Work Text:
(I don't own any characters etc etc)
Iruka woke up on May 25th to a sunny morning, but with a feeling of…not quite dread, but not too far off. He thought about it as he went through his morning routine, wondering what it could be? He wasn’t behind in his grading or curriculum for the academy, nor on bills, nor on cleaning.
“Perhaps it’s because I’m turning a year older tomorrow,” he mused as he went to work at Hokage Tower. “Don’t people start to grow weary of aging?” Iruka laughed, shrugging it off. Then again, working at the missions office meant he never knew what the day would bring…
“Whatever happens happens, I guess,” he told himself, whistling as he walked.
____
Kakashi woke up on May 25th to a sunny morning, a splitting headache, an aching body, and perhaps a bruised rib? He wasn’t sure. He had stumbled into his apartment around midnight from a mission that had irked him to no end, as well as gave him his lovely “souvenirs.”
Mission intel had been off, the support from another village had been idiots, and even the gang of bandits and enemy missing nin had been…jerks? Morons? Pains in the…well, pains in his body now, he sighed.
In short, he woke in a bad mood, and it was made worse by knowing his report was time sensitive. He hadn’t been expected to turn it in upon return to the village, but he did have to do that today. He groaned and took another shower, then went to make coffee only to be reminded that he had run out of it before going on the mission last week, and hadn’t been able to buy any before leaving.
No coffee, no breakfast food, and his rations bars didn’t seem particularly edible that morning. Kakashi grumbled about it all as he dressed and went to his favorite breakfast place, only to find they were unexpectedly closed due to a plumbing emergency. His second favorite was too busy, and his third was farther than he wanted to go. Figuring he’d get coffee elsewhere, he went to the memorial stone to pay tribute but there were some unruly small children there making too much noise for him (and his headache), and so he didn’t spend as much time as he would have liked, which also would have grounded him.
His mood worsened and worsened as he went to Hokage Tower, finally getting a cup of coffee nearby to nurse while he wrote his report. Kakashi headed to a jonin lounge in the tower to do that, but halfway through realized he needed a map of the area to use for it. He sighed and rolled the scroll up, making a second cup of coffee to try to feel more human as he worked.
Kakashi glared at anyone who neared him, his headache worsening and his body aching the more he walked around the tower.
Iruka was walking with Genma, swapping jokes and talking about the upcoming week, both men nodding and exchanging pleasantries with whoever they passed. They turned a corner down a hallway at the same time Kakashi did, though his face was in his book and he hadn’t been paying attention; why would he, when everyone was giving him a wide berth?
Suddenly, Kakashi collided with something, or someone. He held onto his orange book but dropped the scroll, and found he was now wearing his coffee. Snapping his head up, he looked into Iruka’s surprised face before the teacher glanced down to wipe coffee off his own vest.
“Watch where you’re going!” Kakashi snapped. “Look what you did!”
“What I did?” Iruka replied. “It’s your coffee!”
“Was, and my report,” Kakashi sighed, picking it up from the ground. A little wet, not too bad, but his already sour mood worsened at yet more going wrong for him. And now, at least, he had someone to blame for it, since the others in his mission were far away.
“Hey, it was an accident, happens here all the time,” Genma tried to placate, but Kakashi just glared more at the chuunin.
“Some shinobi you are, not being aware of your surroundings,” Kakashi hissed.
“Me? You were the one reading and dropping things,” Iruka snapped back. “And thanks for the coffee, I’m so glad to be wearing it for the rest of my shift here.”
“You’ve got some nerve, mouthing off to me when you caused this,” the copy nin retorted. “You got something to prove?”
“What?” Iruka and Genma asked in unison, confused.
“Settle this like a shinobi,” Kakashi said, crossing his arms even though his hands were full.
“What?” Iruka repeated.
“Yeah. Meet me at training ground ten tomorrow morning, seven AM, unless you want to chicken out?”
“But tomorrow is –” Genma began, but Iruka held up a hand to stop him, not looking away from the copy nin.
“Is perfect for this,” Iruka agreed.
“What?” Genma asked again, but the teacher nodded.
“Good, see you then,” Kakashi snapped once more, stalking away. His head and body still hurt but his mood was slightly lifted, having shifted the blame for it all to another person. Regardless, he still had a mission report to finish and yet another coffee to get, he sighed, figuring he’d write it quickly so he could go home and get out of his wet uniform.
“But tomorrow is your birthday,” Genma reminded Iruka as they resumed walking.
Iruka shrugged. “Guess I’m starting it off with fighting Kakashi,” he sighed. “He’s clearly in a mood and I didn’t want to let it drag on, either here or with someone else. If I can take it on the chin for anyone else, so be it.”
“You probably will, fighting him. Let me do it instead.”
“No, he chose me,” Iruka sighed again.
“Then let me help,” Genma firmly requested, and Iruka laughed and nodded.
“You can show up with an ice pack and coffee…”
____
Kakashi was already at the training ground as Iruka entered it, warming up as Genma arrived a few minutes later.
“Brought reinforcements?” Kakashi mocked. “Couldn’t do this on your own like an adult?”
Iruka rolled his eyes. “He was there when you started all this,” he reminded the copy nin, but before anyone could say anything more, Gai arrived.
“Rival! I was hoping I would not be late, and here I am! Good morning, Iruka-sensei and Genma!” he boomed.
“Morning!” Iruka called back before looking at Kakashi with a raised eyebrow. “What was that about not doing this alone?”
Kakashi sighed. He had mentioned it to Gai as they had dinner, snapping more about Iruka and how much Kakashi looked forward to kicking his butt. Gai had pointed out it sounded like an accident but Kakashi’s bad day had continued to the point of ignoring any such thing. He hadn’t expected his friend to show up, but fortunately Gai stood on the sidelines with Genma and didn’t seem to be wanting to interfere.
Kakashi and Iruka moved to start their spar, settling into favored stances.
“Any rules?” Iruka asked, but Kakashi rolled his eye.
“I’ll keep it to no weapons, to make it easier for you,” he said, and Iruka made an annoyed face.
“Whatever, let’s get on with this, I have the academy in an hour,” he said. Not how he wanted to start his birthday, but it was what it was…
They launched into it, trading and dodging blows, punches, kicks, leg sweeps, all to the background noise of birds in the nearby trees and murmured conversation between Gai and Genma.
As he expected, Kakashi got in more hits to Iruka than the other man did to him, and overall it did wonders for the jonin’s mood! His blood was rushing but there was no real threat of danger, and his body felt better than it had yesterday, even if he had wrapped his ribs this morning to do this. As Iruka got a kick in on said ribs, Kakashi winced; perhaps, he finally admitted to himself, this hadn’t been his best idea. Maybe…maybe his body actually didn’t feel better…
But there was no way he was going to let on about that, and if he mentioned of his post-mission wear and tear, all three other men would surely stop the fight. No, he had to make sure Iruka was the one to call it, and lashed out in a fury of movement, including tricking Iruka to move one way so that Kakashi could land a kick…right to the side of Iruka’s face, not that he had meant to!
“Okay! You’re done!” Genma quickly called, rushing forward.
“Agreed! Match is over!” Gai shouted, joining him.
The two men separated Kakashi and Iruka, moving to their respected friend and pushing them away from the other.
“That’s gonna leave a mark,” Genma grimaced as he took in Iruka’s face as the other man panted while catching his breath.
“It happens,” Iruka wheezed, mercifully taking a field ice pack Genma had brought and broke up to activate.
“Okay, good match, or whatever,” Genma said to Gai and Kakashi, who nodded. “We’re going now!”
Iruka looked at Kakashi, who nodded again, and nodded back before leaving with Genma. Once they were out of eyesight, Kakashi gasped and nearly doubled over, clutching his side.
“Rival! He got you harder than I thought?” Gai asked, clearly concerned.
“He did, but I had a mission and it left its own wear and tear” the copy nin admitted. Gai straightened and frowned.
“You should not have sparred today,” he said, crossing his arms and looking at his friend disapprovingly. “You are injured, what were you thinking?!” Kakashi shrugged and stood straighter, with only a slight hunch this time. “Feel better?” Gai asked mockingly.
“Physically, no. Mentally, yes, actually,” Kakashi said with an eye smile. “Guess it got my anger and everything out, fighting always does!”
“But to fight Iruka on his birthday?”
Kakashi froze. “What?” Gai nodded. “How…how do you know?”
“Genma told me as we watched.”
Kakashi closed his eye and groaned. “Genma tried to say yesterday today wasn’t a good day for it. Why did Iruka agree?” he wondered aloud, opening his eye.
“You can be…persuasive,” his friend reminded him, and Kakashi sighed again.
“I was a jerk, and now this, today?”
“You need to make this better,” Gai firmly told him, and Kakashi nodded. “But first, let’s get that rib checked out.”
Kakashi let Gai start to guide him to the hospital, while his mind wandered across the village to the academy. The very same academy he went to later in the morning to spy on Iruka, who now had a not insignificant bruise on his cheek. Kakashi cursed at his own actions and waited until the children left the room for lunch to enter.
Iruka remained at his desk, watching with a blank look as the other man approached him.
“Hello,” Kakashi greeted once he was standing in front of the desk.
“Hello,” Iruka frostily replied.
“Uh, just, uh, checking in on you,” Kakashi told him. “After this morning.” Iruka silently blinked at him. “Sorry, for, well, this,” he continued, gesturing at his own masked face.
Iruka rolled his eyes. “It happens with fights,” he said, standing. “Anything else?”
“Uh, I know that today –” Kakashi began to say, but another teacher popped their head in the door.
“All set for lunch?” they asked Iruka, glancing with surprise at the copy nin.
“Yep, coming now,” Iruka called out, moving to join them. “Take care, Kakashi-sensei,” he said, walking away with his coworker without waiting for a response.
Kakashi sighed. “So much for wishing him a happy birthday,” he sighed again as he left. “Guess I need a plan B.”
Iruka’s mood lifted as he entered the faculty area and joined his coworkers for lunch; they celebrated birthdays at the academy and had ordered food for his, including putting up the usual birthday decorations they always did. He circled the room thanking everyone, making a plate of food, exchanging small talk about this and that. Of course, the conversations all included commentary on the bruise, which he just assured people was all a training session mishap.
Kurenai was working at the academy last week and this one, and joined him at a table a short time later.
“Nice lunch,” she said, passing him a cup of his favorite tea.
“Thanks, and yeah, it is,” he agreed.
They talked for a few minutes about this and that before she set her cup down. “What really happened to your face?” Kurenai asked.
“What?” Iruka asked. “Like I’ve told everyone –”
“Who did it?” she interrupted him.
“No one.”
Kurenai looked at him for a long moment before shrugging. “I’ll find out on my own.”
He rolled his eyes. “I agreed to train, this sort of thing happens, you know that.”
“You agreed to it on your birthday? Because I saw you yesterday evening and it wasn’t there.”
Iruka laughed awkwardly. “Guess I’m older, not wiser, huh? Makes for a memorable birthday, at least.”
It was Kurenai’s turn to roll her eyes but she at least moved the conversation away as others joined their table, and Iruka didn’t speak of it again for the rest of the academy day.
After classes ended, Iruka stayed to work on grading and preparation for the week. Kurenai, meanwhile, had fewer after-school responsibilities and so went straight to Asuma, sharing of what she knew. They set off together to find out what had happened, quickly learning of things from Raidou, who had learned of it from Genma, and the couple went to seek Kakashi.
Iruka finally finished and decided to go to his birthday meal at Ichiraku as usual, having stayed longer at the academy than he may have needed to so as to let the evening crowds lessen.
He greeted Ayame and Teuchi and thanked them for their birthday wishes as he grabbed a seat. As the two worked, Iruka let his mind wander to birthdays past, people in his life, and thoughts about the year ahead. Ayame passed him water and tea and he thanked her just as she greeted none other than Kakashi.
Iruka stiffened before he realized he was reacting, and he took a deep breath to relax.
“Mind if I sit here?” Kakashi asked, gesturing to the lone empty seat to Iruka’s left.
“It’s taken,” Iruka said, watching from the corner of his eye as the jonin hovered, nearly sitting.
“What? By who?” the copy nin asked.
“The spirit of Naruto,” Iruka said, looking straight ahead and smiling to himself.
“What?”
Iruka nodded and studied his tea. “We always go here for birthdays, so since he’s with Jiraiya I’m keeping his seat open. Right?” he asked Ayame as she passed.
She nodded and grabbed a “reserved” sign, placing it in front of that seat and smiling at Iruka.
“That’s ridiculous,” Kakashi scoffed.
“Almost as ridiculous as fighting someone because you’re angry at someone or something else,” Iruka mused as he now studied his own uniform, picking at a loose thread.
“Uh…” Kakashi could only offer, frozen in his place.
Iruka shrugged. “Don’t sweat it,” he said, sipping his tea once more. Kakashi silently nodded and went to sit on the other side of “Naruto’s seat,” placing his own order. The men ate their food in silence, and overall the ramen stall grew quieter as the evening continued.
Kakashi sat in embarrassment and not a little bit of shame for having been called out once more on his behavior, unsure of what to do or say as he didn’t want to make things worse. When Ayame cleared Iruka’s bowl and checked the teacher didn’t want anything more, Kakashi spoke up to ask for Iruka’s bill.
“No thanks,” Iruka said, standing to reach into his pocket to grab money.
“It’s fine,” Kakashi continued, but Iruka again declined. This happened once more before Iruka finally turned to look at him.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said, and Kakashi’s eye moved from Iruka’s frown to the bruise, to his eyes, filled with something Kakashi couldn’t make out.
“It’s called making amends,” the jonin blurted out.
“And what are you making amends for?” the teacher asked, crossing his arms.
“Uh, hitting you.”
“I should have blocked it,” Iruka stoically commented.
“Fighting?” Kakashi tried again.
“I agreed to it.”
“On your birthday,” the jonin groaned.
“You didn’t know.”
Kakashi sighed. “For taking my mood out on you,” he snapped. “There. Happy?” he asked, feeling annoyance creeping up once more.
“Yes,” Iruka shared, and Kakashi’s brain blanked out as the annoyance instantly died down.
“What?”
Iruka lowered his arms and softened his face. “I’m glad you admitted it to yourself.”
“Whatever,” Kakashi said, looking away as he felt embarrassed once more. “I said it, now what?” he sarcastically said aloud.
“Now you can buy me a birthday meal,” Iruka announced, and Kakashi whipped his head to look at him in surprise. “With cake,” Iruka added.
“What?”
Iruka shrugged. “You want to make amends, you can buy me a meal and a piece of cake.”
“Uh, okay?” Kakashi heard himself agree, and before he knew it, they had made plans for lunch that weekend.
Kakashi half-wanted to get the meal over with sooner, but knew that Iruka was giving him extra time to chill out and get over himself. He was appreciative for it and practiced what he would say over and over, wanting to apologize once more.
They met Saturday afternoon for lunch, a pleasant barbeque place Iruka picked where they sat across from each other eating meat, having a drink, and just pleasantly talking. Kakashi finally drew on all his bravery he had in the field to apologize and share his prepared speech, and Iruka listened patiently before pouring him another drink from their sake bottle.
“I accept your apology, thank you,” he said, toasting his glass with Kakashi’s. “Look, I know what it’s like to have a bad day, or a week, or whatever. You just need to get out of your head more at times, you know? And not take it out on people, or yourself.”
“So says everyone,” Kakashi sighed. “It was a bit easier when I had the kids,” he admitted, to his surprise. Was it the alcohol, he wondered?
But no, as Iruka smiled and nodded, Kakashi realized it was Iruka bringing that honesty out in him.
“I get it, they were, are, a good team, and it’s not easy when kids leave you and move on. Especially with how it happened for your team and the village,” Iruka gently told him, turning meat over on the grill between them as he spoke. “No one wants to be alone all the time, but you do have plenty of people here to just talk to, you know.”
“I know,” Kakashi agreed. “I thought throwing myself into missions would also help, but this last one was…well, maybe did a bit more harm than good.”
Iruka nodded. “How’s your rib doing?” he asked, and Kakashi raised an eyebrow.
“How do you know about that?” he asked, but Iruka smiled.
“It’s a secret.”
Kakashi playfully glared at him before softening his eye. “Better. You did make it worse when we fought, just saying.”
“Then you shouldn’t have been an idiot and asked to fight when your rib was what, cracked?”
“Fractured,” the jonin corrected him.
“Same thing.”
“Did you call me an idiot?” Kakashi asked, laughing for what felt like the first time in weeks. “No one calls me that. Mostly. Usually. Outside of a few people.”
“If it fits,” Iruka mused, laughing and shrugging. “Don’t be an idiot and fight when you’re injured in the future. Or even train. Got it?”
Kakashi blinked; when was the last time someone outside of his small circle and medical nin cared about him like that?
“Got it,” he agreed, putting the larger pieces of meat on Iruka’s plate, to the chuunin’s surprise.
“No, you need it more, what with your injuries,” Iruka protested.
“It’s your birthday,” Kakashi countered, delighted by how that lit up Iruka’s face.
“That’s true, so I’ll accept it. After all, my birthday is once a year, you probably get injured how often?” Iruka teased.
“Anyway, where do you want cake from?” Kakashi said, changing the subject. Iruka laughed but went along with it, and the conversation moved on.
Kakashi paid for their meal and they went on a long walk to settle their stomachs, continuing to talk about a range of topics as they walked and later sat in a park. They eventually moved to a cafe Iruka had chosen, where Kakashi bought two cups of coffee, one piece of cake, and one savory snack for himself.
“I can’t think of the last time I did something like this,” he admitted as they sat at a small table outside the cafe. “It’s been a while.”
“Then I’m flattered,” Iruka said with a grin, thanking him for the cake as he dug in. Both were surprised they didn't seem to run out of topics to discuss, be it shinobi-related, village gossip, or generalities.
They lingered there, eventually leaving and opting for yet another walk. Neither had anywhere to be and were enjoying the day. After a while, the men sat on a bench in the shade to rest, talking about this and that past mission and making predictions about rumored future ones. Stomachs eventually growled and Iruka suggested a light dinner, inviting Kakashi to choose the place.
He shrugged. “It's still your birthday,” he reminded the younger man, who bashfully smiled.
“I think you've more than made up for it all,” Iruka posed. “Really.”
“Maybe, but I'm happy to keep it going for your special day,” Kakashi told him.
“Hmm, now you're just spoiling me,” the teacher mused, and the jonin shrugged again, finding he didn't mind. In fact, he quite liked the idea of it, another surprise. Iruka was unaware of all this as he considered options, leading them to a small noodle shop.
Throughout dinner, both thought of how nice the day had been, and Iruka said as much after thanking Kakashi for dinner again when he paid the bill.
“I was thinking the same thing,” the copy nin agreed as they left and stood on the darkened street. “This kind of even felt like a…a date,” he admitted, as much to himself as to Iruka, who looked at him in surprise.
“I…yes…I suppose so?”
Kakashi tilted his head as he thought of it more. Was it a date? They had shared meals, spent several hours together, and got along well. Iruka was handsome, caring, and clearly understood at least some of Kakashi’s less favorable qualities.
Iruka bit his lip as he considered it. They hadn't run out of things to talk about, and everything that day seemed organic. Sure, the jonin could be a pain (literally), but Iruka was no saint either, and he knew how much the other man cared about his work, village, and people he cared about. Not to mention, attractive, even without showing his face…
Boldened by Kakashi's admission and his own birthday luck, Iruka swallowed.
“Do you want it to have been a date?” he asked the other man.
Kakashi blinked before nodding. “Yes. Only if you do,” he quickly added, and Iruka smiled bashfully.
“Yes,” he agreed, and Kakashi nodded again. They stood in silence for a moment, the weight of the change hanging heavily. “Would you like to walk me home after another walk around the village?”
“Definitely,” Kakashi quickly agreed, and they set off walking once more, with Iruka slipping his hand into the jonin’s gloved one as they made plans for a second date.