Lightning and Thunder
Summary: A GaaraxOc oneshot. Taeko Kamiya has admired the new Kazekage for as long as she could remember, but she's well aware that she's not the only one with a crush on him. She soon figures out that her small crush is much more than just a simple crush.
I looked up at the window on the building next to mine. There I saw Gaara, our fifth Kazekage, hard at work. Somehow, looking at the Kazekage work every night has become a regular habit for me. Some people may call it stalking, but I think it's just normal. At least I didn't follow him everywhere he went.
I opened my window for a breath of fresh air, and for a clearer view of Gaara. Ever since he has become the Kazekage at such a young age, a lot of girls around his age have started paying more attention to him. I am quite sad that I now know I'm not the only one who sees him in a special way. For as long as I could recall, I have admired Gaara even before he became our village Leader.
Before he became Kazekage, I must admit that I was completely intrigued with his way of life. I've always wanted to know more about him ever since the grownups kept on telling to keep away from him when I was young. When I was little, I've always wanted to learn more about this strange boy that everyone was afraid of. I wanted to know why everyone was afraid of him. I wanted to know how this boy, who held his teddy bear all the time, would possibly be a threat. Eventually, I rummaged around enough to find out that there was the raccoon demon, Shukaku, inside of him. Then and there, I finally understood everything. Ever since he became our Kazekage, there is one more thing that I want to know: Who or what caused him to change?
Laying my head down on the windowsill, my eyelids slowly grew heavier by the second. I felt a light breeze flow through my shoulder length aqua hair. Ever since my new hobby of watching Gaara, my sleeping hours became shorter and shorter, but in doing so, I noticed that Gaara never slept. My theory was that he probably couldn't' sleep because of the demon inside. It must be horrible not being able to sleep. My eyelids grew heavy and suddenly darkness took over my eyes.
"Taeko? Taeko!" My eyes flashed open, responding to the familiar voice calling me.
"Temari-San?" I rubbed my sleep-deprived eyes. "How did you get in here?"
"Your door was wide open; do you know how dangerous that is? You idiot." Temari placed her hands on her hips. "I can't believe you also left your window wide open too! Well, at least I'll know you won't catch a cold." She went to the window closing it, worrying for her friend.
"I must have forgotten." Taeko yawned.
"You're putting your own life on the line just by leaving your house open! You're completely vulnerable to any roaming ninja around."
I sighed deeply, knowing Temari's words by heart since this wasn't the first time. She was constantly worrying about me. I don't blame her though. It was a pretty unsafe habit to always fall asleep before closing my window at night. She was just looking out for me. "I-I'm sorry. It's just I always fall asleep before I can even think about closing my window."
Temari let out a frustrated sigh at my usual excuse. She shrugged knowing it was useless lecturing me. "Huh? What's that?"She pointed a finger towards a small book under my hands.
"Huh?" I took my hands off the book. I felt my face heat up as I slammed my book shut. "WAH!" I panicked.
"I-It's nothing!" Last night I remember drawing a picture of Gaara before closing my eyes. 'Oh boy! I can't let Temari know about my diary!'
"Was that…GAARA?! Wow that was a very impressive drawing!" Temari took the diary from my hands and started flipping through the pages looking for the same picture.
"N-NO!" I shouted shutting the diary once again. "I-It's nothing!" Every single page in the diary had a drawing of Gaara in it. I just couldn't let Temari look through my diary like that! It would be embarrassing!
Temari stared at me, dumfounded, as I clutched my diary tightly with both arms to avoid her reach. "Taeko, why do you have so many drawings of Gaara?" I felt my face burning as I turned my back to her, hugging my diary.
"It's nothing, it's nothing!" I kept mumbling.
"Oh, I get it now!" Temari had a suspicious grin. "I think I know why you always fall asleep on your window sill…"I looked at her, horrified as she poked her head out of my bedroom window. "Hey Gaara!"
Red hair peeked out from above. "What is it Temari?"
I quickly dashed over and slammed the windows shut. I swore, before I closed my window I saw the Kazekage staring at me confused. "Please stop, Temari!" My reddening face beamed brightly.
"I wasn't going to say anything to him." Temari's teasing was
I breathed in deeply, trying to calm my beating heart. Temari started laughing lightly. "You like my younger brother, don't you?"
This question made my heart speed up again. If my heart were to get any faster, I would have fainted.
"Is there something wrong?" I heard a familiar voice from the doorway.
"Kazekage-Sama!" My unprepared heart started beating madly. 'Did he hear Temari's question?! Oh, no! This is too embarrassing!' I could feel my heart leap through my chest. I couldn't take it anymore! I felt my body grow weak, as everything went black. Temari's worried voice was the last thing I heard.
I awoke to find my head in pain. "Temari-San?" I mumbled, rubbing my forehead.
"She left with Shikamaru a while ago to go to Konoha." I froze at the male voice.
"K-K-Kazekage-Sama!" I panicked and noticed my surroundings; I was in the Kazekage's office. 'I'm in the Kazekage's office?!'
"Is there something wrong? You look red."
"N-N-No! There's nothing w-wrong!" I failed at staying calm as I stuttered.
"Are you sure? You're really red." He got up from his desk and walked over. My heart almost stopped when he placed his hand on my forehead. "You don't have a temperature…"
"I-I'm fine, really!" Gaara took my word for it and went back to his desk. I sat quietly with my hands in my lap.
'I have to say that this is one of the happiest moments of my life. I've always liked watching Gaara from the safety of my bedroom window, but actually being in the same room was better. I didn't have to strain my neck to look up and there was no risk to my life since he was the Kazekage. Gaara was truly an admirable person, but to him I might as well be another face in the crowd. There were a lot of girls who admired him, so I was probably nothing special to him.'
"You know, you can go if you want." I snapped out of my thoughts.
"Huh?" I looked at Gaara thinking if I heard right.
"You can go if you want." Gaara repeated nonchalantly.
"U-Uh…yeah." I got up feeling disappointed and upset, but then again he IS the Kazekage, so he must be busy.
I grabbed the handle to the door when Gaara began to speak again. "You probably shouldn't fall asleep on your window sill with your window open. It's dangerous with the many ninjas around today."
I felt my heart skip a beat. 'So the Kazekage looked over me at night when I was asleep? I wonder if he knew that I was watching him every night.' I blushed a bit. "Y-Yes." Bowing in respect; I walked out of his office.
Then I looked up at the Kazekage's window to find him working again. Sometimes I wonder how a teenager like him could work so hard. I put my head on my window sill knowing that I would eventually fall asleep and forget to close my window.
'I don't know why I'm always so nervous or tense around. Ever since I was a child, I've always wanted to know more about him, so why was I not able to walk up to him and start a normal conversation. I've always wanted to know more about him, but who knows him better than himself? I know that I can get really shy at times, but when I'm around the Kazekage, I usually freeze up. Ever since I met him that day, I…I've always wanted to spend time with him. So why…why can't I ever get the nerve to at least walk up to him? How can two words be too much?'
"Kamiya?" I heard a voice call down to me.
"Oh, Kazekage-Sama?" I looked up sleepily seeing a blurred outline of him.
"Before you fall asleep again, don't forget to close your window." He reminded me in the middle of his work.
"Yes, of course." I nodded, close to tears at my own thoughts. For his moment, I was glad that Gaara's window was higher than mine because he couldn't see my upset eyes. I reached out to grab the double doors that hung out from the building and locked my windows shut.
Before I even met him, I was intrigued with him. When we first met, there was a tremendous thunderstorm near the village, but the thunder was so loud that is could be heard from many kilometers away. I was afraid of thunder, and the sudden flash of lightning would always scare me half to death. On that day when I first met Gaara, I was following him around and lost track of him. After an hour of looking all over the village for him, I decided to go home and sulk when I bumped into him.
*Flashback*
"Oh, I'm sorry." I said softly as I got up. When I looked and realized that this was really Gaara, I decided to introduce myself. "H-Hello, I'm T-Taeko Kamiya."
Gaara looked at me confused, probably thinking that I didn't know who he was. "I'm-"
"Oh, I know who you are." I explained softly. "You're Gaara."
At and inconvenient time, I saw lightning flash, followed by thunder. In less than a second I scrunched myself into a ball covering my ears mutter, "Make it go away…make it go away…"
"T-Taeko?" I heard Gaara ask. Another boom of thunder came which made me yelp out in fear. I glanced up at Gaara thinking that he must have thought that I was strange, but the looks in his eyes made it hard for me to forget it. His eyes were mixed with emotions of sadness and hatred. I've always seen him give that same look at the other kids, but to see him give that look to me just tore my heart right through the middle.
Another flash of lightning caused me to squeeze my eyes shut and once again yell out in fear. When I opened my eyes, Gaara was no longer there.
*flashback over*
I felt tears fall out of my eyes at the memory. The look in his eyes never left me for eight years. 'I think that he must have thought that I was scared of him and not at the thunder. That misunderstanding might have caused this drift between us.'
I know Gaara forgot about that since people being scared of him won't exactly new information. Ever since he gave me that look, the sadness and the hatred in his eyes told me that he didn't want to be around me, so I just watch him from afar. If I was ever around him, I was afraid of hurting his feelings, but I've always wanted to apologize. I felt my eye lids grow heavy, and I fell asleep before another thought came out of me.
I awoke to find that the sun was no out yet. 'Oh no!' Looking at the clock, I realized that it was already nine o' clock. 'NO!' There were cloudy skies outside which can only mean one thing—it was that time of year again. It was going to rain today. Although it only reached once or twice during a year, each time it was always a tremendous thunderstorm. I always dreaded the days that thunderstorms came.
A loud knock came from the door which caused me to shriek out in fear. I relaxed a little when I realized it was only a person at the door. "T-Temari-San." I kept my eye at the sky for a flash of lightning. One flash and I would be under my covers before a second passed.
"What's wrong?" Temari was worried, seeing the fear in my eyes.
"There's going to be a thunderstorm today." I whispered stating the obvious fact.
"Why, are you afraid of thunder or something?" Temari connected the puzzle together.
"Y-Yes!"
"Do you want to come over or something? I bet you'd feel so much better if you were around people…" She suggested.
"R-Really?!" My face lit up at the thought of it. "Th-Thank you so much!" I bowed to show my appreciation.
"She's afraid of thunder so she needs to be with someone." Temari explained leaving the Kazekage's office. "I just realized that I have something that I have to attend to." I could see it in her eyes—Temari was playing matchmaker between me and Gaara.
'This was bad! Ever since that day in the past, I never wanted to actually be with him in another thunderstorm!! NO NO NO NO NO!!! I didn't want to hurt his feelings again.'
"I don't know how staying in my office will help you calm down, but fine." Gaara walked into his office. I followed him in and sat on the couch.
It didn't take very long for me to hear hard rain pelt the roof. Then I saw it—the first flash of lightning. I squeaked a little, but not enough for Gaara to hear. The thunder that followed caused me to crouch into a slight ball on the couch.
Gaara took notice and started to walk over. "Kamiya, are you okay?"
"Y-Yes. I-I'm fine…" I was close to tears as I stammered out my reply.
"Are you sure?" He was now over me, talking to me as if I were just a four year old.
"Y-Yeah, thank you." I held a shaky smile in reassurance.
CRASH! BOOM!
"No! Wait!" I clutched his white Kazekage outfit. "Don't go!"
"I'm still here. I'm not going anywhere." He calmly stated.
When I wouldn't let go of his clothes, he eventually sat down next to me trying to keep me calm.
The rain beat harder now and the lightning and thunder became more frequent. I darted to freak out and fell to the floor.
"Make it go away! Make it go away!" I mumbled.
"I don't think it's possible for me to make the thunder go away…" He explained.
"I'm sorry."
"What?" He looked at me in bewilderment.
"I'm sorry." I felt tears come to my eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm just sorry."
"Kamiya, it's not your fault that you're afraid of thun-" "It's not that." My voice was soft.
"You're not making any sense. Then why are you apologizing?" I could tell that he really wanted a true answer. I could hear the sincerity in his voice.
"You don't remember?" I asked, knowing that he probably threw away his past to become Kazekage. I knew that it wouldn't be right for a Kazekage to hold a grudge against his own people. Besides, what kind of leader would hate his people?
"Remember what?"
"It was eight years ago." My soft voice started. "Eight years ago, it was at night when I bumped into you. I introduced myself and saw a flash of lightning becoming scared. I think you thought that I was afraid of you and not the lightning. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel bad." I felt some sort of weight being lifted from my shoulders.
"Oh, I remember that." I heard Gaara say. I looked over at him to see…AMUSEMENT in his eyes?!
"Uhh…Gaara?" Now I was extremely confused. 'Why was Gaara amused with my story?!'
Another flash of lightning followed by thunder came. I clutched Gaara's arm to calm myself down, but I felt my heart speed up just by touching him.
"I remember, but I think you were the one who had it all wrong—not me." He explained. "When I looked at you, I was scared, right?"
"Y-Yes…"
"It was because I was worried about you. You suddenly freaked out, so I went to get Yashamaru."
"That's it?" I was in shock.
"Yeah."
BOOM! (more thunder)
Out of fear I leaped into Gaara's arms. "I-I'm sorry." I apologized for my sudden advancement.
"No, it's okay." He assured, lightly pressing my head to his chest. I blushed madly. "You won't be able to see the lightning this way."
"I love you Gaara…" I worked up all my courage to softly whisper those words. I swore I felt his heart skip a beat when I said that, but there was no way that he could've heard me through the roaring rain.
Right now I didn't think he heard me. It didn't matter that he didn't know how I truly felt about him. I was just happy to be in his arms.
NatureRocks411: Hey guys! So what do you think of this story? It's my first oneshot story, so please don't be too harsh. Since I knew I was making a oneshot, I rushed through the whole story, so it isn't as good as I would have liked it to be.
Kari213: Haha! WHEE! I'm in Mari's comment thing. :D I helped edit and type out her story! n_n Also sorry Mari for taking so long to give this to you… _ (PS: You had a lot of grammar errors. xD)
THANK YOU KARI FOR EDITNG THIS FOR ME! I OWE YOU!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE WHO READS THIS!!