-cough- Explanation after chapter?

"Gaara…Gaara…?" The redhead's green eyes opened a fraction and looked around, but closed again when he saw it was just Tohru, his needy assistant manager.

"Gaara, there's a blond man asking for you up front." This got his attention; there weren't many blond guys in Suna.

"Did he say what he wants?" he asked, standing up from his desk and stretching.

"Nope." Tohru looked a little scared to have disturbed him from his nap. "He just said, 'Go wake Gaara up, I need to talk to him.'"

Gaara rolled his eyes. Now there was no doubt who was asking for him. He looked warily at the half-opened wedding invitation sticking out from the drawer and sighed. "Maybe you should go take a lunch break, I'll cover the register."

Tohru beamed at him and skipped out of the door, closely followed by Gaara, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. As she walked out of the front entrance of the store, Gaara's eyes caught a flash of yellow and quickly dodged behind the register for protection.

"Gaara you lazy bum, is this how Temari taught you work ethic?" cried a familiar, grating voice.

"This coming from the guy who's been asleep on his guardian's couch for over a year," said Gaara, smirking at Naruto's angry face.

"Well, no one told me college would be so hard!" said Naruto as he sat on the counter. "I like what you've done with the place by the way."

They both turned to look at Temari's Place, which was a very different counterpart to the one started by Gaara's sister four years ago. In place of surfboards and beach clothes was an array of dark, chic apparel. A small snowboarding display in the corner was all that remained of the sporting goods line Temari had intended Gaara to set up in the city. But there just wasn't a market for bathing suits in a place that hardly ever reached t-shirt weather.

"Did you come all the way here to talk store management?" asked Gaara as he rearranged a ring stand next to the register.

"No, actually," said Naruto, and Gaara looked up to see the blond blushing a little. "It's interesting that you bring up the couch thing because…" he chewed on his nails a bit before continuing, "…I've decided to move out of Iruka's place."

"Really? Did Iruka kick you out?"

"He's definitely threatened to a couple of times, but that's not it." Naruto looked around the store again, not meeting Gaara's eyes. "I was actually surprised Kakashi let me stay so long. And when I packed I swear he even looked a little sad."

"You've packed already?" asked Gaara, surprised at his old friend's rashness. He hadn't seen Naruto in months but from what he remembered, he was a bit lazy when it came to doing anything productive.

"Uh, yeah," said Naruto, pointing to the ground at his feet. Gaara leaned over the counter and saw a rucksack stuffed to the brim with dirty laundry and ramen.

"So you need a place to stay," said Gaara, knowing the answer before he asked it.

"Yeah," said Naruto, "But as a roommate, paying rent and everything." The blond looked at Gaara with his most endearing smile and the redhead couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes again. When he didn't say anything, Naruto continued. "When I RSVP'd to the wedding, I mentioned to Temari that I needed a place to stay and she said your apartment had an extra bedroom so I thought I would just wing it and if you said 'no,' I could go bother Sasuke."

Naruto stopped talking abruptly after saying Sasuke's name. But Gaara had trained himself to not react to his name. "Yes you can stay Naruto," he said, not acknowledging the awkward moment. "If we split the rent, it will be five hundred a month each."

The blond's face split into a wide smile. A bit too wide if Gaara was being completely honest with himself. Neither of them had mentioned Hinata yet, and the redhead wasn't about to be the first to start that uncomfortable conversation. So he decided to just let Naruto stay and find out his motives later.

"Do you have a job yet?" asked Gaara, and Naruto nodded.

"Yeah it's actually right down the street," he answered with a hint of his old mischievousness gleaming in his eyes. "Some old dupe actually hired me as a waiter at that coffee shop."

"That should be interesting," said Gaara, and they both paused to imagine the trouble the blond was capable of getting himself into. "When do you start?"

Naruto looked at the clock hanging over the door and gave a little jump off the counter. "Five minutes ago actually," he said as he reached down to grab his bag. "I told him I could start training today after I took care of some things." With that, Naruto ran out the door without a backwards glance.

"That idiot doesn't even know where I live," thought Gaara as he stared at the empty space the blond had occupied seconds before. As if on cue, Tohru came bouncing in, tying her workers' apron around her waist and taking her place next to Gaara behind the register.

"Sorry I took so long at lunch," she said, partially out of breath and staring ahead with determination. "It won't happen again."

"Tohru, you were gone ten minutes, maybe," said Gaara as he stepped pointedly away from her. "Do you think you could close today? I've got some stuff I have to do." Tohru let out an annoying "eep" and nodded, blushing at the added responsibility.

"I need to find more confident help around here," he thought as he grabbed his jacket and bag off the peg and walked out the door. He thought about telling her to not burn the place down, but then decided that his karma was bad enough without him tempting it.

Gaara walked briskly through the busy streets, pulling his jacket on as he went. It was one they stocked at the store, dark black with big buttons down the front. Surprisingly warm and as Tohru constantly reminded him, "Very 'in' right now." He stopped outside the coffee shop he assumed Naruto was talking about, and was reassured as he heard a loud crash and yelling coming from inside.

"You're supposed to bring the customers their order, not DROP it on them, Uzumaki! You're already on thin ice and it hasn't even been five minutes yet!"

"Sorry Ibiki," Gaara heard Naruto's laugh behind the apology, "I'm not very good at balancing things."

Gaara smirked to himself before walking into the warmth of the shop. In the middle of the store stood a very angry couple drenched in what appeared to be steaming coffee. Naruto was trying to wipe them off with a dirty rag and a tall, harsh looking man that Gaara assumed must be Ibiki was tapping his foot with his arms crossed.

"Well you better get good at balancing things or you won't last the day," Ibiki said before storming away to the kitchens. Naruto continued to apologize to the couple, but Gaara didn't think the blond's sheepish grin was very convincing. As they pulled on their coats and walked irately out the front door, Naruto saw Gaara and smirked.

"I might need a backup," he said as he kneeled down to clean the mess he'd made. "Know anyone that's hiring?"

Gaara laughed a bit. "If you're thinking Temari's Place, forget it," he said. "I can only imagine the damage you could do with a stack full of hangers in your hands."

Naruto got to his feet and wiped his hands on his uniform. "Well I guess I will just have to stick this one out," he said. "Is there any reason in particular you're here or did you just miss my face?"

"I just came by to tell you my address you idiot," said Gaara, rolling his eyes. People seemed to do that around Naruto a lot.

"Don't bother, Temari told me when I talked to her," said Naruto and he stuck his hands into his pockets. "I wrote it down right…here…" Naruto turned his empty pockets out and looked around on the floor.

"Right," said Gaara, pulling a sharpie out of his satchel and scribbling his address on Naruto's arm (which was still searching for a nonexistent piece of paper, mind you). "Try not to lose that one," he added before turning to go.

"Thanks," shouted Naruto after him. "I expect dinner to be waiting for me when I come home from work!"

"Don't roll your eyes. Don't roll your eyes," thought Gaara to himself as his face was hit with the chilly city air.

As he made his way to the supermarket (he didn't want Naruto to yell at him for not having food in the house) Gaara thought about the conversation they'd had.

"If you said 'no,' I could go bother Sasuke." It was so matter-of-fact that Gaara couldn't get it out of his head. Temari had mentioned that Sasuke went to school in the city, but Gaara tried not to dwell on it. There was hardly a night where he didn't dream of Sasuke's dark eyes or his shaggy hair or the way his breath got ragged after kissing or the soft contours of his naked body…

To say the least, Gaara could not stop thinking about Sasuke. But his thoughts were plagued with other images as well, like the disfigured body of Neji under Hinata's car. Or Temari crying over his body as he tried to answer the doctors' questions about his suicide attempt. If nothing else, it was that image that sustained him. He could not try to kill himself again after seeing how he had hurt Temari.

He knew that Sasuke had been the one to save him, but this idea only made it harder to stay alive. Sasuke had wanted him alive so badly, would he ever move on after Gaara? Yet Sasuke had also stopped talking to him afterwards. Although this probably had something to do with Gaara dropping out of high school.

Whenever his mind wandered consciously to memories of his and Sasuke's relationship, Gaara had to keep reminding himself that he had done the right thing. That Sasuke was better off in a heterosexual relationship where society would accept him. But if he had stayed with Sasuke, Neji would still be alive. And he wasn't even sure if Sasuke was dating women!

All of these ideas played in cruel montages through Gaara's head day in and day out as he sat behind his desk or catered to Tohru's never-ending barrage of questions. And he'd been thinking about them even more since the wedding invitation came.

Would Sasuke go? Even if it was his brother's wedding, it's not like the two got along very well. And whenever he asked himself this, he couldn't decide if he wanted to see Sasuke or not. His longing and his love battled desperately with each other over and over until he was dizzy.

Gaara found himself with a basket of food in line at the supermarket and wondered how he got there. As usual, his mind had kept him occupied for the entire trip. He jumped when the cashier said his name.

"Gaara?" Pale eyes and long dark hair caught him off guard and he stared blankly for a minute before answering.

"Yes?" he said, voice shaky. This day was starting to get weird.

"You're Gaara, aren't you?" said the cashier. Gaara read her name tag out loud and gave a yelp of surprise.

"Hyuuga Hanabi? You're not…"

"Yeah, I'm Hinata's sister," she said, sounding uncertain. It didn't help that the growing line behind Gaara was beginning to make exasperated noises. Some people were tapping their feet impatiently while others just sighed and looked stern.

"Oh," he said. "What are you doing working here?"

"I just moved up here to be closer to Hinata. She got transferred last week," she said as she began to ring up the items in Gaara's basket.

"So that's why Naruto moved out of Iruka's place," thought Gaara as he pulled out his wallet.

"Where is your family living now?" asked Gaara as he swiped his card.

"Oh, it's just me," she said, bagging the groceries and avoiding his eyes, "I'm living in the apartment complex around the corner."

"Not Sandy Shores?" he asked. She nodded. "I live their too. On the third floor."

"Really? I'm on the eleventh," she said as the man behind Gaara cleared his throat.

"Well," said Gaara, glaring a bit at the old man, "I guess we'll probably being seeing each other around then."

"Yeah, probably."

"Naruto just moved in with me today actually." Gaara regretted the words right after he said them. Hanabi's eyes turned cold, not unlike the eyes Gaara had seen Neji give people whom he wanted to scare.

"That's cool," she said, staring at the register. "See you later."

Gaara wasn't exactly sure why Naruto would be a sore subject for Hanabi, although he knew it must have something to do with Hinata. But regardless, he grabbed his bags and made a quick exit into the street.

With Hanabi living in the same building with them and Itachi and Temari's wedding coming up in a few short weeks, it looked like Gaara was going to be coming to grips with a lot of things in a little amount of time.

At the very least, he and Naruto would probably be having an awkward chat over dinner that night…

Eh heh. Eh heh. So this is what fanfiction is like...? I really doubt anyone was holding their breath for this story to continue (because if you were, then you are passed out right now from lack of oxygen). Needless to say, it's been years.

I recently got caught up on Naruto, which inexplicably reawakened my desire to continue this storyline. For those of you who WERE waiting, my humblest apologies! Life got in the way as it so often does. I now find myself about to start my last semester of college, believe it or not.

I obviously can't make any promises about updating this story on a regular basis. But what I can tell you is that I will probably be finding myself with a lot of free time on my hands fairly soon. Winter break is about to start, and after graduation who knows if I'll get a job?

So enjoy this chapter. And look for more to come; now that I've started thinking about it again I've got all sorts of ideas. I also eagerly await your feedback.

R&R?