“You know, I think you should consider making contracts with more nin-hounds.” Iruka remarks during one of their weekly dinners.
Kakashi raises his brow but keeps his focus on the boiling pot before him. “Oh, eight isn’t enough for you?”
Iruka's convinced Kakashi could use another five and then maybe it would be enough.
Tonight he's propped against Bull while Pakkun sleep at Iruka’s sides. The rest of the pack have divvied up the furniture for prime pre-dinner naps, content snores filling the room. A month into their unspoken co-habitation Iruka offered blanket permission for the summons to be allowed free range in his apartment, even if he found the ninken to be adept at finding the most inopportune time to be underfoot. It was worth it for the drastic increase in cuddles.
"They’re much better behaved than my students, and they don't get me sick every fall.”
Kakashi chuckles at that, even though Iruka isn’t necessarily joking. Despite Kakashi's insistence, he’s never actually witnessed the apparently devious teamwork the pack has turned on their master over the years.
“I'm beginning to suspect you may just be using me for the dogs.” His tone is feather-light but there's a stiffness to his movements as he flips off the stove and pours two bowls for their meal.
“At last, you’ve caught on to my ultimate mission.” Iruka jokes, hoping to ease some of the tense lines in Kakashi's form.
Kakashi turns to face him, face unreadable and Iruka knows the jounin is slipping into the crueler part of his thoughts, the ones from a lonely childhood of a soldier. He knows there's a part of Kakashi that still worries about his place in Iruka's life. It's a conversation he's only recently started to open up about and Iruka is willing to take things one step at a time. There's no rushing their relationship and so he motions for the jōnin to join him on the floor, giving the space in front of him a quick pat.
Kakashi slides into the open splay of Iruka’s legs, back to chest and Iruka almost laughs at the petulant pout he spies at the curve of Kakashi’s lips.
“Although it seems I already have an overgrown pup right here though, don’t I?” Iruka teases, resting his chin atop Kakashi’s shoulder. The man inhales deeply which Iruka suspects is Kakashi sorting through the jumble of his thoughts. Iruka rubs his hands down the other's sides, willing to sit there however long it took for him to come back to the present.
Eventually, the man gives him a long-suffering huff, one hand intertwining with Iruka’s.
“Hope you’re not expecting me to start licking you like a dog.”
Iruka wrinkles his nose at the image and settles back into the mountain of fur behind him. “Please don’t. I get enough drool on me whenever I help Kurenai out with Mirai.”
Later, when Iruka retrieves their dishes, he’s mostly forgotten the exchange. Thus when Kakashi breaks their post-meal silence he’s thrown for a loop.
“I have considered a collar.”
He sounds so earnest that Iruka nearly breaks the stack of plates in his hands, face turning a deep red as Kakashi starts listing the pros of this latest idea.