Training Kakashi.
Drabble: Birthday.
Kakashi can’t remember dates to save his life, and he knows it. Which is why when Midori snidely hints at the day, he has a miniature panic attack trying to figure out what he’s forgotten now. Of course, that’s not enough to clue him in, so Midori smacks him and hisses about Iruka’s birthday and Kakashi has a not-so-miniature panic attack before he disappears in a puff smoke. He avoids Iruka all day long, suddenly thankful he didn’t get to spend the night at Iruka’s the night before, and prowls restlessly around Konoha, looking for something appropriate to give his lover.
Iruka and Kakashi have been together for three years now, he knows he’s expected to know his boyfriend well enough to come up with something for the man he loves more than life itself, but morosely, the Jounin finds himself staring helplessly at the stone of the memorial.
“I’m going to screw up,” he tells Obito and Rin and Sensei, and swears he can hear them laughing in response. “No, really, I’m going to screw up.”
He leaves when he can’t coerce any good ideas out of Yondaime, and his beloved teammates give him amused silences interwoven with more laughter. The sun is setting and Iruka is due to be out of the mission room soon.
Kakashi still hasn’t got a present to give his lover.
Desperate situations warrant desperate measures, which is why Kakashi sneaks into Ibiki’s office. Midori probably has a couple ideas to spare, but she’s a bitch and Kakashi doesn’t want to be in her debt on top of everything else. Being in Ibiki’s debt is not good either, but at least the taller Jounin is far more… honorable when asking for payment.
No, Kakashi still hasn’t forgiven Midori for forcing him to baby-sit her bratty cousins a couple months ago, and he plans to hold onto that grudge until the day he dies, considering he’d only asked her to lend him a book.
“You’re an idiot,” Ibiki says in the nicest way possible, but adds, when he sees the blatant desperation in Kakashi’s face: “I heard his radio suffered an unpleasant encounter with Naruto, Jiraiya and a stray exploding tag during their last—“
Kakashi is out of the office in an instant, running at neck breaking speeds across the village before Ibiki can blink.
“You’re welcome,” the scarred man mutters dryly with a roll of his eyes before he turns back to his beloved towers of paperwork.
--
“Yo!” Kakashi calls out with his usual disinterested tone, waving cheerfully as the teacher emerges from the mission room covered in confetti. Apparently someone threw a party for him, but by the grateful, relieved look he gives Kakashi, Iruka didn’t particularly enjoy the attention. “Want to eat dinner with me, sensei?”
“Only if we buy take out and eat at home,” Iruka replies with an exhausted note in his voice. “I’m dead.”
“Sure,” Kakashi throws an amicable arm around the tense shoulders and masks the still-bubbling panic in his gut. “But where’s the spirit of celebration, Iruka? You don’t turn… um…”
“Twenty-seven, Kakashi, and please stop pretending,” Iruka grins wryly. “I know you forgot. It’s okay, don’t worry.”
“I did not forget!” Kakashi cries out in outrage, looking positively affronted. When Iruka raises a challenging eyebrow, he winces and drops his arms guiltily. “Midori told you, didn’t she?”
“Yup.”
Bitch! Kakashi thinks darkly, adding a mental note to skin the annoying Medic Nin alive some time soon.
“It’s okay, ‘Kashi,” Iruka laughs a bit. “It’s no big deal.”
“Still, I’m sorry.”
Iruka slides his hand into his and gently tugs him towards his favorite ramen stand, shaking his head in amusement. They buy dinner and walk calmly back to Iruka’s apartment. Iruka is just happy to be near his lover after a hectic day – Akito organized a party at the Academy, the annoying bastard, knowing well Iruka had meant to spend his birthday quietly, and the man had extracted an unhealthy amount of amusement out of his expression.
Handicapped or not, Iruka is going to kick his ass tomorrow, since the idiot convinced Gai – Gai – to bounce into his classroom while singing ‘happy birthday’ in a terribly off-key manner.
When they reach his home, they settle everything in the table by the window and start preparing to eat. Suddenly, Kakashi holds his hands and fixes him with an adorably determined look.
“Iruka, I—“
Kakashi’s speech is ruined when the Chuunin reaches for the mask, tugs it down and proceeds to kiss Kakashi silly for a minute or ten. When he pulls back, the Jounin is dazed enough he simply takes the offered plate and chopsticks and blinks dumbly at him.
“There,” Iruka says with a grin. “That’s all I wanted for my birthday. Thank you, Kakashi-kun.”
Blinking some more and still looking entirely out of it, Kakashi finds in himself the power to nod.
“You’re welcome, Iruka-kun.”
They eat dinner and end up rolling around the bed playfully, panic attacks and birthday gifts forgotten. When Iruka wakes up the next morning – for once before Kakashi does, since the Jounin is still pleasantly exhausted after the ‘festivities’ the night before – he slides to the bathroom to tend to nature’s morning call and then makes his way to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.
When he enters the room, he notices a brand new radio sitting on the table. There’s a couple of half-hearted attempts at cards carelessly thrown around it, all in Kakashi’s unintelligible scrawl and all attempting to wish him a happy birthday. Seemingly, the Jounin got frustrated with his inability to do it ‘right’, and then forgot to clean after himself before they came home the night before. Iruka grins and chuckles a bit to himself, before he plugs his new radio and tunes his favorite music station. He moves around the kitchen with ease, humming in tune to the music as he prepares the tea and some fresh fruit for breakfast. When everything is ready, he sets the food on a tray and walks calmly back to the bedroom.
Kakashi is still deeply asleep, but he has migrated to the middle of the bed, now that Iruka’s warmth is not pressed tightly against him. The Jounin is thrown bonelessly all over the futon, tangled in the sheets that barely cover decency. Iruka studies the pale skin and the pale hair, paying special attention to the bites and scratches from the aftermath of their love-making. Kakashi continues to sleep on, undisturbed and perfectly peaceful under his lover’s gaze, a testament to the trust he’s come to give Iruka after all these years.
Iruka smiles as he settles the tray on the nightstand and worms himself into a corner of the bed. The smile widens and softens considerably when Kakashi inches himself around until his head is resting on Iruka’s lap, his soft snores coming out in tiny puffs of air against his thigh. Iruka drinks his tea with one hand and runs the fingers of the other through the wild silver hair.
“And a very, very happy birthday to me, indeed.”
From the kitchen, the string music echoes softly into the bedroom and Iruka feels relaxed and content to stay exactly where he is for a while.
It’s going to be a good year, it seems.