I tried to finish it before Christmas, sorry everyone I couldn't. I hope you'll enjoy it anyway and I wish all of you a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!
As usual, it's unbetaed and full of mistakes. And as usual, don't forget to leave me comments, I truly love to read them!
Enjoy!
Chapter 11
Christmas at Iruka's
Christmas was approaching. In fact, it was already the 24th of December. Iruka hadn't seen the time pass by - he usually didn't even celebrate Christmas to start with. But this year it would be different; Naruto had decided so. And, to his mild horror, that meant he needed to buy presents. On the 24th of December. As he was pinning a smelly and somewhat dusty garland on his living room wall, the chuunin shook his head in discouragement. To go shopping the day before Christmas... He knew it wasn't exactly a bright idea, but it wasn't like he had the choice anymore. The chuunin sighed at the thought. It promised to be a very long and painful afternoon...
For the occasion, Iruka had fished out of his wardrobe the few old Christmas decorations he hadn't had the heart to part with after his parents' death and was busying himself installing them for the first time ever since the Kyuubi attack. Back in his youth, he used to celebrate Christmas and the New Year Eve with his mother and father. Every year, they spent the Christmas Eve and the New Year Eve playing games and drinking hot chocolate at the kitchen table, sometimes munching on those cookies his mother always overbaked a bit... As he finished setting up the last of the garlands, Iruka took a few steps back to look at his hard work and felt nostalgy hit him. He smiled sadly at those decorations that brought back memories of a distant happy past he had almost forgotten with the years. But those happy evenings passed laughing with his parents and eating burnt cookies seemed so far away that the chuunin felt like they were someone else's memory. He had been alone for so long... It felt almost wrong to know he wouldn't spend Christmas alone this year. So strange.
The academy teacher shook his head vigorously to chase away those dark thoughts; he didn't have the time to get all angsty over foul-smelling Christmas decorations, he still had to go buy presents for Team seven before the shops closed. Or before they were too full with people hurrying to buy last-minute presents... which was probably already the case.
The brown-haired man verified that he had his wallet on him before heading to the entrance and putting on his winter coat and his scarf, hoping it wouldn't be too cold outside since he didn't have gloves - he kept on forgetting to buy new ones somehow. As he was about to open the front door to leave, he groaned softly as he suddently realized that in his hurry, he had forgotten to do something important. Reluctantly, the chuunin turned around and walked to the guest room, stopping at the threshold.
"Kakashi-sensei, I'm off to go do some shopping," he said quietly, "Do you need anything before I leave?"
The silver-haired man, who had been staring at the ceiling once again, shook his head faintly. Sighing inwardly with relief, the chuunin turned on his heels and headed again to the door, already musing about which shop he would visit first to fins the perfect gift for his favourite ex-student. Halfway through the apartment, Iruka heard the jounin suddenly call after him and he inwardly groaned; he should have known it was too good to be true. Walking back to the impotent man, the chuunin hoped the Copy nin didn't need to go to the bathroom, even though he knew it was stupid of him to wish for such a thing: if Kakashi didn't go to the bathroom right now, then he'd need to when he would come back and Iruka knew perfectly well that he would not feel more enthusiast to help him later in the afternoon than he was just then.
"What is it?" he asked the jounin on a neutral tone as he approached his bed. To his surprise, the Sharigan user looked away and seemed to hesitate.
"I was wondering if you could... but you don't have to..." Kakashi started to say, obviously having a hard time finding the right words. Iruka frowned; it was not like him to hesitate like that.
"Spill it already, Kakashi-sensei", Iruka pressed on, the jounin's abnormal behaviour worrying him.
"Well, I was wondering... Could you buy them something for me?"
Iruka blinked at the jounin, surprised. He didn't know what he had expected, but certainly not something like that.
"Of course, I'd pay-" Kakashi added rapidly, "there's a good among of money hidden in my apartment, under the left cushion of the sofa, I believe you have my keys - but if you don't want to go through the trouble, it's fine, I'd understand."
"No, I don't mind," the chuunin answered truthfully. "What do you want me to get for them?"
His question was greeted by an awkward silence. Kakashi stared at him with a blank eye; obviously, the man had not thought that far ahead and had no idea what he wanted to give to his students. As if it was because of some lack of inspiration or because he didn't have a clue what people were supposed to give each other for Christmas, Iruka couldn't tell.
"Err... books?" he finally asked, and his hesitation answered the academy teacher's question.
"Okay," the chuunin nodded and Kakashi seemed to relax a bit, obviously reassured that his idea of what was an acceptable Christmas present had passed the Iruka-says-it's-okay test. Yep, definitely the latter, Iruka thought with a mix of mild amusement and pity.
"What kind of books do you want me to get them?" At those words, the Copy nin frowned thoughtfully.
"If you could please, hum, a cooking book for Naruto..." he started off thoughtfully and Iruka couldn't fight back a smile. Indeed, Naruto could do with one...
"... A botanic book for Sakura and a romance novel for Sasuke," the jounin finally said and Iruka stared at him, incredulous. Was it his ears playing him tricks or had Kakashi just suggested buying a romance novel for Uchiha Sasuke? The guy might have strange social conceptions, but he couldn't be that clueless.
"A romance novel?" he asked skeptically and to his mild horror, the jounin nodded with a somewhat disturbing serious look on his face. Okay, so he had heard that one right. Iruka massaged his eyes and sighed, wondering with annoyance how he was supposed to tell the silver-haired man that it was definitely not a suitable present for a fifteen year old teenager. And especially not for Sasuke, of all people! How troublesome...
"Kakashi-sensei, I'm not sure this is, hum, an appropriate present for Sasuke-kun. Maybe a history or a tactic one-"
"No," the silver-haired man cut him at once. "A romance novel. But buy some serious-looking book with a removable cover too to cover it up please."
"As you wish," the chuunin sighed in defeat as he left the guest room, not feeling up to trying to make him change his mind about that ridiculous idea of his. If the Copy nin wanted to give Sasuke a romance novel, well then he would give Sasuke a romance novel. Afterall, it could have been worse; at least Kakashi hadn't asked him to buy any of his students porn and THAT was already a very good start. From that point of view, Sasuke was definitely better off with a romance novel than with any other twisted idea the Copy nin could have come up with - and God only knew he had twisted ideas.
Iruka just hoped Sasuke would also appreciate that point of view.
Hatake Kakashi sighed. He tried to see the bright side of his current situation: at least he wasn't staring at the ceiling anymore. He was staring at the wall in front of him instead. Because after Iruka had been done dressing him with nearly nice-looking civilian clothes Kakashi didn't even know he owned, brushing his teeth and trying to comb -or maybe the best expression would be tame- his hair with admirable obstinacy, the chuunin had left him in a sitting position. So he was staring at the wall instead of the ceiling. Nice change, heh?
... Somehow, the jounin couldn't quite see anything positive about this new development, no matter how hard he tried. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that before Iruka decided to make him more "acceptable" for his small Christmas party, the brown-haired man cleaned every part of his tiny and tidy apartment and had decorated it for the Holidays, which left Kakashi with the unpleasant impression that had been "decorated" as well to fit with the rest of the apartment.
At least the chuunin had been kind enough to put his mask back in place after he was done decorating him. Now THAT was positive, right? There, he had found something positive. At least when Team seven would show up, they wouldn't see his face.
... Damn stupid Christmas party.
They had agreed to meet in the evening, after Sakura's family Christmas party was over and honestly, Kakashi was quite glad for it. Because that meant Iruka wouldn't have them over for diner and thus, that he wouldn't have to go through the humiliation of being hand-feeded by the academy teacher in front of his students and team members. Kakashi didn't know if it was a coincidence or if Iruka or Team seven had given it a thought when they set the meeting together but was quite glad things turned out that way.
From the corner of his uncovered eye, the jounin could see Iruka pacing in the living room absent-mindedly; obviously, the brown-haired man didn't receive guests often. He had already noticed it when he had been spying the man - almost nobody ever visited the teacher except Naruto, who stopped by on very rare occasions. But then again, he wouldn't know how frequently a normal person was supposed to go out or receive visitors as he himself rarely saw people at all out of working hours. Sometimes Gai passed by to challenge him or make sure he was still alive, but that was all.
As he listened to the man's pacing, Kakashi admitted he would probably feel nervous as well if he was about to have guests over for Christmas. That thought made his stomach clench, because he knew that technically, HE was also having visitors for Christmas as Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were also coming to see him. And if Kakashi had his say about it, Iruka and Team seven would do their Christmas meeting in the living room and leave him be, alone in the guest room. The whole Christmas party affair was far too troublesome for his tastes – the truth was he had no idea what people usually did on Christmas day and didn't know at all what to expect of the whole meeting.
Of course, he had heard about Christmas - Santa and the gift-giving thing - and about Christmas parties before. He had even caught a glimpse of a few parties during his patrol duty with the years so he had a vague idea of what those meetings where like. But he had enough common sense to doubt that normal Christmas parties included massive drinking, random violence and stip poker games just like Anko's ones, which were well known through the village for they always fed up the gossip channel with fresh morally-disturbing stories every year. Which didn't help him at all, he conclued with disappointment.
Fortunately he was sick and bedridden, so with any luck they wouldn't expect too much out of him and his uneasiness and lack of knowledge about Christmas parties would go noticed. Or at least he hoped so. He was already feeling weak and out of place enough like that, he didn't need those damn Christmas interactions to make his life more miserable.
And he hoped his students wouldn't use the occasion to get all huggy on him - he'd never forgive them if they did.
As he was musing darkly about good plans to make his students pay if they dared to cling too much on his civilian shirt, the unmistakable sound of Naruto knocking frantically on the front door reached his ears. Seconds later, Iruka was opening the door and greetings where exchanged loudly and chaotically as his caretaker motionned his guests inside the small apartment.
"Merry Christmas!"
"It's been such a long time-!"
"Wow, you've grown so much!"
"Did you change your haircut?"
"You can put your coats there-"
"Thank you for inviting us!"
"I heard you've passed your jounin exam last week, congradulation!"
"Where do I put my boots, Iruka-sensei?"
"Thank you-"
"Just over there-"
"Geez, move! You're squeezing me against the door!"
"Well you shouldn't get in the way!"
"That's a nice shirt you've got there."
"Baka, can't you see my arms are full?"
"Why, thank you!"
"That's not a reason to-"
"Oh, you didn't need to bring a cake!"
"Where do I put the presents?"
"Ah, those are just leftovers, I thought-"
"Wow, you decorated!"
"Here, let me take that away-"
"Don't go through the trouble-"
"Where do I put-?"
"Ooooh, where did you buy this?"
"Heh? Oh, that's-"
"Where do I put the presents?"
The three teens and Iruka kept on babbling for a moment, happily trying to tell one another far too many things at the same time - it sounded like there were at least nine people chatting in the entrance, Kakashi could hardly believe all that noise was coming from only four people, Uchiha Sasuke included. After a while, they finally seemed to calm down a bit and stopped talking on top of each other, to Kakashi's ears' relief. That was when the Copy nin heard Sakura say it.
"So! Where is he?"
Aww, crap. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Sakura's pink head pop out of the open door and he inwardly groaned, abandoning all his hopes for a nice, quiet evening. The young kunoichi hesitated a bit, then entered the room slowly, followed by the two boys.
"Merry Christmas Kakashi-sensei!" she said happily as she approached and, to her teacher's relief, she stopped by his side and abstained from hugging him.
"Yeah, Merry Christmas!" Naruto followed her with his usual enthusiasm, a broad smile on his lips while Sasuke only nodded curtly at him, as Kakashi had expected him to.
"Merry Christmas to you as well," the jounin answered lazily.
"We've come to see you at the hospital, but Hokage-sama wouldn't tell us where you had been moved to!" Sakura whined and, to Kakashi's disappoinment, she took a nearby chair and sat down right beside him. He hoped she wasn't planning to linger there for more than 5 minutes, but somehow he doubted it.
"Yeah, I've told him already," Naruto added lightly as he let himself fall on the corner of the bed, which only added to the silver-haired man's dismay. "I still can't believe she banned us from the Hospital!"
"Well if someone hadn't knocked out two healers and broken three windows-"
"How are you feeling?" Sasuke suddenly cut in to avoid an obviously well-known argument and at once, the two other teenager's attention went back to their jounin sensei.
"Fine," Kakashi answered out of habit and the three teens stared at him with mild concern. They knew him far too well to believe he was feeling as well as he pretended; he had always hated being stuck at the hospital and his current situation was far worse than a normal hospital stay. But what did they expect him to say? No, that he wasn't feeling fine at all and that he had never felt so damn miserable in his whole life? Even he knew that people normally didn't say out loud those kind of things.
At that presice moment, Iruka difficultly entered the room with additionnal chairs, fruit juice and a plate full of food and Kakashi, understanding that the visitors -and even their host- had no intention to spend their Christmas evening in the decorated living room at all, inwardly sighed with resignation, accepting his fate with ill grace. After all, it was only another awkward evening in his life... Nothing to get upset over.
Soon they were all happily chatting among each others, Sakura and Iruka talking about the reforms for the chuunin exam while Sasuke and Naruto were arguing as usual and Kakashi felt a bit left out, even though he admitted he preferred it that way: at least he wasn't expected to answer back if nobody was talking to him. But soon enough, Sakura managed to get the Copy nin to participate a bit in their discussion; for the life of him he couldn't recall how it happened. Much to his surpirse, Kakashi found it strangely easy to talk with them once the ice had been broken; somehow, their subjects of discussion seemed to always be ones he felt safe with - missions, politics, geography... And he doubted that people normally talked of politics during Christmas parties. He truly owned one to the pink-haired teen for making things easier for him - he'd have to remember about it when he managed to get out of this stupid bed. But more than anything else, it felt almost... surreal to the impotent jounin to share a discussion with Umino Iruka. The brown-haired man was sitting right beside him with a small relaxed smile on his lips as if, for once, he didn't mind being there. Dropping the neutral tone he usually used when he talked to him. Talking to him even if he didn't have to... Before he even knew it, Kakashi found himself feeling a lot better than he had in a long while, as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, even though he knew it wouldn't last forever.
When they started talking about the renovations going on in the West side of the town, Naruto joined their discussion to tell them he's heard they planned to build a pizzeria where used to be the librairy and Sakura groaned with annoyance while Sasuke rolled his eyes in a very un-Sasukeish way - Kakashi could only guess with humour that it had become Naruto's new favorite subject of discussion of late. As Naruto was enumerating all the advantages of having a pizzeria a few blocks away from his apartment to an amused Iruka and an exasperated Sakura, Sasuke, who obviously couldn't care less about fastfood, started to talk to Kakashi about ninjutsu tactics.
Time passed by and before they even knew it, they had been talking for more than an hour and half. Suddenly, Naruto, who obviously couldn't wait anymore, loudly announced that it was present time and without further ado, got up and rushed to the living room to get the Christmas presents, Iruka following him with a low amused chuckled while Sakura yelled at her teammate to calm down or he'd break something. Both men soon came back with the arms filled with colorful packages that they set down at the end of the bed and in a matter of seconds, the silver-haired man couldn't even see his feet anymore as they were surrounded by boxes wrapped in bright Christmas wrapping paper. Kakashi stared with astonishment at the offensive packages that covering half of the bed, invading his vital space. All these presents couldn't be only for the five of them...?
"Just how many presents have you bought?" Kakashi couldn't help but ask, bewildered by the sheer number of gifts laying around him. His amazement must have shown on his face because both Sakura and Naruto burst out laughing joyfully at his stunned expression and Sasuke smirked at him, his eyes gleaming with amusement. Even Iruka smiled; from the corner of his eye, the jounin could see the brown-haired man cracking a small smile as he looked away.
"Okay now! Present time everyone!" the blond teen proclaimed loudly and he grabbed the nearest present almost hungrily, to everyone's amusement. Obviously, it was Naruto's first Christmas party and the blond teen couldn't hold back anymore all the childish excitement he felt as he was about to unwrap his first Christmas gifts. Even a blind man could have seen that it meant a lot to the teen and even though Kakashi didn't quite understand what was the big deal about Christmas, the Copy nin was happy for the blonde. If Naruto was happy, then it was worth going through this party for his sake.
Or maybe he should say for their sake. On the corner of his eye, even though his face was as emotionless as a rock, Kakashi could see a strange glee in Sasuke's dark eyes and it amused him. The elite jounin guessed the raven-haired boy had missed spending Christmas with loved ones, although he liked to pretend he couldn't care less about those kind of things. To the silver-haired man, it was a good sign, because it meant that the Uchiha heir was finally starting to open up, to stop clutching after his angsty past and refuse to go on for the sake of a revenge that would leave him empty. Maybe he had finally understood, had found a new sense to his life... He hoped so.
The jounin was pretty sure Naruto and Sakura had worked really hard to convince him to come; he was even surprised he came to start with. They had probably told him he needed to come for Iruka and his sake since they didn't get along at all and all that crap, but Kakashi knew some part of Sasuke was truly glad to be there, even if he wouldn't admit it under torture.
With enthusiasm, Naruto read the label on the present he had grabbed and threw it playfully at Iruka, deserving himself a punch on the head from an annoyed Sakura for manhandling the gifts. And they started unwrapping the presents. Kakashi was surprised to find his team had gotten him presents as well; he knew he should have expected it, but still... Receiving gifts like that left him with a strange feeling; it had been such a long time since the last time he had been given anything - true, Gai often gave him clothing articles for Christmas, but somehow it didn't feel the same to receive presents from his students and team members.
Sakura gave him a box full of sweets - how she had discovered he had a sweet tooth, it was a real wonder to him since he rarely ate in public or talked about his tastes. It was pleasant surprise though - and it made him uneasy, because he didn't know exactly what to say to express this happy feeling swelling inside of him. When she unwrapped his present for him, she watched his reaction carefully and she must have read through him because she then smiled genuinely, obviously proud to have found her teacher a gift he truly liked.
"Heh?" Naruto asked on a surprised tone, staring at the box as if he had never seen one before, "Kakashi-sensei likes sweets?"
"All people don't only eat fastfood, moron," Sasuke told him with a playful smirk.
"Shut up, bastard!"
Sasuke gave him a very nice new katana he looked forward to use - it didn't really surprise him though, as the raven-haired teen gave weapons to everyone except Iruka, who received a wooden clock for some reason. As for Naruto, he offered him the newest Icha Icha book - which resulted in Iruka screaming at the blonde teen for at least 10 solid minutes for buying porn in the first place as he was still underage, to Sasuke and his mild amusement, Sakura frowning with disapprobation in her corner. While Kakashi was quite grateful for the present and really looked forward to read it, he doubted Iruka would agree to help him reading it, if his reaction was any clue... He guessed he'd have to wait.
The silver-haired man was also relieved to see his students seemed to like the presents he had asked Iruka to buy for them; obviously, they hadn't had high expectations to start with, not trusting his tastes when it came to buying gifts, so they seemed pleasantly surprised by his choices. Of course, Sakura was pleased with her book, as she had always liked reading in her free time. As for Naruto, he seemed happy but slightly confused to receive a cooking book while the rest of the gang was rejoiced by Kakashi's judicious choice, especially Sasuke, who obviously had some first-hand experience with Naruto's cooking.
When Sasuke unwraped his present, he stared at the cover of "Genjustu Tactics and Strategies" blankly, politely thanking the jounin for his gift. Then, he flipped the book open and read the title written inside of it. If he was ever surprised, he sure didn't let it show, but after a few seconds he thanked Kakashi a second time and the jounin was quite sure he was a small blush colouring his pale cheeks. From the way Iruka's eyebrows raised up in the air in surprise, the academy teacher had probably seen it as well. Then, something special happened; the chuunin wasn't looking at him, but Kakashi saw his lips twist into a small, knowing smile and it set alight a fire inside of him, the knowledge that they shared that special moment of understanding together making him feel strangely warm and happy and he couldn't help but smile behind his mask for some reason.
When they were done unwrapping all the gifts, the teens and Iruka started talking together again pleasantly and Kakashi rested contently on his pillow, listening to their cheerful babble absent-mindedly. He didn't know why; maybe it was because of all the laugher and happiness surrounding him but somehow, he didn't feel out of place anymore. He felt just... at ease. He couldn't explain it, it was... He didn't have words for it, for this strange unknown sensation. He couldn't even remember the last time he had felt this relaxed in public... Like he wasn't out of place anymore. It was weird... and it was great, he decided.
The jounin let the others' small talk cradle him. Soon he couldn't tell apart words anymore, their voice becoming a soothing music to his ears and slowly, he drifted asleep, the sound of Sasuke and Naruto's bickering and Sakura and Iruka's laughter still filling his dreams.
Merry belated Christmas everyone!
To be continued