Chapter Text
They were married in the spring, on a Wednesday in mid-May.
The sun beat down on Kakashi’s trembling shoulders as Gai approached, grinning from ear to ear. He looked positively radiant, Kakashi had to admit. He thought he might be walking a bit too fast, though. Weddings were all about good pacing, weren’t they? They were going to look like fools if he kept running towards him like that, all agitated-looking. He looked as if he were running to a base in kickball, not walking down the aisle at his wedding.
Really, they were nearly in the first grade now. Gai needed to grow up.
Gai stumbled as he reached the end of the dirt-packed “aisle,” toppling directly into Kakashi and knocking them both to the ground. Kakashi wanted to be annoyed, but this was his beloved, and it was their wedding day. They’d known each other for almost the whole school year now. Things couldn’t be more right, and he couldn’t have chosen a better life partner. Even if it did mean getting knocked into the dirt or having to hang upside down from trees to “do the Spiderman kiss!” on occasion. Though their classmates called them weird, he decided this must be what love was. It made his insides feel all itchy.
Gai giggled as he lifted himself off of Kakashi. “Whoops! My mistake, honey darling.”
“I don’t think honey darling is a real thing you can call your spouse.”
“Duh! We’re not married yet, so we’re fiances, Kakashi! At least for a few more seconds,” he corrected him with a very Gai-like grin and a sloppy wink.
They stumbled their way off the ground, half-collapsed in each others’ spindly arms and laughing.
“You ready, fiance?” Gai asks eagerly, pulling two plastic rings out of his pocket.
“Hmm,” Kakashi pauses, adjusting the white sheet wrapped around Gai’s midsection, “now I am.”
He’s glad Gai opted to wear the so-called dress. He’d been subjected to enough dress-wearing torture as a baby; though he didn’t quite remember, he had the cringe-worthy pictures to show for it. He and his dad both neglected to ever mention it. Besides, Gai seemed to like his sloppily-tied toga-slash-dress. He looked nice in it, too.
Gai, tears sparkling in his eyes, slid one loose ring onto Kakashi’s thumb and then his own before leaning in to place the smallest of kisses on his cheek. Kakashi decided this occasion was momentous enough for a full, tooth-showing grin. He turned to beam at Gai, and was met with a dandelion in his mouth.
“Rin,” he chided, turning to glare at her, “I don’t think you’re supposed to throw the flowers on us.”
She rolled her eyes and scoffed. “I’ve been a flower girl before! I know what I’m doing.”
She kept throwing the dandelions, which, Kakashi hated to point out, were actually weeds and not flowers. He guessed it could still be romantic, if you looked at it that way.
Gai hugged Kakashi, keeping his arms around him as he turned to Mr. Minato Uzumaki (Mr. Namikaze, technically, he had reiterated at the beginning of the school year, but the class agreed his wife’s name was better and more fitting).
“What do we do now?” Gai questioned, “Now that we’re married, I mean. You should know, right? Do we get to have a house together? Do you and Mrs. Kushina have a house together? Oh no, she’s going to be so upset she wasn’t invited!”
He laughed in response, nodding. “We do have a house together. You and Kakashi aren’t quite old enough for that yet, but you could spend time together at your fathers’ houses.”
“Alright, great!” Gai thumps Kakashi on the back. “Did you hear that, new husband?”
Of course he had heard; he’d been standing there the whole time hadn’t he? He nodded silently.
There had already been time spent at each other’s houses. Plenty of it. They had sleepovers nearly every weekend. Kakashi wondered if marriage meant they would have to kiss before they went to bed now. He hoped not; he wasn’t ready for that much commitment.
Just then, Mr. Uzumaki checked his watch and then blew his little orange whistle, signaling the end of recess. Yamato came jumping down from the trees, Asuma and Kurenai bolted out from underneath and playset, and the wedding-goers all moved to line up in front of their teacher.
Obito snuck up to Gai and Kakashi in the line, elbowing Kakashi in the ribs. “So, hey, do you think....I mean, would it be, um, copying, if I asked R-Rin, and we got married, the same way you guys did?”
“It wouldn’t be copying. Lots of people get married.”
Gai poked his head--literally leaned between them--into their conversation, grinning enthusiastically. “That sounds great! I think it would be wonderful if everyone got married this year.”
Kakashi shrugged at Obito. “You gotta get her to say yes.”
Obito slumped his shoulders and walked to the back of the line. Gai looped an arm around Kakashi’s shoulders, pulling him into a half-hug. “I’ll always say yes to you.”
Kakashi couldn’t hold back a discreet smile. “I’ll share my sandwich with you today.”
Six-year-old marriage felt like an endpoint for Kakashi at the time. Looking back, it was just a milestone in their absurd relationship, if that. He had kept the ring, but the marriage was more of a joke to him. After a week or so in Kindergarten, he stopped taking it seriously. Gai however, was another story.
They spent much of their time together. That much didn’t change for years. They still marathoned Bruce Lee and Disney movies before passing out on the couch and being moved to bed by Dai. They still raced, played tetherball, and held rock-paper-scissors championships every recess, then shared lunches afterward.
The two were virtually inseparable. Even when he desired it, Kakashi could seldom find time alone. He would visit Minato and Kushina with Rin and Obito, and Gai would find his way there not one minute after they arrived. He couldn’t do his homework, take a bath, or read a book without Gai involving himself somehow.
It wasn’t quite that he minded Gai’s presence. He loved helping him with his homework, or taking baths and reading books together. Just not all the time. He was sure even actual married couples spent time without each other, and he needed his space. He always had. Allowing Gai to be one of the few allowed to breach that space didn’t mean it was his forever.
Still, they made quite the dynamic duo. On a good day, they’d perform their secret handshake up to ten different times and could finish each other’s sentences. Despite never leaving him be, Gai did understand Kakashi. It felt nice to have someone like that.
Fifth grade brought a censored, entry version of sex education, which left Kakashi squirming uncomfortably in his seat, reluctantly providing the skewed, “biologically correct” answers his teachers wanted to maintain his status as a good student. Even at eleven, Gai’s voice had already started to deepen ever so slightly. Kakashi began to downright refuse to take baths together, using the excuse that they were getting too old. He wore layered sports bras, thicker turtlenecks. He talked less not only to Gai, but to everyone.
The last day of school ended with Kakashi hiding out in the boys’ bathroom, stuffing toilet paper into his briefs to block the oncoming flow of hot redness. It took him a good fifteen minutes to properly compose himself and rush out to make the buses, where Gai stopped him in his tracks.
“Are you alright, Kakashi?” He asked, arms flung out to both sides to prevent him from running.
“Fine,” he muttered, “let me get to my bus.”
“I really want to know, before we’re out for summer. You’ve been so distant, and--”
“I’m okay.”
“You act a lot differently--”
“Gai, we’re both going to miss--”
“I worry about you.”
The look on his face is so sincere that Kakashi considered responding truthfully, but he merely frowned.
“Let me get to my bus,” he restated, “please.”
They remained standing in the empty hallway as the buses pulled out. Gai attempted to wind his arms around Kakashi, who pulled away.
“The buses left.”
“Whatever’s wrong, you know I’m still here, right? We are still married, after all,” he laughs nervously, then blushes, “is it...the stuff you were talking about a while ago?”
It’s then that Kakashi remembers that Gai does, of course, know he isn’t quite like other boys at their school. He also, due to a lunchtime Feelings Jam, knows specifically that Kakashi had been regretfully anticipating the start of his first period. The thought made his face flush as well, and he averted his eyes.
“Maybe. No. How are we going to get home?”
“My dad can come get us. But, Kakashi--”
“Can we leave it for now? I’ll talk to you more over the summer.”
Gai, for once in his life, decided to leave matters to rest for then. The pair held hands in silence between the seats as Dai drove them home.
Kakashi didn’t see Gai again until the start of sixth grade.
He never would have admitted to it, but the idea of middle school was intimidating to Kakashi. He tried to make himself out to be the source of intimidation; most of his outfits were primarily black or grey, with leather combat boots and a black scarf pulled up to his nose completing the look. He was, however, still very scrawny, and still very evidently an incoming sixth grader.
His dad helped him to get ready the first morning, checking to see that all his supplies were packed and fixing his hair and clothes for him.
“You gonna try and make some new friends? I’ve noticed Gai hasn’t been around; did you two have a falling out?”
“Not really,” Kakashi replied, with a noncommittal shrug, “we’ve just both been busy. And I don’t think I’ll try and talk to anyone new.”
“Ah,” Sakumo laughed, “that’s the Kakashi I know, then. Good luck.”
He patted him on the back before waving him out the door. Kakashi didn’t wave back; he was way too old to be getting goodbyes from his dad before school. He’d have to mention that when he got home.
The school halls were packed by the time Kakashi arrived, and he tried his best to avoid eye contact with anyone and everyone. He overheard snippets of conversation--what had happened the last summer, gossip about new teachers, et cetera. Everyone here seemed hopelessly boring, but he didn’t care about that right now. He found his way to his homeroom--what appeared to be a tech ed classroom--and quietly sat himself down, resting his chin on his hand and pulling out the latest novel he’d been reading.
It was going to be a long day.
Not five minutes later, a boisterous and familiar laugh filled the hallway, and in walked none other than Maito Gai, a wide grin stretched across his face. Kakashi looked back down at his book, pulling his scarf further up over his face before Gai could see him. He knew he’d be noticed eventually, but he might as well prolong it. He only hoped Gai wouldn’t be too angry with him.
Thirty seconds--exactly, Kakashi had counted--had passed when Kakashi heard booming footsteps approaching and felt a hearty clap on his back. “Kakashi! Great to see you, old friend! I’ve really missed you this past summer.”
Kakashi slowly lifted his face from the page, his eyes just barely meeting Gai’s. “It’s great to see you too,” he said cautiously.
“I’ve even got my ring on still; don’t worry, I didn’t forget about you at martial arts camp! Ah--”
He lifted Kakashi’s hand and examined it from different angles, then frowned ever so slightly. “Where’s your ring? Did you leave it at home today?”
Forget “long day.” It was going to be a long year.