Title: Drift
Summary: KakaSasu. Even Kakashi gets sick.
Kakashi rarely ever gets sick. It's unsurprising that when he does, it renders him bedridden and feeling as if his bones have all liquefied with the unbearable heat coursing through his veins.
Twice, he tries to leave his room.
The first time his destination is the bathroom. He wants to take a long, cold shower. But his coordination has declined significantly, and the thin blanket curled around his thighs sends him flying.
Instinct ensures that he cushions his fall with his hands. The impact stings, but the wooden floorboards send pleasant chills through his fingertips and up his arms. He flops down easily, arms falling to his side as he nuzzles the cool surface with a masked cheek.
He closes his eye and falls asleep.
The second time is when he wakes up, body stiff and cold and hot against an uncomfortably hard plane. A lazy eye catches the rays of sunlight beaming through half-open curtains. Its shadows are too long to still be morning, its glow too orange to be noon. Kakashi's rarely ever on time, but this time he's late.
He attempts to push himself off his bedroom floor. He gets as far as an inch off the ground before his arms decide it'd take too much effort. So he lies there, achingly cold and deliriously hot, and wonders whose chest he shoved his Raikiri through to deserve this. He still has some energy to spare, just a little; he asks the floor to please stop moving. It answers by turning him on his back and then he's falling to the ceiling and everything is spinning like the wheels in the bloody pool of the eye that was stolen-but-not.
Kakashi groans. He feels perfectly miserable.
He wakes up again when his door opens at dusk. He feels like the very leaf that symbolizes the hidden village, except it's not strong or powerful or even terrifying; it's weak and fragile and almost torn away from its branch, trembling and shaking and just waiting to be taken by an icy gust of wind. His body is shivering uncontrollably, but his feet are satisfyingly warm with the blanket bunched around his legs. That's a good thing, because Kakashi hates having cold feet.
Slight vibrations across his floor notify him of the approaching guest. One eye flickers open but all he sees are the shadows fluttering across the cracked ceiling.
A face suddenly swims into view, familiar and pale and passive. Uchiha Sasuke regards him with a fine, raised brow and little else. Then the boy—man—turns silently on his heels and leaves. The door closes with a gentle click.
If asked, Kakashi will never admit to feeling guilt for having left his former student waiting for almost a day. Because he doesn't.
Kakashi shifts onto his side and slightly curls in on himself to conserve body heat. He'd reach down to drag his blanket over his body, but his fingers feel too frozen for such a task.
He closes his eyes. The sunrays are a little bit blinding.
He'll get up in five more minutes.
Sometime later—minutes? Seconds? Hours? It's hard to tell—the door opens again. Kakashi wakes easily, temples pounding with a shattering ache. He really should move his head away from the freezing floorboards. He grunts instead, and then cringes at the way the sound scratches over his raw throat.
There is a faint scoff not too far from where he lies. He can't feel the intruder's chakra in his current state, but the sound is familiar enough for him to know that it's Sasuke, again.
Sasuke approaches him, steps intentionally heavier than the usual undetectable glide, until he's standing by Kakashi's head and peering down at him not unlike the last visit.
Kakashi tries to pretend he's still asleep, even if it's futile—his body won't stop quivering.
Sasuke drops the pile of thick comforters onto the end of the double-sized bed. Next, he reaches down and takes Kakashi's shuriken-patterned blanket, untangling them swiftly from his legs. Kakashi gives up the pretense of sleeping and makes a sound that's not-quite a whine but not anything else either. The blanket's old and ragged, but it had kept Kakashi's feet warm. Right now his feet are touching the wood that's despicably cold. His body curls into an instinctive ball to fight off the chill.
Sasuke sighs silently through his nose, bends over, and slips his hands around the unresponsive body. Kakashi isn't very heavy for a man his age that a simple motion returns him to the soft mattress. Sasuke carefully, gently, peels off his facemask and lets it settle around Kakashi's neck. It makes a world of difference when cool, fresh air rushes into his open mouth. It's like breathing in autumn—he's always liked autumn. Except now he's colder than he was before.
His blanket, the old one, is flung over the bed, hiding his form completely from view. It's not quite bliss, but it prompts a contented sigh from his lips. The multiple comforters that Sasuke had brought, new and thick and full of fluffy, insulated feathers, follow quickly. The added weight is heavy, perhaps even a bit stifling, but it eases the coldness threaded underneath his skin that he forgives it for being so.
Then the blankets are pulled down to his chin and the mattress dips as Sasuke climbs onto the bed and slips beneath the layers of warmth to spoon with him, pulling him closer. He feels instantly warmer when strong arms wind around his shoulders, but his bones are still so very cold and his body still can't stop trembling. Then Sasuke wraps his chakra around him, and the shaking lessons a fraction.
"You need to take better care of yourself," Sasuke grumbles into the dull, silver hair.
Kakashi rolls over onto his stomach, so that he's half sprawled over Sasuke, and tightens the hold he has around the Uchiha's waist. They're face to face this way. Kakashi stares at him for a moment, in the dark, before he rests his head by the curve of Sasuke's shoulder. He nuzzles his neck and inhales his scent and wonders whose chest he should shove his Raikiri through next time for this to happen again. He's achingly warm and deliriously hot, and ninjas, he thinks, aren't supposed to feel this happy when they've been hours late.
Kakashi chuckles weakly despite himself and nips half-heartedly at the exposed skin. Sasuke pulls the blankets over Kakashi with an exasperated sigh. He only intends to stay there until Kakashi falls asleep.
Sasuke finds his eyes fluttering shut with each warm breath that brushes over his skin.