Disclaimer: Don't Own Naruto.
.
.
"I was nauseous and tingly all over . . . I was either in love or I had smallpox." -Woody Allen
.
.
When had the symptoms appeared? Was it a day ago? A week ago? No, it was a month. It was about a month ago when he started to feel the symptoms.
It was strange to say the least. Kakashi had always been fit as a fiddle. He was rarely sick and when he was, it was just the flu in winter (unless it was an infection from the wounds he refused to get treated at the hospital, but that was a different story), but when he first started to realize these strange sensations, he was starting to get worried.
It was also notable that these symptoms would only make themselves known in certain situations. Whenever he talked to his medic at the hospital (another reason to avoid the place), when he was at Ichiraku, the local bar, the training grounds, his apartment to name a few.
Symptom number 1: Fever. Whenever he was with his favorite medic, he would feel flushed. In close proximity, in the same room, hell, even in the same building. He didn't know why, but in those situations, his skin would heat, he would start to sweat, his hands would get clammy in their gloved confines, and (she had pointed this out to him) his skin would tinge red.
Symptom number 2: Chills. Not only would his skin heat, but he'd tremble uncontrollably. An accidental touch or her breath on his skin, even just her body heat near him would cause goosebumps to rise on his skin and make him shudder.
Symptom number 3: Headache. When he wasn't with her, he'd let his mind wander in the shade of a tree or in his apartment with a volume of Icha Icha resting on his stomach. Though he'd feel calm and relaxed, his thoughts were a different tale. Sometimes he'd think of their relationship and sometimes he'd imagine scenarios. Naughty ones involving lace, skin, and lots and lots of sweat. He'd have so many of these that his head would ache (the constant banging of his head against solid objects probably accounted for some of the damage too).
Symptom number 4: Nausea. God, he felt nauseous! Every time he was near her, he felt like his stomach was doing a trapeze act in his gut. Everytime she even looked at him, it felt like he had butterflies flying in his stomach.
And those were only some of the ones he felt. There was the weak feeling he got when he was around her, like he'd fall flat on his face if she smiled at him. And his behavioral changes! He'd go out of his way to "accidentally" run into her, he'd smile for no reason, he'd come early to things and hide just to see her. Him, early. He even had a shit-faced grin on his face after talking to her and making her laugh! (Genma wouldn't leave him alone for days!) And he found himself dreaming of her smile, her laugh, her. He even heard himself murmur her name this morning before jumping into his bathroom for a cold shower and a head examination courtesy of his wall.
"This is serious," he told a Yuuhi Kurenai one morning, single mother of a 6-yr-old son. Kurenai simply smiled and waved it off as him overreacting before telling him to come over to her house.
"Why?"
Kurenai laughed. "I wanted someone to watch a movie with me and I got Iruka to watch Hikaru for the day."
He grunted.
"Come on. It's supposed to be a really good movie. The actor is some foreigner though. I think his name is Wudy Allum. Anyway, what do you say?"
"…"
"It might take your mind off her." Kurenai reminded and he went with her to her apartment.
Kurenai's apartment was simply, if not messy. With clothes and various homework and food items strewn around the house and the black couch in front of her television, he had to wonder what type of natural disaster occurred here. Then he'd remember the six-year-old and his question would be answered.
The movie was a bit old and by the time the movie ended, Kurenai was in tears. For a romantic comedy, it was oddly depressing, but it didn't stop the chuckle from escaping his lips every now and again.
As Kurenai groped blindly for the remote with tears in her eyes, Kakashi lounged back in the couch smiling to himself. He had gotten his mind off of her; maybe he was overreacting. He looked up at the screen to see Kurenai had chosen the special features option of the movie. As the interviewer questioned the actor, Woody Allen, about his own love life, Allen simply smiled and laughed in his awkward way before replying, "I was nauseous and tingly all over . . . I was either in love or I had smallpox."
As soon as those words had left the foreigner's mouth, the cogs in Kakashi's brain began to churn wildly as his memories played before his eyes. The nausea, the strange feelings, everything made sense now.
As he felt his eye widen in shock and he fell back numbly into the couch, Kurenai turned to him worriedly. "Are you alright, Kakashi?"
"No." he answered flatly. Oh Kami-sama, this was not good. He was not okay. He was not okay at all. How could he be? He was either in love with his spitfire of a medic/ ex-student, Haruno Sakura, or he had smallpox.
He severely hoped it was smallpox.