Chapter 1, Oh shit I'm a kid and just fucking vomited
Kakashi wakes up screaming. Sakura's yin seal had kept him alive, but it had not made the journey painless. It was a terrible combination of being torn apart, atom by atom by the array and the constant regeneration of his cells. The echoes of pain set his bones on fire.
"Kak--"
"Ashi!"
He panted desperately for breath, his chakra flaring with the pain.
"Kakash-"
He let a strangled groan out, and the fire that ran through his system finally started to calm down.
"Kakashi!"
He hadn't realized how hard he had clenched his eyes shut.
Stood before him was his father.
He was healthy and he was alive, looking startled, a kunai clenched in his fingers. For a moment Kakashi thought he was just dreaming. He remembers, coming home and finding his dad's cold body.
The thought that his dad had left him so easily was--
It was-
He lunged to the side of the bed he apparently had been laying in to yank his mask down as he vomited.
"Kakashi!? What's wrong? Are you sick?"
His dad's hand rubbed his back and Kakashi could have cried. Wait no, he was crying.
Sakumo stared down at him, concern thick on his expression.
Kakashi stared at him, fat tears rolling down his face, his body shuddering with full-body sobs.
His dad had the worst bedhead he had ever seen and he had never loved something so much. He threw himself into his dad's chest. Kakashi desperately grasped at Sakumo's night shirt, his arms not long enough to wrap around his father. A growing damp spot was spreading on Sakumo's chest.
"K-Kakashi? What's wrong? Did you have a nightmare?" His father hadn't wrapped his arms around Kakashi yet, hesitantly hovering over his son. He was for a loss as to what was happening, or what to do. Kakashi's heart broke a little more. He rubbed his face into his Dad's shirt soaking in his smell and his warmth.
Sakumo hesitantly wrapped his arms around his son.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," was Kakashi's mantra. Sakumo hushed him and pulled him impossibly closer. His Dad's arms engulfed him, hiding him from the rest of his moonlit room. Kakashi mourned and he hoped. He wouldn't let his dad kill himself.
He wouldn't he wouldn't
'It will be better. I will MAKE it better.' Kakashi hissed in his mind.
He would.
He sniffed one last time, suddenly very aware of his exposed face. He looked off to the side and hoped his ears weren't red. He pulled away from his dad and pulled his mask back up.
"Son, what happened?"
"Sorry, Father. I had a nightmare." Kakashi's voice wasn't much louder than a whisper.
Sakumo sighed, and suddenly he aged ten years.
"Are you okay now?"
Kakashi nodded.
"Alright, I'll leave now." Kakashi's eyes widened in panic.
"N-No! Wait!"
Sakumo turned around, surprised. Kakashi fiddled with the bottom of his shuriken-patterned night shirt. "I'm sorry," Kakashi ducked his head, "I'm sorry, for saying all those things to you."
His eyes burned. "Please, don't leave."
Sakumo was shocked. He sat back down on the edge of Kakashi's bed. Kakashi rubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand. He took a shaky breath.
"Can you stay....please?"
Sakumo's face was soft as he looked at his son. He reached out, and ran a hand through Kakashi's fluffy gray hair. His Dad's face looked so sad. So melancholy. Kakashi leaned into the affection, something he didn't get much of the first time around when he was shunning his father.
"Sure Kakashi, let me go get cleaning supplies first."
Oh. Right. He threw up.
Kakashi was embarrassed. He buried his head in his pillow. His father's quiet steps left the room. He was so tired.
He must have drifted off, the sinking of the bed the only indication that his father was back. He looked up at him, in the dark of his room. Kakashi could see that his father was falling asleep sitting up. He pulled Sakumo down and curled up on his father's chest. He heard the hitching of Sakumo's breath and the still hesitant arms wrapped carefully around him.
He drifted off like that, warm and safer than he's ever felt, wrapped in his father's arms.