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It was the end of Sakura's shift when the genin from the trauma ward caught up with her. After working a double, Sakura just wanted to go home and go to bed, not necessarily in that order. (The couch in the office that she shared with Shizune was very comfortable. And they kept pillows and folded blankets on the top shelf of their office closet.) But instead of sharing any of that with the genin, Sakura pasted on a false smile and listened attentively as the child gave her Tsunade's message: Get down to the trauma ward and deal with that moron Hatake. Now.
Sakura gave her notes and files to the genin with strict instructions that he was to take them to Shizune in the poisons ward. The genin nodded seriously, repeated Sakura's instructions back to her, and then scurried off, his burden clutched to his chest.
Sakura tiredly made her way down to the trauma ward and then, after a quick enquiry with the nurse's station, to the appropriate bed. The bed that Kakashi had been assigned to was in a small, private room at the end of the ward. There was a large glass viewing area along one wall of Kakashi's room that would allow Kakashi to look into the ward and the medics to look in on Kakashi. As she walked the length of the ward, Sakura watched Kakashi through the window.
He was laying flat on his back, a mass of curves and lumps covered in layers of off-white hospital blankets. Beyond him, Sakura could see through Kakashi's window to the blue sky and the green leaves of the maple tree outside.
When she reached Kakashi's door, Sakura gave it a quick rap with her knuckles and then briskly entered the room behind it.
"Go away," Kakashi snapped, his voice low and his words slurred either from sleep or the painkillers that they were pumping into him.
"No," Sakura replied as she shut the door behind herself. "What's this I hear about you being troublesome, Kakashi?"
"All lies," Kakashi assured her, trying to angle his head so that he could look at her from his bed. The wide neckline of his hospital gown gaped. When he smiled at her, his dark mask shifted in the familiar way. Kakashi started to fidgeted then grimaced and stopped. "I just want to go to the bathroom."
"So go," Sakura said, after a quick glance at the empty catheter bag hanging from the foot of his bed.
"I meant to the actual room," Kakashi said, shifting his weight and grimacing again. His skin was nearly as pale as the bandages around his sharingan eye. "Preferably the one in my own apartment."
Sakura sighed, suddenly understanding what the problem was.
"Kakashi," she said as she moved closer to the bed. Sadly, there was no visitor's chair next to his bed and Sakura was too tired to even consider going to get one. "You aren't well enough to stand up long enough to go to the bathroom off of this room, much less to go home to your apartment."
"You could come with me," he offered hopefully.
"Kakashi, I sleep here more often than I sleep in my own apartment," Sakura sighed as she carefully sat on the edge of his bed, on the side opposite to his IV rack. It felt so wonderful to be off of her feet that Sakura carefully scooted back until the curve of her hip brushed the outside of Kakashi's thigh. "I'm too tired to carry you home."
Looking dreadfully disappointed, Kakashi asked, "What about to the bathroom attached to this room?"
"Ugh," Sakura groaned. "I'd have to remove your catheter and figure out how to hold you up without hurting you and put you on the toilet. And that's without even considering the state of your stitches, IV cords, or casts."
"I'd be willing to sit," Kakashi offered helpfully, as if that had ever been in question.
"Still too much work," Sakura decided as she swung around and carefully flopped onto the bed next to Kakashi. "Pee here."
"No. Take me to the bathroom."
"No," Sakura replied, wriggling closer to Kakashi. He was warm and his pillow felt amazingly good underneath her head. "Why do you want to go there, anyway?"
"I shouldn't have to explain why I want to use a proper toilet," Kakashi snapped as he shifted in the bed, the stiff bedclothes rustling against his bandages and pulling underneath Sakura's back. "It should be enough that I want to."
"Mhhmmmm," Sakura hummed, already half asleep. The only thing that could possibly make her more comfortable would be if she took her boots off. But if she took her boots off, her feet would get cold. Of course, she was laying on a bunch of blankets. And Kakashi's body temperature usually ran pretty warm. She could take her boots off and be quite toasty...
...if she could bring herself to move, that is.
Kakashi's pillow was deliciously comfortable.
"Ow!" Sakura yelped, jolting away from Kakashi's pinching fingers. She inadvertently banged her knee into the side of his thigh, which made Kakashi hiss with discomfort. Wide awake, Sakura sat up and swung her legs over the side of Kakashi's bed.
"What'd you do that for?" Sakura demanded, as she fumbled with the buckles on her boots.
"You weren't paying attention to me," Kakashi said grumpily. "I said take me to the bathroom, Sakura."
"And I said no way," Sakura replied as she kicked her boots off. She stood up just long enough to shed her medic's coat, drape it over Kakashi's bedside table, and pull back Kakashi's blankets. When she joined him under the covers, Sakura sighed contentedly, "Much better than the couch."
"Sakura," groaned Kakashi. His body was stiff with tension against her own. "I need to use the toilet."
"So go!"
"I can't!"
That brought Sakura fully awake. Rolling onto her side in order to face him, Sakura asked, "You don't mean that in the can't-physically-go-to-that-room way, do you?"
"No, I can't go here," Kakashi replied, sounding miserably embarrassed. He had turned his face away from Sakura and was studying the far wall with ferocious intent. "I need to go in an actual bathroom."
"You pee in non-bathroom locations all the time on missions," Sakura replied tartly, remembering a recent peeing contest off of the side of the Great Naruto Bridge. As the only girl on the team, Sakura had been banished from the vicinity of the competition.
"That's different," Kakashi insisted. "I'm not going to have to sleep in it."
"You don't have to sleep in it," Sakura told him, exasperated. "It'll go into a bag at the foot of your bed."
"That's not much different," Kakashi scoffed. "It'll be there and I'll have to lay next to it, maybe even sleep next to it."
"I'll switch out your bags," Sakura promised, even though the thought of moving from her place in Kakashi's bed made her weary down to her bones. "Go ahead and pee."
She patiently waited for Kakashi's frame to relax or for him to tell her to get up and switch out the bags. Neither ever happened.
"Kakashi?"
"I can't," he admitted wretchedly. "It's stuck."
"Like a blockage?"
"No."
"Then like what?"
"I'd rather not say. It's embarrassing."
"Would you rather I get one of the male medics?" Sakura offered, torn between exasperation and indignation at the thought.
"No!"
"So tell me what the problem is!"
"I just can't relax enough to... let go."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
Sakura thought a moment. Then she began feeling about under the covers.
"Sakura!" Kakashi squawked, jerking and then groaning at the pain of it. The only bright side was that he finally turned to look at her. "What are you doing?"
"Looking for the edge of your hospital gown," Sakura said as she ran her fingers over the seam of fabric between what felt like Kakashi's side and the top surface of the mattress. "Do you have it tucked under you?"
"Of course I do!"
Smiling at his indignation, Sakura set about slowly tugging the nearest edge out from under him.
"Sakura, what're you up to?" Kakashi asked suspiciously and then hissed, his stomach contracting under Sakura's palm. "Sakura, your hand's cold."
"Sorry," Sakura said, only semi-repentantly. On the one hand, Kakashi was clearly injured, uncomfortable, and unhappy. On the other hand, she liked feeling his stomach move beneath her hand.
Sakura carefully scooted even closer to Kakashi, arranging herself against his side so that the bulk of her body leaned against his side. She tangled her legs with his and held his nearest hand with her free hand, the one that she was laying on. When she was comfortably settled, Sakura began rubbing gentle circles over his stomach.
"Sakura," Kakashi said, his voice tight. His hand, the one holding her other hand, tightened on hers.
"It's okay," Sakura promised, trying to pitch her voice to be low and soothing. "Close your eyes, Kakashi."
"I don't want to."
"Do it anyway, Kakashi."
Kakashi exhaled noisily, his stomach heaving underneath Sakura's hand. "Fine."
"Now imagine we're in my apartment," Sakura instructed. "It smells like cinnamon apple air freshener and my shampoo and my lotion."
"I hate that air freshener scent," Kakashi complained. "I can't smell anything through it."
"I know. But you can smell us because we're all tangled up in my blankets, all snuggly and warm," Sakura promised, resting her cheek against the angle of Kakashi's shoulder.
"Mmmm, I like that," Kakashi agreed. "But I can't fall asleep. I still have to pee."
"So go into my bathroom," Sakura murmured. "The tiles will be cold under your feet and it'll smell astringent, like a hospital."
"It always does. I hate that," Kakashi agreed.
"Now just relax and let go."
"I can't," Kakashi complained after a beat. "You followed me into the bathroom."
Sakura huffed, trying to think which way to go with this.
I could say that I'm in the bathroom but that I'm brushing my teeth or something and not paying attention to him at all, Sakura thought, her fingers slowly caressing their way down his torso. But, in light of our current positions, that seems a bit ridiculous.
"Well, you're not feeling good," Sakura finally said, her fingers brushing back and forth across the soft, raised skin of his mole. It was round and dark brown and Sakura liked it immensely. She usually lavished inordinate amounts of attention on Kakashi's silly mole. She tickled and kissed it, licked, bit, and sucked on it, depending on the mood between them. When she fell asleep at night, she liked to rest her palm over it. Now, as she stroked Kakashi's belly, Sakura enjoying the familiar shape and texture of his mole beneath her fingers. "I'm going to support you, just like you're standing in a hospital's bathroom."
"Your bathroom smells like a hospital's bathroom," Kakashi agreed. "It makes my nose itch."
Under her, Kakashi began to relax.
"But it's familiar," Sakura argued. "You use my bathroom all the time. You like things that are familiar."
"I do," Kakashi sighed. "Ssshhh, Sakura."
Sakura obligingly fell silent. Presently, Kakashi said, "You have to get rid of the bag now."
"If you press the call button, I'll make one of the genin switch them out," Sakura bargained, without much hope. Kakashi was a private person. He was probably going to make her get up and make the switch herself.
"Okay," Kakashi sleepily acquiesced, surprising Sakura. A moment later, she heard the muted buzz of the call bell being activated. "I like you where you are. And your hands are finally warm."
"Yeah," Sakura agreed, her fingers ever so softly stroking over the skin at the base of his abdomen. She stopped, her palm coming to rest squarely over Kakashi's mole. "Go to sleep, Kakashi."
"Okay."
As a testament to his trust in her, Kakashi was asleep long before a hapless genin arrived to exchange his full urine bag for an empty one. When she finished ordering the genin about, Sakura drifted off to sleep herself, her palm firmly pressed to her mole.