What the New Year Brings

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Chapter 5-A Little Persuasion

"Are you drunk?"

"What makes you think that I am?" Kakashi asks, clearly taken aback.

"Because you keep freakin' kissing me!"

"You don't want me to?"

"No! Yes! What the hell?! I just want to know why you keep doing it!"

"I thought I made that perfectly clear last night, Sakura...I like you." Kakashi's eye crinkles as he smiles beneath his mask.

"I thought you were just drunk!"

"What is it with you always thinking that I'm drunk? I wasn't drunk last night and I'm certainly not drunk right now, okay Sakura?"

A pair of girly giggles resound behind Kakashi and Kakashi and I look across the street to see Tenten and Ino walking by, giggling into their hands.

"Aw, fuck!" I say throwing my hands up in the air in despair.

And so it begins...

Well, I can continue this conversation with Kakashi outside my door for all the world to see and hear, or drag Kakashi's ass inside so that we can talk in private. Only problem is, if I do that it might just create even worse rumors. Either way, I'm screwed. So I might as well keep the conversation outside so that at least then people will know nothing suspicious is going on behind closed doors.

"Are you trying to embarrass me?!" I ask him irritably.

"Why would I want to embarrass you?!" Kakashi asks confused.

"I don't know, but that's exactly what you're doing!"

"How am I...Sakura, you really need to give me more credit here. First you think I'm doing things because I'm drunk and now you think I'm trying to humiliate you on purpose. I promise you that I'm doing neither and my intentions towards you are completely honorable...Mostly." Kakashi adds as an afterthought, looking absently somewhere over my head and scratching the bottom of his chin.

My jaw drops and my eyes widen from the implication of that little add-on.

"Anyway..." Kakashi looks back down at me brightly, "We've got a big day ahead of us and as cute as that little outfit of yours is, I suggest you change because I highly doubt that you'd want to be seen walking down the street dressed like that." He states matter-of-factly and gives me another happy eye crease.

I close the collar of my bathrobe tighter around my neck.

"What even makes you think that I'm going anywhere with you today?! We didn't agree on any plans! My plans consisted of staying in bed all day!"

"Well, okay. If you insist." Kakashi shrugs and begins to step forward as if to go into my apartment.

"And where do you think you're going?!" I ask, pushing my hand hard against his chest to stop him from going any further.

"To bed. Where else?"

"What the hell, Kakashi?!"

"But you just said..."

"I know what I just said, but what in God's name made you take that as an invitation?!"

"I'm sorry. Have I crossed a line here?"

"'Have I crossed a line here?' he asks! Yes, Kakashi! You have! Somewhere between ramming your tongue down my throat and assuming that I want to sleep with you, yes, you most definitely have crossed a line!"

"You're the one who brought up going to bed." Kakashi says as he shrugs his shoulders innocently.

"What is wrong with you?! Are you high?!"

"Okay, first I'm drunk and now I'm high?!"

"What do you expect me to think?! You're acting so weird, even for you, Kakashi!"

"I told you straight out what's going on. I like you. I want to spend time with you. What more do you want?"

"I don't know, more of an explanation maybe?! Like why now? Why all of a sudden? And why you keep being so damn forward?!"

"Let's call it a New Year's resolution." Kakashi says offhandedly. "And it's not 'all of a sudden,' Sakura. I've liked you for awhile now. As to why I'm being forward, why not? Can't send you the wrong signals if I am, can I? But with you, I don't know..." Kakashi trails off, quirking an eyebrow up at me as if concerned for my inability to read "clear" signals.

"I'm not stupid, Kakashi!" I say indignantly.

"Didn't say you were."

"I'm just shocked that you're laying everything down so cut and dry."

"Believe me, Sakura, with all the hell I had to go through just to figure out my feelings for you, everything is so not cut and dry."

"So what makes you so sure now?"

"I'm not. I'm not that presumptuous."

"You seem presumptuous enough to me!" I grumble, folding my arms across my chest.

"I'm 36 years old, Sakura, and I'm not getting any younger. I'm just trying to move things forward for once in my life."

"By kissing me senseless?"

Kakashi scratches the back of his neck awkwardly.

"I'm trying to make things simple because things are going to be complicated enough as it is...You obviously still don't know how you feel about me, I'm still working out my own feelings about you myself, and I don't even want to begin to think about how everyone else feels about all this to begin with! I figure that if I can make things easier where I can, then I will. And the easiest thing right now, ironically enough, is to show you how I feel about you, which if you haven't figured out yet, is me wanting you and not just as a friend or a teammate, but as something more. You can take as long as you need to figure out your own feelings, Sakura, but for now give me the chance to let me show you mine. You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain, so what are you waiting for?" Kakashi asks, looking amicably down at me with his hands stuffed into his pockets.

Across the street, Tenten and Ino aren't even trying to hide the fact that they've completely stopped in front of my house and have been listening in this entire time and still are.

What am I waiting for? An Uchiha who's made it clear he doesn't ever want to come home? A Kyubbi container who's found love in a Hyuuga? A green, spandex clad mini-Gai? Ew...

"Give me 15 minutes to change." I say with my mind made up.

And there it is, the happy eye crease.

I'm such a goner.

To be continued...