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“Fight me!” “Challenge me!” “Spar with me!” Kakashi had heard it all that week. He couldn’t train for an hour on his own without Gai on his tail, practically begging for his attention. Though it annoyed him to no end, Kakashi couldn’t quite get himself to truly hate it. Even when he was home alone, he could hear Gai’s loud voice echoing in his ears, calling out to him.
“Rival,” Kakashi said to the pot of soup heating up on the stove, testing how the word felt in his mouth. It didn’t quite feel right, but it wasn’t wrong either. “Eternal rival.”
Neither felt right. He sighed and went back to chopping onions. Rivals. What did Gai really mean by that? He’d been saying it since they were five- half of our lives, Kakashi realized with a smile- and Kakashi still hadn’t been able to figure out what it really meant. Did Gai really want to challenge him like this... forever? Forever is a long time.
Kakashi dumped the onions in the pot and hoisted himself onto the counter, mouthing the word rival to himself. Did he want a rival? What even is a rival? In the books he’d read, rivalry was rarely a good thing. It was generally an angry thing... so why did Gai always seem so happy to challenge Kakashi?
---
Sensei, why won’t he leave me alone? Kakashi had groaned during training. Minato hadn’t known how to respond; he had thought the boy that always came up to them was adorable. Maito Gai, the most energetic kid in the entire village. And the most annoying, according to Kakashi.
Rival! Gai had yelled. I challenge you to a fair spar, just two strong shinobi against each other in a youthful battle of fists and feet!
Kakashi turned him down. Obito laughed, which only provoked Kakashi further. And Rin had just sighed.
Minato turned back to his dinner and poked at a piece of chicken. His thoughts were taking away his appetite. What am I going to do with those kids?
---
Gai fumbled with the bits of string. It was almost infuriating how his hands couldn’t quite master the delicate art of making a braid. He’d picked up three colors of string at the shop the day before, and he was determined to make his Eternal Rival a friendship bracelet to prove that he’d be a good rival and friend.
“One... over the other... over the other...” Everyone had to learn to braid at the academy; it made ropes stronger and could be used as a trailmarker. It was also important for people with long hair; they had to keep it out of the way on missions, and Gai had watched people master the art of braiding. He, however, was nowhere close to mastering anything of the sort. The strings were getting frayed as he worked on getting them together, but he was determined to get it right. His dad had told him that friendship bracelets were the best way to connect with a friend, and he was ready to do anything to get Kakashi closer to him.
---
Kakashi tried to hide behind Minato-sensei as a familiar green flash ran at him, only for his plan of stealth and hiding to be ruined by Obito pushing him forward.
“Rival!” Gai held out a strange thing as he ran over to Kakashi. “Look! I made you a friendship bracelet!”
“A what?” Kakashi asked, inspecting the vaguely circular jumble of braided string on Gai’s hand.
“A friendship bracelet! You wear it, and look! I have a matching one!” Gai held out his left hand, showing how he had his own bracelet with matching colors. Kakashi ignored Minato-sensei and Rin cooing and squealing as he rolled his eyes.
“That’s dumb.”
“Kakashi, be nice!” Rin scolded.
“Please wear it?” Gai looked pathetic, pushing the bracelet towards him and stepping closer.
“Will you stop bothering me if I do?”
“Yes, I’ll leave you alone for today if you put it on!”
Kakashi didn’t miss the for today Gai slid in there. But he still reached his arm out and allowed Gai to tie the dumb thing on his wrist, looking away from that stupidly wide smile and tried to block out the way Minato-sensei and Rin gasped and giggled, whispering something to each other. Kakashi picked up a couple words. He was not ‘adorable,’ or ‘making friends,’ he was supposed to be a scary shinobi.
“We’re matching!” Gai grabbed Kakashi’s arm just as he was about to pull away, holding his hand up. “Minato-sensei, look!”
“I see, Gai.” Minato had the widest, dumbest grin on his face. It made Kakashi even more annoyed than Gai’s ever had.
“Gai, don’t you have to meet with your team?” Kakashi asked.
“Oh, right! We were taking a break, so I came to find you. I should get back now! Bye!” Gai ran off and Kakashi watched him go before pulling out a knife and slipping it under the bracelet to cut it off.
“Kakashi, leave it on! Gai made that for you!” Minato swatted Kakashi away, careful to pull the knife away without hurting him.
“It’s not going to help me in any way, is it?”
“No, but-”
“Then I don’t need it.”
“Kakashi, be nice and at least wear it for today. If you absolutely hate it, you can take it off later. Alright?”
“Fine.” Kakashi grumbled to himself, looking at the bracelet. The colors didn’t match each other, nor did they match anything Kakashi would ever wear. There were little bits sticking out where the string frayed, and the ends were too long and would only get in his way. But in some strange way, it made something in his gut feel good. It made him want to smile. So he wrinkled his nose at it and threw his arm down to his side, pouting. He would not let something dumb like a bracelet stab at his dignity and pride like that.
“Don’t look so down, Kakashi.” Minato nudged him in the shoulder with his elbow. “It’s just for the day.”
---
Kakashi laid down on his bed, more than ready to sleep and forget about how he’d been humiliated that day.
He raised his arm, looking at the bracelet in the moonlight. He pulled at it, surprised when it didn’t break.
I’ll deal with it in the morning, he thought as he rolled onto his side and closed his eyes.
---
“Rival!” Gai ran up to Kakashi, throwing an arm around him and giving that wide smile he always wore. “You wore the bracelet again! It makes you look more youthful than anything-”
“I never bothered taking it off. It wasn’t worth any effort.” Somehow, that only made Gai’s smile widen.
“You slept in it? You never took it off? Neither did I! Rival, I’m so-”
“Don’t bother.” Kakashi shrugged him off.
---
“You never bothered taking that bracelet off, huh?” A week later, Kakashi was on a mission with Team Minato, and Minato-sensei was relentlessly teasing him.
“I forgot about it after the first day. It doesn’t bother me and keeps Gai relatively quiet.” Kakashi would never admit the smile it had brought to him the day before when he was maknig dinner for himself and the effort he’d put into actually keeping it intact while he cooked.
“Mhm.” Minato smiled at him. “It’s cute.”
“It’s not cute!”
---
eight years later
---
Kakashi stood in the jewlery shop. He had no idea what to get Gai. He’d asked Inoichi about promise rings; he’d read about them in a book and thought it was a nice idea. And it ended him up standing in front of a wall of little boxes, hoping that he had Gai’s ring size right and would find something he liked. Gai’s birthday was coming up, and this was one of the few years Kakashi had thought to do something for his rival.
He ended up grabbing a pair of rings that caught his eye. The box said they had magnets, of all things. He knew he didn’t need to get anything flashy, but that sounded interesting. He knew Gai would love whatever he ended up buying, but he still wanted to get soemthing nice. Something that would remind Gai every day that Kakashi cared about him.
---
Gai watched Kakashi approach him awkwardly, shoving a small box toward him.
“Happy birthday,” he said, refusing to meet Gai’s eye. It was rare for Kakashi to be so awkward and nervous; usually, he had a cool demeanor and only showed any hint to what he was thinking or feeling when he was at his lowest- or when Gai’s compliments fell more into the flirty category than his usual aimless praises.
“You remembered!” Gai flung his arms around Kakashi, who laughed and patted Gai’s back.
“Just open it already.” Kakashi pulled away and gave Gai the box, suddenly fidgety again.
“It’s... a ring?” Gai pulled out the small metal band.
“A promise ring,” Kakashi blurted out. “A promise to always...” his voice trailed off and Gai didn’t catch the mumbled words at the end.
“A promise to always...”
“A promise to always come back to you.” Kakashi looked away and huffed, refusing to meet Gai’s gaze.
“I love it.” Gai slid the ring onto his finger, admiring it. “And it fits perfectly! Rival, it’s perfect! Just like you!”
“And I have one, too.” Kakashi held his hand up, deliberately ignoring the last bit of praise that had fallen out of Gai’s mouth.
“We match!” Gai slid his hand into Kakashi’s, startling when his hand was pulled toward Kakashi’s by something strange. Whatever was going on, he’d figure it out! He and Kakashi would-
“That’s why they have magnets,” Kakashi mused, admiring how his hand looked interlocked with Gai’s.
“Magnets?” Gai laughed, pulling Kakashi into a tight hug. “Thank you, Rival.”
---
eleven years later
---
It was so sudden. Kakashi was calling out orders, working on the battlefield, and Gai appeared next to him, grabbing his hand and pulling him into an unoccupied tent.
“Gai, what are you-” Kakashi’s face flushed a bright red when certain thoughts came into his head. “Gai, not here, we can’t-”
“Marry me.”
“What?”
“I mean-” Gai stumbled over his words, suddenly thinking he’d said something wrong. He knelt down, looking up at Kakashi with a wide smile on his face.
“Gai?”
“When this war is over, will you make me the happiest man in the world?” Gai pulled a small box out of a pouch on his hip and opened it, revealing an engagement ring- it wasn’t flashy. It was a simple band with a heart engraved. “We can have the marraige of the century. You and me-”
“Yes.” All thoughts of anything else left Kakashi’s mind. “Gai, I’d love to marry you.” His voice was soft as Gai stood up and pulled him into a tight hug, murmuring something along the lines of love you so much.
---
one year later
---
Kakashi watched Gai’s hand slide a ring onto his. It was beautiful; they’d gone wedding ring shopping and agreed on the most beautiful rings. It helped that the man selling them had promised “anything for the future Hokage.”
Kakashi barely registered the crowd cheering as he leaned forward to kiss Gai, who had stood up and out of his wheelchair just for the kiss. Most of the village was there, and the sound of cheering filled the area. Gai pulled back, gazing at his fiance- now husband- with the widest smile Kakashi had ever seen.
Kakashi grabbed Gai’s hand and kissed his fingers, not even caring that practically the entire village could see how sappy he was.
“We’re matching, Rival,” Gai said, squeezing Kakashi’s hand.