. Yaoi! If you are offended, please leave now! This is malexmale! If you flame me, expect to be flamed back. I am not above name-calling to homophobes.
I dedicate this fic to all of those who fought, and continue to fight, for equal rights for all and the chance for everyone to be able to be with the one they love. Join the movement! Spread acceptance of gay and lesbian couples. Their love is the same as Heterosexual love. They deserve the same rights.
Gaara walks silently, waves of pain emanating from him. Waves that tell the story of a thousand lonely, sleepless nights. Waves that tell the story of a boy who the world forgot. Who was never given a chance. These waves reek of death. Silence spreads out from him like the ripples on a pond until all have gone silent. Silent as the grave.
Gaara walks on the razor's edge of the grave. All have tried to push him in. Gaara is a loner. He does not do things like family, friends, and companionship. Temari knows this, has always known it, but it still causes her pain whenever Gaara is too scared to let her hug him. She smiles and lets it go but it haunts her, the dark face of her father laughing inside her head. Gaara does not do romance. Gaara does not do love. He does not know them. The world all knew that. But now Temari knows otherwise.
Gaara, with one shy arm around the shoulders of the figure next to him, is happy, happier than he has ever been. Gaara, gently kissing that smiling face, knows love. He knows that in their arms nothing, Shukaku or his own emotional demons, can harm him. He knows that Naruto keeps him safe. In the arms of the sunny blonde, Gaara has found a place to be accepted. A place his village denied him for so long.
It hurts Temari, as much as it makes her rejoice. For she knows that Naruto plays a role more than lover. He plays soul mate too, and sister, brother, father and mother all at once. And she and Kankuro, they cannot become a part of the life of their shy, timid brother who finally reached out and found true love in a loud Konoha Nin.
Naruto is everything that they are not. He is open and friendly and accepting and he knows Gaara's pain. He lets the redhead smile like he was never broken. And Gaara, when they kiss, has a look of pure joy that can never be seen elsewhere. Gaara, when Naruto tells him of his love, has a look of bliss, of knowing that he is not nothing, is not a demon or a monster. And once, softly, Temari heard him murmur to Naruto the words she thought she'd never hear. "I love you."
She remembers too, the conversation preceding this. The way they sat watching the sunset, with Temari and Kankuro watching them.
"I wish this day, this dream would never end." Gaara whispered softly.
"I know." The kitsune said, voice gentle. He leaned over and kissed the pale face that smelled like the wind off the desert.
"This is love?" The other responded. "You made me into what I am. With out you," His white hands gestured expressively. "Nothing. You're the foundation of my world." His green eyes gazed into the blue of his soul mate.
"You'd fly." Naruto whispers back, so quietly Temari has to strain to hear. "You'd fly out into the sky like one of those hawks you love. No one would hold you down." He grinned and ran a hand through the soft hair. "I'll always be there for you. I love you." Temari stifled a sniff. Gaara found his heart in another.
The redhead smiled the slow, sweet smile that only Naruto could coax from him. "I love you." He whispered back, even more quietly. Temari turned away then, to allow them to share the feelings that she could only watch. The kind of love that surpassed all obstacles and was remembered for its purity regardless of anything on the outside.
Temari knows that Naruto is the one who Gaara lives for. Knew it since that fateful day, when they fought a battle that would change them. The day that Gaara whispered those two words to her and Kankuro. "I'm sorry." The words that they, and the world, owed him. The words that he never heard from the lips of another. Temari knew it from the moment that they looked into each other's eyes and saw themselves reflected in it. Gaara seeing the compassion he needed and Naruto seeing the one who would always believe in him. Knew it the day that they first kissed, slow and sweet and pure, sharing their love for each other.
Temari knows that she could never have a role like Naruto. She knows that memories of her form the cage that Naruto was the key to. She knows that she can only watch as the desert hawk that is Gaara, soars with the eagle that is his lover, free of any restraints imposed by a cruel and unjust world. She knows, she watches, she mourns, and she is happy for them and the love that they share.
Do you like it? I have more yaoi fic ideas (same pairing) Review!