One-year old Lee was sitting on Gai's lap, looking through a photo album of Gai and his older sister.

"And that is your father," Gai whispered into the infant's ear, putting his finger on the image of a tall, slim man wearing a ready smile. "He loved your mother very, very much. Never before had I seen a love so pure!"

Lee, who had seen this same photo album near four hundred times, still cooed in absolute fascination as he put his small, chubby hand over his father's face. He smiled, revealing more gums than teeth, and then put his other hand over his mother's face. His little feet kicked in excitement.

Gai just watched him, feeling a familiar sadness set into his very bones.

Mooi Maito had been a fierce, loyal, protective woman. She had taken her privilege as Gai's older sister very seriously and had taught him how to fight to defend himself and others. Also, she had showed him how not to care about what others thought of his eccentric outfits and sexual preference. She had told him, simply, that his life wasn't any of their business. She had been a brick wall of will and determination. It didn't hurt that she had also been physically strong and easily capable of taking on the whole Boxing and Wrestling teams during high school.

And then there had been Taka Rock. Their relationship had stumped Gai from the very beginning. Taka wasn't much of a fighter, if even a fighter as all. He was, one hundred percent, a lover. He practically threw flowers at Mooi for their first two years in high school (Gai would later learn that Taka was very fluent in the Language of Flowers) before he managed to get the courage to ask her out. His big sister, who had been one bundle of red carnations and yellow acacias away from decking the guy for the fifty-seventh time, had accepted.

Gai was of the belief that Mooi hadn't expected anything to come of it. So when something did, they were both shocked.

By the time Senior Prom came around for her, she had already picked up a dress, her first dress since she had been three years old, and had happily accompanied Taka to it.

Gai, having been in primary school, hadn't been there for most of the courting, or even that night, but his sister came back, blushing for the first time in her life, looking dazed and blissful, and with a ring on her left hand.

Gai had noticed that her dress appeared messy and her hair kind of wild, and there had been a huge bug bite on her neck, but he hadn't really put the whole puzzle together till he had heard his mother's delighted shriek of, "MY DAUGHTER'S GETTING MARRIED!"

And then they had been. Nine years later, Mooi became pregnant with their third child. The first had been a miscarriage, and the second a stillborn. The couple was practically putting their sanity on their third hope, declaring that this would be the last time they tried. They couldn't take any more heartbreak.

Gai, who had practically grown wings and floated on a cloud the first two times, thinking he was going to have a niece or nephew to take care of, had had his wings clipped each time, and would very much like to not have to go through that pain again either.

That day, late in November, a screaming little boy was welcomed into the world, as healthy and loud as he could be. And Mooi had left it. The strongest person he had ever known, taken out by complications during labor.

Taka had held his son once, told him how much he and Mooi loved him, and Gai had been there, silently crying, unable to believe it, before Taka had rested his nephew in his arms and told him to take extra good care of him.

Then he had left the hospital, smiling.

Two days later, after adjusting and finalizing the Rock Will, Taka took his own life. He hadn't been able to live without Mooi. She had been his strength, not the other way around.

Gai, nineteen by now, had been given custody of tiny Rock Lee, as well as the Rock savings so that he could raise Lee in relative comfort during the first three years or so. The small, cozy Rock house, which had been in the family for generations, had been given to Lee, but Gai was to stay in it till Lee could claim it.

Gai knuckled at his eyes, letting a few stray tears fall. It still hurt. Gods, it had never stopped hurting. And having Lee made the pain both bitter and sweet. He had all of the Maito features, from the inky black hair to the round eyes to the bushy brows and dark tan skin. He had inherited his father's pouty lips, however, and Gai was almost certain that he would grow to be as tall and slim as the man as well.

An arm came around his shoulders and another solid body leaned over the back of the couch. A chin settled on top of his head.

Pale hands reached down and softly closed the photo book. Lee didn't seem to mind, throwing another, beaming smile at the second man. "'Kashi!"

The album slipped off of Gai's lap and out of sight before the hands returned to tickle Lee's sides, sending the infant into a squealing fit, wriggling furiously.

"Hey there, squirt." Kakashi teased, and moved his head to rest in the junction of Gai's neck and shoulder. "You seem to have a wiggling problem. Don't worry, I know the cure." And he lifted Lee away from Gai and tossed him into the air.

Kakashi caught him and Lee laughed. "Again! Again!"

So Kakashi did.

Gai turned halfway around so that he could watch them.

He and Kakashi had been friends since primary. Their had been a fight, which Gai still refused to believe that he had started, and Kakashi had soundly defeated him, without even gaining a scratch while Gai had laid on the ground with a broken noise and a black eye. From that day on, they had been inseparable. Well, Gai had more or less stuck himself to Kakashi, in reality, and Kakashi had tried to lose him a few times. By the time they hit high school, though, Kakashi had given in and had even come to say, "Yes, I know there's a man in a green leotard behind me. He's my shadow friend."

Gai had just been happy that the word 'friend' was in there.

By Junior year, however, something else changed and Kakashi had kissed him. He admitted later that he did it to shut Gai up about Kakashi's casual lovers, but it had seemed to backfire.

Gai had been so shocked that he had agreed with Kakashi to pretend that it had never happened. Or he had told that that was what he was going to do, because Kakashi proved to have not agreed at all. He started hitting on Gai regularly, laying down lazy innuendoes and then throwing Gai some very mock-seductive looks. He made it a habit of grabbing Gai's butt and standing very, very close behind him, no matter where they were or what they were doing. His greatest hobby seemed to be his sneak-attack kisses that he plagued Gai with, snagging him by the bright orange bandana he used to always wear around his throat and smacking their lips together as if they were long-lost lovers.

At one point, Gai had gotten so confused as to what Kakashi was trying to accomplish and so angry that Kakashi was playing with his feelings like that that he did something internationally unforgivable.

He tattled to his overprotective, I'll-beat-up-anyone-who-messes-with-you big sister that Kakashi was molesting him. His sister had never looked so livid as she had tromped off to the Namikaze household, the home of Kakashi and his foster parents.

Strangely enough, Kakashi did forgive him, though he came back to school the next day after with fresh bruises. Kakashi had looked strangely content, and his big sister shockingly meek.

"Your sister gave me permission to marry you," Kakashi had said randomly, and Gai had nearly died on the spot. "But I told her I'd like to date you first." And then he had done another sneak-attack kiss and wandered off towards Academic Physics, hands in his pockets and whistling.

Junior and Senior prom night, they made quite the spectacle as the only gay couple attending.

Gai grinned, even as Kakashi threw Lee into the air again. Kakashi would catch him, he knew. He wouldn't purposely endanger a child's life. Speaking of which…

"Minato and Kushina are bringing Naruto home today, aren't they?" Kushina, Kakashi's foster-mom, had recently given birth to hers and her husband's first child. The very day she had discovered she was pregnant, she had made Kakashi its godfather. Kakashi had been humbled by his role in their child's life, and Gai had been proud of his lover.

"Yeah," Kakashi answered, swinging Lee around so that he was sitting on Kakashi's shoulders. Lee's hands instantly went into the Hatake's wild white hair, humming pleasantly to himself. "They're going to call us when they're settled in so we can come visit."

"Would you like that, Lee?" Gai came over the back of the couch to poke Lee's nose. "You want to go see Naruto?"

"Naru?"

"Yes, you want to go see him?"

Lee threw his hands up. Only Kakashi's hands on his hips and lower back kept him from falling backwards. "NARUUUUUAAAAHHH!"

Gai chuckled.

In the kitchen, the phone went off.

"That might be them." Kakashi ducked his head and Lee slid forward into Gai's waiting arms.

He disappeared and Gai heard him pick up the phone.

"Kakashi speaking… Yes…"

Gai felt the silence get heavy and taut with tension. Lee, sensitive child that he was, began sniffling.

By the time Kakashi finished the call with a soft, "I understand," Lee was bawling. Gai continued to stand in the same spot, waiting for the worst to come hit him.

Kakashi quietly came back into the living room. His heterochromiac eyes were dull. "We… have to go pick up Naruto."

"… Why?"

The Hatake stared at him, as if simply did not know how to speak. Then, slowly, "He's the only one that survived the car crash and… I'm the first contact on Minato and Kushina's emergency cards."

He folded. Right there, without a sound. His knees buckled and he hit the ground. His body arched forward and his head touched the ground. If Gai hadn't watched the whole thing, he would have thought that the world itself had suddenly bounced on Kakashi's back.

Kakashi didn't shake, didn't cry, didn't curse, or even scream. He just sprawled there, like a marionette with its strings cut, and whispered, brokenly, "They're gone…"

Lee wailing in his ears and his lover out of commission, Gai didn't really have time to mourn the good people who had taken Kakashi in as their own and who had accepted Gai as their foster son's partner. The time would come later.

He soothed the infant first, going to Lee's nursery and laying him down in his bed. He set him up with his favorite stuffed squirrel and turned on his dragon mobile so that it lazily spun above the baby's head. When Lee quieted, he went back to the living room.

Kakashi hadn't moved. His heavy heart had practically careened him into the green carpet and kept him there.

Gai kneeled beside him and gathered him up into his arms. Kakashi loosely held him back.

"We'll go when you're ready," Gai whispered to him. He got no confirmation, but he knew Kakashi understood.

They would go only when Kakashi was ready. Not a second sooner.

It had been at a sideroad intersection that Minato Namikaze and Kushina Namikaze had lost their lives that early October day. The leaves had just started to turn colors, even while a remnant of summer clung on, making the afternoon comfortably warm and bright.

Minato, behind the wheel, had been running down the main road when another vehicle, ignoring the bright red STOP sign, careened into his side of the car, shoved them across the road, and rolled them into a ditch.

The windows had all imploded and the driver's side had been shoved inwards. Kushina had apparently not been wearing her seatbelt and had been turned in an awkward way when she had been found. She had been watching Naruto over the back of her seat when she died.

The miracle that was Naruto's survival was overshadowed by the scars lacing over his body. Tucked into the passenger side backseat, he had avoided the worst of the collision, and, buckled snuggly into his carrier, had been jarred and jerked around by the rolling, but had overall missed the worst of it.

Those scars, though…

Naruto had needed a blood transfusion, as well as stitches. In time, most of the scars would fade. All of them, except for thirteen, six on his face, three raged cuts on each of his cheeks, and the others scattered over his chest and abdomen.

"… They almost look like whiskers," Gai said, cradling Lee in his arms.

Kakashi stared at his godson's face dully. They kind of did.

Gai rested a calming hand on his shoulder. He didn't tell Kakashi that everything would be alright, because it might not be, and he didn't tell them in his usual tone of voice that they would prevail and prosper and that they should see the good in this instead of the bad, because that wasn't going to help.

Gai understood him, and, to whatever extent that a person completely different from himself could, understood his pain. But he didn't say that either, and Kakashi was glad for the silence Gai let set over them.

This small, pudgy blonde baby was his now.

"You're not going anywhere." He looked at Gai. "Are you?"

Gai grinned challengingly and kissed the corner of his mouth. "Never."

The Namikaze legacy came with a fortune harvested over four generations of international trading, a nonprofit organization, and a small Bodyguard and Executive Protection business run between the Namikaze and the Uchiha families.

Minato and Kushina had very recently finalized their Will, on the same day they had discovered the gender of their child and officially named their unborn child Naruto. It stated that, if anything were to happen to them and Naruto was not yet eighteen, he was to go to his godfather, Kakashi Hatake. On top of that, Naruto was to receive a monthly allowance, so that he would not take financially from Kakashi.

Until Naruto's eighteen birthday, an old trusted friend of the Namikaze family, Hiruzen Sarutobi was to take over the trading empire while full control of the BEP went to Fugaku Uchiha, Minato's business partner. The day after Naruto's eighteenth birthday, Hiruzen would be the one to teach him how to handle the business. If Hiruzen was not around by then, the Uchihas would teach Naruto.

There were letters that were handed to Kakashi. A note in the Will said that he was supposed to give them to Naruto once the Namikaze was ready to read them. Minato and Kushina had been writing letters to their unborn child, telling him how excited they were to have him, how much they loved and adored him, and how badly they wanted to hold him. They spoke about their hopes for him to grow into a good man, about how they wanted him to take care of himself when they couldn't, and about how they would always stand beside him support him, no matter what.

It was almost like they had known they were going to die, until Kakashi finished reading the note.

In the case that Naruto became too upset to talk to them, or if they were fighting, or if Naruto simply needed to be reassured, Minato and Kushina had written the letters so that Naruto could have their love and words and not their company.

If you're reading this Will, though, it means he's going to need these letters to know that we did love him, and we always will. We may not be there anymore, but we're watching over him, and you too, Kakashi. Please, raise our son to be the best he can be…

That night, Kakashi stayed in the nursery. Lee and Naruto were sharing a crib till they were allowed to go to the Namikaze household and take out what was already in Naruto's nursery. The house and most of its valuables, aside from what had been predicated in the Will and whatever Kakashi, who had been given the right to in the Will, as well as a few others (including the Uchihas, but the chances of them needing or wanting anything from the Namikaze home was slim) decided to take, were to be sold off and the benefits were to go to their nonprofit organization as well as several charities.

Kakashi wanted Naruto to have the things his parents had wanted for him. He thought it was only right.

He watched the two sleeping children. Lee had turned in his sleep and had snuggled right into the infant, hand curled to his mouth and the other clutching his squirrel to his tiny chest. Naruto just laid there, bandaged more than an infant should be, softly snoring.

Someone had to get up every two hours for Naruto anyway. Kakashi didn't mind losing the sleep. He wasn't sure if he could sleep if he tried.

The bedroom door opened. Gai rested a hand on his hip and leaned into the doorframe. "They're not going anywhere."

Doubt niggled in the back of his mind. They might.

Everyone else had. Gai was the longest relationship he had had in any sense of the word beside his foster parents. His father, Sakumo had killed himself when he had been just a boy, led to do it by guilt after having hit a five-year old child who had run right into the road. The child's mother had, for two years, sent hate mail to his father, blocking their phone line with her shrieking, malicious voicemails, painting MURDERER on their front door in angry red slashes, and harassing him in public. She even went so far as to threaten Kakashi's wellbeing, saying, loud and clear, that a child murderer should feel the pain his victims felt.

It had been an accident. Honestly it had been. The child had suddenly come out from between parked cars and Sakumo hadn't had time to stop or swerve or even think. Now, Kakashi had never expected the woman to play off her daughter's death as if it was alright, but he had expected a level of understanding or forgiveness for the man who never meant for such a thing to happen.

Kakashi had actually been happy when his father had taken his own life. For two long years, he had been a shadow of himself, holding onto Kakashi as if he feared the same fate would befall him if he went outside. His father had tried crying and drinking, counseling and charity work, to elevate his own guilt. Nothing had worked, and the depression he had fallen into had been bottomless. Seeing his dad dead, free of the torture, had made Kakashi weep with relief.

And then he had sent a single letter to the child's mother. Just one against the countless many she had sent to them.

I hope you're happy.

He never heard from the woman again. Minato, his father's boss from the BEP business, had taken him in, and he and Kushina had raised him as their own. Now they were gone.

He had had two best friends in primary school. Then they transferred out and were gone as well. He had had three serious relationships and, one by one, they had left, using the same reason with different wording: You're too needy. Gai's sister and brother-in-law had treated him like a sibling and had offered him advice and training when his foster parents couldn't. Then they passed away.

It left him somewhat breathless and paranoid. These three people in this small house, he had to keep them safe. He had to keep them happy, no matter how he felt.

Or I can just stop caring. I can't stop them from dying or from leaving, but I don't have to care when they do.

"Kakashi…" Gai held out a hand. "Come with me."

"Naruto's going to wake up soon."

"No, he's not. He just went to sleep."

Kakashi bowed his head and stood to his feet. He set his hand in Gai's and let himself to be dragged away from the nursery, back towards their bedroom.

Gai sat him down on their bed and then stepped back. He stripped off his green pajama top with the turtle print and his orange briefs and then he slid into Kakashi's lap. He wrapped his arms around the Hatake's shoulders and rubbed against him, grinding down and then bucking forward while he teased the short hairs on the back of Kakashi's neck.

There was no arousal in the Maito's gaze, only sadness and acceptance, but then he leaned forward and kissed him and Kakashi closed his eyes and set his hands on Gai's hips, letting his lover distract them both.

He kneaded Gai's buttocks, fingertips wandering between them, and he felt the telling slickness of lube that said Gai had prepared himself before coming to find him.

Gai slipped the Hatake's half-hard erection out of his pajama bottoms, spat on his palm, and then rubbed him to fullness, all the while kissing his eyelids, his mouth, tracing the line of his jaw with his tongue, and nibbling on his earlobe.

It was particularly bittersweet when Kakashi slid into his partner's body. They moved leisurely against each other, just taking comfort in not being alone. The physical contact was distracting and hot, sweat-slicked and pleasurable.

Kakashi pressed his ear to Gai's chest and listened to his heart beat frantically against his ribs as the Maito rode him. Gai's hand ended up in his hair again, clutching at the thick white tresses.

"I've got you," Gai whispered huskily into his hair. "My special person… I love you… I've got you…" It became a mantra and Kakashi hung onto every word.

Kakashi reached climax first. Gai, feeling the searing hot essence of his lover's essence inside of him, followed hardly a second after.

Kakashi collapsed backwards and Gai laid on top of them, both panting softly.

Far too soon, Kakashi's limp member slipped out of Gai and left them both cold and empty. Gai's weight on top of him remained, however, and the Hatake lazily threw his arms around his partner's waist to keep him there.

It was an eternity later when the Maito raised his head to see how Kakashi was doing, and, instead, saw the Hatake's features soothed out in sleep.

He kissed Kakashi one last time. "I love you."

Kakashi shifted just the slightest bit. "Mmm… love you too…"

~~:~~

Author's Note: I made Kakashi and Gai older in this story than they are in the anime/manga. I also felt like getting symbolic with my title... Marigold is a flower which means despair and grief. Then orange, as a bright, warm color, has a happy meaning of joy and orange trees stand for love.