Teach Me To Love You

Title: Teach Me To Love You
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: KakashixIruka
Rating: T for now, will go up
Summary: Kakashi had never been anything else than what had been expected of him. And nobody had ever expected him to be human. So how could Iruka even want to be near him? How could he say he loved him?
Spoilers: Spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden and very slight ones for the events before the time-skip.
Status: Chapter 3 of ?
Disclaimer: I do not own the anime/manga Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I
do not make any money from the writing of this story.

******************************


Teach Me To Love You
by nayru-kleinefee


Chapter 3 – And I didn’t forget.

Oh, Iruka’s hair was so soft. Kakashi carefully took another strand to thicken the one in his fingers. Really soft. His own was rather… wiry, so to say. But Iruka’s was soft and smooth, it felt good to let it flow through his fingers. He’d always wondered why anybody would want long hair, it was certainly not very practical and even could catch somewhere, but this… He just hoped that Iruka would never, never decide to cut it, really. And maybe he could ask him to wear it open more often, so he could touch it and always, always look at it.

“Whatcha doin’?”, Iruka murmured softly, yawning.

“Touching your hair”, Kakashi whispered without letting go of the strand in his fingers. “Please don’t cut it, okay?”

“Hm?” Iruka frowned up at him. “Why should I want to cut my hair?”

“Then it’s good.” Kakashi carefully took yet another strand.

The Chuunin chuckled softly. “I won’t ask, alright?” He closed his eyes and snuggled closer, sighing softly.

Kakashi stiffened a little at first, but then relaxed. Oh, and now the soft hair was even closer to his fingers. Nice.

***** ***** *****

“And then he gave me roses!”, a girl at the market squealed. “Red roses!”

“Really?!”, her friend gasped. “That’s wonderful!”

Kakashi tilted his head while he watched the girls walk away. Flowers, huh?

*****

Kakashi fidgeted nervously on the tree outside of the apartment, his present clutched in his left hand. He was impatiently waiting for Iruka to come home and at the same time hoping that the earth would break up and swallow him before he had to face him. He couldn’t remember ever having been so nervous and uncomfortable about something supposedly trivial before.

He should have gone and bought a bouquet, he couldn’t help but think when he looked at the small flowers in his hand. But he’d been standing in front of the flower shop for two hours, trying to look as if no, he wasn’t looking like he was desperately trying to gather the courage to enter. And then he’d given up and had gone for a desperate search for flowers without women watching him funny around them.

Kakashi sighed and looked at the bunch of flowers in his hand. He wasn’t even sure whether Iruka liked flowers at all, and daisies furthermore. Compared to roses, they looked kind of… small, plain even. But he had found out that he didn’t like roses or lilies or daffodils or all those other pretty flowers. They were too bright, too colourful, too… too much in his opinion. And Iruka wasn’t all that. He wasn’t small or plain either, but he wasn’t too much. He was just… just Iruka. He liked that. Iruka didn’t make him feel stupid or clumsy even if he didn’t understand something human, Iruka just smiled and maybe even laughed softly and then explained it to him once again. He liked that, and he had found that he even liked having Iruka around, that it had become less and less difficult to relax when the Chuunin was with him – or at least ‘relax’ in the shinobi way, he was still working at relaxing the human way.

What was still bothering him though were all those touches, all those embraces. He had managed not to flinch anymore when Iruka did that suddenly, but still… It was dangerous to embrace somebody. Everybody could take advantage of that and attack at right that moment and-

“Kakashi?”

He jumped in surprise and almost fell from the tree but caught himself in the last moment. “I… Iruka?”

“But sure.” The Chuunin smiled at him from the open window. “You were quite lost in thoughts, weren’t you?”

“I… erm…” Kakashi felt himself blush a little. He’d really been lost in thoughts. Out in the open! Without any precautions to protect himself!

“Don’t you want to come in?” Iruka was grinning by now. “You know, as in instead of sitting on that tree? Or you could use the door.”

“Oh… alright.” Kakashi quickly jumped into the apartment, shed his shoes one-handedly and then turned around. “Iruka?”

“Yes?”

Kakashi held out his hand holding the flowers. “For… for you.”

“For me?” Iruka smiled and took them carefully. “Thank you, I was already wondering what you were doing with flowers.”

“I… I held them. To give them to you.” Kakashi almost winced at that. Really eloquent.

“I see.” The smile on the Chuunin’s face stayed gentle and warm, and he smelled at the small flowers. “Is there a special occasion?”

“Yes, it’s our anniversary.” Kakashi grinned proudly. And he hadn’t forgotten that. Go him!

“Our anniversary?”, Iruka asked and frowned. “What anniversary?”

“Our one-week anniversary.” Kakashi practically beamed. “And I didn’t forget.” He’d even looked that word up in a dictionary!

“Our…” Iruka frowned deeper. “But we’ve been together for… for ten days already.”

“Oh.” Kakashi’s smile faltered. “Then you count the time I was on that mission, too?” Oh no, he’d misunderstood again. And he’d missed their real one-week anniversary.

“But sure you count that time”, Iruka said softly, smiling again. “I can’t remember breaking up before you left.”

“Oh…”, Kakashi breathed and looked down at the floor. “I’m sorry that I didn’t do it right.”

“But you did everything perfectly, Kakashi.” A hand came into his view and gently lifted his chin up. “I’m very happy.”

“You are?”

“Yes, so very, very happy.” Iruka placed his hand on the Jounin’s cheek, and Kakashi even managed not to jump away at the touch on his mask, if barely. “Your flowers are wonderful, thank you very much. And it’s really sweet that you want to celebrate our one-week anniversary.”

“Don’t you normally do that?”, Kakashi asked. Had he done that wrong, too?

“I guess most people don’t.” Iruka smiled softly. “But that’s no reason why we shouldn’t. And it doesn’t matter that it’s been more than a week already. We can celebrate our ten-days anniversary.”

“You do that, too? And what about the two-weeks anniversary? And twenty days? And a month, too? And-”

“Kakashi”, Iruka laughed. “Calm down. You don’t have to celebrate any anniversary at all. Only if we both want that.”

“And… and do you want that?”, Kakashi asked carefully. Oh, this was so complicated!

“We don’t have to. We can celebrate whenever you want, there’s no need for a special date.” Iruka smiled. “And I certainly don’t want you to spend all your money on flowers.”

“I… I didn’t buy them. I didn’t like the flowers in the shop.”

“Why not?”

“They were… they weren’t right for you. They were too… too much. Too… shrill. I didn’t like them.” Kakashi sighed. “I’m sounding like an idiot, I know, but I can’t explain it better.”

“No”, Iruka whispered. “I think I understand. So you picked these flowers yourself.”

“M-hm.” Kakashi nodded. “On the ground near the Memorial Stone. There are many of them, you know.” He stepped from one foot to the other. “Do you like them?”

“They’re the best flowers I’ve ever been given. I love them”, Iruka whispered and took a step forward before he embraced him gently. “I love you, Kakashi.”

“Oh, I… I…” Kakashi did his best not to stiffen at the contact while he tried to find the right words to say. ‘I know’ sounded weird, and ‘That’s nice’ probably wasn’t appropriate either, so what-

“You don’t have to say anything”, he heard Iruka whisper softly. “Just promise me that you’ll never say that you love me if you don’t really do it, okay?”

“Okay”, Kakashi whispered back and carefully placed his arms around his waist. He wanted to say those words to Iruka one day, and he would do his best to achieve that.

***** ***** *****

Kakashi was bored. Really bored. And that was… unusual. Usually, he could slouch against a wall or sit on a tree and stay there the whole day while dozing and napping on and off. But now he could barely sit still for some minutes and then had to go and move or do something. He was even considering challenging Gai.

Weird…

He’d just go and search new stones with holes for Iruka. And then go to the Academy afterwards and watch Iruka teach.

***** ***** *****

Kakashi awoke and immediately had to suppress the urge to jump and draw a weapon and attack. He swallowed and reminded himself that it was only Iruka lying on him with almost all of his body, only Iruka who would never hurt him, only Iruka who loved him. And that the curtains weren’t shut completely wasn’t a problem either, nobody would try to attack him by throwing a kunai at him when he wasn’t able to stand up or move properly. And that attacker wouldn’t succeed in doing that although he couldn’t move fast enough, and he would also not succeed in hurting Iruka although the Chuunin lay on him, and he couldn’t pierce his throat with the kunai and not kill Iruka and not kill Iruka andnotkillIrukaandnotkillIrukaand-

Kakashi bolted. In less than ten seconds he had thrown Iruka and the bed sheets to the floor not visible from the window, jumped up from the bed, drawn two kunais and five shuriken and closed the curtains. He was just taking a deep, calming breath in his crouched position next to the window when Iruka’s head emerged from the sheets.

“Kakashi!”, the Chuunin yelled, his eyes wide in shock. “What happened?!”

“I…” Kakashi wasn’t really sure how to explain himself suddenly.

“Did you have a bad dream?” Iruka wriggled free from the sheets and approached him, then reached out with his arms to embrace him. “Everything’s fine, I’m here for you if you want.”

“No.” Kakashi shook his head and crawled a little backwards. “It’s just… I… you… you were too close.”

“Too close?”, Iruka asked with wide eyes.

“Yes. You know, too close. Like in… in…” Kakashi bit his lip under his mask. “You’re always coming close and lying on me and that and… and that… it’s dangerous.”

“Dangerous?”

“Yes.” Kakashi nodded. He’d meant to tell the Chuunin that for a while by now, that he couldn’t take the risk to be attacked and unable to move and defend himself and Iruka. It just was too dangerous.

“I don’t understand…”, Iruka murmured and looked away.

“You… you know, you always come close and… and cling to me and… and that’s dangerous.” Kakashi sighed. “I don’t… I don’t like that.” He didn’t like the feeling to be unprepared, vulnerable, in danger. And he didn’t like the thought of Iruka being in danger.

“You don’t like it when I… when I’m close to you?”, Iruka whispered, still looking at the floor. “And when I… when I embrace you?”

“Yes, that’s what I mean. That embracing and all that.” Kakashi nodded, relieved that the Chuunin saw his point. “That’s dangerous.”

“I see.” Iruka looked up and for a second, the Copy-nin could see an utterly pained expression on his face, but then an obviously faked smile replaced that. “That’s… that’s fine”, the Chuunin said cheerily, the frozen smile still in place. “If… if you don’t want me to touch you, then… then I just will stop it. Alright? I mean, it’s no big deal and all, and… and… and…” He gasped softly.

“Iruka?”, Kakashi asked, concerned. “Iruka, is something wrong?” He had upset the Chuunin, it seemed, but he couldn’t quite grab how.

“Everything’s perfect.” Iruka smiled brightly, cheerily, falsely. “Perfect. I will… I will just… just stop it, that’s alright.” He swallowed hard. “I will make breakfast now.” And with that, he stood up hastily and hurried out of the room.

Kakashi looked at the open door, confused beyond anytime he’d experienced yet. Obviously, something wasn’t right with Iruka, something was even completely wrong. And it had to be his fault, he was certain of that. But he had only wanted to protect the Chuunin, just make sure that he was safe and sound and not in danger because of him.

The thought that he had hurt Iruka again made Kakashi’s chest clench painfully.

“Iruka?”, he asked softly and left the bedroom. “Iruka, please tell me what I did wrong.” He saw the Chuunin stand in the kitchen, his head bent over the sink. “Iruka?”

“It’s… fine”, Iruka whispered, straightened up and looked out of the window, his back still towards the Jounin. “It’s alright if you don’t l-like it when I’m close to you.”

“It’s not fine”, Kakashi murmured. “You lie to me.”

“So?” He heard the Chuunin laugh bitterly. “And that bothers you? You were lying to me, too.”

“That’s not true!”, Kakashi gasped. “I didn’t-”

“You did”, Iruka interrupted him. “But that doesn’t matter, now does it? It doesn’t matter that you don’t really want to love me. Not to you at least.”

“But I want that!”, Kakashi defended himself. “I think I’ve never wanted anything as much as that.”

“It’s alright, Kakashi-sensei.” Iruka shook his head. “You can stop pretending now. And I have to congratulate you on your choice of punishment for me. You couldn’t have hurt me worse.”

“But I don’t pretend that”, Kakashi whispered, his throat thick from fear and hurt at seeing Iruka hurt. “I don’t do that.” He didn’t know what to do, didn’t know what he’d done wrong and how to make it right again. And he wanted to make it right, wanted to stop the hurt in the Chuunin’s voice and the pain inside himself.

“Just go”, Iruka whispered. “Please, just go, Kakashi-sensei, and don’t… don’t ever come back. I learned my lesson, believe me.”

“No.” Kakashi shook his head desperately. “I don’t want to go. I want to learn to love you and to become human and I want to stay here and-”

“Go!”, Iruka shouted suddenly and his whole body started to shake. “You had your fun with me, now go!”

“No, please!” Kakashi didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to leave, didn’t want to lose his one and only chance to change. He didn’t want to lose Iruka.

Without thinking about it, Kakashi jumped forward and clutched the Chuunin’s body from behind to his chest desperately. If he had to, he would just hold Iruka like this forever, just refuse to let him go ever again. He wasn’t going to let him go, wasn’t going to let his only chance slip from him.

“I don’t want to go”, he whispered into Iruka’s neck, refusing to listen to his senses telling him that his back was towards a window and he had no weapons and should better get the hell away from that open position. “I don’t want to go, Iruka. Please don’t send me away, I will try to make it good again, I promise. Just tell me what I did wrong and I will make it good again, please, Iruka.”

“What you did wrong?”, the Chuunin whispered, his body stiff in the embrace. “You want to tell me that you don’t know? Kakashi-sensei, that’s ridiculous. Please stop this now and leave me alone.”

“I don’t know, really, Iruka.” Kakashi tightened his embrace. “I just… I just woke up and you were on me and I couldn’t move properly and the curtains were open and everybody could have seen and attacked us. I just wanted to make sure that we’re safe.”

“Safe? We’re in the middle of the town. And on the first floor.”

“I know…” Kakashi sighed. “I know that. And I know that it’s unlikely that somebody attacks us, but…” He sighed again. “I can never be sure that I’m safe. I have many enemies, and now there’s also you and you’re in danger because of me and I had to protect you.”

“You… wanted to protect me?”, he heard Iruka whisper, his body tensing even more. “Is… You’re not lying?”

“No, I’m not, I promise. I wanted to protect you.” The Jounin carefully loosened his grip around him not to hurt him but still refused to let go. “And I can’t do that properly when you’re lying on me or standing in front of me too closely or embracing me.”

“Is that why you don’t like to be close to me?”

“Yes. No.” Kakashi sighed. “I… I think I like to be close to you. It’s warm and… and it feels weird, but a nice kind of weird. But it’s dangerous.”

“Then… then you didn’t mean it?”, Iruka whispered, trembling softly. “You didn’t mean that you don’t like to be with me? And you didn’t want to hurt me?”

“No”, Kakashi whispered back when all of what he’d done to the Chuunin by saying something so stupid came crashing down on him suddenly. “I’m sorry that I hurt you again, Iruka. I didn’t mean to do that. I didn’t understand that it would hurt you if I said things like that.”

“It’s… it’s alright.” Iruka nodded, his body relaxing a good bit, and turned his head to look at him. “It’s alright. I think I overreacted. It’s just… it’s just that I thought suddenly that you had been playing with me all the time. And that you hated to be with me. And… and now that I know how it is to be with you and hope that you will love me back one day… I couldn’t stand the thought that it should have been all faked.”

“It’s not faked, Iruka”, Kakashi whispered. “I… I don’t want it to be faked. I want to become human and learn to love you.”

“That makes me happy, Kakashi”, Iruka whispered. “You can’t imagine how much.”

“That’s good.” The Jounin smiled softly. “I like to see you happy.”

“Is that why you’re still holding me? It’s fine, Kakashi, you can let me go now if you’re uncomfortable with it.” Iruka sighed. “It won’t be easy but I will try not to come too close to you anymore.”

“I didn’t… I didn’t think about it”, Kakashi whispered in utter surprise. “I didn’t notice that I still…” He let go of Iruka and took a step back.

“And… and now?” The Chuunin turned around to him and looked at him with so much hope in his eyes that Kakashi’s breath hitched at the intensity. “Do you think that you can… can get used to it?”

“I…” The Copy-nin frowned. It was true, he hadn’t felt uncomfortable at all when he’d been able to forget about the open window and just focused on Iruka alone. At first he’d wanted to have the Chuunin close to him so he wouldn’t lose his chance to become human, and then he’d stopped thinking about it at all.

But it had felt good, he realised suddenly. Once Iruka had started to believe him and relaxed, it had felt… good to hold him, warm and nice and… and alive. He’d liked it.

“Kakashi?”, Iruka whispered softly. “You don’t have to decide anything now.”

“Can we try it again?”, Kakashi asked. “I mean, can I embrace you again?”

Iruka’s eyes became wide. “Yes”, he breathed. “Yes, I want that.” He stepped forward and raised his arms to wrap them around the Jounin’s neck.

“No.” Kakashi shook his head. “Not like that, please. Can’t you… can’t you embrace me around the waist?” That way, he would have his arms completely free just in case it should be necessary.

“Okay.” Iruka smiled and nodded, then did as wished before he placed his head against the Jounin’s shoulder.

“Okay…” Kakashi slowly lifted his arms and wrapped them around the Chuunin carefully, then waited. He knew about the windows with the open curtains right behind and in front of him but tried to ignore them. Iruka was right, there was nothing to worry about. They were in Konoha and nobody except the Hokage knew that he was with the Chuunin. He didn’t have to worry, he could focus on how it felt to hold Iruka in his arms.

It felt… weird.

Kakashi smiled. The good kind of weird. The good, warm, nice kind of weird.

“It feels good”, he whispered softly.

“Really?”, Iruka whispered back. “Then do you mean that… we can do it from now on? Sometimes at least? We can close the curtains if you want.”

“That would be nice.” Kakashi nodded. “I want to do this more often from now on.” He liked it very much, he realised, to have a warm, so very alive Iruka so close to him. Iruka was so very, very human, so alive. The Jounin wanted to become just like him and he had the – rather stupid, he knew that – impression that if he held him close, he would get there faster.

Why he hadn’t realised that sooner was completely beyond him.

“Mmmmh…”, Iruka sighed softly. “Go back to bed?”

“Good idea.” Kakashi reluctantly let go and waited for Iruka to go to the bedroom before he followed and crawled back into the bed beside him. Without thinking about it, he immediately pulled Iruka close again to lie next to his side. Warm. Warrrrrm.

“I’m happy”, the Chuunin whispered. “I’m so very happy that you allow me to be close to you. I didn’t realise how much it bothered you at first, but… but that you decided to let me close makes me feel warm.”

“M-hm.” Kakashi nodded. He too felt warm, and that Iruka felt the same made him feel something else, something like happiness, but even stronger.

The Chuunin chuckled softly. “You know, we just got through our first fight.”

“Oh. That’s good?”

“It’s good that we got through it.” Iruka tilted his head up and smiled. “I love you, Kakashi.”

“I…” Kakashi wanted to answer something, wanted to say something to him that made him happy. “Iruka, I…” He smiled when an idea came. “I want to love you, Iruka.”

Iruka’s smile was nothing less than perfect.

***** ***** *****

There was a little scar on the back of Iruka’s left hand. It was almost not visible, only a thin white line on the tan skin. Other than that, the Chuunin’s hands were free of scars. They were calloused, that too, but there were no more scars, like on Kakashi’s pale ones. And something else was different, apart from scars and colour. Iruka’s fingers were a little bit shorter than his, and a little thicker than his own. They looked less bony and somehow healthier and-

“Aren’t you done staring at my hands yet?”, Iruka chuckled. “The water’s boiling and I really should go and make the tea now.”

“I like your hands”, Kakashi murmured and turned the one in his grip to look at the palm. “They’re warm.” And they were gentle, always so gentle when they touched him.

“That’s because you hold them.” Iruka carefully squeezed the Jounin’s hands. “You make me feel warm, Kakashi.”

“Oh.” Kakashi frowned. “Really?” Like Iruka made him feel warm?

“Really”, the Chuunin laughed.

***** ***** *****

Kakashi fidgeted, unsure whether or not he should say something. But he couldn’t stand this anymore, or no, he didn’t want to have to stand this anymore. Iruka wasn’t like that, normally, and he had to tell him about what that cursed stuff did to him.

“You shouldn’t drink so much coffee.”

Iruka looked up, blinking. “I’m sorry?”

“You shouldn’t drink so much coffee”, Kakashi repeated. The mug standing on his table was the seventh of the day already. And it was a big mug. And Iruka drank his coffee black.

“I…” The Chuunin arched an eyebrow. “And why not?”

“Because you don’t sleep well if you’ve drunk much coffee during the day. I know that because you keep rolling around when we’re in bed. I can’t sleep then either.” Not to mention how often Iruka had to go to the bathroom to get rid of the coffee.

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry if I keep you awake.” The eyebrow was lifted even higher. “If I had known that I rob the famous Copy-nin’s sleep…”

“And you’re not very nice if you’ve drunk too much coffee”, Kakashi murmured. “Like now. You don’t need to be mean to me.” That was worst, although he knew that Iruka didn’t do it intentionally. It was just the mean, bad, evil coffee speaking.

Iruka’s eyes widened. “I… I was… Oh, Kakashi.” He quickly jumped up from his chair and hurried over to embrace him. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright.” Kakashi hugged him tightly. “I don’t mind if you’re snappy every once in a while. You don’t mean it, do you?”

“No, I don’t mean to be mean to you.” Iruka hid his face in his neck. “I’m so sorry.”

“You should better drink tea, I think”, Kakashi suggested. Would probably increase the number of bathroom breaks but decrease the snappiness.

“Maybe.” Iruka sighed. “I don’t normally drink so much coffee, it’s just… Final exams are almost up and I also have to grade homework of two more classes because one of my colleagues is sick and another’s just given birth and is still on leave. I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t know you had so much to do.” He’d never known how much the Chuunin worked before having a relationship with him. Considering school, mission desk, Hokage paperwork and missions, Iruka probably worked more than any other person in the village.

“There’s no reason for you to bother.”

“There is”, Kakashi contradicted. “You’re not happy and I don’t like it when you’re not happy. And that’s why I’ll help you if I can.” Now that he too meant work for Iruka.

“You don’t have to”, Iruka whispered.

“I want to.” Kakashi carefully tilted the Chuunin’s face up with a finger on his chin and smiled at him. “I’ll make you tea first and something to eat, and then I’ll get you a pillow to sit on and then… Can I help you with the grading, too?”

“Maybe.” Iruka smiled softly. “I’ll see whether you can. Thank you so much.”

“I could take over your shifts at the mission desk, too”, Kakashi offered. And have a little talk with Tsunade about overworked and stressed Chuunin.

“I’d really like to see that.” A grin bloomed on Iruka’s face. “Little Genin scared out of their minds at the thought that they have to give their reports to the famous Copy-nin.”

“I would be nice to them.” A little.

“But sure.” Iruka grinned broader. “And would you be on time, too?”

“Erm… I’ll go make you tea now.”

***** ***** *****

He was on a mission. A hunt even. His prey? Unsuspecting, defenseless. His opponent? Fierce, protecting, menacing. But he would succeed. He w-

“Don’t you dare to touch the cookies. They’re for Anko.”

Damn. Caught.

“You can be as sneaky as you want, my Sensei Senses will catch you anyway.” Iruka laughed. “Honed by years of having an eye on Naruto.”

“But Iruka…” Kakashi eyed the cookies longingly. “They smell really good.” And they looked good, too. Almost black from all the chocolate in the dough and the small chocolate chips.

“They’re for Anko.”

“But Irukaaa…”

“They’re Get-Well-Soon-From-Stumbling-Over-A-Stone-And-Spraining-Your-Ankle-After-Coming-Home-From-Your-S-Class-Mission-Cookies for Anko, and they’re counted”, the Chuunin specified. “You’ll only get some of them if you do the same mess as her.”

“You want me to sprain my ankle?”, Kakashi grumbled. But hmm… the cookies definitely looked worth it.

“I want you to sprain your ankle if you want these exact cookies. If you want cookies completely similar to these but not made for Anko, you just have to ask me to make some for you.” Iruka smirked.

“When?”

“Right after I brought these to Anko?”

“Mmmh… okay.” Kakashi smiled.

“Want to help?”

“Never made cookies before.”

“It’s easy, I’ll teach you.” Iruka came over and embraced him. “You can even lick out the bowl afterwards, I’ll show you how to do that, too.”

“I’m not a dog.” Kakashi frowned.

“More for me then. Your loss.”

*****

“Iruka?”

“Mrh-hm?” And a slurp. And a happy sigh afterwards.

“May I still try licking out the bowl?”

***** ***** *****

“My Eternal Rival! In the Springtime of my Youth I finally found yourrghrgh!” And then there was silence.

Kakashi did his best not to gape. But it was hard, seeing that Gai was speechless.

“Gai-sensei.” Iruka smiled at the Green Beast crouching on his windowsill but didn’t let go of Kakashi’s waist. “What a pleasure to meet you.”

“Iruka-sensei…” Gai blinked once, twice. “Eternal Rival…”

Kakashi heard the Chuunin chuckle softly before Iruka snuggled his face back into his chest. “That’s right, Gai-sensei. That’s us. You’re very observant today, aren’t you?”

“Gai, what do you want?”, Kakashi asked. He would bet anything that his self-declared rival had come up with another challenge. And that while he would really prefer to keep embracing Iruka for the rest of the day.

“I want… I… I…”

“Didn’t you ask him how to compliment me?”, Iruka asked softly. “Shouldn’t he know about us?”

“I asked him.” Kakashi frowned. But who knew what Gai had thought under his bowl-cut…

“Maybe he thought you wanted to make me a Youthful Compliment for being such a Devoted Chuunin and Honourable Sensei!” Iruka sniggered.

“Please don’t do that ever again”, Kakashi pleaded.

“Aww, but Genma always says I’m good at imitating people…”

“That’s the problem.” The Copy-nin shuddered. No. Just no.

“Alright…” The Chuunin chuckled.

“Gai?” Kakashi arched a questioning eyebrow at him. Better to get this over with.

“I…” Konoha’s Green Beast suddenly flashed him a blinding grin. “My Eternal Rival! I feel deeply ashamed and Youthfully Delighted at the same time that you found True Love before me!”

“Oh, actually I forced him to find me.” Iruka sniggered softly.

“What do you want, Gai?”, Kakashi asked quickly to hide the fact that he felt a slight blush creeping over his masked face.

“Yes!” Gai gave him a thumb-up. “I came to challenge you, my Eternal Rival! We shall test our Youthful Strength in a Fight of Honour!”

The Copy-nin sighed. “Do I have to?” He wouldn’t have minded a little sparring match, but not when he could spend the time with Iruka instead.

“I have mission desk duty in ten minutes”, the Chuunin whispered. “Double shift.”

Oh, in that case… “Alright, Gai. We’ll meet at the training grounds in eleven minutes.” Which meant thirty minutes. He liked to watch Iruka work and coming a little late had never hurt anybody, now had it?

*****

“My Eternal Rival!”, Gai half panted and half shouted. “I have to… admit my… Shameful Defeat!”

“Already?” Kakashi frowned. His sparring matches with Gai never lasted less long than three hours of chasing, fighting and hiding. And this time they’d barely spent two hours on it.

“The Youthful Iruka-sensei must truly give you Strength with his Wonderful Love!”, Gai declared.

“Not so loud!”, Kakashi hissed, blushing under his mask. And that was nonsense. He didn’t spar with Iruka, so how should Iruka give him more strength?

“I am delighted despite your Hip Attitude, my Rival! It fills my Youthful Heart with Happiness to see you so Admirably Strong and Healthy! I shall use all my Youthfulness to become just as Springtimely Strong!”

“Erm… yes.” Kakashi took out his book and walked away quickly, sure that Gai had finally lost his last marble.

***** ***** *****

Iruka was doing it again. A smooth, perfect movement of his hand. And again. And again.

“Iruka?”, Kakashi whispered softly.

“Hm?” The Chuunin looked up from his grading, his left hand already half in the air again.

“May I do it for you?”

“Do what?” Iruka frowned.

“May I stroke back your hair behind your ear for you?”, Kakashi asked hopefully, his uncovered eye glued to the strands of brown hair fallen out of Iruka’s low pony-tail.

“If you want.” Iruka smiled at him.

“Yes, please.” The Jounin hurried over to him and sat down on his left side. Carefully he lifted his hand and tenderly stroked the brown tresses back. And then again. And again.

“Feels good”, Iruka whispered softly.

“M-hm.” Kakashi didn’t move his gaze away from his hair. “Soft. And warm.”

“Your fingers too.” A hand gently captured his, then a soft kiss was placed on his knuckles. “I could get used to you doing this every day from now on.”

“May I?”, Kakashi asked hopefully.

“Yes, please.” Iruka smiled.

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

tbc


******************************

AN:
I’m sorry for the long wait but my job’s stressing me a little at the moment and between work and my friends and my boyfriend I hardly find time to write anymore. But still there will be more chapters, it just might take some weeks until the next one.
Nayru