Bonds and Brows
"Are you sure about this?" Temari asked one last time as she approached Gaara. Gaara, never known for his verbosity, nodded. Temari huffed. "In that case hold still. If we ask you anything else use words like a big boy."
Gaara twitched but didn't respond. Kankurou, watching from his perch on the counter, laughed. "This is perfect! Now I can finally get an answer to some of life's most important questions." He paused. "Gaara, do you actually read any of my mission reports?"
"Yes." Only Kankurou and Temari would describe Gaara's tone as 'pouty,' but they had learned how to interpret the slightest changes in his pitch, as well as the tiniest movement in his face, in order to pick up on his subtly displayed emotions.
"Were you the one that left the window open during the sand storm a few weeks ago?"
"No."
"Did you eat the last cookie even though I specifically told you I was saving it?"
"…Yes."
Kankurou pushed off the counter in one swift motion. "I knew it, you little thief! And you just gave me that stupid blank face. I can't believe you."
"Knock it off you two, you're going to mess it up," Temari warned. She paused to grab the soap behind her and throw it at Kankurou. "This is a serious moment, shuttup about your cookies. You could stand to eat a little less junk food as it is."
Kankurou scoffed at this absurd idea while Gaara gave his version of a smirk. Temari finished with one final smooth motion and backed up, surveying her work.
"Well, what do you think?"
Kankurou moved to stand by her, cocking his head as he puzzled over the change. Neither sibling spoke as they studied Gaara. Gaara waited patiently for a moment or two. When they failed to say anything further, his eyebrow twitched.
"Oooh, that's kind of weird," Kankurou said. "Never expected to see an actual eyebrow twitching there, Gaara. Do it again."
Temari looked skeptical. "I don't think it's right. It just doesn't look right."
Gaara liked to think of himself as a man of action, and since his siblings weren't really providing the feedback he needed, he took matters into his own hands. Standing up, he crossed to the mirror to see the results himself. The eyebrows were there, just as he had requested. Carefully drawn in by Temari, they curved over his eyes, the dark brown contrasting with his pale skin and fiery hair.
"Maybe a different color? They really stand out." Kankurou suggested helpfully.
Temari chewed her lip. "I think blond wouldn't look right though, and this is the only other makeup pencil I have." She turned to Kankurou. "Do you have anything besides purple and black?"
He squawked, "Excuse me, it's not makeup! It's kabuki paint. Totally different thing."
"Right." Temari rolled her eyes. "Which I take it means no."
"I think," Gaara interrupted hesitantly, "I look like a girl."
The older siblings turned back to studying him. Almost instantaneously, their eyes lit up as they reached the same conclusion. Temari grabbed a small hand fan out of her sleeve to cover her mouth, but Kankurou burst out laughing, almost falling to the ground.
"I knew something looked off!" Temari giggled once before hiding behind her fan again. Gaara's new eyebrow twitched again, causing even louder peals of laughter from Kankurou who gave up any pretense and sat heavily on the floor.
"This is great! Tonight has to be my favorite ever." He continued to cackle.
Gaara turned and glared. "This isn't funny. Fix it."
"Now Gaara," Temari soothed, "You have to admit it's the teeniest bit funny." She paused to study his face again. "I don't understand why, but for some reason the eyebrows make your face look too delicate."
Kankurou stopped laughing long enough to stand back up and grab the pencil from Temari. "Maybe they're too thin? Don't girls typically have thinner eyebrows?" He filled in her delicate lines to make the brows thicker. It wasn't until he stopped and backed up to assess the new brows that he realized what he had done. Temari had already started laughing, this time with no attempt to conceal herself behind the fan. As Kankurou fell back to the floor Gaara turned to see what fresh hell had been released on his face.
"What the hell, Kankurou!" He didn't scream, that was still a bit too extreme for his tastes, but his voice did rise quite a bit. "I look like Lee!"
"Oh c'mon. You like Lee these days! And they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," Kankurou said. He stayed on the floor, but in respect of Gaara's clearly devolving mood managed to stop laughing.
Temari quieted as well, shaking her head as she found the soap she had thrown at Kankurou earlier. "Hold still Gaara, we'll wipe this off and start from scratch." The room quieted again as she removed the eyebrows, but she paused after grabbing the pencil once again. "Ok, so what do we do differently?"
"Not make them too thin or too thick." Gaara grumbled.
Temari pursed her lips. "Well that limits the options. What else would have made them look girly? What exactly makes a girly eyebrow? Was it too curvy?" She turned to Kankurou.
"How should I know? You're the girl," he shot back.
"It's not like I go around looking at eyebrows." She returned.
"Neither do I!"
Gaara cleared his throat. "Maybe you should try making them like yours."
"Mine?" Temari asked. "Or his?"
"Both of yours. You both have the same straight eyebrows." Gaara looked away.
Suddenly, Temari got it. She had found it incredibly strange when Gaara has asked her earlier to draw some eyebrows for him. Granted, since they had all become closer the subject of his lack of eyebrows had come up a few times in jokes between the siblings, but Gaara never seemed to mind. And considering all the other weird markings, features, and missing features they encountered in other ninja, not having eyebrows didn't seem so strange.
"I never realized that," Temari mused as she started again on her lines.
"Huh," Kankurou said, "I think that's about the only thing we have in common." He coughed before clarifying. "Externally, I mean. We all certainly have the same attitude problem."
"I don't know what you're talking about." With a final flourish Temari finished the new eyebrows. She leaned back to take in her work before smiling. "Much better."
Kankurou stood up again and nodded. Gaara hesitated before returning to the mirror. As he stood in observation, Temari and Kankurou moved just behind him. Their reflections stared back. The color was different, and the thickness varied slightly, but now the same thin, straight eyebrows united the otherwise dissimilar faces.
Gaara smiled slightly. "I like it," He turned back to Temari, "but they'll wash off, right? This is just for at home."
Kankurou wrapped his long arm around them as Temari nodded. "Right, just for home."
Emerald: What just happened?
Legolas: You wrote a story.
Duo: I know, it's really weird. When was the last time that happened?
Emerald: Shuttup. So apologies for how cracktastic this is. And apologies if anyone has ever done anything similar. I haven't been keeping up with my sand sib reading but this idea just hit me out of no where.
Duo: Oddly enough, besides our influence, I think we also have to credit Spoiled Sweet, who put out a call for cracktastic stories.
Legolas: Sure she normally works with different characters from Naruto, but somehow we always come back to Temari and the wonderful sand sibs.
Emerald: Because I love them! Way more than you muses. Yeah so this idea literally popped in my head as I was brushing my teeth, and instead of going to bed I quickly had to write it out because otherwise I knew I'd get caught up in whatever it is I do every day.
Duo: Who really knows what that is…
Emerald: ANYWAY, you can argue that Gaara just has very light eyebrows if you want, but I swear they look completely non-existent to me. And now off to bed before a busy day of work tomorrow!