A/N: Alright, this is a story I wrote while waiting for my airplane to Sweden this summer, it's the first whole story I actually wrote in a notebook so I'm very proud of it...
All credits for good grammar and almost none existent spelling mistakes go to fagur fiskur, her stories are great and you really should check it out if you're a Star Trek or HP fan...
Enjoy and please review when you finish and tell me what you think of my first attempt at this kind of story... ;P
I've seen my fair share of weirdoes and just plain strange people. But the ones I met on my last trip take the cake.
I was traveling to Germany to meet up with my great-aunt, the only living relative my siblings and I had left. I hadn't even checked in when I met the first two.
Yes, I said first two, as in there were a bunch of them, all of which I would meet while still on solid Japanese ground. Ironically, I already knew one of them as it was my older brother. He was standing next to a brunet guy wearing sunglasses, inside!
"Kankuro, if you don't drop it, you won't be joining the Mile High Club anytime soon," I heard the stranger say to my idiot of a brother. It took me a good minute to realize just what he was implying but when I did, I visibly flinched. Not the way I wanted to find out my brother was gay, that's for sure.
"But Shino, you won't be able to take them with you anyway. If you put them with your luggage they'll die and they'll be taken away if you try to carry them," Kankuro said, actually sounding a bit worried over whatever they were talking about.
I watched curiously as they reached the desk two or three people ahead of me. The guy, Shino, then proceeded to scare the girl behind it until she allowed him to place an ant farm inside a dog cage! Alright, I hadn't been so shocked about my brother being gay, but I was almost gaping at his choice of men. Who the hell brings an ant farm on a trip?
It wasn't until they had checked their bags in that Kankuro noticed me, and let me tell you his face was priceless.
"Eh, hi there Gaara, funny meeting you here," he greeted me awkwardly. I smiled evilly at him, making him gulp in fear. Payback's a bitch.
"Yes, very funny indeed," I said, moving my eyes to Shino, letting Kankuro know that I had heard them. Handing my bags to the still scared girl I asked. "Who is your friend?"
"Well, you see, he's… we're kind of, eh…" he started to ramble while blushing. I was very amused. The big bad Sabaku no Kankuro who didn't take shit from anyone was having trouble introducing me to his boyfriend. Temari would have a field day.
"I'm his boyfriend, Shino. And you are?" Bug-Man, as I had dubbed him, said, holding out his hand and ruining my fun. But all wasn't over yet, as I could detect a hint of jealousy in Shino's voice.
"Oh, Kanky and I go way back. Right P-Boy?" I said, deliberately sounding a bit coy. Kankuro only nodded stiffly, knowing to just allow me to tease him now so I wouldn't find a worse payback for his little dye stunt three weeks earlier. Thankfully the black dye had washed out in a week.
"Oh, I'm afraid that I've never heard of you. Gaara, was it?"
I nodded inwardly, laughing at the attempt he was making to discourage me. He probably thought that my brother and I were once an item.
As we started to make our way to the terminal I shot of a lot of 'did you know that Kanky 's and I could see that the jealousy was reaching its peak. I'll hand it to him, I was slightly impressed. It took Shino seven minutes to snap at me and I knew he was the jealous type.
"Alright, I don't know what you're playing at but you better not have any ideas about me giving Kankuro up, Kankuro not Kanky, he hates that name so stop using it!"
I could see that he was about to say something more but was stopped by Kankuro, who was probably whispering who I really was in his ear. As Shino's face grew redder my smirk grew wider.
"Oh, I know he hates that name, that's why Temari and I use it so much," I commented offhandedly, only for the brunet to storm off.
"Oh, nice going Gaara, now he's gonna be pissed the whole way, and I really wanted to join the Mile High Club too," my brother whined next to me, before taking off after his boyfriend, leaving me alone.
As I started to walk away I, unfortunately, saw Shino pull Kankuro into a handicap restroom. I banished all thoughts about what they were doing in there before I could even think of them.
The next group I literally bumped into fifteen minutes later. I had just finished a large cup of coffee; hazelnut syrup was my secret joy, when I was thrown to the ground with a girl on top of me.
She was so close to my face that the only thing I could see were her eyes, a dark chocolate brown.
"Hey, you've got the same eyes as Temtem," the girl said, not moving of off me.
"Stop being so troublesome Tenten, and get off the poor man," a new voice said, making the girl move and pull me up with her.
"Oh, you're cute and a red head to boot. Sasuke's just gonna love you," the one dubbed Tenten, Crazy-Chick in my mind, said bouncing on her toes. Her hair was rich brown like her eyes and was pulled up into two buns. Her friend, who was sitting on a bench close by, had his darker hair in a high ponytail and a bored look on his face that seemed somehow familiar.
"I know you from somewhere," I commented more to myself than to him, but he heard me anyway and opened his eyes to study me. Instantly a slightly horrified and panicked look came over his face, making me recognize him in a flash.
"Nara," I said as a smirk spread over my face. He had dated my sister Temari in high school and I recalled every time I took pleasure in mentally torturing him when he came over.
"Gaara," he greeted me stiffly and I noticed Tenten look between the two of us with curiosity rivaling a cat's, so I decided to enlighten her.
"Shikamaru here used to date my sister," I said, glaring at the man.
"Oh, ok. Are you into men?" She threw me of with the random question. "If so then you'll love Sasuke, he and Temtem disappeared just now. I think he needed coffee and she saw her brother and went to terrorize him a bit." She explained like I actually cared at all.
"You really should stop calling her that," Shikamaru said, glancing my way as I started to wonder why it had rung some bells when Tenten said that.
"But we're the double T, T and T, Tenten and Temtem, Ten and Tem," Tenten whined. "She's my girlfriend so I can call her what I want to."
I noticed Shikamaru glancing at me when she said that but before I could confirm my suspicions, Tenten pulled me to the side yelling: "Sasuke, look what I found!"
Being off balance like I was, it was easy showing me into a hard chest.
"Tenten don't be so rude," a voice many would call velvety smooth said somewhere above me. The guy was obviously trying to charm me, so when he placed a finger under my chin to raise my head I wasn't surprised. "Are you alright?"
When I saw his pretty pale face with the smooth raven hair framing it, my first reaction was to punch him to make him back off. Before my hand could connect with his face a hand grabbed it and in no time I was twisted away from him and was being held in a headlock.
Now, only two people knew of my weak right shoulder and had the ability to use it against me. Kankuro wasn't stupid enough to do something like this so soon, that and he wouldn't have bothered to help a stranger. That only left my sister.
"Temari, let me go or else."
As expected, she completely ignored me. I had an idea that she was getting back at me for ignoring her and Kankuro all the time when we were kids.
"What a coincidence, seeing both my baby brothers while traveling to Ireland. What brings you here Gaara?"
While talking, my blonde idiot of a sister decided to give me a noogie. Safe to say I broke free.
"What are you going to Ireland for?" I asked, once sure she wouldn't try anything else.
"You see, Sasuke here has a thing for red heads," she said, pointing to my right and making me take a step to the left, away from the leering man. "So Shika here thought he should go to Ireland where there are tons of red heads. So naturally I decided to go with him, taking Tenten with me."
I glanced at the girl who had only minutes earlier claimed to be dating my sister.
"You have a problem with my girlfriend?" Temari immediately jumped. She knew how I was when she used to bring her boyfriends home. Why should a girlfriend be any different?
"No," I said truthfully, surprising Temari, Shikamaru and, to my enjoyment, Tenten, who had no doubt heard of my treatment of them. "You met Kanky and Shino too?" I smirked as Temari nodded warily. "I hope you didn't shake his hand, or if you did, then I hope he washed them." I added, looking my sister in the eyes and forcing her to come to the right conclusion.
She looked down on her right hand with wide eyes before wiping it furiously on Sasuke's shirt. "Ewwww… I didn't want to know that," she whined, making Sasuke frown as he was still being used as a towel.
"I may be bi, but that doesn't mean I want your brothers' germs all over my shirt," he finally complained, making Temari stop and look up at him.
"You didn't seem to mind Gaara's germs all over you and he is my brother too."
I didn't like being dragged into the argument but before I could put a stop to it, Sasuke pointed at me in a slightly accusing manner. "He's a red head!"
I froze. Never in my twenty-six years had I been accused of having red hair like that.
As they kept arguing about germs, red hair, family and, somehow, why blondes have more fun, I decided to just leave. When I was fifty feet (15m) away and they were still arguing, having dragged poor Shikamaru into it. (I would never admit that I felt sorry for the guy, never!) I was stopped by Tenten, who had followed me.
"Hey Gaara, you're not upset that Temari is dating me, a girl?"
I looked her small frame once over before shrugging and answering her honestly. "No, I don't. Frankly, I'm more at ease with her being with you than any other guy out there. I'm sure she told you about our history." I assumed staring the bunned girl in the eye as she nodded.
"And your brother?" She asked shyly, like she wasn't sure if she had the right to ask.
"Same thing, the other way around," I said bluntly, making her look at me in question. "I'm not accusing my brother of anything, it's just that fear that someday, something might snap or something." I wasn't really sure why I was telling Tenten all of that, but I did anyway.
"So that's why. Temari told me that her youngest brother didn't date, at all. Now I understand why," she said and then she, completely out of the blue, hugged me. I didn't stop or encourage her. But when it had been a while I was tempted to throw her off, but I thought up a better way.
"That, plus the fact that there won't be any annoying brats running around, calling me Uncle Gaara."
Immediately she let go and smacked me on the shoulder, hard.
Turning away, I walked to the coffee shop again, thinking that after such a serious conversation I deserved something sweet, another secret joy of mine.
As I waited in line I was faintly aware of a group behind me talking about the odds of two blue eyed blonds dating or if they were in fact siblings. I tuned them out after a minute when it was my turn to order.
"Large Frappuccino to go and a chocolate chip cookie, that one," I said, pointing at the largest one in the middle.
When I was seated at the last table available I took out my sketchbook and pens. I still had a good hour before my plane was scheduled to leave and I intended to sit there until then.
"Over there, we can sit with him." The words spoken didn't register in my mind until four people sat down around my table.
"Hey there, hope you don't mind us sitting here."
It was the same group I had heard talking in the line. The one who dared to address me was an athletic brunet with a red fang tattoo on each cheek. He was smiling like an idiot, probably thinking that because we both had tattoos on our faces we were somehow alike. Oh, how wrong he was.
Next to him was a girl with freaky pale grey eyes and midnight black hair. Then there was a pink haired girl and a raven haired man. I halted my gaze on him; he looked like that Sasuke, only longer hair and stress lines running down his cheeks.
Pointing my pen rather rudely at him I asked, "Are you related to a Sasuke?" I didn't give him a chance to do anything but nod. "Then you're not allowed to sit here."
The two of them really did look a lot alike. I was stopped before I could hit the jerk earlier; maybe I could make up for it with this guy.
"Oh, don't worry. Itachi is nothing like his little brother," the pinkette said, smiling at me.
"My foolish little brother tried to seduce you, didn't he?" Itachi asked.
"Yes he did, fifteen minutes ago actually. He's lucky that my sister stopped me from smashing his pretty little face," I said, automatically clenching my fist at the memory.
"Pity, he could use someone setting him straight," Itachi said, making me like him immediately.
"You're ok, you can stay." I informed him with a slight smile.
"Great. I'm Kiba, this is Hinata and Sakura," the tattooed brunet said, pointing at the pale eyed girl and Pinky.
Looking between them I frowned. "I said he could stay, the rest of you can go." Itachi was smirking as I said that but Kiba and Sakura looked offended. "Actually," I started, stopping the two from opening their mouths to speak up, "she's quiet so she can also stay. The two of you don't look right, so you can leave." I realized that I was being extremely rude but honestly, I didn't give a damn. They had sat down here without being invited, so they would just have to deal with my slightly fouler than normal mood. I really wanted to punch that Sasuke guy.
"Hey, you have no room to judge us!" Sakura, or Pinky, said, pointing to my black rimmed eyes and the tattoo over my left eye.
I raised my brow at her, making Kiba speak up to explain her thoughts. "Yeah, you've got that tattoo and a shitload of eye-liner and you say we don't look right."
Closing my sketchbook, I leaned back pointing at my eyes. "These are birthmarks, enhanced by the insomnia I've had since I was five." I moved my finder to point at the kanji tattoo half hidden by my bangs. "This is actually a scar my father gave me when I was a little over six. I had it tattooed when I was fourteen, people asked about it less that way. You really shouldn't assume things without knowing the facts." One would think that telling complete strangers such sensitive things would be uncomfortable, but really, I didn't care one way or the other.
"Wow, your life was shitty," Sakura and Kiba commented at the same time, making me wonder how long they had known each other.
"You should take your own advice," Hinata, or The Quiet One in my mind, suddenly said, grabbing my attention.
"Touché," was my response, before opening my sketchbook again and proceeding to ignore my tablemates.
They weren't too loud and they didn't bother me for the most part but the parts of their conversations I caught managed to raise an eyebrow a few times. At one point Sakura threatened to personally remove Itachi's privates if he wouldn't stop saying 'hn'. To which Kiba offered his dog to help. Itachi then pointed out that if she did allow Akamaru, the dog, to help, she wouldn't be doing it personally.
They then started to talk about some guy named Sai and how hard it would be to find him in only three days. That's when I found out that they were going to Mexico to find this Sai because they had gotten him drunk and sent him there. Apparently he was getting married in four days and the bachelor party had been wild.
"Do you mind?" Hinata suddenly asked, having moved to my side and out of the argument about the effects of tequila. Looking down at my almost finished picture I nodded and allowed her to study it while I finished my cookie.
"It's beautiful, but a little bare," she said, smiling at me as she pulled out her own sketchbook and showed me. Her pictures were chaotic to say the least and very colorful.
'Flight F62T to Mexico, this is your final boarding call, please go to gate 42.'
In a flash the four of them were up, pulling me into hugs and yelling their goodbyes at me as they ran towards gate 42.
When they were out of sight (I could still hear them though) I decided to start walking towards my gate too, as it was gate 5 and at the other side of the bloody airport. Grabbing my bag I started the walk to the gate. I had a little over thirty minutes to get there and it should only take me about ten minutes to walk so I didn't need to worry about being late.
When I was there and had sat down on a bench nearby I actually froze in horror. My sketchbook. I had forgotten my sketchbook. Looking at the time I cursed myself for stopping to look at some books on my way here. I only had twenty minutes until the plane would leave.
Shouldering my backpack I was never as thankful that Temari forced me on the track team in high school.
Running at top speed the entire way I made it back to the coffee shop in four minutes, out of breath and pretty damn pleased with myself. Looking around the table I had been sitting at I panicked slightly. It wasn't there! I started to ask people sitting around and the staff if they had seen it, but no one had.
'Flight SC12 to Germany, this is your last boarding call, please go to gate number 5.'
I was about to abandon my prized sketchbook when someone called to me. "Hey, are you Sabaku no Gaara, is this your book?" Turning around I came face to face, more like face to neck, with a tanned blue eyed blond man holding my sketchbook.
"Yes, thank you for finding it," I said and was about to take it from him when he pulled away.
"Not so fast, buddy. How do I know you're telling me the truth?" I just stared at him for a few seconds, blinking. He couldn't be serious, right?
"Who would want to steal a sketchbook? It's mine; now give it back before I miss my flight," I demanded, reaching for it again just for him to step back and out of my reach.
"Prove it," he said, holding the book over his head so I would have to jump if I wanted to reach it.
Giving up I simply said: "The last page, it's a picture of two couples walking on a beach." He went to the page and nodded.
"Cool, who are they?" He then asked calmly, making me annoyed as I managed to snatch it away from him.
"None of your god damned business," I hissed and was about to run of when he had the balls to grab my arm and stop me. "I don't want to punch you since you found my book but you're making it really difficult not to," I informed him, clenching my fist in aggravation.
"I tend to have that affect on people," Blondie said. I didn't have a name so I made one for him, not that having a name would have stopped me anyway. "Anyway, I think you owe me one for finding that thing, so you're coming with me." At the Blondie stated dragging me to god knows where.
"I'm missing my flight you idiot, I don't have time for this," I said, struggling against him. Unfortunately he was stronger than me.
"Oh, calm down, what flight are you on?" He asked, looking at the screen showing the flights and if they were on time or not. Mine unfortunately was.
"To Germany, gate 5," I said just as the intercom started and my on time flight was changed to thirty minutes delay.
'Captain Uzumaki, Captain Uzumaki, please report to gate 5, please report to gate 5.'
Blondie turned to me smiling when the intercom stopped. "Well, looks like you're not missing your flight anymore. Come on." He then kept pulling me along. I didn't bother resisting as I was rather curious what he was planning.
"Can I at least know your name? It's unfair that you know mine and I don't know yours." He stopped short when I said that and turned to me.
"Oh how rude of me." He then proceeded to bow deeply, throwing an imaginary cloak out of his way. "I am Naruto, at your service."
Crossing my arms, I scowled at him. "Well then Naruto, if you are at my service then can you please tell me where it is that you're dragging me to?" Taking my hand again he kept walking while explaining what he wanted me to do.
"You see, my sister has been really down lately. Her boyfriend dumped her, Neji refuses to admit his feelings for her and she'll be stuck in Paris alone during Christmas. Stuff like that. Since she's a bit dramatic she's convinced that there's something wrong with her and that's where you come in my dear friend. I want you to go up to her and flirt or something. That way she'll stop sulking and maybe it'll get Neji to come around. Get it?"
I got it but I didn't necessarily like it. "I don't flirt," I informed him but it was too late as Naruto pointed out his sister and that Neji guy. She had long blonde hair much lighter than her brothers and she seemed really unhappy as she refused something Neji, long brown hair and the exact same eyes as Hinata, was asking her.
"Her name is Ino, now go," Naruto said, pushing me towards them.
Instead of going to them I turned to enter a small flower stand. Buying a single red rose I mentally prepared for what I was about to do. Sticking the rose in my bag I took out my camera as I walked over to them.
"Excuse me," I said, smiling slightly at Ino, who was looking at me. "I'm sorry but can I take your picture? I saw you and didn't want to leave without a proof of such beauty existing." It seemed to work as she blushed lightly and nodded, while Neji fumed beside her.
Taking the picture I frowned a bit. "Something's missing. Oh, I know." I then pulled out the rose and took a step towards her, only for the long haired brunet to stand up. "May I?" I asked Ino but before she could answer I added: "I hope your boyfriend doesn't mind."
That effectively made him sit back down and her blush a bit more. "Oh Neji's not my boyfriend," she said, looking down as I placed the rose behind her left ear and stepped back to take the picture.
Looking down on the second picture I said: "Pity, you look like a cute couple. Move closer together, let me see." The slight authority in my voice had them do as I said without a word. I quickly snapped a picture before saying: "You really should think about it, you look great together." And with that I walked away to where Naruto was still standing with a wide grin.
"You don't flirt my ass," was his greating as I reached him. He slapped my back. "If I hadn't known better, I would have gone over there and kicked your ass."
"Well, now we're even," I just said, walking of towards my gate; I was not going to miss the plane.
"Hey, let me walk with you, I'm going that way too," Naruto said, falling in step with me. "So what do you do Gaara, other than drawing cool pictures I mean? I liked the one with the two guys kissing by the way."
I almost stopped in my tracks when he told me that, he had looked through my sketchbook. "I'm the head of the designing crew for Suna cars," I told him and it was his turn to almost stop to stare at me. "And you?" I glanced at the blond noticing for the first time the white shirt and the deep blue pants it was tucked in.
"Oh, me? I'm a pilot actually." He smiled at me, a mischievous glint in his eyes making me narrow mine.
We walked on in silence for a while until it hit me. "Your last name wouldn't be Uzumaki by any chance?" When all I got was silence I knew I was right. Turning to him I punched him in the shoulder hard. "Jerk, you could have told me so that I wouldn't have had to worry about missing my flight."
He only chuckled while rubbing his shoulder tenderly. "I apologize sir, whatever can I do to make it up to you?" There was that mischievous glint again. I didn't get to answer as he came up with suggestions on his own. "Pose naked for you? Give you a kiss? Help you join the Mile High Club?" And then I realized.
"You like me?" It was both a question and a statement, but I was really surprised. Sure I had had my fair share of girlfriends and boyfriends but no one that was anything like Naruto.
"Yeah, that a problem? You sound shocked." He sounded nervous when he asked and for some reason I hated seeing him like that. Not once had he been anything but happy and cheerful since I met him and somehow I knew he wasn't meant to be anything else.
"No, not at all. I'm just surprised that's all. You're just not exactly the type I'm used to liking me." He seemed to relax after that and we were quiet as we walked for a while. When gate 5 was in sight Naruto broke the silence.
"Soooo…" Was all he said, as it was obvious what he was asking about. Smirking, I stopped, making him do the same and turn to me.
"I think I like option number two for now." That was all he needed as he bent down and kissed me long and passionately.
We would have stood there for a long time if his sister hadn't come running hand in hand with Neji, yelling at Naruto to hurry his lazy ass along.