Always Second Best

Disclaimer: Naruto is not my toy, although sometimes I wish it was. Everyone you meet here belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, I just borrow them, occasionally.

Author's
Note: Maa... can I please be done with this fucking AU, now? This follows the last chapter directly.

Warnings: ANGST! ...and referenced past character death.

Kakashi sprinted up the stairs at the front of the apartments and skidded to
a halt in front of the door, slamming his head into it a few times,
since his hands were full. He looked down at the dreamy expression on
Genma's face, and proceeded to headbutt the door until Kotetsu opened
it.

"Shit." Kotetsu glanced back over his shoulder. "Izumo, we've got a critical! Get up!"

He
stepped back into the apartment, scratching his bare chest with one
hand and holding the door open for Kakashi with the other. "Just lay
him on the cushions in here, so I can get a better look."

Kakashi
nodded gratefully and carried Genma into the living room, arranging the
cushions from around the table in a more useful fashion while Kotetsu
closed the door. As he set Genma on them, he realised he was still
wearing his sandals. "I'm sorry about your floor," he offered, walking
back toward the door, to remove them.

"Fuck the floor. Is he alive?" Kotetsu waved his hand dismissively and walked to where Genma lay.

"If
he were dead, we'd still be in the forest, and I'd be wearing a mask.
One that's not part of my face, already." Kakashi returned to Genma and
Kotetsu as Izumo entered the room carrying a black box stuffed with
assorted medical supplies.

"Living? I think we can handle it if
he's still breathing." Izumo looked relieved and gestured with the box.

"You end up with a hefty repair kit when your two best friends are
tokubetsu jounin."

Kakashi shook his head. "I'm not really worried about his hand..."

Kotetsu was examining the hand in question. "That's pretty nasty. Did it himself?"

"Yeah." Kakashi's skin crawled at the memory.

Kotetsu
held out his hand and Izumo placed a bottle in it. He cupped Genma's
hand and poured the liquid into it. "I don't want this to hurt more
than it did going in."

He held the bottle back out to Izumo, and
had it replaced with a gauze pad, which he used to soak up a bit of the
fluid, and then he impaled it on the part of the senbon that stuck out
the back of Genma's hand. Kotetsu closed his eyes for just a moment and
took a deep breath before gripping the senbon and pulling it out in one
clean jerk. The pad pressed anesthetic into the open hole as the senbon
was removed, and more drained down through the puncture from his cupped
palm. A brief shout escaped Genma at the sudden pulling-burning
sensation, and he tried to sit up, but Izumo pressed a foot firmly into
his shoulder.

"Stay down, Genma. You've really done yourself
one, this time. Just stay put." Izumo looked sadly at his dirty,
slightly less than human friend, bleeding on the floor and handed
Kotetsu another pad and a roll of tape.

"Just let me die!" Genma wailed.

Izumo
lifted the foot from his shoulder and kicked him sharply, but not hard,
in the side of the head. "Baka. You're not going to die. You're going
to take a bath, and I'm going with you so you don't drown."

Kotetsu
smiled beatifically at Kakashi, who raised his eyebrows and nodded
approvingly. There was more to Izumo than one might expect.

Kotetsu
turned his eyes back to Genma, and pulled the man upright by his good
hand. "You fucking moron. What, four becomes three, three becomes two?
I'm going to punch you in the teeth as soon as I'm sure you're sane
enough to understand why I'm doing it. Go take a fucking bath with
Izumo. It'll be good for you. You stink."

Izumo led Genma out of
the room, and the sound of running water could be heard. Kotetsu turned
back to Kakashi. "How did it happen?" he asked, gesturing for Kakashi
to follow him to the kitchen.

Kakashi shook his head and
followed. "I just came in a couple hours ago, so I was taking out the
trash -- I swear this is why I don't buy food -- and I saw him up on
the roof. You know, he's only the next building over from mine."

Kotetsu
stopped fishing around in the cabinets and held up his hand. "You
forgot to clean out the fridge? I don't know which one of you is
stupider, tonight."

"Gee, thanks. I hope Izumo sneezes again and
bites it off, this time." That one had been all over the mission room,
when it happened. Especially since it had happened in the bathroom
there.

Kotetsu covered himself reflexively before he went back
to looking for the good tea. "Maa... don't joke about things like that!
Go back to the part about why Genma's here."

"Well, I didn't
know it was him, at first, so I went for a closer look. I don't think
he's been home in a couple of days. Not properly home, anyway. He was
whispering to himself, 'not true' and 'this isn't real'. Poking at his
hand with that senbon. Then he took off like a jackrabbit, so I
followed him." Kakashi stared at a wall for a few seconds. "I don't
really want to talk about the rest. I'd much rather forget I've seen
it. Let's just say he stabbed himself in the hand, and I carried him
here."

Kotetsu stopped making the tea and tidied it away, except
for one cup, which he sat aside. He took a bottle of sake down from on
top of the fridge and set it in the middle of the table before
extracting two tall glasses from the cabinets and filling them. He
handed one to Kakashi. "Drink. If you don't want to talk, I don't think I want to hear it."

Kakashi
took the glass. "Indeed." He saluted with the glass, then turned his
back, lowering the mask to pour half the sake down his throat.

Kotetsu
sipped his glass and watched the ritual in amusement. Sharingan
Kakashi, the Copy-nin, the man who consisted almost entirely of one
blue eye and an Icha Icha novel. Standing in his kitchen. Drinking his
sake like water. And still remaining faceless. It was impressive,
really.

"Kakashi, one more favour?" Kotetsu sounded unsure, and Kakashi turned back around with interest.

"Maybe. What is it?"

"We'll keep him. Would you go clear out his apartment? I'd do it, but, you know, he lived with Hayate..."

Lived with Hayate.

That had been the piece Kakashi was missing. The one thing that had
slipped his mind. Now he knew why Genma hadn't been home, recently.
"Sure. I'll even filter out what I can tell isn't his, and give that to
you separately. No sense in bringing trouble to him along with his
clean laundry."

Kotetsu smiled. "Thanks, Kakashi. Really."

Kakashi
turned his back again to finish the glass of sake. "Shh," he held a
finger up to his covered lips as he turned back around. "It's alright."