safety [Kakashi Hatake x OC]

forty-five

Kakashi paced back and forth in the waiting area of the hospital for hours. Every person he saw nearly every minute he asked, "Is it over? Is she okay?" He was only able to keep himself from completely falling apart in public.

He had flashbacks of his first mission as a jonin and the loss he experienced, and what he believed to be his fault. This - from his mindset - was also his fault.

He panicked over the thought of ever having to live without Eri. She unexpectedly became the most important thing to him. And while he understood this, it took this horror to occur for him to comprehend the reality of his emotions.

He loved her.

It took a whole damn year of constantly being around her and her playful, yet sincere and warm personality, and a terrible tragedy for him to finally realize it; he loved her. He didn't know when he started loving her, but it just felt natural.

Fueled by passion, when Eri fell out of consciousness and lost the last bit of strength she had to hold herself upright, he effortlessly tore apart the two ninja that had left the group before they decided to take on the three that remained at the abandoned house. The two that left came back when they heard the fight, and that was how they ambushed them. Last of them, he finished off the unnamed man that Eri asked him to kill.

Kakashi sent his dog summons to return to the Leaf Village as soon as possible to get help. A team of medical ninjas intercepted them and helped to get the dying girl back to the village as fast as possible while trying to keep her from bleeding out.

Now, Tsunade was tending to her with a team of the best doctors in Konoha. She should have died by then.

It pained the typical strong shinobi to not be by her side. He was in the waiting room, having not taken a seat in hours. A lot of the village had heard the news as the result of the mission, and Sakura, Kurenai, and Kotetsu were there.

After about ten hours of operating, the Hokage came from the large double doors. Kakashi rushed to her, overwhelming her with his desperateness.

"Is she okay?"

"We did all we could." She muttered under her breath, not prepared to talk to everyone just yet. But she witnessed her trusted jonin's panic. "All we can do now is wait."

"Can I see her?"

"No." She started, then saw a look in his dark eye that she had recognized in herself as a younger woman. She sighed and placed a hand on his broad shoulder. "Just you. And be -"

Before she finished, he pushed his way through the double doors to find the room Eri was in.

"-careful."

Eri's room was at the end of the hallway. She rested unconsciously on the bed, hooked up to machines that kept her blood flowing and heart beating with one of Tsunade's slug summons on her stomach, continuing to heal the massive wound.

There were dark circles under her eyes, and her skin was still dangerously pale. He grabbed her cold hand, and felt a single warm tear slipped down his masked cheek. Part of him wondered how he could have gotten to this point of caring so deeply for her to the extent that he understood it as love, but he also reasoned that of course he did. She was special.

He pulled a chair up to the bed, finally sitting down now that he was with her.

----------

Eri inhaled, then exhaled, and realized that she had to think about breathing in order to do so. Her body felt tired, but she wasn't in pain.

She felt warm and safe, held within a very kind embrace.

She cuddled closer to the warmth, not having any desire to leave it. Slowly, her eyes began to open, heavy with exhaustion. There was a strong arm around her shoulder while fingers soothingly made invisible patterns on her skin, and beneath her cheek was the slow rise and fall of steady breathing.

"Hello there." It was the only voice that she wanted to hear.