XD I have issues, I know. I can't finish one Gaara fic before I start another. *sigh * Oh well. I have fun creating characters. And so far, Winona will be fun to use.
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO. I ONLY OWN THE PLOT, WINONA HOKKAIDO, MIKIO HOKKAIDO, UNA &UNI MIMS, AND THE DRISCOLS
I also do not own any songs used. They each belong to their respectful owners, and I apologize if they didn't want their song used.
************
Chapter One
Shape of Things to Come
The piano started playing. A deep breath was taken. A low, but almost emotionless voice sang out into the almost silence.
Six o' clock Seven o'clock I'm flying in Winchester cathedral
In the morning, I feel pretty good
So I dropped into the luxury of the Lords
Fighting dragons and crossing swords
With the people against the hordes
Who came to conquer.
In the morning, here it comes
I taste the warning and I am so amazed
I'm here today, seeing things so clear this way
In the car and on my way
To Stonehenge.
Sunlight pouring through the break of day.
Stumbled through the door and into the chamber;
There's a lady setting flowers on a table covered lace
And a cleaner in the distance finds a cobweb on a face
And a feeling deep inside of me tells me
This can't be the place
******
"Winona, more emotion!" Kakashi said. The girl sighed in defeat.
"That part of the song doesn't have that much obvious emotion, Kakashi," she said quietly.
"I understand that, but try to put some emotion, Winona. You're not trying very hard, you know." Kakashi looked at the girl worriedly. She averted her eyes, searching out the black rimmed cerulean eyes of her best friend. He was sitting at the piano, watching her. There were four days out of the year that she didn't try, because of memories that haunted her.
"Winnie, are you feeling okay?" he asked her. His deep voice soothed her mind and she nodded.
"I'm fine, Gaara. Just... nothing." She smiled at him. It was that evasive smile that annoyed him the most about her. He however decided to drop it.
"Shall we try again?" he asked, his elegant hands poised over the keys to the piano. Kakashi shook his head.
"No, give it a rest. I'll focus on, say... Sasuke and Tayuya's part for now."
"Sensei, can we pick a different song? One that has more raw emotion?" Winona asked.
"Sure. Just make sure it still has piano."
"Naturally." She walked over to Gaara, and sat down next to him on the bench. Winona Hokkaido was her name, but most people just called her Nana. There were certain people that were allowed to call her Winnie, and Gaara was one of them. Two girls, identical twins, walked over.
"Hey, Win, Gaara," they said. They had perfect unison, the only difference between the two girls were voice pitch. The older one had a higher pitch than the younger.
"Uni, Una. Having fun with your part?" Winona asked them. The twins glanced at each other then looked at Winona and shrugged.
"We're singing. What else is new?" the older one, Uni said.
"What we're singing is new," Una said. They had short black hair, crystal blue eyes and were very slim. Today, Uni wore a black tank top, with white Capri's and black shoes. Una wore a white tee shirt, black pants and white shoes. As usual, they were perfectly matched. A key way to tell them apart was Una played sports, while Uni shopped. Winona thought that they made a perfect pair, and were great friends and neighbors. Plus, their mother was an awesome baker. Gaara began to play Moonlight Sonata, filling the room with the sound of the piano. The twins laid on the ground, using each others shoulder as a pillow, and Winona just closed her eyes and listened to her favorite pianist play her favorite song. She often envisioned her and Gaara dancing while this song played. She rested her head on his shoulder, just listening, tapping her foot lightly.
"Oh, my god! Did you hear that the monster" Winona's eye twitched "and the albino were dating?" Her eye twitched a couple more times. A girls laughter sounded.
"Oh my god! That's rich. They're perfect for each other! Oh! Did you hear about poor H-Hi-Hinata? The retard Naruto asked her out, and she was so embarrassed that she couldn't say no." The two girls giggled uncontrolably. Winona straightened, and glared at the door. Gaara stopped playing. The twins sat up slowly, and looked at Winona.
"Winnie? Don't bother. It's just Karin and Ino being bitches," Uni said. Winona smiled as she stood up and walked towards the door. Gaara followed her.
"Them saying that we're dating doesn't bother me. But they really have to choose better words to describe us with. They make it sound like we're a couple of freaks." Gaara glanced at Winona, who fidgeted. "I get it. We are. Still."
"I know. The Albino and the Monster."
"Sounds like a freaked out version of Beauty and the Beast." The bell rang. Winona swung open the door slowly. "Karin, Ino. Come over here." They glanced at each other, before walking over.
"What do you want?" Karin asked.
"Just wanting to tell you that albino's have red or pink eyes, not gray. And monsters are big ugly furry things like Sasuke. Excuse me." Winona walked past them, Gaara and the twins following.
"Gaara! Winnie! Mims! Guess what!" an orange fire ball yelled down the hall before running, dragging an unfortunate shadow. Said orange fire ball would be Naruto, the unfortunate shadow, Hinata.
"Naruto, don't drag her," Una scolded, grabbing the shy pale eyed girl from the hyper active blond.
"N-Naruto and I are... uhm..." Hinata faltered, blushing ferociously. Naruto proudly put his arm around her shoulders.
"We're dating!" he yelled.
"For once the gossip circle was partially right. However, we all know that Hinata wouldn't have been too embarrassed to say no, she probably almost fainted because she was so happy." That would have been Shino.
"Hey, Naruto, don't let your new girlfriend interfere with S.R., got it?" Kiba asked, resting his arm on Winona's head. She glared at nothing in particular, then her arm swung out, hitting Kiba in the stomach.
"Oof!" he exclaimed. S.R. was their band. It's full name was Silver Roan. For now they mainly did covers of songs, but they had a few of their own. Winona was the lead singer, and cellist and violinist. On songs she didn't sing, Gaara or Naruto would sing, and she'd play violin or cello.
"Kiba, I've told you many a time, don't put your arms, hands or any other body part near me, let alone on me."
"That's not what you said to me before, Nana." Winona froze at the voice. "I heard that you called me a big, ugly, furry thing. What were you referring to, Nana?" She grabbed Gaara's hand, squeezing it tightly, then letting go, before turning to face him.
"Suddenly I'm Nana again, instead of Albino... What do you want, Sasuke?" she asked, feeling anger emanate off of her friends, especially Shino and Gaara. Hinata grabbed Winona's hand and stood at her side, glaring at Sasuke. He seemed surprised.
"I need to talk to you, Winona. I was sent a letter that involves you directly," he said, smirking slightly. Winona glanced at Gaara and Shino, before pulling away from Hinata, following Sasuke. She only walked to around the corner.
"What?" she asked, her body tense, ready for the fight or flight reaction he incurred in her.
"Your parents are trying to organize an arranged marriage for you. Only, you get to decide. Me, or Neji Hyuuga."
"Neither."
"What? Every other girl in this school--"
"Except Hinata, Sakura, Uni and Una."
"Would die to get this."
"Never touch an Uchiha male, or a Hyuuga male. That's my rule. My parents have nothing to do with my life, haven't for... ever."
"Only, you already touched 'an Uchiha male'."
"And that was my first mistake. Excuse me." She walked away from the infuriated raven haired man. Gaara walked over to his quiet friend, remembering when she was friends with Sasuke as well, then something happened, and she hated him and everything the Uchiha represented. Winona had been very popular, friends with everyone, but still keeping tabs with the misfit group, prefering their company to Ino and Karin and the rest. Then she flipped out on Sasuke in grade nine, the first and last time any of them could remember the girl raise her voice, or hit any one. Gaara remembered the shocked look on Sasuke's face when she hit him, hard enough to break his nose and fracture his cheek bone. She then ran to Shino and cried, and cried. Gaara still hadn't figured out what the freak out was about, and why she ran to Shino, and not to him. They were best friends, had been since they were little.
"What was that about, Winnie?" he asked her. She shrugged.
"Nothing important really. Remind me to contact my parents after school if you can remember," she replied, smiling her evasive smile, only looking at him for a second.
"I wish you'd look at me when you talk to me," he muttered as they walked down the hall way, going to their next class. They were both late, but didn't really care. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye.
"Let's skip and go get coffee," she suggested just as Gaara went to open the door to their math class. He thought about then nodded. They walked past the door and out the doors at the end of the hallway. "Looks like Shino, Kiba, Naruto, and Hinata also skipped. Let's invite them as well."
"As you wish,"Gaara said, waving at the small group. Hinata smiled slightly and ran up to Winona, grabbing her hand and pulling her away, gesturing to Shino to follow.
"What?" Winona asked.
"What did Sasuke want?" Shino asked.
"Nothing important. My parents are trying to organize an arranged marriage for me to either him, or Neji," Winona explained at the expressions on they're faces.
"D-Did you tell Gaara?" Hinata asked. Winona shook her head no. "You should."
"I will, when I tell every else."
"No, you should go tell him now." Winona glared at Shino. "He has the right to know."
"He doesn't even know what happened between me and Sasuke."
"Tell him that as well."
"So Gaara will kill Sasuke? No thanks. I like Gaara to much to let him end up in jail."
"Like? 'Like' how? Like, like, or like like?" Hinata asked, before muttering, "I just said 'like' six times. I feel kinda dizzy." Winona looked at Hinata confused.
"I'll get back to you on that." She walked back to a confused Gaara, Kiba and Naruto. She pointed at Shino and Hinata. "They're being weird and all secretive like. Let's go get coffee or something, before we get caught." Shino and Hinata came up and they all walked across town to their favorite coffee haunt. Winona sometimes sang there, earning her free coffee, which was always extended to her friends if they wanted to show off their talents. The owners loved it when local talent showed off, regardless of what they did. At a lot of prompting, Winona took the stage, dragging Gaara up to play the piano. She whispered in his ear what song to play and he nodded, and sat at the old grand.
Playground school bell rings
Again
Rain clouds come to play
Again
Has no one told you she's not breathing
Hello
I'm your mind
Giving you someone to talk to
Hello
If I smile and don't believe
Soon I know
I'll wake from this dream
Don't try to fix me
I'm not broken
Hello
I'm the lie
Living for you
So you can hide
Don't cry
Suddenly I know I'm not sleeping
Hello
I'm still here
All that's left of yesterday
Every single person in the room had a tear in their eye. Their teacher, Hatake Kakashi was there. "Winona Hokkaido, aren't you supposed to be at school?" he asked. She looked at him and shrugged, stepping off the stage, her customary chai latte being handed to her. She took it and breathed in deeply.
"Sorry," she said simply walking over to the table that the rest were sitting at.
"What classes are you guys skipping, anyways?" Kakashi asked. "Hinata?"
"Don't pick on her, Kakashi. Aren't you supposed to be teaching English right now?" Winona asked, noting the light blush feather her teachers face.
"You should use that emotional voice in class, Winona," Kakashi said, before leaving them with a huge smile. Everyone stared at her
"You just stopped us from getting seriously busted, Win!" Kiba exclaimed. A voice yelled out. Winona was instantly on her feet, moving towards the sound. Everyone stared at her. She soon came back with a little child.
"Nana sang, and I didn't hear her!" the child cried. Winona sighed and hugged the little one.
"I'll sing again, later, I promise."
"You always say that, but I never get to hear you sing! It's not fair!" She sighed in defeat, before handing the child to Kiba and climbing back on the stage.
"Sorry about making you all cry a few minutes ago. I might make you cry again, but it's to stop a child from screaming. Please understand."
Home is behind
The world ahead
And there are many paths to tread
Through shadow
To the edge of night
Until the stars are all alight
Mist and shadow
Cloud and shame
All shall fade
All shall... fade
Her plan worked. The child stopped crying, actually was sound asleep on Kiba, drooling a little bit. The building was silent. Then there were murmurs of appreciation, and light, scattered clapping. They understood the point of the song, and didn't want to wake the little one. Winona picked up the child, and brought him to his mother.
******
Winona walked into her house, feeling drained, and in pain. Today was the second anniversary with her first date with death. Her older 'brother', Mikio watched her carefully.
"Miki, don't watch me like a hawk. It's disturbing. I promised I wouldn't make a repeat of what happened." She was laying on her stomach on the couch, her face turned into the couch.
"I don't care. You have that look in your eyes, and I'm worried about this queer letter your parents sent you." She sat up, grabbing the letter and reading.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me. You have got to be fucking KIDDING me!" Her voice was hoarse with the sudden anger. It was a letter in her mother's script detailing the marriage arrangement. All she, Winona, had to do, was choose. Hyuuga or Uchiha. Her hand tensed as the door bell rang loudly through the house. Then the door opened, and a red head with sea foam green eyes walked in. "Thank god it's you, Gaara," she said, her voice still rough, and on edge. Gaara looked at Miki, confused. Miki shrugged and left them. "Miki. You're tiara's slipping," Winona pointed out. The man giggled and straightened, bowing out of the room. She looked at Gaara. Silver eyes met cerulean. "Gaara. We really need to talk."
"You're right. We do."
************
Yay! Drama... Oh dear god the drama in this story already brewing... This will be painful... I'm sorry!
Winona: What the hell are you going on about, Lynne?
Gaara: What about Alys?
Me: Shut up! Alys will still be getting attention. I can't let her fade away to the back of my mind like I did Kaia... and Shizuka and Shalamar... o.O;; Damn...
Uni/Una: Don't let us fade either, Lynne.
Me: I won't.... Sorry for the cliche band thing...
Everyone else: Stop apologizing!
Me: *wincing* The songs used are Cathedral by CSN, Hello by Evanescence and Edge of Night by Billy Boyd (think Pippin from Lord of the Rings. That's the song he sang in The Return of the King.) I apologize once again to the writers of the songs if they didn't want their songs used.