Pick Up The Pieces

Turnabout

It's the little things that make a relationship worthwhile, which is what Kotetsu was discovering. It had been a month since he and Izumo had broken down their name of 'friends' and upgraded from 'seeing each other' to 'a couple'. It had taken a little getting used to for Kotetsu to really appreciate the situation, since he was jumpy at almost every mention of his name. Paranoia had settled into a nice little nest in the recesses of his mind, but that's all it really was. He would flinch and burn a slight pink when the two of them were together in public, but then the realisation of that they were always together to begin with snapped him back to his senses.

Izumo was much more calm about things, but he was always on the lookout. He was always so careful to prevent any sort of public display of affection leaking into the view of the public's eyes. It was irritating that they had to be so cautious around everyone, but that was the norm and preferred social etiquette. It hurt that they had to tiptoe around their relationship and everything was secret, but they were cunning, and developed their own ways of comforting each other amidst crowds. Majority of the time it was only a small pat on the knee under the bench in their booth, or a secret smile throughout the day.
The nights, however, were so very different. They locked themselves away in seclusion, expressing themselves in every which way possible: cooking dinners, cuddling, wrestling and the odd occasion of casual sex. Everything a 'normal' couple could and would do.

When six months had passed, people began to notice the differences in them. They were much bouncier, brighter and smiling all the time. Most people assumed that they had an argument and patched things up and were back to normal, but only they knew the truth. If they were considered inseparable before, this was something else, to the point where conjoined twins would become jealous. Iruka was the first to notice, and brought it up in conversation at one of his gatherings, though due to missions and other requirements, it was just them and Genma, playing a humble game of poker.

'So.' Iruka started, sipping from a bottle of sake casually and looking over the hand he had been dealt. 'You two seem...different.'

'Different?' Izumo questioned, lightly playing with Kotetsu's foot under the table and desperately trying not to laugh at the expression on his partner's face.
'However do you mean?'

'I mean-' Iruka added more chips to the pot in the centre of the table and calling out his raise. 'You're usually happy most of the time, but nowadays you're...ecstatic. All the time.'

Kotetsu and Izumo exchanged looks and just grinned. Boy, if only Iruka knew.

'We just have a new...outlook on life.' Kotetsu replied, setting his cards down on the table. 'Fold.'

'Turned over a new leaf, hmm?'

'...you could say that.'

Genma was watching them through half-closed eyes. They were different, almost strange.

'I would say one of them was laid.' He put, chewing on a pick and raising the bet with a handful of chips. 'Call.'

Iruka sniggered lightly.

'Of course you would. But then why would that make both of them happy?'

'Could have been with each other.' Genma sniggered, watching the two faces drop, his eyes widening with glee.

'Cut your shit, Genma.' Izumo spat, looking murderous at the other nin.

'Defensive now, are we?' He returned coyly, amused at the change in their façade. Tension rose between the three of them while Iruka watched them banter back and forth to each other, the words bouncing around like a tennis match.

'-shut up Genma. It's not like you've even fucked someone your own age!'

'What's that got to do with anything?!'