Legends of the Fox-wife
Tale 25: Sunflowers in Shadow

.o0o.

AN: In response to storm_light's challenge at the kakanaru lj comm. Completely worksafe.

Prompt: 'The color black, a sunflower, and how about a little jealousy to add some spice heheh.'

Ghosts still linger around the Uchiha compound like a smoky film of cataracts. Even the bright sunny afternoon feels leeched of warmth, here, in this too-empty space. The walls are scrubbed so raw the paint looks in pain and Kakashi takes a moment to imagine Sasuke, here, wiping and washing and trying to mend these hollowed-out walls. It's an achy thought. While it's taken perhaps not very long at all, a couple of months only, for the last Uchiha to be mostly welcomed in Konoha after the devastation of Madara and the Great Shinobi War, this teenager that Kakashi still finds to be a very young boy rarely ventures out to Konoha proper.

This is why Kakashi is checking in today.

Sort of.

He saunters towards the wall of Sasuke's kitchen, and if it's very quietly that was almost entirely due to habit. He leans next to the window which is over the sink and pulls out his book and eavesdrops shamelessly. It's not hard. Voices are raised in sharp disagreement and there's the slam of a door.

He blinks mildly, and then leans into the opened window, propping his arms against the sill, "Trouble?"

"None of your business," Sasuke snaps, face twisting up briefly. He scoops the bowl of ramen from the table and brings it to the sink. Dumps it down the drain. "He'll get over it," the Uchiha mutters and glares at the sink as if he is an inch away from lighting it up with black flames, "He always does."

"Mmm," Kakashi hums noncommittally. He glances at the little pot on the sill next to him, the sunflower drooping in commiseration. Pokes a finger into the dirt, and then rubbed at his fingers thoughtfully.

"I remember Naruto giving you this plant."

"Hn."

"...you should water it a little." He says this, and thinks that maybe the flower needed more sunlight too, but it was already sitting in direct light. Was the sun actually that much weaker here? Kakashi slid his eye toward the eaves bemusedly. Caught a flash of orange.

"I don't have time to," Sasuke snorts. "And he's living here now, he should water it."

"Its the thought of it," he looks at the Uchiha, mildly insistent. Why doesn't the boy understand what he has?

"You're looking too much into things." And the dark-haired teenager starts walking away, tossing over his shoulder, "Hn, if you like the plant so much, you should take it."

"But Naruto didn't give it to me," Kakashi finds himself stating softly. Turns his head when Naruto finally makes a noise. Finds himself looking into blue eyes clouded with fatigue.

"Kakashi-sensei, why are you here?"

"Aah." He finds himself thinking that Naruto's hair was faint in this afternoon's light. "I suppose I don't know myself."

"Hmmm," the young man makes a disbelieving look, as if he's mentally chanting 'liar!', and then looks into the kitchen window in the direction that Sasuke left. His gaze shifts, and Kakashi is reminded of the look on Naruto's face all those long months when they've been trying to get Sasuke to come back to Konoha.

Sasuke is back, and in the blond's bed, and Naruto still wears that look.

"Naruto," Kakashi reaches over to cup the young man's face, but diverts his hand and lets it drop onto his shoulder instead. How inappropriate, he scolds himself. "You look tired, do you have somewhere to sleep?"

A flicker in those blue eyes, oddly unreadable despite the blond's usual obviousness, "Yeah."

In a perfect world, Naruto might then just lean in, resting his forehead against the offer of Kakashi's shoulder. Maybe admit that it's not working and that he is drained, and that there are better places to be than this compound where dead things reign. In a perfect world, that'll be all that it'll take.

It's not a perfect world. But what Naruto does do, however, is reach over and touch at Kakashi's hand that rests on the blond's shoulder, looking up at him with eyes rich and blue and bright, and it is (perhaps?) more than what he would've done a week ago.

Perhaps Kakashi is imagining it. Perhaps its only as Naruto has always reacted to him.

"Thanks Kaka-sensei!" Naruto suddenly chirrups and spins away from his hand, and Kakashi's not sure what he's being thanked for.

"Uh?"

But he shrugs. And mentally wishes Naruto well as the blond darts away. And despite the curdle in his stomach, wishes Sasuke well also.

He removes himself from the Uchiha's premises because clearly he is not needed here. Evening is falling and shadows drape the village but he doesn't quite have the stomach for dinner.

Perhaps some tea, his throat feels sore.

AN: I'd planned to write maybe something like 100 words. Yeah, that didn't work, did it. x.x;