Hey. I'm alive. My new job just doesn't let me write while working. Also, I'm woefully behind on this project, and I've only just finished January.

Originally posted to tumblr 2016-01-05.

/ Day 5 (2016.01.05)

/ 1. v. to be extraordinarily pleased; especially, to be bursting with pride, as over one's family.

Sometimes, Gaara wished he had a shadow to cover his eyes, dim the brightness of Naruto's smile. When it was turned on him, a twinkle to bright blue eyes, it seemed sometimes like he was staring straight into the sun. It hurt his eyes as much as it hurt his heart. Not because it wasn't his (oh, it was all his - Naruto had a blinding smile for everyone under the sky, but this one was all Gaara's), but because he loved so much, much more than he'd ever imagined himself possible. Not that he'd believed he was capable of it in the first place.

Right now, that too-bright smile was turned towards a group of ANBU who looked a little worse for wear, but they had all come back alive, and with the intel they'd been sent out for. But Gaara knew it wasn't the intel, but the fact that that whole team had come back in one piece that pleased Naruto so much. It was with the same smile that he dismissed them, though, true to all members of Konoha, they lingered for a moment, like they were basking in his pride, before departing in four separate flashes.

Naruto swept around the side of his desk in his Hokage robes and fell into his chair with a fwump before he dropped the pointed hat on the surface.

"Congratulations, Naruto," Gaara said, walking slowly closer. "You've trained them well."

"Of course I have. I'm not Sasuke!" Despite the harsh words, his grin was still bright and easy. Gaara knew that of all the things Naruto had accomplished since he'd first become a shinobi, brining back the Uchiha was the one he was most proud of.

"No, you're not," Gaara agreed.

"Does that mean I get a reward?"

"For not being Uchiha?"

"For being such a good Hokage!"

Gaara hummed, but there were already fingers in his shirt, easily pulling him down.

"What say you, Kazekage? Something a little beneficial to our alliance?"

Gaara shouldn't reward him for such cheekiness, but he couldn't resist - he tilted down, and grazed his lips against Naruto's, delighting in the pleased hum following in the kiss' wake.

FINIS

2016 10M WotD Master Post (themadkatter13fanfiction tumblr, /10M-WotD-2016).

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