Gosh, this one's shorter than the last one….

Sorry for the tiny post you guys…. Working on FAIW and BFAS is tiring work, especially with FAIW in its closing chapters.

This one is more of a hint to what I've been secretly working on… (I have at least forty other stories started…..)….I just watched Atonement and cried my eyes out….this was something of an echo from those feelings….

Sick, sick, sick….yuk, yuk, yuk…..-sweating-

Not fun…

Collision

By Thermophile57

"I believe that this is the beginning of the end for us, Kakashi," Iruka looked down from gazing up sadly at the older man who was framed in sunlight, biting his lip as Kakashi watched the sunset's rays fall upon his tied up hair and golden complexion.

"Iruka, it doesn't have to be this way. We can-"

"I'm sorry, Kakashi," with pursed lips, the brunet cut him quickly off as he looked up, taking in the taller man one last time before swallowing against the bead in his throat and brushing passed his now former best friend to hurry through the last of the beautifully flowered meadow behind the Hatake estate and into the tree line.

Kakashi followed the younger man with his eyes squinted until he could no longer see his pure white chemise and pitch black pants. It was a long while before he could look away. The sun had dutifully set and the crickets had begun chirping in the background.

Swiftly, he set off into the woods, following the path previously taken by Iruka and, before that, almost every night by Kakashi. He knew these woods like the back of his hand but there was only one path that he cared about, that he had ever cared about since he had met a certain scrawny little brunet ten years ago in polar opposite conditions.

Back then, he had been the one heading home with the little pony-tailed boy following him instead of him chasing after the very boy who was no longer a boy but just on the crest of manhood.

The bushes along the path thinned out until the trees were spread out sparsely enough for his trot to become a full on jog, his legs blurring as he pressed on, running until the fence of the Hiruzen Orphanage home came into view. Flying into a turn, he ran parallel to the fence and turned on a dime at its corner. His run turned into a jog as his movements slowed, panting for breath whilst he crossed the front yard to the back gate.

Fireflies twinkling around him, Kakashi pushed open the familiar gate and swept into Hiruzen's astounding backyard filled with flowerbeds, trellises and a swing or two, all made up of black-painted metal and crawling with vines. The very young man he had been looking for standing in front of one of those swings as, looking as if he had sprung up from the bench when he heard Kakashi's steps.

"Kakashi!?" came the whispered call. "What are you doing here? Hiruzen will kill me if he sees you!"

"Now you become sensible?" with a smile, he strode over to the brunet until he was inches away, holding the young man's arms when he was those amber eyes roll in irritation as he knew Iruka would bolt soon after. He looked down at the slightly shorter man pleadingly, "please, Iruka just listen to what I have to say, just for a few moments."

Huffing in mocking amusement, Iruka gave him a sarcastic smile as he pulled himself out of the silver-haired man's hands, spitting out rather viciously, "what else is there to say, Kakashi? You're obviously courting that wretch of a woman, so it looks to me as though you won't be needing little old me anymore."

With a shove, the brunet stomped away swiftly through the garden of the yard, Kakashi following him down to the edge of the pond that the garden overlooked. Iruka was furiously biting his nails in an attempt to stop his head from spinning so fast.

"I love you."

Said so casually, those words made Iruka's head spin towards him and eyes widen comically, mouth hanging open.

Smirking, Kakashi repeated himself and closed the distance between them.

Iruka shook his head and spun away, walking off as he called, "you don't mean that!"

"I love you."

The older man only followed, close on Iruka's heels as he continuously repeated that one line until the brunet could take no more and spun around to yell at him, "shut up!"

"I love you. I love you. I love you." the words came softly but the younger man would have none of it while Kakashi paid his anger no attention and soothingly repeated the words over and over again, nearing Iruka with every step he took until he was mere inches away.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

Silenced with the kiss Kakashi so tenderly forced on him, Iruka turned his head away and pursed his lips, unable to meet the other man's eyes, the man who brought his lip down to his neck and hands on his waist.

"She means nothing to me, Iruka," were the quiet words that followed. "The thing she gossips about as courtship was me being polite as I have been with everyone else. The feelings of courtship are more accurately what I have for none other than you, Iruka."

Iruka shook his head, dislodging Kakashi from his shoulder as he hissed, "you're lying….You wouldn't be able to say those words so casually if they were true."

"But it's because I love you so much that I can." Taking Iruka's face in his hand, the older man stared directly into his eyes and said, "I love you and only you. I have ever since we first met in the woods and I will until the day I die. It's taken me a long while to realize it but I know now, now that…..I'm on the verge of losing you."

At Iruka's untrusting look, he smiled and said, "I believe that you were right earlier. This is the beginning of the end for us,"

The icy stare of hopelessness swirling back into the brunet's amber eyes, Kakashi continued on, "it's the beginning of the end of our life as friends but our life as beloveds will just be starting, if you'll only have me as yours."

XxX

Hope you guys enjoyed…..I wanted to leave you guys with an open-end because I wanted to focus more on their surroundings and I also wanted to let your imaginations run wild post-fic….

Guh…-shivering-…..I hate may…..

Love,

T-Bear