Gai tapped his foot as he stood at the designated meeting place. His rival should be here by now! He’d promised they would do a challenge that morning, and it was already noon. Gai knew his friend’s inclination for being late, but at this point it was getting just plain rude. Gai frowned at the ground, spinning a few times to try and dispel energy while staying in place. He’d had such a good challenge too! It was going to be who could eat a bowl of ramen the fastest, and the loser had to buy a gift for the winner.
Afterall, today was the anniversary of the first time Kakashi agreed to a challenge, and what better way to celebrate it?
Gai didn’t have any allusions about Kakashi remembering, but he’d hoped their eternal rivalry meant enough to not be hours late to something they’d planned on beforehand.
When he finally saw a familiar figure walking down the street, Gai sprinted over and grabbed his friend by the shoulders.
“Kakashi! You’re late, my eternal rival!” He meant to say it with a reprimanding tone, but his anticipation of finally getting onto the challenge with his best friend won out, and he was already smiling hard enough to split his face.
“Sorry, I overslept.”
Gai frowned in confusion at that- usually this sort of lateness warranted an elaborate excuse that was obviously fake but that Gai would accept without question regardless. He released his friend’s shoulders and looked the man over, frowning some more. His visible eye looked exhausted, a dark bruise under it hinting at exhaustion- and even after he had “overslept”? Kakashi also seemed to be slouching a little more than usual, and his clothes looked like they were overdue for more than one wash.
“You look horrible, Kakashi.”
“Thanks.”
“I’m serious, you should be resting if you have the time! Did you just get back from a mission?”
“Of sorts, but I also know…” He looked to the side, trailing off.
“Know what?”
Kakashi seemed to think over what he was going to say before answering, “That,” He coughed, was he embarrassed? “That this challenge is important to you.”Gai frowned before his eyes widened- did Kakashi remember that this was the anniversary of their first challenge? His rival was looking to the side again, clearly embarrassed at having remembered. Gai’s eyes welled up in tears and he pulled the shorter man into a tight hug, ignoring the ‘oof’ his friend let out.
“Kakashi!”
“I also knew you’d wait here all day if I didn’t come and probably wear a groove in the road pacing.”
Gai laughed and released his best friend from the hug, instead placing one arm over his shoulder and guiding them toward the ramen place.
“You may be right-”
“-I am right-”
“But either way I have a feeling you’ll be happy with the challenge I have in mind.”
“I’m sure I will. After all, who would make a better challenge than my rival?”
Gai had to take a moment after that to collect himself, moved to tears as he was. Kakashi, on the other hand, just laughed at him.
Flor tapped had just been walking out of the shower- and how great were showers? No more having to heat up water kettle by kettle to fill a tub, humanity sure was ingenious- when he saw it. The phone that J had given him to keep in touch (mainly just to ask what groceries they needed) was blinking, a notification. The guardian frowned as he picked it up at saw a missed call. That was… unusual; usually when J was at work (whatever that was) he only texted.
That had been a few hours ago, and in the interim he had, understandably, jumped to the worst conclusions. This was, of course, because J has yet to respond to any of his 50 texts or 35 voicemails.
“Pablo he could be hurt, he could be unconscious somewhere, what if he was mugged? What if he’s dying as we speak?”
“I’m sure he’s fine, Flor, his phone probably just ran out of battery.”
“But that’s never happened before.”
“I’m pretty sure it has and you just didn’t know or it happened before you knew him- he has crazy bad luck, right?”
“No, we fixed that, he just has the marginal bad luck that everyone has naturally now, so he really shouldn’t- “
“Look, everyone forgets to charge their phone every now and then, or maybe he just hasn’t been able to respond because he’s busy, he’s at work after all.”
“But- “
“Look, I have class in a few minutes so I can’t stay on the phone, but you really don’t have to worry unless he doesn’t come home around the usual time.”
“And what if he doesn’t?”
“Well, all that stuff you said is possible, it’s just very unlikely.”
That phone call had only made things worse, namely because unlikely things happening to J was pretty much par for the course.
When J did come home on time explaining how his phone had fallen off the table into a bucket of water, Flor wouldn’t let go of him for an hour.
