Yeah, another short on. Sorry.
Meh, wanted to keep this one short and a few others but the next few will (hopefully) be longer. Still going to stick with this past-future hopping. I kinda like it.
January 4th, 2010
"Why not?"
"I'm tired."
"And?"
Iruka frowned and ignored the older man, pulling out his books from his backpack and throwing them onto his desk for him to study later.
"Iruka," Kakashi whined from the doorway as Iruka finally turned to him and glared, face showing absolutely no mercy towards the pout and pleading eyes that Kakashi was using.
"No, I have a lot of stuff to catch up on."
"Like what?" Flushing, the brunet turned away and fumbled for his words as he fixed the askew things on his desk.
"Stuff…." Iruka mumbled to himself when nothing realistic came to mind and Kakashi grinned in triumph.
"You don't have anything to do. So, that means you, me and Obito get to go out tonight and have a good time." Seeing Iruka sigh, a feeling of pity came over Kakashi and he felt his heart go out to his friend. With a soft smile, he sauntered into the room and sat down on the edge of the bed near Iruka's hip. "Look, it's Obito's first time out and we really want you to be there."
"As the responsible one or the one who picks up your tab?" Kakashi winced.
"No, not like that. We want you to come and have fun with us." The statement didn't seem to move the other man into any semblance of agreeing so Kakashi finally said, "It's not like you've been doing anything these past few months except rehab, school and seeing your psychologist."
That'd been the wrong thing to say. Kakashi's eyes immediately widened and he quickly said, "I mean, you know, they've been so stressful that you should take a-"
"It's okay, Kakashi," Iruka softly stopped him, his face dark with the guilt that he was feeling; guilt that Kakashi didn't know about.
"No, I'm sorry, Iruka." He said quickly. "I mean… It wasn't your fault, okay? Obito and I just want to see you happy again. Seeing you like this… We just…"
His words were failing him and Iruka was quietly feeling as though he was imploding, his friend's apology making him feel worse than anything. Throwing on a smile, he turned to Kakashi and said, "I guess a night out wouldn't hurt."
Calm falling over him, Kakashi returned the smile and they both trudged out of the apartment an hour later with Obito leading the way, a grand smile on his face as both of his best friends followed.
X-X-X
"So, we went out last night and had some fun." Iruka finished as the woman sitting next to him frowned.
"Iruka, you've made some great progress over the past few months but I feel as though you're having trouble." A sigh was repressed when Iruka looked away from her. She tried to lift his spirits up and gave him a pat on the shoulder.
He had been going to see her for the last three months or so, ever since the hospital decided he needed mental attention, and she'd been trying to help him figure out all the things around him. He'd told her everything. The afternoon she'd stepped into his hospital room and got him to break down into tears still vivid in his mind even then.
The truth about what happened in September was locked away in both their minds now. No one else knew why Iruka had been shot, not even Kakashi who hadn't said a word about seeing Mizuki. They all pretended as if their memories of that night had vanished, lips sealed.
"Why don't you write about it?"
"Huh?" Iruka jolted back to reality and he blinked at her owlishly.
"You used to write in high school, right?"
"I guess so," he stuttered out, her face breaking out into a smile.
"Then write it out," she explained. "Get all your thoughts down on paper or even in your computer and use that as an output."
It was a few moments before he nodded and told her he could try it.
Been having troubles with my emails so I've been running around like a chicken trying to recover (had important emails notes to myself that I had in there). I haven't even been able to respond to people who've sent me holiday greetings... T-T
Review if you feel like it. Next chapter soon
