For MultiSakuMonth2018 on tumblr. Rated T for language and insinuations.
Enjoy! ^_^
.:.
"Wedding? I love weddings. Drinks all around!"
The first few rounds seemed like such a good idea at the time. Kakashi toasted the happy couple; three times to their health, three times to their happiness, and three times to their future children. There was singing, there was dancing, there was merriment, and somewhere along the way he lost the ability to discern one alcoholic beverage from another.
And he didn't even know the couple in question!
They seemed happy, though, wrapped up in each other and turning this once family friendly exhibit of theirs into an adult only orientated show. Definitely not an establishment the Hokage should be seen getting drunk in.
So, with a heavy heart, Kakashi paid for the rest of his beverages – and there were so many – before stumbling off of his stool and into the open air of the streets of Konoha to find an establishment he could be seen getting drunk in.
The night was still young, and he had a lot to commemorate.
He wasn't unhappy with his life, per se, just frustrated with certain aspects of it. He wasn't single or hard up for cash or anything, really. He had good friends, a great partner, and an amazing sex life to boot. His career had hit its high note, though, as Kage was the highest title a shinobi could hold in any nation.
Tsunade had stepped down from the pedestal of Hokage after the clean-up post-war and, since Naruto was still a knucklehead, the spotlight was once again shined on Kakashi to fulfil the role. He was as despondent about getting the position as he'd been the first time around, but this time there was no-one to spontaneously awaken from a coma to save him from it.
Kakashi was counting down the years until Naruto was ready. The NaruHina wedding hadn't taken this long to plan. Still, he had his friends to distract him – by making jokes and pretending to not respect his authority, but friends nonetheless.
But none of that was his real problem.
Kakashi sighed, looking around as he finally ambled his way to his new destination; he'd sobered up a smidgen, walking from The Shinobi Sandbox to La Cherry Blossom. This needed rectifying.
The sounds and lights hit him immediately as he opened the door and Kakashi inwardly congratulated himself on not grimacing; this was a family establishment that doubled as a PG rated disco hall. Weird, but he wouldn't get any flak from Shikamaru later about being seen here. For being such a lazy man himself, Shika-kun was adamant when it came to the diligence and credulity of others. If he'd known he was just hiring a male version of Shizune he might've reconsidered someone else.
'Maybe I can still fire him.'
Ten minutes into his inner musings and second mojito, he noticed the imposing man with the sideburns and angular moustache as he approached the bar.
"Fuck."
Kakashi sat up straighter in an attempt to look like he wasn't intimidated.
"Kakashi."
The silver haired Hokage turned, pretending to not have noticed him, smiled good-naturedly, and nodded to the older man as he took the stool next to him. "Kizashi-san. When was the last time you called me Lord Hokage?"
Kizashi pretended to think about that. "Before you started dating my daughter."
"Ah."
He supposed it would be hard to respect the man who was, not only fourteen years older than his daughter, but also having regular sex with the woman in question. Kakashi didn't like to brag, though...
He cleared his throat. "Uh, can I buy you a drink?"
"Beer."
Kakashi nodded again and indicated to the bartender it was on his tab.
Awkwardness descended upon them and continued to darken the mood until Kizashi got a few shots under his belt, having moved on from the beer half an hour ago. The older man started talking about the unspoken code where a man wasn't a man until he'd settled down and had a few kids.
Kakashi struggled not to roll his eyes at that one. Kizashi might be a retired shinobi but he'd lived most of his life as a civilian, so his attempt to coax his Hokage into doing who-knows-what while maintaining his aloof disgruntled attitude toward the copy ninja's involvement with his daughter, sailed right over Kakashi's head.
Maybe if he was a civilian, or had a clan that wasn't in shambles, he might listen and obey to this nonsense.
Before he knew it, Kakashi was on his fourth, fifth, and then eighth mojito; his voice slurred as he drunkenly agreed with Kizashi and pounded the bar for "more liquor!".
Feeling suddenly dignified, Kakashi sat up straight and smoothed over his slightly rumpled clothing, before clearing his throat and raising a glass to the man that had raised Sakura; the wonderful, wily, temperamental, sexy, has-legs-that-go-on-forever, beautiful woman he was in love with.
"Kizashi-san, may I have your permission to marry your daughter?"
Kizashi side eyed him. "You're drunk."
"True. But it's still a question that I asked you." Kakashi was slurring his words, but hit him with his best puppy dog expression, regardless.
The older man scoffed into his drink. "Maybe."
Kakashi frowned. That was a puppy dog face that always worked on his hounds. Something wasn't right here.
Kizashi sighed. "You want me to give my permission, so you can make an honest woman of my daughter? If I'd known all that would take is getting you drunk I'd have done this years ago."
The last thing Kakashi heard before he passed out was, "you already did, you baka."
.:.
"Dad?"
Dressed in a nightie and wrap-around gown, Sakura opened the door before Kizashi could knock, an unconscious Kakashi haphazardly draped over his shoulders.
"Did you ply my husband with alcohol for a reason?"
"He asked me for permission to marry you."
"Oh." She didn't know what to say to that. "Here."
Sakura pulled Kakashi's left arm up and over her shoulder and helped her father carry him to the living room couch. She placed him gently and pulled a folded blanket from her recent laundry pile over her sleeping husband. Her fingers lingered over his masked face as she appraised him. Even drunk, he looked amazing. She'd never get tired of just looking at him. She sat down next to him and checked his vitals, making sure he wasn't going to suffer from anything more than a hangover in the morning.
Sakura almost forgot that her father was standing next to her, watching her watching Kakashi. She jumped when he started talking suddenly.
"I'm afraid I've been a bit hard on him all these years."
Sakura sighed, now brushing hair out of Kakashi's eyes. "Yes, you have."
"He loves you."
"I know."
"If your mother was still here–"
"She'd slap you upside the head."
Kizashi chuckled. "Yes, she would." He sighed. "You have to understand, Saks. When she died, you were all I had left. I'm not apologising for how aggressive I got in my protectiveness of you." She scoffed at that. "But it came from fear of losing you too. Then you started dating that Uchiha brat. He was polite, don't get me wrong, but also so wrong for you."
"Dad–"
"Hear me out, please."
Sakura folded Kakashi's arms over his chest to keep them from falling off the couch and stood, motioning for her father to follow her into the kitchen while she made them some tea. He didn't settle into the stool at the bench but watched his daughter as she busied herself.
"When you two broke up and you started dating your teacher of all things, well, I almost had an aneurysm."
"And the wedding..."
"The engagement happened so fast; you married so quickly. It was terrifying. You don't have to forgive me for the way I acted. It's just, you had such a wonderful future ahead of you and for what – a man twice your age?"
"He was twice my age at fourteen, daddy, but not now. Not even then."
"It felt that way, sometimes. There was this huge gap between your ages and people talk."
Sakura huffed. "I don't care what the old biddies down at the markets told you: we waited until our wedding night."
Kizashi cringed at that mental image, then shook himself. "Just remember that I loved you first."
She smiled indulgently at him. "Yes. But I can't put you first anymore, you know that."
He sighed, and they stood in silence while Sakura finished making the tea.
"Chamomile?" Her father looked at her, confused, when she handed his over. She'd never drunk this before, as far as he knew.
"Yeah..." She resisted the temptation to gently rub her stomach. She didn't want to tell her father, since it was Kakashi's right to know first. Like the rest of Konoha, he could wait. "Kakashi likes it and I've gotten a taste for it."
They'd been trying for several years now, but only because she'd insisted; Kakashi still balked at the idea of having kids at his age. But she was now finally and happily pregnant. She kept having to remind him that older men could still conceive, and that he was in no way over the hill, as he often claimed. Sure, the idea that men didn't have a biological clock that was ticking away the years in which they could have children was a gigantic, fat lie, but they could and would still conceive.
Because I said so, she always told him when he doubted it. Which one of us is the doctor, I forget.
When he woke up – and sobered up – they had a lot to talk about.
Sakura smiled at her father, feeling light-hearted. "I really am happy, daddy."
Not wanting to rehash things at two in the morning, and promising to talk later, her father made a hasty retreat.
Sakura returned to Kakashi and, since she was told by her shishou not to put unnecessary strain on her body this early in the pregnancy, forewent carrying him to their bedroom. She snuggled up against her husband and closed her eyes.
The morning, and the rest of their lives, could not come fast enough.
.:.