[naruto fic] Falling Leaves
Just when you thought I would never fic again... blame caelumi and this was actually written a few months back but I found it again and it pleases me, and she says we rock, and I modestly agree. ;-)
Fandom: Naruto
Title: Falling Leaves
Author: caelumi and datenshiblue
Pairing: Gai/Kakashi
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: yaoi
Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto. Just playing with the characters.
Notes: This is speculative fic via RP that surmizes that Kakashi and Gai have known each other for a long time, back to when they were both teenagers, for instance. I'm not even going to worry about whether this is when Kakashi was in ANBU or before, or after, whether Gai was ever in ANBU or what. Just a way younger (adolescent) Kakashi and Gai, coming back from a mission that went very wrong, and a speculative story about how they became 'eternal rivals'. Caelumi writes for Kakashi, I write for Gai.
Kakashi was sure that more than a few eyes were on him as he stumbled into the door of the inn. At that moment, he didn't care. His grip on the other's boy's thighs at his sides was precarious because of the blood - whoever it belonged to - and Gai's arms were lashed together around his neck.
His one dark eye focused on the man with the apron but without the sweat of a hired hand. Manager. "I need a room," he said, a lack of allowance for argument in his voice.
The man's eyes narrowed. "Full price, and food is extra," he said pointedly.
"I want hot water," Kakashi said, quiet and low. "And soap." He hoisted Gai up as he started to slip to the left, fingertips digging through clothing hard enough to leave marks in order to find purchase.
"End of the hall, fetch it yourself, there's a can in your room," the man replied, holding back the room key until he saw a deposit.
The young jounin's lips thinned into a white line. With a small jump, he slipped one exhausted arm under Gai's rear to free his other hand. Inside his flak vest in a small pocket there were a few emergency coins. Their bags had been left behind.
Kakashi held the money out in a bloodied hand. "First aid supplies," he said.
"That's not enough for the room, let alone bandages," the man growled. He took the coins with a rag from under the counter. He put a small, worn looking box on the counter - emergency medical kit.
"Depends how much blood you want in your rooms," Kakashi said, almost a threat.
The man put the key down next to the box. Then he turned away as if attempting to prevent Kakashi from asking him for anything else.
A small snort caught in the sticky material of his mask. "Thanks," he said before grabbing the box and key and stumbling with the dead weight on his back to the end of the hall and the door that matched the key.
The room was underwhelming. Kicking the door closed behind him, Kakashi had to practically lay on the bed himself in order to deposit Gai down softly. Then he was scooping up the bucket and heading for water.
Back in the room, Kakashi kneeled next to the low bed and opened the sorry excuse for the first aid kit. With the least amount of movement - Gai had been juggled around enough on the flight here - the silver haired boy stripped the other to his underwear and began cleaning his wounds.
After a few moments he got up to open the window and take off his own vest and the off kilter hitati-ate, drenched with sweat and blood, before settling back down and continuing.
Gai began to stir not long after. When it came right down to it, none of his wounds were as bad as they could have been. Somehow he'd managed to duck and dodge hits that had been intended to take out organs, disable limbs. But his collapse had been the result of none of these.
His eyes opened and he looked around blearily, trying to drag himself up as if expecting to find himself in the middle of a battle.
A strong hand on his chest stopped the upward motion. Those rather newly mismatched eyes looked at Gai for a moment before he moved his hand and finished cleaning out a gash on the boy's thigh.
A million questions about what Gai had done fought on his tongue, but Kakashi only blandly said, "We're at an inn."
Dark eyes under firmly marked brows regarded Kakashi as comprehension dawned. Gai subsided slowly. "Kakashi... the genius," he murmured. "Where... who... where are the others?"
The title attached to his name twisted his lips under the mask but otherwise his distaste did not show. A genius would have saved more than one. A genius wouldn't have proven so worthless.
Fingers, in a now worn habit, reached back to touch the hilt of the tanto that was currently across the room with the white vest he wore. They retreated back to the bed. "Dead."
Gai was silent for a moment as he absorbed that. Then he reached up and placed a hand on Kakashi's shoulder. "Then I owe you my life. Thank you, Hatake Kakashi."
Kakashi bowed his head with a sigh before standing and moving away from the touch. "We'd be dead too, if it wasn't for you." He stood by the window, hating the stench of blood on his mask but unwilling to take it off.
"It was a gamble I hoped would buy more," Gai admitted, turning to look in another direction himself. "I... hope it was not a choice between myself and another when you escaped. Any of the others would have been the better choice."
Those words tightened Kakashi's shoulders. They made him think of his father, choosing to die. Only the fresher memory of another death kept a scathing remark from his lips. "No. There was no choice."
Gai manfully swallowed the groan as he pulled himself up. He still felt weak and depleted but his energy was returning slowly. "You have wounds, I can bandage them for you."
Kakashi raised his eyes to Gai. "You shouldn't be sitting." There was a wound on his shoulder that probably needed stitches, torn after carrying the other boy, but he didn't mention it.
"My injuries are not serious," Gai replied. Then he admitted, "But it would be easier if you came over here..."
If Kakashi could have stitched himself up, he would have. He relented after a moment and moved to sit on the edge of the bed with his back toward Gai. Putting the first aid kit next to him within easy reach of the other boy, Kakashi slipped his arms through his shirt and let it bunch at his neck.
Gai took a few deep breaths until his hands steadied enough to clean the wound and then stitch it quickly. He applied gauze and padding neatly. He tried not to think about the fact that this was Hatake Kakashi, the one who was already legendary, though they might be the same age. He'd hardly had time to see the genius do anything extraordinary - once the ambush occurred he'd been occupied with trying to stay alive and do what he could to ward his team mates. Not successfully enough, he reminded himself with regret. He wondered how many push-ups he would have to do to atone for letting a teammate die.
There wasn't even a flinch from Kakashi as Gai deftly stitched the wound. The pain was taken without compliant; he deserved to have received more. Hands in tight fists in his lap, those polychrome eyes closed. He'd let more people die. Caught between trying to complete the mission and saving his team... He wasn't the man his father had been. The scroll they'd been sent after, in his vest, burned a hole in his mind. Retsu might had lived if Kakashi had helped him first...
... and he might have stilled died. Knuckles whitened further.
Gai finished and still Kakashi sat there, hands fisted in his lap. Gai could feel the tension in the other boy's body.
He almost gasped as a revelation impacted his mind.
They would return and no one would be surprised that Gai had not done better. The mission had obviously been over his head.
They would return and no one would be surprised that Kakashi made it back. He was obviously the best.
"...we're... alike..." he said, not really to the other boy. It was just the thought escaping from lips too tired to be properly censored.
"What?" the word came out tired, not really thinking about what the dark-haired boy had said. But it had broken his trance and he slipped his shirt back on, without apparent care to censor his motion for the newly tended area.
"They expect you to be perfect," Gai answered. He wasn't thinking entirely clearly either. "They expect nothing at all of me. Alike."
Almost reflexively, Gai placed his hands on Kakashi's back in certain places, as his master had taught him, and applied fingertips to the pressure points. The reiki touch released tension from half a dozen points.
Kakashi shook his head without turning to look back at Gai. "That's just the opposite," he said. He didn't want touch, it was the last thing he wanted, and he'd started to pull away when that warmth took him by surprise. His eyes widened and despite wanting to, his body relaxed, fists loosening.
"No, it's the same," Gai said, shifting his fingers to the next set of points, a little lower and applying chakra through his fingertips.
"Both are wrong."
Kakashi slumped forward a little bit, the warmth creeping down through his legs. His eyes burned. "Expectations are never wrong," he said in a too-soft voice.
"Depends on who is doing the expecting," Gai answered, then he stopped and cocked his head.
The sound out in the hall drew his attention. A number of feet, doors consecutively opening and closing... someone was searching the inn...
Kakashi eyes rose and he breathed with an open mouth, trying to shake off the torpid feeling. Without waiting for his body to come back to him, the young jounin forced it into compliance and made it move. He grabbed his flak vest and turned toward the window, watching to see if Gai was doing the same.
If they were searching the inn, there were likely ninja outside waiting for them to run.
Expectations were never wrong, he said. They would be expected to run.
What if they didn't?
If they stayed, would the enemy see what they expected?
Instead of his flak vest or other clothes - he was still dressed only in his boxers - Gai grabbed a blanket from the bed.
Then he grabbed Kakashi, and pulled the other ninja down with him, tossing the blanket over them both.
As the door opened, he pressed his mouth against Kakashi's ear, covering both their faces.
"...play along..."
Kakashi growled, almost hit the other boy as he was jerked down onto the bed.
After all that and the idiot is going to get us killed what the hell is...
Both his eyes widened at the hot breath in his ear and very suddenly he realized he was on top of a still mostly naked Gai. Those different colored eyes shut tightly, willing himself to relax, not to wait for the killing blow that would surely come. His fingers dug into Gai's sides.
The door opened and Gai moaned against Kakashi's neck, shifting under the blanket - and under Kakashi.
There was a snicker from the partially open doorway and it closed as the searchers moved on.
Kakashi gasped, thoughts slipping stupidly around in his head. The scroll in the dropped flak vest was forgotten and replaced by that movement underneath and against him. Even as some part of him registered the door closing, his fingers curled tighter into warm skin.
Gai breathed a sigh of relief as the door closed. It worked! His idea actually worked!
And... Kakashi... was... holding him... tighter...
It was good that it was dark and therefore impossible to see Gai suddenly flaming as a flush spread across his skin. Unless... that crimson eye could see it... who knew what that eye could see...
A part of Gai had the distinct urge to jump up in the air and run to the farthest corner of the room.
Because there were things about Gai no one knew, and one of them was that he carefully hid the unfortunate fact that he was gay. And Kakashi was dangerous and sexy, and what was allowed to be seen of him was quite attractive, even with the mismatched eyes and that scar...
Kakashi didn't need his Sharingan to see anything when he could feel the sudden heat of Gai's face. Breath filled his lungs in a hiss of breath through half-stiffened material and Kakashi pulled himself up, the breeze cool after the cloistered warm of the blanket. On hands and knees he hung over Gai for a moment, eyes opened and looking down at the boy.
Then he moved away without a word.
Gai couldn't quite stop the hand that followed Kakashi and then hung stupidly in the air after him.
"...uh..." he said brilliantly.
"You could have killed us," Kakashi said, ungrateful because of the heat he felt linger in his own cheeks after he'd sat himself on the edge of the bed. He knew very well that Gai had just saved them.
"...uh..." Gai repeated.
The genius Kakashi thought he had behaved stupidly. Kakashi had saved him. He'd done his best, given everything he had, but it was of course not good enough. It never was, never would be. No matter how much he practiced, how good he got, he would always be clumsy underneath it all.
Then that is the way it is, he thought.
"I could have gotten us killed," he said distinctly. "But I did not get us killed. If you had not played along, it would not have worked. Good job, Kakashi."
All or nothing, Maito Gai.
Slipping an arm around the other boy, Gai pulled Kakashi back against him.
Perhaps it was the shock of the words that allowed him to be pulled backward. He couldn't understand how it was that Gai was saying - in honesty - anything nice to him after he'd been insulted.
There was some grunt of indiscriminate nature that tried to be a refusal of the backward tug but didn't quite make it. Kakashi blamed it on whatever Gai had done to him before those nin had come into the inn.
Gai really expected the genius Kakashi to kill or perhaps simply maim him at any moment. Until he did so... Gai held the other boy against him, feeling the flush rise in his skin a second time. It was all wrong to do it this way. It was completely against custom. But they'd both had a foretaste of death tonight. It made it impossible for Gai to ignore how good the other boy felt in his arms. Warm and alive. Both of them alive - for now. Tomorrow might see a red dawn, the following sunset might cast a redder eye than Kakashi's on a world absent of one or both.
So until Kakashi killed or maimed him, Gain bent his head and pressed almost reverent lips against the other boy's throat, feeling his pulse.
More than once, Gai had saved him tonight. For the moment, that was what Kakashi screamed in his head as that mouth pressed against him and inspired more intimacy that he could ever remember having since his parents had died - not counting Obito's eye in his skull. His skin crawled, breath coming in a short gasp. Gai had saved him, maybe he deserved something. Kakashi didn't pull away, but his body was stiff.
Gai felt the stiffness in Kakashi's body and lifted his head, realizing he'd gone too far.
His arms loosened and he bowed his head. "...uh..." It was supposed to be some kind of apology but he couldn't decide on the correct words.
Fumblingly, he groped for his clothes so he could be ready to run when they had to.
But Kakashi didn't move away still, even after he was released. He didn't understand the tightness in his throat, nor the fact that his heart was pounding. "I..."
There was some aching piece of himself waiting on his tongue. The young jounin swallowed it.
"I'm sorry."
Gai stilled, nonplussed by the two words. "No," he said softly, sounding a little puzzled, as well as a bit tired. "That's not right."
Then he reached out and began applying the reiki touches again. Because Kakashi the genius needed to rest, so they could fight their way back home.
Kakashi hissed softly as that lulling warmth retuned and jerked around, a hand reaching to catch at a wrist. "Why do you have to be so contrary about everything?" he asked. He felt like since Gai had woken, everything Kakashi had called white, the other boy named black.
Gai let his wrist be caught, liking the feeling of Kakashi's fingers around it a bit too much.
"I guess..." he said, trying to find an answer using a brain that didn't want to behave and be logical. "...because I have to work hard for everything... so maybe I just take the hard way... before the easy way... ends up being taken away...?"
Kakashi thought he worked hard. He trained, he pushed himself.
Somehow at that moment as he looked at Gai, he got the impression that he didn't know anything about hard work.
Releasing the strong wrist Kakashi turned back around, slumping slightly. He had no words to what Gai said; wasn't sure that he even really understood. "I'm still sorry. You saved my life. Thank you." His voice was gruff.
Gai froze.
That wasn't part of the script.
Gai tried to think about what to do. He had to think of something besides pull Kakashi against him yet again, because the unexpected words made something inside him come close to weeping with joy.
Carefully, thoughtfully, he said, "We're even."
Then, throwing caution to the winds, he bent and pressed his lips only for a moment against the spot on Kakashi's back just below the edge of the mask.
"But I didn't -" The words stopped at that press of lips. Kakashi's fingers stuttered into the fabric of his pants and while his back arched in the slightest, it wasn't exactly away from the other boy.
"You did," Gai explained. "I didn't walk back here. It would have been impossible."
He couldn't tell for certain if Kakashi liked it, but he didn't seem to hate it.
He said I saved his life. He also saved mine. It's almost... intimate.
He thought he knew something about Kakashi, but he held it to himself. He didn't think Kakashi had recognized it yet. It was possible that he never would.
In the meantime, Gai allowed himself one more soft press of lips an inch or so down the other boy's spine.
It didn't seem to matter that it was through fabric, Gai's lips felt like fire. Much, much hotter than whatever he'd done with his hands before.
Without his consent, Kakashi's breath shuddered out of his lungs. He couldn't do this - whatever this was implying. He'd have to give away a bit of himself, wouldn't he? He didn't understand the why of this, and it bothered him.
Gai sighed and lay back on the narrow bed, urging Kakashi with one arm around his waist to lay beside him.
"I keep waiting for you to hit me," he said, his voice a little curious.
Kakashi lay back, stiff and uncomfortable with the heat of Gai's body next to him. His eyes shifted to the darker boy at his words and a grey eyebrow raised. "Why would I do that?" even the words were stiff.
"You seem like you don't want to be touched," Gai said, not without a little sigh in his voice. "...but then you seem like you need to be touched."
A strong, blunt-fingered hand lightly cupped the edge of Kakashi's jaw through the thin mask. "And I would like to touch you."
Kakashi couldn't remember the last time anyone had talked to him so bluntly. Even Sensei had a way of softening his words so that they wouldn't hurt, always smiling like he did.
The silver haired boy turned away from the touch, crossing his arms over his chest and rolling onto his side to put his back to Gai. "I don't need to be touched," he said gruffly.
Gai turned on his side as well, spooning behind Kakashi. His arm slid around the other boy's waist.
"Then hit me," he said. "You may not need it... but I think I do."
Truly expecting an elbow to the ribs, or maybe the back of Kakashi's head smashing into his nose, Gai tucked his face against the curve of Kakashi's neck and shoulder and breathed in the warm human scent.
When he'd opened the fifth gate, back there in the middle of the ambush, he had been so certain he would die.
Kakashi tightened his arms together, fingers biting into skin to stop from doing exactly what he said he had no intention of doing. If hitting was the only way to get Gai off of him...
But the heat of the boy leeched into him. His mere closeness had an effect that Kakashi hadn't expect or wagered on and underneath the continuing stiffness an ache begun. "We all have needs that can't be met," he said in a low voice. He didn't move.
Even a genius? Gai asked himself.
Something inside answered, 'Especially a genius.'
Gai didn't really understand. He knew the other boy had lost his father. That must have been what he meant. Gai wondered if it was worse to have a father you didn't get to keep, or never to know one.
"Some things I can't do," he murmured, keeping his face tucked into Kakashi's neck because he liked it there. "But you are my team mate. If I can help you fill you needs I will." Nevermind that he didn't have the slightest idea what they might be.
He didn't try to touch Kakashi any more than he had, he didn't have any desire to molest an unwilling partner. But he'd hold the other boy as long as he was allowed. And if his blunt fingers gently stroked whatever they were next to, it wasn't because he was trying to make Kakashi feel something. It was just because Kakashi was alive and life was precious and Gai was so incredibly alone.
And that was what he'd sensed... that they really were, in one way at least, exactly the same.
Kakashi didn't push the other boy away because he had a feeling that the touch causing the ache inside of him was the only thing that could cure it as well. He stared across the room, not tired despite the exhaustion that was bone deep and the terror and shock of the mission that had still yet to properly set in.
"There is nothing I need," he said softly after long minutes of silence. Nothing. Kakashi trained, he worked, he survived. That was his only goal in life. He would walk away, unlike his father, unlike Obito. Nothing else mattered.
Gai sighed. "That sounds like Kakashi the genius," he said, words slightly muffled. "Hey, if that's true, why did you carry me out?"
He was simply curious. The longer he lay with the silver haired boy in his arms the more he wanted to stay that way.
Kakashi sighed and wished Gai wouldn't call him that. For people to whisper it behind his back, or even tell him it was so... it was different when the boy said it. It wasn't Kakashi that had gotten them out alive earlier today.
"I don't see what that has to do with needs," the young jounin said. "I carried you out because you are on my team. Because if it wasn't for whatever you did, we would have been dead too."
Gai was still for a few moments, wondering if what Kakashi said was true. He accepted it in the end because he knew of no reason why Kakashi would lie about such a thing.
His arms tightened a little. "The lotus..." he said, "Blooms in Konoha. Once, twice. A third time and it will never bloom again."
Then he smiled against Kakashi's neck because it was his secret, the forbidden jutsu, the one his teacher had sworn he could never master and he had after all.
"What?" It sounded like nonsense, talking about flowers. But despite the distaste curving his covered lips into a frown, there was something vague and dire in those words that settled heavily on him.
Kakashi thought back and even his breath caught now at the memory of how Gai had seemed to change, a beast waiting placidly in the boy's body.
His eyes that had slipped closed opened, fighting the memories of the mission altogether.
Gai thought about it. He had nothing, ninja often had little in the way of belongings, and an orphan with no family even less.
The only thing he could give another person was his life. That was his job. He'd do it when ordered, as would any of them.
This mission had already changed something. He didn't know how much and he didn't know exactly why, but he embraced it, as he embraced the boy in his arms.
"I'm not special," Gai said quietly. "But from now on, you will be my rival. You have seen my best move. It is called the Lotus and it is forbidden jutsu."
Why did the words burn him? Why didn't he say 'that's ridiculous' and move away?
When was the last time he'd shared any sort of special bond with anyone?
Kakashi nodded.
The nod caused a near euphoric lift of Gai's heart. He didn't make any decisions, he was simply turning Kakashi in his arms and placing soft, careful kisses on his cheeks, forehead, ear, chin...
There was an uncharacteristic passivity about Kakashi as he let himself be turned. At the lips, however, he instinctively tucked his chin to chest to waylay them like a child. He couldn't explain how the touches hurt and soothed him at the same time, or why his arms uncrossed to curl into the lean muscles of Gai's arms.
Gai didn't understand it either but it felt right, somehow.
He knew what anyone else knew about Kakashi. That the boy was already a legend, child of a legend, that he'd endured tragedies and that he was the most remarkable ninja of his generation, perhaps of the last several.
Gai didn't know why, then, it felt as if the person in his arms needed to be protected.
"I'm going to kiss you," he murmured, allowing a beat or two for Kakashi to refuse, before nuzzling down the edge of the mask just enough to let lips meet lips.
To Kakashi's muddled and confused mind, Gai's words were redundant. The boy was already kissing him. By the time he realized what Gai really meant there were already lips pressed to his own, never cleaned from the blood that soaked through his mask.
With a jerk, Kakashi pulled back from Gai and smacked the back of his head against the small table next to the bed. Stars brightened his vision.
Gai winced as he heard the crack, feeling a little throb of loss at the reaction. He reached up gently and pulled the mask back up.
"...sorry," he muttered, as his arms relaxed. But he couldn't quite pull himself away.
Kakashi reached up, curling his fingers around the top of his raised mask almost protectively. His eyes closed tightly, against the stars, but also against the sick rush of exposure. "No," he said through grit teeth. "You didn't ... I just..." He shut up, mad at himself for his stuttering.
Protected.
Gai's arms tightened again and he bent to kiss Kakashi's fingers as they curled around the mask's edge. Not urging, not even suggesting, just giving a small oral worship to a hand that, like his, was skilled at giving death.
"Okay," he said, between kisses. "Can I kiss you... if I keep my eyes closed?"
Kakashi's breath was thick, he hung onto the mask for dear life. He suddenly realized that he wasn't tense anymore, but half curled into a ball against Gai.
He faltered at the question, his mind gasping. Why were they kissing at all? And why did he want to let the boy? "Don't look," he said, a half-whisper. He felt like such a child, but couldn't change his response.
"I won't," Gai said with the calm of a deep river. He closed his eyes and bent close, nuzzling again until his lips found Kakashi's mouth. The first kiss was just mouth to mouth, pressure, feeling, almost testing. Then a little touch of tongue, and a bit of warm breath.
However far it went, it was already the best kiss Gai had ever had.
Whatever it was that made him pull down his mask when Gai closed his eyes, it felt like a trembling desperation for something he'd always felt was just out of his reach. The boy's lips burned and after a moment of Kakashi just watching those closed eyes, passively accepting the kiss, his own eyes found darkness and his lips pressed back.
Gai sighed silently and gently took Kakashi's upper lip between his, sucking it a little. Then Kakashi's lower lip. He tasted the blood and something else - a unique flavor. He ran his tongue over the surface. Then his blood rose, heating rapidly and he pressed Kakashi's lips apart.
Again without realizing, Kakashi was gripping Gai's arms. He gasped and then choked on the embarrassing sound as the boy suddenly pressed against him. The warmth was slipping through his body from the connection at their mouths, settling low in his gut.
He didn't let the action press forward for long without pressing back. Kakashi pressed his tongue into Gai's mouth, fumbling but hungry.
The taste of Kakashi's tongue was almost a surprise but it also felt right. Gai sucked it further into his own mouth, then slid his alongside it, and into Kakashi's mouth. His kiss was all instinct, no technique, but it was as open and honest and giving as he was. It was also masculine and there was hunger to match Kakashi's. Kakashi's body felt so good against his own.
It was somehow nothing like how Kakashi expected it to be. Gai was pushing him, hardly passive, but he didn't seem to be taking anything. It relaxed the jounin, knowing that he wouldn't inadvertently give away something that he didn't want to. His slipped his tongue around Gai's, exploring and tasting.
Gai lost himself a little in the kissing. He leaned back just a bit, settled Kakashi comfortably against his chest, and stroked one hand down the other jounin's back.
He'd never remotely imagined doing this with the boy whose eyes did not match. But it all seemed to work, to fit in some odd way. The movement of Kakashi's tongue against his pushed the fever higher. Gai thought he could do this forever.
Kakashi was relaxed enough that he followed Gai when he moved. Or maybe he was only hungry enough for this basest of human contacts. He leaned against Gai, one hand sliding up to hold the boy's neck, his thumb tracing a smooth jaw without even knowing he was. There was just the jumble of sensations that made his heart throb. His mouth pressed harder at Gai's, wanting more.
Gai sucked a bit harder on Kakashi's tongue, and then thrust deeper into the other boy's mouth with his own, finding a rhythm that followed the rapid, heavy beat of his own pulse. His hand stroked down Kakashi's back again, settling just above the other boy's hips, savoring the outward curve. Gai felt heat pour down and collect at his groin, and there was nowhere near enough material between them to keep Kakashi from feeling it. Where each bulged out, there was friction as Gai shifted.
A gasp stained the kiss as Gai shifted below him and brought Kakashi's attention lower. Without thinking, the boy pulled away slightly, eyes widened. He looked almost wild with the expression and the blood on his face.
Gai's eyes drifted open but he remembered to look only into Kakashi's mismatched ones.
Yes, Kakashi looked wild, and dangerous.
And beautiful.
In an instant, Gai felt something strike deeply into his heart and he gasped as well. His cheeks flushed and he quickly tried to look away. But his hands stroked along Kakashi's back once more, settling a few inches lower.
Kakashi's head hung a little, his eyes hooding at those hands slipping over his back. He didn't try to cover himself up even though he felt awfully exposed. Tentative fingers reached and brushed over the flush in Gai's cheek, coveting that warmth.
Gai turned his face into the touch. He knew he wasn't beautiful. His features were blunt like his hands, his hair dark and thick and heavy. His body was angular and looked like it should be awkward... until he moved. Even the most skeptical or dismissive observer paused if they happened to be lucky enough to see Gai in motion. Sometimes, he simply could not be seen, and not through any illusionary jutsu.
Gai kissed Kakashi's fingertips, and then closed his lips around one, sucking it for a moment before letting it go.
For one who hid himself behind a mask, appearances meant very little. Kakashi was enrapt by the stubbornness of the boy, the vitality.
His lips parted with shallow breath as his finger was drawn in. His hips pressed forward instinctively as the nerves from his finger fired all the way down between his legs.
Gai groaned softly at the movement and the ache it sent through his body where he could feel Kakashi's firmness pressing against his own. His hand sought under the edge of Kakashi's shirt, seeking more skin to touch. He shifted them both again, leaning Kakashi a little more on his back. As they readjusted, Gai's bare leg slid between Kakashi's trouser clad ones.
More.
It was a reoccurring thought, each time a new source of heat was introduced. It was as if until now, he'd been freezing, freezing so long he hadn't even realized. Kakashi shifted easily, a groan swelling in his throat at the leg that slipped between his.
Gai had no idea what he was doing but he had a healthy set of instincts. It was easier in this position to slide his hand around and up along the skin of Kakashi's chest, under the shirt, fingers finding and exploring the nub of flesh they encountered on one side.
Breathing harder, Gai sought Kakashi's mouth with his, thrusting his tongue inside in a more urgent kiss than the last.
Kakashi's back arched at the shock radiating out from his nipple. He sunk against the boy, giving in to the kiss and giving back. His hand slid up, fisting into that thick black hair.
The tug in his hair felt good to Gai. He plunged into the kiss letting it deepen and swell, then pulled away to take in air. He wanted to taste more - Kakashi's mouth, his finger... he wanted to taste everything. Pushing Kakashi's shirt up, he bent his mouth to the tightened nub greedily and began licking, nibbling, and then sucking it into his mouth.
Kakashi felt a growl build in his throat when Gai moved away from his mouth, wanting more. Greedy, greedy. But the sound was replaced by a thick moan when Gai's mouth found his nipple and the pressure in his gut turned over and grew.
Something electric went through Gai at that sound Kakashi made. It was needy and almost... vulnerable. Impossible to think of the elite ninja, the boy who had passed the chuunin exam at age 6, as ever being either of those things. He was cool, efficient... he'd changed after that time when one of his teammates had been killed, but such things did change a man. But he'd never showed anything like this...
Gai sucked harder, wrapping his arms tightly around Kakashi's slender body. He nipped and nibbled and then worked his way over to the other side, treating the second nub as he had the first. He didn't know what he was doing exactly... he only knew he wanted to hear more sounds like those.
Kakashi had never really had sexual thoughts... well... everybody did, he supposed, time to time. But the few and far between times he had they were dealt with in hand, quickly and almost severely until they had passed. He'd never explored his body, never had anything like...
Another groan escaped his mouth at the roughness, and then the attention to the other side. Panting, his head hung and his fingers dug into the hair they still held.
The low sound was music that inspired Gai to continue, he thought he could do this forever, or a long time, as it seemed to please the other boy. Kakashi's silver hair brushed his skin, soft and wiry at the same time, Gai breathed deeply of the scent as he continued to tease and lavish attention on Kakashi's skin, his mouth traveling from nipple to pectoral, to throat, back to shoulder and chest. His eyes were closed most of the time and the hardness between his legs throbbed incessantly but he hardly gave a thought what, if anything, could be done about that.
This was better than kissing, and he didn't have to take off his mask for it even though that was a moot point now. Kakashi found his body moving without his consent; there were little jerks of muscles and a tilting down of the places were Gai's mouth was so that he could feel it better.
Not to mention his hips, which ground downward in hopes of relieving that throbbing ache between his legs.
Kakashi's body pressing against his own swollen flesh pulled a groan from Gai's throat, the pressure and friction painful and delicious at the same time. Without thinking, he pushed his hips up and rubbed a little, back and forth. A hot flush spread over his skin as he realized what he was doing but he could hardly help himself. His lips fastened on Kakashi's earlobe and he sucked and nibbled at it to muffle his own reaction to the fire that only grew more painful between them.
Kakashi shuddered gently as Gai pressed back against him and sunk down onto the boy when the exploration of his chest seemed to be done. Each sound the dark-haired boy made stabbed into his gut and jerked his hips more harshly forward. The hand not fisted in Gai's hair slid down side of the body beneath him, all hard planes and soft skin. The boy was hot.
Almost without meaning to, Gai's hand smoothed down Kakashi's back and moved over the outward curve of the other's hips. They were slender, but that slight curve seemed incredibly erotic and ripe with promise. His own reaction to that shocked Gai a little. Once he'd touched Kakashi that way it was impossible not to think of the next thing. Part of him wanted to stammer an apology but there was no going backwards. His instincts were too heavily engaged. He nuzzled under Kakashi's chin and rocked his hips upward again and again.
Kakashi felt like he was burning, and he only wanted more. Beneath him Gai was heat and nerves and a soft hardness. Without much thought aside from the ache between his legs that the boy's upward presses urged on, Kakashi's fingers grabbed at half of Gai's ass through underwear and pulled his hips up harder even as he came down, almost shocking the breath from his own lungs at the feeling.
The deeper groan from Gai was preceded by a gasp, and formed garbled, meaningless words.
"...ohmygodkakashi..."
Unable to resist with the threat of imminent explosion building in his groin, Gai squeezed Kakashi's rear firmly and then slid a hand under the waistband of the other boy's pants, the skin seeming to burn at his touch.
It felt odd but not unpleasant, the hand on his ass. Beside, wasn't he doing the same to Gai? His hips stuttered roughly when those fingers touched his skin. Eyes closed tightly, Kakashi rested his forehead on Gai's shoulder as he rocked forward, finally setting a pace, finding himself rising back against the hand as much as he was coming forward against Gai's body.
His own fingers slipped from hair and cupped Gai's throat, a thumb on his pulse.
Gai fell into the rhythm as well, his strong fingers stroking Kakashi's backside as the moved together, fingers seeking almost idly the warm cleft between the two hemispheres. His chin lifted as he continued to nuzzle and mouth Kakashi's skin, allowing the other ninja access to his vulnerable artery.
The sensations below built with the friction and Gai found himself panting against Kakashi's skin, only dimly aware that he wouldn't have been able to stop rocking upwards if Kakashi had asked him to.
Breath shivered out of him as fingers stroked at him, closer to a spot that instinctively made his heart hammer louder and the heat in his gut churn.
Kakashi's thumb stroked over Gai's thundering pulse, something about the tilt of the other's neck making him want to both pull away and stop this but at the same time use his mouth instead.
His body wouldn't let him move away and finally it was his teeth that found the spot his thumb vacated.
A thrill of something, recognition of danger perhaps, shot along Gai's nerves as he felt the edge of Kakashi's teeth against his jugular. At the same time, his fingertips brushed across something puckered and circular at the base of the cleft, and as he recognized it, he suddenly understood what his body wanted. He wasn't ignorant, he'd been exposed to many things in his young life, like any shinobi in wartime, but the realization shocked him at the same time that it reached down through his body and grabbed at the base of his cock. There was no way Kakashi would permit this... Gai could already imagine feeling his blood spurting under the other boy's teeth... But his hands didn't care and his fingertips circled the pucker almost lazily.
Kakashi's breath caught sharply in his lungs and his body stiffened, that single sensation enough to freeze his motion against Gai even though in truth it really made him want to increase it. But what the other boy was doing was...
Wrong personal frightening
... making him feel too close to good. Kakashi's teeth - which had tightened on skin as his body tensed - loosened and his body relaxed fractionally. Shuddering, his hips picked back up their pace.
Kakashi's sudden freeze, and then the slight shudder caught across Gai's nerves like razor wire. When the other boy went back to rubbing against him, his breath caught in his throat. He didn't know if Kakashi understood...but he guessed that was what the stiffening meant. He didn't know if the other boy consented... though he hadn't pushed away, he'd come back and continued. The need inside Gai's body was beyond painful now and he was so close to filling his own underwear with sticky wetness...
Butting his head wordlessly against Kakashi's shoulder, he began peeling the other boy's pants off, baring Kakashi's rear and pushing the garment down his legs.
Kakashi shifted just less than enough to be helpful. With the way his groin was pounding, the way his heart was pounding, he knew that he wanted this.
But of course his head told him differently. This was attachment and intimacy and heat and all the things he'd hid from for so long.
The young jounin was scared. And that was what made his decision for him. He sucked softly at Gai's pulse and rocked his hips forward, and back. Inviting more.
Gai's hands pushed Kakashi's clothes completely off of him, and then traveled back up the odd-eyed ninja's legs, caressing, almost worshiping, even through the heat and urgency. Gai's hands seemed to say, we'll catch you... as if ready for Kakashi to fall from a high place.
One of those hands slipped around between them and sought Kakashi's erection, capturing it in a firm grip that gave greater effect to Kakashi's movement.
As close as Gai was to the edge, just the feeling of Kakashi's skin under his hands spread a strange calm under the urgency.
Exposure was too light a word for how Kakashi felt once he'd been stripped. He shivered under Gai's touch before the shivers became a jerk as his hips snapped forward into the sudden grip around him. On the boy's ass and the back of his neck Kakashi's fingers clenched as his nerves screamed and his gut tightened painfully. "No," he gasped, not wanting to come so early, not wanting the heat to end. "Stop..." Breathy, broken sounds.
Gai sucked in air, and loosened his grip, as he nuzzled against Kakashi's neck and then sought his mouth in a deep kiss. It was invasive and urgent but somehow almost gentle at the same time. He kissed Kakashi like a man dying of thirst, taking his first drink.
A short stab of breath as Gai's hand loosened and shaking, Kakashi fought to hold himself still as he was kissed like that. Fought to control the pulsing in his gut even as he kissed back.
Heart still pounding loudly in his ears, Gai didn't rush the kiss, accepting Kakashi's tongue and surrendering his own mouth. He guided Kakashi's cock up between them against his own belly, then reached down and lifted Kakashi's leg around him, rubbing his own erection against Kakashi's balls and beneath them, between his parted legs.
Kakashi didn't know why he was letting Gai move him, letting the boy take... But he thought that it was because he could feel how much the other was giving at the same time. It made him want to give back even though his throat was tight at the vulnerability of having his legs parted.
But Gai felt good against him, that soft, hot flesh that made his breath short into the mouth on his.
It was almost enough... it was more than he could have dreamed. Gai could have surrendered himself at any time, just from the contact, the skin to skin friction. He thought perhaps it would be better if they both came this way, without going any further. Kakashi almost seemed to be running forward in the teeth of his own reluctance...
He leaned back only enough to rest his forehead against Kakashi's and glance into mismatched eyes. "...do you...can I....do you want the...rest?"
No
Kakashi didn't take his eyes from the dark gaze beneath him.
No
Giving himself in pieces was one thing, but that... too much, giving all of himself. There wouldn't be anything let.
"No," he said, his voice nothing but a shallow whisper. Yes, yes YES, but No. He broke eye contact.
Gai's eyes closed for a moment, and then he nodded. He tucked his face in Kakashi's neck and reached down between them, capturing Kakashi's erection once again with his strong, blunt, but strangely gentle fingers. He stroked Kakashi with a slow but compelling rhythm designed to give pleasure.
Why did he have this sick feeling like he was letting the boy down? Kakashi gasped softly at the renewed touch, but he didn't move into it as he had before. "Gai..."
Lips met and covered Kakashi's mouth, muffling him. The kiss was just as passionate as the last.
Gai had no regrets about Kakashi's decision. It was the first time... maybe the only time they would ever be like this. But it was already more than he'd ever imagined, more than he'd allowed himself to dream about. A lot closer to perfect than Gai was accustomed to.
Coaxingly, he continued to stroke, and his body rocked against the other boy, the warmth between Kakashi's thighs stimulating him. He sighed and rocked a little faster.
Caught like that, between mouth that kept him silent and hand that kept him from moving away, Kakashi relaxed just a little because he didn't know what else to do. The feeling of Gai rubbing between his legs spiked pleasure through his gut and Kakashi began to shiver again slightly, even as he began to rock into Gai's hand.
Gai felt relief when Kakashi relaxed that little bit and began to respond. He was so close to coming himself... he wanted to silver-haired shinobi to enjoy it too. His kiss picked up the rhythm of hand and body until they were rocking together in a gradually quickening dance.
Gai pulled his head back, eyes half lidded, as he felt himself begin to climb the near side of the rising wave.
He groaned softly, just needing the closeness, the nearness, the sight and scent and feel of Kakashi against him, in his hand...
Kakashi's fingers curled against whatever they held. Everything had started to blur together, give and take and his mouth and Gai's, the sound between them that he couldn't identify as either's.
He rocked and everything was that increasing rhythm. Breath catching sharp in his throat Kakashi's lips stilled on Gai's as he came with a cry against that hot mouth. His body jerked before stiffening and his cock throbbed just what he had to give onto Gai's stomach.
Gai gasped, feeling the hot fluid run over his stomach and fingers, and his hips jerked several times, the friction against Kakashi's skin and more, the feel of Kakashi coming in his arms, against him, sent a bloom of heat and pleasure exploding through his nerves. His cry caught in his throat and Gai saw stars. He relaxed suddenly, gasping for oxygen to keep his body from shutting down.
Kakashi sagged against Gai. The sudden wet heat between his legs brought a flush to his cheeks, one of which was pressed to the other boy's shoulder. His heart was jackhammering, his groin still pulsing in a slowing ebb.
Gai found Kakashi's hair somehow with his unsticky hand and stroked through it. He continued to breath deeply. Setting himself to memorize everything, sound, sight, feeling, scent. Turning his head, he nuzzled Kakashi's cheek and ear.
His lips found something - temple probably, and pressed for a few seconds.
Kakashi didn't need the cuddling, thought that was worse than the act itself. He let it continue for only a moment before he pulled himself away and got to the edge of the bed, his legs over the side. He felt dirty, sated, and overwhelmed.
Gai sat up slowly, and turned to swing his legs over the other side of the bed. He was a bit beyond overwhelmed. He wanted to look at Kakashi, but he kept his back turned. He could settle for remembering how the other ninja smelled.
Since there was no one who could possibly see, he allowed himself a very small smile.
Kakashi dropped his head down for a moment, rubbing his fingers through his hair, over the back of his head. With a start, he realized his mask was still pushed down and tugged it upward. Reaching back, he found his underwear and slipped into them as he stood. "Staying the night would be a bad idea if those shinobi decide to return," he said, trying to keep the rough edge from his voice. "We should clean and go."
Gai stood up - so abruptly he felt dizzy for a moment and shook his head to clear it. They were ninja on a mission, Kakashi was correct. He groped around for his clothes.
Unable to find his belt, he tied his hitai ate around his waist instead and came to attention. "Ready, Kakashi!"
Kakashi used the rest of the clean water left over from cleaning Gai's wounds to mop off his stomach (and hurriedly, when he was sure the other boy wasn't watching, between his legs). He dressed and was picking up his hitai-ate when Gai's voice made him turn. Kakashi looked at the dark haired boy a moment and was glad he wore the mask to cover the burn that rose in his cheeks. His Sharingan was covered. "Let's go, then," he said.
Gai seemed fully recovered from the dead swoon he had fallen into after the battle. He stretched his long limbs fully, feeling the deep soreness that might take days to fade. "Best time back to Konoha?"
"I think it would be the best," Kakashi said, completely missing what Gai was saying. He double-checked to make sure the scroll was still in his vest before nodding and opening the window, still for a moment as he searched for signs of life.
Gai determined that he would match Kakashi's pace no matter what. The genius would have back-up, if there was an attack by any pursuer. As long as Kakashi made it back with the scroll, the mission would be a success, though the rest of the team died.
Reaching down into his reserves, he stretched again to warm his muscles, missing the feel of his weights, which had been discarded during the battle. But he'd go faster without them.
He rested on the balls of his feet, ready to move the instant Kakashi did.
"It's clear," Kakashi said. It was all the warning he gave before he was jumping out the window and hitting the ground at a dead run. He felt no remorse for leaving without paying the rest of the bill. They hadn't stayed the whole night, after all.
It was easier, outside in the cool night air, to focus on the rest of the mission instead of the memories of heat and desire.
Gai moved when Kakashi did, focusing on speed and leaving as little signs of his passing as possible. He didn't dwell on what had happened between the two of them, preferring to tuck it away in a safe place, more than half convinced nothing like it would ever happen again.
Fandom: Naruto
Title: Falling Leaves
Author: caelumi and datenshiblue
Pairing: Gai/Kakashi
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: yaoi
Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto. Just playing with the characters.
Notes: This is speculative fic via RP that surmizes that Kakashi and Gai have known each other for a long time, back to when they were both teenagers, for instance. I'm not even going to worry about whether this is when Kakashi was in ANBU or before, or after, whether Gai was ever in ANBU or what. Just a way younger (adolescent) Kakashi and Gai, coming back from a mission that went very wrong, and a speculative story about how they became 'eternal rivals'. Caelumi writes for Kakashi, I write for Gai.
Kakashi was sure that more than a few eyes were on him as he stumbled into the door of the inn. At that moment, he didn't care. His grip on the other's boy's thighs at his sides was precarious because of the blood - whoever it belonged to - and Gai's arms were lashed together around his neck.
His one dark eye focused on the man with the apron but without the sweat of a hired hand. Manager. "I need a room," he said, a lack of allowance for argument in his voice.
The man's eyes narrowed. "Full price, and food is extra," he said pointedly.
"I want hot water," Kakashi said, quiet and low. "And soap." He hoisted Gai up as he started to slip to the left, fingertips digging through clothing hard enough to leave marks in order to find purchase.
"End of the hall, fetch it yourself, there's a can in your room," the man replied, holding back the room key until he saw a deposit.
The young jounin's lips thinned into a white line. With a small jump, he slipped one exhausted arm under Gai's rear to free his other hand. Inside his flak vest in a small pocket there were a few emergency coins. Their bags had been left behind.
Kakashi held the money out in a bloodied hand. "First aid supplies," he said.
"That's not enough for the room, let alone bandages," the man growled. He took the coins with a rag from under the counter. He put a small, worn looking box on the counter - emergency medical kit.
"Depends how much blood you want in your rooms," Kakashi said, almost a threat.
The man put the key down next to the box. Then he turned away as if attempting to prevent Kakashi from asking him for anything else.
A small snort caught in the sticky material of his mask. "Thanks," he said before grabbing the box and key and stumbling with the dead weight on his back to the end of the hall and the door that matched the key.
The room was underwhelming. Kicking the door closed behind him, Kakashi had to practically lay on the bed himself in order to deposit Gai down softly. Then he was scooping up the bucket and heading for water.
Back in the room, Kakashi kneeled next to the low bed and opened the sorry excuse for the first aid kit. With the least amount of movement - Gai had been juggled around enough on the flight here - the silver haired boy stripped the other to his underwear and began cleaning his wounds.
After a few moments he got up to open the window and take off his own vest and the off kilter hitati-ate, drenched with sweat and blood, before settling back down and continuing.
Gai began to stir not long after. When it came right down to it, none of his wounds were as bad as they could have been. Somehow he'd managed to duck and dodge hits that had been intended to take out organs, disable limbs. But his collapse had been the result of none of these.
His eyes opened and he looked around blearily, trying to drag himself up as if expecting to find himself in the middle of a battle.
A strong hand on his chest stopped the upward motion. Those rather newly mismatched eyes looked at Gai for a moment before he moved his hand and finished cleaning out a gash on the boy's thigh.
A million questions about what Gai had done fought on his tongue, but Kakashi only blandly said, "We're at an inn."
Dark eyes under firmly marked brows regarded Kakashi as comprehension dawned. Gai subsided slowly. "Kakashi... the genius," he murmured. "Where... who... where are the others?"
The title attached to his name twisted his lips under the mask but otherwise his distaste did not show. A genius would have saved more than one. A genius wouldn't have proven so worthless.
Fingers, in a now worn habit, reached back to touch the hilt of the tanto that was currently across the room with the white vest he wore. They retreated back to the bed. "Dead."
Gai was silent for a moment as he absorbed that. Then he reached up and placed a hand on Kakashi's shoulder. "Then I owe you my life. Thank you, Hatake Kakashi."
Kakashi bowed his head with a sigh before standing and moving away from the touch. "We'd be dead too, if it wasn't for you." He stood by the window, hating the stench of blood on his mask but unwilling to take it off.
"It was a gamble I hoped would buy more," Gai admitted, turning to look in another direction himself. "I... hope it was not a choice between myself and another when you escaped. Any of the others would have been the better choice."
Those words tightened Kakashi's shoulders. They made him think of his father, choosing to die. Only the fresher memory of another death kept a scathing remark from his lips. "No. There was no choice."
Gai manfully swallowed the groan as he pulled himself up. He still felt weak and depleted but his energy was returning slowly. "You have wounds, I can bandage them for you."
Kakashi raised his eyes to Gai. "You shouldn't be sitting." There was a wound on his shoulder that probably needed stitches, torn after carrying the other boy, but he didn't mention it.
"My injuries are not serious," Gai replied. Then he admitted, "But it would be easier if you came over here..."
If Kakashi could have stitched himself up, he would have. He relented after a moment and moved to sit on the edge of the bed with his back toward Gai. Putting the first aid kit next to him within easy reach of the other boy, Kakashi slipped his arms through his shirt and let it bunch at his neck.
Gai took a few deep breaths until his hands steadied enough to clean the wound and then stitch it quickly. He applied gauze and padding neatly. He tried not to think about the fact that this was Hatake Kakashi, the one who was already legendary, though they might be the same age. He'd hardly had time to see the genius do anything extraordinary - once the ambush occurred he'd been occupied with trying to stay alive and do what he could to ward his team mates. Not successfully enough, he reminded himself with regret. He wondered how many push-ups he would have to do to atone for letting a teammate die.
There wasn't even a flinch from Kakashi as Gai deftly stitched the wound. The pain was taken without compliant; he deserved to have received more. Hands in tight fists in his lap, those polychrome eyes closed. He'd let more people die. Caught between trying to complete the mission and saving his team... He wasn't the man his father had been. The scroll they'd been sent after, in his vest, burned a hole in his mind. Retsu might had lived if Kakashi had helped him first...
... and he might have stilled died. Knuckles whitened further.
Gai finished and still Kakashi sat there, hands fisted in his lap. Gai could feel the tension in the other boy's body.
He almost gasped as a revelation impacted his mind.
They would return and no one would be surprised that Gai had not done better. The mission had obviously been over his head.
They would return and no one would be surprised that Kakashi made it back. He was obviously the best.
"...we're... alike..." he said, not really to the other boy. It was just the thought escaping from lips too tired to be properly censored.
"What?" the word came out tired, not really thinking about what the dark-haired boy had said. But it had broken his trance and he slipped his shirt back on, without apparent care to censor his motion for the newly tended area.
"They expect you to be perfect," Gai answered. He wasn't thinking entirely clearly either. "They expect nothing at all of me. Alike."
Almost reflexively, Gai placed his hands on Kakashi's back in certain places, as his master had taught him, and applied fingertips to the pressure points. The reiki touch released tension from half a dozen points.
Kakashi shook his head without turning to look back at Gai. "That's just the opposite," he said. He didn't want touch, it was the last thing he wanted, and he'd started to pull away when that warmth took him by surprise. His eyes widened and despite wanting to, his body relaxed, fists loosening.
"No, it's the same," Gai said, shifting his fingers to the next set of points, a little lower and applying chakra through his fingertips.
"Both are wrong."
Kakashi slumped forward a little bit, the warmth creeping down through his legs. His eyes burned. "Expectations are never wrong," he said in a too-soft voice.
"Depends on who is doing the expecting," Gai answered, then he stopped and cocked his head.
The sound out in the hall drew his attention. A number of feet, doors consecutively opening and closing... someone was searching the inn...
Kakashi eyes rose and he breathed with an open mouth, trying to shake off the torpid feeling. Without waiting for his body to come back to him, the young jounin forced it into compliance and made it move. He grabbed his flak vest and turned toward the window, watching to see if Gai was doing the same.
If they were searching the inn, there were likely ninja outside waiting for them to run.
Expectations were never wrong, he said. They would be expected to run.
What if they didn't?
If they stayed, would the enemy see what they expected?
Instead of his flak vest or other clothes - he was still dressed only in his boxers - Gai grabbed a blanket from the bed.
Then he grabbed Kakashi, and pulled the other ninja down with him, tossing the blanket over them both.
As the door opened, he pressed his mouth against Kakashi's ear, covering both their faces.
"...play along..."
Kakashi growled, almost hit the other boy as he was jerked down onto the bed.
After all that and the idiot is going to get us killed what the hell is...
Both his eyes widened at the hot breath in his ear and very suddenly he realized he was on top of a still mostly naked Gai. Those different colored eyes shut tightly, willing himself to relax, not to wait for the killing blow that would surely come. His fingers dug into Gai's sides.
The door opened and Gai moaned against Kakashi's neck, shifting under the blanket - and under Kakashi.
There was a snicker from the partially open doorway and it closed as the searchers moved on.
Kakashi gasped, thoughts slipping stupidly around in his head. The scroll in the dropped flak vest was forgotten and replaced by that movement underneath and against him. Even as some part of him registered the door closing, his fingers curled tighter into warm skin.
Gai breathed a sigh of relief as the door closed. It worked! His idea actually worked!
And... Kakashi... was... holding him... tighter...
It was good that it was dark and therefore impossible to see Gai suddenly flaming as a flush spread across his skin. Unless... that crimson eye could see it... who knew what that eye could see...
A part of Gai had the distinct urge to jump up in the air and run to the farthest corner of the room.
Because there were things about Gai no one knew, and one of them was that he carefully hid the unfortunate fact that he was gay. And Kakashi was dangerous and sexy, and what was allowed to be seen of him was quite attractive, even with the mismatched eyes and that scar...
Kakashi didn't need his Sharingan to see anything when he could feel the sudden heat of Gai's face. Breath filled his lungs in a hiss of breath through half-stiffened material and Kakashi pulled himself up, the breeze cool after the cloistered warm of the blanket. On hands and knees he hung over Gai for a moment, eyes opened and looking down at the boy.
Then he moved away without a word.
Gai couldn't quite stop the hand that followed Kakashi and then hung stupidly in the air after him.
"...uh..." he said brilliantly.
"You could have killed us," Kakashi said, ungrateful because of the heat he felt linger in his own cheeks after he'd sat himself on the edge of the bed. He knew very well that Gai had just saved them.
"...uh..." Gai repeated.
The genius Kakashi thought he had behaved stupidly. Kakashi had saved him. He'd done his best, given everything he had, but it was of course not good enough. It never was, never would be. No matter how much he practiced, how good he got, he would always be clumsy underneath it all.
Then that is the way it is, he thought.
"I could have gotten us killed," he said distinctly. "But I did not get us killed. If you had not played along, it would not have worked. Good job, Kakashi."
All or nothing, Maito Gai.
Slipping an arm around the other boy, Gai pulled Kakashi back against him.
Perhaps it was the shock of the words that allowed him to be pulled backward. He couldn't understand how it was that Gai was saying - in honesty - anything nice to him after he'd been insulted.
There was some grunt of indiscriminate nature that tried to be a refusal of the backward tug but didn't quite make it. Kakashi blamed it on whatever Gai had done to him before those nin had come into the inn.
Gai really expected the genius Kakashi to kill or perhaps simply maim him at any moment. Until he did so... Gai held the other boy against him, feeling the flush rise in his skin a second time. It was all wrong to do it this way. It was completely against custom. But they'd both had a foretaste of death tonight. It made it impossible for Gai to ignore how good the other boy felt in his arms. Warm and alive. Both of them alive - for now. Tomorrow might see a red dawn, the following sunset might cast a redder eye than Kakashi's on a world absent of one or both.
So until Kakashi killed or maimed him, Gain bent his head and pressed almost reverent lips against the other boy's throat, feeling his pulse.
More than once, Gai had saved him tonight. For the moment, that was what Kakashi screamed in his head as that mouth pressed against him and inspired more intimacy that he could ever remember having since his parents had died - not counting Obito's eye in his skull. His skin crawled, breath coming in a short gasp. Gai had saved him, maybe he deserved something. Kakashi didn't pull away, but his body was stiff.
Gai felt the stiffness in Kakashi's body and lifted his head, realizing he'd gone too far.
His arms loosened and he bowed his head. "...uh..." It was supposed to be some kind of apology but he couldn't decide on the correct words.
Fumblingly, he groped for his clothes so he could be ready to run when they had to.
But Kakashi didn't move away still, even after he was released. He didn't understand the tightness in his throat, nor the fact that his heart was pounding. "I..."
There was some aching piece of himself waiting on his tongue. The young jounin swallowed it.
"I'm sorry."
Gai stilled, nonplussed by the two words. "No," he said softly, sounding a little puzzled, as well as a bit tired. "That's not right."
Then he reached out and began applying the reiki touches again. Because Kakashi the genius needed to rest, so they could fight their way back home.
Kakashi hissed softly as that lulling warmth retuned and jerked around, a hand reaching to catch at a wrist. "Why do you have to be so contrary about everything?" he asked. He felt like since Gai had woken, everything Kakashi had called white, the other boy named black.
Gai let his wrist be caught, liking the feeling of Kakashi's fingers around it a bit too much.
"I guess..." he said, trying to find an answer using a brain that didn't want to behave and be logical. "...because I have to work hard for everything... so maybe I just take the hard way... before the easy way... ends up being taken away...?"
Kakashi thought he worked hard. He trained, he pushed himself.
Somehow at that moment as he looked at Gai, he got the impression that he didn't know anything about hard work.
Releasing the strong wrist Kakashi turned back around, slumping slightly. He had no words to what Gai said; wasn't sure that he even really understood. "I'm still sorry. You saved my life. Thank you." His voice was gruff.
Gai froze.
That wasn't part of the script.
Gai tried to think about what to do. He had to think of something besides pull Kakashi against him yet again, because the unexpected words made something inside him come close to weeping with joy.
Carefully, thoughtfully, he said, "We're even."
Then, throwing caution to the winds, he bent and pressed his lips only for a moment against the spot on Kakashi's back just below the edge of the mask.
"But I didn't -" The words stopped at that press of lips. Kakashi's fingers stuttered into the fabric of his pants and while his back arched in the slightest, it wasn't exactly away from the other boy.
"You did," Gai explained. "I didn't walk back here. It would have been impossible."
He couldn't tell for certain if Kakashi liked it, but he didn't seem to hate it.
He said I saved his life. He also saved mine. It's almost... intimate.
He thought he knew something about Kakashi, but he held it to himself. He didn't think Kakashi had recognized it yet. It was possible that he never would.
In the meantime, Gai allowed himself one more soft press of lips an inch or so down the other boy's spine.
It didn't seem to matter that it was through fabric, Gai's lips felt like fire. Much, much hotter than whatever he'd done with his hands before.
Without his consent, Kakashi's breath shuddered out of his lungs. He couldn't do this - whatever this was implying. He'd have to give away a bit of himself, wouldn't he? He didn't understand the why of this, and it bothered him.
Gai sighed and lay back on the narrow bed, urging Kakashi with one arm around his waist to lay beside him.
"I keep waiting for you to hit me," he said, his voice a little curious.
Kakashi lay back, stiff and uncomfortable with the heat of Gai's body next to him. His eyes shifted to the darker boy at his words and a grey eyebrow raised. "Why would I do that?" even the words were stiff.
"You seem like you don't want to be touched," Gai said, not without a little sigh in his voice. "...but then you seem like you need to be touched."
A strong, blunt-fingered hand lightly cupped the edge of Kakashi's jaw through the thin mask. "And I would like to touch you."
Kakashi couldn't remember the last time anyone had talked to him so bluntly. Even Sensei had a way of softening his words so that they wouldn't hurt, always smiling like he did.
The silver haired boy turned away from the touch, crossing his arms over his chest and rolling onto his side to put his back to Gai. "I don't need to be touched," he said gruffly.
Gai turned on his side as well, spooning behind Kakashi. His arm slid around the other boy's waist.
"Then hit me," he said. "You may not need it... but I think I do."
Truly expecting an elbow to the ribs, or maybe the back of Kakashi's head smashing into his nose, Gai tucked his face against the curve of Kakashi's neck and shoulder and breathed in the warm human scent.
When he'd opened the fifth gate, back there in the middle of the ambush, he had been so certain he would die.
Kakashi tightened his arms together, fingers biting into skin to stop from doing exactly what he said he had no intention of doing. If hitting was the only way to get Gai off of him...
But the heat of the boy leeched into him. His mere closeness had an effect that Kakashi hadn't expect or wagered on and underneath the continuing stiffness an ache begun. "We all have needs that can't be met," he said in a low voice. He didn't move.
Even a genius? Gai asked himself.
Something inside answered, 'Especially a genius.'
Gai didn't really understand. He knew the other boy had lost his father. That must have been what he meant. Gai wondered if it was worse to have a father you didn't get to keep, or never to know one.
"Some things I can't do," he murmured, keeping his face tucked into Kakashi's neck because he liked it there. "But you are my team mate. If I can help you fill you needs I will." Nevermind that he didn't have the slightest idea what they might be.
He didn't try to touch Kakashi any more than he had, he didn't have any desire to molest an unwilling partner. But he'd hold the other boy as long as he was allowed. And if his blunt fingers gently stroked whatever they were next to, it wasn't because he was trying to make Kakashi feel something. It was just because Kakashi was alive and life was precious and Gai was so incredibly alone.
And that was what he'd sensed... that they really were, in one way at least, exactly the same.
Kakashi didn't push the other boy away because he had a feeling that the touch causing the ache inside of him was the only thing that could cure it as well. He stared across the room, not tired despite the exhaustion that was bone deep and the terror and shock of the mission that had still yet to properly set in.
"There is nothing I need," he said softly after long minutes of silence. Nothing. Kakashi trained, he worked, he survived. That was his only goal in life. He would walk away, unlike his father, unlike Obito. Nothing else mattered.
Gai sighed. "That sounds like Kakashi the genius," he said, words slightly muffled. "Hey, if that's true, why did you carry me out?"
He was simply curious. The longer he lay with the silver haired boy in his arms the more he wanted to stay that way.
Kakashi sighed and wished Gai wouldn't call him that. For people to whisper it behind his back, or even tell him it was so... it was different when the boy said it. It wasn't Kakashi that had gotten them out alive earlier today.
"I don't see what that has to do with needs," the young jounin said. "I carried you out because you are on my team. Because if it wasn't for whatever you did, we would have been dead too."
Gai was still for a few moments, wondering if what Kakashi said was true. He accepted it in the end because he knew of no reason why Kakashi would lie about such a thing.
His arms tightened a little. "The lotus..." he said, "Blooms in Konoha. Once, twice. A third time and it will never bloom again."
Then he smiled against Kakashi's neck because it was his secret, the forbidden jutsu, the one his teacher had sworn he could never master and he had after all.
"What?" It sounded like nonsense, talking about flowers. But despite the distaste curving his covered lips into a frown, there was something vague and dire in those words that settled heavily on him.
Kakashi thought back and even his breath caught now at the memory of how Gai had seemed to change, a beast waiting placidly in the boy's body.
His eyes that had slipped closed opened, fighting the memories of the mission altogether.
Gai thought about it. He had nothing, ninja often had little in the way of belongings, and an orphan with no family even less.
The only thing he could give another person was his life. That was his job. He'd do it when ordered, as would any of them.
This mission had already changed something. He didn't know how much and he didn't know exactly why, but he embraced it, as he embraced the boy in his arms.
"I'm not special," Gai said quietly. "But from now on, you will be my rival. You have seen my best move. It is called the Lotus and it is forbidden jutsu."
Why did the words burn him? Why didn't he say 'that's ridiculous' and move away?
When was the last time he'd shared any sort of special bond with anyone?
Kakashi nodded.
The nod caused a near euphoric lift of Gai's heart. He didn't make any decisions, he was simply turning Kakashi in his arms and placing soft, careful kisses on his cheeks, forehead, ear, chin...
There was an uncharacteristic passivity about Kakashi as he let himself be turned. At the lips, however, he instinctively tucked his chin to chest to waylay them like a child. He couldn't explain how the touches hurt and soothed him at the same time, or why his arms uncrossed to curl into the lean muscles of Gai's arms.
Gai didn't understand it either but it felt right, somehow.
He knew what anyone else knew about Kakashi. That the boy was already a legend, child of a legend, that he'd endured tragedies and that he was the most remarkable ninja of his generation, perhaps of the last several.
Gai didn't know why, then, it felt as if the person in his arms needed to be protected.
"I'm going to kiss you," he murmured, allowing a beat or two for Kakashi to refuse, before nuzzling down the edge of the mask just enough to let lips meet lips.
To Kakashi's muddled and confused mind, Gai's words were redundant. The boy was already kissing him. By the time he realized what Gai really meant there were already lips pressed to his own, never cleaned from the blood that soaked through his mask.
With a jerk, Kakashi pulled back from Gai and smacked the back of his head against the small table next to the bed. Stars brightened his vision.
Gai winced as he heard the crack, feeling a little throb of loss at the reaction. He reached up gently and pulled the mask back up.
"...sorry," he muttered, as his arms relaxed. But he couldn't quite pull himself away.
Kakashi reached up, curling his fingers around the top of his raised mask almost protectively. His eyes closed tightly, against the stars, but also against the sick rush of exposure. "No," he said through grit teeth. "You didn't ... I just..." He shut up, mad at himself for his stuttering.
Protected.
Gai's arms tightened again and he bent to kiss Kakashi's fingers as they curled around the mask's edge. Not urging, not even suggesting, just giving a small oral worship to a hand that, like his, was skilled at giving death.
"Okay," he said, between kisses. "Can I kiss you... if I keep my eyes closed?"
Kakashi's breath was thick, he hung onto the mask for dear life. He suddenly realized that he wasn't tense anymore, but half curled into a ball against Gai.
He faltered at the question, his mind gasping. Why were they kissing at all? And why did he want to let the boy? "Don't look," he said, a half-whisper. He felt like such a child, but couldn't change his response.
"I won't," Gai said with the calm of a deep river. He closed his eyes and bent close, nuzzling again until his lips found Kakashi's mouth. The first kiss was just mouth to mouth, pressure, feeling, almost testing. Then a little touch of tongue, and a bit of warm breath.
However far it went, it was already the best kiss Gai had ever had.
Whatever it was that made him pull down his mask when Gai closed his eyes, it felt like a trembling desperation for something he'd always felt was just out of his reach. The boy's lips burned and after a moment of Kakashi just watching those closed eyes, passively accepting the kiss, his own eyes found darkness and his lips pressed back.
Gai sighed silently and gently took Kakashi's upper lip between his, sucking it a little. Then Kakashi's lower lip. He tasted the blood and something else - a unique flavor. He ran his tongue over the surface. Then his blood rose, heating rapidly and he pressed Kakashi's lips apart.
Again without realizing, Kakashi was gripping Gai's arms. He gasped and then choked on the embarrassing sound as the boy suddenly pressed against him. The warmth was slipping through his body from the connection at their mouths, settling low in his gut.
He didn't let the action press forward for long without pressing back. Kakashi pressed his tongue into Gai's mouth, fumbling but hungry.
The taste of Kakashi's tongue was almost a surprise but it also felt right. Gai sucked it further into his own mouth, then slid his alongside it, and into Kakashi's mouth. His kiss was all instinct, no technique, but it was as open and honest and giving as he was. It was also masculine and there was hunger to match Kakashi's. Kakashi's body felt so good against his own.
It was somehow nothing like how Kakashi expected it to be. Gai was pushing him, hardly passive, but he didn't seem to be taking anything. It relaxed the jounin, knowing that he wouldn't inadvertently give away something that he didn't want to. His slipped his tongue around Gai's, exploring and tasting.
Gai lost himself a little in the kissing. He leaned back just a bit, settled Kakashi comfortably against his chest, and stroked one hand down the other jounin's back.
He'd never remotely imagined doing this with the boy whose eyes did not match. But it all seemed to work, to fit in some odd way. The movement of Kakashi's tongue against his pushed the fever higher. Gai thought he could do this forever.
Kakashi was relaxed enough that he followed Gai when he moved. Or maybe he was only hungry enough for this basest of human contacts. He leaned against Gai, one hand sliding up to hold the boy's neck, his thumb tracing a smooth jaw without even knowing he was. There was just the jumble of sensations that made his heart throb. His mouth pressed harder at Gai's, wanting more.
Gai sucked a bit harder on Kakashi's tongue, and then thrust deeper into the other boy's mouth with his own, finding a rhythm that followed the rapid, heavy beat of his own pulse. His hand stroked down Kakashi's back again, settling just above the other boy's hips, savoring the outward curve. Gai felt heat pour down and collect at his groin, and there was nowhere near enough material between them to keep Kakashi from feeling it. Where each bulged out, there was friction as Gai shifted.
A gasp stained the kiss as Gai shifted below him and brought Kakashi's attention lower. Without thinking, the boy pulled away slightly, eyes widened. He looked almost wild with the expression and the blood on his face.
Gai's eyes drifted open but he remembered to look only into Kakashi's mismatched ones.
Yes, Kakashi looked wild, and dangerous.
And beautiful.
In an instant, Gai felt something strike deeply into his heart and he gasped as well. His cheeks flushed and he quickly tried to look away. But his hands stroked along Kakashi's back once more, settling a few inches lower.
Kakashi's head hung a little, his eyes hooding at those hands slipping over his back. He didn't try to cover himself up even though he felt awfully exposed. Tentative fingers reached and brushed over the flush in Gai's cheek, coveting that warmth.
Gai turned his face into the touch. He knew he wasn't beautiful. His features were blunt like his hands, his hair dark and thick and heavy. His body was angular and looked like it should be awkward... until he moved. Even the most skeptical or dismissive observer paused if they happened to be lucky enough to see Gai in motion. Sometimes, he simply could not be seen, and not through any illusionary jutsu.
Gai kissed Kakashi's fingertips, and then closed his lips around one, sucking it for a moment before letting it go.
For one who hid himself behind a mask, appearances meant very little. Kakashi was enrapt by the stubbornness of the boy, the vitality.
His lips parted with shallow breath as his finger was drawn in. His hips pressed forward instinctively as the nerves from his finger fired all the way down between his legs.
Gai groaned softly at the movement and the ache it sent through his body where he could feel Kakashi's firmness pressing against his own. His hand sought under the edge of Kakashi's shirt, seeking more skin to touch. He shifted them both again, leaning Kakashi a little more on his back. As they readjusted, Gai's bare leg slid between Kakashi's trouser clad ones.
More.
It was a reoccurring thought, each time a new source of heat was introduced. It was as if until now, he'd been freezing, freezing so long he hadn't even realized. Kakashi shifted easily, a groan swelling in his throat at the leg that slipped between his.
Gai had no idea what he was doing but he had a healthy set of instincts. It was easier in this position to slide his hand around and up along the skin of Kakashi's chest, under the shirt, fingers finding and exploring the nub of flesh they encountered on one side.
Breathing harder, Gai sought Kakashi's mouth with his, thrusting his tongue inside in a more urgent kiss than the last.
Kakashi's back arched at the shock radiating out from his nipple. He sunk against the boy, giving in to the kiss and giving back. His hand slid up, fisting into that thick black hair.
The tug in his hair felt good to Gai. He plunged into the kiss letting it deepen and swell, then pulled away to take in air. He wanted to taste more - Kakashi's mouth, his finger... he wanted to taste everything. Pushing Kakashi's shirt up, he bent his mouth to the tightened nub greedily and began licking, nibbling, and then sucking it into his mouth.
Kakashi felt a growl build in his throat when Gai moved away from his mouth, wanting more. Greedy, greedy. But the sound was replaced by a thick moan when Gai's mouth found his nipple and the pressure in his gut turned over and grew.
Something electric went through Gai at that sound Kakashi made. It was needy and almost... vulnerable. Impossible to think of the elite ninja, the boy who had passed the chuunin exam at age 6, as ever being either of those things. He was cool, efficient... he'd changed after that time when one of his teammates had been killed, but such things did change a man. But he'd never showed anything like this...
Gai sucked harder, wrapping his arms tightly around Kakashi's slender body. He nipped and nibbled and then worked his way over to the other side, treating the second nub as he had the first. He didn't know what he was doing exactly... he only knew he wanted to hear more sounds like those.
Kakashi had never really had sexual thoughts... well... everybody did, he supposed, time to time. But the few and far between times he had they were dealt with in hand, quickly and almost severely until they had passed. He'd never explored his body, never had anything like...
Another groan escaped his mouth at the roughness, and then the attention to the other side. Panting, his head hung and his fingers dug into the hair they still held.
The low sound was music that inspired Gai to continue, he thought he could do this forever, or a long time, as it seemed to please the other boy. Kakashi's silver hair brushed his skin, soft and wiry at the same time, Gai breathed deeply of the scent as he continued to tease and lavish attention on Kakashi's skin, his mouth traveling from nipple to pectoral, to throat, back to shoulder and chest. His eyes were closed most of the time and the hardness between his legs throbbed incessantly but he hardly gave a thought what, if anything, could be done about that.
This was better than kissing, and he didn't have to take off his mask for it even though that was a moot point now. Kakashi found his body moving without his consent; there were little jerks of muscles and a tilting down of the places were Gai's mouth was so that he could feel it better.
Not to mention his hips, which ground downward in hopes of relieving that throbbing ache between his legs.
Kakashi's body pressing against his own swollen flesh pulled a groan from Gai's throat, the pressure and friction painful and delicious at the same time. Without thinking, he pushed his hips up and rubbed a little, back and forth. A hot flush spread over his skin as he realized what he was doing but he could hardly help himself. His lips fastened on Kakashi's earlobe and he sucked and nibbled at it to muffle his own reaction to the fire that only grew more painful between them.
Kakashi shuddered gently as Gai pressed back against him and sunk down onto the boy when the exploration of his chest seemed to be done. Each sound the dark-haired boy made stabbed into his gut and jerked his hips more harshly forward. The hand not fisted in Gai's hair slid down side of the body beneath him, all hard planes and soft skin. The boy was hot.
Almost without meaning to, Gai's hand smoothed down Kakashi's back and moved over the outward curve of the other's hips. They were slender, but that slight curve seemed incredibly erotic and ripe with promise. His own reaction to that shocked Gai a little. Once he'd touched Kakashi that way it was impossible not to think of the next thing. Part of him wanted to stammer an apology but there was no going backwards. His instincts were too heavily engaged. He nuzzled under Kakashi's chin and rocked his hips upward again and again.
Kakashi felt like he was burning, and he only wanted more. Beneath him Gai was heat and nerves and a soft hardness. Without much thought aside from the ache between his legs that the boy's upward presses urged on, Kakashi's fingers grabbed at half of Gai's ass through underwear and pulled his hips up harder even as he came down, almost shocking the breath from his own lungs at the feeling.
The deeper groan from Gai was preceded by a gasp, and formed garbled, meaningless words.
"...ohmygodkakashi..."
Unable to resist with the threat of imminent explosion building in his groin, Gai squeezed Kakashi's rear firmly and then slid a hand under the waistband of the other boy's pants, the skin seeming to burn at his touch.
It felt odd but not unpleasant, the hand on his ass. Beside, wasn't he doing the same to Gai? His hips stuttered roughly when those fingers touched his skin. Eyes closed tightly, Kakashi rested his forehead on Gai's shoulder as he rocked forward, finally setting a pace, finding himself rising back against the hand as much as he was coming forward against Gai's body.
His own fingers slipped from hair and cupped Gai's throat, a thumb on his pulse.
Gai fell into the rhythm as well, his strong fingers stroking Kakashi's backside as the moved together, fingers seeking almost idly the warm cleft between the two hemispheres. His chin lifted as he continued to nuzzle and mouth Kakashi's skin, allowing the other ninja access to his vulnerable artery.
The sensations below built with the friction and Gai found himself panting against Kakashi's skin, only dimly aware that he wouldn't have been able to stop rocking upwards if Kakashi had asked him to.
Breath shivered out of him as fingers stroked at him, closer to a spot that instinctively made his heart hammer louder and the heat in his gut churn.
Kakashi's thumb stroked over Gai's thundering pulse, something about the tilt of the other's neck making him want to both pull away and stop this but at the same time use his mouth instead.
His body wouldn't let him move away and finally it was his teeth that found the spot his thumb vacated.
A thrill of something, recognition of danger perhaps, shot along Gai's nerves as he felt the edge of Kakashi's teeth against his jugular. At the same time, his fingertips brushed across something puckered and circular at the base of the cleft, and as he recognized it, he suddenly understood what his body wanted. He wasn't ignorant, he'd been exposed to many things in his young life, like any shinobi in wartime, but the realization shocked him at the same time that it reached down through his body and grabbed at the base of his cock. There was no way Kakashi would permit this... Gai could already imagine feeling his blood spurting under the other boy's teeth... But his hands didn't care and his fingertips circled the pucker almost lazily.
Kakashi's breath caught sharply in his lungs and his body stiffened, that single sensation enough to freeze his motion against Gai even though in truth it really made him want to increase it. But what the other boy was doing was...
Wrong personal frightening
... making him feel too close to good. Kakashi's teeth - which had tightened on skin as his body tensed - loosened and his body relaxed fractionally. Shuddering, his hips picked back up their pace.
Kakashi's sudden freeze, and then the slight shudder caught across Gai's nerves like razor wire. When the other boy went back to rubbing against him, his breath caught in his throat. He didn't know if Kakashi understood...but he guessed that was what the stiffening meant. He didn't know if the other boy consented... though he hadn't pushed away, he'd come back and continued. The need inside Gai's body was beyond painful now and he was so close to filling his own underwear with sticky wetness...
Butting his head wordlessly against Kakashi's shoulder, he began peeling the other boy's pants off, baring Kakashi's rear and pushing the garment down his legs.
Kakashi shifted just less than enough to be helpful. With the way his groin was pounding, the way his heart was pounding, he knew that he wanted this.
But of course his head told him differently. This was attachment and intimacy and heat and all the things he'd hid from for so long.
The young jounin was scared. And that was what made his decision for him. He sucked softly at Gai's pulse and rocked his hips forward, and back. Inviting more.
Gai's hands pushed Kakashi's clothes completely off of him, and then traveled back up the odd-eyed ninja's legs, caressing, almost worshiping, even through the heat and urgency. Gai's hands seemed to say, we'll catch you... as if ready for Kakashi to fall from a high place.
One of those hands slipped around between them and sought Kakashi's erection, capturing it in a firm grip that gave greater effect to Kakashi's movement.
As close as Gai was to the edge, just the feeling of Kakashi's skin under his hands spread a strange calm under the urgency.
Exposure was too light a word for how Kakashi felt once he'd been stripped. He shivered under Gai's touch before the shivers became a jerk as his hips snapped forward into the sudden grip around him. On the boy's ass and the back of his neck Kakashi's fingers clenched as his nerves screamed and his gut tightened painfully. "No," he gasped, not wanting to come so early, not wanting the heat to end. "Stop..." Breathy, broken sounds.
Gai sucked in air, and loosened his grip, as he nuzzled against Kakashi's neck and then sought his mouth in a deep kiss. It was invasive and urgent but somehow almost gentle at the same time. He kissed Kakashi like a man dying of thirst, taking his first drink.
A short stab of breath as Gai's hand loosened and shaking, Kakashi fought to hold himself still as he was kissed like that. Fought to control the pulsing in his gut even as he kissed back.
Heart still pounding loudly in his ears, Gai didn't rush the kiss, accepting Kakashi's tongue and surrendering his own mouth. He guided Kakashi's cock up between them against his own belly, then reached down and lifted Kakashi's leg around him, rubbing his own erection against Kakashi's balls and beneath them, between his parted legs.
Kakashi didn't know why he was letting Gai move him, letting the boy take... But he thought that it was because he could feel how much the other was giving at the same time. It made him want to give back even though his throat was tight at the vulnerability of having his legs parted.
But Gai felt good against him, that soft, hot flesh that made his breath short into the mouth on his.
It was almost enough... it was more than he could have dreamed. Gai could have surrendered himself at any time, just from the contact, the skin to skin friction. He thought perhaps it would be better if they both came this way, without going any further. Kakashi almost seemed to be running forward in the teeth of his own reluctance...
He leaned back only enough to rest his forehead against Kakashi's and glance into mismatched eyes. "...do you...can I....do you want the...rest?"
No
Kakashi didn't take his eyes from the dark gaze beneath him.
No
Giving himself in pieces was one thing, but that... too much, giving all of himself. There wouldn't be anything let.
"No," he said, his voice nothing but a shallow whisper. Yes, yes YES, but No. He broke eye contact.
Gai's eyes closed for a moment, and then he nodded. He tucked his face in Kakashi's neck and reached down between them, capturing Kakashi's erection once again with his strong, blunt, but strangely gentle fingers. He stroked Kakashi with a slow but compelling rhythm designed to give pleasure.
Why did he have this sick feeling like he was letting the boy down? Kakashi gasped softly at the renewed touch, but he didn't move into it as he had before. "Gai..."
Lips met and covered Kakashi's mouth, muffling him. The kiss was just as passionate as the last.
Gai had no regrets about Kakashi's decision. It was the first time... maybe the only time they would ever be like this. But it was already more than he'd ever imagined, more than he'd allowed himself to dream about. A lot closer to perfect than Gai was accustomed to.
Coaxingly, he continued to stroke, and his body rocked against the other boy, the warmth between Kakashi's thighs stimulating him. He sighed and rocked a little faster.
Caught like that, between mouth that kept him silent and hand that kept him from moving away, Kakashi relaxed just a little because he didn't know what else to do. The feeling of Gai rubbing between his legs spiked pleasure through his gut and Kakashi began to shiver again slightly, even as he began to rock into Gai's hand.
Gai felt relief when Kakashi relaxed that little bit and began to respond. He was so close to coming himself... he wanted to silver-haired shinobi to enjoy it too. His kiss picked up the rhythm of hand and body until they were rocking together in a gradually quickening dance.
Gai pulled his head back, eyes half lidded, as he felt himself begin to climb the near side of the rising wave.
He groaned softly, just needing the closeness, the nearness, the sight and scent and feel of Kakashi against him, in his hand...
Kakashi's fingers curled against whatever they held. Everything had started to blur together, give and take and his mouth and Gai's, the sound between them that he couldn't identify as either's.
He rocked and everything was that increasing rhythm. Breath catching sharp in his throat Kakashi's lips stilled on Gai's as he came with a cry against that hot mouth. His body jerked before stiffening and his cock throbbed just what he had to give onto Gai's stomach.
Gai gasped, feeling the hot fluid run over his stomach and fingers, and his hips jerked several times, the friction against Kakashi's skin and more, the feel of Kakashi coming in his arms, against him, sent a bloom of heat and pleasure exploding through his nerves. His cry caught in his throat and Gai saw stars. He relaxed suddenly, gasping for oxygen to keep his body from shutting down.
Kakashi sagged against Gai. The sudden wet heat between his legs brought a flush to his cheeks, one of which was pressed to the other boy's shoulder. His heart was jackhammering, his groin still pulsing in a slowing ebb.
Gai found Kakashi's hair somehow with his unsticky hand and stroked through it. He continued to breath deeply. Setting himself to memorize everything, sound, sight, feeling, scent. Turning his head, he nuzzled Kakashi's cheek and ear.
His lips found something - temple probably, and pressed for a few seconds.
Kakashi didn't need the cuddling, thought that was worse than the act itself. He let it continue for only a moment before he pulled himself away and got to the edge of the bed, his legs over the side. He felt dirty, sated, and overwhelmed.
Gai sat up slowly, and turned to swing his legs over the other side of the bed. He was a bit beyond overwhelmed. He wanted to look at Kakashi, but he kept his back turned. He could settle for remembering how the other ninja smelled.
Since there was no one who could possibly see, he allowed himself a very small smile.
Kakashi dropped his head down for a moment, rubbing his fingers through his hair, over the back of his head. With a start, he realized his mask was still pushed down and tugged it upward. Reaching back, he found his underwear and slipped into them as he stood. "Staying the night would be a bad idea if those shinobi decide to return," he said, trying to keep the rough edge from his voice. "We should clean and go."
Gai stood up - so abruptly he felt dizzy for a moment and shook his head to clear it. They were ninja on a mission, Kakashi was correct. He groped around for his clothes.
Unable to find his belt, he tied his hitai ate around his waist instead and came to attention. "Ready, Kakashi!"
Kakashi used the rest of the clean water left over from cleaning Gai's wounds to mop off his stomach (and hurriedly, when he was sure the other boy wasn't watching, between his legs). He dressed and was picking up his hitai-ate when Gai's voice made him turn. Kakashi looked at the dark haired boy a moment and was glad he wore the mask to cover the burn that rose in his cheeks. His Sharingan was covered. "Let's go, then," he said.
Gai seemed fully recovered from the dead swoon he had fallen into after the battle. He stretched his long limbs fully, feeling the deep soreness that might take days to fade. "Best time back to Konoha?"
"I think it would be the best," Kakashi said, completely missing what Gai was saying. He double-checked to make sure the scroll was still in his vest before nodding and opening the window, still for a moment as he searched for signs of life.
Gai determined that he would match Kakashi's pace no matter what. The genius would have back-up, if there was an attack by any pursuer. As long as Kakashi made it back with the scroll, the mission would be a success, though the rest of the team died.
Reaching down into his reserves, he stretched again to warm his muscles, missing the feel of his weights, which had been discarded during the battle. But he'd go faster without them.
He rested on the balls of his feet, ready to move the instant Kakashi did.
"It's clear," Kakashi said. It was all the warning he gave before he was jumping out the window and hitting the ground at a dead run. He felt no remorse for leaving without paying the rest of the bill. They hadn't stayed the whole night, after all.
It was easier, outside in the cool night air, to focus on the rest of the mission instead of the memories of heat and desire.
Gai moved when Kakashi did, focusing on speed and leaving as little signs of his passing as possible. He didn't dwell on what had happened between the two of them, preferring to tuck it away in a safe place, more than half convinced nothing like it would ever happen again.