Thank you guys for being so patient and not giving up on me. I apologize for the absolutely absurd length of time I was unable to update this. I have been quite focused on the book I am writing for the past few months, and still have not gotten as much done as I would have liked to. But Gaara and Kagami, mostly Gaara's amazing sexiness, wiggled their way back into my brain again and told me they needed some more attention. So here is chapter 11, and I hope to have chapter 12 out soon. I've got some great ideas bursting all over the place in my head so hopefully you will enjoy them. Thank you!
Chapter 11: My Red Head
Gaara imposed himself on my life for the rest of the week like any over protective boyfriend. His favorite activity became situating himself right between Kiba and me at the lunch table. The red head would smirk at the brunette and move Kiba's chair over so he could slide his in next to me. He didn't worry about sitting between Naruto and me; rather, Sasuke took care of that. Across the table, Sakura and Ino just openly drooled at Sasuke and Gaara. Most of my lunch time was spent making a conscious effort not to send withering glares at the two girls whenever their eyes landed on my red head.
My red head? I shook my head slightly as those words growled through my mind when Ino batted her lashes at an oblivious Gaara. Today he had jabbed Kiba with his elbow 'accidentally' when he sat down. I had watched as Kiba almost shoved him back, but thought better of it. Maybe there was hope for a friendship between the two?
Chemistry came all too quickly and we had another lab in which Gaara did everything effortlessly while I fumbled around, managing to break a test tube before he refused to let me touch anything anymore. I got to do all the math equations on paper.
"I hate math." I muttered without looking at him, knowing he wouldn't even glance over to acknowledge me. Gaara had quickly stopped reacting to anything I said under my breath.
"But you're better at it than I am. What's the next measurement?" My head snapped up as I looked at the red head, cute in his lab goggles. He had just complimented me, and not on my looks. I inwardly scoffed, there was no way he actually thought I was smart. Once again, he was just lulling me into a false sense of security.
The rest of the class was spent with me rattling off the measurements we needed for each solution and we got done early. I sat down, attempting to rub the red lines out of my face left behind by the goggles. Somehow Gaara had ended up with only a barely visible line above his brow bone. I glared at him as a smirk grew on his face at my discomfort. Then I gave up and laid my head in my arms on the black counter top that was our lab station.
"Wanna come over again tonight?" The red head's voice penetrated my aching head. Math always gave me a headache.
I suppressed a groan, "I promised Kiba, Naruto, and the rest of the gang that I would go to a movie with them." I met his light colored eyes and watched as nothing gave away what he was thinking.
"I could take you there and hang around the mall until you get done." He grinned somewhat mischievously, an obvious hint as to just why he wanted me to come over again so badly.
Gladly, I was able to shake my head, "Naruto is picking me up."
"I'll pick you up from the movie then. Pack a bag and bring it with." He basically ordered me as the bell rang and we gathered our things.
I looked at him as we walked out the door together, "Do I have a choice?"
Gaara smiled, and it was one that told me he wanted to go things that I would never allow him to. His lips met mine for a quick, but not very chaste kiss and drew back with a sparkle in his eyes, "Text me when the movie is done." He turned the opposite way down the hallway from where I needed to go, leaving me with no doubt that I wasn't really getting a choice.
At home, I packed my overnight bag again and threw it in my car. I was planning on having Gaara take me back home to get my own car, because having him take me home in the morning would not go over well with my parents, especially if they ever found out we were dating. I would have just simply driven myself to the movie theater, except I didn't know where it was and the directions Naruto had tried to give me were complicated and basically impossibly to follow. So he was picking me up.
A few minutes before six, I heard a knock at the door and I waved goodbye to my parents. Naruto was standing outside and parked on my curb was a sleek black Mercedes, not something I would picture Naruto driving.
He must have caught my glance at the car because he said, "Sasuke is driving us so I don't have to!"
"I have to ride in a car with that asshole?" I asked as we walked over there.
Naruto shrugged, "He's my best friend, Kagami."
"Yeah, yeah, I know." I slid in the car less than gracefully as Naruto held the door behind the driver's seat open for me. I stayed behind Sasuke, ignoring the glance he cast at me in his rearview mirror, turning my attention on Naruto once he climbed into the passenger seat.
As Sasuke pulled his car away from the curb, Naruto turned around in his seat and said, "I would give you the front seat but--"
"No, no, believe me, its fine." Riding shotgun next to Sasuke was not on my top ten list of fun things to do before you die, no, not anywhere near.
"Not like I want to sit next to the queen bitch anyways."
Naruto swung at his head as Sasuke pulled away from the curb, "Be nice to her you bastard! Or I won't sit next to you in the movie theater!"
Sasuke ignored us after that.
The movie was an action flick with aliens in it. Sakura and Ino were the only ones who had voted for another movie, and being vastly outnumbered by the boys who wanted to see things explode and people fight, they lost the vote.
I ended up sitting between Naruto and Kiba. Sasuke was on the other side of the blond, and I had managed to keep from strangling him when he had pulled Naruto down into the seat next to him. I wasn't quite sure just what was up between them, Naruto said Sasuke was his best friend, but it seemed more like a love-hate relationship than a good friendship to me. The two of them probably bickered and picked at each other more than they laughed together. Although when they ended up hitting each other, it usually ended up in one of them laughing at the other.
Settling into the cushioned theater chair, I focused on the film and stopped thinking about my friend's friendship. I wasn't my business unless Naruto wanted to share.
The beginning of the movie was boring, and I promptly I fell asleep. I discovered this when I ended up with way more of Kiba's spit on my cheek than I had ever wanted to know was in his mouth.
"Kiba! What the hell?! You licked me?!" I jolted awake, the words just flying out of my mouth, and got quite a few angry shushes from the people in the theater around us.
Naruto was laughing quietly while Kiba looked like he wanted to laugh, but just grinned at me as I glared at him.
He shrugged, laughter in his eyes, "You were asleep for like fifteen minutes, you were going to miss the height of the action." The brunette pointed to the screen, "Look, the spaceship is landing now."
I really focused on the movie after wiping my face with the sleeve of my jacket. I made sure to keep myself awake the entire movie. With the amount of freaking saliva Kiba had left on my face, you would have thought that Akamaru had licked me. Damn boy was picking up tricks from his dog.
I wasn't much of a movie watcher, especially ones where things blew up often, so staying awake was a bit of a challenge. Once it was done though, I stood right up and followed the group out of the theater. Lee was complaining about the lack of hand to hand fighting, Sasuke was ignoring Naruto who was yelling at him for something I wasn't quite sure of, Sakura and Ino were chattering to themselves, and Kiba was trying to make Akamaru walk at his side, instead of at my side where he currently was.
"Why don't you just walk next to Akamaru, instead of making him hang back with you?" I rolled my eyes at the pouting brunette.
He frowned comically at me, "But my dog isn't supposed to like you more!"
I grinned, "Does he always do what he's supposed to do?"
"Hey Kagami, are you sure you don't need a ride home?" Naruto asked, obviously done pestering Sasuke.
I looked over at him to see said raven haired boy glaring at me over Naruto's shoulder, "I'm fine, I have a ride." I pulled out my phone and texted Gaara with a sigh. The movie had taken my mind off of him for a moment. Well, for an hour or two I guess.
"Well, me and Sasuke are gonna go then!" Naruto waved and dragged the dark haired boy with him. Sasuke looked fairly pleased that I wasn't going to be leaving with them. Whatever, just because he was Naruto's friend didn't mean we had to get along.
Soon it was just Kiba and me and I was wondering what was taking Gaara so long. He had told me he would be at the mall before the movie ended so I wouldn't have to wait too long for him.
"Hey Kagami, you think he's not going to show up?"
I looked over at Kiba, who was frowning, "Nah, he probably found some creepy goth store and forgot about the time." I grinned at him.
He pushed off the wall he had been leaning against, and Akamaru sat down, looking up at his owner with a big slobbery doggy grin. Kiba laughed, "I think Akamaru wants to stay and make sure you get home alright."
I rubbed the big white dog behind his ears, "Thanks Akamaru."
"Kagami?" Kiba laid a hand on my arm and I turned to find him standing right in front of me.
"Uh, what?" I could see his pupils growing ever so slightly smaller in the light and knew that this was too close. I wasn't sure if he was just unconscious of it, or didn't care.
His lips met mine in a motion that was not slow. There wasn't time for me to dodge or really do anything about it. I wasn't quite sure what to do about it; I just kind of stood there, frozen as Kiba pressed his lips to mine.
The image of a certain red head flashed through my mind and I pulled back abruptly, "Kiba," I said, looking at him, "I'm not--"
"If you don't get your hands off of Kagami right now mutt, I will break your neck in front of all these nice people."
There were definitely a few gasps from the nearby food court at Gaara's loud exclamation, and Kiba stepped away from me very quickly, obviously he hadn't thought of the red head's reaction until now. Although he probably didn't think Gaara would be anywhere near to see.
I turned and saw the look in those cold blue eyes. Every inch of Gaara's body was filled with tension as he got closer and I knew that letting him get to Kiba was the worst thing I could do in this moment. I didn't really think, but I went to him and said the things that came out of my mouth.
"Gaara, Gaara!" I searched his eyes and put my hands on his face, "That was nothing. I didn't want that. I don't want him, I want you Gaara." He tried to turn his head to look over my shoulder and I didn't let him. His fists clenched at his sides. My hands were about to start shaking, if he decided to push past me and go after Kiba, I wouldn't be able to do much about it. I pressed my body against his, and that got his attention. I let our faces get close, desperate to keep his attention on me, "I'm dating you, not him. Okay? I'm sorry I let it happen. It won't happen again Gaara, I promise. I'm yours."
He looped his arm around my waist and I let go of his face, letting him guide me towards the doors that led out to the parking lot, his cold turquoise eyes glanced over at Kiba once, "She is mine. Don't ever touch her again. She won't be able to stop me if you do." The last of what I said had worked, but of course he still made his threat.
I shot an apologetic look at the brunette as Gaara led me away, his arm tight around my waist and all I got was a very angry glower. Shit, I was going to have to do some really good apologizing to make up for what I had said. I might have saved Kiba from getting his face beat in, but he didn't seem to appreciate it much. I leaned into Gaara, suppressing a sigh. I couldn't make Kiba happy the way he wanted, not when I was technically already dating someone. I wasn't even sure if after this thing, whatever it was, between Gaara and me was over if there would be anything between Kiba and me. There's always the possibility that Gaara and I end up staying together for longer than this month. The thought was absurd though, he'd try to get what he wanted, and when he couldn't, the red head would just go back to bully-seducing me again. This was probably going to be some stupid never ending cycle. I'd figure something out.
"Don't take too long, I want to cuddle and watch television for a while before you fall asleep on me." Gaara told me as I got out of his car at my house.
I froze for a moment; he had just used the word cuddle. Like some cute, nice, normal boyfriend who wanted to spend a nice, normal evening with his girlfriend. It took me a moment to mull that over in my mind before I could answer him, "My stuff is already in my car, I'll just go straight to it."
True to my word, I almost followed Gaara to his house, only stopping to wave at my mom who pulled the curtains over to the side to peek out the living room window. There was a part of me that was a little nervous about going over to Gaara's house, even though I had already done it once before. Were things different now that we were 'officially' dating? I wondered just how far the red head was going to take this in order to get what he wanted.
