Part two of my drabbles celebrating reaching five hundred followers on Tumblr. Prompt was: Sometimes, too much love can be a poison.

Kakashi sighed as he counted, recounted, and finally despaired over the the list Sakura's assistant left on his desk. The ingredients, detailed in Sakura's own determined hand, ranged from the mundane to the exorbitant and he already anticipated a fight with the elders when he sent out the purchase orders.

He'd send them out anyway. Because that was the way their relationship worked; Sakura asked for things, on innocent and less-than-innocent levels, and Kakashi provided them. Too much love, he mused, may be more of a poison than this latest creation.

The Hokage glared down at the list, written neatly and precisely but for the poison formulae Sakura had absent-mindedly doodled in the margin. Not for the first time, he wondered whether this whole thing, the Kakashi-and-Sakura game they were playing was nothing more than that: a game. A kunoichi experimenting with being the person chased after for once.

It irritated him that he'd take whatever she gave anyway. The paper crumpled in his fist as he frowned. No. That was enough - this latest request bordered on the ridiculous and it was time to ask Sakura whether or not she'd attempt this when Tsunade still held the chair.

His ANBU detail startled at the whirlwind of leaves that cluttered the office in his wake.

She was, for once, cooped up in her office rather than assisting in surgery or delving into the depths of the poison laboratory or the million other duties she gave herself. The kunoichi didn't look surprised to see him; in fact, Kakashi tilted his head in confusion as she glanced pointedly at her watch.

"Afternoon," she said pleasantly.

"Ah, uh, hi," Kakashi replied, thrown off by the utterly calm way she was watching his fluster. It was a far cry from the days where she'd squeaked in surprise every time he appeared. Feeling rather like one of the patients she watched with a critical eye, he continued,

"I have this list you sent me."

"Yes, I'd asked Satoshi-kun if he could drop it off on his way home."

"Mah… the thing is… there's five hundred components on here."

She raised an eyebrow in response.

"Annnnnd-" damn it. He'd had it planned much better in his disgruntlement - walk in, tell Sakura she couldn't walk over him any more, maybe round it off with an invitation to his favourite dinner place - but in the face of her appraisal Kakashi simply felt foolish. "And I can't approve this. Some of the items here can't be found in the Five Nations."

"Traders bring them across the water."

"That's not the point, Sakura-" he stopped abruptly, coming closer to her desk and dropping himself in defeat into the plush chair opposite hers. He rubbed a hand across his face in frustration, missing the way Sakura's eyes softened as she watched his awkwardness.

"Are you saying no to me?"

Kakashi peeked at her over the hand still hovering over his mask. "Yes."

When Sakura threw her head back and laughed he wondered if she'd gone mad. "God, finally! Kakashi, I cannot believe it took this to make you stand up to me."

"Wait, what?"

She shifted in her seat at his confusion, reaching across to gently remove the paper still clenched in a fist. "Did you work out what these ingredients are for?"

He hadn't. He'd barely understood it beyond a rough evaluation of the costs.

The medic continued, reading his mind. "A relationship can't function when one participant bends over backwards to do everything the other wants, reasonable or not. I've been trying to tell you that since we…" and she trailed off, a pretty blush spreading over her cheeks that he watched in fascination, "but I don't think you've believed me, so I had to resort to this."

She brandished the paper at him, flicking it with the fingers of her other hand for emphasis.

"You wrote out a list of five hundred random ingredients just to tell me to stop doing everything you want?"

The woman across from him beamed. "I never said I'm uncomplicated."

"Uncomplicated? It's crazy."

Sakura shrugged, delighted with herself. "Hey, it worked - I'm just surprised it took you more than twenty minutes to get here."

Kakashi narrowed his grey eyes in suspicion. "Well, I was considering it."

"You were?"

He grinned, embarrassed. "I was. I really would do just about anything you asked for, Sakura, but I did draw the line at nearly bankrupting Konoha's coffers."

Her smile took on a more devious cast. "Oh, anything?"

"Within reason. Especially now that I know you're onto me."

Sakura winked in response and he couldn't help rolling his eyes at her antics. It was certainly a drastic way to get the conversation started, but the implications smoothed away the last of his sour mood. She wanted to be equals in the relationship. Not just receiving from him, but giving back to him too. Compromising - talking. Things that only mattered when people were serious. And if Sakura wanted to be serious about him, then Kakashi would make sure nothing would get in her way. Still…

"What would you have done if I'd bought all those ingredients?" he asked, curious.

The kunoichi sent him a smirk that was straight from his Icha Icha title cards. "Well, then I'd have the most powerful aphrodisiac the world has ever known."

"Excuse me?"

Sakura laughed again, free and unembarrassed and all for him. "Hey, I never said they were random ingredients."

"Uh, can I have that list back?"

"Sure," she replied, still giggling as she swiped it away from his reaching hand. "But there's a list of things I'd like you to take part in first…"

Her intentions were unmistakable as she popped open the first button of her blouse. Well: he'd always been more of a giver rather than a receiver anyway.