A/N: Special thanks to VampireDoll666, tineyninja, and the guest reviewer. You guys are the best!

I've been going through each of the chapters I've written one by one, deciding what can be salvaged and what needs to be rewritten. Luckily this chapter seemed like it could still work with the new direction I'm taking the story, so you guys didn't have to wait for it XD Although next weeks chapter might be different. But I shall try my best to get it up quickly anyway!

I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think!

…

"I think Naruto would like this." Kakashi said, holding up a red stuffed fox. He wasn't sure why, but the five-year old seemed to have a thing for foxes. His entire room was covered in fox related merchandise. Kakashi was one of the few people in the village that knew of the nine-tailed fox residing in Kushina, and wondered if that had somehow influenced the little boy's tastes.

"Yeah it's cute. And I did see him wearing a fox shirt the other day, so I'm sure he would love it." Iruka agreed, remembering meeting the Hokage's son the other day for the first time. Minato had brought him into the mission room, Naruto wanting to see the different places his father worked. Iruka had been on break at the time, and had gotten the chance to talk with them for a bit.

It had been a huge relief to him that the Hokage hadn't seemed to hold any animosity toward him, and that he didn't judge him for anything. He was sure if the roles were reversed and Iruka learned that Minato cheated on his wife and got one of his friends pregnant, that he wouldn't be able to look past it like the Hokage seemed to have. Just another reason why he knew Minato was a great man, and a great leader.

The two walked in a comfortable silence after Kakashi purchased the stuffed animal, adding that bag to the growing number of bags Iruka was now carrying for him. He had insisted that he was fine to carry them himself, but Iruka wouldn't hear of it. After all the whole reason he had insisted on tagging along with Kakashi while he did his Christmas shopping was to make sure that the older man didn't over do it.

It had been just over a week since the appointment the two of them had attended together, and things had been a little awkward at first. They had shared a very emotional, intimate moment during the sonogram, and neither man knew what to say about it. So instead of confronting it, they both just avoided seeing each other for a couple of days, until the strange feelings it had stirred up subsided.

And things had quickly gotten back to normal, especially after Iruka had brought over even more cookies…they were quickly becoming one of Kakashi's favorite things to eat, and the baby seemed to agree with him, because he constantly found himself craving them.

"So, is there anybody else you have to buy anything for?" Iruka asked, breaking the silence that was still stretching between them.

"Let me see…" Kakashi said, thinking over his list in his mind. He had already gotten something for Kushina, Minato, Tsunade, and now Naruto… he had even gotten a little something for Guy, Asuma, and Kurenai.

He had never thought of himself as that close with anybody, and wasn't even sure if any of his fellow Jounin even considered him a friend…which of course he didn't really blame them for, he never gave anybody much of a reason to like him. But ever since he had had his change of heart about keeping the baby, he had made a decision to stop living such an introverted life, and constantly pushing people away. After all, he figured his child would probably have a hard of enough time, being born to a man, he didn't want to make it's life any harder by being the asshole that nobody liked. So he had thought over whom he considered himself the closest too, other than Minato, Kushina, and Tsunade, and it was Guy, Asuma, and Kurenai that had come to mind. He just hoped they didn't completely laugh in his face at his gesture…

"I think I got something for everybody that I need to." Kakashi confirmed after thinking it over for a few more seconds.

"Okay great," Iruka said, relieved because all the bags had actually been getting a little bit heavy. "Do you want to grab some lunch or something?"

"Are you kidding me?" Kakashi laughed, "your kid might not be that big yet, but it's already a bottomless pit. I'm starved!"

Iruka just nodded, his heart skipping a beat when Kakashi referred to it as his child. It might have already been a couple of weeks since deciding on this trial, but this was the first real time he had ever heard Kakashi really acknowledge the fact that this was his kid too. In the few conversations that they had had about the baby, Kakashi always used words like 'mine' or 'my'; it was never 'ours' or 'yours'.

Kakashi didn't miss the look on Iruka's face when he had used the words 'your kid' and hoped he didn't freak the other man out by saying that. The truth was he had been purposely avoiding using terms like that trying his best to maintain a distance between Iruka and their child.

Even though he had made a decision to try and let more people into his life, he was still scared when it came to Iruka.

He had completely forgiven him when it came to their night together, and knew the Chuunin was a good man. That was more then evident considering all that he had been doing for him since they had begun this trial run, but he couldn't shake the doubts in the back of his mind.

When it came down to it, Iruka was still engaged to be married, and in Kakashi's mind that meant he could never be truly committed to being in their child's life. It wasn't like he expected Iruka to dump his fiancée and come play house with him, he just couldn't honestly see it working. Even if Tsubaki was some how able to accept what happened and was alright with it, would it be fair to her every time Iruka wanted to leave her to go spend time with his child?

Or what if she wanted to be involved in the child's life too? What if she wanted to become like a mother to it? What if she expected the child to spend half of its time living with her and Iruka? What if she wanted to take his child away completely because she didn't want Iruka to spend any more time with the man he had cheated on her with?

He knew he was over reacting, and jumping to crazy conclusions, but the thought hadn't occurred to him until now. He had been so convinced that if Iruka's fiancée ever found out, then she was sure to dump him…he never considered the fact that she might forgive him and want the child in both of their lives, which meant it would be away from him for periods of time.

That thought made Kakashi feel a little dizzy, something that didn't go unnoticed by the younger man.

"Kakashi, are you feeling alright?" Iruka asked with concern. He had seen the Jounin freeze dead in his tracks all of a sudden, and then a few seconds later he seemed to get a little bit wobbly. He put all the bags down on a near by bench, before carefully leading Kakashi over, forcing him to take a seat.

He began to panic, hoping there was nothing wrong with him or the baby, when the older man suddenly turned to him, fear shining in his one exposed eye.

"What's wrong? You're not in pain are you?"

"No…" he choked out, only partially lying. He wasn't in any physical pain, but the thoughts now flooding his mind were painful in another way.

This was his chance to start over. This was his chance to have a real family. And this was his and Iruka's baby. The idea of Tsubaki marrying Iruka and wanting to be in his child's life made him sick.

"Promise me something…" Kakashi breathed out, doing everything in his power to keep his voice even.

Iruka was a little surprised by the older man's change of mood, and the intensity at which he was now staring at him. He wasn't sure what was going on in the other man's head, but nodded for him to continue.

"Promise me that nobody will ever try and take this child away from me." Kakashi said after a few tense moments of silence had passed between them.

Iruka could've almost laughed at that, if it wasn't for the seriousness in his words, and the panic filled sadness shinning in his eye.

"Of course not. Why would you even say such a thing? Who would ever try and take this child away from you?" Iruka asked gently, wanting to do his best not to upset the other man anymore then he obviously already was.

He had no idea where that thought would have even come from, but if Kakashi was worried or stressed out at all, he had to do everything he could to calm him down, him getting upset wasn't good for the baby.

Iruka's words seemed to calm his nerves a little bit, but he couldn't shake the feeling from the back of his mind now that it was there.

He began to open his mouth to say something, when he quickly snapped it shut, a chill racing down his spin when he heard the voice of the very person that was causing all these doubts in his mind in the first place.

"Iruka, sweetheart, what are you doing here?" Tsubaki asked, walking up to the bench where she saw her fiancée sitting next to Kakashi Hatake…which caused her to be a little bit confused. She didn't know that Iruka knew the famous ninja…other then from that weird encounter at the hospital about a month ago, where he had been called an asshole…which only made seeing the two of them together that much stranger. Not to mention Iruka had told her that he was going out for a couple of drinks with the guys from the mission room…did Kakashi work at the mission room?

"I was, umm, you see I was just…" Iruka began to stumble over his words, at a complete loss of what to say. It wasn't like he was doing anything specifically wrong at the moment, except for the fact that he had lied to her in order to go spend time with the man carrying his love child…okay maybe it was a little wrong.

"He ran into me on the street while I was out shopping and saw that I was struggling with some of my bags. I've been a little under the weather lately and I guess I was over doing it a bit. Iruka was just nice enough to help me out when he saw what was going on." Kakashi answered smoothly. As a Jounin he was trained to always be able to think on his feet, so when it came to situations like this he never missed a beat. Although at the moment he was still internally panicking from the thoughts he had been having earlier. He was just glad that most of his face was covered, so it wouldn't betray how he was really feeling in that moment.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I'm glad Iruka was here to help." The woman answered kindly, instantly feeling bad about suspecting Iruka about lying to her. He was probably on his way home and just stopped to help a fellow shinobi. And judging from the small amount of skin she could see from the Jounin, he really must have been under the weather; he looked absolutely pale and clammy.

"Me too." Kakashi replied, before quickly grabbing his bags and getting to his feet. He still felt a little unstable from before, but he ignored it for now, wanting more than anything to get out of there. "Well, I'm feeling a lot better now, I better get going."

"Kakashi, wait," Iruka began, but was ignored by the older man, who simply walked away.

Iruka was instantly worried about the state Kakashi was in. Not only shouldn't he be carrying all those bags, but also it was obvious that something wasn't right with him. He had been wobbly earlier, then there was that strange promise he had made Iruka give him, and he had looked completely pale. Every fiber of his being told him to go after the other man, to grab those bags from him, and help him home.

But before he could go after him, he felt a small delicate hand grab his wrist, causing him to stop in his tracks and turn around. Tsubaki was looking at him, confusion, and concern, evident on her face. Which he didn't blame her for; he knew she had every right to be both confused and concerned given his behavior lately.

"I'm sure he'll be alright." She said gently, lacing her fingers with his. "Why don't we go home and relax a bit? I can make some hot chocolate and we can maybe finish decorating our tree…"

There was so much hope in her voice, that Iruka didn't have the heart to come up with some lie and let her down. She really didn't deserve that, and he knew it. So he suppressed every part of him that was telling him to go after the silver-haired man, and just prayed that Tsubaki was right, and that the Jounin would be fine.

Meanwhile a few blocks away Kakashi had made it to his apartment in record time. Throwing his door open, and dropping all his bags at the front entrance, before he practically sprinted to the washroom. He knelt in front of the toilet and then did what he had been doing best these past few months, emptying the contents of his stomach into the bowl…which actually wasn't much, seeing they had been about to go to lunch, and he hadn't actually eaten in hours.

After he was finished, he sat back against the bathroom wall, having no strength to get up off the floor.

Everything that had just happened played back in his mind, and he couldn't stop as the emotions overwhelmed him. What was wrong with him? Why did he allow some hypothetical situation get to him so much? And why had he been so anxious when Tsubaki had shown up?

He had been so angry for some reason, and he didn't even know why…it wasn't like he had any reason to be angry, she had never even said two words to him before today. If anything she was the one that had every right to be angry with him, at least if she ever learned the truth…

Kakashi's head began to spin, and a few tears began escaping from his eye.

Why was he being so pathetic? They had been having a perfectly good outing when everything seemed to crumble in a blink of an eye. And what was this feeling that was causing this surge of emotions? Causing him to barely be able to breathe in between sobs. And why was he so disappointed when it became obvious that Iruka wasn't coming after him? Why did he even want Iruka to come after him?

Kakashi buried his head in his lap, continuing to sob, praying that this hormone induced breakdown would hurrying up and pass…because as sad/confused/anxious/angry as he might have been in that moment, he was also starving and wanted nothing more then to fill his face so he could go take a nap and forget about everything that happened that afternoon.

…

"What do you say to Kakashi?" Minato said with a mock sternness in his voice.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Naruto said, jumping up and down in excitement, holding his new stuffed fox tightly to his chest. "I love it!"

"I'm glad you like it kiddo," Kakashi said, chuckling at the young boy's excitement, giving his yellow hair a playful shuffle, before the boy ran over, jumping up on the couch, plopping down in between his two parents.

"I'm going to name him Kurama!" Naruto said proudly, holding his new toy for his parents to see.

"I think that's a great name," Kushina said, exchanging a knowing look with her husband, before smiling fondly down at their son.

Both parents listened intently as Naruto began talking excitedly about all the toys he had received from Santa and where he was going to put them in his room.

Kakashi could practically see the love Kushina and Minato had for their son radiating off of them, and couldn't help but smile at the thought that this time next year he would be spending Christmas morning with his own child.

His hand went subconsciously to his stomach, giving it a gentle rub, when another thought occurred to him. This had been the same thought he had been struggling with for days now, ever since he had run off from Iruka after their shopping trip.

That even though he was going to be a father, he would never have what the three people in front of him had…a complete family.

Next year on Christmas morning Iruka would probably be waking up with his new wife, and who knows, maybe by then she would be expecting a child of her own. The thought that she could some day soon be having Iruka's child as well caused his stomach to churn unpleasantly.

His unwelcome thoughts must have shown on his face, because Kushina and Minato were now looking at him with concern.

"Are you alright Kakashi?" Kushina asked, her eyes flicking to his hand, which was still resting on his abdomen.

He realized what it must have looked like and quickly pulled his hand away, "yeah, everything it great."

Kushina exchanged a look with Minato, but chose to let it go for now. After all it was Christmas morning, and she didn't want to ruin it by giving the silver-haired man a lecture about bottling things up, and not asking for help and advice when he should…she would save that lecture for boxing day.

Kakashi was thankful when she didn't persist on the issue, not feeling like talking about it right now. In fact, he wasn't sure he had any reason to be upset in the first place. This had all started three days ago when an irrational thought about his child being taken away, had slowly spiraled out of control, giving life to even more irrational, most likely hormone fueled, thoughts.

So what if next year Iruka was married and Tsubaki was pregnant, why was that any of his business? Or so what if Tsubaki found out the truth about him and she was accepting, and wanted to be in his child's life…it was Iruka's child too after all, and as long as Tsubaki was in Iruka's life, shouldn't that mean it was okay for her to be in his child's life as well? And so what if Iruka wakes up one morning and decides he wants nothing to do with Kakashi or their child…it would only be his loss right?

Kakashi shook himself out of all the thoughts that had been plaguing his mind for days, deciding he wasn't going to dwell on it any further. As long as next Christmas he spent it with his child, he really couldn't complain.

"There's one last present for you here," Minato said, bringing Kakashi out of his own little world.

The silver-haired man looked around, surprised that the living room had already been tidied up from all the wrapping paper, and Kushina and Naruto were no longer in the room. He heard sounds coming from the kitchen, Kushina beginning to prepare breakfast no doubt. Kakashi was a little embarrassed he had zoned out for that long.

"You and Kushina already gave me more than enough…" Kakashi said, looking at the wrapped parcel in the older man's hand.

"It's not from us," he said, handing the gift over to Kakashi, who took in hesitantly. "It's from a certain mission room employee who absolutely insisted I make sure you get this."

Kakashi tensed up at Minato's words, looking down at the gift in surprise. He knew the Chuunin had been trying to get a hold of him for the last couple of days, but he had went out of his way to ignore him. He knew it was probably childish of him, and that he had no reason to be doing it, but he couldn't seem to help himself. He was worried seeing Iruka would stir up some weird unknown feelings like it had the last time.

Kakashi looked back up, only to notice he was now alone in the room, Minato no doubt wanting to give him a little privacy. He sighed, realizing he didn't have any excuse not to open it.

He started with the card that was taped to the top of the gift, flipping it open to see what was written inside. It was almost comical to see the shear amount of writing that Iruka had managed to fit it in there, obviously having a lot to say to him.

Merry Christmas Kakashi,

I hope you and the little one are doing well. You really freaked me out the other day when you ran off, I was worried something might have happened to you, especially when you avoided seeing me afterwards. I asked Minato-sama about it, and he assured me that you were fine, which I was definitely relieved to hear.

But now I'm just a little confused. I had thought things had been going well between us, and am not sure why you've been ignoring me. I'm sure you have your reasons, so I'm sorry if it was anything that I did. I didn't mean to upset you in anyway, and that would be the last thing I would ever want to do.

I know you will probably be spending Christmas with Minato-sama and his wife, and I won't disturb your celebration, but I really want to see you as soon as I can afterwards, and hopefully I can fix whatever it was I did.

I hope you like the gift and don't think it's too cheesy. And I hope you and the little one have a great day.

Iruka

Kakashi set the card down, feeling a wave of guilt wash over him. He hadn't even considered how worried Iruka probably was after he took off like that, and knew the younger man didn't deserve to be ignored like he had been. Not only that, but he was blaming himself, when it was Kakashi and his ridiculous thoughts that were to blame. He made a mental note to get in contact with Iruka as soon as possible so he could apologize.

He unwrapped the gift, and opened up the box that had been inside. He couldn't help but smile at what he saw, pulling out the two stuffed animals that were inside. They were obviously meant for the baby, but Kakashi wondered if Iruka also knew what this meant to him when he bought them.

One of the stuffed toys was a scarecrow and the other was a dolphin. And in his mind this was Iruka's way letting him know that their baby would always have both of its parents in its life, no matter what ended up happening.

Kakashi clung to the stuffed animals tightly, much like Naruto had to his stuffed fox earlier that morning, and let all his pent up worries and fears slip away.

So what if Tsubaki wanted to be in their child's life, and so what if her and Iruka started a family of their own. It didn't matter, as long as he still had his baby. And their baby would always have both the scarecrow and dolphin watching over it, the thought of which brought him a peace of mind for the first time in days.

A/N: A Christmas chapter might seem a little out of place this time of year, but it fit in with the general time line within the story, so I thought I'd touch on it anyway. Let me know what you think! XD