"You're as beautiful as ever, " Gai smiles as they drop to the soft grass, breathing heavy from training. His face is smooth, unmarred by time or battle, and his hand comes up to toy with Lee's braid. Lee reaches out to cup the side of his face in one hand, thumb moving softly over his skin. The sun is shining down on them, coming between the leaves and giving everything an emerald glow, and a breeze moves the leaves just enough to make the light shift as Gai leans in to kiss him.
"Lee! Gai!!" Naruto calls from the peak of the next hill over, waving his arms and jumping up and down as if he's still an immature twelve-year-old instead of the Rokudaime Hokage of Konohagakure. He sends a kunai flying toward them; it buries itself into a nearby tree and suddenly he's balancing on one foot atop it. "Sakura's pregnant again! Tsunade says it's gonna be a boy this time!"
"That's great, Naruto," Lee grins and leans back against Gai as Naruto hops down off the kunai. He's still wearing his robes of office.
"Do you know whose it is this time?" Gai chuckles and Naruto blushes, covering it with a huge grin.
"We think it's Sasuke's this time," the same smile as always, "Which is fair, y'know, since the last one was mine. You remember what happened when Awaji was born with blond hair."
"Everyone remembers that," Lee laughed. "You were black and blue for weeks, until she bubbled something that sounded like 'katon'."
"So let's pray that this one's got black hair, right?" then they're all laughing again, because they all remember, and the world's finally coming together as it's meant to be.
Then Lee sees the smoke over Naruto's shoulder, off on the far side of Konoha. "Naruto--!" Lee yells as he jumps up, and before the name the name is even out of his mouth Naruto turns from happy father-to-be into something else; his eyes narrow and his body tenses, and heat emanates from his body as he spins about to face Konoha. His ears twitch at an unheard sound and then he's gone in a flash of light.
-----
"You need to get some sleep, Lee," Neji says quietly. Lee has dark rings around his eyes, and he seems to be having a hard time sitting up straight.
"Yeah, I actually caught you with a shuriken today," Tenten adds, resting her chin on her fists and looking at the shallow cut on Lee's cheek. "I haven't managed that since we were like, 12!"
Lee raises his head enough to look at her tiredly for a moment, then stands. "I should get going." He sets a handful of ryo on the table next to his half-full plate of curry.
"Lee, no, I'll pay for lunch today, don't worry about it," Tenten is pulling out her wallet, but Lee is already bowing and stepping away from the table. She starts to stand up and go after him but sits back down again with one hand half-raised. "B-bye, then..." She stares after him as he ducks under the cloth hanging in the doorway, hand slowly falling back to the table. "Every day, isn't it? Right around this time..." she says quietly without turning away from the doorway as Neji takes another sip of his tea. "Where does he go?"
Neji sets his cup down with a small sigh, eyes closed, then opens them to look after Lee. "You can't guess?"
-----
"They're getting harder to find," Lee whispers as he sets a lily on the stone. He stands and steps away from it, taking a deep breath as he closes his eyes and turns his face to the sky. Slowly, he moves into a fighting stance, beginning a taijutsu form in the calf-high grass. His fists break the air for several moments before he pulls them close again, legs coming up in a series of wide-reaching kicks that spin him in cartwheels across the grass before he lands on his hands, fluidly rotating to reverse his momentum. He silently moves in the other direction, hands and feet dealing and deflecting blows. His eyes are still closed as he lets his muscles take over where his mind is no longer needed due to years of practice.
-----
They don't need any time to prepare, off like a shot back toward Konoha. Lee and Gai bound together down the hill, halfway between running and falling down the steep slope, and they leap together off a boulder jutting out of the ground to land in the lower boughs of the trees surrounding them. There's none of the joy on their faces there usually is, only determination to stop whoever dared to hurt their village. They're halfway through town when Ino appears beside them, leaping from building to building.
Lee's eyes go wide. "Inochan--" She's heavy with child, but ignoring her body's condition in favor of her mind's commands to defend her village. "You shouldn't be out like this right now!"
"They might need me," she's breathing heavily already, but her eyes are too full of determination to let her body stop yet.
"Go home, Ino," Gai's voice holds more command than Lee could ever hope to. Ino looks at him, a glimmer of doubt in her eyes, but his level stare makes her turn back.
"Promise you'll send for me if you need me!" she calls after them, and Lee waves in acknowledgement before facing forward again.
-----
Lee. Lee. "Lee."
Lee's eyes snap open, his body freezing mid-kick an instant before his foot would have slammed into the side of Kakashi's head.
"You haven't been sleeping again, have you?" Kakashi asks, but it's more of a statement than a question. He doesn't seem the least bit bothered by Lee nearly taking his head from his shoulders.
Lee blushes and lowers his foot, letting himself drop to the ground. "I'm sorry, Kakashisan, I should have been more careful, I just didn't think you would be here so early--" Kakashi raises an eyebrow, and suddenly Lee realizes the sun is all but set. "Oh no...I was supposed to meet Kiba after lunch...I only meant to be here for a little while--" he starts to stand again, but Kakashi pushes him back to the ground. Or tries to; Lee's instincts take over and they trade quick, light blows for several seconds as Lee tries to stand and Kakashi prevents him one way or another. Finally Kakashi grabs Lee's braid and catches him in the forehead with a solid flick of two fingers and Lee gives in, sitting back on the soft grass.
"Kiba doesn't mind that you didn't come," Kakashi says lazily as he pulls out Icha Icha Paradise and turns to watch the last flares of the sunset. Some leftover from his childhood makes Lee blush at the sight of Kakashi holding that perverse book so blatantly. "He gave it to me, you know," Kakashi says a few moments later, shaking the book slightly to make its pages flutter as Lee starts to stand again.
"What?"
"Gai. He gave me this copy of Icha Icha Paradise. It was his present to me for graduating to Jounin." He pauses. "...I usually keep it at home, so it won't get damaged." Lee falls back to the ground, all strength gone from his legs.
He doesn't realize he's crying until he sees the tears on his hands. Kakashi pretends not to notice for a few moments as Lee begins to sob quietly, but when the tears don't stop he kneels beside Lee and sets a hand on his shoulder. He fumbles for words for a few moments as Lee turns his face toward the base of the memorial, fingers digging into the soil where it meets the stone as they search for an outlet for the pain.
"...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought him up." Lee can't stop the tears now, burying his face in his hands and digging his fingers into his scalp as if it could release the pounding there.
"When will the nightmares stop, Kakashi?" he chokes out between sobs. "When will I be able to fall asleep at night and not miss him next to me...not dream of how things used to be...?"
Kakashi doesn't answer for several moments, just squeezes Lee's shoulder gently. Finally he sighs and stands up, looking out over the memorial and to the stars that are beginning to glint in the sky. Lee never noticed the lines around his eyes until just now. Somehow Kakashi had seemed more eternal than the mountains, unaging and unchanging even when everyone around him did. He looks so tired; Lee can see it now in the droop of his shoulders and the shadow of his mouth behind his mask. "...I'll let you know."
-----
"Lee, oh Lee..." Gai pants as he thrusts into Lee, arms holding them tight against one another. Lee wraps his legs around Gai's waist as a low keen escapes his lips.
"Don't stop...don't stop..." Lee is whimpering and his nails dig into Gai's back as he tries to find something to ground him so he doesn't come yet. He squeezes his eyes shut and buries his face against Gai's shoulder, biting hard into Gai's skin. He tastes like sweat and summer and burning chakra. Gai gasps in pain and pleasure and pulls Lee down harder against him in time to his thrusts; Lee cries out and his back arches, pulling his upper body away from Gai. Lee can feel Gai coming inside him as the man pulls them tight together again despite the fact that Lee is writhing so badly he can barely hold on to him.
When Lee can finally breathe again he runs a hand down the side of Gai's face. The scars he had become so accustomed to feeling are gone. Lee opens his eyes and Gai is smiling in that small way of his, the smile he hardly shows to anyone. Gai brushes a strand of hair away from where it was stuck to Lee's face, leaning in to kiss him. "I love you." Lee sits stock-still, eyes filling with tears. When Gai pulls away from him he looks at him oddly. "Lee?"
"G-Gai..." tears are streaming down his face, now, and he throws his arms around his former sensei. "I miss you...I miss you so much..." he's sobbing into his dream's shoulder, not caring it's not real, only caring that for this instant he can pretend that Gai is really there. "It hurts so bad...I don't know what to do anymore..."
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ok, from here on the story splits into two - the happy ending and the sad ending. Just pick whichever you want to read; you don't have to read both, although I'd reccommend reading the sad ending(so you know what happened to Gai)and then the happy ending(so you don't want to kill yourself). I've been told they both seem equally likely, which makes me wanna cry cuz I love my Leekun v.v
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VC is actually going to draw a manga for this chapter o.o
check out the title page
vampireking deviantart com/art/the-end-cover-line-art-60473222
some character sketches
vampireking deviantart com/art/broken-love-the-end-sketches-61453243