Title: Chalkdust Torture
Rating: PG
Pairing: KakashixIruka
Summary: Kakashi has something to tell Iruka
Disclaimer: Oh great Kishi-sama please don't kill me for abusing your characters so... or sue, sue would be bad too.
A/N: Title comes from Phish. Great song and it popped in my head about halfway through writing this.

Iruka looked up as Kakashi came through the window. The jounin seemed be in a surprisingly good mood despite having just gotten back from a week long mission. "Mission go well?"

Kakashi shrugged. "It went well enough, I suppose."

"Oh, hmm..." Iruka raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out if there was more to the words than that, but there didn't seem to be. "Well, you look happy." He wasn't sure if it was a question or statement.

"There's a good reason for that." The jounin continued smiling as he jumped off the windowsill and walked over to where the chunin sensei stood wiping the boards down.

Iruka turned back to the black board, spraying it and scrubbing the dust off. He liked his classroom clean, it kept certain students' allergies from acting up, which meant he didn't have to listen to the sniffling. "What did you win, free Icha Icha merchandise?" He teased absent-minded-ly.

Kakashi laughed as he leaned against the wall beside the board. "Nope, even better."

"Find a long lost copy of the original manuscript while on a mission to retrieve a scroll from a palace full of beautiful women?" The chunin asked, grinning.

His own creativity amused him even more when his friend seemed to consider things for a moment before speaking. "Even better than that, although that's a very close second..."

Iruka laughed and set the erasers down before turning to look at the man standing next to him. "Well, I'm out of ideas, so you're just going to have to tell me."

Kakashi's grin was visible despite the mask. "I'm in love."

Iruka felt his stomach drop out from under him. "Oh." He choked the word out and, after a moment, managed to regain his composure. The shock was still heavy in his gut. It was bound to happen eventually, of course. But, somehow, that 'eventually' had seemed so far away that he'd been able to simply ignore it. And now, hearing the other say it had happened was like a knife in his gut.

"I wanted you to be the first to know." Kakashi blushed slightly.

Iruka felt the twist of the knife but somehow managed not to wince.

Kakashi picked up a piece of chalk and rolled it between his fingers absently. "Plus, I thought you could help me practice telling them, since I'm a little nervous."

Okay, that turned the knife into a spoon, and it was a dull rusty one at that. "Oh, um, sure…" He found himself focusing on the way the other man fidgeted with the piece of chalk. "How…" The chalk dust was leaving marks on the black fabric of the man's gloves as the jounin flipped it through his fingers. "Uh, were you thinking of telling them?"

"Well, I thought I'd start up a casual conversation first, you know, to work up my nerve." The motion of the chalk stopped, snapping the chunin's attention back to the conversation.

He felt like a jerk, but the last thing he wanted to hear was that the eccentric jounin had found somebody. Iruka knew he should be happy for his best friend, but he wished he didn't have to be there right then, that Kakashi had confided in someone else. Although, the chunin couldn't imagine Kakashi confiding in Gai, especially if he hadn't told the girl yet. The man would be making speeches about youth and love to the entire village before the copy-nin got to say anything to her at all. Maybe Asuma but that always meant Kurenai too, and she was kind of nosy. Which of course meant she'd pry and then gush and worst of all she'd gossip. "And then?" Iruka asked when he realized the silence had stretched too long. Looking up, he knew he looked crestfallen but couldn't force the emotion from his features.

"And then, I thought…" Kakashi dropped the chalk in the tray and reached up to pull down his mask, leaving white marks on the dark fabric. "I'd look deeply into their eyes."

Iruka stared at the face that was suddenly a lot closer to his. He'd never seen Kakashi without his mask and it was distracting him from what the man was saying. It wasn't just that Kakashi was attractive, although he was with his narrow features and the quirky way the corner of his lips turned up at one side, but something about the timing of it left a niggling feeling in the back of Iruka's mind.

"Since that's what they do in Icha Icha, after all," Kakashi whispered, leaning closer.

"That… sounds like a plan," the brunette said, a nervous laugh escaping. He swallowed and tried not to focus on the other man's now uncovered mouth or his lips and the way they weren't thin the way he'd always imagined they were. They weren't girly but Iruka always thought that they would be thinner.

"Then, I thought I'd kiss them." The words were whispered, Kakashi's breath brushing Iruka's lips.

The light brush made it impossible for Iruka to focus on what the other man had just said. His eyes closed involuntarily, and so, it caught him by surprise when warm lips pressed against his. It was chaste and brief and left Iruka feeling breathless. "That might work…" he said, blinking and still far too dazed to really process the fact that the person he'd had a crush on for well over a year had just kissed him.

"And, if that doesn't, I figure I'll just say it." There was a slight pause, and Kakashi blushed again. "I love you, Iruka."

It took a moment for the words to sink in, but, when they did, the chunin's jaw dropped open before he grinned at the other. "That will definitely work," he said as he wrapped his hands around Kakashi's neck and pulled the other close again. "Except for the part where you say my name, that might confuse them." Iruka winked before leaning forward to kiss the pale lips again.

END