I do not own - Masashi Kishimoto does.
Note: Rated T for male/male romance.

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Iruka sat for a moment, then his eyes lit upon the little book Kakashi had left behind. It was bright orange and had a man chasing a woman across the cover. "Make Out Paradise?" Tentatively he slid it across the table and picked it up. He opened to a random page and began to read. Not two sentences in, he shut the book and slammed it down on the table, his eyes wide.

Is this what the Jonin considered light reading?

Furtively, he looked at the window to make sure Kakashi was actually gone this time, then, against his better judgment, he reopened the book. His face fell and he swallowed hard. He couldn't believe what he was reading. It was disgusting, undignified, and... he had to admit, strangely compelling. He had just turned the page, when the door to the classroom creaked open.

"So I see you let them out early," came a familiar voice.

The offensive book leapt out of Iruka's hands and he juggled it ungainly for a second before snatching it out of the air and concealing it under his desk. If he had felt embarrassed at Kakashi reading his silly list, he was truly mortified now. Even if Mizuki hadn't seen the book, Iruka felt as guilty as a naughty child.

Mizuki hadn't noticed. He was turning a circle in the pile of unfinished assignments that covered the floor. "What is all this, did you guys have a paper fight on the last day? You should have invited me." He strode forward and set down a stack of tests on the desk. "Here. I'm sorry to say but there is no way I am going to be able to finish these before I leave."

Iruka, hoping his face wasn't as red as it felt, reached over and thumbed through the pages. "These are all the tests I asked you to grade over vacation?"

Mizuki grinned. "Well, not all of them. I finished about a third, but I really need to get going. Unless you want me to help you clean this up?"

"No," Iruka hastened to say, the fingers of his left hand curling around the cover of the filthy book still hidden from view. He needed to get this thing out of his classroom. "I don't mind. I can handle these," he gestured to the tests. "You should be with family."

Mizuki looked at him for a moment, seemed to hold a question on the tip of his tongue, then bit it back. Iruka grinned stupidly at him and thought, "please leave."

"Well, have a good vacation. Anything planned?"

"I have a list of things I need to do," Iruka started, then thought, had a list. "Nothing major. What about you?" he asked politely, and was ashamed that he cared not in the least what Mizuki had planned.

"Oh, I'm going out of town tonight. Actually, I'm just meeting up with some friends. I'll see you after the new year."

"Okay, happy holidays," Iruka said, as the other instructor walked out the door.

As the door closed, Iruka sprang up and marched to the window. He scanned the area outside the Academy until he saw what he was looking for. Even thought the uniform blended perfectly with the bark and shadows along the trunk of the tree, and even though the shock of silver hair was all but camouflaged against the snow-covered branches, he spotted him.

He was about to yell across the campus in his loudest teacher-voice for the Jonin to come and collect his property, had even taken a huge breath and readied himself to fling the offending article out the window, but something stopped him. He stood poised for a second, then let his chest deflate and set his palms on the windowsill.

"I don't have time for this," he said out loud, thinking about all of those tests to correct. He looked down at the book. But what to do about this? For a moment he thought of destroying it, then of just tossing it in the trash, but in the end, his decision surprised even him.

He tucked it away in his pouch and carried it with him for the rest of the day.

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Thank you so much for the comments so far! I find them very helpful and encouraging.

Yes, there's more. I'll upload again soon.

Edit: Since Mizuki is pretty much the only other character in the whole story, I couldn't let him be too sympathetic. The fact that he leaves a stack of tests also gives our poor Iruka more menial tasks to complete.