Ok, so there was some errors on the upload page of my account so that is why both these chapters are submitted together... Sorry ya'll!

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto

Once Lee had left his bathroom, his cell phone did not stop ringing the whole two weeks till summer break. Every nose on campus wanted to know if it was true. Was Rock Lee gay? His circle of friends were avoiding him and Ino and Sakura never returned his calls. Gaara had made it clear that he was to stay away from him while he was getting back on his feet. Lee had opened himself to the idea that he was gay, or at the very least bi. He would have dreams of Gaara and found himself thinking of him more than the friends that had turned their backs on him. He went home to Miyagi for the break. His mother was worried that he was depressed and insisted that he spill the beans. Her and Lee's father had a bet going that either he was dumped by a girl or got second in the qualification for the Olympics (qualification rounds were in the coming fall, but his mother was forgetful). When Lee was honest with them on how he doubted his sexuality, his mother was very supportive. His father took a few days to wrap his head around the reality of it, but he was equally committed to making Lee feel loved no matter what. Over the next week, Lee had time to relax and the downtime helped with his mental battle. He knew that he was gay, although girls were once an object of desire, he had never been attracted to their personalities, simply their bodies. When Lee thought of Gaara, it was like looking at a complete picture. There was nothing that needed to be filled in or covered because every inch was perfect, inside and out. Even with these new discoveries, Lee was still feeling the bitter sting of loneliness. It was as if the act of helping Gaara that night had caused Lee to take on the pain Gaara was experiencing. Now, as Gaara got better, Lee was progressively getting swallowed by his own thoughts. He was putting on a brave face but he was slowly slipping. He had not touched water since he had gotten home. He desire to swim was vanishing and it was not very youthful of him to be this sad. Gai would be disappointed. Lee kept his body fit by running four hours every morning. He was waiting to see Gaara again so that even being near him will stop this monster from taking over.

The last weeks of school were slow and hot. Gaara had to stay indoors most of the time because he burned so bad. The Shrink was impressed with Gaara's improvement, she had even stopped threating to put him on anti-depressants. She got him to see a nutritionist who had a very different opinion on pizza. That did not last long but Tsunade did not see the point in pushing the matter because Gaara had gained twenty pounds over the four months she had been seeing him twice a week. He decided to try out for the wrestling team. He was the regional champion, junior lightweight in high school but dropped it he came out. Gaara was seeing a difference in his body. The bones softened out in to well-developed muscles and he had a better complexion. The smoking and junk food never went away and whenever Temari would get on his case, Gaara would quote the Shrink and say Baby steps! Temari had bought them a vacation to the hot springs for a week. It was nice for Gaara to have a quiet place to write. He had almost finished a novel when they got back to Tokyo. Temari wanted to get her friend, an editor, to look at it but Gaara was shy about his creation. He was not ready to unleash it on to the world. The voices and fear were slowly dissipating. Temari was glad to her usual, sceptical brother back. To most people, Gaara almost resembled the old one. He still glared at everyone and was slightly on the neurotic side but he had a healthy glow about him. He even got back in to the gay scene again. He nearly had started a relationship but it was over the minute Gaara blurted out the name Lee at a very climatic moment. Kankuro came to Japan for a few weeks too. Gaara and him spent some time together and managed not to kill each other. Gaara was good and ready to go back to school.

There was a new course offered in the languages and literature department called Classic Novels of the Romantic Languages. This was a course covering stories like Madame Bovary and Don Quixote among others. Gaara was good at languages and wanted more credits for his major. He joined, not knowing that a clueless Lee was signing up for a course he knew nothing about. He needed a credit for an elective and he thought the class would be easy. Lee was good at many things, other languages was not one of them. Lee's first morning in the class was like he teleported back to ancient Greece. It was fascinating to listen to professor Hatake speak Latin, Spanish and French. Lee daydreamed of taking Gaara to an island in Spain, spending the rest of eternity with the cuddly panda. When the class had ended, Lee ran down the steps to the front of the auditorium to talk to the professor about the difficulty of the course. He was at the bottom of the steps when he saw that someone had already started to talk to Hatake-sensei. From the back, the red hair was unmistakable but it was longer and styled. The body was more toned and filled making him look like a model for expensive jeans or a new cologne. Gaara looked like he was doing very well. Lee was completely speechless. His jaw hit the floor and his head hit the roof. This was no longer the skinny, gloomy, pale and suicidal boy he saw four months ago, but a slim, confidant, intelligent, attractive man. Very attractive. Lee lost track of time and space because the next thing he knew, Hatake-sensei was looking suspiciously at Lee. Gaara stopped talking and turned to look at what had caught his attention. Lee snapped out his trance and smiled and gave his signature thumbs up. Gaara's face dropped in to a glare and stormed off. It was a little hurtful to see him take off. It has been four months, which was plenty of time for Gaara to find himself… But as soon as Lee thought it he felt guilty and decided not pursue Gaara unless he initiated it.

"Lover's quarrels are not allowed in my class…" the stone faced man drawled. Hatake-sensei was tall as Lee but much lighter. He wore a scarf over his nose. It was legend that if you watched him eat, you could catch a glimpse of the face underneath.

"It's not like that…" Lee defended. After all, there had been nothing more than fantasies and awkward moments between them. Nothing had actually taken place to earn them the title of lovers.

"Ma-ma, you are in love with him then?" Hatake-sensei was raising his eye brow inquisitively.

"N-no—I mean I don't know," Lee was looking intently at the floor boards.

"You should, seito!" Hatake was having fun teasing the boy. He was very gullible. Lover's quarrels are the spice of life! They are always welcome. He thought but would never confess to the stuttering boy.

"Hai Hatake-sensei! I do!" Lee straightened up at the sound of a command. Lee was always respectful of his elders. He followed his answer with a bow. He heard a low chuckle erupt from the professor.

"Just call me Kakashi!" he laughed out loud, "It makes me feel old when people call me sensei…."

"Kakashi!" a voice from the top of the auditorium bounded, "Are you torturing students again? If this one goes to the board I am not going to bail you out!" The man was a little taller than Kakashi but much more tanned and beefy than Kakashi. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, he went nose to nose with Kakashi, making him look white as paper. "There is no good time to threaten, tease or mentally scar your students!"

"I am ok Sensei," Lee bowed, "I was just correcting Hat—Kakashi's information about a student."

"See Iruka," Kakashi pointed at Lee but giving puppy dog eyes to Iruka, "He's fine! No mental damage." Iruka was an early childhood psychologist, specialising in ADHD. Neji took a course from him last year. He also said he was dating another professor. Iruka looked up and down Lee's body, looking for any physical signs of trauma. Once he realized that Lee was indeed ok, he took a step back, giving Kakashi some space to breathe.

"I think we can help this one, Ru-chan," Kakashi said while looking at lee, "I know just the thing to help you…"

"Don't call me that when we are at work!" Iruka was going beet red. Kakashi just smiled, the only indicator was is eyes squinting with happiness. He leaned in to Iruka's ear and whispered something lengthy. If it was possible, Iruka turned an even deeper shade of red, even looking a bit purple. "I suppose you could do that, but I am very confident that the school board would fire both of us!" Lee was a little disturbed by the event he was witnessing and tried to sneak out.

"Choto-mate!" Kakashi had grabbed the back of Lee's track sweater. He put something in Lee's pocket. "This address tonight. Wear something…flamboyant." Kakashi gave him a quick pat on the ass sending Lee running out of the auditorium. "Now… Let's go to lunch Ru-chan."

Gai was yelling encouragements from the pool side during the last lap of the junior team's practice and Lee could hear him from other side of the locker room down the hall. He was making his way to the team locker room for the wind-up for this fall's Olympic try-outs. Lee was very worried. He was not feeling as youthful as he would have liked and he was sliding on his practices. His thoughts were running wild about ways to make-up the practice time and could only come up with the idea to practice in to the late hours of the night. He was wondering if he should go to the club that was on the card Kakashi had given to him. What was the meaning of being able to help me? Lee could see from the corner of his eye that the wrestling room was open. He stopped and had a look. He had done wrestling in high school but had not gotten on the mat in years. The room was packed because it was try-outs all week. The people in front of me were kind enough to part and let me see. There were two lightweights on the mat. One was in a half nelson and they were circling on their toes. The smaller one on the bottom jumped to put his feet underneath him. Lee hopped he was not trying to do what he thought. The smaller wrestler got the four kilogram heavier wrestler in a fireman's take down (putting the torso of the opponent on their back, continuing the motion till the opponent is on their back). The small one got the other in position before he could notice what was going on. Not many people tried this move, with good reason. It was suicide if the person was heavier or faster. The heavy one was slower but the small guy must be a lunatic! If that was not enough entertainment, the underdog got off his knees. Lee was in awe. A standing fireman's takedown. There are not many people who could pull that off. The underdog got his opponent pinned in seconds after and was met with applauds and cheers. The guy stood up and smiled at his teammates. It was non-other than Gaara. Lee turned and left before Gaara saw him. He did not want ruin his shining moment. Truth be told, Gaara wished Lee was there to see it.

The pool was unusually cold today which made it even colder when Lee got out of the pool. He was nearly in tears. All his fears had come true. He had disappointed Gai. The wise teacher told him to get some good rest and to come talk to him the morning. The good energy Lee had gained from watching Gaara with pride had all but vanished. He had walked back to the locker room in shame. He showered and got dressed by himself. He did not want the eyes of his teammates to rub in the stinging worry in his mind. Would Lee be able to get back to the top before the try-outs? He dragged his feet down the hall, heading back to the dorms to study and maybe he could get a decent job if he could not swim. He was half way the hall when he ran in to a mob of sweaty wrestlers.

"Do you guys have to be in the hall?" Lee said holding his nose. He was talking to Juugo, and old friend from high school who was on the team.

"There is no electrical plug in for the scales in the wrestling room," Juugo was not wrestling today but taking weights and measurements of those who made the team. "Sorry, 'bout the smell man!" Lee just waved and smiled goodbye. He was making his way through the hoard of bodies when he walked past one of the scales. He could not pass through the crowd because it was so thick with people trying to get a look at the guy who was on the scale. Lee cut to the opening around the scale, which the guys had given a wide berth for, to get around the crowd. Lee's hand was the first thing to make it to the edge of the mass. He popped out like a kernel. The coach was taking the weigh in personally.

"Sixty one point nine!" the coach announced. It was a light weight. Lee got around more of the crowd and saw him again. Gaara was on the scale in just his singlet. He had taken down the top half and folded it over like most of the guys. It had a striking effect on Gaara's new bod. His chest and arms were dripping with sweat and his cheeks were flushed. His neck length hair was damp and sticking to the side of neck. Lee was gawking again but this time he had good cause. It was a good thing that Lee was a firm believer in self-control or he might have jumped Gaara in all his Greek god glory. Gai said it was not very youthful to be so restrictive but that was the only thing they disagree on. Speaking of self-control, Lee now needed to get out of the crowd as quick as he could. Lee was deliberating a path when Gaara got off the scale. He saw Lee trying to get past a riled up, gang of wrestlers. Gaara walked up behind Lee. The crowd split and Lee started to walk through, thinking his threats of jujitsu had worked. The volume had toned down when Gaara passed Lee making sure to catch eye contact with him. There was a moment of reflection for Lee because Gaara had the same smile the day he told Lee that he would make it to the Olympics. Heat began to flow from Lee's toes to his heart. He knew there was one person that knew he would make it. Even if he did not think it was possible.

Lee made it to the dorms before Gaara. He did not want to run in to him again today. For some reason, the two guys could never find a way to not bump in to each other throughout the day. Lee was restless. He could not get his homework done. TV had nothing of interest on. He went down to the cafeteria, checking corners, making sure Gaara was not there. The cafeteria lady gave Lee the stink eye when he showed up to the buffet line wearing sunglasses. It's not that Lee did not want to be around Gaara, it was quite the opposite. But if Gaara was not ready for Lee to be his friend, he would wait forever, as long as it made Gaara happy. When Lee got back to his room, it was eight pm. He saw the business card on his desk. He picked it up and ran his thumb over the filigreed writing, feeling the bumps of each letter. Buddy's.