Lee (first person) having a memory

Gaara (first person) in present

I arrived at the conveniently placed clearing, looking down to the mayhem. Seeing what was happening, my heart stopped beating for a moment and went cold. Gaara was being beaten; as unbelievable as it was, he was being defeated. There were too many water jutsus attacking him from too many places for him to rise victorious from this. A cold sweat gathered on my skin; why was he alone!? Where was his backup, where was his protection?

I begin running as fast as I could possibly go, managing to hit the ground as the same time one of the enemy washed a wave of sand down into a puddle. With a 'crack!', he was dead, his neck turned at a gruesome angle after having connected with my fist.

"Lee!" I turn to him: my lover, my husband, my companion…my everything. His eyes are boiling with rage, lip turned up in a snarl. "Get the hell out of here!" I shake my head shortly.

"Not until you leave with me!" Sand, formed loosely into a whip, ripped right through another enemy that had been approaching me from the side. I do not flinch, even as his blood splatters across me.

His eyes glare at me for a few seconds longer, so absolutely furious with me. Several more of the opposing team fall to their deaths, whether by my attack or Gaara's, I do not take notice. Whether my skin connects with flesh, or his sand devours another man, I do not care. I am not leaving without him! He can not hold my gaze any longer, forced to turn around and face the attacks head on. Over his shoulder, he growls at me.

"Don't get killed! I can't save your ass." I laugh out loud, even as a man who could not have been any older than 23 falls to the ground after having had my foot crack his skull open.

"Yosh!" Two more collapse under my determined attacks; already, I feel the fire and soreness raging over my entire body. Lady Tsunade may have been right: I may not be read to fight again… Either way, I still find the time to give Gaara the 'Good Guy Pose'. "Shall I die here, today, I shall find you again in another life and do as you command for the same numbers of years as you live after my death!"

With that, the number of casualties increases from a small number of 13, to something uncountable. As soon as one fell, three more seemed to show out of nowhere; when I saw an end coming, it felt as if I were already dying. My lungs were squeezing together so tightly, my vision was graying. My reaction time was slowing from incredibly fast, to almost stalling. Behind me, always at my back, there is the swishing sound of water mixing with my lover's sand. As hard as I try to stop them from forming the hand signs, I can not catch them all. Both of us may not make it out of here…but that does not bother me as much as it had when I had forced entered this battle.

At one point, I am pressing my back against his, a small retreat as my legs tremble beneath me and my arms are so strained, I can not even feel them. I am covered in blood, whether my own or theirs, I can not tell anymore. I do know my blood is somewhere within the mix of, though, I can feel it. As soon as I touch him, I am spun around, his hand clenching onto my shoulder and crashing my chest into his chest. Before I could utter a sound, he crashes our lips together, and we pant into each other, sharing the scent of death and blood and sweat. Hardly long enough, too short afterward, he shoves me away from him, again making the hand sign for the 'Sabaku Kyuu' that kills another person. It is terrifying, because he kissed me with desperation; he does not think we will leave this war alive.

With my resolve to prove him wrong, I begin moving out of the protection of his sand, needing to help, to give Gaara rest as well.

When the end comes, I nearly get down on my knees and cry. We will live another day; another day to love one another, another day to hold onto each other. It will be another day to prove my love for him…

Out of the corner of my eye, I witness something horrifying; he is breaking through. Another enemy that we had not seen, and he is swamping the last of Gaara's sand, leaving his back defenseless. I was too far away, I could never get there to save him in time! But, I conclude as I shoot to my feet and dash across the distance separating us, I could save him…at a price.

As I stand before the man, my hand shoved into his chest, his long blade shoved into my own, I smile as he wheezes and falls down on my wrist, dragging me with him. His blade, cutting entirely through my heart, stops my breathing and makes me wheeze as well; but I have stronger determination than any man, so I hold on to the last of my life. Coughing blood onto the ground beneath me, I continue to slip onto the ground, the blade being shoved further through my body as the handle pushes against my flesh.

"Lee? Lee!" I am ripped backwards, hands holding me up as the handle of the blade is gripped and pulled harshly. I wheeze again, blood pouring over my chin and onto my jounin vest. Surprisingly, there is no pain. Just a breathlessness, and it almost feels surreal. "Lee, if you don't hold on until help arrives, I swear I will hunt you down wherever you are going, and kill you myself."

Somehow, around the blood, I chuckle. It seems I will be either the slave or the victim of Sabaku no Gaara in my next life. I cough out as much blood as I possibly could, Gaara tilting me forward so that I would not choke on the thick liquid. When I find enough space to do so, I speak to him. He needs to know…one last time.

"I will love you for always, G-Gaara… but, you have to live…without me…" More blood continues on it's path out of my mouth and down my chin to slither down my neck. I smile, sad that this would be my last day, I can not even focus on his face anymore… "I will…be with you…again…" I will, of course, have to keep my promise as well… but there is so much blood, and so much darkness, all I can do is smile, and wish that I could still see him through the fog.

At the same time I hear my shredded heart stop, I hear a scream that will forever echo through me, even in my death…

"Lee, wake up." I shake him again, and then curse under my breath as he continues to silently cry in his sleep. "Damn it!" I sit up, allowing him to slip off my chest and onto my bed as I straddle his hips. I grip one of his shoulders and pull back the other hand.

'Slap!' With a start, he wakes up, eyes large and pain filled as he throws his head frantically from side to side, blindly looking for something I'm sure isn't there.

His hands curl around the wrist of my hand holding onto his shoulder, gripping tightly, before he even notices me. For long seconds, he stares up at me, blinking occasionally as if he can hardly believe something that is happening. Without warning, his other hand seizes me by the back of my neck and pulls me down to him; before I can growl at him, my mouth is obstructed…by his mouth.

Now I am the one to stare, looking down upon his tear-stained cheeks and tightly shut eyes. His mouth shoves insistently at mine, a reminder of how virginal he had been when we had first became so innocently intimate…he had no idea what he was doing. Before I can stop myself, or find the will to wish to stop him, I open my mouth and nip at his bottom lip, knowing how much he had liked it before; guessing by the sound of his whimper, he still does. He holds me to him, tangling both of his hands into my hair and arching his body into mine. I can hardly fight myself, if that also includes fighting him as well. As I run my tongue inside of his wet cavern, exploring what was once my territory, and was now again mine, I keep my eyes open, needing to see this through. I taste the salt of his tears, the mint of his scent, and the spice that characterized him. We fight for dominance, teeth snapping against the others, tongues wrapping together and sliding against each other, body moving to find the most contact.

When air is so pressing, there is nothing we can do but break apart to breathe, the distance we move from each other is hardly any larger than the tip of needle, gasping air in and out back into the other. He opens his eyes again, and they are determined. He wraps his legs around my waist, pulling us as close together as possible. I hiss as our erections rub against each other. Insistently, he tugs at my hair, moving so that his mouth is next to my ear.

"I keep my promises…in this life as well as the last." He pulls back to look into my eyes, his own solid and nearly aflame. He slants his face toward my own, and runs his tongue from my chin to my ear. "And there is one promise I did not fulfill, Gaara…"

I curve my upper body up to better look down at him. In his eyes; that fire burns, and so does angst and fear. He finally met the end of his last life; it is there in how he grips so tightly, so desperately, yet so solidly to me. To my agitation, though, I have no idea what he's talking about. My glare must have said as much, because he smiles the slightest bit.

"I promised you…that if I died in that battle… I would be your slave."

And my heart stopped, right before it began to pump too much blood to where it does not need to go. I feel my mind haze over as he looks so innocently, somehow wickedly at the same time, with his smile growing somewhat.

"Well, Gaara?" He touched lips to mine, my own body fazed by his words to advance upon him. "What do you want me to do?"

On a vote, who wants smex or fluff? I can't decide...