Theme: Snow

The brisk air nipped at his exposed nose, and for once he was truly jealous of Kakashi's mask. He nestled down deeper into his vest's tall collar and rounded his shoulders to turn more of the dark green cloth toward the bright sun. A pair of children sprinted by in the ankle deep snow, giggling and laughing. "So, where did you disappear to this afternoon?"

Kakashi stepped sideways to avoid getting swiped by the kids, tucking a plastic bag deeper under his arm. "Maa, I may have been getting your Christmas present. You're going to love it."

"Mmmm, well, I guess I'll have to think of some way to thank you. Maybe I could…." Iruka leaned close and whispered the words directly into Kakashi's ear. The knot of embarrassment in his throat almost made speaking impossible, but the look of astonished arousal on Kakashi's face made it all worth it.

A quick movement to his right drew his attention, and he spun just in time to see the snowball headed for his face. "Oh, shit." Pure instinct drove him down, and he dropped one knee and a hand into the snow to support his weight.

The girl who'd thrown it stood a few feet away with her hands clasped to her mouth and eyes wide in terror. The object of her fear was not Iruka, but rather the hulking shape behind him.

Poor Kakashi. As a jounin, he should have been able to easily dodge a snowball chucked by a five-year-old, but his brain was happily distracted by a continuous loop of Iruka's scandalous suggestion. For a minute, he appeared to not even have noticed he'd been struck. Snow was plastered to one side of his face, and he blinked stupidly as if trying to reconstruct the last few moments.

A muffled snicker escaped Iruka's lips and quickly escalated to full-blown laughter, only to be joined by the kids when they realized that death was not imminent.

At least not for them.

A sudden chill shot down his back. He yelped, clawing at his vest in a vain effort to dislodge the fistful of snow. "Kakashi!"

OOOOOOOO

Uh, not much to say here. My brain deserted me today... Hopefully I'll be struck by better inspiration tomorrow ^^