Sorry for the Delay,

here it is, more Authors note at the Bottom

Chapter Ten

Isakso rubbed her eyes tiredly. Her small feet touched the cool wood floor of her bedroom, and retracted in shock from the cold. It was still early, and the temperature had yet to rise to it's normal sweltering degree. Gingerly her feet touched down again, this time expecting the cold, and supported her weight to the bathroom. The small girl in the mirror looked nothing like the person Gaara had left behind only a week earlier, it was a subtle yet noticeable change that she knew would not be washed away by a quick shower.

Iskao's short blond hair stuck up at wild angles from all the tossing and turning, there were bags under her eyes, and she looked thin. She scrutinized her appearance for a moment, leaning forward and pinching her cheeks slightly. She huffed and turned away from the mirror before stripping and climbing into the shower to try and clean away the awful image she presented.

Sleeping had been harder then ever. She leaned her head against the wall of the shower, and let the water massage away the cramps from tense muscles. Not only was sleep hard, but all night long she had been unable to relax. Isakso felt as if her dreams were real, the aches and pains felt real, as if her body had actually lived it. Her legs felt like jelly, as if she had sprinted a marathon distance. Maybe she was actually sleep walking and didn't know it, she thought almost amused; bumping into things around her house and waking up with painful aches.

Iskaso's shower was long and the water had run cold awhile ago, but she wasn't done scrubbing. Even though her muscles were sore from a tense night, Isakso attacked her body with vigor. By the time her nearly hour and a half shower was over, she still didn't feel wholly clean. But it would have to do.

Wrapping herself in a fluffy towel Iskaso made her way to the small closet. There had to be something decent to wear in there. All of the normal shirts she had been wearing lately were dirty, and she hadn't had any time, or desire, to go out to the shopping district. Isakso opened the doors ,and looked in dismay at all the empty hangers. She opened a couple drawers; nothing.

She sighed in exasperation before casting a longing glance at her dirty laundry pile. She could probably salvage some pants from there, but all of her shirts needed a serious washing from taking the brunt of spills, drops, and sweat from work. Isakso's delicate knees hit the floor with a resounding thud before her shoulders disappeared into the bowels of her closet.

"Put them here somewhere..." She muttered. The back of her closet wasn't large, but put something back there and it was suddenly a black hole.

Her reaching hand grabbed the edges of the bag she was looking for and tugged it out with more force than necessary causing Isakso to fall on her butt. Picking herself up from the floor the small blond rubbed her sore backside before tossing the bag onto the bed and spilling the contents. Shirts of all kinds and colors tumbled onto the rather plain bedspread and created a warm collage of clothing. It almost hurt her eyes to look at all the different colored clothing after so long.

Iskaso sighed and slipped on the least dirty pair of pants she could find before rummaging through the pile. She picked a grey shirt, it fit with most of her wardrobe choices lately and didn't look half bad. Stepping up to her mirror she slipped it on, and took a moment to adjust the neckline before looking at her reflection.

She had almost forgotten how her body looked. At 16, she was shapely but not overly curvacious, and her breasts were large enough to make her uncomfortable when going down stairs. The top she had picked out wasn't to tight, but it felt suffocating, like being naked.

Iskaso felt as if everyone could see everything, even alone in her room she felt exposed. Being out in public in this shirt, that she had felt comfortable in only months ago, would be indescribable. Isakso quickly pulled this shirt back over her head, and tossed it back into the pile.

"No" She muttered.

Trying to find a shirt without to bad of stains had been a challenge. Since she now worked in the kitchen as well as waitressed at the shop, her clothing had been taking a significant amount of damage. She was also working more, giving her less time to do laundry.

Now that she thought about it, her little apartment had been looking on the messy side for the past couple week. Well, she thought, at least it matches it's occupant.

If she had minded the work, she would have asked her boss to hire another person ages ago. But lately it kept her busy, her mind occupied during the day time hours. With Gaara gone there was really no one to hang out with during the day anyway.

While thinking of the lonesome redhead, Iskaso realized that he was quite late returning from his mission. I hope nothings wrong, she thought, grabbing her keys off her side table and headed towards the door. Reaching for the handle she stopped abruptly and made a u-turn towards the fridge. Absentmindedly she thought of Temari and Kunkuro, surely the two shinobi would have some information about Gaara's return. She would stop by when she had the chance.

With that plan in mind Isakso grabbed some left over dango from for breakfast. It seemed like all she had been eating lately. She was working a lot more, and even when there was time, a trip to the market was an uncomfortable notion. As a result of her procrastination, her cupboards were bare, except for a few stray cups of ramen and peanut butter. Now that she thought of it, she hadn't done any real food shopping since she made Gaara dinner.

Just another thing to add to her list of stuff she was never going to get around to doing.

Isakso sighed, a bad habit she had been getting into recently, and headed back towards her door, fattening snack in hand.

Work had been relatively easy today, slow compared to usual. Her boss had let her go on lunch early, something he rarely did, and today Isakso was thankful. She was itching to get over to the Sand sibilings house to see if there was any news about Gaara. It had made it hard to concentrate on work.

Even though she had plenty of time before her break was over Isakso was in a hurry to get there. Latley she had just been going from work to home and back, and going off her normal route felt odd.. She walked a little faster tan usual and as a result was a bit short of breath by the time she knocked on the door. In the few minute before it was answered Isakso tried to compose herself and not look too out of shape.

She straightened up as the door opened and turned to face whichever sibling had lost the fight to answer the door. While she expected to meet a disgruntled stare, all she found was a blank face that certainly did not belong to Temari or Kunkuro.

"Gaara!" She squeaked in surprise. What was he doing home? "When did you get back!?"

Without waiting for an answer she wrapped her skinny arms around his neck and pulled him into a surprise hug, smiling all the while. There was a long pause of hesitation and she almost pulled away, sputtering apologies about invading Gaara's personal space when she felt his arms loosely wrap around her waist in return.

Gaara was thrown off by the sudden assault of Isakso's small body, and had to physically force his sand not to grind her into a pulpy mess. He didn't even realize what she was doing at first, only recognizing that it probably wasn't harmful and that killing her was not an option. When the realization that she was hugging him set in, he stopped breathing.

His heart stopped, the organ he had always tried to pay the least amount of attention to had momentarily stopped functioning. Or at least that's what it felt like. When it started again with a shudder, Gaara moved to put his arms around her in return, like he had seen people do in the streets, to people they loved or valued. He kept his grip loose, if he held her any tighter he could crush the life out of her and be unable to stop himself.

The smell of her hair was nonintoxicating, he had never been this close to anyone, and rarely noticed any pleasant smells on them, only the familiar stench of blood. That had been the only smell to ever strike him as pleasant, but Isakso smelled sweet, like warm dango and spiced tea.

All too soon she was backing away from the hug and clearing her throat in embarrassment. Gaara had to exercise well practiced restraint to not only let her go, but to keep his face composed when she looked up at him.

"Sorry! I was just surprised to see you, I wont jump on you like that again." She blushed and looked down at her toes, clearly thinking that she had done something wrong.

"No," that was not what he wanted her to think, "it was," he paused again, looking for a word to describe the feeling that had just passed through him, "fine."

Although the short sentence seemed to appease the small blond, it made Gaara's lips twitch into a barely noticeable frown. 'Fine' definitely wasn't the word to describe it, but Gaara wasn't the best with words, just starting to learn how to speak to people through other means than threats.

"Why are you here?" he questioned, more than anything to steer away from what had just happened.

"I was coming to see if there was any news on when you were coming home." Isakso leaned forward a bit, peering at him in a owlish manner. "When did you get in?"

"Last night." He had actually stopped by her house, not that he would tell her that. But he had looked in on her bedroom and watched her for a moment. Again, Gaara wasn't an expert on normal human things, and had no actual experience with sleeping, but he was pretty sure she hadn't been doing it right.

If tossing, turning and making odd noises were normal then he may be wrong, but she did not look restful while doing it.

"Oh, well it makes sense that i haven't seen you yet then." She replied happily. "Do you want to go on a walk? I have some time before work and you can tell me about your mission."

More than anything he wanted to retreat into his home and sit quietly to try and sort through what had just happened. He looked over his shoulder into the house and could hear Temari and Kunkuro bickering within. That definitely ruled out the quiet part of his plan.

"Yes" He finally said turning back towards the girl who, once again, beamed at him like he had made her day.

After he shut the door Isakso wasted no time in grabbing his had and leading him out into the hot streets. They walked in silence for a while, Gaara gazed passively at all the citizens giving them nasty looks.

Surprisingly he did not feel incredibly saddened or angry about it as he usually would. He felt, the word was seldom used in his vocabulary, hopeful. After the success with the mission, and with his teammates, Gaara could finally look at the village of Suna with a shred of hope. Hope that the people would accept him one day, and that there was a real chance for change, that his was not just a failure waiting to happen.

Seeing Uzumaki Naruto again had also helped strengthen his resolve. It had only been a couple months since the chunnin exam, but the reminder of why he was trying to change was very much needed. He glanced over at Isakso, the girl who was just another reminder of the change he was trying to make. He gripped her hand a little tighter, thinking of how he had wanted to have her closer to him again.

Eventually The petite blond by his side began to talk, telling him about her time while he was away. To Gaara it seemed that she was compensating enthusiasm for the dullness of her telling. He listened intently though, liking the sound of her voice despite her short story.

He hardly noticed when she stopped talking and when he did he cocked an eyebrow in he direction curiously. She was giving him a very expectant stare that made him realize that she wanted to hear about his mission.

"Did you get to see Uzumaki-san again?" her eyes sparkled with barely contained anticipation for his answer.

"Yes." He stated slowly she obviously wanted to know more, so he spoke slowly, telling her about his mission, but leaving out details he knew were not for civilian ears.

By the end of it, she was beaming at him, "I'm happy for you Gaara. You're a nice guy once someone gets to know you."

Nice was not a word ever used to describe Gaara. Even now that he was trying to change his personality, nice was still not in his repitour of emeotions.

"I knew you're teammates would come around, after all the world can't go one blaming your for living a life someone else more powerful forced you into. I think that it is inspiring that you're even able to change at this point. I noticed, that's why i decided to give you a chance." Isakso was not smiling while she spoke, but to Gaara the words that came out of her mouth were the truest she had told him during their short friendship.

Suddenly the smile was back on her face and Gaara realized that they had arrived to her work.

"I wish we had more time. But you're back now so I'll definitely see you later." Isakso gave him a jerky little wave and made to move into the store.

Without any conscious demand, his hand reached out and snagged her wrist, spinning her back around abruptly and into the redheads embrace. She let out a little squeak of surprise when Gaara's arms wrapped around her, but relaxed after a moment and responded by wrapping her own arms around his skinny torso.

Then he was gone, and all that was left was a swirl of sand.

Good lord, how long has it been? Forever it feels like. Sorry for the delay, but i do recall saying somewhere in a previous chapter that i would probably fall into writters block somewhere around chapter ten. Well it turned out to be a self-fufilling prophecy.

Anywho the begginging of this chapter sets up the main background for problems Isakso is going to have ahead. I know some of you are thinking that Isakso reacted way to well to the rape and whatnot. But i've been trying to ease into the idea that that is not necessarily the case. I don't know if you noticed but in the last couple chapters i've given small example of how its effected her daily life, but this is the first bigger picture of it.

And since you guys had to wait so long i threw in some fluff ^_^. Also setting up for fluffier things tot come.

Please review, tell me what you think. It also helps me update faster. Really the only this got out is because i saw all the review sit had gotten while i was away.