Not So Happily Ever After

Not So Happily Ever After
By: KungFuu

Warnings: Plot spoilers and yaoi. Possibly some bad puns.
Disclaimer: Don’t own it, don’t mean any harm, not making any money.

Chapter 2

Gai ended up having to do the five hundred push-ups. A torrential downpour had ruined his tracking efforts, and the thieves were safely in hiding. That meant Kakashi wouldn’t have any clean clothes or spare weapons for the rest of the trip, and Iruka had to admit it made him feel slightly guilty. Still, not long after Gai took off, Iruka began pitching his small tent with the intent of escaping from Kakashi's presence. Once it was done, he crawled inside and proceeded to ignore Kakashi for the next three hours.

When Gai finally returned, it was pouring outside. Gai set up his tiny tent and disappeared inside it quickly, vowing (loudly and with much passion) to do his pushups when it wasn’t so wet.

Following this there was an awkward moment during which Kakashi didn’t know if he’d be sleeping in the rain all night, or if he’d be invited to share the tent with Iruka. Much to Kakashi’s relief, Iruka caved and invited him in before he drowned in the rain.

“Come on, just take off those wet clothes. You can borrow my spare shirt,” Iruka offered. Kakashi nodded and crawled into the little plastic pyramid. It took some contorting, but he managed to remove his sopping wet clothes without drenching Iruka. Finally, he was clothed only in damp boxers (decorated with the cover of Icha Icha Violence on them) and his ever-present mask.

Considering it was a tent designed for one person, Iruka was doing an amazing job of avoiding skin-to-skin contact. Iruka had been using his spare clothing as a pillow, but wordlessly he handed the bundle over. Kakashi knew from past experience that he couldn’t fit into Iruka’s pants, but he tugged the shirt over his torso. He seriously hoped they weren’t attacked in the night, because the prospect of fighting in his Icha Icha Violence boxers and a skin-tight shirt wasn’t too appealing.

Kakashi handed the rolled up pants back to Iruka, who stuffed them under his head without saying a word. The brunette ninja closed his eyes resolutely, as if he was determined to go to sleep immediately.

Of course, that never works. Kakashi lifted his arm so he could rest his head on it, but in the process he brushed it over Iruka’s side.

“Don’t touch me,” Iruka growled, as if he’d just been waiting for Kakashi to make a wrong move. The silver-haired ninja scowled.

“I was just moving my arm. If we’re not touching, though, why is your foot on my calf, hmm?” Kakashi could hear Iruka grinding his teeth. Iruka quickly snapped his foot away, as if he’d been burned.

There was a heavy, awkward, tension-filled silence. Iruka caved first.

“Why are you wearing those ridiculous boxers? I packed for you and I know I packed solid black ones. I guess you could have been wearing them when we left, but that's a long time to go without changing your underwear...and besides, you look ridiculous,” Iruka grumbled.

“You just can’t let me have the last word, can you? I’ll have you know that these are my lucky boxers. Jiraiya himself autographed them,” Kakashi replied smugly. Iruka broke the no-touching rule to turn and gape at him.

“You had Jiraiya-sama sign your underwear?” Iruka questioned incredulously.

“Yes, on the waistband,” Kakashi replied with a hint of pride coloring his voice. Iruka turned back over.

“Sometimes I forget what a weirdo you are.”

“And you’re a prude, but I still love you,” Kakashi replied jokingly with a small smile.

The silence stretched unbearably long and Kakashi's smile faded quickly as he realized with mild horror what he’d confessed.

The ‘L’ word.

They’d never used the ‘L’ word before - not even in a joking manner. Internally, Kakashi was hitting himself. Why had he said that? What in the hell had he been thinking, putting himself out there like that?

Iruka sighed and began with, “Kakashi…”

The legendary copy-nin winced.

“Just don’t bother. Forget I said anything,” Kakashi replied coldly. Iruka balled up his fists, angry and frustrated and hopelessly confused about his own feelings. Still, he knew one thing for sure.

“That isn’t something you just say because you want to end an argument! I didn’t think you were that kind of person, Kakashi. You can’t,” Iruka swallowed thickly, barely resisting tears, “- you can’t make saying that for the first time to someone into a joke, and that wasn’t exactly a nice way to say it!” he finished angrily.

Kakashi sat up, intending on leaving the tent, but Iruka grabbed his arm tightly.

“Don’t even think about running off to sulk in this weather. Go to sleep. I’m not going to loose rest because I’m worrying about where you are.” Iruka’s tone left no room for argument. Mutely, Kakashi lay back down after a few moments of hesitation.

Exhausted both physically and emotionally, it didn’t take long for Iruka to fall asleep. Kakashi watched the outline of his chest rise and fall in the darkness. Iruka’s hair tie had come loose, and his soft, thick hair was unbound for once. Wayward strands curled around his face gently. Kakashi bit his bottom lip worriedly, his visible eye narrowing as his mind raced with thoughts.

He’d said it, but had he meant it? Did he really love Iruka? All of the people he loved were dead. For so many years, he’d been alone. He felt as though the emotion had snuck up on him, and made itself known at the worst possible time and in the worst possible way.

Kakashi hadn’t worried seriously about their bickering because he’d thought it was just about stupid things that were easily resolved – hurt pride and bruised egos. But now…now he had really messed up.

Whether he loved Iruka or he didn’t, Kakashi had to face the gut-wrenching realization that this fight had hurt something that was not easy to fix.

He moved closer to Iruka’s slumbering form, wondering if it would be the last time he’d be so close to him. That line of thinking compelled him to touch him, unable to bear the thought of never being able to do so again. His fingers softly tangled in Iruka’s hair, gently threading through the strands and relaxing Iruka into deeper sleep. During the nights that they’d shared a bed, Kakashi had never spooned with him, but now he couldn’t resist the urge. Gently, so as not to wake him, Kakashi embraced the smaller man. Iruka shivered in his sleep and rolled over, burying his face in Kakashi’s chest. Kakashi slowly turned onto his back, and Iruka moved with him.

Kakashi was still not satisfied. If this would be his last intimate contact with Iruka, merely having him lie on top of his chest was not enough. He wanted to feel his skin, all of it, under his hands. He wanted to kiss Iruka’s ankles and the small of his back. He wanted to press their foreheads together and memorize every detail of his chocolate eyes with his Sharingan, so that he could carry the image with him always.

It was horrible thinking that Iruka might not want him in the morning. It unsettled him so completely that he was forced to close his eyes tightly. He was unable to look and feel Iruka nestled against his chest and think, ‘I’ll never see him this way again.’

Somehow, impossibly, he fell asleep, despite the fact that he rarely slept on missions.

When he awoke, it was to the sound of birds chirruping.

Kakashi shot up and scrambled out of the tent. Gai and Iruka were sitting on a log eating some field rations. By the position of the sun, Kakashi judged he’d not only fallen asleep…but he’d overslept. It was practically noon.

“Good morning, my hip and modern rival!” Gai boomed. Kakashi winced, feeling like shit and not wanting to deal with Gai at the moment. He stared hard at Iruka, trying to judge his mood. The brunette had cast him a long, appraising glance when he’d emerged, but now he was calmly eating, not meeting his eyes, as if nothing had happened the night before. Noticing the strange tension, Gai felt it necessary to fill the silence. “Look, Kakashi! Iruka retrieved your pack!”

Kakashi’s eye traveled to the pack resting beside Iruka. The brunette nodded at it and said, “Once it stopped raining earlier this morning, it was fairly easy to track them down. Gai stayed here to keep an eye on you. I brought one of them back thinking you might want to question him.”

Kakashi scowled.

“I didn’t give you permission to go after them by yourself, Iruka!” he replied harshly. Gai stared between the two of them awkwardly. Iruka casually slurped up some more of his noodles.

“You were asleep. I didn’t want to wake you up over something so trivial,” Iruka replied testily.

“Trivial? That’s not trivial! And we should have moved on hours ago," Kakashi turned to Gai. "Iruka may not know what we’re doing out here but you do. Time is of the essence,” he snapped out.

Gai looked uncomfortable, but eventually replied, “You never sleep on missions, Kakashi. I was worried you were sick or had depleted your chakra without me realizing it.”

Inwardly, Kakashi fumed, but there didn’t seem to be much he could do about the situation. Iruka’s calm façade finally began to crack somewhat. He tossed his ration container into the crackling fire angrily.

“Kakashi, for god’s sake put some pants on. You can’t interrogate someone in boxers – even if they are autographed,” Iruka snapped, standing up and busying himself with re-packing the tent Kakashi had just emerged from. “You said it yourself, we need to get going.”

Kakashi belatedly realized his state of undress and his eye immediately drilled into Gai – as if daring him to comment on his vibrant, orange (autographed!) boxers. Quickly, the copy-nin snatched up his dried pants and tugged them on, removing Iruka’s shirt and replacing it with his own. The act of dressing had given him a few moments to cool down, but his nerves were shot and he was about to loose it.

“Gai, lead me to where the hostage is,” he barked out. Gai jumped up quickly to oblige him. Leaving Iruka behind to clean up the campsite and erase any signs of their presence there. The two of them walked silently through the forest. At one point, Gai looked as though he was going to say something, but a quick glare from Kakashi changed his mind.

When Kakashi entered the clearing, he was in the mood to make someone hurt. He brought a kunai straight to the man’s throat and made a shallow cut.

“TALK!” he ordered. The petty thief cracked quickly, possibly because Kakashi looked more like a devil than a man.

“What do you want? I’ll tell you anything! Just don’t kill me!” Kakashi smirked harshly and began asking his questions.

When Kakashi and Gai returned, Kakashi looked subdued and troubled. Of course, someone who didn’t know him well wouldn’t have noticed, but there was a tightness around his masked lips that was unmistakable to Iruka.

“We’re changing the pattern. I’m scouting ahead. Gai, you look for evidence showing that they passed through.” Iruka felt his heart clench. Kakashi didn’t want to be around him.

Then a terrifying thought occurred to him. Were they going to break up?

They’d probably fail the mission on top of that. Iruka clenched his fists. He didn’t know about Kakashi and himself – he was doing everything he could not to think about it - but he still had to focus on salvaging the mission. As Kakashi dashed ahead, Iruka focused everything he had on finding evidence that someone had trekked through the forest. Technically, he wasn’t supposed to have anything to do with the tracking part of the mission, and he didn’t even know what they were tracking exactly, but maybe he would get lucky and catch something Gai missed.

Besides, anything was better than holding an awkward conversation with Gai about why he and Kakashi were both in such terrible moods.

They moved much more swiftly, but Iruka was finally getting used to traveling through the thick woods. Naturally, Kakashi wasn’t there to notice the improvement.

‘I’m not thinking about Kakashi. I’m looking for…hey! Is that a footprint?' Iruka had kicked up some leaves while he’d been jogging and lying underneath, clear as day, was a small footprint.

“Gai-san, I think I’ve found something,” Iruka called out softly. Gai immediately doubled back and inspected the print.

“Amazing, Iruka-sensei! You didn’t even know what we were looking for, and yet you found it! I am proud that you taught my star pupil, Lee!” Gai gave him a big thumbs up and a blinding smile. Iruka blushed a bit at the praise and shrugged his shoulders.

“It was nothing, really.”

“Nonsense! This is very important! Let me signal, Kakashi!”

Iruka wondered if Gai ever said anything that didn’t need an exclamation point tacked onto the end of it. While Iruka was pondering this, Gai let out a low whistle that sounded like a birdcall. He waited approximately three seconds and whistled again. Instantly, Kakashi appeared in a cloud of smoke.

“Did you find something?” he asked Gai, ignoring Iruka completely and still looking irritated.

“No, but Iruka-sensei did! He is an excellent tracker! I did not know he was so observant!” Gai gestured at the footprint. Kakashi narrowed his eye at Iruka and then examined the print.

“Hmm…let’s continue on,” he said briskly. Iruka felt a little put out. Now Kakashi was giving him the silent treatment on top of everything else. He vowed then and there that if his relationship with Kakashi survived, he was never going on another mission with the man again.


AN: I uploaded this yesterday, but because I didn't put in a chapter title, it didn't work, lol. I'm learning! Anyway, again, no italics or bold but I'll figure it out eventually. Until then, you can read the story with formatting at www.livejournal.com/users/Kung_Fuu. I also post new chapters there before I post them anywhere else, so check it out. Thanks for all the reviews!