Everything is black at first. Minato feels unsteady and then dizzy as the black where his feet begin starts to morph into red. The red then becomes distinctly puddle-shaped and the inky darkness around it begins to take the shape of wooden floorboards. Minato doesn't want to look up. He knows what he's going to see when he does.
However, even as he yells at himself to wake up — to stop the nightmare before him — he can't. Not in time, anyway. He raises his gaze and before him is a hunched-over figure. Gray-white hair shining like a winter fox pelt in the moonlight drifting in from the room's window.
His eyes linger there only a moment before they shift to the even smaller figure huddled just on the other side of the body. Like it had in reality, the swirling contents of his stomach jumped to the back of his throat. It's only through the sheer force of his will Minato doesn't spill his dinner all over the floor in front of him.
As he had when this really happened, Minato approaches the two. Thankfully, he cannot smell the blood in his dream. In real life, it had been overwhelming in that small room. Even worse than some battlefields he's been on. Minato falls to his knees before the smaller form.
They — Kakashi — don't so much as twitch. He remembers this. It'd made his heart join his dinner in his throat. A painful pounding that left him unable to speak. Too scared that either a sob would fall from his lips or his last meal.
Unlike in reality, when he pushes Kakashi to unfurl, what he reveals is not the shell-shocked face of his student but the sightless eyes of a corpse. Minato screams.
Minato doesn't scream. He is a seventeen (almost eighteen) year-old Jonin. He's too well trained to wake with shouts anymore. Instead, he sucks in air and props himself up on shaky, sweaty arms. Slowly, Minato regains his bearings. When he no longer is trembling, he rises from his bed and goes to wet his face in the washroom. The cool water helps but it doesn't shake off the most stubborn tendrils of his nightmare.
Stepping into the hall, Minato thinks. Kakashi is just down the hall. He could look in on him. Check that he's all right and not—
Minato covers his eyes.
Striding down the hall to his apartment's extra room, he opens the door with care. He sighs when he sees Kakashi beneath the covers of his futon; his small chest lifting and falling. He's fine.
But not asleep.
"Kakashi," he calls. The boy cracks open his eyes and looks sidelong at Minato. He smiles at his student. "I'm going to make some instant cheese curry. Would you like to have some too?"
The boy rolls around under his covers a moment. Then he wriggles out to trot to Minato's side. He considers patting Kakashi's head but thinks better of it. His student rarely appreciates having another's hand in his hair. Together, they go to Minato's kitchen.
Kakashi takes a seat in one of the kitchen table's rickety chairs he got secondhand off Gaku when Minato moved into his latest apartment. From there, Minato can feel Kakashi watch as he makes them the instant cheese curry. When it's done, he splits it between two bowls.
Walking to the table, he sets one in front of Kakashi as he takes a seat in the chair across from the boy. For a little while, they eat in silence. When Kakashi is mostly done with his food, Minato asks, "Have you slept at all?"
Kakashi shrugs.
Minato doesn't let himself frown or even sigh. His student already isn't talking much these days. The last thing he needs to do is make him even less communicative by showing disapproval at his lackluster nonverbal answers.
"I had a nightmare," he says. Minato isn't sure if this is the kind of thing he should be sharing with Kakashi. Does it make him seem weak to Kakashi? Is he sharing too much? Burdening the boy with worry he shouldn't feel for Minato?
Kakashi looks at him, white-gray brows furrowed.
Minato eats some more of his cheese curry. "It's why we're having instant noodles at three in the morning," he explains. "It makes me feel a little better after one." Minato would have preferred instant ramen but Kushina ate his last one when she visited a couple of days ago to check on him and Kakashi. Still, the cheese curry has noodles; which makes him think of ramen, which brings his brash, beautiful Kushina to mind.
Thinking about his girlfriend always makes Minato feel better.
Kakashi, finished with his share of the chees curry, puts down his chopsticks. "Me too," he whispers.
Unintentionally, Minato jumps at the tiny utterance. He recovers quickly, though, and smiles at Kakashi. "I'm happy it makes you feel better too."
The boy looks away. Glancing down at the scraps in his own bowl, Minato gobbles them up. Rising to his feet, he picks up Kakashi's dishes and puts them in the sink. They can deal with them after breakfast later.
Minato isn't sure if it's right but he looks at his student, so small, he's knelt on Minato's kitchen chair, and offers, "Would you like to come sleep in my room till we have to get up for the day?"
Kakashi tilts his head; nose twitching with disdain. Minato rolls his eyes. The boy probably thinks he's babying him. "You don't have to," he says. "But I know I'd sleep better if you were next to me."
His student's nose stills. After another beat, he nods. "'Kay," he agrees.
Minato's chest loosens at last. The last grip the nightmare had on him finally lets Minato go. He holds out a helping hand to Kakashi. The boy purses his lips like he's going to reject it but then, at the last second, takes it and uses the leverage to drop to the kitchen floor.
Minato returns his hand to his side without fuss when Kakashi lets go. "Should we move your futon into my room?" he asks the boy. "Otherwise I don't mind sharing."
"Move my bed," answers Kakashi.
He hums in agreement. The two of them then go pick up and bring Kakashi's futon into Minato's room. At first, Minato sets it a couple of feet away from his own. Kakashi scowls at this and grabs the edge and drags it to lay so it touches Minato's own.
He is both amused and endeared by this. Minato only shakes his head and smiles. "All right," he says. Sitting down on his futon, he pulls back the covers of Kakashi's own. "Back to bed." Teasingly, he adds, "Don't let the bed bugs bite."
Kakashi quirks his brows. "I already had Pakkun check for them," he tells Minato.
His mouth drops at the admittance. The little brat. However, before he can come up with some quip, Kakashi is snuggled under his covers with his back to Minato.
"Night," the boy murmurs.
He feels himself soften at the whisper. "Good night, Kakashi," Minato echoes. Hopefully, now that they are side-by-side, they can hear each other breathing, and they will find restful sleep. Hopefully, in the light of morning, things will be a little brighter.
Thanks so much for reading and please let me know your thoughts!