safety [Kakashi Hatake x OC]

nine

While Kakashi was in the bath - taking quite a while for a man - Eri looked through his books, all of which were a part of the Icha Icha franchise. Her lips curved into a smirk and a light laugh bubbled from them. She didn't think that he'd be into those sorts of novels, but she wasn't one to judge because she hadn't actually read them; they were just famous enough for her to know of them.

So, she grabbed the one at the bottom of the stack, which was the first one written: Icha Icha Paradise. She folded her legs on the couch and began to flip through the first couple of pages.

"Ah, sorry about those." Kakashi suddenly interjected, pulling the novel from her hands. He had silently come from the bathroom, his skin still glistening from the water and steam. A towel hung lowly around his waist, and even though he had pulled on his navy undershirt and mask - which she didn't understand why he always wore it and no one seemed to know what his mouth, nose, and chin actually looked like - it was wet, outlining every single well-developed muscle of his chest and abdomen.

The young woman had to regain her focus by blinking several times, but once she did, she pouted. "I was reading that."

"You were?" He asked, surprised that she wasn't completely embarrassed and nervous from reading the suggestive words.

"Yeah." Her back slumped over lazily, showing her disappointment.

"You're into this kind of stuff?"

"Not in particular. But I haven't read them before, so I'm not sure if I would be."

"Oh," was all the confused and slightly flustered man said. "Well, you can read them if you want to."

"I want to try."

"Just don't say I didn't warn you."

"I know what the franchise is about. I think people are lying if they didn't enjoy this stuff at least a little bit. Like a guilty pleasure." She reasoned, taking the book back from him.

"You think so?" He sat on the couch beside her, but an entire cushion away.

She nodded. "It's just an over-dramatic romance with a little extra smut."

"'A little extra smut.'" Kakashi scoffed under his breath.

"What? Are you embarrassed by it?" The girl narrowed her dark eyes at him and smirked, becoming more comfortable around the man and revealing more of her personality. She was shy, but that only lasted so long when she met new people, and this strange man was oddly soothing to her. 

His eye widened briefly, showing a hint of surprise upon experiencing Eri open up a bit more. "Of course not." He closed his eye with a lazy smile, but a light blush peaked out from underneath his mask. 

"Oh?" She hummed, a deeper tone in her voice that grew higher at the end of the word. She raised a single brow, folded over the corner of the page in the novel, and set it aside. "Then why did you take it away from me as soon as you saw me reading it?" She pressed, curious to see how he'd react as she crawled closer to him on the couch.

He released a half-hearted chuckle, a bead of sweat slipping down his forehead. "I've only known women to find that franchise rather... unfavorable." She could tell he was searching for the right words to say to her.

But as she drew closer to him, a sly smile on her lips and a playful glimmer in her black irises, he shrunk against the cushions, becoming increasingly anxious, but not sure if he was nervous or perhaps excited.

"Is that so?" She asked, not particularly looking for an answer. At this point, she leaned over Kakashi, her shoulder-length, mauve hair just a few centimeters from his bare shoulders. She could feel the heat emanating from his skin from the bath he took. 

Eri couldn't believe she was being so... flirtatious. She had used the art of seduction in circumstances to get her out of trouble in Kirigakure, although she had no intention of harming Kakashi or escaping from his watch. 

She placed a tender finger under his chin, and she could feel him swallow uncomfortably. He was panicking inside, and thankful to his suit for being damp to cover up the nervous sweat that rolled down his neck and back. His mind ran through all the novels he read, but nothing had properly prepared him for a moment like this.