A/N: I should probably put the other genre for this fic as angst, no? I'll get on that.

Sasuke: Cop, intelligent, likes to eat. Loves Neji.

Naruto: Writer, somewhat dramatic, very sensitive. Loves Sasuke.

Sakura: Vivacious, fun-loving, usually cheerful. Somewhat conflicted and confused about love. A tad excitable.

Ino: Butch, Security guard/boxer, very angry. Loves Sakura.

Shikamaru: ticking time bomb. Loves Ino, but has no intention of being with her sexually, ever.

Temari: Cowed. Subservient and submissive personality.

Beta: Blood Zephyr

Temari

She sat stiffly on the couch, her stomach churning as Kankurou listened to her fiancé set a date three days away for their wedding. It would be a small affair, with them signing papers in a court house, nothing more. Only herself, her fiancé, and Kankurou would be in attendance. It was undecided whether or not any relative of her fiancé or her own younger brother would attend.

Kankurou seemed pleased, Temari noted. He liked her fiancé. Or rather, he liked the idea of Temari marrying money. Her fiancé was very different from the boyfriend she'd been with for five months. He was manager of a bank, while her boyfriend had been a lowly security guard. And then her boyfriend had lost even that meager job.

She'd met her boyfriend at the hospital he worked at. She had been receiving treatment for facial bruising and a dislocated jaw. Her brother had left her standing at the hospital exit while he signed some forms at the reception desk. Her former boyfriend had been stationed at that exit. He'd looked at her without interest, then looked away.

Kankurou had bustled up and taken her arm. She'd flinched unintentionally when he reached for her, from force of habit. Kankurou turned a smile on her for the benefit of the security guard watching, but had spoken in a low voice so that only she could hear.

The security guard seemed to assess the situation anyway and deduced who had messed her face up. "Only cowards beat those weaker than themselves," he'd said with a bored expression. He was looking at Kankurou.

Kankurou had walked right up to him and looked at his name tag. "Shikamaru, is it? I think you'd better mind your own business."

Shikamaru's expression hadn't changed as he looked up at her much taller brother. "And I think you'd better get out of my face."

Something in Shikamaru's voice had given her brother pause. He'd spat at Temari to go outside, following swiftly after her. She'd had occasion to be in the hospital several times after that incident, but he never took her back to St. Vincent's.

But there were very few people who'd ever stood up to Kankurou, even less who'd made her brother back down. She'd gone back to the hospital a month later in secret and there Shikamaru was, leaning against the wall as if bored. He'd eyed her with flat eyes as she approached him timidly.

She liked him. A lot. He wasn't talkative or particularly fun. He did not compliment her or buy her things if she didn't ask for them. He did not suggest they do entertaining things together other than go to the movies. All this was fine with her because she didn't need those things from him. What she did need from him, he had in spades.

He made her feel safe.

Beyond that, she was safe around him, and so long as she was his girlfriend. The first time after they'd been going out that she'd shown up with a black eye, Shikamaru had borrowed his room mate's motorcycle without a word and driven directly to her house. He'd left her in the company of that same room mate, a tall woman who Temari found intimidating to be around.

What had happened at her house she didn't know, but Kankurou never touched her again while she was dating Shikamaru. For some odd reason he stopped even looking at her, going out of his way to stay as far away from her as possible. She only wished he stayed away from her baby brother as well.

Shikamaru, though fairly short, had that affect on almost everyone he came into contact with. His 5' 7" managed to convey a wealth of violence, though he insisted that he was an ordinary person.

Her baby brother had come to her one night while they'd been seeing each other and asked about him. They'd had a long discussion that had gone on till the wee hours of the morning about just what it was about Shikamaru that terrified their abusive brother. They didn't know, since Shikamaru never told Temari, but they had a good time speculating.

Her younger brother, Gaara, often had long conversations with her at night. He was a quiet, enigmatic young man, never really speaking to anyone outside of his sister. He was a sweet boy, very loving to his sister and a pleasure to most people he met, even if he was wary around them. Temari knew he was gay, knew he had a secret boyfriend that he saw from time to time, but that was all. She never found out who the boyfriend was. She only knew Gaara had stopped seeing his mystery lover around the time she and Shikamaru had broken up because Gaara had stopped sneaking out at night to meet him. She sometimes wondered why Gaara never spoke of is lover, when they spoke of everything else. Or nearly everything.

She'd been hoping Shikamaru would ask to marry her. He was all right in bed, if not very affectionate. He was never mean to her. She could live with him. He repelled her brother so effectively that she felt putting up with his strange personality was a small price to pay.

Especially since she was two and a half months pregnant with Shikamaru's baby.

She'd gone to his house one night about seven weeks ago on the pretense of another date. In actuality she'd gone to break the news to him. Faced with his bland expression, though, she'd lost some of her nerve. She'd deliberately lied about being on the pill with him in order to conceive. She'd done it to bind him to her, her only protection from Kankurou. Later, after they were married, she'd get Gaara away from their brother and they could all live happily ever after.

In the end, instead of outright telling him, she'd asked him how he felt about babies and children in general. His answer was forever etched in her mind, an answer she felt she should have expected, but had somehow never anticipated. He'd said, "Babies? I'd castrate myself before ever siring a child. I hate children."

She'd sat in numb silence, aware of the life growing inside her, for several minutes. Then she'd gotten hysterical. She'd said a lot of things she didn't mean, out of fear, about him being a dead beat, being jobless, before she'd found herself facing him from across the threshold of his house door. She'd made one last effort to hang on to him, aware that he was turning his back on her for her panicked outburst. But then he'd slammed the door and turned his back for real. She'd been left to find her own way home. She'd been petrified of her brother finding out Shikamaru had left her and that she was carrying his baby.

-oOo-

About two weeks later Neji had come into her life.

He bumped into her, literally, at a grocery store in their neighborhood, and had struck up a conversation with her as he helped her pick up the oranges she'd dropped. He said he felt so bad that he wanted to drive her home. This he did, insisting on meeting her family. Kankurou and Gaara had been home. Kankurou had looked questioningly back and forth between her and Neji's rambling explanation for his presence. Gaara had only looked at Neji and left the room.

Neji kept in contact. Soon he asked her out and she went, flattered that he would find her attractive. She'd been told all her life that she was ugly, that her hair was too bushy, her eyes too strange a color. Neji seemed to find her pretty. He certainly complimented her enough. Kankurou got her alone after that first meeting and questioned her about Shikamaru, to which she replied with the truth. Shikamaru had left her. Kankurou approved of Temari going out with Neji, though, so took care to leave his blows where she wouldn't bruise. She'd pissed blood for days afterward. She feared for her child.

She couldn't say that she particularly liked Neji. He did not make her feel safe, nor did he attempt to have sex with her. He said he was old-fashioned and preferred to only have sex within the boundaries of marriage. She'd held her breath, hoping…

He proposed the next day. She accepted. She would inform him about the baby after the wedding, she decided, and tell him it was his. When the child was born, she'd tell him it was premature.

But right now, looking at the way Kankurou's eyes gleamed as he shook Neji's hand, she wondered if she'd be free even after she was married. Neji hadn't blinked an eye when Kankurou had slapped her last week, and he'd been right there in the room.

Neji pecked her cheek now and left. Kankurou stood against the mantel, watching her with a small smile. His undershirt stuck to him in sweaty patches; their apartment had no air conditioning. She remained where she was on the couch, not meeting his eyes. He came over to her and caressed her cheek, making her close her eyes and tighten her body in on herself.

"Well, sis," he said in his raspy voice. "Looks like you landed yourself a prime catch. Don't know what he sees in your tired ass. Guess I should take what I can, while I can, huh?" He dropped down beside her and Temari tightened her body further, unconsciously curling forward slightly to protect her stomach.

-oOo-

Their mother had died birthing Gaara. Their father had been a drunk who ended up getting himself stabbed to death in an alley over a matter of ten dollars. Temari had been fifteen. He'd been abusive to all three children.

Their mother's brother had taken them in. He'd been a decent guardian, but no match for Kankurou and his rebellious ways. Kankurou routinely skipped school, drank, and ran with gangs until their uncle decided to have him sent to foster care. There Kankurou had remained.

Five years ago, their uncle had died of prostate cancer. She'd been eighteen, Gaara fifteen. She had a job working in Bath and Body Works, but social workers told her she was too young to take care of Gaara herself. And her salary wouldn't have supported them in any case. Her uncle had left them a couple of hundred dollars and not much else.

They'd lived with a distant aunt for three years, until Temari finished nursing school. Nursing paid much better than her old job had and she was at last able to move into an apartment and take Gaara with her.

But Kankurou was of legal age by then and had left his foster family. He'd shown up at their door and hadn't left since. He proceeded to pick up where their father had left off.

Temari worked. Kankurou saw to that, since he didn't have a job. He hadn't even attended college. Temari supported all of them, handing her paychecks to Kankurou as he demanded at the end of each month. Whenever she needed hospital care for herself, he always took her to New York, never any hospital in their home state of New Jersey. He definitely never took her to the hospital she worked at.

Neji lived in Queens, so maybe Kankurou felt he wouldn't be able to get at her as easily.

-oOo-

Kankurou was rough now, as always. He was the one who'd put her on birth control when he moved in, not wanting to impregnate her. She bit her lips to keep her screams in until it was over.

One thing she was grateful for was that Gaara didn't have to suffer through this aspect of Kankurou's abuse. She never told him of it, either. Bad enough Kankurou knocked his slight form around almost daily.

Neji had said he loved her. She didn't love him, but she needed to get out from under her brother's control. Then she could protect Gaara and her baby. Maybe she could persuade Neji to move someplace far away.

As Kankurou finished and stood to go to his room, Temari lay motionless on the couch. She reached between her legs and brought some of the moisture she found to her face, making sure there wasn't any blood. There wasn't. Her baby was safe. All she had to do was make it to the wedding.

Kankurou's snores sounded through the tiny apartment. Temari stood and went to the room she shared with Gaara. He should be asleep as well.

He wasn't. He was waiting up for her, sitting on his side of the bed with a book in his hands. The look on his face said he knew what Kankurou had done, and had known about the activity for a long time. Temari fought down tears as she slowly turned from him to undressed for bed. She winced as a sore shoulder joint creaked in protest.

"I heard a date's been set," Gaara's voice drifted across the room.

"Why didn't you come out to congratulate us, then?"

Silence.

Temari held her breath as a cramp in her lower abdomen pulsed for several heart beats before fading away. She'd had these cramps before. She knew it was her uterus expanding, and not Kankurou's rape. When she could speak, she resumed putting on her nightshirt. She turned for the bed and sat down gingerly, too tired to wash Kankurou's touch from her skin. She looked at her brother's troubled profile. "You don't like Neji, do you." It wasn't a question.

Gaara stared at a page without reading. "Don't you think it's sudden, him wanting to marry you?"

"Yes… but he can keep us safe, Gaara. You were unconscious for hours last time Kankurou put his hands on you, remember? The doctors thought you might slip into a coma."

Gaara gave her a strange look. "You really think Neji would stop Kankurou if he decided to come after us?"

Temari couldn't answer, calling up Neji's tall, lean image in her mind. He didn't look like a fighter.

Gaara saw her hesitation and confirmed what they both knew. "He can't." He turned back to his book. "And you should be suspicious of him wanting to marry you so quickly."

Temari managed a sleepy smile. She'd worked overtime tonight at the hospital. "You think I'm ugly too?"

Gaara frowned impatiently. "You know what I mean."

She did. She'd thought of it herself, that Neji's whirlwind romance of her might be suspect. "He can have any woman he wants, Gaara. He doesn't have to marry me. What do I have to offer?"

"You think he really loves you then?"

"I think he's our ticket out of here."

Gaara's brow smoothed out. "Oh. As long as you're not in love with him, and you plan on using him too. Otherwise, I'd tell you not to go through with it."

"What do you mean, using him too? And would you really prefer we stay here with Kankurou?"

"No. But I didn't know you'd really accept Neji to be away from him, either. If it comes down to it, we can just leave on our own," Gaara said feebly. "We could go to the police."

Temari reached up a hand to stroke his smooth cheek. "You know he'd stop us, Gaara. He'd find us and stop us. Painfully."

Gaara scowled at his book. After a minute he nodded. "I know. Just promise me you'll never trust Neji. I don't like seeing you hurt."

Temari studied her brother's sea green eyes, still ringed with the kohl he wore daily. "I promise."

Now Gaara turned to her. He looked at her long and hard. "You know you'll always have me, right? No matter what happens. Even when… I mean if this marriage doesn't work out. I'll always be there for you. As soon as I'm done school, I'll get a good job and take care of you."

Temari smiled encouragingly, though they both knew Kankurou would find some way to prevent that. Neji was their best bet. She would take Gaara away from here and hopefully she could convince Neji the baby was his. He'd want to move to keep his own child safe, wouldn't he?

She fell asleep, her hand on her brother's waist. Later she turned in her sleep and let him snuggle her from behind, the way they always did. She murmured, dimly aware of the brotherly kiss he pressed to her bushy hair.