A Better Place

A/N: I've already uploaded this over at livejournal but in a state of boredom I thought I'd brighten my day up by posting it here as well! Hope someone will like it and please comment because comments make me write faster as I'm easily affected like that~! ;DDD

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For being so tiny, kids really knew how to cause a lot of trouble and while he loved his job and loved the kids, some days work was just pure exhausting. A great sigh escaping his chest, Iruka dragged his tired legs forward in direction of his apartment while halfheartedly trying to rub some tension out of his neck. The kids were really making him feel old. When he’d been their age he’d been able to run around as if there was no tomorrow too, but now a full day of chasing those pranksters around really took its toll. Walking up the two flights of stairs felt harder than ever and he had to use the hand rail as leverage to not let gravity make him turn around and head down the less tiring direction instead. The biggest pang to his worn out self however came as he opened the door and caught sight of is frequently self-invited guest as of late. The man lay sprawled across the couch with a blanket pulled high and partially above his faith, ever untrusting concerning his face and his legs stuck out a bit, revealing that he wore clothes that Iruka recognized as his own. That further meant he’d helped himself to a shower upon arrival as well as to clean clothes in the closet. The poor teacher didn’t need to look into the bathroom to know it was a mess. Kakashi would come to his apartment once in a while after coming back from a mission and when dirty, which he was most of the time as missions rarely ever were clean, he’d just dump his dirty clothes on the bathroom floor, have his shower, dress in Iruka’s clothes and then fall asleep for insane amount of hours on his couch. Thankfully he never touched the bed at least. To have another man come and claim his bed for up to twenty hours straight would be beyond the reach of the brunette’s patience. These spontaneous visits were bad enough as they were.

“Great,” he muttered, stalking past the living room area and into his kitchen to take out the leftovers from yesterday to eat, only to find them gone. The lazy bastard occupying his couch had helped himself to food as well. Iruka swore he’d strangle the man once he’d woken up and gotten his well deserved rant of reprimands. The chuunin’s stomach rumbled in frustration and he wanted to whimper as this obviously wasn’t his day. Finding some fruit instead, he left the kitchen again and collapsed into an armchair to sent Kakashi glares that could kill had he only been of some special blood line. Lucky for the silver haired man it was he who possessed the sharingan and not Iruka. As Iruka’s glare did nothing though the annoyed man threw a pillow at his guest’s head instead, but there was no response. The teacher could only guess that the man currently on his couch was not the same as Kakashi at work or else he couldn’t at all wrap his head around how the man could’ve survived any long-term missions.

Wanting to scold the jouning, Iruka ultimately settled for the one thing he knew never failed to wake Kakashi up. Leaning forward he gripped a corner of the blanket with his thumb and index finger, then gently tugged. Fast as a striking cobra a hand shot up and grabbed the piece of fabric before it slipped below the tip of his nose. Mismatched eyes returned the teacher’s glare for a second, but then crinkled in that usual, irritating way. If there was any conscience at all in there – feeling bad for barging into another’s home like this, eating another’s food and loitering his bathroom – then it was very well hidden.

“I brought you a souvenir,” were the first words uttered between the two and Iruka could see the blanket shift as the mysterious mouth moved underneath. “It’s in the pocket of my pants lying in the bathroom. It’s from Sand.”

Iruka’s gaze reminded a lot of Kakashi’s bored look only sharpened with the fuming anger that seethed within him.

“You could’ve brought me a mission report instead,” he replied with a grimace standing up and telling himself not to give in and go look at the promised souvenir. Kakashi often brought a small, very unspecial something, yet his curiosity was ever present whenever he was to receive a gift from the jounin.

Kakashi’s eyes followed the retreating back as it headed for the bedroom. Well, Iruka would go get his gift later as soon as his pride allowed him to succumb to his will to see whatever it was he’d brought this time and with that little knowledge the taller man made himself comfortable again as he easily could sleep another ten hours. It’d just been a short delivery mission, but something about the teacher’s apartment made it very easy to just sleep the hours away. He knew that Iruka would most likely not stand a chance against most of his fiercer enemies out there, yet this place just oozed of safety and comfort.

There were other plans for the jounin however and returning from the bedroom Iruka tossed a scarf at Kakashi that was meant to allow the man to come out of his hiding under the blanket to get an earful of what his involuntary host really thought of his recent visits.

“Put it on and sit up,” the order was issued and there were sighs from both as it was carried out. Iruka rubbed fingertips against his scar leaping across his face while Kakashi lamented the loss of more blissful rest. A couple of seconds of silence ensued and then Iruka initiated his complaint. “Did it ever occur to you that some might find it upsetting to have another person entering their apartment without permission, using their facilities and eating their food? Did you ever consider asking for my permission?”

One black and one red eye darted up to the ceiling in thought, then disappeared in a smile again. It really was as if nothing could scathe this man, but considering his profession it could very well be because of an excellent poker face as because of the infamous insanity that every jounin seemed to sport a portion of.

“You never threw me out, so I figured you didn’t mind too much.”

The logics were childish and frustrating and Iruka groaned as he repeated the words “too much” in a mumble reeking of defeat. He wished there were guidebooks on how to rid of a crazy jounins, but had a vague feeling there was no such literature. He doubted that his situation was even at all that common for there to be a demand of such a book.

“You know, when I’m tired and hungry I don’t get happy by coming home to a messy bathroom and finding my dinner already eaten by someone else,” the teacher further explained himself, but if his words made any difference or not was impossible to tell from that even unfading smile. An urge to pull the scarf up even higher to hide the eyes as well hit Iruka, but he settled for the simpler solution of just averting his gaze to an unlit corner of the room. He knew there was a plant hiding there that he would need to water today or tomorrow. Most likely tomorrow as Kakashi left him without strength to bother about anything at all other than going to bed and feeling sorry for himself.

“Cook more next time?” the scarecrow suggested shamelessly, earning himself another pillow to the head and the chuunin returned to his bedroom one last time not to emerge again before morning, despite his hunger being far from satisfied with just the fruit and his teeth not being brushed. The living room was between the bedroom and the bathroom and as Kakashi was there he wasn’t going there until he had to go out in the morning.

Left on the couch sat said man with a veil of disappointment having fallen over his face, but it quickly blew away to be replaced with an unreadable face before eyes closed and he fell back to rest again. By the time Iruka woke up and headed to work, the jounin had finished his sleep and escaped out a window that he’d left open behind him. The bathroom was still a mess and the souvenir had been placed on top of the kitchen table. It was just some fist-sized piece of decorative rock with the symbol of the Wind Country engraved in it. As plain a gift as ever, but the chuunin still added it to the collection on top of his book shelf before heading off to work.

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Weeks passed until the next visit after that, which wasn’t rare, and Iruka thought little of it. There were enough papers to grade, mission reports to pass on to the Hokage and new students learn new names of to distract him from anything that had to do with that silvery mop of hair. It was first when he had a quiet evening on his own, sitting eating a warm dinner that he made a brief note of the other’s absence in the back of his mind. As fleeting as the thought had been, it passed him so quickly he was barely aware of that it had ever been there and untroubled he soon headed to bed. His sleep lasted not an hour before there was a snapping sound and then a loud series of crashes coming from his kitchen. The sudden alarm had him awake in hundreds of a second, his body slightly trembling with the onslaught of adrenaline and his heart pumping fast in his chest. His hair hung uncontrolled around his face and he rapidly tried to brush a few tresses out of his eyes. Kunai in hand he treaded on light feet out in the hall and into his kitchen where he hit the light switch on the scene that had woke him up. Squinting into the bright light, he could see a bundle of green, black and grey with traces of red smeared on and around it. A couple of seconds more allowed his eyes to adapt to the rays of the kitchen lamp and then they widened in shock.

“Kakashi?!” he burst out and hurried to kneel next to the collapsed figure. There was a couple of chuckles deep down in the vest-clad chest and then a wince as the man had tried to move more than his body wanted him to. “You should’ve gone to the hospital instead!”

Another chuckle, even if slightly pained, and Kakashi rolled over onto his back to gaze up at the other with his one uncovered eye.

“This was closer,” he claimed and if he’d been on another mission to the Wind Country, then Iruka guessed it could be true. His apartment was in the west, while the hospital lay closer to the northern parts of the village. It wasn’t much of a distance, but if Kakashi had problems walking it made sense he would head for someone who could help. Why he hadn’t asked the guards by the gate to help though was beyond him.

“Stupid,” the chuunin muttered and quickly assessed the damage done to the taller frame lying on the floor next to him. There were several cuts, but none seemed dangerously deep so he considered if poison could be the reason why Kakashi was in such pain that he had collapsed right after entering his apartment. The obvious answer came however as the injured man lifted his left leg and shook it a little. The foot dangled as if it wasn’t properly attached and there was a deep gash slightly above the heel.

“Your tendon is cut?!” How could the guards at the gate have failed to notice that?!

“It snapped when I jumped down from the window,” Kakashi further explained and laughed a little at how pathetic that was. He’d made it all the way here from the borders of the country of Lightning only to have his tendon fail him right on the goal line. Sure, had it not been for his great chakra control it would’ve snapped much earlier, but still. “It wasn’t quite cut until just now. Only almost.”

Iruka couldn’t help but rub his scar again. Pinching the bridge of his nose he tried to calm down, tried to will away the high amounts of adrenaline still going through his system, then shifted so he could force his arms underneath Kakashi’s frame and lifting up. It was obvious the man wouldn’t be doing any walking soon, with or without help, and thus there was no other choice but to carry him to the hospital. Noticing how the man seemed to enjoy the new position, Iruka couldn’t help but grit his teeth.

“Wipe that smile off your face or I’ll drop you on the spot,” he warned heatedly, but the smile didn’t fade, nor did he drop the jounin. He really was too kind for his own good. One day a doctor would tell him that all the stress he was putting himself through was wearing his body out. He wanted to tell Kakashi just how much of a bother he was being, but there was something about that smile that stopped him. Just as it was infuriating as hell whenever those eyes crinkled all happily, Iruka had started to find the jounin’s smile endearing as well. Whatever curse had befallen him, he prayed it would go away soon.