AN: Hello! Thanks for the first comments and favourites Here is the second chapter, hope you like it. And for those who mentioned it, don't worry I won't be forgetting my other fanfic, Ramen Soup for the Soul. I will be updating that one this week weekend.

In this chapter I will again be writing flashbacks, mixed amongst the current situation. All time skips and segments will be separated clearly though, so it shouldn't be confusing (hopefully!) Enjoy!

Chapter 2

"Hey."

No answer.

"Hey rival."

The silver boy haired boy wouldn't meet his eyes. He kept his eyes to the sky, bathed in the silvery glow of the moon. He looked almost angelic, his skin luminescent.

"Kakashi... why are you crying?"

The boy's eyes finally stirred, locking onto his own.

"I never cry."

And with that he was gone, running off into the shadows of the night.

"Kakashi wait! Rival, come back, I'm sorry!" Gai started to run, until he felt the firm grip on a man holding him back.

"Leave him be, Gai." The blond haired, blue eyed man said his voice calm. "You won't get anything out of him tonight. Kakashi needs to deal with in his own way."

"But Minato-sensei, why is Kakashi crying? Why won't he talk to me about it? That's what rivals are for!"

Minato's smile was genuine and warm. He chuckled. "Yes, you are right, little beast. But Kakashi is in a place none of us can reach. We just need to let him grieve."

"Grieve for who?"

"His father."

"A year? A whole year? This can't be happening. Am I still in the asleep?"

"Look, I know it is a shock ninja-san, but please calm down!"

"You said over a year. Just how long is that?"

The old man sighed. His daughter timidly piped up. "A year and four months."

"No..." Gai leaned with his head in his hands. This couldn't be happening. How did this happen. Surely the village wouldn't just assume he was dead. Surely they would come looking for him. The Hokage would have sent someone, surely, not just given up?

He felt the other two exchange a nervous look. Then the girl went bustling round a kitchen, and brought back a bowl of miso soup and some vegetable gyoza. Gai felt sick, he didn't even look up at the food.

"Please... you need to eat. How will you ever return if you don't gather your strength?" The girl was sweet, kind, he was glad he had saved her before. She had been attacked and would have been raped. Gai had taken out her pursuers and escorted her home.

She held the food out to him, her tanned hands rough from working in the fields. She was strong but still very feminine, very curvy. Her eyes were kind and he had liked her immediately. He felt dizzy from all that had happened, all the emotion he had felt after so long of nothingness. She was right. He nodded and took the bowl gratefully.

"Thank you...?"

"Kairi." She smiled. "And this is my father, Shigeru."

The old man bowed. "Ninja-san-"

"Gai," he smiled also feeling affection for the old father.

"Yes, Gai-san. Thank you for saving my daughter. I know you must be desperate to return home, but I want you to know, you are welcome to stay here as long as you want."

"Yes, you should rest a bit more with us before setting off," Kairi added with a mother's fussiness.

Their kindness brought tears to Gai's eyes. Without warning he pulled them into a bone crushing hug.

"You are so good to me! But it is I who should be thanking you! You have saved one of the leaf's best." Here he let them go and allowed them to breathe again.

"So you'll stay?" The old man asked.

"Hmm," Gai scratched his chin, caterpillar brows furrowed. On the one hand he wanted to return to Konoha straight away. But he was weak from the coma, and it would be a long lonely trip back. He had always been the type to rush into things without really thinking it through; but maybe that was how he had gotten into this mess in the first place, by charging into battle.

"OK, for a couple of days. Then I really have to get back."

They both smiled at him, and pushed his food to him once again, happy to finally see him eating himself after all this time.

It was three months after the Kyuubi attack and Gai had had a lot of trouble getting to see Kakashi. It had been the same with his father, Obito, Rin... and now Minato-sensei. Kakashi always withdraw into his pain, not allowing anyone to reach him, not even Gai.

This time Gai managed to track the teen down to a seedy bar. He was drinking sake at the bar through his mask, his eyes red but his expression blank, unfeeling.

Gai sank into the seat next to his friend... his love. For even though he had known of his feelings. And he had never felt so strongly about another person. Never.

"I'd challenge you to a drinking competition, but it looks look you've already won," he began, watching the jonin. Kakashi was in Anbu now, and when he wasn't skulking in the shadows or mourning at the graveyard, he was burying himself in missions- the most deadly ones available. It was like he wanted to die. Kakashi had never been so reckless before.

"Very funny," Kakashi said, taking another sip. They sat in silence for a while. To others, this didn't seem to say much about their friendship, but Gai knew for Kakashi to be able to sit with in comfortable silence meant he was comfortable with him and trusted him. And Kakashi trusted fewer and fewer people these days.

"So," Gai continued, doing a nice Gai pose. "Eating contest?"

"Huh, trying to sober me up then? I can see right through you, rival."

Despite himself, Kakashi smiled. The truth was, Kakashi looked like he wasn't eating either. Gai had to take care of him somehow even if he had to resort to unconventional methods.

"Well if your too afraid..."

The silver haired ninja put his hand on his. "Thank you, Gai. For being here. My friends seem to be getting fewer and fewer. But I still have you..."

Gai's eyes watered. He pulled Kakashi into a hug.

"OK Gai, let's go. That food won't eat itself."

But Gai wouldn't let go just yet. He was willing the other man to feel his love. He wanted Kakashi to know that he could always depend on him.

"Well, isn't this cosy?"

Oh great. Gai knew that voice.

"Tenzo," Kakashi said in greeting. "What's up?"

"Oh I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" His smirk at Gai seemed to acknowledge that he was. "It's just that, there is a new mission available from the base, and I suggested to the Hokage that you would be interested Kakashi-senpai."

Kakashi hesitate, glancing at Gai guiltily.

"Do you mind?"

Yes, he bloody did mind! But he wasn't about to say that to Kakashi, in the state he had been in recently. And he didn't want Yamato to see how much it hurt him, Kakashi being taken away like that when he had just been excited about their eating contest... he had been deluded himself that it would be just like a date.

Gai forced himself to smile, do his infamous pose, pointing to the stars outside. "No, my dear rival! You must go forth and defend the village. I would never expect anything less heroic from my eternal rival. We can finish our competition upon your return."

"Err, right..." Yamato said sarcastically.

"Kakashi patted Gai on the back. "Thank you."

He walked out of the bar and out of Gai's life for the next month, far away on a mission, Yamato trailing behind him with an annoying grin on his face. Gai was once again reminded of just how much he hated ANBU.

It was mid-evening in the small village and Gai had been fed and showered. But after so much sleep he felt restless, even though he was still weak and queasy. The old man was already in bed, but Kairi was nowhere to be seen. Gai decided to go for a walk. He was in a strange mood.

He walked across the coast when he heard Kairi call his name. She was sat wrapped in a blanket in front of a fire on the beach. She beckoned him over.

"Why don't you join me?" She said. "Here, I have a hot flask of tea and some snacks."

"Thank you," Gai said, returning her smile and taking a seat. He could use a distraction anyway. It was hard passing the time here. He supposed tomorrow he would throw himself into training to prepare for his journey home.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better," he said. "Not so wobbly anymore."

"Ah, so your strength is returning. You'll be in top shape in no time!"

"Of course! They don't call me the green beast for nothing, you know!" He struck a strong man pose, showing off his biceps. Kairi laughed.

The silence fell as Gai found his mind drifting back to home.

"So who is it?" Kairi asked, her brows raised, her gaze suddenly all-knowing.

"What?"

"Who is it you are thinking about? Ever since you woke you keep mentioning your village, your friends, and then fall into that silence. I don't know you very well, but you don't seem like the quiet type to me. Hell, when you escorted me back to the village, I could barely get a word in!"

Gai sighed and looked at the flames. "Is it that obvious?"

"Yes. To me it is anyway. I have a knack for these things."

"I see. You're good."

"Of course," she smiled with her eyes closed, bright and full of affection for her savour and patient. "So, are you gonna tell me then? We have all night and neither will be going anywhere anytime soon.

Gai laid back on the sand, looking up into the night sky, seeing his love's masked face.

"Where to begin..."