/3/
Iruka stubbornly didn't sleep several nights in a row.
Not that he couldn't.
He wouldn't sleep because of certain someone.
Silly as it was, the sleepless nights gave him a lot of free time to think.
First things first, Hatake Kakashi appeared in Iruka's dreams only. Iruka never as much as consciously fantasized about him. Like, when jerking off.
No, the dreams began to be filled with the silver-haired man without reference to any actual event.
At first, the dreams were the same delirium as usual, only with surprising episodic appearances of Hatake Kakashi.
Slowly, they became Hatake Kakashi centered, then – romantic. Occasional looks, meetings, talks, brushes of shoulders or hands during the dream, resulted in Iruka's real crush on the silver-haired jounin.
And then, there was a dream, in which Hatake Kakashi saved Iruka from a robber.
And the next one, when he leaned too close to Iruka and their lips brushed, as if accidentally.
Iruka enjoyed it. He took a liking to these dreams, so with every next dream the atmosphere became more intimate.
Until it transformed into something so perverted and personal, it became almost indescribable.
At least, Iruka wouldn't describe any. No-no-no! Not even to psych-nin!
Nevertheless, after three sleepless nights Iruka felt so exhausted! He guessed he wasn't that young anymore.
When he was younger, he could dance and party all night long, then go to work, and after that - go to another party; and repeat. Then, it went perfectly well; one cup of coffee and a quick shower made him fit and fresh. Now, he couldn't manage it. He wasn't that old either, but getting old was frustrating.
Iruka never thought about it. It never came to his mind that the life was slowly, but steadily slipping away.
What was he doing with his life?
He was spending its valuable moments recklessly dreaming about the man, who was so out of Iruka's league no one bothered to imagine them together.
Short for Iruka himself, who did his very best, without a doubt.
Iruka rolled his tired eyes to the ceiling of the mission room and back to another uneasy shinobi in front of his table. He hated this shift, and the fact that he needed to be polite even to strangers and jerks, and most of all he hated his humble self.
He swore mentally.
'Thank you, Hatake Kakashi, now I'm not only enormously exhausted, but also extremely depressed!'
Quietly growling to himself, Iruka continued to analyze and stamp the reports, with even more scrupulous prudence than usual.
Poor shinobis, regardless of rank, trembled in fear when stepped near his table.
Coworkers looked at his suffering with a pity.
Conventional questions 'What's up?' and 'Why can't you sleep?' Iruka managed to answer with short barks of 'I'm good' and 'Who wants to sleep!' sort.
Yes, he realized how childish this behavior was. His exhausted and annoyed state wasn't a good enough excuse for the lack of culture he showed and for his boorishness. However, he tried his best, and it went relatively well.
Until he was called to the hokage.
In her cabinet, hokage looked at him closely.
"I was told you are sleep-deprived and it influences your work," she smiled kindly and put a small bag on her desk. "Here is your medicine. Take one pill before you go to bed."
Iruka stared at the small bag, feeling uncontrollable irritation continue to boil inside him.
"May I ask who advised you to help me fall asleep?"
Hokage shrugged.
"Someone who cares about you."
Gathering last bits of rationality in his tired self, Iruka suppressed a huge urge to bite someone's head off straight away. Instead, he stretched his hand to the side and pointed at the window.
"That someone?" he wondered, doing his best to sound calm.
Hokage looked at the window.
She knew, too, that Hatake Kakashi was hiding there.
This Hatake Kakashi, who jumped into her cabinet only fifteen minutes ago, shouting 'Iruka's not smiling anymore, do something!'
Therefore, she nodded in agreement.
Iruka went directly to the window, opened it and looked left and right at the walls. Of course, Hatake Kakashi was there, gracefully balancing on the narrow ledge.
Now furious, Iruka grabbed the silver-haired man with his both hands and tugged him inside.
"I hate to say it, Tsunade-sama, but I'm really bothered," said Iruka.
Mercilessly, he pushed Hatake Kakashi to the floor.
"Why?" Hokage wondered. "It's good when someone cares about you, no?"
Iruka looked at Hatake Kakashi, who, since Iruka pushed him hard, was still sitting on the floor.
"Because I don't like to be a substitute entertainer for this someone. Kakashi-san here can read his beloved book, or do whatever else he wishes, but I don't want him to watch my dreams!"
Tsunade's gaze migrated from red-faced Iruka to nonchalant Hatake Kakashi on the floor.
Hatake Kakashi shrugged and pointed his finger at Iruka.
"He dreams about me. I have every right to watch."
Iruka turned to him and his palms turned into fists.
"No, you don't! You, insensitive..."
"Iruka-sensei!"
Hokage interrupted his outburst and Iruka was happy about it. One more second, and he would start to yell, spit, or maybe even punch the annoying silver-haired jounin with his foot.
"Iruka-sensei," hokage repeated, "if you take these pills, your sleep will be dreamless. I promise."
Iruka closed his eyes and slowly exhaled.
"Thank you, Tsunade-sama."
Hatake Kakashi jumped to his feet.
"Why? No, no, and no!" he cried. "You can't do that! Give him something neutral so he can dream!"
Iruka gave out a hysterical laugh and put his tongue out at Hatake Kakashi.
"Get off! From now on I will have only nice dreamless sleeps."
Hatake Kakashi growled at him menacingly. However, Iruka was so tired and stressed, and this sudden relief made him enormously happy, so he couldn't stop his hysterical laughs.
Tsunade watched them for a while, one was growling and another one was laughing like crazy.
She was glad it wasn't she, who was going mad. Even so, both of them were her valuable shinobi.
"Stop it, you two!" She barked suddenly, and they froze and stared at her. "Iruka-sensei, take the pills and go home to sleep. Kakashi, please escort him and make sure he takes his medicine and sleeps peacefully. It's an order."
Iruka sighed and squinted at Hatake Kakashi. He craved his sleep and he couldn't object the direct order however he wished.
So couldn't Hatake Kakashi.
"Let's go," Iruka said quietly.
And they went to Iruka's home.
Somewhere along the way, Iruka turned to silent Hatake Kakashi.
"I'm good from now on. You don't have to accompany me all the way."
"I have orders, Iruka-sensei," Hatake Kakashi drawled and continued to follow him.
As tired as Iruka was, that felt really suspicious.
'What if Hatake Kakashi has some evil plan of forcing me to see dreams nevertheless?' thought Iruka.
Protectively, he pressed the small bag with the pills to his chest, and quickened his pace.
They reached Iruka's home and Iruka stealthily put the small bag into his pocket.
He planned this carefully while they were walking. With the grace of a mountain goat, Iruka leaped to his door, turned around, slid into his apartment and slammed the door into Hatake Kakashi's face.
"I can manage it myself, thank you very much!" Iruka cried on top of his lungs and heard another low intimidating growl from behind the door.
Finally! Iruka couldn't help a satisfied smile.
Using several precise movements of his hands, he quickly guarded the door with wards, and immediately ran to the kitchen. There, he tugged the small bag out of his pocket, untied it accurately, and fished out two oval, white pills.
Iruka put them both into his mouth and already stretched his hand for a glass of water, when the window opened with surprisingly loud squeak.
Iruka couldn't help a scared yelp and additionally swallowed the pills.
And when he turned to the window, he saw glorious Hatake Kakashi step inside his kitchen from the windowsill.
How could Iruka forget to put wards on the windows?
Or maybe Hatake Kakashi removed them?
Either way, Iruka relaxed and laughed evilly into Hatake Kakashi's face.
"You are late! Just swallowed them! I swallowed two to be sure," he grinned cheerfully.
Hatake Kakashi frowned at him.
"Swallowed, too? What do you mean by that?"
Iruka finally reached for the full glass of water and drank it in one gulp.
"I took not one, but two pills, so no sweet dreams for you to watch, dear Kakashi-san!"
He knew, maybe he was overexpressive emotionally, but he didn't care now. Besides, he felt dizzy.
Iruka's head became heavy, and his whole body - weak to the point he couldn't control it anymore. He leaned on the counter, but began to slide down.
The next second Hatake Kakashi caught him and took him into his arms.
The last thing Iruka remembered were strong hands entwining tightly around his body and lifting it up.
And a quiet whisper into his ear.
"Sleep well, Iruka-sensei."