#so thanks kaz for giving me an excuse to scribble this little thing <3

[lemony-snickers]

ahhh soft fun spring prompts ! maybe a Kakashi and Saya for dancing in the rain...or unintentional kisses...? or whatever you like---sorry, I'm bad at this

you are far too kind and spoil me by choosing my favourite lady. <3 i didn't quite go with an unintentional kiss, but... well, you'll see, i guess, but i hope you like what i came up with. thank you again <3

Saya should have brought an umbrella.

As she races through the downpour toward the studio, she mutters a string of curses so vulgar and adamant that someone she passes actually shouts at her to watch her language.

Maybe she should, but she honestly doesn't care because Kakashi is going to kill her for being late, anyway. She gazes overhead at the ominous clouds, muttering a half-hearted prayer for a bolt of lightning to strike her as she runs.

No such luck.

"You're late."

Kakashi doesn't even turn around when she pulls the door open and Saya stands there, dripping onto the carpet like a drowned ferret.

"You really want me to come in?" she asks, and he finally looks at her.

The irritation is so clear in his posture Saya doesn't need him to say anything. He does, of course, anyway. Because Kakashi Hatake must always say every cutting thought that crosses his mind.

"So you're late and wet and now we can't rehearse."

Saya's face scrunches up as she bites her lip to keep from saying something equally condescending in return. "Yes, well, I wasn't home this morning and by the time I realized it was gonna rain, it was too late to go back and fetch my boots and my umbrella."

Kakashi crosses his arms over his chest and raises a questioning eyebrow.

"If you weren't home, where were you?"

Saya straightens, levelling him with a challenging stare. "I don't recall my personal schedule being any of your business."

Kakashi snorts. "You can screw whoever you like," he says, "but now your poor decision making is impacting my ability to work."

Saya rolls her eyes. "I don't think a single missed rehearsal is going to truncate our progress," she says, "At this point we're just running around in circles anyway."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Kakashi hates when she disagrees with him. Their rehearsal time is split almost evenly between surly silence and sharp sarcastic jabs as they move together, weaving new choreography between the threads of Sakumo's original piece.

Will of Fire debuts as a duet in only six short weeks and they still don't have the final sequence figured out.

"I'm just saying, maybe taking a break isn't a bad idea. We haven't come up with anything good in two weeks. Plus," she adds, "I think i'm starting to resent you and that's not gonna help our chemistry on stage."

Kakashi growls, crossing the small studio in only a few long strides and plopping onto the small square of carpet near the door to pull his shoes back on.

"Great," Saya says, "I'll see you tomorrow, then."

She turns to leave, but Kakashi's strong grip strangles the back of her shirt and she stumbles backward. "What the hell?"

"I didn't say we weren't rehearsing," Kakashi says, heaving himself to his feet by using Saya as leverage, "I'm just not willing to let you damage my expensive flooring."

Saya rolls her eyes, but follows him onto the sidewalk anyway, standing in the torrential rain as he locks the studio doors behind him.

Kakashi says nothing as he turns, and Saya hates that she follows him without question. For all that he can be a haughty asshole sometimes, she trusts his judgement. Wouldn't have left her old company for the chance to dance with him if she didn't.

When he leads her to a small secluded park, Saya resigns herself to the least comfortable rehearsal of her life. Her shoes are soaked through, the pads of her toes probably already wrinkled and prune-like inside her sodden socks.

Kakashi stops, turns, and then it's, "Five, six, seven, eight--" and they begin to move without any further preamble.

The beginning of the piece is simple. Sakumo's Will of Fire began with a lengthy adagio, slow measured movements of his limbs always in opposition--pulling him in different directions, tearing him apart.

Their updated version uses this same concept, except instead of only their limbs, Kakashi and Saya use one another to create the push and pull effect. Saya begins in a slow passe, then a promenade en seconde, with Kakashi tugging her leg as she moves, trying to knock her off balance.

He almost succeeds this time, her shoe slipping on the soggy grass, but she manages to recover, shooting him the faintest glare through the haze of rain.

That he's already wearing a smirk when she looks at him only further irritates her.

At least in the next sequence, she gets to annoy him instead, climbing up his back to twine her limbs around his torso as he struggles ineffectually to shed her weight. Since they're outside, the formality of the studio several blocks away, she whispers against his ear, "You can't get rid of me that easily," before she lowers herself to the ground beneath him, wrapping around his left leg like a child.

She wondered when he created the sequence whether he did this with his father as a kid--wrapped around Sakumo's leg and begged him not to leave.

It makes her sad when she thinks about it too much; contemplates why it was so important for Kakashi to revive his father's defunct dance company, why he's so desperate to reinvent Sakumo's final work.

So she pushes the thoughts away, focuses on the movement, the way her palms sink into the mud as she scrambles to stand, the way the rain drips uncomfortably into her ear as she arches away from Kakashi.

Is the rain in his eyes, too? Is her face a blur like his is? Does he care that she's smeared muck across his cheek and his shoulder?

When they reach the point of the dance they have yet to complete, Saya slows. She's about to open her mouth to ask if he wants to start from the top when Kakashi's hands wrap around her middle, tugging her body close.

She gasps quietly, surprised, when he nuzzles into her hair, sinks to one knee with her balanced against the other so she can use his thigh as a chair. She looks at him over her shoulder, and the longing in the gesture is not wholly manufactured for the performance.

Because when she looks at his face this close, she can see something burning in his gaze she isn't quite prepared for.

Following his lead, Saya reaches a hand out and strokes Kakashi's cheek with the back of her hand. She exaggerates the movement, to make it clear it's part of the improvisation, an addition to the choreography.

Nothing else.

She maybe lingers a moment longer than she should, though, before she stands, leaning her body away from him as she looses herself in the story they weave together.

They might not remember everything for the next run through, but it certainly feels like whatever creative block they've been fighting has loosened a little. Saya's hair sticks to her face, soaked with rain and sweat, and Kakashi clings to her desperately, mirroring her movements and then retaking the lead so she can follow him instead.

It's a tug of war to see who will be in control when they reach the end, neither of them willing to cede to the other.

Kakashi hums the final bars of the music against Saya's ear and she turns to lean into him, wraps one leg in attitude around his waist as she lifts up on her toes and presses her mouth almost to touch his.

His lips part, like they are ready to meet hers, one hand sliding over the small of her back.

And then the humming stops. The dance is over.

Saya lingers only another single heartbeat before she pulls away, straightens her clothes where they've bunched awkwardly against her skin in deference Kakashi's strong fingers.

"Do you want to run the whole thing again?" she asks, "Or just the new part?"

Kakashi doesn't answer for a moment, just stares at her through the haze of the rain. Then, he blinks furiously a few times--whether to rid his lashes of water or for some othe reason, she isn't entirely sure--and says, "Just the new part, I think."

Saya gets into position.

"Ready?" Kakashi asks. She nods. "Five, six, seven, eight--"

prompt list for those interested. <3