Dreams of the Past

New Routines and Complications

Chapter Eight

New Routines and Complications

A knock on their door roused Sakura from sleep. She woke with a start, blinking bleary eyes through tangled pink hair. Beside her, Kakashi looked like he was still asleep.

"Me-chan, are you up yet?"

What? She looked around, noticing the light filtering in through the window screen. It was morning, barely. "Yeah, yeah I'm awake, Kakashi-kun. Give me a minute to get dressed."

"Okay!" He sounded far too excited for so early in the morning as his footsteps carried him back down the hall.

Sakura sat up and scrubbed the drool and hair from her face.

"Me-chan?"

Kakashi was peeking up at her around his pillow.

"Oh. Since we live here now and we're family, he asked to call me something more familiar." She yawned and stood.

"Hm. Why is he waking us up so early?"

Tossing his shirt at him, covering his face so she could change, she quickly pulled on her dress and shorts. "He asked me to help him make his bento."

Kakashi scoffed, burrowing back into his pillow. "Does he have a death wish?"

"Hey!" She kicked his leg through the duvet. "I've gotten better. My gran has been helping me. Besides, I told him I've never really done it before so he said we could do it together." A small smile tugged at her lips. He was so sweet when he wanted to be.

Kakashi finally sat up, giving her a funny look as he tugged his shirt on over the masked undershirt he'd slept in. Sakura wrinkled her nose. "That's probably what he wanted anyway. He's... never had anyone close like you before. It's always been just him and Sakumo. He likes you."

"Well I like him, too. And you should really get a few more of those under shirts. You don't wash them enough if you're constantly wearing it. You're starting to smell like wood stain and BO."

He rolled his eyes. "I don't stink. I smell like man and cypress. But fine. I guess we can spare the ryō. Do you need anything?"

Combing through her short hair with her fingers, she sighed. "A hairbrush and several other personal things. I'll get them myself after I walk him to the Academy."

"You're taking him to school, too?"

"He asked me to come with him. Sakumo left before dawn for a mission, remember?"

"Oh, right." He followed her out of their room and down the hall to the kitchen where Kakashi-kun was waiting, already pulling things from the fridge and piling them on the counter.

She looked over what he'd grabbed. "Hm. Rice balls?"

He nodded. "We have leftover miso eggplant. I like it as filling."

Sakura's smile was relieved. "I can make rice balls."

Leaning against the counter, Kakashi smirked. "Nothing to burn."

She scoffed, swatting him with a towel. "Hey. Rude."

He only shrugged, deftly dodging her second towel swing. "You have many other talents, Ayame."

"Look—" She slipped on a pair of gloves, took a scoop of rice, added some of the leftover eggplant and then more rice. Shaping it carefully, her tongue poking out as she concentrated, Sakura held out her rice ball proudly. "See? Perfect."