Lee and Gaara are my OTP for real, man. I love them. Anyway, I guess I should explain the story a bit.
Title: Autumn
Pairing: GaaLee
Word Count: 2,562 words
Warnings: I have no idea if there are any yet... Aside from eventual Slash.
Story Type: AU
Synopsis: Lee is the spirit of Autumn and one thing he enjoys more than anything is watching everything go to sleep. This is probably what sparks his interest on a young boy, Gaara who seems to never do that. Lee finds himself entranced and one thing he wants more than anything, is to get this boy to smile.
Chapter one:
The skies sparkled with hues of blue and the occasional cloud of white blurred out areas of the sun.
The four seasons lain in the clouds, overlooking the world below, awaiting their time to affect different areas of the world for their respective time of year. Currently that season was summer.
Each of the demi-gods seemed entranced on the world below, ignoring the other spirits bustling behind them.
The season of winter was a spirit who called himself Sasuke. He was about as cold as the winds he created.
The next season was spring, a young woman by the name of Sakura with all the grace and joy of the month to create blossoms everywhere around the world.
The summer season was affected by a boy, Naruto, who seemed way to hyper at times, creating the warmer weather as his passion grew.
Lastly, there was Autumn. The most calming of the seasons, determined to have everything prepared and taken care of before things could freeze over for winter. That spirit was Lee.
Naruto barely paid attention to the other spirits, honing in on his specific regions going through the scolding hot summers. He didn't mean to make them that hot. He was just way too happy and tried to give everyone the best summer they could have. He liked overlooking the humans.
Sasuke took his brooding emotional thoughts on the northern and southern poles, he was able to make them as cold as he could without harming anyone so he had a lot of fun with the constant temperature drops and vicious storms.
Sakura wasted no time jumping off of the clouds and blessing each hibernated tree and plant with the gift of rebirth. Her favorite time was when the first cherry blossom of the season fell to the ground. That wasn't close to happening just yet.
And Lee. Well, Lee simply sat there. For one with so much energy, he couldn't bring enough of it to giving the fall season to the area he remembered most. Sunagakure was probably his favorite place to be.
It all started about nine years ago. He was wondering around poking all of Sakura's beautifully bloomed flowers and trees and watching the petals and leaves fall down. In Sunagakure though, there weren't many trees but he felt as though that he shouldn't ignore his seasonal duties and attempted to figure out other things to do with his time.
He wondered down the streets and silently wondered how his life would be if he were a human. Would he have friends? He didn't know. Sometimes he wished he were one. He would give up imortality to just interact with other people. Lee walked through the crowded streets and didn't bother moving out of the way, he was a spirit. People simply walked through him.
He admired the way people walked, what they wore and even some of their faces. He enjoyed this time. He enjoyed Sunagakure. Even though sometimes he fely bad that he liked Suna because of the lack of work and more downtime. He couldn't help it. Suna was a very peaceful area.
"Look! The leaves are changing color!" That was something that made Lee smile. His work was being acknowledged.
That was the day he met the boy that changed his spiritual existance. He met Gaara.
Gaara was a child. He was about four or five. He was tiny and he kept looking at the ground, afraid to look up. He was standing next to three people, all older. People that Lee would learn to be Gaara's family. His father, sister and one paid attention to Gaara. He followed them, looking downtrodden. Lee wanted to make him smile.
He made his way over to a leaf and plucked it off of the tree. The leaf was red, one of the most popular colors for autumn leaves. Lee picked it because it matched the color of the boy's hair. He liked the sentiment.
With as much gusto as he could muster, he made the most over dramatic motions of the leaf flying in the wind. He frowned because Gaara wasn't paying attention. With a stomp of his foot, the winds rushed up and caused Gaara's shall to flip over his face. Lee stifled a laugh and the small boy tugged it down and glowered. But he was staring up now. Lee again made the leaf flutter around and Gaara's naturally curious eyes watched the leaf as it slowly decended and landed right on his nose.
That's when Lee noticed the smallest ghost of a smile on the kid's lips. From that moment on, Lee was hooked.
Through their whole walk he would do the exact same thing. Gaara expected it now, with a small childish grin he would try to grab the leaves before they touched his nose. Lee wouldn't let that happen. Since he was holding the leaf directly in his hands, Gaara's arm would go through him and he cupped the curved leaf so it stayed on the tip of his nose.
Lee smiled at the giggle.
"Gaara!" His father roughly grabbed Gaara's tiny, chubby arm and yanked him forwards. With Gaara's free hand, he held onto the leaf. His body was lopsided as he tried to ground his whole body but found it a difficult challenge with his father practically holding him up with one arm. "Stop slacking and keep up!" He shoved Gaara in front of him and Gaara stumbled and scraped his knee.
Lee was expected to see tears as he stared in shock at how the man handled the small child. Gaara simply hung his head and pushed himself up, ignoring the blood on his knees and palms. He continued to walk.
"Gaara..." Lee practiced the name on his tongue. He continued to walk right besides Gaara, glaring at the father.
Year by year he went out of his way to find Gaara. Every year he wasn't disappointed. Each year, Gaara seemed more miserable. But every year, no matter what, when Lee cupped the first fall leaf of the season on his nose, Gaara's lips twitched upwards.
All year he would look forward to seeing Gaara, but ever since last year, he didn't know what to expect. He could tell that Gaara was mistreated. Having no other recollection of human basic functions, he assumed that children were always treated the same way Gaara was. He didn't like it, he just never questioned it.
That is, until one year after lazily loafing around he saw that there were parents that treated their small children with kindness. Lee knew kindness. But they all had the same look in their eyes looking at their children. Lee didn't know that emotion. Sakura told him it was love. It was a foreign concept. Love? What was that?
After observing countless of hundreds of people, he started to piece together what in fact people did to those they loved.
Gaara's father did not love Gaara.
Lee always wondered why. He would follow Gaara often when Suna was in it's fall season and he noticed Temari and Kankuro weren't treated the same as Gaara. Even when Gaara was older he was treated even worse.
Lee never felt anger before. He sure as hell felt anger the day he saw Gaara get smacked around while his sibblings looked the other way and knowing fully well that he couldn't interact. Just watch in morbid curiosity and horror. How could someone do this to someone they cared about? Lee hadn't seen this sort of dysfunction before. His father never hit Temari or Kankuro.
Lee supposed the strangest thing he could recall was that Gaara never cried. He's never seen it once despite everything he was put through. He just stared like he detatched himself from the situation. Lee supposed that was better. Again, he didn't know how human's functioned.
Something else Lee had never witnessed was Gaara speak. He never talked and he constantly wondered if Gaara was able to. What were they called... Mute? Was Gaara a mute?
"Hey bushy brow." Lee snapped out of his trance of endless memories and stared at Naruto. "You thinking about that kid again?" Lee looked straight and admired the light blue sky.
"Yeah." He admitted airily. The other season spirits found his obsession with Gaara very... odd but they never really mentioned it before.
"Well, summer is almost over." Naruto smiled and Lee couldn't keep the soft grin from sneaking up on him.
"I know, Naruto." He stood up and looked downwards.
"Why do you like that kid so much anyway?" Naruto asked curiously. Lee never told them about Gaara. They found out by themselves. He wasn't trying his hardest to hide it.
"I don't know. He's strange. I just... I want to make him fell the happy." Lee announced and Naruto laughed.
"Dude, Lee. It's just feel happy. There's no the." He noted and Lee looked confused but accepted the correction without question.
"Well... Whatever it is, I want him to feel it." Lee said quietly and Naruto scratched his head.
"I've seen him. I met him, actually. He's different." Naruto noted and Lee looked up at him, feeling oddly annoyed at Naruto for meeting Gaara. He didn't know what the wave of over-protection was, but he couldn't ignore it.
"He is." Lee agreed.
"How long have you watched him?" Naruto asked out of curiosity.
"Um... About nine years." Naruto grinned.
"You going to continue?" Lee nodded easily.
"For the rest of his life." He sighed as he said that. There were so many thing he wanted to say to Gaara. So many hugs that he wanted to give. So many angry smacks to give his father. He wanted to interact with him, more than anything.
"You care about him." Sasuke commented emotionlessly. Lee looked over at him and nodded. It seemed rather obvious. "That isn't wise."
"I just want him to be happy." Lee commented softly. "That's all I want."
"Well, what if you can't do that?" Naruto asked and Lee seemed confused by that. How could someone deny happiness? "Gaara is miserable and he's just getting worse."
"...Naruto, may I ask you to do a favor that I would not normally ask of someone?" He seemed tense and Naruto perked a brow.
"Sure? What's up?" Lee scratched the back of his neck.
"Can I see him?" Naruto stared at the calander and seemed confused.
"Autumn isn't for another month." He deadpanned. Lee winced. "You want me to relieve summer?"
"Just for a couple of days. I promise I won't kill any of the plants. Just give them cooler weather for a while. I'll make it rain or something. Just let me see him. Please, Naruto."
"Well... I suppose I could mess up Sakura's plants for a bit, make them dry out or something." Lee smiled greatfully.
"Thank you Naruto. The youth of summer will not age. You will regain control very soon. I promise. Thank you Naruto." Lee bowed seemingly 102 times and Naruto just grinned at Lee's greatful tactics.
He wasted no time in jumping down and finding his way to Suna. He ran quite fast, he was actually the fastest spirit and everyone in Suna seemed relieved at his presence and he heard a few comments about Fall coming early.
He hated when people called his season the fall. He thought that was lame especially when there was another word to call it that was much more beautiful. Autumn.
He ran all the way to Gaara's house and couldn't help but feel anxious. Half of the time he didn't know if he had emotions other then determination and happiness but when he was around Gaara, he felt excited, scared, anxious, ect. He felt more humanoid.
He inhaled deeply and walked through the door and went up the stairs and through Gaara's door.
Lee smiled at Gaara's development. He's grown since the last time he saw him. Lee loved that Gaara's hair stayed the same through his ages. Messy, red, spiked hair.
Gaara was about twelve or thirteen now. Going through pre-teen angst and angst in general because he had an awful home life. Lee sat on Gaara's bed, excited to see Gaara and notice all of the changes in his features. A couple of years he was startled when he saw Gaara and he was older, now it was exciting to see what the other three seasons did to change the boy.
Gaara still had the same chubby rounded face but he was a lot thinner after losing all of his babyfat. The look in his eyes was like he hadn't been to sleep in ages. He had dark rings around his eyes but Lee had always noticed that. Around Gaara's eyes were always black.
He reached out as if to touch Gaara and let a sad smile appear on his lips when he remembered he couldn't.
Lee couldn't recall how long he sat in Gaara's room just staring at him do absolutely nothing. It was probably the most peace he's been at since the last time he sat next to Gaara.
He shifted on the bed and leaned in towards Gaara, examining his face, looking for a sign of life. He hadn't moved in quite some time.
The steady breaths were seen and Lee noticed the smallest notion of his chest expanding with each breath.
"Why are you just sitting here?" Lee asked and was surprised to see Gaara twitch and rub his neck, where Lee would have spoken against. "Can you feel me?" Gaara shivered and stood up and stared at the section of the bed in confusion but shook his head and rubbed his eyes.
"Go to bed, silly." Lee smiled. "You're imagining things." He laughed slightly and Gaara continued to stare at the bed like it was going to begin doing tricks. "I don't bite."
Lee's smile suddenly faltered when he noticed that he didn't keep up on a tradition. He rose up and jumped through Gaara's wall, landing two stories below in the suddenly chilled streets of the night in Suna. He wondered for a while before he came to his destination and smiled when he found a tree. He plucked off a leaf and the color just bled from green to yellow. Just like in the fall.
Lee admired his handiwork and made his way back to Gaara's room and felt a grin make it to his face when he saw the window was cracked open. He was able to life himself up with the wind and made it look like the leaf slipped through the opened window as he jumped up and walked towards Gaara, moving his arm, picking up a slight breeze. Gaara stared in amazement as the leaf seemed to flutter and land perfectly.
Right on the tip of his nose.
Gaara didn't know what to make of it. He reached his hand over his nose and pulled the leaf off and stared at it. And Lee crouched down as Gaara fell back on his bed in amazement, as if he couldn't stand.
Lee could hardly contain himself when his anticipation was answered with Gaara's lips twitching upwards and the smallest ghost of a smile was seen. Then Gaara spoke for the first time Lee had ever witnessed.
"Huh. I didn't know it was autumn yet."
Be gentle. It's my first story. Let me know how I did. And maybe even throw some more story ideas at me! I'm into HTTYD, ROTG, Tangled, Avengers, Harry Potter ect. So come on and review or message me. Do whacha want :)