The next few hours went by painstakingly slowly. Kakashi was still in the ICU. While Iruka had been allowed to stay in the room and wait until he woke up, he couldn't quite justify sitting right there by the bed and being the first thing the poor guy would see when he woke up.

Also, he didn't want Naruto to catch him ogling over that handsome face.

Even more annoyingly, the lower half was still obscured by an oxygen mask. If it hadn't been for the fact that it helped Kakashi breathe, Iruka would totally utilize this moment of unconsciousness to peer behind the mask. The fact that anyone could be this enchanting, barely showing more than the top half of their face, seemed almost ridiculous.

Or maybe it added to it, Iruka wasn't sure.

Naruto's stomach groaned loudly from his seat by the window. The last time Iruka had looked over to the teen, he had been asleep (he only hoped he hadn't noticed the thin smile he'd had on his lips as he peered over to the mummified body on the cot across the room).

"Dad, I'm hungry," Naruto stated obviously, casting him a crooked smile while holding a flabby hand on his belly.

"You're always hungry," Iruka returned curtly.

"Of course! I'm a growing boy, dattebayo!"

Iruka sighed, shifting in his seat to grab the wallet in his back pocket, from where he pulled out a few bills and handed it over to the blonde.

"Get me a cup of coffee from the cafeteria too, would you?"

"Dattebayo!" the kid repeated and darted off, leaving Iruka by himself in the hospital room, free to ogle Kakashi all he wanted.

Kakashi didn't wake up that day. The doctors had informed Iruka that there was no way to know for sure, but that they expected him to wake up within the next twenty-four hours. Eventually, they had to go home for the night. It was a school day tomorrow after all.

The next day, the dramatic events from the day before were all the kids seemed to talk about.

"I heard his head exploded on impact!"

"I heard that parts of his brain were left on the ground after the ambulance drove off!"

"Yeah, I saw it! It was totally gnarly!"

"I heard the cat attacked him and made him fall. Is that something we should report to the police?"

Iruka was severely concerned about how this bunch would preform on the upcoming exams.

The day proceeded, mostly as usual. The principal obviously wanted a few words with him about what had happened and wanted to arrange a meeting between them and Konoha High School's headmaster. Also, they would have to make a schedule for the kids that had witnessed the accident to meet with the school consular. There had been a storm of phone calls from distressed parents that had heard about what had happened from their kids and demanded to know what was going on, so they would have to arrange a meetup with them as well.

And on top of that, the hospital called when it was still an hour left of the day and told them that Kakashi seemed to be waking up.

His eyes were fluttering open from time to time, and he had tried to remove the oxygen mask (Iruka's heart made a leap upon hearing that). He would likely be out of his haze soon, if he wanted to be there when he woke up.

Iruka thanked them and returned to class. He didn't really want to explain how he had somehow ended up as Kakashi's stand-in emergency contact, but he wouldn't be able to focus if he was to stay, so instead, he told them that, in the aftermath of yesterday's events, he allowed them to leave early to be with their families.

Naruto scowled at his foster dad skeptically. Even as his fellow students didn't hesitate to storm out, cheering and talking amongst themselves, he lingered behind, for once kinda doing what he was told and stayed with his family.

"Who was on the phone?" he asked instead. He had seen Iruka talking in it before they entered the classroom for their last period of the day.

"Oh, uh," Iruka hesitated for a moment. He hadn't really told Naruto about his decision to follow Kakashi's recovery further, as long as nobody else volunteered and seemed more equipped for the task, of course.

"It was from the hospital," he said, waiting to access his reaction. Naruto blinked a couple of times but didn't seem too surprised.

"About Kakashi-sensei?" he asked, just to make sure. Iruka felt slightly proud that his kid had already started to address Kakashi as his teacher. It seemed… respectful, which, in all honesty, wasn't one of his son's strong traits (he swore Naruto did have them, they… just needed some more time to figure out exactly which).

"Yeah, he… He's waking up," Iruka said, again, waiting for a reaction. He did recognize that this whole situation was a bit strange, and he really wouldn't blame him if Naruto didn't want anything to do with it, and even worse, opposed it (or questioned his intentions cause he honestly had no idea).

He was already his teacher's child, and now, said teacher, and dad , was about to invite his future teacher into their lives too. Maybe he was being selfish…

"So, are we going back to the hospital now?" Naruto asked, seemingly not bothered at all. In fact, his knee was shaking and he seemed restless. Did he actually want to go?

"You don't have to come with me if you rather wanna hang out with your friends or just go home."

Naruto shrugged, grabbing his backpack and got up from his desk. "Na, I'll come with. The hospital cafeteria had amazing ramen."

Iruka couldn't help but smile. He couldn't be sure if Naruto was serious or not- anyone else and he would think that it was an excuse to seem like they didn't care, but Naruto really did love his ramen.

"Well, let's get going then."

They entered the hospital room together with the doctor Iruka had been talking to the day before. He gave them a short update on what had been done and how Kakashi had been responding to his treatment. It was mostly positive, but his heart rate had dropped a few times and they were paying close attention to it.

Iruka thanked him before he exited the room. Naruto was already on his way down to the cafeteria, so Iruka was free to stare at the beautiful face as uncensored as he wanted. They had removed the oxygen mask now and replaced it with a nasal cannula.

The only reason he recognized that though, was because the wires were peeking out of his disposable surgical mask. Why would they replace the surgical mask?

Really, if he wanted to look at Kakashi's face, the time would be now.

But, the fact that the hospital had actually replaced the bloodied mask he had been wearing when brought it, made him decide that he wouldn't take advantage of this situation. From the few words Kakashi and he had exchanged, he had the impression that Kakashi was a rational guy. From the clothes he had chosen to wear, Iruka assumed him to be practical and modest. It had to be a good reason he wore that mask before, and that only solidified when it had been replaced now.

Iruka couldn't imagine what it could be, though.

The world seemed unfamiliar and far away.

His body aced furiously, one of the most severe pains he could remember feeling in his entire life. His eyelids were heavy, and he couldn't really control them as good as he had gotten used to through years of having to permanently close his left one.

Remembrance came slowly. First of what had happened, and then of why he truly hated cats (now with a vengeance).

So, he gathered that he was in the hospital. The steady beeping from a heart monitor close by and the unmistakable presence of something intruding through his nostrils, pushing air into his lungs made that much clear.

However, something, or rather someone, became apparent in his peripheral. He wasn't able to turn his head enough to figure out who the presence belonged to, though.

Fuck! Everything hurt so much . His whole body felt like a huge bubble of pain and he couldn't move as much as a single digit. He should probably alert this unfamiliar presence to his lucidness though. Let him know he was awake.

"Uhhh," was all he could get out. It was supposed to mean 'who's there', but his lips didn't want to cooperate at the time. It did startle whoever was there though. The contour of whoever it was shifted, but instead of revealing itself, it backed out of the proximity of his vision.

"Feeeh…" he uttered uselessly, meaning to tell this person to fuck off for being difficult to identify. He didn't like being watched by someone he didn't know.

The person said something, but it sounded as if it was underwater and Kakashi briefly wondered if he was talking to a mute, before realizing that he was probably the problem himself.

"Whaa?" he uttered. It was as close to an actual word he'd been able to pronounciate up to this point, and Kakashi felt weirdly proud of himself. Brown hair in a pony-tail appeared into his vision, and Kakashi couldn't think of anyone he knew that had that. Maybe it was a nurse or something.

Then, a scarred nose registered in his consciousness, and it felt weirdly familiar. After a moment of racking his sluggish memory, he recollected the middle school teacher he had met that day. He had a scar like that- but why the hell would he be here?

Another moment went by in slight confusion, before the face became clear, proving that it was, in fact, the teacher from the middle school that was in the room with him.

"I's you," he slurred, finally remembering his name. "...'ruka, yeah?"

"Yes," Iruka stated positively. His lips slowly pursed into a smile.

"Wha'you doin' here?" Kakashi was still unable to pronounce his words precisely, and he felt embarrassed and ashamed by the sound of his own garblings.

Suddenly, the door slammed open and a blonde, prickly-haired kid entered the room.

"Daaad, I'm a hundred yen short on the large bowl of ramen…" the teen complained loudly before halting in his steps, realizing that Kakashi was waking up.

"I- I'll come back later…" he muttered and started closing the door, before pausing. "D'you have a coin though?"

Iruka got up, reaching into his pocket and giving his entire wallet to the kid before shoving the door shut in his face and returned to Kakashi.

"I- I'm not sure," he said earnestly. "I came with you in the ambulance yesterday, and it just kinda ended up like this."

That made sense, Kakashi thought. Iruka appeared like that sort of person- the kind to take care of a baby bird falling from its nest and nursing it back to health before releasing it back into the wild. He probably thought of Kakashi in the exact same way.

Little did he know that Kakashi thought of himself as the predator that had chaced the bird away from its nest and into his care in the first place.

Not to mention that so many people had taken Kakashi in as the little injured bird too, only to release him back into the wild to be attacked by yet another predator- feeling happy and Selfridges all the same.

"They tried to call your uncle, but they couldn't reach him. There didn't seem to be anyone else to call- so I guess I decided to stay to make sure you were okay."

Kakashi only wished this man wasn't so heart-shatteringly adorable, cause that would make him so much easier to reject. His small stature (really wasn't that small- but he was shorter than Kakashi and Kakashi would denounce anyone who proclaimed that it was only because of his gravity-defying hair; he wasn't short goddammit! ) and his tanned skin along with his attractive facial features, along with the scarred nose gave him so much personality. His kind, charcoal eyes testified of someone who was truly kind . It nearly tempted him to allow himself to be cared for by this good samaritan.

But that would be a terrible idea. Everyone that cared about him, would hurt him or end up being hurt . He couldn't risk this being yet another one of those instances, especially not when that dense kid from the day before was his kid. He was supposed to be his teacher next year after all.

He could also tell that this man was already invested in his recovery, so he had to break it to him gently- had to get rid of him before anyone else could...

"Than… ks," he said still- straining himself to pronounce the word properly. After all, he did deserve a proper thanks after Kakashi had caused him so much trouble.

"That's all right. That fall was pretty bad," Iruka continued with jittery hands, dancing around, cracking knuckles and intertwining in an obvious show of nervousness.

(Iruka kinda wanted to rest his hands on top of Kakashi's, but he held himself back).

"I just wanted to make sure that you were okay and that… that you had someone there for you."

And that was the magic words, Kakashi thought.

The words that proved that once again, someone had decided that he needed their help and would stay there for 'as long as he needed them to' without actually saying it out loud.

They would stay back, help him and end up being broken by the Hatake-curse, instead of breaking it as he had always hoped the would when he was young and foolish.

Time and time again, life had proved to him that there was no such thing as a happy ending for a Hatake. He guessed that the only reason Jiraiya had been as lucky as he had (yet having his fair share of heart-ache as well) was that he had avoided the damned name by having a different father than his own father did- therefore avoiding the name and being able to live a normal (as normal as anyone in his family could) life.

"I'm really sorry this happened to you, Kakashi-san. I know you simply wanted a low-key day to observe your future students… I shouldn't have let my student's shame you into climbing to the roof. I should have just called the fire department, or… ignored them, really."

Kakashi realized that Iruka was resting his head in his hands- Well, not really resting as much as clutching it.

"...we've seen that cat on the school ground for months- it's a freaking drama-queen. Its owners loves it as if it was their legitimate child. It's just a spoiled, bratty cat, and it probably only wanted some attention. I hate that cat," Iruka muttered anguishedly.

Even in his painful state, because of said cat, Kakashi couldn't help but be immensely amused by the teacher's scattered ramblings. He also really appreciated someone else sharing he's feelings about the fat fuck- uh, blob of a feline.

"I hate cats," Kakashi muttered without actually meaning to- he was surprised by how clear his voice suddenly sounded.

The laugh that hummed through Iruka was truly pleasant. It felt real and not downgrading and pitiful, as he admittedly had expected from a guy that felt guilty for landing him with both legs in external fixing-devices in a hospital bed, after trying to rescue a cat that really didn't actually need saving as much as a diet plan.

"I like cats, but I kinda want to drown this particular one," Iruka murmured, scratching above his scarred nose.

Kakashi kinda wanted to ask what had given it to him, but knew how much he hated being asked the same question himself, so he kept himself from it.

A strange sensation washed over him. Usually, he would push people away- he knew he did. No matter if he cared for them or not, they didn't deserve to be associated with him. It would only mean trouble.

Yet- he kinda wanted to spend so more time with this man.

What could possibly happen in a hospital? As much as he hated being there, this was kind of the best place for him to bound with anyone. Whatever happened, there would be people close by to help- and really, what was the worst thing that could happen?

Well, he guessed he could die and leave this new (possible) friend with kind of a void in his heart, but that would seem slightly out of character for him. He was the one who survived, after all.

It was everybody else who died.

Thank you for reading! I really appreciate it if you leave a comment, especially now in the early stages of the story. I tend to never know where I'm going with the stories I write and take it as I go; so I always welcome input.

Oh, and also; from what I've understood, Naruto (and Kushina)'s outbursts of "dattebayu" mean something along the lines of "you know" or "believe it". Please correct me if I'm using it incorrectly.

So, I kinda made a thing about Kakashi being short in this chapter. I know that he isn't- I just got an idea from this fanmade comic I read on Tumblr that seemed funny to me. I've been looking for it, trying to find who made it, but unfortunately, I couldn't find it. I'll explain it to you, and explain the continuance of it that's developed inside my mind. (Send me the link if you know it!)

Team 7 talks about how Kakashi is shorter than Gai- then, Kakashi interjects and stands beside him. He's clearly shorter, but then he straightens his back and it turns out that he's just as tall as him.

I have an idea of a follow-up strip, where the kids are still talking about this. Then, Kakashi appears to prove that he's tall and stands beside Iruka who he is clearly taller than. Then, someone smoothes down his hair, and it turns out that in reality, he's not much taller than Iruka.

I dunno. I just find the idea kinda cute.