Lavender Clouds (Kakashi Hatake x Iruka Umino)

Chapter Eleven

Iruka Umino couldn't say that flickering into Kakashi's apartment was necessarily normal for him, but he figured that if he played it casual, Kakashi wouldn't think it was too abnormal- after all, the Jonin did it to other people all the time, including Iruka.

He could call it payback.

Upon appearing in Kakashi's living room, Iruka took in his surroundings- the bookshelf, coffee table, and couch... It wasn't really decorated, more bland than anything else, but it wasn't like Kakashi to put that much effort into aesthetics anyways. The silver-haired man was sitting on the couch, legs crossed and mask off as he read one of his erotica books, wearing nothing but a pair of sweatpants, the fluffy hair that Iruka wanted to run his fingers through a complete and utter mess falling over the older man's eyes.

"Hey, are you busy?" Iruka asked, suddenly feeling incredibly awkward even though he was the one to enter Kakashi's apartment so suddenly... Maybe he should've just walked there and knocked on the door like a normal, functioning member of society instead of using the Transportation Jutsu."

"Look who's flickering into whose living room now," Kakashi teased, a sly smirk coming onto his face as he shut his book and set it on the glass coffee table, which was in front of the couch. "Anyways, I'm obviously not busy- just reading, and I don't mind taking a break from it if it's you who's taking up my time."

"What do you mean by that?" Iruka questioned, tilting his head as a blush spread on his cheeks.

"I've reread this book a million times over and I can read just about any time I want," Kakashi explained, leaning back into the couch and offering the most genuine smile Iruka had ever seen on his pale face. He has dimples. Cute. " But talking to you is much more enjoyable, y'know. I like spending time with you." Iruka was about to comment on that, but before he could, Kakashi changed the subject. "So, what are you here for? I'm sure you have something specific that you've come to me for..."

"Listen," Iruka started, crossing his arms and averting his gaze. He'd had a whole speech in mind about this, but now that he was actually in the moment and ready to talk about it, his mind was short-circuiting him and he wasn't sure of exactly how to word it. "You're the only one who knows my secret. And I was thinking..."

"If we're gonna have whatever this talk is, you might as well sit down and make yourself at home."

Deciding that he might as well, Iruka sat down on the opposite end of the couch and uncrossed his arms, trying his best to relax. Surprisingly, Kakashi moved to sit closer to him, leaning over and tucked a strand of chocolate-hued hair that had come loose from Iruka's ponytail behind his ear in a rare display of affection.

"I never really told anyone I was a beta directly, just took used scent-masking products to hide my status, so... I was thinking about just taking a break from them and let everyone figure out the truth."

"What brought this on?" Kakashi asked, blinking, his entire face screaming surprise. His eyes were already rather expressive by themselves, but Iruka quickly came to the conclusion that after hiding behind a mask for so long, Kakashi probably had no idea how to filter his facial expressions since he was used to them being hidden anyways.

"Uh, well..." Iruka paused but forced himself to make eye-contact with Kakashi, his dark brown eyes melting into charcoal. He briefly wondered how long he could get away with staring. "The whole reason I hid it in the first place was that I was afraid everyone would react really badly. I'd only just graduated from The Ninja Academy and started off as a Genin when I presented, and you know there was a stigma when we were kids about it..."

"Yeah, yeah, you're right. I understand," Kakashi sighed, quirking an eyebrow in curiosity and tossing an arm over Iruka's shoulder in a not-so-subtle manner, not that Iruka moved away from the touch or even minded it- he liked it, even, but he didn't comment on it, just waiting for Kakashi to say something else. "So now..."

"Yeah..." Iruka took the opportunity to stare because when else would he get to see the Kakashi Hatake shirtless like this, watching the subtle shift of the prominent muscles covered by pale, taut skin that came with every one of Kakashi's small movements. "I hide away in the summer because I need to take a break from the suppressants due to their side-effects. They fuck up my heats and make them super intense and irregular when I am off them, and if I'm on them for too many months at a time, they'll send me into heat anyways due to the build-up from blocking them for too long. So yeah, I'm just at a point where..."

"It's not worth the trouble anymore?"

"Yeah," Iruka nodded, knowing that his habits with the suppressants weren't healthy at all, especially now that he was getting older. Well, he wasn't really old, but he was in his mid-twenties, and hiding his heats forever was getting pretty ridiculous with how badly it fucked up his cycle. He would rather have a heat every few months than have a few consecutive ones during the summer just because he was so insistent on hiding, and as hard as the conclusion was to come to, he'd come to it after some serious thinking on the matter. "My doctor's been encouraging me to come off the suppressants for a while- she thinks it's better that I only take them when I'm on missions, which I guess is reasonable. It won't mess up my regular job if I just allow my heats to come naturally since it's only one week every few months that I have to miss, and you reacted pretty well, so I'd like to think that everyone else would too..."

"Yeah, I don't think that many people care these days, and you have the respect of everyone in the village. It'd be dumb of them to throw that away just because of your status, especially if you never actually directly lied to anyone."

"Right, right..." With that, Iruka stood, giving a small smile and a nod. "I think I just needed to talk that out, but I'll talk to you later?"

"Yeah, talk to you later... Actually, wait-" Kakashi cut himself off, standing up and gently grabbing Iruka's wrist. The brunette tilted his head, knowing that he could pull away, but staying there, curious as to what the silver-haired man was up to.

"Hm?"

"Can I walk you home?" Kakashi's cheeks burned bright red as he slowly dropped the Chunin's wrist, looking at the coffee table like it had suddenly become the most interesting thing in the world. Iruka blinked at that, wondering if maybe he actually had a chance with the older man. "We could maybe stop for ramen if you haven't had dinner yet... I think Ichiraku is still open."

Iruka's smile only grew.

"I'd like that."