For you, Nezu, with much love.
Birthday ficlet for nezumiko. It's late but it does involve Kakashi, so that works out nicely. *grins*
Ginta is a character that belongs soley to nezumiko and is made mostly of awesome. I steal him shamelessly for the following drabble-ness.
I had a prompt for this, which was "sugar rush". See if you can spot what became of it.
----
Kakashi didn’t know much about birthdays. He’d had twenty of them, sure, and he knew what they meant -- the sun had made it once more around the earth, congratulations -- but he’d never really celebrated one, and he certainly didn’t intend to start now.
It wasn’t like they really mattered. Right? Right.
Besides, this one wasn’t even his. If it had been his (and he’d remembered and there was no mission to prepare for or recover from and he wasn’t busy) he might have done something. Like slept. Sleeping was a good way to spend a birthday. Restful. Or perhaps he would’ve talked to Obito. Or trained.
In short, he would have done something useful.
He certainly wouldn’t have thought about presents. Presents marked special occasions. Like becoming a jounin. That was special. Or…
Other special things.
Nine months after the day your parents hadn’t been careful wasn’t anything to celebrate.
Which still didn't explain why he was standing awkwardly in the fourth shop of the afternoon, looking at the appallingly sweet valentines candy and cursing Ginta for having a birthday so close to a holiday.
To a supremely annoying holiday, no less.
Irritating jackass.
And what, exactly, did fat chocolate babies with wings have to do with love anyway? Kakashi put the beribboned package carefully back on the shelf and breathed through his mouth. The overpowering scent of pure sugar was starting to make his head hurt.
There was no way he was giving Ginta a chocolate heart on a stick either.
Or a chocolate anything, in fact. The man was already bouncy enough; it wasn’t like he needed the sugar rush.
Gifts were supposed to be useful.
Kakashi shoved his hands in his pockets, dodged around the intensely cheerful shopkeeper, and walked back out into Konoha’s bustling market square. Pink seemed to be a common theme. And red.
If he had any sense at all, he would've just taken a damn mission and come back when everyone had regained their sanity. That was the sensible thing.
That was the smart thing.
That was definitely what he should do.
Kakashi shook his head and weaved his haphazard way through the crowd, occasionally glancing in shop windows.
He discarded weapons out of hand - if Ginta didn't already have decent quality blades, he was a worse ninja then Kakashi thought - and canned the idea of books on the grounds Ginta had enough to happily drown in. There was no way Kakashi was buying him clothes -- he already owned far too many neon things - and jewellery wasn’t useful unless it meant something.
Roughly around the time he started considering a brightly coloured parrot, Kakashi realized he’d probably lost his mind along with the rest of Konoha.
Sixteen shops, several irritated shopkeepers and a headache later, he gave up and sat down on a bench. It was useless. It was pointless. He should just go take the stupid mission.
What he needed was advice.
Unfortunately, there weren't all that many people he could ask.
Obito wasn't exactly helpful. Kakashi got the vague sense he was being laughed at when he stood in front of the stone, scuffed his foot and explained his problem.
Rin was even less helpful. Kakashi sat down, leaned his back against the monument and tried to explain that he couldn't just give Ginta anything. But anything, she said, would be appreciated. It was the thought that counted.
Sensei would have suggested something shiny. Or pointy. Or both. But Kakashi had already vetoed weapons, and he didn't intend to feed Ginta's magpie habit.
Kakashi leaned his chin on his hand, frustrated. It needed to be something useful.
He watched the sun begin to set, stealing the last warmth of the day, and tried to think like a genius. When that didn't work, he tried to think like a ninja. And, finally, when that gave him nothing, he tried to think like a person.
The stars were bright in the night sky before Kakashi got up, bowed to the monument, and made his way home.
---
The next morning, he woke up with a plan.
When Pakkun had stopped laughing he even agreed to help. The promise of his own body weight in steak probably had something to do with that. Mostly. The sight of Kakashi focusing on something that wasn't a mission or training or anything that had happened half a decade ago might have influenced him slightly.
Just slightly.
---
Two days later, on the 13th of February, Ginta woke up to find a nin-dog sitting in front of his door with a scroll held tightly between its teeth.
Jackass,
About time you got those dodging lessons. Follow the dog.
-- Genius.
Kakashi waited out of sight until Ginta finished looking puzzled, then amused, then finally resigned, and followed his dog. Then he broke into Ginta’s apartment -- even the best traps were useless against the sharingan when you’d filled them full of chakra -- and spent an interesting half hour setting things up.
(He got sand everywhere, spilled water over the floor, and almost accidentally suffocated the damn things three times. But it looked pretty nice in the end, once he’d swept up the broken glass. The back light was a good touch. Genius, he thought wryly.)
Ginta wasn't surprised when he was late. Kakashi was always late.
Pakkun still yelled at him. But that was pretty much Pakkun's job. Kakashi said something vague about steak and the pug shut up, much to Ginta's amusement.
The 'dodging lessons' evolved into a decent spar and then a forest run with the pack. That in itself was unusual enough - Kakashi never took anyone running with his pack - but it was Ginta’s birthday.
Not that birthdays were special.
When they were both worked out enough to be sweat-soaked and panting, Kakashi turned, shoved his hands into his pockets, scowled slightly at Ginta through his mask, and said: "Happy birthday, jackass. Don’t get used to it." He teleported away before the man could respond.
---
It was a fish tank.
With fish.
In his apartment.
"…huh," said Ginta.
He regarded the fish, then he regarded the note, then he looked at the fish once again.
He blinked.
They were still there.
He looked at the note again.
It's not your grandmother's koi pond, but it's something. Congratulations on not being dead yet. Don’t forget to feed them.
"Huh," said Ginta, again.
Now he was going to have to get Kakashi something.
Ginta is a character that belongs soley to nezumiko and is made mostly of awesome. I steal him shamelessly for the following drabble-ness.
I had a prompt for this, which was "sugar rush". See if you can spot what became of it.
----
Kakashi didn’t know much about birthdays. He’d had twenty of them, sure, and he knew what they meant -- the sun had made it once more around the earth, congratulations -- but he’d never really celebrated one, and he certainly didn’t intend to start now.
It wasn’t like they really mattered. Right? Right.
Besides, this one wasn’t even his. If it had been his (and he’d remembered and there was no mission to prepare for or recover from and he wasn’t busy) he might have done something. Like slept. Sleeping was a good way to spend a birthday. Restful. Or perhaps he would’ve talked to Obito. Or trained.
In short, he would have done something useful.
He certainly wouldn’t have thought about presents. Presents marked special occasions. Like becoming a jounin. That was special. Or…
Other special things.
Nine months after the day your parents hadn’t been careful wasn’t anything to celebrate.
Which still didn't explain why he was standing awkwardly in the fourth shop of the afternoon, looking at the appallingly sweet valentines candy and cursing Ginta for having a birthday so close to a holiday.
To a supremely annoying holiday, no less.
Irritating jackass.
And what, exactly, did fat chocolate babies with wings have to do with love anyway? Kakashi put the beribboned package carefully back on the shelf and breathed through his mouth. The overpowering scent of pure sugar was starting to make his head hurt.
There was no way he was giving Ginta a chocolate heart on a stick either.
Or a chocolate anything, in fact. The man was already bouncy enough; it wasn’t like he needed the sugar rush.
Gifts were supposed to be useful.
Kakashi shoved his hands in his pockets, dodged around the intensely cheerful shopkeeper, and walked back out into Konoha’s bustling market square. Pink seemed to be a common theme. And red.
If he had any sense at all, he would've just taken a damn mission and come back when everyone had regained their sanity. That was the sensible thing.
That was the smart thing.
That was definitely what he should do.
Kakashi shook his head and weaved his haphazard way through the crowd, occasionally glancing in shop windows.
He discarded weapons out of hand - if Ginta didn't already have decent quality blades, he was a worse ninja then Kakashi thought - and canned the idea of books on the grounds Ginta had enough to happily drown in. There was no way Kakashi was buying him clothes -- he already owned far too many neon things - and jewellery wasn’t useful unless it meant something.
Roughly around the time he started considering a brightly coloured parrot, Kakashi realized he’d probably lost his mind along with the rest of Konoha.
Sixteen shops, several irritated shopkeepers and a headache later, he gave up and sat down on a bench. It was useless. It was pointless. He should just go take the stupid mission.
What he needed was advice.
Unfortunately, there weren't all that many people he could ask.
Obito wasn't exactly helpful. Kakashi got the vague sense he was being laughed at when he stood in front of the stone, scuffed his foot and explained his problem.
Rin was even less helpful. Kakashi sat down, leaned his back against the monument and tried to explain that he couldn't just give Ginta anything. But anything, she said, would be appreciated. It was the thought that counted.
Sensei would have suggested something shiny. Or pointy. Or both. But Kakashi had already vetoed weapons, and he didn't intend to feed Ginta's magpie habit.
Kakashi leaned his chin on his hand, frustrated. It needed to be something useful.
He watched the sun begin to set, stealing the last warmth of the day, and tried to think like a genius. When that didn't work, he tried to think like a ninja. And, finally, when that gave him nothing, he tried to think like a person.
The stars were bright in the night sky before Kakashi got up, bowed to the monument, and made his way home.
---
The next morning, he woke up with a plan.
When Pakkun had stopped laughing he even agreed to help. The promise of his own body weight in steak probably had something to do with that. Mostly. The sight of Kakashi focusing on something that wasn't a mission or training or anything that had happened half a decade ago might have influenced him slightly.
Just slightly.
---
Two days later, on the 13th of February, Ginta woke up to find a nin-dog sitting in front of his door with a scroll held tightly between its teeth.
Jackass,
About time you got those dodging lessons. Follow the dog.
-- Genius.
Kakashi waited out of sight until Ginta finished looking puzzled, then amused, then finally resigned, and followed his dog. Then he broke into Ginta’s apartment -- even the best traps were useless against the sharingan when you’d filled them full of chakra -- and spent an interesting half hour setting things up.
(He got sand everywhere, spilled water over the floor, and almost accidentally suffocated the damn things three times. But it looked pretty nice in the end, once he’d swept up the broken glass. The back light was a good touch. Genius, he thought wryly.)
Ginta wasn't surprised when he was late. Kakashi was always late.
Pakkun still yelled at him. But that was pretty much Pakkun's job. Kakashi said something vague about steak and the pug shut up, much to Ginta's amusement.
The 'dodging lessons' evolved into a decent spar and then a forest run with the pack. That in itself was unusual enough - Kakashi never took anyone running with his pack - but it was Ginta’s birthday.
Not that birthdays were special.
When they were both worked out enough to be sweat-soaked and panting, Kakashi turned, shoved his hands into his pockets, scowled slightly at Ginta through his mask, and said: "Happy birthday, jackass. Don’t get used to it." He teleported away before the man could respond.
---
It was a fish tank.
With fish.
In his apartment.
"…huh," said Ginta.
He regarded the fish, then he regarded the note, then he looked at the fish once again.
He blinked.
They were still there.
He looked at the note again.
It's not your grandmother's koi pond, but it's something. Congratulations on not being dead yet. Don’t forget to feed them.
"Huh," said Ginta, again.
Now he was going to have to get Kakashi something.