This is the sequel to 'Lost in a desert cave'. You might be a bit lost (pun intended) if you haven't read the first one.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, nada, zilch.

I pulled at my damp clothes and grimaced. This was summarily worse than last time, except this time I couldn't believe I'd managed to do this, again. Even though I had remembered to bring warm nighttime clothes, hadn't gotten lost, hadn't been doing one of my first solo missions, and there hadn't been a sandstorm... Instead a thunderstorm with ridiculously strong winds and low clouds had separated me from my team. I'd also lost my pack, the one with all of my supplies and clothes.

This was Naruto's fault. I was sure of it. These sorts of things always happened to him; I don't think he'd ever managed to complete a mission without something going awry and jeopardising the whole thing.

"When I find you," I said venom as I cracked my knuckles, "Uzumaki, you are going to wish you were dead," I growled. I shook my fist in what I hoped was his general direction.

The burst of energy deserted me and I flopped back down with no aplomb and a very displeasing squelching sound.

I leant my head back and stared at the roof of the cave, my thoughts inevitably drifting back to last time I'd been in this situation. I did try not to think about it, but sometimes your mistakes just come up and whack you in the face repeatedly until you acknowledge them and wilt in shame.

Every time I had the hubris to think that I'd matured, and learned to know better, I went and did something ridiculously naive - like believe that the goddamned Kazekage had feelings for me. I had thought that maybe... maybe something more would happen. I'd planned on sending him a letter, thinking we could start communicating regularly and eventually seeing each other in person. In my stupid, childish, romantic head, I'd imagined a relationship blooming.

Honestly, after the whole Sasuke debacle, I really should have known better.

After Gaara had been my unexpected but much welcomed prince charming, and after morning had broken and we left the cave... it was as if nothing had happened. He had bade me a monotonous goodbye, and left. I'd expected one last kiss, or a hug, or something to show that things between us had changed. But no, it was as if we'd spent those hours sitting silently a respectable distance apart, instead of exploring each other's skin with lips and hands and teeth. When I had returned home, I had sat down at my desk to write that letter, but something held me back. I hadn't wanted to be made a fool of again - surely if he wanted to talk to me, he would. He could ask Tsunade, or Naruto, or he could send me a letter himself.

He didn't, though. After a while, Gaara was in the back of my mind, and I was busy at the hospital and with training, and I didn't dwell on those five hours that I thought could change my life, could be a sign of something new. After a few months I began to date again, and I didn't want to admit it but I was searching desperately for something, anything, that could compare, that could make me feel alive. I searched out dangerous men and got myself into more than a few sticky situations.

I reminded myself that I was better than this, and went back to being a single girl very content with her lot and not actively seeking out stupid men to get in bed with. Things had been going well.

Then, about a year later, I discovered that Gaara had been in Konoha to see Tsunade, had been in the Village for several days for a diplomatic visit. And he hadn't bothered to contact me, hadn't even asked my mentor about me. I'd been working night shifts at the time, so I hadn't been helping in the Hokage's office like usual... and after the sting of that utter rejection had faded, I'd been grateful that I hadn't had to see him in person, and firmly gathered up everything in my head and heart to do with Sabaku no Gaara and put it in a box to shove into the back of my mind-closet. I had told myself that there wasn't anything wrong with me, except my horrific taste in men and a tendency to want to "fix" people.

Clearly Gaara, despite his desperately sad and lonely childhood as I'd heard it from Naruto, did not need my help, or company, or intimacy. Obviously my self-esteem was so shot that I assumed someone needed to be broken to want me... as much as Gaara had hurt me, I'd tried to use it as a learning experience. That it's better to be independent from other people for your happiness and sanity, that you should never pin so many hopes on other people's actions. I told myself it was his loss.

It didn't matter what I'd begun to feel for him. I needed to let it die.

While I was in this cave I was plagued by thoughts of him. I was clearly going mad because I started imagining that he was here again.

I stared up at the ceiling as I realised that no, I wasn't mad or paranoid; that was definitely his chakra signature heading here.

Don't panic.

What was I supposed to do? I sighed and sat up, attempting to sort out my dishevelled clothing before I gave up and left them. There was no point ignoring that he was coming, so I was looking right at the cave entrance as he arrived. His ball of sand broke apart and reformed into a barrier as he stepped out, looking perfectly dry.

I stared him down, and quickly remembered why trying to win a staring competition with Gaara was pointless. He was as unmoved as ever as he approached.

"Why are you here?"

Gaara stops. He seems to think this over.

"I wanted to see you."

I told myself counting backwards was much more constructive than hitting things. He was still an impossible man. I did not understand what motivated him at all.

"Why?"

He blinked.

"I enjoy your presence."

And just like that, everything realigned itself with a terrible clarity.

Oh my God I was just a fling. I mean, sure, he never said otherwise, but this was Gaara! Who would ever think of him as someone into casual intimacy?

I breathed deep. It all made sense now. It hadn't meant anything to him, only to me because I was a hopeful fool.

"Sakura?"

I bit my lip and kept my eyes closed. I had insisted he call me Sakura, at some point during that night. I still loved the way my name sounded coming from his lips. This was an awful situation, and I really needed him gone.

"Please leave." I said as calmly as I could as I met his eyes again. Civil, remain civil. He is the Kazekage.

"Why?"

"Because I don't feel like 'enjoying your presence' right now," I said, and some of the hurt bled through and made my voice prickly.

Gaara looked as openly confused as I'd ever seen him. He opened his mouth and closed it a couple of times before frowning.

"Have I angered you?" He asked, and honestly how to even explain... I rested my head against the cave wall and felt tired.

"No, I'm hurt." I corrected. Because that was true; I wasn't angry, just sore. And tired.

"Hurt? You're wounded?"

"Not that sort of hurt," I murmured.

He was silent. I heard him move though, so I wasn't really surprised when his fingers touched my hand. I let them rest there a few moments, chagrined because he still had that ability to shock me alive with a simple touch, before I opened my eyes.

Gaara was looking pained. My eyes widened.

"G-Gaara?" I stuttered, and I was left scrambling to respond when I realised that his eyes were actually tearing up. He was crying.

I lurched forward, but stopped short, unsure. I was left with my hands hovering near his shoulders, his hand on my arm.

"I did not contact you. And this hurt you." He said it factually, but I could sense it was a question.

My hands rested on his shoulders and I looked at them there as I responded, not really able to look him in the eye.

"Yes. I thought you would. That it meant something to you." I couldn't help but sound a little plaintive, even as I cursed myself for giving so much away.

He didn't answer, and I looked up to meet his gaze. I tried to read what was there, but I'd never been as good as others at reading people. We looked at each other, and I was reminded of how this went last time. Gaara was a difficult man to look at, because he was so attractive it hurt. Especially now that I knew what his hair felt like between my fingers, how soft his skin was, how warm his lips were, every string of green in his eyes... I caught myself as I started leaning forward.

"It did." He said eventually.

"Then why didn't you contact me? Why didn't you see me when you were in Konoha?" I asked.

He was looking down at the ground now, the sort of sheepish shame that I usually only saw from Naruto.

"I thought it would be unwelcome."

I scowled at him. "You could have sent a letter and found out! Why would you assume that?"

It looked like he was about to shrug.

"It has... happened before."

"What?" I asked flatly, not impressed by the direction my thoughts were taking, even though I knew it was ridiculous to be jealous and possessive over someone who wasn't mine in any sense of the word.

He looked away.

"Once I became Kazekage... many women approached me."

He kept looking away from me, and I actually felt sorry for him once the meaning of his words sunk in. He would have been so ill-equipped to deal with that sort of attention... I could see now, that he had hoped too much, too. Gaara had love tattooed on his forehead. But those women hadn't offered him that, they'd just wanted a piece of his power, or bragging rights, or the sheer excitement of it. As a person, he meant nothing to them.

I brought a hand to his face, met his eyes evenly when he looked at me.

"I don't care about that."

He didn't say anything, but I knew what he was thinking now. He looked guarded, and I winced inwardly. I was such an idiot, sitting there thinking I was the one who had the most reason to be cautious and be wary of what I had to lose... Gaara was like Naruto in a lot of ways, why wouldn't he make the same sorts of mistakes because he didn't know any better? Because he didn't know how to deal with people treating him kindly or wanting more from him than violence or compliance?

Goddamnit, I knew what I had to say. I licked my lips and tried to psych myself up. My hand stayed on his cheek.

"I didn't contact you because I thought you would reject me. I was scared."

It was hard, being honest, but I knew Gaara needed it.

His hand came up to rest on mine, and his eyes softened.

"Then we have both been cowards," he told me, and for once I wasn't offended. I nodded my head, unable to do anything else or even really speak. I felt overwhelmed as he leant forward and kissed me, barely treading water as my hands slid into his hair and his down my back.

It felt so right. For Gaara to be able to make me weak at the knees from just his scent and his lips, for my skin to be set on fire from one tentative stroke of his hands. It felt like it was just meant to be this way. That it could never have been another way.

This time, there was going to be no more cowardice. Whatever path I had to walk, I would.

About a year later I found myself in his office. Holding a very official scroll from Shishou, which just happened to contain the details of my long-term mission in Suna.

It had taken me calling in every favour I'd accrued as her beleaguered assistant, as well as the support of Shizune and plenty of sake, to agree to send me to Suna to aid their medicinal research. Her last defence had been to threaten that the Kazekage had to agree, and if I'd looked a bit too smug when I informed her that it wouldn't be a problem, well she probably already knew. Ino had a mouth with a hinge, and she'd been tasked with a couple of deliveries to Tsunade's office to replace potted plants that would mysteriously end up through walls or out windows.

And although we'd tried to be fairly discreet in our rendezvous and secret liaisons over the last few months, but inevitably word had gotten out. Naruto had been away on another training trip at the time, so I wasn't sure who had informed him, but he'd sent me a letter with far too many exclamation points and "I knew it"s.

"Welcome to Suna," Gaara says, and there's just a hint of a smile.

"Thank you, Kazekage-sama," I said, perfectly demure. Then I grinned. "So have you told them?"

"Not yet. I thought you might want to be there."

I felt like rubbing my hands together gleefully, but that reminded me too much of Jiraiya. "They're going to flip."

"I imagine so."

"You're in a what together?!"

I just laughed, watching as Kankurou stared at his brother and started to go as purple as his paint.

"A relationship, Kankurou."

"Well it's about time you admitted it!" Temari placed a hand on her hip, leant forward, and poked a finger at us in accusation.

"You mean you knew?" Kankurou shrieked, his airways apparently cleared by this revelation.

"Yep."

She grinned, and I knew that she knew that I knew about her and Shikamaru. Really, as Ino's teammate he had probably heard more about it than he ever wanted to.

"So I was the only-!"

"Kankurou, shut up. So are you moving to Suna?"

"For now," Gaara responds.

"Where are you living?" Temari asked.

"In a little apartment near the hospital," I replied innocently.

Temari smiled, showing off a canine. "I suppose I'll know where to look if Gaara is ever missing, then."

"I can't believe Gaara has gotten a girlfriend before me!" Kankurou exclaimed, clinging to the back of the chair in front of him like he might fall over otherwise and nodding enthusiastically. "Happy for you, bro." He turned to me. "Sakura, you're a bit insane."

"I must be, to want to put up with you," I said dryly. "Got any more choice comments about nurses' uniforms?"

The room crackled and Temari was trying to smother laughter as Gaara abruptly leant forward, piercing Kankurou with an entirely unamused look.

"What comments about nuses' uniforms?" He demanded.

Kankurou coughed. "Yeah, well, I've, um, got to go. My team is waiting for me. Have fun!"

Gaara watched as his older brother scampered, and looked mighty unimpressed. Temari laughed and extracted a promise to meet for lunch tomorrow before doing the Kakashi thing and leaving through the window.

"So," I said as I perched myself on the arm of his chair. "Where in Suna would you like to show me first?"

He considered it.

"How about my bedroom suite?"

"Gaara."

"The living room," he offered, looking entirely too pleased with himself. I shook my head, unable to quell the fondness for the personality I'd discovered he hid.

"Show me my apartment first," I told him.

He nodded and tucked away a few bits and pieces from his desk before standing and leading me out of the tower.

"It does have a rather sturdy bed. I tested it," he informed me.

I rolled my eyes but couldn't help but laugh.

"Gaara, like we need a bed. Our first time was in a cave."