Author's Note: The oneshot was written in August of 2012, and I recently rediscovered it. This piece was written exclusively by me, as a bit of a tribute and an afterthought to the story RP'd between myself and ChineseFireThorn, an 18-chapter fic titled "Rot, Another One Bites the Dust."
(That story was posted by CFT from her FF profile- www . fanfiction s/ 8633693 /1/ Rot-Another-One-Bites-the-Dust )
(You can also find it at AO3- archiveofourown works/ 830624 /chapters/ 1579054)
While CFT played Gaara and I played Lee throughout Rot- while juggling other characters and narratives between us- I wrote this oneshot by myself, seperately. It's written from Gaara's point of view, although he wasn't my character in the main fic. This is partially because I wanted to try my hand at writing the character that CFT had so masterfully developed, partially because I wanted to see if I even could identify with Gaara's side of the story, and also partially because I wanted to consider how much of an effect each of the boys really had on each other in this dangerous, horrifying AU of survival, chaos, and death. The flow is completely different from the main story as well, since it's the result of one person's writing instead of a collaboration. This oneshot is posted with ChineseFireThorn's permission for the use of her character.
Please note that this 'additional chapter' of a oneshot doesn't necissarily act to follow Rot, Another One Bites the Dust, or reflect it's ultimate plot or story-line in any way. It can't even be called an epilogue. You could consider it a sort of 'side story.'
I'd highly encourage you to read Rot before this oneshot, but this piece can also stand alone. CFT and I wrote several stories together, although we only posted a couple, but I sincerely consider Rot to be our masterpiece.
(End of Author's Note)
Gaara shuddered deep in his bones, squirming and pulling on the bandages which tied his wrists to the bedpost. He gasped huskily and turned his face to the side with tight eyes and trembling lips as Lee pressed one of Gaara's knees deeper into his chest, and thrust inside him at the same slow, tender, overwhelming rhythm.
Gaara couldn't remember how long it had been since Lee had first penetrated him tonight, but it felt like this slow, sensual love making had gone on for half an eternity or more. Lee refused to speed up or thrust harder, and it was impossible for Gaara to roll on top and take control while his wrists were tied. All he could do was wrap his thighs tighter around Lee's waist and squeeze in appreciation, gasping with need. He spotted Lee's expression out of the corner of his narrowed eyes, filled with warm determination to drive the redhead crazy, and mirth at Gaara's reactions to some of the most small, tender touches.
"Unf- Lee-" Gaara groaned, jerking sharply and curling his toes with pleasure as his boyfriend ducked to trail slow, loving kisses across his chest and throat, making Gaara insane with such gentle affection.
Their hips rocked together, sweat pouring down their bodies with the connective heat. Gaara gasped again and pressed his head back against the pillow as the growing threat of desperation peaked through and his erection rubbed across Lee's stomach, slick with sweat and precum. He spotted Lee's small smile grow as the other man leaned over him to kiss his jaw, hands trailing down Gaara's chest and sides, then gripping his hip and lifting higher to touch an even more delicious angle.
"I- I can't take it... anymore- unf- Lee... it's too much... make me come, make me come-"
Lee pressed his face into Gaara's neck, and Gaara could feel hot breath against his skin, ragged and strained unlike the slow, even thrusting of his hips. Gaara sucked in a breath as Lee's lips touched his jaw and he spoke huskily, "Say my name like that again."
Eyes narrow, Gaara held back for a few stammering heartbeats before tightening his legs around Lee's waist and rolling his hips to meet each delicious thrust inside his body with greed. He moaned, softly, "Lee..."
Gaara's eyes widened abruptly and his jaw fell open as Lee's hand curled around his erection and stroked quickly, though his thrusts never faltered or sped. Gaara's hips jerked and he made a small noise of relief as finally- finally- the slow and building pressure of Lee's gentle touches and thrusting reached its climax and he came. Lee continued to move in him for just a few more thrusts before coming with a soft groan that made Gaara's heart leap and his body hum in extra pleasure with his afterglow.
Their bodies slowly relaxed into the mattress, deeply satisfied as the heat sank into their muscles and bloomed in their chests. Gaara's heaving breath finally eased and his eyes sank half closed.
"Lee, you're too heavy. It's hard to breathe," Gaara said a few moments later with some regret. He squirmed under his boyfriend, still held in place by the bandage restraints.
Lee lifted his head from Gaara's shoulder with a sheepish grin and slipped out- making Gaara gasp at the leftover tingling- and untied his wrists. The redhead sighed with relief as he brought his arms down and stretched his fingers, trying to revive the blood flow. Lee hadn't tied them tightly, but Gaara's pulling had cut off some circulation.
"That felt good," Lee commented as he rolled onto his side of the bed with a small grunt. "I love the expressions you make when I take you gently."
"I love the expressions you make when I fuck you roughly," Gaara countered, laying an arm over his face to hide his crimson cheeks. Lee knew too well how to drive Gaara crazy, in his body and his emotions.
Chuckling, Lee slid his fingers through Gaara's sweat soaked hair and along his neck. "Red is a youthful color, Gaara. Do not hide it."
"You're one to talk. You looked like a tomato when I asked if we'd finished off the lube or not today."
"You asked me that in front of Moegi!"
"It shouldn't matter. She's a medic, she should know all about how lube works," Gaara said, wrinkling his nose at Lee's logic.
"That is why it was embarrassing! We do not need to let her know about what we do in the bedroom together." Despite his indigence, Lee's chiding wasn't nearly as impressive as it would have been before they'd just had sex. At the moment, he looked like a sleepy teddy bear with round, glimmering eyes, and his argument was cut off by a wide yawn. Gaara could hear Lee's jaw pop.
"Go to sleep. I'll wake you in time for breakfast tomorrow," Gaara said. He rolled onto his side and kissed Lee's mouth, making his boyfriend close his eyes and hum with happiness.
"Goodnight. Love you..." Lee murmured, his consciousness already drifting. The corner of Gaara's mouth pulled up, and he kissed Lee once more before settling in with his pillow for the night.
Gaara was watching his boyfriend's eyelids twitch some time later. He spoke softly, barely more than a whisper, when he thought the other man was fully asleep. "Lee?"
"Hm?" Lee responded just as quietly, without opening his eyes.
Gaara paused, still watching carefully. Their room was dark, but he could still just make out the shapes of Lee's face, from his round eyes to particularly curved lips. "...would you still want to be with me if the outbreak had never happened?"
"Of course I would, Gaara. I love you," he said, as if that solved all worries.
"It wouldn't have been possible. We would never have met, and if we had you wouldn't have gotten to know me. I might have become attracted to you at some point if we spent enough time together, but... I think you would have wanted to stay with women."
"Gaara," Lee breathed. His eyes remained closed, though his arm curled around the other man's body and his fingers stroked Gaara's shoulder affectionately. "None of that matters. Youth stems from the present, not from 'what ifs.' I will always be here for you, because I did meet you, and get to know you, and fall in love with you. Do not worry about the rest."
"...okay," Gaara agreed, warm in his chest with Lee's usual confidence as well as his afterglow. He closed his eyes and listened to Lee's breaths.
"Gaara!" Choji called, jogging to the redhead across the roof. Gaara looked up at him sharply, alarmed by the tone in Choji's voice.
It was nearing evening time, with the sun crawling down one side of the sky. Gaara was standing watch at the east building they had built on the mountain monument bordering Konoha, dealing with the uncommon zombie that found its way up the slope.
Gaara stood, gripping his sniper rifle tightly and meeting Choji halfway across the roof. He snapped quickly "What happened?"
"You need to get back to camp," Choji said, reaching for the rifle and gesturing with his head toward the woods around them. "The raiding party just got back, and Lee's hurt. I'm here to cover for you."
In an instant Gaara's blood was cold in his body, and his mouth became numb and dry. There was a roar in his chest with panic and possessiveness. His eyes narrowed. "Was he bit?"
"Someone was, but it wasn't Lee," Choji explained with a grimace. "Anko was trapped in a building, and Lee went in after her. She was bit, but Lee tried to pull her out anyway and fell off a fire escape."
Gaara was already halfway across the building, eyes narrowed tight and his fists shaking.
"...and I know that you will forever see this experience as a youthful turning point in your life, when you were faced with a decision, both ethical and survival, which you may in fact be forced to face again and again in the future, and you will know what choices make the greatest difference and which you must avoid, for you see that..."
Gaara could hear Gai's voice from the other end of the hall. He grimaced, rubbing an ear and battling the instant headache that always seemed to accompany Lee's uncle's boisterous, winded voice. Did the man ever pause for breath? Gaara stepped into a room of the camp clinic where he knew Lee was being taken care of, his chest tight with anxiousness.
Lee was sitting up in a narrow bed, and Gaara sighed in relief when he spotted the familiar, adoring smile that his boyfriend always wore when he was receiving a new piece of his uncle's 'wisdom.' When Gaara walked up to the bed however, Lee's eyes were glassy as they turned to him, and there were bandages wrapped thickly all around his head.
"He's fine," Sakura declared over Gai's voice before Gaara could ask. The redhead regarded her with only a sharp glance.
"Gaara! I do not know what you heard, but I am okay," Lee said, reaching out and taking his boyfriend's hand.
"Where are you hurt?" Gaara demanded, touching the bandages around Lee's hairline. His drew his hand back when Lee winced. Something painful fluttered tight in Gaara's chest.
"He hit his head in the fall and has a mild concussion. There aren't any other injuries, but he can't remember what happened." Sakura handed Lee a compress that she'd pulled from a cooler, and he pressed it against the back of his head with a sheepish expression.
"I remember going into the building and finding Anko, but the rest is just a blur," Lee clarified.
"Haven't you given him something for pain?" Gaara snapped, glaring at Sakura. The woman pursed her lips, her eyes narrowed.
"I am okay, Gaara, I just have a headache," Lee said, which Gaara translated as 'is in horrible agony,' knowing Lee.
"Gaara, I know you are worried about my precious protege, but he was very fortunate this time. The spirit of youth overwhelmed him unexpectedly when he knew poor Anko was in trouble and-"
"Gai," Gaara interrupted abruptly. Lee squeezed his hand, reminding him to keep his manners. Gaara's expression didn't waver, but his voice lowered. "I want to speak to Lee alone now."
Gaara leveled a glare at Sakura as well. She stared back stubbornly. "Lee is my patient, and he's just suffered head trauma, even if it's just a mild concussion. It's important that I watch him closely for signs of brain hem-"
"Sakura, it is okay," Lee leaned forward in the bed and gave the woman a small smile, darting his eyes toward the door. "I need to talk to Gaara."
She opened her mouth as though she wanted to argue more, but seemed to change her mind with an irritated clench of her jaw. She stood and walked out the door without another word.
"I will be right outside if either of you need me!" Gai informed them as he followed after.
Gaara sighed when they were finally gone, and squeezed Lee's hand tighter.
"I am so sorry I worried you, Gaara," Lee said earnestly, shifting the cold compress against his head.
"How do you really feel? How hurt are you?" Gaara asked, watching his boyfriend's face closely. Lee's eyes still had a dazed, somewhat glassy appearance despite the alertness in his voice.
"Just... groggy. And sore. But that really is all."
"You should have left Anko behind." Gaara's green eyes were hard and glittering.
"You know I could not do that."
"She was already infected. Trying to save her was pointless."
"She was still herself when I found her. She wanted to say goodbye to everyone." Gaara watched Lee lean back against the bed-frame with a painful grimace.
"If that's the case, she was being selfish. You should have focused on saving yourself, instead of getting hurt."
"I cannot change what happened now, Gaara."
"But will you act differently if this happens again? It could be someone else next time."
Lee frowned and looked down at the bedspread. Gaara knew the answer through his boyfriend's silence. He let go of Lee's hand and crossed his arms tightly.
"You need to think about yourself, Lee. Do it for my sake, if you can't do it for your own. How are you supposed to keep your promise about always being there for me, if you keep putting yourself in needless danger? Raiding and mission dangers are one thing, but going into a building to save someone who was already trapped and infected is suicide."
Lee looked up, his eyes hurt as his brows pulled together. The grip on his compress tightened. "Gaara, I could not turn my back on her. It would have been wrong. Anko has been one of my raid partners almost every day since we arrived in Konoha. I did not want her to die alone."
Gaara's grip on his arms tightened in pain as some unwanted nostalgia visited him; Tenten's face and her final moments; Shino's run to draw the zombies away after he was infected; the car ride to Konoha, waiting and watching for the signs to appear in Kiba, but praying they wouldn't. Gaara shook his head.
"I just want you to stay alive, Lee. That's what's most important."
"I know, Gaara," Lee sighed. He bent his legs under the thin blankets and leaned against his knees with a thoughtful frown. "Maybe we just need some time to breathe and think about this. I am still woozy right now, and I want to talk more when my head is clear again."
Gaara pursed his lips, but nodded. If Lee was admitting to not feeling well, instead of leaping from the bed and insisting on running laps or something equally ridiculous, he really must be in pain. Gaara didn't think that his position on the matter would change, but he could see the wisdom in letting Lee's head heal before confronting him again. Maybe he would be able to focus later, and even change his mind.
It was unlikely, but it wasn't impossible.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" Gaara asked, sighing and touching Lee's shoulder in assessment. His heart still thumped painfully with leftover adrenalin from the rush he'd had knowing that Lee was hurt.
"Maybe you can bring me my martial arts book from our room?" Lee suggested, smiling softly at Gaara's concern. "Sakura said I have to stay here for the night to make sure I do not have a... hematoma? I think that is what she called it, but my memory still feels clouded. I am going to be here for a while."
Gaara nodded, squeezing Lee's shoulder once and turning toward the door. He passed Gai and Sakura in the hall, and managed to dignify them each with a nod. Gai gave him a thumbs up and a reassuring smile, but Sakura pretended she couldn't see him.
As Gaara stepped out the front doors of the clinic, he heard a few voices at the far edge of the building. He squinted, and made out Lee's raiding party, gathered in a tight circle. It was only when Gaara spotted the blood-stained sheet wrapped around a long figure on the ground, that he realized they were laying flowers across Anko's body.
Gaara took a breath and focused on the walk to his and Lee's rooms.
"... Hey," Lee murmured, putting a hand on Gaara's hip. The stars over the rooftop were brilliant tonight, gleaming enough to distract from the full, pale moon. The summer air was cool on Gaara's cheeks and in his slow breath. He turned his gaze toward his boyfriend, one arm behind his head and the other under their blanket. Lee rolled onto his side, subtly touching the edge of Gaara's waist with his knuckles.
"Are you still mad at me?" Lee asked quietly.
Gaara's brows pulled together and he sighed silently. Lee could never stand tension between them for long after they argued, even if he still stubbornly thought he was right.
"... Yes. I am. Not as much, though."
"Would it help if I apologized again for worrying you?"
"No, because you would still do it again." Gaara pursed his lips as he examined the unhappy expression in Lee's round eyes, and took the man's hand under the blanket. Lee seemed to relax at the touch, his pout lessening. "If I were trapped in a burning building, or surrounded from every side by hoards of zombies, completely alone, what would you do?"
"I would try to save you. I love you, Gaara," Lee replied immediately, squeezing Gaara's fingers in his.
"I wouldn't want you to do that. If that ever happens to me, I want you to save yourself and keep living here with the others, where you are safe."
The edge of Lee's mouth seemed to quirk up. "If I were trapped on the top floor of a twenty story building, which was going to collapse any moment, which was filled with hundreds of flaming zombies, on the other side of Konoha, with demons guarding every entrance, would you still try to save me?"
Gaara's gaze became a narrow glare. They both knew the answer to that.
"That has nothing to do with Anko. You weren't in love with her. She isn't worth the same." The words sounded more cruel and bitter than Gaara had intended, and the way Lee closed his eyes slowly showed that Lee had heard it that way, too. Gaara's chest suddenly hurt, but he didn't know how to take his words back.
Lee leaned down, pressing his forehead against Gaara's shoulder. His bangs fell like a dark silk curtain, hiding his face. Gaara wrapped his arms around Lee's shoulders, holding him close and pressing his lips into Lee's hair. Lee was shaking.
Gaara's expression crumpled. No matter what, Anko was still Lee's friend and his raid partner. Lee would do anything to save his friends, even if he knew it was hopeless. In fact, it was Lee's bravery and strong morals which Gaara valued about his boyfriend.
"I'm sorry. I won't bring it up again," Gaara murmured, squeezing tighter. His throat tightened, and his shoulder felt damp under Lee's face. "Don't ever change, Lee. Don't ever let me change you."
"They can't see us," Gaara hissed as he pulled back from the window. He was in a tall abandoned office building in East Konoha, and had gotten separated from his scout group with Udon. The boy was leaning against the wall next to Gaara, breathing heavy and fumbling a rag he kept in his pocket to wipe his nose. Gaara had tried to signal to the group several streets away, but they seemed oblivious to his efforts with mirrors, his waving arms, and even bright colored stacks of papers he'd been tossing out the window to catch their eye. Shouting would be useless from this distance, and it would only attract the small hoard that filled the street between them.
"Are you sick? What's wrong?" Gaara asked with a flash of his eyes when Udon's breathing grew louder, and he seemed to be sweating. Gaara stepped closer, assessing the boy quickly. "Did you get cut? Bitten?"
"N-no," Udon wheezed, shaking his head quickly with wide eyes. He wiped at his glasses, smearing dust that seemed to cling to them from the room. His voice was peppered with desperate gasping between heaving words. "I- I th-think I am-" gasp, "-h-having an asthma attack. I'm sorry. It isn't u- usually a-" gasp, "- p- problem, but my inhaler is em-" gasp, "- em- empty."
Gaara stepped back and narrowed his eyes at the boy. Udon was leaning forward with one hand over the center of his chest, rocking with his effort to breathe, and his pulse was visible and fast along his throat. Gaara didn't know what to expect from an asthma attack, but these weren't quite typical symptoms for an infected person. Yet.
"What will make it stop?" Gaara asked. His eyes narrowed, but he was willing to help if asthma was the problem.
"Just-" gasp, "-getting o-out of h-here," Udon wheezed. His jaw dropped as he tried breathing through his mouth. "The dust is- m- making it-" gasp, "- worse-"
Gaara took Udon's arm and pulled him out of the room, taking him down the hall to the stairwell. The steps creaked under their feet, old and worn from water and debris through broken windows. One section of the stairwell had a hole in it, as though something heavy had dropped through.
If they could get onto the roof, it would give the teenager some fresh air, and they might find a way to signal from there. They needed help to lure the zombies outside away from the building so that they could get out. They had no exit at the moment.
When they were only a couple levels away from the roof, Gaara and Udon suddenly froze. There was the sound of moaning coming from above, and the shuffling creak of dead footsteps. The building wasn't completely abandoned after all. Gaara put a finger to his lips and began to inch backward, but they were already too late. Udon couldn't stop his loud wheezing, though his eyes were round with horror at himself and he seemed to be struggling to hold his breath.
A black, rotting face appeared along the edge of the guard rail above, facing them. A long, drawn out moan make Gaara's skin crawl sickly, and he could hear the shuffling of several other dead moving toward the stairs to investigate.
"Run, go down to where we were and lock yourself in. I'll take care of them." Gaara pulled a golf club out from the carrier on his back, gesturing Udon down the stairs. The teenager nodded frantically, sniffling and wheezing into his pocket cloth as he stumbled back the way they'd come. Gaara waited for the zombies to come to him on the landing, vexed that they had the higher ground. He swung his club at the first who had initially spotted them, and felt the sick cracking of bone as he broke through its skull and impacted the brain.
Another came down, a woman in heels with broken ankles, who was falling down the stairs more than she was crawling. Her face and throat were drenched in the blood of a victim she'd bitten, and her hair was still tied back in a professional bun. Gaara broke her spinal column, and stepped over her to reach a short man in a suit that came immediately after. The smell that wafted from the bodies made the redhead wrinkle his nose and hold his gag reflex back by sheer will, his stomach coiling and his eyes wide with adrenaline as he swung again and again.
They didn't stop coming. Gaara had to have killed ten already, and had to move down a level to stand clear of the piling bodies in the narrow stairwell. That was too many for a building like this, it didn't make sense. Where were they all coming from? Thick blood, so old and clotted that it was almost black, dripped down the worn wooden stairs. Gaara made a gagging sound as a man stumbled down toward him with several chords of intestine dangling from a wound in the front of his body. It was putrid.
Gaara suddenly looked back as a familiar wheezing sound reached his ears, louder than ever and interrupted by short, choking silences. He spotted the hole in the stairwell that they'd passed on the way up, and just beyond it Udon was stuck up to his waist in a new hole, bent over and shaking as he tried to breathe.
"What are you doing?" Gaara snapped. He jolted and swung his club as another business woman moaned and tried to throw herself down on him, almost succeeding before he jammed the end of his club into her blackened eye socket and twisted, making her body twitch and writhe for a few disgusting seconds before she stopped moving. Gaara was angry that he'd let himself be distracted.
There was a short lull in the flow of zombies, a pause in the space between pursuing bodies and the last one he'd killed, but he could hear more coming. He rushed down to crouch next to Udon, careful of the fragile sections of floor that seemed to threaten collapse.
"Wrap your arm around my shoulders," Gaara instructed, grabbing the teenager around his ribs and trying to pull him out of the hole. They both strained together, but Udon's leg seemed to be caught on something. The tight pulling motion was making the boy emit an alarming whine. It sounded like his breath was being squeezed out of him. Gaara ducked down and looked the teenager in the face. "What are you stuck on? Can you get out?"
Udon's lips moved as if he were trying to talk, but he had so little breath that he couldn't even snivel from his allergies. His face was red, and he was swaying like he was going to pass out. His eyes watered behind his glasses, and he finally shook his head. His expression was hazy, on the cusp of losing consciousness, but there was also a miserable horror there as he realized his position and the moans above grew louder. Gaara watched him closely with narrowed eyes, until finally the teenager waved Gaara ahead, motioning that he should leave. Without him.
Gaara pursed his lips and stood, starting to back down the stairwell. There was nothing he could do. He only had seconds until the rest of the hoard came down the stairs, and he couldn't fight them off if he was trying to protect Udon at the same time. Besides that, the boy was having some kind of medical fit, from his allergies and asthma, and even if he wasn't stuck he might have stopped breathing and passed out. Even if that didn't happen, Gaara was still suspicious that he could be infected from a cut or nip he hadn't noticed. Gaara couldn't save Udon. He had to think about his own survival.
Lee's face appeared in Gaara's mind at that moment. Gaara could see his warm, round eyes, Lee's toothy grin, and the frame of silky black hair above his face. Gaara's lips pursed, his eyes grew frantic, as he remembered each of the many times Lee had explained his optimistic morals to his boyfriend, talking about hope and youth and protecting each other at all costs.
Gaara whipped around with a growl as another moan sounded and the next zombie turned down the stairs toward them. Gaara tightened his grip on his club.
Lee was sitting in the camp cafeteria with his uncle when he got the news that Gaara's scouting group had returned, and that neither Gaara nor Udon was with them. By the time the group had gone back out with better search equipment, Lee was frantic. He tried to go with them, getting suited up and wielding his bat with a hard expression, but Gai held him back when Sakura declared that he wasn't recovered enough yet to go on a strenuous mission. When the search party returned successfully just over an hour later, Lee rushed to meet them at the clinic.
"Gaara!" Lee called ahead as he pushed past a couple people hovering in the clinic entrance. The redhead was sitting on a chair in the waiting room, and the sight of him made Lee's chest relax in relief for the first time since he'd heard his boyfriend was missing. He dove for the other man and wrapped his arms around Gaara's shoulders tightly. "I am so glad you are alright! What happened? You were separated, and they could not find you at all! Are you okay?"
"You're getting dirty," Gaara said, having to tilt his face away from his boyfriend's shoulder to breathe. He touched Lee's waist in return for the hug, but Lee realized in the next second why Gaara was holding back. The redhead was covered in old, rotting blood. Lee pulled away with a frown when the smell finally hit him, but his brows stayed furrowed in concern.
"Are you okay?" he asked seriously. "What happened?"
"We got separated," Gaara explained. His deep voice was tired and dragging, and the dark circles under his eyes seemed deeper than they had been in a long time. "They went one way, we went another, and when we tried to meet back up we couldn't find a route. Udon and I were in the office building in East Konoha, when he had an asthma attack and eventually passed out. A hoard from the top floors of the building found us."
Lee's dark brows pulled together and his jaw dropped with a small gasp. His forehead wrinkled and he shook his head a little, lips pulled down. "Gaara, that... I am sorry. Did you... did Udon...?"
"Gaara?"
Lee looked up as he heard Moegi's soft voice. She was dressed in the clean, loose clothes Sakura had given her to wear while on clinic duty. Moegi was carrying a few white flowers as she approached from the hallway, and her eyes were watery. Lee's stomach dropped sickly with dread.
She stopped in front of them, her eyes on Gaara's shoulder instead of his face. She rubbed the corner of her red eye and sniffled. Lee jumped a little in surprise as she abruptly stuffed the flowers into Gaara's filthy, bloody hands with a muttered, "Thank you!" She turned and hurried back down the hall before either of the men could comment.
"...he is okay?" Lee asked, awed as he looked at his boyfriend. "Udon is still alive?"
Gaara nodded, and looked down at the ruffled flowers in his hands thoughtfully. "I was going to leave him... but I was sure you would hate me if I did."
"Gaara..." Lee wrapped his arms around Gaara's shoulders again, squeezing him tightly despite the soft grunt of surprise from the redhead. Lee's eyes watered with emotion, touched. "I would not have hated you. I would have been thankful you made it home alive, no matter what. I love you so much..."
Lee felt Gaara's body barely relax with a soft sigh. He muttered something.
"Hm?" Lee asked, leaning back a little.
"I said, I need to wash, and get a change of clothes," Gaara repeated. His narrowed eyes lifted from the flowers to Lee's face, contemplative and serious. "Then I'm going to discuss signalling methods with my raid party, so this won't happen again. And I have new information to put on our Konoha map about hoard migrations in the city."
"Okay," Lee said, letting go and taking a step back. He smiled with admiration at his boyfriend. "I will not keep you."
"You need a change of clothes, too," Gaara commented as he started toward the front clinic door. "You're dirty from hugging me."
"That is true." Lee followed, glancing down at himself and nodding in agreement.
"And you can have these," Gaara held out the flowers with one hand as he stepped outside, without looking.
"I will put them in a cup in our room," Lee decided.
"Don't use too much water for them. They'll die either way."
"That is okay. They're pretty for now." Lee was smiling as he followed his boyfriend through the camp, cradling the flowers carefully. A few people glanced at the messy, battle-evident state Gaara was in, but no one questioned it. Lee spoke up when they were almost to their rooms, "I am going to kiss you, when the blood is gone from your face."
Gaara glanced over his shoulder. If it weren't for the filth all over his skin, his cheeks would have seemed pink. He looked ahead, but said softly, "I love you, too, Lee."