Author's Note: Yaay, I finished it in time! ^-^ Since I finished "Gaara's Valentines" last week, I decided I'd write another specially for today, and after a few days of bashing up notes on the typewriter and scribbling rubbish all over the place, I finally came up with a nice little plot for it. It sort of follows on from the one shot I did for Gaara's birthday, "Gaara's Gift" which is why my OC's in it again, and I typed it all up on my phone so I'm sorry for any typos I overlooked! I thought I'd try something a little different this time, so although the themes are pretty much similar to what I've done before, this is in the 1st person, which I've always struggled with.

Anyhoo, here's my second Valentine's fic for Naruto and Gaara. It's quite a short one, but I hope you like the new viewpoint!

Disclaimer: Naruto Shippuden and characters belong to Masashi Kishomoto, I (sadly) don't own any of them.

|x|

Valentine's day. Naruto had yet to decide whether he loved it or hated it. The day was always so filled with good spirits, but he always spent it alone.

As he had last year and the year before, Naruto Uzumaki wandered Konoha's streets, admiring the strings of heart shaped bunting and the giant bouquets of flowers outside people's houses. He'd strung up some handmade bunting outside his apartment too, although he doubted anyone would visit and see it.

A sigh escaped his lips as he walked, and he shoved his hands in his pockets defiantly. He'd been alone for the majority of his life, what should make this day any more isolating than the rest? Well, that had entirely to do with the fact that everyone else was so very NOT alone on the fourteenth of February.

He was very much like myself in that respect. And so, unable to keep my friend company myself, I sent a friend of ours to ease his upset.

A child with orange eyes and wild brown hair tugged lightly on Naruto's sleeve. He looked down and a smile spread across his face when he recognised her.

"Tengha-chan!" He said loudly, "What're you doing here?"

The girl got out a pad of blank paper and a pencil she'd taken from my desk and drew what appeared to be myself with the Hokage.

"Aah, so Gaara has a meeting with Baa-chan?"

Tengha nodded, flipping the pad closed and putting it back in the pouch around her waist.

Naruto seemed excited, and asked, "When's the meeting? Did you guys come a day early?"

Tengha shook her head and pointed a finger at the floor. Naruto's face was puzzled for a moment and he mirrored her motion before asking almost reluctantly, "It's now?"

She nodded and they both looked disappointedly at their feet. It softened my heart to witness how they missed me. Naruto soon ruffled Tengha's hair though, and declared that he'd show her around since she'd never visited Konoha before.

Throughout the early afternoon, he pointed out the landmarks: the Hokage tower, the academy and it's lonely swing, the KIA stone, the Hokage faces... And all the while, he met people he knew, couples, people clutching cards and flowers to their chests. And I could see the pain etched deep in his eyes. He felt alone.

|x|

"Kazekage!"

I'm ashamed to say I started a little when Tsunade-sama raised her voice at me. However, I merely looked levelly at her and dared her with my eyes to say something about it.

"I'm not sure you're paying attention, are you? Tell me, what's that blonde brat up to?"

She'd caught me, but how she'd done it was beyond me. There was no way she could have sensed the sand eye when it was currently so far away. It never occurred to me that she might simply have guessed, so if that were the case, I surely made her day when, after checking my third eye I answered:

"He's showing my young friend his father's face, and telling her how he'll be Hokage someday."

"Hm!" Tsunade declared with a snort which barely hid the smirk on her face before going on to accuse me and my age mates of being big-headed and insolent. While her assistant attempted to draw her attention back to the matter at hand, I watched my friend stare up at his father's likeness with such a look on his face...

"Kazekage! If you can't keep your head in this office then for heavens' sake get the hell out here and wish him a happy Valentine's from me would you? Shizune, we're going to the bar."

"Ts-Tsunade-sama! Wait a minute this is important!" Shizune looked over her shoulder at me in a panic before she bowed a rapid apology and dashed after the Hokage who was already storming out of the building.

|x|

"Naruto-kun!"

Naruto looked up from Tengha's enraptured face and waved at the dark haired girl approaching him.

"Hinata, what's up?"

The girl held out a lavender coloured flower, and smiled at my friend so sweetly that I felt an odd twisting in my gut. I felt it push like a fist into me when he gently took it from her and looked at it as if it would break if he breathed. What was happening to me?

"Happy Valentine's day Naruto-kun" she said, and planted a kiss on his cheek. My heart suddenly pounded furiously, it actually hurt and I grabbed at my chest in a panic. Was I sick?

"Thanks Hinata." Naruto said, and smiled. I wished he was smiling at me like that, and realised what it was I was feeling. I'd read about this.

This was jealousy, right?

"Hey, Naruto!"

"Kiba!"

More people approached, or what I shortly realised was actually a man and a large dog. He threw his arm across Naruto's shoulders and began telling him a story about something or other. But Naruto's smile wasn't as sincere as before, he was forcing himself to laugh. I think Tengha noticed this, too, because she shook Naruto's hand and pulled him away a little. It wasn't long after that the two Konohans left. However, as they did so I noticed that the man, Kiba, had a flower identical to Naruto's tucked into a button hole in his jacket and he smiled at the dark haired girl who held onto his arm... He smiled as if she were the most beautiful thing he'd ever laid eyes on.

"Ah, Tengha-chan, what have I told you about scaring me like that?" came Naruto's cry. I turned my attention back to him gladly and realised Tengha was holding up a flower to him. He grinned, and then leaned down to whisper behind his hand, "Where did you pick it from?"

I laughed, or rather, I produced what my siblings called "the huff." Naruto could be so quick sometimes. Tengha pointed over at a flower box and they both froze when a woman came out of the house and stared at it. Before she'd located the thief, however, Naruto had grabbed Tengha's hand and was running away, claiming that Tengha was a bad influence, he hadn't caused trouble and been on the run like this for years. I saw in Tengha's eyes that she thought the same as I did. There was no one following them. However, as I myself would have done, she just shook her head and smiled when Naruto looked away.

They weren't that far away from me now, so I cancelled my jutsu and reached in my pocket for some change.

|x|

"So then the cat started going, like, crazy on me, it was savage I tell you! It was all mmreeeeeeaowrl!" Naruto was acting out some exaggerated cat attack and Tengha was hissing, playing along. My feet made little sound on the soft earth and grass beneath them and so it wasn't until he was practically standing on my toes that Naruto noticed I was there.

He stumbled backwards when he realised how close I was, and although it was starting to get dark, I could have sworn his face looked redder. I felt my own face heat up and was grateful that the sand armour would hide the colour. I stood very still, barely breathing, waiting for him to speak.

"Gaara, you got out of that meeting at last, huh?"

I clearly had, so I didn't say anything. I didn't need to, since he carried on talking anyway.

"I was showing Tengha-chan around, she liked my swing, right Ten..." His voice trailed off as he looked around him for the girl who'd been there just a moment before. I spotted the tabby cat heading back towards the village and closed my eyes.

"Where'd she go? She was right here."

"She'll be fine, you don't have to worry."

I suddenly found myself pinned by dazzling blue eyes, which seemed to me to be even more captivating in this light. There was a maturity in them which unlike the mischief that made his eyes sparkle so much of the time, seemed to emit a glow which didn't actually glow. An aura, of sorts. Whatever it was, it clearly knocked me for seven because Naruto waved his hand in front of my face with a smile.

"You in there, buddy?"

"Y-yes. Sorry."

"It's okay. You can admire my handsome good looks some more now, if you like." He winked at me, and my back bristled with humiliation. To make things worse, I also now had even more reason to be grateful for my sand armour, hiding the colour of my cheeks as I was sure they burned as red as my hair at that moment.

"That's not fair," he said. I held my breath, his voice had gotten closer and he was whispering but I dared not look up and further make a fool of myself.

Something brushed lightly against my jaw and I stepped back in surprise. Naruto's hand lingered in the air where my jaw line had been, and he had a little frown on his face as he rubbed his fingers together.

"What's not fair?" I asked defensively, my heartbeat pounding from what I told myself was surprise. Naruto shook his head and grinned at me.

"Nothing." He said. I breathed, I told myself to calm down and get a hold of myself. I was Sabaku no Gaara, damn it! Sabaku no Gaara, the Kazekage, did not blush.

Ever.

However much I tried to fool myself though, it didn't change the fact that I was. And what I was about to do would only add fire to the flames.

Naruto was still standing there, looking at me and being peculiarly silent. I took this opportunity to reveal what I had spent my change on.

"... Gaara, is that?..."

"For you."

I watched through my eyelashes as he swallowed nervously. Was he going to refuse it? I felt my hand shake and started to pull it back, when Naruto's hand reached out and held onto it. Once again, I found myself unable to breathe. I watched him, he was staring at the object we now held in our entwined hands with an expression I hadn't seen since I was pulled from the afterlife.

"Gaara..." He said, and I waited for him to say something else, but what I received in return for the gift were not words, but warmth as Naruto brought my hand up to his face and cradled it there, hugging it almost. My face was now so hot that the sand armour was uncomfortable and I reluctantly let it fall, hoping in the back of my mind that my companion wouldn't notice.

However, Naruto's spare hand was cupping my face almost as soon as the sand came away. I knew he could feel the unusual heat on my skin, and I prayed he wouldn't tell anyone about it. He was gazing at my face, stroking his thumb across my cheekbones.

"There." He said, "I always sort of wondered what you'd look like when you blushed."

"What in the world were you thinking about me blushing for?" I asked, attempting, any way I could, to draw the immediate attention away from my rapidly overheating face.

Naruto took his hand away, and dropped my own almost reluctantly. "N-no reason." He muttered, hiding his own face now and looking down at the gift I'd given him. He fiddled with it, carefully trailing his fingertips around the remaining thorns and brushing them lightly under the petals.

I'm one hundred percent sure his face was now as red as mine. I smiled.

"D'you want to head back?" I asked, knowing in my heart what the answer would be. He shook his head, and sat down beside a tree.

"We'll just hang out here for a while, ne 'ttebayo?"

Smiling, I sat down beside him. At some point, when the stars came out and the moon reflected brightly down on us, my friend fell asleep, and slumped softly against me. Casting my chakra around, I found no one nearby and hesitantly wrapped my arms around him.

To keep him safe, to keep him close.

"Thanks… Gaara."

|xxx|

Author's Note: Yipee, a happy ending this time :) I know they're over done but I just felt so bad for Gaara after I wrote the last one. Did you like how Gaara was watching them with his sandy eye all day? I thought that was pretty genius myself, I could have Gaara narrating and knowing what was going on when he wasn't even there!

Thanks for reading, again, and I'm sorry I spammed you with Valentine's Day fics :) I'm not, really. I take it back, but thanks for reading! I hope you all enjoyed today and that you triumphed in your missions of love!

Emma x