**Summary for the Chapter:**
Anko finds medical attention from an unlikely source.
Awkward bed time arrangements and mixed signals lead to frustration.
Also very full of cursing too.
Anko, Kakashi and Pakun looked up at the sign.
"You're joking?" Anko said, a pitch higher than usual.
Pakkun, tilted his head appealing to Kakashi.
"You said she needed urgent medical attention, boss."
"I'll walk it off-"
Kakashi grabbed Anko forcefully by the shoulders, and began to march her towards the building.
"You- can't-walk- off-a-broken-wrist-Anko," every word was punctuated with a little shove.
"It needs to be set immediately. Come on, I've had to do this before with another ...nin."
"Who?!" Anko asked, eyes narrowing with suspicion, as she resisted.
Exchanging a long look with Pakkun behind her back, silent understanding passed between them.
"Classified-" Kakashi said with a final shove, which launched her into the empty waiting room.
"Good morning, Dotori Animal Hospital General, how may I help you?"
The receptionist ignored them, holding out a finger indicating that they should wait. Anko gave Kakashi a dirty look. Taking a seat, she began flicking through a magazine, occasionally giving him a look of resentment as she huffed and sulked. His lips twitched under the mask as he fought laughter.
**It really is the gift that keeps on giving... **
"Yes...yes. No, I'm afraid you will need to make a double appointment if you would like that procedure."
Kakashi waited patiently as the receptionist finished the call. Turning away from him with disinterest, she began to fuss with files which looked to have every appearance of being perfectly organised.
"Excuse me."
"Yes? How may I help you?"
**Time for the charm offensive.**
"I wonder if you could," he said, as he swooped Pakkun up in his arms. "My dog is very unwell, and I would like to see a vet right away please."
Frowning, the receptionist looked up at Kakashi before she registered the odd apparel. Eyes flitted between one and the other, widening in recognition. His hold on Pakkun tightened, and boy, did Kakashi know he would have hell to pay later.
At the prompt, Pakkun held a paw up to his mouth and coughed in a very un-canine like way.
"But you're leaf sh-"
Kakashi put a finger to his lips conspiratorially, as he pretended to look around in case non-existent clients were eavesdropping.
"It is a matter of importance," he whispered with intensity, as he held her gaze. " I would really, really appreciate it if we could be seen."
**Sold! And without genjutsu.**
Ignoring the phone, she ushered them into a clinic room inflated with self-importance and keen to be part of the machinations of the leaf shinobi network. Within minutes she had shoved the vet into the room, dabbing at tea stains on his coat as he had clearly been at lunch.
The vet was pleasant enough. If he was surprised to be treating leaf-shinobi he didn't show it. Leaving them to get a copy of the x-ray, Kakashi heard a clattering sound.
"Can you take a seat already?" Kakashi snapped, as he snatched something from Anko's hand.
He was now holding the remaining part of the model skeleton of a lizard. The rest of the model had been disseminated. Kakashi groaned as he surveyed the damage.
"I think it was like that already," she said solemnly.
At least Anko had the grace to look guilty as she took the tail from him, arranging the pieces in a pile before laying a paper towel over it and making a face.
"Sit. Down. Now." He growled into her ear, as he steered her towards a seat.
"Is it a matter of importance and would you really, really appreciate it, Kakashi?" she teased, as she perched on the edge of her seat. With a look from him she placed a finger on her lips promising to say no more, sinking more deeply.
Pakkun wheezed with laughter.
**Man is she annoying.**
Kakashi's instincts were right. Anko's had perforated ear drums, a sprained neck and a broken wrist that had required resetting. Now she had her left arm in a plaster cast from hand to elbow, the vet had to cut her jumper to in order to fit receptionist had let them out of the back door, bowing deeply which they returned continuing the farce. Slipping his bag over his shoulders.
"Do you need help with your bag?" He regretted it immediately.
"No," Anko huffed, struggling to sling her bag on." I don't need help with my bag actually."
"Thanks for your help Pakkun," she said pointedly. "Good bye for now."
"What did I say?!" Kakashi called after her.
Pakkun gave him a look halfway between pity and amusement, as he inclined his head.
"Boss."
With a poof of smoke, Kakashi was alone.
Again, another unrelenting journey as Anko raced ahead of him, half- ignoring him. And Kakashi was more than relieved to see the town ahead. The first inn at the edge of the town was crowded, alive with customers despite the late hour. Looking from Kakashi to Anko, taking in their appearance she hesitated
"I'm afraid we have only one room left," she said politely." It is a double. Would that be suitable?"
"Yes-"
"No, let's try somewhere else."
"You can try somewhere else my friend," she said stubbornly, as she jutted out her chin. "I'm staying right here. I'm starving and they have a restaurant."
"Fine" he said, resolve crumbling. The inn keeper nodded, with some trepidation signaled a porter over. They thanked her and followed him to their room. Anko ducked into the bathroom as Kakashi surveyed the room scratching his head.
**Definitely only one bed.**
"I'm having a shower."
"Shall I wait in the restaurant?" Anko ducked her head out and looked at him.
"Um...could I have some help first?"
**Help?**
"Can you cut off my sweater?"
"Are you going to ignore me for three hours' if I do?" He teased. "I mean, that would be an incentive if anything."
Anko pursed her lips.
"No," she said, artfully. "I asked for your help, so there was no assumption that I needed help. Do you see the distinction Hatake?"
"Oh, yes." Kakashi nodded, sagely. "Great, big distinction... Huge."
"Just cut it off jackass. I'm never going to get it over my neck."
**What are you waiting for?**
Taking a kunai from his weapons pouch, he hesitated before lifting the cut made at the sleeve by the vet.
"It's only a sweater, for fuck sake."
"Fine."
**Am I literally ripping clothes off Anko Mitarashi?**
Holding a towel over her chest, a network of colourful bruises and cuts revealed themselves as her shoulders, arms appeared. Wrapping it round herself removing the remains of the sweater, dumping it unceremoniously into the waste bin.
"Thanks."
"No worries," he was almost out of the door when-
"-Kakashi!"
Anko was clearly grappling with something as she chewed on her bottom lip.
"Could you wash my hair?" She whispered. "Please?"
**Well, that was unexpected. How much had that cost her?**
"-Or don't - I mean you're the one hanging out with me all the way back to the village."
"I would be delighted," Kakashi said rather graciously, as he pocketed the kunai and began to remove his gloves.
"But can you not look so delighted about it?" She muttered, with a scowl. "It's sickening." The grin broadened, under the mask.
Taking a seat on the rim of the bath, she cradled the cast with her good arm resting it in her lap. Pushing the sleeves of his own sweater, he tested the water before applying it to her hair. Anko tipped her head back and winced.
"Here."
Snaking a hand round to support her neck. Closing her eyes, he felt her relax, although her mouth was pulled into a perpetual pout. That same scent that he had smelt at the club, and the lab filled the bathroom as he gently lathered and rinsed her hair, finding a childish delight in seeing and being the catalyst for change. Returning the shower head to the cradle he stood up and stretched.
"Thanks."
"You're welcome."
Anko rolled her eyes at the needless politeness, but he saw it - the small smile that lingered.
Picking a booth away from the other patrons, behind a plant, he had pulled a screen to block the table for good measure. Stomach grumbling, he satisfied himself with the salty, crisp seaweed they kept at the tables to encourage you to drink. Finally she emerged in a jumper the sleeve stretched mercilessly over the cast and that orange skirt she normally wore without the body armour. Spotting him, she stood at the entrance of the fort before she waded through, battling with the plant and screen as she pretended to wipe her brow from exhaustion.
"Alright," he laughed. "Just sit down, clown town. "
Slipping into the booth across, probably intending to sit cross-legged at first, then as an afterthought she shifted into a more demure position but it was too late, he had seen already seen tiniest flash of black at odds with the colour of her skirt, and bare thighs.
**Dear god, why me?**
"It smells so good!" At a volume much louder than necessary, as she grabbed a menu. "What are you having?"
"Miso soup with eggplant, some fish, rice maybe."
"Really?" Anko was aghast. "That's what you want to eat after all those ration bars for days on end?!"
"What's wrong with that?"
A waiter approached their table, barely in to his twenties but Kakashi noted that he was already taller and broader than him. Hesitating at the edge of the table, he waited but Anko beckoned him closer.
"Excuse me," he said, blushing profusely. "Are you ready to order?"
Anko gave Kakashi a mischievous grin, then a little wink.
**Oh boy.**
"Mmm, it's so hard." Waiting patiently, the waiter had a pen poised over his notepad.
"Have you worked here long Jin?" As she studied his name badge.
"J-just this summer."
"Are you enjoying it?" Anko asked, feigning innocence. "Do you get big tips?"
Kakashi snorted, which soon turned into a hacking cough after Anko's withering stare. How was it humanly possible for the waiter to turn a brighter shade of red?
"Y-yes...um, I mean sometimes," Jin said, making a gesture halfway between a shrug and a nod, as he dropped and fumbled for his pen. "Should I come back?"
Anko's eyes widened and shook her head in mock offense, as she handed Jin back his pen. Kakashi had opened his mouth to order, then even tried waving but it was hopeless as the waiter was still at Anko's feet, attention diverted.
"There are just so many things that look good enough to eat." Anko's eyes slid off the menu, and at a glacial speed her gaze came up to meet his. Kakashi's jaw went slack with her audacity.
"I-I- would recommend the yakiniku, madam."
"Miss," Anko corrected him, snapping her menu shut. She yanked Kakashi's menu out of his hand too, then held them out for the waiter.
"That sounds perfect," she murmured. "My colleague and I will both have that. Thank you."
The waiter lit the barbeque, then bowed and hurried away with the menus.
"What?" She asked, as she took a sip of Kakashi's sake.
"You're unbelievable."
"I just like them young ones," she said, with a devious grin.
The food came quickly and Kakashi could feel his jaw dropping again. Anko's outrageous flirting had been awarded with a portion twice the size of Kakashi's.
"This looks delicious," she said gratefully. "Could we have some more sake Jin?"
"Sure," the waiter was delighted, emboldened by her attention he lingered. Inviting Jin to speak she raised her eyebrows and another flirtatious smile.
"I'm sorry," He said. "It's just. Wow - you're a shinobi?"
"Yeah," Kakashi said. "Suuuuuuure she is." Then to Jin, screened behind his hand - in a stage whisper.
"We just like to let her join in, buddy."
Maintaining her winning smile at the waiter, she poked Kakashi mercilessly with her chopstick.
"Forgive my much, much, much, much older colleague. He's you know-" winding her finger at her temple, as she said it "on the brink of retirement."
Jin laughed heartily before leaving - crushing so hard. Diving in with gusto, she picked up a large piece of capsicum but suddenly stopped, flapping sadly between her chopsticks.
"What?"
"I'm just waiting."
"Waiting for what?"
"To see how you're going to negotiate a BBQ with a mask on," she said..
"Don't you think it adds a certain something?" Kakashi asked with a heavy sigh. Anko shrugged.
"I've already seen those rosy cheeks..." she said, with a sly, artful smile. "Both sets as she pretended she had landed a jackpot. "Ker-ching."
**Of course she had.**
"Oh well," Kakashi said. "I'm sure it was a poor return on how much I saw of you, at the club."
**Check mate.**
Anko had definitely turned red now and it couldn't all be attributed to the BBQ raging in front of them. Hooking a finger into the mask he pulled it down in one go.
"Happy now?"
"Ecstatic," she said, recovering quickly.
"You know there's a little pool going at work-"
Kakashi raised an eyebrow.
"-About what was under that mask."
"Yeah?" He said, looking at her with interest.
"I had money on a hideous piercing and that was a conservative suggestion!"
Was it the rate that they were sinking sake that made Kakashi want to unseat her so badly?
"Nope, no piercings..." Kakashi said, as he took a sip of sake. "Disappointed?"
"Well," she shot back. "I guess only half wrong." With a sideways smirk.
**Such a little bitch.**
He scratched his nose pointedly with his middle finger, making her laugh raucously before reaching towards the tower of food in front of her.
"Ow!" He yelped, as he rubbed his hand."What was that for?!"
"Hands off Hatake!" She said menacingly, as she brandished her chopsticks. " I'm saving this for Pakkun."
"Pakkun?!" Kakashi was incredulous.
"Do you think he's going to let you hold him for a bit of beef?"
"Yes," she said through another mouthful of food.
"You have terrible table manners," he said, as he held a hand up for more sake. "Did you know that?
"Kakashi." He ignored her.
"Kakashi. Kak-"
"What?!"
Chopsticks hung out of her mouth like fangs.
"Hilarious," he said, with an eye roll, but again mouth twitched all the same.
Kakashi wasn't sure how it happened but they had regressed, displaying a lack of maturity that Kakashi had never known. The rest of the meal was easy, fun even, and he found that he actually enjoyed her company.
Jin had come back, hesitating as though didn't want to interrupt. Almost as if marshalling his courage he placed it in front of Anko before backing away. She smiled then pushed the bill over to Kakashi.
"We're not splitting it?"
"Hey, it's the expenses policy", she said, with a shrug. "The most senior shinobi foots the bill."
"Riiiiight."
Frowning, he snatched up the receipt to examine it closer. "I don't believe it."
"What?"
He waved it in front of her.
"Your boyfriend has left a phone number."
"Well," she said grinning with delight. "He's definitely getting a big tip."
"Hey," he said, as the receipt was stuffed into his pocket, with unnecessary force." My expenses report, remember."
"Where are you going? " he called after her, as she slipped out of the booth.
"To give him a tip!"
"You need to do that in person - do you?"
"Come on. Would you trust that old hag not to steal it?"
Both looked over to a sweet, middle-aged woman who was laughing as she served the next table.
** Uh-huh, that old hag.**
Kakashi waited for Anko in the foyer leading from the restaurant to other rooms at the inn. Pushing past him she ran up the stairs, triggering an impulse to over take her. Laughing, they raced to the door, she dangled the key in front of him.
"Too slow pops."
But Kakashi was faster, having stuck his foot in the door to force it open. Once in their room it was as if a draft had swept in, dampening the mood. Awkwardness was manifesting in the middle of the room like a large, solid, square wooden thing.
**Still only one bed...**
"Anko you should take the bed."
"But it's a double bed." She protested.
"I'll sleep on the floor"
"That's crazy! Why?!"
"I don't - I just prefer to sleep on my own.".
"Come on," she implored, with a shake of her head. "Be reasonable! We can totally share it."
"No."
"I feel bad."
"Don't," Kakashi called, as he slung one of the hotel towels over his shoulder. "I'm going to have a shower now."
Walking into the ensuite bathroom, he closed the door, suddenly glad to be away from Anko. The shower was scorching hot, turning his skin pink and red. Looking with interest at the litany of bruises and cuts on his body, all accrued over the last few days. Finding the soap, he picked off a long strand of black hair, letting the shower water take it away.
**Here's hoping that was Anko's.**
**Anko.**
**Anko.**
**Anko.**
[Note: Don't read the rest of chapter if you are not interested in lemons!]
Kakashi had known that scrap of black fabric would plague him, already after an evening it had inflamed in his imagination. New urgent obsessions lived as need to see, to smell and taste and touch her warred for parity. Soaping the hair at the base of his cock, before he soaped his cock, twitching happily at the memory of his hand on her ass. God, how easy it would have been to take a kunai to that dress it had seemed to have stayed on by good will only.
**What the hell is she playing at? And what the hell is it doing to me?**
But doubt stole in just as quickly with the memory of her face at the club, then her reaction in the electric riser. Groaning loudly, as he felt the embarrassment anew. Life isn't an Icha Icha book, you can't just grope your colleagues without invitation. And in the absence of an apology or acknowledgement perhaps Anko was tactfully re-establishing boundaries.
**Anko tactful? Seriously?**
Like an irksome thread, he tugged and pulled until it was all unravelling.
"I like them young ones," she had said.
Before spending a whole evening flirting outrageously with another man. How many times had she called him her colleague or referred to his "advancing age" that had even started before. And then there was Tiger.
Kakashi nudged aside his erection angrily, and began to lather up the shampoo furiously washing the dye out of his hair, as he tried to ignore the smell of her shampoo. Finishing up the shower feeling worse than before. What was more unpleasant - knowing that she thought Kakashi was a pervert that needed to be reminded of simple boundaries, or that he didn't have a chance in hell? Either way his cock had wilted sadly in agreement.
It had been hours. Kakashi was still wide-awake, lying on the floor looking at the ceiling, plagued by half a boner.
**Those stupid motherfucking rules.**
Another bad decision - rubbing one out earlier might have given him a fighting chance at sleep now.
Anko was sleeping fitfully, turning the air -con on and off, adjusting the pillows and the bedspread. It was probably the best decision of the mission not to sleep beside her- as surely - they would have killed one another by now. Settling hours ago, he listened to her breathe but finding it impossible to quiet his mind as he catalogued the endless ways he was an idiot /and or pervert.
Should he just do it? Call her bluff and force her to play her hand. And what if he did best case scenario a tumble in the sheets and a wasteland of awkwardness and worse case - unthinkable- as the face of another brunette intruded
**No, it's a terrible idea.**
More as a means to distract himself than from need, Kakashi made his way to the bathroom and relieved himself. Directing his stream on to the porcelain bowl, trying not to be too loud. Washing his hands quickly, and finding no where to dry them he wiped them on her towel. Dislodging her wash bag, sweeping the contents back in his eye was drawn by the violently pink tweezers and he remembered. That pout. Her soft, warm mouth on his body. How he managed not to have a hard on when he was washing her hair like some eunuch bath attendant...
**Not helping.**
A hand hovered over the light switch but he found he just couldn't turn it off. The fluorescent light from the bathroom sliced across the darkness giving illumination to only a fraction of her body, the rest of her body enveloped by the dark. A strange painterly effect animating her body, she was a still-life - a work of art. Anko moved suddenly and violently but she had only kicked off the sheets and tossed the pillows on the floor.
**Damn was she awake now?**
No...she was breathing loudly, and then a little snore. Finding it impossible to stop himself looking at her as he committed the sight to memory. The slope of her shoulder and then her injured arm. Her head was cradled by an arm, revealing the underside of her chin, her neck... He pulled the door towards him, the creaking so loud.
**How has she not heard that?!**
A small act of courage had been rewarded. Lying on her front, her t-shirt was ruched up all the way up revealing the underside of her breast. At the same time he could see the slope of her back, the dimples that had enthralled him at the club signposting her ass and the tiniest black panties, fabric triangles held by three, very thin straps on each side.
A strangled groan more animal than human escaped from Kakashi.
**Seriously does that girl not have any normal underwear?**
