Title: Marriage of Hard Work and Genius
Author's Note: Sorry it took me so long to get this out. I got really busy suddenly but I will try to get two chapters out this week...if not three. Thank you for your patience and understanding as well as reviews. In some cases it helps me keep track of if a plot is working out the way it is suppose to. This chapter had to be split again because it was too long.
Kakashi was extremely nervous, more nervous than he should be just to be meeting Gai's parents. While Gai had gone out to bring his parents back to his house Kakashi was working on finishing dinner, and trying not to mess anything up.
He carefully set the table, before redoing it three times. He put special care into making the tea, before he began putting the dishes on the table, wishing his hands weren't shaking (but mostly wishing they could have come a couple months back, before he'd gained so much weight).
Opting to wear a kimono to hide the obvious weight gain more so than his uniform would, Kakashi waited impatiently by the table, standing where he could see the front door, he found himself wondering if Gai's father Dai, was anything like Soshi (who'd expected Kaela to remove his sandals for him as he entered the door). He hoped not.
Kakashi smoothed the lines out of his kimono, as he breathed deep, trying to understand just why he was feeling this way. He hadn't even felt this nervous when he'd met Minato for the first time. Or the Uchiha clan leader (he hadn't even felt this nervous, to the point of shaking, as he'd apologized to Obito's mother).
Staring at his parents Gai resolved that he would definitely have to see them more often if only to keep Ryuu from talking his ear off. Dressed in a black kimono with sakura blossom design, Ryuu could easily pass for a woman if he felt like it and apparently he did as he glided along holding firmly to Gai's arm. His long white hair held in place by decorated chopsticks.
Dai was a shadow behind them bringing up the rear with their bags in hand. Dressed in a formal hakama and overcoat in black and gray. Even closing in on his late fifties Dai still had an easy grace. Currently his face was drawn in a scrawl and Gai knew that as much as he would like to avoid what would likely be a horrible conversation he had no choice in the matter. If all went well he would be able to at the very least keep most of his skin attached.
Gai had seen fit to appraise his parents of the situation on the walk to his home rather than letting them find out when they got there. Ryuu was overjoyed but Dai had maintained his silence throughout. When Ryuu had prompted Dai for an opinion he had been met with silence.
As they moved through the village Gai was achingly aware that people were staring. Normally Gai didn't care but for some reason he felt more protective of them even though he was well aware that his family could take care of themselves. As they made it home and finally made it into the front door, Gai saw Kakashi standing by the table.
"Ryuu, Dai this is my spouse, Kakashi." Gai couldn't help but feel some pride in how well Kakashi looked and how his home was.
Kakashi hesitated, his mind going back to the first time he'd been introduced to Goro as a child. That was how he felt now staring at Dai, though he wasn't sure why. Moving forward after a slight pause Kakashi bowed to Gai's parents, assuming they were likely to be very formal.
"I'm pleased to meet you." he said honestly as he straightened, he was a little taken by how strangely attractive Ryuu was. "I've prepared dinner," Kakashi said taking a step back, and indicating the table, "I'm sure you're hungry after your trip." Kakashi added.
He felt as if he were at a loss of words, unsure of how to speak to these two people it seemed that neither of them knew. Glancing up at Gai Kakashi frowned slightly, "I'll get the tea." he added, before he turned and quickly walked away to get the teapot while Gai seated his parents. Returning after a moment with the teapot, Kakashi placed it on the table, before hesitantly taking his seat.
Taking the bags from Dai while the two removed their shoes. Gai seated them with Kakashi next to Ryuu where he would likely be more comfortable and Dai next to him. Something in Kakashi's initial expression when they walked in made Gai think that Kakashi was weary of Dai.
"Oh you look so cute. You were born to be pregnant." Ryuu cooed at Kakashi as he came back into view. "Though I can imagine it must have been a shock. I mean being able to have children will set anyone back. Wow look at this spread it looks delicious right Baboo?" Ryuu chattered away happily and Dai still remained silent.
"Why did you come if you were going to act this way?" Gai finally asked more than fed up with Dai's attitude. "Kakashi worked really hard on dinner so the least you can do is act civil. Whatever you have against me is all well and good but Kakashi didn't do anything for you to ruin this for him."
"Gai, let it rest for the moment." Ryuu sent Dai a sharp look. "He is just nervous about being here. Right dear?" When Ryuu received a grunt for his troubles, green eyes narrowed dangerously and Gai leaned away from Dai. He knew what that look meant. Dai seemed to realize it too and actually attempted to talk about something.
"You look very nice, Kakashi-san." Dai spoke quietly his deep voice booming even though his tone was not loud.
Kakashi was a little embarrassed by Ryuu's comment, his cheeks flushing pink, he looked down at his plate, unsure of how to respond. "Thank you, Ryuu-san." he said softly, listening, and observing, Gai and his family as they interacted.
They were pretty dysfunctional, he noticed, "Gai..." Kakashi said softly, not wanting him to argue with his father, he was glad when Ryuu stepped into the conversation, ending the argument before it began (or whatever it was Gai and Dai were planning on doing.).
Kakashi almost winced at Dai's comment, he had a voice much like Gai's Kakashi noted, "uh, Thank you, Dai-san." Kakashi said politely, glancing at Gai.
It felt so strange, so foreign to be sitting here, that he almost regretted suggesting the dinner to Gai. Only almost. "Ah," he glanced at Ryuu, hesitating before asking, "So, as a child was Gai very... eccentric?" he wondered absentmindedly if Ryuu and Dai had ever seen Gai the way he acted around the other jounins.
He realized after he asked the question that it could be totally misconstrued, "What I mean," Kakashi said quickly, "Was he always this hyperactive, and way too energetic." Kakashi said, suddenly feeling more awkward then he did before.
"Straight from the womb." Ryuu confirmed with a smile. "Sweetheart drop the sans please. They aren't necessary." Beginning the delicate process of serving his husband, Ryuu continued to talk. "In the womb as well. He was fond of kicking. I was sure one night that he was going to kick his way out of my stomach and of course he was a large baby so it was possible that he would have found a way."
"Being energetic runs in the family. If you are lucky your child will need more than four hours of sleep to be fully functional." Dai grunted.
"How awful that was." Ryuu laughed looking at Gai fondly. "He would go to sleep for four hours wake up and be on the move for twenty hours before going to sleep for four again. I remember hiring a ninja to watch him for a few hours and the ninja brought him back an hour later because he was exhausted."
"I was five and he wanted me to meditate." Gai was indignant.
"You could have done with some introspection." Dai grumbled.
"Enough." Ryuu smacked his husband and son expertly with a fan that seemed to magically appear in his hand before it disappeared again. Turning his attention to Kakashi, Ryuu directed a question of his own. "So am I designing clothes for a grandson or granddaughter? I am usually really good at telling but that kimono isn't giving me enough shape to go by."
"Kakashi wants it to be a surprise." Gai answered slightly disgruntled.
"Where is the fun in that?" Ryuu complained looking at Kakashi and batting his eyelashes while pouting. "Can I see it please?"
"Ryuu!" Gai and Dai both barked. Gai was horrified and Dai was exasperated.
"Let the man eat in peace." Dai sighed when Ryuu turned teary eyes in his direction.
Kakashi couldn't help but smile at the images Ryuu's words brought to mind, he did hope though, that his child wouldn't be that hyperactive. He was sure it would be though, his father and mother had both been hyperactive by nature, the fact that he wasn't, had always given him pause to think it over, it wasn't even that he was lazy, per se, just... bored.
"I..." Kakashi hesitated, he'd been having so many strange dreams about his father, and lately now his mother, he couldn't really begin to guess. And only once had he dreamed of a baby, but he'd never held it, only his father, he was absolutely positive the dreams meant nothing.
"I suppose." Kakashi finally said after his awkward pause, he glanced toward Gai, nervously, "I-if Gai doesn't mind." he quickly added, before he poured Gai a cup of tea, obviously awkward.
"I do mind actually. If is something that Kakashi has his heart set on I won't let you browbeat it out of him." Though Gai was excited by the prospect of knowing he preferred to go with what Kakashi wanted if only to avoid arguments later.
"No you don't you just don't want to sleep on the couch later." Ryuu commented shrewdly. "Look Dai he learned that lesson early in his marriage and you still haven't gotten it down yet.
"I married a harpy and he married a..."
"Dai-sama if you continue that train of thought..." Ryuu waved his fingers lightly but Gai could see the dangerous gleam was back.
"I married someone who puts up with me well all things considered." Gai finished for his father.
"Gai that presence..."
"Dai you are not going there." Gai shut down that train of thought.
"He doesn't know?" Dai demanded.
"He knows, sort of." Gai winced slightly, glancing at Kakashi.
Ryuu whistled lightly. "Well this just got awkward,, what a first impression we are leaving." Smiling at Kakashi, Ryuu shifted the subject deftly, "I understand your parents are no longer living. Do you have any other relatives?"
Kakashi was focused on Dai, obviously interested in whatever it was he and Gai were talking about, unable to really understand without them saying something he could put together, Kakashi turned his attention to Ryuu again, wondering how he had learned that both of Kakashi's parents were already dead.
"Uh, no." Kakashi said softly, "My whole family line is shinobi. I'm afraid that the memorial stone is littered with the Hatake name." Kakashi said, idly thinking that his own name should be there as well. "But Gai and I decided," he said after a moment, "that we didn't want our child to be a shinobi." if he could help it, he realized, he would keep at least one Hatake off of that stone.
"I'm sorry," Kakashi said as he picked his cup of tea up slowly, "You know about my parents?" he asked, glanced toward Gai, and narrowing his eye at the other man, an almost disappointed look on his face, "I wasn't aware you got much information on Shinobi where you lived. Let alone a rogue ANBU agent." Kakashi said as he took a sip of his tea, 'And a coward.' he thought bitterly.
"Oh when Gai told me your name I began to put things together actually and I hoped my guess was right." Ryuu explained. "You see I design clothes and weapons. You look like your mother feature wise from what I can tell but you have your father's coloring. I never forget a client. It isn't in my nature. The things I remember help me in business."
"It also makes you a nuisance when you get intuitive." Dai grumbled while Gai put his head down on the table.
"Kakashi forgive me if I brought up a touchy subject. I don't have a filter for what I say it just comes out." Ryuu apologized looking slightly wilted.
"Can we please for once have a normal conversation about the weather or something just not familial relations." Gai asked his dinner companions in general.
"Shinobi huh?" Dai thought for a moment. "Well if you are going to teach the child to fight at least someone can keep the dojo running."
"That is years down the road." Gai felt like smacking Dai.
"Udon could always do it in the interim." Dai shrugged.
"How is my little edible doing anyway?" Ryuu looked at Gai expectantly.
"His cell is a disaster but at the very least he is getting better at his genjutsu and taijutsu." Gai reported evenly glancing at Kakashi thoughtfully.
Kakashi looked at Ryuu slowly, so he had known his parents. It was so strange, he realized, to be sitting in the same room as someone who had once talked to both of his parents, who recognized him from knowing them. Kakashi realized as he looked down into his cup of tea, that he'd thought with Soshi dead he'd never have to be compared to his parents again.
"No, Ryuu." Kakashi said softly, "It's fine. I usually wouldn't be bothered by it," he admitted, surprised by his own honesty with Gai's parents (or Ryuu, anyway). Kakashi wondered idly, if Dai disliked shinobi. He didn't seem too fond of them anyway.
The fact that Udon, of all of the kids, was Gai's nephew surprised, and amused Kakashi."You knew them?" Kakashi asked after a moment of staring at Gai, wondering why he hadn't just told him, "Or was it just one job?" Kakashi added, ignoring Gai's plea to change the subject.
It was a little strange to realize he didn't know his own parents any better than he knew Gai's parents. It was also embarrassing. Kakashi was relieved, he realized, that Ryuu hadn't compared him to Sakumo.
"I knew Haruka very well. Your mother and I actually compared pregnancy notes. Apparently she could fall asleep standing up when she was pregnant. If I remember correctly she also despaired of your hair ever laying flat when you were baby, something about the Hatake cowlick." Ryuu murmured thoughtfully racking his brain.
"Sakumo had the same damn cowlick." Dai's lipped twitched in memory. "If I needed to be humbled and Sakumo was around he had no problem knocking me on my ass."
"Wait you knew Kakashi's parents that well?" Gai was a bit shocked.
"Haruka and I got along well because we lived next to each other for a bit before she married. I didn't know Sakumo more than in the here's my family weapon fix it way that most shinobi have." Ryuu shrugged. "Sakumo was never comfortable around me because he didn't know what to make of me."
"Very few people do." Dai smiled fondly at his spouse.
Kakashi was amazed by this new knowledge. He hadn't honestly expected Gai's parents to know either of his parents. Let alone both of them. They knew his family, before it was his family (not that he could really consider them his family, he thought). "You were friends with my mother..." he smiled softly, imaging his mother the way most would; kindhearted and considerate. And completely destroyed by his father.
Kakashi looked up at Dai when he spoke, unable to repress the slight smile at the thought. 'Like fathers like sons.' he thought wryly. Kakashi's hand raised up to lightly touch his hair, he'd already known that from the pictures. But it felt strange to have someone actually say it to him, it almost made it seem more real (almost made him think of Sakumo as a person again). Giving a slight shrug Kakashi regarded Dai, "Guess I inherited a lot more from him then I thought." he said softly.
"I broke that tanto." Kakashi said suddenly, remembering, again, the broken tanto laying in a box, in the bottom of his closet. Under his real ANBU uniform, with his Dog mask. He'd broken a lot more than that tanto, he realized.
"I don't act like Sakumo, do I?" Kakashi suddenly asked, before he could stop himself. He didn't want to act like Sakumo, because he didn't want to make the same mistakes his father had made (though he wasn't sure he'd ever be put in that position, the way Sakumo had been.).
"I don't know you well enough to say." Dai answered honestly.
"You are more polite than he was." Ryuu chuckled. "Dai-kun, remember when Sakumo knocked you through the wall and I decked him. He was so shocked he apologized." When Dai roared with laughter even Gai smiled slightly.
"I remember well, then you gave him an earful over something else he had done and told him to buy his wife something nice for putting up with him." Dai grinned.
"Sakumo adored that woman. It was funny really the man could be a complete ass but Haruka was his Sun and you were his stars. If he ever admitted it is another story."
Kakashi sat silently as he listened to Gai's fathers, obviously very interested in what they had to say about his father, though he wouldn't actually admit it. Dai's words surprised him, he'd known his father had loved his mother, but he wasn't quite willing to admit that his father had truly cared for him.
Shifting his hand away from the edge of the table where it'd been resting lightly, Kakashi pushed his plate away, though he hadn't eaten his food yet. Everyone had been telling him his whole life he was just like his father, and he was determined to prove them wrong. He would be a Dad, not just a father.
"This is all very interesting," he admitted, slightly reluctant to do so, "I've never known anyone willing to tell me about my parents. The most I've ever received, by way of information, was that they were excellent shinobi." Kakashi said, sounding slightly awkward to be admitting that.
"Really?" Ryuu looked taken aback but Dai looked thoughtful.
"Pardon me." Dai quietly excused himself to the guest room before returning with a book in hand. Opening it up he considered the contents thoughtfully before pulling out a letter and a picture.
"Here." Dai handed the picture to Kakashi and the letter. "A couple months after you were born Sakumo sent me a picture with a letter. I think you should have it."
The picture was of Sakumo holding Kakashi and looking at him, grinning happily. Off to the side, Haruka was grinning at the pair her hand gently on Kakashi's head as though to pat the hair down. The general feeling of the picture was overwhelming joy and excitement. Baby Kakashi was giving his father a toothless grin.
'Dai,
You said that fatherhood made you realize that you are only human and was more humbling than any ass kicking I ever gave you. Needless to say you were right. Don't let it go to your head or I will travel over there and knock you through a wall like that harpy you married did to me.
I can't help but stare at my son and realize that every day what I do matters to people. You were right again, Dai. Not everything is about the end objective but about the journey. People matter. Thank you for teaching me that if nothing else.
One day I hope our son's can meet. If so I know they will either try to kill each other or adore each other. Knowing this I have one request of you and I will ask at the time I visit next. Be ready.
Sakumo
Ryuu read the letter over Kakashi's shoulder and brushed a tear from his eye. "Why didn't I know about this correspondence? Is there anything else you are keeping from me?" Blinking at Dai slowly, Ryuu's head was slightly tilted.
"Not really." Dai hedged quietly. "Sakumo and I were an odd pair as far as friendship goes." Shrugging Dai settled down looking through some more photos. "We liked to boast about our sons. It was quite entertaining."
Kakashi barely looked at the picture, not that he wasn't grateful to Dai for giving it to him, just that he couldn't stand to see that side of Sakumo, and allow his mind to connect it to the man he'd known at the end. That man, Kakashi had come to realize over the past few months, wasn't his father. It was a broken man.
Reading the letter slowly, carefully, Kakashi hesitated before slowly folding it, and laying it on the table, strategically over his father, and him, allowing only his mother to show through. "Thank you, Dai." he said softly, as he gazed down at the picture.
"The only people who knew my parents didn't seem comfortable talking to me about them." Kakashi told Ryuu after a moment, "The last man in Konoha who knew my father well enough to call him friend, has recently passed." Kakashi added, slightly despondent suddenly.
"I am sorry to hear that." Ryuu commented quietly.
Dai simply grunted and went to put his box away. He could sense that he wasn't welcome. Switching to a language he knew Gai was fluent in but Ryuu had never gotten the hang of, Dai requested that Gai follow him.
Standing Gai began to clear up his and Dai's portion of the table. Nodding at Dai, Gai simply went and put things in the kitchen so he could clean up later. Walking back into the dining room, Gai walked over and gave Kakashi a quick kiss on the cheek in apology before kissing Ryuu on the head. Walking out he sighed and dropped his overcoat.
Ryuu gave an exasperated sigh. "I hate it when they do that. One day I will figure out how to speak that language." Turning to Kakashi Ryuu smiled softly.
"Let's move on to other topics. Do you have any questions about anything for me?"
Kakashi furrowed his brow slightly, not understanding which language Gai and Dai were communicating in. He could understand Ryuu's annoyance on the subject. Kakashi turned to Ryuu, there were a million things he wanted to ask, so many things he wanted to know.
But his tongue wouldn't, or possibly couldn't, form the words.
He didn't know Ryuu, but he felt strangely comfortable with him. And Ryuu didn't know him. Ryuu didn't know the Copy Ninja. Ryuu didn't care how powerful he was (just that he could make his son happy). Finally Kakashi said, "I don't know anything about children."
"And... I'm scared." Kakashi heard his own voice, but it didn't seem as if it belonged to him, "That I won't be able to..." Kakashi hesitated, his mind was reeling, and he couldn't tell if he was thinking these things or saying them, "love my child." Kakashi's eye shifted to the letter laying on the table top.
"Ahhh...A common thing." Ryuu murmurred. "You can read all the books on children but it won't help do more than give you an outline for what to do with your own child." Calmly Ryuu continued, "Loving your child isn't mandatory or even necessary from what I understand but somehow someway you come to care for them."
Shifting a bit Ryuu sighed. "Let's leave the dishes and go get comfortable in the living room. I have a story I wish to tell you if only because I have been in a situation that you may find a bit similar to your own in some ways and marginally different in others." Rising Ryuu made his way into the living room. "I say we leave the dishes for our other halves to do."
Setting on the couch Ryuu got comfortable waiting for Kakashi.
Kakashi hesitated before rising to follow Ryuu, he'd never been good at leaving dishes sit unattended, but follow Ryuu he did. He'd almost expected Ryuu to find it shocking that he didn't already care for the child growing inside of him. Kurenai had seemed to expect him to be gushing with happiness over the fact, when she'd first heard, and seemed almost disgusted with him when he hadn't.
Pausing by the couch Kakashi wondered what story Ryuu could possibly have to tell him, but despite himself, he was interested. Sitting on the couch, Kakashi folded his hands in his lap, and gave Ryuu his full attention.