First of May

For the pair that I love

A winter night

[Iruka POV]

A brown hair man, Iruka, was sitting at the living room, with the window opened. The snow slowly dazzled into the flat, but he has paid no attention to that as he was smoking. He didn't want to room smell strongly of cigarette later on. Even though his parents have passed away in their mission, he seldom felt alone during Christmas, as he always has the silver hair man accompanied him. But this time, the silver hair man was on a secret mission for the Hokage, Sandaime, so he would not be at home even for New Year's Eve. He sighed. There was lots of preparation for him to do tomorrow, for the Christmas party that his students, and ex-students, were looking forward. But he was not in a mood to bed, as he didn't want to sleep alone in the lonely, cold bed.

He could not even remember when they shared the same bed. They were good friends years ago. They shared similar habits, similar preference. Then, unknowingly, their bond deepened. They were closed to each other; yet, they never thought they were lovers, but just slightly more than friends. He listened to the songs that the silver hair man has chosen. The same play list that they have in their music player, so that they could feel like home when they listened to that during mission.

He looked at the Christmas tree that he has already set up last week. Since they were friends, they used to set up the trees at their individual home without any help from their parents. When their parents passed out one by one, they have no idea why they worked out that it would be a good idea for them to move in together. Maybe they did not want to live for long, as he didn't stop the other man to join the ANBU, while the latter did not prevent him from joining the hunters. They were one of the best men in the field, the most dangerous job in the village. They didn't want to hear the death of the other, while they could not hold back themselves from the excitement that they could gain from dangerous situation. He extinguished his cigarette butt and paused the music, he has a long day tomorrow and he didn't want to disappoint his precious students, the lives that they used their lives to protect.

oOo_oOo_ oOo_oOo_ oOo_oOo_ oOo_oOo_ oOo_oOo_ oOo_oOo

Time has flown quickly; he was expecting the silver hair man back to the village by now. It has been another 3 months since Christmas. From the difficulties of the mission, he should have back. But no sign of him whatsoever. Sandaime has sent out a member of ANBU and a member of his hunter to look for the man, but there was no sign of him, until now. One of his fellow hunters secretly informed him that he has found the man, although Sandaime did not say that he could inform anyone, he just felt it was appropriate, since the whole village thought they were going out for all these years.

From what the hunter has found out, the silver hair man was injured badly and a young man was looking after him. Although the young man was not a missing-nin, he was a highly skilled shinobi, as the hunter could observe his charka and that he was good at medical jutsu. The hunter has conservation with the silver hair man secretly when the young man was out. Apparently, the silver hair man was partially memory loss, so that was the reason that he held back from coming back to the village. He could vaguely remember his life, but he was not certain and it was better for his fellow colleagues to look for him instead. The hunter told him that Sandaime has ordered 2 members of ANBU to escort both men back to the village for further investigation.

It was already the season for apples. The brown hair man sat at the garden that belonged to the silver hair man. He loved this place, as they grew the tree years ago and they have enjoyed the apples since then. He recalled his memories and soaked himself with the images that he could extract from his brain. He saw a long black hair figure stood next to the man that he has dreamt of for these months. He was glad that the man was back safely; well, at least, physically. But the image of the pair hurt him. They looked like a pair of perfect couple, as the black haired man was young and beautiful. After a friendly but brief greeting, he left the house and let the two men to explore, and let the silver hair man to try to pick up his memories.

Suddenly he realised that what he has missed out all these years. He loved the man and he has the man with him when the day that he first kissed his cheek and he was his, solely. But now, the long black hair man has moved in from nowhere. Although he managed to find out more about the long black hair man, and that he was not the silver hair man's lover. But he would be around, as he would follow the silver hair man as he promised his lover when he passed away. It was his lover's dying wish. Although it seemed to Iruka that this black hair man still missed his lover, he could not help to think that they were perfectly good match from the appearances, as the silver hair man looked perfectly calm and peaceful. This upset Iruka, as when they were hanging around, although the man was relaxing, the way they treated each other was never that peaceful as Iruka kept telling the man off, due to the latter's laziness, lack of time keeping and untidy mission reports, etc.

'Kakashi,'

oOo_oOo_ oOo_oOo_ oOo_oOo_ oOo_oOo_ oOo_oOo_ oOo_oOo

[Changed to Kakashi's POV]

The reason that he didn't back to the village straight away was that he was scared. Yes, as the infamous Copy-nin, he was still a human that made out of flesh and blood, no matter how hard he has trained. Except Baku, the man that was asked to look after him by his passed away friend, nobody knew that he has not loss his memories, but instead, he felt more than he should have. He didn't know he has special feelings towards his life long best friend, Iruka. He pretended that he was not that well, so that Sandaime would not blame him for not coming back to the village and hopefully he would have more time to think before he would see his friend again. Or at least have time to do the mental preparation before he would see him again, as he felt that his friend just treated him as a friend, and he would not want to ruin their friendship.

When he was back in the village with Baku, he was surprised that his friend kept a distance from him since he first saw Baku, which confused him a bit, as Baku was an adorable person, and he doubted that there would be anyone dislike him and usually Iruka was a nice and warm person. However, when Baka was not around, seems his old friend just pretend nothing has happened. His friend has really got him confused.

He has talked to Baku about it and Baku just laughed off and acted strangely after they have that conservation, as he was not an intimate person before, but since that, he kept embraced him in front of his friend. It made Kakashi quite frustrated, as he didn't want to see Iruka to be upset. He just wanted to comfort and embrace his friend.

He has backed to the village for a month and today was the first of May. As it was a bank holiday, Iruka has a day off from school and usually would pop to Kakashi's garden for a relax afternoon. But this time Kakashi was not certain as seems he still didn't like the company from Baku. However, Baku told him at the last minute that he needed to get to the country border to meet an old friend of his. So he was left at his home and sat at the bench under his favourite apple tree. It was a warm sunny day so he lied down and closed his eyes after an hour of reading.

He could sense Iruka's charka once the man set foot inside the garden, but he pretended that he was asleep. The latter man stood right by his side and he heard the un-zip noise. He felt a jacket placed on top of him. Then, he felt the warm hand that placed by his cheek. They should have known this by a long time. But were they that innocent to not notice or they were just too ignorant? But nonetheless, Kakashi knew that he would not miss the chance again. He opened his eyes and grabbed the hand that was on his face. Although Iruka was a hunter, his speed was not as fast as Kakashi.

[General POV]

Iruka was stunned and then flushed. He knew that Kakashi would not be in deep sleep when he was outside, but he thought that the man was genuinely resting. They have not been so close for ages, since Iruka knew that Baku was not around in the village today, he just could not hold himself back. He was desperate to touch the man, and so he did it.

Kakashi smiled. He missed the flush on Iruka's face, since he has backed to the village, Iruka shown his cold face more than he has seen for all these years. He gently rubbed the back of Iruka's hand with his calloused thumb. 'Ruka, I have to confess, I am not in love with Baku, but the one I am in love is you.'

Iruka's eyes widened, he never thought Kakashi would say that he loved him, and the way that he expressed his love was very Kakashi. He didn't say a word, but gently pulled down Kakashi's facemask. He slowly bent down and kissed the other man.

'So am I the princess who has been woken up by the prince's kiss?' Kakashi smirked.

'Then, you will be my Snow White then, Kashi.' Iruka smirked back.

'Hmm…' Kakashi responded, before he placed his lips on top of Iruka's.

The song was in Iruka's head again, but he knew, the tears that would be shed on 1st May would be happy tears.

The End

[Yanvi: Apologise that if the story was bit disjointed as I have been away for 2 weeks and so I have to abandon this story for the weeks. Although this was not the true meaning of the song, I hope you, my readers, would like my twist to the meaning of the song! See you next time.]