A/N: First GaaLee fic people! Don't chew me inside out! I don't think I kept them in character perfectly, but I tried!
Rating: T – mild language and sex innuendoes. xD
Disclaimer: Anything you recognise is not mine.
Setting: Gaara and Lee are already in a steady relationship and are wadding their way through the ups and downs of a commitment. Set in Sunagakure, Gaara's POV through 3rd person.
Tonjiru
It was probably just the Kazekage's imagination but he was mildly disturbed at the way Rock Lee was brushing his coal coloured locks. Lee brushed his hair the same way he did everything else – with the utmost skill (using his legendary taijutsu techniques, of course… in some way or the other) and unwavering determination. So the way his hand trembled and brushed messily gave Gaara the foreign urge to put Lee under an interrogation. This would be necessary if his hand gave another unsteady twitch.
"Lee." Gaara's voice held no emotions but only few others apart from Lee could sense the small pang of anxiety. Lee looked up to Gaara with big eyes, prompting Gaara on.
"You right hand is shaking." It was both a question and a statement.
Gaara's suspicions grew as Lee looked back into the mirror with a face of determined stone.
"It's nothing!" He yelled too enthusiastically, with a faltering grin and he didn't pull the 'nice guy' pose either. This was definitely wrong. Gaara's eyes thinned by a fraction too small a fraction for a civilian to notice. Some thing was very wrong.
Lee had recently been on an A-rank mission and had been avoiding the Kazekage since. This was peculiar, Gaara had concluded after a moment of dwelling. Lee's sex drive was like everything else about him – determined, strong and youthful. So when he'd been away for a month one of the first things he would do is shyly approach Gaara with hidden, devious intentions.
However – last night when Lee returned he went to bed, Gaara had then went to wake him up a few hours ago to find Lee tensed and pained in his sleep instead of his usual imitation of a rock. It was quick for Gaara to get to his conclusion.
Lee was lying to Gaara. He was injured.
This confused him. What was the point into hiding your injuries from someone? Wasn't that unwise? If you didn't tell people, you would not get recovery help. Another human tendency that Gaara would probably never come to terms with, being what he was.
The impossibly hostile sound of Gaara's primal growl made Lee grimace. He knew, oh he knew, Lee was in trouble.
"Now, Gaara…" Lee approached the situation, gently, but he was not met with a nice response.
"How many?" Gaara snapped with a growl, not understanding why he was being so hostile about a simple lie and injury, he didn't usually feel his stomach tighten when people got hurt. He used to inflict the pain and smile.
"What?" Lee's huge eyes widened.
"How many gates did you open?" Gaara, though Lee had stood up, seemed to glare down his nose at Lee despite the fact he was shorter.
"Four." Lee mumbled, looking at a spot on the ground and deliberately not looking Gaara in the eyes, counting the times in his head when Gaara told Lee to stop over doing himself.
That was one more gate than necessary to use the lotus - A strong enemy? This was strange, no-one reported to Gaara about any major interference. Lee seemed to be on the same brain wave.
"I was by myself-" Lee paused as Gaara's eyes gained that 'someone-is-going-to-die' look. "-I'd run off to train…" He continued, and smiled a bit when said eyes turned to 'I-can't-now-because-otherwise-I'd-lose-the-centre-of-my-existence' and he continued to let the green eyes bore into Lee's dark ones. "It wasn't anything major; he just caught me a little worse for wear." Lee gained a much larger grin than before, and finally struck the nice guy pose. "I'm fine! - Ow."
"Liar." Gaara stated calmly, before walking over to Lee, bending down and picking up his lanky, muscular frame. Lee appeared too much in shock, so much so he didn't make another movement until Gaara had taken the few steps to the bed and laid Lee back down onto it. He needed rest, and to recover from the muscle damage.
He was about to further the interrogation before he noticed that by the way Lee was looking at him, he was not going to provide any more information. Why not? He was the Kazekage, and only Lee seemed to see it fit to keep things from Gaara, which sometimes, got on his nerves.
"I've got a mission!" Lee protested, thumping the bed and recoiling, having applied unnecessary pressure to an injured muscle and winced with the pain. Suddenly a blanket of sand was spilling from the gourd and forcing him to lay still.
"Don't move." Gaara ordered calmly. "Mission cancelled. I'll go get the medi-nin. Take off the weights."
It also confused, delighted and pissed Gaara off to no end how Lee was the only person who disobeyed his authority. Once the sand was back into the gourd, Lee jumped up yelling "YOSH!" before stumbling on his left leg, the calf damaged, and falling back onto the bed unceremoniously. Gaara looked over his shoulder with almost an 'I-told-you-so' in his features, before walking out the door. The gourd was still there however, it's eerie presence warning Lee that if he moved he'd been slammed back down instantly.
During the months of their relationship Gaara had fallen sick only once, which had amazed Lee for some strange reason – he'd been under the impression that Gaara was immune to such trivial annoyances. With the little sleep he got, Gaara thought it was perfectly obvious he did not inherit Shukaku's resistance to illnesses.
At that time, Gaara thought while sitting in the chair next to Lee's bed, where he was back to imitating a rock, Lee had made Gaara eat his food every day in bed. This was not useful, as spilling it was easy and he had started to ache after laying down so much. Lee had informed him hurriedly that the tonjiru he had made would speed up the healing process, and under Lee's care, as much as Gaara appreciated it – that sounded like a good thing. Gai's power-dumplings or whatever those disgraceful things were had given Gaara stomach cramps for weeks.
Gaara contemplated it a little more, and then decided he would make some food for Lee when he woke up as it seemed to be a common and appreciated thing. What do you give someone who is ill? Gaara mulled this over a little, before deicing he'd return the favor and make Lee tonjiru. He'd claimed that this food would make him get better faster, Gaara saw no logic, but he would make it in case the food did help. Because he was worried.
Walking silently to the kitchen with no unnecessary movements, Gaara stood at the counter before realizing he had no clue how to prepare tonjiru and this is where sisters came in extremely useful.
"Gaara... what're yo…?" Lee said, a little groggy as his still bandaged hands rubbed the sleep away from his eyes, to see Gaara standing above him motionlessly, holding a steaming hot bowl in both hands. Lee's brow wrinkled.
"Sit up, eat this." Gaara said softly, (as softly as Gaara could speak) and waited for Lee to rise, get comfy before laying the bowl in Lee's lap and providing him with chopsticks for the pork, then took to observing the reaction Lee would have.
Lee grinned, a little melancholy as he looked at the bowl. The little bit of sand on the edge gave off that Gaara made this himself, and little gestures Gaara did that wasn't supposed to be romantic in any way shape or form made his heart swell with pride at having such a brilliant boyfriend.
"Itedakimasu!" Lee breathed gratefully, now that his stomach ached hungrily, he would eat all of this or he would have to carry Gaara's gourd around for him for a month! Lee happily dug in, picking up a piece of pork and popping it into his mouth.
Gaara's brow furrowed, seeing the way Lee had frozen, his jaw failing to slack and tightening in the way someone chews. Did he make a mistake? No, Lee has started to chew again but with a grimace. Gaara would make a note; Lee would have to visit the dentist.
The pork had a grainy quality to it, each crunch felt like you were grinding pure sea salt between your teeth and now Lee looked closer, he could see small yellow particles in the miso of the soup. Gaara... had gotten sand into it? Lee glanced up at the delicate frown on Gaara's features, and froze with fright.
Okay! He thought with determination. If I can't finish this to just make Gaara happy, I'll have to carry the gourd around for a month and do a lap of Suna in winter gear at midday! Determination brimming Lee dug in hastily, scooping up and sipping in mouthfuls too huge for the space available in his mouth.
"Lee." Gaara eyed the strained sides of Lee's mouth where soup was leaking out and his eyes which were bulking. There was a 1 chance that the soup was that tasteful that he would have to gulp so hastily. "Lee." Voice raised, Lee finally stopped with cheeks puffed out containing the soup, chopsticks suspended in mid-scoop and his head half turned towards Gaara, the piece of pork in the chopsticks falling back into the soup with a splash. He looked like a puffer fish.
"You look like a puffer fish." Gaara stated a small furrow on his lips at the resemblance.
Lee went to gulp down the mouthful, as the particles floating around was getting onto his taste buds and making his eyes water, before he realized Gaara was getting slowly closer. A small, feathery light touch on his lips made Lee choke a little, the soup escaping from the edges of his crushed lips.
His colour went from sickly pale to a bright, healthy, hot red as the rough texture of Gaara's tongue passed over the right side of Lee's mouth making his spine shudder and sense shake in that oh-so-pleasant way.
"This is terrible." Gaara frowned, kissing Lee once more on his strained lips before standing back up, fully straight out of the position he'd been in – leaning over Lee. "Why are you eating it?"
Finally finding the will somewhere, Lee swallowed the mouthful with a cringe and a soppy smile. Would Gaara even sympathize if he told him it was in his favour? Lee laughed a little, and shook his head.
"You know. The soup doesn't matter! You made me feel better already!" Lee exclaimed punching the air with his fist and making the bowl spill its contents onto the bed. Lee gasped; flinching away from the piping hot soup spilling into his lap, almost hearing Gaara roll his eyes, then shot the Kazekage a grin, hoping he would clean the mess up.
YAY ME. First GaaLee fic. SUCKED, but who cares?! Tell me what you think kthnxplz. x3 - Emz