Author's Note: Well here is Chapter Seven! Sorry I didn't post ealier today, I got home and had to pay rent, set up my classes for the Spring Semester, do a few back flips, think about cleaning my room for a good twenty mintues, then not do it and curl up by vent and almost fall asleep, finally I got on my bed all comfy cozy and actually fell asleep. Now I'm up, and now this is posted!

Rebel

After that, my mother was out of her mind. She dropped her basket completely. It didn't take long for the infection to spread either. When my father came home from his mission, one that didn't involve Gaara at all, it was decided between the two of them that from that day forward, as long as I lived beneath their roof, I was forbidden to ever see Gaara again.

Needless to say, I was furious, and I still am.

"Hana, won't you come down for dinner?" I am back in my room, no longer on crutches, in fact the only remembrance of my 'accident' is the sling containing my arm, a small thin scar on my hairline that will eventually fade away into nothing, and a twinge of pain every now and again.

"No." I know I am acting childish and stubborn, but it doesn't stop me. I haven't dined with my family since their decision, a week ago, choosing to eat in my room all alone instead.

"Hana, this is your father's last day home before he leaves on another mission, don't you want to see him? You haven't even talked to him since he came home." Guilt is my mother's most effective weapon, but only because I allow it to fester in my brain and eat away at my heart.

Needless to say, my mother usually wins with that blade on her side.

I don't answer her though, because I don't trust my mouth, I'm sure that if I open up, I'll betray my cause and if that is so, I'll never be able to see Gaara again. But I wonder, why do I even want to see him again? We don't even know each other, really, I doubt he even remembers that we are friends, so it means that we were friends. He doesn't care about me, he doesn't care about anyone, so I shouldn't care about him…

But then again, if he doesn't care, if we aren't friends, why did he spare my life? Why didn't he just kill me? Why did he come visit me when I was in the hospital? I mean, the teddy bear he probably wanted, he didn't collect. I pick up the soft object. It has an eye missing and is ripped in several places.

I know that it has to be important to him, no matter what it looks like, but I can only being to wonder why. If really weren't friends, why would he just leave it with me? Why did he come to see me again, in the greenhouse?

And if I shouldn't care about him, why do I have the unreasonable urge to befriend him? Why do I not want him to be alone? Why do I wish to take all his suffering away, even if it meant putting it all on me?

"Hana this is ridiculous, that boy is a monster! He doesn't care about you! He cares for nothing, nothing but himself!" I hear her stomping away, but it seems more like she is crying.

"Liar." I whisper out, knowing she can't hear me. I sit down on my bed, fiddling with the teddy bear. "She is lying." I repeat to the pitiful bear, willingly the words to be true, that I'm not putting false hope in Gaara.

I slowly lay down on my bed, not even bothering to cover up and be warm. I'll be cold anyways. However, one thing is able to keep me warm, the one small thing that connects me to Gaara, my friend. I hug it close against my chest. "Gaara really does care." I determine softly, falling asleep.

...

Normally, I sleep very well at night, but lately ~ probably because of pain ~ I've been fitful. My dreams have been… weird. It's like the entire time I sleep, I am haunted by something, as if I am searching for something, someone but I am unable to find them no matter how hard I may look.

I usually wake up because I've fallen off my bed with all my tossing and turning and normally it wouldn't hurt, but due to my remaining injuries, it hurts a lot. It's most likely why my collarbone in still unhealed.

So tonight is no different then the five other nights, I wake to impact with hardwood.

But it is not the only thing I wake to.

My breath is lodged in my throat as I look out the window, or rather, look at the place where the window should be because his body effectively blocks the outside world from peering in.

And me peering out.

"Gaara." I whisper out, blushing like mad and scurrying to my feet. My sudden movements jar my arms, making me suck in air due to pain.

"You shouldn't move so fast." The sound of his voice invites my heart to beat three times faster than usual. I have to admit, those weren't the first words I expected to hear from a boy crouched in my window. I would expect to hear some strangled hello and a long drawn out explanation of why are they're here. Then again, Gaara isn't an average boy. He never will be.

"Yeah, probably. Um," I didn't know how to word myself without appearing rude, but, how can I not be when in a situation such as this? Is it even possible? "What are you doing here?" Since the words can't be changed in this circumstance, the only thing I can do is watch my tone, keep it pleasant, unsurprised and unafraid.

Basically the opposite of everything I am feeling.

"You never answered me." My heart stops all together at his words, my mind racing back to our conversation in the greenhouse.

"Because, it was the truth, you didn't push me off the roof."

You didn't even want to kill me.

"Anyone else would have said I did." His eyes are pools of calm and collected sea water, analytical and deceitful. They do not convey what his mind is thinking underneath them. "Anyone else would have gladly put the blame on me… An attempt on the life of the Daimyo's docile granddaughter… It would fuel more hatred towards me than ever before."

"I don't understand."

"It would be another reason for my father to kill me. To send someone who could perhaps do the job, so tell me the real reason. Was it fear for your father's life?" His eyes are closed but his brow is creased in fury.

I don't answer. I wasn't afraid for my father's life until I saw Gaara in the greenhouse. I was afraid then that my father had went ahead with the mission and he like at the other ninja before him, was killed. But at the hospital, when I first learned about the mission…

It wasn't my father's life I feared for.

"Answer." He growls out.

"No, that wasn't it." For some reason, I am crying.

"Then what is it?" His entire face contorts in rage. "Tell me now!" He demands, cradling his head with his left palm like he's in pain.

"You're scaring me." I whisper out, choking on tears. I don't know what it is, but something inside him snaps. He stalks toward me, a predator closing in on it's cornered prey. The only thing I can do is shrink into myself. He looks wild.

"Scaring you? That scares you?" His hands grab me by the shoulders. "Do you have any idea what I am?" It's remarkable that his voice can be so frightening and at the same time, so quiet. It's even more remarkable that I don't scream out and save myself from his wrath.

This break in his carefully constructed sanity.

"Are you toying with me? Just pretending you care? Tell me why you protected me!" He roughly shakes me again, causing pain to sear like fire in my veins. "Tell me!"

"Because you're my friend." Just as suddenly as he turned hostile, he steps away from back from me, all calm cool and collected with a poet's tranquility. I slip to the floor like string like a puppet who's string who were cut off. I have to look away from him to stop crying.

"And I let myself think I was yours too. But I was wrong, I thought my mother was lying, but I was the real liar." I tie my hands in knots before looking back at him. "I can't be your friend! No one can, because you can't care for anyone. Anyone but yourself." There is a vague twinge of something in his boundless eyes, something that doesn't belong within Gaara of the Desert's eyes.

Traitor tears slip out of the corners of my own.

"I don't blame you for it though." I force out a smile, rubbing my eyes, trying to make them stop leaking. "Please, go now. You have what you wanted. You have your answer." Without another word, he vanishes through the window he came as silent as the summer's breeze.

...

"Hana?" I stop walking towards him at the sound, head hung. My father is dressed in full Jonin gear, placing one last Kunai into the leather pouch around his waist. "What are you doing out? I thought you were locking yourself away for all eternity." I can hear the laughter in his voice, but it doesn't matter. I collide with his chest, warping my one small arm around him as best as I can, crying into his stomach.

"I'm sorry dad, I was being stupid. I'm sorry. Forgive me?"

"Hana, Hana, Hana, little flower," I can hear the smile in his voice. "There is nothing to forgive." He kisses my forehead. "Now I need to leave, but I'll most likely be back tonight, so we can all have diner together, okay?"

I nod my head, backing away from him with a smile.

"Good luck on your mission dad." I tell him.

"I don't need luck today Hana, but thank you." He pulls me into a half hug again. "Go talk to your mother, okay? She was beside herself over this." My brow creases with guilt.

I forgot, I made her cry again.

My father kisses my forehead again then leaves through the door without saying goodbye.

Then again, he never has.

I turn away from the door and slowly make my way to the upper level.

"Mom?"