Gaara watched the clouds sprawled on his back on the scrubby grass. He could feel the heat of the morning sun sharp on his face and seeping into his back from the soil, winding up through his bones and drying his eyes until they barely could move in their sockets. There was no breeze. There was surprisingly little in Wind country. It came only in sudden destructive bursts that would pull up the dessert from its roots and whip it over the scant villages and fields, smothering all life and leaving the land gasping for harsh breaths.
A scuffle broke the relative piece.
"Hello." A girl. Small, a bruised knee, brown hair.
Gaara half scrabbled up onto one elbow. He hadn't realised anyone else was there. What a useless ninja he would make. Not that he'd ever really had to think about protecting himself.
"I saw you over here on your own, so I thought I would come over," said the girl, settling herself cross-legged on the grass beside him.
Gaara tried several sentences in his head, keeping his eyes wide and unblinkingly on her scrawny figure.
"Um… hello."
She didn't smile and nor did he; she pulled some half dead stalks and rolled them in her fingers.
"What are you doing here?" she asked plainly, raising her eyes to his face momentarily, letting her brown eyes meet his.
He pushed himself up properly, squashing his shock and brief fear down inside him.
"I don't know. Looking at the sky. The clouds." His voice was small and forced, and Gaara scowled at himself for the tiny note of hope and desperation that sounded through.
If the girl noticed she didn't show it.
"That's boring." She wrinkled her nose. "Why don't you so something more interesting?"
"I don't know."
She sat contemplating her stalks of grass then dropped them on the ground and plucked another two.
"What do you do?" Gaara was surprised by the sound of his own voice, and wrapped him arms protectively around his knees as he watched her carefully for a reply.
"Play with my friends," she said, eyes flickering to his and then back to the ground, and light flush of embarrassment colouring her cheeks.
"You know who I am." It was more a statement than and question.
"Sabaraku no Gaara." She shifted uncomfortably.
Before Gaara could say anything, she added softly, "I would hate to be alone."
"I hate it, too."
She flushed harder, and Gaara offered the ghost of a smile and pulled at a stalk of his own, running it between his fingers as he watched her do, feeling the brittle waterless fibres crumble beneath the pressure of his skin.
"You are all alone, aren't you?" she asked, letting the grass dust trickle from her hand.
"Yes."
"But your father…"
Gaara shook his head softly.
"And your brother? Sister - "
"It's just me," he finished quickly, clenching the green-brown stalks in his fist.
She nodded slowly. Glancing back over her shoulder, she leant forward, her face still pink.
"Do you want to know why you're alone?" The words were soft, barely more than a whisper.
Gaara's eyes widened, his body stuck.
"Because you're a monster," she hissed, jumping up from the ground, and turning heel in an instant.
Gaara felt his chest painfully tight, his eyes fixed and tongue frozen.
The girl reached the corner of a building where a huddle of children were waiting to pull her protectively back into the group.
You can't hurt her, they said, you can't catch us, monster.