sunshineverse | [closed; Sept 2/3/4]

"It was enough to give you a grudge against daylight, though.." Kakashi pointed out, keeping his voice politely low so that there wasn't an opening for possible eavesdropping from the surrounding abodes. "That or you're an incredible lightweight."

That last one was hardly a tease, and he masked it well with a bright little smile as he ascended the short amount of stairs to open his front door. He was giving Sasuke a free cure-all, and he hadn't seen him for a while... The ragging was probably to be expected.

"So, what's this about the Hyuuga?"

"Wh -- I'm not a lightweight either," Sasuke protested, although a part of him was uncomfortably aware that he did seem to get drunk much faster than Neji did. Then again, he also sobered up much faster, given that he'd been fishing Neji out of potholes and cracks in the road both visible and invisible. "There was just ... we spent a long time."

That was about as much as he wanted to get into the details of exactly how he and Neji had chosen to handle the news that he now sighed about, letting his shoulders relax a little once he'd stepped into the blessed darkness of Kakashi's entrance hallway.

"The Hyuuga have engaged Hinata and Neji," he said, once the door was shut. "Against their will."

He paused, turning over his shoulder to show the raised silver eyebrow in danger of disappearing under his headband.

"Ah.." That, apparently, was his only input for the moment. He wasn't familiar with Neji beyond rumor and what he'd heard from Gai, so all his sympathies lay with Hinata and with Sasuke by proxy, considering the closeness of their friendship. He was essentially nothing but their babysitter sensei when Obito was otherwise indisposed, but there was something about watching the team grow up from fumbling little genin that endeared Kakashi to them, and despite the fact that the Hyuuga clan dynamic was worrying enough, he felt for them.

He wandered toward the offside kitchenette in his standard box-like jounin apartment, the gears in his mind whirring as he considered how to describe his condolonces.

"...So what's the plan?" he asked instead - because if he knew Sasuke at all, there had to be some solution to their discontent forming in his mind.

Just the words the plan were enough for Sasuke's shoulders to slump slightly as he removed his shoes, lining them up neatly in the entryway without conscious thought. Hoori fluttered off his shoulder at the change in angle, but he was easily the best-behaved of the chicks, clicking across the floor on careful talons.

"If Naruto could get his act together he could counter-offer," Sasuke muttered once he'd straightened again, though he didn't mention that he'd begun to doubt how much patience Hinata had to wait for their blondest and slowest teammate. "Or Hinata and I could pretend all the rumours about us have been true all along.

"But she needs to get out of this with her reputation intact," he sighed. "Mine matters less, but she's the clan heir. Our only hope is to demonstrate genetic difficulties."

To which end Sasuke had been buried in the extremely dense records of clan Hyuuga birth records in between everything else, but the amount of everything else going on had been simply too much for him to have gotten very far.

Kakashi let his visible eye carefully follow the down-feather behind of the chick while Sasuke spoke, his hip leaning idly on the counter and his shoes still resolutely on his feet. What were household manners if not something to squander in his own home? He was so intent with watching the bird with a careful gaze of distrust that he almost missed the few comments about clans and heirs and.. uh, reputations, was that?

He cleared his throat as if it would disguise his momentary daze and restore his half respectable reputation as Sasuke's stand-in sensei and apparent support crutch in times of ~~whining~~ need. It was probably a good thing his intelligence was so heightened, as otherwise he might not have gotten away with the ruse cleanly.

"And what about Neji? Does he have any options?"

Sasuke was, all told, still rather more used to being ignored and overlooked than paid attention to -- it wasn't out of his experience to be tuned out at clan functions where his awkward formal greetings to an endless parade of elders never quite rolled out as smoothly as Itachi's. It still slowed him in the middle of explaining the situation, though, Kakashi resolving into an individual instead of an extension of Obito as Sasuke abruptly remembered (through the hungover haze) that a sometimes-sensei probably wasn't quite as invested in the sordid details of his sometimes-students lives as Sasuke might have presumed.

Hoori, sensing that he was being watched in the meantime, tilted his head around to give Kakashi a stare that looked more baleful than it was.

"Ah," Sasuke stumbled at the question, frustration giving way to awkwardness. "Neji is branch clan, he doesn't get much of a choice in anything." With no particular sense of irony, he added: "The Hyuuga are barbaric like that."

Kakashi was honestly just.. unnerved by birds. He wouldn't admit it, even to himself, but even the little clicking of the tiny talons that were not at all threatening were setting him vaguely on edge... even more so when their owner turned to give him a look with those large orange eyes. Ugh.

"True," he muttered, then shifted his attention to Sasuke, a much more comforting thing to focus on rather than the sinister presence of the bird... and... something he should have been focusing on from the beginning. Ah damn, why was he so bad at this? Probably half the reason he'd never gelled enough with a team of his own to keep anyone secure.

"But in the mean time," he continued without taking a beat of a pause, with an air entirely the opposite of a man who'd just had a guilty emotional epiphany. "Make yourself at home; let's get that hangover cured, hm?"

Perhaps the usual bird didn't care to sense fear, but these were chicks that had tried to peck out Sasuke's eyes the first time he'd met them; Sasuke blinked in confusion when Hoori turned on one claw and started to stride more purposefully toward Kakashi. Seeing no particular threat in the movement (if anything, curiosity), he let the chick be and found a spot against Kakashi's kitchen counter to lean, not entirely sure how thoroughly to take make yourself at home.

"Is it even possible to cure a hangover?" He asked, peering around the space. It was definitely a bachelor's apartment; he could tell at a glance that there was something less than the thorough use Mikoto's kitchen got at home. "I thought it was just 'avoid lights and noise'."

Leaning against the counter was probably as homely as Sasuke could have made himself in Kakashi's barren little apartment with it's disappointing kitchenette, so Kakashi was satisfied with Sasuke's movement.

"Well, you're standing upright which tells me you're on your way to curing it by yourself, but there's a few things we can do to speed up the process."

He turned and started to pilfer through his almost empty cupboards for the few things he needed. He almost seemed lost in their depths, like this kitchen didn't belong to him at all. With his back turned, he'd also failed to notice the tiny predator approaching, but he couldn't ignore the soft clicking of it's claws. He side-stepped stealthily toward the furthest corner of the little kitchen.

"I know you don't like sweet things, but sugar and calories are what your system needs. I had no time for hangovers when I was younger, so I tried every method I could think of to ensure I wouldn't be laying useless in bed all day." He wasn't entirely sure why Sasuke needed to know that much, but was distracted from feeling stupid for sharing as he found the little bottle of honey he'd been looking for.

Given that standing upright had been something of a feat at first, Sasuke took it as a good sign that Kakashi considered this in itself progress. Then again, if accomplishing something he'd been doing since a toddler was progress nowadays ... he didn't really want to think too hard about it.

For a number of reasons, but mostly because it made him wince through another pang of headache. It was enough that he didn't pay much attention to Hoori spreading his wings, launching himself with a short run and hop to clatter onto the sink countertop in order to peer at Kakashi from a closer vantage point.

"Sugar," Sasuke muttered in the meantime, a certain amount of unhappy acceptance inevitable in his voice. "And this works? Consistently?"

Kakashi gave the sudden appearance of the bird a look like it had just deeply insulted him and every one of his ancestors, and pressed a little more into the corner of his kitchen. There weren't many places he could dodge to in order to escape the birds beady gaze, and without peripheral vision at the other side of his head, it was a little difficult to just keep an eye on the progress of the feathered fiend.

"Uhh...it-" he mumbled slowly, stalling as he concentrated on the bird that was doing an excellent job of shaking him up. He was trying to be a supportive elder here and the bird was making it incredibly difficult.

"It.. works differently for everyone, but in my experience, yes." He awkwardly flailed an arm out to see if he could shock the bird enough for it to find the floor more appealing. "At the very least it's simple science, and it's preferable.. Your choices are this, or I drag you back out into the sunshine for a few laps around the village and a course of high-intensity training to burn the alcohol out of your system." Despite his predicament his voice remained almost level, but he knew it would be impossible for him to fix up the cure he'd been intending to make with a bird on the counter... and there didn't seem to be an easy way to make it leave.

Prey instinct had kicked in from Kakashi's cagey behaviour; the sudden movement made the bird's wings flare for a moment before settling again with a disapproving ruffle. Fortunately for his sometimes-sensei, Sasuke took the pause in Kakashi's words to notice where his summons had gone and leaned across the space to lift the bird back to his shoulder with a frown and a scolding: "You know you're not supposed to walk around where human food goes, Hoori."

It earned him a butt on the side of his head (wince-worthy with the headache already happening) and Kakashi a disdainful tilt of the goshawk's head, but Sasuke and bird leaned out of Kakashi's space with a vague apology, followed immediately by a look of abject horror at the alternative.

"Sunshine and laps," he repeated, sounding like taking a blow to the head might be preferable. "I'll try the sugar first, thanks."

Kakashi was entirely grateful for the removal of the bird and showed it with a small nod of his head and nothing more, as more meant he might have to own up to the fact that he'd been unnerved by its presence in the first place... as if Sasuke wouldn't have guessed. There were certain strands of Kakashi's dignity that he wanted to keep strong despite how transparent they might have been.

Kakashi set to preparing what ended up as a very sparing honey sandwich, calories and sugar in a few mouthfuls.

"The mistake most people make the morning after a round of drinks is not getting enough sugar..." Kakashi intoned conversationally as he cut the serving in half, with way too much care. He didn't make food often, and he got to make it for other people even less, so when the chance arose, he wasted no opportunity for small flourishes. Whether this was a good thing or a bad thing was debatable, but ultimately he was kind of proud of his handiwork as he turned to hold out the plate.

"Most of what is available with a high alcohol content also has a high sugar content, and if you crash after a sugar high without leading yourself off it, you'll lose energy and get that horrible heady feeling in your temples," he tapped one of his own to elaborate. He wasn't sure why he felt the need to explain the situation like this.. He was sure if Sasuke wanted the lesson he could have talked to someone who knew what they were talking about beyond a childhood course of trial and error... but here he was, and with an almost embarrassed dip of his eyebrows, he cleared his throat.

"This should start to help you stop feeling groggy, at least."

Sasuke assumed that that nod was gratitude: he'd noticed late that Kakashi was uncomfortable with Hoori's presence. Perhaps the man was particularly finicky about clean counters? He'd had to train the birds to avoid them at home already, though Mikoto's most even stare had helped them learn their lesson there. Head too stuffy to think too deeply about it, Sasuke simply gave the bird's clan a pat to signal stay, turning his attention to whatever it was Kakashi was making.

A honey sandwich, apparently, which sounded about as healthy as what he and Neji had consumed last night. The thought of chasing terrible with more terrible was one that made him wrinkle his nose slightly, too hungover to hide the reaction, but it did at least seem to make medical sense.

"I think I already have the horrible heady feeling," he said, tone dry, but added: "Thank you. This wasn't something I could really ask for help with at home."

Though the sandwich was certainly presented with as much neatness as he might have expected from home more than a man living alone. Sasuke took the plate with a quick, grateful half-smile, then picked up one of the perfectly-shaped halves and took a bite, managing to keep the grimace off his face at the cloying sweetness of the honey.

"I obviously found you a little too late..." Kakashi muttered as if talking to himself, and consciously averted his eyes while Sasuke ate. "If I could have saved you the torture, believe me, I would have."

He'd been reminded all too many times of the similarities between himself and Sasuke, and though some of them were reaching a little far in his opinion, he still had the knee-jerk reaction to treat him much the same as he himself would like to be treated - and since Kakashi hated to be watched when he was eating, he gave Sasuke the grace of privacy. He was guarded enough already, Kakashi saw no reason to chance making it worse.

Of course Kakashi cared - it was hard not to care when Sasuke's team had been dropped in his lap for remedial training so frequently in their youth - and that much was evident in this whole exchange, from Sasuke's presence to Kakashi's advice, right down to the presentation of the offering itself... All signs that he cared, right? Nevertheless, he cleared his throat a little awkwardly, and glanced back at his not-student.

"You know, if you ever need support that you can't get at home, I don't have a problem with you seeking me out."

Sasuke quirked a wry smile up at Kakashi once he'd cleared the first half of the sandwich, grateful for the sentiment as much as the privacy. Kakashi was a sometimes-sensei, true, but he'd also been the first to help Sasuke channel his second nature and shape it, well before Tsunade had deemed his chakra control fine enough to show him any of her methods for using Raiton.

The offer still surprised him a little, his hand pausing in the middle of reaching for the rest of the sandwich (it wasn't as bad as he'd thought, the richness of the honey and bread surprisingly filling without agitating his unhappy stomach). He picked up the half after a moment, glancing down this time: support was an interesting way to put it.

Uchiha were clan; they were all the support he ever should have needed. And his sensei and Kage was blood kin. He shouldn't have felt anything besides supported.

Still, the words dragged out of him slowly: "I'm grateful. There are just ..." His mouth twisted a little. "There are just some disappointments I'd rather not spread through my relatives."

Kakashi smiled, his mask and sloped hitai-ate doing an excellent job of disguising the almost pained expression on his face. The Uchiha were a.. difficult clan, to put it lightly, and though Kakashi's experience with them started and ended with Obito and his connections, Kakashi understood enough about them to understand exactly what Sasuke meant.

Kakashi didn't have a clan to disappoint, he had no family to depend on him - all he had were these bonds he'd forged for himself, and Sasuke was one of them however pseudo-professional their relationship seemed on the exterior.

"I understand," he nodded, not patronising or pitying in the slightest. "Then should you need me, find me, and I assure you not a word will make it back to them."

It wasn't a response Sasuke would have accepted from many people, the calm I understand: but there had always been something about Kakashi that inspired confidence. Inexplicable, given how many people were technically closer, but then that might have been it -- the distance, and maybe something about the fact that behind the slouch and the embarrassing reading material, Sasuke had always found Kakashi's fighting style refreshingly honest.

A lot could be read in a blow thrown or feinted. Sasuke bit into the remainder of the sandwich, taking the time to chew and formulate a response that wasn't awkward. It was probably a lost cause, and what came out was a little drier than he'd intended:

"I'll know whom to count on the next time I embarrass them, then," he said -- though this time, at least, he'd managed to avoid most of his relatives before he'd run into Kakashi.

Kakashi couldn't help the small chuckle the reverberated in his chest at that. It was endearing that even when it came down to those that depended on them, he and Sasuke had very similar approaches to how they managed themselves around their loved ones. He was sure that, as Sasuke's current mode of support, he should have reassured the young man that he should have corrected him with a firm and comforting "..If you embarrass them, not when..." but as Kakashi himself was prone to assuming the next call of disappointment was right around the corner.. he felt he didn't really have the right.

He finished with a rather affectionate look to accompany his words, his arms folded against his chest as he regarded the other.

"I'll try not to let any of my bad habits rub off on you, in that case."

The rest of the sandwich went as quickly as the first half had, actual hunger startling him with an unpleasant pulse for attention nearly as soon as Sasuke had swallowed the last bite. Apparently his body had noticed his skipping Mikoto's usual breakfast, and the introduction of food had only reminded it. He tried not to eye Kakashi's kitchen with any further greed, which was more than could be said for the goshawk still perched on his shoulder.

Kakashi's words helped to distract from his cabinets, Sasuke meeting the look with a raised eyebrow and something closer to genuine amusement in place around his mouth -- he folded his own arms to match the man's stance, leaning back against the counter.

"Don't worry about it. Between all of my teachers, I'll be lucky if I'm not just a collection of bad habits eventually."

"Ah, that's right. You do have a rather unfortunate arsenal, don't you.." Less a question and more a comment, one he knew he'd be able to get away with around Sasuke, at the very least. Bullying Obito, however lightly, never really gained the reaction he'd intended around Sasuke's other cohorts, and putting any negativity on Tsunade's name in public didn't bear thinking about... In fact it kind of set him on edge that he'd said as much as he had, so he made a quick bid to rectify it. "Hopefully by that point you'll have picked up enough of our good habits to weigh them out."

There, that should do it. Kakashi eyed the plate, then looked back to Sasuke and his feathered companion.

"Is there anything else you wanted?" he asked, waving a hand as if to include the bird too. That was probably one of his good habits, he thought absently as he waited for an answer, that he was sometimes - very rarely, in fact, but sometimes - prone to fussing. Typically it was with those he considered a part of his pack, but.. Maybe it would do Sasuke well to pick up that particular habit.

Sasuke huffed out half a laugh, amusement still in place at the corners of his lips; he wouldn't nod, of course, any more than he expected Kakashi to genuinely spend time ragging on his teachers (that was something more Sasuke's right in any case), but the mention of good habits made him grin a little. "I suppose if I master all of your techniques, no one will care if I show up to everything hours late."

Not that he expected anyone to actually be patient enough to wait for him the way he'd waited for any of the people who had taught him in any formal capacity over the years -- he was reasonably certain that the last lesson he'd had that actually started at an appointed time was sometime during his Academy days.

That last question made him straighten away from the counter, however, aware again of how he was imposing on someone else's hospitality with the unfortunate after-effects of his own bad decisions. Hoori ruffled his feathers on his shoulder at the disturbance, settling again with an ill-tempered chirrup.

"No, I've already received more than I'd expected when I left home this morning," he said -- more formally than he'd intended, maybe, but genuine. "I shouldn't take up more of your time now."

"Well, if you're sure..." Kakashi muttered as though Sasuke's insistence hadn't been exactly what he'd expected to hear from the young Uchiha. Despite being some degree of closed off and incredibly reserved Sasuke was polite to a fault, and Kakashi could both relate and see the faults in being so. It wasn't like Kakashi felt put out spending time with Sasuke after all; listening to his issues, helping him work them out either in quiet conversation or the muck of a training field.. He didn't have many simple relationships, and this happened to be one of the easiest ones - strange not-sensei as he was, he and Sasuke shared a mutual understanding on many subjects.

"I don't need to tell you to keep hydrated as much as you can, I suppose.." Kakashi mused as he too pushed away from the counters, and then paused to give Sasuke a quick once-over glance. "...And, I know it's easy for me to say, but try not to worry too much about the Hyuuga. Neji and Hinata are both strong willed and determined, there's no need to try and carry the weight all by yourself."

Many years of Mikoto's patient training had made it fairly easy to tell when staying any longer would probably stretch the visit too far; Sasuke had never been as astute as Itachi (in anything, he was fully aware), but he wasn't unteachable. And Kakashi was far from the worst of the crotchety older Uchiha they had to visit on their New Year's rounds, especially given the fact that he was providing hangover advice.

"I'll get a water bottle to take everywhere today," Sasuke promised as he headed for the door, something of a smile still lingering around his mouth before it dropped away at the reminder of the Hyuuga situation. "They are, but that clan ..."

He made a face, one that he hoped clearly expressed that clan has problems without needing to get into the details. Not that his own were flawless, but Hyuuga was a can of worms that only got weirder with time.

"Neji and Hinata belong to that clan," Kakashi said, reflexively putting what he hoped was a comforting hand on Sasuke's shoulder as he moved with him toward the door. "It will be weighing on them heavy enough without seeing it get to you too. The best thing you can do for them is be the support they need - a strong pillar of hope, not a mess of worry.."

Kakashi smiled, his expression turning nostalgic as he thought back to the few times he'd heard the same advice when he took the problems of those close to him onto his own shoulders.

"And try to limit your alcohol intake, hm?" he said, chuckling quietly as he retracted his hand to fold his arms once more. "We're all entitled to our own brands of stress relief, but there are much easier ways of doing it."

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