Dinner went much better than Iruka had expected when he invited Genma, despite Genma's current condition, or perhaps because of it. After appearing in his apartment, Iruka unceremoniously dumped Genma on his couch. "I could have made it here by myself!" Genma protested, the second he was put down.
Iruka shrugged. "The exit was kind of fun, though. Dramatic, don't you think?"
Genma rolled his eyes. "How do you manage to keep that 'innocent-sensei" thing going with that sort of behavior, anyway, Ruka?"
Another shrug, and then "What do you want for dinner? I had a couple ideas, but if that was #23 you poisoned yourself with, you're probably not going to want anything too heavy."
"Taking care of me, as usual, eh?" Genma started to say he didn't care what Iruka made, but he figured he might as well keep the nostalgic ambiance going while he had it. "Miso soup. Rice. You for dessert?" The comment earned him a tap on the head, and Iruka headed off into the kitchen, fully expecting his friend to find some way to amuse himself while Iruka cooked.
As expected, when Iruka came to check on Genma, he found him poring over photo albums. It wasn't a surprise, but he was surprised to find that Genma also had one of Iruka's journals, and was glancing back and forth between the two. "You left it next to the photo albums," was all Genma would say by way of explanation, without even looking up.
Iruka stooped to see what particular entry had Genma's attention, and Genma took the opportunity to pull out his ponytail. Iruka glared but didn't move to fix it. After reading just a line or two or the book in his friend's hands, he blushed and snatched the journal away. His only comment, however, was "It seemed to make sense to file it next to that album, considering they line up with the events. I suppose it's weird to be shy about the journal but not the album, but... there's emotional stuff in that!" They both laughed at that part, and Iruka looked around. "Stay here, we'll eat in here. It's not a huge meal or anything."
"Don't forget sake!" Genma called.
That brought Iruka back to the living room door. "You are NOT drinking with #23 in your system still, antidote or no!"
Genma shook his head. "Not for me. For you. You look like you need a drink. Loosen up, Ruka, we're old friends here, aren't we?"
Iruka shook his head, but when he had finished bringing in the food, sake came out as well. Neither said anything about it. In fact, dinner was a pretty quiet affair, interspersed with short bursts of gossip and a (mostly but not completely false) story about how Genma wound up poisoned that day.
It wasn't until after dinner was over and everything was cleared away that the recent distance between them came up. "Oh, you should have been at Anko's party a couple weeks ago, some of your ex-students showed up and we had so much fun embarrassing them! Why weren't you..." Genma started, and then realized what he was saying and thought "That's it, he's going to kick me out in the street, and I'll never see him again..." Before Iruka could even respond, though, Genma waved his hands in the air. "Never mind that! Did I tell you the funny thing Naruto said to me the other day??"
Naruto was of course the perfect topic to get Iruka's mind off Genma's little slip, but he had to be a little inventive to follow it up. He didn't really have a funny story, but he tried to keep enough truth in to be believable. Not that it mattered, since this was Iruka he was talking to, and he tended to just let Genma say whatever he wanted. It was nice for Genma, who was used to being censored or chastised constantly, and nice for Iruka, who was used to being expected to protest anything offensive or off-color.
Genma was debating calling it a night. Iruka was supposed to "look after him", but he didn't want to push his luck with Iruka's hospitality. Despite the fun they were having, he knew Iruka still wasn't really quite over his depression and fear over the incident with Tsunade, and Genma hadn't missed that based on the timing, that whole incident was partially a matter of Iruka's emotions playing off his own. So he was just getting ready to tell Iruka he felt okay and wanted to head home when the knock on the door came. Iruka stood and excused himself to answer it, but the ever-curious Genma followed him to the door.
The scene that met Kakashi at Iruka's door was not one he expected. There was Iruka in casual gear, his hair down, and leaning against the wall behind him was Genma, missing his senbon as well as his vest and hitae-ate. Iruka's greeting, however, didn't make Kakashi feel unwelcome or as if he were interrupting anything, so he wasn't quite sure what to make of the situation.
"I was just going to... umm... apologize," Kakashi said lamely. "I have to go now, there's this little old lady..."
Genma moved up behind Iruka and draped an arm around his waist. "Oh come on, Kakashi, it's just a friendly little get-together. You could come join us, if you like," he added with a wink.
"Don't you dare move, Kakashi," Iruka growled and then turned on Genma. "Shiranui-san, if you don't get your hands off me, I will throw you out in the street, poison or no poison. Or better yet, I'll mix all your senbon up, and then NEXT time you poison yourself, it'll be with something much nastier." Genma stepped back, holding his hands in front of him, and decided to beat a hasty retreat to his former spot on Iruka's couch.
When Iruka turned back to Kakashi, he was smiling broadly again. "I'm sorry, I'd love to talk, but my idiot friend stabbed himself with his own stupid senbon and can't be left alone. I'm rather busy tomorrow at the Academy, but in the evening I'm free if you are."
Kakashi scratched the back of his head and pretended to be thinking about whether tomorrow was a good time. In reality, he was thinking about whether there was ever a good time, if he shouldn't just leave it at an apology and try to get on with his Iruka-drama-free life. But his mouth was saying "Sure, tomorrow, what time?" before he was sure that was what he wanted to say, and before he knew it, he had agreed to stop by Iruka's at six the next evening.
Genma not only didn't wind up kicked out in the street, Iruka refused to let him leave. Genma's mind came up with any number of interesting jokes about Iruka's motives in this matter, but before he could even start with them, Iruka said, "Naruto claims you're smarter than you look. Prove him right."