Chapter 3: The Morning After

(Monday, September 5)

Iruka was sitting at his desk, doing what he usual did, grading papers. But for some reason it wasn't such a bother today. The headache of reading another miserably written paper didn't come, classes this morning were a breeze and he actually let the students out an hour early. He hated to admit it, but Aiko was on his mind. And with her soft flowing chocolate brown hair and small dark eyes dancing around in his thoughts, the day just seemed to go quicker. And better. He had to ask Kakashi for her number.

Humming a soft tune to himself, he flipped through the papers, marking randomly when he saw the wrong answer. He noticed slightly that Genma and Raidou walked in the otherwise empty teacher's lounge, but nearly jumped out of his seat when Kakashi entered right after them.

"Iruka-sensei, I didn't know you cared." The silver hair man drollied out.

"I need to talk to you." Iruka hissed, gesturing for the man to get closer.

"About?" The man asked innocently, taking his sweet time to come over.

"You know!" Iruka grumbled back.

Kakashi chuckled faintly. "You enjoyed your date?"

"Yes. She was beautiful." Kakashi tried not to snicker. One of the other men in the room wasn't able to handle himself that easily but stopped when his companion kicked him sharply in the shins. "You must give me her number so I can get in contact with her again." In the corner of the teacher's lounge there was a large crash as someone fell out of their desk chair, but Iruka paid no attention.

"I don't know. I will ask her. I can't just give out her number."

Iruka frowned. "I won't do anything bad to her. I'm not going to stalk her. Why would it be bad to give me her number?"

"Maybe she doesn't want to see you again." Kakashi mumbled in what, if Iruka took the time to notice, was the first moment he was nervous in quite awhile. He hadn't expected this to happen.

"Please Kakashi-sensei, she is all I can think of."

"I-I will talk to her." Iruka nearly whined and pouted, sticking his lower lip out in a very adorable way if Kakashi's mind wasn't somewhere else.

"I should go find my students." Kakashi mumbled, quickly turning around and leaving the room. Nobody seemed to realize it was the end of the school day.

"I refuse! No! I didn't even want to do this in the first place! Just tell him the truth that you set him up with a male!"

"Genma, are you going to wreck poor Iruka? One more date, but break it off this time."

Genma gave his deadliest look to Kakashi and Raidou. Daggers were nearly coming out of his eyes.

Both men, in retaliation, were slightly pouting.

It wouldn't be nice to hurt the local favorite of the Academy.

"No. I refuse." Genma stated, but his voice didn't have as much force behind it as it did before.

"But Iruka, he's so fragile." Raidou almost whined out.

"Great. Kakashi here can break him. It was his stupid idea to have me dress up as a girl anyway." He started to chew more tightly on the needle in his mouth. The other two just store at him, making Genma twitch under their glare.

"Fine." He crumbled. "One last freaking time. But I swear to the gods, if I hear either of you making anymore jokes about me in a women's clothing I will personally castrate you!"

"Is he always this grumpy?" Kakashi mumbled.

"Yeah, unfortunately."

"Grr!" Genma growled. "I can't believe the position you've put me in Kakashi!"

"I would be more interested in the positions Iruka will get you in!" Raidou was promptly smacked on the head with Genma's shoe.

"Bastards!" He hissed as he stormed away.

TBC...

Ok, so i know the man's supposed to be cool under pressure but i would imagine having to get back in drag to break off a date with another male teacher would ruffle anybody's feathers. so, maybe he's a little off character. that's ok...