Verbatim (Kakashi Hatake x Iruka Umino)

Chapter Six

It had been a long day of teaching at The Ninja Academy, and as much as Iruka loved his students, he was happy to be walking home. He'd spent the entire day dealing with chaotic children, and after they'd left, he'd been stuck finishing grading and lesson plans. So, he wanted to write to get rid of the lingering stress, and then hopefully get some rest.

To his surprise, as he went to turn a corner, he saw no other than his crush and the unknowing reader of his Verbatim series, Kakashi Hatake.

"Hey, Iruka." The silver-haired man was smiling under his mask, which Iruka could see based on how the dark material slightly curled along Kakashi's lips.

"Oh, hello, Kakashi!" Iruka greeted, happy to see that Kakashi seemed happy. "How are you?"

"I'm well, and you? You look like you're in a good mood," It was a beautiful sight, really, but Iruka was sure that the Jonin already knows that. Something about Kakashi's appearance just made him look lighter- the smile, paired with the relaxed posture and the way his dark eye seemed to sparkle in excitement, the wind blowing through his silvery hair making him seem particularly ethereal on that warm afternoon. "What's up?"

"Nothing much, just excited for the third book of the Verbatim series," Iruka had to mentally suppress the exasperated sigh that threatened to come out. Books one and two had been out for a long time, but still, every time it was mentioned around him- especially by Kakashi- he continued to get that familiarly scary sensation of his heart dropping to the bottom of his stomach. "I heard that it's coming out soon."

"Is that so? You must be really, uh, enamored with that series..." Umino blushed, running a hand through his ponytail as his brown eyes met Hatake's one darker one again.

"I am," Kakashi dramatically placed a hand over his chest, an uncharacteristically lovestruck expression taking over what Iruka could see of his face. "Whoever wrote this masterpiece has my heart, truly," Iruka chuckled at the irony of that one, a bit soft at the thought that Kakashi was so smitten with something he'd made. "Anyways, I'm gonna go to the bookstore to see if it's out yet. Would you like to come with?"

Of course, Iruka knew that the book wasn't out. He was still writing it, but he didn't dare mention that as he was still being careful to hide his identity as Risso, the author of Verbatim.

"Ah, I would, but I have some work to do," He lied, giving an awkward smile. He was caught up on all of his grading, but as much as he would've loved to spend time with Kakashi, he'd had such a long day, and the mere thought of it at that moment made him nervous. "I hope you find what you're looking for."

"Thanks. I'll see you later, Iruka." Kakashi waved, turning away and walking in the opposite direction to head to the bookstore. The brunette kept his eyes on his crush's back for just a moment until the older man was too far for him to see.

"God... This is a bit depressing," Iruka laughed bitterly to no one but himself, shaking his head and crossing his arms. He immediately regretted lying about having work so he could have an excuse to refuse Kakashi's offer, but logically, he knew that he could've risked slipping up about it being him who was Risso, and it was better to miss out on a half-hour or so of time with the silver-haired man than it was to risk accidentally exposing himself. "Oh well."

With that, he slowly walked the rest of the way home, letting out a small sigh of relief when he reached his apartment complex.

'As of now, my plans for the rest of the night are to overthink how much I just fucked up that interaction and get some writing done. Cool!'

Iruka shook his head yet again and quickly climbed the stairs before reaching his door and unlocking it. The brunette walked in, unable to help the sudden loneliness that consumed his being as he shut the door behind him. With Naruto gone, he didn't have any family (yes, he considered Naruto family), and he'd been single for as long as he could remember. Sure, he'd experimented with Anko when they were teenagers as a 'to get it out of the way and find out what we like' kind of deal, but that was before his feelings for Kakashi even came into the picture and they'd always been strictly platonic despite those interactions, and sure, he'd had a few one night stands when he was out of the village on missions and especially brave or tipsy, but he'd never had the full contentment of falling asleep in someone's arms at night and having them say 'I love you' when he woke up in the morning.