"What are you doing here?"

Iruka looked up at the voice and smiled. "Welcome home, Kakashi."

Kakashi stared at him. It had been a week and a half since their not-quite-a-date. He'd just gotten out of the hospital and was looking forward to going home and collapsing. Nothing had prepared him for opening his front door and finding Iruka sitting comfortably on his sofa, reading a book.

"How did you get in?" Kakashi wondered.

"Through the window." Iruka pointed to the window over the kitchen sink.

"It's three stories up. And I have wards and traps set on all my windows."

Iruka shrugged. "I didn't say it was easy. I said that was how I got in. Besides, I'm good with traps. I teach the breaking and entering courses at the academy." He sounded proud.

Kakashi stared at him some more, wondering which of them was crazy. "Great, just great. Now leave."

Iruka ignored him. "I brought food. Go take a shower and get changed and I'll heat it up."

"I don't want food," Kakashi insisted. "I want to go to sleep." As if taunting him, his stomach took that moment to remind loudly him that his last meal had been a ration bar almost 12 hours ago.

Iruka cocked an eyebrow at him and waited.

Finally Kakashi caved, "Fine. I'll go take a shower and eat." He moved to rub his left hand tiredly over his face, but the large bandage stopped him.

Iruka got up off the sofa, stepped forward, and took Kakashi's hand gently in his own. "What happened?"

Kakashi tried to pull away, but Iruka wouldn't let go. "Nothing important. The missing nin objected to being hunted down. He broke two of my fingers to try to stop me from making hand seals."

The teacher's dark eyes were sympathetic. "Ow. What did you do?"

The caring and kindness in his voice were too much to bear. Kakashi ripped his hand out of Iruka's grasp, ignoring the pain. "What do you think I did?" he snapped. "I made the seals anyway." He turned away and began to fumble with his vest.

Iruka let him fumble for a moment and then reached over. "Here, let me."

Kakashi pulled back quickly. "I'm not helpless, damn it."

The chuunin looked at him, anger brewing in the dark eyes. "I have never implied that you were," he reminded Kakashi, who felt himself flush.

They stared hard at each other for a long time. Finally, Kakashi nodded. "You are right." He gave Iruka a small, humorless smile. "As usual."

"It's not about who's right and who's wrong," Iruka sighed, a tired note in his voice. "I just wanted to help, that's all. I was in Tsunade-sama's office when they called for her to come look at you. Since she said it wasn't serious, I thought I'd wait here for you. Figured you'd be hungry. But I guess my mothering instincts got the better of me. I'm sorry. I'll leave."

As he brushed past Kakashi, heading toward the door, a pale hand shot out and caught him by the wrist. "No. Stay." He raised a tired eye to Iruka's face. "Please."

Iruka turned his hand so that he could intertwine his fingers with Kakashi's, squeezed slightly and then pulled away to unzip the recalcitrant vest. "Go take a shower. I'll heat up the food."

They didn't talk during dinner, just ate slowly, savoring the relaxed silence. By the time they were done, Kakashi could feel himself sagging. Iruka shooed him out of the kitchen, promising to wash up and then bring tea to the living room. The combination of warmth, home, and food were too much for Kakashi's overtired body, however, and by the time Iruka was done in the kitchen, the copy nin was sound asleep, stretched out on the sofa.

He woke with a start, wondering for a moment why he wasn't sleeping in his bed. Then he remembered Iruka and dinner and lying down on the sofa for just a moment. Had Iruka gone home? Kakashi moved to sit up, but a hand brushed his forehead. "Stay. Rest." He looked up, saw Iruka's face smiling down at him, and realized that he had been sleeping with his head on the teacher's leg. In shock, he sat bolt upright and stared at Iruka.

The chuunin sighed. Kakashi wondered if he did that a lot with other people or if it was just when the two of them were together. "Or you could panic. Your choice," Iruka muttered as he set the book that he'd been reading down on the coffee table.

"Why are you still here?" Kakashi asked.

"Because I was concerned," Iruka reminded him. "Don't you have anyone who checks to be sure you're okay after a mission?"

"No, not really."

"Exactly," Iruka agreed. "I don't either. I was thinking that it would be nice if I did, but it's not like I go on as many missions as you do, so maybe it's not that big a deal if I don't have anyone who cares if I get back safe or not, but your missions can be really taxing and I thought that you might want dinner and I don't know, I was just worried and wanted to be sure you were okay." he finished lamely.

Kakashi struggled to make sense of the teacher's jumbled thoughts. "But why? Why now? You never worried about me before." A light went off in his head. "This is Gai's challenge. That's why you're suddenly being so nice to me. You don't actually care. You're just trying to prove something to Gai, to win." All of a sudden he was on his feet, face red with anger, yelling at the top of his lungs. "Well, you know what—fuck you! I don't need your pity, I don't need your concern, and I don't need you hanging all over me! Get the hell out of my house and, while you're at it, tell Gai to keep his fucking challenges away from me. I'm through with them and I'm through with the two of you."

All the blood that usually flushed Iruka's tan cheeks had fled, leaving his face a sickly pale color. His eyes, likewise, had a flat deadened look to them. He stood slowly and walked toward the door. As he slipped his feet into his sandals, he turned back to Kakashi and said quietly, "You know, Hatake-san, for a genius, you don't think very much. One of these days you might want to do that." With that he left, closing the door softly behind him.

Kakashi slumped back down to the sofa for a moment before deciding that the best thing for him to do right now was to get dead drunk and pass out.

So he did.