'It's strange.'
The statement is hushed, murmured. The sound of the raindrops hitting the window pane almost drowning out the chuunin's soft voice.
The two men are lying in bed spooned against each other. Kakashi tightens his hold on Iruka from behind, shifting closer. He sighs. Iruka's fingers, wrapped around his briefly squeeze, and then relax.
'Hmmm?' The jounin's eyes are closed. He nuzzles his bare face even closer, rubbing his cheek against the mostly smooth skin of Iruka's lean shoulder. Coming in contact with the rough ridges of old scars, Kakashi tilts his head, tracing old wounds with the tip of his nose, slowly, softly, inhaling deeply. Some days he believes that if he breathes in deeply enough he can almost smell the lingering scent of stale, caked blood.
'Nothing's changed.' Iruka's voice remains soft, almost too muffled to be heard.
'What do you mean?' Kakashi's mis-matched eyes flash open. He tries not to tense up but does so anyway.
'Between us.'
'Meaning?'
'Meaning nothing has changed between us.' Iruka's voice is still soft, still muffled.
'Really?' Kakashi shifts even nearer to the younger man. Beneath the sheets his bare lower half nestles itself even closer against Iruka's, his semi-erect shaft brushing lightly, before pressing tight. The sensei gasps slightly. 'I'd days quite a bit has changed. Wouldn't you?'
'That's not what I meant.' Iruka's face begins to flush, just barely. He squirms.
'Then what?'
Their feet - one pair fair, the other dark, both badly calloused, are tangled and exposed beneath sheets too short. Kakashi shifts a leg and slides it between Iruka's, entangling them even more.
Silence.
'That was what you wanted wasn't it?' Kakashi questions. He lifts himself up on an elbow and tries to peer at the shadowed face of the man next to him. Iruka's reaction is immediate. His face pushes itself deeper into the cover of the pillows. He exhales, his breath shudders through his body. Undaunted, the jounin reaches out and lightly drums his fingers over the sensei's chin, teasing, before softly easing the face away from its hiding place, and back into the dim light of the bedroom. 'To stay friends?'
Iruka's dark eyes do not quite manage to meet Kakashi's. They stare, downcast even as the grip on the sensei's chin tightens.
'Iruka?' Kakashi's voice takes on an insistent quality, one that Iruka has heard on numerous occasions. 'This is you wanted isn't it? To stay friends? To stay just friends?'
It was the stress of Kakashi's intonation, the play of his words, the way he said it that got to Iruka. He pulls his face away from the probing hands of the older man.
'Never mind. Go to sleep.'
Kakashi sighs. He settles back onto the bed, his arm once again drapes itself over Iruka's prone form. Some of the warmth had escaped from under the blankets when Kakashi shifted, he shivers, just a little.
Kakashi cannot see but he thinks he can feel Iruka's eyes flutter close, and if he tries hard enough, he even believes he can feel Iruka draw his pale arm tighter around himself.
His eyes fall shut.
THE END.