It's morning. The alarm didn't go off!
Iruka attempted to sit up, only to find he couldn't move. Two slender arms wrapped tightly around his torso held him in place. The body attached to those arms was pressed along his own--all angles and solid muscle against his back and hips, yet somehow still comfortable. For a moment, he allowed himself to sink back into those arms, back into sleep. Iruka soaked up the heat he found there. He didn't want to move. Ever.
The head attached to the body leaned forward and lips grazed the back of his neck, nuzzling his unbound hair out of the way and planting a row of gentle kisses along the crook of his shoulder.
It felt natural in his sleep-exhausted, overstressed state, and Iruka didn't pull away. A small smile surfaced amidst his sleepy features as he snuggled closer.
"Good morning."
Suddenly, he found himself very much awake. ...in the hospital...in bed...with..."Kakashi?"
The bed shifted under Iruka's weight. A spring creaked as he rolled awkwardly onto his back, looking up at the man in disbelief. Kakashi's unmasked face peered down at him and Iruka couldn't resist the urge to reach out. He touched Kakashi's bare cheek with his fingertips, whispering, "You're alright." The answering smile held his gaze. "You're...you're awake...I'm glad."
The jounin's smile faltered, just slightly, and he looked away. "You were worried. I'm sorry."
"What are you sorry about?" Iruka leaned his head into Kakashi's shoulder. "Apologizing for being injured on a B-rank mission gone S-rank. Idiot." He might have sounded angry, but there was no heat in the comment, just relief. Kakashi let out a small huff of air, and then Iruka felt a chin resting lightly on his head. The arms found him again, pulling him closer into Kakashi's chest.
The mission room staff had been briefed on some of the details two days before. Kakashi and Genma had been on a routine assassination mission. A setup. The target had turned out to be a missing nin from Kumogakure, who happened to have a small army of chuunin-level fighters at his side who had followed him from Cloud. Alone, they wouldn't have stood a chance against either of the Leaf jounin, but together, it was too much.
Iruka had hurried from the meeting to sit at Kakashi's bedside while he slept, hoping he would awaken so he could tell him. Tell him...
"Kakashi? I...uh..." He watched Kakashi's eyes, pleading for understanding because he'd abruptly found himself unable to speak.
Iruka gasped as Kakashi brought his lips down to meet his own. It was another chaste kiss, like the one outside his apartment, and it left Iruka wondering briefly before reaching out and pulling the man's head back down into a kiss that was anything but chaste. He'd wanted to kiss him every day, waited for him to wake up so that he could.
But now that he was kissing him, Kakashi was blocking his probing tongue's entry and pulling away.
"Stop. Please."
"Wha--?"
"It's...I need a shower. And, uh, I really need to brush my teeth."
"Oh! Heh, yeah, I'll get Sakura. Just a minute." Blushing, he quickly left the room, returning with Sakura in tow. She was promising not to call Tsunade, as Iruka wanted just a few more minutes alone with Kakashi before the Copy-nin was whisked away to give his report. The kunoichi set about unhooking the various tubes and monitors from Kakashi's body, and Iruka slipped out to give him some privacy and get the man some semi-solid food.
Iruka returned while Kakashi was in the shower. He dropped a box of plain ramen on the table, wondering if the jounin was having any trouble--Were his legs wobbly? Did he have to hold onto the railing? Glancing around the room he noticed one of the two plastic chairs was missing. Ah. He leaned against the wall to wait, his mind starting to wander from concern to the image of Kakashi in the shower. Soapy. Naked.
After a few minutes of daydreaming, Kakashi, himself, strolled slowly from the bathroom wearing only his uniform pants. Dabbing at a sudden, embarrassing dribble of blood from his nose, Iruka looked away, blushing. When he turned back, slowly, wondering where Kakashi had disappeared to, he found the man standing directly in front of him.
Kakashi was smiling down tenderly at the dark-haired chuunin. Iruka felt his scar flush as he took in the perfect angles of Kakashi's face and the softness of his mouth. Normally, the mask was something the dark-eyed copy-nin would have reached for before his pants and its absence was a telling sign of his comfort and trust. Reaching down, he gently brushed Iruka's cheek with his fingers, "You haven't been home much, have you?" he asked gently.
Iruka lowered his eyes nervously, his voice a near whisper, "No…I didn't…I mean, I couldn't…you were so far gone…what if something had happened to you and there wasn't anyone around to find Sakura-chan or Tsunade-sama? I…I'm sorry if I overstepped…"
"It's alright," Kakashi interjected, cutting him off kindly. Gently gripping Iruka's slender shoulders, he bent slightly, smiling as he tried to align his gaze with Iruka's lowered eyes. With his attention captured, Iruka returned his grin, meeting the dark eyes of the Copy-nin once more. Placing pale hands on tanned cheeks, Kakashi brushed the chuunin's scar lightly with his thumbs. "I've spent a lot of time in this hospital over the years," he continued, "But I've never had anyone waiting for me when I woke up. I just want you to know, I'm glad that you're here. Iruka."
Leaning in, he kissed Iruka softly…tenderly, at first, then, he slowly wrapped his arms around the chuunin, pulling him close as their connection intensified sharply. Iruka parted his lips, pushing his tongue towards Kakashi and tasting the sweet, freshness of his mouth and the other responded with enthusiasm, knotting his fingers into the sleek, dark strands of Iruka's loose hair--kissing him hungrily, needily grinding against his body. Iruka started slightly as the signs of the silver-haired jounin's arousal became evident.
With a twinge of guilt, he carefully untangled himself from Kakashi's grasp, all the while stroking his hair and kissing him. With an abrupt pop, he broke away, taking a few steps back and leaning against the wall to catch his breath. "Kakashi, I..."
The Copy-nin flopped around to lean against the wall next to Iruka. "I know…me...too..."
Catching a glimpse of the clock--Who the hell put it back?!--Iruka realized he was running late for the academy, and he still needed to stop by the Hokage's office to speak with Tsunade. "Shit. Look, Kakashi, I need to go. I'll...Stop it, hey, I really need...ne, Kashi, stop!"
Kakashi's hands ceased running over Iruka's chest and fell to his side and the silver-haired jounin pouted at Iruka. "Come back?"
"Later. After school. You really need to get back into bed. Tsunade-sama will kill me if you over-do it the very day you wake up." He moved over to the phone to call Shikamaru to sub for him, hoping little Shikarou was already awake or it would be Temari doing the killing. Luck was on his side, however, and Shikamaru was on his way to the academy within minutes. "Alright, that's out of the way. I--what is it?" Kakashi was sitting on his hospital bed watching Iruka and looking strangely satisfied with himself.
"Oh, I woke up yesterday, so don't worry so much."
"Y-Yesterday? When?"
"Before you got out of school. Tsunade-sama was here and..." His sheepish grin was only magnified by the familiar way he scratched the back of his head. "...then you came in and talked to me. It was really nice."
"You were awake through all of that?" Iruka could feel his face turning red, the heat rising with his temper.
"You held my hand." Oh, yes, Iruka was sure that smirk was hiding some kind of perverse sense of accomplishment the man was feeling toward his own simple gesture of good will, kindness, and compassion. "You kissed it!" The smirk widened into a full-on grin bursting with smugness and Iruka's expression darkened.
He started pulling the covers up, a bit too roughly, as Kakashi leaned back onto the bed. "Just shut up and lie down. Damned jounin; can't trust them. They just mm-mma-mm--Dammit!" He'd let his guard down and Kakashi had taken the opportunity to plant one more kiss. Licking his lips and backing away, Iruka glared at Kakashi and declared in his sensei-voice, "I have a meeting with the Hokage. We'll deal with this later."
The leer on Kakashi's face led Iruka to imagine what the silver-haired jounin might have in mind for later and quipped, "You know, Genma made me an offer a while back. He said if you started acting like an ass, he'd be more than willing to comfort me in my loneliness."
Kakashi's expression fell into a feigned hurt frown and Iruka rolled his eyes, unable to stay mad with the infuriating jounin. Deep down, he was still afraid it was a dream and he'd awaken at Kakashi's bedside any moment. It had happened more than once over the past few days.
Not wanting to waste time being angry and desperately needing to leave, he muttered, "I'll be back as soon as I can, okay? Get some rest. We've got plenty of time for... other things...later."
Kakashi remained silent.
-----------------------------
He was building up his courage and didn't say a word until the last moment, when Iruka was at the door, about to step outside. "Ne, Iruka?" The brunette turned, eyebrows raised. "Would you gotothefestivalwithme?" The words came out just a bit too fast, held too much desperation and nervousness, and he knew it.
Iruka watched him, biting his lip, before marching back over to the bed and forcing his mouth down onto Kakashi's. Kakashi, for his part, was shocked into complete submission before opening to Iruka's kiss--less needful than before, more reassuring. A promise.
Breaking away yet again, Iruka smiled. "What do you think, Kashi? Satisfied? Back later." He winked and then he was gone, the door snapping shut behind him.
Kakashi's stunned expression slowly reverted to his earlier smirk. He let his head drop back on the pillow with a "hmph" and crossed his arms across his chest. Even though he was frustrated and hard, ready to be anywhere except the hospital room, he chuckled. Iruka had asked if he was satisfied. Yeah. I am.