Theme 6: Tinsel
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A day after he had fainted at Anko's party, Kakashi was still kicking himself for reacting so strongly. It wasn't like he hadn't seen more erotic things in his life; usually, though, he had a little bit more notice and was able to prepare himself. Those droplets of eggnog and that tongue had come out of nowhere…
As if his mind had summoned him there, Kakashi turned the corner in the Mission room and found the object of his thoughts standing right there. Kakashi froze and stared.
The chuunin hadn't noticed his presence yet; Iruka seemed to be in his own little world. The sensei was draping strands of beads along the branches of a decorated pine tree and humming one of those Christmas songs that had been playing non-stop on the radio for weeks. Kakashi took the opportunity to observe the chuunin a little more closely.
'He's got a nice ass.' The jounin thought to himself. The grin hidden by his mask grew as Iruka bent over to retrieve more decorations out of a cardboard box by his feet. The man straightened back up, a plastic sealed bag in his hands.
Iruka used both hands to rip open the bag. He must have tugged a little too enthusiastically, because the bag ripped clean in half, and suddenly, the air was filled with tiny strands of silvery plastic flying in every direction. The metallic strings fluttered through the air, catching the light and sparkling. The sparkling even managed to distract Kakashi from his Iruka-watching.
There must have been a strong field of static electricity around Iruka, because every strand of the shining plastic seemed to divert from its course to the ground and stick instead to Iruka's lithe frame. Bits of it draped itself along his hair, more clung to his vest and pants. Kakashi thought shiny Iruka was absolutely delicious. 'I'd like to deck your halls.' He said to himself, not really sure where that one had come from.
"Damn tinsel!" Iruka cursed softly, clawing at his hair and brushing at his body to remove the stubborn strings. He turned around to see how the rest of the room had faired in the tinsel storm, and froze when he saw the room's second occupant.
Iruka studied Kakashi's face for a moment, before pronouncing slowly, "You're that jounin that fainted at Anko-chan's party, aren't you?"
Kakashi gave himself another mental kick. "Well, you're that chuunin that had all of his students convinced that Santa Clause was stalking them, right?" He replied defensively, before he could remind himself that he really should be nice to the man he wanted to seduce.
It seemed to be the right response, though, because Iruka chuckled and gave him a sheepish grin. "I'm never gonna live that down, am I? There is a story behind it, if you'd care to know the whole story." He offered.
"I'd love to know the whole story." Kakashi agreed. "Want some help with that?" He asked, as Iruka struggled to get the last of the tinsel out of his hair. Iruka's hands moved away and Kakashi stepped forward. Iruka's hair felt soft against the ungloved tips of his fingers as he carefully extracted the final silvery strands.
Iruka showed Kakashi how to drop the strands over the branches just so, how to space it out so that one side of the tree wouldn't shimmer more than the others, how to place strands strategically under the lights so they would reflect the maximum amount of light. All the while he told his story about his young students and their reaction to his Christmas lesson.
With two people doing the work, the tree decorating was finished in no time.
"Now we just need to put the star on top." Iruka proclaimed. He pulled a chair over to the side of the tree and hopped up on top of it.
"So, do I get to here why you fainted last night?" Iruka asked, still focusing on the top branches of his Christmas tree.
Kakashi was glad Iruka wasn't looking straight at him. "Low blood sugar." He lied. As long as he didn't look Iruka in the eye, the chuunin shouldn't be able to detect his falsehood. Iruka's ass wasn't located anywhere near his eyes. As long as Kakashi stayed focused on that (very easy, now that Iruka's ass hovered conveniently at face height), he was home free.
"Oh? You should have had some of that eggnog. It was very sweet. It would've boosted your blood sugar in no time." Iruka told him. The chuunin leaned forward to slide the star onto the topmost branch. His ass stuck out, ever so inviting.
'It really is a nice ass.' Kakashi thought to himself. A jounin could only take so much temptation.
MERRYCHRISTMASMERRYCHRISTMASMERRYCHRISTMAS
Just as Iruka finished straightening up the star on the tree, he felt a hand brush against his ass. He jumped and spun around, nearly knocking over the tree in the process. He looked down to find Kakashi standing right there beside him.
"Tinsel." Was all the jounin said by way of explanation. "I should probably go turn in my mission report now." He said. Kakashi left quickly.
Iruka stayed up on the chair until his heart slowed back down to its normal pace. 'I had a piece of tinsel there, that's all. Nothing to be so worked up about.' He scolded himself. 'Kakashi was just being a friend and pulling it off for me, so people wouldn't laugh.'
Iruka packed all of the leftover decorations back into the cardboard box. Something was nagging at him.
How had that tinsel gotten there? The majority of the flying strands had ended up on either the floor, Iruka's head, or along the front of his body. That wasn't the thought that was bothering him, though. A piece could've been clinging to his pony-tail and fallen down as he was decorating. The presence of the tinsel could be reasonably explained.
No, the thing that was bothering him was more of a sight. When Iruka had turned to look at Kakashi, his hands had been empty. Where had the tinsel he had removed disappeared to?
Iruka hefted the box of decorations and carried them out of the room. Even as he walked, he could still feel the ghost of Kakashi's touch removing a piece of tinsel that Iruka was fairly sure hadn't been there in the first place.
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Shiny things are the universal weakness of all jounin. Trust me on this one.
And let me tell you, that tinsel stuff is shiny and pretty, but it clings to friggin' anything! It's a pain to put on, a pain to take off. If it wasn't so shiny, I'd remove myself from it completely. And if Iruka is a little bit anal about how to place the tinsel on the tree correctly, that's because I was basing his actions off of my sister. She's a Christmas tree Nazi, and if I didn't get drafted to help her decorate every year, I'd be more than happy to just carry down the boxes for her and let her have her way with the tree. It'd be a lot safer for me.