Chapter Text
Kakashi lays awake at 4:00am letting the cold nip away at him as much as it wants. Despite his boredom, he can keep this up for a week, even if he feels that it's a little excessive. But part of him feels like if he doesn't take these preventive measures, something will prevail in spite of that.
There's only the smooth hum of Iruka's fridge, and the ticking of his clock. He watches the ceiling for hours and hours as if it will magically change, he watches as the moon finds its way through the sky from the window he can see from the couch, he's slowly running out of thoughts to keep his brain active.
He doesn't have to stay on this couch, there's nothing truly stopping him from hopping out of the window to roam free again. He would still be following the mission as well, so why hasn't he?
He does not know the answer to that question as he lays awake on Iruka's couch.
He sits up a bit to poke his head over the back of the couch to peer into the kitchen to see what the clock tells him.
4:13am.
Somehow, sleeping had managed to become the most draining part of his day, he could not be fully awake, but he could not be asleep, he needed to look asleep, while still being awake, for 6 hours straight.
A crow darts past the window, causing the moonlight to suddenly flicker.
He knew that Iruka’s hospitality came at the price of this strange state of sleep deprivation, yet his head still pounds away.
He feels unfathomably restless, every part of his body is practically begging him to move, but he has no choice but to distract himself with nothing.
Kakashi starts to feel himself slip into a dizzier state every so often, only a slight bit, but enough that he needs to do something. So, he decides to fix that by completely kicking off the blanket that was previously positioned at his waist level, it was positioned there so that it was just enough to keep him from shivering, but not enough to keep him cozy. He is now shivering a bit, but that doesn't matter, as long as he stays awake and alert.
This wouldn’t have been such a draining challenge if he were able to keep himself up and active, as he was giving his body every sign it needed to sleep, but not letting it.
Half of him is begging to get up and move around, and the other half is begging to finally get some sleep. He tries his absolute best to silence these. It's a failure.
He gives into the urges as he rises up from his laying position and sits up from the couch that had felt like a hard rock to his pained back. All his limbs are stiff and heavy as his legs scramble to find the floor.
As soon as he uprights himself, the haze suddenly hits him like arrows to his temples, and his head feels like it's thudding against his skull as an attempt to break free, it runs down his body in a wave, but then depletes all together as quick as it came.
His feet feel just as thin as paper as he begins to stand.
He swallows a yawn as he silently stretches.
He walks over to the closed window, not making any sound. As he rests his arms on the windowsill, he watches a crow perch on the tree Kakashi had been on previously. The crow picks at their wings to clean themself, before setting off and flying away once again.
He watches the tree sway in the wind as fall leaves float to the ground.
There's a quick motion that Kakashi is almost too sleep deprived to notice.
His eyes dart back to the windowsill as an ANBU appears outside Iruka's window, he wears an ANBU cat mask with green stripes and red detailing around the eyes, he's been expecting them for sometime.
The ANBU taps on the window twice as Kakashi continues to stare at him. The ANBU then motions his palm upwards, signaling for Kakashi to open the window.
Kakashi watches the ANBU and hesitates.
He's afraid he'll wake Iruka if he slides the window open, but he can’t really protest, it's a mission.
He undoes both locks at the top of the window before sliding it open but just barely, just enough for them to communicate.
………..
“Any updates?” The masked shinobi says.
“There has yet to be an ambush.” Kakashi responds within a low voice.
…………….
Their conversation should be over, but the ANBU is still perched on the window.
…….
“I didn’t expect to find you in here.” The ANBU points out.
Kakashi turns his head away from the ANBU before giving his response.
“It’s a complicated story.” He says.
Then the ANBU is gone.
He is very thankful to have returned to absolute silence after he slides the window back down the slight notch it had been up.
He turns around to stare at the prison of a couch he had been confined to all night and does not want to return to.
But there isn't really any other choice he has but to return to the couch and continue his ceiling watching until at least 5:30am.
…………..
But what will he do after 5:30am? He can't exactly just leave anymore. Maybe he'll just wait until Iruka wakes up.
Well…., it's a weekend, despite the fact Iruka works shifts at the mission desk on these days, he probably doesn't get up at the same time as he does on weekdays.
The sun doesn't rise until around 7am, so there's no point in trying to enjoy his book or anything like such.
Couch it is.
…………..
Over time, the navy void of the night sky shifts slightly into a more orange hue, but not completely. It’s around 6:00, and Iruka is still not awake yet.
The restlessness has completely overrun Kakashi’s system, all his limbs feel as if they hold an electric charge waiting eagerly to be discharged.
He decides to get up again for yet another round of watching the window.
A silhouette of the morning horizon has begun to unveil itself a bit.
He watches for a while again, but it gets a little boring when some ANBU doesn't show up or something.
He stares behind him at the couch again.
He wishes this were just another normal morning.
…….
Should he make breakfast…..?
No.
Absolutely not.
Maybe Iruka would appreciate it….. Or maybe he’d be pissed that he used up his eggs. Does he even eat breakfast? He shouldn’t be making these decisions, he’s getting too comfortable….
Just as Kakashi starts to get lost in his thoughts, he feels a presence shift within Iruka’s room.
Finally..
He can begin to sense Iruka sit up.
……
And then lay back down.
….
He is so insanely tired he begins to consider waking Iruka up himself, but immediately realizes that that would be a very inconsiderate decision to make, probably his worst idea yet. And Kakashi was the one trying so desperately to be professional….. He wondered how long that would last with a guy like Iruka.
“Kakashi?”
His head turns around to face the voice.
He didn't even notice Iruka had finally exited his bedroom.
He was still staring out the window as Iruka found him.
“Good morning, sensei.” He says in response.
Iruka smiles in return as he heads towards the kitchen.
Kakashi gets a bad feeling from what had happened the night before.
“Would you like me to make breakfast, Iruka?” Kakashi offers.
Iruka looks back at him
“Oh, no, you don’t have to do that.” He responds.
Kakashi is trying to find the nicest words to put his next thoughts in.
“I would like to.” Kakashi says.
“No, it’s,...it's–’” Iruka is cut off
“For me…,too.” Kakashi says.
….
Iruka's eyes suddenly widen.
“Oh!-Oh.., I'm um.. I'm sorry, yes, of course.” Iruka stutters.
He then quickly turns his head back around and begins to exit the kitchen.
_______________________
As Iruka exits his own kitchen he remembers the horrible trouble he found himself in last night after half the fresh vegetables they went to the effort of buying were burnt, by him. No wonder Kakashi wants to make breakfast.
They exchange places as Kakashi heads into his kitchen and cracks open his fridge, the glasses on the side of the door jingle as the fridge jostles.
“Use whatever you'd like.” Iruka says from across the apartment.
An affirmative: “Thank you” is heard back from Kakashi.
As he stares out into the disappointing view from his window, he notices a new footprint on his windowsill once again.
He sighs as he attempts to brush it off.
He assumes Kakashi went out in the morning, or the night. No, Iruka could still sense Kakashi on his couch when had unexpectedly woken up at around 3am…. So maybe not at night….Or at least not all night.
But it doesn't matter, there's only so much hospitality Iruka can attempt to casually offer Kakashi, it is a mission afterall. It shouldn't bug him as much as it does.
He wonders why they even chose Kakashi rather than an ANBU member.
….
Kakashi was close enough.
“Oh, sorry about that.” Kakashi says from behind.
“Hm?” Iruka further questions him, as he turns to look at Kakashi.
“That footprint, someone came for a status update last night.” Kakashi clarifies.
Oh.
“Oh, uh…” Iruka begins. “ It's alright.” He continues as he turns to face his window once again, he props the window open a bit for a nice breeze.
“Do all high class shinobi have something against doors?” Iruka jokes.
That plucks a small laugh out of Kakashi, he sighs before he speaks.
“The stronger you get the more intimidating they become.” Kakashi jokes in return.
Kakashi sits down on the couch to enjoy his book, as Iruka can hear eggs sizzling in the kitchen.
Iruka has even less of an idea as to what to do with Kakashi today, as there's even less to do at a mission desk.
After a while, Kakashi gets up to flip the eggs, and shortly after they are served.
Iruka feels incredibly guilty as he once again sits down and eats the food his ‘guard’ has prepared for him.
“..Thank you..” He says as he admires the near perfect fried egg before him.
“Not a problem.” Kakashi replies before unmasking himself to eat.
The silence is not as kind as it was the night before.
“I-..I don’t really have much for you to do at the mission desk today.” Iruka says, as he doesn’t know how else to put it.
….
“I see.” Kakashi says before sliding his mask back up.
…
“Well, I mean-..” Iruka stops mid sentence as he realizes Kakashi is gone.
He looks up from his plate, to find the chair Kakashi was in just mere seconds ago empty.
Iruka freezes for a second.
He’s not outside on that tree either…. Or at least he can’t sense him on it, he turns his head to look out the window far behind him…….No one.
…
Well, it was probably about time he let Kakashi do his job anyway.
………………………………………….
Iruka has started his walk towards his workplace, unaccompanied.
It’s a quiet walk, other than the morning birds. It’s very peaceful. As he thinks to himself, Iruka finds himself a little grateful that things have taken this turn, as he still doesn’t know what he would have occupied Kakashi with today. There’s still five days left of the week until the seal wears off, and then he can go back to living normally.
‘Just five more days.’ He thinks.
…
The static of his senses grows louder for a split second.
Iruka stops as he quickly whips his head to the direction of the sound.
Nothing.
Nothing except a wobbling tree branch.
…
Is he….testing me?
The rise of static returns again, for an even shorter instance. Iruka is even quicker to notice this time.
He sees no movement within the direction it came from, other than a single leaf as it floats to the ground.
……Yup.
Today wasn't going to be easy.
He then realizes he is going to be late from all this dilly dallying and picks up his pace to continue to head to work.
……………………
“Thank you for your hard work!” He says after each mission report he receives, after he looks over them, of course.
He hasn’t noticed Kakashi lurking for a while, as Kakashi is probably letting Iruka focus on his work.
At least he hopes that's the case.
He has about two and a half hours left of his shift as his colleague gets up from the long desk they share to have his lunch break.
So Iruka gets up too, and closes the main entrance door to let other shinobi know that they should return at another time. He grabs his bag off the floor by the side of his desk to grab his lunch, which is,.....Cup ramen.
Cup ramen was all his lazy ass had prepared for lunch.
But it is still something, so he makes his way over to the rusty old kitchen space in the other room. He puts the kettle on to boil, and decides to tidy up the workspace as he waits.
There's a few stray papers on his colleague's side of the desk, so he sorts them into the correct folder for them. There isn’t much else that needs to be done, it’s a pretty boring job.
The kettle in the kitchen begins to screech, and Iruka knows that's his cue to turn off the burner and start making his ‘meal’.
Huh?
The screeching suddenly stops.
He rushes back into the kitchen, thinking maybe his coworker turned off the burner for him.
………..
His cup ramen is gone and the kettle is empty.
In place of it, is a freshly purchased boxed lunch.
It doesn’t take him long to figure out who the culprit is.
He stands in the doorframe and stares at it for a while.
He sighs.
Iruka doesn't know whether to be thankful, laugh, or be angry.
He picks up the shiny tin of food and opens it.
It’s still warm.
………….
He takes a few steps towards the counter across from him to look out the open window.
No one.
Iruka looks down at the tin box in his hands once more before sitting down at his desk to eat it.
He takes the chopsticks out of his lunch bag he had packed for ramen and starts to eat.
…..
All of a sudden he is itching to get out of work.
He is determined to catch Kakashi slinking around.
…..
The hunt is on.