Authoress//stares at her long list of things to do in amazement// GOMEN FOR NOT GETTING ANOTHER CHAPTER OUT SOONER!!!...I've been so busy with moving into college, getting settled in and everything…//cries over her neglected stories// but, now that I'm back, I promise no more long waits for chapters…until finals week that is…

Disclaimer:…now really…the only thing I own here is WASABI…heh…I still crack myself up over that creation…

Chapter Two

Limping back towards his tiny apartment, Kakashi cursed for one final time his brilliant plan of beating Gai. Who would have thought that the small chuunin who struck fear in the hearts of even ANBU members would have a whole army of guardians? Not to mention most of the WASABI members (at least, those Kakashi had recognized) were some of the people most afraid of Iruka, having been subject to the young man's violent mood swings personally and on multiple occasions!

Damn Ibiki…damn Ebisu…damn all of them! Kakashi growled, making a mental list of everyone he remembered from that drawn out "chat" with the members of the secret organization. He knew that, as soon as he was able to walk without the strange limp, he would definitely seek revenge. If it meant forcing his own team into doing his dirty work, he would…then again, when didn't he use the little demons so that he could rest comfortably for the entire day? Aah, sometimes it was worth taking on the genin team – it gave him hours of free time to read and/or plot against those he once considered friends. He took a deep breath as he looked up towards his dimly lit apartment building and was met with a stinging gust of air. Oh, like my day couldn't get any worse…when the hell did it start raining?! He cursed again, wondering how he hadn't noticed that he had been limping through a downpour that seemed to have no end in sight. For a moment he sighed, surprised to see that he could see his own breath amid the fat water droplets. He hadn't even realized that it was so cold out.

Kakashi stood up straight, knowing that if the other residents in his apartment complex saw him limping he'd never hear the end of it, and ignored the pain in his sprained ankles as he walked to the metal stairs he needed to climb to reach his apartment. On any other day, he would take the quick way and just jump or walk up a wall, but he knew that his legs were only minutes away from giving out and either action was far beyond his capabilities at the moment. If he pushed himself and were to slip and fall Gai and Asuma would mock him for the rest of their lives. He took a moment from his inward ranting to climb up the slippery flight of stairs to his apartment; all he needed to officially make tonight the worst night of his life was to fall down the stairs, most likely injuring himself more than he already was.

Once he finally reached the landing, Kakashi let out a sigh of relief. One less thing for his "friends" to make fun of him for, but he knew that tomorrow morning they would have heard of a more interesting story than their comrade falling down the stairs and giving himself a concussion. That's all I need…Gai making fun of me for being duped by a bunch of crazed Iruka fans… Kakashi dropped his head in shame. Why he ever trusted Ebisu's directions in the first place was beyond him. As he was about to berate himself for falling into WASABI's trap for the umpteenth time, Kakashi looked towards his door and froze, forgetting what exactly he was even hating himself for.

There was no mistaking who the shivering person was next to his door, but Kakashi couldn't believe it so he had to squat down and look at the sleeping chuunin's face at eye-level in order to make sure it wasn't another one of his friends' practical jokes. Seeing the smaller man's scar across his nose, and that the rest of his face matched that pale shade, sent a stab of regret through Kakashi. He must have been sitting out here a while…Kakashi realized as he stood back up and, without so much as a second thought, walked over to the wet ball of a teacher and picked him up. Kakashi was immediately surprised at how light Iruka was – especially considering the young man's clothes were soaked through – but tried to ignore that thought (and the accompanying mental image of Iruka sitting at Ichiraku's, waiting for him, starving, but being to polite too eat without him).

Damn them all…Kakashi thought to himself, again, ignoring the pang of guilt over standing up the teacher. He quickly unlocked his door and, as he slipped into his apartment, he didn't notice the devilish smirk creeping across the "sleeping" chuunin's face.

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Checking the kettle on his small stove, Kakashi found it to be just as cold as it was a few seconds ago. Never in his whole life did a pot of water take so long to boil. Now adding water to his long list of things he hated, Kakashi grumbled as he leaned against the spotless counter. Everyone who entered his home was amazed that it was as clean as it was. Apparently everyone assumed him to be some kind of slob. Then again, he knew his "lazy" image didn't help that perception either. Kakashi knew his own students were afraid of ever coming to his apartment simply because they didn't want to lose one of their hell-spawned gang to the piles of dirty clothes and whatever else they imagined to be in here.

Kakashi sighed, trying to remember the last time he had actually cleaned the apartment, but came up with a date that was far too long ago. Three years…damn… Kakashi looked down at the floor, amazed with how white its tiles still were after three years of neglect. Yep, being on so many missions that he hardly ever lived in his own home did have its perks. Following that thought pattern, Kakashi tried to remember the last time anyone, not including Gai – who had the uncanny ability to somehow enter his locked apartment whenever he was taking a shower –had even been in here. Again, he came up with a number that made him twitch slightly, now with the realization of how old he was getting.

Maybe Gai's right…we're getting too old for flirting with people…Kakashi thought, then rethought what he had actually just thought, the twitching now becoming an unbearable spasm. He had the brief thought of bashing his head into the immaculate counter, but that idea left him when his hands slipped from their hold on the edge of said counter and he found himself falling towards the ground. Before he actually reached the floor, Kakashi – with his streak of bad luck today – bashed his head into the corner of the countertop, into a drawer's knob, then the oven before finally landing on his rear, his head sliding the last few inches along the cabinet front. Kakashi didn't have to look back to know that it had left a bright red streak against the hardwood, having felt the warm drip at some earlier point in his comical fall.

Kakashi didn't even have the chance to check the wound in the back of his head before he felt a new searing pain in a completely different part of his body. The jounin merely glared at the kettle as it finished dumping steaming water on his lap, then rolled off him and hit the floor with a soft clang. "Perfect…just…" Kakashi bit back the string of colorful curses he had in mind, remembering the unconscious chuunin currently sprawled across his couch, probably ruining the suede with his soaked clothing. Kakashi shook that thought out of his mind, reminding himself about his bet with Gai. He had the sinking feeling Iruka would hear him despite the fact he wasn't exactly conscious and his chances of winning the violent chuunin over would be much less if he let Iruka know how his language (away from his students) was enough to destroy any innocent's ears. He couldn't risk letting Iruka get to know him. No one, not even the chuunin, would get out of his plot that easily, even though he was the reason Kakashi was heating up the water for tea and that he was currently destroying the jounin's couch with his rain-drenched clothes. Then again, he hated the couch and had been looking for a reason to get rid of it…and not have to explain to Anko why he was throwing out her present from years ago. The few times he had actually thought of gouging it with a kunai made him shiver in the mental images of Anko finding out and seeking revenge. He liked life too much to put a single scratch on the ugly piece of furniture.

Ignoring the burning that was slowly becoming an ebbing ache, Kakashi carefully stood up and tried to wipe away as much boiling water as he could. In the midst of his futile act, Kakashi wondered when the water had actually boiled, then again cursed water for its fickleness. They should make water that boils instantly…oh, God, no…Naruto…instant ramen and instant boiling water …Kakashi could only imagine the weight his bouncy student would pack on in a matter of hours with such an invention. Yes, it was better for everyone if Naruto never found a way to create such a thing.

Kakashi glimpsed over at his shivering "guest" and sighed. This meant putting on another pot of water and waiting for an insanely long period of time for it to boil. Grumbling under his breath, Kakashi quickly refilled the silver kettle and put it back on the hot burner. Kakashi, deciding that if he was to stand next to the oven and wait any longer, he'd go crazy, walked over to where the chuunin was curled up in a ball. He squatted down and looked at the pale teacher at eye-level. He had never seen the usually tan man so pale – not even when Iruka was having one of his fits over how someone (usually the Copy Cat Nin) needed to take a class on writing proper mission reports and, while they were at it, take a class on how to write. Aaah, that brought back numerous memories of the chuunin chasing him out of the mission office, throwing another balled up report into the back of the jounin's head. Kakashi, if he hadn't been one of Iruka's "targets," wouldn't have believed the chuunin had a good throwing arm. Hell, if Iruka wanted, he probably could best all the jounin population in both accuracy and distance with any projectile. If he could hit a jounin halfway across the village, still running as fast as possible, right in the back of his head with a piece of paper, he could definitely throw kunai and shuriken.

Kakashi fought the urge to rub the back of his head remembering how, even at that distance, Iruka had given him a large enough lump that Gai had wailed over his "youthful indiscretions" for an hour. For some reason, Gai always thought that if Kakashi had a mark on him, it was because one of his lovers had hit him. The creepy man just couldn't believe that the sweet, spirited Iruka could harm anyone. Then again, Gai has never felt Iruka's wrath… Kakashi snickered at that thought, wishing that, just once, the Green Beast of Konoha would hand in a missions report late.

Kakashi pulled himself out of the violent, yet delightful, images of Gai being bombarded by razor-sharp reports by a crazed chuunin when he saw Iruka shiver out of the corner of his eye. Sighing, Kakashi put the back of his gloved hand against Iruka's forehead. Even through the layers of material and metal, Kakashi could instantly feel how cold the chuunin's skin was.

Oh…there's gonna be some painful paper cuts tomorrow…Kakashi thought to himself as he slid his arms underneath the wet teacher and gently lifted the younger shinobi into his arms, trying his hardest not to think of what Iruka would do to him in the morning. Once he had Iruka comfortably resting his head against his padded jacket, Kakashi slowly walked towards his room. When Kakashi stopped to open the locked door (he was always paranoid someone would go through his things if he wasn't home…), he felt the chuunin shift his weight, leaning in closer to the jounin's body. Kakashi couldn't help but look down at the teacher in his arms and smirk at how adorable Iruka looked, curled up with one hand resting on Kakashi's chest, breathing softly into the jounin's jacket. Wait…did I just think he was cute?! Kakashi forced back the urge to smash his head into the doorframe as he finally got the door open and walked into the dark bedroom. The chuunin, no matter what he did, could never be considered cute. He was the spawn of Satan, just like his demonic students. All of the teens who had been taught by the small man were evil, annoying brats. There must be something Iruka did to them when they were young…

Kakashi shivered at the thought of Konohamaru becoming a genin in a few years. Oh, Kami-sama…don't let me get him…Kakashi found himself praying, knowing that he couldn't take on the child who worshipped the ground Naruto walked on. Not to mention the fact that, with Kakashi's streak of luck, he'd get the whole gang of Naruto-lovers.

Instantly making the promise to never let anyone con him into signing up to be a genin teacher again, Kakashi walked towards his bed, his eyes still focused on the chuunin in his arms. He couldn't shake that thought of Iruka being cute. The mere feeling of Iruka leaning into him, the way his one hand curled around the collar of Kakashi's jacket, the warm puffs of air seeping through the thick jacket and the underlying shirt to hit his bare skin…

Oh, no! Kakashi stopped that idea right there before his Jiraiya-loving mind went too far with that train of thought…he knew that he had agreed with himself to somehow get the chuunin into his bed, but that didn't mean that he'd start fantasizing about the teacher.

Kakashi didn't want to develop any kind of feelings for the bipolar man in his arms, no matter how sweet Iruka was when he was unconscious. Doing his best to keep those kinds of thoughts from his conscious mind, Kakashi laid the younger man down on his bed. Once he had extracted his arms from underneath the chuunin, Kakashi glanced down at Iruka and sighed. He knew better than to just leave the teacher, soaking wet, on his bed. If it was anyone else, he knew he'd have first thrown them in a tub of ice and, if that didn't wake them, he'd throw whoever it was back outside in the freezing rain. But, Kakashi remembered with a twinge of pain, he lied and told WASABI that he "honestly" liked Iruka. They would kill him if they found out that he had thrown their beloved Iruka-sensei out on his rear in this cold weather. No, that's not how you treat someone you're supposed to like, Kakashi reminded himself, but there was only one thing he could do if he was going to "like" Iruka for the next few weeks. Too bad there was no other way around what he needed to do.

With a wince at imagining what Iruka would do to him when he woke up, Kakashi slowly unzipped the young man's jacket and carefully slid Iruka's arms out of the soaked article of clothing. He knew that taking the teacher's jacket off wasn't enough – Iruka's clothes had been soaked through and, unless Kakashi wanted to explain himself not only to the doe-eyed teacher, but all of WASABI and Tsunade (who would no doubt find out Iruka had to be sent to the hospital for pneumonia), he knew he had to strip the man out of all his clothes.

While praying that there was some kind of god that kept the young man's pants, for the most part, dry, Kakashi went to work removing the wet, skin-tight black shirt that was clinging to Iruka like a second skin. Kakashi couldn't help but notice how, even while wearing a long-sleeved shirt, Iruka was quite muscular…far more muscular than your ordinary pre-genin teacher. Then again, Kakashi reminded himself, the only other teacher he knew was Ebisu…and, well, if Iruka was less muscular than that strange creature, he would admit defeat to Gai right now. There was no way he could sleep with someone like Ebisu.

Inwardly twitching at the image of Ebisu naked, Kakashi lost all urge to study the chuunin's anatomy. Without so much as a perverted second thought, Kakashi sat Iruka up against the pillows and proceeded to pull the stubborn piece of cloth off him. God, no wonder no one wants kids…Kakashi thought to himself, just trying to imagine what a difficult thing it would be to dress someone who was resisting him. It was hard enough to take clothes off an unconscious person!

Kakashi froze while trying to imagine someone dressing a hyper, baby Naruto (while shivering and pitying the imaginary person), sensing a change in the chuunin. The brunette's breath had sped up for a moment, as though he was finally coming out of his comatose-like state. Kakashi dare not even move, praying that Iruka wouldn't wake up to see the jounin stripping him down. That's all Kakashi needed tonight…one crazy chuunin beating the crap out of him would end his day perfectly.

Sensing Iruka's breathing slowing down, Kakashi went back to work peeling the shirt off of the man. Once he had finally wrestled Iruka's limp arms out of the shirt and pulled it over his head, Kakashi sat back with a sigh of relief. Iruka hadn't woken up to kill him yet.

Kakashi glance down at the chuunin, trying his hardest to keep his eyes off of Iruka's perfectly sculpted chest, which was far more defined than even his wet shirt had hinted at. His arms and shoulders curved with lithe muscles underneath the dark skin. Even his abdomen was a masterpiece. The jounin shook his head, wondering where such thoughts had come from. Never, in all his years of aggravating the chuunin, had he ever been, in any way, attracted to the young man. No, it had to be due to Jiraiya-sama's new novel, which Kakashi had finished within a matter of minutes. It was a nosebleed to end all nosebleeds and, for the perverted shinobi to admit that, it was quite the PWP (A/N: Porn Without a Plot…for those fragile minds who have yet to find one of those stories…). Kakashi took a deep breath before letting his gaze return to the half-naked chuunin. It was only a matter of seconds before Iruka's skin erupted in goose bumps and the chuunin returned to his earlier shivering. With one arm, the jounin lifted the younger shinobi up off the bed and while Iruka's cold body rested against him, he turned down the bed and quickly put the shaking chuunin underneath the blankets.

As soon as Iruka was completely covered by the few layers of blankets, Kakashi looked down at the younger man. It looked like the chuunin was shivering less and that some color was coming back to his face. Kakashi, going against his screaming conscience, bent down and gently brushed a few wet strands of hair from the chuunin's face. Iruka looked much less stern when that vein of his wasn't bulging as he screamed at the jounin or one of his comrades who, somehow, had never learned better than to piss off the man. If nothing else, Iruka looked much younger than he really was.

Kakashi thought for a moment about his ridiculous bet with Gai. There was no way the Green Beast was going to beat him – even if Kakashi was actually going to try finding his "soul mate." The jounin inwardly chuckled, knowing that such romantic notions didn't exist. The only thing that mattered in a relationship was the physical and, in some rare cases, there was that mental connection between equals. Kakashi had known such a relationship once, but he died so long ago, the jounin sometimes doubted if he had even felt such things or if it was all some kind of fabrication he built over the long, lonely years. If it wasn't for the name etched deeply in the stone as well as his unnatural eye, Kakashi would have doubted if Obito existed…if he really was part of a genin team at one point in his life. It was such a different life back then.

The jounin nearly fell off the bed when a loud whistling erupted from the kitchen. Remembering the cursed water, Kakashi slid off of the bed and, taking one last glance at the chuunin curled up in his bed, left the room and returned to the kitchen.

Once he was sure the jounin was out of the room, Iruka cracked open an eye and glanced around. The bedroom, much like the rest of the jounin's apartment, was immaculate and entirely unlike the messy shinobi who lived in it. Thinking about the uncharacteristic behavior Kakashi had, unknowingly, shown the chuunin got Iruka to blush slightly. He had to force himself not to squirm when Kakashi had taken his shirt off. No matter how innocent the jounin's reasons were, Iruka had the feeling he had gotten some kind of pleasure out of it. Then again, it was Kakashi. There wasn't a kind bone in the man's body.

Iruka knew he would have been fuming right now over Kakashi standing him up, but he had noticed how the jounin was limping. Not to mention the little stunt in the kitchen before. The man was obviously not having much luck today. If it had been anyone else, Iruka would have given up on his act when the man had slipped and bashed his head into the cabinet, but he knew Kakashi would be fine and, even after sitting outside for a little while, his anger towards the jounin was still there. Even if Kakashi had gotten into some kind of accident, he had no reason to blow off their "date."

Iruka had sat outside long enough to think over what had happened today, so he was already over the original anger and was just left with the last few shreds of aggravation over his own terrible day. Kakashi apparently believed his acting, even though he would have gotten pneumonia if he had actually sat outside as long as the jounin assumed he had been. In all truth, he had only started to feel the cold by the time the jounin had started hobbling up the staircase. It was a good thing that he was always good at faking shivering and that little jutsu to lower his blood temperature didn't hurt his entire act, either.

Iruka sat up slowly, keeping his concentration on the jounin's chakra, which was still moving around the kitchen. He touched his forehead in the exact spot Kakashi's fingers had so gingerly brushed against him before. Iruka had never known the jounin could be so gentle, let alone so caring as to take the chuunin in, attempt to make him tea, and give up his bed so that the chuunin could warm up.

Maybe he really does like me…Iruka thought, not noticing the small smile that came to his face as he laid back down and curled up underneath the warm blankets. He had never noticed before, but the jounin's distinctive scent – which permeated the entire apartment – wasn't all that bad. Iruka wasn't willing to outwardly admit it, but he kind of liked the smell, and, in some ways, its owner.

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Authoress: …alright, I'm going to stop there for now…I wanted to get this chapter done as soon as possible, but between term papers, getting ready for concerts, tae kwon do tests (yep…I'm already a yellow belt!!), and such, I haven't had much free time. But, now that I've only got two weeks of classes left, then finals, I should be getting a few more chapters out soon!! Well, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and, please, review!!! It gives authors the energy to write new chapters!!!