A/N: Yay! A new chapter! Sorry it took so long but I had major's writer's block and most of this was written at 2 in the morning so if it's crap, that may be why. I was so close to not even bothering to continue this story cause I got some bad reviews, finally. But then I realised two things. 1: That I couldn't do that to my lovely reviewers and 2: Why should I listen to someone who doesn't use correct grammar/punctuation/spelling and has never uploaded a story of their own? So I shall continue regardless of what people say! Goodie!

Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto or any other copy righted material. I only own 1 quarter of Ky's drawing abilities.

Gaara rushed down the beautiful staircase that somehow seemed stale now, as if the white marble had turned a sallow yellowish grey to mark this day. In the foyer he was stopped by Hinata. "Gaara-kun! It's probably just a-," Hinata started but Gaara pulled away from her and continued out the door. She looked too much like Neji. The entire place screamed of Neji and he was suffocating in it. He had to get out. He had to get out!

Gaara stumbled over to D'gani's car and climbed inside just as Neji came through the front door and waved desperately to the redhead. "Gaara! Wait!" D'gani stared at Gaara's tear streaked face.

"What happened?" He asked looking from Neji's approaching figure to Gaara and back again. Gaara's eyeliner had smudged and ran in rivets down his cheeks, looking almost as if his face had large wobbly cracks slicing through it.

"Just go! Now!" Gaara screamed at D'gani and they pulled out of the Hyuuga estate just as Neji was almost at the car. Gaara closed his eyes. Images of Tenten touching Neji like that. Of their faces pushing together. Of the general wrongness of the situation. Gaara opened his eyes, unable to see those images anymore. They arrived back at Haku's house and Gaara ran up to his room, overwhelmed by his despair.

"Gaara?" D'gani poked his head around the door before entering and slowly closing it behind him. "Please tell me what happened." He walked over to Gaara's bed and sat next to him.

"She was kissing him! They were-,"Gaara choked and struggled on the words. "He was-," Gaara again had to pause to sob. "Kissing Tenten!" Gaara finally managed to choke out before bursting into a new bout of wracking sobs. D'gani's face went from stunned to disbelieving to fury to quiet realization. All of these were expressed with a single utterance.

"Oh," D'gani stated lamely before slumping slightly against Gaara. Neither spoke, and for several minutes the only sound was that of Gaara's choking sobs. Eventually D'gani broke the silence and Gaara was surprised to hear how hoarse his voice was. "It's not fair, is it?" He asked dismally.

"What isn't? This or life in general?" Gaara's voice was bitter, tarnished by the destruction of his apparent falsehood love.

"I thought that if you got it right. That if you could be happy and stay with Neji-," Here D'gani's voice broke and tears started to fall down his face like opaque rain. "That then I would have a chance to be happy too. That maybe one day, the past would be the past and we could be normal. But that'll never happen, will it? We're just destined to a life of unmitigated sorrow." D'gani couldn't talk anymore; his throat seemed to be clogged by his emotions and their inability to be articulated.

"I guess there is no happy ending like in the fairy tales. I swore that I wouldn't do this, that I would never allow hope to creep in. Because I knew this would happen. I knew that expectation only leads to disappointment." Gaara wiped his tears away as D'gani lay down next to him and buried his face in Gaara's shoulder. "Never leave me, D'gani. I couldn't stand it if I lost you too..."

Neji rapped three times on the door which was answered by Haku. "Sorry, Neji. Gaara doesn't want to see you." He stated firmly, his tone cold and emotionless. He stepped out onto the porch beside Neji and closed the door before ramming Neji up against it. "I warned you! I told you not to ruin this, Hyuuga!" Haku hissed and Neji still didn't even struggle in Haku's grip.

---Flashback---

"Neji," Haku said to the boy as he stopped him in the hallway on his way back to Gaara. "This boy's special. You need to be careful not to hurt him."

"Haku, why would I want to hurt Gaara?" Neji snorted at the older boy. "I really-." Neji began but Haku cut across him.

"It's not a matter of wanting or not wanting. Good intentions won't save Gaara's feelings. Gaara is the kind of person that if you hurt, you could be killed over. It would be the same as if someone were to hurt Naruto; they would be spat on and treated like dirt by the majority of people. They are the 'undislikables' as I have named them. You wouldn't get away with hurting them." Haku's tone was even but his stare was determined.

"Are you threatening me?" Neji asked incredulously. He couldn't believe that Haku would say something like that; it sounded like something out of a bad soap opera.

"No, I am warning you. Please just be careful, I won't be the one to hurt you..."

---End Flashback---

"I never wanted to hurt him. I didn't mean to or want to, I mean I'm gay and I love Gaara so much it hurts. But I..." Neji cast around helplessly for his lost words as he began to cry softly, remorsefully.

"And I believe you. You're not to blame for this, or at least not all of it." Haku let Neji go before pulling him into a tight embrace. "But Gaara needs space right now so I think you should just let things be for now. I'll talk to D'gani about it; he knows Gaara better than we do." Haku whispered softly as he moved back off Neji and back towards the door. Neji nodded resentfully; he didn't like that someone knew Gaara better than he did and all this sitting around was killing him.

Gaara stared out the window at the cheery spring day and felt irrationally angry. The weather seemed to be mocking him with its false promises of good times. The sky should be a murky grey with sleet sleeting down on the pavement, harassing pedestrians. Not a forget-me-not blue with furling tufts of fluffy cloud and sunlight cascading down on the world. He sighed glumly and turned away from the window.

'The most annoying thing,' he thought to himself 'Is that I can't even describe how I feel well enough to write a poem.' He pondered the pain he felt in his heart for a moment. He got no words but more of a feeling. He wondered at that feeling for a while before deciding it was a being-jabbed-by-a-white-hot-poker kind of feeling. With underlying currents of an oh-joy-I'm-being-stewed-in-a-vat-of-insipidly-green-acid feelings. But he couldn't very well write a poem using those ridiculous compounds.

Gaara sighed again before realising that his brain had made a joke before. How dare he make jokes at a time like this?! Mentally groaning to himself about how utterly boring depression was as he could neither be bothered doing anything or allow himself to do nothing. He eventually decided to sleep. This plan was quashed by him being a terrible insomniac at the best of times. He tried to read his book but got annoyed within moments and threw it across the room then started crying when it upturned the vase that had been holding the bouquet of flowers that Neji had given him months ago and so the dried petals were now all over D'gani's bed.

"It's official," Gaara muttered to himself "I'm completely insane. Why does everything turn to shit?" He sighed once more, turned to the window and unwittingly started the whole process all over again.

It wasn't as if he could just focus his feelings into hatred for Neji, because he still loved him. He still loved him and that was why it hurt so much. How could Neji throw away all that they had for that girl? It wasn't right. He heard someone knock on the door and a few moments later, Naruto walked into the room. Gaara was surprised; the look on Naruto's face was terrible sorrow and Gaara hadn't even thought that they were exceptionally good friends. Naruto came and sat on the bed next to him.

"So it hasn't worked out, huh?" He asked Gaara softly in a strange tone of voice. "You lost him; your most precious person. Now, what are you going to do about it?" Naruto's voice sounded defiant and slightly angry as he stared Gaara straight in the eye.

"What can I do?" Gaara asked hollowly, his face expressionless from such pain. What could he do? There was nothing. Neji was gone forever and there was nothing Gaara could do! Gaara started to cry again and looked away from Naruto.

"Well, I guess Neji didn't matter that much to you then," Naruto stated derisively. "Because if you really cared, you'd do anything to have him back. You'd forgive him."

"What would you know about pain?!" Gaara asked angrily, glaring at the usually hyperactive blonde. Naruto's face went dark and Gaara was suddenly remorseful, why had his words been so venomous?

"More than you will ever know. Don't make the mistake of thinking that just because I smile and just because I'm hyper doesn't mean that I don't hurt like everyone else! I still feel pain! If you cut me, I bleed! I know pain, Sabaku! But I'm stronger than it! I won't just sit around and cry because, frankly, that's not going to do anything. Moping or crying isn't going to make you feel better or make life worth living. It just expends more of the little time you have to spend with the ones you love." Naruto's words cut through Gaara like a knife and he could only stare as Naruto stood up and started walking towards the door. "Time is ticking, Gaara. Don't be so pathetic and do something because the next time I hear that you're moping around like you don't have a reason to live, I'll kick your ass!" The old Naruto was back and he flashed Gaara a dazzling smile as he left the room and then the house.

Gaara sat back and mulled over what Naruto had just said. He obviously thought that he should forgive Neji, but how could he, after what he did? He broke the sacred trust and with it, Gaara's heart. Naruto had one thing right though, he couldn't just sit here doing nothing...

Monday back at school was difficult for Gaara. He managed to not cry during his classes or in front of anyone but this resulted in him wearing a perpetual glare that scared nearly everyone away from him. Not Sasuke however as his family were proud developers of powerful glares and seemed to be immune to its effects. Performing Arts was the worst class as he had to work in a pair with Neji to develop a scene. Gaara resolved to behave professionally and just do the work but as soon as he saw Neji, he could only just manage to get to the bathroom before bursting into tears. This was not going to work well. Gaara heard someone enter the bathroom outside of his cubicle.

"-and apparently the little fag's been crying ever since!" Deidara's voice rang out clearly as he laughed cruelly. Another male's laugh joined his but another boy's voice cut over him.

"You're a real prick, you know that?" the voice said, ringing with obvious distaste. "Why'd you do that? They weren't hurting anyone. It didn't even affect you."

"I did it because it's disgusting, Sasori. You're only all pissed off 'cause you like his cousin." Deidara's voice was contemptuous. Gaara heard the door open and close as the boys left. He wondered at what they had been doing in there as none of the cubicle doors had opened. He walked out of his cubicle to find the words: "Gaara is a useless faggot. If you see him, it is your civic duty to teach him a lesson." Gaara stared at the words for a few moments. They could not be a good sign. Now the entire male population of the school would be constantly trying to make his life hell. Just what he needed; more crap to deal with.

Gaara walked back to his Performing Arts class to find that everyone had gone outside to practice and only Neji was left indoors. Gaara stared at him for a few moments. It was too soon. He had no idea what to say. Neji simply stared at him, also at a loss for words. Then the silence was broken by the sound of the door swinging open to reveal several boys standing there.

"We know all about you being a queer, Sabaku." One of them said with a sneer. "We don't like that kind of trash at our school, do we boys?" He turned to the other boys in the group who were all shaking their heads in mock concern. The leader started towards Gaara and raised a fist but before it even got close to Gaara, Neji was there. He found that all his frustration and anger that had accumulated over the past two days had overwhelmed him and found violence to be a suitable outlet.

Even with Neji still recovering from a broken leg, the boys never had a chance. Neji had beaten them all back within moments and was panting angrily at them. For a moment, his eyes connected with Gaara's and all he wanted to do was to run to him and hold him and never let go. But, instead, he walked over to a chair and sat in it, muttering something as he did so. Although he had said it as barely more than a whisper, Gaara had heard it.

"Sorry." And with that one quiet statement, Gaara wanted to cheer, yell and cry all at the same time. But he did none of those things. He merely walked over to a seat away from Neji and sat down, staring at his shoes. He studied his laces for the rest of the period upon which, he gathered his things and left. He didn't look back so he had no idea that Neji was staring at him or that someone in the back of the hall had witnessed the entire scene from the back of the hall.

"I'm sorry they ruined it," the observer said, approaching Neji. His pale skin and youthful face gleamed in the shafts of light falling throughout the hall.

"Aren't you Sasori? And who's they?" Neji asked dully, his brow converging in a slight frown.

"Yes and they are Tenten and Deidara. What they did to him was just cruel. Do not allow them to go unpunished." Sasori turned abruptly at this and left the hall without another word, leaving Neji both uneasy and confused. "What did Deidara have to do with anything?"

Haku stopped D'gani in the corridor as he made his way to his next class. "Are you sure you can handle the Gaara part? He's not allowed to-." Haku was cut off by D'gani.

"I know Gaara. Don't worry. Everything will work out. I promise!" D'gani smiled weakly and started to walk away. He just wished he was really that confident. But then he had always had a kind of instinct with Gaara; where he knew just what to say or do just at the last moment. It was almost paternal. Now he had only to wait until Gaara was ready for what they had planned.

A/N: Oooh! kind of a cliffy! Now I tried to include some angst in this one, I felt the story should have some XD! Okay, Please Read and Review. Ah gowan! Gowan gowan gowan!