At last, the sequel. I know I haven't updated in quite a while, and some people even thought I had abandoned this story. I'll make an announcement: I will NEVER abandon a

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Thanks to Soelle for pointing out my mistakes to me!

Chapter 7

Of Yellow Flowers and Blue Curtains

Kakashi couldn't quite believe he had already left the hospital. Some part of him didn't want to admit it, as if thinking he was still in that stinky white-sheeted bed would bring him back there. To think he actually wished he was still stuck in that place... How ironical. Because under normal circumstances, he would have been thrilled to be able to leave early - really, he couldn't stand the whole atmosphere the hospital radiated; it brought back too many painful memories of missions gone wrong and lost comrades.

So being out of the hospital was a good thing, right? Right. Yet, his joice was overshadowed by his anxiousness at the prospect of being forced to spend the following three weeks or so with him.

Kakashi's heart ached just at the thought of the brown-haired man. The hatred he had seen in those brown eyes had plagued his mind night and day, making him feel even more anxious and miserable as the moment of his hospital leave had grown nearer. Before he even knew it, three days had passed by and he had been unceremoniously transfered to Iruka's house by half a dozen healer nins one afternoon. And now there he was, lying in the man's guest room bed and staring blankly at the sun-bathed ceiling, musing about the irony of the whole affair. Not too far away, he could feel Iruka's familiar presence, the chuunin brooding darkly in his silent small kitchen.

Iruka... The ex-anbu sighed heavily. He truly didn't want to upset the chuunin more than he already had, but in their current situation... It couldn't be helped. Iruka had been forced by the obviously plotting Hokage into becoming his personal nurse until his chakra channels mended - which meant around twenty long, painful days. And surely enough, that decision wasn't pleasing the brown-haired man one bit.

Oh, it wasn't like Kakashi was happy about it himself. Ever since Iruka had found out about his self-imposed mission, the Sharigan user hadn't been himself, his mind plagued by shame and guilt at the mere thought of the brown-eyed man. He couldn't exactly explain why the chuunin's hurt feelings affected him so much, but he knew the other man's presence was making him uneasy. Being around him in those conditions wasn't pleasing him much. But the truth was he cared more for the academy teacher's well-being than he cared about his own hurt pride and discomfort. If at least he could just remove himself from Iruka's sight and let him be, the poor man would be able to hate him in peace and go on with his normal and slightly boring life. But they both had no such luck. The Hokage herself had made sure of it.

On top of it, it was humiliating for him to be taken care of by Umino Iruka, of all people... For having been bed-ridden many times, Kakashi was fully aware of all the implications it meant. It meant that for twenty days or so, he would be totally dependent of the chuunin and would need his help to accomplish every everyday life task, even the most belittling ones, like going to the toilet, changing clothes, eating and washing himself. The prospect of having the younger man breaking so... blatantly into his privacy was making him very uneasy, to put it mildly. He didn't want the chuunin to see that side of him, and even if it made no sense even to him, he would have preferred to be taken care of by a total stranger than by the brown-haired man.

Nevertheless, Kakashi kept on telling himself he had no reason to complain, since the only one who was in right to complain was the poor Iruka: he had to house and nurse a man he despised for almost three weeks. One could understand his frustration.

The more he thought about it, the more Kakashi was convinced the Hokage had a plan for the two of them... And he didn't like it one bit. He didn't like being forced into situations he couldn't control; he was the great Sharigan Kakashi, he was used to be ahead of everything. There was no situation his skills or his brain couldn't free him of. But in this kind of situation, he was both physically and mentally helpless, at the mercy of a brown-haired chuunin who hated him and a Hokage who obviously had some unwanted and probably evil surprise in store for him. As if it wasn't bad enough to deal with the guilt of having upset so much the kind and caring academy teacher...

The Copy nin sighed silently and let his gaze wander to the rest of the small room. He guessed that if his situation hadn't stunk as much, it could have been a nice room, but he was far too depressed about his situation to see anything under a bright light at the moment. Hell, he was a human pile of goo lying helplessly on Iruka's blue sheets, not even able to scratch by himself the tip of his nose that had been itching for the past five minutes. Not without Iruka's assistance, anyway. Oh God, why did life enjoy so much making him feel so miserable?

From the corner of his eyes, he could get a glimpse of encouragment, maybe. A glimpse of yellow. The Copy nin vaguely remebered Tsunade insisting on having someone bringing them along with him when he had been moved earlier that day.

He did not quite understand why the chuunin had given them to him. Really, he was supposed to hate him, so why would he buy him flowers? Weren't people giving flowers to the ones they care about...? But honestly, who else could have given those to him? He wasn't aware of anybody else visiting him except for the Hokage and Team seven, neither of which had reasons to wait for him to be asleep to give him get-well gifts.

The elite jounin had never been offered flowers before... Kakashi knew he should not get his hopes up with this, but he couldn't help feeling a bit... moved by the man's gesture. He knew it was silly; it was only a bunch of flashy reproductive organs. But somehow those flowers he would have probably found annoying under normal circumstances now cheered him up a little bit. Such a shame Tsunade's medecine was so effective that he couldn't even move his neck to get a better view of them. At least, he could still talk rather normally - the old woman's tricks never stopped to impress him.

Just beside Iruka's eye-burning yellow flowers stood something that was much less rejoicing: on each end of the window frame were held deep blue curtains. It seemed the chuunin had recently installed curtains like those on every window of his small apartment. Those reminded Kakashi with each second that passed by how unwelcome he was...

On the brighter side, Iruka didn't have to worry about being spied on for the time being; his stalker wasn't even able to scratch his own nose.

As the wounded jounin was musing darkly on his miserable condition, he heard a soft knocking on the guest room door. Not waiting for the nin's answer, Iruka opened the door and stood silently on the threshold. From the corner of his eyes, Kakashi could see the man's steady silhouette as silence stretched by, tension palpable in the small room.

After a while, the chuunin spoke up in what seemed to be a controled and somewhat resigned voice.

"I talked with the Godaime," Iruka started off quietly, "About your treatment. She showed me what I needed to know... I daresay she also infomed you about it."

Kakashi nodded slowly and kept on staring at the ceilling silently, feeling uneasy with the whole discussion. When he realized the older man wouldn't add anything else, Iruka continued on the same quiet voice.

"Don't hesitate to call for me if you need anything - whatever hour it might be. I'll be in the room right next to yours," There was a short pause. "We're eating at 6 o'clock. I'll come back by then."

At those words, Iruka turned around and silently closed the door behind him. The Sharigan user remained still on his bed, staring at the darkening ceilling dumbly. Somehow, Iruka's apparent resignation and determination to hide his resentment toward him only made the Copy nin feel more uncomfortable. The Godaime had told him the other day to give Iruka some time... But no matter how hard Kakashi wanted to believe it, he couldn't help thinking the nin would never pardon him for what he'd done. And he didn't blame him for it either, but it troubled him nonetheless. It upset and depressed him to know he was the object of Iruka's infortune... Iruka was such a nice guy toward everyone! Knowing that he resented him was upsetting… It hurt. The Copy nin had never truly minded to be hated before and found that notion strangely irrational. But it was not like he could control these feelings anyway. Hey, another thing he had lost control upon... Cheers.

Minutes passed by painfully slowly as the room grew darker. After a while, Kakashi was standing in complete darkess, sorrowful thoughts keeping him awake. Although he could not see those blue curtains anymore, he could still feel their presence and it bothered him. They reminded him too much of his true place...

He was unwanted here.

From afar, he could hear noises coming from Iruka's kitchen. The soft hissing of the boiling water was sometimes coming with the sound of vegetables being cut or Iruka's distracted mumbling. Kakashi felt like trespassing by entering this house he had spied on for so long. It felt... wrong. So wrong to see it from the inside. To hear Iruka mumbling as he tried to follow the recipe correctly. To smell the chuunin's lingering scent that filled the whole apartment...

He realized he knew this house by heart, from its shamefully small bathroom to its tidy rooms and clean kitchen - but it was the first time he truly entered it. And it felt so wrong that for the first time, he thought he got a glimpse of the reason why stalking Umino Iruka had been such a bad idea.

The man's chakra waves seemed to have settled down a bit. Iruka closed his book, sighing to himself. Finally, he had fallen asleep. It was about time dammit... what hour could it be? Two? Three in the morning? The chuunin yawned, rubbing his burning eyes with the back of his hand. The Hokage had told him he would probably fall asleep like a baby since he still needed much sleep, but somehow the wounded jounin had managed to stay awake most of the night anyway. Well, that was probably because it was his first night over to his place; it was probably making him a bit nervous.

You bet he's nervous, some part of his mind snarled as he got up to wash his teeth. He's at my mercy in that situation. Iruka frowned, mentally reprimanding himself for feeling smug at the thought of a weak and helpless Copy nin. He wished he could say he was not so petty as to think of their situation as a little like a revenge for him, but he was. Even so, he felt a bit ashamed to experience mild satisfaction whenever he looked at the motionless and helpless jounin. And even more when he dared to imagine how it would be easy for him to take his revenge upon the jounin... Even thought he would have liked to be able to say that his mind was clear of evil thoughts and machinations, he had to admit many plots to make Kakashi's life a real hell had crossed his mind during the day. Of course, he would never deliberately harm or humiliate the Sharigan user; he was beyond that. He was mature and, moreover, he had been given a mission. In his position, such wicked thoughts were not even appropriate. He had to take care of the jounin and he would. And he was quite sure the Hokage's orders did not include putting itching powder on his clothes.

...Alas, he sometimes regretted his prankster days.

But even though it gave him some guilty satisfaction, Kakashi's miserable situation was not pleasing him. When the Hokage had explained him what his task was, he soon found out the jounin was totally dependant of him, and for everything. And Iruka had to admit he was not very comfortable with hand-feeding the wounded nin... And even less with helping him to go to the toilet, of all things...!

And although he despised Hatake Kakashi, the brown-haired man couldn't help but realize the whole situation was not enjoyable for the other man either - sure enough, if he himself was not comfortable with nursing the jounin, Kakashi was probably downright humiliated by the whole situation. And Iruka could understand him, to some point. He even sometimes felt pity toward the older man - but it never lasted long, his resentment taking over him most of the time. Serves him right, he mentally commented on his own chain of thoughts as he half-heartedly brushed his teeth.

Twenty days… Twenty days of hell. And during the Holidays, too. The Godaime must have something against him. Or maybe she found the whole thing amusing, which was not beyond her. Fortunately, Kakash's presence would not disturb anybody, since he was living alone and was not expecting any guests for the Holidays. He would probably spend Christmas and the New Year Eve alone, once again. That thought depressed him a bit as he remembered he didn't have family anymore, nor real close friends, to spend those events with.

Well… This year he would not be alone. There would be Kakashi, he thought bitterly, snorting to himself. What a way to start the new year…

To be continued