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Guy slipped into the cloudy water with a sigh, then let his head fall back against the rim with a low groan of appreciation. The heat on his sore muscles was heavenly. He opened his eyes, admiring the starry sky above them from yet another secret hot springs. A natural one, tucked away far from any inn, and even farther from any interruptions.
On paper, Mirai had been their escort on this trip as well. A jonin now, tasked once again with the important mission of “protecting the feeble old former hokage and his wheelchair-bound partner.”
But she’d taken Kakashi’s laid-back attitude and lessons to heart, and ditched them ages ago to spend time with Tatsumi again. They could more than handle themselves, and she’d never pass up an excuse to treat her girlfriend of many years with some of the money she extra earned from these fake S-rank escort missions.
Besides, Guy was pretty sure he’d seen Kurenai pass Mirai her and Asuma’s wedding rings and whisper to her “good luck”. She was probably off making her own memories and setting her own anniversaries right now.
They’d reconvene on their way back to Konoha, but for now, Guy had Kakashi all to himself.
His eyes slipped closed in joyful bliss as he felt Kakashi lower himself into the spring beside him and settle his weight against Guy to hear his heartbeat. Kakashi’s sigh was less blissful and more relieved, the incessant worrywart.
Guy wrapped his arm around Kakashi’s shoulder and placed his hand gently on Kakashi’s head. After a while, he started to run his fingers through the messy grey tufts, tugging ever-so-slightly at places he knew Kakashi liked, which earned Guy a pleased, quiet moan from him. Kakashi’s posture relaxed, and his head lolled comfortably, pillowed against Guy’s chest. That tender, contented smile on Kakashi face was a thing that, long ago, Guy had rarely ever gotten to see, and now, it was near daily.
In moments like this, when it was just them, the world held its breath and time stood still. Guy could do little but think about how he could just stay like this forever, immersing themselves in each other. Here, with Kakashi, and no-one else. It was calming, grounding, the perfect remedy for the long lives they’d spent fighting for this peaceful denouement.
“Twenty-five years…” Guy finally broke the cozy silence with a reminiscent musing. “I suppose that makes this our silver anniversary, right?”
“Twenty-five years?” Lifting his head to level a half-lidded glare at Guy, Kakashi scoffed. “More like fifty. Don’t start counting at the wedding, start back at the academy. We’re golden, you sappy old fart.”
Guy rolled his eyes. “Excuse me for trying to celebrate our wedding anniversary.”
“You’re forgiven,” Kakashi shrugged with a smug smile, leaning against Guy’s side again. “What would you do without me?”
Guy bit back a frustrated response at that. He was trying to build a romantic mood to end the day on. He wasn’t about to be thrown off his game and pulled into Kakashi’s pace so easily. He tried to continue his heartfelt anniversary speech where he’d left off. “Well… have the past 20-50 years, give or take, been a good eternity for you, Rival?”
“Good enough, I guess,” Kakashi said flippantly.
Kakashi pulled away to dodge an annoyed punch, then leapt to evade the angry splash of water Guy tried to follow it up with. He landed deftly on the edge of the spring on the opposite side of Guy, smirking while the spot his fist had hit cracked ever-so-slightly.
“Even on our anniversary, you just have to push my buttons!” Guy huffed. “50 years of this!”
Kakashi’s head canted to the side, eyes crinkling in a smile. “Hmm, so you admit I was right about the years. Guess I’ll chock that up to another point for me—l”
Guy lunged at him, fast enough that he dodged purely on instinct, the wind behind his strike rustling just beyond his ear. With the momentum of the missed hit, Guy spun on his heel, intending to catch Kakashi in the stomach with an elbow.
Kakashi easily caught that elbow and maneuvered him so he could pull it all the way behind his body. His other palm braced against his back as he wrestled him down into a pin.
“This doesn’t count as a spar! Don’t you dare count this towards our tally!” Guy demanded.
Kakashi laughed, the jolly, wholesome kind of laughter that Guy used to never hear from Kakashi, but that he was frankly hearing a little too much these days. Guy groaned again and shifted to anchor himself to easily shove that gadfly off of him and escalate this into a proper fight. He’d show Kakashi just how powerful and how youthful his rival could still be—
“They were absolutely perfect,” Kakashi whispered in his ear abruptly.
It took a moment to realize that it was a belated answer to the earlier inquiry. Guy scoffed. His rival, as bashful about saying these things as ever, despite all that showing off.
“I reached my lowest lows, and I have my regrets, but everything about you, every second we had together, every moment we got to have together these past few decades, I’m grateful for it. I’m glad you opened your eyes after the war to give me even more years with you. They were better than good for me.”
Guy blinked, easing the tension out of his body and letting the competitive, fiery fury in his eyes disperse into a well of moved tears. “…Do you really mean that?”
“What, you disagree?”
Kakashi closed his eyes and chuckled to himself, burying face into the crook of Guy’s neck. His lips brushed against his nape.
Guy had hardly even registered that they were still bare naked when they’d started this little spar, but now that his anger and annoyance had dissipated, he was aching aware of the arrangement they were in. He blushed bright red, even more cognizant of their nudity and position when he felt the tips of Kakashi’s canines graze against his hammering pulse, felt a bit too much when Kakashi shifted his hold on Guy to a weaker one, felt the weight of Kakashi’s still wet body pressing against him, felt something rather low poke him.
“Maa… I don’t care if you have complaints,” Kakashi joked. “It’s too late to get out of this now, eternal rival. ‘Til death do we part, and even that didn’t work.”
Guy laughed back. He’d met his match. “Happy anniversary, Kakashi.”
He could feel Kakashi’s smile soften against his skin, although nothing else did. “Happy anniversary.”
With a grin, Guy internally admitted to himself that perhaps he’d lost in his efforts to be the more romantic of the two of them this time.
Well, he’d give it his best shot next year. And the year after that, too.
Twenty—no—fifty years of this.
And with that same luck and stubborn refusal of fate to let them die despite all those foolhardy attempts, perhaps fifty more.