"Oi, Kakashi! Where's Gai?"
Slightly peeved, Kakashi raised his eye from his engrossing piece of porny literature to look at Genma, who had swiftly and, or so Kakashi suspected, strategically placed himself in his light.
Yo, have you seen Gai?
Is Gai around?
Do you know where Gai-kun is?
This kind of thing was starting to happen with alarming frequency. It was bothersome to be constantly interrupted by people looking for someone else, and Kakashi really didn't see the point of it.
"How should I know?" he asked, playing up his cluelessness for effect. "How come people keep asking me that, anyway?"
Seemingly surprised by this reaction, Genma cocked his head, senbon jerking as he bit down on it.
"You two are always together, duh."
Behind his mask, Kakashi's jaw set. There was absolutely no truth to that accusation! "We're not—" he began, only to stop mid-sentence. Before his mind's eye a recap of the previous week was starting to play.
Sunday – taking his dogs to the park where Gai ambushed him and ended up playing Frisbee with them
Monday – Gai coming over for a challenge, playing cards.
Tuesday – mission briefing with Gai on the squad
Wednesday – mission patrolling the Forest of Wind with Gai
Thursday – Ramen at Ichiraku's with Gai
Friday – meeting at the Hokage Tower… to be fair, everyone else had been there too… even at the party where Gai dragged him afterwards… so it didn't really count, did it?
Saturday – sparring with Gai on training field two
Sunday – carrying out the Third's order to repair damage done to training field two- Kakashi challenging Gai to do it by himself while Kakashi timed him, then to damage it again so Kakashi could do the repairs timed. Needless to say, Kakashi defaulted after step one was complete.
Today – well, damn.
For some strange reason, Kakashi felt himself blushing. "It's not like I want to—" His face grew even hotter. What the hell? "It's just easier to hang out with him than to try to avoid him," he said. That was it. He'd tried shaking off Gai for years. It simply never worked, so this was just his new tactic.
Genma shrugged, thankfully completely oblivious to Kakashi's sudden inexplicable discomfort. "You… didn't really need to explain that. It's not like one of you is a girl – because if that were the case, people would have started talking a long time ago! But, you know, with two guys, you're bros, we get it."
Kakashi was starting to feel a little nauseous. Maybe he was just hungry. Or maybe it was the smell coming from the barbeque place across the street.
"Like me and Raidou," Genma continued. "People ask me where he is all the time. It's getting kinda annoying, to be honest. Sooo, anyway, do you know where Gai is?"
"No, sorry, can't help you," Kakashi replied hastily, holding up his book again to signal the end of this conversation.
"Ah, well, worth a try, right? If you run into him, just tell him I'm looking for him, okay?"
"Sure," Kakashi said, watched Genma run off towards the training grounds, and breathed a sigh of relief when he vanished in the crowd.
As if on cue, the colorful curtain flaps over Yakiniku's entrance stirred and Gai stepped out onto the street, carrying their lunches in a plastic bag. Seeing him, Kakashi's stomach did an almost painful little flip.
Just hungry, he thought.