Firstly, happy new year to you, dear reader!

Here we begin the second movement to my "Music" series. I do hope I can capture and maintain the previous story's feel and attention to detail while also learning to lengthen my chapters.

Please enjoy.

Chapter 1

It had been a few months. Five to be exact; long enough to establish a routine. The daily ritual ran like this:

Close the book when the alarm goes off at six fifteen am. Finish current cup of green tea and follow with hot shower. Dress and finish grooming by six fifty. Run through at least the seven major scales. Catch the bus to Après Soleil and arrive at approximately seven seventeen. Be immediately force fed breakfast by Sakura. Exchange pleasantries with Sakura while prepping the café for the morning rush. Open shop promptly at eight.

Study Sakura while under the guise of helping her run the café. Jam session after the lunch rush. Analyze Sakura while under the guise of helping her experiment with recipes. Throw away resulting sweets because Sakura believes they did not come out quite right. Close shop at seven thirty pm.

Cook a new dish for Sakura's dinner because she would eat her own pastries otherwise. Discuss books over the ensuing meal. Go home after the post-dinner jam session and try to sleep. Read a book instead. Repeat in the morning.

Some weekends, she took him on small outings around the city-the pond where she liked to feed ducks; the bike trail that ran through five districts of town; the park bench where she could best hear the nearby children's laughter. Other weekends, it was he who chose the destination-an opera, play, symphonic concert, ballet. Once, he took her to a baking competition. She loved it so much, he was planning to take her to that chocolate sculpting competition next.

Being around Sakura was easily becoming a constant; a very pleasant constant that was slowly relaxing him to a very adagio-esque andante. His mannerisms, while still fairly reserved, gave way to the influence of the more familiar gestures of his companion. He was still reluctant to touch, but Sakura was kind. She was patient. She waited for him without complaint because somehow, she understood him…. when he refrained from riling her up.

Today was such a day when he went to her to initiate contact. After a dinner of bell peppers and beef stir-fry, Sakura cleared the table and stood at the sink as she washed each dish. He sat at the table watching, until the urge to stand struck him.

Her scent today was stronger in its siren call to him and he followed it to stand behind her. He could feel the heat radiating off of her body and the smell of her tickled his nose. He closed his eyes and inhaled slowly, savoring what could be related as a rush of humanity. She paused her cleaning and he wrapped his arms around her to bring her closer, satiate the craving for closeness to her. He inhaled again, his nose in her hair. With each breath, he moved lower until he was breathing in the smell of her skin from where her shoulder met her neck. She leaned into him and joined her hands with his on their places at her waist.

He could hear her quiet sigh of contentment and was dismayed to hear a groan when he finally pulled away.

"Gaara, I-" she began, but seemed to stop in mid-though and change direction. "I think you should go ahead and start tuning. I'll finish up here."

He could see a small bit of disappointment in her eyes, but respected her wishes and went to tune his violin. He coaxed out some notes that sounded like a drawl but morphed into a lazy tango. Sakura danced into the room, swaying her hips to where the baseline would be keeping time and wound her way to her cello.

The notes the cello spoke were full of sass and seduction that countered the increasingly rigid eighths and sixteenths the violin barked out. Was that not the way Sakura complimented him? Where he maintained solid structure, she created fluidity. And there she was before him, pouring her soul over the strings to sing this melody of fevered passion over his harmony of formality and control. It was beauty in the making and it grew and altered over time. They switched roles so that Gaara was singing sweet sultry temptation while Sakura maintained form. They switched again. And almost as though rehearsed and agreed upon, they ended with a dramatic flourish.

"That was beautiful!" she laughed. Her eyes danced and her chest heaved, revealing the power she put in her playing. She slumped against her shoulder and caught her breath. Gaara set his matching instrument down beside him on the bed and smiled. Yes, she was beautiful. "Hey, you're smiling," she pointed out. "Is it just me, or are you getting more smiley more often?"

"It's your doing," Gaara jested. Not only was he smiling more easily, his speech was losing most of its formality around her.

"Hee hee hee," she cackled. "Be careful, next thing you know, I'll make you squee at kittens and puppies and you'll crave sweet things like me!"

Gaara shook his mane of crimson. "I highly doubt that."

"Are you so sure? I've gotten you this far, looks like." Her smug smile was admittedly adorable.

"Positive."

Sakura giggled. "Alright, mon-sure. I have some stuff for you to take home." She retrieved a book from the nightstand and led the violinist back into the kitchen where a package sat on the counter. "This," she said while putting the book in his hands, "was definitely one of the best books I've read. "A Study In Scarlet" was hilarious in my opinion. Sherlock Holmes with a love interest? I never would have guessed!" She then put the package on top of the book. "This has peanut butter cookies. I realized you've been snacking on them for a week during work," she teased. "I need the ones in my display to stay in my display. Not in your tummy!"

Gaara looked away as though he were completely disregarding everything she just said. With a growl, she smacked Gaara across his belly and sent him on his way home.

And now for the usual song and dance: Please review, however I still thank you for reading this far. Thank you.

To the anonymous reviewer also known as Omiko-san: Thank you for reading and reviewing my story. Receiving so many so close together... I was overjoyed to have that. I do hope you are reading this, and that you join ffn so that you can follow me a bit more easily. Addressing the concept of violins being more feminine and celli being masculine, to be honest, I thought it was the other way around. I've seen more men in media portrayed as violinists, but honestly, who cares about stereotypes? The underlying reason I gave Gaara the violin is because it is my instrument. I realized that I've put myself into Gaara-how I see myself. He is rigid, reserved, and very rarely expressive. Sakura is who I would like to be like and does the things I dream about doing-opening a cafe just to share her sweetness and passion with the world, being sweet yet firm and relentless... I'm afraid I'm ranting, so please excuse me. :)

-Lady Inu13