Summary: A look of rage flashed in Gaara's eyes before he did something that he promised himself he never would do... GaaraOC—slightly OOC Gaara. Don't like, don't read. Rated K+ for some minor violence.

Author's Note: This is something that just randomly popped into my head one day while I was browsing through Fan Fictions. And yes, there is an OC in it, so please do not read it if she is going to bother you. I honestly tried making her somewhat likeable and not annoying, but I have a feeling that my attempts were only in vain, for it is rare for even me to come across an OC who is bearable.

Disclaimer: Of course I don't. I do own my OC, and the idea for this story, but nothing else belongs to me.

Tears and Bruises

By CarrotMuffinSandwiches

It was early in the evening, and Sabaku no Gaara was sitting at the desk in his office, reading an open book in front of him. The room was bathed in a deep and soothing orange that shone in from several windows behind him. All was quiet except the ticking of the wall-clock and the occasional flipping of pages. He calmly sighed, enjoying the peaceful setting that he was indulged in. Suddenly, though, his moment was ruined, as the plain wooden door that stood across the room from him clicked and opened slowly.

"Gaara..." the deep yet feminine, quiet but strong voice called out, instantly notifying him of who it was. As the door swung completely open, the sunlight flooded from the office into the shadowy hallway that the perpetrator had been standing in.

"Come in," said the man tonelessly, quickly looking back to his book so that he could keep reading. "What is it that you want?" he asked the girl walking respectfully into the middle of the room. It was Minara Natsuka, or in other words, Gaara's girlfriend of three years.

She stood there for a few seconds before looking from the floor up to Gaara. "Please come down to dinner. Everybody is waiting for you."

Gaara sighed before flipping a page in the book he was reading, still not bothering to look up. "I'm not very hungry right now. Please just put my dinner in the oven; I will eat it later." he explained, his voice level nevertheless.

"Your food will get cold," Minara started, worry pooling in her dark green eyes.

"Then don't save me any." Gaara suggested in a voice harsher than he had intended. Minara stood quietly staring at him for a while, before he looked up at her with soul-piercing, yet somehow calm eyes. "What?"

"You've been like this all week. For four evenings in a row, I've had to sit beside an empty chair and listen to the stories Temari, Shikamaru, Kankuro, and Ino tell. I would like to have you there while I tell them some of our stories, too." the girl explained with a hint of sadness in her voice.

Gaara sighed, this time in a more aggravated way, before looking back to his book. "That's not necessary. Neither my sister nor my brother need to hear any of those stories."

"But they like hearing them. And I like telling them. Besides, what kind of book are you reading that has been keeping you holed up in here?" questioned Minara, her eyes falling upon the worn-down pages that Gaara was hovering over.

"It's about war strategies. Now please, go enjoy dinner. You're keeping everybody waiting." said Gaara dismissively before picking up his book and leaning back in his chair.

"You're keeping everybody waiting." argued Minara in a tone that was neither speaking nor yelling. It was a direct medium of both, and Gaara was unsure of how to properly respond to it, so he just stared blindly at his desk.

Finally, he reminded her, "I'm not hungry. I'll work up an appetite tomorrow training, and then I can join you lot for dinner."

"Gaara, I've heard that same sentence for the past three days in a row! What's gotten into you? Have you just stopped caring?!" she exclaimed, obviously upset. Gaara's eyes slowly travelled up her, first noticing her balled fists, then her locked jaw, and finally, her wide eyes. However, when his bore into hers fearlessly, what he saw was pain rather than anger.

"Don't be ridiculous. Why are you being so emotional? Are you on your period or something?" he asked casually.

Minara gasped, as her eyes widened even more and she stepped back. Just as Gaara had predicted, tears began welling up in her eyes. "H-how could you say such a mean thing?" she quietly asked in a trembling voice, the tears in her eyes shaking and threatening to fall.

Gaara had to admit, he did feel sort of bad, but he was not about to submit to doing something he did not want to just to apologize. So instead of saying anything, he simply looked at Minara to see what her plans of action were.

"You're clearly going through something right now," she started, wiping a few tears from her eyes. "I don't know what that is, and I'm not asking you to tell me, but please, solve it as soon as possible."

Gaara clenched his jaw and stood up from his chair, walking slowly around his desk to face his girlfriend. "What makes you think there's a problem?" he half-spat, watching as she looked at him, bewildered, as tears began streaming down her face. For someone like Gaara, speaking in any tone above a normal speaking voice meant that something had set him off.

"Well, let's start with the fact that you haven't eaten anything that I've cooked for you for the past week," Minara started in a mockingly practical tone.

"I told you I'm not hungry. Besides, it's tiring always having to eat the same thing every night for several years. It's getting bland, Minara." Gaara almost shouted, crossing his arms defensively.

"I would like to see you cook a meal for once!" she retorted without missing a beat.

Ignoring Minara's snappy reply, Gaara, clearly ticked off, inquired, "So is that the only reason you think that there must be a problem, since something's not going your way? That I haven't eaten much lately?!"

"Of course not, another thing is that you've been spending at least eight hours a day in your office for nearly the past month! You even work on Saturdays, now!" Minara yelled, as more tears poured out of her eyes and down her reddened cheeks.

"I'm surprised that you don't know by now that I'm very dedicated to my work." Gaara took a step closer to Minara, cocking his head to the side and forcing a smirk. But it was not a happy expression in the least; it was more something he had to do in order to keep himself from lashing out completely.

"You can be dedicated without completely over-doing it..." muttered Minara, grabbing one of her elbows with the opposite hand and turning away slightly, seeing the furious look in Gaara's eyes in contrast to the calm look he was wearing.

Again, Gaara disregarded Minara's reply and said, "Anything else? Or are those the only two pathetic reasons you can come up with?"

The girl glared at him before walking forward, her steps slow and stealthy, and her hips swaying from side to side. "Oh yeah, I have one more," she told him boldly, before coming to a steady halt less than one foot away from him.

Looking down his nose at her, his arms crossed more squarely than ever, Gaara asked challengingly, "And what may that be?"

"You haven't touched me in nearly two weeks." simply answered Minara, a rough grin playing on her tight lips.

Gaara sighed before rolling his eyes and looking, disinterested, at the wall to his right. He said in an irritated and slightly exasperated voice, "Clearly, you don't know what a real relationship is. If all you wanted was a permanent fuck-buddy, you should have dated Kankuro."

Minara gasped, her expression showing that she was no longer sad and hurt, but now angry and offended. She yelled, "You know, sometimes I wish you were Kankuro! Then you would at least care about what I want, for a change!"

A look of rage flashed in Gaara's eyes before he did something that he promised himself he never would do. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion for him, yet there was still no way he could stop it. His arm swung out before he had time to think his actions through, his fist partially clenched. The back of his hand made rough contact with Minara's cheek, and the force was powerful enough to send her flying.

She yelped quietly as she hit the wooden ground without even bracing herself. It was then that Gaara had completely discarded all of her defences, and what was left was a trembling, scared, 17-year-old girl.

Gaara had no idea what to do, as this was the first time he had ever hit a girl—and he made a mental note that it was also his last. Of course, he had gotten into fist fights with other guys before, but none of those guys ever fell to the ground without trying to fight back first. Minara had just taken the hit, and whether intentionally or unintentionally, Gaara did not know.

The next thing to happen made him feel even guiltier, if that was possible. Minara began crying. And really crying—not like she had been before. Her loud sobs penetrated the still air, and as soon as he heard them, Gaara knew that he would never forget what they sounded like.

He felt indescribably terrible as he watched a seemingly broken Minara, crumpled on the ground, bawling her eyes out. "Do you f-feel better now?" she cried, her voice hoarse.

"N..." Gaara barely murmured, unable to force out any words. He slowly took a few steps forward, before dropping to his knees. He reached out a hand to caress Minara's shoulder, but when she shied away from his touch, he was forced to crawl forward on knees. "Of course not..." he whispered as he finally reached her, wrapping one arm around her and then another, before pulling her into his torso.

She tried jerking away as her cries got louder, but all Gaara's body would let him do was pull her even closer, so that there was virtually no space between his chest and her back. He felt her shaking with every sob, and finally, he felt a sensation wash over him that he had not felt in a very long time.

"I'm sorry..." he whispered, sitting on the ground so that Minara was between his slightly bent legs. "I'm so sorry..." he said in a cracked voice, one completely different from the voice that he had been using not minutes before. Before he knew it, he had begun crying too, and his shoulders shook violently as he rested his forehead in Minara's hair. He held her tighter and more securely than he ever had, one arm around her waist and the other hugging her shoulders protectively.

When all that answered him were more sobs, Gaara completely broke down. His deep and throaty cries almost matched Minara's in volume, and all he could think of to say was something he had already said twice. However, that did not stop him. "I'm sorry, Mina." he barely managed, before he lowered his head so that his chin was resting on Minara's shoulder. He pressed his cheek to Minara's—the one he had hit—when she suddenly flinched.

Disbelievingly, Gaara turned his head so that he could see Minara's eyes. They were shut closed tightly, with tears still rapidly pouring out of them. He stared at her cheek in horror. "I actually... Bruised it... I..." Gaara began crying some more, squeezing Minara so tightly that he subconsciously worried about suffocating her or breaking a few ribs.

"G-Gaara..." Minara finally spoke, her voice so quiet that it was barely audible. "Don't worry about it... I-I was being unreasonable."

"No! You weren't! I was... I'm... Terrible..." Gaara croaked, his breathing uneven as he tried calming himself down by looking away from the bruise inches from his face. Unfortunately, it did not work, as the image was stuck in his mind. He was forced to raise a hand from Minara's waist to his mouth in order to silence himself.

Slowly, Minara turned herself around so that she was curled up in Gaara's lap with her unwounded cheek pressed up against his chest. Gaara hugged her close and leaned forward so that her head was snuggled into the crook of his neck. "You're forgiven, Gaara." Minara spoke timidly; her voice revealing that she was still a little scared.

"By you, maybe... By myself... Never." said Gaara, his breaths becoming steadier and his tone descending slowly as time passed.

"Please don't do that to yourself... Look," Minara pleaded as she pulled away and turned so that her forehead was level with Gaara's chin. Her damp eyes looked into his as she raised her hand. Suddenly, a green, wispy, smoke-like substance was surrounding her palm as she raised it to her own cheek and gently touched her bruise.

When she pulled her hand away, the bruise had completely vanished, and there were no signs of any previous injuries. Gaara peered through his own tears, raising one of his own hands to touch Minara's newly healed cheek, and feeling the usual, smooth skin he always had.

"See? No more bruise..." Minara soothingly mused, pressing herself into Gaara's torso once more.

"The bruise may be gone but that doesn't mean that nothing happened," stated the boy as he wiped away his tears. Moments later, a finger pressed to his lips. They were quickly replaced with a pair of lips. Before Gaara had time to react, Minara pulled away.

She whispered reassuringly, "I told you, you're forgiven."

Gaara nodded and then ducked in for another kiss, but Minara was ahead of him with her plans. She stood up and then outstretched her hand to Gaara. "C'mon, let's go to dinner. I'm sure everybody's saved us some." she suggested warmly, watching kindly as Gaara took her hand and stood up. She did not let go as she led him to the door.

Suddenly, Gaara ceased his movements and muttered, "One thing..."

Minara quickly looked over her shoulder and gave him a look that told him to continue.

"That thing you said... Was it tru—"

"Of course not." Minara intervened immediately, knowing what Gaara was trying to ask her. When she saw an unsure look playing his features, she sweetly grabbed his collar and tugged him down to her level before giving him a playful peck on the nose. "You're mine."

Gaara nodded, a tiny, almost unnoticeable smile upon his lips. "And you're mine."

There! Was that so bad? Hopefully not. T_T I tried not to make them a very mushy and lovey-dovey couple, because those can just get tiring to read about once in a while. So I genuinely hope you liked it! Whether you did or not, please review. Have an awesome day!

- CarrotMuffinSandwiches