✔️ Salvation (Kakashi x OC) (Standalone)

49.4

Written: 7/18/25
Word Count: 1,064

The breath left my chest as Mom continued, "I swear, you had a fever every month for the first four years of your life. Crazy fevers—brain-melting fevers. You were maybe three months old, and I remember rocking you back and forth. You were screaming so loud, I was worried you'd wake your father. I still wasn't working after having you, but your father had only been given three days—back then, paternal leave wasn't a thing, baby, it wasn't his fault. But I was so scared of waking him up. I don't know why. I was just always afraid of that man, though he'd seriously never touched me. And if our wedding night hadn't made you—sorry, honey, but you should really stop rolling your eyes, we're all adults aren't we?—then we would still be childless. He never, ever touched me."

Tears filled my eyes, and maybe I understood my father more in that moment than I'd ever been able to before. I could only imagine what he saw in his wildcat of a young wife. One he knew had been through hell, one who'd been the victim of vicious rumors that even he had bought into. Dad was like me. He didn't dare go near her because he hadn't made up his mind about how he was supposed to. It was very nearly the same way I let Tenna rely on me without expecting anything in return. That distance was the same. His version of care had been the money, and he didn't know what to do for the rest.

"Well, he came into the nursery, stumbling into the doorframe, he was so tired," she took a shuddering breath. "I swear, I thought the bogeyman had entered the house, but I was frozen. I couldn't move at all, just watching him come over to me, tripping over himself. He—he crouched down to his knees. His eyes were just like our wedding night, that stormy sea. He stared at me, just—stared. I thought I'd never met a more still man, and that scared me even worse for some reason. But, baby, you know your papa." The tears flowed freely now and I nodded. I did know my dad. Her fingers pantomimed a drag of a cigarette as she said, words quaking, "He wrapped his hands around my calves, and he bent down to give you a kiss, whispering in your ear, 'Shhh, everything's okay, it's okay, cherry pop.' We called you that because—"

"I screamed so much, I was always red," I answered. "I know."

She nodded, and we shared something of a genuine smile. "I realized it wasn't the normal fear. Growing up, I'd always known fear, and it became...comfortable. But that night, I realized I wasn't scared of your father because I thought he was waiting to hurt me."

Tenna joined the boys, stealing the ball away, before racing to the swingset, shouting, "Touchdown!!"

"That's dangerous Tenzy!" Dad tried to scold her, but it was ruined by his mad dash to steal the ball back. For a man wearing pajamas with drinking leopards, he was quite spry.

Mom stared out at him, that same look on her face that I'd always read as detached apathy. Dislike, even. But in that moment, it was like Kakashi had never left my side. There was another war, in another set of eyes. How had I never seen it before?

I resented my parents for not seeing how much I struggled, but I had missed signs, too.

"He made me feel safe," she said, clinically, distantly, unflinching. "And I've always hated him for it."

"Mom..." I tried, but I didn't know where to go from here. I didn't know what to say.

"I got lucky, Gracie," she said, voice covered in an ex-smoker's husk. "I've made a lot of mistakes in my life. I'm always making them. Every day, seems like. There's no reason why I ended up here with your father other than plain luck. I was the easiest option for him at the time. I'm sure of it. His parents wanted him married, and he went for the one they'd always intended. If we'd lived on opposite ends of the neighborhood, maybe we wouldn't be having this conversation, baby."

"Mom."

"You want to follow your guy into the great unknown? Nothing I haven't seen before. You've done a remarkable job taking care of yourself—I mean that. Really. But I don't know this man. I don't know you much, either. Not as the adult you. All I can think—" she turned to me, then, and held my elbows in her spring-chilled hands. "What the hell are you gonna do if you need to escape?"

The tears increased. It wasn't any stretch to say I was sobbing at this point. Dad and Tenna finally noticed, racing over.

"What?" Tenna demanded, grabbing me from our mother's reach and holding me away from her. Mom let me go, resignation lining her mouth at the distance Tenna created between us. I've seen that look before, too. Back when I did the same thing, holding Tenna away from her. "What did you do, Mom?"

"Hold up, Tenzy." Dad put his most reasonable voice on, standing on the third step. Tenna and I were blocking the rest of the way up. "What's going on here, honey?" he asked me.

When no answer came, he looked to his wife of twenty-five years, and whatever he saw prompted him to bear hug the two of us until Ten squealed as he moved us out of his way and walked over to her. He took her hand, whispering something, but Mom's eyes were on us.

I'd always thought it was disinterest. I'd always, always thought she disapproved of us. And maybe she does.

But that was the look of someone who forced themselves to play the villain. Because it was easier. Because if you hurt others, then you won't be hurt. God, I thought characters like that weren't from real life, and here, I'd been raised by one.

"Momma," I choked out, and then I pulled Tenna into her arms, trapping their joined hands in a messy tangle of sweaters and limbs.

I was twenty-five years old when I realized my parents actually did love each other.

And I was twenty-five years old when I realized my mother had loved Tenna and I all along.