It had been a long day. The missions room seemed to be more busy than usual, and everyone seemed to be in an especially bad mood. Maybe it was just that time of year. Dealing with one moody jounin was like slamming your head against a brick wall repeatedly. Dealing with more than you can count on your fingers and toes since they all seemed to come back from missions at the same time today was like laying down and letting a semi roll over your face… repeatedly. And to top it all off Konahamaru had given Iruka a headache during school hours. Sometimes Iruka was convinced that the kid was even worse than Naruto, and most definitely louder. Yep. Long day.

Iruka sighed, glad it was finally over. He grabbed up the reports he hadn't read yet along with the papers he'd have to grade, and walked toward the door. He didn't quite make it though. There was a miscellaneous scroll on the ground hell bent on making Iruka fall on his ass. How rude. What had ever done to the evil hell scroll? His day wasn't getting any better. He stumbled forward trying to keep his balance, and hold on to his papers. He had to have looked ridiculous. His feet were having a hard time staying under him, and it looked like gravity was going to have him beat, when the door opened, just in time to hit Iruka in the face sending him stumbling backward now. Great. He was sure he was going to fall backwards, and all his papers were going to fly everywhere, but just as he finally gave in and began to let himself fall there was a hand on the small of his back, supporting him, preventing him from falling. Iruka breathed a sigh of relief, and turned to look at his savior. "Thank y—" Iruka paused. He was greeted by a happily curving eye and a masked face. Iruka's day was definitely not getting any better.

Kakashi nodded in response to Irukas half thank you, resulting Iruka blushing at the realization he hadn't even properly thanked the man. "Welco…." Kakashi offered. Purposely not finishing the word.

"I—Um, I'm sorry Kakashi-san. Thank you for your help." Iruka stuttered out. Kakashi's eye remained the happy curve, his expression unwavering. His hand began to rub calming circles on the small of Iruka's back, Kakashi was getting dangerously close to groping Iruka's ass, though Iruka was sure that was just an accident. Kakashi probably just misjudged the height difference. Iruka tried not to notice he was almost being felt up. Kakashi was just trying to calm him down… he was failing miserably, and the opposite reaction was what he was getting, but it's the thought that counts.

"You're more than welcome Iruka-sensei." Kakashi drawled out still smiling cheerfully. "I'm glad I caught you."

Iruka looked at him a bit confused. Glad you caught me? What did you plant the hell scroll?

Kakashi took note of Iruka's confusion and clarified. "Here. Glad I caught you in the missions room so late. It's after hours." Kakashi's eye reverted to its usual bored stare, and he raised a knowing eyebrow. Iruka just blushed.

"Oh. Of course." Iruka forced a chuckle that sounded more like a cough than anything, he was becoming more uncomfortable by the minute, and Kakashi's hand continued its 'soothing' caresses. "Er… What is it you wanted?"

"You." Kakashi answered simply, watching Iruka carefully; he seemed amused. Iruka just stared dumbfounded.

Me? He wants me?! Is this some kind of joke?!

"I need you to help me with my students." Kakashi said slowly. His eye looked bored, but Iruka could hear the laughter in his voice. He had to be doing this on purpose. The pervert. Iruka nodded trying to look indifferent.

"If you don't mind it's been a long day, maybe some other time?" Iruka asked, now just trying to get away from the jounin.

Kakashi nodded. "Of course. Why don't you come over for a cup of tea, and we'll talk about it." Iruka gave him an uncomfortable look, but Kakashi just smiled. "Take a quick break from your work Iruka-sensei. It's just tea." Kakashi said in a voice way too innocent, and as if to accentuate the lie his hand temporarily slid a bit too low, and Kakashi pulled his hand away as if nothing had happened.

"Kakashi-san, I really—"

"You really need a break." Kakashi interrupted. "It's just tea. You can even grade some papers while we talk if you're that opposed to relaxing." Kakashi smiled at him, and Iruka knew there was something up, but he was out of excuses, and didn't really feel like arguing the point when he knew he was going to lose anyway.

"Okay." Iruka said at length. "But I really can't stay long."

Kakashi nodded. "I wouldn't dream of keeping you." With that Kakashi turned on his heel and began the walk to his small apartment. As if by habit, he pulled out his little orange book and began to read. Iruka felt as though he was invisible. He was pretty sure he could have turned around and walked away, and Kakashi wouldn't have even noticed. Just when Iruka decided to try it, however, Kakashi spoke. "You said it was a long day?"

Iruka was blatantly confused. Why the hell would Kakashi care? He probably didn't. It was probably just small talk. Iruka was obviously uncomfortable. He decided to play along. "Uh, yes. It was. The missions room was busy, and Konahamaru is Konahamaru. I've had better days."

Kakashi nodded. "Kids."

Iruka looked at him and smiled. "Jounin." Kakashi actually looked away from his book. Glancing over at Iruka, his eye wasn't curved up cheerfully, but Iruka could tell Kakashi was amused.

Finally Kakashi agreed. "Jounin." He nodded. "We're probably worse."

Iruka didn't press his luck, and comment on he knew jounin were worse… much worse. But he thought it so loud he was pretty sure Kakashi heard it. There was a short silence before Kakashi stopped walking.

"We're here." He said simply, and Iruka looked at the building before them. It was remarkably unremarkable, and that bothered Iruka, though the building seemed to suit Kakashi in that sense, an oxymoron. Iruka shrugged, and followed Kakashi up to his apartment. Kakashi opened the door, which Iruka noted was not locked, though there were hand seals performed, so he was fairly certain it had been trapped.

Inside was even less remarkable than outside. Iruka had always thought that a person's home gave a good indication of what that person was like. Looking around Kakashi's apartment, he couldn't have felt more wrong. The place was dull. It was almost barren. There was a picture of his team, and that was the only personal thing in the place. It was also just too clean. Not the kind of clean that was too clean because it had just been cleaned in preparation for company. That left the smell of cleaners and artificial scents in the air. There were also things that people just didn't clean, like the ceiling. But Iruka was convinced that the ceiling had been cleaned. And there was no dust. Dust was something even the cleanest person couldn't control, there was no dust in the place. It was awkward. Especially considering Iruka knew Kakashi had dogs. Iruka was tempted to ask if Kakashi actually lived here. There was nothing that suggested he did. There was barely an furniture, the place was empty. Hotel rooms seemed to have more personality. It was strange.

"Tea?" Kakashi asked. Iruka nodded, and tried to refrain from being rude, and staring around like he was appalled. "You can take a seat." Kakashi gestured toward the couch. "Or you can come sit in the kitchen if you'd prefer…" The last part made Iruka indescribably uncomfortable. Kakashi actually sounded nervous about that.

"Um, sure. I'll sit in the kitchen." Iruka replied. He wasn't sure why he had said that. Kakashi's voice obviously told him that he wasn't exactly welcome to come in the kitchen, but Iruka couldn't help his curiosity. He followed Kakashi into the kitchen, and sat down at the table. Even the kitchen lacked personality. Everything was white. Just like in the front room. It was all white, and plain, and lacked any sort of personality. The only thing that suggested someone even lived there was the fact that it too was too clean. No dust, no nothing. Just clean. Kakashi put a pot on to boil, and brought out the dishes. For some reason it surprised Iruka. He should have expected it by this point, but he hadn't. The dishes were all plain white and in perfect condition. Not a scratch or a nick on them. Iruka had just assumed Kakashi would be the type to have mismatched dishes of varying shapes, sizes, and obnoxious colors and designs. In fact he had expected everything that had anything to do with Kakashi to be like that really. This was nothing like what he had expected.

Kakashi sat down across from him, and they had a short talk. The tea was made, they talked a bit more, made plans to meet up in two days, and train Team 7. It had all been rather simple. There was a bit of awkward small talk before they got down to business, and even then, Kakashi seemed somewhat nervous. It was very, very strange, but Iruka tried to put it off as his imagination playing games with him. It had been a long day, and he was just imagining it. The copy-nin was never awkward. He was always calm, confident, and casual, if a little lazy. Iruka took his leave a bit later than he had thought he would. Despite the awkward atmosphere the conversation had been rather pleasant, and Iruka got the impression Kakashi liked his company, which made him stay a bit longer than he should have. He got home in a timely fashion though, and managed to finish grading papers before he fell asleep. The day had been long, but at least it ended relatively well, and Iruka got a good night's sleep out of it.

The next day seemed a bit odd though. Everyone seemed to be staring at him and whispering, and he wasn't particularly sure why. He didn't have anything on his face (he had checked several times). Classes went smoothly, though some of the faculty gave him strange looks and whispered to each other. Iruka ignored it, though. He couldn't figure it out, and he gave up trying. At the end of the day, a familiar face entered his class room as he was packing up. He looked up.

"Genma-san. Hi."

Genma nodded and looked at Iruka, examining him, as though he were looking for something different he hadn't noticed before. Iruka glared at him, but it didn't stop the impromptu examination. "I need to talk to you…" was all he said, and Iruka didn't like the sound of it.