𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐔𝐓, kakaobi.

17 | where theirs is a family of choice

chapter xvii; 

Kakashi's twenty-six years old when Obito, sweet Obito, drops a bomb on her. One she doesn't know how to respond to. She loves Obito, of course she does, there's nothing in this world he could do for her to stop loving him. But—

But—

But—!

What he's saying, what he's convincing her of doing right now leaves her in shock. Completely, utterly shocked, that's what she is. 

There's uncertainty in Obito's eyes —and obviously she notices, she would always notice— and he's far more nervous than everyone else might believe —except for Rin, because Rin always knows, somehow—. 

(Minato-sensei would have noticed it too, would have known because he was omnipotent and so she firmly believed.)

(But he wasn't. Not really.)

(Kakashi still loves Minato-sensei far more than what others think is healthy. Grieves him because he was father and she'd already lost one of those.)

(She knows it's the same for Obito, who never knew his parents and took their sensei as an adopted one, and for Rin, whose father bolted at hearing about the pregnancy of her mother and left them behind.)

(But Minato-sensei died, and he left them but not really, because he would always stay in their minds and hearts and in Naruto. So they grieve, and they don't move on, but they take a step towards the future and feel him smiling from their side. Because they would never, ever, leave him behind.)

"Obito, did you—" she takes a moment to take a deep breath, and continues: "Did you just said we should adopt?"

He's a ball of nerves, there's a faint blush on his face, his entire body language is focused on her and is jittery at best. He's supposed to be a shinobi. Honestly.

He is shifting his weight constantly between his legs as if he couldn't stay put. Which, okay, he's Obito, he probably has more energy than a fully charged battery. 

"I—, I mean, there's— uh, a kid, not my kid, but someone else's kid, and they're, um, unsuited to take care of them, because, because they're not always in the village, you know? But until recently they had, um, someone who took care of the kid, but now the old man's dead, so they don't have anyone else. And, and they, were a good friend of my—, my parents, and they kinda asked me?" he ends with a really high-pitched voice she hasn't heard from him since he was at least eighteen, and woah. 

(Obito's adorable, she's never been able to do anything about it, he's also incredibly hot, he's also irrationally good, she's a puddle of goo whenever he asks her something, why is this a question again?)

Kakashi, though Obito's far cuter than he should have the right to be, takes a moment to breathe and think. "So, your parents had a friend, and this friend now has a child, but as if I suspect they work as a spy," and when she looks at the brunet for confirmation, he nods, doesn't say anything out loud but nods, "then they obviously can't take care of a baby. They had someone else, an old man, that took care of the kid, but he died. And they want you, and going by our relationship, us, to take care of them. Is that it?"