Rainy Day

Kakashi x Yuugao

Set in the Shippuuden series

A/N: I was inspired to write this by a p.m. from Hoshi Light who is a great fan of this pairing, so I wrote this little piece for her. It's a bit sad and fluffy and, well… I hope you and everyone else ejoy it.

Rainy Day

He was standing there again, the heavy rain pouring down on him as he he danced that familiar dance. Silence encompassed the clearing, except for the soft music of water droplets hitting the grass beneath his feet. His back was turned on her, his olive green vest staring at her as she stared at him. His hands fisted in his pockets, he stood, slouched. His eyes set on the stone at his feet. His mouth, she knew, was moving soundlessly with all the things he wanted to say but could not bring himself to voice out loud. His dampened hair sticking to his hidden face in dishevelled curls. Seemingly unaware of her prensence, she knew that he was ignoring it in favor of those loved ones he mourned, whose death he had been blaming on himself for far too long.

They called him a hound…

They called him a wolf…

But in reality all he was, was a lost puppy.

He had never let those old wounds heal, scars marring not only his body but his very soul. His heart in pieces, he didn't even try to put the puzzle back together. Instead he just left it battered and bruised. Broken. Shattered. He seemed so well on the outside, never betraying the emotion he felt within. If you didn't know him, you would never guess something was wrong, never think he was hurting. If you didn't know him, he was nothing but the perfectly sharpened tool- weapon- everyone wanted him to be.

Needed him to be.

They were much alike, she thought. Like him, she had not let the injuries of her heart mend, grasping onto every bit of pain. Blaming herself for not protecting loved ones. Griefing for those left behind, and mourning not to be one of them. Wishing to be in their place, selfish as it may be. Holding onto the hurt, because it was the only way to stay connected, because it was the only way to feel alive anymore.

The only way they knew, anyway.

But she had progressed past that point now. She was ready to let go, if only a bit. To forget the pain, if only for a few hours a day. Or to live with it, but coupled with a vision of brighter days. Was it wrong? To want her life to belong to her once again? To want to take some of the happiness that she knew a new start could give? It wasn't that she wanted to forget, to rid herself of the meories. All she wanted, was to create new ones.

Was that a bad thing?

She approached him, slowly. Her skilled movements barely ellicting a sound from the wet ground underneath her feet. Yet the few, soft crunching noises of the grass she stepped on seemed to be so much louder and more invasive in the silence of this chilled day of rain. Nonetheless, she walked up to the cenotaph until she stood by the side of the man, who would still not acknoledge her. The purple-haired woman was so very close to him that their arms touched, yet his gaze never left the names carved into the stone before them. And that was just fine with her, because it was what she knew. She placed a single white lilly infront of the violet shimmering stone. This had changed as well. Her first 'gift' had been a whole bouquet, but the number of flowers had steadily lessened with each taciturn conversation she had indulged with him, when they met at this very spot.

A strange comfort had grown between them, neither could or would explain. They didn't speak, and barely met each other in their daily routine, but… When they reached out for those that were gone, standing here crying unseen tears, there was no awkwardness, no hesitation. Only a strange trust and a feeling that things were falling into place. She had often wondered about that odd emotion, and still did on some level. As long as she felt at ease with him, though, she couldn't care less about what it was, and so she left her thoughts unspoken. Knowing him, he probably understood, anyway.

When she raised herself from her kneeling position again, he turned to leave. Before she knew what she was doing, her hand had closed around his, and her eyes had shifted to his face. His siingle smokey grey eye was now focused on her, something that had never happened before, and now she knew, could see that he felt it, too. This weird sensation of peace that seemed to surround the two of them when their paths crossed on this clearing. Reacting by instict, she turned him around until his body faced her.

She stepped onto her tip-toes, leaning into him, until her lips brushed over his masked ones. She could feel them twitch as if he wanted to respond, but would not allow himself to, and she realized that he was not ready. While her wounds had slowly been healing over the past two-and-a-half years, his had been torn open again every day with the added memory of his failure towards the last Uchiha.

Smiling ruefully, she pressed her lips against his a bit harder, before letting go completely.

"I'll be here," she whispered, and felt his hand shortly squeeze her own as a 'thank you'.

Then Kakashi left.

End of Rainy Day

A/N: Not much action in this, I know, but I hope you liked it anyway. I was going more for the eomotional bond, anyway. So... yeah, please review!

Love,

Mayet