Ibiki sat in the shadowy corner, his usual drinking spot, slowly consuming a bottle of sweet plum wine as he mulled over his first failed meeting with Kakashi. Trying hard Ibiki found he could not successfully rid himself of the enigmatic and rather sensual man still spiralling about in the torture expert's thoughts.
A quiet presence detached itself from the normal lively crowd milling about the Death's Grace, Ibiki noted while it drew closer to his permanently darkened table.
They used a direct approach that was in his line of sight, this was no sneak attack, even if they came on ninja silent footsteps. "Rumour has you drinking tea with the scare crow." said the whisper soft voice.
Ibiki just gave a non committal grunt, continuing to throw back each small Sake cup full.
"It's about time you caught up with the rest of us and came back to the real world." same soft tone. Neither mocking or judgemental of the permanently leather clad man.
Silence was the answer this time, as Ibiki struggled to keep his mask of indifference firmly in place. During which time, the dark non-threatening figurer just shrugged off Ibiki's telling non reply. Before adding. "Give it time." and then they left, as silently as arriving. Much to the torture expert delight.
Ibiki was still not fully convinced this ridiculous situation could be worked out between him and just Hatake alone. Yes they both was creature of perversion, but oh so different, one the sun to the others moon. Sipping his drink once more, so his lips could not cuss the name Kakashi Hatake for the odd feelings the respected man had dragged up, making the surface of Ibiki's battered and scarred soul ripple and shudder.
Squaring board shoulders more into the heavy overcoat fabric, feeling leather surrounding him like a security blanket. Ibiki watched the room, the shadows of the table it's placement affording him plenty of cover. His chin resting on arched gloved hands, elbows propped on the wooden surfaces edge. Dark eyes taking in all who came and went. People watching was a hobby that helped calm the physiologist specialist, relaxed Ibiki liked his sills at knowing the motivation behind most people's actions, it let him reassured his paranoia with mental control. Inner control and his own over people was a thing Ibiki valued just below all knowledge in the village hidden in the leaves.
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When Iruka came into the kitchen he knew something was a miss. Not only was there one Kakashi, copy nin extraordinary sitting sipping a cold beer, but there was tea already brewed in the on the table. Next to a small pile of hand made fudge and Kakashi had remembered to use a plate for the sweet creamy treat. The confiscatory the copy Nin was currently unconsciously dipping into as he looked unfocused, while puzzling out something vexing him.
Iruka moved to sit beside his life mate, reaching out to brush a hand over the lone unclothed upper cheek.
"It went badly then?" Iruka enquired not sure if Kakashi wanted to talk right now, but there was tea, just for Iruka, waiting like an unspoken invitation.
Kakashi looked up "hur!"
Damn Iruka mentally swore. What ever current thought was trapped in Kakashi's skull, was never good if the renowned genius was this distracted Iruka observed. So he tried another way to gather the needed information. Acting as if he was still teaching in his pre genin class, seeking the truth from all children could be harder that extracting teeth. Once Iruka had found his best school bag painted in ranmin, he had been able to find out just which kid had done the evil deed. It had turned out to be Naruto after all, but it was still Shikamaru idea. Distraction or tackling the subject from a different angel could work wonders on little unsuspecting minds, the very same tactics strangely worked on socially stunted lovers.
"Why don't you tell me about your day?" The question, structured in a broad way, gave Kakashi a safety net if he desired it. For an opening to talk about his troubled thoughts, without the proud ninja feeling his lover was being overly manipulative.
Kakashi reached out, pored mint tea and placed it in front of his life mate, as his hand came back past the plate, it captured another square of soft creamy fudge.
"Well I did my usual morning stuff. You know help black cats out of trees and returned a lost child to its mother."
Iruka just nodded savering a mouth full of refreshing tea as his mind translated for him. Kakashi had been training in the Anbu grounds before catching Shikamaru slacking off. Returned him back home and no doubt his mothers wrath for missing his aunts visit.
"then it was time for … well Ibiki bought this time before running off like a tiger with his tail on fire." The calm uninterested tone implying this was nothing of note and not the main cause of Kakashi's perplexed face.
Iruka fought to swallow, or risk spitting hot liquid every ware including the deserving man before him. Iruka's shock was that great at how truly terrible this date must have turned out. He had pitchered some pitfalls for his beloved to over come, after all this was Ibiki, the master of terror. Iruka had clearly missed his mark on Kakashi's social abilities. Iruka snapped back in tune with what his mate was saying and felt his heart sink.
"It's not like I was going to fuck him there. We could have got a room since he did not like my first suggestion." it was more the frown that had Kakashi stop speaking at that point. Shit I'm was in deep crap Iruka's going to kill me.
"OH" sharp exclamation, "oh…" and then more softly, his drawn out teacher disappointed voice. Iruka shook his head slowly as he picked better words to express himself to his sometimes dense life mate. "Kakashi you can't just…" Sigh I will not bang my head on the table. "love why did you go if you was going to just do what you always do. I explained you'd need to find a different approach." here was the scolding voice expecting a reply, one Iruka knew might take a few moments to come.
The silver blond man slowly chewed the latest lump of fudge. "I fucked up didn't I?" he admitted head down like a child.
"Yes" Iruka reached out, touching Kakashi's hand as it snagged more of the treat he had yet to indulge in.
"You're upset with me?" spoken so quietly.
"Yes. No. More like disappointed that for a fighting genius you are rather dense when it comes to sociaties rules and totally clueless about people in general." Iruka was being truthful. Kakashi looked up dumb struck at the teacher calmly poring them more tea, sliding a cup over to Kakashi's side of the table.
Fluffy: Sorry about the long wait on this one. Lets hope my lungs stop trying to move out on me. I know there is a lack of s-mex yet but we will see how it goes.
Plot bunny: She means I get to run the show for awhile before crack turns up. Good luck everyone. *winks*