GR's Note: First thing I really have to say: Thank you to everyone who reviews this, I love hearing what everyone of you has to say! Special kudos goes out to my regulars sayachimaera, JiraiyasGirl, roxnroll, HikaruThePokeTheif, inu-rulz, SMOKe13, shkh4ever and Rohain Tahquil, I so hope you and guys and a whole lot more people keep gaining and keeping interest in this story! You guys have no idea how much it means to me! Thanks go to my new beta-ers, JiraiyasGirl and sayachimaera!

Prompt: Tactless

Time to Finish: 6 hours (3 ¾ hours actual writing, 2 ½ hours of downtime when I got interrupted)

Listened to: Linkin Park – Minutes to Midnight for the first hour or so, then Three Days Grace – One X after my loooong break.

Part 10: Surreality

Despite her profession and the unusual hours she was used to working, Sakura found difficulty waking up. With the process taking longer than it should have, she blamed the tense and emotionally draining morning that came after a long period of sleeplessness. Not that she could say the morning went badly; in actuality, it ended a whole lot better than she could have hoped for. Even though she hadn't asked what she had been meaning to, it didn't matter. She got her answers all the same.

Without the headband or mask, not only could she see that he was surprisingly easy on the eyes but, also, that he was a completely open book. With nothing to hide behind, the myriad of emotions he felt were right out in the open for her, clearer than the day outside. She'd witnessed exactly how he felt and she couldn't deny him, forget that she had no real will to in the first place. She did want to know how long he had felt that way, only because it was fairly obvious it wasn't something recent or spontaneous. He guarded his emotions too carefully for that. He... was someone she still trusted, despite not bringing something so important to her attention a little sooner. She was having his kid, Kakashi's kid. Apparently, her body was a lot quicker than her mind because she'd slept with him long before she ever suspected either of them might care about the other enough to do so. She couldn't help but wonder how something so strange had happened; even going so far as to wish she could remember something about it... anything.

Finally mustering the will to move from under the warm pile of blankets she was cocooned in, Sakura tried to stretch until she realized the movement was being impeded by something small, warm and furry. Slightly lifting the blankets, she peered at the fuzzy brown pug curled up against her stomach and laying directly on her arm. Even without his headband and clothes, she was sure she would recognize him anywhere.

"Pakkun?"

Sure enough, the brown ball of fur shifted and up emerged the dog's little black nose and droopy dark brown eyes. He stared sleepily at her for a moment before pawing the edge of the blanket out of her hand so that it fell to cover him again.

"Go back to sleep." She felt him shift and curl back up, in an attempt to return to his beauty sleep she had just interrupted.

"What are you even doing here? Surely you wouldn't give up your precious couch to come snuggle up with me." Her jest at the dog's unwillingness to share his precious sleeping space when she stayed at Kakashi's provoked a disgruntled grunt from beneath the blankets.

"Kakashi told me to stick around and it's too cold in this room to sleep anywhere else." She raised an eyebrow at the covers before lifting them again, just a little bit this time. Even that was enough to earn her an irritated grumble from the sleepy mutt.

"That doesn't tell me what you're doing here. There's no tracking to be done on this job, it's strictly surveillance." She squirmed and giggled slightly when he nodded, the motion tickling her stomach.

"I know, he told me to keep a eye on you and his pups." She smiled slightly at the direct evidence of Kakashi's protectiveness before she realized that something the dog had said just didn't sit right.

"Pups? We're not dogs, Pakkun, we don't have litters." A low growl that sounded like the canine equivalent of a chuckle erupted from the small dog, instantly making her feel ill at ease.

"You are." She froze, staring straight through the dog nuzzling into her stomach.

"What?" She recoiled slightly as his cold, wet nose soaked through her chemise and he peered up at her closely, clearly scrutinizing her.

"They have their own chakra signatures now. Weak... but they're still small, they'll get stronger." She opened her mouth in an effort to say something, but her throat had gone strangely dry and she had difficulty.

"So... what? You're saying we're having... twins?" She articulated her sentence slowly, as if only able to absorb it bit by bit, while once again he chuckled.

"Keep going..." Her eyes widened and she froze completely, something Pakkun apparently found hilarious.

"I told you, you're having a litter. It'll be fun to pay back Kakashi for making fun of me for mine." She wasn't listening. She couldn't speak and she couldn't even make herself think coherently while the dog lounged against her in smug silence. The pug didn't seem to like it very much when she threw off the blankets and deserted both him and the bed as if the mattress burned her, growling as he burrowed under them again without so much as glancing at her. He was used to her being emotional and, at times, unstable. So he didn't think anything of her behavior nor did he notice that she was genuinely panicking.

Pacing the length of the room, she tried to coalesce her thoughts into something marginally understandable, paying no notice to the fact that her increasing agitation was physically spiraling out of control.

Four weeks ago, she hadn't even known she was pregnant and like she had been doing for years, would have thought that she wasn't really ready for the responsibility of having children yet. She still didn't think she was really ready, not even for one... but three?! She couldn't do it. There was no way. And Kakashi... what if he changed his mind? He'd been really good about finding out about the first one, but how was he going to react to three? Or maybe more, she hadn't actually asked Pakkun if it was triplets and he hadn't been very forthcoming about the actual number. Oh no, one was bad. Three was worse and more... this was turning out to be an epic nightmare. Unfortunately she knew that this was one nightmare she was just not going to wake up from, no matter how surreal the entire thing seemed to her.

Pakkun wasn't paying a shred of attention to her internalized fit until he heard her hit the floor, bolting awake to the vibrations sent up through the bed frame from the floor. Braving the, in his opinion, unnaturally cold air in the room and abandoning the warmth of the blankets, he hopped down from the bed to check her and make sure she was alright. Kakashi would skin him alive if his mate or pups were in trouble.

A quick assessment confirmed the obvious. She had overreacted and fainted, that was all. She'd be fine. She hadn't hurt herself much, if at all, and he could still sense the pups. No harm, no foul.

Well, it would have been, if he had enough luck that Kakashi wouldn't come out of the shower just yet. Unfortunately, he didn't have that kind of luck, and it meant that he was probably going to be sleeping outside for the rest of the time he was stuck here. No treats either, most likely.

"Pakkun, don't crash around like a puppy, you're going to... What happened?" The pug turned tail and retreated to the woman's feet, ensuring that Kakashi couldn't touch him before tending to her and letting him explain, in his own fashion.

"She panicked and fainted. She's fine, though when did she eat last? That might have contributed..." The now dishwater blond copy-nin glared him into near silence. The pug shrank back accordingly, giving him a wide berth as he picked Sakura up and placed her back up on the bed, pulling the covers up as a barrier to the cool air in the room.

"Why was she panicking?" Pakkun hopped back up onto the bed himself, burrowing into a pocket of blankets while still managing to give the two some space. Silently he wondered how Kakashi wasn't cold without a shirt on and while still damp, while he in a full fur coat was freezing.

"I just told her the same thing I told you this morning, that's all." Kakashi's eyes darkened behind pale blue contacts, and Pakkun burrowed further into the blankets.

"Did you tell her the same way you told me?" The pug could no longer see his master's overly piercing gaze from where he had buried himself in the comforter, but the venomous tone of Kakashi's voice didn't escape his keen ears.

"Pretty much." The warmth he was nestled in was effecting him greatly, and Pakkun could feel himself fighting sleep to utter just a short answer.

"Ever hear of a thing called subtlety?" Pakkun snickered to himself while his eyelids started drooping shut.

"You tried that, and it took six years for her to mate with you. Subtlety doesn't work with this one, Kakashi." Shoving aside the newly comfortable pug, Kakashi took a seat up against the headboard. He didn't want her to panic again when she came to, so he wasn't about to leave the two alone again, not until they got a few things straightened out. He would have sent the tactless mutt to sleep outside, but the driving rain that had forced Kakashi back into the house prematurely still had yet to stop or even slow. He wasn't cruel enough to send Pakkun to sleep in the chilly downpour. An idea struck Kakashi and he poked the sleepy lump buried in the blankets with his bare toes.

"Did you tell her that I already knew, or did you just let her panic on her own thinking that she would have to be the one to break it to me?" He didn't really need to hear the answer to know it, which was a good thing, because the only response he got was guilty silence. Sighing, he slid down to lay down with an arm around Sakura, marveling over how this whole thing could have been avoided if Pakkun would have just shut his big mouth and let him handle things.

It had freaked him out at first when Pakkun just went and started laughing at him after he had been summoned, even more so when he had found out why... But he had had several hours to absorb and get used to the news while he was out memorizing the grounds and surrounding village. He couldn't say he was honestly bothered by it, but that didn't stop him from being nervous.

"Mmm...m..." he didn't have to wait long before she began regaining consciousness and started squirming slightly under his arm. Brushing back the hair from her face, he waited until she opened her eyes and registered him beside her before saying anything.

"Felling a little better now? Pakkun said you panicked when he told you." Rather than relaxing, like he'd hoped, she stiffened up and didn't turn to face him.

"You already knew? You... don't sound surprised. Or upset." Raising an eyebrow, he rolled her gently to see her face, only to be met with an expression of pure nerves, mimicking the anxiety he was doing his best to keep to himself.

"I was told several hours ago, so I've had time to accept it, that's all." She curled up a bit, staring at him like he'd grown an extra head and started spouting gibberish in place of his normal Japanese.

"So, this doesn't bother you in the slightest?! How the hell are you so damn calm?!" She wasn't raising her voice, but it was fairly obvious that she was getting agitated again as she sat up to stare questioningly down at him. Rubbing her shoulder gently, he followed her example and sat up, keeping his voice low and calm to help placate her.

"Because I'm considering myself lucky, that's why." She froze, eyes wide in surprise while the rest of her face was still stuck on uncertainty. After a moment, she shook her head and raised her hand to his forehead.

"Have you lost your marbles?!" She had taken her hand away as fast as she had placed it there, apparently satisfied that he wasn't sick...just certifiably insane. He couldn't help but frown a little, even though he knew that this was probably a whole lot harder for her than it was for him.

"Sakura, I'm perfectly fine and as sane as I have ever been," The look she gave him said clearly that his diagnosis of his own sanity was not very believable, but he continued anyway. " But I know that dogs are a lot more sensitive to chakra than humans, so if Pakkun hadn't have said anything it might have been weeks or even months before we knew. Isn't this better than the alternative?" She only frowned, no doubt still questioning his logic.

"Not really. It's like knowing about the end of the world when you're not supposed to. Pointless except to give you more time to dread the inevitable." Her narrowed his eyes at her uncharacteristically grim point while she dropped her gaze to the bed, looking defeated.

"Sakura, is it really such a bad thing?" She crossed her arms over her chest. Paired with her hunched posture it looked more like she was hugging herself protectively, a defensive gesture in response to his question. Reaching out, he took her hand in his and softly rubbed her palm with the pad of his thumb until she squeezed his hand with uncertainty.

"I don't know... I guess not. It's just... a whole lot to try and deal with all at once. Honestly, I really don't get how you're so calm about all this." He pulled her gently towards him and met with no resistance whatsoever on her part, situating her comfortably on his legs with her head on his shoulder. He rubbed her side gently, having noticed a long time ago that while she's never openly seek out affectionate contact of any sort, she had a bit of a complex about it in that craved it. So, it came as no real surprise when she did relax a bit, curling into him like a cat.

"I can stay calm because... I love you, I want to be with you and that won't change, Sakura. One child or three." There, he had said it. And, for once it didn't sound completely stupid to him. If he was expecting some sort of dramatic emotional moment from her though, he'd have been disappointed. Instead she stiffened, pulling away from him and sliding off of his lap to turn and look at him. Her clearly unsure expression did little to assure him and for a moment he thought he'd said too much, that she was rethinking their unspoken promise from that morning.

"Kakashi..." She covered his mouth when he opened it to interrupt her, to stop her from saying something he really couldn't stand to hear, her own expression pained, as if what she was trying to articulate was difficult for her."I... I thought I loved Sasuke for so long that I can't honestly trust myself with that word anymore. I can't associate it with you either, because... it just...it doesn't even come close." She shifted a little but didn't move her hand, apparently not done with her shaky confession. Brushing her hair behind her ear with her free hand, her eyes dropped to the bedsheets before she forced them back up again, a warm pink blush rising to tint her cheeks.

"I really, really care about you... 'more than anyone else' would be putting it very lightly... but that doesn't change the fact that I was avoiding having children for a reason, Kakashi. I mean, one is more than hard enough to accept, but three? I... don't know if I'm ready for this..." She was trembling, her resolve to keep her gaze away from the bedsheets lost right around the same time she seemed to lose the ability to keep her hand where it had been.

While Kakashi couldn't say he liked seeing her like this, he could say that he was immensely relieved. She hadn't been so hesitant to say the three words that had led to this entire situation before, but her scars were proof enough that something had happened, something big enough to make her afraid of them. Hopefully, she'd be ready to talk about it sometime soon, but he wouldn't press it unless it became an issue, no matter how badly he wanted to know.

Without saying anything yet, Kakashi returned her to his arms without finding much resistance and pushed her hair away from her face to reveal wet tear tracks on her cheeks. She wiped them away herself, still not able to bring herself to look at him and he kissed her forehead softly, startling her.

"I'd be more worried if you did feel ready, Sakura, because that would mean that you weren't thinking enough about it. You have to remember that I'm not letting you do this alone, and stressing yourself out over something that you have no control over and can't change isn't good for you, or the babies." She nodded softly and shakily before burying her face in his neck and wrapping her arms around him tightly. He hugged her back, gently rubbing her back through her chemise as he situated her more comfortably against him. He barely heard her when she spoke again and at first thought he actually imagined it.

"Thank you."

He turned his head to brush a kiss onto her cheek, running his fingers through her hair simply to enjoy the silken texture on his fingertips. Smiling, he thought that the best way to calm her down completely would be to focus her onto the positive side of the situation.

"Think Tsunade will like her almost-grandkids enough to forget about killing me for taking away her best medic?" He smiled again when he heard and felt the short, happy giggles that shook her shoulders instead of anxiety and tears..

"From the way she sounded during my check-up, I think she'll be ready to give you a medal for making sure they aren't Sasuke's. I wouldn't blame her either... I mean, I can't imagine that he would've made a much better father than he did a husband... so, thank you."

Gently, he reached up to cup her cheek, brushing his lips along her jaw until she turned to meet the kiss, marking their first mutually desired one in almost two months since they had all been quick, one-sided pecks during the mission. Kakashi had been too worried about pushing her to take it any farther than that, though he was glad that he wasn't keeping anything from her anymore.

The kiss quickly deepened, though he wasn't the one who started to take it further. Her boldness and willingness surprised him more than a little, especially when he compared it to her shyness and timidity from the first time, but the sense that she wanted him, only him, was incredibly captivating.

Slowly, reluctantly, he broke the kiss when they both needed air and caught the content smile on her face before she slid off of both his lap and the bed. Immediately he missed her warmth, but he was glad to see her smiling again. He hoped that it would be something he'd see a lot more of now, as much as before Sasuke returned to the village, when she had been a naturally happy girl.

He watched as she picked out an outfit to wear for the rest of the day and saw that the dress she picked was a bright yellow-orange hue, though he couldn't tell much more than that. He smiled brightly as he mused that the fiery color she'd picked was a pretty apt imitation of the confidence and attitude he wanted to see come back for her and replace the shy, scared girl she had become.

He was going to bring her back and he honestly couldn't be happier... Unless you chose to count the fact that she was having his children, because that made him even happier. Triplets... once she got used to the idea, she wouldn't be so scared of it, and her naturally nurturing personality would take over. He knew she'd be a perfect mother, just like she was perfect at everything else she set her mind to. She just needed to give herself the chance.