Archive of Our Own ^beta

"Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, or something?" Iruka asked, annoyance clear in his voice. Kakashi had been skittish and snappish all day. Though he hid it well, Iruka felt like he was walking through a room full of thumbtacks blindfolded. (He'd actually done this once as a child: it was both less painful, and less entertaining than it had sounded.)

Iruka had figured that Kakashi's mood would pass soon enough, but this was getting ridiculous. And if walking home from the market wasn't the best time to have whatever this conversation was, at least they'd be at his apartment soon enough: Kakashi could just leave, if it came to that. He hoped it didn't.

Kakashi just looked at him. "You're assuming I slept."

Iruka met his stare, head-on. "Yes - it was night-time, you were in bed; did you have too much coffee, or something?"

Kakashi shook his head. "No." Iruka looked at him quizzically. "I can't sleep with you sprawled all over me."

"What, not at all?" Iruka said, then, "I'm not that heavy - we're practically the same weight."

"It's not that," Kakashi said. He didn't sound like he wanted to talk about it, but Iruka pressed on: left to his own devices, Kakashi would change the subject or deflect, but Iruka wanted to know what this was about.

"Well then, what is it?" Iruka asked, handing Kakashi a bag of groceries before pulling out his keys and fiddling with his front door: the lock seemed to be frozen. Kakashi automatically slipped both bags into one hand. Iruka shrugged internally - it was hardly the oddest thing he'd seen Kakashi do.

"I can't get up with you on top of me." he heard Kakashi say.

"You can always push me off," Iruka said over his shoulder. "I know you can: you practically shoved me through the wall the other day." It had been an alarming way to wake up, to say the least. Thankfully, he'd had the sense not to retaliate, or he might well have gone from "alarmed" to "injured."

Kakashi said something Iruka didn't catch as the door opened with a CRACK!, breaking the ice frozen between the door and frame.

"I didn't hear that," Iruka said, "come again?" They walked into the apartment, and Iruka shrugged off his coat before taking the bags from Kakashi.

"...it slows my reaction time too much." Kakashi said.

"What?" Iruka asked incredulously, laughing a little, "It's not like someone's going to attack you in my bedroom."

There was a moment of silence, then: "You can't know that." Kakashi's voice was flat, his back turned.

"You really are professionally paranoid," Iruka commented, setting grocery bags on his kitchen table, and moving to unpack them.

"Not all of us have the luxury of working with children." Kakashi snapped back, obviously stung. It was nearly the angriest Iruka had ever heard him.

Iruka froze. Then he walked over to take one of Kakashi's hands between his own.

"I didn't mean that as an insult, you know," Iruka said to Kakashi's callused fingers. "And if you don't want me sprawling all over you, then I'll try not to. Okay?"

When Iruka looked up, Kakashi looked faintly surprised.

"How many times have you stayed up all night because of this?" Kakashi looked aside, and Iruka rubbed at the back of his head sheepishly. "And I never noticed."

Kakashi didn't reply. Of course he hadn't noticed, thought Iruka. If Kakashi wanted to feign sleep instead of just asking Iruka to shove over, he was certainly capable of doing so. He just wasn't sure why Kakashi hadn't said anything until now.

"Okay," Iruka said, lacing their fingers together, "Next time something like this happens, just tell me," Iruka said. "What did you think I was going to do, chew your ear off for having the sense to have survival instincts?" The look on Kakashi's face said that, yes, that was exactly what he had expected.

Iruka sighed. "You wouldn't be here otherwise," he said, "and" he ran his thumb along Kakashi's palm, the fabric of his glove rough to the touch, "I kind of like having you around." It was the closest either of them had come to commenting on their strange little arrangement. But Iruka thought that conversation could wait a while yet.

"Come on," he said, tugging Kakashi after him and planting a kiss on mask-covered lips. "Why don't I remind you. And then we'll see if you can't get some sleep."