Verbatim (Kakashi Hatake x Iruka Umino)

Chapter Two

A couple of months later and Iruka Umino was sitting on the swing outside of the Ninja Academy, chewing on the end of his pen as he wrote. His new novel, Verbatim, was going rather well. After doing some research, he'd gotten the hang of writing romance and erotica, as well as basic character designs finished for his two main protagonists; Kujira and Shirogane.

It had been a busy day; he'd woken up late that morning, almost left the drafting notebook for Verbatim behind, rushed to school, dealt with a particularly chaotic day with his students, and spent the rest of his spare time writing away.

Of course, he hadn't been expecting anyone to be near the academy aside from a few lingering teachers, but to his surprise, he saw two pale hands grip the ropes there were keeping the wooden swing tied to the sturdy tree that held it up. Dropping his pen and slamming his notebook shut with a resonating snap, the brunette turned around to see no other than his crush, Kakashi Hatake.

His mouth went dry.

Calling Kakashi Hatake his 'crush' at this point felt childish and rather ridiculous in general, but Iruka knew that phrasing it like that in his mind instead of 'the man I'm in love with' made it seem a little less serious than it really was.

Calling Kakashi Hatake a mere 'crush' made it easier to cope with the fact that the older man would probably never love him back. It was just a crush, he would get over it eventually.

'Yeah, that's what I've been telling myself for the past eight years,' he thought.

"Gah, you scared me!" Iruka shouted, nearly falling off of the swing in a dramatic gesture in hopes that Kakashi wouldn't notice how he'd tuned out for a few seconds too long.

"What were you working on there, Iruka?" Kakashi asked, leaning in over Iruka's back and trying to look over his shoulder so he could get a look at the younger man's notebook. "Grading papers?"

"Haha, yeah, totally..." Iruka trailed off, standing up and turning to face Kakashi as he clutched his notebook to his chest and looked down at the ground. "Did you need something, Kakashi?"

"Oh, no," Kakashi answered, leaning down and picking up Iruka's dropped pen to hand to the brunette. When Iruka took the writing utensil back, he felt their fingers brush, which made him blink before Kakashi started talking again. "I just saw you here and thought I'd come to say hello, but I've gotta go do my thing and get lost on whatever path life takes me on."

"Right..." Iruka mumbled, chuckling as he remembered the many times that Kakashi had been late to something and used that excuse- all the times he'd been yelled at by the Hokage or complained to by the teammates he was put on missions with, and all the times that Iruka could only smile and watch as the man he was in love with got chewed out for one of his old habits. "Well, you have fun with that, and if you see another black cat on the way that you're afraid to cross," He started, knowing that another one of Kakashi's excuses was that he supposedly walked past a black cat and had to change direction to avoid encountering bad luck. "Remember that in the south of France, respecting them brings good fortune, so go ahead and pet it for me."

"So the good fortune will spread to you secondhand?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms and letting out a small chuckle as well.

"I suppose so. I'll see you later, Kakashi."

"See ya." Hatake waved, and with that, he was walking away.

Umino could only sigh as he mentally prepared himself for his next stop; the residence of no other than his best friend, Anko Mitarashi.

The walk to her small home in the residential area a few streets away from the Hokage's office was a short one, so after making it out of the yard of his school, crossing the huge main building it was connected to, and walking through one of the smaller civilian living sectors in the village, he made it there, not even bothering to knock on her door since it was already open.