Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue. And yes... yes I CAN speak english.
Warning: Yes. This is Yaoi. Meaning male/male relationships.
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The brooding red-head continued staring out at the endless desert from his tower's window. It had been... what, a year now since he had interacted with anyone from Konoha village? Of course, there were letters and messengers. But they didn't count.
'Why can't I stop thinking about him?' The sand-nin demanded silently in his head.
(I don't know. But if you don't stop now, kid, I'm going to have to-) Shukaku started to rant.
The Kazekage frowned as he thought point-blank, 'I'm 21.'
Growling lightly at being interrupted, Shukaku continued, (Exactly. Still a kid.)
"Whatever..." Gaara stated aloud in a monotone, his robes gathering around him as he stood from the chair. He was staring out the window when a curious sight greeted him, "It seems we have company..."
A moment after spotting the cloud of dust in the distance, there was a hard rap at the door and a man shuffled in, "Kazekage, we have an unexpected visi-"
"Who is it?" Gaara demanded, though his tone was not laced with malice. Rather, it managed to remain bored and unreveiling of his true curiousity.
The young guard eyed his charge warily, wondering if Gaara was in one of those... moods. But there was no telltale shifting of the sands nor did the promise of blood drip from his lips. No... no the Kazekage was not dangerous just yet.
"Someone from Konoha, sir."
Gaara's head snapped up so fast, the man was barely able to suppress stumbling back from sheer startlement and panic. Fortunately, Gaara didn't seem to notice or care what the guard's reaction was. Instead, an even heavier questioning look graced his black rimmed eyes.
Recovering quickly the guard said, "It's not another messenger, Kazekage. But we're not sure as of yet who it could be."
Gaara's brow ridge creased slightly at this. Was his team of shinobi lacking enough that they required punishment? He demanded quietly, "Why?"
Noticing the glimmer of pain in the Kazekage's eyes, the guard started. 'This is bad,' he though to himself, 'The Kazekage's reverting back to his old self. Gods, why now? What could he be brooding about so much to get him this way...?'
Knowing his life just may be on the line, the guard didn't waste any more precious seconds to answer, "He's... too fast, sir."
At first, Gaara's frown deepened, striking concern and ever more fear through the guard standing before him. This irritated Gaara to no end.
'No matter what I do... they all still have that look in their eye. They're all... afraid...' Gaara thought resentfully.
(Fear is power, my dear subordinate.)
'Shut up.'
(Why don't you sleep, little one? We'll see who has the power then.)
Ignoring the demon within, Gaara realized he was silent so long the man before him was starting to sweat. Annoyed, the Kazekage started to open his mouth. But that's when the man's words hit him.
Too... fast?
A grin formed on the Kazekage's face, which worried the guard even more.
"I should greet our visitor and find out who he is..." Gaara thought aloud, crossing his arms as a bigger smirk graced his features. He had a feeling he knew who tihs visitor was.
Despite the fact that death was staring him in the face, the guard reached out a hand, "Sir, it's too dangerous. You shouldn't-"
But sand enveloped the unhearing Kazekage's form before it swept out of the room, leaving a trembling guard in an empty room.
Swallowing deeply, the guard wiped sweat from his brow and thanked the gods for whatever distraction kept the Kazekage from killing him. Said distraction was still running towards the sand village, unaware of the person coming to greet him.
o-o-o-o-o
'If I do not make it into the city before the bottom of the sun touches the horizen, I must do 400 laps around the Village of Sand!' The green-clad shinobi thought triumphantly to himself.
Even though he was at a dead sprint, he managed to strike the good-guy pose, a thumb sticking out and a glimmer pinging from his teeth. He regretted doing it an instant later when sand filled his mouth.
Wait. Regret doing the good-guy pose? NEVER!
'Just for that, I shall have to do double the laps if I don't make it!' The leaf-nin thought with determination.
He started to speed up when he noticed the strangest thing...
He wasn't even moving.
The spandex-clad ninja was actually suspened a little above the ground, held up there by grains of sand. Wait... grains of sand?
Finally sensing a masked presence, Lee managed to shift slightly to look at the person behind him. Just as ebony eyes locked with jade, the one controlling the sand spoke, "What brings a chuunin from Konoha here?"
"Kazekage!" Lee greeted with gusto as he corrected, "And I'm a jounin now." He looked very pleased.
So pleased Lee didn't even see Gaara flinch at the honorific title Lee addressed him with.
"Really now..." Gaara commented, slowly bringing the leaf-nin back to the ground.
The moment Lee's feet touched the ground, the boisterous young man burst forward and toppled the surprised Kazekage with a mind-numbing hug, "It's been so long!"
"About a year." Gaara replied, his voice still distant. Still so cold.
But Lee didn't care. He knew the sand-nin was usually so stoic. He was just happy to see an old friend. Much to Gaara's relief, Lee released him from the embrace after a few moments, just so he could hold him at arms length to look at him.
"You still didn't answer my question." Gaara stated, his voice sounding disinterested.
"Why, I'm on vacation!" Lee said as if it was obvious, "And after much debate, I decided the one friend I hadn't seen for forever was you, Kazekage!"
Again, Gaara flinched. Though it warmed him Lee still considered them friends, it still made him doubt just from the way Lee was addressing him.
Still smiling jovially at their surroundings, Lee once again did not notice. A dry breeze swept past, reminding Lee suddenly of his immense thirst.
"Hey Gaar-uh, I mean Kazekage!" Lee inwardly punched himself for the slip-up, "Do you have some water I could borrow?"
The Kazekage smirked, a light mood returning from Lee's words as well as the fact that the leaf-nin had been about to address him by his real name.
"Baka... you can't borrow water." Gaara said, pivoting and walking away as he said so.
Laughing sheepishly, Lee scratched his head as he trailed behind the Kazekage, "I-I know that... what I meant was-"
"The answer is yes." Gaara interrupted, throwing a look over his shoulder, "Now hold still."
Suddenly everything went dark as sand enveloped Lee's entire body. Memory flashing back to the incident years before, when Gaara had used Desert Coffin on him, he felt a sudden spike of panic. The sand was gripping him so tightly. He couldn't even move!
Was Gaara trying to KILL him?
That's when Lee looked over his thoughts and presently slapped himself. Of course Gaara wasn't trying to kill him. He needed to get a hold of himself. Gaara wouldn't do THAT. They were friends, after all.
Even as they were traveling by this quick method, Gaara was able to feel everything that Lee was doing. He felt the instant when Lee went through his moment of abject terror, making Gaara grit his teeth subconsciously. But then Lee relaxed, almost as if...
'He's not... afraid of me...?'
(The idiot trusts you.)
'Shut up.'
Though he did manage to calm down, Lee couldn't deny the relief that flooded him when his feet touched hard stone flooring and his muscles could move of their own accord. Flexing, Lee opened his eyes to find that Gaara was mere centimeters away. Much to his credit and experience, Lee suppressed the urge to jump back and throw kunai at Gaara's head. This wasn't an attack, after all. In fact, the leaf-nin was able to muster all that energy and surprise into one single word.
"Huh...?" Lee questioned as he took in the way Gaara's eyes seemed to be devouring him.
"You're... not afraid... Not like the others..."
"Not true." Lee denied, quickly amending at Gaara's confused look, "Well, true that I'm not afraid. At least, not of you. But it's not true that there aren't others who aren't afraid of you. There's Naruto."
"No," Gaara shook his head, his red hair sweeping against the slightly taller shinobi's cheekbone since they were so close. His eyes pierced Lee's as he continued, "Even he was afraid. Especially in the beginning. Everyone's afraid of me."
"That's not true." Lee said adamently. There had to be more than just him... More than just one person who hadn't been afraid, "Kazekage-"
And suddenly Gaara was pressed against him, making Lee painfully aware that he was pinned between the wall and a very powerful ninja. He was a jounin! He should've been aware of his surroundings. Why hadn't he realized there was a wall there?
"WHY?" Gaara demanded, "WHY aren't you afraid? What makes you so different! WHAT!"
Despite his predicament, Lee forced himself not to flinch at Gaara's rising words. Nor did he turn to look away. He refused to believe Gaara was going to kill him. He refused to show any hint that he might be afraid. Because he wasn't. Not even close. He was worried, maybe. But not for himself.
He was worried about Gaara.
Lee's voice was so low Gaara hardly caught it, "Because... because I can see the same loneliness in you that I had before..."
Gaara didn't know what he had been expecting, but it definately wasn't this. Staring at the captive he held before him, Gaara was the first to look away.
"Maybe... you should find another place for your vacation." The Kazekage said emotionlessly.
Before Lee could protest, sand whirled around the red-robed shinobi and Lee was no longer pinned against the wall. Sagging a bit, Lee looked around the abandoned room and sighed disheartenedly.
Had he been wrong to come?
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This is not a one-shot.