Miracle
Beta-ed by Hgirl69
He's dying and he knows it.
Each breathe is harder to take, and more shallow. The air barely wheezes when passing into his throat now. The poison hidden within the vapor of the thermal sources where he had to fight earlier is asphyxiating him, slowly destroying his lungs. He coughs, and it's only adding blood to the already soaked ground under him.
He's going to die, unless a miracle happen.
But he knows that whatever god or gods up there are not too keen on doing miracles for people of his kind. He kills, he murders, and he lives in vice everyday. I do that to protect! But, somehow, it doesn't seem enough.
He shudders violently, an effect of both the blood loss and of the suffocation. He doesn't expect the guys on his heels to have dogs or tracking jutsu, but he's ready for anything. Those guys weren't supposed to be there in the first place.
He's ready to spend his last breath fighting them and dying. Because, it was as if he was already dead anyway. And every breath he takes could very well be his last. All he knows about Konohagakure, way too much for just one man, he's ready to take it to the grave; he has to take it to the grave.
And his name will finally end on the monument, along with so many others.
His vision gets blurry and black around the edges. He can't get enough oxygen out of the air to pass into what's left of his blood to remain conscious anymore.
He's cold. He's sweating. He's dying.
He needs to get his last known position to Konoha, for them to destroy his body and his secrets, and for them to retrieve the documents he still holds. The now blood-stained documents he's keeping in his slashed vest. He can't do anything; he doesn't have enough chakra left for a summoning jutsu, if he could even move to do one in the first place. In fact, he doesn't have any chakra left, and the chakra depletion is adding its own strain to his body, adding its effects to the blood loss and the asphyxia caused by the poison.
He's dying and he knows it.
He doesn't fear death. She has become one bitchy old acquaintance, one he is sure to meet regularly; almost an old friend. He's lost count of the number of time he stood in front of her doors, just to be called back to life. He had lost count of the number of people he'd sent through those doors. He'd lost count of the number of people he knew who had passed those same doors.
This time, it seems like she will have him for good. He isn't afraid.
At least, he isn't afraid of death. But he regrets one thing.
That he'd fought with the person who meant everything to him before going on this mission. That he never had the chance to tell him goodbye; that he will never have that chance now. That he never told this person that he means everything to him.
He knows he should have never let him become so important in his own life. He doesn't know if that's love or not. It's a little too late to wonder.
He's dying, and he knows that no miracle will come to save him this time.
He's convulsing, desperate for some air. He's slipping into a black nothingness there, hidden under a rock, lying on the cold blood soaked ground, and his last thought is I'm sorry, I'm sorry Iruka….
He doesn't hear the footsteps or the cries.
There is a soft hissing sound of oxygen near by, and also a slow and steady blipping typical of hospital machinery.
There's light, bright light that can be seen even behind closed eyelids.
There's someone softly humming a low tune.
There's a feeling of okay-ness.
He doubts that he fell into the hands of the bad guys. It doesn't feel like he's a prisoner. And, somehow he doubts that death looks like that.
Tentatively, to test his strength, he cracks open an eyelid; the right one of course.
There's only one person here beside him, and he could recognize that ponytail anywhere.
Iruka stops humming, and lifts his head. Warm brown eyes meet his single grey one.
Iruka smiles and that means everything to him.
Iruka rises from his seat, and presses his lips against uncovered ones before whispering against them.
"Good to have you back Kakashi."
Iruka, Kakashi decides, will know very soon that he means everything to him.
Hatake Kakashi closes back his eye. Even for people totally lost like him, miracles do happen.
…was supposed to be a deathfic, but I didn't want to drown my computer under my tears, so I added the last part. Not related to any of my current fic – though I thought at the beginning of placing it somewhere in Light the Way
Beta-ed by hgirl69, thanks a lot.