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Iruka looks at his father figure as he lays in the hospital bed. His heart racing, whether in fear or anger he’s not quite sure. All he knows is that his ‘all mighty’ father is at death's door and that he really doesn’t want to be there. If it wasn’t for Kakashi he probably would have turned around and left. With a deep sigh and a quick squeeze to Kakashi’s hand, he walks in.
Asuma looks up as the door opens, his serious face morphing into immediate disgust and anger. “What the hell are you doing here?” Iruka doesn’t grant him a response, instead just gazes at his… at Saratobi. “Iruka I know you heard me, what the hell are you doing here?” Asuma stands up and takes a step towards the pair.
Kakashi tenses and makes a move to stand in front of Iruka. With a sigh he just pulls the other back to his side. When he feels his lover's eyes on him he just shakes his head silently telling him to let it go. “I got the call from Konohamaru that Hiruzen was in the hospital. Said he might not make it passed this week. If I had anything to get off my chest that the time was now. Shockingly enough I do have something to say brother dearest. Do you have a problem with me talking to… talking to my father?” he says finally looking at his oldest brother, the fear he feels hopefully not showing.
“I don’t know why he would call you. I think he made it pretty damn clear that you were no longer welcomed anywhere near this family. Disowned and cast out for being a f…”
“Enough. I’d watch your mouth if I were you boy.” Kakashi says while pushing his hair out of his eyes, staring Asuma down. Asuma looks Kakashi up and down, probably assessing the threat level. Not liking what he sees he stays quiet. Iruka gives a small smile and another hand squeeze in appreciation. “That’s not very Christian like of you brother. Aren’t you supposed to practice love or something?”
“Stop calling me brother. No family of mine is gay.” he says through clench teeth. Iruka knows he wants to say more but the look he knows Kakashi is giving him keeps the harmful words inside his mouth. “Just leave. He casted you out back then and if he were able to right now he’d do it again. You. Are. Not. Welcomed. Here.”
Iruka waits up with a start. Heart beating fast, breath shallow, tears slowly falling down his face. It’s been years since his adopted father died and even longer since he’s been kicked out of the family. Normally the nightmares don’t affect him but right before the holidays they take hold and refuse to let him go. Iruka thought with time the heartbreak would leave but he stopped holding his breath for that a long time ago.
With a sigh he gets out of bed silently and pulls on some boxers that are a bit too tight for them to belong to him. He acknowledges the small size with nothing more than a shrug. He sneaks across the room and slips out the room, peeking into the room next to his before moving on to the kitchen.
With a sigh he looks around at the mess that clutters every surface. School books, a mixture of ungraded and graded works, some books made only for adults, pens and pencils, stickers and other miscellaneous things occupy the table. Painted Pictures of varying sizes and mainly orange color the wall. The floor was littered with shoes of colors. The dishes are piled high due to lack of time on everyone’s part. Iruka chuckles without humor as he shakes his head. Another sigh and he begins to clean the mess. He straightens out the papers, making two separate stacks on what needs to be graded and what’s done. He picks up the school books and places them in a frog shaped backpack and places it on the floor next to the door. He picks up the adult books and hides them in the sweets cupboard behind a pack of milk chocolate kisses and cookies. He organizes the pens and pencils, placing them in their correct cups. The stickers and other miscellaneous items go in a random drawer to be sorted another day.
Iruka straightens the pictures on the wall, fingers running over them gently remembering when they were made and for what reason. He picks up the shoes and puts them in order near the front door. Before returning and tackling the dishes. After the kitchen is done and as sparkling as it can be Iruka stretches his arms, neck, and wrists contemplating if he can go back to bed to catch a bit more sleep. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath in.
“No son of mine is going to be gay. You either go to this camp and learn how to be straight again and come home with your senses or you get the hell out of my house and never come back.”
The answer, Iruka finds, is a resounding no.
Deep breath out.
He goes to the cabinets and looks to see what he has. When in doubt cooking always cheers him up. Iruka notices everything to make pumpkin flavored bread. Iruka pulls out the flour, the baking powder, salt, baking soda, butter, eggs, the pumpkin filling, sugar, and spices, placing them all in a nice straight line to keep track of it all.
Iruka combines baking powder, baking soda, spices, flour and salt into a glass bowl and gently whisks it together so it all blends nicely. He then takes a different bowl and places the butter and sugar in it, beating it till it’s just kind of combined and crumbly looking. Then he takes one egg at a time and whisks it some more until the mixture looks light and fluffy. Iruka is tempted to taste it but knows that it’s not a smart idea to do so. He resists but just barely. After it looks fluffy enough he adds in the pumpkin filling, mixing it so that it’s a light orange color. He can’t remember if it’s supposed to look grainy or not but decides he doesn’t quite care.
Once the wet ingredients are done he slowly adds in the dry ingredients and whisks it on a low setting until it all blended. Once that is done he places the mixture into two loaf pans and places it into the oven. With the timer set Iruka begins to clean up. In the middle of washing the dishes, Iruka still feels the restless energy and the dark cloud over his head so he decides to go further and make some more bread.
With a quick check Iruka is pleased to see that he still has all the ingredients he needs to make more. This time he decides to make Homemade Dutch Oven Bread. Something his mom and dad used to make before they died way back when.
Iruka gathers the flour, the salt, the dry yeast, warm water, olive oil, Dutch oven lid and parchment paper. Once again setting them in a nice little line to keep it all organized.
In a stand mixer bowel he mixes the flour, salt, yeast, and water, whisking it for about ten minutes making the dough look smooth and elastic like. Iruka pokes it a few times just for the sake of it. Once the mixing is done he wraps it up and places the bowl to the side so that it can rise.
While Iruka is waiting he goes to the living room and decides to clean up. Before he does he checks on the pumpkin bread by opening the oven door. The smell of fresh pumpkin and bread fill the room and his heart as sappy as it sounds. With a hum and a smile he shuts the door and goes to clean.
After an hour and a half the tiny alarm goes off in the kitchen telling Iruka the bread is done. He rushes to the kitchen leaving a mostly cleaned living room behind. He shuts the alarm off listening to see if any footsteps from the back of the house come his way. When nothing happens Iruka sighs in relief.
Iruka opens the oven door and reaches in to pull the pans out, fingers stopping right before they touch hot metal. He stares at his unprotected hand and facepalms. With a quick search he grabs the oven mitts and places them on and finally pulls the bread out, placing them on the window sill like it’s the 1950’s.
Iruka checks the rising dough and deems it the perfect height. He removes the plastic wrap, throws some flour on a cutting board and starts to aggressively knead the dough. Iruka takes out all his frustration, heartbreak, and anger out on the dough. In the middle of punching the dough to perfection, his lover of five years walks into the kitchen with their adopted son of two years on his back.
“You know if you wanted to pound something into the table this morning you could have just woken me up, I wouldn’t have minded.” Kakashi says in lieu of greeting.
Iruka only lifts his messy hands up and pretends to strangle Kakashi with the force.
“There is a child in the room, you weirdo.”
“A child where? I don’t see a child anywhere.” He says while looking around causing Naruto to sway back and forth, making him laugh in delight.
“The one on your back?”
“The one on my….. ohh you mean this little monkey?” The words are accompanied by a squeal of laughter from the child as Kakashi tickles his toes.
“Yeah dada, me a monkey now.” Naruto says bouncing up and down in excitement.
“Oh my mistake. Kakashi there are little monkeys around. Keep your dirty old man thoughts to yourself.” Iruka smirks.
“Old!
“Yes old. Now why are you two up? It’s…”Iruka leans back to look at the clock, “6:34 in the morning. Much too early for old men and baby monkeys to be roaming around.”
“Well I was sleeping peacefully, having a real nice dream about a certain teacher and I in a locked classroom getting PRETTY steamy when all of a sudden a very big, very heavy ball of energetic sunshine decided my body made for a fantastic trampoline. He’s up because he had to use the potty like a big boy. Once he was done we went into the room to some dolphin cuddles…”
“Hatake I swear to kami..”
“WHEN we noticed you weren’t there. Of course we couldn’t not look for you soooo.”
“So we went xplorin dada.”
“That’s right we went exploring. And found you here making food at 6:30 am.”
Naruto must have decided he was tired of being in the background because he wiggles and struggles until Kakashi puts him down on the floor. He runs up to Iruka and grabs ahold of his leg, looking up with bright eyes.
“Dada what make? Naru help?” He squeezes Iruka’s calf and gives him Puppy Eyes 43. Iruka lets out a small laugh. “Yeah sweetheart you can help. We are gonna make some bread. Ask papa for a stool and you can help me make the rest of this bread.” Naruto cheers and runs over to Kakashi and puts on Puppy Eyes 51. “Papa help get stool please?”
“Of course baby. Thank you for asking nicely.” Kakashi ruffles Naruto’s hair causing the little one to laugh. It warms Iruka’s heart, chasing away the lingering angst that filled it before.
Kakashi grabs Naruto’s helping stool and brings it next to Iruka, kissing him on the cheek and then the mouth. “Mmm good morning my love.”
“Good morning indeed. Thank you for cleaning up the kitchen. I was gonna get to it today but you of course beat me to it.”
“I was up anyway so I figured I might as well be useful.”
“Bad night.”
“Yeah.”
“You know you could have woken me up? You don’t need to shoulder it alone.” A frown is etched into Kakashi’s face.
“It was early you were tired and besides you’re here now and that’s all I can ever ask for.”
“Iruka…”
Iruka stops whatever he’s about to say with a kiss. “It’s fine, I’m fine. I promise.”
A small face is suddenly thrust into their faces. “Naru wants kissy’s too. Kiss kiss kiss kiss.” He starts chanting as he bounces on the stool one hand on each father.
“Oh my of course Naruto gets kisses.” Iruka says as Kakashi chuckles. They kiss Naruto all over his face until he’s yelling for mercy and to finish cooking whatever dada was making.
They laugh and let him go as Naruto wipes away the “cooties”.
“Ok baby we gotta finish kneading the dough ok? Watch dada and copy me ok?”
Kakashi stands behind Naruto to keep him steady.
Iruka cuts off a medium size piece of dough and sets it to the side. “First things first, this is flour and it’s gonna keep the dough from stick to everything ok? Take a little hand full and rub it on the counter like this. Good!!! That’s really good. Now rub some on both hands like this. That’s right naruto you're doing so well. Now this is the dough. All you have to do is lift and fold . Lift and fold. Good now we are gonna pick it up and slam it down on the table! Yes, exactly like that. Have you done this before because you are doing way to good for it to be your first time.”
“I said the same thing about you.”
Iruka sends a glare over at the older man. “Another innuendo and I swear I will sell your limited edition signed Icha Icha books and bath in your tears and the money that I’ll make from them.”
“You wouldn't,” Kakashi exclaims in horror.
“Mess around and find out Kakashi.” He replies evilly.
“Naruto your dad is pure evil.”
“Hey don’t talk about dada like that!” Naruto shouts, turning around and pointing at the one holding him. A bit of flour flies off his fingers and onto Kakashi’s face causing him to blink in surprise.
Iruka can’t help but to laugh hysterically. The moment was too cute and wonderful not to laugh at. As he’s laughing Iruka feels a sharp pain in his bladder, telling him it’s been who knows how long since he last went so he calms himself down, wipes his eyes and stands back to his full height.
“I’m not sure if i should be offended that you laughed, offended that my child protected your honor over mine or more in love with you because your laugh is like a breath of fresh air after drowning.”
“Well while you figure it out I have to use the bathroom. Keep kneading and I’ll be back to start the next step.”
Iruka steps out of the kitchen as Kakashi turns Naruto back around and helps him knead the dough.
Iruka takes the time in the bathroom to relieve himself, wash his hands and face, brush his hair, brush his teeth and wash his face again because the toothpaste got everywhere. As he does his bathroom routine he can’t help but think about his new family. Kakashi found him and nursed his broken heart back together when he needed him the most. Naruto came into their lives after Kakashi’s teacher and wife died in a plane crash.
That old saying ‘what we lost in the fire we will gain in the ashes’ comes to mind as Iruka stares into the mirror. He lost so much and truly felt that his world was on fire, everything he knew and loved gone in but a moment. Until Kakashi took his hand, pulled him up and walked with him through it all. Picking up the shattered pieces and helping him build a new home, a new life.
Iruka shakes his head and dries his face. Thoughts for another time, another day.
He leaves the bathroom and goes to the bedroom to throw on some pants. With that done he makes his way back to the kitchen where he can hear his family muttering urgently. When he steps into the kitchen he sees why they’re panicking.
There are eggs on the ceiling and floor, mushy liquid where the dough used to be, bagels and bread scattered around the floor, Iruka’s pumpkin bread is somehow sticking to the wall slowly sliding down it leaving a trail of … Iruka can’t even tell what it is, flour everywhere including but not limited to the floor, cabinets, on the son and boyfriend, and the dining table across the room.
Iruka didn’t know if he should laugh, cry, or yell. He is low key impressed but can’t show it because they just ruined all of his hard work in cleaning and baking.
“What is going on here? I left you guys for ten minutes. What did you do?” Iruka starts calmly, startling the two trouble makers in the room, one eyebrow raised as he slowly makes his way over to them. “What on earth? Literally ten minutes. How did this even happen? Where did you even get the eggs? Literally everything was mixed together. All you were doing was kneading dough. What …how...why...?
“Well my little dolphin…”
The vein in Iruka's head pulses.
“Uh oh papa. Dada is mad. What should we do?” Naruto whispers loudly as he slaps his hand into the liquid mush with one hand while smearing …. something on the others shirt, eying the vein and the minor killing intent on Iruka.
“Well son there’s only one thing to do in situations like this.” Kakashi whispers back, slowly picking Naruto up like a football.
“Don’t you fu..freaking dare Hatake.”
“We run as fast as we can!” Kakashi yells out as he dashes out of the room and to the living room, Naruto’s laughter following them out.
Iruka looks up to the heavens above asking for strength but between him; the walls, and the kami’s he is pleased.
With a true smile on his face he chases after his son and boyfriend yelling at them to keep quiet because of the neighbors, that they better not mess up the newly cleaned living room, and that they are gonna help him clean up the mess they made in the kitchen. Their only reply is to giggle rambunctiously at him and run faster.
He may not have a traditional family that his adopted father wanted but this is the family he needs. Iruka wouldn’t change it in any way shape or form. Perhaps next holiday Iruka will wake them up to make some bread. It could be a new family tradition like his parents did all those years ago.