#Taryn delves head forst back into the Iwa Au

[depressedhatakekakashi]

One Day A Year

Words: 1742

Note: thank you to @skykashi for giving it a quick read and assuring me i hadn’t done a terrible job 💜💜💜

Au: Iwa Gai

@kakagaievents

Tanabata had always been Kakashi’s favourite holiday. As a kid he would always grab the old story book that his father kept in the bookshelf and shove it into his father’s hands so that he would read it. Even if his father was still laying in bed peacefully sleeping, Kakashi would wake him up with demands to hear his favourite story.

After his father’s death he resorted to reading the story to himself every Tanabanta. There was one year that he’d debated asking Minato-Sensei to read it to him, but to do so would mean admitting he missed hearing the silly voices his father would put on for all of the character’s, and he wasn’t ready to do that yet. So, instead he read to himself in the quiet of his empty house. With no one cuddled up against his side adding stupid commentary to the story or making silly voices.

This year was diffrent.

This year, he wasn’t alone.

“Read it,” Gai nudged him with an elbow, smiling that stupid bright smile of his when Kakashi glared his way. “You brought the book to read, right?”

“I did.”

“Then read it,” placing a hand against Kakashi’s hand, he gently pushed the book towards him. “Please?”

Kakashi refrained from rolling his eyes. “We’re supposed to be on a mission,” he reminded the other man. “Separate missions.”

“Well, we sort of are.” there was no mention of the nature of their missions or the fact that they shouldn’t be here, sitting side by side as if they were friends. Gai never spoke about that stuff. Never acknowledged it, because to do so would mean admitting that what they were doing was wrong.

Maito Gai didn’t like admitting he was wrong.

Kakashi wasn’t any better, though. Sure, he was willing to admit that meeting up with an Iwagakure shinobi while he was on a mission wasn’t the ‘right’ thing to do, but that didn’t stop him.

“Please,” Gai’s finger’s drummed against his hand. “It’s my favorite story, and you’re my favorite person. It’s a perfect match.”

Snorting, Kakashi cracked the book open. “You’re cheesy.”

“You love it.” a fact that they both knew was true, even without Kakashi having to confirm it. If he didn’t love it he wouldn’t be here, sitting side by side with an enemy shinobi enjoying the feeling of his touch against his skin.

“The story of star crossed lovers,” he began, adding a little energy into his voice. “Once upon a time there was a princess named Orihime who could sew the most beautiful clothing.”

The words rolled off of his tongue. He didn’t even have to look at the pages to know what to say next. Every single word was committed to memory after years of reading the same story over and over again. It didn’t matter if he spared a glance towards Gai and dared to watch as he leaned in a little closer and smiled a little wider at the sight of the beautifully painted picture on each page. The words continued to fall, one after the other in a perfect retelling of a story older than either of their villages.

With each page he finished he could feel Gai leaning into him a bit more. At first his weight rested slightly against Kakashi’s shoulder, but by the time he reached the end of the story and closed the book he was practically laying across his lap.

“Comfy?” He asked, staring at the man who had so willingly made his lap his home.

“Very,” Gai grinned, his eyes sparkling with what Kakashi could only assume was excitement. “You’re really good at telling that story.”

Shoving a hand against Gai’s cheek, Kakashi shoved him away with a groan. “You’re the worst.” he grumbled, annoyed by the warm feeling that filled his chest. It was a feeling he only ever seemed to get when he was around Gai, and which he tried desperately to ignore for his own sanity.

It was hard, though. Whenever Gai smiled or laughed that feeling would spread more. It would reached from his chest all the way into his cheeks, tinting his skin a bright red that burned so bright that he could feel his body heating up with it. As if a sun was burning inside of him.

A sun by the name of Maito Gai.

“You like it,” Gai chuckled as he shoved Kakashi’s hand away from his face. “Admit it.”

“No.” He turned away, refusing to meet Gai’s eye. “And would you stop pushing it? You know better.”

They both did, but that didn’t stop them.

It never had.

No matter how much they told each other that what they were doing was wrong, they kept doing it. Putting off mission’s to spend a few precious minutes together. Seeking out each other’s company even though they knew that if anyone caught them they would be punished.

Settling back into his spot, Gai tilted his head back and stared up at the sky. It was still mid day so they couldn’t see the stars, but they didn’t need to. The story told it all. Orihime and the Cow hearder would see each other today, just as they did every year on the seventh of July.

It was their one day to be together.

“Do you think…” Kakashi trailed off. There was a lot of things he wished he could ask Gai, but he always kept it to himself. Questions that stayed tucked away, hidden from the rest of the world even when he wanted so desperately to scream them at the top of his lungs.

“It’s July Seventh,” Gai smiled up at the sky, his eyes sparkling even brighter than they usually did. “I’ts their day.”

“Their day,” Kakashi repeated the words, willing himself to memorize them in the way that they were meant to be memorized. The Seventh of July was the day of Lover’s. Orihime and the cow herders day to spend together while the rest of the year the world would force them apart so that they could focus on their jobs.

So that they could be the hard working seamstress and the dedicated cow hearder, instead of getting lost in each other’s love and forgetting all about their duties.

It was their day, not Kakashi’s. They were the one’s that had stories told about a love that held strong no matter how much distance was put between them.

Gai nudged his shoulder, forcing him to push aside his thoughts and return to the present where he was sitting under the open sky beside Maito Gai. Iwagakure shinobi, enemy of Konoha, and the one who had stolen Kakashi’s heart.

Though, he’d never admit it out loud. That would mean dealing with his feelings and having to make a choice that he didn’t want to make. A choice between staying loyal to his village, or following his heart.

“It could be our day, if you want,” Gai offered. “One day a year. What do you think?’

Kakashi stared at him as though he’d grown a second head. “Our day?”

“Ya,” The smile on Gai’s face grew impossibly wide. “One day where no matter what’s going on, we meet up.”

The idea sounded ridiculous. A specific day just for them to shirk their duties and hang out. A day when they didn’t have to be enemy shinobi, but instead they could just be them. Kakashi and Gai, star crossed lovers.

“Where?” He asked, unsure of whether or not he should be agreeing to such a ridiculous idea so quickly.

“Why not right here?” Gai answered as he patted the ground between them. “This is where we always meet up if we’re in the area, so why not just make it officially our spot?”

Our spot.

His heart skipped a beat.

A spot just for them. A place where they didn’t need to pretend that they didn’t want to be together. Where they could simply exist without restrictions.

“July Seventh,” he turned his eyes towards the sky, a smile tugging at the edges of his lips as he thought about the ridiculous idea Gai had just presented to him. “Tanabanta.”

“Their day and ours,” Gai leaned into his side once again. His head dropped against Kakashi’s shoulder, and as he let out a small, content sigh Kakashi could feel all of his worries washing away for just a few precious moments. “A day for star crossed lovers. It seem’s perfect, doesn’t it?”

Kakashi wanted to cry.

He wanted to wax poetics about what a perfect choice it was for them and how much he looked forward to it even though they’d only just come up with the idea.

Instead, he rested his head against Gai’s and closed his eyes. “Perfect.” he whispered his agreement. “

July Seventh. A day when Konoha would be bust celebrating star crossed lovers with food and games. For the rest of the year Kakashi would be dedicated to his job doing missions and protecting Konoha, just as the cow hearder was dedicated to caring for the gods cows.

But every July seventh he would steal away a day for himself. He’d sneak away from the confines of his village to spend time with the one who had stolen his heart. The one who he couldn’t be with, no matter how much he wanted to be, at any other time throughout the year.

“It’ll only be one day a year,” he whispered as his heart ached. It wasn’t as though the two of them saw each other any more than that. In fact, it there had been years in the past where they hadn’t seen each other at all. A set day would at least guarantee them that one day even if it was all they got. “Like Orihime and the cow hearder.”

“One day a year to love you,” Gai corrected him. “That’s better than nothing.”

Tanabata was Kakashi’s favorite holiday. It always had been.

It seemed only fitting that he would take that holiday and use it for himself. Surely Orihime and the cow hearder would understand. If they were to look down on the earth during their time together and see Kakashi and Gai sitting there staring up at the sky together, they would see two human’s who faced the exact same problem as they did.

They would be more than happy to share their day with Kakashi and Gai, of that Kakashi was certain.