Theme: Eggnog

"Whoa, go easy there, Iruka." Anko leaned over his shoulder as he refilled his cup.

"Do you have something against eggnog?" The words didn't quite come out the way he'd intended. He wondered why.

Anko studied him closely. "How many glasses have you had?"

"Four. Or five?" His voice rose in confusion on the last syllable. He counted on his finger, twisting to look over the room and map out where'd he been in the last couple of hours of the party. "Maybe six…. What's so funny?" He demanded.

"You do realize there's alcohol in this, right?"

"There is?" He peered into the cup, as if he could actually see the alcohol if he looked closely enough. "That would explain why I feel so…strange." He didn't drink often and knew from experience that he didn't hold his liquor well. The table edge seemed to be in two places at once, and the glass was extraordinarily hard to put down.

Anko continued to chuckle. "You're going to be exceptionally entertaining for the rest of the evening."

He wasn't listening. "Kakashi!" He'd spotted the spray of silver hair in the far doorway.

"Oh, no." Anko set her own glass down. She'd known about Iruka's crush for a while now. She'd even encouraged him to make a move on several occasions. On none of them, had he been drunk. "No, no, no. Iruka!"

He made surprisingly good time across the room considering how unsteady he was on his feet. Anko, however, got boxed in.

"Kakashi, hey!" Iruka stumbled to a stop, shoved his hands in his back pockets and grinned up at him.

"Iruka-sensei?"

"Yup! I…." His wandering eyes landed on something above their heads. "Oh." He stepped forward, caught the front of Kakashi's shirt in his hands and used it as leverage to pull himself into a kiss. When he stepped back, the look of stunned disbelief on Kakashi's face begged for an explanation. He gestured up and said brightly, "Mistletoe. It's the rule."

"So if we weren't under it, you wouldn't kiss me?" Kakashi queried.

"No." It was hard to tell if he was agreeing or contradicting.

Kakashi planted a hand in the center of his chest and backed him up a few steps. He followed a couple of paces behind and spread his hand when he stopped.

He gave a brief shrug. Iruka had been disagreeing – at this point, he would have kissed Kakashi anywhere without a second thought. And he did just that.

"Oh, hell." Anko could only watch from the other side of the room. At least the first kiss had an excuse.

But then Kakashi's arms snaked around Iruka's waist and tugged him close, deepening the kiss.

When they broke, Iruka staggered slightly. "You…. There's no mistletoe."

"That didn't stop you." Kakashi pointed out.

"But I like…." Iruka trailed off as the message sank past the alcohol haze. "Oh. Really?"

In response, Kakashi's eye just crinkled. "Maaa, I have to say, though, I didn't expect you to be trashed when we had our first kiss."

"We? Like, a couple?"

A soft chuckle. "Come on, let's get some food into you."

OOOOOOOO

This turned out a lot longer than I expected. Drunk!Iruka was hugely fun to write. I mean, really, does he strike you as the kind of person who wouldn't hold his alcohol all that well?