Hey, everyone. So sorry I haven't been posting, I've been busy and have been writing primarily on my phone, which makes uploading to Fanfiction a pain. I promise I'm going to try to upload here more often, but if you want to guarantee you're getting the latest, head over to my AO3 account of the same name. I've also got some other KakaGai fics up over there, so head over there and check them out! I am not planning on uploading them here as most of what I write is deliciously smutty and that is frowned upon here (plus I think Archive is much more user friendly, especially since I primarily use my phone since I'm never at my computer anymore!) But while it is not in my plans to transfer those over right now, I am not abandoning this story on this account. So, without further ado, have a massive chapter dump to get us up-to-date! Enjoy!


His nose wrinkled, the awful smell of bleach invading everything he knew. His mind slowly faded into consciousness, and he was quickly regretting it as he registered the aches that lingered all over his body. He recognized that he was in the hospital (he had awoken here often enough for that smell to be permanently etched into his awareness, but he struggled to wake, trying to remember how he had gotten here. He remembered the mission, the warehouse…

He gasped, his eyes flying open. Gai. What had happened to Gai?! He attempted to sit up, tugging on wires that were both stuck on and in him, and tried to pull them off in frustration, but they wouldn't budge. He would love to say the hospital had learned a great jutsu to keep him here, but even he acknowledged that he was probably just too weak still. But that didn't stop him from trying to climb out of bed when he didn't see Gai anywhere around him.

Vaguely, part of his mind registered the frantically beeping heart monitor and the alarm sound it was letting off, alerting half the hall to his panic. The screaming alarm summoned a nurse, the head nurse, Kakashi noted somewhere in the back of his mind, who forcefully pushed him back down in bed, even as he struggled against her. "Now, if you try to leave this bed, I will sedate your ass, elite jonin or no," she said, one eyebrow raising above lavender eyes in a terrifying, matronly expression. Kakashi could do nothing but nod.

She turned to leave, but he reached for her, grabbing onto her wrist. His throat felt raw and he could already feel himself drifting back into the world of sleep, but he had to know first. He forced the single most important word in his life out of his lips. "Gai…" he managed to croak.

He saw the woman's eyes warm, her face softening into a smile as she nodded. "He's fine, dear. He just needs some rest now, like you." She patted his hand, and Kakashi felt relief wash over him as he succumbed to the darkness that loomed.

xXx

When Kakashi woke again, he found that there was another presence in his room. He tensed initially before recognizing how familiar the presence was, and he smiled. He forced his eyes open, despite their tired reluctance, and turned his head, taking in the beautiful sight that was his sleeping lover. His eyes raked over Gai's form, and though he wished he could see the man's radiant smile and youthful energy bounding out of him as normal (dear God, did he really just think that? He truly had been spending too much time with Gai…), he was content to watch the steady rise and fall of his chest, for now.

As he was about to go back to sleep, he heard Gai clear his throat, and his eyes shot open again. He turned to see Gai's eyes flutter open. Despite having the assurance of Gai's breath and heart monitor to assure him that he was truly alive, Kakashi felt his heart practically explode with relief upon seeing the man wake up. He was barely able to contain his joy, and struggled to force himself up in bed. At the sounds of his movement, Gai turned his head, though it looked like the action caused him a lot of pain. He grinned when he saw Kakashi, but it quickly turned to a wince as he shifted wrong.

Now that he had turned a little, Kakashi could see bandages rising from above the blankets to halfway up his chest, no doubt originating from the sword wound in his stomach. Kakashi felt a twinge of guilt, still feeling responsible for Gai's near-death, despite knowing there is nothing he could have done to stop the passionate and loving man from throwing himself in the way of any attack aimed at Kakashi. After all, protecting each other was what they did, what they had always done, and Kakashi would have done the same thing for Gai had the situation been reversed. When Gai coughed and a little blood came up, however, Kakashi panicked. He was reaching for the button to call the nurse before Gai's hoarse voice stopped him.

"It's alright, Kakashi… they told me that I would probably do this for a few days," Gai told him, his voice weak and rough. Kakashi hesitated with his hand on the button but didn't press it… yet. Gai shook his head weakly. "The sword… it punctured my lung. I inhaled a lot of blood, so my body is still trying to expel the last of it. You needn't worry, rival, I cannot allow myself to die until I have truly surpassed you…" he said, smiling with less than a significant fraction of his normal brightness.

For some reason, Kakashi found himself irrationally angry at Gai's joke. He forced himself to stand and managed his way to Gai's bed, leaning on the side of it for support. Gai looked shocked and slightly horrified, and opened his mouth to protest, but Kakashi slapped his hand over it.

"Do you have… any idea how scared I was?" Kakashi forced out, his own voice hoarse and quiet as well, though he was glad he was able to convey his anger through his tone despite his weakness. "God dammit, Gai, you almost died! I THOUGHT you died!" Gai was clearly concerned by the danger he could hear in Kakashi's tone, and recoiled slightly, his eyes closing as though willing to accept whatever punishment Kakashi considered fitting for him.

Instead, he was surprised to feel Kakashi's head come to rest on his chest, his spiky silver hair tickling his nose, and he opened his eyes to find that Kakashi had climbed onto his bed and snuggled up against him, tucking himself neatly against Gai's side on the narrow bed. He stared in disbelief for a moment, until he felt a drop fall on his chest. He looked up to the ceiling to find the leak, only to realize when another hit that it was tears… and they were coming from Kakashi! Kakashi was crying… for him… It made him feel both sad, and warm inside.

"I'm sorry, Kakashi," he said, his voice somber. "I didn't wish to hurt you, but… I couldn't do nothing." He grabbed Kakashi's chin and forced the man to look up at him. Tears welled in his own eyes as he saw them sparkling in his lover's. "I can't live without you, Kakashi…" he whispered.

Kakashi swallowed hard, and then pulled down his mask as he pressed his lips to Gai's in a gentle way. Gai returned the kiss slowly, intending to keep it chaste, but it quickly got out of hand. Soon, the two were panting and Kakashi moaned, pulling himself up in an attempt to straddle Gai, ignoring his body's protests. When Gai pushed him back down to the bed, he looked up at his lover, clearly disgruntled. Gai laughed slightly, wincing as the pain shot through his injured lung, and shook his head.

"As amazing as having you right now sounds, dearest rival, I could not… We are still injured and weak, and I do not wish to hurt you further. Plus, that pain may be awkward to explain to the nurses when they come in to heal you again, and you know they've given us that Hyuga nurse just so that we can't escape, so she'll know…"

Kakashi pouted, but sighed and accepted Gai's reasoning. He was right… Kakashi really didn't want to explain the pain in his ass for the matronly Hyuga nurse. He rested his head back down on Gai's chest and sighed again. There was so much he wanted to say to Gai, but expressing his anger had taken a lot more out of him than it should have, reminding him just how weak he still was. It was probably a good thing that Gai had stopped him; if he had tried to have sex with Gai in the state he was in, he probably would have passed out halfway through, and THAT would have been REALLY awkward to explain to the nurse. Instead he closed his eyes and curled tighter against Gai, allowing the rise and fall of his chest to lull him back to sleep.

After he fell asleep, Gai stayed awake as long as he could, staring down at silver hair that was surprisingly soft despite its appearance. He still found it hard to believe that this was truly happening, that all of this could be his. As he thought about it, watching his sleeping lover, a warmth grew in his chest that he was unfamiliar with, but it wasn't uncomfortable. He wasn't able to reflect on this for long, though, before the drugs in his system started taking effect and Kakashi slowly faded from view, leading him into a sleep filled with pleasant but confusing dreams revolving around a certain silver-haired someone, and Gai would later struggle to figure out just what they meant.