0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Chapter 1; Feline Persuasion
Over the years they'd been together Iruka had come to realize exactly how cat like Kakashi was.
Despite how vehemently the man proclaimed to hate cats, (mostly because of how many Search-and-Rescue Missions he'd captained with Team Seven, searching for them... as well as a tragic personal story he used a henge to forget about,) this didn't stop the teacher from recognizing feline characteristics when he saw Kakashi.
Example;
Kakashi was rather low maintenance. He kept himself clean, unless he was unconscious or wounded. He kept to himself and wasn't one of those people who required constant attention or praise, though when he did get it he relished in it. He was terribly picky about what he ate, how and where he ate it. He didn't particularly like visitors, and when one would show up who he didn't appreciate being there, he would go and hide in the bedroom and simply refuse to come out, no matter how he was coaxed or tempted with treats. And, of course there were the strange places he liked to sit and read; on the ceiling, in the top spindly branches of a tree, perched precariously on the very edge of a gutter over a crowded street.
There was also the shedding… Iruka found stray little silver hairs all over the place. Mainly on his clothes and his couch. But no matter how many hairs he found, the hair on Kakashi's head was always horribly full and thick, more like fur than hair in Iruka's opinion. Hair wasn't eerily soft like Kakashi's was, and hair didn't naturally just… DO that THING where no matter how much it was brushed or styled when wet, it would dry in a fluffy lopsided way on his head. No amount of combing would make the silver mop behave. Although Kakashi did tend to enjoy just sprawling himself on the couch in a lanky, boneless way and letting Iruka brush him while he read porn aloud.
Iruka had a love-hate relationship with Kakashi's hair… He loved it because it was Kakashi's hair, and was always soft and pleasant feeling beneath his fingers. Almost addictive to touch… But it was frustrating to find it clinging to his clothing and the clothing of those who happened to sit on his couch.
And the final way Kakashi reminded Iruka of a cat, was how the man slept.
He didn't lay still, curled into a ball like his dogs. He didn't sleep on his side spooned against Iruka, or on his back like a normal person. No…
Kakashi sprawled… And God forbid there be a bit of sunlight on Iruka's side of the bed, because if Kakashi so much as smelled it in his sleep his body would slink and slither until he was lying in it, arms perpendicular from his chest, legs out, cold feet right in the small of Iruka's back or the bends of his knees.
And when he was really sleeping, truly deeply relaxing, the man KNEADED things. Fingers and toes working, clutching and releasing anything they could manage to grasp. Hands curled into gentle, cute little paws.
Many times, Iruka would be woken by the feeling of Kakashi's 'paws' massaging his back, his body arching into the older man's pressure, mumbling sleepily how good it felt, while Kakashi dozed on obliviously.
Iruka took advantage of this quite often, and he'd even gone so far to escape Kakashi's chilly-feet-of-death but still reap the benefits of his kneading, that he'd bought the man fluffy socks for his birthday. And Kakashi, being a creature of self indulgence and little else, wore them because they did indeed feel soft and warm on his feet, and he didn't particularly give a shit what he looked like shuffling around the apartment in his underwear, a baggy stained t-shirt and a pair of violently pink fluffy socks.
His home was his sanctuary. The one place he could walk around without his mask, without regulation uniforms, and wear the disgusting, threadbare and moth eaten clothing he'd owned for years, or nothing at all.
Iruka didn't really mind Kakashi's resemblance of felines. He loved the man after all. From the tips of his unmanageable silver hair, to the ends of his fluffy sock clad toes. Even his annoying flaws and the little things that drove him absolutely insane. Iruka loved it all.
Because for every irritating thing, every flaw, there were ten things Kakashi did that were sickeningly sweet, kind and just plain cute.
So, Iruka didn't really mind all the oddities, the picky eating habits, the loud recitations of pornography where Kakashi actually changed the tone of his voice for each different character. He didn't mind the shedding, or the kneading, because it was worth it. Every smile, every devious grin or sly shift of his eyes, every kind word or warm embrace; Every time he came home from a tough day at the academy or the mission room and found Kakashi was back safe and sound from a mission, had cleaned the apartment from top to bottom, and cooked dinner. (Or ordered take away.) AND was offering to give him a back rub, Iruka felt that warm swell in his chest and five words would echo in his head with stronger resolve than the day before.
'God, I love this man…'
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0