(i)
…
In which Gaara is jealous and doesn't even know it.
…
They first met Uchiha Sasuke when they were both twelve. They had been forced to 'play' with the younger heir of the Uchiha clan while his father, Fugaku, who ran the city's police force and whose clansmen made up three-quarters of said police force, discussed a training programme with the Sandaime Kazekage. Dressed up in stiff, itchy new clothes, they had both squirmed and whispered complaints to each other, much rather having spent the afternoon training or eating ice-cream.
Sakura had been in the middle of a particularly vicious whisper regarding what she thought of the pink bow adorning the front of her red princess dress (at twelve! Why were they dressing her in something like this at twelve!) when their playmate had walked in and Sakura froze.
Gaara elbowed the pinkette with a frown. She was not allowed to freeze up on him! If she did, who was to do the talking? Sakura didn't even retaliate like she usually did as the Uchiha boy approached, all dark, spikey hair and brooding attitude as he greeted them with an extremely bored look on his face.
"Hey."
"H-hello!" Sakura returned the greeting, a little too enthusiastically. And was she stuttering? Gaara stared at the girl he thought he knew through wide, dark-rimmed eyes. The Hyuuga girl stuttered. Sakura never stuttered. Why was she stuttering?
"Hn." The black-haired boy strode over to the table that had been filled with various snacks for them and sank down into his chair with his hands shoved into his pockets, looking very much like he didn't want to be there. Gaara found himself growing irritated with this stranger and towed the still-unresponsive Sakura to the furthest end of the table, helping himself to chocolate-chip cookies and a glass of milk. He was careful about not spilling his crumbs as Sakura always nagged about wasting food, and for once there was peace at snack-time because Sakura wasn't fighting him for cookies, but Gaara couldn't stop the uneasiness that he couldn't explain from eventually stealing his appetite.
The rest of the 'playdate' was spent in silence – the Uchiha brat was obviously trying to show that he was better than everyone else, Gaara was being himself, and Sakura not herself. He missed her chattering.
Later, after Sasuke had left (without having said a single word to either of them after the initial greeting), Gaara turned to Sakura with a look that clearly said 'What's your deal?'
Sakura had giggled. Honest.
"Sasuke-kun… he's cute." And then she had turned a pretty, light shade of pink – Gaara didn't know what that meant, but he was sure he had never seen her turn pink like her hair before and he somehow figured this wasn't a good thing. Not when it was because of someone else.
Gaara felt his annoyance at the Uchiha boy grow. He hadn't even been nice to her, so why was she still so happy? And tagging '-kun' to his name after barely meeting him for half an hour?
No. No, this was a Very Bad Thing.
"Gaara? What do you think?" Sakura asked, still smiling, and gosh, why was she still pink? Was she sick? He had a nagging feeling that wasn't it.
"I think," Gaara said slowly, feeling rather irritated, "I think I want to punch him."