I just realised- I completely forgot about Gaara's gourd! It shall make a comeback this chapter!

The sun was setting now and in the distance the first twinkling of stars could be seen, hidden behind clouds the colours of purple and pink. The view from Almira's window was indeed magnificent but she'd seen it so often now she'd become accustomed to such beautiful things around her. She was in her room, knelt beside the window; her mother had instructed her to pray that evening for her journey to go smoothly and so she prayed. Knelt on the marble floor, head bowed and hands clasped as she had been taught to do since she was little. She heard the faint echo of birdsong on the night's breeze and smiled. Then came the sound of footsteps, she recognised them instantly, she finished her prayer quickly and stood up. As she turned around her father held out his arms to her and she smiled before going into his embrace.

"Ame," he whispered softly, "my Ame." She smiled up at him and he stroked her hair. "You're leaving this place for the first time tomorrow," he said and she looked away; she'd left many times before but not to go as far as Jin's old home. "You have made me very proud." He said sternly; her father had never been too good at saying things like this to his daughters but Ame was always an exception. "You were never as...much of a princess as your sisters," thanks dad, "never as much of a lady, or as pretty, or graceful. BUT," he said loudly as Ame raised an eyebrow, "today you have become beautiful, more of a leader and more elegant than anyone I have seen." Ame laughed as he kissed her forehead.

"Thank you," she said and he moved away from her.

"I should thank you," he said quietly, "you are doing a lot for this family and this kingdom." He walked to the door and Ame was confused about what he said; what was she doing for the kingdom by going to Jin? "Here," her father's voice brought her out of her thoughts and she saw a servant pass him a golden plate of fruit. "This fruit has been blessed by a high priest," she smiled, her father always believed that eating these fruits before doing anything would bring protection, "go and give it to Kaze," oh, she thought he was offering them to her, "say thank you to him." He said and she walked forwards to take the plate. With one last kiss on her forehead she left the room with the plate in her hands.

Where was Kaze at this hour? She had knocked on his door but there had been no answer. Now, Ame walked through the lamp lit corridors of the palace, still holding the plate in her hands, wondering if the boy had run away. The palace was rectangular shaped; with five floors, on the third floor the middle of the rectangle was dedicated to a marble courtyard. All that was in it was a fountain, dedicated from a previous King to his Queen. The courtyard it was used for the training of the palace guards and Ame had often trained there with Ember in the secret of night. As not to distract the girls from their studies (as classrooms were on the same floor) a wooden wall was built around the courtyard, with arches to allow entry to it. Ame was walking along that very corridor now and cursed softly.

"This is ridiculous," she whispered as she walked, for she had been walking for about an hour. She came to an opening in the wall; an archway with a pale cream curtain, and drew the curtain back, "that boy is-"she stopped dead.

Kaze stood with his back to her, in the middle of the courtyard, a katana in his hand; he was practising in the middle of the night? But that was not the reason she had stopped; Kaze had removed his shirt and proceeded to practise in the starlight. She watched with a mixed expression of awe and disbelief as the moonlight reflected off his skin. She had never seen a body so beautiful, like that of the warriors she had simply read about. Everything about him was so wonderfully defined, from the waves of his hair to the muscles on his arms that she watched as he held the blade up in an attacking stance. She stood, dumbstruck in the candlelight as she held the curtain back. Kaze swung the blade this way and that, catching the metal against the moonlight. He turned in her direction and stopped as he saw her looking. She gasped, took a step back quickly and let the curtain fall between them. But she was too shocked, too in awe of him, to unlock her eyes from his.

"Princess?" she heard him call and something inside of her was telling her to pull the curtain back and speak with him. So she did just that; she held out a hand and drew the curtain above her head.

Gaara swallowed and tried very hard to stand his ground; she looked incredible when bathed in both golden light from the candles behind her and silver light from the moon above them. She was in her white nightdress but still had jewellery of silver diamonds around her. The stones glittered in the moonlight and shone as though she were the very light of a pole star. They stood in silence for a while, simply staring at each other slightly breathlessly. Not knowing what to say, how to explain they found each other more beautiful than anything they had ever seen, for there were too many divides between them, not allowing them to speak their hearts. "What is it?" He called to her for she was still quite far from him. They smiled at one another, trying not to think about their previous thoughts. She walked forwards tentatively and he smiled as the jewels she was wearing jingled as she walked.

"Do you not sleep, Kaze?" She asked as she approached and he smiled. He was stood next to the fountain in the middle of the courtyard; she went to stand with him, her eyes skimmed over his stomach and chest before looking away quickly; what was she thinking?!

"I'm afraid not," he replied and eyed up the fruit in her hands.

"The priest," she indicated the temple with her finger, "blessed these for us; to have a safe journey." He smiled at her and she stared back; his eyes were such an amazing colour! He reached out and picked a pear from the plate. Ame sat down on the fountain ledge and Gaara sat with her, staring at the princess in awe as the moonlight reflected from the water and sparkled in her eyes. "Are you not cold?" She asked and he realised he was shirtless and blushed.

"I...no," he decided to play it cool. "Are you?" He asked as he saw her shiver and she shook her head. "Oh...good." They sat in silence again, wondering what to say to each other, they looked around for inspiration.

"Have you-"

"Will we-" They had spoken at the same time and laughed. "You first." Ame said and Gaara smiled.

"Have you packed your things?" He asked and she sighed.

"My maids are packing for me now, actually, I think they may have finished; it's quite late now." She said and picked an apple from the golden plate and bit into it. Again, that impending silence where neither knew what to say, though they were both thinking the same thing; how were they going to survive a two day journey together without letting slip how they were feeling? Although Ame was trying to deny it to herself, anyone watching now, would tell her to stop looking at Kaze like that, then maybe they'd believe her. "Have you checked the maps?" She asked conversationally and Gaara nodded.

"I was planning on heading to that village after seeing this kingdom." He said, "so I know where we're going." Ame nodded and turned to the fountain.

"The nights in the palace are beautiful," she said suddenly, and Gaara followed her gaze as she put her hand in the water of the fountain and picked up a small blossom that had fallen onto the water from a tree nearby.

"They sure are," Gaara whispered and Ame smiled as she picked the blossom from the fountain and blew it from her hand. Both of them watched as the night's wind carried the blossom away from them and up to the star filled sky.

"But I hear the nights outside these walls are magnificent." She whispered and almost seemed to be enquiring.

"You'll see, when we leave," Gaara added, "just how wonderful the world can be." They both sighed and looked up to the sky, wondering what their adventures ahead had in store for them. Ame shivered again and stood up, picking up the plate as she did so and realising that this was the first conversation they had ever had where they did not tease each other.

"I must sleep," she said slowly as Gaara stood too. They looked at each other for a few moments longer; wondering what it was that was keeping them from leaving.

"Goodnight, princess," Kaze said and bowed to her.

"Goodnight." She nodded to him and walked past him, to the other side of the courtyard. He looked on after her, trying to fight the desire to follow her, especially when she turned around at the archway and looked back to him. In honesty she could stand and stare at him all day, but she just couldn't admit it to herself. With one last smile, she was gone.

"No, no, no. She's a princess and you're…a Gaara." Gaara muttered and as he ran a hand through his hair he pulled it slightly as though the pain would wake him up from this dream. On the other side of the wall Ame leant against the hard wood and slid down the wall to a sitting position.

"What's happening to me?" She whispered as she held her head in her hands.

During the day following their midnight meeting Gaara and Ame saw none of each other. Ame was called away by tutors for quick discussions, usually about the economic crisis the kingdom was facing, or by her sisters who wanted to talk about her and Jin. She told them nothing but they kept on asking. Eventually she'd got fed up with them and left, she went looking for her parents for a while but they were busy with something she did not know about.

Gaara was called by the King's council many times that day, to discuss a sort of "contract" he had with the kingdom about the princess; they discussed things of normality: how much money the two would need, how they were going to disguise the princess, to: how close he was allowed to be to her during the night, where she was to change her clothes. All in all it was merely making him blush for four hours, they asked the most ridiculous questions: how far would you be from the princess as she bathed? He cringed when asked things like this. They had enquired about his gourd and he tried not to give too much away, he gave the true story as to what it was, he just left out the part about the demon inside of him. Tends to scare people off. Gaara was pretty confident everything could go smoothly; he had a natural knack for getting where he needed to be so this would be easy.

As the day went on, Ame and Gaara found themselves looking forward to the evening, for that's when they'd be leaving. That's when the real adventure began.

-That evening-

Gaara stood at the back doors of the palace, waiting for princess Almira to emerge from the group of people in front of her. Only a few had come to say goodbye for they knew that causing a fuss at the doors would make the city aware something was happening in the palace. The princess was embracing just her close family as they said goodbye to her, as she was talking to her sisters the king beckoned Gaara towards him with a finger. Gaara approached carefully; unsure of what exactly the king wanted, but he leant in as the king began to whisper.

"You take good care of my daughter," the king said quietly, "you have come into our family in merely two days and one night and yet we trust you." The man put a hand on Gaara's shoulder, "I am putting my trust in you; disobey me and I shall make it the last thing you do, son." Gaara nodded quickly; the king may act as though Gaara were already a part of is family but sometimes Gaara was terrified of him.

"Ame, we were going to buy you a travelling cloak but for some reason, you already had one, hidden in your closet." Her mother said loudly to Ame who emerged from the group, dressed just like how she was when she met Gaara. A black cloak was all he could see of what she was wearing and the hood was already over her head. Violet eyes flashed up at him quickly before turning to her mother.

"Oh," Ame said and Gaara smirked, "Ember bought me one on her travels." She said quickly and her family nodded.

"Smooth," Gaara whispered to her and she smiled. "Well, your highness'," he said and looked around at them all, "we shall leave now."

"Goodbye!" Ame called and waved as she and Gaara walked out of the palace doors. Ame drew her hood further down her face and Gaara glanced back as the palace doors closed. Gaara and Ame didn't speak, they simply looked at each other with a sense of determination, faith and courage and both believed they were travelling together on a great escapade into a world neither knew very well. But there was something else, happening between them, something wonderful neither had experienced before, and what better than a two day journey, alone together, to explore this strange new thing?

Ooooooooooooh! This is quite an interesting development!

As usual, reviews are appreciated- send in ideas if you like…that's basically how I wrote Romancing the Kazekage, but that was just people being like- Oh, I don't like her, she should die! And me being like- INTERESTING! I shall consider that for my next chapter.

Although I have the COOLEST idea for the next chapter. It's not actually THAT cool- I was just damn impressed that I thought it up. I'll have to run it by my beta though…Ember- get a pen and some paper; it's fanfiction time!

Ok, that's the longest end of chapter memo.

Valentine needs to be quiet…NOW.