Summary: Sleep evades Kakashi, but for an entirely new reason.
*Set years into Kakashi and Sakura's marriage
Kakashi was no stranger to sleeplessness. He'd long since found a benign amusement with the way the night sky transitioned to daylight; it didn't appear slow or unnoticably gradual to someone staring at it almost unblinking. Morning unfolded to him quick—in fact, too quickly that once the first of its bright tint dropped into the inky pool of darkness,the changes radiated outward instantaneously; it washed out the stars, the deep blue stillness, the momentary peace..
Morning always came too quick. And his blithering introspection wasn't going unnoticed. She could always tell, even in deep slumber, from the tense way his arms splayed out beneath where her head lay, from the shallow rising of his chest she could sense with one rested hand, that sleep had once again evaded him.
"Go to bed," she groaned, eyes still closed as she slid a hand to rub the bare chest underneath his shirt, as if to soothe him like a baby; he flinched instead from her icy fingers.
"Your hands are cold." Though it wasn't a complaint; he curled sideways, drawing her petite body closer in his arms as he cradled her hand from the outside, cupping it through the insulating fabric of his shirt. Kakashi was rewarded a sleepy hum of approval, as a content smile spread across her lips.
How could she sleep so peaceful while he was wrought with anxiety? "Sakura," he whispered. Because misery did love company. "Sakura, wake up.."
"What.." The smile receded to give way to a more irritated crinkling of her eyebrows. She was sure to wake up now, Kakashi observed the stages of interrupted sleep unfolding, until her green eyes slowly cracked open to look at him with that naturally dreamy sultriness . "What's wrong?" But there was that knowing look of concern in her face and Kakashi only needed to stare at her with that petrified look he'd been wearing the whole night to clue her in perfectly.
Rubbing her eyes with the edges of her palms, she groaned a second time in complete understanding.
"Speak."
"What if the kids make fun of her?" That was just the beginning of his long list of concerns.
This enrollment nagged at him like a bad idea from the onset; Kakashi lamented not being strict enough—like those other dads. He realized that he could just as easily deny Misaki's wishes outright; "My word is final,"he would tell her with a trained expression of deepest seriousness. But not without needing to turn the other way to shield himself from that cute pouty face of hers that always succeeded to nip at his will regardless. Misaki was a master of exploiting his weakness for green doe-eyes. Just like her mother.
"Sshh, Kakashi. She might hear you." An ever disadvantage of paper thin walls in a small bungalow. "No point worrying about things we can't do much about. She's a smart girl. We're good parents." Three truths she spoke coalesced together to form a much more impenetrable assurance than something as empty as "It'll be fine." She said the latter anyway, but only as an icing on top, with her face already nestled underneath his chin, as she listened to his breathing that had began to slowly even out.
And just when the tingling feeling of sleep finally set in on him, Sakura's lips languidly took purchase of her favorite spot on his neck, her hand moving down south to claim a more raging, solid warmth than earlier, morphing his deep exhales into pleasured moans. "Sshh..." she beseeched him again, but with an amused giggle this time.
Right. Paper thin walls. "Sorry…" Kakashi's voice was a strangled whisper as the lust ridden part of him mused about all the uninterrupted alone time they would enjoy once school started.
E/N: I'd like to thank you guys for all the reviews so far. Special mention to reviewer kakasensei, as concise of a feedback as it was-it spurned me on to tidy up the ending of Chapter 8.