Naruto 1. Driving

They were just driving. There was no real destination in sight, although 'officially' they were checking out colleges. 

At night Gai would sleep in the back, his sprawling football-large body taking up all the room of the two seats and them some. Kakashi with his skinnier runner's frame stretched his long legs up onto the dash of the passenger's side and dozed in the seemingly impossible position. 

Sometimes Kakashi would crawl over the stick-shift and pile of maps that never did any good or got any use to wake Gai with a few whispered words and rough touches. Their grunts and gasps always managed to fill the silence. 

On bad days they would lapse into silence as Gai drove, the soothing hum of the engine and the radio keeping them moving passed the ever-changing landscape that flowed by Kakashi's mis-matched eyes as if it was like a never-stopping river. 

On good days the sun was shining and Gai's bass voice would mix with the songs on the radio, occasionally electing a tenor accompaniment when Kakashi didn't have his silver hair out the window like a dog. When it was nice out (or just not raining) they'd put the top down.

---

They were the odd pair in their class, the jock and the genius, both studying to become teachers. Hatake's eye-patch and near-constant bad romance novel always elected rumors, not to mention his attractiveness to women coupled with an apparently permanent single status. Gai had only got into the teacher academy on a sports scholarship, or rather multiple sports scholarships: one for every sport he played, which was many. And yet, they took their work seriously (or at least got it mostly done) and managed to stay at the top of the class. 

when they joined a school for gifted students together, no one questioned their unity. Everyone at one time or another had experienced Kakashi's fierce, sharp-bladed anger, and none of the hurried, smiling apologies from the gentle giant would remove the chill that the blue eye would cast. 

No one, of course, saw the other eye, permanently blood-red and stigmatized. 

---

"I will fail them, the way I failed Obito, Rin and Sensei."

"Now, now Kakashi-sensei..."

But Gai could tell Kakashi had his look on, and it would be no use trying to convince him. Sighing, he clapped one large hand on the other teacher's shoulder and pulled him into an awkward sideways hug. It was quickly released, but had its desired effect. Kakashi pulled on a half-smile enough to convince anyone who didn't know him too well that everything was fine.

Through that, he managed to say: "We are tools, are we not? It's easier to be a tool when you don't have to deal with hormonal teenagers."

And he pushed past Gai and left the room to go find his advisees before Gai could remember that Obito had never made it to hormonal teenager. 

He hated it when Kakashi did that.

Gai had asked his new advisees to meet him on the roof - an appropriately Hip, Modern and Cool place to be - but he had to take a few moments to collect himself before going up. He could only hope that his eternal rival could find a reason to save himself in these kids. 

---

"...But Kakashi..."

"Pleeeaaaaase?"

It hadn't taken much for his Eternal Rival to wear Gai down. He was a always a little weak when Kakashi actually showed affection for anything other than himself, and didn't like to discourage the Youthful Feelings, but a idog/i...

And then Kakashi had looked up at him with a big, sad blue eye and stuck his lower lip way out. "Please, please, please, Gai, I promise I'll take care of him and he'll sit in the back with me and I'll even feed him some of my food - please!"

As it was Gai's car, it was his call, and although he had seriously enumerated all the problems involved with taking care of a Living Creature when they were continually on the move in a car, but everyone concerned seemed to know that Gai was going to cave in the end. The volunteer was preparing a box for the animal to be taken in, the dog itself was looking up at him with a pitiful expression on it's cute little face and Kakashi...

"Okay," he sighed, closing his eyes and mentally marking one more notch for Kakashi in the Grand Scheme of Things. It only took a moment for him to get back into the swing of things. Striking an Energetic Pose, his eyes blazed with Youthful Passion and Energy while Kakashi carried on helping the volunteer crate the poor neglected animal and completed signing the forms of acquisition. 

He really was quite cute, when they finally set him in his box on the back trunk of the car. He had been picked up off the street despite being so young, and had a aggressive air that disappeared quite quickly when someone challenged it. A little pug, who Kakashi quickly dubbed "Pakkun", though from where Gai had no idea. He wouldn't question it.

The dog didn't really like him that much, but took to Kakashi immediately, as if sensing his new owner's tendencies to act like a dog himself. 

It was worth the work to see Kakashi's eyes filled with a kind of light and fondness. Maybe they were a step closer to healing. 


	2. Shaving & Coming Out Clean

Finally, Gai finished his undressing ritual and slipped into bed. Kakashi watched as the familiar muscles bunched and relaxed into the motion, leaving Gai laid out like a Greek idol just for Kakashi to touch. Sliding his hands over bulky shoulders, he pulled his own efficiently honed body closer so that he could rest his head tenderly against a finely honed pectoral muscle. He was tired, and it was only Monday.

"Gai," he sighed, fingers exploring slowly for any changes from the night before. "Has anyone ever asked you about us?"

He would have liked to have said that it didn't bother him whether or not the kids he taught knew about their continuing relationship, but it did. Somewhere, deep in his heart, he was unwilling to accept that he was safe. Considering how he had been treated as a child, it made sense, but just because he could rationalize it didn't mean that it went away.

A heavy hand stroked his hair, pushing it down in a futile, never-ending gesture. 

"I have never told my beautiful children, but if they were to ask I would not like to lie. That would be setting a rather bad example, don't you think?"

Kakashi knew that this was what Gai would say, but he liked hearing it because it made him feel reassured that he really did know Gai as well as he thought. Nodding made the fine hairs on Gai's chest rub against his cheek and was another reassurance: he knew that Gai felt it too and would shave in the morning. Kakashi's own bodily hair was too fine and pale to bother with, but Gai did it for him, sometimes. It was an intimate act done in the shower with Kakashi's shoulder blades pressed against Gai's wet chest as the blade skimmed his chest, arms, naval and down all the way to his ankles. Then Gai would spin him around, running his hands down the smooth skin to make sure he didn't miss a spot. Sex with them both clean and smooth was refreshingly smooth, but always made Kakashi feel overly honest. He did not deserve this like Gai did, and so he always got scruffy again as soon as possible. 

He was dozing off as he thought this with Gai's rhythmic stroking and the bodily heat turning his brain off for the night. 

He still hadn't figured out why it bothered him so much that one of the kids in his advisor group had discovered he was gay. 


	3. Looking Out Windows For Love

Working at a school like this, you rather wish your romance was just as pure and uncomplicated as the ones you see around you every day. A boy and a girl, glancing at each other across the room and then a week later holding hands. Red lips and constantly aching bodies.

Of course, your own high school years were not quite so peaceful as the ones around you. To think that you are old enough to make "back in my day" speeches! Obito would be appalled. 

Your love has become worn in, ingrained in your very being so that were you to try and tear it apart you could never become accustomed to its loss. His body still goes hot and achy with desire whenever he presses that extra step closer, sliding his fingers across an unshaven cheek. But you become tired more easily, and there are too many memories that share your bed for the lively, carefree lovemaking that you had not valued so long ago.

Thinking like this, you want to touch him and reassure yourself that he is still here and that you're not thinking of a ghost - like in so many of your memory-dreams. Thankfully, he's in the teacher's lounge and when he turns from the coffee maker his smile does not waver but his eyes go soft at the sight of you. It still makes your stomach flip-flop, just a little bit, to see how you effect him. He has just got a haircut and the sharp ends press against your palms as you run them over his face like a blind man sees. You whisper his name coyly and he grins even more. Your hips brush once, just a vague temptation, but new responsibilities make old habits impossible. There will be no fucking over tables in this institution, with the risk of colleagues and students coming in at any time. 

He was always the one who wanted to come out, and you were always the one holding back. He, exorcised for no good reason, was quite amiable about being a social leper for a better one. You, exorcised for a quite good reason, were adverse to anything of the kind ever happening again. Often he gave in to you, but you in turn didn't make a fuss if it happened to come out by accident. In this way, he kissed you, bitter with the taste of teacher-grade coffee, and sweet with tenderness. You suddenly want to take him to bed entirely at this very moment, just having him here is not enough, but you quash that into a corner for later. Now, you just settle for the movement of his lips and the thrust of his tongue. 

So brief, never lasting; the glow afterwards manages to get you through the rest of the day. 


	4. Over Seas

His fingertips are dry as paper, the swirls and whorls defined against the paler skin of his palm. Yours are so fine that you can barely see them, and your skin is the same pale colour all over.

He gives you a big smile when you snap out of your trance and look up at him. Your hands are barely touching on the armrest, but it's enough for the girl sitting next to you to look at you particularly. He would be willing to do anything in public for the sake of Being Proud of Who We Are, but takes his cues from you. This time, you just let your fingers rest against his palm and pretend that your heart isn't beating fast, that you aren't thinking about it.

The plane will not land for another two and a half hours. Gai is bound to fall asleep, as he always does when forced to sit still for extended periods of time - something you learnt from your roadtripping days. You pull out a dog-eared romance novel and fall into another world. It isn't long before his head is a weight on your shoulder.

A bleary Gai is an irritatingly useless one. Time change and too much sleep in the middle of the day results in him grabbing the wrong bags, giving the wrong directions to the cab driver, and trying to get into the wrong room. You have to let him try, at the very least, because he'll be upset if you don't, but it isn't hard to gently take control of the situations as they arise. It is the price you pay for going somewhere with him and you hate travelling alone.

Of course you never would have come to Lee's wedding without him. Lee probably would have refused to have it without his teacher there. Sakura had been a little less insistent on you being there.


End file.
