Description: Written for the G.I.S.T. (GaaIno Spring's Tale 2012) event of G.I.F.T. (GaaIno Forever True), a GaaraxIno Fanclub. Especially dedicated to el Cierto, who was the one who recruited me to join. Thanks for the inspiration, el!
Main Theme: Spring
Sub-Theme: Hanami (Flower Watching)
Universe: A.U.
Rating: T for Kiba's perverted mouth and hinted sexual themes
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Word Count: 4,679
WARNING: Slightly OOC, but you can blame that on the alcohol.
Summary: People do stupid things when they're drunk, happy and looking at flowers. That's just how it is.
Under Cherry Trees and in Toilet Cubicles
By: Yuugiri
One of the biggest problems of today's society was that they try to value too much of the things that don't really matter. Like, say, show business. People turn on their television sets every single day to watch other people live their lives and see Actress A marrying Actor C, only to turn on their television sets three months later to see Actress A and Actor C get a divorce. It was pathetic.
Another example was politics. Those running for prime minister try their best to get elected by the public, and then they would make a big blunder, wound their pride, and resign before the people who voted for them start to blame them for bad economy, high gasoline prices and dwindling employment rates.
It was sick.
People were sick.
Because the world around them was already busy with unimportant things like show business and politics, and here they were, sitting on blue, plastic sheets under cherry blossoms, barbecuing chicken and pork in skewers and drinking alcohol and having a good time and being as unimportant as those people who worry about Actress A and Actor C's divorce.
Gaara loosened his tie, looked down at the empty beer can in his hand and groaned inwardly. This happened every year. Every single year. His editing company would go all out and close for a day just for everyone to compulsorily join the Hanami event held in Sumida Park in the afternoon. The stupid gathering lasted until late in the night.
Gaara never liked social gatherings. It was not as if he liked everyone at work. Sure, going out for a few drinks with a handful of friends was one thing. But hanging out with people at work in hours when you don't have to hang out with them was another.
"They wear skirts short enough to show off their panties, and they get mad when we look at them. I mean, what's up with that?" Uzumaki Naruto mumbled lazily as he leaned back on his elbows, looking over to the other side of the grassy glade where a group of women was gathered around a barbecue pit, happily talking about something that Gaara couldn't quite hear.
Nara Shikamaru snorted and a puff of smoke trailed out of his nose after taking a long drag from his cigarette. "It means 'don't look'. Or, 'don't get caught looking'. It doesn't really matter. Why do guys get kicks in seeing underwear, anyway?"
"Shikamaru's right," Inuzuka Kiba suddenly butted in as he dropped down on their plastic sheet with several cans of beer in his hand. "I mean, if they aren't wearing any underwear, then yeah, I'd look. But you wouldn't see me masturbating over it."
Gaara narrowed his eyes at the lewd man as he accepted a drink from him, discarding his empty can in the garbage bag beside him. He wisely didn't say anything. Kiba always had a way with words that always got him into trouble with the opposite sex. That was why he didn't like mingling with his coworkers. It was just too bothersome and he could think of a dozen other important things to do at work.
Like, say, edit. And stuff. His author had been squirming his way out of his fingers because it was almost deadline for his manuscript and the man was still a chapter short.
"Gaara, don't you dare think of sneaking away while we're not looking," Naruto said, looking over to him and giving him a toothy grin. "I can practically hear what you're thinking."
Gaara raised his eyes to his best friend and sighed. Naruto was the only reason he was here in the first place. The man was resilient in inviting him over every year to company events that he knew he wouldn't enjoy. Gaara had always wondered why he let Naruto convince him into gatherings that involved social skills and plenty of booze. He had a low tolerance for both. He should have known better than to attend. Gatherings like these were the reason why he had ended up naked in his condo's elevator, passed out and a freaking tattoo of a kanji that read 'love' on his forehead last year.
He shuddered. It had been a bet he shouldn't have called. Naruto had the stamina and the alcohol tolerance of a hundred men. Gaara had been out like a light after his fifth bottle while the blonde danced around the bar with his eleventh. Everything had been a blur and he woke up the next morning in his condo's elevator with no shirt and his forehead hurting. He had never felt so embarrassed – or so mad – his whole life. He had been the laughing stock of his friends for weeks.
Gaara touched the tattoo on top of his left eye before giving Naruto a bored look. "I'm leaving at seven. You can't stop me."
Naruto looked at his watch. Gaara knew it was already five in the afternoon. "Aww, man. That's too early. The party's barely getting started."
"Yeah, just wait for a few more hours and the ladies over there would get drunk enough to get naked. Remember last year when Techikawara Mari got so drunk she went skinny dipping in the pond?" Kiba asked excitedly. Gaara could practically see drool dripping down Kiba's chin.
"First of all, Techikawara Mari didn't jump in the lake herself. You pushed her," Gaara drawled, annoyed. Kiba and her women. "And Haruno Sakura clobbered you for being an ass."
"Ah, sweet, sweet Sakura!" Kiba said dreamily as he looked up at the cherry blossoms over their heads. "I bet her kisses are as sweet as her punches."
Naruto was not happy. "Will you please stop thinking that about my girlfriend's friend?"
Kiba shook his head in disbelief. "Man, I can't believe you snagged Hyuuga Hinata from under my nose. That girl is fine."
Naruto made to lunge at Kiba. Shikamaru was between the two in a second. "Naruto, sit down. Kiba, shut the hell up."
The two men flopped back down on the plastic sheet to nurse their beers, Naruto looking sour, Kiba not the least bit looking guilty.
Gaara groaned inwardly. This was going to be a very, very long night. He put down his beer, pushed himself up to a standing position and brushed his bottom with a hand.
Shikamaru looked up at him. "Huh? Going somewhere?"
"You're not running away, are you?" Naruto accused.
Gaara glared down at Naruto, then Kiba, then finally at Shikamaru. Thinking that Shikamaru was the sanest to talk to, he said to the Nara, "I'm going to the men's room."
Shikamaru blinked at him before finally nodding. "Oh. All right. You'd better not run away. I don't want to be left with these two when they start to get drunk."
"What are you talking about? I'm a very refined drunk! Just don't let me loose on those women – "
"Shut the hell up, Kiba," Shikamaru snapped.
Gaara nodded, deep down inside thinking that he didn't want to be around when those two got drunk. Maybe if Shikamaru wasn't married to his older sister, then he could have abandoned the man with a clean conscience. But Gaara did not want to have to go home and face Temari with the guilt that he had left her husband in the hands of Naruto and Kiba. "I'll be back soon."
He set off towards the public rest rooms on the other side of the clump of cherry blossoms, away from the crowd. He took a deep breath, for the first time that day finally relaxing. He couldn't believe that they were out in this broad, open park and he still felt very stifled.
He dug in his pocket for his cell phone and sighed when he discovered his author still hadn't called. Idiot Rock Lee. What's up with that pen name, anyway? Lee was going to weasel his way out of his deadline. Again. And Gaara will have to pick another bone with the printing press for it.
He hated having to talk with anyone with the printing press… Nagato was a pain. Konan was another thing to think about. They nag. Nag. Nag.
And then nag some more.
Gaara looked up from his phone by the time he reached the public toilet, hurried up with his business and was washing his hands when one of the strangest things happened.
A woman walked in.
It took a while before Gaara's brain registered that a woman was in the men's toilet with him.
She was tall, blonde and blue-eyed.
And she had her shirt in her hand.
Not on her.
No, she wasn't wearing it. She was holding it.
In her hand.
She was standing there, looking at him. In her bra.
While in normal circumstances, perhaps if it weren't Gaara, being alone in the men's room with a half-naked pretty lady with a considerably big chest would have made the average male's nose bleed.
Gaara was probably lucky he was Gaara.
Gaara turned off the faucet, shook his hand dry, then pointed at her dully. "You're in the men's room. The ladies' is over there." He jerked his thumb carelessly out the door.
"Ga… Gaara-kun?" she muttered and squinted at him.
Gaara blinked. She knew his name. He seldom remembered a person's name, more so their faces, but this girl was sort of familiar. Ah. Now he remembered.
Her name was Yamanaka. Yamanaka… whatserface… From their sales department. Oh, yeah.
"Fancy meeting you here." There wasn't anything remotely fancy with it, though. She rubbed her mouth with the back of her hand. Her eyes were darting from one place to another. The woman still was missing the important fact that she was in the men's room. That, and that she was naked, waist-up.
She's drunk.
Gaara decided that getting out of there was the wisest thing to do. He moved for the door. "Excuse me. I'll leave you to your – what the – !"
It happened in a blur. She was standing there. For a second she was just standing there! The next, she was falling into Gaara's arms the moment he tried to brush past her. She had fallen forward, and Gaara had grabbed her out of instinct. He was glad she was as light as a feather; the last thing he wanted was to have her fall head-first on the floor's dirty, mouldy tiles. Too bad he had to prioritize preventing her face from having a collision with the floor, because he hadn't completely put into consideration where to grab her to prevent it. He discovered his arm had caught her around the waist. His other hand was cupping her left breast. Having her in nothing but a bra was not helping him.
Dammit.
"Yamanaka! Oi, Yamanaka!" Gaara cried as he shifted his hand to a less private part of her body. He took her shoulders and shook her lightly, leaning majority of her weight to one side of his body. Her head lulled to the side, tucking itself comfortably on Gaara's shoulder. He caught a whiff of her hair. It smelled of strawberries and milk. And… was that vomit?
"Yamanaka!" he tried again.
"Ugh…" she murmured as her arms suddenly snaked their way around Gaara's neck and she pulled herself up. She conveniently dropped her shirt on his head.
Gaara stiffened in his place when the shirt veiled over his eyes. It smelled something like watermelon cologne. And more vomit. This was honestly not the way he wanted to spend his Hanami.
"Gaara-kun…" Ino once again said in that slurry way drunk people usually talked. She seemed to have gotten hold of her footing, because she had somehow managed to push him against the wall of the lavatory and was now unconsciously pressed flush against him.
"Yamanaka, this is the men's room. You don't have a top on. And you're pressing against my…!"
This was bad. This was very bad.
"I like you," she said.
Gaara blinked from under the shirt over his head. He did not know how long it took for him to react, but when what she said finally registered, he asked the first thing that came into his mind. "What?"
The woman wiggled against him even more, and that was when Gaara started to panic. Anyone could walk in at any time, find him with a half-naked drunk woman, and assume what anyone would assume. No, this spring will not find him accused of sexual harassment.
Although in this case it was obvious he was the one being sexually harassed. She had walked in on him. She was the one who had her shirt in her hand and not on herself, and she was the one who had him cornered against a dirty public restroom.
"I've… been… trying so hard," the woman suddenly started to whisper in his ear. "To get you… to notice me… Why won't you notice me?"
Damn spring. Was it true that women were always in heat during spring?
Gaara paused once more and tried to fend off her invading knee from hitching over his hip. Trying so hard? The editing department and sales department were separated by three floors. He hardly even saw her around him at all.
Except for that time when he had forgotten his umbrella at home on a rainy day, and she had an extra umbrella. It was lavender. She said it was old and that she didn't need it so she said he can have it. It was only when Gaara finally got home did he notice the price tag still attached to its strap. She had bought it from the gift shop of their building on the first floor.
But that was practically the only time they actually had an encounter… uh… wait…
Ah, but then there was that one time when he didn't have an exact change for the vending machine for a coffee. And then she was there, and she had been kind enough to spare him a hundred and twenty yen for his usual black. She had even pressed the button for him, though he never really figured out how she knew what he wanted to drink.
And then not to forget the time when he was already running late on a deadline and he was trying to push himself in finishing everything until the late evening. He'd thought everyone had already left the building. But she was there. And she had hot chocolate with her for some weird reason. And when she had made sure he had calmed down and did not kill his assigned author, she left saying something like, "Don't push yourself too much, Gaara-kun!"
Gaara snatched the shirt covering his head and stared down at the Yamanaka as if seeing her for the first time. Well, sure it was the first time he had seen her in a bra, but…
And dammit, she was looking up at him!
She pushed herself away from him suddenly, and in a second was throwing up in the sink near them. Gaara stood petrified, leaning against the wall, unsure if he should take this chance to get away. The real miracle happened when he found himself approaching her and holding her hair away from her face and rubbing her back.
"Yamanaka," he started. "Are you all right?"
Yamanaka belched, nodded, then started barfing all over again. This was the first time Gaara was faced with such a predicament. The least she could do was wear her shirt.
Gaara stared down at said shirt. Vomit. Shaking his head, he dropped the clothing on the sink, shrugged his coat off and draped it over her shoulders. Now what?
…
Now what?
"Uhm… I should… call your friends over," Gaara started. Maybe they can take her home.
She was leaning against the sink, but it looked like she was finally feeling better. "I'm… ugh… I'm fine. I can find my way back…" She pushed herself from the sink. She wavered.
Gaara clutched her elbow to keep her from falling over. "You can't go back looking like… "
Looking like what? Looking like you've been raped?
Yeah, that sounded right. Oh, god. The last thing Gaara needed was for this little incident to reach the grapevine. He could just see it now:
"Hey, hey! Have you heard? Yamanaka and Sabaku were seen together in the men's toilet in the company Hanami event. Yeah, and I heard Yamanaka came out of the toilet with no clothes on! Well, she was wearing Sabaku's coat. Sounds fishy, right? I know! I never expected for Sabaku to do such a thing! We'd better watch out for those silent types. They're always the ones who snap first."
Gaara shuddered. No. That would make his working environment harder than it already was. No. No. No. That just won't do.
He looked down at his watch. It was already five thirty. Dark enough to make an escape, he supposed.
What?
Why was he acting like he did something bad? It was not his fault he had touched her breasts accidentally. It was not his fault that the woman was drunk enough to forget herself and grind up against him so indecently.
"Yamanaka," he started.
"Ino."
"What?"
"Stop calling me Yamanaka. My name is Ino. It's easier to say. It has two syllables. Three damn letters… " She hiccupped, wiped the trail of drool down her chin and turned to him with unfocused eyes. "I bet you don't even remember my name! Oh, I knew it! I shouldn't have let Tenten talk me into this!" She began to cry.
Then she pushed Gaara away and made to run for the door.
And that was when Gaara started to really panic. If she started running amok in the darkness, with his coat on, looking completely harassed and wasted...
Oh, the rumors.
"Hey, hey. Did you hear? Sabaku tried to do the nasty with Yamanaka Ino even when she didn't even want to."
"Really? I heard she was crying because Sabaku didn't even know her name. He didn't even know her name and he wanted to do it with her. Ugh. Unacceptable. We should really be careful of those silent types. They must have bipolar tendencies…"
No.
No, no, no.
He grabbed her wrist and yanked her back. She let out a loud cry, teetered dangerously to the left and conveniently tripped on her own feet. Luckily, Gaara happened to be there to cushion her fall. They both went crashing on the cold, dirty-looking tiles of the public men's room. Gaara barely felt his head hit the hard wall, and the next thing he knew, she was on top of him with Gaara's coat flapping open to expose her chest and flat stomach. Her legs, he soon found out as well, were straddling his hips in a position that would have made Kiba jealous.
And she was looking down at him.
She was looking.
Down at him.
With those big blue eyes with tear stains trailing down her cheeks.
"Oh, god. You hit your head. Are you all right, Gaara-kun? Can you get up? Get up!"
She had her hands planted firmly on his chest. Gaara groaned. "I can't get up if you're holding me down. Get off me."
She was a smart girl. She knew how to get off by herself. She crawled off him, whimpering something Gaara couldn't quite understand. He pushed himself up, thinking that this was exactly one of the reasons why he didn't like events like this.
"Don't go back to the others dressed like that. People will talk," Gaara told her, feeling the back of his head with a hand. There was a nice lump forming there. And it was throbbing. God help him. He hoped he didn't have a concussion.
"My… friends are waiting for me… " she muttered, looking lost for a second. She paused, then suddenly grabbed Gaara's collar and shook him violently. "It's their fault!" she cried angrily. "They talked me into this! I'm gonna kill them! I'm gonna kill them!" She made to stand up.
Gaara grabbed her wrist again, feeling his head throb painfully at the action. "I said don't go out there. Unless you want your social life to dissolve in a matter of seconds." Or my social life. Which ever. "If you want to kill your friends, kill them when you're capable of holding a weapon without hurting yourself. Preferably with clothes on. I'm taking you home."
The woman – Ino – stared at him as if he had grown antlers. "Wh-what? Take me home?" She blushed, started to fidget shyly. "But… we hardly know each other… And… we haven't even dated long enough for me to sleep over… "
Gaara felt his own face brighten, then his cheek muscle twitched involuntarily. "I'm taking you to your home. Not mine."
Ino blinked down at him, then in a split second her red face reddened further still. Then she started to laugh. Very loudly. "O-of course! How silly of me!" Then she started to get mad. Again. "This is Tenten's fault! I'll kill her! I'll kill her!"
Gaara could only sigh as he slowly got up to his feet, ignoring the pain at the back of his head. They were getting nowhere. And this Ino person was already starting to overwhelm him. Yes. He was starting to believe one thing.
This woman was crazy.
Gaara decided that it would be the wisest option to take a taxi and drop her off at her place. The sooner, the better. And this would be a good enough excuse to escape from this stupid gathering. Shikamaru will have to forgive him.
"Let's go," Gaara said as he made his way towards the door.
Until he heard the footsteps approaching.
Damn.
Gaara believed he had never moved this fast in his life. In one fell swoop, he had grabbed the abandoned shirt on the sink, gathered a still disoriented Yamanaka Ino in his arms, ran to the nearest cubicle and slammed the door behind them.
"What's wro – !" Ino tried to protest. Gaara clamped a firm hand over her mouth as he used his foot to drop the cover and mounted on the toilet seat.
What on earth am I doing?
It was over. Gaara knew his life was over.
Shikamaru and Kiba walked in the men's room.
"… girls wearing their short skirts and all that… " came Kiba's voice.
"Can we talk about something that doesn't have girls in them?" said Shikamaru in his usual bored voice.
"Mmhph!" Ino started to wriggle in Gaara's arms.
"Shh!" Gaara hissed desperately, sweat popping on his forehead.
"Did you hear that?" Shikamaru suddenly said.
"No," Kiba said dumbly as they each entered a cubicle.
"Say, Gaara still hasn't come back."
"He probably left already. He always leaves in the middle of parties."
"That traitor."
"Haven't you gotten used to the man already? He doesn't like big gatherings ever since he got super drunk and woke with that tattoo on his forehead." Kiba laughed.
"It was his fault for getting caught up in a drinking challenge with Naruto."
"I don't even know why he's so sour about it. That tattoo's kinda cool."
"Because you guys abandoned him when he couldn't even go home by himself."
"Hey don't blame it on us. You weren't there to take him home, either."
"Oh, sorry to have abandoned you when my wife called me to say she just went into labor."
"Sheesh! Lighten up, Shikamaru! Yamakana Ino came along to save him eventually, right?"
Ino gasped against his hand.
Gaara felt his foot nearly slip and he balanced himself against the cubicle walls with his elbows. Luckily, that was the exact same time Shikamaru or Kiba flushed the toilet. Ino's protests – and probably Gaara's loud, beating heart – got drowned out by the sound of flushing water.
"It just so happened Ino came along when you guys left him to go home alone, totally intoxicated he hardly knew up from down."
"Oh, how would you know? You weren't even there."
"Ino and I work in the same department, idiot. She was complaining about you guys all day after that incident when she just found Gaara in front of the izakaya, and for some reason in nothing but his jeans. She told me she looked for his clothes in the izakaya but she couldn't find them."
"Of course she couldn't find them. I took them home."
There was a loud, banging sound of the door of the cubicle opening, another loud banging and a cry. Shikamaru must have yanked Kiba out of his cubicle and had hit him over the head.
"You go too far with your jokes, Inuzuka," Shikamaru hissed.
Kiba laughed happily. "So? And then what happened?"
Gaara could hear the two washing their hands. Ino's face was suddenly very, very red, and her eyes were closed tightly.
"You don't know? Ino had to carry Gaara back to his apartment. I don't know how she did it, but she did."
"She knows where he lives? Isn't that convenient?"
"They live in the same neighborhood."
Gaara felt his eyes widen as he looked down at Ino, who still had her own eyes closed.
We live in the same neighborhood?
He didn't even know. Heck, he didn't even know this woman was the one who saved him that night, a year ago.
"Anyway, Ino was successful in dragging Gaara back to his condo's elevator, but he started to come to. Ino thought of saving him his pride and left him there, in case he'd just get even more embarrassed at being helped by a girl."
Kiba laughed even more. "Sounds like a love story to me. Ow! Don't hit me!"
"I'll stop hitting you when you stop being an ass."
"Ow! Stop it!"
Their voiced disappeared as they both exited the men's room, leaving Gaara wide eyed and stunned speechless, perched on top of a toilet seat, with a woman who was missing her top in his arms.
Slowly, Gaara removed his hand and she took a deep breath through her mouth.
I think I just heard something that I shouldn't have heard…
Ino kept her head down as Gaara carefully stepped down from the toilet seat and set her back on her feet. She wouldn't meet his eye. She was wringing her hands around Gaara's coat.
"Are you… feeling all right?" Gaara started after clearing his throat.
She nodded her head slightly before reaching out to open the cubicle. Her hand was shaking. Gaara opened it for her. She stumbled out on equally shaky legs and balanced herself on the opposite wall. Gaara followed her, leaning his back on the wall beside her.
"Can you make it out the grounds in your condition?" he asked softly.
She nodded again, pulling the coat she had around her tighter over her shoulders.
"We can round the Sakura trees lining the park and avoid being seen like this. And get a taxi."
She nodded again.
Gaara looked down at her. "We can share a taxi. Since… we live in the same neighborhood."
"Okay," she said in her tiny voice.
"I can drop you off at your place."
"Yeah."
"You can get changed. And join me for a few drinks. At my place. It's dirty. I haven't cleaned for a while now. But it's spacious. Lots of room to stretch your legs."
She paused, looked up at him, blinked.
Gaara looked away, then forced himself to look back at her again. "You can tell me about yourself more… Ino."
Gaara swore her eyes would fall out of their sockets. She smiled, then opened her mouth as if to say something.
Then she lurched forward and threw up all over Gaara's front.
Gaara closed his eyes in resignation. He didn't even care about the vomit. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her after him as he stalked out of the men's toilet.
He hated these kinds of gatherings. Really, he did.
A/N: I was aiming for a shoujou manga feel in this story. This is the second time I've written an AU Naruto fic. Sometimes, it's fun to deviate from canon. =D
