It was snowing merrily now in pretty white flurries. Perfectly pointed icicles sparkled on the underside of houses or were embedded in soft snow where they had fallen earlier. There was a peaceful kind of silence and the landscape was blinding white against the pale blue sky, dotted with fluffy clouds with interesting shapes. It was quiet too, like the world had frozen in time along with the temperature. Everything stopped. No cars on the road, no birds chirping, no people, but the endless sky and the blinding, fresh snow. Perfect. Perfect like a postcard from the winter colors to the sparkling, diamond-like surface of the snow. It was beautiful.

But it was still fucking cold!

Gaara left the house without a coat. The storm had calmed down and he could see better and knew where he was. He gripped his arms, trying to keep himself warm, or at least not frozen. It was really cold. Why hadn't he grabbed Kankuro's coat? It was probably dry now. Or at least, not as wet. It would've provided some warmth, any state. He would never even consider asking Sasuke for a coat. He didn't even like wearing Sasuke's shirt. But now really wasn't the time for preference.

He walked down the sidewalk, having to plow the way himself since no one had shoveled it yet and probably wouldn't for a while. As he walked, he wondered where he was going. He wanted to be alone, but where did he have to go? Nowhere but Naruto's house and he didn't want to go there. Not with Tsunade and Jiraya. Plus Naruto would find him there eventually. No, he was better off-

He paused and turned his head, looking at a sign proclaiming, "Konoha Forest" in front of a half-opened gate, one door shut, the other thrown wide open like it was inviting him in. He'd moved to the neighborhood a few months ago, but he hadn't known there was a park? Well, he told himself idly, walking through the entrance gates, I haven't been out much. He wandered, kicking the snow, with only one thought: get away. Get away from his troubles. Get away from it all. Never mind everything else. The forest stretched on for infinity in his eyes, and it could take him anywhere, he felt.

He walked, no longer aware of the cold, but the endless tunnel in front of him. Stretching as far as his eye could see. No more cold, no more sorrow, no more thinking. No more nothing. No more feeling, no more pain, no more him, nothing. Just fade away. Fading, fading, fading, like he'd wished he could do his whole life. Fading, fading, fading... alone. The way it had always been. The way it should've been.

"Gaara, where are you going?"

All he felt was nothing. He didn't care that the voice was the voice of the one person he cared about. He didn't care.

"Why does it matter? What point is there in this existence?" Wind blew, undeterred because of the lack of leaves, and he heard a slight intake of breath.

"What does it matter where I'm going? Who cares where I fade and how I got there?" Gaara knew he didn't. Fading. Dying. Same words, same meaning to him. It was all the same. Everything was the same. The loneness, the loneliness, the aloneness, his heart, his body, his soul. Everything felt hollow to him. Nothing was different, nothing had changed. He would live in this pit, this meaningless existence. He wanted to end it all.

"I do. It matters to me."

Silence. Wind whistled. Some animal howled in the distance. A bird crowed. Loneliness. A wolf seperated from its brothers. A bird without a nest. An icy forest. An empty forest. Like his being. Empty. Cold.

Gaara shifted and turned to face Naruto.

The blond had his palm out to him. His blue eyes were serious. He was here.

Here.

Here with him.

Gaara wasn't alone. He'd forgotten. He wasn't alone. Naruto was here. Naruto was here. He was here. He was light. He was there in the darkness. He was the light in the darkness. He was warmth in the cold landscape of his mind and of his heart. Naruto was here for him. Things had changed. Things were different. If he faded right now, someone would care. Naruto would. His life, his existence, had some meaning, had been justified, maybe not to himself, but to Naruto.

"Gaara? Please," Naruto pleaded. He wanted the redhead to know. Know they were friends. Know that he wasn't going to leave him, that he wasn't alone in this forest.

That he wasn't alone anywhere, never again, as long as Naruto was alive.

"Gaara, I don't want to lose you."

Is this extremely corny? Am I a shitty writer? Man, I just went over this and I just had to ask. So yeah, sorry for the brevity again.