ura_no_ura | [IC] Appointments

[It takes a good minute for Iruka to digest that.]

You know, if you want some, we can share. That's fine. But we are not that close for you to boss me around at a personal level.

I am your superior, though, whether you like it or not. And I'm not about to allow you to drink yourself to death because you feel guilty about something outside of your control.

[ Kakashi doesn't actually know if Iruka will completely be able to understand this, but he'll say it anyway, since it's worth saying. ]

Oh good! Maybe then I'll be able to go home. Why don't we experiment? See what killing yourself does to you?

[Iruka will have none of that.]

Hand them back, Kakashi. Let's not make a mess of things, now.

Go back to your apartment, Iruka.

[ Kakashi says flatly, sliding the open bottle back into the bag. ]

No.

[Iruka reaches for the bag. To grab it back.]

Come on, hand it over!

[He is getting really frustrated too.]

[ Kakashi's really had enough of this. He jerks the bag back so Iruka can't grab it, takes a step back, then turns, slips back into his apartment, and closes the door.

Hear that, Iruka?

That's the sound of the lock clicking. ]

[Iruka actulally yells. In frustration. He even gives the door a good nice kick.]

Fine, asshole! Alcohol thief! Cheapskate! Keep it!

[Iruka spins abruptly and huffs, making his way towards the stairwell. I'll just get more myself! Which Iruka proceeds to just do, making his way down the stairs because that's how he had come up and in his drunken mind, that is how he should be going down.

Except half way down the first set of stairs, Iruka misses his step and tumbles down with a sad and pathetic "umph!"

In all fairness though, Iruka does think he is walking very, very straight and in a civilised manner. But that's what alcohol does to you, though. Makes you think things are okay, when they really are not.

This is not his night. Not his night at all. So much so, Iruka just starts laughing. To the point of breathlessness and tears, too.]

Edited 2014-02-02 07:44 (UTC)

[ Kakashi thought he was well past caring, and had just about to begin setting to the task of putting the alcohol away and getting more cleaning supplies from the kitchen anyway, to clean up the rest of the gunk in the hallway.

He was entirely ready to just ignore the moron outside, figuring that Iruka would eventually find his way back into his own apartment. But no sooner did he turn and take two steps, did he hear the door to the stairwell open, and before he had a chance to yank his door open and grab Iruka before he took a step into the hallway, the sound of sequential thumps echoed from the hall just as Kakashi opened his door.

For a moment, he was about to worry that Iruka had actually hurt himself, but then he heard it -- the laughter.

What a drunk fool.

Kakashi sighs a withered sound, carefully steps over the stained spot in his hallway, then pushes open the door to the stairs and just looks down at Iruka from the top of the landing. It seems that Iruka had only fallen about five steps-- not too bad, but even still, there's something of a scratch on the chuunin's forehead, and he's probably a bit banged up. ]

I believe your apartment is in the other direction, sensei.

[ Kakashi says very flatly, then heads down the stairs, bends down, and starts to help Iruka up, hand curling around his arm to pull him up. ]

Oh, Kakashi, what a situation we have gotten ourselves into!

[Iruka says this in between breaths of laughter. The babble comes out like a steady stream, as his limbs cooperate somewhat with Kakashi's almost man handling.]

What a situation! It's kind of hilarious don't you think? Here we are, in a lovely place, fairly peaceful, if you think about it, not too shabby. Far away from home, from the war, the deaths, the funerals we might live to see or be a part of, everything! All that shit! And here, you can live. Actually live a peaceful life with family! Family!

I don't care what holier than thou camaraderie words or will of fire you're going spew at me, it is not fair! Have you seen Naruto? That boy! That boy has a family here! And that is completely unfair because it isn't real, one day he will go back, and they are dead. Fucking dead.

There is no place for the dead amongst the living! It's unfair! It's unfair for Naruto! For everyone whose dead family is here! Even Sasuke! His mother is fucking, here, damnit!

[Somewhere in there, Iruka's voice might have reached a higher pitch.]

The worst part is, you want to stay and that is bad! Bad, bad, bad! I'm a bad man! Bad, bad man!

[Iruka repeats bad, bad man one more time then starts laughing.]

A bad, bad man~!

[ Of course.

Of course Iruka would go and say out loud what no one ever dares to say at all. Iruka's just that kind of man, isn't he. The kind that opens his mouth and says regrettable things without thinking about it before he does. Speaking it aloud makes it hard to deny what everyone thinks but no one ever talks about. What everyone knows but tries not to think about when you see them smiling together and your sensei is alive and you want so badly to hold onto what you shouldn't be able to hold in your hands when it's been seventeen years dead and buried underground. When you've spent more than half your life trying to keep a part of him alive, and failing miserably because you could never hope to be a fraction the sensei that he was. It's easier to pretend this travesty of a reality they're trapped in is somehow not as bad as it really is if you cover it up in a coat of bright paint over its broken surface.

(Don't look beyond the cracks, because what you see will likely break you.)

It's all sunshine above and laughter below, stealing these hidden moments like honey from a bee's nest. Hope you don't get stung in the process, and even if you do, those little bites don't seem so terrible when the reward is so sweet.

Maybe that's how they manage to control you in the end, choking on a mouthful of honey.

(Somehow it doesn't seem so bad, when Kakashi's not even sure if he's even still alive back home. Maybe he's just another ghost amongst ghosts, trying to steal more time from the living.)

Kakashi stares down at Iruka for a moment with one hand tightly wound around the other's bicep, holding him half-hauled up. Then he just yanks him up to a full stand, sliding one arm around Iruka's waist and turning them to face the stairs up. ]

Aa, you're right. It isn't fair.

[ Kakashi says flatly, and then starts to ascend the stairs with Iruka in tow. ]

But life never is, is it.

[ He doesn't actually expect a real answer from a rhetorical like that, but he knows Iruka is raw and emotional and drunk, and will probably say more shit Kakashi probably doesn't exactly want to hear, if only because he doesn't need to be reminded of the truth when it smacks him in the face on a daily basis:

That none of this is really, truly real.

That none of it really matters, in the sense of it affecting their real world. Their real lives.

That they are living in this surreal fantasy, and at any time, it might end, and none of them will remember it having happened at all, and all they fight to keep sacred and meaningful here in this world ultimately means nothing at all. ]

Edited 2014-02-02 08:38 (UTC)

Sure, sure, that's what life is. It's fucking dandy one moment then bam, once you are happy, they'll just take what you love the most away from you.

[Iruka sighs, and just hangs there beside Kakashi. It's harder to accept reality after you've burried the dead. After you've mourned. Only to have that wound ripped open and for it to begin healing somehow, after you've accepted the fact that yes, maybe, this is real. They take all that away from you and you will have to bury the already dead and mourn once more.]

Well no thank you. I don't want that. I don't want to keep burying the dead. It isn't real, this isn't living.

[Iruka pulls away from Kakashi and straightens himself.]

You know what sucks, though? I actually want to stay. I can grow to like it here. And I hate myself, for that. I'm going to get another drink.

Drinking yourself into oblivion isn't going to change the fact that you aren't the only one who feels that way.

[ Kakashi drags Iruka bodily up to the top of the stairs and pushes the door open. ]

Besides, we don't need to bury you from alcohol poisoning, hmm? I don't think that would make Naruto very happy, would it.

[ For Naruto, this place is real, and the most amount of living he's ever gotten a chance to do, uninterrupted by war or battle, in quite some time. Every time Kakashi looks at him, at how happy he is to be with his family, with his friends, he's reminded of that fact. Death would be real here, too. Even if the dead inevitably come back to life.

It doesn't make the initial loss any less real. ]

You can watch me enjoy my bottle until I pass out, if you are so concerned. But you cannot stop me, I will not allow it. I will not stand for it. Deal?

[Iruka is bargaining. He's actually... bargaining. To drink his own booze. While being manhandled. This is ridiculous.]

Then you can make sure Naruto doesn't bury me. Not that he will, I am pretty good at this. Lots of practice!

I can watch you drink water as you sober up. You're way past your limit.

[ Which that puddle in front of his door indicates.

Kakashi carefully steps past it again and then opens his own door, since it's not exactly tenable to keep an eye on Iruka if he were to just send him home. Keeping an eye on him at his own apartment makes more sense, at least until Iruka passes out or falls asleep. ]

We can either do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way, Iruka-sensei. Your choice.

[ The hard way might or might not involve Sharingan.

Kakashi ushers Iruka inside, and closes the door, making sure to block Iruka's access to the bag on the floor with his body. ]

Edited 2014-02-02 09:55 (UTC)

Hmmmm, screw you~

[Iruka promptly turns around from the door way, intent on getting to the elevators, which he conveniently remembers actually exists.]

It's my body!

[Perhaps when Iruka is more sober, he'll realize what he has done and spend the rest of his pitiful life in Luceti apologizing.]

[ Really, dealing with drunk Iruka is like dealing with a twelve year old. Kakashi sighs and grabs Iruka again, whirling him around as he brushes back silver hair slightly obscuring his left eye as he turns his Sharingan on Iruka, shutting his right. ]

I really didn't want to have to do this, but, you need to go to sleep now.

[ Said as he lifts a hand in a seal to activate the jutsu. ]

Edited 2014-02-02 10:01 (UTC)

[Iruka doesn't even know what him because he only manages a -- ]

H-Hey --!

[-- before he promptly passes out, in the middle of the hallway, in Kakashi's arms and just goes boneless. Maybe it's for the best, that he sleeps off the rabid thoughts running amok in his mind. He's a dead weight in Kakashi's grip. Or rather, whatever grip Kakashi has on him.]

[ Kakashi had fully been prepared that Iruka would be dead weight the moment he used Sharingan on him, and catches him just before his knees go out. It only takes him a moment to adjust himself to shift Iruka onto his back and hoist him up, carrying him back into his apartment, and depositing him on the couch.

He takes the time to remove Iruka's shoes and throws a few towels over him as a protective barrier between vomit particles and the blanket he covers Iruka with after.

Task completed, Kakashi heads off to finish cleaning the mess outside. He ends up tossing both the garbage can and the mop, as well as dirty paper towels, down the incinerator trash chute.

Eventually, he goes to bed.

Iruka will have an especially terrible hangover in the morning, no thanks to the extra hit of Sharingan Kakashi gave him. But really, Kakashi can't be bothered enough to give a shit. ]

[And what a terrible hangover it is the next morning, indeed.

Iruka wakes up with a sore muscle spot somewhere between his shoulder blade and neck and with a pounding headache. He reminds himself that while Luceti is... generous with their flavored alcoholic beverages, and while they don't taste as strong as to what he is more used to back home, they are probably worst. All that that sweet flavor masking the real alcohol content of the darn thing.

(Ironic, how for a brief moment, Iruka you realize Luceti is exactly like the booze they make available to the public. Sweet and yet completely intoxicating. A lie.)

Iruka groans a bit and throws an arm over his head, and it takes a good while to remember why he is here. He knows why he had started drinking in the first place, he also knows that he had also reminded himself constantly to go straight home after the first bottle and continue drinking there instead.

Ah. So he did make it home. And crashed on the couch.

That... is missing one of those fluffy pillows he picked up that one time...

Oh.

Right.]

Oh no...

[Iruka digs both palms into his eye socket and sucks in a few breaths before even daring to attempt to sit up. Which is successful, way to go, sensei, no vomit yet! Except there had been vomit. He can smell it on himself and good lord this is Kakashi's apartment, and that means he must have --

Iruka promptly decides that he will just ask Kakash outright. If he threw up on him or not. And if he needs new shoes. Again.

Before that though, Iruka decides to make things right. The polite thing to do is to clear up the shit he might have caused. So once Iruka decides that he can actually bare the headache, he slowly and cautiously gets on his feet to find the bathroom to get himself together.

And hopefully, he'll get started on cleaning up (just in case) and breakfast as a sort of apology. Then he shall do everything in his power to make himself invisible to Kakashi, as much as possible.

Iruka decides, when he finds the bathroom door, that this is a magnificent plan indeed.]

[ It just so happens to be that Kakashi had just finished his morning shower and was on his way out of the bathroom with a towel draped over his head. He was in the middle of his pulling his mask up over his face, when he opens the door and Iruka's just standing right there. He quickly yanks his mask up the rest of the way up his nose and smooths it out. ]

Ah, you're awake.

[ Iruka doesn't get a "good morning."

Not after last night.

Water drips from the tips of his wet hair, and Kakashi reaches up to give his hair another rub with the towel. ]

[Obviously, it must be a sign. Or karma. Or whatever. Because clearly, avoid-Kakashi-as-much-as-possible-plan is just not off to a good start, is it? Iruka feels embarrassment paint his entire face all the way down to his stomach red.]

Yeah. I was going to prepare breakfast for you. As an apology. Then kick myself out. Without you knowing. That was the plan, but well, I guess you're awake now, so no point in the surprise! bit --

[Iruka clears his throat and averts his gaze.]

Sorry. [It comes out as a mumble at first, and maybe it's partly due to him stammering and babbling at being caught off guard like that. But then Iruka straightens up and looks Kakashi right in the eye and says it more sincerely.] I am sorry. For last night. [Whatever he may have done, which seems like a very vague memory at the moment, but Iruka knows himself. It will come to him later. Like a punch in the face.

Then he can spend the rest of his days really enforcing the avoid-Kakashi-as-much-as-possible-plan.]

[ Kakashi sighs, pulling the towel off his head and throwing it over his shoulder as he exits the bathroom, pushing past Iruka. ]

You look and smell like shit. [ Or vomit, more precisely. ] Go take a shower, and then we'll talk.

[ Or Iruka can just go back to his own apartment and take a shower and then they can talk. Whichever works better. ]

[Iruka doesn't even bat an eye lash. He simply nods, gives a polite smile, turns around and marches right out fo the door without so much as a second glance behind him.

He doesn't even come back for a long while. And maybe it seems like Iruka has run away. Avoiding Kakashi. Enforcing his plan.

Truth is, Iruka is better and more comfortable preparing his apology in the comforts of his own (temporary) home. Iruka takes his sweet time too with cleaning himself up, cutting up stuff, preparing etc. And just in case he misses Kakashi, he keeps it in mind to pack everything up in a proper bento. In case Kakashi has to go, or is in a hurry, or whatever. ~~Does he even have any bento boxes? He should probably check, darn.~~

Maybe him taking his time is also part of the plan. iruka just doesn't know it yet. But then it might seem like Iruka is being cowardly, so half way through stirring the rice and flipping the omelette, Iruka sends out a clone to knock on Kakashi's door.]

[ It just so happens to be that Kakashi hadn't left just yet, and is still home. The door opens after a moment, and Kakashi stares at Iruka. Then realizes a moment later that he's actually staring at his clone.

He quirks a brow.

Was Iruka so scared of what Kakashi might do that he sent a kage bunshin in place of himself to talk to him? Really. ]

[Iruka blinks.]

I hope you haven't bothered to start breakfast yet. Please come over. It will spare you the dirty dishes, at least.

[IC] Appointments

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