ABLOOD-SUCKING BARON: Hey everyone! I want to give a big thanks to Moncollefan365 for giving me and Vampire cutie this chance to finish her story. (Does anyone know how how I can contact her? If your reading this, Vampire cutie, please pm me.) This chapter was given and has little to no changes. Next chapter will be my first go at the story. I understand that my style is different, but I promise to try to keep it as close as possible. Or at least make it as good as possible. I DON'T OWN NARUTO. NARUTO IS THE WORK OF MASASHI KISHIMOTO AND THIS PLOT BELONGS TO MONCOLLEFAN365.
The encounter with Sasuke the night before had unsettled Hinata and Gaara could tell. This fact made him nervous as he couldn't tell whether or not she was going to take the boy's thoughts seriously. Hinata had been the first person who had treated him like a person since his mother had died and he had been enslaved. He really didn't want to lose that.
Simultaneously Hinata was contemplating where to go from where they were now. She knew that realistically, she could not do what she really wanted to and release Gaara from his enslavement until she moved out of her father's house. Unfortunately she had not quite saved up enough money from her missions yet to afford that and she would not move out until she was sure she could support the both of them. In addition she was not certain that Gaara trusted her yet. He still was in the habit of calling her mistress on occasion, a habit that annoyed her immensely much to her dismay, and he still flinched every time she did something he wasn't used to. Couple those facts with the unrecognized feelings that she had been noticing lately and that lead to one very quiet and very contemplative Hyuuga.
After a couple hours of awkward silence between the two of them, with neither quite knowing what to do Gaara began to fidget. He didn't want to do anything without Hinata's permission however she seemed to be deep in thought and he didn't want to interrupt her either. This resulted in him defaulting to the only safe activity he knew, cleaning. The room wasn't particularly dirty, he had cleaned it recently after all, but Gaara never had any problem finding things to either straighten, dust, or just organize.
The odd part about this particular cleaning session was that Hinata did not seem to notice what he was doing. She just sat at her window seat looking out the window contemplatively.
Hinata had inkling as to what the new emotion she was experiencing in regards to Gaara was but she had to be sure. She didn't want to act on the emotion only to find out that it was just a more intense urge to protect and comfort him from the pain that he had gone through with his past master. That was why she was just looking out the window. She was contemplating whether or not she was truly in love with him.
By the time she had come to a conclusion Gaara had not only organized and straightened her entire room but he had organized, straightened and wiped down all of the counters and surfaces in her bathroom and was now sitting quietly on her bed watching her. Hinata immediately felt horrible realizing that she had neglected him for so long.
"I'm sorry Gaara I didn't mean to ignore you." She said quietly. Gaara shrugged in response.
"That's alright Hinata-sa—Hinata-chan, I like the mindless activity anyway." He replied. Hinata was a bit shocked that not only had he not put the expected sama after her name but that he had not stuttered the entire time he had spoken. This made her smile slightly, something that put him on edge for a reason he couldn't place.
Before Gaara could ask what she was smiling about Hinata was kissing him. It was not what he expected and quite honestly freaked him out. The last person who had kissed him like this had been his father, a couple months after enslaving him. She had taken the boy from last night's words seriously; she was treating him like he was actually a slave. When she pulled back Gaara was still in shock and frozen in place. This confused her slightly.
Gaara was acting as though he was afraid of her again but what had she done wrong? She touched his shoulder lightly causing him to flinch. "Gaara?" She became even more worried when he did not respond to her question. Had she somehow hurt him? The thought crossed her mind that perhaps he just wasn't used to human contact. But that couldn't be it, lately she, Kankuro and Temari had been lavishing physical affection on him. So why had he frozen up.
"So, what do you want to do?" She asked awkwardly trying desperately to get him to respond. What she received was not promising.
"Whatever you wish mistress." With this response Hinata realized her mistake. The only time Gaara seemed to revert to calling her mistress and acting the way he had the day she had first gotten him was when he was worried about her acting like his past master.
She wasn't sure how her kiss could have reminded him of that but that must have been what it was. He had been fine right up until she had kissed him.
"Gaara, did I do something to upset you?" The answer was obvious but she needed to hear it from him. Unfortunately he only shook his head no and resumed waiting for her instructions. Hinata sighed, how should she go about telling him she was sorry and that she wasn't going to act like his prior master?
"Gaara…I know I did something to upset you I just want to know what it was." There was still no response and now both of them were fidgeting awkwardly. Hinata sighed she should just apologize and try to get him to talk to her instead of waiting for him to tell her what she did wrong. She would rather not apologize without being positive of what she had done wrong but it looked like he wasn't going to tell her either way.
"Gaara, I don't know exactly what it was that your last master did to you but I'm not them. I'm sorry I upset you but you need to know that I'm not going to hurt you like they did." She said quietly. Gaara fought with himself for a good couple of minutes after she said this. A very small part of him, the part that had not given up hope that he would be freed from his enslavement when he had lived with his father, believed her when she said this. Another significantly larger portion was too world weary to just trust her just like that. He bit the inside of his lip nervously.
"Why did you kiss me just now?" He finally asked quietly. He needed to know as the smaller voice in his head was now whispering things that he wasn't sure he wanted to consider just now. The question would, in a way solve everything for Gaara, as any master like the boy wished Hinata to be would probably punish him harshly for the insolence. Hinata just looked at him curiously though.
It finally dawned on her what she had done wrong. She had never given consideration to the fact that some slaves were used in ways that were better left unthought about in her opinion, and the idea that Gaara could have been used in that way had honestly never crossed her mind. It begged the question at this point; did Gaara even know what love was anymore? Would he be able to reciprocate her feelings even if he wanted to?
"I kissed you because I love you and wanted you to know that." She said matter of factly. Anyone who knew her would probably have been shocked that she had not stuttered at all while uttering this but Hinata, by this point at least, had realized that how she said it would not matter. Gaara would most likely react badly if she was more nervous and so she kept herself as calm as possible while waiting for her response. This was no small feat as her heart was beating at perhaps a hundred miles an hour and she felt as though she were going to hyperventilate at any moment.
Gaara was stunned for a few moments before he regained his composure. Aside from his family members not one person had ever told him that they loved him. He didn't even know if he could love her back but really didn't want to upset her too much. In a way it was touching that even though he was the one who should be apologizing she was the one saying she was sorry to him for scaring him. He had been hurt so much by his father that it was hard for him to believe that anyone would treat him kindly anymore, but perhaps, just perhaps Hinata would be the one to help him get over that fear of trusting people.
Before he could find a way to respond to that without making it seem like he was rejecting her Hinata was already speaking. "I know you will probably have a hard time loving me right now given what you've been through but I really want you to know that I care about what happens to you and I'm not going to let anyone hurt you anymore." Gaara could hear the determination and honesty in her voice and to his great surprise he began to tear up a bit from it.
The next thing Hinata knew Gaara had his arms wrapped around her middle and was crying into her shirt. She let him, thinking it better to let him get it all off his chest rather than try to deny that he was in pain.
"It'll be alright Gaara, I may make some mistakes but when I do you just have to tell me what's wrong so I know. I can't keep from hurting you if I don't know what's bothering you after all." Gaara nodded his head softly to let her know he understood. She stayed with him like that until he fell into a somewhat restless slumber, half falling asleep herself when her cell phone started to ring.
"Hello?" Hinata's eyes widened as the caller explained that he had a mission for her and gave the quantity of the reward money that each member of her team would receive. The quantity was definitely high enough for her and Gaara to live comfortably in a small apartment for quite a while.
"I see, when do we leave?"
The next day brought sunshine and better moods for both Gaara and Hinata, at least until the latter of the two told her companion that she would be leaving mid-day for an extended period of time. She wouldn't tell him why she had to leave only that she would only be gone a couple of days and she had already made plans with Kiba for him to stay over there for the time being.
Gaara was a bit confused at that last point, as Hinata had had no problem leaving him to his own devices in her room in the past. But she explained that if he stayed here he wouldn't be able to leave the house while she was gone and would most likely have trouble getting food and other necessities. That he would be much better off by Kiba's for the trip because not only would he be around his brother and sister constantly but he would still have free reign of the apartment and town.
In her own mind Hinata added that to be honest she didn't quite trust her father or someone else in the manor to not do something cruel to Gaara while she was gone. And that would most likely set her back in her efforts to make him feel better so it was better if he didn't stay there.
Thus the two packed their bags and made their way over to Kiba's apartment. Surprisingly enough when they walked in there were no scarring antics being performed by the owner of the apartment and his boyfriend. They were actually just sitting on the couch like vegetables watching what appeared to be a romantic comedy. Hinata left Gaara to announce his entrance by himself, realizing that she was running a bit late due to how long it took her to find the needed materials. A mischevious grin came to Gaara's face as soon as the door was closed behind her and he made his way into the kitchen to get the jump on his brother for once.
Two ice cubes were procured and before either of the other male's knew what had happened were promptly shoved into the backs of their shirts. Gaara snickered as they both squealed like little girls and tried to get the offending object out of their clothing. Kiba's came out easy enough as he had been wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans but Kankuro's hoodie appeared to be trapping the ice cube right in the one area of his back that the male couldn't reach. Soon both Gaara and Kiba were in stitches on the floor.
"Yeah yeah, laugh it up. What's up squirt?" Kankuro growled finally getting the now mostly melted cube out of his shirt.
"Hinata just left" Gaara stated simply. Kiba nodded understandingly and gestured for Gaara to have a seat. He swiftly sat on the couch, Kankuro and Kiba sitting beside him to continue the movie. As Gaara watched the movie he couldn't help but let his eye wonder to the door.
A/N: So I added two sentences at the end, that's not enough to ruin anything. Next chapter I'm going to work my butt off to make as good as possible! Wish me luck!
-Baron