Sleep terrified him senseless.
The fear—this irrational fear towards the most basic of human needs—used to come from the demon within him, because falling asleep was Shukaku's one-way-ticket to the funland of mass slaughter and bloodthirsty rampage.
But the strange warmth of the new seal on his chest has bound the demon into submission, allowing him the same luxury that his loudly snoring brother has. He could fall asleep without worries now.
The first time falling asleep was a strange experience. He has been anticipating nightmares—to be haunted by his previous victims in the strange land of dreams seemed appropriate considering that something bad needed to happen to balance out these good things that he has lucked out—but to his surprise, it was a fitful dreamless sleep.
It was nice. It felt so good.
Gaara loves bedtime.
However, it didn't negate his fear of waking up to the heat of the desert sun instead of this humid warmth he now has called home.
He didn't want to wake up from this wonderful dream.
Thus, Gaara remained awake.
A/N: This AU is created to sate my imagination of "What will happen if Minato survived and adopted Gaara before the hate could even get to the poor boy?" Their characters might be different due to the different living circumstances they had in this AU.
I just want some Minato-Naruto-Gaara family bonding, okay? Especially a Father-Son bonding between Minato and Gaara.