It'd been about nine months since Kakashi had passed away. Shanan still often felt like a shell of herself, but she was smiling more. The kids seemed to be doing a lot better than she was. They were on squads and were going on missions now.

Sasuke was still staying with them and sleeping on the couch and Shanan was still falling asleep with him. She often had dreams related to Sasuke. Sometimes they were complicated and romantic. But other nights she dreamed from Sasuke's point of view. Sometimes she even dreamed that she was staring at herself. She was so beautiful, more so than she actually was, and glowing bright everytime. She kept trying to reach out to herself, but everytime, she'd turn into water and slip through her own fingers. Everytime, she wanted to say something important, she wasn't sure what, but nothing would come out. However, she was still happy just to see herself and to be near herself.

Here lately, she'd had to stop herself from feeling flustered around him. Sometimes when she woke up and he was still asleep, she couldn't stop staring at him. Ever since the day he'd helped her to get out of bed, she knew that he'd saved her. And she had always thought him to be handsome. He had a nice smile that only a very select few people ever really got to see, and his eyes were really nice. He had this really lovely soft side that seemed to have been reserved just for her and the kids, and it hadn't gone at all unnoticed. Either way, she woke up smiling more than she didn't.

She had a lot of visitors for some time. Of course Sasuke and Naruto were there for her and the kids a lot. But so were Neji, Lee and even Shikamaru. Lee even brought Guy over several times to visit and cry with her. Which she really appreciated. He and Kakashi had always been great friends and she still thought of him as an old teammate more so than her Sensei sometimes.

Shikamaru had dropped everything to come and sit with Shanan once when Sasuke and Naruto had gone back to the hideout where Kakashi had died to make sure there wasn't anything Sasuke had missed. And she was glad to have him there as a friend. He saw Kakashi more than she did for a while and he even showed her a few memories of him and Kakashi talking about their families so that she could see how fondly he always spoke of her and the twins when he was away from them. It really meant a lot to her.

But even when people stopped coming around as much, she still had Naruto who stopped by every evening to check on her and tell her he loved her. And Sasuke, who did everything for her and the kids, which she appreciated, but it also made her feel kinda bad. He deserved more than to be stuck helping her all the time. He'd lived with them for so long when he could've been out living his own life. Shanan wanted him there, but she felt bad that he was.

They had just laid on the couch together and Shanan felt safe and comforted, but she didn't want to hold him back ever. So she brought it up finally.

"Sasuke?" she asked a bit weakly.

"Yeah?"

"Um..." she didn't want to say it. "You know you don't have to keep helping me, right?" She looked up at him to gauge his reaction.

"Mmhmm." He looked amused, which wasn't the reaction she thought he'd have.

Shanan leaned back a little. "Then why do you? Don't you wanna just go and live your life?"

"I'm living the life I wanna live, Shanan. I'm always happy to spend time with you and the kids, I always have been."

"But why? Don't you want your own kids?" she asked a bit sadly.

Sasuke smiled at her. "Shanan, I've thought of these kids as my own since the day I helped you deliver and bring them into the world. They both even have Sharingan, which they ultimately got from me."

Shanan smiled fondly at that. "That's true."

Sasuke looked at her seriously. "They're not really mine, I know, but I'll always love them like they are. I'm used to it..." he said a bit helplessly.

Shanan looked up at him again. She still couldn't read him, but for some reason she didn't think that he meant the kids.

They sat quietly for a bit while Shanan decided whether or not to bring up another subject she had been considering.

"Hey... So, I've been thinking," she said tentatively. "Maybe we should move."

"Really?" he asked, surprised.

She nodded, though she was still a bit unsure. "Yeah. If you're gonna stay with us, maybe we can get a bigger place in the village. You can have your own space and still be with us."

"Why? We'd just end up on the couch," he said as he laughed.

She smiled a little and then frowned. "Maybe we won't. It's just hard to not be sad here," she said shakily as she started tearing up. "This house just feels so much like Kakashi. He's in everything. I feel him everywhere and it just hurts so much that he isn't actually here when it feels like he should be." Her face started shaking and she couldn't stop it.

Sasuke pulled her into his chest and stroked her hair. She didn't cry as much these days, but it still broke him every single time that she did. "You're right. If you want to, we can look tomorrow."

"So you do wanna still live with us?" she asked, still crying.

He nodded against her. "I promise I'm not going anywhere. I always feel more at home when I'm with you guys anyway." He squeezed her even tighter as he rested his face on the top of her head. Kakashi had asked Sasuke to take care of her, to make her happy again, so if his staying would make her happy then he'd stay. If moving would make her happy then he'd help her move. Even if they did still end up sleeping on the couch together.

"I'm glad you like being with me, Sasuke, I like being with you too," she said as she scooted close to him comfortably.

He smiled as he held her close to him and closed his eyes.

The next morning they went into the village to look for a bigger house together. Naruto sent them some help and they looked at a few places, but decided they were all too small. The twins were only taking up more and more space and Shanan wanted to be closer to Naruto and Hinata and all of their other friends.

After a few weeks they'd finally found the perfect home. This one was two stories and really big with four bedrooms and three bathrooms.

"You don't think three bathrooms is a lot?" Sasuke asked her jokingly.

"What? No. You don't like it?" she asked incredulously.

"No, I like it. I think the twins'll both like it and enjoy being closer to everything. And the rooms are all a nice size too, so I don't think they'll fight over them." he told her. "I think we should get it."

"Me too. I can see us all here," she said hopefully as she went and put her arm around him.

It took three months for everything to be finalized, but a little over a year after losing Kakashi, they were ready to move into their new home.