Haku stared at his hands. He had never liked his hands very much. They were too flimsy, too tiny, too thin. He couldn't carry the weight of his family with these hands. And Kushina-san would be gone soon. She didn't say it, but he knew by the way she talked to him, and to Kimimaro. There was an urgency hidden underneath her voice that was starting to leak out the edges. She wasn't sleeping as much either, and twice in the last month she had woken Haku and Kimimaro up and made them break camp and run for the rest of the night. She was breaking.

Haku had seen her fight Orochimaru once, he knew that she had some sort of power dormant within her. He and Kimimaro had been more than busy up against Orochimaru's assistant, Kabuto, but they had both felt the immense power. It had been enough of a worry to Kabuto that he had let his guard slip trying to return to Orochimaru's side and Kimimaro had inflicted a fatal blow on him. Orochimaru had gotten away, but it wasn't long after that news reached them, news that Sasuke Uchiha had defeated him somehow.

Things settled down after that. Orochimaru had attacked and nearly killed the Hokage of Kushina-san's hometown, so she had hunted him for the past few years. Now that they had no large goal, Kushina was content to just live with them in one place as a secluded but relatively normal family. Those days had been good days.

Kimimaro's lazy side showed and Kushina was constantly nagging at him to hide the fact that she didn't want to do anything and Haku always ended up doing the chores at the end of the day.

Then the Uchiha came. The older one, the smarter one. The one that smelled like blood. He had left both Haku and Kimimaro shivering and unable to stand. Haku had retched after that ordeal. Kushina fled, drawing him away from them, while Haku had to summon water for him and Kimimaro. To cuddle Kimimaro and whisper to him. For Kimimaro's sake and for Haku's sake as well.

"It's going to be okay. It was all just a dream, just a bad dream. It's going to be okay." He pulled himself closer to Kimimaro and rained little kisses onto his face and arms, which were covered in a sheen of sweat, to reassure himself that Kimimaro was actually there by him. And Kimimaro returned the feelings by clutching Haku so close to him that it was almost painful. They were messy, and broken and alone together.

And they would have lain together like that for days until Kushina came. She didn't take days, only about twelve hours. She came back wounded, and there was no sign of the Uchiha or his partner. She sat them up, de-robed them both, and washed them silently in cool water, singing her song to them. It was a song they hadn't heard since they were little, sleeping all in the same bed and clutching Kushina out of fear of the nightmares that they had.

"Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do..." She washed the blood off herself too, and Haku had regained himself enough to clean and bandage her wounds. He had never seen Kushina get much more than a scratch, even in her fight against Orochimaru, and it frightened him. He kissed her cheek and cuddled up against her back when he was done. Kimimaro silently made food for everyone. They ate huddled together, they fell asleep huddled together. No one said much. They all came to the unspoken conclusion that they would have to leave their small home as soon as everybody was done recovering.

Which took longer than expected, mostly because of Kushina's wounds. She kicked them out of her bed so she could heal properly, so they tried to sleep by themselves, but Haku woke up from a nightmare that night to find that Kimimaro curled around him.

"We're going to have to leave soon." Kimimaro whispered softly into Haku's hair. "Once we all get better."

"Then I never want to get better." Haku whispered back. He cuddled into Kimimaro's chest, and Kimimaro tightened his arms around Haku in response. "Let's just stay like this forever."

"Let's." Kimimaro replied.

They continued sleeping in the same bed, sometimes Haku having the nightmares and sometimes Kimimaro, but after the morning that Kushina woke them both up with a loud "Yosh! Pack up, pack up, ttebane!" they slept apart. They had no more dreams because in the wilderness, you can't afford to loose sleep to anything when you're out there.

Their path brought them to a little inn outside Konoha. "Stay here, I'll be back in a few days." And then she was gone. Haku and Kimimaro stayed there, helping the landlady with chores after their money for rent ran out, until a member of the Leaf Anbu with only one arm came to question them on where she had gone.