Theme: Gingerbread

A soft chime emitted from the timer sitting atop the stove. He tugged the padded gloves over his hands and gingerly pulled the hot sheet from the oven.

"Are you…baking?"

Was he baking? Of course, he was baking. He always baked during the holidays. Everyone always baked during the holidays.

A suppressed chuckled sounded from over his shoulder.

"I don't see why this is funny." He sulked, shoving the spatula under the cookies with more force than was absolutely necessary.

"You don't? Kakashi, you're the copy-nin. You're quite possibly one of the most bad-ass jounin this town has ever seen. And…you're baking cookies." Iruka stepped forward to lean over the counter. "Gingerbread shuriken?"

"I am a bad-ass shinobi." Kakashi scooped up one of the cookies and flung it at Iruka.

He caught the sugar projectile against his chest and fell back against the couch theatrically. After a minute of joined laughter, Iruka straightened up and bit off one of the points. The laughter died in his throat.

"Maa, Iruka, they can't be that bad." Kakashi tasted one. They tasted exactly as he remembered and certainly shouldn't have engendered that kind of reaction.

"Where…where did you get this recipe?" The dark eyes flicked up to meet his, and the gaze was entirely serious.

It was not the question he was expecting. "Back, after I'd lost my parents and Obito, when I was in ANBU, they had this cookie drive thing where mostly kunoichi were baking desserts to distribute to the younger shinobi. At that time, most of our younger ranks had been orphaned by the war. The yondaime made me help. He thought it would be good for me to try and connect with people. It didn't really work, but I was helping this kunoichi make these cookies. She told me she'd walk me through step-by-step, but I just watched her the first time and copied it." He gestured to the covered sharingan. "I've made it ever since. Iruka?" He couldn't quite ignore the way Iruka was swiping his hands under his eyes.

"I've been trying to re-create this recipe for years. This…is my mom's recipe." He sniffed slightly. "She always did it from memory and never got around to writing it down."

The kunoichi's face swam into memory, and he could easily pick out common features. No doubt that the woman was Iruka's mother.

Iruka scrubbed his eyes again, rose from the couch and hugged him tightly. "Thank you, Kakashi."

He wrapped his arms around him. "I…didn't do it on purpose you know."

"I know."

"Merry Christmas, Iruka."

"Merry Christmas."

OOOOOOOOO

Argh, I'm late! Real life intervened. There will be another tonight, for today. ^^