Then, Roughly 10 Years Ago
A friend of a friend got promoted.
That was why Iruka was being irresponsible on a work night, school night, whatever night connotated duties bright and early the next morning. A friend of a friend had been promoted and this day had been the only night a majority of the invitees would be scheduled to be home.
Getting wasted on a Thursday was a sacrifice Iruka was willing to make. He'd been careful to sip on one or two drinks during the night to make it to class until someone had ordered a platter of shots. One, two, and he'd been cajoled and peer-pressured into drinking and drinking like the best of them as the crowd swelled like a tsunami wave. It was hot here, hot from the alcohol in his stomach and hot from the ambient body heat of a hundred odd people cramped into the too small bar.
"Who're we celebrating?" Iruka asked, face turned towards Kotetsu's shoulder and ear. He was yelling to be heard over the music and the stomp-thuds coming from the dancefloor.
Kotetsu turned to look at him. His friend's face was flushed and some of the overhead lights gleamed off his slick forehead. The man's scent was strong with a carapace of the kind of sweat that happened during a day's work in the sun and breeze. The uniform blues of his fatigues were rumpled and mussed- he probably didn't have the chance to shower and change before coming here.
"I don't know!" Kotetsu yelled back, shrugging with a grin, "I'll ask Izumo."
"We can ask Izumo," Iruka said back. He slung an arm around his friend. Rocked forward on his toes to rub the underside of his chin along the edge of Kotetsu's shoulders and smashed his face into the side of his head. Black hair pricked his eyelids and lips. A plethora of tiny knives.
The world swam as Iruka marked his friend, his good fucking friend, with a large amount of happiness. Stepping back, Iruka smashed the palm of his hand directly onto Kotetsu's face, cutting off his half-hearted complaints, and finished marking him up as pack. One of his little pack members to appease his strung out instincts. Something in the back of his brain calmed down from an incessant itch.
"Happy now?" Kotetsu asked him. He was smiling though he sounded a little annoyed. But he smelled good and right.
Iruka nodded, proud of himself and too drunk to care about publicly marking up one of his pack members, "Yeah."
He was too drunk. Drunk as fuck, his friends would say. He wouldn't remember a damn thing in the morning. This was why ninjas who stayed in the village were picky when it came to making active duty friends. No one else at Iruka's work was getting shit faced during the week.
Iruka turned to Kotetsu, overwhelmed with the need to tell someone, slurring as he said with a mouth full of cotton, "I have work tomorrow."
"Yup," Kotetsu agreed, "I do too. Me and Izumo. Where is Izumo? We have to- to ask him? Ask him something?"
"For the party!" Iruka cheered, raising his fists to the sky and cheering a loud "Woo hoo!" that set off the surrounding crowd. The cheers turned cataclysmic then peetered out.
Licking his lips, Iruka grabbed Kotetsu's shirt and pulled him away from the bar counter with a, "Come on let's go!"
They found Izumo sitting at a high table, with Mizuki and Anko as well as a half-dozen familiar faces. Kotetsu wrenched free from Iruka's hold, crowded close to Izumo and said something that Iruka couldn't hear over the ambient noise. A few people turned to greet them. He flashed a smile at them as he turned into Izumo's unoccupied side.
"Izumo!" Iruka crooned, draping an arm around him.
Kotetsu shuffled back a step with a laugh, "-affectionate tonight."
Izumo got the same rub-down that Kotetsu got. Then Mizuki got it, then Anko. Playfully, Iruka dug his fingers through Anko's hair, fussing it up into a mess. Anko straightened her hair but made it worse. Her ponytail looked badly matted and Iruka half-wondered if she would have to shear her hair short again.
He had half a mind to cut it for her with the kunai in his thigh pouch. He'd sharpened it recently. Probably? He was too drunk to really remember. Iruka felt his thigh for his weapon pouch but he felt his own lean muscle under his fatigue pants. Oh, right, he'd taken it off at his apartment.
Cursing in his mind about leaving himself unprepared, Iruka eyed Anko's hair one last time until he remembered everyone else was there when Mizuki bumped into him. Now that made the night better. Iruka curled his arms over Izumo's and Mizuki's shoulders, the two people he had weaseled a seat between, and sighed. All deep contentment and pleasure.
He heard Izumo murmur, "Iruka's such a funny drunk."
Then someone patted Iruka's cheek. Iruka blinked his eyes open (When had he closed them?) and gently nipped at Izumo's hand. It wasn't often that he remembered that his jaw was built for bitting, that his teeth were thicker and sharper for it, but he remembered it now. He liked to nip his pack. Love nips.
"Yeah. Yeah, we get it. The pack alpha is happy," Mizuki said with a smile and leaned further into Iruka's side. He was looser and happier than Iruka had seen him in recent weeks. He was glad for it. That alcohol induced a warm, happy feeling in Iruka's stomach.
"Forgets all his manners," Anko agreed. She kicked Iruka's legs. It made him lazily snap his teeth at her.
Mizuki and Izumo both chimed in with variations of, "Did he ever have them?"
It made Iruka laugh. The way Mizuki rolled his eyes, not the way two of his friends talked like a unit. Maybe both of these things. Mizuki was surly and crabby, a little mean around the edges but it was what made him Iruka's best friend. The grumpiness made him funny. The biting sting of his words were soothed by Iruka's steadfast friendliness. Maybe they'd mate one day, if neither of them found a steady partner. No one would be surprised, not when Iruka was one of the people who found Mizuki's hardness sweetly endearing, so it could be a natural progression of their friendship.
Love could grow, Iruka was certain of it. His parents had an arranged marriage. They were friends and sweet together. A death kneel of parents in clans of two who hoped that a new clan would grow from their dreams. It might have happened without the Kyuubi. It wasn't their fault that they had left him alone. Thinking about them didn't sour his mood for once.
Too fucking drunk to care, Iruka re-did the scent marks on his friends who ignored him. They dutifully leaned toward him when he reached for the next person. His assortment of betas and omegas circled him. Another round of cheers erupted when a waitress came with a tray full of drinks with the explanation that someone at the bar ordered it for them.
Izumo pulled his head down until it sat against his shoulder and pectoral to pet the side of Iruka's face. He fell asleep like that, sandwiched between the two best omegas he'd ever met. His little pack, his little family. Absorbed in the sensation that everything was right with the world, Iruka forgot to ask who they were celebrating.
Then, 9 Years Ago, on Iruka's Birthday
When Iruka looked back to this day, he'll call it the loneliest birthday he's ever had. The sections of time that will eventually be marked as Before Mizuki and After Mizuki will rearrange most of his memories in their time together, those small moments where it was just the two of them ribbing each other for fun, or those times Mizuki said something a little too sharp then apologized in his fumbling way, or those times when they were genuinely having fun. Just the two of them when they were comfortable with each other. All of those moments got shaken, earthquake and tsunami, until they rattled in his brain like loose change in a pouch. It'd be impossible some days to reconcile the Mizuki Before with the Mizuki After.
It'd eventually be his loneliest birthday because everyone had been gone that dry day in May. It'd been hot. Hot enough for that never-ending summer to be called a drought year. As if the dust crawling into homes had been normal for a place like Konoha. Grass yellowed then died and the farmlands around the village had thinned enough that farmers had petitioned for help.
Iruka had been assigned on irrigation duty in the lower edges of the village. Lucky him. He knew enough water jutsu to get entered into the lottery system, his name pulled the day before.
The work started in the early morning, early enough to be night. Dark enough that the air wasn't yet burning. What little chill that'd collected during the clouded night lingered.
Together with his team, Iruka worked his way through rows and rows. Irrigation ditches were formed then filled by a second crew, the liquid carrying clumps of dry dirt on the surface. A third group followed behind layering reed mats over the troughs, their poor attempt to stave off evaporation.
His shirt was wet, completely soaked through with sweat and his unzipped flak jacket didn't give any relief. When the odd breeze came by, everyone turned into the gusts for a little relief. His shirt sleeves were faded with clinging dust, windblown and mobile from drought. He swore he could feel it in his mouth, behind his ears, and under his eyelids with every scratchy blink. He was dirty. Dirty like he was made from it, like he was meant to be made from dirt and grime and everything filthy.
He swiped the sleeve of his shirt over his eyes. Mopped up whatever sweat he could. When he opened his eyes, it was Mizuki standing in front of him, uniform rumpled.
"Move over," Mizuki snapped at him, all sour and commanding, budging into Iruka's space while some of the surrounding ninja huffed out greetings. "We can swap and split."
Iruka gratefully gave Mizuki his spot in the water jutsu team, and trotted to a small area of shade. He panted open-mouthed until his heart rate leveled out. It no longer felt like the wrong move would make him faint. They used to do this more often a few years ago. When something about a mission sucked more than not, they'd help each other with their duties then split the payout. It was almost nostalgic to sit and wait until Mizuki finished the tailend of his shift.
He was able to sit in the shade for almost two hours until his friend kicked Iruka's sandals. Two drinks in hand, he pointed over his shoulder and told Iruka to follow him.
Mizuki led him to a stream bank, the water low compared to its banks, and buried the drinks in the sandy gravel where they were kept cool by the water. Rucking his uniform pants up over his knees, Mizuki sat down. Water swirled around his ankles in great glassy waves, twinkling in the sunlight. The harsh light made his hair glow, spun of silver itself, and it was hypnotic to watch shade push-pull as the boughs above them moved.
"Bad mission?" Iruka asked.
He shifted on his feet, thought and rethought what he should do, but decided to keep it simple instead. Mizuki would get snappish and bitter if anyone acted overly concerned. There would be no pushing.
Iruka took a seat beside his friend. The ground squished slightly under his weight. When he eventually stood up, there would be a mess of moist sand that he would have to shake off. He was too hot to care about it and he plunged his feet into the creek. Sweet relief.
"Yeah. No. It's complicated." Mizuki said. Sorting through his weapons pouch, he pulled out a chipped and ruined kunai as he said, "I don't want to talk about it."
He slid the ruined edge under one crimped lid. Tilted his hand real quick in a way that sent the cap soaring. He did the same thing to the other bottle. Mizuki set one down halfway between the two of them and Iruka plucked it up. It foamed up inside his mouth, tasted sour and cool, even burned a little on the way down. It was cheap, real cheap, meant to feel something with no concern for taste.
Iruka swished his bottle in the stream. Watched as a cluster of tiny fish swim around and around a large boulder in front of them.
"Alright," he said. "Alright."
The air between them carried the blue perfume of Mizuki' s pheromones. Sea salt sharp with frustration. Mizuki only smelled like that when something hadn't gone his way. He'd smelled it a year ago when Mizuki had been denied promotion. Or when Mizuki had been turned away from a high ranked mission.
His friend hated talking about what upset him and it had intensified in their adult years. What had once been a quirk became a personality trait. But Iruka had long learned how to avoid an explosion, the labour pains of a fight. Iruka settled back and waited him out.
"Found out I'd hooked up with the team lead of the cell I ended up assigned to."
There it was.
"Fuck," Iruka said emphatically.
"He was still pissed I never fucked him again after he tried to bite the back of my neck." Mizuki said, voice thick, "He let me come with the team halfway to the border until he realized I wouldn't let him fuck me again. So he decided there was no mission for me."
"Piece of shit," the base of his bottle clicked against the pebbly creek floor. "I hope someone bites him. See how he'd like it. Who was it? I'll report him, you can't leave a team member behind without paperwork before leaving."
Mizuki waved a hand in the air, effectively swatting the question away. "Don't bother. Doesn't matter." Dark eyes looked over at Iruka, "It just helped me decide that I'm never going to mate. Don't know if I ever wanted to, really."
"He shouldn't be able to ruin something like that for you," Iruka began, "How about this, if we are both single in five years, we can get mated. It would be convenient wouldn't it? We're already best friends and I wouldn't do shit like that to you. And I wouldn't stop a bond break if it didn't work out." He tried to keep his tone casual. Airy and relaxed.
Mizuki laughed sardonically, "Shit, you've thought about that before, haven't you? Iruka, that's embarrassing." Mizuki said, lips curved up. His friend shifted a bit on a large, flat rock he was laying on. When he moved, a puff of happier pheromones wafted towards Iruka.
Thank God. His stomach flipped when Mizuki huffed a laugh. Hearing it felt voyeuristic, the tone of it in that saddle between melancholy and cheer. Bittersweet.
"Shut up," Iruka smiled and dipped a hand into the water. Flicked water droplets at his friend, "Doesn't matter now that you're thinking about it. I can see it- in your face."
"You're so full of it, you know?"
"No, Mizuki, really, think about it. It'd be convenient. It'd just be a more secure pack-bond."
"What if I want the mating-bond?"
"Oh," Iruka's cheeks flared hot, "I didn't think you'd go for it. But, no, you're right. Then we could, uhm, play that part, too." And Iruka's brain finally kicked in long enough for him to think of having an intimate relationship with Mizuki. Impossibly, he felt like he got hotter.
"And you wouldn't give me hell for backtalk? Telling you what for?"
Iruka snorted, "That's ridiculous, of course not. I told you that nothing would be different between us. We'd still be friends. Besides, you already give me shit whenever you can."
"Nothing would change, huh?" Mizuki muttered. The sounds of the stream were loud as they silently watched the water together. Until the omega reached out towards Iruka's crotch while saying, "Fine, but I want to try before I buy."
"Oh."
He could see how Mizuki looked at him. Cold yet unsure. And he realized that this was a test, to see if Iruka would truly be a cage for him, to see if Iruka would judge him not like Mizuki but as an improper omega for daring to ask for sex.
Iruka nodded and shifted his hips to show Mizuki that he was getting hard, "I can get behind that."
Mizuki was slick, full of clutching heat and sighs. It was the quietest sex that Iruka had ever had, hollow from any urgency to orgasm or vibrant intensity. He could smell the omega's arousal but it wasn't strong. Muted as it rose and fell like ocean waves falling into themselves. Maybe that was what it was like? Maybe this was what it was like to have sex with one of his closest friends, someone he trusted, and not a lustful hookup? Maybe they would be fine, Iruka thought, after they came down. Mizuki agreed with the ridiculous proposal while Iruka's come dripped out of him.
Then, At Some Point
The knock on his door was a jolting clatter. Visitors who bothered with the front door were rare. Curious at who would be knocking at 3 in the afternoon, he scurried to answer.
Propping open the heavy door, Iruka almost let it slip out of his hold when he saw who it was. Kakashi was standing on his welcome mat, peering at it with an alarming intensity. Several pieces of paper were clutched in Kakashi's left hand. The man's brow smoothed from being scrunched up in puzzlement abruptly.
"Ah, hello Iruka-sensei." Kakashi said. He tapped the edges of the paper envelopes against his thigh. "You're apartment 238?"
"Uh," Iruka said intelligently. They stared at each other. "Yeah- Yes. Yes! I just moved in."
He scratched the back of his head, hit a couple knots when he raked his fingers through his hair, and tried not to think about how he probably had a rat's nest on his head. He should've brushed his fingers through his hair before he rushed to open the door. Praying that Kakashi couldn't smell his insecurity or how much he appreciated seeing the Alpha, he let his door slide close to his body. It might help muffle any number of scents that the other Alpha might pick up.
"Is there something I can help you with?" Iruka asked curiously.
He'd almost say that the question startled Kakashi, which was ridiculous. Kakashi was an incredibly talented and experienced ninja. He wouldn't be startled by much, let alone Iruka while standing at the entrance of his apartment. Curiously, Kakashi seemed flustered. He held out the crumbled bits of bright white paper towards Iruka like an offering.
"I keep getting your mail," He said, "They all have re-routing tabs stuck to them from your old address, but they keep getting deposited in my mailbox. Maybe it's time to submit another change of address notice?"
Oh, Iruka felt a little gust of something delicate inside himself. There was never a chance that Kakashi would be here for a social visit. But it still stung a little bit. What a weird sensation it was, to have no expectations and yet still be disappointed.
"I'm sorry, Kakashi-san. How long have you been getting my mail?"
The man shrugged, "I just checked my mail after a week. Before that, I had a few pieces of junk mail for you." He wobbled the mail in his hand, not unlike a child shaking a bag of treats to entice a pet. " I think one of these are a bill."
Iruka's cheeks were surely pink. They throbbed with blood and his scent undoubtedly broadcast his embarrassment, "I'm sorry, I'll submit a new form and hopefully that will take care of this mix-up. I've been getting mail so I didn't notice anything missing."
"It's good luck that I got your mail." Kakashi shrugged as Iruka finally took the offered mail. "No surprise late fees."
"Right." Iruka nervously laughed.
A bird tweeted a love song. The trees around them rustled when a burst of wind rushed sleepily past.
"Do-" he tapped a rhythm out on the doorframe, "I'd offer to let you in, but I don't think it'd end well." He laughed but it fell between them like a brick.
"I suppose not."
"You know, with, with both of us being alphas." Why was he still talking? "I don't think you'd want to be in someone else's den anymore than I'd like someone trespassing. Territory and… everything." He needed to shut up.
His little ramble only made Kakashi look a little confused. Maybe he was concerned that Iruka had something wrong with him. The other man hadn't even made a move to go into Iruka's apartment, yet he was spewing word vomit.
"…Right." Kakashi said. It sounded like he was unsure what he should say, but his facial expression had smoothed out again.
"You know what? I have to head out for some groceries, so if you'd excuse me-" Iruka tossed the mail behind him roughly in the direction of his tiny table, grabbed the small keychain that held his mailbox key and the door key, and shuffled past Kakashi.
He called out, "Let me know if you find anything else of mine," over his shoulder.
No one would be allowed to find out he had panicked so much that he had run away from his own apartment to get away from an awkward conversation. As he ducked around Kakashi, he smelled the faint earthy-spice of warmed cinnamon.
Then, On A Random Weekend Several Years Ago
He had good friends. He reminded himself that they were good people who he cared about.
Izumo and Kotetsu had invited him over at the last minute, just a couple hours ago when they had stopped by the academy when kids were already headed home. The couple had invited him to their small, cramped one bedroom apartment to catch up and unwind right before their day off. The living room was almost non-existent. It was too small for anything beside the long and low table they crowded around.
Iruka was relaxed and half-paying attention as his friends rambled on, too distracted by the combined scents of the couple all around him. It wasn't uncomfortable to be in their home. His instincts were all squirmy and happy to be surrounded by the scent of not just a mated omega and beta, but two members of his unofficial pack. Being able to smell the two of them reminded him of being in his comfortable den- but magnified by the fact he had encouraged his pack members into each other's arms. Everything in Iruka felt like he was surrounded by a job well done. He was a good Alpha able to make his pack happy.
"And all I'm saying," Izumo was saying, huffing about someone he'd done a mission with, "I don't get the ego of some people! We're all doing our part in the village."
"Mmm," He looked up, eyes bright, "That reminds me of something Kakashi-san said to me about-" Iruka faltered, when his friends looked at him strangely, "-What? Why are you guys looking at me like that?"
"Kakashi-san?" Izumo asked, head tilting as he asked it. His mouth twitched at the corners, "You, like, talk to him? All casual like?"
"Not. Not, uhhm, not 'casually'? What do you mean?" Iruka fiddled with the cards in his hands. Rearranged them from small to large numbers.
"I think Izumo means, 'Do you talk to Kakashi-san a lot?'" Kotetsu suggested, talking over Izumo when he opened his mouth.
"I wouldn't say that." Iruka said. "But he was helpful when I asked him for advice."
"Advice on what?" Kotetsu asked. His forehead was full of folds and lines.
"You're going to get wrinkles," Izumo said at the same time Iruka said, "Not much, I just talked to him about becoming a teacher."
His friend’s faces twisted, outraged and protective.
"Did he tell you to quit doing field missions?"
"Did he tell you you sucked?" Kotetstu asked bluntly. Anger touched his voice.
"No," He held up his hands, palms facing out, "Nothing like that. He just said some stuff about different ways to embody the Will of Fire. I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was helpful."
"Oh," Kotetsu sighed, "I thought you talked to him recently."
"I mean, yes I have? We talk every now and then." Iruka shrugged, "He can be funny sometimes. When he isn't stressed out."
He stopped. Stared at this friends who were staring at each other heavily. If they were going to start making out, he wanted to get out of their house as quickly as possible. Shuddering, Iruka shifted and was about to stand up when they turned back to him with fire in their eyes.
"Iruka, do you think Kakashi is friendly?" Izumo asked, voice climbing higher while he almost climbed into Iruka's lap.
Hands framed Iruka's face. He couldn't move his head at all so he couldn't so much see as he could feel Kotetsu trying to pull Izumo away. They just jostled together for a moment, like a bizarre threesome, and Iruka stared deeply into Izumo's bloodshot eyes. Iruka's face did something interesting.
"Oh my God," Izumo was starting to yell now, "Oh my God, Oh my God! He does!" Izumo let go of Iruka's face so quickly they tumbled backwards onto the floor. "He's friends with Kakashi-san, Kotetsu!"
The mutated turtle on the floor shrieked in hysterics, struggling to get itself upright before it separated into two people again. They clamored back upright, Izumo leaning a tad heavily on the table. It shifted an inch.
"I'm not-"
"You have to introduce us, Iruuukkaaaaa." Kotetsu whined.
"I'm not friends with Hatake Kakashi," Iruka finished, bewildered at the attention and why he felt so defensive.
"That's worse." Izumo laughed. He reached towards Iruka across the table, long arms outstretched, "He's like your…. your fucked up therapist or something."
"Stop. I'm friendly with him but we aren't friends. That's all." He pulled his cards together into a tiny stack then put it facedown on the table. "I'm also not going to introduce you all. You already know Kakashi. You've been on missions with him."
"It's different when he's your friend." Kotetsu said emphatically, "It's like. Now you're cool. You're friends with someone cool, now you're cool by association and if you introduce us to him, then it's- We'd be cool then because you're cool and- It'd be cool. Second degree coolness. Third?"
Izumo rolled his eyes and patted Kotetsu's back, "I think it's almost bedtime for this one. And what Kotetsu means is that it would be nice to meet Kakashi as a peer rather than a subordinate."
Kotetsu was mumbling something from where he was slumped like a defluffed pillow. He was slurring his speech and rolling on the floor until he settled on his side. The mumbles dropped off and Izumo and Iruka traded looks.
"He's asleep," Izumo murmured, voice pitched low to not wake the omega even though Kotetsu was a heavy sleeper when drunk. He petted Kotetsu's hair.
Iruka watched as Izumo's gentle hand motions. Bit out, "I should leave soon."
"You can stay the night," His friends offered, "if you want."
Shaking his head, Iruka stretched up to his full height. His back cracked once. Loud in the room.
"Oh," Izumo called, strained as always when he did his whisper-shout, "And I think it's good that you're friendly with Hatake-san. You should see if you can become friends with him."
Unsure what to say, Iruka just nodded. His friends probably didn't mean anything to them anyway. Iruka stooped in the kitchen's entry way to pull his sandals on then clicked the door shut behind him. The night air was crisp and solid in his lungs and soon enough Iruka forgot about the confusion that followed him home. It was a good walk. For some reason, he felt restless, like something exciting was going to happen to him for once. Now all he needed was good company.
Then, Roughly 8 Months After Mizuki
Iruka was wasted and he was pretty sure that Sukea was drunk, too. That assumption had been enough for Iruka to lean into the alpha's space towards the curve of his neck and jawline to ask, "Take me home?"
It was good that they were drunk. He needed to forget a lot of things in a very small amount of time. What if he could reach inside his own head and pluck out all the memories he didn't want to deal with?
His life had fallen apart this year, so what did it matter that he was asking another alpha to take him home? Who cared if a bar full of civilians saw two alphas flirting together.
He hadn't been expecting much when he tumbled into the bar, so seeing a striking figure in a long green coat resting against the bar had been a surprise. The way that every instinct had zeroed in on the stranger had been new. But Iruka took it as a message. His hesitation had vanished, just this once, not when he was drawn so intensely to the man. Self-delusion was strong when mixed with alcohol. The drag of repulsion at being attracted to another alpha was muffled and easy to ignore.
Sukea's sweet gray eyes stared back, wide and focused, and his lips twitched. "Yours or mine?"
"Yours!" Iruka called over the loud clamour of people. There was no way that he was going to bring the man to his apartment, not when he knew all of his neighbors.
The corners of Sukea eyes crinkled, "Of course," he murmured.
Pressing a kiss to Iruka's pulse point, the man twinned their fingers together. He pulled them through the crowded bar towards the civilian dormitories. The streets were lit by paper lanterns spaced far enough apart that it made it difficult to decipher faces. A little thrill raced down Iruka's spine: a sense of anonymity was a precious thing.
Sukea pushed him gently into the recess of his doorway, stole some of Iruka's breath away with kisses, while he fiddled with his keys. The door clicked open with a whispered shutter.
For a civilian, Sukea kept a neat and tidy house. It was scarce and bare-bones. The kitchen counters were completely clear of the objects and junk that usually gathered during a busy week. No mail, no used plate left out to gather dust.
Sukea bit at Iruka's shoulder from behind, a purr in his throat, and the smell of aroused alpha bloomed into life once more. The hot scent of the half-hard man behind him was cinnamon to his nose. Warm and sharp. Comforting even. Such an achingly familiar scent, Iruka jolted, and looked back over his shoulder with wide eyes. There was no way. It wasn't possible so he forced it out of his mind.
Like a cattle prod, the feel of Sukea's erection against the seat of his pants urged him forward. Together they stumbled into the tiny bedroom. Iruka shucked off his pants and Sukea snorted when Iruka's dick snapped free from his underwear and thumped against his stomach.
The bed sheets were nice and soft, obviously freshly replaced, which made Iruka think that Sukea had known he'd score. Huffing a laugh, Iruka pulled his shirt off and almost punched himself in the face when his hand slipped on the fabric. He flung it somewhere in the room's dark depths.
"Get over here." Iruka demanded.
The room was swimming. He felt like he was tilting to the side. Thankfully, Sukea was wasted, too, if the strong taste of beer on his tongue meant anything.
They kissed and kissed until they were breathless, gasping in the darkness, as their cocks slid against each other. They fumbled through everything, from trying to scrounge out lube and condoms, to pressing their hands against their sides, clutching at hair and sweat covered flesh. Sukea's fingers bumped against Iruka's ass and sloppily jabbed into him, working him open haphazardly.
"Never," Iruka said, face down on the bed, "never done this before." He sank back onto Sukea's fingers. Rocked his hips in a lazy swirl.
The other alpha made that deep purr again, and slipped his fingers out of his ass. "I'll take care of you."
He licked his fingers clean. Iruka's heart spiked.
Sukea crawled his knees forward, tight against Iruka's ass and thighs, and the man bent his cock down until it kissed Iruka's hole.
"Fuck." It punched out of his chest.
Every fraction of an inch was electric. For half a thought Iruka worried he'd come right then when his mind kept reminding him that he was doing this, that he was really getting fucked by this random alpha, that maybe he was about to get knotted. It was dirty. It was wrong, he should be fucking some omega, but he was getting treated like one-
Sukea bottomed out and Iruka dug his fingers into the sheets, sobbing at the feeling of being full. His rim ached and it hurt just a little, but it was delicious, some forbidden fruit he'd stared at for years and had finally bit into tender flesh and swallowed nectar-sweet juice.
"'mega?" Sukea muttered, voice confused. He must have been mumbling out some of his thoughts. "My little Omega?" Sukea tried, apparently deciding that Iruka was into gender-play.
"Don't call me that," Iruka slurred back. He choked on a moan.
The heat and weight of Sukea's body was heady. Addictive when Iruka focused on all the hot lines of skin-on-skin contact on his thighs, hips, the barely noticeable curve of his waist. He loved it, the way he was caged in and unable to shift more than an inch or two, loved how he was immobilized. It was probably perverse how it made him hot and hard. He stared at a blank wall.
Sukea's hips rushed forward with a wet noise. The thick, oily lube that had been slathered onto him? The greatest gift that Iruka had ever received. He moaned out, embarrassingly thin, when Sukea rocked into him again.
"Alpha?" Sukea tried next. His hips bounced against Iruka's asscheeks. Squelch.
He grunted out, "Just don't say anything," until a disgustingly loud moan echoed in the room.
He must have pissed Sukea off then, because he ground against Iruka's ass before the man started up at a brutal pace. It was rough and angry. All of his nerves lit on fire. The room held perverse squelches and the soft claps of skin-on-skin. Sukea bumped against something inside of him that made him shiver in pleasure.
"There!" Iruka moaned, "There, there, don't stop- Aaahh!"
He'd be embarrassed about his high pitched gasp later when he wasn't getting fucked. The strain along his rim increased and Sukea grunted out a warning that he was going to knot up.
"Fuck," Iruka breathed out, felt his rib cage compress into himself, "Fuck. It's not-" He licked his lips. Pushed the back of his head into the pillow that he was half on. "Not gonna fit."
Iruka rolled his hips up and down onto Sukea's cock and felt that band of muscle near the base where it pressed against him nice and firm and tight. He wanted it, god he wanted it, wanted it like he needed to drink, needed it like he needed air after holding his breath for too long and his lungs burned deep in the bottom of his chest. Needed it to the point where that first shuttered, gasped breath he took would be good enough that he could taste the air because it would be all fresh and crisp and winter-chill.
Iruka's body was slick and wet from sweat and the stress of sex. It caused the cotton sheets to stick and cling to him all wrinkled and folded in a way that Iruka knew would leave marks, angry red lines when he'd get up.
He was caged there, on his stomach, caged-in nice and good with Sukea's mass over him. The width of his hips were rough against the backs of Iruka's thighs. Over his shoulder, Iruka could see Sukea looking at him. A dark eye stared down at him as his cock made shivery bouncing motions in time with Sukea's thrusts. Stared at the plumpness of Iruka's balls, pulled tightly up at the base of his cock, at the knot around Iruka's cock that was half-inflated.
"Yeah," Sukea mumbled, "Yes, it can." He wrapped a hand around Iruka's cock while rambling on repeat, "You can do it. You can do it."
And, oh, god, Iruka believed him. Come splashed along his stomach as Iruka shivered through his orgasm. It was- It was amazing. He was sure that his scent was thick in the room while he came down from coming with little twitches and shivers.
Why hadn't he done this sooner?
Sukea strangled out a groan and shoved into Iruka, somehow kept up the delicious thrusts that rubbed into Iruka's tender insides, somehow they sounded wetter from the come that was undoubtedly seeping out of him. His nerve endings seemed to flare as one from the tips of his fingers to the bottom of his feet. A thumb roughly swirled over the tip of Iruka's cock. It was liquid fire to his overly sensitive nerve endings. Iruka keened and sobbed, blinked away tears at the corner of his eyes, and tried to pull his hips away from the painful touch. All his squirming managed to make Sukea's next thrust impossibly deeper.
Just then, Sukea's knot finally, finally, began to swell. It would fit. Iruka's rim strained as it caught the edge of the knot. The man on top of him fell into him, letting all of his body weight drive everything deeper into Iruka.
"Hurts," Iruka bit out. He followed it with a moaned out sob. It was embarrassingly high pitched. His cheeks must have been wine stained by now, Iruka thought and looked up at his hookup with tears in his eyes. His thighs ached. Everything hurt yet felt so good..
"It's okay," Sukea soothed, "It'll fit."
It would fit, it would fit, it would. Pain swirled with red hot pleasure where the knot tried to work its way deeper.
It wasn't going to fit!
Biting off a scream, Iruka flexed his body like a writhing snake, kicked and scrambled free. The pin-prick of a half-inflated knot getting ripped from his body was nothing compared to the sweet relief afterwards. Sweat dripped from both of them, their bodies overworked and wrung out. His hair was visibly wet along his hairline.
Silence draped around them. It was broken only by thin gasps and pants as their arousal faded.
The knot at the base of Sukea's dick was fully hard. Half-deliriously, Iruka found the sight of his cum-wet cock and angry red knot funny. It bobbed with every panted breath Sukea took. Inches away, Iruka's own knot was heavy against his stomach, and that washed any humor away.
It made it real. The knots and the scent of them, gods, made it all real. The smell of the two of them was thick and pervasive and putrid from how heavy it stank up the room. A brief flickering thought hit Iruka then, that the scent would be impossible to remove like the cloying smell of decay. Impossible to get out of clothes no matter how many times he washed them. There was no sweetness or neutral complimentary pheromones from an omega or beta. It was just them. Animal on animal. Fettid desire.
"This," Iruka swallowed. It felt like the click of his throat was audible, "This didn't happen."
Maybe all of the sex and sweat had caused the alcohol to work its way out of his system. Or maybe the shock had sprung right through his buzz. He gathered up his scattered clothes and ran away, sore between his asscheeks in a way he couldn't make himself hate.
Then, On The Third Wednesday of September, About 5 Years Ago
"Do you ever think about mating?" Iruka asked, then flushed a deep red, "Sorry, that was inappropriate of me."
"Like sex?" Kakashi's eye was squinted and his lips were pulled wide and flat, the skin at the corners of his mouth folded into waves, "That is very direct, Iruka-sensei."
What an inane man. They were in Iruka's apartment because Kakashi had nothing better to do than help his friend clean. It was more like Kakashi watched him and did a small task here and there , but still, it was nice to have company. It was nice to have company even if it still made Iruka nervous and anxious to have another alpha in his home. Rarely. He was just pleased that he could have Kakashi in his house without there being a pissing contest.
"Not like that, idiot. I meant the settling down kind of mating." The heat started to leave his cheeks. It was still impressive that Kakashi could get under his skin so quickly. Although, he had always been fast to blush, so maybe Kakashi's talent wasn't interesting after all.
"Still includes sex."
"You're being avoidant and evasive." Iruka said. Blunt, keep it blunt. Kakashi hated being pinned down, verbally or otherwise, he'd learned long ago.
His face soured even more. "Why are you asking?"
"Just curious, Kakashi-san. We're both the last of our clans, after all."
It was one of the few things they had in common and Iruka had wondered, more than once, if Kakashi felt the desire to keep the Hatake name around. In Iruka's opinion his clan's situation was somehow sadder than his own. To see a name associated with the village history, a Cornerstone Clan the history teachers said, vanish completely was sad. It was sadder still to see Kakashi in his mostly empty apartment.
"I think about it. Here and there," Iruka disclosed, a little non-secret secret for Kakashi to tuck away or discard as he pleased, "About what it would be like to mated. Have a pup or two."
To have a primary pack, not the secondary kind full of familiar faces he had where they never lived together.
"I can't say I have." Kakashi shifted around. Probably to get comfortable. "Why? Have someone in mind already? Tell me about the omega." He leered at a wall exaggeratedly. "Be careful though. If I like what I hear, maybe I'll steal them from you."
Snorting, Iruka spritzed some of the scent deodorizer at his friend who grumbled and shifted back like a cat. He sprayed some on the couch and curtains. Pulled open both of the windows to get air flow. Bitterly, he figured that Kakashi could make good on his threat. The man was handsome enough, devastatingly handsome even.
"I don't have anyone in mind anymore, no. I've just been," He handed the bottle to Kakashi who shoved it back under his sink with the rest of his cleaning supplies. "Just thinking, I guess."
"Anymore?"
"Sorry," Iruka blinked back at Kakashi, "what?"
"You said anymore. About not having anyone in mind."
"Oh. Right." On his knees to reach under the couch to fish out lost socks, Iruka paused. He sat back on his haunches and crossed his arms on a couch cushion. "I guess you wouldn't know since we weren't really friends at the time, but I used to have a deal with Mizuki. If we were both single by the time I was in my mid-twenties we'd have gotten mated. It'd been funny at the time."
"Ah." There was no sorry. Kakashi didn't tend to do 'sorrys' often.
"I still think about him sometimes. Miss him, even. How sad is that?"
Mizuki would have called it embarrassing. But that was just him, always embarrassed about what someone thought about him, what he thought of himself. Always mentally checking how he stacked up against every one and he would always find something that he lacked.
But Kakashi didn't seem to agree that it was sad. His friend looked like he was at a loss. It was Iruka's fault for doing this. Why did he have to make this word salad neither of them wanted to deal with.
Kakashi stepped closer, his steps whisper quiet, until he was standing over Iruka, "Some people would call it normal."
"I guess."
"I would say it's normal, Iruka." Stressing the 'I', Kakashi offered a hand up. "There's no harm in reminiscing, I suppose, over something like that."
Iruka took it after deciding that the socks living under the couch could stay for the time being. Not even an eviction notice needed. His knee cracked when he stood up, the noise loud and sharp. Lost in thought, he didn't notice when Kakashi drifted away while he poked and prodded the pillows on the couch. They were flat and the filling was probably clumped and matted. At one point they must have belonged to Anko, but he had inherited them with the couch.
"How about adoption?"
Iruka blinked over at Kakashi who had started wiping the counter tops. He didn't know how long he'd been zoned out contemplating the crappy throw pillows. Kakashi glanced at him, then kept talking when he saw Iruka was watching him.
"I suppose if you wanted more Uminos, you could adopt. Or surrogacy. Deal with kids at work and then deal with some more at home, doesn't that sound perfect? I could show them a jutsu or two. Get them started young so that they could bully the other kids in the schoolyard."
"I appreciate that you would be there, in this hypothetical scenario, just to make my life harder."
"Of course. Who else would?"
"Okay," Iruka started laughing, "How about this, Kakashi? My previous engagement fell through and I think I deserve a do-over."
Kakashi's face twinged a baby-pink and looked entirely too amused with a lopsided smile. "Are you proposing to me now? I don't know how to feel about being your second choice."
"Shut up!" Iruka pushed Kakashi away with a hand on his face, laughing. The man drifted backwards several steps. "If I am still single in five years, I'll look into adopting and you can teach them all of the thousand and one jutsu you have stored." And he tapped the side of his head, at the corner of his one eye. The muscles in his cheeks twinged.
"I accept," Kakashi said. He flashed a closed-lipped smile at Iruka who ignored the funny bubble-pop zing in his chest.
Then, 4 Years Ago
Speed dating, blind dates, responding to Lonely Heart ads- Iruka was over dating he decided. A bell jingled sharp and high pitched in the restaurant. Papers fluttered and shuffled, hands were shaken as everyone murmured good byes. The taps of feet shuffled around and Iruka sat down at a new table.
The woman looked familiar, smelled like fresh grapes and tiny flowers spotted with spring sun, with her hair pulled back and up in a complicated looking style. Big brown eyes looked at him critically until she smiled all nice and polite.
"Hello," she extended a hand, "I'm Tomosa."
"Iruka," he said. His smile was a little thin after getting through five dates already. He asked the omega, "So what brings you here?"
She said something about dating being hard, which, yes. Dating was hard. That was why they were all here. The little section they were in was sectioned off so they could waste a few hours and feel like they were getting somewhere in life.
Like muscle memory, Iruka went through the motions of polite conversation. Ask a question here, listen and nod, say something about what she said, get asked a question. She was nice enough and plenty funny, but there was no spark. None of the omegas felt right. Dating remained this black box of frustration that no one else seemed to be endlessly frustrated by. He was wasting everyone's time by sitting here, he realized guiltily, it wouldn't be worth turning in his cheat sheet filled with what omegas he would be interested in seeing again for the matchmakers to sort through.
She was saying something when he heard a voice ask, "Iruka?"
Tomosa visibly stopped herself from jumping, not a ninja then but she had some small amount of training, and the temporary couple turned to who was interrupting them. They swiveled to the left towards the restaurant that was going through the late dinner service. Leaning over them was Kakashi, in full uniform, head tilted. His eyelids scraped over his eyes, re-wetting them. How long had he been staring for them to dry out?
"Kakashi-san," He played with the pencil he was holding, hand sweaty, "I didn't realize you were around."
"Just got back last night." The man shrugged, voice mellow. He did that achingly familiar shrug like nothing in the world bothered him.
"You know each other?" Tomosa asked gently. She licked a lip, quick enough that Iruka barely saw it.
"Yes," Iruka said overlapping with Kakashi.
Her eyebrows twitched together then smoothed out lightning fast. Tomosa looked between them, found Iruka's eyes and settled back in her seat, staring into Iruka and said, "I'm sorry but we're in the middle of a date."
The back of his neck prickled with heat and sweat.
"That's what this is?"
"Yes." She said challengingly.
"I… see. It looks very." His eye wandered around the room, where the other couples were chatting away, "Very organized."
The way Kakashi said it made Iruka's skin crawl. Like he was judging him for being here. Of course he'd judge him for doing this, it probably seemed confusing for someone like Kakashi, who could probably pick up someone by reputation alone, but Iruka was different. He might find dating difficult but it was fun to meet new people.
"It is." Tomosa said, swirling the straw in her bubbling drink, the red syrup at the bottom dispersed until it looked like a faint pink, "And we were enjoying ourselves."
Several of the small bubbles floated to the top of the drink to pop around the chunky ice cubes. Why was he staring at the drink?
"It seemed like it."
"Kakashi-san," Iruka straightened and chimed in, "Sorry, but can we catch up later?"
"Oh, no, by all means. He can stay." The omega between them quipped, "We could use a chaperone and he obviously doesn't want to leave."
"No, no, I was just leaving." Kakashi twitched his hand vaguely. "I'll just go. Apologies, Iruka-sensei, for interrupting."
He loped away and Iruka found himself twisting in his chair to watch him duck between a group coming in. But he didn't vanish into the crowded street. Kakashi walked a few feet away from the entrance and settled near a street light. Even from this distance, Iruka could see how his friend rolled his shoulders back and tilted his head back to look at the sky.
Twisting back around, suddenly self-conscious that he watched the other alpha leave, his heart stuttered at the look Tomosa was studying him with. She was quiet and looked like she was going to say something, her lips twitching and rolling in stuttery moments, but she was just staring at him. Wiping his sweaty palms on his thighs, the dark blue fabric rough to the touch, he tried smiling.
"I didn't know you knew Hatake-san." The puzzled look on her face remained but turned into an echo of itself.
"I know a lot of people, what with my jobs." Said with a shrug, "It's not that interesting, really." Emphasize how it was no big deal. Move the conversation along. Ignore the discomfort.
One of the event hosts rang the bell. In one mass, the other temporary couples shed away from each other, repulsed on command. Iruka snatched up his sheet of paper and tried to mark his disinterest in Tomosa discreetly, but the omega wasn't leaving the table for some reason. He flicked his eyes up at the woman then to Kakashi who was still standing at the building's entrance like a bad aftertaste.
"Maybe we could meet up later," She rubbed a knuckle along the bottom edge of her lower lip, her pheromones going flirty, and asked Iruka while watching Kakashi loitering outside, "if you planned on sticking around?"
"Oh-" The pencil in Iruka's hand fell off the table and rolled under a table several feet away. There was no getting it back. "Ah. I think I'm going to head out for the night."
He snatched up the incomplete form and scurried over to one of the hosts who took it, visibly confused that he was leaving before the night was up, but Iruka waved off the offer to come back a different night. Once he hit the street, he heard footsteps behind him and then Kakashi was there, right by his side, close enough that Iruka could feel a hint of body heat along his arm.
"So." He said. "Speed dating."
"Don't judge me." Everybody else already had, with varying levels of concern. He wasn't in the mood for more of it.
Kakashi held up both palms with a shrug. "None. Just curious."
"Dating's hard." He left it at that.
He was walking home. Kakashi must have been in a mood, Iruka thought, when he didn't wander off. The company was good, and Iruka didn't mind so he forgot about going back to his apartment. They could wander around for a while longer. There was something about his last date that he still couldn't parse and he got lost in thought.
"I knew she looked familiar," It burst out of him once he figured out why Tomosa's face had been bothering him, "I taught her son two years ago! Oh my god-"
Kakashi was rattling with laughter. His broad shoulders were bouncing gently.
"I don't know how I didn't immediately recognize her." Iruka sank his face into his hands, stiffened up again when he processed just what she'd really been asking, so he popped his face back up to say, horrified, "I think she wanted a threesome."
"Mmm, that's too bad for her," Kakashi absently said, just a little breathless as he calmed down. He glanced over his shoulder, pivoting on a foot slightly, back towards the restaurant then back to Iruka, eye hard, "I'm territorial."
Kakashi leaned into his personal space as they walked and slapped a hand between his shoulder blades. The thump to Iruka's back jolted him forward in a stumble for a step until he caught himself. He went hot in his guts, magmatic, at Kakashi's intense emphasis on being territorial.
He made himself say, "I don't even want to imagine it," but it didn't sound sincere to his own ears.
He just tried not to think about it. Too scared that Kakashi would smell his arousal if he did let himself go there, he forced himself to wait until he made it back home. And then he thought about it. The little thrill that jolted up his spine at the thought of seeing Kakashi, some omega, and himself all together does more for him than some of his regular fantasies. It took a few seconds to work his dick into full hardness, and a few short minutes to come. Very hesitantly, he considered adding 'threesomes?' onto his mental bucket list.
Now, 1 Year Ago
There were secrets, and then there were open secrets. And then there were secrets that might as well be bellowed by a town crier on every intersection and were only secrets because no one bothered to talk about it because it was just the truth and it would be more shocking if it didn't happen.
Kakashi becoming the next Hokage was like that last type of secret. No one was surprised by it, least of all Iruka, but it still hurt that his friend was suddenly untouchable in a non-skill related way. It hurt to know that Kakashi would probably fade from his life after Iruka had finally been able to let him into his home, his den, of all places. Vanish from his mental pack that made up his social circle.
He would be too busy with recovering from the war and settling squabbles or creating new little laws that improved an aspect of the village. What was Iruka compared to that?
So Iruka had tried not to think about how little he'd see Kakashi and turned his time and attention to work as always, lesson plans, and even wedding planning when Naruto had finally, finally proposed. He loved his work, eventually was promoted to principal, and lost himself in more work.
All the while he waited until the day Kakashi would stop showing up. Except it never happened.
The opposite started to happen: where before Kakashi's presence in his life had slowly grown like the thin meandering limbs grown in search of sunlight, now he was around more often as if he was a bad case of mold, multiplying away under Iruka's attention.
He didn't mind it, but it had taken a not insignificant amount of mental readjustment. It took too long for him to acknowledge that Kakashi wouldn't toss him away in favor of duty and be a powerful man in charge of a powerful village.
Now if only his friend would stop trying to surprise him all of the time.
Where before, he'd stumble into his life in surprising little bursts, now he was around more often than not. They saw each other most every night. Iruka didn't know anyone else he'd seen that often in his life.
It wasn't all social calls either. Grocery shopping, the occasional document drop off, cleaning his apartment, that wasn't new but now it felt different, when Kakashi kept lingering on the outskirts of his awareness. Like today, at the Academy once the kids were all gone and the sun was starting to dip in autumn laziness.
"Don't you have anything better to do?" Iruka stooped over to pick up one of the flags that had gotten lost on the activity field.
"Not really, no. I just decided to stop by."
His pony tail got ruffled. A hand then wrist rubbed against the back of his neck.
"Well, don't just stand there," A flag was tossed and Kakashi let it hit him in the face, "Help me clean up."
Fifteen minutes later, they'd collected all 30 flags and an old rusted kunai Kakashi had fished from the inside of a tree hollow. What he was doing looking there in the first place was beyond him, but he was a strange man in the first place. After locking the school yard shed, Iruka clapped his hands to get some dust and grime off, turned over his shoulder to ask Kakashi if he wanted to do anything to find himself alone but smelling like another alpha. Maybe this was what counted as hanging out for Kakashi. He would never be sure.
Now, Two Months Ago
Iruka smelled him before he noticed the shift in the air, the displacement along the edge of his desk, and he stopped reading the paperwork he'd been lost in.
"Good morning, Iruka-sensei." Kakashi greeted, smiling down at him from behind his mask. He smelled like sweet cloves and cinnamon tea and was trying to read what Iruka'd been working on. He was perched along the edge of his desk like a black bird resting along power lines.
"Get off my desk, please. You're tracking all sorts of crap on it." Iruka poked at his knees, felt the bone until Kakashi clambered off the desk and sat in a chair opposite of him like a regular visitor. "No guards today?"
"Ah, no. Gave them the slip for the time being."
Artwork by Jayjayverse
He watched Kakashi roll his shoulders in an elegant shrug. How Kakashi seemed so effortless was a decade long mystery to Iruka who still felt like an uncomfortable teenager adjusting to his body in rare moments. His friend grabbed a few papers from his stack and leafed through them, not really paying attention to anything on them. The papers started to get folded into small objects and Iruka hoped that they didn't have anything important on them- he wasn't going to deal with unfolding them just to stare at areas that ink flaked off from ratty creases.
"You smell horrible, by the way." Iruka wrinkled his nose, the clove smelled strong. The cause was starting to become obvious as he watched his friend fidget and shift. "Should you be out and about with your rut coming?"
"That's what I wanted to discuss with you."
"Okay?" He blinked. Rested his hands in his lap. Rubbed his thumbs together. "No offense, Kakashi, but I can't imagine what you'd want to talk to me about. But I'll try to help if I can."
Maybe he mispoke. Kakashi was looking at him blankly for a beat or too and ever so slowly, his eyebrows furrowed, the skin of his forehead creased. Blinking, Kakashi opened and closed his mouth. Iruka watched the fabric of his mask stretch and unstretch. He cleared his throat.
"Are we going to tiptoe over this forever?" Kakashi asked wearily. His shoulders sloped down, bone tired.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, then, "What?", when Kakashi tilted his head.
"I can't tell," He started, pulled down his mask to show his hot cheeks and sniffed the air, "If you're joking or being serious."
"I don't understand."
Kakashi was still looking at him, completely bewildered. He realized that indeed, no, Iruka didn't know what he was talking about. The man got lost in thought, quietly his focus drifted away from Iruka off to the side, at some invisible point on the wall. Torterously slowly, he blinked.
"I think you are the only one who didn't know." He finally broke the silence. "I thought you knew. This whole time."
"Knew what?"
"That," Kakashi licked his lip, "I've been trying to date you? Or we've been dating? I've never been sure. For years."
"What. Why are you unsure? What do you mean 'or'? How could you possibly think we've been dating? We've never even kissed."
"Yes, we have."
"I think I'd remember that, Kakashi."
"You do. I think you don't know when."
"Like I said, I think I'd remember kissing you."
"We've kissed before. And I'm realizing that this is about to become very uncomfortable. Iruka, we've fucked before."
"I beg your pardon? Are you hallucinating? We've never been intimate, hell, I've only seen you naked, what, twice? In the lockers."
"You really have no idea." "Iruka, don't I smell similar to a one-night stand you had? Does the name Sukea sound familiar? Purple markings under the eyes."
"No. There's no way."
"You've never noticed that we smell the same? I ran into you the next day to give you back your mail. I thought we both knew, but that you just never said anything because. Because who would want to talk about bad sex? You didn't like it."
"That's not true. I liked it. A lot. I tried to go back to that bar a few times before, and tried to find Sukea again."
"I didn't hide my scent because it was you." "God, I thought you recognized me but just wanted to play along. I was too flustered at being caught out to say anything and I was relieved when you let me pretend. But I suppose you didn't let me."
"This is a horrible mess. Iruka, I need you to know that I didn't, I wasn't, I- Iruka, I'm so sorry. I-"
"I think I want to be alone." Iruka said, vacant to his own ears, struggling to understand the rug pull that'd just happened. "Get out of my office. Please, Hokage-sama."
Now, As in Now
Flustered, Iruka stood outside of the thick, heavy doors. The back of his neck felt hot, stinging from sunburn and the eyes of hidden ANBU tucked into inobtrusive places of the hallway.
Immaturely, he was internally pouting, upset that Kakashi was able to avoid him so deftly that he'd been forced to go official with it. He'd requested a meeting with the Hokage, and used discussing the end of year test results to corner his friend. Pesudo-mate?
That was still something he was reeling from.
When he had de-scented every single thing in his apartment, it had just felt deeply wrong to live somewhere without the familiar spicy scent that Kakashi had left everywhere.
Just another thing to think about for an excruciating month!
It'd be a lie if he said he wasn't amused at how artfully Kakashi had turned Iruka's apartment into a shared den right under his nose.
A loud clunk, and Iruka straightened up, took a deep breath and plastered a smile on his face. The Hokage's assistant opened the door, ushered Iruka into the room, then let the door slam shut. Shikamaru looked exhausted, smelled it too, more so than usual.
When Iruka strode forward he heard Shikamaru ask, "Can I leave? God let me leave."
"Hmm?" Kakashi's head popped up, zeroed in on Iruka and grunted, "Oh. Yes."
In the time it took Iruka to sit down, Shikamaru was gone, and they were left with the illusion of privacy. ANBU guards were still around, but most of them were outside the windows catching the breeze.
"So." They both said at the same time.
"You can go first."
"You're here to talk about the Academy statistics, right? I looked over the exam results for all the different years. All good stuff." Kakashi folded his hands in his lap, hidden by the large sleeves of his robes. "The kids get better and better every year. You've been doing a good job, Iruka."
"Thank you." It was true, the kids were getting better every time Iruka looked up from his work. The compliment meant more coming from Kakashi. He wouldn't lie just to make Iruka feel better. "But that is just the official reason I reserved a meeting with you. Well… and I was able to bribe an earlier meeting slot. You should talk to your staff about that."
"Who sold me out?" Kakashi hissed, eyes squinty.
"I can't say." He smiled but after a beat he faltered. "But, uh, I did want to talk to you about a more personal matter."
"We don't have to."
"I have the next hour," Iruka said pointedly, voice steel and so hard that Kakashi straightened out of his slumped posture. "So you will listen to what I have to say."
The Hokage nodded.
"You were right," Iruka said, "I did know it was you. I guess I was just in denial about it all. I always wanted a, a family, always figured I'd end up with a mate and a kid or two. Carry on the Umino legacy, or something similar." He shrugged. "But it was always just something I'd think about here and there. A nice little daydream I'd slip into.
"But then I was thinking about it more, after you asked me about sharing a rut. I never really put much effort into doing that you know? Sure I went on dates but I was never interested. And, well, sorry. I'm rambling, but what I meant to say was that I already have what I want. I never thought I'd mate another alpha, but my den doesn't smell right without you."
And wasn't that the truth? And the right thing to say because Kakashi was looking at him with hesitant hope that turned into relief.
"So," Iruka continued, "I know I messed up this time, but yes, Kakashi. I'd love to share a rut with you. Besides, we did have a deal that we'd mate if I was still single." He grinned, bright and large.
Kakashi climbed over the desk, into Iruka's personal space. "Finally." He pulled down his mask to reveal his smiling face. "I've always wanted to do this."
And he slung his arms around Iruka to bury his face into the line of Iruka's throat. Rubbed the small scent glands on his wrists all up and down his uniform and Iruka tried to do the same. They became a pile of squirming bodies on the floor, laughing and wrestling, scent marking each other's skin and clothing. Thank god Shikamaru had left.
