Gaara was hungry. His stomach growled impatiently, his head spun with dizziness, and exhaustion. He was so hungry.
...
Neji sat up, alert. They were coming. Those monsters. The people who had devolved. The ones who had once been like them. God knows how they came to be as they were now. Feasting on their lifeblood. Drinking every drop that ran through their veins. Neji as was customary, when he knew they were coming, hid. He could remember doing this as a child. Hiding in his wardrobe. Hoping the monsters would not get him. His mother. They had got her. And his father. Both. Gone. Blood completely drained. And now Neji trembled somewhat as he saw a shadow move across the floorboards.
...
This place… Gaara knew this place. He had been here before he was sure. Maybe. It did not really matter. He was too hungry to care. His stomach grumbled.
He could smell someone. Male. Perhaps around… twenty. Young still. Vibrant with youth. He could hear the man's frightened heart thumping. As though it wanted to prove it was alive, just before it stopped beating. How cruel. It fluttered like a butterfly caught in a spider's web.
Trembled. Quietly.
...
Neji forced himself to breathe. Calm. Calm. Calm. The thing would smell him otherwise. The creaking of the floorboards outside his wardrobe warned him.
...
Shit.
Gaara opened the wardrobe doors.
...
A man cowered. Right in the corner, as though wishing to disappear. Gaara observed. The man's hair hid his face. Covered his shoulders. He was wearing one oversized shirt. His hands were clenched.
Gaara wanted to see his face.
Neji could feel the thing moving. A hand came outstretched towards his face. Neji wanted to slap it away, but forced himself to stay still. Just still. He might anger it.
Neji would not help feeling scarily surprised when all the thing did was move away his locks, smoothing them behind his ears.
Neji looked up.
Dark circles.
Red, shabby locks of hair.
Jade eyes.
Pale skin.
But the eyes.
With the dark, purple bruised circles. Neji was shocked. The eyes were… Empty. Dead. It was like looking through a window, only to find there was no scenery.
Gaara gazed down at the trembling form.
The hair was long. Strange.
Coffee brown.
Amethyst-like eyes.
They were incredibly wide.
It hurt. It hurt to be looked at with such fear. Gaara wanted to kill him, to wipe that expression of fear away. To keep it at bay. All people… Looked at him like that. Why?
Long, curling black lashes framed the eyes.
Pale skin glistened with cold sweat. So alive.
Gaara could still hear the inconsistent fluttering of the man's heart. It was speeding up.
All he had to do was reach out. Just grab the man's chest. Sink his hands in to the rib cage. And he would have it. The heart.
Gaara reached out. His fingertips brushed the man's chest.
The fluttering organ doubled its already erratic pace.
'Go on… Just do it. Reach out… That's it. Now… Sink in… Go on, what're you waiting for kid?'
Gaara wanted to yell at that voice to shut up. Always there was that voice. Taunting him. Whispering in his ear. Always. He had named it Shukaku. But it didn't stop it controlling most of his actions.
"Why?" The man cowering in the wardrobe jumped.
"Why… Can't I kill you? What's so different about you? Why… I can't… Do it."
Neji didn't know what to say.
It was as though the creature was malfunctioning.
What could he do?
Neji kept quiet.
"Why…? Why can't I take your heat? Why?"
Neji bit his lip.
"Maybe it already belongs to somebody else."
The creature said nothing, apparently considering this.
"But.. I want it."
Neji did not say anything. Dared not. These monsters… They were unpredictable.
A sickening splintering sound of wood breaking, made Neji look up.
The thing had ripped the door off its hinges. So as to reveal Neji's face properly to the creature.
The monster bent down.
He stared Neji directly in the eyes. Neji could feel moisture building up in the corner of his eyes with the effort of trying not to blink. A tear slid down. It was a relief to be able to blink properly.
The monster stared at it, a look of shock on its face.
Gaara had not expected the man to be sad. He reached to touch the man's face. The man recoiled, as though burned. That hurt.
Instead, Gaara wiped the tears away with his thumb.
He stared at his thumb, watching the trickle of moisture sliding slowly down his hand.
With a lightening flash movement he caught the moisture in his mouth.
Neji gasped slightly, mostly in disgust and anguish.
"What's your name?"
The monster looked at Neji expectantly. His stomach was still growling… But he was curious.
Neji opened his mouth, his throat felt like sandpaper.
"My name… My name is Neji. Hyuga Neji."
"Neji." The monster seemed to be testing the unfamiliar name out. Tasting it. Seeing how it felt to roll of his tongue. It came naturally.
Neji asked somewhat hesitantly, "What's… What's your name?"
Gaara blinked, as though pondering carefully, how to answer politely.
"My name is Gaara. His name is Sabaku." Here Gaara gestured to the left side of his head.
Neji stared.
He nodded though, pretending to understand.
Gaara cocked his head to one side, as though taking in the angles of Neji's face.
"Will you… Will you come with me?"
Neji paused.
He didn't really want to go with a monster. Not only that but… He didn't even know if the monster actually had a home. And what about hygiene? If it didn't have a home then surely he would soon die of some disease.
But the way the monster was staring at him, intently, slightly forcefully gentle… But… His eyes. They were so lonely. So, so lonely. Devoid of… Anything at all.
Neji was about to answer.
When a crashing noise brought him form his thoughts.
Gaara's head spun around to the door, where something… Something's hands were clawing, gnashing at the door. The wood was splintering. Gaara stood suddenly. Neji was surprised to see that his frame was muscular, and he was a lot taller than Neji was.
Something… Maybe it had been like Gaara once, came thundering through the door, snarling and hissing, spitting, blood staining it's nails, its long hair matted, greasy, it's face scarred, pale, blood stained. Neji could not tell if it was a man or a woman. Either way he didn't care as long as he lived.
But its eyes. Black. Nothingness. That was the concept of nothingness.
They fixed on Neji. Neji's face twisted in horror.
It growled, advancing on Neji. Neji's vision was suddenly blocked by a large back. Gaara.
Gaara stood his ground, doing nothing. Merely staring at whatever it was which was attempting to get a look at Neji.
Gaara did nothing. Except utter a low growling noise, which sent shivers down Neji's spine, and made his fingertips tingle, and his hair stand on end.
The thing, whatever it was backed away. It whimpered pathetically like a dog who had been told off.
Slowly, the thing exited, leaving a trail of blood, and bits of stuff Neji didn't want to know about.
"I'll go with you."
Neji said it without thinking.
Gaara turned. His eyes gave away nothing.
But there was a small smile. It looked unnatural and fake. Like it had been plastered on.
Gaara held out a hand. Neji did not to fail to notice that, there was dried blood under Gaara's finger nails, and his hands were rough and calloused.
But…
Gaara's hands were warm.
And even as Neji began to sleep (he had been picked up, in an undignified manner so as to travel faster) he felt, for the first time in a long time, wanted.
No.
Needed.
...
The room in which Gaara had deposited Neji was large.
The bed was soft and warm. There was a small fire. The curtains were drawn. And Neji was lulled to sleep by the playing of a violin from nearby.
Gaara watched, almost fascinated by Neji, wondering how on earth someone could sleep so peacefully, feeling slightly envious, as he himself had not been able to do that for years.
"Gaara… what on earth have you picked up there?"
Gaara turned, and scoffed when he realized it was only Kankuro, looking for trouble.
"A person. I wanted him." Gaara had never been good at being subtle.
Kankuro smirked.
"Do make sure to keep him close by. You wouldn't want anything to happen to him, now would you?"
Gaara growled, the deep baritone would have sent the bravest man running, but Kankuro snickered.
"Please, I taught you that!"
Gaara jerked his head to the door. Kankuro took the hint.
"You know… He's from the family we drank from years ago…"
Gaara's eyes widened.
"First being orphaned, now being taken away by you… You better watch out, because bad things come in three." Kankuro left, leaving a morbid melancholy in his wake.
Gaara's stomach growled.