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She looked small in his shirt. Of all the possible words there were to describe the woman before him Kakashi wasn’t sure he had ever thought of her as small despite the way his own height towered over hers. There was just something about the confidence in her walk and the surety in every word she spoke, the calm competence with which she handled the world around her, that always made her feel larger than life to him. How she managed to pack so much personality in to barely more than five feet of height was nothing less than a miracle.
And yet there she lay in bed, looking so small the way his shirt engulfed her frame. With the sheets rumpled from restless slumber they had slipped down low enough for a swath of skin to peek through and tease him with long legs that didn’t appear to be wearing anything underneath her borrowed sleep shirt. The funny part was that Kakashi was fairly sure he had thrown that out several weeks ago, too old to sit right on his frame any longer and too much stretch around the neck for his mask to tuck in properly. It looked better on her than it ever had on him even if he wanted to laugh at the image of her fishing it out of the bag they had packed to be donated to needy families.
Kakashi held his breath for a moment when she stirred, tilting his head to watch her roll on to her back. For a moment he thought his presence had woken her but it was a false alarm. Sakura flung one arm out and mumbled under her breath about finding some medical tape as she slept on with her hilariously boring dreams. She always glared at him jealously when he shared the weird wonders of his own nighttime adventures, put out that her mind could find nothing better to imagine than hospital rounds and paperwork.
“Vile temptress,” he called to her softly. “How am I supposed to just ignore you like this?”
She didn’t answer but she did kick out randomly with one leg. Kakashi huffed in amusement and turned his back to the heart-warming sight of his wife all wrapped up in his own clothing like an invitation. The pack on his shoulders slid off with a sigh of relief, plopped carelessly in to one corner where it would probably take him three days to work up the energy to unpack it. His vest went next, hung up on the hooks on the back of the bedroom door, then he bent to wrestle off his sandals. Why had he thought he missed going on missions? Missions were dirty and uncomfortable and lonely where his job as the Hokage had been lazy and allowed him to go home to his own bed every night. He was glad to have given the hat to someone who actually wanted it but he realized now that he was an idiot for insisting Naruto put him back in to mission rotation.
When he had stripped himself down to just his pants and cut through the wrapping around his legs – stained and unsalvageable after the places he had slogged through – Kakashi eyed the messy covers and very seriously thought about crawling in. There was nothing wrong with an early morning nap, especially since he had been running all night to be home a little faster.
His nose wrinkled when he sighed and caught a whiff of his own body. No matter how much Sakura loved him she probably wouldn’t appreciate waking up next to a body that smelled little better than sewage. Kakashi allowed himself one last longing look at the beautiful picture she made before turning away regretfully and heading for the shower. Once he was clean he could do what he wanted. And all he wanted was to lay still on a comfortable mattress with the woman he loved held safe between his arms.
The second he stepped in to the shower he amended that thought. All he wanted in the world was to stand right here and let the hot spray of water relax muscles he’d barely even realized were so tense, sweat and grime and muck from the swamp sloughing away to leave behind nothing but naked skin. It took all the willpower he had in his body to reach for the soap and lather himself head to toe. Even that seemed like too much effort but he was glad that he did; it made closing his eyes and stepping back in to the water for a rinse all the sweeter.
A soft click made his ears twitch and Kakashi peered curiously around the shower curtain to find Sakura standing in the doorway with one fist rubbing sleeping at her eyes and his oversized shirt drooping around her frame. Long naked legs stretched out beneath it like twin snacks waiting to be devoured yet he only had eyes for the sweetness of her smile.
“You’re home,” she breathed.
“Finally,” Kakashi grumbled mildly. He held out one hand, ignoring the way water dripped from his skin on to the bathroom floor. “Come here.”
Unsuspecting, Sakura took his hand. Then she squealed when he caught her up and pulled her over the edge of the tub to stand in the shower with him.
“I’m not undressed yet!” she shouted, slapping at his chest playfully to let him know she wasn’t truly upset. Kakashi chuckled and pulled her tight against him. Already the shirt she was wearing was soaked through, clinging to her skin the way her hair clung to her scalp, and she had never been more beautiful to him than when she blinked passed the spray to grin up at him, happy to see him home.
“Maa, I simply couldn’t wait any longer.”
“Wretched man,” she accused him without heat. “I only wanted to come say welcome home!”
“And I do feel welcome.” Kakashi helpfully combed her wet hair away from her face and slipped his hand under her chin to angle it up so he could press a kiss against her lips.
She melted against him as easily as that, five feet and change of pure glorious muscle all languid and soft for his hands to peruse. This was probably his favorite part of going away. Coming home to rediscover every inch of the beautiful woman who had made his house a home, it made every mission worth it. Kakashi wished so badly that he could go back in time and tell his younger self to hold on because life did get so, so much better.
“Did I wake you?” he asked, stroking her cheek just to watch her eyes flutter.
“Of course you did.” Sakura shrugged with a quick laugh. “I woke up as soon as you turned the water on. Very rude. I was sleeping quite peacefully, thank you.”
“Mm. You could come back to bed with me afterwards?”
“You know, that is an excellent idea. Now help me out of this shirt.”
Kakashi mourned the loss of such a cute looking outfit but if she was going to save the shirt then clearly he would be seeing it again sometime. Besides that he was always more than happy to help his wife take her clothes off. That right there was an activity that rewarded them both. It took a bit of maneuvering to peel the wet material off her skin and up over her hair. Once he’d done that he had to wring it out and throw it up over the show bar where it could hang to dry. When he lowered his arms, though, he got to wrap them around Sakura again and feel her skin against his own.
“Now this is what I call a proper welcome home,” he said with a smirk. Sakura rolled her eyes. Then she stood up on her toes to reach his lips for a slow, drawn out kiss.
“If that’s what you were after then you should have said so.”
By the time they made it to the bed the hot water had long run out and Kakashi was twice as exhausted as he had been when he arrived but he didn’t regret a single moment. Going back on missions may have been a bit of a rushed decision but he couldn’t deny that it was always nice to come back to the place where he belonged.