Work Text:
Midday and midnight. Two sides of the same elemental phenomenon. Rising and setting. The presence of one anticipates the presence of the other. One acts as a prelude to the other.
Rising and setting. Dawn and dusk. Darkness and light. Complimentary in every way.
Midday almost always held the sun, midnight sometimes cradled the moon.
The sun was always whole, always shining down on the world below, illuminating the way and providing life. The moon only casts a full glow once in a while, when the phases of it would allow. When the moon becomes full, it is trying to cast as much of a glow as the sun, trying to remind itself that it, too, is capable of shining.
The moon goes through different cycles, but the night sky remains. The midnight sky is a steady presence, the sky changing whether or not it wants to shine a little light. It only learned how to shine by watching the sun.
The illumination of the moon, the twinkle of starlight, there were many components that make up the midnight sky - the longer you stare at it, the more complex it is. The longer your eyes adjust, the more you can see.
The midday sky is defined by the presence or the absence of the sun - the changes to it are influenced by how much of the sun can shine. The midday sky is adorned with brilliant blues and starch whites, complimentary accessories that only add to the reminder of what it means to be alive.
Even the phases of the moon are influenced by the sun.
The earth rotates, the midday and the midnight skies always chasing one another. One dawns, one sets. One is darkness, one is light. They push each other, oppose each other, compliment each other. Depending on how the sun sets influences the evening sky, and depending on how clear the stars are impacts the early morning.
Kakashi knows he is the midnight. Cloaked in darkness, now you see him, now you don’t. He has stages within himself, turns of his own soul, phases when he has to give his all for the village, phases when he wants to be alone, phases when he needs to be around people to remind himself what it means to live, all the while anticipating the return of the sun in his life.
And so if he is the midnight, Gai is the midday. The entire daylight, really. Gai walks into a room and Kakashi’s path is immediately illuminated. Things become so much clearer in the wake of his footsteps, and the solitude that comes with the middle of the night becomes that much more bearable.
Here, now, tangled together in Gai’s bed, Kakashi’s leg slotted between Gai’s, his head pillowed on his chest, Gai’s arms wrapped around him tightly, Kakashi thinks that he has waited his whole life for it to become day. He was born in the darkness, forged by the shadow, grew in the concealment. He thinks how easy it is to hold the sun in his arms, any time of the day, any time of the night. All he has to do is reach out and ask, and the rays of the sun will shine in his direction.
They laid together, hands between their bodies, fingers interlaced together. Every now and then Gai’s fingers would come up and brush back the strands of Kakashi’s hair, and Kakashi would trace the slope of Gai’s eyebrows. Kakashi had never felt so safe, so relaxed. So loved.
Gai always called Kakashi his “man of destiny.” Kakashi used to roll his eyes at the ridiculous declaration, but now he marvels at how accurate it feels. Men of destiny, destined for each other always. An unstoppable force falling in love with an immovable object. The concept of the daytime falling in love with the notion of the nighttime.
“I have such wondrous plans for our day, rival! First we will get up and run 500 laps around the village - you on your feet and me on my hands, of course! Then, to revitalize our youth, we will each attempt to eat five, no, ten bowls of rice! Then, we shall - “
“Ah, sorry, that interferes with the staying in bed challenge that I am issuing right now,” Kakashi said, burrowing his face deeper into Gai’s chest.
“Come now, rival, we must hold fast in the ever long quest to push ourselves! How can we hope to continue to improve?”
“That’s too much moving around for our day off tomorrow. I’ve gotta be able to keep tabs on my lunatic,” Kakashi said, gripping Gai’s hair gently to tip his face to look at him.
“But I am usually right here!” Gai said brightly. “Or the training ground!”
“See?” Kakashi said, tugging at the strands for emphasis. “Too many places to check. Better keep you here where I can see you.”
Gai laughed and Kakashi grinned as he rolled them so he was laying more across Gai’s body, pressing absentminded lazy kisses to Gai’s face. Gai brought his hands up across Kakashi’s back, gently rubbing circles into his shoulderblades as he did so, humming contentedly with every brush of their lips.
It was always like this for them. Moments captured between the small hours illuminated by starlight, interludes experienced under the bright rays of the sun. Flashes of Gai laughing in the sunshine, moments of Gai pulling him in for a kiss in broad daylight, images of Gai’s eyes on his body in the still of the night, sensation of his breath on Kakashi's skin in the cover of darkness. The curve of Gai's smile, just as brilliant as the sun. The brush of his fingertips, just as comforting as the moon.
And Kakashi would fight tooth and nail to make sure it stayed like this for them, that they would continue to always have this. Now that he knew what life was like with Gai with him like this, he never wanted to be without it.
Now that the night had a taste of the daylight, it would always be in anticipation of its return. Now that the daylight held the night in its arms, it was determined to keep the darkness at bay.
Twin phenomena, two sure truths of the world, both a steady and unwavering constant in the universe. Where one went, another followed. Locked in a dance of lead and follow and lead again.