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“I beat you again, Kakashi!”It was a new feeling - losing to Obito. Strangely satisfying, disarming even. After two months in the ICU, Obito had been transferred to the general ward, which meant he was allowed to have visitors every day. He couldn't walk on his own yet, but he could sit in bed and flick Kakashi's exposed forehead, albeit with little force. With his good hand he revealed his cards and grinned widely, his cheek pressed against the bandages covering the right side of his face.
Having accepted his defeat for the umpteenth time, Kakashi sighed and leaned in to receive his punishment. It's not like he didn't try to turn the tables, though. He'd start every round, determined to prove that he wasn't letting Obito win, but in a couple of minutes it didn't matter anymore. Something bigger than his competitiveness or sense of superiority completely diffused his concentration.“What happened to you, genius? Get a grip already. It's no fun when you don't care,” Obito mumbled, looking at the cards, his smile becoming vacant.“I do care! It's just I —”Kakashi's defense was interrupted by Obito's coughing fit. The cards slipped from the trembling fingers and disappeared under the bed. Kakashi watched them fall, gliding through the folds of the bedsheets, and the second they reached the floor, he too jumped off the bed and rushed to grab a glass of water for his teammate. Amplified by the monotonous beeping of the monitors, the loud hoarse sounds that were escaping Obito's lungs raised goosebumps on Kakashi's skin. The water was filling the glass way too slowly.“Here! It's okay, you're okay, Obito.” Kakashi helped him hold the glass and take a few sips. “Don't drink too much in one go, remember? Easy…”Obito returned the glass to Kakashi with a soft “thanks” and sank back into the bed. His expression changed as it always did whenever he was reminded of where he was. The set jaw, a small frown deepening with every minute passing in silence. He was unnaturally motionless as if possessed by a spirit lost in the human world.“I want a rematch!” Kakashi announced, picking up the cards from the floor and awkwardly brushing away his bangs. “I'm definitely gonna beat you this time.” He settled on Obito's bed and put all his acting abilities into a cheeky half grin that signaled “this is a challenge”.“Oh yeah?” Obito unfroze. “Well, you can try. I'll gladly give you another chance...” He hurriedly scrambled to sit opposite Kakashi. “...to lose!” He started giggling as soon as he said that, not a trace of malice in his voice. But right before Kakashi could deal the cards for another round, a nurse marched in and informed the whole room (despite Obito being the only patient there) that the visiting hours were over.“I guess we'll do it another time?” Kakashi asked, looking for confirmation in Obito's face.“Um-hum.”“Hey, quit moping. You can win by cheating after I return from a B-rank next week.”“I'm not cheating! You are just the worst player ever, Bakashi! Besides, I tried to explain the rules to you so many times, but your arrogant ass just…”Satisfied with the distracting effect the unfair accusation had on Obito, Kakashi blocked out his teammate's indignant word flow and started to gather his things while going over his leaving-the-hospital mental checklist: the nurse call button is within reach; a glass of water is on the nightstand; all the monitors are functioning properly; the blinds… It was dinnertime soon, and Obito would be drowsy after eating, so Kakashi approached the window to turn down the slats and prevent the sunlight from disturbing Obito's upcoming nap.“Don't!” Obito protested louder than he himself expected. “Don't close them! I like it this way.”“You sure?”“Yeah, the weather is nice today, and I… well…” Obito started mumbling some nonsense about needing to see the sky whenever he wanted, although it was normal for him to say weird stuff, considering all the meds he was taking. A few days after he had regained consciousness he'd asked Kakashi if cats were real.“Okay, suit yourself.” Kakashi shrugged and made for the door. “Anyway, I don't know about you, but I play by the rules, no cheating.” The teasing was not necessary already, but it still felt good. Familiar. “Do you want me to bring you anything next time?”“I'd really-really appreciate it if you picked up a couple of books for me! Please, please, please!” Obito clapped his hands in a prayerful gesture and bowed his head, playing at being overly respectful, but then instantly regretted using his right hand. Kakashi watched him flinch so hard he almost ran back to him, if not to fix the bandaged hand but to provide some comfort at least. One didn't have to be a genius to figure out how desperately bored the 14-year-old boy was in that hospital room all alone, and Kakashi being a genius realized it too. He’d become a regular at the hospital, always at the nurses’ station at 10 a.m. sharp, ready to relieve Obito's grandma or Kushina of their night Obibabysitting shift. (That and the crippling anxiety forcing him to go and check that he didn't dream Obito's rescue, that he was there, and nothing terrible happened to him overnight). He wished he could continue to keep Obito company every day, but, unfortunately, his express PTSD leave ended, and he had to take missions again as any jounin did.“Okay-okay, I'll drop by your Granny's place, it's not a big deal. What kind of books should I be looking for? Some mystical for-Uchiha's-eyes-only self-help?”“Hell no! I'm not reading that depressing ‘ophthalmology for the crazy’ crap, especially while I'm in the hospital! I want my Adventurous Ninja collection. It has like eight books, and I’d only finished the first two before the…before we went on a…” Before the incident, they hadn't talked about yet and didn't know how to approach the elephant in the room. When Obito had been finally awake and able to communicate, Minato’d been the one reciting the events and asking questions, but only the urgent ones that would help the tracking team to resume the search for the perpetrators. Neither Kakashi nor Rin were let in on that conversation, and after that Minato the Indispensable was always out doing his grown-up slash military duties, practically living at HQ where underage ninja were not allowed. Obito never brought up the disastrous mission himself, which led Kakashi to believe that asking him directly would cause immense stress, the monitors would start beeping very loudly, and something bad would happen. The only thing Obito was curious about was Kakashi's sharingan tolerance, and if he managed it alright.“Then Adventurous Ninja it is. I'll bring the books over as soon as I'm back.”“Noooo! You'll be away for days! Can't you bring them tonight? Oh, I know! We should have a reading sleepover! You would love the first book of the series. There's a character who is so like you–”“Hey, Obito, calm down. Don't get excited over nothing. No sleepovers! You need to rest and have good quality sleep.” Without realizing Kakashi fell back into their old dynamics when Obito would suggest doing something fun (although objectively irrational), and Kakashi would have to stomp on his enthusiasm, but the moment his uncovered eye registered Obito's heartbroken expression he bit down on the criticism and added, tone softened, “Listen. You've made significant progress. Tonight you'll finally be able to sleep through the night without people keeping vigil beside your bed. Just… Make sure you rest, okay?”Surprisingly, Obito didn't argue; he simply turned away, and Kakashi could see his newly formed pout reflected in the windowpane. Great.“Come on, Obito, don't be a baby. Even if I come by tonight, they won't let me in this late!”The boy in the bed shot him an irritated side-glance. “Like you can't use a window or something? This room is so easy to get in, even a genin can do it unnoticed.” Obito paused to pull the blanket up to his chin and then met Kakashi's eye in the reflection in front of him.“The rules are more important, right?”
***
Passing from one lamppost to another, Kakashi was marching through the Uchiha district with a backpack already prepared for the mission he’d been assigned to lead in the following morning. His chest pushed forward, the boy was striding across the busy street, blocking all the suspicious glances from the local residents already aware of the unsanctioned sharingan charity act performed by Uchiha Obito. But Kakashi was on his personal top priority mission: to prove Obito wrong. All he had to do was retrieve the Adventurous Ninja collection and deliver it to the hospital that very same night, unnoticed. A piece of cake.As he was approaching Obito's house, the five-feet tall jounin took a few minutes to make himself look presentable. First and foremost, he had to unclench his fists and turn his glare into a somewhat friendly expression. Did Obito really still see him as a heartless, arrogant jerk who valued protocol over people's lives?“Good evening, Kakashi-kun. I'm sorry for keeping you waiting.” Obito's Granny appeared in the doorway, one hand supporting her lower back. Before he could start apologizing in his turn, she patted him on the back and nudged him inside (for a recovering elderly lady, she sure did have more energy than one would expect).“Excuse me for bothering you at this hour, but I was hoping you could help me with Obito's request.”“Oh sure, dear, sure!” Granny's face lit up at the mention of her grandson's name, and another litany of apologies followed while Kakashi was taking off his shoes. “You’ve been helping us so much, Kakashi-kun. I can’t express how grateful I am. Whenever I can’t go visit Obito-chan at the hospital, knowing you're there with him all the time puts my heart at ease.”“Not all the time…” Kakashi felt the warmth spilling over his cheeks - his treacherous body couldn't get used to the amount of praise he'd received upon every visit to the Uchiha house. “Anyway, he asked me to pick up some books for him. May I go to his room and look for them?”“Of course! You're being such a good friend, dear. Go ahead!” Granny followed Kakashi to Obito's room, doing her best to keep up. “Kakashi-kun, are you back from a mission?” She asked carefully, observing Kakashi in his jounin uniform and the military backpack.“Actually, I have one in the morning. But it's a B-rank within our border, so you shouldn't worry.”“I still think it's too soon for you to be taking missions.” Granny took a seat on Obito's neatly made bed and gave Kakashi a concerned look while he was browsing through the bookshelves. “If you're leaving in the morning, shouldn't you be resting now? I can bring the books tomorrow myself; hopefully, my back can handle a trip to the hospital after a two days’ break.”“Thank you for your concern, Uchiha-san, but I have to bring them tonight.”“Why tonight? I doubt the nurses will let you visit him at 10 p.m., dear.”“Your grandson is just being his usual insufferable self.” Kakashi decided that he could complain a little, as a treat. “He said that I didn’t have the guts to sneak into his room at night because it was against the rules. He basically dared me to do the easiest infiltration job one could possibly imagine.”“Is that so?” Granny narrowed her eyes, watching Kakashi pick up the same book for the third time and put it aside.“Yes. He wants to have a sleepover at the hospital,” the boy replied with a can-you-belive-this raise of a brow. “The doctors are saying that he's still recovering and needs a lot of sleep. So I'm not going to indulge him.” The Adventurous Ninja series was finally complete and tucked deep inside the backpack, ready for transportation.“And yet you're doing what he asked of you?” Granny asked, puzzled by Kakashi's reasoning.“He seemed very agitated. I just want to check up on him to make sure he's not going to do something stupid.”“And the books?”The boy turned away to look at the shelves again. He took a step backwards and lifted his hitai-ate slightly to let his (Obito's) eye take a pick.“I… don't want him to be mad at me. While I'm gone.”Kakashi didn't plan to share that last bit of information but upon doing so, surprisingly, he felt relieved. There was something about Obito’s grandma that made him want to be honest with her. And he was.In response to his shy confession Granny nodded with a soft smile, contemplating something.“Kakashi-kun, before you go, let's have some tea? I want to confide in you too.”
***
“What are you doing here?!” Obito shrieked and instantly covered his mouth, watching Kakashi climb into the hospital room through the window.“What do you think?” The jounin glared at his friend. Caught in a heavy downpour on his way back to the hospital, Kakashi was beginning to lose his patience when he had to hide outside for half an hour waiting for the nurse to finish Obito’s check-up, which would’ve taken much less time if Obito hadn’t clung to her every word in an attempt to keep the conversation going.“Hey, are you feeling under the weather or something?” Obito's stifled laughter filled the space between them. Even Kakashi’s annoyed demeanor didn’t affect him; quite the opposite - Obito seemed beyond happy to have a visitor. “You look like a fluffy cat who’d been given a bath against his will!” Obito added in between his labored giggles with more affection than teasing. Kakashi did look smaller and skinnier with his damp hair sticking to his forehead and cheeks (if enemy nin saw him like that, they would rather wrap him in a blanket than try to hurt this miserable creature).Since it was past the patients' bedtime the lights were off, but some of the monitors in the room cast a blueish glimmer that made Kakashi look even paler. The raindrops dripping down his clothes shimmered in the dark along with his shaking body.“Are you cold? Do you want me to do some fire jutsu? I think I have enough strength to release a small flame,” Obito mused as he absentmindedly started forming a seal with his left hand. In a matter of seconds, a wet hand gripped his fingers and wouldn't let him even start molding chakra.“It's not that I don't appreciate the gesture, but let's not burn down the hospital just yet?”“You don't think I can manage a simple trick like that, do you?”The doctors had warned everybody who’d visited Obito regularly that using chakra or performing any kind of jutsu was out of the question for him during the recovery. Kakashi played the list of side effects and complications it could cause in his memory, and it made him keep a tighter hold on the warm hand. “No, I think you… you have too much pent-up energy, right? It sure will amplify even a simple jutsu, so I’ll just stick to my wind technique, okay?”Obito nodded, presumably satisfied with the arguments, and gave his teammate an appreciative smile.“You're just worried I'll mess up your precious hair,” he added, transforming his gratitude into a smirk.Kakashi gave Obito's fingers a squeeze with a pinch of electricity before returning to his backpack. He formed a couple of seals that made the air around him swirl, and his clothes were soon dry again, his hair - fluffy and wild.“So erm… Why did you come?”“Should I report to the doctor that you have memory losses again?” Kakashi replied as he was unpacking his things.“It's just that you made it clear earlier you–”“I changed my mind, okay? Bookworm sleepover sounds great.” The jounin got up and rolled out his sleeping bag, positioning it next to Obito's bed. Then he reached for his backpack again. “I've got the books you wanted, the whole series. So, you'll be reading that, and I'll be reading my stuff. Quietly. Got it?” Kakashi offered the bundle of Adventurous Ninja books to Obito only then noticing that the boy was impatiently rocking side to side in his bed, fussing like a puppy who was promised a treat.“Awesome! Thanks, Kakashi! And what are you gonna read? Don't tell me it's something outrageously dull like that crap you were reading to me when I was, you know, unconscious.” Obito watched Kakashi fumble with a square-shaped object in his backpack before retrieving a rather thin book in a black cover with no pictures or even a title on it. “No, it's a… historical novel, yeah. You wouldn't like it. And hey! I was trying to educate you! You were missing out on so much training.” Kakashi dropped his head at the embarrassing memory of talking to Obito's motionless body in the ICU. If Obito heard him read the fire jutsu manuals, what else did he hear? That was not the information Kakashi was ready to find out yet.“I've got you something besides the books too.” Kakashi fished out a yellow sphere that fit perfectly in his two hands. When he pressed the switch it started glowing with a soft, warm light, dissipating the shadows around the room and sending rainbow fractions to dance across the walls.“Where did you get this?!” Obito reached for the night light in disbelief. His wide brown eyes were glued to the small sun-shaped lamp as if it was a piece of treasure he'd dug up after years of searching for it. “Did Granny give it to you?”“Yeah, I just thought it would be bright enough for reading and dim enough so we wouldn't get caught.”But Obito wasn't listening to Kakashi's explanations. He took the night light with his left hand and hugged it in, tightly, wrapping his whole body around it, so it looked like the light was coming from Obito's chest now. Kakashi was taken aback by that reaction, and he was even more so when he could hear small sobs Obito actively tried to conceal by burying his face in the night light. “This was… my parents did… when I was a…” The boy tried to explain, but the words didn't come out the way he wanted because words were suddenly too much for him. It was hard to tell whether the feelings the souvenir evoked in Obito were fond or upsetting (he probably didn't realize himself what exactly he was experiencing). Good or bad, the emotions were intense, and that was one of the don'ts from the doctor's instructions. Kakashi sat next to Obito on the bed and awkwardly patted his back, trying to assist him in calming down. He then put his chin on Obito's shoulder and with his left hand covered the one hugging the night light. Kakashi had never been a fan of human touch, unless it was for taijutsu purposes, but he had to learn this way of communication since it worked miracles on his overly tactile teammate.“Shhhh… You will tell me about it later, okay? Can I put it on the nightstand now? If you keep hogging it like that, we won't be able to read properly.”When the lamp was finally in place, the reading part could start at last. Kakashi was lying on the floor in his sleeping bag with his scary looking book, scrutinizing every page, sometimes more than once. The plot was starting to pick up pace and Kakashi was determined to savor every word of it, but his mind kept going back to Obito who was sighing and groaning in his bed.“What is it? The adventurous ninja turned out to be a pathetic loser?”“No! He's actually discovered a dungeon where the bad guys might be hiding!”“So why are you so fidgety then?”“It's… it's nothing. Sorry, I… promise to be quiet.” The “don't worry about me” tone of voice made Kakashi's anxiety spike up. He extricated himself from his comfy nest to examine his teammate.“Come on, Obito. What is it? Are you in pain?”“No-no. Nothing like that; I'm fine, really. Argh, but don't laugh at me, okay?” Obito paused to look at the jonin who was frantically searching for the source of distress. “The book is kinda heavy, and I have only one hand to hold it; my right arm is still asleep, and I can't bend my knees for too long… Argh! I can't even read a book like a normal person!”“I can hold it for you.”“No wonder they're not telling me if I ever… Wait, what?” The frustration that had been building up in him almost made him miss Kakashi's words.“Can you move to the side? Just a little bit?” Kakashi climbed onto the bed, keeping a respectful sliver of air between them, and opened Obito's book for him to see. “Is this okay? Can you read it now?” Without hesitation Obito glued himself to Kakashi's arm, leaning against his shoulder, all snug and warm. Kakashi's body went rigid at the close contact, and for the first couple of minutes he unintentionally ignored Obito's requests to turn over the page, completely paralyzed by the overbearing awkwardness (being reminded of a particular chapter from the book he'd been reading didn't help at all; he went completely stiff at the thought). But Obito's occasional giggles and comments made Kakashi join in on the reading that turned out to be quite engaging. Soon they were swapping guesses and remarks on whether the characters were doing the right thing or what jutsu combination needed to be used against the villains, and Kakashi melted into the bed, Obito's weight keeping him grounded. His body relaxed to the point of welcoming sleepiness when he noticed Obito nodding off too.“Ka…kashi… can you read the rest of the chapter to me, please? My eyes are tired.” Obito mumbled in between yawns.“Okay, but try to sleep now.” The characters in the story reached the dungeon Obito had mentioned earlier and were about to explore it - nothing exciting was happening. Kakashi was reading slowly, soothingly, keeping track of Obito's breathing. When the hero of the story got separated from his friends in the rocky tunnel Kakashi stopped narrating. The listener had successfully drifted off. He looked around for something to use as a bookmark, but was interrupted by a shy whisper: “Do you think they can find me in here?”Uchiha-san was right after all.Kakashi turned his head, introducing his nose to the untamed Uchiha hair, and whispered back: “No. You're safe, Obito. I promise.” He wanted to comfort the boy curled up against him but didn't dare to touch the bandaged arm. His cheek still rested on Obito's head.“I'll summon my dogs before I leave. They'll keep you company while I'm gone. Would you like that?” Kakashi suggested discreetly as if sharing a secret.“Yeah. Thanks, Kakashi.” Obito relaxed his body completely. “I wish you didn't have to go. Be careful out there, okay?”“I will. Go to sleep.”
***
After Kakashi had successfully completed his B-rank he rushed through his report because he was expected elsewhere. When the jounin entered the familiar hospital room the feeling of dread penetrated his every cell: Obito, Biscuit, and Pakkun were all absorbed in the book Kakashi foolishly had left behind. It didn't have the black, meant-to-scare-people-off cover, though. The original pink one with white flowers gave away the acclaimed teen romance bestseller of the year.Oh no.
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“And Kakashi-kun, if possible, could you play along? Obito-chan clearly doesn’t want you, of all people, to think he is a coward, but what he’s been through in that cave still terrifies him. The night light helped him to overcome his fear of darkness when he was a baby afraid of imaginary monsters under his bed. It might help him now too, but this time the monsters were real; touching him, talking to him, keeping him away. With you by his side he will be brave.”