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Shizune left with what felt like a mountain of paperwork and Obito let his head fall onto the desk in front of him. It was another really late night, later than it reasonably should have been and he wondered not for the first time how Minato-sensei had handled all the workload with a child waiting for him at home when Obito could barely function and didn’t also have parental duties to fulfil.
It was godsent that Shizune was able to help out as much as she did and that she too was free to spend the evenings with her more or less exhausted boss in his office without complaining too much. If she hadn’t been around he probably would have never gotten any sleep anymore.
Not that Obito would have wanted to change really, he was still very happy to have been able to fulfil his dream of Hokage, especially with his student Naruto hot at his heels about the position, no matter how hard it could be from time to time. His former classmates were always ready to help him out and be supportive, especially and most importantly Kakashi of course.
As if he had heard Obito think about him, Kakashi appeared to smoke. Obito’s head shot up to see the other sway from side to side and then fall forward. Obito was quick enough to catch Kakashi before he could hit the ground, he seemed more exhausted than Obito felt, if that was even possible.
“You’re back!” Obito said helped Kakashi stand upright again. “Is everything alright with you?”
Kakashi still had his ANBU mask on, but Obito didn’t need to see the low eyelids hanging over his mismatched eyes to know he could barely keep them open. “Reporting in from my mission,” Kakashi murmured and then added a completely unnecessary, “..Sir.”
“Nonsense, “Obito said and grabbed him tighter. “We are going home. No more mission reporting for today.” He predicted Kakashi’s protest before the other man could make it and wrapped his arms around him to transport him to their apartment with kamui. He had not said goodnight to Shizune but surely she would have guessed that he had finally gone home if she’d returned to his office.
Kakashi’s head leaned against Obito’s shoulder and he almost lost balance when they materialised in the middle of their living room. Obito took the mask off and Kakashi’s eyes below them looked tired and empty. Something surely must have happened while he was on the mission.
With soft force he pushed Kakashi to sit down on the couch and then he slowly snapped open all the buckles on the ANBU vest to get it off of him. They had spent enough years together that Obito knew exactly how to open it and open it fast, so it was no problem that Kakashi was not complying.
There were some wounds, light cuts at the arms and some at Kakashi's neck and back. Obito went over them carefully trying to assess how deep and dangerous they might be. His healing jutsu was not especially good and he cursed himself that he hadn’t waited for Shizune to come back to his office to help him. Shizune could have taken care of these in no time.
Each movement Obito did over one of the cuts drew a groan of pain out of Kakashi’s mouth, but when Obito looked up his eyes were still half closed. He wasn’t sure if his partner was awake or sleep walking, but he was thankful that he had made his way home at least.
“Have you eaten?” Obito asked softly and helped Kakashi out of his sandals.
The other man groaned. That probably meant “no”, Obito concluded.
He got up and took a bowl of miso soup out of their fridge and warmed it, always looking over his shoulder to make sure Kakashi wasn’t falling asleep. He needed to get his wounds cleaned, eat and take a shower before he could do that. Obito needed to keep him awake until then at least.
Both hadn’t seen each other for about a month at this point. While Obito didn’t like endangering Kakashi with long missions that would take him multiple weeks to finish, Kakashi always insisted on taking on everything that was potentially dangerous. This was probably one of his hang ups that he had retained from their childhood. Though Obito had found his way back, Kakashi had never truly forgiven himself for how Rin died.
Besides, Kakashi knew he was their best operative and that leaving missions to him, no matter how dangerous, meant that they would be perfectly taken care of. Obito knew that too, obviously, no matter how much he had denied it when he was younger. So now that Obito was in charge he had no option but to let Kakashi continue doing long missions like this, despite how his stomach hurt whenever he had to give them to Kakashi.
Obito walked back over and put the miso soup down in front of Kakashi who miraculously was still awake. “Eat,” Obito said softly and when Kakashi didn’t react he took the spoon himself, put one hand in Kakashi's long unkempt silver hair and offered him the soup on a spoon for him to eat.
“You don’t have to…” Kakashi said, the red on his face giving away how embarrassed he was by the situation. But Obit knew no mercy when it came to making sure his boyfriend took care of himself. So he filled the spoon again and then offered it to Kakashi one more time. Kakashi, probably too tired to argue about it, just ate, mouth closing and opening like he was a machine.
When Obito put the spoon down the last time, Kakashi let his head fall onto his shoulder again. “I need to tell you what happened to finish my mission,” he murmured.
“What you need is sleep,” Obito repeated without missing a beat.
Kakashi nuzzled his head into Obito’s neck and it gave Obito heartburn how cute he looked even though he was so exhausted right now.
“I don’t think I could relax if I haven’T reported my mission findings to the Hokage,” Kakashi murmured, “That is how you finish a mission after all, don’t you remember that was how they taught us in the academy?”
Obiuto sighed. Yes, that was how a mission was finished, that was what they had learned in their final academy year. But back then nobody had taken into account that the Hokage might be your partner and that the Hokage might be Obito, who was more than content to wait until the next day.
“Fine,” he said, knowing that Kakashi, always the one who strictly wanted to adhere to the rules, would never give in. “Report to your Hokage.”
Kakashi’s eyes opened as if Obito had someone activated a seal inside of him that let him function normally. “Lord Fifth,” he said, “The operation you sent me out to do has been finished successfully.”
Obito raised a brow: “So you eliminated the entire cult?”
“ Everyone ,” Kakashi said. “I even tracked down the founder who was in hiding. This is the reason I took a week longer than I should have, I also want to apologise for that.”
“Oh shut up”, Obito knocked his head against Kakashi. “So is the danger over?”
Kakashi looked at him. “For now Konoha is definitely safe, there won’t be any more raids on the rice farmers at the border. Suna has expressed thank you for the help because their wind farmers were also affected. And of course,” he grabbed his jacket and took a scroll out, “I have the formula for the resurrection jutsu they tried to use.”
Obito wondered if it was the same one Minato-sensei had received from Orochimaru’s experiments, but he wasn’t going to check it today. He nodded and put the scroll into his own bag, then he looked forward: “Good work, Hound. You are dismissed.”
“Thank you, sir,” Kakashi said and then slumped forward instantly. Obito held him up again, grabbing tightly around the other man’s shoulders.
He had never been in the ANBU himself and he wasn’t close enough to Tenzo-kun to know if this behaviour was normal for an ANBU operative, that they could not relax until they felt like they had successfully finished their mission, but Kakashi definitely was like that. Now that he seemed satisfied with having given his report his whole body seemed like it had lost a big weight.
“Don’t sleep,” Obito said, “You need to wash yourself first.” Kakashi’s eyelids fluttered but he could barely open them. Luckily Obito was a little bulkier and just a little taller than Kakashi so he pushed him up onto his feet again and with very little help from the man himself brought him to the bathroom.
Obito knew he couldn’t just fill the tub and leave Kakashi alone in it, because he couldn’t trust that Kakashi wouldn’t just fall asleep and sink below the surface. So after he had undressed the other man, he undressed himself too. Now naked Obito could see even more bruises on Kakashi’s body and he made a mental note to summon Kakashi tomorrow so he could hear more details about the past mission.
Kakashi flinched when Obito turned on the shower head over him. “Stay still,” Obito ordered and Kakashi put his head on Obito’s shoulder again. “You should be more careful next time, you know.” Obito made sure to clean out any wound he could find. His healing jutsu might not be good enough to take care of any of these today, but he could at least make sure they wouldn’t get infected to be worse before Shizune or Sakura would have the opportunity to look at them. “You really don’t have to do these long term missions alone or… at all.”
“Hmm,” Kakashi managed to say, which was probably his way of trying to protest without actually having the strength to really do it. Obito ignored it just like he would have ignored it if i had said his usual “I am good at it and you know it too”, retort that Obito had heard too many times.
The bathtub beeped to indicate that they could now enter if they wanted, but Kakashi was breathing so deeply on Obito’s shoulder that he worried that the other man had already fallen asleep right there, even with water running down all over his head. It was therefore better, he decided, that Kakashi would get to bed as soon as possible. Obito could still take a bath once his partner had slipped away.
“You will have to hold yourself up for a moment so I can get a towel,” Obito said softly and Kakashi opened his eyes just far enough so he could maybe see Obito as a shape in front of him. Still, he leaned back against the wall behind him and let Obito get up to find something so they could both be dried up.
Kakashi would have to sleep naked, Obito decided, not only because he didn’t think that he could force the man into new clothing, but also because he was convinced that the moment Obito had pulled him into the bedroom he would just pass out and not wake up for the next three days. Obito would just make sure the blanket around Kakashi was tight and kept him warm and then worry about clothing in the morning when he himself had had some sleep.
He strung an arm around Kakashi again and this time the other man got up himself. Obito slowly walked him out the bathroom and to the bedroom. Their shared apartment was not very big though as Hokage Obito had been offered better lodgings he had been attached to this place, the very first one Kakashi and he had shared, and declined moving. This seemed like a good choice now because even the usual five steps to the bedroom seemed very long with a heavy man that basically needed to be dragged.
“How did you even make it home in this state, you idiot,” Obito said with a shake of his head when he finally let Kakashi down onto the soft bed sheets. “You can barely even lift a finger.”
Kakashi let him turn him over so he could get the blanket beneath him and watched though low lidded eyes how Obito packed him in to keep him warm.
“Because I wanted to see you,” Kakashi whispered.
Obito hadn’t expected him to say anything and only half listened, so he turned his head: “What?”
“I needed to get back home, because I wanted to see you, ” Kakashi repeated.
“Oh,” Obito felt the blush on his cheeks instantly. “Don’t- don’t get sappy now and sleep, idiot. ” But he still leaned forward to give Kakashi a kiss on his wet forehead.
When he stood up straight again he saw that Kakashi was already fast asleep, a peaceful smile on his face. “You’re so stupid, saying things like that,” Obito murmured and sat down next to the bed, his head in his arms so he could keep his eyes on Kakashi’s face.