| [Jan. 31st, 2012|06:56 am] |
Kakashi absorbed that. “Do you... need a cup of tea?”
Katsuko dissolved with laughter, draping across his back like a beaten rug. He held very still as she buried her face into the curve between his neck and shoulder, making strangled howling sounds, and weakly hit an open hand against his side. Catharsis again, except Ryouma had left and Kakashi was mildly concerned she was about to blow her nose on his mask.
Katsuko lifted her face, colour in her cheeks again. “Yes,” she said at last, breathless.
He started to extract himself, but she didn’t let go. In the end he just brought her with him to the kitchen, stepping carefully over scattered paperwork. Her arms slipped down to wrap around his waist, and she kind of... pressed her face between his shoulderblades. The angle was too awkward for him to pet her hair. He filled the kettle with water and set it on the stove, instead.
“Black or green?” he asked.
“Green,” Katsuko said, voice muffled flat. “With as much sugar as possible.”
Kakashi pulled a face at the wall, but retrieved the sugar from where Ryouma had left it on the counter, loading three teaspoons into a chipped blue mug. There were only three green teabags left; he’d have to get more. The gas-burner flame hissed as a drop of water slid down the side of the kettle.
“Do you want me to do anything?” he tried.
"You and Ryouma've already done so much," she murmured, still pressed against his back. Her voice sounded dazed. "You're the only ones who never gave up."
Sometimes, she’d said last night, tired and resigned, talking about a family who’d fed her into the teeth of a war and walked away when she’d come back broken. Sometimes it’s the people you love who hurt you the most.
People were stupid.
"Come here," Kakashi said, and reached behind him, catching her shirt and pulling her around by it. She made another one of those yowling-cat sounds, like an animal dragged from its warm safe place. He kept tugging until he had her in front of him, facing the counter, and pulled her back against his chest. She was fairly tall for a kunoichi, but still short enough for him to rest his chin on top of her head--which made a difference from craning his neck at Ryouma. She smelled like snowmelt and exhaustion, like too many hard changes all at once.
He picked her hands up by the wrists, setting them around the unfilled cup, and kept things simple. “Help me make tea.”
Katsuko made a startled sound. Then she shrugged, shoulderblades scraping his chest, and took hold of the cup. “Slavedriver,” she grumbled, reaching for a teabag.
“No sugar in mine,” Kakashi said, unrepentant.
“I’ll put salt in yours,” she muttered, sounding much more like herself. “So much salt.”
“I’d make you drink it,” he said. He tipped his head to the side, ducking down closer to her ear. Softened his voice a little. “Can I ask you a favour?”
"I don't do anything involving small children or animals," she said instantly, voice wary.
Kakashi blinked. “What? No. Well, maybe I should make you walk the dogs, but that’s not what I was thinking of.” He refocused. “If I’ve actually cracked this, and I think I have, I’m going to need to spend at least a few days down in the seal labs testing prototypes, probably more. I can’t take Ryouma down with me. He’d go stir-crazy. But... he has this habit of vanishing when I’m not around. Or getting in trouble.”
Which made Ryouma sound like he was four, but Kakashi persisted.
“He trusts you. Would you... stick around? Make sure he keeps safe?” |
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