Just a little something totally different than what I wanted to type because obviously when I want one thing Kathy has to hit me upside the head with a tire iron and force me to do something completely different.
Oh, how I simply adore my muse.
Kakashi came into the apartment silently, thinking of the warmth and comfort of the bed that waited for him just a few steps away, imagining of the blissful sleep that he would find with it. He was stopped by the lamp that was oddly lit beside the couch even though it was well past three in the morning. Sakura always turned off all of the lights before she went to bed, so it was strange for her to forget about one of them.
Walking around the couch he saw the sleeping form of his wife curled up on the cushions, one of her paperback mysteries crumpled on the floor from where her lax hand had obviously dropped it.
Pakkun -who had been keeping guard over the pink haired woman from his favorite armchair- lifted his head to nod at Kakashi, lowering his head again so that he could get back to sleep, his personal guard duty done now that Kakashi was back.
Smiling at the unladylike snore Sakura let loose Kakashi crouched down, lightly brushing away a strand of hair that had fallen forward to drape over her face, still surprised at how deeply Sakura was able to sleep in her pregnancy.
Glancing down to the noticeable mound of her stomach, Kakashi still couldn't quite believe it. He and Haruno -Hatake now- Sakura, the loud mouthed, easily angered crybaby from team seven.
He hadn't really had any feelings towards her when team seven had first formed all those years ago, he had only noted that she was the weaker of the three and was obviously more emotional what with the constant crying and screaming and falling over herself to please Sasuke. She had been determined, however, and was quite intelligent and observant when her little childhood crush wasn't around being his usual unfeeling self.
He had been surprised when she had went to Tsunade to begin training as a medic-nin, but after that slight initial shock he had understood and had been a bit proud. She wanted to become stronger, wanted to become someone who would aid Naruto and save Sasuke, wanted to become a better ninja and a better person.
And she had.
The years had passed and their little team had gotten back together minus Sasuke, and Sai had been added. And though some might have seen him as a replacement and though Sakura and Naruto may have resented him at first, Kakashi had been thankful for him.
Because of Sai his two students hadn't become so solely focused on Sasuke and obsessed with him to the point of madness. He had been aggravating and strange, but Sai had saved the two of them from falling over into the abyss, although it had been unknowingly.
Kakashi had been proud of his two students, had been proud of how they had handled themselves in the war and had been proud of how they had handled not coming back with Sasuke. Because even though he could see that their hearts were shattered and that they mourned, they did not allow that gaping chasm of depression to overpower them.
Sakura had thrown herself into work after that, however, and it had been a rare event to see her out and about those first two years. But one day he had looked up and she had been there and he had had to take a second look.
She had changed in those two years. It wasn't that her looks had matured -she had still been the same little flat chested thing he had remembered- but that she had somehow managed to mature. She wasn't some little crybaby girl that he could write off anymore but was a fully grown woman, and a fully grown woman that he couldn't seem to keep his eyes off of.
He had told himself that it was sick, that she was his ex-student and fourteen years younger than him and if he even thought about making some sort of move towards her that it would make him some kind of pedophile. Sure, the teacher-student scenes in the books he read were good reading, but there was no way that any of those things could ever come true, not with him and Sakura. He simply couldn't be thinking of her like that.
And yet slowly all of the characters in his books had changed, their hair had turned bright pink and their eyes had turned pale green, and he had cursed himself and her every time he had woken up after dreaming about her, fantasizing about her.
One day when he had secretly been looking at her from behind the pages of his ever present book he had caught her glancing at him with a heated and curious look in her eyes, a look that said that she wanted to be a part of every single moment of the fantasies that had been dancing around in his head. And at that moment he had realized that no matter how much he had tried to ignore it, no matter how much he pretended that he didn't feel anything other than a teacher's affection for his pupil towards her, the tension that throbbed between them was obviously going to explode.
And the night of Hinata and Naruto's engagement party, both of them loosened by too much alcohol, it had. Truth be told he hadn't really been all that drunk that night, and he was able to remember every achingly sensual detail with a sharp clarity that managed to slam him in the chest and leave him breathless every time he recalled it.
When he had woken up with her curled up beside him he hadn't thought of getting her out of their as soon as he possibly could or any of the other little thoughts that would have flown through his head after he had woken up beside a woman after a night of sex. All he could think about was how he was going to get her tied to the bed so they could have a little repeat of the night before.
He had waited for her to say something when she had first woken up, waited for her to do all the usual girly feeling stuff that she had exhibited throughout the time he had known her, but to his surprise she had simply rolled right out of the bed and away from him. When she had come back out he had expected things to go a bit differently than they had, so the fact that she merely wanted for them to move on from it and pretend like it had never happened had certainly shocked him.
And then she was leisurely making her way out the door as if it were just that easy to move on from him and act like their night together hadn't changed anything.
He had allowed her to pretend and had gone along with the little charade, watching as the tension in the clueless girl had been strung so tight that she was close to breaking before he decided it was the perfect time to make his move. A few strategic cuts and his usual aversion to hospitals was all he had needed, though he hadn't really expected the damn kunai to be poisoned. That had certainly almost set his plans back a few notches.
But when he had woken up and found her in that tiny little kitchen of hers he had found that he had just enough strength in him to get his point across the clueless little pink haired girl's mind- that she was his and she wasn't going to escape that fact so easily.
He hadn't expected their relationship to last as long as it had, but the feelings he had expected to fade after a few months had only continued to grow until one day he had realized that he couldn't imagine living without her, and he had slowly tried to get her used to the idea of him and her being more than just some stolen sensual nights. But that girl -that stupid, stupid girl- had made sure that their relationship stayed solely between the two of them and his ninken, always making pathetic excuses as for why.
That had succeeded in pissing him off in a way that hadn't been accomplished in more years than he could count.
But he had managed to keep a level head and come up with a plan, one that would definitely get him killed if she ever found out.
He understood that purposely getting Sakura pregnant without her permission or knowledge was wrong and that there might have been other ways to go about the situation, but in his eyes at that moment what he had done had been the only thing to do.
It had taken weeks and he had been unsure if it was even going to work. What if he was sterile -it wasn't like he had ever tried to get anyone pregnant before, he usually spent his time making sure that little Hatakes weren't going to be running around- or what if she was? What if it wasn't going to work and there was really no way to assure that she remained his? But one day he had gone over to her apartment and she had told him the news and he was suddenly so incredibly elated that he wasn't sure that he would be able to hide it from her.
He had never wanted a family, never wanted those unseverable ties or those emotions that went along with it. But when she had told him that she was pregnant and that she wanted to keep it, all he could think about was how utterly wonderful it was, and looking down at the frightened girl a sudden protective instinct -trampling every other emotion he had ever known- filled him and screamed out from withing him that this was the family he hadn't been aware of wanting.
He had said that they were going to get married knowing that she would instantly deny him, also knowing that she would say yes to moving in with his since it would seem like a more trivial matter when compared to marriage. Of course, he had always known that it wouldn't take him all that long to get her to actually marry him.
He supposed that to others it would look like his actions had been devious and were to be condemned, especially when it was looked at along side the taboo of it all having been with his ex-student, but he loved her so completely and overwhelmingly that he was willing to do anything -be it underhanded or sly- to keep her with him. And he knew that she loved him the same but had been too scared that he would somehow leave her and hurt her like Sasuke had to even think about a commitment -something that, if broken, could have crippled her.
But he had her now and he never planned on letting her go, not her or the child that was growing inside of her.
With a grunt Kakashi shoved himself back up and slipped his arms beneath her so that he could lift her up, carrying her to their bedroom as she blearily came back into the land of the living.
"Kakashi...? Wha?" She mumbled, lifting her head to fuzzily blink at him.
"Nothing," He murmured, "Just go back to sleep." Lowering her eyelids so that only the tiniest sliver of her green eyes were visible she nodded before lowering her head once more to his shoulder, burring her face into his neck.
"You smell bad." She muttered, "Take a bath." And having had the final say in the matter she quickly found herself back asleep. Chuckling deep in his throat Kakashi shook his head at the girl as he laid her down on the bed, tugging the blanket over her before going into the bathroom to quickly wash off the mission smell as Sakura had bid him to.
Crawling into the bed beside his wife Kakashi curled protectively around her sleeping form, closing his eyes and slipping into the blissful sleep that he could only find when he was beside her.
Oh, and this one was for Hana Lee, who seems to be quite the KakaSaku fan. Hello my darling!
Few little things to my other little darlings-
Hektols- Thank you for catching that, my sweet heart! As soon as I looked back on that I had a huge "Should have had a V8" moment. I immediately went back and changed that. (If anyone ever catches any mistakes or any words that just don't set quite right, please tell me. I try as hard as I can to find all of my mistakes but some always manage to slip past me)
Seashells1000- Oh, third time already? That just makes me feel positively fantabulous. And as for the similar one-shots umm... Destined by ichilover3 is a small series of one-shots based on his earlier story Into The Future (I highly recommend this story if you want a good laugh). We ship the same pairings and I find it all very humorous (in a silly sort of way)
And can I just mention how much I simply adore Salemboy94 again? No? Well I'm going to anyways.
You are, quite simply, one of the sweetest little things ever. I just want to hug you and cuddle you and give you a big cookie that I bought (because I couldn't bake cookies even if my life depended on it) filled with love and happiness and little rainbows. Since I have given my crown away to my other dearest little darling I now bequeath to you the cloak of Terrificness and cooliosity. (It is also faux-fur lined and makes you invisible)
And as I said to this precious little dumpling (this is me trying to come up with new little nicknames so that I won't be too redundant. I'm not really feeling it): I take all the ideas given to me into consideration because that means you felt strongly enough towards my story to do so, and it it one of the greatest compliments I receive. You giving me permission to write out an idea of yours is you entrusting me with a piece of your imagination and thoughts, and that is something so precious and I cherish every single one given to me. So please, do not be afraid to give me your ideas.
I love you all so much I actually wrote this chapter out at my family Christmas party (couldn't post it though, the WiFi was wacky)! See you soon!
I wonder how much longer I'm going to be able to ride this wave of inspiration.