Title: Just like dancing
Author: Kidishcaresh
Pairing: Gaara + OC (with a little bit of squishy fluff)
Word count: 2207
Theme: innocence
Timeline: Post episode 220 but pre Shippuden
Authors notes: Okay my friend challenged me after we watched old Naruto episodes to do a drabble with the theme innocence. I pretty quickly had some good ideas and wrote most of the story, but then I got blacked as I needed a reason for Gaara to go and launch a tickle attack. I got quite blocked from thinking about that reason, until I realized that what I was doing was actually trying to find an excuse for Gaara's OOC behavior. Realizing that broke my block, because I also realized that the plan was to show that over time Gaara would catch up on things he never could do in his childhood so there was really no need to excuse his behavior in the first place. Well I hope you enjoy the random cuteness.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC's.
Story 1.
"Ahh! S-stop! N-no fair! G-Gaara!"
"AAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEKKK!!!!"
Temari blinked in disbelief. She'd gone out to get groceries not ten minutes ago and left the two quiet teens reading silently, each sitting on one end of the couch and when she came back she found the two on the ground in front of it. She didn't know what to find more surprising the shy black haired shinobi actually speaking for the first time since she was found out in the desert or the fact that her brother was actually genuinely laughing and…playing? Well kind of playing.
It was almost four months ago that Kankuro returned from a mission carrying a petit black haired girl in his arms. She had one hand tightly clasped around a leaf village headband. Her clothes were ripped to the point where Kankuro had wrapped a blanket around her to cover her sufficiently from the hot desert sun. Her long black hair was matted with sand and something that smelled strange. She was rushed to the medical room and a messenger bird was sent to Konoha, which returned that very same day with a message from the acting hokage. The child was not one of their ninja nor were they missing any at that point. The advice was to be careful and assume she might be a spy from one of the opposing countries.
It took all week to identify the foul smelling substance in her hair. She awoke some 2 days after being found, but didn't speak to anyone. Questions were answered with either a shake or a nod or were written on paper. Only one question was answered and even then it was of no use for she didn't even remember her own name. She did know that she was headed to Suna, but for what purpose or why Suna she couldn't tell them.
It'd been Chio Baa-san who had been called upon to identify the mysterious substance from the girl's hair who gave them some useful information. She'd called Temari apart and told her of the powerful herb concoction that the child must've been given to drink, it was a mixture that would induce memory loss for an extended period of time. Why some of it was in her hair could only be guessed at as her having struggled against whoever administered the concoction.
That was then though. Now four months later the girl had been given the temporary name Kira Tomoyo or Tomo-chan for short. The council decided that since they knew little of her and she knew even less about herself it was best to keep her in the village where they could keep an eye on her. Temari discussed it via encrypted mail with Shikamaru who agreed that it was best to have her stay close. Should she remember something then they might have an advantage. So Tomo-chan was sent to live with her and her brothers since she only trusted Temari it seemed.
The idea that Tomo's objective might have been to kill Gaara soon seemed almost impossible as she tensed up whenever Gaara or Kankuro or any man really came near her. She remained mute refusing to speak to anyone. Temari found that Tomo-chan was apparently extremely shy. The first month and a half had been very tense and Tomo-chan couldn't seem to get used to living with them or being near them. Forcing herself to join them for dinner and breakfast, but otherwise spend all her time in her room or helping where she could, Tomoyo was able to at least live with them. A month and a half after her arrival everything changed for Suna's newly appointed Kazekage and his family
One minute Temari was telling Tomoyo about a vegetable only grown in Suna and the next kunai and shuriken among other weapons were flying around them. Tomoyo stood frozen amidst the ruined market place. Temari was gone, she was alone. Someone grabbed her from behind. Her mind raced as she struggled to get free. A kunai missed her by a hair and killed her attacker. Blood spattered onto her face. She froze. Images from long ago running in high speed through her head. Too late she saw the kunai coming at her. She closed her eyes tightly.
No pain came, instead arms wrapped around her something warm drew near. A soft voice whispered near her ear.
"Go home. It's not safe." the words were cold, but at the same time they seemed warm. She was pushed away toward the house She looked at him and nodded. Before she could move though her eyes went wide as she stared at Gaara.
"Look out!"she cried. The sound of her voice caused him to turn quick and stop the sword just in time to keep it from hurting him. He incapacitated their attacker and let his sand tie the man up. He returned his attention to Tomoyo who had by now passed out. He cursed when he saw the kunai in her shoulder and looked around. At that moment Temari appeared with another one of the attackers. Temari told him to take Tomoyo to the medics while she dealt with their new prisoners.
"You couldn't have known. The kunai was thrown a few seconds later. She saw the sword and cried out, but was too late to warn you about the kunai and did the only thing she could." Temari told him when she found Gaara sitting on the roof opposite to the hospital looking through the window where Tomoyo lay looking out without seeing him.
"Why'd she block it…" Gaara asked quietly.
"I…don't know…" Temari admitted.
That had been almost three months ago now and Tomoyo's shoulder injury had healed just fine. Tomoyo spoke now, softly and only to him though. Even so it was a step in the right direction.
Temari though had never expected to find this when she went grocery shopping that morning. She'd left the two alone together to get supplies for dinner and some other things. For a while nothing much happened. They sat together on the couch. Gaara reading some papers for his job and Tomoyo reading a book on healing ninjutsu. after some time Gaara got up and grabbed some ice cream. He returned at ate it while continuing to read. Tomoyo glanced at the tub of ice cream on Gaara's lap. She picked up her spoon from her morning tea and leaned over. Silently she scooped a bit of ice cream out of the tub and quickly ate it.
For a while this went on with the two scooping in turn. After some time Gaara noticed his ice cream was disappearing faster then he ate it. He blinked at Tomoyo who was at that moment sucking on her spoon. He frowned and return to his reading. She didn't seem to notice that he noticed and so he waited. Sure enough no sooner did a spoonful of ice cream go into his mouth and he caught sight of her spoon going into the tub and spooning up some of the treat as well.
"You know…if you want some you could've asked me." he said quietly. Tomoyo dropped her spoon in surprise and nodded.
"I'm sorry…" she whispered.
"It's okay." Gaara said smiling some. A strange urge to laugh overcame him. He frowned though when her hand and spoon appeared again and looked at her.
"Uh…it's yummy?" Tomoyo said smiling innocently. Gaara put the ice cream tub down and turned and approached her slowly and threateningly. Tomoyo gulped and tried to back away, but slipped and pulled Gaara along in her fall.
"Oh now you've done it!" Gaara said laughingly. He sat up causing his hand to brush past her side. Tomoyo giggled then gulped and looked up at Gaara who smirked at her and launched an assault on her sides. She laughed helplessly as he tickled her relentlessly.
Temari who returned at that moment stared with open mouth at the two and dropped her shopping bags.
"T-Temari! H-help!" Tomoyo called laughingly as she tried to escape from Gaara's tickle attack, but was stuck. Temari didn't move. She was stunned by what she saw and didn't know whether she should help the girl or laugh at the sight of the two .
"Ahh! S-stop! N-no fair! G-Gaara!" Tomoyo yelped when Gaara foiled her escape and continued to tickle. Tomoyo now on her back with Gaara once more on top of her kicked around wildly and caused the tub of ice cream to topple over and it's icy contents to drop into Gaara's neck and on his back.
"AAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEKKK!!!!" Gaara cried out in shock jumping up and quickly wrestling off his ice covered shirt.
Temari couldn't help herself anymore. The sight of the ice cream tub tipping over and its contents spilling into Gaara's neck, her brother's shocked face and outcry followed by his jumping around and pulling his shirt off without thinking that action through and getting the sticky ice cream in his hair as well. Tomoyo just half lay half sat there on the ground with her hand over her mouth wondering whether she should run for her life or laugh her behind off.
Gaara gave his sibling and Tomoyo a half hearted glare then grabbed the tub of ice cream and dumped what was left of the half molten treat onto Tomoyo. He smirked as his action had a most satisfying result. The petit girl fell silent for all but five seconds, shivered and jumped up.
"KYA!! COLD! COLD! COLD! COLD! COLD!!" Tomoyo yelped pulling at the hem of her ice cream covered shirt trying to keep the icy part away from her body but failing as most of her shirt was covered in it.
Temari decided to put an end to it before the whole room was covered in ice cream.
"You're suppose to eat that not shower each other in it." she said laughingly after picking up the groceries and walking past them to the kitchen. She smirked as she saw their shocked faces as they followed her with their eyes until she reached the kitchen door. She went in and closed it but silently watched them. Kankuro who had been in the kitchen all this time, trying to get over the shock of his brother's highly out of character behavior as well as laughing until his sides hurt from the sight, joined her in spying on the two.
"I'm…going to…ah shower before I stick to the couch." Gaara mumbled once Temari was out of the room. Tomoyo nodded now looking at the floor.
"Y-yeah I should g-go get a…uhm cl-clean shirt." she mumbled back stuttering nervously. Gaara nodded and for a moment they did not move. Then Gaara decided that it was getting rather awkward now and hurried off to shower himself. Tomoyo followed his actions and dove into her temporary bedroom.
Gaara finished his shower quickly and laid down on his bed. It was hot as usual so he refrained from putting on a shirt for now. He thought back about that afternoon.
"Strange how that just happened…I don't even know what caused me to do that…" he murmured staring at the ceiling. He blushed faintly as he distinctly remembered the ice cream on Tomoyo's shirt made it very revealing, then he frowned and mentally berated himself for even thinking about that.
In her room Tomoyo sat at the small desk Kankuro and Gaara had put there for her. She had a small sketchpad and pencil and was drawing something. She stopped and chewed on her pencil tip blushing faintly. She couldn't deny the thought that Gaara definitely looked better with his shirt off. She laid her head down on her arms over the drawing.
"I'm not suppose to think that…" she groaned.
In the kitchen Kankuro helped Temari set up the dinner table.
"He's changing…" Kankuro murmured setting down four plates.
"Yes. That's good don't you think? He's finally being the child he should be." Temari said putting a pan of beef stew on the table. Kankuro looked at her and nodded smiling.
"He's finally catching up." Kankuro answered after a small silence.
Okay that's my first drabble with a theme.