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The afternoon sun had just begun to filter through the window when Kakashi heaved himself up into a sitting position, joints aching and popping with his every movement. Blinking the fog from his vision, he stretched, jaws parting in a wide yawn.
He and Team Seven had ended up returning rather late the previous night from a mission, luckily no one had been hurt, but he’d been forced to use his sharingan towards the end. He could still feel the fatigue in his bones.
Kakashi let out a heavy sigh and absently played with his slightly-rumpled blanket between a thumb and forefinger.
Normally, he would take things easy for the rest of the day, maybe cook himself something, finish up the mission report, and then find a tree to read in until the sun went down...
But not today.
Kakashi glanced back out the window.
Today was different.
In several hours, the annual Halloween festival would begin, a celebration for the end of a long harvest season—as well as a hail to the colder winter months to come.
Never before had he actually participated in the festival himself, having always passed it off as a silly event filled with rowdy people and too much noise.
His stomach seemed to drop at the thought of the festival, heat flooding into his cheeks.
Groaning out loud, Kakashi buried his face in his hands, heart already striking a rather frantic tempo against his ribs.
He felt like an idiot, as if he’d been roughly dragged into the pages of some cheesy, sappy romance novel.
Umino Iruka—of all the people in Konoha for Kakashi to fall for… why him .
The chunin sensei was popular, well-liked, and a large figure in the village, a person that people smiled and waved to—not regarded with fear as Kakashi was. And in so many ways, there was no reason for Iruka to ever show him even the slightest attention in return.
Sure, he was “Kakashi of the Sharingan,” and all the titles that followed—but that meant little to nothing when it came to being social or having… feelings.
Even under normal circumstances, his attraction to the man would be on somewhat shaky ground because of the fact that they rarely saw eye-to-eye, a rift prominent enough to become common knowledge to any mission room regular.
While admittedly the shitty reports were slightly intentional on Kakashi’s part—the scarlet-faced sensei on the other side of the desk, however, was definitely all Iruka.
It was all so confusing in Kakashi’s mind... but one thing remained clear: He had to tell Iruka how he felt. Or at least do something.
Shaking himself, Kakashi slid out of bed, desperate to get moving, to get the chunin sensei off of his mind for even a few moments.
Kakashi took a shower, made the bed, and proceeded to aggressively clean his apartment, keenly aware of the sun progressively creeping lower and lower over the horizon.
Not once did Umino Iruka leave his thoughts.
The entire village was transformed by the time the sun dipped beneath the distant mountains, warm, orange lanterns glittering in the night as Konoha’s inhabitants flitted about the streets.
Leaning against the side of Ichiraku Ramen, Kakashi watched the people pass by, dressed in an assortment of rather absurd costumes. He, himself, in light of the Halloween spirit—and Sakura and Naruto’s begging—had opted for a sweater with a pumpkin embroidered over the left breast and a pair of dark sweatpants.
When Sasuke finally ambled up next to him, the Uchiha seemed to hold just about as much enthusiasm towards costumes as Kakashi did, and was wearing a simple, dark yukata.
After looking Kakashi up and down, Sasuke raised his eyebrows and shrugged.
If the boy was going to say anything, however, he lost the chance as the other two members of Team Seven came barreling towards them, dressed far more extravagantly, and grinning ear to ear.
“Kakashi Sensei!” Naruto beamed at Kakashi, skidding to a halt.
“Mhm, hello Naruto,” Kakashi threw on his best smile, and cocked his head to one side in order to get a better look at that very-poorly crafted scarecrow costume that the boy was wearing.
Sakura shot Naruto an irritated look and then proceeded to hover around Sasuke—a sight that begged Kakashi to roll his eyes. She was dressed in a simple, dark dress and a simple, black hat angled jauntily over her pink hair.
Kakashi shook his head and looked elsewhere, only to feel his anxiety shoot up through the roof as he spied a familiar brown ponytail bobbing through the crowd.
As soon as the man came into view, Kakashi’s breath caught in his throat.
Iruka was in a traditional yukata, much like Sasuke, but of a dark blue, small, intricate patterns of gold and pale-orange bisque woven into the fabric. The colors brought out his eyes and sharpened his features ever-so slightly, giving a certain grace to his movements as he made his way towards them.
Still hidden behind his façade of calm, Kakashi watched as Iruka came to stand beside Naruto, smiling.
The man greeted Kakashi first, and then Sasuke and Sakura. Kakashi couldn’t help but notice—or had he imagined it—that Iruka’s gaze lingered on him for a heartbeat longer than the others…
Catching himself staring, Kakashi offered a hasty nod.
He could pull Iruka aside now and get it over with. It would be so easy, so simple…
“Will you come with us?”
Naruto’s words seemed to echo in Kakashi’s ears, sending jolts of electricity into Kakashi’s chest.
Naruto, had he just…?
He wanted Iruka to say yes, to accept Naruto’s invitation just as much as he dreaded its implications.
Without meaning to, Kakashi stood up a little straighter, subtly coming out of the slouch. Iruka’s eyes flicked toward him for a moment, and Kakashi felt his heart skip a beat.
And then Iruka was shaking his head, dark eyes apologetic. “I’m sorry, Naruto. I can’t this time, I’m working in one of the events...”
Kakashi let out a breath, his mind torn between immense relief and disappointment, and allowed his traitorous feet to carry him off towards the nearest food vendor, fully aware that he was telegraphing every damn emotion inside of his mind at that moment with his actions.
It was for the better, he told himself.
The time wasn’t right.
And he didn’t feel ready.
The nerves seemed to abate slightly with the consumption of a yaki imo and some sake.
After reuniting with his students, Kakashi continued to roam the festival under a false mask of boredom, silently scanning the crowd for the person that occupied his thoughts.
Over time, however, he grew increasingly dismayed.
Iruka seemed to be perpetually surrounded by a gaggle of overexcited festival goers everywhere he went, even as he attended job after job across the event.
As time went by, Kakashi also found that he was growing increasingly frustrated with himself.
He wasn’t a kid anymore, a small boy who couldn't manage his own feelings, so why did he feel so small? So silly and dumb when it came to expressing how he felt?
Kakashi buried the thoughts behind his carefree exterior.
At long last, Kakashi managed to track down Iruka, spying the man rifling through a clipboard full of papers in the shadow cast by one of the temporarily-constructed ‘haunted houses.’
A hand automatically coming up to rub the back of his neck, Kakashi hastened towards the man before he could change his mind, suddenly feeling self conscious.
“Kakashi-san?” Brown eyes looked up at him curiously, as if they could sense his intentions.
Kakashi swallowed and raised a hand. “Yo.”
For a moment, there was a painful silence. Iruka lowered the clipboard slightly.
The words were at Kakashi’s lips, and then he forced them out, feeling heat rise into his cheeks. “I was wondering… if—”
A loud yell echoed through the street, cutting him short. Feeling his nerves jump in all directions, Kakashi turned to see a kunoichi waving at them—at Iruka .
“Iruka Sensei! Your shift is up!”
Kakashi’s stomach dropped.
Iruka gave Kakashi a look filled with regret. “I’m sorry, Kakashi-san, but I have to…” Iruka’s voice trailed off and he abruptly turned to dig around in one of his pockets.
“I will be working in that haunted house right there,” he nodded to one of the homes. “If you could visit the house or come by later—”
The woman shouted again, and Kakashi suddenly found four small, carefully-wrapped manju being pressed into the palm of his hand.
Feeling dazed, Kakashi watched the sensei take off at a run.
Eyes falling to the food in his hand, Kakashi’s mind reeled.
That hadn’t been a no …
Kakashi let out a huff as he followed the trio through the gaping mouth of the transformed home. In his mind, he could picture all the “scary” elements in store for them, and the rather dull array of obstacles that would be in their path.
But that was nothing, nothing compared to the fluttering in his stomach, the overpowering sense of anticipation that had overtaken his mind.
Iruka was here. Here , in this house, either working in the back, or as a ghost—or something—and was expecting Kakashi to come by.
Long, ragged cheesecloth covered everything, and was painted subtly in order to give the place a true, eerie atmosphere; smears of red dye coated the walls and flecked the worn wood planks beneath Kakashi’s feet. For a moment, Kakashi found himself surprised that he couldn’t smell the telltale scent of decay of a battlefield.
Kakashi raised his eyebrows. Whoever had decorated the place had done a rather good job.
Much to his amusement, the farther into the haunted house they ventured, the more ‘creepy’ the place actually seemed to become—and the more fidgety Sakura and Naruto became.
There were people there, for sure, staff working behind the scenes. Kakashi could sense their chakra, but they were clearly masking them to a certain degree.
The moment where it all seemed to go distinctly wrong , however, was when the trio reached the first ‘jump-scare.’
In the darkness, the four shinobi were already mostly operating by feel in a state of near-total silence. And so when Naruto suddenly let out a screech of surprise, the sound seemed to echo larger than life, the a barely-coherent garble of words indicating that a hand had just grabbed his ankle ringing in Kakashi’s ears.
Instantly, the world descended into chaos.
Already high-strung from his nerves about Iruka, Kakashi balked, only to pitch forward as his feet became tangled in one of the set pieces around them.
"Naruto!" A familiar shout rang out, and Kakashi heard rapidly approaching footsteps.
Eyes going wide, Kakashi tried to free himself, an arm flying out to try and grab anything to keep him upright. Someone’s hand connected with his hitai-ate, and he heard a muffled cry as a body plowed into him.
Hopelessly tangled, Kakashi let out a yelp as they both went down in a tangle of limbs, the person trapped beneath him.
Shouts filled the air, and a light flicked on somewhere off in the distance, casting a dim light around them.
Nearby, the poor staff member who had spooked Naruto was groaning, rubbing their face and slowly getting back to their feet, the genin huddled together next to them.
Blinking, Kakashi looked down to see a very startled set of brown eyes staring back up at him. Only then did it finally register that his sharingan was uncovered, the red glow filling the air, reflecting against tanned skin that was… extremely close…
“Kakashi-san?” Iruka’s face was a deep shade of scarlet, and Kakashi felt his own cheeks go red.
Oh.
Kakashi’s mind reeled and he hurriedly tried to put distance between himself and Iruka, only to find that, when he retreated, the other man was towed along with him, hopelessly caught in the same wad of cheesecloth-decor as Kakashi himself.
Distantly, Kakashi noted Sakura flushing, her arms already yanking Naruto and Sasuke to their feet, pulling them towards the distant exit now visible through the makeshift maze.
Iruka’s face was a brilliant red now, and Kakashi was forced to look away as he felt his own blush deepen.
Together, they disentangled themselves from the cloth in near-complete silence, a silence bit and tore into Kakashi’s anxiety with a viscous fury.
“What were you going to ask earlier?” Iruka’s voice cut into his thoughts, laced with curiosity.
Blinking, Kakashi looked up at the man.
Steeling himself, he put on his best eye smile and threw everything he had into regaining his cool. “Ma—sensei, would you like to go to dinner with me?”
Iruka gave him a pointed look, and then shook his head, smiling as he rose from the floor.
“It’s about damn time you asked.”