"Why don't you go play" mum said looked down at me

"But I want to stay with you"

"Don't you want to make friends?"

I shook my head with a slight frown.

"Oh is that so, but if you don't have friends who will you play with?"

"Myself"

"Isn't it more fun with others?"

"... Maybe"

"How about we make a deal?"

"What kind of deal?"

"If you can't find someone to play with then I won't ask you to talk to them anymore ok?"

"Promise?"

"Pinkie swear" she smiled holding out her pinkie

"Ok" I agreed connecting my pinkie to hers

I left the house with a sigh and walked down the street to the park where I could already hear kids playing. I cautiously walked out towards the other children as they all seemed to stop playing turning their eyes on me.

"He-hello..."

"What are you doing here?"

"...I wanted to play'

"Well go somewhere else then"

"Yeah you're not allowed to play here"

"FINE! I didn't want to play with you anyway" I shouted running off

I ran until I was far away from the sand village going to the one place that made me feel peaceful, it was a small hill where you could see the whole town but behind that hill was a flat area with a single tree, not a very big tree but it was still a tree.

"Are you lonely to all the way out here?" I asked sitting next to it

"How did you know I was here?" a young boys voice replied

I stood up and looked around but couldn't see anyone there.

"I didn't know anyone was here..." I confessed "where are you?"

The sound of sand moving caught my attention; I noticed a small mound of sand slowly falling to the ground with a boy standing in the middle. He looked around my age with red hair, his eyes where green with a black circle around them but that isn't what got my attention. It was the look he had in his eyes; it was sad, lonely even.

"Are you all alone to?" I asked

He nodded but didn't say anything.

"... Well... I-if you want... I could stay with you?"

He looked surprised; I guess no one wanted to be friends with him either although I couldn't see why.

"You want to stay with me?"

"Uhuh... unless you don't want me to"

"No! Yo-you can stay"

"My name is Makeda, what is yours?"

"Gaara"

I sat back down beside the small tree with Gaara cautiously sitting on the other side, we didn't say anything to each other but I noticed him looking at me, it was always like this.

"I know my hair isn't normal" I sighed trying to cover the blue strands with my hands "it wasn't always like this... my hair used to be black but it isn't anymore"

"Why?"

"...mum says I'm not allowed to tell people"

"Oh... I haven't seen you here before"

"Mum and I came from across the sea not long ago, our home tried to kill us so we fled to the sand village... no one would expect to find water people in the sand"

"They tried to kill you?"

"Their afraid of me" I sighed hugging my knees

"That's ok, people are afraid of me to"

"Why?" I asked looking up at him

"... If I tell you will you tell me?"

"But... mum said..."

"I won't tell anyone! I promise" he said looking at me

I know the reason all too well why I wasn't allowed to tell others and why we moved to the desert but there was something in his eyes that told me it was ok.

"O-ok, but you have to promise never to tell anyone ok"

"Ok" he nodded

"You go first" I told him

"I have a demon inside me, everyone is afraid of me because sometimes I hurt people even when I don't mean it... it's all because of the demon, it wants me to hurt people..."

"You have a demon inside of you?"

"Are you afraid of me to?" he asked looking like he was about to cry

"Can you do anything?"

"I can control the sand; it does it on its own when I'm in danger"

"Wow, that's so cool!" I squealed

"Re-really? You're not frightened?"

"No... because... I have a demon to..."

"You do?" he asked shocked

"I wasn't a healthy child... I was always sick and the doctors said I wouldn't live past my 4th birthday. Mum begged the water spirit to save me, that's when it entered my body making my hair turn blue, since then I haven't been sick but things other than my hair changed to. I can control water and because of that people became afraid of me and now they are after us trying to kill me, that's why mum and I moved here, no one would expect the vessel of a water demon to be in the desert"

"I'm happy you have the water demon" Gaara said quietly

"Huh?"

"If you didn't... you would have died and I wouldn't have met you"

"Well then I'm happy you have a demon in you, if you didn't you would just tease me like the others do" I smiled at him "and then I wouldn't have a friend"

"Fri-friend?"

"Aren't we friends?"

"I've never had a friend before" he admitted

"Oh, it's easy, there's only one rule"

"Rule?"

"Uhuh, friends always have to help each other so if I'm ever in danger you have to come helped me and I'll do the same if you're ever in danger ok?"

"Ok" he smiled

"Pinkie promise?" I asked holding out my pinkie

He stared down at my outstretched hand then looked up at me a little confused.

"You're meant to hold out you're pinkie to then we shake and that means if you break the promise your eyes will fall out" I explained to him

"I don't want my eyes to fall out!"

"Then don't break the promise" I smiled

"O-ok"

Our pinkies met above the small tree marking the day a sand demon and a water demon became friends.

Since that day a lot has happened, my mum was killed during Gaara's rampage as the sand demon, I never blamed him but he did, he shut me out, he shut everyone out. After losing my mum and my only friend I packed up what I could carry and left that desolated village, I ended up in a village near water, nearly everywhere you looked there was a rive or a lake of some kind. there I found a nice old couple that took me in, he was a farmer and she had her own bakery which I often help out in. everything is peaceful there and as I grew I learnt to use the vast amount of power inside me, unlike Gaara my demon was one of compassion and love, it never tried to lash out at others in a harmful way.

Even though I helped out in her shop I still never really made friends, even though they didn't understand it they all knew something wasn't quite right with me so people didn't really talk to me much but that was ok, I wasn't lonely, I still had people around me and even if I didn't, as long as I was at peace there was the spirit inside me always looking out for me. I hadn't seen or heard about Gaara since I left but even so my thoughts often drifted to him, I prayed for him at nights hoping that he found some happiness in this world but a part of me knew that wasn't true.

Every year I would tell myself I would go back to that village and find him, take him with me to this place of peace but every year I would put it off. The last time I saw him he wasn't the Gaara I knew, he had carved the kanji 'love' into his forehead and he had a cold distant look in his eyes, no one could get close to him, not even his siblings. His father sent assassins after him whom he killed without remorse; he didn't even seem to feel guilty about it. The Gaara I once knew had been replaced by the demon, at least that's how I saw it, so here I was 14 years old looking out my window staring up at the stars thinking about my red haired friend, praying that he would one day return.