Written for KakaGai Week, Day 2: AU
Kakashi twitched, squeezing his eyes tighter and sighing.
The trumpeting continued echoing down through the window above his bed, which Kakashi had left open a crack the night before. A decision which he was now beginning to regret.
The window made the tiniest squeaking sound as it opened, the only sound that gave away the entrance of- "Rival!" Gai crowed.
The only sound that gave him away until he opened his mouth, anyway. And from far too close to be so loud, as well, as usual.
Keeping his eyes closed, Kakashi ignored his friend and clung to the blind hope that he could continue sleeping. It wasn't much founded in actual experience, but Gai had entirely too much pull of his own to survive life around him if one didn't match him with equally stubborn persistence.
Kakashi winced as the trumpeting returned, this time with the bloody crane surely right above his head. He might be able to mimic sleep, but he certainly couldn't actually reclaim it with the great Beast and his posturing daemon right over his head.
He lifted his head and opened his eyes, looking sideways at his friend. Gai grinned brightly, and Kakashi groaned. He was drowned out by the dratted crane. The heavy weight snug against Kakashi's hip and side shifted, with a soft rumble.
"Oh, do shut up." Kanami rolled over and snapped her jaws near the bend of Hiroshi's nearer wing as he hopped down onto the bed, but didn't bother to rise.
Hiroshi made a burbling sound low in his throat, bowing his head and preening her ruff affectionately, unmoved by the threat of her fangs.
Kakashi yawned and wriggled to slide further into his bed, tugging to pull the duvet further over his face. Kanami's weight kept it from coming up too far, but he settled a little deeper all the same.
"Rival!" Gai called encouragingly, looming over him, and Kakashi sighed. "The sun has risen, the day is young, a perfect time to launch into a new round of youthful challenges!"
Kakashi squinted, and Kanami tipped her head back far enough that her ears folded and the top of her head rested against the mattress, meeting his gaze. Kakashi cocked his own head to look out the window at the bright but still thin light of a new day.
"You know how I feel about rising at dawn when it's not necessary." Kakashi sighed and ducked his chin, turning his gaze away from the window again. And he was still catching up on a deficit of sleep from his last mission, and the eight days he had spent running on a few snatched moments of sleep, still on alert for threats and his target.
"Not all of us like to greet the morning sun." Kanami huffed, underlining the point, rolling over and stretching out her legs, back arching. Her spine pressed against Kakashi's side from calves to shoulder as she uncurled herself, and he pressed his elbow against her lightly through the blanket. "Especially in the summer." she huffed, kicking her paws.
Hiroshi took several careful, high steps around her rear legs, flapping his half-open wings. "Some of us are not so lazy." he replied, with a toss of his head.
"Some of us are not so mad." Kanami retorted dryly, although really, they had been called that and worse at least as often as Gai and his Hiroshi.
"Ah, but it is such a pleasant day for training!" Gai declared, fists on his hips.
"We'll come train later." Kakashi stuck his fingers over the top of the blanket and waggled them at Gai. "At a reasonable time. I'm sure the day will be forgiving of the delay."
Hiroshi stretched his neck out, almost tilting his head upside down to peek at Kakashi eye to eye. "Of the afternoon?" he filled in, and Kakashi smiled at him, eye crinkling. Hiroshi huffed, arching his broad wings a little further, though he had to keep them close so as not to strike the walls of Kakashi's tiny apartment.
"You could join us until then instead." Kakashi suggested, meeting Gai's gaze from beneath his lashes. Gai wavered visibly. "That way you could be sure you won't miss me." he coaxed, smirk hidden by the thick material of his blanket.
"We would-" Hiroshi began, and interrupted himself with a bugling call when Gai's hand slid over his neck. He hitched his wings against his body as he closed them and clicked his beak.
"One cannot train properly without sufficient rest, of course." Gai allowed, taking a step closer.
Hiroshi's feathers fluffed up slightly before slicking back down. "But we have-"
Kanami tipped her head up, straightening her front legs and pressing her nose against Hiroshi's broad breast, knocking him gently over and pinning him under one paw. Hiroshi complained stridently, and smacked Kanami right in the muzzle and Kakashi across the shoulder with one wing as he flailed, feet kicking. The blow was mild enough not to cause any damage; Hiroshi was trying to regain his balance rather than lashing out.
"They have only just returned from a mission." Gai reminded Hiroshi, disentangling one of his feet from the blanket. Hiroshi muttered something, too quietly to be understood, but he didn't argue any further as Gai slipped off his flak vest and draped it over the shelf below the window. "Inactivity can in some cases be prudent."
Kakashi smiled and stretched one arm out above the blanket, digging his fingers through Kanami's thick ruff, then closed his eyes. He didn't bother moving to make it easier for Gai to climb into his bed, though he did loosen his hold on the blanket as he felt the mattress dip.
Kanami huffed, dragging herself to her feet and pacing down the bed to curl into a neat ball by Kakashi's calves. He pulled his legs up a bit closer to his body to give her more room, and Hiroshi delicately climbed up to nestle himself on top of her, the forward edge of one wing resting along the back of her neck.
Kakashi yawned and turned closer into Gai as one arm slipped behind his head, leaning against Gai's broad chest. He was aware his plans for lazing away the better part of the day before resuming his training were likely skewed now, as there was no way Gai would stay in bed all morning, even if had missed Kakashi enough to be coaxed into a nap after the sun had risen.
Gai rubbed his back, and Kakashi sighed, beginning to drift towards sleep once more now that the trumpeting and enthusiastic shouts insistently trying to get him out of bed had ceased.
"It's good to see you." Kakashi said sleepily. "I look forward to our spar later."
Gai hummed happily, and Kakashi smiled.
I do tend to think Kakashi actually trains insanely hard himself as well (not to Gai's level but then no one does, except Lee) but he values his lazy moments much more highly, and prefers to emphasise that part of his personality to others.
Kanami is a Hokkaido wolf (making her lanky and slender, but about six feet from nose to hindquarers and roughly 100 pounds). Hiroshi is a red-crowned crane (about five feet tall, with an eight foot wingspan). These are the same daemons I've written for these boys before (for an incomplete piece) and FYI I recommend not looking up what red-crowned cranes sound like at 4am when you're sitting in the dark about to go to sleep. (That is what I did. They don't sound terrifying or anything, but it was . . . ahem, bracing.)