A/N: So for a really long time now I wanted to write a serious Gai because I do feel like we make him a one dimensional character. This is a friendship fic but I'm sure you can find yaoi if you search for it. And I do mean dig. Read/Review
Disclaimer: Is this even necessary? I obviously don't own anything but sue away if you want to.
--Young people are in a condition like permanent intoxication, because youth is sweet and they are growing.—
Gai has never been in pain this way. It hurts, everything hurts. His eyes are sore, his back is aching, his legs feel wobbly like jello, and his arms feel as if he can't lift a newspaper…he feels weak…frail. He's tired and haggard and beaten and if Kakashi wasn't there he's sure he'd fall right over. His usual green jumpsuit is destroyed and he feels like pieces of him were ripped off with it. If anyone from the village saw him they probably wouldn't recognize him and even it they did they probably wouldn't want to. Kohona is only 3 miles away…only…but it doesn't feel like only anymore. Just 5 days ago this distance would have felt like 10 minutes but now it's a lifetime…and he can't, he just can't anymore. With one burst of strength he pushes himself off of Kakashi and falls ungracefully on to the dirt. "Kakashi I…" and its just Kakashi, not rival not any ridiculously long preface speech of youth, no images of waves on a beach and no dazzling smile—its just that one name rolling somberly off his lips. "Yes, my eternal rival?" and Kakashi is smiling, trying to soothe the situation but Gai can't help the urge to punch him in his masked face. This isn't something to smile about, this isn't funny, and Gai can't help but feel like a joke—not just to Kakashi but to everyone. A joke, a caricature, a clown, a jester—and Gai can't get over this sudden want to, for once, be taken seriously. "Kakashi" this time it's more forceful, ripping itself, with a crackling, raspy sound, from his throat. Kakashi stares at him deeply, differently, as if looking at a ghost or a stranger or just something he's not sure of. "Kakashi I…" his heart is thundering and his head hurts and god his back is on fire and—with a sudden dreadful realization words tumble past his chapped lips and Gai feels--… "I'm not young anymore"—old. Gai feels so tired and frail and old…fading permanently from him his youth.
--Once you pass its borders you can never return again—Toyland
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