Balance
His turquoise eyes looked over the old woman sharply.
"What was that, wench?" His brother growled.
"Kankurou…." The king said, voice scarcely more than a whisper. "Gaara- I mean your majesty, please excuse me," Kankurou, said head bowed slightly. "Your majesty, this lunatic broke into your castle and threatened your power! That can not go without punishment!"
"Be still brother, I will decide what to do."
"I never meant to-"
Gaara turned his gaze to his elder brother, and Kankurou closed his mouth, silencing himself. Gaara felt another - his sister, most likely - shift uneasily behind him. He ignored it. "Now, old woman, repeat what you just said." He held himself high, and placed the right amount of force behind his voice. She cackled like a madwoman. "You are surely wiser than your father, boy. If only he had heeded my words like you are prepared to do." Gaara stiffened, but the old woman had spoken more to herself than to him or any of his advisors. "The Gypsy queen has her eye on you; one false move against her people, and you'll fall hard, just like your father." The old woman cackled again.
"How dare you--- your majesty?!" Gaara was on his feet before his brother even finished; his strong hand held the elder woman in her place.
"I will see to her."
"Gaara…" That would be his sister, he thought. Princess Temari stepped forward. "This woman is obviously deranged." Her own green eyes looked wild in her tan face. "Let the dead bury the dead, Gaara." Her voice was softer, anxious. He let loose a wild chuckle. "Sister, I have no love enough, nor desire, to avenge our father. Only curiosity." That aroused another chuckle from the old woman. "Her ladyship was right, you are quite the entertainment. Living in a den of lions all your life does that to you, I suppose."
"When one lives with the snakes, one must learn to strike before the others to survive," Gaara murmured the old lesson and favored saying of the late king. "Oh? So young and spouting the wisdom of the old?" The old one eyed the new king. "Child, perhaps with you the symmetry can be restored." She patted his hand as though she was his grandmamma and he, her confused grandchild. "Balance is important in this land, Sabaku no Gaara. You are not given what other kings are. You have no giant coast, and few things to trade. You cannot offer blissful paradise, but still you have to give the world something, and that something is harmony."
Gaara's brows furrowed, and he could hear his brother and sister protest, his advisor laugh, but he could not turn away from the old woman. "You are bound to a life of blood, and death, and so balance becomes your most important ally. Yin must have Yang, as a desert must have sand, and a king a queen. Listen to my words, your majesty. The desert needs both of its monarchs to survive, no matter what the law says."
"Treason! Seize her! She's bewitching our king!" Kankurou bellowed, and Temari put a hand on her brother's shoulder. Gaara hadn't even realized that he'd released her until she took s few steps back, and then dropped something. Blinding light, as bright of the sun, exploded in front of her, stopping all movement. Gaara flinched, covering his eyes. And just as suddenly as it started, it ended. Gaara slowly turned back to where the old woman had been and tilted his head. That had been interesting.
"Chiyo, your back! I was hoping you wouldn't make it out alive!" A queen cried playfully. She sat lazily on her throne, eyes twinkling brightly. "What do you make of our new king?" She purred, and the older woman laughed, then grew serious, a sure sign that something had happened. "…He is wise… and handsome, too." The queen shrieked with gleeful laughter, spewing insults at her elder between her gasps for air. It was all a façade, though, anyone who knew their queen would see it. Chiyo could practically see the calculations running through her young queen's head.
"Sakura, I warn you he may be more… persistent than the late king." Chiyo almost drew back at the cold rage that flitted through Sakura's face.
"In what way?"
"He wants to meet you."
Suddenly all the hostile tension left the air. A side of Sakura's mouth quirked upwards. "Is that so? Then perhaps I should go to him." She stood with easy grace.
"Your majesty-"
"Chiyo, I am much younger and nimbler than you are. Surely I will be able to make it in and out to see our king. Besides, if anything happens to me you can just take over again." The gray-haired woman frowned and shook her head. "You know that tradition dictates that 'with a new king, a new queen shall rise beside him'," Chiyo quoted, but to no avail; the younger woman was just as stubborn as any mule, and twice as hardheaded.
"Then do not worry yourself, I will return," Sakura pulled back her hair and wrapped a cloak around her shoulders. "If I travel throughout tonight I should make it to him by tomorrow evening, possibly afternoon," She murmured more to herself than to anyone. She then promptly left, leaving Chiyo to watch her in contemplation. "Yes, perhaps our balance shall return." She mused.
Gaara was agitated. The previous day had not left him alone, he wanted to – no, needed to - know what that old woman meant. Did she want him to marry? Is that what she meant by "The desert needs both its monarchs to survive" ? Or was she just a deranged old fool? No he thought, She could no more be an old fool than I a peasant. A frown marred his stone face. He looked out the window, the second night since the old woman's visit. His frown deepened. Gaara had spent the last day and a half trying to find more on the "Gypsy queen" without success. He had even sent royal spies out into his capital to pick up what whisperings they could. All they had to report was that his people knew very well about the Gypsy queen, but few would speak of her in public, and those whose conversations were heard only spoke of legends. It seemed his own people knew more of their other monarch that the king himself.
And even with this depressing notion, he refused to give in. I will find you, he thought, And- "Your majesty!" A woman's cry sounded from behind him; he turned, alert, and slightly alarmed at this intrusion in his personal quarters. The woman was young, and nimble, he noted, as she fell on her knees before him. It looked more like she'd fallen then a bow, but perhaps she was not taught the proper way, he thought, straightening. From the way she dressed that much could be true. "What is it girl?" His voice was hoarse from little use.
"I found it! Her!" His brow knitted as she fumbled to open a worn book to the right page. Silently, he read the pages the book was opened to, and felt his curiosity peaked again. The Gypsy queen was a child's tale? No, he rejected that notion. If she was naught more than a child's tale, why did his people watch their tongues on this subject? Then a sudden thought struck him. "Girl, where are the guards that let you in?" His answer was a wicked grin and, "My king, I would not worry about such things."
Gaara growled, "You will answer me, girl!" In almost convincing fright the girl bowed her head. "I must tend to the animals, and my family's water well, milord!" Before the girl could so much as turn, however, Gaara pinned her against a wall. "Your majesty…this is so…so indecent!" The girl shuddered, and Gaara yanked the sun-blocking hood of her outfit down and took in her appearance. Once again his suspicions were aroused as he took in the look of her pale, clean skin. "Girl, you will tell me why you are truly here, and you will drop your façade." The redhead commanded in his most superior tones.
The girl pulled back as much as he allowed, and smirked, dropping the act of a terrified peasant girl. "So strict…so commanding," She murmured, giving him her most seductive look. "You wanted to see me, remember? That's what you told little old Chiyo the other day when she came to visit." The king's brows furrowed, and then it clicked.
"You're the Gypsy Queen?!"
For a moment bewilderment appeared on the king's face but it quickly vanished. "Perhaps Chiyo overestimated your intelligence," Sakura sighed, and tilted her head, her pink locks tumbling down her shoulders. Gaara's eyes followed the movement and his eyes swept over her strong, square shoulders, long elegant neck, proud chin, and finally into her gleaming eyes. Unconsciously he pressed her against the wall, and she closed her eyes, and he saw her swallow back almost inconspicuous nervousness, and then open her eyes again.
"Gaara, release me please. As cozy as this is, we'll be caught. I can hear your lazy guards and foolish siblings stumbling down here."
A moment later his guards and siblings did burst through the door, looking both dismayed and angry. "Gaara!" They called he released her, once again caught off guard. "Get- arghhhhh!" Temari's voice was stopped short by the same blinding light from before. Gaara shut his eyes, but this time he lunged blindly forward, and crashed into his wardrobe. As his guards helped him up Gaara could have sworn he had felt his queen's smooth skin, and the faint scent of jasmine radiating off her warm body.
"So the Gypsy Queen is real? I wonder what she's like."
"You idiot! Your brother the King was attacked, and all you can think about is what some trashy little imposter is like in person?!" Temari roared.
"...Interesting."
The two stopped and looked at their brother, trying to decipher his meaningless words.
"She's interesting."
A young woman rode her steed relentlessly into the desert, the small spotted horse kicking up dirt as it rode. She slowed the horse as she approached several other hooded figures. Swallowing, she answered their unspoken question. "Well, he certainly is interesting." Without another word the group rode on into the cold desert night under a blanket of the purest black.
At the front of the group the Gypsy queen thought that maybe, just maybe, the desert king wasn't so bad after all.
A.N: Well here we are again! Another new story. A one-shot as well. It has the potential to go somewhere but we have other projects that we're working on at the moment so it'll stay a one-shot for now!