I Don't Sleep, I Dream
Kakashi can go more than a week without sleep. More, if he dozes in brief intervals throughout the day, but, on average, he can last a good six or seven days without true sleep. It is a handy skill but he only uses it when absolutely necessary because he likes his sleep, and frankly, not sleeping for days on end kind of sucks.
Aside from the minor complications of decreased motor abilities, muddled thoughts, and general crankiness, lack of sleep can cause hallucinations and, in extreme cases, even death. Kakashi does not want to die because he isn't dreaming about flying cows or talking bowls of ramen or whatever oddities his brain wants to throw at him each night.
So he sleeps and he dreams, and he remembers every one of them although never for more than a few seconds because his life is strange enough.
The first morning, he wakes up early, too early even for him. He lies in bed and listens to the silence and wonders why he is awake and why he can't remember any of his dreams. Then he gets up and starts his day.
It happens again the next day and this time, Kakashi wakes up in pain. Nothing agonizing, just the familiar dull throb of muscle and flesh knitting themselves together. Kakashi blames the healing wound for interrupting his dreams and since he is awake anyway, he showers and makes an early day of it.
The third time, he begins to suspect something is wrong. Sleep is supposed to come easily to him. He's trained himself to fall asleep instantly, and, for the missions when he's pressed for time and can't afford to waste minutes recuperating on sleep, he can make himself enter stage four and REM sleep at will. When he closes his eyes, he doesn't so much as sleep as fall immediately into dreams, but not even this ability is helping him now.
Kakashi doesn't worry, not quite yet. He pushes himself harder than normal during training and trusts the extra exertion to keep him asleep for more than the three hours a night he has been getting.
It doesn't work.
"Okay, one more time," he says and shuffles the deck of cards again.
"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Pakkun asks but gamely takes the cards handed to him.
Kakashi exchanges two cards. "I am in bed." He pats the mattress they're sitting on and wiggles deeper into the pillow mashed between his back and Iruka's obnoxiously uncomfortable headboard.
"Shouldn't you be in bed and asleep?"
"It's early yet." And he's not even lying because outside, the first rays of a beautiful rosy dawn are stretching slowly across the buildings and rooftops.
Pakkun calls him an idiot but lets it go. Kakashi always knew there was a reason why Pakkun is his favorite.
Five days now and Kakashi doesn't miss sleep at all anymore because every waking second feels like a dream. He goes through his day in a fogged daze and he's frustrated as hell that he can't think straight but he can correctly identify a hallucination nine times out of ten now so the situation is not all bad. But then he realizes this new skill is not a good thing and reluctantly goes to see a doctor.
He tries every trick and suggestion they tell him but nothing works. The medics assure him he is perfectly healthy and healing well and there isn't any physical reason why he cannot sleep. Which, of course, just means there is a mental reason but it's not like everyone doesn't already know he is a little off.
"Has anything changed recently in your life? It could be due to stress," the medic says and Kakashi nearly laughs in his face. Actually, he thinks he does but he can't be sure. Nothing feels like it should anymore, and his dreams are much less entertaining when they're his reality and not safely trapped in his head.
He takes the pills they give him but wakes up after an hour, groggy and short-tempered, and flushes the rest of them down the drain. Maybe he just won't sleep anymore, he thinks. After all, that Gaara kid doesn't sleep; it can't be that hard to do.
But not even he is that far gone to think this is a good idea. Not for very long anyway.
He comes home and the lights are on and there is someone sleeping in his bed. Kakashi stands motionless in the doorway for several seconds, just watching Iruka as he sleeps, and it must be contagious because he is suddenly exhausted. He climbs into bed, slides between warm sheets, and smiles when Iruka blinks awake under his hands.
"Hello," Iruka says, smiling.
Kakashi yawns, the sleep he's been chasing for the last days finally pressing heavily down on his eyelids. "Hey."
Iruka shifts closer, curls an arm around his waist, and Kakashi smiles a little wider at his none-too-subtle groping until he realizes Iruka is checking his bandages. Worrywart, he thinks in fond disgust, and gasps in surprised but pleased laughter when Iruka gooses him.
They spend the next moment laughing and tussling like kids, and Kakashi lets Iruka pin him because Iruka's just spent the last week away on a mission and he is a generous soul. Iruka presses him into the mattress, settles over him like the world's most perfect blanket and Kakashi swears he can feel every cell and fiber of his being relaxing into Iruka's warmth.
"Did you miss me?"
It is too much trouble to keep his eyes open. "Of course not," he says and grins at the light punch against his chest. He is already half asleep and Iruka's voice is soft and far away when he speaks, gentle as the calloused fingers brushing along his cheeks and the delicate skin under his eyes.
"Get some sleep, Kakashi."
"Mm," he says and takes the image of Iruka's smile with him as he lets go.
He dreams he is on a mission to save a mermaid princess who attacks him with singing fish and the only weapons he has are his first year Academy report card and a stale muffin. He remembers all of this when he wakes—but only for a few seconds because his life is strange enough.