I stare at my calendar angrily. Today was only May tenth "Why won't you tell me it's summer already?" It stares at me for a minute, innocently, like it's not making each day 24 hours longer than usual. "Stupid bunch of papers," I mumble.

Gaara walks out of the bathroom, towel around his waist carelessly. I stare at the water rolling down his body greedily. When Gaara notices me, he chuckles evilly. "You must like what you see, Naruto."

I move to his side laughing. "I'd like it even better if you lost this towel…" My hand reaches around him to remove the obstacle.

Gaara blocks my hand immediately. I frown at him, but he only stares. "You know the deal. No funny business until we see your scores."

"You're no fun," I tell him, flopping on the sofa.

He shrugs. "Besides, it is only a matter minutes before Dianna comes for us and I have to dress myself." The red head leaves the room, closing the bedroom door behind him.

"I don't wanna go to the stupid meeting," I groan to Gaara. I knew he could hear me, even through the door. "I don't even belong there any more- I feel completely fine." Thinking over his silent response, I ask, "do…you want to stay in it?"

He comes back with a black sleeveless hoodie over a white tee and some beat up looking jeans. His face is empty. "I don't know."

I keep quiet a second.

"You think you still need it?"

His green eyes meet mine. They are confused. "I don't."

"How come?"

He smiles lightly. "Because I found what I need already." I look at him, not getting his meaning. "You," he tells me obviously. "You are all I need, Naruto."

I blush as he walks to me and rubs my cheek lovingly. I still can't get used to his…gushy side. It was too unreal- sometimes I think I'm seriously dreaming all of this up.

"Y-you're embarrassing me, Gaara…"

The red head leaned in to kiss me. "I know," he says teasingly. "Put on some real clothes; we'll be leaving any minute now."

I sigh at how fast the moment came and went, but I know that Gaara just wants to be able to leave as soon as possible so that we could get back home even quicker.

Getting up, I look at my outfit. "Hey, what's wrong with this?" It was my favorite Ichiraku shirt in orange and my worn-out cargo short. I only had one pair of shoes, so changing them was not an option.

Gaara stares at my face with an impossibly serious expression. "You have a chocolate stain down the middle of that shirt; it's an eye-aching color and nearly two sizes too big. And your shorts are horrible. Change them."

I pout, realizing his point. "Okay…" As I walk past Gaara, he smacks my tail playfully. I yelp at the contact, but don't dislike it.

There's a knock on the door as soon as I'm in the bedroom. Knowing that it's definitely Diana, I groan. I wish she would just get lost sometimes. Or maybe get a life. I throw on a plain white tee and light blue jeans then greet the unwanted woman in my house.

"Hey, Naruto. Don't you look cute today," she says cheerfully.

I laugh uncomfortably. "Thanks, Dee."

"So I was just telling Gaara here about how your assessments are being processed as we speak and I've got a good feeling about them. " The round woman beamed, a typical aged-cheerleader ray of sunshine.

Diana leads us to her car and when we're all buckled in, she takes off.

We're all quiet for a couple of minutes.

"So, you boys are, what, best friends now?"

I blush. Where is this coming from? "Why do you ask?"

She laughs. "You've been having sleepovers every weekend for a while now." Looking at us in the rear view mirror, Diana smiles. "It's cute how close you to are now."

Gaara looks at me from the corner of his eye, his eyes giving away more than his blank face did.

"Yeah…we're really close now."

We were dropped off at the building's entrance. Normally, Diana will escort us into the actual building, but today she had other things on her plate, so she wished us well and sent us off.

After she drove away from us, I grab Gaara's hand. He gives me a smile that makes my heart flutter. I lean over and give him a small kiss, just before we walk through the doors.

A couple people look up at us but they turn their heads quickly; just curious to see who it was entering, I guess. Well, except one- Tara, the Goth chick. She might as well have had laser eyes with that glare of hers.

Gaara and I sit in the back, by the window. We usually sit there now, away from everyone else so we can just be together (as though we weren't together enough as it is).

I lay my head on Gaara's shoulder, as usual, and close my eyes. I was a little tired from my study cession yesterday- the final exam was creeping ever so slowly towards us and it was cram time all the time. Gaara put an arm around me silently, looking out the window at the sky. Staring up at his face, I watch him blink those sea colored eyes slowly. Whenever I see his face, I can't help thinking he's so perfect.

After everyone was in the room, Trevor Michaels, our group leader stood up in his chair, asking for everyone's attention. "Hey guys," he greets us, as he did every day. He received numerous answers at once, which he obviously couldn't understand. He laughs. "That's nice to hear, I think. Well, it's a marvelous day outside and I'm sure you all have something better to do than sit in here for a few hours, so let's try to get this over with quickly."

I didn't bother lifting my head; I let Gaara do the looking for me.

"Okay, now, I'm going to call out some names and I want those people to come to the center of the room." He began reading off names: Raye, Mihael, Chrona, Kimimaro, Allen, Gaara, Michelle, Clark, Asia, Tony and then- "Naruto. All of you in the middle now."

I weasel my way to Gaara's side and he grabs hold of my hand tightly.

Trevor's voice comes from behind us, telling the rest of the seated teens, "look at these people long and hard because this will be the last time you see them. His light laugh sounds over confused voices. "In here at least. These eleven people demonstrated that it is possible to overcome your personal demons if you have the love and support of a friend, or friends. Because of that, this will, hopefully," he says looking at Chrona, "be their last meeting here. How about a round of applause?"

There is few that actually clap, most of them are pouting and jealous that they weren't called up. I don't care though. This is our last meeting! Why should they be allowed to ruin it?

I just want to kiss Gaara, I'm so happy; one last thing for me to worry about, more time for us to be together alone…


You know, Gaara's still pretty monotonous and blank-faced, so it's kind of cute that Naruto knows him well enough to read him :D

Okay, so these chapters will be relatively short until I finish my other story. It was weird to just start tying this again out of the blue and I felt kind of rusty with it :P Did it turn out okay?