Gaara was woken up by Danielle running her fingers through his hair. He looked up at her with sleepy eyes, blinking a few times. The room was filled with sunlight because someone had pulled up the blinds. He softly groaned to himself and looked around the room.
"What time is it?" Gaara grumbled questioningly.
"2 in the afternoon," she answered with a smirk. Gaara sat up and rubbed his temples with the palms of his hands.
"Why didn't you wake me earlier?"
"Iruka told me to let you sleep in. Plus, I figured that you could have used the extra sleep." Gaara sighed and threw the covers off. As he did so, Naruto appeared in the doorway.
"How are you feeling Gaara?" Naruto asked. There was concern in his eyes and for once, he had an air of seriousness around him. Gaara looked up at Naruto with blank eyes, but didn't say a word. Naruto sighed in frustration. "Why won't you talk to me? What did I do?" Gaara averted his eyes to the ground. He instantly looked up into Danielle's eyes when he felt her hand on his shoulder. She didn't need to say anything. Gaara got the message just by the way she was looking at him. He looked back over at Naruto and shook his head.
"I'm sorry Naruto," he apologized. "I'm just not in the greatest of moods right now." Naruto sighed, but nodded.
"You know, that was all you had to say and I would've left you alone. You haven't taken any of your meds yet. Are you in any pain?" Gaara put a gentle hand on his side and nodded.
"Just a little," he told him.
"So do you think you'll be okay with just taking some Tylenol?" Gaara nodded. "Then I'll be right back." Naruto disappeared, leaving Danielle and Gaara alone.
"Why are you acting so cold towards him?" Danielle asked him quietly. Gaara looked down at the floor with sad eyes.
"I honestly don't know," he sighed.
"I take it that you're just in a bitter mood." Gaara nodded.
"I've been this way since I came back from the hospital, and I haven't really been able to find any relief."
Danielle stared off into space for a few minutes, lost in thought. She was brought back to her senses when she noticed that Naruto was standing in front of them. She watched as Gaara took a sip of water, swallowing the pill that Naruto had given him. When Gaara had finished, he handed the glass back to his blonde friend and thanked him.
"Gaara, I just wanted to make sure you were alright with me leaving tonight," Naruto told him. "I really don't mind staying here." Gaara shook his head.
"You have been looking forward to this for awhile," Gaara commented. "You should go."
"What is he going to?" Danielle asked out of curiosity.
"A youth group that I go to is having a lock-in tonight. I'll be gone from 7 tonight until 7 tomorrow morning. That's why I was asking Gaara if he wanted me to stay. I kind of feel bad about leaving here all by himself."
"I'm used to it," Gaara reminded him.
"I know, but you're at my house, so it's a bit different."
"Gaara can stay over at my house," Danielle suggested. The two boys looked at her questioningly. The girl just smiled and shrugged.
"I don't know Danielle," Naruto told her, doubt in his voice. "I'm not sure if Iruka is going to like that. He almost died of a heart attack when he found out that you slept with him." Danielle frowned and sighed.
"It's not like we did anything, or even had any intentions of doing anything! Besides, this is a bit different.!." By this time in the argument, Gaara's face was a beet red color. He hadn't intended for everyone to know about what had happened the night before.
"We have a spare room that Gaara is more than welcome to stay in. That is, if Gaara even wants to." The two teens looked at the red-head. Gaara thought for a moment.
"I don't care," Gaara sighed.
"Great! Then you can just come home with me when I leave."
"Which will be when, exactly?"
"We can leave when Naruto leaves. I told him that I would kick his ass in SOCOM 4." Gaara gave her a weird look. She smirked. "You'll see."
"No he won't, because I am the master of that game," Naruto jeered. "Not even Sasuke has been able to beat me."
"Alright then! Let's put your skills to the test."
"You're on!"
XOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOX
Gaara was sitting on Danielle's bed with his back against the wall. Danielle was wearing a pair of light purple pajamas with little frogs on them, and Gaara was wearing a pair of gray sweat pants and a black t-shirt. Danielle had put in a "My Chemical Romance" CD, since Gaara had never heard of them before.
"Gaara, tell me something that I don't know about you." Gaara looked at her with a questioning look.
"Like what?" he asked. Danielle shrugged.
"I don't know. If I knew, then I wouldn't be asking this question." Gaara thought for a minute, looking down at his hands that were placed on his lap.
"I don't know how to swim." Danielle smirked at him.
"Really?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Gaara nodded. "Then you're going to have to learn. I can teach you sometime over the summer." Gaara nodded.
"What about you? Tell me something I don't already know." Danielle brought her index finger to her chin and thought hard.
"When I was 7, I brought a garter snake inside our apartment and put it in my mom's pillow case. I was mad at her for something, but I don't remember why I was mad at her anymore." Gaara smirked.
"I didn't think that you were so evil." Danielle grinned and giggled.
"Tell me about your siblings," Danielle told him. Gaara close his eyes and smiled slightly.
"They're okay, I guess. They are the only ones in my family that even remotely cared about me. Before my older sister moved out for college, she used act like she was my mother. I didn't really mind, because I liked the feeling of having someone who looked out for me. She was really bossy though. That's the only thing I didn't like. Still, Temari and I got along pretty well. My older brother Kankurou is a pervert. He changed a little, now that he's older. He's always getting into arguments with Temari, and it's quite entertaining." Gaara opened his eyes and looked across the room to see that Danielle was grinning at him. "What?" he asked, giving her a weird look. Danielle giggled.
"It's nothing bad," she told him. "It's just, you seem so happy when you talk about your siblings. I never really get to see you in a happy or good mood. It's a nice change." Gaara just stared at her. He knew that she was right though.
He shook it off a few moments later and sighed.
"I told you about my siblings," he began, "so you have to tell me about your parents." Danielle nodded.
"My mother played the cello and my dad played some piano and the percussion. For my 5th birthday, he bought me a little drum set." She paused and giggled. Gaara smirked, guessing what had happened next. "My father didn't seem to mind so much, but I drove my mother up a wall. My father told me that if I just practiced the simple rhythms that he had taught me, mother wouldn't be upset with me playing it. The only thing was that I was just having so much fun jamming out on my drums. I didn't want to have to play those stupid, boring patterns."
"That doesn't really tell me much about them," Gaara told her, still smirking. Danielle shrugged.
"Both of them were really busy people. They were both in this orchestra, so we had to travel around a lot. I didn't really see them very often, and if I did, it wasn't the way that a family relationship was supposed to be like. The times that we acted like a true family were usually on holidays or on my birthday. Still, I guess that's better than never." Gaara nodded.
"So, how did you and Naruto become friends? I've been kind of curious about that." Gaara smirked, bringing a knee up and hugging it against his chest.
"I had moved here a little over 2 years ago and so I was new," Gaara began to explain. "I was really bitter when I first moved here. I don't really remember what happened, but Naruto and I got off on the wrong foot somehow." Danielle giggled.
"Really?!" Gaara smirked and nodded.
"Not even 2 weeks into the school year, the two of us got into a fist fight. We ended up in the principles office and were getting recommended for suspension. The whole time we were in there, we just glared at each other. We didn't even say a word. It took awhile, but the two of us kind of started to form a bond. It was small at first, but it eventually grew into something bigger and we became best friends." Danielle giggled again.
"You guys are so weird."
"What about you and Neji?" Gaara asked, raising an eyebrow. "You two seem pretty close." Danielle nodded.
"It started with Hinata and me becoming friends. I would hang out at her house, and since Neji lives there, we would often see each other. We eventually just started hanging out, and now we tease each other and stuff. He's kind of like an older brother to me."
The two teenagers grew quiet when they heard someone knocking on the door. They watched as Layla stuck her head in and smiled at them.
"It's about time for you two to head to bed. It's already past 1 in the morning." Danielle sighed, but nodded. She stood up and looked down at her red-haired friend.
"I'll show you to your room," she told him. Gaara nodded and stood up. He followed the raven haired girl out of the room and into the guest bedroom. She turned to him and smiled.
"Are you going to be alright?" she asked. Gaara closed his eyes and nodded. "Okay, but if you need anything, you know where my room is." Gaara nodded again and opened his eyes.
"Goodnight," he said softly.
"Goodnight," she replied back to him. Danielle quickly turned and left the room. Gaara turned out the light and got under the covers. He closed his eyes and slowly fell asleep.
Hey everyone! I know that it has been awhile, but I have been super busy lately. I just took my ACT test yesterday morning, and I'm not so sure if I did very well. I am such a slow test taker that I didn't even have enough time to finish everything. It sucked.
I should be working on my thesis paper right now, since a big hunk of it is due tomorrow and I am nowhere near ready. I also have to figure out what I'm supposed to do for this chemistry lab thing, which could take a while because I am pretty clueless as to what I am supposed to do, but I decided to post a chapter first. I have 2 more chapters typed up so far, but since I'm not going to be able to type any new chapters for awhile, I'll post one next weekend and the other on the weekend after that.
Thanks to all my wonderful reviewers.
Me and Gaara 4ever- Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. Yeah, I love getting people on the edge of their seat. It's fun, and I seem to be pretty good at it.
NeferNeferi- I'm glad you agree. I've just seen so many stories where Gaara's character has been butchered because of this "Love at first sight" crap. After all, Gaara is just now finding out what love really is, since he had never really experienced it before. I'm glad you liked this chapter. It's my favorite so far as well, and it probably will remain that way, just because of all the drama and thrill. Yeah, I don't know what it is with me and letters or notes or journals. I just like adding them into stories. Something will probably happen between them, when I feel like it probably. As for Gaara's father, I have this ending to the story, but it's really mean and evil and everyone will probably hate me for it. I'll probably put that ending on "A Helping Hand", since I don't really like that story anymore. That way I can just get it out of my system. Thanks!
Angel Fate of the Desert- I think it was the best chapter of the story too. I love drawing suspense! It's kind of my way of being evil, without actually being evil. Thanks!
Lyris88- I don't know about that. I might make Gaara's father come back into the picture at some point in the story, but I'm not really sure. Thanks!!
GothKid12- After I posted this chapter, I actually kind of thought about you for a moment and what you had said in some of your previous reviews. As for Danielle sleeping with him to comfort him, I love doing stuff like that. It's so sweet and so cute! It makes me feel all jittery inside. I'm glad that you like it! Thanks!
Animestar001- Yeah, it was really cute and kind of romantic. I thought it would be a good way to kind of get them closer together. As for putting more stuff like this in the story, I'm not really sure what you mean. Do you mean more romantic, fluffy scenes, or more hurt/comfort stuff? I'm not really sure how much more hurt/comfort stuff I can put in here without actually killing the story, at least at this point in the story anyway. I'm trying to avoid super fluffy scenes as much as I can, but I will probably end up putting one or two in somewhere, if or when they end up getting together. Thanks!
Kina Lupi- I'm glad that you liked this chapter. For the record, they never actually kissed yet. If you want to call the little peck on the cheek a kiss, which happened a few chapters ago, be my guest. Like I've said before, I'm taking it slow and building their relationship up before getting into any serious romance stuff. Thanks for reviewing.
Okay, so I'll post chapter 13 sometime next weekend.
Alright, I have a question for you all. We all pretty much know that they are going to get together, but I'm trying to figure out how to go about that. What I need to know now is if I were to do a situation in which one of them were to ask the other one out on a date, who would be the person asking? Would it be Danielle or Gaara, or a third party asking for them? Please let me know what you think by reviewing.
REVIEW!!
