Title: Lullaby
Pairing: Kakashi x Iruka
Summary: Dreams and death are all too near a thing, what calls to Kakashi in one keeps him from the other. Written forKakaIru Formspring.
Question: What's your earliest childhood memory?
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or it would be a lot shorter.
Dedicated to: Whoever asked the question.

Even disregarding the effects of the sharingan, Kakashi had been blessed with a good memory. Sometimes in the morning -when he was neither asleep nor quite awake- he could almost hear her voice. It was always the same tune. "The right wing is the night, the night I make myself forget, the wing makes me forget the pain and sadness, the left wing is the sea, the sea makes me remember the past, the sea reflects the person I didn't want to forget..." Once he awoke fully he couldn't recall her face, but her voice and the words of the lullaby hung in the air. It always left him feeling strangely calm.

What he never told anyone was that he sang it to himself when he needed that feeling. When he was covered in blood and broken from a mission those were the words that always brought him back to himself. He never heard anyone's voice, but hers when he heard them even when they came from his own throat. The memory that lingered in his dream was home to his heart.

He'd been so sure though that this time not even they would reach his ears to draw him back. Then, they'd been there off in the darkness, calling him home. He thought for a moment that it really was his long dead mother, that she had come to walk him to the after-life. As the words grew louder though, he realized that the voice was that of a man and it broke with the ragged weight of emotion in it. His mother's voice was never sad, only soft and distant.

Slowly the weight of the world returned to him; with it came the dull ache of wounds softened by healing chakra and pain medication. Kakashi tried to force his eyes open before realizing whatever sedative he'd been given still had a strong hold on him and giving up. Swallowing, he opened his mouth and sang the chorus with the singer, his voice barely above a whisper. "Lullaby, lullaby. Sleep, my heart. Lullaby, lullaby. Soon it will be tomorrow."

The singer's voice broke into a choked sob and a hand grasped one of his. "Kakashi-san..."

And then, in that moment, he knew the voice. He realized he'd known it all along, but either his injuries or whatever they'd given him had kept him floating in that dream-space where reality was somewhere on the other side of a thick fog and slipped through ones fingers just as easily. "Iruka."

"I thought..."

The thought was never finished, but Kakashi knew what they were. "How- do you know- that song?" It was hard to get the words out, he had to put more effort into it than he had to sing since he wanted Iruka to hear them.

There was a soft chuckle and a sniffle from Iruka. "You whisper it, in your sleep, sometimes. I don't know why, but it was all I could think of."

Kakashi had never realized that he did that. "Thank you-" He smiled. "-for calling me home."

End