A/N: Annnd here is the last part of this fluffy dogstrosity. I really enjoyed writing some pure fluff, and I'm sure I'll do it again in the future when I need a break from my longer stories. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!

0O0

The next day, Sakura started her shift with a smile on her face and a song in her heart. Well, not really, but she definitely began the shift in a good mood. It was hard not to feel positive: she'd totally aced her make-up test with her professor and she was about to have two days off that she could spend catching up on schoolwork and sleep. Most importantly, however, was the company she was expecting during her shift that day.

Maybe it was stupid to feel so excited, but she was excited.

Four days ago, Kakashi had been a strange man with a pug who'd flirted with her before not paying for his drink. Now… well, she was starting to hope that he'd be more. Maybe a lot more. When Sakura had made the dubious decision to call Ino and ask her for advice, Ino had squealed "ASK HIM OUT" loud enough that Sakura had had to pull the phone away from her ear.

Sakura wasn't sure she had the courage to do that. But maybe she could handle reminding him that she had the next two days off, in the hopes that he would ask her out himself. Sure, it was pretty cowardly, and that didn't exactly sit well with Sakura, but neither did asking out a customer while she was at work. Somehow, she thought her boss would frown on that.

Sakura didn't want to piss off Hana. Hana was the older sister of Sakura's friend Kiba, and the last thing Sakura wanted to do was upset her boss, especially since it would also reflect badly on Kiba's recommendation that she work there. And after the conversation she'd had to have with Hana earlier that week about a certain unpaid-for drink, Sakura was probably on thin ice already.

As if her very thoughts had summoned her, Sakura felt her stomach drop as she heard the sound of the back door opening and her boss's voice ringing through the air.

"Hey Sakura," Hana said easily as she locked the back door behind her. "I've had to rearrange my schedule this week, so I thought I'd come in and do inventory tonight," she said, smiling brightly.

Sakura forced what she hoped was a believable smile in return. It was a few hours before the time when Kakashi came in, but who knew how long inventory would last? If Hana was still here when Kakashi arrived with four dogs, Sakura wasn't sure how she would react.

And it had to be four dogs. He had to have run out by now, right?

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Sakura asked hopefully. Maybe she could hurry this along.

"No, I just need you to run the shop. I'll try not to get in your way too much." As Hana set down her bag and plucked her inventory clipboard from the wall, Sakura held back a sigh. All she could do now was hope that inventory was finished before Kakashi made his grand appearance.

For the next two hours, Sakura handled customers while Hana puttered around the shop counting things. She counted milk jugs, syrup bottles, and boxes of napkins and stir sticks. Sakura mostly tried to ignore her steadily growing anxiety and failed miserably every time she checked the time. However, a certain fatalistic mood began to settle over her as the clock hands crept closer to what she thought of as "Kakashi Time". After all, he was just a customer who had some dogs, and they were a coffee shop that was dog-friendly. So, it wasn't like either of them were doing anything wrong.

…Right?

"Sakura." Hana's voice suddenly interrupted her thoughts, and Sakura turned to take in the sight of Hana counting the various sizes of cups. "Do you know why we're missing shot cups?"

Without thinking, Sakura answered, "No, I don't know why we would be—" and then stopped, trailing off. Puppuccinos. Goddamn puppuccinos.

Hana's eyes narrowed. "Sakura?"

Sakura gave a wincing smile. "Well, you see, we've had a customer lately who likes to bring in his dogs, and Starbucks does this thing where they give out little cups of whipped cream and call them puppuccinos…"

Hana folded her arms, looking unimpressed. "And you thought we needed to keep up with Starbucks, apparently. Did you not realize that would throw off inventory? It looks like theft, Sakura."

Sakura swallowed. Why did she have to have so many conversations with her boss regarding Kakashi and thievery? "Well, I figured that we don't charge for extra whipped cream, so it would be okay." When Hana's expression didn't change, Sakura sighed. "I didn't think about the cups. I'm sorry."

Hana watched her narrow-eyed for a moment longer, and then a curious little smirk crept over her face. "So… who's this new customer?"

Fuck. Sakura felt her face start to get hot, and her voice was a trifle squeaky when she answered, "What? Which customer?" Smooth, real smooth.

Hana casually inspected the nails of her right hand, although she was obviously still watching Sakura from the corner of her eye. "You never break the rules, and now you've broken them twice in one week."

"I— Well, I mean, I just made a few mistakes. It's a coincidence."

"So, you're telling me puppuccino customer isn't also didn't-pay-for-a-drink customer?" Hana's smile had begun to take on a positively wolfish quality. "He must be cute."

Sakura opened her mouth to make some sort of excuse—just what kind of excuse, she wasn't sure—when she was saved by the tinkle of the bell over the door. At least, she thought she was saved, until she looked over and saw a certain lanky figure in the doorway.

Kakashi leaned casually in the door, holding it open, smiling lazily. Lifting one silver brow, he whistled—and then the dogs started walking in.

"Oh, no," Sakura whispered to herself in mounting horror. But there was no stopping it.

First was Pakkun. Out of the backpack for once, he was wearing the same blue halter that all of Kakashi's other dogs had worn, but it was so small and cute that Sakura had to repress the urge to make a very awkward high-pitched noise. Next came Shiba, and the Bisuke. All of them were holding their own leashes in their mouths. When Uhei came in the door, he paused briefly and wagged his tail before continuing forward.

That wasn't the end of Kakashi's dog parade, though.

Another smaller brown floppy-eared dog stepped through the door, followed by two other dogs of lanky, medium build. All three looked like mutts of indistinguishable breeds. But the last dog that came in caused both of Sakura's hands to fly up over her mouth. He was a dark dog whose breed wasn't immediately obvious—definitely some bulldog, maybe some bull mastiff—but he was easily the largest dog that Sakura had ever seen, the top of his head reaching higher than Kakashi's waist.

All eight dogs filed into a line before the counter, and each of them sat politely, still holding their leashes in their mouths. Completely ignoring her shocked expression, Kakashi let the door swing shut and approached the counter himself.

"Medium flat white and eight puppuccinos, please," he said pleasantly, like he hadn't just released a canine horde upon her workplace.

"Kaka—" Sakura began, trying not to cringe, but she was cut off.

"Kakashi Hatake, why the hell are you standing in my coffee shop with every dog you have?" Hana's voice boomed from behind her. Sakura turned to blink at her. "Let me guess… you're the new customer I keep hearing about?"

"Oh, hi Hana. I didn't know you worked here," Kakashi replied in that same pleasant, unflappable voice. "It's nice to see you outside the shelter."

Confused, Sakura asked, "You know each other?"

Hana snorted, smirking at Kakashi. "You know I volunteer at the animal shelter. This guy," she said, pointing at Kakashi, who looked admirably unphased by her ire, "is the guy they call when there's a dog no one else will adopt."

Sakura turned to look at him, briefly distracted from the tense situation. "Really? You take all the dogs that no one else wants?"

"No," Kakashi answered, looking offended, as if there was no way he would be that much of a sucker. After a long, pregnant pause, he added, "I only take the ones that Pakkun likes." Another pause. "Mostly. Pakkun didn't really like Shiba at first. I had to talk him into it." From the front of the line of dogs came a small, disgruntled 'boof'.

Sakura really wanted to ask how one went about talking a pug into something, but she decided it wasn't the time. Especially when Hana glared from her to Kakashi and then said, "Neither of you have answered my question. Why are you here with all of your dogs?"

There was a moment when Sakura and Kakashi both looked at each other and then back at Hana, and then they both started speaking at the same time.

"Well, he saw the 'Dogs Welcome' sign in the window—"

"Oh, it's really a simple explanation. I really like Sakura—"

"And when he asked what the limit was I didn't know what to tell him because no one's ever asked that—"

"And I thought I'd bring in a whole bunch of dogs to try and impress her."

Sakura had trailed off, belatedly registering what he'd said about liking her, and was now struggling not to turn red again. Hana had her arms folded and was staring at him.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Kakashi finished blithely, though the smile he gave was a little sheepish.

Hana was now pinching the bridge of her nose, her eyes squeezed shut. "Sakura," she said slowly. "Make the man his drink." Opening her eyes, she pointed at Kakashi again. "You. Take your dogs outside. There's not enough room for them in here. And pay for your drink first!" she added as Kakashi started to move toward the door.

Kakashi chuckled awkwardly as he moved back toward the counter. "Right. Of course."

In the awkward silence that followed, Sakura rang up Kakashi and made his change, both of them endeavoring to ignore the indistinct muttering coming from Hana, who had returned to her clipboard. Sakura quickly moved to make his flat white, very carefully not looking in Hana's direction as she did so, and also avoiding looking at Kakashi.

"Medium flat white," she said in a meek voice devoid of her usual cheer as she approached the counter and held out the drink.

Kakashi gave her an apologetic smile as he took it. "I'll, uh, just take this to one of the tables outside," he said, and within a few moments he'd herded his dogs back through the door, and Sakura was once more left alone with her boss.

Quickly busying herself by wiping down the hot bar, Sakura was startled when the silence was broken by Hana slamming down a whipped cream canister and a stack of shot cups beside her.

"When you give out whipped cream for dogs, you need to adjust the cup tally on the inventory sheet," Hana scolded. "Don't call them 'puppuccinos' again until I can verify that Starbucks doesn't have that copyrighted."

"Yes ma'am," Sakura said, hope rising in her chest.

"Go take a break," Hana finished gruffly.

Sakura blinked. She was always by herself in the shop on Wednesdays, so she never took a break. "But I don't take breaks on—"

"Fuck's sake, Haruno, know a good thing when you hear it!" Hana said in exasperation. "Take. A. Break." And she shoved the whipped cream and cups toward her.

A silly grin threatened to break across Sakura's features, and she quickly repressed it. "Of course, Hana. Thank you!" she said sincerely, albeit quickly, as she slid out from behind the register and beelined toward the door.

"Fifteen minutes!" Hana called after her, and she might have muttered something else, but Sakura was already out the door.

Letting the door shut behind her, still holding the cups and whipped cream canister in her hand, Sakura looked toward the table that Kakashi stood beside. And maybe it was the charmingly shamefaced grin he had, or all of the built-up tension of the last ten minutes—or maybe it was the pile of dogs who were crammed around his feet. But Sakura couldn't hold it in anymore, and she burst into slightly hysterical laughter.

"I can't—believe—you brought—eight dogs in here," she gasped between giggles, and Kakashi's grin grew as he watched her, his eyes warm. "I thought Hana was going to kill me. Or you."

"Are you impressed yet? Because I've kind of run out of dogs and I promised Pakkun I wouldn't adopt another one for at least a year." Kakashi carefully stepped out of the pile of dogs and toward her, plucking the stack of cups and whipped cream from her hands and placing them on the table behind him. "Hey, do you think Hana can see us from inside the shop right now?"

Perplexed by the apparent change in topic, Sakura answered, "Well… no? She's probably too far back to be able to see this table from—"

Sakura cut herself off as Kakashi dipped his head down close to hers, her breath catching in her throat. "Good," he murmured, and with one hand raising to cup her face, he pressed his lips to hers.

She didn't react at first, completely stunned by this turn of events. But when he went to pull away, her courage finally decided to show up, and she leaned toward him, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him back with an enthusiasm that Ino would've been proud of.

Kakashi hummed low in his throat in response, his free hand finding the small of her back. When she pulled back slightly to take a breath, he smiled at her, and she smiled back.

"You know, I probably shouldn't show up here again… at least not for a while," he said as she slowly moved back a little, her face warming as her actions caught up to her.

"At least not with so many dogs," she quipped, biting her lip.

"You're off tomorrow, right?" he asked, and when she nodded, he continued, "Let me take you to dinner. No dogs."

"I don't know…" Sakura hedged, trying not to grin. "I'm kind of only in it for the dogs." The fact that Uhei chose that moment to come and sit on her foot made the grin break through.

Kakashi laughed, somewhat ruefully. "How about dinner and a dog park afterward?"

"Yeah… that sounds fun," Sakura said, beaming.

Sakura didn't miss Kakashi's quiet, relieved sigh as she bent slightly to stroke Uhei's head, much to the dog's obvious tail-wagging pleasure.

"Now then," she continued, reaching past Kakashi for the cups and whipped cream, directing her attention toward the dogs. "Who wants a generic equivalent, definitely-not-copyright-infringement cup of whipped cream?"