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“Don’t look at me like that.” Hana shakes her head without even looking up from where she’s seated across the room. “I’m not helping you with your paperwork.” She doesn’t even have the heart to look up when Kakashi whines in response.
“But there’s so much of it and I want to go for a walk with you!”
“And you will. As soon as your paperwork is done.”
With a sigh Kakashi pouts down at the thick stack still in front of him. “It’d get done faster if you would help.”
His wife ignores him easily, distracted as she is with brushing the knots out of Bisuke’s tail. Several other dogs are all gathered by her feet to patiently wait their turn while her own two canine partners lounge smugly on either side of Kakashi’s chair. They had their turn first. And of course they had to come flaunt their shiny new coats to the man who so desperately wanted nothing more than to sit on the floor and ruffle them all up again with pets and cuddles.
For a while Kakashi lets the jealousy fuel him in to running through paperwork at double the speed he’s been able to muster all morning, uninterested as he has been in actually doing his job. Unfortunately he’s never been a particularly jealous person by nature and he cannot keep that energy for very long. Barely half an hour passes before he finds himself slowing down again to mope over the ink and parchment.
Hana stands across the room, drawing his attention. When she comes towards him he perks in such a way that if he owned a tail it would be wagging.
“I’m still not helping you with paperwork,” she says. Kakashi droops, chastened. “But I might be inclined to provide you with a little incentive.”
“Oh?” he perks again, intrigued.
“Yes, if you can finish at least half of what’s there by the time I get back then I’ll share the snack I’m going to buy with you.” She grins to see one of his hands reflexively travel down to press at his tummy.
“Got it!” he declares.
Then he bends over his desk with a new energy, eyes flying across the page to properly read what he’s about to put his signature on because he knows she’ll know if he just cheats his way through. He wouldn’t want another disaster to happen again anyway, not after the last time he signed something without looking and accidentally gave Anko permission to invade a peaceful foreign nation in search of better dango recipes.
Without the sound of a brush running through fur to make him yearn for the same tender affections Kakashi’s finds that he can concentrate much better. He still has several well-groomed pups in the room to show off their coats but the incentive of sharing a snack with his lady drives him on much better than jealousy ever could.
By the time Hana returns he is slightly more than halfway through the pile left on his desk and by some small mercy he’s pretty sure the ones that remain will all be the easiest to go through. He still drops the lot of it like a sack of hot potatoes the second she walks in to the room and he smells the treats in her hand. Grilled squid. She really does know how to pick a good reward when she needs to. Kakashi spreads both of his hands to present the now much taller ‘done’ pile with a proud grin then tilts his face up to accept the light kiss she gifts to one cheek.
“I suppose you’ve earned this,” Hana says, setting down the little container of grilled squid.
“Thank you.” He does have manners, no matter what some people say about him.
Unfortunately he forgets them as well in the next instant, too concerned with shoving a bit of food in his face to bother with being tidy about it, but all his lady does is laugh a little and reach over to brush some of the sauce from his nose.
“A good reward?” she asks.
“You or the squid?” he replied cheekily.
Hana rolls her eyes and doesn’t answer, going back to her own snack.
Peeking down at the papers left, Kakashi can’t help but smile to himself, a reaction more for his partner than for the work ahead of him. Being the Hokage is always a big job and sometimes there is more to do than other times. Luckily he has Hana, who always knows just how to keep him motivated. For now he will have squid. Later when the day is done he will have her hand in his own and a whole pack of dogs at their feet to join them on a leisurely stroll through the village he watches over.
It isn’t the life he’s always imagined for himself but it is a life he wouldn’t give up for anything in the world.