A/N: Sorry! I did intend on putting this up on Saturday, but i've had friends dumped, extra shifts at work and i've been off my feet busy. But, finally, here it is. Enjoy!

Also – i am dedicating this chapter to to Forgot to Breathe, because she got me writing again.

Kakashi wasn't at school on Monday. He wasn't there on Tuesday, or Wednesday either. Not that Iruka was looking of course! He was just an extremely observant person. He just couldn't help but notice these things. He definitely didn't spend all of roll call searching for him, and the rest of the day pining. That was most definitely pathetic. And Iruka was definitely not pathetic.

By Thursday, he was willing to admit he was worried though. He was sitting in the staffroom, ignoring the mindless chatter around him, before Genma leaned over.

"'Ruka." he mutttered. The teacher in turn jumped half out of his seat, spilling his coffee down his front. Luckily, since he'd been staring at it so long, it was only lukewarm. Unluckily, he'd still spilt coffee all down him. "Fuck, what has you all jumpy? Is this about that guy that we saw in the club the other night? I've been meaning to ask about that, who was he? And since when did you bat for that team? God, if i knew that i'd have been laying the moves on for years!"

"Please Genma, this is hardly the time. It doesn't matter-"

"He kinda looked like that kid in you-"

"Genma." Iruka snapped, silencing the man. "Can we please NOT discuss this?"

Genma's face contorted in confusion. "Is something wrong Iruka?"

Iruka stood and stormed across the room. "You think?" he spat, slamming the door behind him.

Kakashi lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. It's not that he was avoiding Iruka, he just didn't want to see him. He didn't want to see his stupid face, or his stupid hair, or hear his stupid voice.

He hit himself on the head with his book again. Hard.

And the tears that were springing to his eyes were most definitely a result of the pain. He was most definitely not upset by what Iruka had said.

Because, obviously, he didn't care about him. It was just a crush. A silly hormone induced crush. He had always lusted after danger, what could be more dangerous than a relationship with a teacher? Especially one that was so attractive...

NO! Not attractive. He was stupid. With a stupid face, and stupid hair-

"Kakashi?" he looked up when there was a cautious knock on his door. It opened when he offered a non-committal grunt to the woman so dead set on interrupting his period of self pity. "Baby, what's wrong. You're obviously upset about so-"

"You think?" he muttered sarcastically.

"Well what is it? I can't fix it if you don't-"

"You can't fix it anyway!" he yelled, with more malice than intended. "Face it mum, you can't fix everything! If he doesn't want me, you can't change that. So stop trying to make everything better when we both know you can't!" he was breathing heavily, tears spilling down his face, as the words flew from his mouth.

"Oh, oh honey." his mother whispered, walking over to his bed and wrapping her arms around her son. "Sweetie, I'm so sorry, you're right, I can't fix it, I wish I could though. I can't stand seeing you like this, you're normally so strong-"

Kakashi tuned out of his empty sympathy speech around that point. Strong? There were plenty of things he was. He was arrogant, he was confident, he was probably a bastard, but he was definitely not strong. Look at him. Crying on mummy's shoulder about the big bad teacher that hurt his poor little feelings. How was he at all strong?

No. He was weak. His apathetic front may make him appear strong, but who was he kidding. His mother apparently. Probably everyone else too. Iruka too. He must've figured strong Kakashi wouldn't be upset by it. Or maybe he just didn't care. Even though it didn't matter anymore, he found himself desperately hoping it wasn't the latter.

"Sweetheart?" he snapped back to reality, his mother's voice dragging him from his self analysis. "You didn't answer, was it someone I know?"

Kakashi looked away. "Not exactly."

Iruka prided himself on being an honest, trustworthy, rule abiding person. Of course, since he'd thrown the last quality down the drain already, he figured it couldn't hurt to have a last little indulgence before he went back to being his previous self. So, skipping the staff meeting, he snuck into the office, and silently searched through the student records. He knew he wasn't allowed to, but as long as he didn't get caught, he wasn't hurting anyone.

Pulling up Kakashi's file, he quickly scanned it. Finding his address and phone number and quickly entering them into his phone, before closing the file and stealthily, if he did say so himself, left the office and ran to his car. Throwing himself into it, he pulled out his phone, and quickly dialed the number. He hung up almost immediately, and switched his number to private, before redialling. After four rings – not that he was anxious enough to enough to be counting or anything – he heard a woman's voice on the other end.

"Hello, Kurumi speaking. Who's calling?" she answered automatically.

Iruka was strangely not shocked by her formality. Despite Kakashi's refusal to use manners – or maybe just his refusal to use them with him – he had always had the distinct impression he was from a family that highly valued them. Dragging himself from his thoughts, he did his best to mimic her tone.

"Ms Hatake? My name is Umino Iruka, I'm calling on behalf of Konoha High, I was just calling to ask if you know when Kakashi will be returning to school?"

"Didn't I call you about this yesterday?" Iruka froze, horrified he hadn't thought of that. "Huh, mustn't have. You must excuse my absent-mindedness, I did intend on calling, it must have slipped my mind. Just hold for a moment please." he could hear mumbling on the other end, before her voice returned. "Mr Umino? Kakashi will-"

"WHAT?" he heard in the background and instantly regretted using his real name. God he was stupid today. He could hear a slight argument on the other side and a "Just get out!" followed by a door slam, and and then something he had been hoping not to hear almost as much as he was desperate to.

"Why are you calling my house." Kakashi hissed through the phone.

"I'm- erm. Helping. The office. You know how it is, lots of absences and erm-"

"I don't want you to call here. I hate you."

Iruka was shocked into silence for a moment. He knew that Kakashi didn't mean it, but he was surprised by the amount that it still hurt. Just the thought of that boy hating him....

"I'm so sorry Kakashi." he whispered. "I wish it didn't have to be this way. You know as well as I do that I didn't mean any of what I said. I just... You scared me. And I didn't know what else to do. I hate that my career has to keep me from you-"

"It doesn't!" Kakashi yelled. "We were doing just fine before, what changed?"

"Because I'm not you! I can't keep all my feelings back and just indulge in the physicality of it. I can't ignore my conscience that keeps telling me how irresponsible I am. I can't-"

"You're not being irresponsible! How is it irresponsible!?"

Iruka paused. "How is it not irresponsible Kakashi? I'm a teacher. It goes against every moral I have, and everything-"

"But-"

"I'm sorry Kakashi."

"Ummm. My mum is going to work in an hour, she's on night shift tonight. Will you come over? I promise I won't try anything you'd disapprove of. I just want to see you one last time before you go back to just being my teacher..."

Iruka winced. He hadn't even thought that something like this could happen. He couldn't let it happen either. But hearing the dejected, defeated tone on the boy crushed him. It was only one night...

"Ok Kakashi."

A/N: Yay! That was fun. And it perked me right up out of my gloomy mood. Which is good. If it continued much longer I would've started to resemble the pokemon. Reviews? I'm already writing the next chappie too. I will post after 10 reviews~! (that should give me time to procrastinate too...) :)