Lee waved goodbye to his teammates and Guy, glad to have time to himself on the training field for once. Someone was always there in the early morning, then team training in the late morning, lunch, individual sparring but still team-based in the afternoon, and then more often than not, alternating individual sessions with Guy in the evening. He loved his team, but he wanted time to train alone without having to go hide out in the back hills in the dead of night. He wanted the field to himself.

A couple weeks before, Lee had taught Guy in Dorei Dansu, and now all Guy wanted to do during Lee's training was spar with him. To an extent, Lee could understand his immediate obsession. New taijutsu for a taijutsu master – it was impossible for the man not to have a one-track mind. But Lee wanted to move forward in other ways, and the only way to do that was to practice.

He had originally gone to Sakura in hopes of learning better chakra control. She had told him that it was just hard work and that Rock Lee was a genius of hard work. Her instruction had been to try to very, very finely tune his control to use her chakra-augmented punch method that she had learned from Lady Tsunade. And her first step? Meditation.

Go sit somewhere quiet, she had told him. Sit there and focus. Recognize and reorder your thoughts. You can't focus unless you've cleared your mind up.

So, he sat down cross-legged under a battered tree. Meditation could not be that hard. His eyes closed, he inhaled deeply and released the tension in his shoulders with the breath. What was on his mind? Chakra control obviously, but he was currently working on that. His other secret training, that could be put aside. Guy's current obsession with Dorei Dansu? He inhaled again, unable to push the thought away for some reason.

At first, he wondered if he could not remove the thought because he was irritated with Guy, but then he forced himself to think further. If irritation was the surface, what lurked beneath?

Lee's eyes always tracked Guy's movements on the training field. If the man was in the air, Lee's eyes were right on his heels, watching and noticing. He noticed little things. Like the fact that when Guy sparred, he was absolutely as graceful as Daichi-sensei had ever been. Lee had not expected that when he considered how lithe the Mirror jōnin was compared to Guy's more muscular build. Lee wet his lips as he thought of Guy side-dodging Lee's blows, his hands on the ground with his fingers splayed wide for support – the muscles in his arms bulging under the thin fabric of his trademark jumpsuit. Lee noticed these small things about Guy. Things like his toned calves flying through the air. The solidity of his body connecting with Lee's own. The comforting weight whenever they ended up on the ground together. Lee's face grew hot as he realized that his former sensei was actually, well, built – for a lack of a better term.

I cannot think of Guy like that. He was almost like a father to me before, he chastised himself as he tried forcibly shoving the thought aside. Though, if he could not make the thought go away, he would need to reason his way through it. I have only had crushes on older men, my senseis. Maybe there is something wrong with me. Maybe I cannot tell familial feelings from romantic feelings. He recognized that it was sad that he would rather be mentally and emotional defunct than feel feelings for his childhood idol.

A frustrated growl escaped him. It would be impossible to practice chakra control now. The thoughts were rapidly overtaking any semblance he had of mental control and focus. Guy's smiling face kept dancing before his closed eyes instead of going away like it was supposed to. He tried to imagine Sakura punching each thought from his head, but even that did nothing to help. He just saw his mentor cartwheeling away from her blows.

"Mirror strike me down!" he groaned as he opened his eyes and forced himself to his feet.

Fine. If Lee could not cerebrally punch Guy from his mind, he would exercise him out. As he set off jogging, he wondered what could have triggered these feelings for Guy. It had to have been their new friendship. It had pushed them from their familiar, almost familial roles to that of near equals. Teammates, partners. Lee realized he never should have agreed to teach his mentor. Never. Because those feelings should not happen. He was never meant to feel romantically toward Guy. He was not one of those students.

But, that dastardly little part of his brain supplied, you are not his student, are you? You are his friend. He has nothing more to teach you. That is why you taught him and now you only spar. As much as it hurt him to admit it, his evil self was telling him the truth. He was planning his own studies and training. He was beyond needing Guy in that capacity.

And now you need him for other things, the wicked voice added so helpfully. He shouted in anger at the thought, startling a civilian woman tending her garden.

"My apologies, ma'am," he called out as he jogged past.

What was wrong with him? Maybe he was overreacting, allowing his thoughts to get the best of him. Before he went to the Mirror, how many times had he thought Neji looked very nice? People -men- were capable of thinking other people -men- looked nice, right? He could think Guy was attractive without being attracted to him – because that was not allowed to happen.

He was only overreacting.

Guy was an attractive man, and Lee was not attracted to him.

With that in mind and a new resolve, Lee pushed himself into his first set of laps around Konoha since returning.

Five hundred sounded good.