Lavender Clouds (Kakashi Hatake x Iruka Umino)

Chapter One

Iruka Umino was an omega in heat.

He took suppressants, blockers. The blockers were meant to stop and postpone his heats while the suppressants were meant to suppress their symptoms when they did come up. He lathered himself with scent-concealing body wash, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, lotion, and cologne a good two if not three times a day, too. None of it smelled good, none of it smelled like anything, but it kept his scent hidden from everyone in The Leaf Village, and that was all that mattered to him. No one knew his secret.

He was an omega.

Iruka Umino had expected to present as a beta. Both of his parents were betas, so it would only make sense, but a good three years after they'd died, he'd presented for the first time- confused, scared, alone, and in heat; an omega, the very thing he and almost everyone else at his age feared presenting as. He'd trapped himself inside and hid for the duration of it, and then used the majority of the allowance he got from The Third Hokage to go to the doctor and get all of the supplies he needed to hide it.

Hiding. Iruka had been hiding for years. He'd been drowning in medications and things to hide his scent just to keep his status a secret. Omegas weren't respected. They were seen as weak and useless, liabilities on the battlefield and everywhere else in the shinobi world, failures. There were plenty of omegas who had become ninjas, sure, but they had struggled to get where they were, and a lot of them ended up facing relentless teasing from their comrades at best and failed missions due to them suddenly going into heat during them at worst. Thankfully, he didn't really have to lie about it- most people just assumed he was a beta, and it wasn't polite to comment on people's statuses, so no one asked him about it. The stigma around omegas was getting better,. Blockers and suppressants were being developed and improved by the little community of medical ninjas and civilian doctors in their village, but there was one issue that Iruka often chose to ignore...

The blockers and suppressants weren't perfect. They had side-effects. If you relied on them too much instead of setting time aside every few months to go through a natural heat so you could take a break from the pills, they'd end up backfiring, and you'd build up an immunity no matter how many you took. The immunity would make them stop working for a couple of months and you'd be forced to go through the intensity all the heats you'd been putting off rolled into one until you'd had a long enough break from the pills for them to start working again.

Most omegas who were ninjas used the medicine to take during missions so they could hold off heats until they got back to the village or for special occasions, hence why side-effects weren't very common.

Iruka used the medicine all the time- almost every day, and then he'd let the heats roll through naturally when he had time, which wasn't often.

The side-effects usually hit once a year for him, during the summer. Iruka was thankful for that. It was inconvenient to have heats at all and he hated them, but he'd rather live like a beta during the school year and have a wave of intense heats hit him during the summer than have to live like an omega full-time.

So, there he was. It was the first day of summer break and it was already starting, which had him a desperate, sweaty mess, curled up on his bed and facing the wall as he hastily moved to get his clothes off so he could take care of himself.

Thankfully, he'd only gotten his shirt off when he heard the sound of a paper page being turned and smelled the scent of a familiar alpha-

"K-Kakashi!" Iruka scolded as he turned around to face the older man, who was currently sitting in his windowsill, reading one of his erotica books. Iruka wasn't sure why Kakashi was there, or even how the silver-haired man knew where his apartment was, but he didn't question it for a moment, just sitting there stunned. Kakashi moved to stand on Iruka's carpet like he, an alpha, hadn't just walked in on the brunette, an omega who had been hiding his omega status and playing beta for years, about to masturbate.

Iruka didn't like Kakashi in any sense of the word, he told himself. Kakashi Hatake was generally well-meaning and talented, and Iruka could acknowledge that, but Kakashi was also a complete fucking asshole. He was rude, incompetent, messy, cold, uncaring, played favorites with his students, teased and embarrassed Iruka at almost every given opportunity, and couldn't properly fill out a mission report on the first or even second try without Iruka having to tear him a new one before he could get it right.

Iruka wasn't sure he hated Kakashi.

But he definitely didn't like Kakashi.

Bakashi.

"...So, you're an omega, huh?" Kakashi questioned, tilting his head with mock curiosity. It was obvious- even Iruka was close to choking on his own omega scent, that which filled the room with an aroma of mint and herbal tea that he'd normally find familiar if it weren't so overpowering. Surely Kakashi could smell it, but the Jonin only continued in the same tone of voice he'd use to ask about the weather- the tone of voice that Iruka was accustomed to being used on him, and the tone of voice he was often annoyed by when it was used by the alpha. "I wouldn't have guessed. Thought you were a beta?"

"Get out," The brunette practically growled the words, able to hear a slight rumble in his chest and throat, and surprisingly enough, the silver-haired man blinked, seemingly intimidated if not a little embarrassed, his face burning a bright red that peeked up from the upper edges of his mask. If Iruka wasn't in heat, he would've smirked at the sight of the usually cool Kakashi Hatake blushing and taken aback like that.

"Fine, fine," Kakashi offered an awkward laugh, pulling at the collar of his sweater as he perched himself back in the window and allowed his gaze to turn apologetic if only for a moment. "I'll see you around, Sensei."

Kakashi left, and that's when Iruka realized three things.

One, Kakashi had been hard during that interaction, the scent of his arousal rolling off of him in waves that Iruka hadn't quite registered until just then.

Two, Kakashi knew his secret now, and Iruka wasn't sure of what the older man would do with the information.

And finally, three; Kakashi's scarf had fallen onto the floor.

Iruka wasn't even thinking about it as he stood up and rushed to the wooden floor, desperately grabbing the abandoned garment and picking it up, holding it to his nose. It was a soft purple and smelled like lavender, but as he looked at the light clouds outside before shutting his blinds and curtains, he immediately cursed himself for even touching the damn thing, but...

It smelled so good. He hadn't ever had access to an alpha's clothing during his heats, but as he brought the scarf up to his face and took a deep breath in, he quickly realized that he'd been missing out.

Kakashi Hatake was a jackass, someone who Iruka didn't like all that much, but damn was the older man's scent utterly intoxicating; like lavender heavy rain, something that Iruka found he couldn't get enough of.

This was Kakashi he was indulging in the scent of, though, and the more logical part of him wanted to set the scarf on fire just to get the smell of the Jonin away and prove that he could handle his heats by himself.

But speaking of his heat, his heat didn't give a fuck that he didn't like Kakashi all that much, because Kakashi was an alpha around his age who smelled phenomenal.

So, Iruka could only hold the scarf close to him before making sure the curtains were closed with a cautious glance.

It was going to be a long week.