OOOOOOOOOO

The bed was empty when he woke, but the area his arm was thrown over had a vague memory of body heat that was not his own. He slid slowly off the mattress, his legs trembling under him when they tried to support him since they were still weak from the drugging yesterday.

He followed his nose to the kitchen and was surprised to find the copy-nin standing at his stove looking entirely too domestic.

"Kakashi-sensei, I... Thank you. For bringing me home last night. I hope it wasn't too much trouble."

"Maa, my pants have seen better days."

Iruka gaped at him, unable to suppress the furious blush.

The jounin laughed out loud. "Don't look so scandalized! You just fell asleep on my thigh and drooled a little bit. I'll survive."

Iruka tried to muster a glare, but was interrupted by a particularly loud complaint from the vicinity of his stomach. Without a word, Kakashi passed him a plate of food.

"Thanks, but you really didn't have to..."

"Tsunade-sama said you'd be starving when you woke. I thought about letting you fend for yourself, but then I took a look through your cabinets. How do you survive on this?"

"Look, we've been through this before. I know I usually eat junk, I just never feel like cooking. Remember, you used that as an excuse to..." He fell quiet when he realized that Kakashi - and not the Kakashi he'd been talking about - was staring at him. "Sorry. That was from the dream. The first one…"

"I remember you telling me about it."

"I'm sorry. It's just been really hard to compartmentalize it all." Iruka let gravity pull him into the chair next to his kitchen counter. "I keep forgetting that you're not him."

After gathering his own plate, Kakashi parked himself on the second chair he'd pulled in earlier that morning. He picked at the food half-heartedly, thinking much more about what he was about to say than what he was looking at. "Why do you think they wanted to use you to identify the murderer?"

"Well, Tsunade-sama said that the way my brain reprocessed history was very 'astute.'" Iruka snorted. "But that really doesn't seem like a good reason."

"No, this particular stupidity was spawned by something else." He set the plate onto the counter, food untouched. "They believe that you have remarkable insight into people's personalities and are able to predict their actions based on only a brief encounter. They hoped that you would be able to do that with the list of ANBU suspects they had."

"Oh. But how did they control what I saw?" Iruka vaguely remembered his demanding question from last night, and he was still interested in the mechanics of it.

"I was talking to you most of the time. Directing you towards the mission desk. Giving you the descriptions of the ANBU they thought could be responsible. You reacted strangely when I gave you the description of Himura."

"So you had me run into him later on my way home."

"What?" Kakashi shook his head. "No. After I'd finished with the list of ANBU, I didn't say anything. We were just waiting for you to wake up, and you…you started reacting the same way as you did when I first read his description. I told you to be careful."

"You actually said that? I mean, it was in my dream, but I figured that was something my brain had cooked up."

"I knew that you were able to predict people's actions. I knew that the person you'd encountered was likely the murderer, and when I saw that same expression on your face as when I'd first mentioned him, I knew you had to be encountering him again. We found out later that he was targeting young, male chuunin. From whenever you met him in the real world, originally, you were able to predict that you would become a target…a victim even. You were able to project that he would seek you out and that he would attack you. I was afraid of…precisely what happened. So I tried to warn you."

"Well, thanks. Wish I'd listened." Iruka sighed. "But, on the other hand, I'm really glad I didn't. I'm not sure that ass from Investigations would have taken it seriously." He grabbed a mouthful of food and chewed thoughtfully, processing the information. "It's hard to believe that I could pick up on all that. I don't even remember ever meeting him…Eh, maybe it will all be just a complete waff."

OOOOOOOOOOO

He hadn't wanted to ask Iruka's opinion on the investigation techniques. He wanted to tell him what he'd tried to tell him last night. Wanted to explain why he kept confusing his Kakashi with the actual jounin.

The words were boiling in the base of his throat, but their explosion was rudely interrupted by a rhythmic hammering on the door behind him that had no regard for the fact that it was still unreasonably early on a Saturday morning.

Given the glare Iruka aimed at the door, he had to turn to see if the wood started smoldering. The chuunin stuffed another forkful of food into his mouth before he rose and headed for the door. As he yanked it open, he snapped. "Shouldn't you two still be hung over, tangled up in your sheets and snoring?"

From his angle, he couldn't quite see around the door.

"Che. I wish. We're doing paperwork for the Hokage today so we had to stay sober last night." The voice sounded terribly dejected.

"Looked like you had a good night last night, though." The other person managed to stuff a leer into his voice that would have made Jiraiya proud.

"Yeah, what's up with getting the copy-nin to carry you home when you're drunk. Didja get lucky last night too?"

"Izumo!" Iruka's fingers tightened around the door so much that it creaked, and Kakashi smothered a snicker by taking a large bite out of the corner of the toast that he hadn't manage to burn quite so badly.

"Don't look so appalled, Iruka; you should have known we'd want all the gory details."

"One, that's disgusting, two, I fail to see how it's any of your business, and three, I can't tell you, so bugger off."

"Can't tell us? Why? Is it mission related? Pleaaaase, come on, Iruka."

"Yeah, we spend ninety percent of our time either guarding the gate or pushing paperwork."

"We haven't been on a mission in…Four times three…Plus…" A pause. "Carry the one…"

"A couple of months." The other voice interrupted. "The point is that we're starved for interesting info."

"Interesting info?" Ah, the other one was Kotetsu. No surprise there. When he'd first met the pair of chuunin, he'd been almost certain that he'd only heard one of their names and had missed the second, and though 'Kotezumo' seemed a little bizarre, it had still taken him several months to sort it all out. He watched their eyes widen as he purposefully filled the doorway, bracing his arms around Iruka and standing closer than was absolutely necessary.

Izumo's surprise lasted for a scarce second before his face dissolved into a deep smirk. "Well then, sorry to bother." He put his hands in the small of his compatriot's back and shoved him down the hall, calling over his shoulder. "Enjoy your morning." The word 'enjoy' was somehow dragged out and carried all sorts of implications that Kakashi could easily picture.

He did read Icha Icha on a regular basis after all.

After they'd disappeared around the corner, Iruka drove his elbow back into Kakashi's stomach only to yelp as it practically bounced off the muscles concealed beneath his uniform shirt.

"Was that entirely necessary?" Iruka was surreptitiously rubbing his elbow as he side-stepped the taller man and returned to his food.

"Maa, now they will assume we had sex instead of associating it with a mission, which would be much more dangerous given the fact that they are still waiting to catch the perpetrator."

"Please. They're not going to assume we had sex."

"Why not?" Kakashi felt a twinge of… dejection? He squashed it. "I'm a good-looking guy. Or am I not good enough for you, Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka spluttered. "Not…not good…You… You're the copy-nin, for god's sake! You could sleep with anyone you wanted. Why would you stoop to sleeping with an academy chuunin? They'd never believe it! I wouldn't even believe it! I mean, when you kissed me, I…I thought…I…" He actually pressed a hand over his mouth, as if holding in the rest of the words would take back what he'd just said.

"I kissed? You kissed me, sensei."

"I-I…"

"Is this another problem with compartmentalization? But I don't remember hearing this part of the story."

"It's none of your business."

"I kissed you in your coma and that part of the story is none of my business?"

"It wasn't you." Iruka hugged his arms tightly around his body.

"It was me!" Kakashi dropped his arms to his side with a huff. "Do you realize why you can't separate me and him? Do you realize why they thought you have this fantastic ability?"

"I…don't…"

"You barely know me. You believe that the Kakashi from your dream is a personality that you needed wrapped in my outer form because it was convenient. But if that was the case, you probably should have picked someone you actually liked. Even if it was one of those two bozos."

Iruka looked like he was thinking about objecting to the characterization of his neighbors – they were of the same rank after all, and Kakashi suspected despite the attitude between them that they were usually good friends – but decided against it. "So my brain chooses badly…What's your point?"

He had well-developed verbal defense mechanisms, probably from dealing with students all the time. Kakashi could feel the frustration and embarrassment dripping off every word. He grabbed the chuunin's shoulders to keep the other man from just walking away.

After a long pause, he finally managed to put it into words. "What he did and what I would do in the same situation are identical."

"…Really?" Iruka stepped backwards out of Kakashi's grip. "You and me, we…we don't get along. We don't even talk."

"Yes, you're right. But if I found you in collapsed and on the verge of a panic attack, I would help you, and I would check up on you. We are on the same team; we are both shinobi of the Village of the Hidden Leaf. Whether you and I are friends is immaterial, we are teammates. Beyond everything else, that is the most important."

"But that…it doesn't end there. We ate lunch every day, I told you. That's beyond checking up on me. The real you and me….we…wouldn't."

"I'm here, aren't I? I could have left you to the mercy of those investigation goons! I could have left you here alone when I brought you home last night!" He'd backed Iruka up to the wall and was practically yelling in the other man's face.

Unfortunately – or fortunately – the chuunin was yelling right back.

"You're just taking care of a teammate! It's the same argument! They based this whole nonsense off of a misguided idea that I can predict people's actions, all because you think that you'd do the exact same things that the other Kakashi did. But you have no evidence of that!"

"You want evidence? How about this ANBU – if he turns out to be the killer, will that satisfy you?"

"Satisfy me? You think I want you to satisfy me?" The words echoed off the cobweb filled corners of the room.

They stared at each other for a split second – Kakashi fighting down childish giggles because he was certain Iruka would hit him for it – before Iruka snorted, his lips twisting and his eyebrows arching, and he burst into laughter. He folded at the waist, hand pressed against his stomach and his head falling forward onto Kakashi's shoulder.

Kakashi snickered. "Maa, who'd have guessed you that you're so immature, sensei."

"Shove it. I can't help that I spend all my time with ten-year-olds." Iruka froze and pushed away from Kakashi, plastering himself against the wall.

"I said that, didn't I, and you said that in response, didn't you?"

He'd twisted his head to the side so that he didn't have to look Kakashi in the eye, but nodded slowly.

"What did I do?"

Iruka opened his mouth before turning his head and fully meeting Kakashi's gaze, his eyes piercing and measuring. "I'm not going to tell you. If you really think that I can predict people's decisions and actions, then you'll do what you did."

Kakashi cocked his head to one side, studying the other man's expression for any lack of resolve. "Deal."

"Because you like a challenge, right?"

"No. Because I'm sure that whatever I did in your coma is exactly what I'm going to do, so it shouldn't be hard at all."

Silence hung between them, and he could see Iruka picking up and discarding response after response until he settled on a teasing tone that helped to diffuse the remaining tension in the room.

"So, basically, you're just lazy."

Kakashi clapped his hand over his heart., more than happy to play into a more comfortable zone. "You cut me to the quick, sensei."

Iruka rolled his eyes.

"On that insulting note, I will take my leave. Tsunade-sama said that you shouldn't try anything too strenuous today." His vest was draped over the back of the couch where he'd left it the night before. He slipped it on, briefly wondered how his appearance in the door only partway into his uniform must have looked to Kotetsu and Izumo, and had to suppress a grin. "And I left some food in the fridge for you for lunch." He pulled the door open, still zipping up the vest and stopped short at two faces with identical Cheshire cat grins that met him in the hall.

"Sooo." Izumo dragged the word out. "You didn't satisfy him? Too bad he can't do anything strenuous. It's going to be a very frustrating day."

He leaned back around the open door to see Iruka with his face in his hand. "The walls are really thin."

OOOOOOOO

Good smells virtually poured out of the cracks around his leaky door. He really needed to move to a better place. Maybe if he and Kotetsu and Izumo pooled their pay, they could afford something nice.

No. He barely slept as it was and his bedroom didn't even share a wall with theirs. Honestly, what were they, rabbits? Besides, he'd be all too likely to return home to find them naked in the living room. Or worse, in his room.

Bad idea.

He shook his head, trying to get himself to focus. It smelled like something was cooking in his house. But it had been entirely too long a day even though it was Sunday. He'd slept the away the rest of Saturday after Kakashi'd left and had returned to the mission desk that morning. Even with all the extra rest, he'd wrenched his neck several times. The palm of his hand made a nice support, but every time he'd nodded off, his chin slipped from his hand, and he barely caught himself before smacking his face on the desk.

The floorboards of his balcony were slightly wet with condensation that had formed as the temperatures dropped drastically when the sun went down, so he didn't quite kneel, choosing to crouch and keep the knees of his pants dry.

The old, warped door was a little hard to open from that position, but a little, well-applied chakra forced it open. He rolled through the narrow opening, rising with a pair of weapons.

"Evening, Iruka-sensei. Are you planning on killing me for making dinner?"

He only felt slightly stupid, kneeling in the center of his rug with a pair of ordinary kunai, threatening the copy-nin.

Come to think of it, he was actually lucky that he didn't stand a chance of sneaking up on Kakashi, or he might have wound up dead.

"Kakashi-sensei, I…I'm sorry." He pocketed the kunai. "You're making dinner?"

"I hope you like it. I don't get a chance to practice very much." He tasted a thick, simmering liquid, and went fishing through a pile of bags on the countertop.

"Can I ask why you're doing this?"

"Maa, you said you only ever get to hang out with 10-year-olds…And Naruto…Not that it's much different." He held up his hands in apology when Iruka glared at him. "I'm kidding. Kidding. Anyway, I figured this is a simple solution."

"….Yeah, it is, isn't it." Iruka fiddled with the bags, jumping backwards when Kakashi slapped a hand down hard enough to make the plastic billow.

The jounin leaned across the counter and glared darkly at him.

"Ah…I…" Iruka had taken several steps away from him.

"No peeking." The eye crinkled, and Iruka let out a relieved cough of laughter. "Relax, sensei. It's just dinner."

OOOOOOOO

Here it is! I actually have at least five more pages, but those are going to go in the next chapter, otherwise this one will be ridiculously long and this is the best place to break it.

Hope you enjoyed it!