Late Again

Summary: Kakashi comes home from a mission and finds his apartment already occupied.

Or: Kakashi doesn't know how to take care of himself. Luckily, his team is there to pick up the slack.

Hatake Kakashi was suffering. His body was heavy with sleep deprivation and chakra exhaustion, his senses dulled and foggy. The blood covering his arm had dried and Kakashi felt the old urge to scrap it off nagging at his skin.

As if that wasn't bad enough, he was running late. Sloppy intel had made him return to Konoha five hours past his scheduled arrival and seven hours past the time he had promised to meet his team at Ichiraku's. He had already resigned himself to listen to their complaints the next day, no matter how utterly not at fault he was, for once.

Kakashi landed on the building next to his apartment complex and frowned. Wonderful. To put the shitty cherry on top of a shitty few days and a shitty mission, Kakashi found that the lights in his apartment were on. In the middle of the night. Gai had left on a field trip with his team and would not be back for another few days. Tenzo was away on a mission, and only ever bothered to break into his apartment when Kakashi tried to avoid people for too long.

Whoever it was, Kakashi was too tired and too worn-out to deal with them and more than willing to fill out the necessary paperwork that a body – or several – turning up in his apartment would cause. In the morning. When he wasn't quite this close to collapsing on the spot.

That was how, several seconds later, he found himself lying on the ground after leaping in through the window, diving out of the way of a barrage of kunai, several senbon, and a particularly large shuriken that killed his house plant instead.

"Kakashi-sensei?! What are you doing here?"

Kakashi propped himself up on his elbows, lacking the energy and the motivation to move from his place on the floor. He sent Naruto a Look. "I live here."

"Well, duh," Naruto said, making it sound like Kakashi was the stupid one. "Why are you sneaking into your own apartment?"

"Because the light was on and I had not expected… visitors."

"Sorry, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said. She walked up to him and hoisted him to his feet in a way that made him feel like a rag doll. "But you missed dinner with us."

"So you decided to ambush me in my own home."

Sakura shrugged. "We wouldn't have attacked if you hadn't snuck in."

Kakashi decided then and there to drop it. His team clearly had no concept of privacy or boundaries. "How did you even know when to expect me?"

"Ba-chan's security isn't as strict as she'd like to think." Naruto grinned, sprawling back on Kakashi's couch like it was his own. The game of cards messly strewn beside him suggested that Sakura and Naruto had spent their time playing until they'd felt the need to attack their poor, innocent teacher.

Sakura joined Naruto with a snort. "You say that like she doesn't know that we're doing it. She just doesn't bother to try and stop us anymore."

Kakashi looked around to catch a glimpse of his last student, but came up empty. "Where's Sasuke?" Seeing as the trio blurred the line between intimacy and codependency, it was incredibly rare to see them apart from each other. Boundary issues, indeed.

Naruto pointed at the open door to their left. "In the kitchen. He kicked us out about an hour ago."

"You tried to coat the cutlets with sugar instead of flour, Naruto!" Kakashi couldn't see him, but Sasuke's voice made it exceptionally easy to imagine the irritated frown that went with it.

"I grabbed the wrong container!" Naruto yelled back. "It was an accident!"

Kakashi was fairly certain that he did not, in fact, own flour at the moment. Or sugar. Or anything that wasn't instant meals or soldier pills.

"What about you?" he asked with a side glance at Sakura.

Sakura, who found sudden interest in the cards Naruto and she had abandoned. "... You may or may not need a new frying pan. Or several."

It wasn't like Kakashi used them anyway.

Kakashi decided to surrender to his fate. He prepared to flop down on the tiny space of his couch that was not yet occupied and not get up for several hours, only to have an iron grip around his arm stop him.

"Nope," Sakura said cheerfully. "Shower first. You're filthy, and you'll ruin the couch."

"It's my couch."

"Yeah, and you'll ruin it!" Naruto grabbed his other arm and forcefully nudged him towards his bathroom.

"It's my decision," Kakashi tried, although it was half-hearted at best. His students were so mean. He huffed when the not so gentle tugging didn't stop. "I hate you."

"Oi! Is that a way to talk to your future Hokage?"

"In your dreams," Sasuke called from the kitchen and Kakashi quickly pulled the bathroom door closed behind him. There was always the chance that the banter escalated to an all out brawl. Kakashi hoped not, seeing as they were still camping out in his apartment.

Ten minutes and a change of clothes later and Kakashi had to admit that he felt slightly more alive than before. He walked in on all three of them sitting squashed together on his couch and took a moment standing in the doorway to just look at them fondly. If he wasn't mistaken, they were currently arguing over who of them would be most successful in wooing Kiba.

Teenagers.

"I'd clearly be the better boyfriend," Naruto said matter of factly, ignoring his teammates rolling their eyes. "My track record is definitely better. I've never gone rogue and never tried to take revenge on the village before."

"Makes it more exciting," Sasuke countered, and dear god, Kakashi feared he was actually serious. Even he knew that there were healthier and saner ways to spice up a relationship.

"It wouldn't work out anyway. You're a cat person, Sasuke. Do you even like dogs?" Naruto didn't wait for an answer. "Akamaru already loves me, so I win that round!"

"Well, I'm the prettiest out of all of us," Sakura said.

Naruto snorted. "No offence, but Sasuke clearly wins on that front."

"Hn." Sasuke crossed his arms in a way that could mean 'this entire conversation is beneath me' just as well as 'damn right I win'.

Sakura huffed but didn't protest. "Fine. But I'm the strongest."

"Strength isn't everything! Just because Ino comes close to fainting every time she sees you bench press doesn't mean that everyone else does."

"As interesting as this conversation is," Kakashi interrupted, "if there's no food, then what's the point of all of you being here?"

"You mean besides the amazing company?" Naruto asked at the same time as Sakura said, "You know you love us."

Sasuke, meanwhile, earned the position of his new favorite student by pushing a deliciously smelling bowl into his field of vision. Kakashi didn't even take the time to identify what it was – Sasuke had made it, so it was bound to be good – and tuned out his team in favor of gulping his food.

At one point a mug materialized next to him and he took it, recognizing it as his favorite brand of tea.

His students were by now discussing Team Gai and their field trip.

"–visit them. Why not?" Naruto asked.

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "It's hardly a mission, Naruto. They won't be gone that long."

"Still! You don't have any missions soon, do you? Neither do Sasuke or me." Sasuke's grunt could most likely be interpreted as agreement. "And they're close to the Wind Country, right?"

"True," Sakura said slowly. "It has been a while since we've seen the sand siblings…"

"Exactly!" Naruto cheered like he had already won. Going by Sakura's thoughtful expression, he probably had. "It's gonna be fun, you guys!"

Kakashi took a look at the mug in his hands for the first time. It said "World's Okayest Sensei". Kakashi was fairly sure he had never seen it before in his life. He took a swing and vowed to never drink from anything else, ever again.

"You know, Gaara thinks I'll be a great Hokage," Naruto said, and, if Sakura's groan was anything to go by, thus reopened their earlier discussion.

"Gaara doesn't count," Sasuke said.

"He's right. I wouldn't be surprised if Gaara thinks you've hung the moon."

Naruto let out a huff. "Fine. I'm still better than Sasuke. Ask anyone else."

"Yeah!" Naruto's voice called from the kitchen, and "Damn right!" from the bathroom.

Kakashi peeled open his eye – when had he even closed it? – to see two shadow clones chiming in from their respective rooms, one of them busy with drying dishes and the other one holding a laundry basket. He hadn't even noticed Naruto create them. That was… surprisingly thoughtful of him.

"Fine," Sasuke said meanwhile in a voice that usually meant a challenge was about to break out between them and warned everyone to get far, far away. "Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi blinked as all eyes were suddenly directed on him.

"Who would you pick as the next Hokage?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura snorted. "That's basically asking who of you he likes best."

"Yeah, Sasuke." Naruto let out a huff. "Don't be stupid. Teachers aren't allowed to have favorites–"

"It's Sakura."

"Wha– But Sensei!" came the indignant yell from three different directions. Sakura giggled and Sasuke crossed his arms, nearly making it look like he was sulking. Not that Kakashi would point that out to him. He wasn't completely suicidal.

To Kakashi's great relief his students didn't insist on keeping him awake for much longer, and he soon sunk into mercifully dreamless sleep.

When he woke up, Kakashi found himself buried under the familiar weight of a puppy pile. Except not. He puzzled for a good thirty seconds about the lack of fur in his nose, until he realized that he was not, in fact, covered by his pack.

Naruto was sprawled over his stomach, Sakura's head resting on one of his arms and Sasuke on his other side, his legs tangled with his own and Naruto's. It bordered on uncomfortable – the arm Sakura used as a pillow was numb and Naruto was heavy – but Kakashi wouldn't have it other way.

Having them close meant having them together. After all, somewhere along the way, Team 7 had become the glue that was holding Kakashi's life together.

A/N: For the prompt "Late Again" with Kakashi and Team 7, which I also used as a title. Send me a prompt on tumblr, if you like! Just send an ask to xxgwenstacyxx.

Beta'd by the wonderful To Mockingbird, Igornerd and PyrothTenka!

Please leave a review, and see you next time!

~Gwen