(((((Hiya! Here's another one-shot to enoy. Funny thing is...I just wrote this in like thirty minutes at 2:45 am! So I guess I'm at my best at the very late hours. But I know that I've been missing from fanfiction for a while so I decided to give you all a treat! You may notice that all of my other stories have OCs, so I wanted to try something new. And I really do like this couple. Oh! And before I forget...I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR ANYTHING AFFILIATED WITH THAT SHOW/MAGNA! thank you)))))
'How did this happen?' I thought to myself as I lie in bed. My head pounded as I looked from one side of the unfamiliar room to the other. I tried my best to remember why I wasn't lying in my own bed. I tried my hardest to fill my already aching head with the memory of last night. What I remember at this point is the party thrown by Naruto in honor of Gaara's fifth year of becoming Kazekage. We are now 22 years old and still Naruto has to be an idiot. Even if he's Hokage now, he's still an idiot.
-Flashback-
"Come on Sakura-chan! You gotta be there! It's for Gaara!" Naruto yelled at me as I stood in his office. "Is that why you called me in here Naruto?" I asked him sighing afterwards at his stupidity. He said nothing. He knew that I would say yes. Not only because everyone would be there, but also because I had become good friends with Subaku no Gaara ever since the chuunin exams. I smiled at the already grinning Naruto. "Of course I'll be there." I said to him. He grinned even wider...which sparked a bit of suspicion in my gut. I narrowed my eyes at him. "Naruto..." I growled out, "What are you up to?" But he just waved me off. "Oh nothing Sakura-chan! Just be there at eight."
-end flashback-
'Okay, I remember that. But what happened at the party?' I clutched my head in agony as I sat up. It definitely was not my room. It looked too plain to be my own room. 'Perhaps...perhaps it's an recently moved into apartment.' and with that thought I felt a slight nauseous feeling at the pit of my stomach. "How could Naruto just let someone take me to their apartment!" I half-yelled. I didn't recognize this room at all. Which means that it couldn't belong to anyone of my friends in the leaf village. My hand went from my head down to my stomach as I thought of what the stranger could have done to me in the one night. My other hand flew to cover my mouth and I abruptly stood to my feet and rushed to the bathroom.
"Oh Kami..." I moaned over the toilet. I was about in tears. "Why do I feel so bad?...so sick?" I asked myself. I stood up and went to the nearby sink. I splashed a bit of cold water over my sickened face and sighed. I lifted my eyes to meet my reflection in the mirror. I looked as bad as I felt. "Oh Kami..." I moaned once again looking away. "Sakura..." I turned at the sound of someone calling my name...such a familiar voice. I turned toward the entrance of the bathroom door and held my breath. When my eyes met red locks my breath got caught up in my throat. I leaned back hoping that the edge of the counter could support me...but it didn't. I felt myself fall back, but didn't feel the impact of the hard cold bathroom floor. I let out a breath, finally, as I saw a wall of sand behind me. I glanced from the sand to the sand shinobi and uttered a couple of unclear words. "Ga-Gaara..." was all that I could get out before his wall of sand carried me out of the bathroom and back into the room that I woke up in.
"Here...take these." he said to me handing me a couple of pills and a glass of water. My eyes widened as another patch of my memory came back to me.
-Flashback-
"Here Sakura-chan, take this!" a half drunk Naruto yelled at me handing me a cup of alcohol. I turned my head away from him. I already had a couple of glasses, that's enough for me. "No Naruto." I said simply, now trying to ignore him. But he just wouldn't give up. "Come on Sakura-chan! It's a party!" he yelled out having everyone agreeing with him. I sighed at his antics and took the glass from his hands.
-end flashback-
"Sakura?" I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard him speak to me once again. I reached two shakey hands out to grab the pills and the glass of water. Of course I trusted him, but waking up in his bed would get anyone nervous. "It's pain killers...to help your head." he told me as he stood back up and turned away. "Thank you." I mumbled out knowing that he still heard me. I pop the pills in my mouth and gulped down some water. I then looked back up toward him as he walked to the window.
"Gomen nasai." he mumbled. I gasped, not really meaning to, but to hear Subaku no Gaara actually apologizing is a definite shock to anyone's system. "Why? You haven't done anything..." I began to trail off. ' Had he...did he do something to me last night! Maybe that's why he's apologizing right now!' I thought almost dropping my glass in the process. I gently sat the glass beside me waiting for him to explain himself. "I didn't intend to...you just said so many things...last night." my eyes widened even more at his words. I saw him tense for a minute. He didn't want to face me. 'I've felt like that so many times. You blame yourself for something. You feel so sorry for something and yet so ashamed at the same time. You don't want to face anyone...you feel as if you don't deserve to face anyone.' My eyes softened at his disturbed appearance. I felt sorry for him. "You...you don't remember do you?" he asked finally turning to meet my eye. I stared into his cold yet soft aquamarine orbs. "You don't remember last night." he said to me lowering his head so that I could no longer see his eyes. And that's when it all hit me again. My headache was receding and my memories were coming back to me.
-flashback-
By the second time Naruto came up to me I was already drunk. I laughed along with everyone in the group. I danced with anyone who asked. I was having a ball...until I saw him. Gaara was standing in the corner of the room with his arms crossed. "Oi! Naruto!" I yelled out, coincidently, trying to be discrete. "Isn't this party for Gaara-kun! Why is he over there by himself!" I called out to him although we were standing right next to eachother. "Oi! You're right!...Why don't you go over there Sakura-chan and cheer him up?" Naruto yelled right back to me. At the time, since I was a bit drunk, I didn't question Naruto's motives. I just nodded and strutted right over to the sand shinobi. "Hiya! Gaara-kun!" I yelled out when I stood right in front of him. He narrowed his eyes at me, the same way he did to everyone. "Are you drunk, woman?" he spat out, but I didn't think too much on it. I just laughed it off and pulled him out to the dance floor.
"Gaara-kun?" I said to him as we danced on the half-empty dance floor. He shifted his glance from glaring at the other side of the room to me. "Why do you insist on being alone?" I don't know what possessed me to ask such a question, but it seemed to have taken him by surprise. He stopped our dance movements and stared at me wide-eyed for a second before glaring once again. "You don't have to be alone Gaara-kun. There are alot of people here who care about you." I merely wispered to him, but he just grunted at my comment. I was only half-drunk at this point. "...like who?" he said still glaring. "No one cares...they just respect me and my power." he almost spat out at me. I smiled through his entire speech and eventually broke out into a laugh.
"Well I'm certain that Temari-chan cares about you." I said to him after geting over my fit of laughter. "And you'd have to be crazy to think that Naruto-kun doesn't care about you." I continued. I then put my head on him chest. I could feel him tense at the unfamilair contact, but I continued anyway. "And I care about you Gaara-kun. You may want to believe that everyone just respects what you can do, but that's only half of it. I've seen what you could do, and respected you for it. But that respect grew into something else over the years. Now...now if I saw you fighting, I would fight with you. If I saw you laughing, I would laugh with you. And if I saw you crying, I would hold you and cry right along with you." At this point I lifted my head from his chest and stared into him surprised looking eyes. "I know that you've been alone for so long. But everyone needs someone to lean on...someone to love. And I want to be that someone for you Gaara-kun. If only for tonight...I want to be that someone."
-end flashback-
After remembering our moment on that dance floor, I know what had happened next. I know that he took me back to his place...back to his room. "I-I remember..." I mumbled out. "Gomen...you were drunk and I should not have..." but I didn't give him a chance to continue. I shot up to my feet and rushed toward him wrapping my arms around his neck. 'He still tenses at my touch...even after last night.' I thought, but snapped out of it when he wispered my name, "Sakura.." I let my hold around his neck drop and looked up at his familiar surprised expression. I caught a glimpse of his kanji on his forhead and reached my hand up to trace it's outline. "Even if I was half-drunk...I know what I said. And I meant every word of it. I do care about you Gaara-kun. And I do want to be that someone for you...if you will let me." I wispered to him never taking my eyes away from the 'Ai' kanji. He grabbed my hand and pulled it down so that I could look him in his eyes...and smiled at me.
My eyes widened for what seemed like the hundredth time that morning. "Ga-Gaara-kun..." I mumbled out. He leaned down and covered my lips with his own. I was surprised to say the least. Of course more happened last night, but I didn't really remember those details. He finally pulled back and pulled me into his chest. I tensed for only a second before melting into his body as he held me. "Ai Shiteru, Sakura." he wispered into my ear. I melted even more into him and smiled. "I love you too, Gaara-kun." And so we just stood there for a while. Him holding me as if I would just disappear if he didn't keep me in his arms. And it felt so right. 'I'll have to remember to thank Naruto after this. Somehow, I know he was behind this entire event.'
((((((((Hoped you guys liked it. Sorry if you didn't, I just miss writing stories for you guys! Hopefully there'll be alot more stories to read!))))))-duckichan