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Iruka loved Kakashi, it wasn't a question, just a fact. He trusted the man with his life and he was the person Iruka came home to. The reverse was also true and he didn't for even the briefest moment question that.
That said, while Kakashi was his lover, his boyfriend, his soulmate, he was not in fact his best friend any more than Iruka was his. Some people thought that but those people were wrong and clearly did not understand anything about either of them.
They needed a best friend that wasn't each other. It was simply a matter of fact. A person needed somebody they could go to and tell every little nit picky, annoying, frustrating thing to. Sometimes that 'thing' they needed to talk about or blow a little steam off about was in fact their beloved. You couldn't spend every waking moment being happily in love. Maybe you could spend most of it as such but even if it was just point one percent of the time that you wanted to strangle them you still needed somebody that you could tell this to and who would either tell you're being an idiot or commiserate with you and help you plan the proper punishment so that you could forgive them and go on being pathetically in love with them.
Iruka had loved Mizuki and he'd been kicked around by the bastard. In the end he'd been betrayed by him and that had been before Mizuki had betrayed the village. He'd betrayed Iruka when he'd decided to get engaged to their teammate. It had hurt and Iruka had, had to pretend that it didn't. He'd wished them happiness at the engagement party and despite how much it had hurt he'd remained their friend.
For a long time after he'd given up on the idea of finding love again and had even considered doing the socially expected thing of finding a wife and starting a family because at least then he wouldn't be lonely and he was most definitely lonely.
Anko had talked him out of it or rather she'd smacked him upside his head and threatened to beat the crap out of him if he tried it. She had also insisted that he needed to get laid and then waggled her eyebrows and suggested that his fight with Kakashi over the chunin exams was merely pent up sexual tension. She'd also suggested that he should see if the jounin was free to help him with that.
On the other side of the equation, Iruka had later learned, Gai had done the one thing that would change everything. He'd set another challenge with his rival. One of Love and Bravery and every possible Youthful thing associated with them. The challenge had been for them each to pick somebody for the other to ask out and Gai had picked Iruka. Kakashi won too.
Iruka and Kakashi had both there after been so caught up in each other that it was only now, nearly two years later, that they had resolved to return the favor.
Kakashi had challenged Gai, won, and this time instead of letting the man set his own impossible task, he'd set one and insisted that he there would be no more challenges unless Gai completed it.
Iruka had simply threatened do unspeakable things to Anko if she refused. He'd of course insisted that it was for her own good, because after all it was.
Smiling, Iruka watched the couple on their now 'third' date from a polite distance that was easily far enough away that he and Kakashi couldn't be consider to be stalking them. "They'll be good for each other." He'd thought so from the start but now, watching Anko blush for the first time in years as Gai handed over two little pink mice for her pet snakes' dinner, he was certain.
"You're not afraid they'll drive each other crazy?" Kakashi asked, his eyebrow raising noticeably.
Anko took the cage set it down somewhere inside out of sight, then grinning wickedly she wrapped her fingers around Gai's hitai-ate and yanked him inside as well. The door slammed shut.
Iruka coughed, covering a laugh, and pulled Kakashi away and down the street. "If you haven't driven me crazy by now I somehow suspect they'll be fine. After all you can't go someplace you're already at."