AN: I'm not a physician so beware of made-up medicine in this chapter. I know very little about knee injuries and haven't googled them as much as I could have.


"Jæja" the orthopedist says as he looks at the black and white picture of Hermione's knee. He spins around on his chair. "Cows can be dangerous, you should be careful."

No shit, Hermione thinks, but she grits her teeth together and silently wonders if he would have said the same thing to, for example, Kakashi. It hadn't even been a cow, it had been a calf, and not a cute newborn one either.

"Is anything broken?" She asks. Nicely. Because she's raised well, and needs the doctor's medical advice.

"Not that I can tell. It should heal on its own. Stay off it for a couple of days, don't do anything painful after that, and if it still hurts two or three weeks from now we have a physiotherapist in the building." Hermione waits for a continuation that never comes.

"Okay," she says, "Should I wrap it or something? Get a brace?"

"If you want to. But it will not get you on your feet faster, and once you do a bandage or soft brace is mostly there to remind your brain to be careful." Hermione wonders if it's disproportionate to hate the man.

"Well then," Hermione stands up with the help of the crutches Kristín found for her, "thank you." The crutches mean she has an excuse not to shake his hand. It's a small win. Madame Pomfrey would have fixed this for her in a matter of minutes.

Ingo is waiting for Hermione, patiently holding doors and asking her what the doctor said. "Olafur is a good doctor," he says once they're in the car. "If he says you'll be fine in two weeks you will." The doctor didn't exactly say that, but Hermione can't bring herself to argue.

They stop at the supermarket on the way home, and Hermione hops inside to stock up on comfort food and snacks for her unwanted holiday. She needs chocolate to get through this. Managing the crutches and the shopping basket is a nightmare, and Ingo's disappeared to god-knows-where. Hermione wants to scream, or cry, and it's her luck to have a stupid calf run into her stupid knee just in time for her stupid PMS.

There's a mountain of Póló kexes, banana sprengjur, plain chocolates, pipp-bars, mint-chocolate ice cream, pineapple squash, skyr, and Doritos on the check-out counter when Hermione pays. If she's gone slightly overboard it's only because she won't be able to drive and needs reserves.

"Getting ready for the apocalypse?" Ingo says as he meets her outside the store. He's smiling. Hermione hasn't spent a lot of time with Ingo, but she likes him. His English is not the best, but he teaches Hermione random Icelandic phrases that she writes down with his help.

"Only a small one," Hermione tells him. He hands her a bag from the pharmacy.

"I got you some bandages," he says, "and one of those knee-supports, and some painkillers."

"Thank you." Hermione blinks at him, whatever she thought he was doing it wasn't this. "I have some cash," before she can get further Ingo stops her.

"Absolutely not," he says firmly. "You got injured working for us, whatever we can do to help, we will. No arguing." A wink follows the last part and Hermione can't help but smile. She's already tried arguing that she can work, and she lost.

"Thank you," Hermione says instead. She's touched, but also slightly mortified. Here she goes and injures herself so she can't work, which is an inconvenience to start with, and then Ingo and Kristín clearly feel the need to cover anything not paid for by her insurance. It's Hermione who should pay them for room and board since she's not contributing, but she hasn't dared say that out loud.

.oOo.

Kakashi knows he can't put it off any longer. He has continued his running, but in the mornings. Some of the responsiveness has returned to his body, but he sleeps more again, almost twelve hours a night. After lunch he's gone on walks along the road past Hermione's. If she's seen him she hasn't made it known. She told him to come over, but the unobtrusive way of doing it doesn't seem to work. Kakashi will just have to hope he didn't misunderstand her.

Patience is something a shinobi must learn, but it doesn't stop Kakashi's heart from making its presence known in the eternity it takes Hermione to get to the door. Maybe she isn't home. Maybe she won't be home until the week is up and he's no longer expected to do anything this complicated and can get back to hanging out in their usual spot.

Hermione's voice vibrates through the wooden door before she opens. "Kakashi," she says when she sees him. She's smiling even as she gestures to a phone she's holding pressed between her ear and shoulder. "Come on in." Not until she lets go of the door to grab the phone does Kakashi realize she's supported by a crutch on her other side.

"Yeah, that sounds rough, I hope it'll work out." Hermione painstakingly makes her way down the hall towards the living room as the voice on the other side takes over in a wordless string of sounds. She gestures with her head for Kakashi to follow.

Tactically; it's sound to buy time, so Kakashi does exactly that as he takes off his shoes and warm clothing. The social codes around cellphones are not something he's ever considered. It's not really been an issue until now. There's also the fact that Hermione is on crutches, and Kakashi gets the feeling she will expect some kind of reaction from him.

Delaying only works for a finite amount of time, and Kakashi awkwardly stops in the doorway to the living room when Hermione speaks again. "I know," she says while beckoning Kakashi to take a seat. "But you can do it, just don't decide to fail beforehand. My neighbor's here though. I have to see what he wants." The tinny, wordless voice takes over and Kakashi feels like a trespasser. "Good luck. Bye" Hermione says finally and end the call. The phone clatters as she drops it on the coffee table.

.oOo.

"Sorry 'bout that." Hermione leans back against the couch, her right leg stretched out with a cushion under the knee. Getting to the door had been unpleasant, but worth it to get rid of Amy.

"I can come back later," Kakashi tells her. "I interrupted."

"And thank god for that." Hermione smiles, but it's lacking feeling. "That was Amy," she tells him, "she went to uni with me before I quit and came here. Trust me, I'm grateful you gave me a reason to hang up."

Kakashi doesn't respond, and the silence plucks at Hermione. She wants to tell him, wants to tell someone, and Kakashi is the only one around. The phone call picked at a scab Hermione had managed to push out of her mind, making it itch again. It'll be all she thinks about anyway.

"I hung out with her and these other two girls, studying together, having lunch, that sort of thing, I thought we were all friends. Turns out I was wrong." Hermione shrugs. She can tell on Kakashi's stance he's uncomfortable. Calling her mother would be a better option, only Hermione thinks she prefers Kakashi's silence to her mother telling her that she's making things up. Or worse, that it's unsurprising. Kakashi should be provided with an exit though, because Hermione has got a busted knee and PMS and now this, and her mind's running a hundred miles a minute, and it's completely fair if he wants out.

"Listen," she says, "it's that kind of day. No hard feelings if you want to take off, but if you're staying; please sit down." To Hermione's astonishment Kakashi takes a chair. There's a tenseness around his eyes that Hermione can't decode with so little of his face visible. Maybe she should have been more precise than "that kind of day", Kakashi's not the most perceptive guy, who knows if he understands what she meant?

"How did you know you were wrong?" Kakashi tilts his head slightly with the question, as if Hermione is a puzzle for him to solve.

Reaching backwards in the conversation Hermione realizes he's talking about the friendship. "Well," she starts, "I started hearing about things I wasn't invited to. Small stuff at first, and I tried thinking it was nothing, and that I had other friends, but it got bigger." Talking about it puts an uncomfortable heaviness in Hermione's chest. It weights down her lungs and blocks her throat. She had tried, she really did, but it hadn't mattered. "Then there was this time when they went for coffee during a break, and I was sitting next to them, but I wasn't invited," she picks at her nails, "and I decided never again."

"A few weeks later I understood why they'd kept me around; I had a new study group, and they showed up and played nice. And copied all my answers for an upcoming assignment. Didn't even ask first." The silence from Kakashi is deafening. A quick glance shows his face to be carefully blank before Hermione's eyes find their way to the window. He obviously didn't realize what he was getting into when he stayed, but Hermione decides that's on him and articulates the notion screaming in her head. "I just sometime wish I was born stupid," she says, "and with a pleasant personality."

The thought is not a new one, but she's never put words on it before, not even in writing. For all that Hermione loves her sharp mind she'd trade it in a heartbeat if it meant never again wondering if she is endured rather than liked. If it meant never again being kept around simply because she was great at academics. Because she had tried to be different at uni, less of know-it-all, obnoxious, questioning Granger and more easy-going and relaxed, but it apparently hadn't been enough.

"Anyway," Hermione continues, valiantly putting a little cheer in her voice. "That's what you interrupted; Amy trying to guilt trip me into helping her with a class she's retaking. I know I should tell her to get lost, and I've tried to, but it always ends with me slipping away quietly. So, thank you for sparing me the humiliation." Hermione has made it without crying this far, she can't start now. It will scare Kakashi off and she can use the distraction of company. She leans her head back as she takes a slow, deep breath and wills the moisture in her eyes back down her tear ducts. It works, marginally.

Opposite of Hermione Kakashi is not far from the wide-eyed look he'd sported at the pool. Hermione thinks she understands it better now. A genuine smile finds its way to her face, she can feel it in her chest. It's a perfect distraction from her own feelings. "Right," she says, "you're not very good at this, are you?" Kakashi's chin moves, but whether from unspoken words or grinded teeth Hermione can't tell. "You're supposed to say something along the lines of; oh, that sucks, I'm glad you got away from those idiots. After that you're good to change topics." Whatever else Hermione might wish to hear, she will never dictate. It would need to be real.

"Oh, that sucks, I'm glad you got away from those idiots?" The words sound so foreign coming from Kakashi Hermione can't help but laugh.

"Here," she says, reaching into the bag next to her and throwing a chocolate in Kakashi's general direction. His reflexes are lightning fast as he catches it. "Have a banana sprengjur for your hard work." He eyes the piece of candy skeptically, but Hermione's decently sure he's smiling under the mask. "I'd offer you tea, but I'm slightly out of commission," Hermione says and gestures at her knee.

"I think I can handle tea," Kakashi says noncommittedly.

"Perfect, I take mine with a splash of milk." A second to regroup could do them both well, Hermione thinks, and tea is grounding.

Kakashi disappears to the kitchen, the piece of candy still in his hand. For a second Hermione wonders is he'll eat it out there or take the opportunity to throw it away. She tries listening for signs of either but can't tell. Without company to distract her the anxiety starts to creep back in the space left after the dried up tears, making her question everything she has said since Kakashi showed up. It's stupid, nothing can be done about it now and it turned out okay, but it's not to be helped.

The thing is, even if she made Kakashi uncomfortable, and even if that makes her stomach clench now, it had felt good at the time. The response might have been a little lacking, but at least now somebody knows. And Kakashi doesn't seem to judge her by it. As far as she can tell. Yet.

Hermione has always talked her way through stuff, whenever there has been someone around to talk to. Putting words to the jumbled-up pieces floating around in her brain put them in some semblance of order and made them easier to deal with. "I don't need you to try and solve my problems," she'd told Ron once, "I just need you to listen." It's a lifetime ago now, before everything turned sour and she lost what she'd once thought would be forever. At least Kakashi is unlikely to attempt to give her unneeded practical advice.

.oOo.

Kakashi makes teas in Hermione's kitchen. He's seen her do it twice, and he might have lost the sharingan but its perfect recollection isn't needed here. With teacups and strainers already on the table Kakashi waits for the kettle to boil. Hermione's stuck in the living room, out of sight, and he allows himself a short moment to breathe. The edge of the countertop digs into his palms as he leans against it, head bowed forward.

The coiled feeling of adrenaline is abating, leaving behind renewed weariness. Hermione must have read his uneasiness off him this time, and decided to show some mercy, but he's not sure that helped. She'd been a better support over the phone for someone she disliked than he'd ever managed to be for the students he cared for. Her words for him had only driven that point home. This shouldn't have to be complicated.

Vulnerability freaks Kakashi out, there's no other way to put it. He doesn't do it, and he can't handle it in others. A shinobi must never show weakness, after all. But Hermione is no shinobi, and as such doesn't know the rules. If she did Kakashi suspects she might disagree with them. Hearing her confession just minutes ago was jarring. The worst part is that Kakashi can relate to the feeling. At the academy he'd been approached by numerous kids who seemed to want nothing but a chance to either gain from his prowess or bring him back to their level. The fact that he was much younger than them only made it worse. He hasn't thought about the academy in years, had almost forgotten it, and now here it is at the top of his mind. Great.

He used to hate teamwork, because it always held him back. Now he knows it's all depending on the team. That it doesn't have to be that way. There are always people at your level, better even, you just have to find them. Maybe that's what he should have told Hermione, if he could only figure out how. Preferably in a timely manner too.

"Do you play boardgames?" Hermione asks as Kakashi brings the tea out to the living room. "Because there's a Ticket to Ride if you have the time to spare." It's not a game Kakashi has ever heard of, but he has little to lose by agreeing.

Knowing the game and the rules gives Hermione a clear advantage to start with, but it's not a complicated setup and Kakashi catches up quickly. Unfortunately, the cards are too small to drink tea behind, and Kakashi juggles cards, book, teacup and mask in different combinations while the heat of the liquid rapidly fades. He's using three purples and a locomotive to claim Warszawa to Berlin when Hermione speaks.

"So," she says casually, "how are you doing? Did you catch up on sleep?" Kakashi moves his marker seven steps before looking at her.

"I did," he tells her. Hermione doesn't need to know details, it was a simple yes or no question.

"Did it help?" Hermione takes a yellow car, turn a black one up from the deck, and draws from the deck next. Kakashi wonders if she's doing it to take her attention off him. If she thinks that will make a difference somehow.

Taking the two black cars now on the table isn't great for postponement, but Kakashi needs them to get from Berlin to Frankfurt. He doubts a longer turn would help him figure out an answer anyway. The evasion he means to use is halted by Hermione speaking again. "Listen," she says, lowering her cards and catching Kakashi's eyes. "If you don't want to talk about it just say so, okay? I know I'm being too pushy and invasive and are forcing you to talk about things you don't want to, and I'm trying not to ask those things, but I don't know which they are, and I'm going stir crazy second-guessing myself here."

Hermione's mouth snaps shut, and she closes her eyes for a second. "Sorry," she says as she opens them again, "really sorry. I'm hopeless at keeping things inside, I know it's annoying. Please ignore my meddling and keep reacting however you see fit."

Moving forward with her turn Hermione claims a route somewhere, Kakashi can't really tell. His head is spinning, in both senses of the word. The first time Hermione acted like this; he left, and that was wrong. The second time; he said nothing, and that was wrong. Tactically, the next step would be to say something this time, but there are no words to be found. He will screw this up. He will be Hokage when he gets home. He will screw that up too. He should get to his turn, but he can't remember the rules.

"Hey," Hermione says and Kakashi knows he's supposed to do something, he does, but, "hey!" Kakashi looks up at the sharper tone. He knows a command when he hears one. "Are you spiraling into a panic attack?" Kakashi has no idea how he'd know, or what she's talking about really. He definitely doesn't know how to answer. "Okay, too complicated question." Hermione's tone is calm. It should be angry or disappointed or something, but it's not. "Tell me five things you can see." It's an order, albeit a strange one. Shinobi follow orders.

"Train carts," Kakashi says, "map, cards, stations, markers." Speaking is easier than he imagined.

"Good. Now four things you can touch."

"Why?" Kakashi can't help but ask. He was never the best at blindly doing what he's told, and it hasn't gotten better with age. Hermione's smile is crooked and her eyes piercing in a way Kakashi can't quite translate.

"It's a grounding technique," she explains, scratching at her chin. "Five things you can see, four you can touch, three you can hear, two you can smell, one you can taste. You were-" she hesitates slightly - "unresponsive, and I figured it couldn't hurt."

It didn't, Kakashi thinks. He's not sure it helped either, but on the other hand he's having a conversation now. It might not be perfectly regular, but it's doable and on a far better topic than a minute ago. Kakashi puts down three red cars and claims Kyiv to Smolensk. Silence while doing something can at least pretend to be uncomplicated.

They exchange a few words over the game, but Kakashi's mind is occupied with the things he couldn't answer. Doing more than one thing at a time is well within his capabilities, but Hermione's familiarity with the game is showing. He was given a free pass away from the question of whether sleeping had helped. Kakashi could take it, won't even need to admit he doesn't wish to answer it, because they left it behind already. If only his mind could do the same, it would be appreciated. As it is, the earlier topic grows like a weed over all his thought, breaking in jagged edges against the memory of Hermione's voice as she called herself pushy, invasive and annoying. It's not the first three words he would use to describe her.

"It didn't help," Kakashi finally says as Hermione is busy trying to build a tunnel between Marseille and Roma. She looks up at him, confusion in the lines on her face. "Sleeping," Kakashi clarifies, "I'm still tired." The words are heavy on his tongue, fighting against being formed, but they come out sounding surprisingly normal. It's for Konoha, he tells himself, he's doing this for Konoha, and he can make sure they never know of this temporary shortcoming of his.

"Yeah," Hermione backs out of her tunneling project, "I figured." She looks across the table at Kakashi, and from the words she could be frustrated or disappointed or a number of things, but she's not. She gives Kakashi a small smile.

No follow-up questions come, and they get back to playing. Kakashi feels fuzzy, his heart beating fast. The sky stays where it is. Nothing comes crashing down.

The light has begun to fade outside as they count the final score. "Not bad for a first-timer," Hermione tells him. "You're welcome for a rematch tomorrow if you want."

"Hm," Kakashi narrows his eyes, "maybe I will. I can't really let this score stand, can I?" He doesn't care much about winning things like this, but for the sake of the game he can pretend. It wouldn't surprise him if Hermione sees right through it.

"Well, I might hold you to that," Hermione grins easily. "I could use some company if I'm going to survive this convalescence."

Kakashi realizes on his way back he never asked her about the leg. Dealing with these things at home is easier; he always finds the details out beforehand, through the backchannels, just like everyone else. But probably you are meant to ask civilians about their injuries? He'll have to make sure to do it tomorrow.


AN: This was not at all how I imagined this chapter going, but I've probably mentioned the way the characters have a way of doing their own thing, despite whatever plans I made. Let me know what you think!