Iruka's attention shifted from the lesson he was teaching to the ringing phone on his desk. Holding up a hand to his class, he put the receiver to his ear. "Iruka speaking."

"Iruka-sensei, you're wanted in the office," Shizune said over the phone. "Hayate-san will be in your class in a moment to take over for you, so go ahead and finish up."

Well that was odd. What was so urgent that it couldn't wait until the end of class? Still, as the other line clicked off, he decided he had better do as he was asked. He packed up his things – the papers he had to grade and such – and turned back to his class, just in time for Hayate to show up.

Hayate strode over to him quickly, not waiting for Iruka to even address his class. "I'll fill them in," Hayate said, "You go ahead and get going." Iruka nodded, feeling even more confused than before. Just what exactly was going on that he needed to leave school in the middle of the day. That was the only conclusion Iruka could come to, after all, since they were having him pack his things and having Hayate cover his class.

I hope I'm not getting fired. Iruka knew it was irrational, but he couldn't help but worry, so all the way to the office, he went through in his head anything he possibly could have done to get fired.

When he got to the office though, Principal Yondaime was sticking his head out the door. The blonde haired man opened the door for Iruka when he reached it, motioning Iruka inside. He stopped him there though, closing the door behind him. Looking around, Iruka noticed Shizune was mysteriously absent.

"Erm…Yondaime-san…what's going on?" Iruka asked.

"Please, Iruka-sensei, it's Kiiro," he said. "As for what's going on…well…" Kiiro pushed the door to his office open, and stepped inside. Iruka stepped in as well, and followed Kiiro's gaze to the mound of blankets on the sofa. Barely, he could make out a tuft of silver hair sticking out the top of it.

"Kakashi?" He heard a quiet groan from the blankets, and saw Kakashi shift enough that he could see his face. His eyes were clenched tightly closed, and his face was sickly pale and covered with a light sheen of sweat. Dark bags hung from his eyes, even reaching below the bandana that was still in place. He looked bad. Really bad. Before he could go to him though, he felt himself being pulled out of the room, and the door was closed again.

"That is what's going on. Kakashi is very sick, and he needs to go home, but he shouldn't be by himself, and I can't take him," Kiiro explained.

"He should be in the hospital, not home," Iruka argued.

Kiiro sighed. "They can't do anything for him when he's like this." Iruka didn't like the sound of that. He'd heard people say stuff like that about a person with terminal cancer or something, and the very thought of the word terminal being used regarding Kakashi's medical state was enough to make Iruka's heart lurch.

"What do you mean by that?" Iruka asked, suddenly a lot more worried than he had been.

Kiiro saw the teacher's fear – it wasn't that hard to catch, the way he had paled and whatnot – and immediately tried to fix it. "It's not like that, Iruka-sensei, don't worry. What I meant when I said that there's nothing they can do for him is that we just have to let it run its course." Now Iruka was confused, and again, Kiiro sought to resolve it…well, to a tactful detail. It wasn't like he could just come out and say "yeah, the hospitals can't do much because it's actually a mutant super virus that's making him miserable."

Instead, he decided to bank on the fact that Iruka didn't have a medical degree. "Well, you see, Kakashi has this disease that has a really complicated name that doesn't really matter, but basically, it doesn't usually matter because he has probably one of the best immune systems of any human being, and it's typically enough to keep it under control so that it doesn't bother him. Sometimes though when he get something else – a cold, for instance – it adds a little more of a strain to his system, and it can't process it, so he ends up getting a little bit of fall back. He's not dying, even though I'm pretty sure he feels like he is right about now, and all that can be done for him is to keep him comfortable and make him drink orange juice until his eyeballs float." It was sort of the truth, it just has some parts missing.

Kiiro had given that same explanation, though often to a much lesser degree, about a thousand times, so he was well rehearsed to say the least. It paid off though, and slowly, Iruka nodded. "And you can't take him home because…"

Kiiro pointed to his nose. "I have a cold," he said, sniffling for effect. "I might make him sicker, and I don't want to risk it. So…I was wondering if you would mind—."

"Of course I will!" Iruka exclaimed. There was no way in hell he would leave the poor man to suffer, and if Kiiro couldn't take care of him, then Iruka was going to take it upon himself to take care of the silver haired sensei who had stolen his heart.

Kiiro smiled. People might think he was oblivious, but he really wasn't. He saw how Iruka looked at the younger man, and the other way around. He was honestly surprised that the two of them hadn't picked up on it yet.

Regardless, mission accomplished.

Iruka headed back into the room, not stopping this time until he came to kneel beside the couch. He slowly pulled the cover down enough to reveal Kakashi's face again. His eye opened, but it was bleary and unfocused.

"'ruka...sensei?" Kakashi muttered, blinking.

"Hey Kakashi-kun, do you think you can get up?" Iruka asked, speaking slowly and quietly. He didn't know exactly what ailed the young teacher, but from the way he kept screwing up his eye, it looked like a headache.

That was confirmed when Kakashi nodded, resulting in a quiet groan as Kakashi curled in on himself, holding his head like he was afraid it would fall off. Before Iruka knew what he was doing, his fingers were stroking Kakashi's hair lightly. He quickly pulled them back, settling them instead lightly on Kakashi's shoulders.

"Okay, let's get you home," he said, lifting Kakashi slowly into a sitting position. Kakashi doubled over as soon as he was upright, his elbows on his knees as his hands kept their vice grips on his head. Iruka tried to get him up once he looked like he was a little more stable, but Kakashi pulled away. Iruka tried again, and again, Kakashi squirmed free.

"Kakashi," Kiiro interrupted, "Iruka's going to take you home, okay? The sooner you can get up and at 'em, the sooner you can make it to bed, okay?"

"And please don't nod," Iruka added quickly.

Instead of nodding, Kakashi let his head fall forward onto Iruka's shoulder. He realized something right about then – Iruka smelled really nice. Like a forest after a rain. And his neck was perfectly shaped for nuzzling. He kept his eye closed tightly, trying to make his headache go away. Relaxing his shoulders helped, but not much. Still, he had no intentions of moving his head from Iruka's shoulder.

Iruka looked at Kiiro, hoping for a little help, but Kiiro just smiled and shrugged. Iruka returned it with a glare, and set about trying to get Kakashi completely upright. Hooking his hands under Kakashi's arms, he managed to lift him without causing him any more pain. There was still the troubling dilemma the white haired man's position. He had wrapped his arms around Iruka's waist, and though under any other circumstance, Iruka would have been more than happy with the development, now was not a good time.

Carefully, he extracted first his waist from Kakashi's grip, but when he tried to turn it so that Kakashi was leaning on one of his sides, the other wouldn't budge. At first, Iruka thought he was being stubborn, but the heavy breathing in his ear made him second guess it.

"Need a…second," Kakashi muttered. His head was spinning and everything hurt so much he couldn't even enjoy finally being this close to the man of his dreams. He would've moved, just because Iruka seemed to want him to, and he didn't want to piss the teacher off, but he couldn't. Honest to God, he couldn't make his feet move one inch, and he knew that if he lost the support he had now, leaning entirely against Iruka, he would probably face plant on the floor, which was something he would rather avoid if at all possible.

Sadly, fate seemed to be against him. He felt a hand on his other side, pulling him away from his beautiful sanctuary. He grunted a protest as the world twisted under his feet. When everything stopped spinning enough for him to even dare to open his eye, he saw that he was now supported between Kiiro and Iruka, one arm across each of their shoulders. He quickly closed his eyes again, though, because they started moving, and the moment he so much as tried to shift anything, his pulse got heavier, making his headache throb about twenty times worse. Being upright wasn't exactly doing great things for his stomach either. He felt himself being pulled into another shuffling step, and another, and another, each one stirring his headache to a heavier beating in his brain. Damned virus. Damned everything that was making him feel this sick. Except for Iruka. Kiiro could go to hell for making him leave the comfort of his earlier post, but not Iruka.

"I'll go get the car," Iruka said once they hit the double doors. Even with his eyes squinted, he could tell how bright it was outside, and was dreading the very thought of having to walk out there. Even when Iruka opened the door, with his eyes clenched and head turned, the light burned into his throbbing head, each footstep Iruka took on the pavement outside pounding into his brain like hammers in his ears. Each heartbeat tore at his insides with agonizing pain. Suddenly, he felt his knees buckle, and he collapsed.

Kiiro managed to catch him before he went down, and lowered him to the ground. He curled in on himself, holding his head and pulling his knees to his stomach. Kiiro knelt beside him, rubbing his back softly.

"You'll be okay," Kiiro told him. Kakashi knew that. He knew that even though he felt like he was about to die, he wouldn't. Obviously, he never had. But God it felt like it. It felt like his insides were being shredded, and his bones were being twisted inside his flesh, and his brain was melting. He felt like he was falling apart, and the only solace he could find was that it would be over in a couple of days.

Again, the scent of forests hit his nose, and he felt himself being pulled into a soft, warm body as arms wrapped around him and he was all but carried to Iruka's car.

So maybe that wasn't his only solace after all.