Sorry this took so long; it's been hectic over here. Anyway, 1 chapter after this - enjoy!

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The chuunin was plotting something; he was sure of it.

Kakashi watched Iruka out of the corner of his eye as the other man poked subconsciously at the meat slowly cooking on the grill in the center of their table. The other man hadn't said more than the necessary polite phrases since they'd met up almost an hour ago, and the silence was starting to get on his nerves.

Hadn't one of his ANBU teachers described an interrogation technique that involved silence? The whole idea had something to do with the fact most human's general dislike of abject silence. The interrogator remained completely silent until the subject finally broke and started talking.

He gave the chuunin another sideways glance. It wasn't possible, was it? This person was just an academy teacher, after all.

Iruka looked up and gave him a small smile, and Kakashi immediately buried his attention in his food.

Iruka shook his head slightly as Kakashi flinched away from meeting his gaze. The jounin had been staring at him all night, or at least whenever he seemed to think Iruka wasn't looking.

Unfortunately for him, Iruka had far too much experience in keeping tabs on the village's mini-shinobi and having to monitor 20+ people who could all have fit under the table without any struggles and were usually plotting his imminent demise had nothing on watching Kakashi steal glances at him.

What did make it a little harder, however, was the fact that his heart slammed against his ribcage every time he caught the other man's eyes on him.

This is ridiculous! He mentally slapped himself.

But he still couldn't shake the stupid feelings. There was something incredibly intoxicating about having someone lust over him like that.

OOOOOOOOO

"Thanks for the food."

"Ah, no problem, Kakashi-sensei. I still feel bad for yelling at you earlier." Iruka's face flushed as he turned his gaze away from the silver-haired jounin. "Ano…I…uh…I figured we'd swing by my house, and you can pick up Kioko."

Kakashi made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat, and purposely moved behind Iruka when they reached his door. If the chuunin had set anything up, he was going to have to take the brunt of it before it reached Kakashi.

Kioko pounced within seconds of the door swinging open, knocking Iruka back into Kakashi's arms and tumbling all three of them onto the floor.

When the disorientation cleared, Kakashi swore violently under his breath. Kioko must have been sending memories again because he was sprawled out under his comforter and spooned tightly up against Iruka's back.

"Kioko!" Kakashi snarled the pup's name out and choked down a shout of pain as Iruka's head snapped up and bashed square into his nose.

"Ah!" Iruka fell forward, clutching at the back of his head. "W-wha…?" He was staring at the sheets tangled around his body. "Why am I…?"

Kakashi carefully unwound his hands from Iruka's waist and pressed them together to form a teleportation seal, barely daring to breathe.

Nothing happened. Shit.

He supposed he should have figured it wouldn't work – that would be all together too convenient.

"Kakashi…san? Weren't we just in the doorway? How did we get into…? This isn't my bedroom! Wha…what did you do to me?!"

"What do you mean 'what did I do to you?!' I didn't do anything to you! This is Kioko's doing. It's her memory!"

"…what?"

"You don't expect me to believe that you don't know about this, do you? She can't talk, so she shares memories to communicate. Honestly, when she's with me, I'm subjected to memories of you every single time she touches me. If I'd known she was going to do this, I never would have left her with you in the first place, particularly since it was only to get back at you for what you put me through after that teaching incident. I can think of a lot more ways I could have gotten you back that wouldn't have backfired on me. "

"I-I…I didn't know…."

Kakashi's mouth snapped closed. Iruka was blushing furiously, the anger and confusion in his voice giving way to something else.

"I…oh." Iruka's shoulders dropped, one word rolling around in his mind. Subjected.

Kakashi's bedroom disintegrated around them, and Iruka scrambled off of him, scooping the wiggling, shaggy puppy up into his arms and depositing her as gently as he could at Kakashi's feet.

As soon as the door shut between him and the other man, Iruka pressed his back against the solid wood and slid slowly to the floor. How could he have been so stupid to think that one of the village's elite jounin actually…?

Moron!

The whole time – the entire time – from the point where Kakashi had dropped Kioko off in his class to his appearance in the chuunin's bedroom to the dinner tonight, Kakashi had just been trying to set him up or get him back or figure out how Iruka was planning on getting him back.

Iruka was really nothing more than a target.

The worst part was, that even though the dream that had started his train of thought had been nothing more than one of Kioko's memories, Iruka was starting to feel some sort of attraction to the silver-haired jounin.

Even the shock of Kakashi's explanation hadn't shaken those feelings loose.

OOOOOOOOO

Kioko dropped to her haunches outside Iruka's door, looked over her shoulder and whined at Kakashi.

"I still don't understand why you were so insistent about sending memories of him." Kakashi muttered at her.

"She missed me, you idiot!" Iruka yelled through the door.

Clearly he hadn't muttered quite quietly enough.

"She's a puppy. She's like a little kid. When kids miss someone, they cry that person's name, they talk about that person all the time, they…" He heard Iruka let out an explosive sigh. "She missed me, and she was trying to let you know. That's. All."

With a final huff, Kioko rose up on her hind legs and scratched at the door handle.

Kakashi scrubbed his hand across his face and crossed the narrow balcony. He wasn't entirely sure why Iruka's demeanor had changed so violently in the last few minutes, but after a moment's hesitation, he raised his hand and knocked.

"What?" The snap in Iruka's voice suggested that the chuunin had just about reached the end of his short rope.

"Maa, well…" Kakashi looked down at Kioko, who promptly folded her ears back and looked as plaintive as she could possibly manage. "She's here with me for another week and a half before the pack takes her back. I was wondering, since she's so attached to you…"

Kioko's tail smacked up and down, beating out a tattoo on the worn floor.

"If you wanted to keep her until then." He finished rather lamely, and the very end was somewhat drowned out by Kioko's happy bark.

Iruka dropped his head back against the doorframe and pushed stray locks of hair out of his eyes. He'd grown strangely accustomed to Kioko's volatile presence in his house and had missed her every time Kakashi came to take her home. Besides, if Kioko stayed with him, Kakashi wouldn't have to suffer through constant memories of him.

"Alright." He hauled himself to his feet and pulled the door open, stepping quickly out of the way as Kioko rushed in and immediately tripped him up as she got under his feet. Kakashi opened his mouth to say something, but the door swung shut in his face.

OOOOOO

Something smelled delicious.

Kakashi rubbed his face across his forearm as his desire for sleep warred with the intoxicating smells coming from somewhere else in his house. The deep growl from his stomach suggested that particular part of his anatomy was siding with his nose, so he gave in without much more of a fight and rolled off the couch.

He padded barefoot down the hall, idly pushing his sleeves back up to his elbows. "Iruka-sensei?"

The chuunin's back was turned towards him, but he was clearly stirring something on the stove, and Kakashi would have bet money that the pot on the stove was the source of the wonderful smell. Iruka had shed his hitai-ate and vest as well as the wrappings on his legs. He looked remarkably comfortable – and different – in the dark shirt and pants from his uniform.

The other man stopped stirring momentarily and ran his hand back over his ponytail before lacing his fingers together and stretching towards the ceiling.

Kioko.

Kakashi's brain finally connected through the haze of just waking up. This had to be one of Kioko's memories.

His elbow cracked sharply on the edge of his coffee table as he tumbled off the couch. Kakashi scratched at his hairline, trying to put his thoughts back together. He'd settled down on his couch after leaving Kioko with Iruka and, judging from the massive kink in his neck, had spent the entire night on the lumpy, pseudo-torture device.

Wait.

He'd left Kioko with Iruka, hadn't he?

A quick check of the room confirmed that she was nowhere to be found. So, what was that?

Had he really just had a dream about Iruka cooking?

His photographic memory helpfully inserted an image of the small sliver of skin Iruka's stretch had exposed between the hem of his shirt and his waistband, followed closely by Kioko's original memory of Iruka naked in the bath. He sat down hard on the couch.

What the hell is going on?

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Thanks for reading!