"The surrounding air was thick, there was a pressure clutching at my throat, and inhaling was near impossible and a fruitless struggle. Truly I've never experienced such slow, horrifying suffering!" Kakashi exclaimed.
Iruka snorted in amusement as he settled beside Kakashi. "Kakashi, you caught a common cold."
Kakashi's eyes curved to a smile. "And these hands saved me from it." Kakashi pulled down his mask and pressed a kiss against onto Iruka's palm.
Iruka flushed; he was used to Kakashi's casual flirtatious ways now, but the removal of his mask was a first. He quickly looked away, but not before he caught a glimpse of Kakashi's features in the corner of his eyes.
"You're giving me too much credit," he said, face still impossibly red as he focused on a random spot on the ceiling. "I only pulled down your mask so you can breath properly and gave you some medicine." The mention of the mask had him snapping, "Besides, what kind of person keeps their mask up when their nose and throat is clogged from a cold?!" Softening his voice, he finally finished with, "Anyway, I didn't mean to take advantage of your weakened state to unmask you and I tried my best not to look while I was taking care of you, so if this" - he gestured at Kakashi's unmasked state without looking - "is some kind of test..."
"Sensei, I never told you not to look, you know?" Kakashi said, twining his fingers with Iruka's. Iruka glanced towards Kakashi in surprise and then he was treated to the sight of Kakashi's lips curling to a smile. His eyes darted to Kakashi's, questioning and seeking at once, and his smile widened. "There, look your fill. You have no need to worry about my virtue."
Iruka snorted at Kakashi's choice of word because reading Icha Icha unabashedly in public was anything but.
"Are you sure?" Iruka asked, even as he drank in Kakashi's features. He was only human, after all, a human with a healthy dose of curiosity.
Kakashi watched Iruka's eyes quickly dart about his face with intense focus as though determined to commit it to memory. It was simultaneously flattering that his face garnered so much interest in Iruka and galling how Iruka acted as though the permission to look would soon be withdrawn and this was the last opportunity he would ever have to see it.
"Yes. You had my implicit permission even last week," Kakashi said, tilting his head to the left to give Iruka a different angle of his face. "If I didn't want you touching my mask, you were sure to know that even in my weakened state, although I do appreciate your chivalry."
"Not that I don't appreciate your trust in me, but what brought this on?" Iruka asked, about to gesture to Kakashi's bare face, only for it to be caught because his hand was still tangled with Kakashi's. It felt so natural that Iruka didn't even noticed it. "Oh," Iruka said as understanding dawned, though Kakashi sensed there might be some ambiguity regarding whether they were on the same page.
"Oh, indeed, sensei," Kakashi drawled, just to see the pretty blush appear on Iruka's face again. Kakashi slowly leaned in, giving Iruka enough time to back away if he didn't want this. Iruka's face tilted towards him, and Kakashi's lips curled. "After all, without removing my mask, how can I do this?"
Their lips sealed in a kiss.
I'm currently miserably sick, so I decided to write a fic about that, which amounted to pretty much only Kakashi's first line. It kills two bird with one stone, since I've been reading lot of KakaIru recently and have been wanting to write something featuring them, so here it is.
Also because I find it funny, the idea of Kakashi unintentionally suffocating himself because it didn't occur to him to remove his mask and then exaggeratedly swooning and going "Oh, my savior!" when Iruka helped him through his cold.