Title: Imperfections
Pairing: Kakashi/Sakura
Rating: T (content)
Summary: “Despite all of their collective imperfections, it's exactly the way he'd dreamed it would be.”
Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me!

Imperfections

The first time they kiss, Kakashi clashes his teeth against hers then mistakenly bites her lip. She yelps, then giggles wildly as she cross eyed-ly heals herself with a chakra laden touch. He blushes furiously against his violently pale cheeks, and pouts until she pulls him down to kiss it all better (which should have been his job in the first place, she later points out).

When they hold hands, it's difficult to walk. His height yanks her arm up uncomfortably, and he has to walk nearly on an angle, body tilted to the side, as well as compensating his usual slouch to accommodate for her dainty palm. Occasionally they'll slip their hands apart and clench before moving back together just to get the blood flowing to their cramped digits.

They don't get married. Sakura's progenitor is furious, as expected of any doting father, when they move in together to live in sin for the years to come (deliciously so, as Kakashi quips, often). The older women of the town still anxiously await the day when they can wish the last Hatake well upon his nuptials, showering him with presents long chosen, but it never comes.

His less trained dogs leave her dead things as presents in her sandals. She goes to leave for work one morning, weeks after they had moved in together, to find a freshly mauled rabbit accompanied by a terrier with his tail going full speed. The neighbors beat the walls assuming it's Kakashi's usual morning "hello", which leads Sakura to wonder what would happen if someone really was murdering her. Kakashi just smiles and explains that it means she's part of the pack.

She leaves the light on in the bathroom so that she can see the hallway at night, which drives Kakashi's inner electric conservationist insane. He itches to turn it off, but every night she sleepwalks, does her business, then proceeds to snuggle herself into him whispering her love, and then he can't move except to hold her closer. The bill is astronomically more than when he lived alone.

Years into their relationship, she miscarries, and their baby would have been a girl. He mourns by holding her as she weeps and rails against the world, and they both console each other that nothing more could have been done than their actions taken. They make love. They move on. There are no more children, and somehow they're happier for the uncomplicated bliss of it all (though they never tell each other).

Kakashi, much to his chagrin, gets deeply indented crows feet around his eyes to match his ever whitening hair and slightly bowed spine. This causes Sakura to jokingly buy him purple face paint for a birthday, to which he growls and hogs her favorite pillow in revenge. Domestic warfare isn't pretty.

Sakura gains arthritis in her hands, which she blames on the Fifth. Kakashi pulls on his face mask when she uses the cream necessary to dull the bouts of pain after battle, until she wipes off the excess onto the patch beneath his nose, then sullenly pouts until he "makes it better". She steals the covers leaving him to shiver, naturally.

Despite her fading hair, and aversion to his favorite novels, he thinks that she's still the most beautiful thing he's ever laid eyes on. He tells her in every touch. And despite all of their collective imperfections, it's exactly the way he'd dreamed it would be.

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Author’s Note:

I’m really working on my chapters! I swear! I can’t help it that the plot fairy visits so often! Aside, I’m really almost finished. I’ve got a few loose ends to clean up, then revision, and it’s up. Whoooo! And I’m finished editing a term paper for someone. I hate that, since half the time it’s on some wild theoretical sub-specialty and I have no idea what I’m reading due to jargon. Good thing she was writing on my subject of study, so I could do more than correct grammar errors.

Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday as well! It was a nice present! I did get an ice cream cake from a friend and some mixed drinks that were tasty called ‘Alien Secretions’... interesting title, but tasty all the same. And I got to light things on fire (legally), which is always fun. Mwhahaah.