Woobie
350 words
A low rating? From me? Say it ain't so!
The challenge was to use an unlikely caption from my macro collection and the citation of Gaara as he appears at tvtropesdotcom's definition of "woobie": "that character you want to wrap in a blanket and feed soup to when he suffers so very beautifully." The result . . .


"I've wanted to do this for a long time."

Sakura bared her teeth in a gleeful little smile, dragged Gaara into her living room, and plopped him down on the couch. When he tried to stand, she swept his legs up and . . . shoved a footstool under them.

"When it all came out—all of it, not 'Gaara's a little bit crazy' or 'Gaara kinda had a hard life'—I started trying to think of something that'd help. And I know it isn't much, but—"

Gaara raised a hand as if in protest. She shoved a mug of hot chocolate into it. He blinked down at the mug, then back up at the determined face of his captor. "I don't want hot chocolate."

"Think of it as therapy."

"All things considered, I think I'm fairly well adjusted."

"That's what you say now," she rebutted; then clambered onto the couch beside him, ducking under his arm and wrapping her arm and leg around him. "But you know as well as I do: that doesn't just go away. So even if you're all stoic and quiet about it now . . ." Her cheek against his shoulder, she gazed up at him and started twining her fingers in his hair. "It's tragic, really. Terrible. Damn it, Gaara . . . You need a hug."

Gaara looked at Sakura, down at his hot chocolate, back at her . . . then shrugged and took a sip.

"Now," she said. "If there's anything I can do to help you with how you feel—"

Gaara perked up. "Anything?"

"Anything," she repeated, and snuggled a little closer against his side.

"Well . . ."

ooo

"And that," Gaara finished, "is how I got your teammate pregnant."

Naruto, restrained by three shinobi, gave a reply that sounded something like "Wharrgarbl."

"You know," Neji said, "when he asked what happened, I don't think he wanted full details."

"Actually," Shikamaru interjected from the sidelines, "I think it could use some more detail."

But Gaara, running late for his next session of "therapy," was already gone.