Last chapter, weeee. Then probably something epilogue-ish/short continuation-ish of my Riding Hood piece eventually. Or maybe a return to Enishi/Kaoru something or other. I need something less fantastical and more modern/realistic to ground me. Sort of a weird ending here, but it felt complete there.

Thanks so much to everyone who this gave a smile to, because I certainly worked to patch it together. I especially struggled in this one with their characters (this wandered into ooc territory and I hate that) but it was a good exercise for me. Have to have struggles to remind us we're all still learning to be better writers!

Disclaimer: see part 1

Epaulia

The bronze mirror behind her cleared its throat and Sakura took a steadying breath before turning to confront it. Instead of her own tinted reflection there was Karin, squinting at her. It was well known that love was blind, but that was just an exaggeration. Love was more nearsighted than anything, and love could see very well about six feet in front of herself. Sakura crossed the room so Karin could see her better, and watched as Karin muffled her shock imperfectly. Running her fingers through long red hair, she gave Sakura a considering look and gestured for her to sit.

"I swore I'd never set foot in this place again and even seeing this room gives me hives. You have five minutes." She tried to sound bored but Sakura wasn't fooled by Karin's casual tone.

Taking a moment to compose her thoughts she ended up asking something entirely unrelated to all her other concerns. "Why not Gaara?"

Eyebrows rising so high they almost disappeared into her bangs, Karin pressed her lips together and shot her a sideways look before finally answering. "He's too… primitive." With a sigh she elaborated. "Blunt, oblivious, meticulous, conniving, volatile… I mean how do I put it?" She tapped one perfect nail against her lip before getting an 'a-ha' look. "Well he's a fire god, right? Fires are so damned interesting and you want to reach out and touch them but every time you do you get burned. Now in comparison with Sasuke, Sasuke is cold and beautiful like a marble statue…" A fluttery sigh escaped Karin's lips.

So even the goddess of love had to admit something about Gaara drew people and kept them away at the same time. Before she got started on Sasuke and sidetracked the point of this conversation, Sakura tried to redirect Karin.

"Did you, ah, perhaps curse me to… want Gaara?"

Her mouth dropped open for a moment on the other side of the mirror and then Karin began to laugh. Sakura didn't appreciate the condescending tone and tried to feel a little less disgruntled than she actually was.

"You think I'd actually give him the satisfaction?" The bitterness of her tone said more than her words. "That's your problem, and trust me you'll come to regret it if you think he's worth one iota of feeling."

"Hey, that's not very fair." Sakura could feel some of her intimidation easing off as her anger sparked. He might not be everything Sakura had dreamed of as a man, but Karin was talking about him like he had no worth as a being.

"Don't kid yourself into thinking you're special. His heart is reserved for himself and his little projects. It's only a matter of time before you follow my lead."

The room felt extra quiet as Karin looked daggers at Sakura without really seeing her. The goddess of love, Sakura concluded, had a big chip on her shoulder. Well, she had had practice all day indulging in her own dark side and she didn't particularly like staying silent while Karin railed on a man that she didn't know very well but wanted to give the benefit of the doubt.

"With all respect and honor to you, I'm not about to go sleeping around just because my husband doesn't go out of his way to tell me I'm pretty."

Karin's fury only made her more beautiful, while Sakura knew she was turning that angry shade of red that clashed with her pink hair. "I followed my heart. Sasuke is a million times—"

"—More self-involved than Gaara! At least Gaara creates, Sasuke only knows how to destroy. Gaara doesn't run from his responsibilities. When was the last time you saw Sasuke do something for his family?" Sakura interrupted.

"I'm glad you like him so much, then. I hope you do end up in love with the bastard! It'll hurt even more when he ignores you! Get ready for a life of disappointment and cold beds."

Sakura wished she could punch Karin in her perfect face as she clenched both her fists at her sides until the knuckles were white. With a strangled cry she did the only thing that made sense and flipped the mirror around. Karin's derisive laugh sounded once and faded. It hadn't even taken five minutes of her time.

Standing up, clenching her fists again, she was going to look for something to punch when her eyes met a similar pair of angry green ones. Framed by the doorway, Gaara was steaming (actual tendrils of steam were rolling off of him and evaporating the puddle that had collected under his bare feet) while one hand clutched a white cloth around his waist. He looked like fury incarnate, a volcano ready to erupt. Finally noting how clearly see could see everything in the room she realized that in her anger her 'glow' had intensified to a beacon. The crown and necklace were like small heat-less suns on her body. Between the light and the yelling it wasn't surprising he had appeared like this.

He was so tense that every lean muscle on his body stood out in stark relief. Swiftly tying a loose knot in the side of the cloth he strode past Sakura only breaking eye contact with her when he picked up the bronze mirror, bent it in on itself, and threw it against the opposite wall. It bounced off, hitting decorative pots and smashing them into clay dust. Breathing heavily he turned and advanced on her.

"If you betray me, I'll kill you." His voice was conversational, even if nothing else about his demeanor implied he was in control.

"You think I don't know that?" Sakura challenged with what was left of her own anger. If she didn't hold onto that she would be mute and quivering.

"Then what was this about?!" The water had totally evaporated off of him and the heat his body gave off was almost suffocating this close to him.

Jabbing him in the chest with one finger, Sakura let her inner voice run with it while her conscious mind made terrified flips. "In case you're slow at getting this, I was trying to figure out if I wanted you because Karin had cursed me. And apparently I'm just messed up in the head because my feelings have nothing to do with her!"

Sakura was sure her life was going to end as she pulled back her hand and felt the burnt tip of her finger throb. Slowly, the light ebbed around them as her glow faded along with her confidence.

Nothing made Gaara want to destroy more than the piercing tones of his ex-wife. Sitting in his bath, wondering what the next few hours were going to be like, he noted how it sounded like Sakura was having an argument with someone above him. It was the laugh that clued him in. Karin's laugh was distinctive, and it grated on his nerves.

Climbing out of the bath and grabbing a washcloth for a nod at modesty he climbed the stairs to see what looked like daylight seeping through all the cracks in the door to the women's dayroom. Silently opening the door he watched Sakura yell at Karin and flip the mirror around.

They were in this together! He was a fool. Thinking that maybe he was allowed to start again, when no one was going to let him forget how damaged he was inside and out: the unwanted son, lame and discarded, only needed for what he could give. The marriage wasn't consummated yet, he could send her back to her household and go about his life again.

He wanted to destroy something so Gaara started with the mirror, and rounded on Sakura to torture an explanation out of her when her angry words didn't fit the picture he had built. As he smoldered in front of her, watching her glow fade under his withering glare, he tried to get a hold on himself. It was an almost physical grapple as his hands bunched in his hair and his skin stretched and pulled.

"What do you mean?" She met his eyes without shame or guilt and he wondered at what he could consider true. "What do you mean?" He wanted to shake her, but he found the inner strength to stay still and stand up straight. The illusion of calm was on him again.

"I heard you the first time!" Sakura stood there, shaking but resolute inches from him. "I mean…"

She leaned in to brush her lips against his and then drew back with a pained hiss. A bucket of cold water thrown on him in that moment would have been the only thing more shocking. A chill from the top of his head moved down to his toes slowly. Muscles unclenched, and he closed his eyes in an attempt to process the past few minutes. His blood cooled and his mind raced.

There was no way this woman before him knew what wanting really meant. The bone deep ache that came in the middle of the night when he thought of the family that only tolerated him, or the indecision and mistrust he felt for years as he wove a trap for Karin and her infidelity, capped off with the knowledge that all he could ever be deep down was a force of destruction or a convenient tool. He had nothing to give her, he was an empty vessel.

While he stood there, eyes closed, he felt Sakura close the distance and wind her arms around him. Her hands tickled a path up his bare back and then back down to his waist. Kissing him again he looked down at her and, possibly for the first time, really saw her. This woman was tempered iron to her core, she may be afraid of his moods (which showed good sense) but she wasn't letting it stop her from moving forward. Maybe what he had been feeling all this time was as much loneliness as stagnation. He was the one stuck in his own pain.

"You're an idiot," he felt as much as heard her whisper and didn't know if she was talking about him or herself.

With the position she had placed them in she could have him on his back with a minimum of effort on her part, and the aggressiveness of her self-defense aroused him as much as the feeling of skin on skin. Naruto had claimed she knew how to wrestle, he recalled, before he felt his brain start to shut down. Gaara felt his heart pound irregularly and he knew without a doubt that, whatever else came tomorrow, they weren't making it back to the bedroom until later tonight. All the anger and uncertainty of the day fell away for a time and transformed, and maybe between them it didn't need to be complicated tonight.

Sakura could have sworn they started banging pots before they hammered on the door. The girls, who had stopped singing at some point when they got bored last night, had been supplanted by the men who were much louder. The racy songs had become downright obscene then and as the women started up again to accompany the men she was sure there had been more wine involved. Exhaustion had prompted her to enter the sleep she indulged in when her energy was low, but it didn't look like Gaara had slept at all. She saw him standing near the window, hidden from the sight of their well-wishers but clearly focused on her.

At first she was going to get up when she recalled that her wedding costume was in multiple pieces in the room down the hallway. That prompted the first of what she was going to assume were many blushes that day.

"Did my family drop a bag off, by chance?"

She didn't even bother with the good morning. When he blinked and looked at her once more she realized he had been thinking and not simply staring. That was a relief in some senses, but now that he was consciously regarding her she could sense shifts in his expression until he was carefully blank.

It was exhausting to think that she might know every plane of muscle, the texture of his rusty hair, and the precise tint of the bags around his eyes but she was no closer to guessing what was in his mind. While her own mind was wandering she hadn't noticed him moving around the room until he dropped one of his chitons on top of her lap. She clutched the blanket to her chest tighter and his mouth quirked in amusement before smoothing out.

"I can't wear that, it's for a man."

"Wear the blanket then." Gaara responded casually before he left the room. Groping around, she pulled the chiton under the blanket and put it on as if modesty somehow would be preserved. Something glinted out of the corner of her eye and she noted the diamond necklace by the foot of the bed. Of course that was the only part of her outfit that had made it to the bedroom, she thought as her blush spread to the rest of her body.

Everything was in place but the shorter male chiton was much more drafty than what she was used to and she stayed as far away from the railing as possible as she made her way to the women's day room to retrieve her torn dress. She was on her knees searching for the belt that had been tied under her bust and had been thrown somewhere when she heard twin gasps from the door.

"What happened in here?" Hinata asked as her mortified blush spread across her face. Ino didn't say anything but looked like she was some combination of amused and worried.

"I'm fine. Please say those are real clothes in your hands. I can't receive gifts today looking like this."

Ino closed the door behind her as Hinata unpacked the clothes they had brought for her as well as one of her shawls, a green that matched her eyes. The sisters examined the room while Sakura quickly climbed out of the borrowed chiton. Gaara's earthy scent left as soon as the fabric was packed away in the bag her own dress had arrived in, along with the scraps of her bridal costume.

Hinata clucked over the broken pots and turned over stove, while Ino laid the folded up bronze mirror against the wall and turned a truly worried glance in Sakura's direction. All she did was give a wan smile and shrug. There was no way she was telling her sisters right now she had consummated her marriage on this floor after basically making an enemy of the goddess of love. Bad luck stacked on bad luck.

"Are we putting the gifts in here? The courtyard is still too wet." Ino saw blankets in disarray on the floor and gave Sakura a sideways glance.

"It won't be hard to clean up."

Hinata volunteered to go find a broom and skittered off, but as soon as she was gone Ino was at Sakura's side demanding to know if she was really ok.

"I'm just fine, better than fine." Sakura didn't speak of her own misgivings. Gaara hadn't been cruel but he hadn't been gentle either. When she had told him to stop or slow down he did, and when she had demanded other things of him he had done them just as deliberately and thoroughly. Trying not to revisit those thoughts, Sakura felt her body begin to respond again anyway and cursed wherever these impulses came from in her brain. Today was about being a model wife.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me again," Ino said, a skeptic to the end.

"I may have been reluctant before but I'm telling you, last night was better than I could have expected and I'm happy, darn it!" Putting extra emphasis on the end of the sentence she saw Ino's feline smile and turned around to see Hinata and Gaara both in the doorway. "Oh for heaven's sake!" If only one of her powers was sinking into the floor she would take full advantage right now.

Hinata came in with the broom and dustpan while Gaara removed the mirror from the room entirely. The smirk he wore on hearing her words didn't fade as he completed his chore, and even if he still didn't acknowledge her sisters he also came back to remove more broken items without any prompting. Soon enough the room was ready to be seen again, even if it looked much barer than it did previously.

"Kurenai should be arriving soon with light refreshments for visitors. Today's going to be very busy again!" Hinata, in party planning mode again, was a bag of nerves.

"I'm going to wash my face quickly and get my hair in order. I feel like three days of parties in a row is a little too much when you're at the center of it all." Sakura sighed as Ino looked untouched by her warning. Ino would have to go through it all in less than a year (assuming Shikamaru got his act together.)

The basin in the bathroom was more a small fountain with clear water flowing out of it continuously. Sakura wondered if it tapped in to some reservoir in the mountain. Near her watery home she always expected fresh water but it was a delightful surprise that she wouldn't have to forgo that luxury even someplace that seemed so dry in comparison.

Feeling like it was the first time she could take an easy breath since days ago she saw something in the mirror in front of her and turned just in time to brace as Gaara backed her up against the wall. His arms caged her on either side of her head, loose but intimidating. He moved his face forward and smirked when she flinched. Unbidden, the word Karin had used for him echoed in her mind: primitive.

"What are you doing?" Sakura hissed, more alarmed at the fact that her sisters were directly above them than at what he was doing.

"Anticipating," he responded as he practically bit down on her lip. Sakura thought about pushing him back but, as she had learned last night, he was much stronger than her. Easing up he watched her face as he ran his fingertips from her collarbone to her hips. Her traitorous body responded to him and Sakura gave him her crankiest scowl. This was not the time nor the place she wanted this kind of attention even if her body disagreed.

A breath she didn't know she was holding escaped as he backed up a step or two. From lustful to inscrutable, his bland expression belied everything she knew of him. He let the silence stretch between them until Sakura felt compelled to fill it.

"Get it all out of your system then?" She tried to add a laugh to the end of it, but it came out less firm than she wanted it to.

Gaara looked at her and she felt opened up to him somehow, like he was mapping her reactions the same way he would draw a schematic. "Not even remotely."

The bathroom felt three times bigger when he left and Sakura washed her face once more for good measure. The balance of power was all off and she refused to be cowed. Weakness was a choice and today she would show him just how strong she could be.

The first time around during the interminable ceremonies Gaara remembered that Jiraiya had taken him aside for a "fatherly" talk about women. Needless to say he had blacked out much of that rambling monologue, but he did have a takeaway and that was that women only had as much power over you as you let them. He had resisted being controlled so perfectly with Karin that she had been a stranger in his home by the end. Belatedly he remembered Tsunade also taking him aside much later and telling him that marriage had to be a two way street. He was starting to see that both of them might have a point.

Sakura didn't seem like the threat Karin had been and he was beginning to recognize how infinitely more dangerous that made her. Giving her his clothes to wear? Seeking her out just because he wanted to see her? Helping with chores he could easily have sent a servant to perform? She was already infiltrating barriers that had never been breached before. Worse yet he wanted to give her things, unprompted. How had she slipped under his defenses so fast?

"So when can I expect grandchildren?" it was the first thing out of Tsunade's mouth to Sakura as she came to give them linens. The dark haired sister scurried upstairs with the gift while the light haired sister chatted with Naruto and TenTen. Gaara watched, amused, while Sakura sputtered something.

"You're smiling." Kankuro had appeared from somewhere, wine cup in hand. "Better start scowling or someone might think you were happy."

"Isn't it a little early for drinking?"

Kankuro lifted his cup and took a drink, assenting with a toothy smile. "You bet. But it is a benefit to being the god of wine. No one thinks it strange if I'm drunk anywhere, it's very convenient."

They were both standing under an eave, watching the proceedings as Sakura played hostess. Her diamond necklace shone and made her the center of attention even more so. Tsunade must have spoken to Jiraiya about weather because there was not even a hint of drizzle even if the lack of clouds made it colder than expected.

"She's ignoring you pointedly, you know." Kankuro didn't need to look at Gaara to know that he was annoying him effectively. "Every time her eyes start sliding towards you she makes herself turn and talk to her sister."

"You think I didn't notice that?" Gaara had thought it charming, in its own way, but to have Kankuro point it out made it much less pleasing.

Kankuro slid down the wall at his back and sat on the stone courtyard. "I don't suppose you did something to make her angry already?"

Not wanting to dignify anything with a response Gaara just crossed his arms over his chest and thought about the design for a new racing chariot Naruto had been describing to him earlier. It had to be lighter, but the material needed to be strong and supple as well. Some kind of new alloy…

"You should talk to her, you know. If you're acting like, well, you—I imagine she thinks you're being very mysterious."

Maybe if he started with bronze and worked with some of its properties, but bronze seemed like the wrong way to go this time somehow…

"Women like words. You accuse me of chatting like an old woman, but I promise you, a good conversation can be extremely appealing. I mean I'm not much to look at, I'll be honest, but I know how to talk to women."

It was getting harder to ignore Kankuro and Gaara grit his teeth as he lost his metallic train of thought. "Then go talk to a woman!" he snapped.

Kankuro stood up, happy to have gotten a reaction. Baiting Gaara was like a sport to him. "Gladly. But you should think about it. Women love words."

Kankuro wandered over to insert himself into the conversation between TenTen, Naruto, and the blond sister. Gaara was left to his own thoughts. Talk to his wife? What in the world would that even entail? It was all new territory and Gaara retreated to designing chariots in his mind.

At some point he had ended up in his workshop writing down new formulas to try out when the light that had been streaming in from the doorway was blocked by a stormy looking pink haired woman.

"It's well past midday. I don't suppose you want to help me entertain all the friends and relatives who have been showering us with gifts?" She phrased it like a question but Gaara got the distinct impression an order was couched in it. Not that that was going to change his response.

"Not particularly." She was going to blow. He of all people knew the signs after years with Karin. "Tell me honestly, if you had an option would you be out there today?"

The deflated Sakura immediately as her eyebrows drew together. "That's not the point at all. I need you out there too, I can't do it all."

"I thought you wanted to do it all. You didn't seem to want me there earlier. I have better uses for my time if I'm not needed." He checked his tone in his own mind and was satisfied that it hadn't seemed like a complaint. He took the opportunity to lean back in his chair for the first time in hours and his back cracked audibly.

Sakura winced. "That sounded terrible. Come out and help for a little while. Think of it as a break."

Gaara rolled his neck around and cracked his knuckles before scraps of Kankuro's words filtered through his mind. "Or you could come in here." While not as sacred as his desk in the forge, this had always been a space for just him. He tried to seem impassive as he waited, but more was riding on her answer than he could explain to himself.

Sakura sighed and turned around. Gaara felt his defenses closing around himself again, his brain echoing the cackling I told you so of rejection which halted suddenly as she closed the door and came over to stand behind him. His inner voices silenced abruptly.

"So what are you working on…?"

He would have sooner killed himself than admit it to anyone, but that's when he knew he was in love.

Sakura had had some rudimentary mathematics and philosophy and she had been talented at it but the formulas Gaara was working with were so beyond her she found herself impressed despite herself. He was a genius, truly brilliant, and having the evidence of it spread out in front of her left a real impression. All the hard work, the long hours of planning and slow experimentation and creation were all over the room. This room felt like a glimpse into his brain more so than any conversation they might ever have with one another.

"You're pretty incredible, you know." Sakura picked up a piece of chain made of some multicolored metal that shifted from hot to cold against her skin.

Gaara only grunted. He was sketching out something as she examined the room. In this room he seemed perfectly at ease. No trace of instability eked out while he was bent to his tasks.

"It makes me want to be incredible at something, too."

"Like what?" It was probably the first question he had asked her that he seemed to care about the answer to. It was almost like a real conversation with a regular person. That was a milestone she hadn't expected to reach with Gaara so soon, if ever.

Sakura thought about what she was good at: practical everyday things, talking to people, sports that took more brawn than agility… none of it seemed that valuable. "I don't know."

"Pick something and do it. Either it will work or it won't." His advice was delivered flatly and her first instinct was to get angry, but she realized belatedly he was giving her the advice he gave himself: be decisive, take action, work with the results. Re-framing it in that way allowed her to actually mull it over.

If he was such a genius maybe he could see something she didn't. "What would you suggest I try?"

His fingers made a tent in front of him as he regarded her with intense scrutiny. That thousand yard stare of his was back into effect, and she felt like he was picking her apart in his mind.

"Learn to fight."

"Excuse me?"

He laid it out so simply she felt as bare before him as the night before. "You have unusually good health and fast healing, you're frequently angry with no outlet, and you want to be strong. Even when you're uncomfortable you push yourself, and your stamina is admirable. Your instincts are good, you just need training. Am I incorrect?"

"A typical husband would not encourage his wife to do something like that."

Gaara's mouth twitched into a smile and faded just as fast before he said. "We're not so typical." Then all at once it was like a light in him went out and he had retreated back to the work in front of him.

He had seen straight through her today, she thought ruefully. She wasn't even on the same playing field as him yet, but he seemed to not mind the idea that she would climb there. Temari and TenTen would be happy to help her if she was serious about training to be a warrior. At some point Tsunade should be consulted, because she hated being the last to know about things having to do with her own family. It was a goal that seemed possible, even inspiring. The fact that she could be inspired by Gaara made her feelings swell.

"What if I end up stronger than you?" Sakura wandered over to him and boldly tickled the back of his neck with the edge of her shawl.

"Not possible," he mumbled, but he didn't look up from his work. Whatever had powered this interlude, he had reached the end of his ability to sustain it. The dismissal wasn't spoken, but she felt it clearly enough.

Sakura took a couple breaths to memorize everything about the moment before she emerged into the bright winter light in the courtyard. For the first time since she found out she was getting married, she felt at peace. If this is what it meant to be married to a monster, then she'd recommend it to more people. He was no less dangerous and that wasn't going to change, but if she became strong maybe she could be equally dangerous. She could love a man like Gaara, someone who encouraged her to grow if in no small part because she'd be damned if she was going to live in fear of him either.

"Is everything ok, you look funny." Ino said as she handed Sakura a hot drink. People milled around the courtyard but the bulk of the gift giving was done and only a few lingered to talk about all the goings-on the past few days. Even Hinata looked like she was on the verge of relaxing, and if Hinata was relaxed then everything must be well and truly over.

Taking a deep drink, Sakura didn't even taste it. "Everything is perfect."