Shattered (#1 in Shifting Series)

Broken

Kakashi was quite stunned as he finally moved further into the small studio apartment. It was not much larger than the apartment he had rented for years when he had been actively going on missions all the time.  It was furnished with only a medium sized bed that was on the far side of the space next to a sliding glass door that led out to what appeared to be a small balcony.  A lone chair was visible through the open blinds.  It looked out over what appeared to be a pool and faced another set of apartments.  Inside the apartment, the only extravagant sized item was a television that was hung on the wall before a single recliner chair.  It was quite possibly the largest television he had ever seen in his life. He immediately got the impression that she spent a lot of time in front of it.  As he shifted his eyes, he noted that there was not even a table to sit and eat at in the small space. This was not the home of a family.  His eyes dropped on a framed photograph on the wall of the man, girl, and Sarah together.  She looked even younger in that image caught in time.  He stilled; something wasn't right about all this.

A lone barstool was by the bar that served as the only separation between the small kitchen space and rest of the apartment. The only other decorative pieces on the wall were art prints from scenes that looked straight out of his life and all of them were of him! The largest being over the center of the bed and he felt his cheeks warm as it resembled him well enough that he could not deny that it was of his likeness. He was beginning to doubt his own sanity as he stared at the image.  He was in a fighting stance and the lightning blade was in full effect.  Positioned as it was, it was like he was standing guard over the bed.

Kakashi could feel his cheeks warm considerably as he then saw the long, body sized pillow in the center of the bed with his almost naked image on it. His brows went up on their own and he actually took a step forward to look at it more closely. It was no mystery that it was something she obviously cuddled with at night, there was even a depression where her thick thigh would have been on the pillow. This gave the word obsession a completely different meaning and he had to wonder what her husband thought of that!  He then frowned... this was not the home of a family though...

While he was distracted, Sarah had dumped her bag on the single reclining chair before going into what he assumed was the bathroom. He felt his mouth drop open when she came back out. The uniform she had been wearing was gone and her bound hair was loose. It was very curly from having been bound up all day and the curls spilled down to just past her shoulders. It softened her features and for a moment, he was transfixed and a quite a bit aroused by the transformation. She was wearing a pair of soft pants that he assumed were for bed and a t-shirt that was more formfitting than the uniform shirt had been. She was definitely curvy in all the right places, despite the little bit of belly.  He momentarily imagined how soft she would feel pressed beneath him.  He forced the thought away then shifted his eyes back to her face.  The expression was not as stoic as it had been at the facility.

She looked broken as she crossed the room and went to the refrigerator. He was instantly aware that she was not one that allowed others to see her true self.  Like him, she wore a mask but hers was not visible.  It was a carefully placed persona that she projected to the world.  In the facility, she had displayed a woman of strength that was unmoved by the currents around her.  Yet in the quiet confines of her home away from prying eyes, she allowed her true emotions to be seen.  She pulled out a package of four small shots that he had to assume was some kind of alcohol. She looked like she needed a drink, emotional pain clear on her features.  She tossed back two of them before leaning heavily against the counter. The beginnings of what looked like tears filled her eyes. Before she could shed them, a small device on the counter began buzzing. She looked at it, blinking back the tears, and made a face that almost resembled pain. She stared at it for a long while before finally touching a green icon on the screen.