Iruka thanked each student as they hugged him. He watched as they all headed out the door, a few turning to wave at him one last time.
It was sweet, the way they'd all planned it. And, he'd been more than a little surprised when the teachers had brought in the cake. But, neither shocked him more than two tickets to the small hot springs up the road that had been tucked into the over-sized card. The words "We Love You!" filled the front, along with badly drawn renditions of each of the kids. The inside was covered in little notes and signed by every student and teacher at the academy.
"We thought you could ask somebody to go with you," Kurenai said cheerfully.
"I'd invite you all if I could," he smiled warmly at them, overwhelmed.
"Not us silly. We thought, you know, you could ask someone 'special'. Somebody you 'liked'." A few of the other teachers chuckled and Iruka blushed.
"I..." He hadn't realized that they knew, that he'd been that obvious. His embarrassment drew a few more laughs.
"You could ask hi... I mean them, and if they said no you could play it off as not wanting to ask one of us because you might hurt everyone elses feelings. Not that he.. I mean they would say no." Miko said, smiling knowingly at him.
"Yeah! You could just say you couldn't think of anyone else to ask,"
Aiko offered helpfully.
"Thanks," Iruka said, at a loss for anything else to say. "I'll try."
"You better. And, if he says no, let me know so I can knock some sense into him." Anko obviously missed the others' unsuccessful attempts to not be more specific about who he was interested in. That or she deliberately ignored it, which was just as likely. Iruka wondered if she had invited herself, been invited by Kurenai, or been the originator of the idea, as any were possible reasons for her being there when she wasn't even a teacher.
He shook his head at her but smiled. "Not everyone is interested in me."
"Yes, they are. If they're not, there is obviously something wrong with them!" The look she gave him said quite clearly she thought he was naive.
Everyone laughed at the statement, and then they offered him a few more words of encouragement as they packed up the cake into a box for him and all but shoved him out the door.
He fidgeted, clenching the paper a little too tightly before glancing at it again. He 'could' do this. It wasn't that hard. What was the worst that could happen? Being punched in the face didn't sound too far off. He could get turned down, that would be bad, too, but not worse, since he was prepared for that answer. Or, maybe, the other man would laugh at him. The nervous feeling increased, tightening like a rope around his chest. Getting laughed at would definitely be worse.
None of the emotions registered outwardly, and nobody turned to stare at him as he marched across the school yard, trying to look like he wasn't marching to his doom. Pushing all the negative thoughts out of his head, he forced the practiced calmness over his features and movements.
All that went out the window, however, when the door to the building swung open and the person he'd been looking after stepped out. Kakashi stopped and stared as Iruka nearly fell from the shove he received from somebody inside. He thought he glimpsed purple hair, but he wasn't for sure.
"Yo." The greeting fell from his mouth naturally, and the jounin was gratetful for once that he'd been ANBU for so long.
"Ka...Kakashi-san!" Iruka shouted overly loud, looking embarrassed.
Probably because he'd nearly fallen on his face when he'd been shoved through the door.
Kakashi glanced at the window beside the door and caught sight of several pairs of eyes looking at them through the blinds. His eyebrow twitched under his hitai-ate.
"I was just coming to see you," he said, looking at Iruka again.
"Oh! You... you were?" The chunin turned and glared at the eyeballs peeking at them. One pair of eyes disappeared, a distinct red pair he was certain belonged to a kunoichi he knew. The rest stayed. "I have to uh... go to the mission room. Want to join me?"
"Uh..." Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the window, scratching the back of his head and wondering what they were all so curious about. "Sure."
They walked in silence for awhile, neither really looking at the other. Iruka kept shifting a giant piece of paper tucked under his arm, while Kakashi stared at his feet, trying to pretend he wasn't stealing glances at the other man.
"So... what did you want to see me about?" Iruka asked, sounding mostly casual.
"Oh... uh... I heard it was your birthday, just wanted to wish you well." He wanted to pound his head on the nearest hard object as soon as the words were out of his mouth. 'Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! What do you use that genius brain for? Obviously it's not coming up with better ways to break the ice,' he thought, mentally kicking himself and wondering why he hadn't just said that he'd wanted to see if Iruka was hungry or something, like he'd planned.
"Really?" Iruka stopped and turned to look at him, which immediately drew Kakashi's attention.
He nodded, surprised. "I think Naruto might have mentioned it... you know, before he left, and I just saw the calender and thought oh it's..." He knew he was rambling, but the words just kept spilling out.
"Thank you." A look he couldn't decipher crossed the chunin's face.
"The teachers and the students threw me a party." He held up the paper, which seemed to be decorated rather badly.
That explained the giant piece of paper he decided must be some kind of card. But, it still didn't explain why they all but tossed the dark-haired man out the door. Or, why they were watching him through the window.
"They gave me a gift, too." Kakashi watched as Iruka rubbed at the scar on his nose. "A free trip to the hot springs... but, well, they gave me two tickets and I..."
A small voice inside of Kakashi was practically screaming 'I'll go!
Please!' But, outwardly, he said nothing, simply looked blankly at Iruka.
"I can't ask any of them, because the others would get mad at me you see..." The chunin shifted the card again. "And, well, I can't really think of anyone else to invite so uh..."
More shifting and scar rubbing, and all Kakashi could do was stare in shock and wonder if Iruka was really going to ask what he thought he was going to ask. What he 'hoped' the other man would ask.
"And well I... I don't want to go by myself... So, would you like to
come with me Kakashi-san?" Iruka wasn't looking at him, instead he was looking to the side, as though he was afraid to look Kakashi in the eyes.
"Yes!" He voiced the answer far too quickly and immediately began to regret the desperate tone it held.
"Really?" Iruka said, smiling at him brightly.
He nodded, still somewhat in shock, a slow smile spreading across his own features and visible in the crinkling at the corner of his eye.
"Good." The smile seemed to grow, and Kakashi watched as Iruka turned and headed towards the mission room again. After a moment, he followed, quickly catching up to the chunin before falling into step beside him.
He tucked the little scrap of paper, with the lines he'd practiced for asking the chunin out scribbled on it, into his pocket. He'd have to make a list of suitable birthday gift ideas and get something to give Iruka on the trip to the hot springs.