A/N: So here's chapter two! Thank you to my reviewer and I hope you enjoy this chapter! Is it just me, or does my writing not flow all that well, especially at the beginning of chapters?
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other copyrighted material in the following story, on my honour, or may I be kidnapped, slowly tortured, cut into pieces while still alive, have my pieces cooked in a vat of oil and mailed to my family members. Yup.
Chapter Two: The boy with the pale eyes.
Over the next week Gaara settled down into school surprisingly well. He had friends and was accepted for who he was. Haku, Sasuke, Naruto and Gaara alternated hanging out at Sasuke's and Haku's houses as Gaara's father was at home and Naruto lived by himself in a small apartment. Everyday, when Gaara got home, his father added a new bruise to his collection and was sure to crush his self-esteem as well. But despite all of that, he was the happiest he had ever been. On Friday though, he found another reason to live. When he had Performing Arts on Wednesday, Gaara had been surreptitiously spying on the brown haired boy with the beautiful eyes but lacked the courage to talk to him.
Now that it was Friday, Gaara decided that he would finally talk to him, that day in Performing Arts. The first two periods passed without incident but in the third, calculus, Sakura kissed Sasuke on the mouth before he threw her back with a horrified expression warping his attractive features. He then spluttered and coughed, desperate to get her taste out of his mouth. Gaara just laughed. Afterwards, during break, a furious Naruto chased Sakura around the courtyard, bent on revenge. This made Sasuke actually laugh, genuinely happy, a rare occurrence.
Next they had Performing Arts and had to change their groups to include people they didn't really know. Sasuke and Gaara stayed in the same group through special request. They were joined by a boy who introduced himself as Rock Lee and bared a startling resemblance to Gai-sensei. And, to Gaara's delighted, but contained, surprise, the boy with the pale eyes. He smiled at Gaara before naming himself. "Hi. My name is Neji Hyuuga. I don't believe we've met before. What's your name?" He asked with a kind smile on his face.
"I'm Gaara. Gaara Sabaku. It's nice to meet you, Neji", Gaara replied formally before listening to the teacher's instructions. That was as far as their interactions went for the double period as the teacher kept them busy with shape formation exercises.
When the bell signalling lunch went, Gaara went with Sasuke to their usual meeting place but before they could reach it, Gaara was stopped by a shout.
"Hey, Gaara! Wait up!" Gaara turned around to see Neji rushing towards him. At first Gaara was extremely pleased if a little surprised that Neji wanted to talk to him but then realised that Neji was holding his clear file folder. "You left this back in class", he said, handing the folder to Gaara. "Um...Do you want to hang out with me and my friends at lunch?"
"Uh..." Gaara looked to Sasuke who gave a slight nod before walking off to find Haku and Naruto. "Sure. Why not?"
"Great!" Neji grabbed Gaara's hand and led him over to a tree and introduced him to his other friends. "You already know Lee, this is Tenten and that's Deidara", he pointed out the boy from Performing Arts, a girl with dark hair tied in buns at the side of her head and a boy with a golden mop on his head.
"Hello. I'm Gaara, nice to meet you". Gaara shook their hands in turn and then was questioned by Neji about what music he liked, what he read, what subject he liked most, who he lived with, what part of town he lived in and more. At the same time he was finding out about Neji. The others in the group just seemed to ignore them, sensing that they wanted to be left alone. 6th period started shortly after Gaara realised that he really liked Neji and had agreed to go over to his place after school. When he met up with Sasuke and Naruto in the assembly hall before they proceeded on to English, he told them that he would be going over to Neji's house after school. Naruto made oooooh noises and Sasuke hit him round the back of his head.
After school, Gaara met up with Neji in the school parking lot where Neji beckoned him over to a dark blue mustang with black flames painted along the sides. Gaara climbed into the passenger's seat and admired the leather interior. Neji smiled at Gaara's response and couldn't wait to see the look on his face when they arrived at his house.
It took them ten minutes to drive up to the Hyuuga estate and the look on Gaara's face was priceless. He stared around in amazement at the 5 acre property and huge mansion. This guy had more money than Sasuke. "Impressed?" Neji smiled teasingly at him.
"Not really. I mean you only have a giant mansion and an enormous property and an expensive custom designed car. What's there to be impressed by?" Neji smiled at Gaara's look of incredulity. It made him look really cute.
"And here is the foyer in all its glory!" Neji snorted as they walked through the front door into a magnificent entrance hall with polished white marble floors and elegant snowy pillars. Directly in front of Gaara was a great marble staircase with a mahogany banister carved in the shape of a great vine with flowers blossoming at regular intervals al the way up to the top level.
"Okay, now I'm impressed!" Gaara was staring around with his mouth wide open. Neji came and carefully closed it with one hand smiling at the smaller boy and leading him up the staircase by the hand. They stopped in front of a large wooden door with an ornate glass handle. Neji produced a key and unlocked the door leading to his private apartments. Behind this door was a large bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom, a lounge, a laundry and an indoor spa-pool.
"And you live in here by yourself?" Gaara was amazed. Neji's private quarters were nearly the size of Gaara's entire house.
"Well my uncle lives on the other side of the building and my cousin, Hinata, lives just down the hall. But we pretty much keep to ourselves. So, do you want to watch T.V or something?" Neji moved into his bedroom and selected some clothes to change into before heading into the bathroom to get changed.
"I guess watching T.V could be fun. Uh where is it?" Gaara looked around the lounge and the bedroom but couldn't see a set in either.
"Oh sorry!" Neji emerged clad only in his boxers and found a remote under his bed, pressed a button and smiled sheepishly at Gaara. A flat-screen TV appeared from behind a panel in the wall as well as a DVD player, a PS2, an X-Box 360 and a stereo. Gaara hardly noticed because he was staring at the Hyuuga before him and wishing he could get rid of those pesky boxers. Neji noticed where Gaara's gaze was and blushed. "I'll just go finish getting changed". He quickly rushed out of the room.
"Is there anything in particular you feel like watching?" Gaara sat on Neji's king sized bed and began flicking through the several hundred channels available to him.
"It depends on what's on, I feel like watching something informative and relaxing, whimsical yet relevant, scary but soothing and melancholy and upbeat", Neji replied with a small, but cute frown.
"So nothing too specific then", Gaara joked back as Neji came and sat beside him on the bed and pulled Gaara and himself backwards so their backs were against the pillows. Gaara was blushing which only made Neji want him to be even closer. They flicked over to one of the many music channels and watched the video for Rapture by the band Hurt and Gaara snuggled a little closer to Neji. They stayed like this for a few hours, just breathing in each others scent and watching music videos. At around 7:00pm, the boys were feeling rather hungry and so went into Neji's private kitchen to desperately search for some sort of convenience food. They found some frozen pizzas in the back of the freezer and so ate an unhealthy, but easily prepared, meal before returning to their cosy positions on the bed. Gaara laid his head on Neji's chest as they started flicking channels again. Gaara started to yawn and slowly began to drift off to sleep.
Gaara woke up to find the T.V off but other than that he was in the same position as before. The window revealed the lateness of the hour (A/N: Just a bit of weirdness for you! .) Gaara looked at his watch for confirmation. He groaned when he saw that it was after midnight. He was supposed to be home before eleven. He really didn't want to move or to disturb Neji's sleeping form but he didn't know how to get home from here and he really had to be getting home.
"What's the matter?" Neji groaned as Gaara gently roused him. He looked at Gaara's anxious face and his eyes widened. "Gaara, what's wrong?"
"I was supposed to be home before eleven but now it's 12:45am and I really have to get home only I don't know the way..." Gaara stared at Neji's face searching desperately for confirmation of transport.
"Can't you just stay the night? I'm sure that your father will understand..." He trailed off as he saw the fear and anxiety in Gaara's face. "Okay. I'll drop you home if you kiss me".
Gaara's face burst into a relieved grin before he leaned down on Neji and pushed their lips together in a soft yet passionate kiss. Neji opened his mouth and allowed Gaara's tongue entry. They began exploring each others mouths until Gaara pulled back.
"Now I really need to go home!" Neji pulled on his jacket, grabbed his keys and the two boys crept downstairs and outside to Neji's car. The drive to Gaara's house seemed to take an eternity though in reality, it was only about 15 minutes.
When Neji pulled up to the kerb outside Gaara's house, he pulled the smaller boy into another kiss and arranged a meeting place for them tomorrow. Gaara bade him goodbye and went inside. He was about to sneak upstairs when he felt a very hard object connect with the side of his head.
"Where the fuck have you been ya little whore?" His father's drunken figure loomed above him. He gave his son a vicious kick in the ribs. "Were you out with ya little faggot friends? Fucking filthy little shit! I'll teach you to be a little gay cunt!" Mr Sabaku began punching Gaara's lithe form furiously before throwing him out onto the sidewalk. "And don't come back ya fucking ass-licker!"
Several hours later, Gaara came to, shivering violently. He began to head towards the closest safe place he could think of. Gaara tripped and fell, coughing up blood violently. He managed to get back to his feet and continued his desperate journey. Only fourteen more houses. Thirteen houses, twelve, eleven, ten. It became a mantra, a desperate litany to keep him going. Seven. He was going to make it! Six houses, five. His destination was in sight! He only had to keep going for a little longer. Three houses, Two, One. He was at the gate and moving down the driveway. He came to the front door and rapped loudly three times on the hard wood before collapsing against it. The door swung inward and Gaara collapsed into the strong arms of Zabuza and finally knew he was safe.
A/N: So what did you think? I hope you liked it and please review and tell me what I'm doing wrong!