Okie doke. Second to last chapter peeps!
This is the longest short story I've ever written... Or is it the shortest too long story..? Eh, whatever.
This chapter is dedicated to Tigrezz Tail, who had an everlasting hunger for a writer's individual knowledge, and asks me questions that I sometimes forget to ask myself. Thank you.
Gaara wondered, very pointedly, why he had decided to go home. He then remembered that- while he enjoyed wearing Naruto's clothes, it would really cause a problem if the police caught him 'running away' with them on. He wouldn't put it passed the bastard sperm bearer to call the police on him. He hadn't done it yet, but Gaara was open to any and all changes.
Except, maybe, this one.
Temari had stayed the night, and boy had that been hell. When he had first walked into his house, she had made a fuss about him being out so late. That ended up as a shouting match between his father and himself, and he was sure that he his side was bruised, as was his shoulder. He smirked. His father looked much worse for wear.
That, and the fact that it would not be long until he graduated, held him steady. He wondered what would happen if he told Naruto... No, he wouldn't do that. He didn't know why, but he decided it wouldn't be a good idea to. He shook his head. There was a vibe about Naruto, and maybe it was from spending such active time with him. The blonde cared for the people he grew close to... maybe a little too much.
Gaara smirked. It made him wonder if all those children would be at their graduation. He couldn't see them in a social setting without causing unwanted attention and unwarranted raucousness. He could see himself dismaying over them, and Naruto kissing him to placation.
He shook himself. The red head should be more careful, even in his thoughts. He couldn't judge future events off of his present with Naruto. Things were fleeting, especially human's feelings. He tried to convince himself that he shouldn't feel that way, and that it wouldn't matter if they weren't together after that long.
Because it didn't work, he dressed, grabbed his backpack, and left.
~{n}~
As soon as he opened the door, the blonde smiled. Gaara gave a small one in return, and stepped into the apartment.
"How did you sleep," Naruto asked, and Gaara tried to remember where along the line he had told the blonde about his insomnia. He shrugged his shoulders because it didn't really matter now.
"I can't even remember if I slept."
The equivalent statement being, 'I didn't sleep at all.' The blonde slid down onto his couch with his house phone. He frowned up at the redhead and opened his arms by way of invitation. Gaara readily took his place in them, curling his feet underneath himself, and resting his head on the others' chest.
"Family troubles," Naruto asked, because it seems like the only proper explanation. The redhead in his arms shrugged his shoulders but said nothing more on the subject. Naruto dropped it.
"I'm calling in for pizza. What's your fancy today?"
Gaara wrinkled his nose in the cute way that Naruto like when he thought. He shrugs his shoulders again.
"I only ever eat cheese," he replied. Naruto dialed the number and put in the order. He didn't like a lot of fancy toppings on his pizza, but he supposed half cheese and half pepperoni would be good enough for the both of them. They sat in utter silence, save the sound of the lions' growl coming from the television. Usually, Gaara didn't mind Naruto's animal planet splurges, but he had a question on his mind.
"How did you become undesirable number one at the high school?"
The blonde sighed as if it was a long suffered tale. Gaara didn't think it could be, but knowing Sasuke Uchiha and the rest, he could be wrong.
"It ended up being a mistake I made... but it wasn't in the beginning. I was friends with Sasuke and Sakura, before."
Gaara's brows knitted in confusion. He couldn't see them all together. They were all too... different. Well, maybe, because Haruno had a strange pushiness that could probably keep them together. Behind him, Naruto laughed, making his head bounce lightly from the vibration.
"Its just as crazy as it sounds," he said, with almost a reverence in his voice," Well... not so much. They were different, but I guess two years in the same school can change you."
Gaara would prefer Naruto spoke without the nostalgia in his voice. He shifted his feet, because it was a bit uncomfortable what with him losing feeling them. Naruto tightened his hold on him momentarily and kissed his neck. The red head let out a little noise of pleasure.
"I'm sorry I annoyed you," Naruto said into his ear. His voice was a soft, deep timbre that made Gaara's lower spine tingle and his eyes flutter shut. Naruto's arms tightened again, holding him comfortably close. The red head let his head loll, giving Naruto more room to do as he pleased. The blonde's mouth opened and began to suck gently on his neck. He licked him gently, making the red head shudder. He squeezed Naruto's hands over his body, and let out a little gasp.
"Mm," his voice carried the small moan out. Naruto was sucking hard now, and Gaara couldn't deny that bit of pain made arousal sweep up his cock. He shook his thoughts and said without breath, "You were explaining something."
"Hmn," Naruto grunted, but let go only when he was satisfied. His breath was hot against the freshly, welting skin of Gaara's neck. He liked it. It made the pain intensify in pulsing intervals. He shivered.
"Ah," Naruto said after a while, "we were friends. I used to prank everyone back then, and it didn't matter whether I was smart or not, because I wasn't really interested in school yet. I didn't know what I wanted to be back then."
"Now you do?"
He felt Naruto smile into his skin and reply, "I'll tell you about it sometime... Anyway, I was the kid everyone loved to hate, for one reason or another. I used to live on the opposite side of town, a little over a year ago, and my house was huge."
"How big is your huge," Gaara asked, and smirked at the innuendo. Naruto laughed but continued on.
"It was more of a mansion than a house. Ma mom was a police officer, and ma dad owned Namikaze corps. Since we lived larger, people hated me. They didn't know how hard it was to live in space that was filled with darkness. Ah, but they still hated me, and I didn't make the situation any better with my pranks."
"That was over a year ago... I didn't know grudges lasted that long," Gaara snorted. Naruto shook his golden hair beside him.
"You should meet Sasuke," he muttered, "though that's not my story to tell... Those weren't the reasons they still resent me. After my parents died, I threw myself into the tough shit act. I didn't give a damn, pillaged, stole, and pranked. At the same time, I watched Sasuke and Sakura change. She was always in love with him, but it became more... serious I suppose. And since Sasuke was the most desired thing in the school, he began to learn how to use it.
He ignore Sakura's passes, and it pissed me off, so I pranked him."
"Did you like her," Gaara asked, something hot and disgusting in his stomach. He leaned his head back. Naruto nuzzled into him and kissed his earlobe.
"I thought I did, for a long while. She ended up being just a school crush, and then like a sister to me," he said, "Of course, it'd piss me off that Sasuke ignored her. It wasn't the best idea to prank him like that, though, I suppose."
Naruto shrugged, and Gaara's head bobbed. He looked up at the blond with curious eyes, and Naruto smiled at him. Finally he said, "I keyed his car, smashed a few of his windows, and filled it with soapy, laundry detergent water. I proceeded to say that I had seen one of the most ferociously gorgeous girls at school prowling around his car... You know Karin?"
The red head's eyes widened as he stared up at his devious lover. Naruto had not shown a side like that at all, though he had a brightness about him... It made Gaara wonder where that brightness had gone. Or if he could ever bring it back. He hoped he could, even if it would take work. He shook his head.
"Well, Sasuke was very discreet, so he dealt with her in the same manor. But she kept pleading that it wasn't her, and that she hadn't even known where his car was, and then he got suspicious, and one thing lead to another... Well, Sasuke wasn't happy, and he let everyone know. His next few moves were brilliant... for a teenager.
He told everyone what I did to his car, and then he spread the rumor that I was in love with him, though it became so warped that no one knew the origin anymore. People looked at me with disgust, because Sasuke was the icon of the school. Other admired me, and others stayed away. And then there was an incident."
"This get more and more promising with every sentence," Gaara said, eyes wide as if hanging off every word. Naruto laughed softly, though the red head knew it was missing some of its mirth.
"Well, there was a girl- not Karin, this time- who loved Sasuke. But, circumstantially, she already had a boyfriend. This girl heard about what I had done, and became so twisted with anger about the truth and the lies that she made up her own. She came to her boyfriend and they came to me, and she was covered in bruises and cuts.
She told her boyfriend that I was the one who did it to her. Turns out she had a very abusive family life... but he didn't know that, so he tried to attack me. Unfortunately, it didn't work. I sent him to the hospital for a month and a half. It ended up becoming the cannon to the story of my guardian's death. No one could look me in the eye after that, and I ended up falling into the gray periphery of everyone's lives."
"It ends there? That guy didn't come back," Gaara asked, worry twisting in him for the blonde, though he knew that he was fine. Naruto reminded him again by squeezing him and kissing his neck. He shivered in ease and delight.
"He came back, with a weapon, and other guys with weapons. This was after he found out the girl was lying. He said it was just a matter of honor. After he and another guy went down, the others ran away, calling me a freak. That was when I knew no one else in the school would be friends with me again, though I didn't mind. I drove those guys to the hospital, though they only spent a few days each."
"You've got some tale to tell," Gaara muttered, soaking in everything he had just hear. So, Naruto had been shunned at the worst of times. And all that he had been trying to do was protect someone he thought of as his sister. It was similar to his situation when he was younger, but it was much different now. He was glad for now. Maybe, if Naruto had not been shunned, he would not belong to the red head.
"I have a question for you," the blonde said to him, "Would you still go through with the bet if you were friend with me first?"
This was a turn, really. They didn't talk about the bet, or how sensitive it was for the both of them, or if it even was. Naruto watched him patiently and waited. Gaara thought about it.
"I don't know," he replied, and Naruto's brows raised in surprise. The red head shook his head.
"You don't..."
"If you look at it from a situational point of view, you wouldn't either. It could depend on lots of things. Maybe, if I were friends with you, I wouldn't even look in their direction. Or they could convince me that you were some mischievous deviant and make me take on the bet anyway. Maybe, I could have been compelled to be friends with them more, because they'd appeal to me more. Or, I could just be a complete douche, and like to hurt people for no reason," Gaara explained, and shrugged, "We'll never know, because there's so much we can't possibly take into account."
"You... are so... Wow," Naruto said breathlessly, and Gaara looked up at him confusedly. Naruto attacked his lips, cutting off any reply and thought he had.
~{g}~
"Where did you get that," Naruto asked in a tight voice, gripping Gaara's wrist harshly. The red head didn't back, staring evenly with an equally piercing an angry stare.
"It doesn't concern you," he replied, trying to pull his hand free so he could get on a shirt ASAP. Naruto yanked him harshly, pulling them chest to chest. Both of them weren't covered, though Gaara could see his night shirt just to the left of himself.
"Yes, it fucking does. You've magically got bruises and it doesn't concern me!? Just tell me what happened?"
"Why? You can't save me, and I don't need you to. It won't make a difference," Gaara said. Naruto's fist lashed out and immediately struck the wall next to him. There was only the sound of the wall cracking for a few seconds.
"I don't care if I can't save you, or if you don't want me to help you. I need to know."
"...Why?"
Naruto looked at him with sad blue eyes and embraced him. Gaara could feel him trembling, but his emotions were too knotted to figure out whether he should or should not hug back.
"Didn't it hurt; when you saw me in the hospital? You knew how it happened, but didn't you want to know who had let the piano go? Even if no one told you, it didn't matter, because you wanted to hurt someone like they had hurt me."
Gaara's chest constricted at the memory. He wrapped his arms around Naruto.
"I like you- I careabout you, Gaara. I don't want you to hurt; not by anyone's standards. I want to rectify it..."
"... I got into another fight with my father. This was the first physical one in a long while," he said, and didn't add it had only been a matter of time. Naruto looked up, eyes turning more black than blue. How could this have happened? Gaara had told him that they fought... but he didn't know it was physical. He didn't know that the the red head, his lover, got hurt. His anger flared.
"You're not going back there," Naruto growled, and bit into his shoulder. Gaara's eyes rolled back, and his cock jerked to awareness.
"Agh..! Naruto," he grunted, and the blonde slid his hand to cup him through his pants. The blonde's strokes were teasing first, and then he added more pressure. The friction from his hand was provoking, the promise of that warm hand settling around his manhood. Gaara trembled as his bit stung, and his cock began to fill. Naruto's other hand came down to grope his ass. It was rough, and the blonde shoved his hand between the red head's thighs to make him spread them. His hand reached into the fronyt of the red head's pants.
He was now fully erect, and as Naruto's other hand began to rub between his legs, he began to leak. His face heated from arousal and embarrassment. He was being touched between the legs like some woman-
Naruto's hand began jerking him off as the same time he whispered into his ear, "You like it when I touch you here, ne?"
His hand twisted on an upward jerk, and the red head cried out. Naruto's lips attached to his neck, and his eyes closed again. He wouldn't be able to keep them open anymore, anyway. He pushed himself up into the blonde's hand now, because he liked it, and Naruto's hands were slightly rougher than his and un! it made so much difference. He could feel the heat in his face, but didn't have to to knew that he was flushed with arousal. He was making Naruto's hand wet, and it slid over him more easily, becoming slightly chilled where Naruto wasn't touching it.
Naruto's other hand suddenly reached into his pants, and Gaara didn't know whether to be anxious or over-excited. The blonde's fingers moved passed his hole, down to the skin between his legs, behind his balls. Gaara didn't understand, but it Naruto wanted to do it-
"Ahn," he moaned as the finger pressed something pleasantly that wasn't supposed to be there, and Naruto's hand jerked up and twisted.
"Feels good, ne," the blonde asked, and he was cumming so hard that he stopped breathing for all of ten seconds. He clutched Naruto and he couldn't tell if he was hurting him or not. He let out a long, low moan, body's muscles seizing. Gaara was tense and yet everything was loose, and he could feel everything around him. Naruto's body against his, solid and warm, his hand still jerking him until he was empty, his fingers still gently rubbing that slightly swollen spot. After a few seconds he let him go. After a few minutes, he realized that Naruto had left him half-splayed on the bed, and went to wash his hands. He shivered and pulled on his shirt.
Naruto strolled back into the room, and then leaned back down over his lover. His eyes were fierce, and Gaara supposed they had been since he had told the blonde about his fights. He stared back evenly, though the muscles around his spine tensed, and his insides trembled. He couldn't tell if it was anxiety or quiet anger.
"You're not going back there," he said, much more evenly than the first time, much more cold, and solid. The red head didn't want to go back either, he had just never had a reason to stay away.
He had no rebuttal.
~{s}~
"What the hell are you doing in my car!?"
Naruto blinked very, very slowly. Sasuke was making a scene at the entrance of the school. If he had known the raven would be shouting at him, he would have stayed inside. However, the interior wasn't doing much for him without Gaara in it. He needed a bit of light and fresh air anyway, so he had stepped out.
Oh, how Kami-sama resented him.
People were looking at him, staring in disgust as he leaned over the top of the car. The door was hanging open and his foot was propped up inside of it. He looked slowly at the brunette (raven?) and shrugged his shoulders equally slowly. Uchiha looked about to say something, but he was cut off.
"Actually, that's not your car."
Naruto smiled as Gaara approached, and the red head gave a small one in return. The brunette bastard looked between them incredulously, anger seeping through until it surrounded him like a cloud.
"I can call the police and-"
"You signed it over to me, you didn't just give it to me. All I have to do is show them where you signed," Gaara replied evenly and Naruto snickered from his place atop the car. His lover was so dubiously clever. All he could do was hope it wasn't used against him someday... Sasuke's eyes blazed at him, but he could only take one step.
"Sasuke."
Gaara was jolted. It was the softest voice Naruto had ever used in his presence. It made him shiver... very unpleasantly. He looked at the blonde, and his blood froze. His eyes were bleeding red, angry and slitted. Yet they didn't fit his face at all. There was a scary, even calm to him. He slid further over the top of the car, his eyes never leaving the brunette. Gaara couldn't seem to breathe. Uchiha didn't seem to be able to move. Naruto seemed to like that.
"I suggest... that... you... don't, Sasuke," Naruto breathed steadily, his pauses raising anticipation and fear in everyone in the vicinity. Sasuke stumbled back two steps. Gaara, who saw no other way to salvage the situation, slid into the car, and closed the door behind himself. Naruto got in next to him, and when the red head looked, his eyes were back to their usual blue. Gaara blinked up at him.
"Sorry... I get protective," Naruto muttered, starting up the car. Gaara reached up and grabbed his chin.
"Okay," he said, leaning over and kissing the blonde healthily. Naruto smiled beautifully.
…
They had been on the road for a half an hour, before Naruto spoke.
"Would you tell me about your family," he asked lightly. Gaara contemplated his lover as his eyes absorbed the sight the window enabled him to see. He didn't know which side of Naruto he liked more. On one hand, he was kind, and very gentle. It reminded him of his mother, since so little people were so kind to the red head from his home. On the other hand, he was dangerously persuasive, and there was something barely sadistic about him. It made Gaara's insides quiver at the thought, and aroused him to no end. He supposed, however, he would not be able to live with that sadistic Naruto all of the time.
"What do you want to know?"
Naruto's eyes flicked from the road to the red head. He gave what he hoped was a reassuring smile and said, "Anything you'd like to share, really."
Gaara didn't know where to begin. He didn't really think about his home life, or his life in general at all. To recount it to someone else was strange in and of itself. He tried, "Suna, the district we're going to now, is where I used to live. After my mom died, things didn't look to bright for us. One of the neighbors caught a fight between us..."
Naruto's hands whitened around the steering wheel, and Gaara's eyes flicked up to catch his jaw tense. The red head could assume that he knew who he was talking about from the way Naruto breathed out through his nose. He muttered, "You're not going back."
"We moved here, because none of us could take the stress," Gaara continued on as if he hadn't heard, "In reality, it was just me and him, because both of my siblings are old enough to live on their own. I was... never close to him, and when my mother died, it gave us a reason to actually not like each other. Its adventure I guess..."
"You have two siblings," Naruto asked, slightly redirecting. He didn't want to become any more angry than he was. He didn't care who it was, what age they were. You didn't put your hands on a child, and especially not someone who is related to you. If he could, he would beat the bastard until he lost the use of his legs, but he supposed Gaara wouldn't like that. No, he had to reign his temper. It wouldn't do for Gaara to hate him when he-
When he loved him so much.
It was odd; loving someone when you barely knew all of them. He had fitted Gaara so perfectly into his life... No, Gaara had come, and they had fitted themselves together. Naruto had never had such a peace of mind about not being alone. It was alright, he thought, loving Gaara so early on. It meant that the love could only manifest in the deepest part of him, and grow until it took him over, like he wanted it to.
"Yes. A brother, and a sister. Temari's the oldest, and she's blonde. Kankuro has brown hair."
"You've got some wild genes," Naruto said, "A bundle with a red head, a blonde, and a brunette."
"My mother was a red head, but her family's main hair color was brown, so Kankuro and I aren't very strange. Temari was much more of a surprise, but her eyes are the same color as mine."
"Mm... I don't think they look as pretty as they do on you," Naruto said idly, switching lanes.
"You haven't met her yet."
"I'm glad that you let yourself admit that your eyes are pretty," Naruto quipped slyly. Gaara glared side-long at him, but he continued to grin.
"They're not," he muttered.
"Give it up," Naruto laughed, "You're drop-dead gorgeous Sabaku!"
Gaara felt a shiver go up his spine. He'd never heard Naruto compliment him, or even call him by his last name. His face heated up, and he said, "Shut up."
Naruto laughed at him and said, "So how do you feel about them? Your siblings, I mean."
"Hm... I don't care for Kankuro much at all. He seems to like to start trouble."
"As brothers do," Naruto said, as if he knew from personal experience. Gaara couldn't see how, because he didn't actually have siblings. It was a rude, vicious thought, and he wanted to take it back at one. He salvaged his guilt by not repeating it out loud.
"Temari... She's kind, like my mother used to be. I know she wants to help... but I wish she would just stop visiting," Gaara said, almost muttering that last part. Naruto glanced over at him, but didn't say anything on it. Personally, he thinks that the red head is wrong. He needs her more than anyone else, and maybe Kankuro too, even if they don't get on as well as he and his sister. He didn't tell him so.
"You're surprisingly spry for someone who got hit with a piano three weeks prior," Gaara said, and Naruto laughed shortly at him. He knew that that could have been another near death experience, but it hadn't been. The blonde knew that he was extremely lucky, with both instances.
"Yeah, well... I supposed I angled by body just right, and those men pulled up at the right second," he replied, and Gaara gave him an odd look. He continued, "I got a bump on the head, concussed, some broken ribs and a few hairline fractures nowhere important."
"Still, you should be..."
Naruto huffed out a laugh and said, "I guess you could say I'm a bit... supernatural. Where it takes about six weeks for people to heal broken bones, it only takes me four."
Gaara shifted in his seat. Supernatural indeed. That wasn't supposed to be possible. He was stuck between worrying over Naruto's well being and the improbability of it all. Maybe he was just lying to get out of it the hospital early. But that didn't make sense, because the doctors did do check ups before releasing their charges. And why would he tell Gaara this if he was just lying about it? It wasn't as if the red head could do anything about it. He decided that it didn't matter, even if he was the one to ask in the first place.
That was just another supernatural thing about his boyfriend.
~{sg}~
The place that Gaara had asked him to escort him to was a bath house. At first, Naruto didn't know whether to be skeptical, or what to expect. It was a lovely place, and though there was no snow on the ground, it was crisp in the area. The fog of the hot water pools created a gorgeous juxtaposition with the wooden house. Naruto liked to think it was a place that his parents would have taken him. Jiraiya would had loved it too. He smiled contentedly and slipped his hand into his lover's.
The bath house was frequented regularly, but was never actually packed. It had a fair amount of costumers today, and Naruto supposed it would. It was a Friday evening, and the start of vacation for students. There were a few there, with their parents, but it was more older couples the seemed to take up residence in this place. Gaara knew his way around, and the blonde figured out why soon after. The place was owned by his grandmother, Chiyo. She was a short, round woman, with chubby cheeks and two birthmarks on her face.
She looked so kind that it seemed as if she had enough for two people. Naruto joked that she sapped it all from Gaara. She had laughed at him, as Gaara tried to glare threateningly. It only made the blonde laugh harder, because he thought that his face looked funny. Chiyo said, "He looked softer as a child. I've got a book of him. He was the cutest."
Naruto's face lit up, and though he tried to pretend he didn't care, Naruto could see the mortification in Gaara's eyes. He smiled as the woman led them to her rooms, and showed them a collection of photos. Some, she explained, were of her children. Others, were pictures of Gaara, and another red head. Chiyo had explained that that was her other grandchild, Gaara's cousin. He had been estranged, and as much as Chiyo wished to see him, he didn't wish to see her.
Naruto had smiled at her and said, "Gaara's still with you, and as long as he's got me, you do too."
"Thank you," she said, after her initial shock had work off, with a smile.
Longest chapter yet!
See you next Friday!
