The moonlight pooled in through the blinds onto an old wooden bedstead, it highlighted every fibre of the cheap linen bedspread. The fabric was slightly rough, but that was to be expected from something so often used and washed. Upon these sheets Iruka lay gazing up at the ceiling, his hands tucked behind his head and his long, soft, brown hair had been released from it's ponytail a while ago. Currently it was pooling out around his head and across his pillow, the moon's glow glancing off of it. He slowly took a deep breath in and released it gently. Today had just been another boring Sunday. Getting up far earlier then he'd of done if it wasn't for Anko, then being blown off by the very woman who's beauty drove him to such length for just the smallest glimpse. His life was wasting away week by week, day by day, hour by hour; and he knew it. It was painful, and terrifying…

The darkness of solitude was broken by the high pitched ring of the telephone going off in the next room. Iruka reluctantly pushed himself up with an apathetic grunt and swung his legs off of the bed. His feet touched the cool wooden floorboards and he quickly made his way into the living room. Swiftly he answered the phone, curious as to who was calling him at half past midnight.
"Hello?" The chunin asked, rubbing his eyes with his spare hand.
"Iruka…?" A voice replied, it was a female for certain. And that alone confused Iruka greatly, he didn't know any women well enough for them to call him. Well, he and Shizune got along fairly well. But they weren't exactly friends. The woman on the phone sounded upset though, and this immediately grabbed Iruka's attention.
"Yes? Who is this?" Iruka enquired, his heart racing, although he didn't know who it was that sounded so tearful.
"It-It's…" The woman started to say in her hushed up tone, it sounded like she was having trouble swallowing her pride and admitting she wanted help. Iruka's eyes widened as he backed against the wall behind him, there was only one woman in the whole of Kohona he knew that this could be. "…Anko…"
"What's wrong?" Iruka asked, perhaps a little too quickly.
"Erm… Sorry about this… I just didn't know who else to call…" Her voice stammered out of the handset, the tears were almost audible.
"It's fine." He replied comfortingly as he slowly slid down his wall and onto the floor. "Now come on, what's wrong?"
"Me and Kakashi… We had a bit of a fight… Well, a fight… Well, a massive fight." Anko eventually admitted. "He came back, he was drunk… Everything just sort of spiralled out of con-control." She explained, choking on a held back sob.
"I'm so sorry…" Iruka sighed, not knowing what else to say. He knew what he wanted to say, leave him he's not good enough for you, no one is. And he knew what he wanted to do, go over there and at least try to kick Kakashi's ass.
"It's not your fault…" She murmured. "I… I just really need to talk to someone, about anything. I'm sorry it's so late, but you were the only person I could call…"
"Hey, I keep telling you, it's fine." Iruka chuckled softly. "So, what do you want to talk about?"
"Just about anything…" Anko laughed weakly.
"Alright then," He nodded, tucking his hair behind his ear. After a couple of seconds of silence he asked a question to spark off the conversation. "How's Neko?"

The two ninjas spoke for hours, the time just flew by. Before either of them knew it the time was already 4:30am. The moon was on it's way down and the sun was on it's way up.
"Thanks for this Iruka." Anko smiled down the phone. "I really needed it."
"It's fine." The chunin chuckled. "I'm glad you called, it's nice to actually get to talk to you rather then just some boring small talk."
"Yeah, you're surprisingly interesting." She cackled.
"Hey!" Iruka protested, although he couldn't help but smile.

"Well… I should really go. Kakashi's going to wake up from his drunken coma before long. Thank you again."
"No problem."
"Good night Iruka." Anko said as she hung up, not even leaving the man enough time to respond.
"Good night Anko…" He sighed as he placed the phone back on the base unit. "And good luck…"