Breaking Down His Walls
A/N : This is what happens when you stick me and comedy in the same room for an about an hour. I create fluff!
Update: I wrote this when I was 15. Three years later, I am now old enough to cringe at the blatant mistakes I made while attempting to write and publish it, which I had no business doing. Alas, I see the potential in it and, miraculously, I've finally gotten around to revising it. I truly hope you guys enjoy it and, if not, I'm sorry, I'll buy you your own personal Panda to cuddle, nurture, and love. Now that I've bribed you, commence reading!
``A putter there, a patter there.
Though nothing else to convey the despair...
Due to the inconvenience of solemn affairs...
At the moment, in that very room...
Over the trees did the gray sky loom...
Hot dog...
Yes, hot dog...
Wait, what?
Wow, I messed up.
So why am I still writing?
Why am I admitting to myself-why am I writing what I'm doing wrong.
I should just stop.
Dude, my knuckles hurt.
And poetry is boring.
And lame.
And pointless.
So why am I still writing?
Kankuro sighed as he set his pen down in front of him, scratching at his matted brown hair.
He mumbled to himself, springing out his chair and strolling into the kitchen where he tossed the refrigerator door open and confiscated it of it's milk. He padded back over to the chipped, cottage table that occupied the majority of their small kitchen and gazed down at the wrinkled sheets scattered along its surface. He eyed his work without truly seeing it, his mind elsewhere. He thumbed the top of the parchment, it's edges having curled from the ink bleeding through.
Suddenly, he smirked.
"They say that life is a story and that we all write our own destiny." he shook his head, throwing his head back and gulping straight out of the carton. He licked his lips. "Mine is going nowhere, so why am I still writing?"
Licking his lips once more, Kankuro scanned the room for something of interest, sighing as he did so.
Same white walls.
Same rusty faucet.
Same apartment that he and his siblings could barely afford.
But whatever.
Cracking the kinks out of his neck, Kankuro transferred his thoughts from less depressing manners to more...blissful ones. Such as poetry. Kankuro supposed poetry had became an outlet for him when he wanted to eliminate unnecessary stress. Polishing his puppets all day was an old hobby but eventually, his eyes began to grow as lifeless as his beloved figureheads. Life even seemed to slightly lose meaning, until one day he tossed open the family chest that had been collecting dust in their attic for a countless number of years and unearthed his mother's old journal, overflowing with poems. Karura truly had a gift. Kankuro didn't particularly believe it was hereditary but since that was essentially the only legacy his mother had ever left behind, he volunteered to continue it. Whether he was doing a good job or not was beyond him.
After stuffing his work into his mother's battered journal in a very unneat manner, Kankuro sat himself down by the window and gazed out of it dully, his arms propped up on the window sill. As he sat there, his ears twitched and they were filled with the sound of the heavy downpour of rainfall. He dreamily watched it pelt against the soaked glass. His cloudy brown eyes seemed to quiver and his breath fogged up the glass as he watched rainwater race down the pane that had long ago been fastened down with rusty, crooked nails.
"Serves Temari right, I tried to warn her." He tilted his head, eyes fluttering in an effort to stay awake. He didn't want to admit it, but he inwardly desired that she would come home safely. He informed her that the Suna forecast predicted rain that day but she chose to do with his words what she often did, leave them unheeded. He was just the little brother anyway. What did he know?
As if on cue, the door flung open right then and a very flustered Temari who was clutching an umbrella in one hand and several grocery bags in the other stumbled in. She kicked the door closed with her foot, muffling the rain once more. She glanced at him as she bustled in, setting the bags underneath the table. She then snapped her umbrella close and wriggled out of her raincoat.
"Missed me?" The blonde-headed wind mistress bargained, smirking a bit. Kankuro looked at her with the same dull eyes, trying to appear impassive but the mounting smile on his face betraying that notion.
"Go on, say it. Say you missed me." she pestered.
"'I miss Termari'?" Kankuro scoffed, crossing his arms and kicking his feet back. "Don't think I could fit that in my vocabulary even if I wanted to."
Temari smirked, bending down and shuffling around in one of the bags for something. She plucked out a tiny package, tossing it in the air and catching it. Kankuro's eyes grew wide when he recognized what it was. His jaw hurtled to the ground.
He leaped out of his chair, pointing at her with dark gray clouds shrouding his face. "Give. It."
"Miss me now?" she snickered as her little brother zoomed over to her and hugged her in the middle.
"Oof!" she exclaimed, puffing out a laugh.
Kankuro glared at her. She twirled gracefully out of his grip and sauntered over to the kitchen island. "Fine, take it."
He reached over casually to grab it from the air as she tossed it but she quickly snatched it back.
She gave him a weird look. "Come on, I said you could have it."
She tossed it again but when it nearly landed in his hand, in a blur, it was in hers. "Kankuro, do you want it or not?!"
He stared at her, wide eyed. He looked at his own hand, then back at her again with a 'How?' expression on his face. She shrugged and opened the package herself.
Kankuro attempted to snatch the item away from her but with each of his swipes, she evaded him easily with the nimbness of any kunoichi skilled in the Wind element until finally he threw all caution to the wind (literally) and launched himself at her.
"Don't tackle me!" she guffawed from her position on the floor. He smirked, satisfied to have caught her off guard and plucked the gum from her, sticking a piece in his mouth and getting up. She dusted herself off as she stood up as well only for him to push her back down. He snickered at her expense as she coughed heavily.
"It's just gum, why do you have to be so aggress-this floor is so filthy. Oh gawd, there is a colony of dust bunnies under the-gross!"
"You're welcome." he remarked, ruffling her now messy hair and trotting into the living room. He switched on the TV and sat down to rest and watch his Soaps. Temari sat beside him after putting up the groceries and stealing a piece of gum. She purposely chewed obnoxiously.
"Good thing I bought mint." she remarked. "I could smell your breath from down the street."
Kankuro bit his lip to prevent the chuckles that wanted to erupt. In other words, how was your day, brother?
"Boring." Kankuro replied to her unvoiced query.
"Was it, really?" Temari questioned, regarding him with her teal eyes.
"Yeah, we live in Suna. Everyone knows that you don't ask a Suna-native how their day was because we are all going to say the same thing."
"Aw, shut up. Suna is more than just desert, dirt, and heat." she debated, smirking when Kankuro cocked his eyebrow at her. "Although, there is sand everywhere."
"Ya think? It's even in our title, the 'Sand Village'."
"What? Would you prefer the 'Soil Village'?"
He shrugged. "Just wish we were known for more than just the 'Sand Village'. Remember the Chunin Exams? That one kid in the Forest of Death saw my headband and asked me if I built any good sand castles lately."
Kankuro shook his head while Temari snickered and sputtered out a "Whatever."
"He did!"
The two sat in silence for a few seconds, enjoying each others presence when a thought popped up in Temari's head.
"What's Gaara's doing?"
"I dunno, why don't you go find out."
Kankuro and Temari shared a skeptical look at that one.
"Where is he? I haven't seen him all day. He hasn't come down for breakfast, lunch, or..." Kankuro glanced toward the clock. "Now, dinner." He alleged, glancing in the direction of the stairs.
Temari wished she could shrug, but that would mean she didn't care...but she did.
"I wish I knew. If only he would communicate with us. I guess he's still coming in terms with seeing us as his siblings. After all, it's been a year since Uzumaki knocked some sense into him...literally."
Kankuro nodded in agreement with his sister.
"I've seen some major improvement in his behavior." Kankuro commented.
They sat in a comfortable silence after that, just enjoying the TV for a half an hour. As the credits shown on the screen, Kankuro picked up on the sound of footsteps trotting down the stairs. By that time the rain had died down and other sounds were more distinct to him. Kankuro nudged Temari slightly with his elbow who jumped and frowned at him. He cocked his head in the stair's direction where a certain red-head now descended the last step. Kankuro raised an eyebrow at his brother's choice of attire. Usually he was all matted up in his ninja garments but now he simply wore baby blue shorts and a white T-shirt. Kankuro shared a look with his sister who looked twice as surprised.
"Konnichiwa..." Temari offered in a uncharacteristically feeble way.
Gaara paused to regard his sister with vivid green eyes that made Temari feel penetrated to the depths of her soul.
"...Hey" he replied, barely audible.
Kankuro smiled. He held up the gum packet for his brother to see. "Gum?"
Gaara hesitated, giving his brother a look of confusion.
"Oh, come on, don't be shy, it's just gum."
Gaara frowned, walking over to them. "I don't know what 'gum' is." he responded in a monotone. Kankuro laughed at that, shaking his head.
"Figures..." Kankuro stuck his hand in his mouth and pulled out the half-chewed gum dripping with saliva and held it out for Gaara to take.
"Here!"
Temari eyes grew wide, sputtering.
"Kankuro!"
"What?"
"That's been in your mouth!"
"So? We're related. It's fine."
"I know, but..." before Temari could finish her train of thought, Gaara had reached out and accepted the half-eaten gum. He stuck it in his mouth, jaw working as he began to chew on it. Kankuro smiled in victory while Temari shot him a mild glare.
"What?" he snickered.
"I just think that you should give him gum, not gum disease."
"Whatever you do, don't swallow it." Kankuro informed his brother, poking him in the side gently. Gaara nodded and squirmed at the poke but tried to appear composed afterwards. Unfortunately, Kankuro didn't miss a thing.
"Is it good?" Kankuro asked, jabbing him in his side again when he wasn't looking. Gaara jumped, swatting at Kankuro's hand.
"Stop." he demanded, voice rising an octave.
"No." Kankuro said, grinning evilly and grabbing Gaara by the wrist so he couldn't get away. Temari reeled back, shocked by her brother's sudden crazed desire to commit suicide in the form of poking the bear, or the racoon in that instance.
"It's hilarious how you're so ticklish."
His siblings had known about his sensitivity to pokes and jabs for some time now, they usually used it to their advantage when Gaara wanted to act distant or "cool". They refused to let him sink back into that dark void he was trapped in only a year ago. But never did they attempt to full on tickle him!
Gaara looked at Kankuro sadly, the closest thing he could get to the "Puppy Dog Eyes". Kankuro smirked, pulling Gaara closer.
"Has that ever worked on me?" And with that he began working his fingers over Gaara's sides, causing Gaara to twitch involuntarily.
"No, stop!" he yelped shrilly, gripping Kankuro's arms. He tugged, trying desperately to get away. Temari laughed, despite herself, shaking her head.
"Okay, okay! Oka-" Temari tackled Gaara's feet then, trying to get him to give in.
The dam broke then as laughter flooded from the usually emotionless Sabaku. He pushed vigorously at his siblings but their administrations never stopped coming.
"Okay! I'm sorry!" he laughed, tears welling in his eyes.
Kankuro laughed. "For what?"
Gaara had shrunk to the floor then, twitching and laughing hysterically. Temari and Kankuro had finally let him go, laughing as hard as him.
"That'll teach 'em to mess with us!" Kankuro declared, snickering at the shaking form beneath him.
"No...more..." Gaara panted, coughing with his smile fading. Temari saw this and grinned, grabbing Gaara by the feet who squeaked and kicked at her.
"OKAY!"
The two elder siblings guffawed so hard that they were reduced to tears. Gaara blushed fiercely.
Later on during the night, another movie had came on in the midst of their tickle fight and now they were all snuggled up on the couch watching it. Kankuro had hoisted his flustered baby brother off of the ground and onto his lap. Gaara made no protests, he was entirely too fatigued to even consider the concept. So he just curled up in his older brother's lap and tried to watch the movie, even though he didn't understand most of it. He didn't get the humor or the drama or any of it. So he had fallen asleep instead. As the credits came on, Kankuro looked down at his snoring brother and sighed, smiling a bit.
"Aww." Temari remarked, chuckling. She was glad. Ever since Shukaku had been extracted from him, he could sleep much better and the dark rings around his eyes were getting lighter.
"Bedtime..." Kankuro mumbled, picking Gaara up bridal style.
"How are we still alive?" Temari wondered more to herself then her brother. "It's a miracle that he didn't maim us."
Kankuro fell into step with the kunoichi as he carried the topic of their conversation upstairs to his bedroom.
"For what? Reducing him to the baby brother that he is?" he snickered, laying said baby brother down on his bed. "I knew he had this side to him, he's just been holding out and keeping us at a distance in the process."
He afforded Gaara one last glance before turning to leave. Temari snagged his arm before he got too far and yanked him to sit down on the bed with her. He did so with a soft sigh.
Unconsciously, Gaara flopped over to snuggle against Kankuro's side who's eyebrow twitched. Temari 'awwed' and stroked the red locks that now resembled Kankuro's flustered complexion.
He ran a hand down his weary face. "I'm gonna need to punch a wall to feel manly again after this."
He carefully slid up on the bed bedside Gaara and leaned back against the headboard, Temari situating herself beside him. Fittingly, the middle child sat in the middle while Gaara cleaved to his side and Temari stuck to his other. Somewhere within the night, Temari could no longer keep her eyes open and found herself knocked out on Kankuro's shoulder. At this point, he didn't mind and stared ahead, watching dust mites float languidly around the ashen room now layered in dusk.
His eyes glazed over with contemplation as he recalled the question he had asked himself earlier that day.
So why am I still writing?
He looked to this left, then his right, his hands coming up to pat each sibling fondly on the head.
They were why he was still writing.
A/N:
If you would like me to continue this series or simply leave as a one-shot, let me know ;)
P.S.
I know you are all probably thinking that most apartments don't have stairs, but for the sake of the story, this one does. So please, just use your imaaaaginaaaaationssss *wiggles fingers mystically*
How didja like that one-shot of mine? Was it good? Bad? Okay? Let me know, in a review please. Oh, and just so you know, this was in no way at all related to incest. Point blank. Period.
God Bless You!
John 3:16
R&R !