Salvation (Kakashi x OC) (Standalone)

6.1

Written: 11/17/22
Word Count: 2,669

Car alarms started blaring almost instantaneously after the shattering glass, and Kakashi practically flew off the bed.

He crouched at the window before I could even remember to move, so I lifted myself up to my elbows, staring at the curtain-less glass peering out across the long driveway to the string of condos on the other side.

Another smash accompanied a throaty roar like a person was cosplaying as a werewolf about to transform. I shuddered at the noise.

I sat up cross-legged on Kakashi's bed, the covers still half off the mattress and funneled together like a giant snake.

"Kakashi?" I whisper-hissed, motioning the man to come closer. "You don't have to get involved. In this world, we let the police handle dangerous people."

Kakashi's bare face was illuminated in that orange glow as he peered through the glass. His gaze tracked something near the parking stand, which brought up the uncomfortable realization:

What if it was my car that had been destroyed?

Oh great, what was I supposed to do if that happened? I didn't want to tell my parents someone had smashed up my car. They already thought this complex was too dangerous to live in.

Never mind that nothing like this had ever happened before.

I balanced my weight onto my knees, peering out at the driveway in front of the window. None of the other neighbors had come outside. I didn't even see any lights turned on.

That was the typical response of people minding their own business.

What it told me was that it wasn't some domestic dispute—it wasn't one of my neighbors high on some crazy drugs or some unhappy husband or teenager.

Shivers skittered down my spine, but I forced one socked foot off the bed, then the other. I joined Kakashi at the window, hovering above his crouched form, just to see if I could catch a glimpse of my silver Kia sitting under the open awning.

The window was inverted, so the very outer edge of the ledge's boxy frame got in the way of where I knew my car rested. My favorite spot, right next to the red pole.

"My poor car," I whispered to myself, forgetting for a moment that I wasn't alone.

Kakashi looked up at me, the new angle sending a strange heaviness down my limbs. With that loose white shirt, the ninja's collarbones were open and inviting at this angle. That beauty mark stared up at me, almost accusingly.

Without realizing it, my gaze hovered on that little freckle. Kakashi's expression seemed to freeze, one hand coming up to pat his neck, where the mask had been pushed under his chin. Without his extra layers, it looked like a strange scarf of some kind.

He easily slipped it back up his nose, staring at me now with a wariness shining in his eyes.

"You—you couldn't breathe," I tried explaining, the words ringing false with my awkward voice. It was true, but with the way the situation had turned out, I couldn't be sure that Kakashi didn't see me as some sort of predatory woman now. "You were—you were trying to take it off. I think. So, I—I did."

"Why did you come in here?" Kakashi's voice had returned to that typical boredom that sounded as flippant as a chef smoking a cigarette behind a counter, casually tossing an omelet through the air.

Slowly, I moved away from the man, edging my elbow up on a tower of clear storage bins. My hands gripped together like I was praying, but my fingers wove through one another with such speed, nobody would ever mistake it for praying.