He'd been surprised at how easy it was to lie.

It was the training, really. Shinobi were taught to lie, not be betrayed by emotion. Showing nothing on the outside, even if their love was killed before their very eyes. No wonder so many of them were insane, they were barely even human by the time they broke.

His own lover saw his first flame die. He knew what it was to lose one, to be powerless, because he lost his own in a minute, before his very eyes.

In a way they were all afraid. Of love, of loneliness. They had healed each other, faced the fears. Someone to hold after the nightmares, someone to cry with. The fear was easier to handle when split in half. The terror was there, but they could defeat it together.

No one would know by looking at him. All they every saw was the friendly school-teacher. But he was so much more than that, so much under the surface.

Cold exterior, burning interior.

He thrived on the kisses, the touches, the taboo of his lover. Reveling in have it, the reality that made him rebellious and insane. Laughing at their ignorance behind his indifferent smile. What they would say if they knew...

On the outside so righteous but deeper down he was passion, heat. He was deeply in love and scared senseless.

So he taught and watched Naruto grow and slept in the tenderness of his lover's arms. He cared for the children too much, and he knew it. It hurt every time they were hurt, as if they were his own, but his beloved would catch him, hold him, pleasure him, love him.

Two faces two lives.

The nights were worth it. His every nerve end blazing, the air hot and heavy, his partner warm and strong.

It was like an addiction no one wanted to deny.

He couldn't, wouldn'tquit it.

Torturous secret, blissful affair.

The gentle nights, the sweet nothings. The nights of pleasure, passion that left him exhausted but happy. The nights they would talk and be uncertain of the future and what they were doing. Those nights they would hold each other closely and the sex would be slow and loving, feeling protected in the embrace that followed.

They wanted memories. If anything were to happen, they would have at least that. They lived for the moment and didn't need to tell the other what they felt.

They already knew.

Kind sensei, ardent lover.

They were in love, a love that wasn't supposed to happen. They fell in love anyway. Made of paradoxes, one thing on the outside, another on the inside. Both true, both opposites.

Iruka had two faces.

But it was worth it to sleep held by the man he loved most.

His Kakashi.

Iruka and Kakashi