meet? Genma was in finance and Kakashi was a developer and- ok, probably at work, it was a dumb question, but still-

"Text him?"

"Yep. He answered already, he'll meet us on the lobby at noon."

And Kakashi answered this promptly?! Was he expecting a text from Genma or something? Did they text each other that often? What the hell? "What."

"Didn't know you two were friends." Obito didn't know that Genma and Kakashi were friends! Where is all this coming from?

"Oh, we talk and play and-"

"Cool, I'll start inviting him over too. I forget sometimes you used to be a hotshot with like customers and being super friendly and shit." What did that have anything to do with Obito and Kakashi being friends for fuck's sake?

Obito worked another hour until noon very confused with how fast this was going, then got on the elevator confused, met Kakashi still confused and was dragged into a ramen place confused. Fortunately, Kakashi was talking as if things were normal, and deep down, despite him being confused, Obito was still happy that he got to meet with Kakashi. And for a whole hour this time! Not those fleeting conversations between meetings and stuff. They sat on a long table, it's a good thing that they came early since they were in six people, and for Obito's luck Kakashi was right on his left, and they could talk and he could smell that amazing scent from up close.

Kakashi was chatting with ease with the guys from finance, like they hung out all the time, especially Genma. "I didn't know you and Genma were close." Obito winced internally at his not-smooth-at-all change of topics. Geez, when did he became such a loser? He was always so good at selling investments and companies back at the bank, now just because he was in a tech company he was losing his touch? At least he said it in a quiet voice e the rest of the table didn't seem to hear it, already caught up in another topic.

"Close?"

"Yeah, he has your phone… and shit…" He tried to fix it but somehow it got worse. God please. End this conversation. Please send a lightning or a biblical plague, please.

"Oh, that, he's the one that organizes the Magik tournaments in the office, we're all in a group chat. Wanna join?"

God, he felt incredibly stupid right now. He would still like that lightning strike, please. "Oh, card games is not my thing, sorry." He tried not to sound too awkward, but he failed. Thank god Kakashi was already excitedly trying to recruit him to their group chat.

"It's not just card games, we also have other things! Some people like to organize to play Mario Party, Hayate does this Street Fighter championship once per semester with the whole office, what else… oh, D obviously. Sometimes they also go to Comiket together to-"

He was glad Kakashi was happily blabbering away about the things he enjoyed without much need for Obito's input, while he recovered from the humiliation he felt with this question. Also, Kakashi looked cute talking about his hobbies, all excited, jumping in his seat.

"Your order!" The waiter settled their fuming bowls of ramen in front of them and Obito's stomach growled, he split the chopsticks in a hurry to eat this delicious smelling ramen.

He almost lost the view of Kakashi by his side taking off his mask. Oh my god, he was so stupid, he was so worried about Kakashi joining them for lunch he forgot that at some point they were gonna eat, and for that he had to let go of the always present surgical mask. He's wondered so much already what was behind that mask and now he finally got to see it!

Kakashi removed it casually and started eating his noodles, everyone on the table doing the same, as if there wasn't a fucking wonderful man sitting beside them. How could they even focus on lunch when Kakashi was so beautiful and right there? Nobody was batting an eye, just talking about something that didn't deserve not one bit of Obito's attention because Kakashi was by his side, and he was gorgeous. He turned to look at Obito and he could see it all, the strong jaw line, the thin nose, freckles dusting his cheeks and nose, his cheeks were a bit thin making his cheek bones stand out more. Kakashi cocked his head to the side looking puzzled, his marked eyebrows knitting together elegantly and Obito saw this pretty mole, no, a sunspot? Right in his chin and it was the cutest thing together with how his alpha fangs pulled on his lips just a tiny bit. Kakashi cocked his head to the other side and his silver hair fell over his brow, making him look more adorable-

"Obito?"

"What."

"Obito?"

"Oh. Sorry?" He blinked away his mesmerized state with Kakashi's face and prayed that the heat he was feeling was from the ramen shop and not him getting embarrassed like a teenager for being caught staring.

"Oh, he's never seen Kakashi's face before!" Genma said and a chorus of understanding "oh" came from the others, and if Obito wasn't blushing before he probably was now. Damn it. "Don't worry. It's always like that."

"Fucking pretty boys." Someone else spat and Kakashi smirked. He had a dimple on the side of his mouth that made him look insanely cuter.

"Are you jealous Ebisu?"

"Of course, if I had your looks, I could date any girl I wanted, and you're wasting it on men." Oh please. Obito prayed that Kakashi continued to like men so he could bask on that beautiful face always and maybe he could have a chance to date him.

"Kakashi could date any guy he wanted too, he just chooses to be a nerdy virgin loser together with us." Genma taunted and they were all back to joking around and eating their ramen as if that amount of beauty on a single person's face was normal.

"Ma, if I'm such a good friend, maybe you'll sell me some of your rare cards at a discount Genma?"

"No can do bro, sorry."

Obito decided to eat too, he could still remember that he was feeling hungry at some point, though now what he had in the pit of his stomach felt more like panic. Because was there any way to deny how hard he was crushing on Kakashi.

Fuck, this was bad. And he knew for sure that Kakashi's face would haunt him now. That one time that Kakashi put on a hoodie and his t-shirt lifted just enough for Obito to see beautiful pale skin, lean abs and the beginning of some hair, with his underwear and- well, that on time more than two weeks ago still haunted him, imagine his beautiful face, Obito would be drooling all over his desk while he should be working instead. He looked up again and Kakashi's smile was so pretty, with his dimple and his fangs, yeah, he was no beta for sure, with those teeth. Obito turned to his ramen trying not to be blinded by the light.

After that, having lunch with Kakashi became more of a rule than a one-time thing.

"You're going out with Kakashi again?" Genma asked and why did he have to choose those words? It made it sound like Obito and Kakashi were going on a date instead of having lunch and returning to office to work for five more hours.

"Yeah, wanna come?" Obito asked and he was pretty sure he sounded very polite about it, but he was kinda praying that Genma would say no. Was that too awful? He felt a bit guilty. Not that it would be bad, Genma was cool, but…

"Nah, I got lunch with a friend of mine from a previous job. You go ahead." Genma smiled and nodded and Obito smiled back, a bit happier than he should about having lunch with Kakashi only.

"Alright, see ya."

"Ok. Bonding time between alphas!" Genma said in a mocking deep voice and laughed after it.

Obito just laughed it out, but it was indeed curious, did people think there was no way of alphas forming couples between them? Compulsory heterosexuality is a thing, but what about dating between different secondary genders? Regardless of what people thought, it was better for Obito this way, because he was afraid of being pathetically obvious about his crush on Kakashi. But who wouldn't crush on him? It was only natural even if they were both alphas!

"Yo." Kakashi greeted him for their lunch and his eyes were creasing in that cute way that made them look almost closed. "Ichiraku's?"

"Geez, how are you this skinny?" Obito complained, but he was gonna probably agree to go to Ichiraku's with Kakashi for the third time this week. Because it was Kakashi. How could he say no?

"Ma, I force myself to go to the gym so I can eat whatever I want. Plus, it's cheap."

"Kakashi, I deal with personnel costs and I know that you earn enough money not to live off Ichiraku's."

"C'mon, I really like their eggplant miso soup." At least Kakashi always ordered something healthy, even if it was a ramen joint. It was Obito that would end up putting on some weight if he tried to keep up with Kakashi.

"Sure, why not? But how can you eat the same food every day?"

"How can you not? It's comforting."

Obito shook his head not understanding what this beautiful crazy man was saying. "Then we're getting dangos after lunch."

"And you criticize my addiction to miso soup."

"Because it's boring and it sucks ass, at least dangos taste good." Kakashi rolled his eyes again and they continued their playful banter until Ichiraku's.

Yeah, Obito was a goner for Kakashi. Maybe he has been since the first time he saw him, that beautiful silver hair crossing the office, and it only got worse as they got to know one another.