Summary: "I've already spoken to the council," Gaara says, and now the intensity of his gaze has changed again, almost too fast for Temari to follow.
"Suna needs a new Kazekage. Suna needs you."
A/N: For a prompt sent to me by abelharainhaadiva on tumblr!
Gaara lays on the bed, staring up at the ceiling through glassy, unfocused eyes. The One Tails is gone now. The monster inside him is gone and Temari doesn't even know where to begin in that thought process.
Her little brother is different now, even though they've only had him back for a just over a week, she can see all the little differences. He's quieter, loses focus easier. The Akatsuki killed him and tore away the only constant in his life. He's traumatised, she realises.
She stands in the doorway of the room, unsure of what to say and yet desperate to say something. She nearly lost both her brothers, her only family, but the battle is far from over.
Kankuro will not be cleared for active duty for a while yet, the poison having wreaked havoc on every inch of his body. Kankuro's road to recovery is far from over and presents a turbulent road ahead of him.
Gaara died. Her little brother was dead and revived and that event in itself is horrific, not to mention the days beforehand where the Akatsuki killed him piece by piece, pulling the one tails from him oh so slowly.
She doesn't want to think about that too hard.
The tea in her hand is going to get cold the longer she stands in the doorway, so she pulls herself upright, straightening her shoulders and erasing the worry from her face.
Gaara is her brother, and she will do everything in her power to help him out of this. He's a strong man, and Temari won't let him or Kankuro fall.
She knocks quietly on the door, forcing herself not to frown at how badly Gaara startles. He scrambles to his elbows, his arms shaking beneath him and a wild, panicked look plastered along his face.
It's the most expressive she's seen him in years, but of course, it's in the worst possible context.
She holds up the tea so he can see it. "I know you're not hungry, but this should make you feel better." The tea won't make him feel full. It's a remedy to calm the nerves and she knows Gaara needs all he can get.
He opens his mouth, looking startled and yet no words come out. "I'm sorry," he says eventually. The words are so small and fragile and so unlike the Gaara that she knows. Temari forces herself forward, forces herself not to react. Gaara doesn't need to know how worried she is. It's Temari's job to stand up for her brothers when they can't.
"You have nothing to be sorry for," Temari says as gently as she can. She places the thankfully still steaming tea at his bedside table and sits on the edge of the bed. "You need to rest," she gestures to Gaara's shaky arms.
Gaara stares at her for a moment and Temari almost feels uncomfortable under the sheer weight of that gaze, but she steels herself. Gaara needs her and whatever damaging thoughts are floating through his head she can take.
"No, Temari," he starts and abruptly interrupts himself. He looks down at the rest of his body, still too shaky to walk on his legs, feeling too many after-effects of being brought back to life to eat. Temari can understand how he feels useless, but he will get better. It will just take time.
"It's been a week, and I haven't improved much," Gaara sends her a pitiful glare to stop her from interrupting. "I need more time then Suna has to recuperate and not-" again he pauses, he rubs his hand over his eyes and suddenly looks far older than he is. "Not just physically, Temari. I need more time and Suna does not have that. Suna needs a Kazekage now."
"We'll work something out, Gaara," she says. Her chest is bursting, seizing up at the endless pain in her brother's eyes, in the way he speaks, in the way he moves. It's not Gaara.
"I've already spoken to the council," Gaara says, and now the intensity of his gaze has changed again, almost too fast for her to follow.
"Suna needs a new Kazekage. Suna needs you."
Temari stares at him and finds herself floundering for that clean, unreadable mask. She wrestles herself to be professional about this. Gaara can't be thinking straight.
"I'm not kidding Temari," Gaara barrels on before Temari can try and formulate a response. "I didn't even need to convince them. You are the best for this job. You know politics better than anyone, better than me. You can get the council to see reason like it's a walk in the park, you know all the intricacies of negotiation and you're strong."
By the end of his speech, Gaara looks exhausted and Temari has never been overly excited about the idea of becoming Kazekage. She has always known it was a possibility but she never considered herself suited to the position.
But… maybe she is suited.
The notion doesn't make it easier. If she was ever going to inherit the title she didn't want it like this, at the cost of her little brother's health. Gaara deserves a chance at making Suna a better place and it's not something he ever got. She doesn't want to steal this from him.
But he's right. He can't govern the country now, not tomorrow, and not in a month. He needs time, and Suna simply doesn't have that.
"Fine," she grunts out. She grabs the tea from the nightstand and presses it into Gaara's hand. Her heart aches, her head hurts and she doesn't really want this. She's more than happy to simply be a shinobi of Suna, the Kazekage's sister. But she also knows that in the long run, it's not her wants that truly matter.
Gaara needs her to do this. Suna needs her to do this. And so, she thinks as she kisses Gaara's forehead and walks out of the room, that is exactly what she'll do.
People need her, and Temari has never been very good at giving up.
Thank you for reading this! Any other prompts for the Madame Kage collection (on ao3) I'll take! (it might take me a while to get to them bc Uni is kicking my ass lmao)
comments are greatly appreciated thanks fam