A/N: This is just a drabble for GaaSaku month. The weekend challenge. It doesn't really fit in with the canon timeline, but I hope you like it!

We met in the dark.

All the lights in the village had gone off. The ninjas were scurrying about. Nobody would tell us what was going on. Mother and father had left me alone, with the rest of the children. Every available academy teacher was looking after us. But I was so very alone.

Especially when that man came and made all the adults leave.

I had never been very good in the dark as a child, so that big academy hall, with the light shadows cast from the moonlight that came in from the highest windows, scared me. For a six year old, it was all the reason I needed, to be scared.

But the other children didn't understand, or care. They teased me for being afraid. They teased me for having a large forehead. They teased me for being afraid in the dark, with a large forehead. So I ran. Laughter followed me. I ran from hallway to hallway, until I found a classroom door that was unlocked, and threw myself inside, to be alone.

It was dark in here too.

Before I could realise I wasn't alone, I heard the girls coming up the hallway.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to stop myself from crying. They passed by the classroom door, only a few inches away as I didn't dare move. From their voices, they were looking for me, and I was scared that they would start trying doors soon.

"Don't cry."

My heart racing, pounding in my ears, startled.

I stood frozen at the low voice behind me. He didn't say anything else, but a hand took mine and soft sand gathered between my toes, and suddenly, I felt the fear leave my body.

"It's okay," he added. "They can't find you here."

More sand gathered, and I watched it slither into the keyhole. The girls were rattling door knobs, four doors away. They were coming back. When they reached our door, the door knob twisted roughly but wouldn't budge, like it was locked.

Bored and annoyed, the other children left.

I could hardly breathe.

The boy who had helped me, moved closer to me. "Open your eyes."

"No," I whispered. "I can't."

"It's okay now, you'll see. Look up at me."

His voice was calming and sweet.

So I opened my eyes and looked around at him. He was just a boy. A boy only a little bigger than me. He wasn't smiling, but there was a calm about him. His hair was a dark red, his eyes a pale aqua, and he held a teddy bear to his chest. I smiled up at him and suddenly, his mouth parted and he smiled back at me.

"I'm Gaara," he said.

"Sakura," I whispered. "Pleased to meet you. And thank you for helping me be brave."

I never forgot him, that smiling boy in the dark.

And now here he stands, looking at me once more. Taller but not smiling. Intimidating but not bold. He was staring at me, like I used to stare at him. He was scared. I could see it. Sabaku no Gaara had grown up into a scared teenager, and the world had been cruel to him.

I glanced at my teammates, noting how they scowled and glared at him. They didn't understand, but I would show them. I would show Gaara.

And if it was the last thing I did, I was going to teach him to be brave too.

So what d'you think? :)