#in theory i dislike this trope but in practice i'm a sucker for kakashi/civilian OCs and they seem to use this trope half the time

[mixelation]

since i’m in a posting mood....... here’s the beginning of a fic where i was like “trope where kakashi enters a romance by saving a civilian woman from weird men following/threatening her” but also i’d just discovered kakashi/ayame (as in the ramen stand lady) is a thing

the file is titled “dog-based flirtations” 

Ayame woke at 2 AM to the sound of her dog, Udon, scratching at the door. That was Udon’s new thing– he had to pee at 2 AM every night. Ayame would make him an appointment with the vet in the morning. At least he was polite enough to not just pee on the kitchen floor.

For now, Ayame pulled on her glasses and stumbled out of bed, blindly grabbing for the housecoat she left over the back of her desk chair. 

Udon, who was ancient and mostly blind, turned his face slightly to Ayame’s left as she approached him with the leash. She squatted over him, and he licked at the vague whereabouts of her hands as she wrestled him into the harness.

She stepped into her shoes and out into the corridor of their apartment building, Udon plodding along behind her. She was going to go around the block, let him pee, and then crawl back into bed. 

Except, after a loop around the block, Udon hadn’t done anything but sniff at someone’s flower garden. 

“C’mon, boy,” Ayame whispered, her voice loud in the silent streets. 

She headed for a park, instead, pulling Udon along behind her. It was only a ten minute walk away, and maybe the familiar grassy area would inspire the dog to get his business done already. 

It didn’t. Ayame sighed loudly, the sound echoing through the empty park, and decided that maybe Udon wasn’t going to pee after all. 

She called Udon– rolling in the grass and getting as dirty as possible– back to her. As she was wrapping the leash around her hand, two men wandered out of the line of trees at the back of the park. They were both swaying, obviously drunk. 

Ayame was not immediately alarmed, although she moved faster as she ushered Udon out of the park. It was a bit stupid of her to come here alone at night– parks were pretty popular drinking spots– but Konoha was heavily patrolled by ninja and wasn’t necessarily a dangerous place for a civilian woman minding her own business. At least, not this neighborhood. 

She pulled Udon closer to her as she hurried back toward home. Udon was mostly blind, missing a lot of teeth, and moved like he was older than time, but he was a large bull terrier, and she felt safe with him by her side. 

At least, she did until she turned around and saw the two men following them. One of them waved at her and yelled something rude. 

Shitshitshit, Ayame thought, and then made a snap decision to turn the corner and head for a 24-hour convenience store down the block. It was closer than her apartment building, and she didn’t want two weird men following her home anyway. They were less likely to try something on her with a bored store clerk and a customer or two watching. 

She was two buildings away from the convenience store when one of the men slipped an arm around her shoulder. Udon did nothing to intervene, instead wagging his tail happily because he was a dumb traitor. 

“Hey, girlie,” the man said, “what are you running from?”

His friend snickered, sliding up in front of Ayame and Udon and blocking their path. 

Ayame’s heart was pounding. If she ran, could Udon keep up? If she screamed, would someone hear?

“This is a pretty stupid dog,” the man in front of her said. Udon was, in fact, staring up and him with a big doofy dog-smile, which was pretty stupid, but… how dare he insult her dog?!

The man crouched over Udon to pull meanly at his ears, while the other one squeezed Ayame closer to his body. Udon whined, and Ayame’s heart beat loudly in her ears. In front of them, the neon signs of the convenience store blazed. Ayame had to think fast, to figure out a way to close the gap between herself the store–

A customer wandered out of the store, a plastic bag clutched in his hand, and he looked awfully familiar. 

There, Ayame thought, and yanked herself away from the man with his arm around her. Udon whined as she dragged him forward, flinging herself toward the convenience store customer. 

“Hatake-san!” Ayame greeted, louder than necessary, and the man looked up. “There you are!”

The hand of her assailant brushed her lower back as she powered forward, but made no move to stop her. Hatake-san’s uniform was rumpled, but it was still obviously a jounin’s uniform.

Hatake-san looked up at her, then down at her dog, and then up at the two men lingering behind her as Ayame very awkwardly power-walked toward him. When Hatake made no move to greet her, Ayame rattled on, “You remember Udon, don’t you?”

There was a beat where Ayame thought Hatake might brush her off and leave her with the two men, but then his one visible eye crinkled into a smile. 

“Ah, Udon, nice to see you!” Hatake cried and then knelt down to scratch behind Udon’t ears. Udon barked happily and licked at his masked face. “What a good boy, Udon~!”

Whatever Ayame was expecting, it wasn’t for Hatake Kakashi to start baby-talking to her dog. Her two stalkers also found this weird, as they gawked for a few moments before turning and leaving. 

Udon was on his back getting the belly-rubs of his life, wiggling like a puppy, when Hatake-san finally turned to smile up at Ayame. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t remember your name,” Hatake-san said.

“Ayame,” Ayame supplied. Then, because she wasn’t wearing her contacts and hadn’t brushed her hair and wasn’t sure he recognized her at all, she clarified, “From Ichiraku Ramen. You are Hatake-san, right?”

Ayame recognized him, of course– she never forgot a customer’s face (or mask, in this case). He’d taken Naruto-kun and some other kids to her ramen stand a few times recently.

“Call me Kakashi,” he answered. He started to stand, then made a defeated noise in the back of his throat and squatted down again, scratching Udon behind the jaw. “What are you doing out so late, Ayame-san?”

“Udon was being a brat,” Ayame explained, giving Udon a pointed look. He did not have the dignity to stop furiously licking Kakashi’s hand. 

“Tsk, tsk, Udon,” Kakashi said, even as he moved to scratch the dog behind both ears.