64My Places or Yours?
It was a game they played; a sick, twisted kind of game, but they were shinobi and that was just par for the course.
"What do you think about living together?"
Kakashi had froze the first time Sakura said this while innocently resting on his chest, occasionally picking a spot on his neck to leave a hickey. They were lying together and enjoying the early morning hours in his bed before she had to get up and leave for the hospital and he had to get up and leave on a mission.
It was a trap, of course. As a shinobi, Kakashi was nothing if not extremely proficient at spotting traps, but this one in particular was almost impossible to escape. He squirmed for a few minutes and then did what he thought would be best at the moment: he found the sensitive spot on her shoulder and ran his tongue over it.
At the time, it seemed that that was that.
It wasn't.
Sakura brought it up twice more before he finally noticed the teasing look in her eye when she did so. The minx. She was just tormenting him, like a cat did with a mouse it didn't intend to eat. He had to wonder if ANBU knew what sort of talent the interrogation squad had missed out on in not acquiring her.
After this discovery, Kakashi wasn't quite so ready to cower when the question came up. Instead, he rubbed a circle into the base of her spine with his thumb and then replied, "It isn't an awful idea."
She seemed surprised by this development, but then pleased as she smiled playfully in return. "Good. My place or yours?"
"Hm, I'm rather fond of my place. But we should use your furniture. My stuff's old."
Sakura nodded and then laid a gentle kiss to the underside of his chin as she hummed contentedly. Then, that was that.
Until the next night.
With time, the game expanded to the point where they would lay and talk about the adjustments that would need to make for the other's presence. He teased about finally having a live-in nurse so he'd never have to go to the hospital and she casually mentioned burning all of his Icha Icha books. They agreed that they'd get their toothbrushes mixed up, because they both inexplicably liked red ones, so they'd have to come up with some way of telling them apart. The shower was too small for more than one bottle of shampoo and conditioner, so she'd just have to use his.
"That's fine," she murmured. "Then, even when you're away, I'll be able to smell like you."
That made his heart clench in the strangest way.
They'd do laundry on Mondays and Thursdays—together, so that it'd get done quicker. She'd wash the dishes as long as he was willing to dry them. He'd be better about not leaving wet towels on the bathroom floor if she would promise to pick up her toe-nail clippings because he loved every part of her except her discarded dead skin cells.
Then, after a while, what had started as a game became sort of painful. It filled him with an odd sort of longing as he realized that he wasn't kidding so much anymore when he told her that she could have the top drawer of his dresser and the right side of his closet. She could even reorganize his kitchen the way she liked and fill his medicine cabinet with all of those mysterious things women seemed to keep in their medicine cabinets.
"Sakura?"
She rubbed her cheek against his chest and then pressed her lips sleepily to his sternum. "Hm?"
He traced the dip at the base of her spine and swallowed. "What do you think about living together?"
It was her turn to freeze and a part of him felt very smug about that, even as his heart leapt up into his throat. He had never started the game before. He had never asked the initial question. She had to understand his intentions. There was an enormous, sexy brain under that head of beautiful, pink hair. She had to…
"I've love to."
He lifted his head a little to look at her. She was smiling, suddenly not so sleepy anymore. "Good," he murmured as the elated swelling that was filling his chest threatened to break a few ribs.
Her smile widened and folded her arms across his chest, propping her chin atop of them. "My place or yours?"
1. Love you guys for reading.
2. Shameless plug time: go read "House Calls" if you haven't. I hear it's pretty good.
3. Evil plot bunnies are evil. Couldn't help myself.
4. Anyone get the feeling that that was Sakura's plan all along?
(Review now please. Also, House Calls has been updated. I don't know if the email alert went out, because I updated when began their updates-brilliant, I know.)
