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Kakashi stretched up to reach the trailing ivy in its broad pot atop the tallest bookcase, tipping the cup over carefully to water it. His wings angled up a little for balance as he tried to get a good look into the pot, checking for dead leaves, without actually walking up the wall.
“Why do we have so many plants?” Kakashi asked, taking a step back and turning away from the bookcase. Something shifted along with his left wing, the colour all wrong for his feathers, and Kakashi twitched with sudden alarm, flinching as the rest of the water in the cup he held hit him in the face.
He realised belatedly that it was his own feathers, the pattern that had been there for years now - since the battle that had nearly killed him before his now-laughing soulmate plummeted out of the sky in a twisting, laughing, incredible streak and reordered the battlefield with a few blows. Kakashi knew the damned pattern. He sighed, ruffling his feathers and folding his wings away.
He looked over at the couch with a scowl. Sakura only giggled louder, sliding her feet closer to her body, her knees already propped up in front of her. Kakashi huffed.
“It was a long time.” he muttered, going to return the now empty cup to the kitchen.
“Aw, my poor Kashi.” Sakura crooned, and he turned to glare only to find her beckoning to him. She snickered, but beckoned again, and Kakashi sighed, putting the cup down on the nearest table as he changed directions.
Sakura hummed, shifting to make room for him and putting her book aside. Kakashi flopped sideways to settle on the couch just shy of her feet, but moved easily when Sakura leaned forwards and hooked her fingers in his shirt, tugging.
Kakashi shifted and stretched out towards her, finding himself guided down to rest between Sakura’s legs with his head on her chest. He hummed, nestling in comfortably, and Sakura laughed, warmer this time, as she ran her fingers through his hair, then out to his wings, fingers ruffling through his silvery feathers with their thin, soft pink lines.
Sakura shifted beneath him, leaning up a bit and freeing her wings from behind her, letting them curl to either side instead. Kakashi watched as she stretched, wings shivering and legs tensing as they slid along his sides, then settled again.
Her wide wings - so big for her otherwise petite build - were pretty, Kakashi thought as her hands stroked over his shoulders and toyed with his feathers. They had always been bright and striking, but the silver speckles that now spread over them, thickening lower on the wing until it was almost a gradient from bright pink at the leading edge to nearing solid silvery grey at the tips of the biggest trailing feathers. . .
Kakashi reached out, brushing his fingertips over one of them, remembering watching them lighten with the fading spots before his eyes as Sakura turned to him with first concern, and then a bright grin. He’d thought he’d been concussed, or trapped in a genjutsu, at first. Twenty years without a soulmate, after having flown with almost every ninja in Konoha at one time or another in training or missions, and then to have her right there in front of him. . .
“My poor Kashi.” Sakura said softly, wrapping herself around him, warm and strong. Kakashi’s wings pressed closer to his back, folded in neat and small as they would go, as he nestled into her embrace. Sakura shifted and twined her arms behind his shoulders, drawing him up a little before returning to her gentle petting strokes and preening.
Kakashi nuzzled against the base of her throat with a soft, contented rumble. “Just now, darling,” he said, stroking up and down her side from her hip, “I think I’m quite lucky, really.”
Sakura made a quiet pleased sound herself and squeezed him tighter. “Me too.” she said, sincerity sweet in her tone.
Kakashi wasn’t entirely sure why she felt that way about him, but he would forever be so very pleased - and lucky - that she did. He kneaded her side, then let his hand roam higher, up her ribs and sliding behind her back to follow her spine up between the bases of her wings.
Sakura’s body arched and she gave a low, rich purr, feathers ruffling. Kakashi kissed her throat, laughing as he felt the dampness from the water he’d thrown in his own face adding a bit of drag as he nuzzled against the soft skin in the crook of his soulmate’s neck. Her pulse was heavy and slow just against his cheek, and he pressed a kiss there, making her shiver, fingers curling in his feathers.
“You know,” Kakashi said, nipping low at the base of his soulmate’s throat and grinning as she made a little louder sound, thighs tensing on either side of his waist, but not quite closing on him, “you didn’t answer me.”
“. . .what?” Sakura asked, ruffling his feathers very lightly the wrong way and making him tense, wings arching and feathers standing out.
Kakashi groaned, forcing them down again. “Why we have so many plants. I have Ukki-san, but these others. . . Which seem to be an ever-growing pack. . .”
“Plants do not come in packs, Kashi.” Sakura said, laughing, and kissed his temple. He smiled against her skin. “Even ninja plants.”
“No such thing as ninja plants.” Kakashi said wisely.
“How would you know?” Sakura teased. “They’re very good ninja plants.”
“I’m better.” Kakashi said evenly, raising his head to meet her gaze.
Sakura smiled, warm and amused. “That is probably true.” she allowed. “The plants are an Ino sign of affection. Or apology. Or attrition, sometimes.” She narrowed her eyes at one particular mother-of-thousands plant, and Kakashi arched a brow. “Ino speaks volumes with her plants.”
“Yet you keep them?” Kakashi asked, making himself more comfortable where he lay atop his soulmate as her hands roamed absently over and through his feathers.
“I do like them.” Sakura said lazily. “And even the attrition gifts are nice. Besides, it made her very sad and sulky the last time I threw one at her head.”
“. . .I would be distressed if you threw a plant at my head.” Kakashi informed her. “So I cannot blame her.”
“Especially a ninja plant?” Sakura teased, and Kakashi snorted, startled into laughter. “I will refrain, then.” she added with a very serious tone, her eyes sparkling. Kakashi hummed. Sakura had never thrown anything at his head outside of sparring, and he wasn’t exactly worried that she would start now, as intensely aggravating as he well knew he was capable of being.
“I get special privileges?” Kakashi suggested, smirking.
Sakura laughed and hugged him tight, drawing him up closer and nudging her nose against his. “Oh, Kashi. You get all kinds of special privileges.” she said, her voice low and promising, then stroked his cheek and drew him into a shallow, soft kiss.
Kakashi growled low, wings arching just a little, and met her with equally gentle, warm caresses. Sakura’s hands still roamed through his feathers as they traded cosy, contented kisses, though her strokes were slightly less careful. Kakashi nudged his nose against her cheek before lightly stroking her lower lip with his tongue, drawing it between his teeth and biting down just enough to make her groan.
“I am a lucky dog.” Kakashi said lightly, and grinned as Sakura turned her face away to giggle. He nosed the curve of her ear instead, petting her hip with his free hand as she resettled herself and folded her legs around him. Kakashi would be hard-pressed to get away from Sakura, if he had even cared to attempt it. Fortunate that he never had wished to, when she held him this way.
“You’re. . .” Sakura shook her head, and Kakashi didn’t find out what he was as she pulled him into a deeper kiss, thighs squeezing his waist and one hand buried in his hair as the other rested comfortably in his feathers.