Disclaimer: I lay claim only to my family, cat, house and car.

Wow, I'm soooo glad you guys don't mind the pace. I thought it might be a bit slow, but apparently it's juuuust right. Yay!

This chapter's inspiration came from the delightfully enticing picture by Admantius at y!Gallery. The picture is titled KakaIru 01. It's such a tease and so sweet. Speaking of which….

Picture This

Chapter 6

Iruka sat there and took in the sight of the sleeping man. He'd never really taken notice of Kakashi's looks before, but now that he was sitting there, waiting for him to wake up, he suddenly found himself intrigued.

I don't think I've ever seen his face.

The chuunin was seized with a strong urge to take advantage of the situation and pull the mask down and lift the headband up to reveal Kakashi's face. He slowly reached out, his fingertips hovering over Kakashi's nose for several seconds before he pulled his hand back.

What am I thinking?!

He sat there, hands clasped firmly in his lap and continued to examine Kakashi. He'd always thought the silver hair to be rather flashy for a man like him and believed that the copynin died his hair for some strange, no doubt egocentric, reason. But closer examination revealed that it was in fact his real hair color. Why did I never notice he had silver eyebrows? How odd. I wonder what his parents looked like.

He let his eyes roam to the mostly concealed face and only had to reprimand himself twice for still entertaining the idea of sneaking a peek at his face while he was still unconscious.

The nurse had removed his clothes to clean and bandage the wounds so Kakashi currently lay with his chest and shoulder bandaged. His arm was laying on top of the sheet and Iruka let his eyes wander down the length, admiring the definition and noting how long his fingers were. He'd never really had an opportunity to see Kakashi truly in action, but he could imagine those long slender fingers whipping through sign after sign with graceful ease. During training we weren't using jutsu or going full-on. Naruto has told me stories, but I'm sure nothing beats the real thing.

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A delectable smell was pulling Kakashi back to the conscious world and when he slowly blinked his eye into focus, he saw a figure with its back to him, walking to the other side of the room. Who? And what's that smell?

As he watched, the figure turned back around and stopped when he saw a sleepy blue eye looking at him.

"Well, well. It's about time you woke up."

Iruka smiled warmly and sat back down in the chair next to Kakashi's bed.

"How do you feel?"

"Confused. What's that…smell? Baked goods of some sort."

"Oh, that would be my breakfast. Sticky bun. It just looked too good."

"Any left?"

"No, sorry. But you shouldn't be eating that kind of stuff right now anyway."

The pair sat in companionable silence for a few moments and just as Kakashi was about to inquire as to why Iruka was in his room, a nurse came in.

"Good morning, Umino sensei. Did you even go home last night? You were here when I left last night."

"Good morning Miss. Saya. Don't worry, I didn't stay past visiting hours. Although I must admit, your hospital is the best place to get work done. Nice and quiet."

Kakashi was stunned at the easy give and take between the two as the nurse checked his vitals, completely ignoring her patient otherwise, as she smiled and laughed with Iruka.

"Well, Mr. Hatake, I'm glad to see you're awake. I'll bring you something to eat shortly."

And with a brilliant smile and wink she left Kakashi's room.

Kakashi stared at the close door a few moments then turned his attention to Iruka who suddenly seemed a little uncomfortable.

"You…..stayed?"

Iruka felt his cheeks get warm and he looked away from Kakashi, suddenly finding the picture on the wall very interesting.

"Well, you…..you did the same for me."

"Actually, I tried to stay with you but this nurse….she had a very convincing argument in the form of two bruisers so I had to leave."

Iruka's head turned to face Kakashi again, his embarrassment forgotten. He remembered thinking that Kakashi had been distracted by a nurse for other, more perverse reasons and he felt guilty for such an assumption. He really isn't anything like I thought, is he?

"You were afraid of some medical nin, Kakashi?"

"Actually, I was more scared of the nurse."

"Oh! I think I know what nurse you're referring to. Older woman, rather scary-looking with black hair and huge biceps? She was ready to kick me out too until I told her I was here to see you. She seemed willing to let me stay but her tone was more defeated than approving."

Kakashi smiled. He didn't care about the pain anymore. He couldn't feel anything but a warm happiness at having Iruka by his side, chatting away.

Iruka was glad to see Kakashi smiling. It was a major improvement from the last time he saw him but a little voice in the back of his head kept nagging: What do you look like, Kakashi? What does that smile look like?

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Iruka waved as he passed the nurses' station and the two women smiled and waved, not bothering to ask where the teacher was going. He'd been showing up everyday for three days straight, visiting Kakashi while he recovered. The gossip among the nurses was rampant. They had patched up and healed the Copynin many times before, but never had anyone, other than Gai and most recently his students, come to visit, much less everyday.

Iruka knocked on the door but didn't wait for permission to enter. The door creaked open and Iruka stepped through, closing the door behind him and making his way over to Kakashi's bedside where he sat down with a sigh. He let his eyes study the figure lying in the bed, looking peaceful and unaware of his surroundings or the person next to him.

"I know you're faking. Open your eyes."

A blue eye opened and the face mask showed a curve to indicate a smile.

"How do you always know?"

Iruka chuckled as he unzipped his vest and started pulling out a few small packages and a bottle.

"I'm a teacher of devious children, Kakashi. There's nothing I can't see through."

Kakashi pushed himself up into a sitting position with a groan and waved off Iruka's concerned look.

"I'm fine. My body is just stiff from being confined to this bed."

"Well maybe this will make it better."

Iruka smiled at the raised silvery-white eyebrow and the look of awe on Kakashi's face that was evident even with most of his face concealed. He held the chilled bottle in his hand and then looked to Iruka.

"I didn't know what brand you liked, I hope it's ok. I just thought it might….take the edge off."

"You are a saint among men, Umino Iruka."

Normally Iruka wouldn't condone drinking so early in the day, but it was almost lunch time and he truly felt sorry for Kakashi being confined to bed for such a long period of time. Besides, I was hoping he'd want it badly enough to take off his mask. It really is an unnatural obsession, but I can't seem to help myself!

The injuries Kakashi received shouldn't have been life threatening. However, whatever sliced him had been tinged with some sort of bacteria that stopped the healing process. So combined with the fact that he had very little chakra, the wounds caused him more damage than normal. It took the doctors two days to discover it and then another day of healing before they declared Kakashi safe and clean.

"Oh that's good stuff."

Iruka blinked from his thoughts and focused back on Kakashi to see him holding an empty bottle. How did he---? I was sitting right here and I missed----?

Iruka shook his head and chuckled at his bad luck as he placed the other packages on Kakashi's lap.

"Just as you requested."

Kakashi smiled at Iruka and then opened the three packages. Ever since he woke up in the hospital to find Iruka next to him, Kakashi had felt this light sensation in his chest and now, looking down at the contraband food Iruka had smuggled in for him, that light feeling spread, so now it felt like his whole body was floating.

"Thank you, Iruka. I really do appreciate this. The food here is worse than field rations."

"Not a problem. Although….why not ask the children? They would have liked to do something for you. They were very worried about you."

"I know. But let us think about this: if they had managed not to kill each other and actually agree on what to bring me they still would have been caught because no doubt Naruto would have insisted on bringing ramen which the nurses would have smelled from a mile away. Plus," Kakashi raised his empty bottle in salute to Iruka. "They would have never thought to bring me beer."

"Hmph. Nor should they. But I don't think you're giving them enough credit. Those children are very crafty and resourceful."

"But they have yet to learn how to combine their skills and mesh properly as a team."

"Hmmm. I see. Well then, I guess you have your work cut out for you."

Both men chuckled and the two talked off and on for another hour or so, Iruka leaving when Gai showed up, insisting on helping Kakashi to regain his "brilliant manliness and aura of strength".

As Iruka left he looked back one last time and saw Kakashi giving him a pleading look of "save me" and he just chuckled, waving goodbye and leaving Kakashi in Gai's enthusiastic hands.

To be continued….