Little Lizard
He could watch the desert for hours. The sands rippled in and out, fluttering like fabric when it was dropped to the floor. It was soothing. It was eternal.
"What are you doing?" a rough-with-sleep voice called out from the bed. Gaara turned away from the balcony doors and studied his companion for the night. The ninja of Konoha pushed the sheets away to sit up and rub his eyes.
"I was just watching the desert."
Naruto squinted at him in the semi-darkness. "It's late. Come back to bed." Naruto yawned with his whole body, hunching over and deflating afterwards. A tan hand patted the sheets invitingly.
"I won't be able to sleep."
"You might be surprised." Naruto grinned at him with exhausted confidence and scratched at his chest idly. "I make a good pillow," he said.
Gaara returned to the bed, but he wasn't accustomed to lying in it. Naruto flopped backwards bonelessly, obviously comfortable. The blonde reached for him, molded against him.
"You're so stiff. You don't have on your sand armor, do you?" Naruto asked jokingly. Not understanding the humor, Gaara said that he didn't. The blonde ninja just smiled against him and closed his eyes again.
After a few moments, Gaara found the blue eyes staring up at him.
"You're really not going to sleep?" Naruto asked. Gaara shook his head. Naruto's brows forked in thought and then he grinned. "What if I sing to you?"
"I do not know. No one has ever sung to me," Gaara replied. Naruto scooted up in the bed until he was sitting. He wove his fingers through vivid red strands soothingly. He sang a simple little song that he heard often in Konoha, a song about dancing leaves and spring rain.
Gaara closed his eyes to better hear the husky lilt in Naruto's deep voice. He liked the way the words rasped (not quite musically) - the hum of summer insects. The voice cracked as lips did in the dry, desert air, and the notes fell away, like sound in a sandstorm.
The song ended. Gaara opened his eyes.
"Didn't work?" Naruto asked, disappointed. Gaara peered up at him and smiled.
"Your voice sounds like the desert. I like being sung to." Naruto mirrored his smile.
"I guess that's something, then." Naruto resumed his earlier position, curled around him.
"Do you have to leave in the morning? Back to Konoha?" Gaara asked.
"Yes," Naruto answered.
"But you'll come back, to sing for me again?"
"Yes." Naruto sounded different at nighttime, when it was just the two of them. Quieter. Softer.
"I might fall asleep next time," Gaara mused.
"You might," Naruto mumbled against Gaara's chest. His eyelids were drooping dangerously low. They closed.
Gaara turned his head and saw the sands outside of his bedroom window. A brown little lizard flickered along his window ledge and vanished into a crack. The moon sagged in the sky, tired and yellow, the color of parchment.
Gaara closed his eyes, and slept for moments at a time until the sun fell onto the sand like a vibrant pumpkin. One moment he was not alone in the morning heat, and in the next, Naruto was gone.
A/N: I'm pulling all the drabbles off my LJ account and putting them here so I don't lose them. They're all pretty short, but I hope you liked it anyway!