"Hinata?"
"Hmm…" the drained girl rolled over wiping sleep away from her pale eyes.
He steadied her hand in his and began tracing her lips with the other.
"Are you afraid of dying?"
His hands now brushed across her shoulders and down the curve of her back, his face a mask of indifference.
She didn't need to ask where the question came from. They had been fighting a group of sound ninja right outside the sand village walls earlier that day.
A swift moving masked man had her backed against a sand dune. The hot grains burning and rubbing against her pale skin. She had growled at a leering comment he had made when he raised his blade above his head. The brisk sun causing her skin to pinken and the steel to shine.
Gaara momentarily stunned rushed forward bringing a shield of sand over her prone body, yet in his fear he went further letting the sand surge from the dune around her and crushing the man till blood ran in little rivets pooling in the sand. He stared for a moment, overcome with regret at letting old habits crawl back in.
Waving a hand he opened her sand shield momentarily before diving in and bringing it back around them. It was cool and smelt of charred earth and stone, he gasped choking on desert air.
There he had run his hands over her face, her neck, her arms, her legs, stopping at little gashes and cuts, licking them clean. His eyes glazed over at the thought of losing the one who loved him.(Or was it at losing the one he loved?) She had to push him away reassuring him. "I'm fine, I'm fine." And yet he still ran his fingers along her spine, feeling the sand in her hair.
Hinata rolled over and kissed his chest, "I'm not afraid to die."
Gaara brought her closer running his hand along her side now, nimble fingers finding a shallow gash. He traced the edges, knowing she had had worse, that he had had worse and yet finding that one small cut the most terrible thing in his world.
"Then what are you afraid of?"
She smiled and lifted her head to kiss the underside of his chin and then his neck.
"Of failing."
"Hinata…you know you could never…"
She pushed herself partially off the bed, silencing him with a kiss, letting her hair brush against his face.
"Of you worrying about my capabilities as a ninja"
He frowned bringing her even closer still. "You are one of the best…"
"Of not being able to protect you."
"I don't need…"
"I'm afraid of losing you Gaara."
He sat up against the black head board, white covers pooling around him. She thought for a moment he looked like a solitary angle. Coarse red hair flaming, eyes lined in black surrounded by the creamy silks his land prided themselves on.
She crawled towards him.
"I was so scared today Hinata…"
"I'm s-sorry."
Suddenly he was overtaken with anger. Narrowed eyes looked down at her, "Don't you ever say that again."
How could his…( his what? ) be afraid she wasn't good enough, how couldn't she see how perfect she was? Had he failed her? In not being able to show her, that she and she alone, was worth it.
All of it?
He rolled pinning her beneath his weight, silken sheets rolling aside. He growled at her, "Don't you ever say you're sorry for scaring someone, especially someone who loves you."
"And don't you ever think you're inadequate, I certainly don't. And if you ever, if you ever, put yourself in danger protecting me…" He paused, "I will never speak to you again." He knew it was a lie,
Nothing could stop him from being with her.
He shook her a little. "Do you understand Hinata?"
She nodded numbly.
"I said do you understand me Hinata!"
"I do." She murmured, taken aback by his aggressive attitude.
He smiled and lowered himself to listen to her heart beat. Gently he nuzzled into her breast, inhaling her sent, of her leafy village and his addition of brisk sand.
She lifted her own hand fingers brushing his scalp then settling in the crook of his neck.
"I do."
So I've never actually seen this show, Naruto. But somehow I started reading some of the fictions out there and became taken with Hinata and then Gaara. Please excuse any flaw in my concept of the shows time line. However this story is after that raccoon thing is out of Gaara.
Hope you enjoyed.
Review less this virtual link be wasted.