"You're nobody's fool," he answered. "You know you can do it if you want. I ask no more than that you think about what I've said. Take your time, there's no rush. I'm a patient man."
Mitsuki smiled. "Then you're a rarity," she said.
"Hmm."
Kakashi turns the page, eager to see the dramatic conclusion to the novel Sakura had given him.
He's so close; only a handful of pages to go. Mitsuki is now nearing her sixties, and her daughter is in a similar situation as to her own as far as her love life is concerned. Only her suitor has taken the step that Roku didn't; he's asked her mother (Mitsuki) for permission to make her happy, and he's willing to leave all he has behind in order to make that happen. But will Mitsuki be kind and gracious enough to allow such a thing? Or has years of repeated rejection and letdowns built up a wall of bitterness that is too strong to let even her own daughter be happy, when she herself cannot?
Kakashi doesn't know. He honestly doesn't know. Usually, he can predict the ends of novels with relative ease, see the twist coming from miles away. But not this. And, yes, granted, said aforementioned novels were all from the same perverted author, but still. Kakashi Hatake has read nothing quite so intriguing as this before, nothing that has truly tugged at his curiosity in such a way as to make him turn each page in eager anticipation.
And so he reads.
"I hope I've done the right thing," Mitsuki said, wringing her hands as she watched her letter being carried off.
"Oh, yes. Quite definitely." Her mother stated simply, continuing her freshly acquired hobby of knitting. "Sometimes children just don't know what's best for themselves. She'll thank you later."
Kakashi's brow furrows as he walks around a street corner, nose buried in the book. The hell? Was her answer yes or not? Dammit, author, tell him already!
A clash of pink and red is all he really sees as someone crashes into him and Birds of Thorn goes flying from his hands, and Kakashi's annoyance and panic only subsides when he registers that it is none other than Sakura Haruno.
"Oof! Sorry about that, Kakashi! Didn't see you there," she says, dusting off her smooth legs even though he can't detect a single speck of dirt on them.
He only half-answers, his eyes frantically searching for the book. "Uh...you're fine, really..."
He spots it lying in the middle of the road, and quickly goes to retrieve it before some oblivious imbecile tramples over it. Not much damage, just some scuffs and a few chunks of dirt between the pages. The true tragedy lies in the fact that his place is gone, and he'll now have to flip through the entire thing to find where he'd been so he can pick up where he left off.
He stares down at the matted book and sighs, downtrodden.
Sakura leans down to catch his gaze, cautiously approaching. "Youuuu okay?"
"I will be. I'm nearly finished."
Her face lights up, and he quietly decides that it was worth losing his place.
"Oooooh, you gotta tell me what you think! I'm gonna be honest, I cried when I was done with it. Buuuut I was also alone in my room." She touches his shoulder, rubs at his vest in a faux-comforting way. "Just know that there's no shame in expressing your feelings, Kakashi. It's okay."
Her mocking pout is enough to make him fantasize about doing just that, and in a very obvious way, but instead he just stands there and smugly thinks, if you only knew.
