6. Silent Storm
Mayonaka no Hana shut and locked her bedroom door, hoping no one was keeping tabs on her. The Kazekage was away, making some sort of political trip to further his efforts to keep the hidden villages united. That meant no one in the village could sneak up on her anymore.
The black and blue haired girl took out three scrolls she had yet to take her items out of. The first one was labeled with nothing more than the kanji for "Lessons", a decoy to keep people from investigating it further. She rolled it out across the floor and unsealed its contents. Paints and paintbrushes, as fresh as when she sealed them nearly a month ago, sprang forth. The colors varied from a light peach to a nearly black green. Every color she had ever seen in nature was present for her use.
The next scroll was labeled "Kunai". From it, she pulled large balls of clay, all of them still moist, and various sculpting tools. Hana picked a small ball of gray clay and sealed the rest back into the scroll. The last scroll, with "Shuriken" written on it, Hana didn't touch. She had no use of it yet. These scrolls were the only things Hana dared to keep of her once beloved hobby. Only a few times a year was she able to get them out, to use them.
Closing her eyes and feeling the clay as her mother once taught her, Hana begin to shape the bundle of earth. Time lapsed as she sat there, thinking nothing of what was outside. By the time she finally took a break, the clear shape of a beetle had finally taken form. The girl went to the bathroom and washed off her hands, preparing for the second part of her free day.
The beetle had to be fired before Hana could paint it. This is why she had taken the third scroll out. From it, she produced her mother's old oven. She took it to the window and placed the beetle inside. A series of glass lenses would bend the sun's rays into a sharp beam that would then heat the inside of the box, baking the beetle sculpture. It would take a few hours so Hana went to work finishing another project.
The "Shuriken" scroll not only contained her oven, it also held all of her previous sculptures, a set not nearly as large as she wished. Only one of her previous sculptures was unpainted; a giant mushroom shaped after one commonly found in Iwa's mountains. She took a bottle of black paint and a thick paint brush to coat the head of the mushroom, skirting around the many polka-dots that covered the fungus.
It took three coats to get the clay to a color Hana preferred. Then, she took a detail brush to outline where the blue polka-dots will be. That's when a knock came across the door. In a hurry, Hana hid away most of her utensils, sealing all the nonessentials. When most of it was hidden, she finally opened the wooden barrier. Temari stood outside.
"Yes?" the girl asked, sweeping her loose hair behind her ear.
"Are you going to join us for dinner?" Only she, Temari, and Baki were home. Kankuro had gone with Gaara to the Village Hidden in the Clouds.
"If you want me to." Despite the four weeks, Hana still hadn't connected very well with her housemates. Temari wasn't as bitter as Kankuro, but she was still unfriendly to the Iwa civilian. "Let me wash up first." Temari tried to follow the girl into her room but Hana stopped her. "I'll just be a moment." The blond kunoichi frowned but relented. Hana reappeared a few seconds later, ready to go. The two young women walked downstairs together. Baki was waiting for them at the dining table.
"Good evening, Lady Hana."
"Hello, Lord Baki. How has your day been?" The girl was in an unusually good mood, something Temari silently wished could have been shared with her brothers.
"Uneventful, and yours?"
"Peaceful. I haven't been doing much either. And you, Temari?"
"I've been down at the Academy, helping train the next generation of genin. There's a student who spoke of you. Nao?"
"Her and I train together sometimes. How is she?"
"She's doing well." The rest of the dinner conversation was made up of small talk. When they finished and Hana headed back upstairs, Temari ran after her.
"I want to talk," the kunoichi demanded, taking them to Hana's room.
"What about?" The girl was determined not to have her mood ruined by a conversation with her sister-in-law.
"You and Gaara." Dark eyes swept across the elder girl's face as if daring her to judge their fragile relationship. Hana liked Gaara, even she had to admit that, but she wouldn't be bullied into showing romantic feelings when she didn't feel them, nor would she keep her distance if that's what Temari asked. "He wants to befriend you, Hana. Won't you let him try?"
"Well… I…," she stumbled over her words, flabbergasted. "It's just… I don't…"
"I know you don't trust people, and I know you hate shinobi, but he deserves to be with someone who cares about him. Someone he can confide in. Will you be that person, Hana?"
"Um…" It was such a huge commitment, to promise that to Temari. The blonde would fight vehemently to get what she wanted, no matter Hana's response.
"Think about it, would you?" The girl nodded, retreating to her room. In an attempt to calm herself, she went back to painting, leaving the beetle to bake in the few rays of sunlight that remained. Despite her attempts, she couldn't get her mind off of what the kunoichi had said. She liked Gaara. But to trust him? To let herself care about him?
Mayonaka no Hana dropped her brush, covering her eyes with her hands and curling into a ball. How could she ever care about someone again? After what happened last time… She was terrified by the thought of revisiting the agony that haunted her childhood.
Someone he can confide in. But doesn't that mean I have to confide in him? She shuddered at the thought. People, ninja were not to be trusted. They were evil, cruel. Always so cruel. Hana stopped herself. She was sick of wallowing in self-pity when she knew that good people existed. People like Nao, like her mother and Kaito. If she gave it a shot, she was sure Gaara could be like that too.
Feeling a little more secure, Hana cleaned her mess and packed away her art, then readied for bed. She would tell Temari tomorrow that she could do it. She was determined to.
►§◄
Gaara slipped into his bedroom as silently as possible, watching the way his wife, tossed and turned in her sleep, just as fitful as him. Nothing moved him more than the yellow mark left on her cheek. It was her last bruise, the most stubborn one, and he could only see it because he knew it was there. In the daylight, to anyone else, it would be indistinguishable from the rest of her skin.
The redhead had gotten home early, his meeting with the Raikage short and sweet. He had hoped to arrive during the day so he might greet Hana, but they had been delayed by a sandstorm. Kankuro and their other companion wouldn't have been able to walk through it.
Putting down his gourd, Gaara strolled towards the bathroom when a strange box caught his eye. It was sitting amongst his cacti in the window. As he picked it up, he found its contents to be warm, almost hot to the touch. He pulled out the small figurine anyway and held it in the moonlight so he might see what it was. If he snapped the light on, it'd probably wake the girl curled on his bed. A beetle sat in his hand, surprisingly detailed despite the fact that it lacked paint. Ridges ran along its body just as they would in nature. Gaara glanced at his wife, curious if she had made this little work of art.
Hesitantly, he put everything back the way he found it and then went to the washroom to change and clean-up before joining her in bed. Over the past month, he had noticed that she enjoyed singing to him so long as he didn't question her motives. All he had to do was nudge her hand to wake her enough to recognize his presence, and then she would put him to sleep. He felt as if he had had more sleep in the past month than the rest of his life combined.
"You're home early," Hana breathed, making room for him as he slipped beneath the covers. "Did everything go well with Lord Raikage?"
"Yes," he replied softly. Her eyes were still closed yet her hand easily found his. Instead of her usual position of curling up around him, she wrapped her fingers around his arm and rested her head by his shoulder, snuggling against him. Still unused to these strange displays of affection, Gaara tensed for a bit before he relaxed into her touch.
"Gaara?" He waited. "Do you…? Am I…? Never mind."
"Hana, you can ask me anything you like. I will not be upset with you." The girl bit her lip. She wasn't afraid of him getting upset, she was afraid of his answer.
"It's nothing," she lied, thinking better of it. "Let's go to sleep." The young Kage wasn't so easily distracted.
"Hana, I want you to trust me. Please tell me what's on your mind." Her heart seized up a little bit. She had made a promise to herself but still…
"Do you trust me?"
"Yes." He answered without hesitation, turning his head so he could watch her reaction. Violet eyes opened wide before she quickly concealed her astonishment behind a serene mask. "Sing to me, Hana," he urged when he was sure she would speak no more. The girl smiled and began her lullaby, closing her eyes as they fell asleep.
