Second Sight
Chapter Twenty-one
The fish was Kumo. Obito had decided that the moment he pulled it out of the oven. It was burnt around the edges and dead. That was sort of the way he would've liked the real Kumo to be, reincarnation of Kakashi's dad or not. Oh, once he had his katon jutsu back... Mmm, broiled Kubutsu Sakumo sounded good. He was still thinking to himself that the fish was Sakumo when he poked its cooked eye out with a chopstick, using the hand that Kumo had cut. Poke, poke, poke, stab. Sensei wouldn't mind. The fish was burnt anyway. He glanced back over at Kakashi after a little bit of tormenting the fish, smiling.
"Want to come poke the fish with me? It'll make you feel better, promise."
Maybe Obito was still alive because he had only technically aged past thirteen.
Kakashi was watching the bout of poking from where he'd curled up in a kitchen chair, head resting sideways next to an empty plate as he nibbled a little forlornly on a piece of inarizushi, swiped from one of the platters abandoned atop the table. He was feeling rather tired and shaky still, though perhaps a bit more lucid than usual. The tomoe of the Sharingan revolved slowly in place, and his tail swished back and forth against the chair legs as he continued his observation.
"'s already dead though," he mumbled around his food, stopping to swallow after a second, in response to the invitation. "Stuff doesn't get more dead. It just comes apart and stuff eats it."
"So? It still makes you feel better," Obito sniffed, working the chopstick under a fin before tearing the fin off completely. Within a few minutes, there was nothing discernibly fish-like in the baking pan anymore. Just a mess of black chips and white flakes and bones and crushed fins. Obito felt decidedly better, but was still rather hungry. The crisis hadn't really been able to take his appetite away. He paused to give Kakashi an exceptionally peculiar look, the kind where, right before his eyes, Kakashi ceased to be a boyfriend or a friend or a teammate or that slightly batty kitsune and started being a supermarket. He set the chopsticks down and moved back over to the table in a way that suggested that if Obito had a tail, it would have been wagging itself off at that point.
"Ne, Kakashi" he began, tugging on the other's tail, "Someone should fix Sensei's dinner before he gets back so that he and I aren't really, really sad. I might starve to death otherwise. I'll just crawl into bed and waste away."
In a different mood, that might have been the end of that, but as it was, Kakashi just sniffed at him and made a rather unimpressed sort of little pout. "Would not. You'd just ask for more taiyaki."
...But, well. Sensei would be sad if his dinner was all messed up. And Sensei being sad was just... sad. He frowned slightly as he wiggled his tail against Obito's grip. (It kind of tickled a little.)
"...fine, so maybe I would. But maybe I'll starve to death just to show you can be and are wrong all the time," Obito pouted, enjoying pouting at Kakashi probably a little bit more than was exactly healthy. He gave Kakashi's tail another little pull for good measure as it wiggled in his hand before he turned away.
"But if you're going to condemn us to miserable, hungry existences, then fine. I'm gonna at least hide the fish so Sensei doesn't have to see how burnt it is." Or how much Obito had mutilated it. It was win-win.
The fish, as luck would have it, now seemed to be sitting atop the counter looking all crispy and tasty and as perfectly-done as if Shimenawa had been sitting next to the oven watching every second of its progress.
Kakashi picked up another inarizushi.
"...okay, the fish and I are going to the bathroom for some alone time," Obito grinned once he was done gaping. Because as useful as it was, god damn was Kakashi's ability to poof food out of nowhere unnerving.
"Obito, what are you scheming with my fish?" came the rather tired-sounding question all of a sudden, as Shimenawa appeared in the kitchen doorway. He looked over Obito's shoulder with a slight frown for a moment, one which turned into a blink of surprise as he noted the... frankly rather perfect state of his lamented dinner.
"Oh... did you get it out for me?"
"Uh, yeah," Obito nodded after a second because technically it was true. He felt a little bit helpless and a little bit useless because Shimenawa was always, always there for them no matter how awful things were and how much of a mess he and Kakashi managed to make and yet right now Shimenawa was obviously having a spectacularly terrible day and yet Obito didn't begin to know what to do for him.
"Are you, uh, hungry, Sensei?" he asked slightly awkwardly, offering Shimenawa a smile, "I'll put off my affair with your fish if you want some first. And look, Kakashi won't even get jealous that I'm tryng to cheat on him. He must have someone else. Maybe it's the inarizushi. I'll... I'll eat them all myself in a fit of passion, yeah! I want to see the police report for that."
Hey, just because Obito didn't begin to know what to do didn't mean he wouldn't take a completely random shot in the dark.
For a second, Shimenawa just blinked at him. And then he was shaking his head with a rather helpless grin, and walking over to ruffle the young man's hair, pulling him into an impulsive hug.
"Don't ever change, okay?" he murmured in Obito's ear as he pulled back, turning toward the counter. Truthfully, he'd lost most of his appetite, but it would be a shame to let such nice-looking fish just go to waste.
"Well..." he said with a slightly apologetic grin, grabbing some potholders and picking up the still-warm dish to carry it to the table, "it's a little late, but shall we have a bite to eat then...? Kakashi?" He crouched to meet the kitsune's line of sight after he'd set the food down. He suspected his efforts at cheerfulness weren't fooling anybody at the moment, but just hoped it didn't make Kakashi uncomfortable. "Want some dinner? How are you feeling?"
Kakashi was frowning slightly as he continued gazing sideways toward his teacher. Sensei smelled... all wrong. He smelled kind of madsadwrong and that was... was really weird and almost never happened and... well, it made Kakashi tireder just looking at him. Sensei wasn't supposed to be sad. Or especially not mad. It was really scary.
"...Sensei...?" he murmured in the way of a question, reaching out to briefly, lightly brush his fingers against the doctor's cheek.
"Ah--" Shimenawa managed another real smile this time, and tugged Kakashi upright to give the other boy his due as well, holding him close for a moment and stroking his hair softly.
"It's okay, Kakashi," he reassured quietly. "I'm okay."
It wasn't like he wasn't used to it... just him and the boys around. It wasn't like he wasn't used to Kumo not being around. He'd manage. Things would be fine.
...Eventually, he guessed.
"All right, let's have something to eat," he said as he rose again, with a slightly sad smile and a very eloquent sigh as he took his place at the table.
"Yay eat!" Obito sang in not the best usage of grammar of his life, making his way back to the table as well. Once there he accidentally toppled over the two chairs that were normally for Kumo and himself. (Of course, the 'accidental' part was rather arguable.)
"Huh. Will you look at that. Kakashi, you're just going to have to give me your seat and sit in my lap."
Kakashi blinked at the other boy and frowned a little, glancing between him and the fallen chairs. You could really just... turn them back over, right? If they weren't glued to the floor or phased into another dimension or a figment of his imagination or secretly flat or but... they looked pretty real and there and...
...Obito's lap was very comfy.
"...I guess," he said with a little smile as he rose from his place, tail twining idly around his legs.
Shimenawa just shook his head and laughed quietly.
Obito grinned at Shimenawa's laugh before plopping down in Kakashi's chair, then pulled the kitsune into his lap to snuggle. What else could he possibly ask for? There was dinner, Kumo was gone, Kakashi was in his lap, and Sensei was laughing. Life was good. Only one thing could make life better. That being eating the food, rather than staring at it.
"Okay, time for my revenge on the inarizushi!"
- - -
After that, a couple weeks passed in the Shimenawa household without much incident. Much to everyone's relief, Kakashi mostly stayed calmed down, and even managed a couple trips over to the apartment to grab some of his and Obito's clothes (during which excursions several pairs of Obito's underwear disappeared and one pair of his pants turned up missing a single leg, but otherwise everything went fine). Obito got more of his strength back, and alternated random helping around the house and TV-watching with nervous-glancing-with-maybe-the-eventual-intent-to-read of some local college course catalogs Shimenawa had brought him. And the doctor, for his own part, decided it was time to stop putting it off -- he needed a break from some of all the stress; he was going to have to hire a secretary. So he took out some wanted ads in a few local papers and put out word to a couple job agencies he knew, and then proceeded to steadfastly ignore the growing pile of unfinished paperwork scattered over his desk as he went about his daily business. It would... just give the new secretary something to do. Yes.
It was some time just after lunch when the bell to the clinic rang and a vaguely familiar young lady came in, a small gift bag in hand. She looked around the small waiting room/lobby curiously, wondering where everyone was.
"E-excuse me?" she called out. What a mess everything was. It was almost appalling. Papers everywhere, nothing resembling order, magazines scattered about (and there was a copy of world news in the children's section, wasn't that exciting) while the little bins for the magazines were empty. Half the toys were on the floor rather than in the toy chest. Without really meaning to, Shizune set down her little gift bag and began picking up the toys and organizing the magazines. Honestly. It was pretty much a reflex now, growing up the way she had. That one day she had walked into her former college professor's apartment and couldn't see the floor under all the discarded clothes and random trash had ruined her for the rest of her life. Shizune couldn't look at a mess anymore without cleaning it up.
Once she finished picking up in the waiting room, she rubbed her neck a little embarrassedly before turning back to the glass window that looked into the front office.
"Hello?" she called out agan.
"Ah-- coming-- just a second, I'm sorry-- Shit--" came the sudden exclamation from the next room over, accompanied by a sharp thump and the clatter and rustle of what sounded like a box spilling its contents all over the floor. A single plastic-wrapped antibiotic sample came rolling into Shizune's view right at the edge of the doorway to the examination room.
"Hi," said Dr. Shimenawa, poking his head out with a sheepish smile, "I'm really sorry about--"
He stopped and blinked.
"Oh-- it's-- it's you," he managed with some surprise.
"Um... are you here about the job, by any chance?" He reached down with a sheepish grin to pick up the lone escaped sample. "Just a moment, let me clean up my mess, eheh."
"Ah!" Shizune exclaimed in surprise when she saw the slightly haggard looking doctor drop the box and worsen the general state of cleanliness of the clinic. "Here, let me help." Between the two of them, the samples found their way back into the box in a timely fashion, after which Shizune stood and offered her hand to help Shimenawa to his feet.
"Actually, I--" Looking at the state of things, she couldn't really bring herself to say she'd only come to apologize for the horribly misunderstanding at the hospital. She had just quit her job there and, well, her father liked to tell her she was trying to work her way into becoming patron saint of hopeless causes and helpless people. She at least owed Shimenawa something in return for possibly worrying him out of his mind, and she suspected she would actually lose sleep if she left him the way he was.
"Um," she amended, offering him a slightly sheepish smile, "Do you have an opening, then?" She was too polite not to pretend that it wasn't glaringly obvious he needed help, and badly.
Shimenawa blinked at her surprisedly some more, and then smiled back, reaching over to set the box on a nearby shelf next to the wall. "Um, yeah. I'm looking for a full-time secretary," he said, gesturing toward another nearby door that led into his office, "basically to keep track of appointments and help me keep up with the legal paperwork, records, ordering supplies, that kind of thing. I run a pretty small practice so I've mostly always done everything by myself until now," he said as they walked in, pulling over a chair for Shizune before he sat down behind his desk, "but recently I've had some, er," he grinned slightly embarrassedly, "family problems, and my time's been divided a bit. So basically your job would be to help keep me sane," he summarized good-humoredly, leaning his elbows against the paper-strewn desk.
"Well, I've had a lot of practice doing all of that," Shizune smiled back, though hers bordered on a grimace as she recalled exactly how she came to get so much practice. "I can't really vouch for my success rates, though." She was about to set the gift bag down again when she realized she still had it in her hand.
"Oh! Sorry, I should have done this before," she looked a little embarrassed as she offered it to Shimenawa, "I'm not trying to butter you up or anything, I swear, but I did want to apologize for the fiasco in the hospital with your friend a while back. It was just a really busy day."
"Ah-- thank you," the young doctor said, grinning abashedly in his turn as he took the gift. "You really didn't have to... And, ah, that's all right. I got a bit of a shock, but all's well that ends well," he concluded magnanimously, smiling again as he opened up the little gift bag. Okay, it wasn't the best of manners to just pop it open right then and there, but he was curious, dangit.
He grinned in sincere enjoyment as he pulled the gift out of the bag. It wasn't anything particularly special or pricey -- just a fat, slightly plain looking candle -- but it had the most wonderful scent of peaches as he gave it a sniff, and yes, the fact that he was actually quite flattered to receive such a present probably meant he had just said goodbye to the last hint of his masculinity, but well, it was awfully sweet of her.
"That smells really nice," he declared as he reached over to set the candle on the side of his desk, next to a small framed picture, with Kakashi and Obito leaning sleepily against each other on his couch. (He'd caught them by surprise that evening. It had been a fun evening.)
"I'm glad you like it," Shizune smiled as her attention was drawn to the picture, "Oh! Are they yours?" She paused to look at him, then at the picture, then back again. She wasn't quite bold enough to suggest he didn't look nearly old enough to have kids that age.
"May as well be, I suppose," the doctor said with a quiet, fond laugh, and took a moment to be grateful Kakashi's tail wasn't immediately visible in the photo. One thing at a time, right? "This is Obito, and this is Kakashi," he said, pointing them out. "I guess you'd call me their... mentor? Family friend? They've... had a bit of a rough time of it, poor kids," he said vaguely, figuring Shizune would fill in her own story about abusive parents and broken homes, which at least in Obito's case wouldn't be far off the mark, "so I try to look out for them. If you stick around you'll probably get to meet them... Obito was in a bit of an accident, so they've been staying with me while he recovers. Oh," he said, blinking as he gestured vaguely off toward the back door of the office, "my house is just adjacent to the clinic here, by the way."
"I see," Shizune nodded, "They look like they're good kids." And probably had to be, the way Shimenawa was positively glowing about them. She did want to meet them she realized, then groaned inwardly. This was how it always started. A little bit of interest in a little side project and the next thing she knew she was mother and wife and therapist. Ah well, that was her lot in life.
"I, um, speaking of sticking around," she laughed a little bit at that, flipping through a folder she was carrying with her. She pulled out a copy of her resume and offered it to Shimenawa. "It's a little bit, ah, well, if anything confuses you... Well, I've been a career temp for the last three, four years of my life, ever since I got out of college because my... with my home situation, it's been hard for me to find a permanent arrangement. What was it that one interviewer said to me...? I'm too... distracted, I think? Or not focused enough? Something. But as a result, I have a lot of mostly useless experience. I can do anything from wash dishes to file paperwork." 'Home situation' was code for 'her ex-college professor Tsunade'.
"I see." Shimenawa took the paper, but before looking at it, smiled politely over at Shizune again as he asked, "So in that case, would you say staying in a position on a long-term basis is a problem for you...? Do you move a lot, or...?" She seemed like a very nice girl so far, but he really wasn't interested in training and acclimatizing someone who was just going to up and leave on him in a month or three, if he could avoid it at all.
"Oh, no, I don't move or anything. I just," Shizune flushed slightly, folding her hands in her lap, "Sometimes I can't give a lot of advance notice when I have to take care of things at home. I always try, but I can only give as much notice as my family gives me. What happens is usually my employers and I grow mutually tired of each other. That's why temp jobs usually work out better for me. There's not a lot of time for my work and me to come to odds. But none of that should be happening much anymore." ...mostly because Tsunade had skipped town about a week ago. She hadn't even called yet. Sigh.
"Ah, all right," Shimenawa said with a slightly confused blink. So it wasn't something they couldn't necessarily work around, if it became a problem for her again... He glanced down at the resume, taking a few minutes to read through it carefully. There were a few references... should he take the time out to actually call them later?... eh. Somehow he had a good feeling about this girl.
"Well then," he said, pointing at a line on the resume sheet, "can I ask you about this?..."
He took not quite half an hour conducting an interview to his satisfaction, and decided the longer they talked that he quite liked Shizune. She seemed like a very sweet girl, and perfectly honestly, if he hadn't had Kumo to think about (if he still did have Kumo to think about, part of his mind muttered darkly), he might have been interested in her in more ways than one. She'd really fit in nicely here, he thought, assuming everything went well.
"And, I think that about wraps it up," he said at last, letting loose the copy of Shizune's resume to flutter down atop his desk and join the interminable pile of papers. "So," he said, smiling very brightly, "would you like to know what I think of you?"
"Hm?" Shizune asked semi-distractedly with the brightest smile she was capable of to try to mask over the fact that she was inwardly cringing at her resume adding to the disorder of the desk. Her time with Tsunade had obviously left her traumatized in some sense or another. "I mean, ah, of course!" She offered him an encouraging sort of smile, feeling at ease around Shimenawa despite wanting to tie him down so he couldn't make the mess in his office any worse while she completely overhauled it.
"I think you're perfect, is what I think," said the doctor, beaming. "I'd love for you to start as soon as you're available. The salary and the hours I mentioned in my ads are going to work for you, right?" he asked, just to make sure.
"That's wonderful!" Shizune actually sounded delighted, much to her own surprise. "I'm free as early as tomorrow, but, ah..." she trailed off, looking a little embarrassed once more, "I'm afraid I have to ask you to repeat the salary and hours. I only... skimmed the ad." She hated lying, but it sounded less awkward than to say she hadn't seen the ad at all and applied for the job only because she couldn't bear to see him go without help any longer.
"Oh? Um-- wait just a moment, I have it all written down here..." Amazingly, it didn't take Shimenawa longer than about five minutes to fight through the clutter on his desk for the paper he was looking for -- undoubtedly he owed this luck to the fact that it was very recent and therefore near the top. He handed the printout in question over to Shizune; it was a copy of the request he'd sent out to the job agencies, with general duties, hours, pay, and benefits all neatly outlined.
Mostly Shizune was concerned about knowing the hours and what was expected of her. She was used to her pay being next to nothing because she liked to think of herself as a very well-paid charity worker so nothing really would have disappointed her, but oh, what Shimenawa was offering would do quite nicely. She might even be able to put enough away to pay off some of Tsunade's gambling debts.
"Oh, yes, this is fine," she smiled, committing the contents of the printout to memory, "Do you have a uniform in mind or am I free to shop for my own scrubs?"
Shimenawa blinked. He hadn't even considered that. "Sure, pretty much whatever you want to wear is fine. If you're more comfortable in scrubs, that's great, but I don't mind if you come in wearing something more casual. You're my first employee, you know," he said with a laugh, "so you're probably going to get away with a lot of stuff."
"Well, you're far from my first employer so I'll do my best not to take advantage of you too much," Shizune teased lightly in return, "I don't mind wearing scrubs. I saw some really cute ones in the store the other day, so I'll go shopping for something the kids will like tonight. I should get going to finish running my errands before the stores close... see you tomorrow, then?"
"Excellent." Shimenawa grinned as he rose from his seat again, feeling quite sincerely pleased. "Can you come by about lunchtime? I have an appointment at 11:30 and we can get started right after that."
"I'll be here," Shizune nodded, standing as well. She had the gut feeling that this was either the best decision she'd ever made in her life, or the worst. Or both, somehow. Ah, well, too late now. At least the doctor was cute, if not a little bit (lot) effeminate and slightly fruity. It was part of his charm.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Shimenawa-sensei," she smiled with a little bow, waving as she turned to leave. And then she was off to buy scrubs and search around a little more for word on Tsunade before going grocery shopping and finally going home to make a bite to eat. No rest for the weary. Ah, well, at least job hunting hadn't been nearly as difficult as she thought it would be.
-----
It was just going to be Shimenawa's day, it seemed.
Shortly after Shizune left glowing like she'd just lost her virginity all over again, a certain Kubutsu Sakumo was lurking outside the clinic, doing something between sulking, pacing, and staring down the front door. Over the past few weeks he'd gone jet skiing, hang gliding, snowboarding, and even mountain biking but none of it had done anything to him. At the end of the day, he still wanted to go home and curl up in Shimenawa's arms but he just couldn't because... because he'd been so painfully stupid there was no way he could look Shimenawa in the eyes. He had presents for everyone. They were in a bag he was clutching to his chest. He just had to work up the nerve to knock on the door and deal with whoever answered and--oh fuck that. The only person he wanted to see right now was Shimenawa because Shimenawa was the only one he thought he could even begin to face. So he did what he did best and snuck around under the windows until he heard Shimenawa go into the bedroom for some reason or another, possibly to change after closing the clinic. Then he crawled back in through the window he'd crawled out of, trying his very best not to have an anxiety attack on the spot.
"...Sunshine?" he asked quietly, voice cracking slightly as he spoke because oh, fuck, he was nervous.
Shimenawa instantly dropped the shirt he was holding, not to mention the book he'd tucked under his arm. It thumped sharply against the floor as the blue button-down shirt drifted down to drape over it haphazardly.
He wasn't quite sure whether it was a good idea to turn around or not.
"Kumo...?" he murmured after a long moment, glancing back a little warily, as though half-worried that he was dreaming, or maybe just hallucinating from the stress. Perhaps Kakashi was wearing off on him.
He just blinked at the man for a second, a little wide-eyed and incredulous; and finally laughed just a little bit, and pursed his lips and furrowed his brow and smiled.
"...Hi," he murmured, feeling like the good kind of tired for the first time in a while.
"Hey," Kumo whispered back, actually managing a small smile as relief flooded through him. Shimenawa wasn't angry with him, even though he had every right to be. His Sunshine really was a saint.
"...I came back," he added after a second's thought, just in case Shimenawa hadn't noticed. Kumo was too busy being relieved to do much thinking right then.
Shimenawa laughed a little again, slightly giddy. "You came back," he agreed, and glanced between the man and the fallen objects for half a second before picking up the shirt to fling on the bed, and hesitating for a second, and then walking over to pull Kumo into a tight hug whether he liked it or not. "In one piece, even," he said against the other man's shoulder, voice wobbling just slightly with relief and an incredulous sort of happiness.
"Yeah, I tried to do stupid things while I was gone," Kumo began quietly, wrapping his arms around Shimenawa just as tightly in return, "but not having you around to scold me for them took all the flavor out of it." For a little while, he just let himself enjoy having Shimenawa in his arms again, enjoy the way the other felt in his arms and the sound of his breathing and the way he smelled--did Kumo detect the faint aroma of peaches?
"I... um," he laughed a little embarrassedly to himself, "I tried to find you an apology card, but apparently no one makes anything in the vein of 'I'm sorry I'm such a fuck-up', so I got you something else to help me grovel for your forgiveness instead."
"You don't have to grovel," Shimenawa murmured, turning his face downward against Kumo's neck as he pulled his arms up underneath the other man's to clutch at his shoulders. "Just don't... move..." because... because he didn't want Kumo to go anywhere really ever again if they could avoid it and because actually, if he was perfectly honest with himself, he felt a wee bit faint all of a sudden, god he was such a girl. Kumo was going to have him cooking dinner in a frilly pink apron yet, the ass.
Kumo was feeling a little bit faint himself, never having expected Shimenawa to miss him that much. As far as he knew, he was the kind of guy everyone remembered but no one missed, which made him the perfect army man, but now... He let his backpack slip off his shoulder and drop to the ground, bringing his hands to Shimenawa's shoulders as well. Then he simply kissed his Sunshine, kissed him sweetly, then deeply, with as much passion and--oh, god, I've missed you--longing as he knew how. When his eyes closed, tears slipped out of his previously watering eyes and transfered on to Shimenawa's cheeks, but Kumo couldn't bring himself to care. So he was crying. His Sunshine was worth a few tears, was worth far more than a few, little tears.
It was a while before their lips parted, and Shimenawa smiled a little again as he stepped back slightly, wiping Kumo's tears off his cheeks and then, carefully, off Kumo's own. He couldn't even express the unimaginable relief he felt -- that Kumo was still okay, that he was still trying to take care of himself, that Shimenawa himself hadn't completely screwed everything up for good. He just paused, took a deep breath, and moved over a couple steps to flop down bonelessly on the bed, taking one of Kumo's hands with him.
"I'm really... really glad to see you," he said, smile widening a little, as he swallowed against a rather tight throat.
"I'm glad you're glad to see me," Kumo laughed quietly, crawling onto the bed after him, tugging the other into his arms once more because there was nothing he'd missed more than holding Shimenawa. "I was going to come back sooner but... I'm still the world's biggest coward and I didn't know if you were going to be mad at me or something so I... sat outside and tried to come up with the right things to say and... I don't know. I came up with something, but I guess I don't need it after all. Because I'm the luckiest man alive... and I think I've beat out a lot of the dead ones, too."
"Flattery will get you nowhere," Shimenawa informed him, and laughed once, a little breathlessly, as he leaned his weight slightly against the other man. He slung an arm around Kumo again with a quiet sigh.
"Of course I'm not mad at you. It was as much my fault as it was anyone's... I could've thought of something less stupid to say. I've just been... worried," he admitted, knowing it tended to irritate Kumo to some extent, but it was the truth. Kumo had left behind the majority of his self-destructive habits from his younger years, but that didn't mean he was incapable of ever starting any of them up again, if provided with the right impetus. Shimenawa would do just about anything, he thought, if it meant not ever having to see the man anything but stable and safe and at least halfway happy, or well, at least anything better than the way he'd been in high school.
"No need to worry anymore," Kumo reassured, finding one of Shimenawa's hands with his own, "If I've learned anything these last few months, it's that getting yourself killed isn't likely to solve anything. I'd probably just be just as bad as a fuck-up in my next life, and I'd be without you. Best I can hope to do is get things right this time around while I've still got my very own angel." He pressed a kiss against Shimenawa's forehead then. "That's not to say I won't go sky diving or eat foods that are going to stop my heart, but no more cutting myself open for me. ... That make you feel any better, Sunshine?"
"Hm. Well." Shimenawa smiled an idle, slightly mischievous smile as he squeezed the other man's hand, gazing off thoughtfully in the general direction of the bedsheets. All the tension and worry of the past couple weeks not knowing what the hell Kumo might be doing just seemed to drain steadily out of him. "I suppose you have my permission as a qualified medical professional to occasionally eat foods that are going to give you a heart attack, if you make me cookies."
He paused and shifted so his head was resting in the crook of Kumo's neck again, blonde hair tickling the other man's nose, and gave a quiet sigh.
"And it does, in fact," he murmured, still smiling.
"Of course I'll make you cookies, Sunshine," Kumo laughed lightly back, running his hands along Shimenawa's sides, "but only once in a while because it'd be a crime to ruin your figure." It had been hard for him to omit the word 'girlish' before 'figure', but he managed. He was getting better. There was a thoughtful pause on Kumo's part.
"...now be honest with me, Sunshine," he began, voice no less light and somewhat teasing, "Have you been cheating on me while I've been gone?"
"Oh yes. Repeatedly. With your hot tub," Shimenawa said deadpan, poking Kumo gently in the chest. "We're planning on eloping next week." He didn't think to mention the new secretary -- it wasn't like he'd actually had any designs on her, after all.
"Ah, so not with the pretty young lady I saw flouncing out of the clinic earlier?" Kumo grinned, prodding back, "She's a little old to be a patient and a little too young to be a parent, isn't she?"
"Oh--" The doctor blinked and then grinned himself, a little abashedly, as he wondered just how long Kumo had been hanging around. "That's Shizune. I just hired her on as a secretary for the clinic, starting tomorrow. I think she'll be good with the kids," he added happily.
"Well, if she won you over, she must be good with kids," Kumo agreed, giving Shimenawa a playful nuzzle.
"Somehow I'm not sure whether that's a compliment or not," Shimenawa laughed, shifting around to give Kumo another quick kiss on the cheek.
"I'm sure it eventually translates to a compliment," Kumo joked back, catching Shimenawa's lips in a proper kiss before the other had a chance to fully retreat. They enjoyed it leisurely, Shimenawa humming in contentment against the other man's lips before he finally pulled back, and then slowly away, shifting toward the edge of the bed with a luxurious stretch.
"Mmm... well. Much as it would be nice to stay here all day long..." he began, glancing back toward Kumo slightly hesitantly, "it's about dinner time, you know, and um... the boys are still here?"
"Must you?" Kumo pouted, clinging to Shimenawa's middle, "Take a day off from being a mom. Tell Kakashi to magic some dinner and... and... Obito can eat the cakes I brought him."
"You brought cake?" Shimenawa laughed, momentarily resisting the urge to hug right back. "It doesn't have to take too long, but I don't want to just leave them to themselves in there. Obito still needs to replace a lot of nutrients, and who knows what Kakashi would conjure up. I don't want to bother him with it anyway." The always-scatterbrained kitsune didn't need anything else to confuse himself over, even if it was just the task of coming up with an evening meal Shimenawa would approve of. He had no idea what kind of toll using those powers might take on Kakashi, anyway.
"And besides, if you feel up to it..." He reached down to touch one of Kumo's hands again, speaking gently. "You should come say hi."
"...you didn't see Obito murdering the pillow after he wrote my name over the front of it in marker?" Kumo coughed a little nervously, shaking his head, "I'll wait in here. You... you can bring them their presents, if you'd like?" He found his backpack again and rummage through it until he found the box of small, decorative cakes he had bought at the fancy little cake shop in Rain country.
"That's for Obito... now what did I get for Kakashi again?" he mumbled to himself as he kept digging. His hands closed around something cold and plastic. "...a puppy-print sippy cup with... organic apple juice?" he gaped as he pulled it out, "Why on earth did I get this for Kakashi? ...when did I get this for Kakashi?" Slapping himself on the forehead with his palm, he shook his head and set the cup back down.
"I guess the boys can share the cakes if Obito can be bothered to?"
Shimenawa raised one slightly questioning brow at Kumo, but couldn't help laughing all the same. "Well, he gets juice out of the deal?" the doctor offered with a snicker as he picked up the proffered gifts, setting them down on the bed next to his lap. He glanced back at the other man one more time.
"Are you sure? You're going to have to do this eventually, you know," he murmured. "But if it's too much for right now, I understand. You can just hang out in here and I'll come back in a little bit and bring us some food too."
"I think I'll give Obito a few more days to get beating things named me into oblivion out of his system," Kumo smiled sheepishly, neglecting to mention that seeing Kakashi probably terrified him just as much as seeing him terrified Kakashi. "But yeah, I'll be here, Sunshine. I still gotta give you your present, so shoo. And come back soon."
"All right." Shimenawa shook his head and grinned a little as he picked up the unusual pair of presents, heading toward the bedroom door. "See you later, then. Don't do anything I wouldn't do," he advised cheerfully, pushing the door partway open with his foot.
"Oh--" He turned back for a second, looking slightly embarrassed. "And um, if you need the toilet, you might want to sneak over to the one down the hall, the master bathroom is still a bit of a mess." He gave a small, apologetic smile before turning away again. "Later," he murmured as the door closed behind him.