Shizune was nervous as she walked into the Tower on Kakashi's first day as Hokage. Serving Tsunade-sama was second nature to her as she'd been doing it for most of her life, but as much as she hated to admit it, she'd had a slight crush on Kakashi as a child. He was always so stoic and strong and effortlessly impressive, but he used to walk around with this arrogance that could be off-putting. She was infatuated with his genius, but his attitude was so deflating. The Kakashi she met when she returned was so different. Still just as impressive, still a man of few words, but gone was the arrogance, the bravado. His countenance was reserved but almost forlorn, easily mistaken as lackadaisical and lazy. Shizune deduced that it was mostly an act, though, as she rarely had to repeat herself when discussing their daily briefings, and he managed to complete his work in a timely manner (an act much like the Nara shinobi who began working there, she observed.)
She found out from other shinobi about what happened to him since she left on her journey - his losses, his heartbreak. She tried very hard to be discrete, so as to not raise any eyebrows. She was thankful that Sandaime's intervention had prevented the complete hardening of Kakashi's character, and it seemed the optimistic naivete of his students soothed his soul, slowly but surely.
"He was still a bit of an ass, though," she thought as she remembered hearing about the number of students he'd failed along the way.
But she quickly shook away thoughts of an unprofessional nature around him. She was supposed to be his assistant, and this wasn't a fairytale. But her resolve wasn't going to make it any easier to constantly be around him.
"Get to work, Shizu," she snapped at herself, pouting at herself for getting so distracted.
They saw quite a bit of each other as she was his assistant and became a de facto advisor as he talked out mission assignments and political scenarios with her. With Tsunade-sama, these conversations were reserved for the elders, but Kakashi seemed to treat her as a sounding board, an equal.
She took great care in referring to him with the respect warranted in his position, though, and while he'd asked her many times to drop the formalities and speak with familiarity, it was her way of putting up a wall between her professional duties and personal feelings. Eventually, after a number of reminders and narrow-eyed glances from him, she'd loosened up on the honorifics.
Even through her conscious efforts to be professional, Shizune had a difficult time controlling her temper on some days, and her shield would crack. She'd get angry at someone for not submitting reports on time or not taking as much rest as she'd prescribed to them after a mission, but usually in the safety of her office. Unfortunately for her, she was located across the hallway from Kakashi's office when she wasn't researching new medical ninjutsu, and sometimes, when a team of ninja piled in with their cursory reports, he could hear her mutter a string of curses.
He'd always looked over her in the past, not really seeing the point in getting to know his peers, and they had limited contact when she'd returned with Tsunade from their travels. It was only when he received assignments, gave mission reports or provided briefings that Kakashi saw her, normally off to one side in the room. He had his own haunts around the village where he congregated with his few friends, and Shizune was still trying to acclimate into not being a nomad at the time. He noticed every now and again that she'd shift uncomfortably when he walked into a room or get flustered when she noticed his presence, but he assumed that she was just anxious in her environment or stressed out with the amount of work that she suddenly had to do.
It wasn't until a particularly calm encounter during his first month as Hokage that Kakashi realized how sweetly she smiled. It wasn't toothy or over-the-top like some, and there was a sincerity in the way she closed her eyes and slightly tilted her head. He realized that he'd rarely seen her smile before, and mostly decades previously. Shizune was generally so serious with furrowed brows and frowns that the brightness of her countenance when she smiled caught him slightly off-guard. She was speaking to him about how it was a generally peaceful day and that he could have an early evening if he'd like, and he wasn't going to argue with the time off.
"I wonder why I've never noticed her smile before," Kakashi thought as she retreated back to her office across the hallway, "Ah, well, not important. Early day for me."
Kakashi began noticing more little things about Shizune due to the proximity afforded to him with work. It took him a while to look beyond her role as his assistant and see her as a woman. He became comfortable with their work-dynamic and didn't think too much about personal things. Of course he'd noticed how she'd become an adult during her time away, but she was so business-like that he'd rarely taken the second glance. He should have noticed sooner. There was something so demure about the way she carried herself, but, boy, could she lose it with that temper sometimes. It was that paradox that intrigued him - meek yet fierce.
She would ask him around lunchtime how his day was going (even though she had to know his schedule already), and make comments about events occurring in the village that he might want to attend - small festivals, sake-tastings, theatrical showings, or the like. He would ask her about her hospital shifts on the occasions that she had them, justifying this strange interest in someone else's goings-on as part of his duties as Hokage. These soon led to stray comments from her about who she went to lunch with that day or a difficult case she was working on (with anonymized patient info, of course). Kakashi would occasionally interject with vague remarks about her lunch companions more questionable behaviours in the past, and sometimes she felt decidedly envious of how close their cohort had become while she was away.
"No sense in crying over spilled milk," Shizune chided herself, "You're not really a late-nights, bar-type anyway."
On a more work-related note, she made sure he was on top of everything by keeping his daily briefings informative yet concise and not bogging him down with too many unnecessary details. Shizune had finally gotten some assistants of her own and made sure that the admin office was in ship-shape with her at the helm, and she'd perfected the art of making it look effortless. But it wasn't just basic office help that she provided. Her mind was a lockbox, and her analytical skills could rival his own. She was insightful in her assessment of geopolitics while managing to maintain compassion for the people involved in a way that always escaped him.
Where professional blurred into personal was on the rare days that she got a bit too close to him during those daily briefings or leaned forward a bit too much while conferring over documents. He was never very good with proximity to others - usually because he favoured his space and solitude, but it seemed he had never gotten used to quiet company either. During the occasional incident when he would drift off, indulging himself in a bit of risqué daydreaming, Shizune's confused expression would normally be greeting him when he regained his train of thought.
"Well, this is unexpected," Kakashi mused, paying more attention to the scrolls Shizune had pulled out before she walked away to handle other tasks, "She's not my type at all."
Thank you again treyabarton for the beta read on this! We're going back to the beginning for a bit here, so it's not going to be as squee-y as some of the other sections, but I'm hoping to keep things interesting while still adding some substance, :) Also, I love all of your comments, follows, and favs! As my first posted story, it's nice to have encouragement, and I'm so, so sorry I left it hanging for almost two years! *sweatdrop*