The next installment. Sorry for the delay all...but by now you should expect this from me.
R&R, it's always appreciated! :-)
At some point during the night, Sakura fell asleep…but it was anything but restful.
Her dreams were full of the woman she now knew as Gaara's mother constantly reaching for her, asking for help.
She wasn't even scared of the dead woman anymore. She would ask her how she could help only to be asked for help over and over again.
They were in the field next to her grave, the woman standing in front of it, pleading with her eyes.
There was a noise in the background that Sakura barely noticed at first since it started as a buzz. But as the dream went on, it got louder and louder until Sakura recognized the sound as a baby crying.
As she looked around for the source of the noise, she noticed a blanket on the ground behind the woman. The crying turned into screaming as the wind and the rain around her attacked the blanket indiscriminately.
She noticed two pale and very small arms reaching out for anything beyond the blanket.
The screaming grew louder and louder until Sakura was forced to cover her ears.
A hand on her shoulder silenced everything and she woke with a start.
Bright light pummeled through the window, forcing her to shield her still sleepy eyes so they could adjust. Blindly reaching for her cell phone, Sakura noticed that it was past her shift…and Gaara had already left.
At least he didn't stick around…Sakura mused to herself and she hurriedly jumped up and started gathering her things. That would have been awkward as hell.
Practically running through the cemetery, she bolted through the office building and ran straight to her car, punching Ino's phone number in on the way.
"Hey forehead." Her friend answered. "Glad to see you still exist during the daylight hours."
"Ino, when is your lunch?" Sakura asked hurriedly, peeling out of the cemetery parking lot and onto the main road.
"In about an hour, why?"
"I'll meet you at the restaurant on the corner then."
"Ok…are you alright."
"Yeah I'm fine, why?"
"You sound like you're freaking out or something..."
"I'm fine…I…I'll explain everything when I see you."
"Ok, see you then."
Sakura hung up her cell and pitched it into the empty passenger seat next to her.
What a mess you've gotten yourself into this time Haruno…she said to herself, looking at her reflection in the rear view mirror.
"You WHAT?!" Ino exclaimed a little too loudly in the small restaurant. The people around them turned and looked at the two of them.
"Keep it down Ino, will you?"
"Sorry, sorry….I just can't believe that you did that! It's not like you at all! How was it?"
Dropping her head into her hands, Sakura sighed, "Ino…"
"Hey, you don't get to tell me that you slept with your dreamy coworker and leave it at that! Spill!"
"It was…fine I guess."
"Fine…you guess…" Ino said, rolling her eyes at her friend. "You're a terrible liar, you know that?"
"How do you know I'm lying?" Sakura said defensively. "For all YOU know it was the worst experience of my life!"
"Right…which is why you called me while I was at work and told me to meet you at a restaurant just to tell me that you had sex last night."
Realizing that her friend knew her way too well, Sakura gave up. "It was…phenomenal." She couldn't help the smile that crept onto her face.
"I knew it!" Ino screeched, "spill!"
"I'm not giving you details!" Sakura shot back. "That's all you get."
Pouting at her while their food was delivered to their table, Sakura started to wonder why she had called her in the first place.
"Give me this at least, is he as good looking naked as he is with his clothes on?"
Scrunching her nose and forcing back yet another smile, Sakura simply nodded her head.
"You go girl." Ino said, giving her a high-five from across the table.
"What am I going to do now?" Sakura asked as she moved her food around on her plate.
"What do you mean?"
"It's going to be so awkward now. It was bad enough that I had to deal with his oppressive personality, now I have to deal with it knowing that I had sex with him."
"Do it again?" Ino offered, as if it was the easiest thing in the world to do.
"He doesn't do repeat performances." Sakura said, trying to imitate Gaara's voice as best she could.
"Ah, gotcha. Then just go about your business."
"How?" Sakura pleaded.
"What do you mean how? Act like you normally do!"
"Ino, I've never done anything like this before! How am I supposed to pretend like nothing happened last night?!"
"Sakura, listen to me. You are an adult. He is an adult. You are two adults that had sex. Nothing more, nothing less. Don't make such a big deal about it! It's not like you have to go to prom with him or anything. You are a strong, independent, intelligent woman that just so happens to work with a very hot, very mysterious, and very sexy guy. It happens, relax!"
"You're right…" Sakura muttered, taking a bite out of her burger.
"It's too bad that he doesn't do repeat performances though, huh?"
With a small, knowing smile, Sakura looked up and said, "You have no idea."
She was dragging her feet, and she knew it. No matter what Ino said, she knew her nights were going to be full of awkward moments. Normally one night stands consist of sex and then never having to see or interact with that person again, Sakura berated herself, why would I choose someone that I see on a daily basis?!No matter how hard she tried to prolong her trek to the house, it eventually came into view. The light shining through the windows was like a beacon showing her that Gaara was inside. Music was blaring loudly inside, she didn't recognize a single note from it.
Taking a deep breath before going in, she slowly opened the door. The smell of cigarettes greeted her first before she noticed that Gaara was sitting on the couch taking shots of some kind of brown liquor.
"I was wondering when you were going to show up." he shouted over the music.
"Hello to you too." She shot back as she made her way into the kitchen. She grabbed her anatomy textbook out of her bag and plopped down next to him on the couch.
She tried to concentrate on her book, but the music was so loud...she found herself zoning out and tuning into the music.
"And I'm the host with Vaseline, I hide behind bulletproof glass. And I can feel your tits with my brand new camera equipped with a flash. Fast-food-nude, I hate you all. But somehow you find me...incredibly charming" she heard a man's voice crackle over the speakers.
Nice...she thought to herself as she rolled her eyes. Nothing like some nice, relaxing music while I study...
"Can we turn this off?" she asked.
Wincing down a shot, he stood up and turned the music off completely.
"Don't like it?" he asked, sitting back down next to her.
"Not really..." she muttered, flipping the page of her book.
"He's a required taste." Gaara offered, lighting a cigarette.
"Why do you like it?" she asked, looking up from her book.
"It's exactly what I need." he said with a sly smile.
"Right..." she muttered as she once again returned her attention to the book on her lap.
She had gotten exactly what she asked for: quiet. But now that there wasn't loud music to distract her, she couldn't help but feel the awkwardness slowly filter into the room. After a long, silent stretch, Sakura tried to see if he would be leaving her company at all that night. "Aren't you going to run your rounds?"
Downing a shot and chasing it quickly he said, "Nope."
"What if your uncle comes back?"
"He won't."
"How can you be so sure?"
"It happens every year. He hires that wack-job psychic and visits my mom on the day she killed herself."
Sakura's eyes went wide involuntarily, "Your mother killed herself?"
"Yep. Happy birthday to me." He said as he lifted his shot glass into the air.
"Yesterday was your birthday?"
A simple nod was all she got as a response.
"I'm sorry…that's really sad."
"Whatever", he said as he searched around for another pack of cigarettes.
Sakura couldn't help but notice the sad, distant look his eyes had before they hardened over again.
"That was kind of a shitty day for your birthday…" Sakura offered.
"Not really. I got to beat my uncle up and then had sex. Sounds like a good day to me."
Sakura tried not to cringe on the outside, but inside she was dying. Chuckling awkwardly she returned her gaze to the book that was still open in her lap, wanting to escape from that conversation immediately.
The minutes seemed to crawl by as she sat next to him, trying her hardest to avoid that fact that he was there. Every now and then he would shift, or get up to get a beer once he had finished his liquor. Finally he said from the kitchen doorway, "I didn't think you were going to be like this."
Still looking at her book she said, "Like what?"
"Like this," he said as he gestured toward her. "You're awkward and quiet. If I would have known this is what my nights would turn into, I would have never offered to have sex with you. At least before you were fun..."
"Fun?" she asked, looking up from her book. "You call me yelling at you and fighting with you on an hourly basis 'fun'?"
"It was better than this."
"You're sick."
"Nine out of ten doctors agree."
Rolling her eyes at him she shot back, "I am not ignoring you. I'm simply trying to keep up on my medical knowledge."
"Right…I never knew the inner workings of the ear were that complex where you had to stare at the same diagram for over an hour."
"I have not!"
"You haven't turned the page since I turned the music off." He pointed out.
Much to Sakura's dismay, he was right. She hadn't even read or really looked at a single thing since she had opened her book. She was simply trying to occupy herself with something in order to keep her mind from sidetracking back to last night's events.
The low chuckle she heard as he settled down next to her made her see red. He was basking in her embarrassment. Glaring daggers at him as he nonchalantly lit a cigarette, she quickly flipped through her book until she came to the page she was looking for.
"THIS is what a smoker's lungs look like. Do you want to keep smoking that cigarette in your hand?" she asked as she shoved her book into his face.
Lowering the book down slowly and pointing to his own face he responded with, "This is the face of uncaring."
"You're horrible." She muttered, returning to her book.
"Gotta die of something." He shot back.
"Doesn't mean you have to kill yourself along the way."
"What's so great about life anyway? You sound like my sister…always nagging at me about how much I drink, and how much I smoke, and how drugs are bad for me. Why does everyone care?"
"Because life can be great if you give it a chance."
"Right. Life never gave me one, so whatever."
Quickly shooting up from the couch, Gaara retreated into the kitchen, disappearing into the dark room.
If she thought it was awkward before, it was smothering her now. Wanting to get off the subject immediately, she grasped at straws, "So why do you think frustrating me beyond all comprehension is fun?" she called into the kitchen.
Reappearing in the kitchen doorway once again, he cracked open yet another beer and shrugged his shoulders.
"There has to be a reason…" she said, narrowing her eyes at him.
"You get all flustered. It's funny."
"I do not get flustered!"
"Yeah you do. You get all red and start waving your arms around."
"Do not!"
Pointing at her he said, "You're doing it right now."
Realizing that he was right, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"See?" he said, plopping back down onto the couch. "Fun."
"I think you better go back to those nine doctors you mentioned earlier…"
And for the first time since Sakura had started working there, she heard him laugh. Not just a low chuckle that he would let out every once in a while, but a real, genuine laugh.
Unknowingly, a smile spread to her face as she watched him laugh.
"What?" he asked as his laugh started to fade out.
"You should do that more often."
"What?"
Touching her finger to the side of his mouth she answered, "Laugh."
A look of confusion crossed his face as her finger remained on his mouth and Sakura kicked herself for going too far again.
Before she could completely lash herself with her inner dialogue, she found that she was being kissed by him.
Once his actions registered, her body seemed to move on its own and respond with the same need and desperation that his kisses held.
Pulling away, breathing hard she asked, "I thought you weren't into repeat performances?"
Chuckling as he pulled her shirt over her head he said, "I'm always up for trying new things."
It wasn't until she was covered in sweat, panting for oxygen on his chest before she took in her actions. She had given in to him again...and with hardly any fight.
She couldn't help but think that if this is what her nights would be reduced to, she wouldn't mind that much.
Hearing his lighter flick and seeing the fire dance in the dark room, she studied his features closely and smiled behind her hand. As much as she hated to admit it, Ino was right...he was a good looking guy.
"You know," she said, turning over onto her stomach. "You keep this up, you're going to spoil me."
"Hn. Wouldn't want that now, would we?"
"I need to know what you're doing here..." she said, biting her lower lip.
"Smoking a cigarette."
"No," she said, shaking her head. "I need to know what you're doing with this." she motioned between the two of them.
"Having fun." he shrugged. "There's nothing wrong with that."
"Right, but..."
"But you don't like to have fun?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No, it's just that...you keep this up long enough..."
The look of pure confusion was plastered all over his face.
Sighing and hiding her face in her hands she mumbled, "I'm not use to just "having fun". I'm use to having more than that."
"Well, let me know when you feel something more, and I'll stop."
That wasn't exactly the kind of answer she was looking for...then again, it was Gaara she was dealing with.
As if sensing her train of thought, he sat up and supported his weight on his forearms. "I'm not looking to get anything but sex out of this, Sakura."
"Good." she countered, "I just wanted to make sure."
Laying her head back down on his chest, she couldn't help but think of one of the lyrics she had heard earlier that night: "don't assume that I'm always with you, It's just where my mortal body happens to be."