Chapter Text
Kakashi gave another shove but the boulders were stuck fast. Behind him his team leader muffled a sound of disappointment in his throat.
“No go?”
“It’s solid,” Kakashi confirmed, turning in the dark to at least give his former teacher his front instead of his back. “This way is completely blocked off.”
“We’re lucky,” Minato murmured as Kakashi left the wall to join him at the small cavern’s safety. “Any slower and we’d have been caught up in that landslide. Good thinking to burrow beneath it and put up an additional wall of earth.”
“It’s too thick. We can’t get out from this direction,” Kakashi observed, worrying the edge of a fingernail with his teeth as he considered the very solid ground over their heads. “Can you use your Flying Thunder God to get us out?”
“Once my chakra comes back. I used a fair amount in that last skirmish, and then getting to you when the landslide began.”
Kakashi nodded, glancing down to recall the horrified look on the other man’s face when the rocks began to cascade.
“I’m sorry I worried you, Sensei.”
“None of that,” Minato said, waving a hand. “We’re both jounin—equals, now. And what kind of teacher gets his student and himself stuck under ground?”
“So we’re stuck here?”
The anxiety must have showed in his voice because the next moment a hand was around his gloved wrist. Kakashi worked to keep his breath from hitching in his throat. It wouldn’t do to show just how much being trapped in a cave bothered him.
From the grip on his hand, it bothered Minato just as much.
“Not forever. Not even a day,” Minato’s voice informed him soothingly. “My chakra will come back and it’ll be the work of an instant to get us out of here safely. Until then, come sit down. We’ll waste less air worrying if we’re resting to recover.”
“Wasting air,” Kakashi repeated, feeling his heart beat spike unintentionally. “The ground isn’t that solid.”
“True. There’s plenty of air. Don’t worry yourself. Come. Have a seat! The ground is more loamy here than over there.”
It was difficult for Kakashi to relax with darkness surrounding them. The only comfort he had was the grip of four fingers and a thumb around his wrist. When they sat his thigh knocked up against his teacher’s. Well. His friend’s. Minato had pointed out that he was no longer Kakashi’s teacher. At twenty two it was still difficult to shake the habit of his younger years.
“I can try to use your name, but you’ll always be Sensei to me.”
Minato’s laughter seemed to illuminate the cave. For a moment, Kakashi imagined to see his smile.
“Sensei is fine. I’ve grown used to it, Kakashi-kun.”
Kakashi felt his own smile wilt. That old nickname still hung around, a reminder of the gap Minato still saw between them.
Only razor sharp instincts prevented him from going for a weapon when Kakashi felt fingertips slipping under the edge of his glove. Curiosity went through him like a knife. He allowed the older man to pull off his fingerless gloves. To his surprise, the hand that took his was like ice.
“You’re freezing.”
“My ass is on the ground,” Minato said with a grin in his voice. “And all the heat is being sucked straight out of me, starting with my hands. Do you mind?”
He really didn’t. Kakashi folded his hands over Minato’s and held them close.
A few moments passed in quiet. It was nice, if not for the location and the situation. He didn’t often have his gloves off. Minato was a busy man. Spending time alone with him that didn’t directly relate to the village in some way was rare these days.
“I didn’t expect it,” he confessed into the silence between them. “You getting cold easily.”
“My circulation is better in the warmer months,” Minato murmured, allowing Kakashi to turn his hands over and rub them between warm fingers. “I spend the winter wondering that your fingers haven’t turned blue and fallen off.”
Kakashi couldn’t help a laugh at that.
“Maa. You worry about me too much, Sensei.”
“I do worry about you,” Minato said quietly.
The atmosphere shifted. Kakashi felt a flutter of warmth. Minato worried about him? But why? He was capable, a jounin, a former ANBU black ops operative. He’d mastered nearly a thousand jutsu with the eye Obito gave him. Resentment curled in his belly. Did Minato still see him as a child? Even now?
He lost his grip on Minato’s chilly fingers.
“You don’t need to worry about me. I’m fine on my own.”
“Are you,” Minato wondered with emotion in his voice. “Lately, you take on dangerous missions. Your friends are worried about you.”
“I don’t need you to look out for me.”
For a moment, there was silence. Kakashi wondered belatedly if he had spoken too hastily. It was in Minato’s nature to care about others. He cared about the entire village. Of course he would worry about his last student. Regret soured on his tongue.
In a silent apology, Kakashi found Minato’s hand again. This time instead he took the chilly digits and guided them in the dark to his neck. A quiet hiss sounded, a surprised gasp.
“It’s warmer than my hands,” Kakashi murmured, still embarrassed by his own reaction to Minato’s concern for him.
“It feels lovely,” Minato’s voice said happily into the darkness. Kakashi imagined that sunny smile on his former teacher’s face.
Fueled with a silly desire to feel it if he couldn’t see it, Kakashi reached out with one hand.
Minato jumped at first contact. “Oh! Ah. Yes? I’m still here.”
Kakashi rolled his eyes.
“I know that. I just wanted to feel your smile.”
There was pitch black darkness all around. It was enough to worry anyone even with nerves of steel. Yet Minato’s calm confident presence helped soothe that fear in his heart. Kakashi took the silence that followed as permission and mapped the surface of Minato’s jaw with a sweep of his thumb.
He imagined the beautiful planes of skin as his fingertips pressed gently over them. The bridge of a nose, the dip of a lip, the curve of a cheek. All features Kakashi knew fondly. The crease of a brow, Sensei’s headband, soft tufts of blonde hair. The fingers resting at his neck were oddly fidgety.
“Am I making you uncomfortable? I can stop.”
“No no. It’s. Fine.”
“You don’t sound fine,” Kakashi mused cautiously.
“Please don’t stop.”
Those three words struck like lightning.
Kakashi’s mind moved at break-neck pace. The fidgeting fingertips. Minato’s erratic pulse. The very faint but unmistakable scent of sweaty palms.
“Fine,” Kakashi murmured, “Then, I won’t stop.”
Minato started to stutter out an excuse. Kakashi bottled it with the press of a fingertip, sealing his lips shut. A thumb swept out over Minato’s cheek.
“You said you were cold, but you’re very warm here.”
So close he could feel the flutter of Minato’s eyelashes as he blinked rapidly.
“I’m still a little chilly,” Minato murmured, “but, Kakashi…”
“You asked me not to stop,” Kakashi accused, hands framing his former teacher’s face. “And your hands are on me. It’s only fair.”
“You put them there!”
“And you can take them off any time you want to. Do you want to?”
Kakashi’s answer was given: Minato’s hands remained snugly pressed against the skin of his neck.
It was very cute.
“I never expected the man who ended a war in a single battle to be shy.”
“Shy… what…”
“Sensei,” Kakashi said over Minato’s blustering. “Can I kiss you?”
The click of metal sounding was their forehead protectors meeting. Minato’s quiet gasp came after, a tiny hiss in the dark. And then only the sound of breathing.
Kakashi’s hands were on Minato’s face but the other man’s expression was a mystery. He could feel breath after breath gust over his face as the silence stretched between them despite their closeness.
As the seconds stretched Kakashi felt his nerves began to fray. Had he read the mood incorrectly? Had he royally fucked this up? He couldn’t see the other man’s face. Kakashi’s only consolation was the hands that remained snug up against the heat of his throat, seeking his warmth, and the nudge of a nose against his own.
Inches separated their mouthes. Even if Minato said no, Kakashi would always remember this moment in the dark where they were close enough to kiss.
And then they were kissing.
Tingles rushed through him from head to toe. It wasn’t anywhere near his first kiss but it felt like the first kiss that mattered. Kakashi closed his eyes even in the dark as their mouthes met. Minato’s lips were firmer then he expected. Then he’d thought about.
Also, Minato’s kiss didn’t feel anything like Kakashi had thought it might be.
It was better. So much better.
The fingertips around his throat tightened momentarily for want of something to hold, then loosened quickly as though Minato had forgotten where his hands were.
“Sorry,” he gasped out against Kakashi’s mouth before pressing in again. Kakashi hummed and kissed back. His own hands were two sunspots on either side of Mianto’s face, blanketed by long blonde bangs.
The sense of worry from being trapped in a cave underground disappeared. In its place, hope blossomed. Hope that this was more than just a moment’s madness where no one else could see. That maybe Minato would kiss him again under the sun or the shade of a tree, or over morning coffee.
He liked kissing Minato. Kakashi kissed him back and hoped that it wouldn’t be the last time.
The feeling grew tremendously, fracturing the sheet of ice thick in his chest when Kakashi went to pull away and Minato followed behind to find his mouth again.
Butterflies took off in his stomach. Even in the pitch blank Kakashi was clever enough to understand where Minato’s fingertips wanted to be when they left his throat for the front of his vest. He slipped a hand from the blonde’s cheek to guide Minato to the zipper, feeling the older man snort against his smirk.
“Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
“Confident, aren’t we?” Minato murmured into the darkness even as he unzipped Kakashi’s vest.
“You tell me,” Kakashi hummed happily, moving to allow Minato to remove the bulky green jacket. “Looking for somewhere warmer?”
“Perhaps.”
“Chilly fingers? Here. Give me your hand.”
The fingertips that found his were warm enough, but Kakashi graciously said nothing about it. Instead, he guided Minato in the dark up underneath the fabric of his shirt. He could hear the other man’s breath hitch as their hands glided over Kakashi’s stomach, the flat of his abs, up and over the curve of his pecs until they finally came to a stop over his heart.
“Are you nervous?” Minato wondered. It was obvious he could read the tempo of Kakashi’s pounding pulse.
“Petrified,” Kakashi agreed in a chuckle.
“Even after? It must’ve taken courage to ask. To kiss me,” Minato clarified, fingertips drumming a soothing pattern out over Kakashi’s skin. It was charming how even now the other man was trying to comfort him. Kakashi gathered the confidence Minato was so certain he possessed and repeated himself.
“…can I kiss you again?”
This time, Minato’s mouth found his much faster. The hand over his heart spread out, pressing down over his skin until they were pressed flush together. Kakashi didn’t have to pinch himself to confirm it isn’t a dream or Genjutsu. If it’s either, then he never wanted it to end. And if it’s not, then he doesn’t want that to end either. Dream, reality, or illusion, Kakashi forgot everything except the feeling of Minato’s mouth moving against his.
And the way Minato’s thigh practically dropped open beside him.
It’s subtle, and silent, but Kakashi has always excelled at reading the unspoken. But it’s Minato—he doesn’t want to get this wrong, even if he’s 99.99% sure that he’s just been invited to touch. Kakashi pulled away from the kiss to take a shuddery breath and coral the butterflies in his stomach that are threatening to erupt out of him enough to ask.
“Sensei. Can I touch you?”
The way Minato’s answering exhale is shaky sends a thrill up and down his spine.
“Yes.”
“Would you touch me, too?”
A soft sound of surprise, followed by an affirmative hum.
Kakashi felt his heart hiccup in his chest. It wasn’t a lie to say he’d never dreamt of this—perhaps not this way, in the clutch of a cave-in, on the outskirts of Konoha—but Kakashi also wasn’t going to pass up an opening.
“If your fingers are still cold, I know somewhere to warm them up.”
Minato’s laughter answered him in the dark.
“Those books have rotted your brain.”
“Oh? So you have read them.”
“Every manuscript,” Minato agreed, and the memory sounds pained, not treasured as it should be, but there’s the quiet click of his buckle coming undone, and Kakashi quickly finds it in his heart to forgive Minato’s taste for fine literature.
The palm that glides down over his crotch isn’t shy at all. Surprised, Kakashi lets his own legs fall open to make more room for that searching grip. His breath catches a bit when Minato’s fingers close around him. It’s enough to make him feel like a hormonal teenager again, getting half way there from the barest touch. His breathing comes a little bit quicker as they kiss in the dark.
Kakashi sucks a breath as Minato’s hand moves. His clothes are in place but he feels naked with his teacher’s hand down his pants. Vulnerable. Soft. Even if his body under Minato’s fingertips was ramrod stiff, the rest of him felt like softened butter. He was melting just from a touch.
“You’re very reactive.”
It sounds like a question. Kakashi interprets it and shakes his head.
“It’s… not my first time, if that’s what you’re asking.” He pauses as his teacher’s hand slides against his skin, stealing his breath, knocking sense and cognitive function down to let arousal flood his veins in its place. “Just my first time with you.”
Minato made an answering sound in his throat, dove-soft. Kakashi felt his mouth close in a kiss at his pulse point, sending heat through him. It melted away any lingering anxiety about their location trapped in the dark under an impenetrable wall of earth and rocks.
“Kakashi,” Minato murmured into against his throat, mouth leaving little sunspots against his skin, “Kakashi, touch me, too.”
It was surreal hearing the hitch in Minato’s breath. Kakashi hurried to comply. He was instantly rewarded by a low moan of satisfaction, and with the gentle roll of Minato’s hips up into his grip. The sensation was lovely. Better was the thought that Minato was just as reactive to him. The thought that Minato wanted him, was arching up helplessly into Kakashi’s hand, eager to get a touch, was intoxicating. It was impossible to tell which was better, Minato’s hand on his cock or his reactions to Kakashi touching him.
It’s okay to be a little greedy, Kakashi thought. He wanted more of both.
“Kiss me.”
All thoughts of the cave vanished from both their minds. Instead lips found lips, tongue danced against teeth and tongue, smooth and warm, a hunger behind every open-mouthed kiss. There wasn’t much room to rearrange but Kakashi managed to wrangle them so Minato was under him. It was crazy to realize that he eclipsed the other man in height after all these years. Now the advantage was used to its fullest; he pressed down, let out a sigh of relief as blessed friction gave a fresh wave of pleasure. Minato under him squirmed, body arching off the ground, quickly putting himself in the best position for their mutual satisfaction.
God he was grinding on his teacher in the dark, and from the breathy sounds Minato was making, he was loving it.
Kakashi let out a harsh laugh.
“Jiraiya-shishou would love this scenario.”
Minato froze under him, then delivered a sharp jab to Kakashi’s ribs.
“If you want it to happen again, he’ll never know!”
Kakashi chuckled, giving his flustered teacher some reassurance in the form of rocking down slowly, making Minato clench his teeth and groan low in his throat as their slick cocks slid together.
It was only in that moment Kakashi regretted not being able to see Minato’s face because of the darkness. What was his expression in ecstasy? It burned him up that he was missing it.
“Kakashi?” Minato spoke softly, as though afraid of inciting some anger under Kakashi’s skin. “Is…”
“I’m fine,” Kakashi explained. He would hate for Minato to misinterpret his pause. “I don’t have any regrets—except, I can’t see you.”
For a few moments his only answer was silence. The warmth from between them still radiated to every limb and Kakashi could feel his hips roll, body propelled by some carnal need to respond to the sensation of Minato’s body under him.
Then Minato’s fingers disappeared from his hip. Kakashi could feel him reach up, expected the sunflower bloom of warmth on his cheek when Minato cupped his cheek to hold his face. Leaned into the touch, nuzzling the palm of his hand, feeling Minato’s name fall from his lips.
Something tender tugged at his heart as Minato pulled his face down, so Minato could kiss the mouth that called his name.
The kiss continued without urgency. Despite the heat between their legs the moment felt more intimate than those before, hurried and driven by lust. Kakashi knew he was memorizing the shape of Minato’s lips like this, kissing him deeply in the dark. It was a task he devoted himself to, wholly, and Minato under him made a quiet sound of satisfaction as Kakashi pressed them together.
The hand on his face left and found his own. Together they rose, until Minato’s hand tucked Kakashi’s against his own face. Ungloved, Kakashi found his fingertips exquisitely sensitive. A shiver went down his spine to feel Minato nuzzle into his palm the way Kakashi had nuzzled his. To feel Minato wanted him the same way.
His fingertip brushed over Minato’s cheek. Mapped the contour of his face, the curve of his chin and the bridge of his nose, resting over his lips a moment when their hips jolted to feel Minato’s sudden gasp.
Kakashi smiled in the dark. So this was his solution.
“Unless you have chakra,” Minato murmured, sensing Kakashi’s soft expression. “I can’t even manage a basic healing jutsu.”
“I do. The glow from that would be sufficient,” Kakashi mused, unable to help himself. “Sensei?”
A quiet voice answered him.
“Can it be enough—just like this? This time?”
This time, Kakashi thought, heart thudding hard in his chest, his cock throbbing against Minato’s where they were both still undulating almost leisurely. Like this Kakashi thought he might last forever. It was dizzying to have Minato under him like this, wanting to be under him, and it was giving Kakashi a complex if he was honest, being the one to tower over him and drive out all those perfect little sounds, aching, almost pained. Kakashi wanted to hear more of them.
“Just like this,” Kakashi agreed, rocking down with intent. It flushed a whine from his teacher, driving Kakashi to do it again. Minato put a hand to his mouth only for Kakashi to catch it and wrench it away.
“Sensei, let me hear you.”
He rolled his hips again but only heard a muffled sound.
Frustrated, Kakashi said it plainly, “Sensei if I can’t see you at least let me hear you—please?”
Unable to wait any longer he started moving with more intent. Sparks were tingling just under his skin, simmering heat sweltering as he moved their bodies together in a slow roll. In the dark everything was more intense. His senses felt heightened; he felt his pulse spike as Minato’s fingertips dug into the fabric of his sleeves, tugging him even closer as they rocked together.
The ragged drag of Mianto’s breath seemed to come right up against his ear. “Kakashi.”
It wasn’t a request. Just his name. Hearing Minato gasp it made Kakashi roil with desire. He wanted to hear it again.
Dropping his mouth to kiss the corner of Minato’s jaw, Kakashi set a more insistent pace, moving them together with more urgency, feeling fire flood his veins. He tasted the sweat against the side of Minato’s neck, nosing his soft spiky hair out of the way, so he could suck a violet star into his teacher’s skin. Minato moaned for that, body rocking back as Kakashi’s hips rolled against him. The sound was striking in the former silence, but soon they were both panting softly, bodies writhing, working in tandem to stroke the fire between them.
It felt like a game, finding those secret places that made Minato give up a gasp or a groan. Kakashi sought each one greedily, hungry for his prize, every hard-won expression since he couldn’t see Minato’s. The little gasps and moans gave pieces of a beautiful picture and Kakashi knew he wouldn’t rest until he saw it, his teacher’s beautiful features twisted in passion, did he blush? Was he blushing now? It would be a memory he would treasure forever.
“Oh, faster,” Minato panted, and Kakashi obeyed his Hokage, his mentor, his teacher, his friend—his partner for the moment and, if he had his way, forever.
“Anything,” Kakashi said, voice caught in his throat. “Sensei. Tell me.”
“Just like that, ah! Oh. Ohh, nn, Kakashi—“
Hearing his teacher’s control fraying at the edges stroked the pleasure center deep inside Kakashi’s brain. He couldn’t let go of the incredible satisfaction of making Minato come undone like this, frantic, almost helpless, making breathy little gasps at his touch, panting every time they slid together. It was filling him up inside. This kind of power was frightening with how much he liked it.
“Sensei.”
“M-my name,” Minato panted, sounding half frenzied, caught up in the heat of the moment, “Kakashi, please—“
“Please what?”
“Please don’t stop.”
The same three words from before with the same effect; it was like lightning down Kakashi’s spine. Suddenly Kakashi knew he was close to the edge. It only took three words and Minato was going to make him lose his own control.
Kakashi bit down fruitlessly, trying to suppress it. The rush was too great. He wanted to feel Minato first, wanted the older ninja’s satisfaction dripping off his skin before he allowed himself to give in but he couldn’t stop it.
“Fuck—Minato-sensei, I’m going to…”
Minato’s answer was to let go of Kakashi’s sleeve to grab his face and drag him down into a kiss, arching his body up for Kakashi to rock against.
Kakashi cried out against Minato’s kiss.
He thrust a hand between them—he had to feel it, he wanted the heat on his fingertips, the proof.
He felt his name across his cheeks gasped out, an intangible prize, felt Minato’s hips jerk when his hand found their cocks and gripped them tight, bare fist closing down in a delicious grip over the tips, together—
“Kakashi, Kakashi—ah!”
His hips stuttered as bliss crashed over him in waves. Beneath him Minato gave a strangled sound, body jumping under the weight of the taller man.
Kakashi felt satisfaction sizzle in his bones as Minato came against his hand.
Euphoria buzzed just under his skin.
Time seemed to stretch, the fabric of eternity temporarily hung to one side as his orgasm subsided. He felt electric, like he could vibrate right out of his body. It was enough to make him a little delirious.
“That was amazing. I feel like I could fly.”
Minato laughed.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“I’m not lying. I feel incredible,” Kakashi murmured, still riding the high. “It never feels this good. Only with you.”
Kakashi grunted as Minato moved them for the first time, to part them.
“I never took you for a romantic,” he heard, followed by the gentle rustling of clothes, and a zipper.
“It’s all those books,” Kakashi said, unbothered by Minato’s need to re-dress so quickly. The older man had a thing for order and layers, always in his long sleeved turtleneck and his vest and his jacket. “You think it’s corny?”
“It’s cute.”
He could hear Minato’s smile. Kakashi wanted to see it.
“Minato. I want to see your face.”
He could feel fingertips tugging at his own pants, and reached down to bat Minato’s hands away, embarrassed. “I’m not a child.”
“I know,” Minato said meaningfully. “I should hope not, not after that.”
“After what,” Kakashi asked, wanting to hear Minato put words to it, desperately wishing he could see the older man’s face. He buried his nerves by quickly fixing up his pants so they were both presentable again.
“…after you drove me crazy,” Minato mumbled. He paused before cautiously asking, "...maybe you could do it again sometime."
Kakashi felt his soul threaten to float right up into orbit.
Minato wasn't taking it back, or joking, so Kakashi quickly lunged, grabbing both hands.
"Yes. Yes! Yes, of course—don't laugh at me, yes I'll do it again. I'll do more than that, if you let me—Minato—"
There wasn't any warning before light flooded his vision. The cave was gone before he could blink and the sudden influx of light caused him to double-take but suddenly all he could see was his teacher's handsome laughing, blushing, smiling face under the light of the stars and the waxing moon hanging low in Konoha's skies. Minato had teleported them out of the cave.
Standing there holding Minato's hands in his, Kakashi felt his breath leave his body.
Minato's smile was beautiful.
It was the sight he'd longed for every moment since Minato first smiled against his fingertips in the dark. Kakashi felt his heart pounding in his chest, stuck with the knowledge that it was a sight he wanted to see every day for the rest of his life. Every morning. Every night. Every moment in between. It was the thing he wanted to see most of all, no matter what, at any cost.
He felt light-headed.
"Is everything alright?"
Kakashi shook his head, unable to look away, unwilling to miss the thing that had been right in front of him all along.
"It's just... that your smile tasted like sunshine," he admitted, feeling sheepish as he said it, "I never expect it to look like sunshine, too."
Maybe Minato lied about reading every one of Jiraiya-shishou's manuscripts, since that line was obviously some of his best work, but Kakashi wouldn't hold him to it, not when Minato gave him an adoring look, and a sunshine-flavored kiss to match.