A/N: Super Short Chapter. See A/N below for explanations.
Disclaimer: I don't own. Kthnxbai. :D
Chapter Thirteen
We're gonna miss you, kid," Kisa says somberly. She's dressed in a simple yukata today and her hair is down, falling down her back in a straight, black sheet. Without her gear she looks strangely benign. Standing next to her is Utakata, who is similarly dressed and is wearing the same face he did at Kuronma's funeral. They almost look a couple, although Utakata's wife is standing only a few feet away.
"Kisa. Utakata," is all Gaara can say, because they're two of his first true friends, and he'd never imagined saying good-bye would be so difficult.
Kisa's mouth quirks and she dives in to hug him. "You're a good kid. And, though it sounds sick, I'm glad everything happened the way it did."
"Me too," Utakata says. Gaara prepares to bow, but the older man grabs him securely by the shoulders and pulls him into an embrace as well. "You've had enough bad luck to last most people five lifetimes. That means the rest of your life should be filled with good fortune."
Gaara smiles grimly and thinks that the last year has given him more than enough. After all, he's alive, he has Hinata, he has his sister, he is soon to have his brother—already, so much more than he could have dreamed of.
The courtyard is filled with the facility's workers, bustling and chatting and sipping watered-down wine. It's the Festival of Flowers today, but the real celebration is at the capital. They can't leave, so instead they celebrate the arrival of Suna's first rains with a modest party. It's ironic, because despite the light drizzle the night before today the skies are clear and the sun is beaming, but for once it isn't unbearably hot.
The celebration takes place out on the front yard. On one side, a rather large old man gleefully blows fire onto a grill and cackles as the meat crackles in response, and rather dangerously close to him, a nurse braids flowers into Matsuri's hair. One of the earth elementals has built a beautiful gazebo from the clay in the earth, and the few young men who work at the asylum use it to flirt with a few kunoichi. It's an idyllic scene on an idyllic day, the kind he'd thought he'd never come to appreciate.
He's leaving today.
"Gaara-kun!" Matsuri says. It comes out as a squeak, and his smile brightens in spite of himself. Something is different about her these days. She's brighter, more like the child she should be than the steely shinobi she was. Is this a good thing? Has she become soft?
She smiles and runs to him. The desert lilies in her hair are violet. They match the ones in Hinata's. "Before you go...I...erm...I want you to know something."
He raises a brow; Kisa smirks knowingly. Matsuri suddenly looks at her feet, then her hands. Her face is bright pink.
"I...I... The way I feel about..."
He interrupts. "Matsuri." Her eyes snap up. "I need a few trusted shinobi with some medical expertise back at the capital. Hinata and a few of Konoha's med-nin will be training them within the year." Gaara looks down at her carefully. "Would you like to be one of them?"
Something dies in her eyes for a minute, but she quickly recovers. "Y-yes!"
He nods. "Good." He turns; Temari is leaning against the gazebo and looking bored, and Hinata is hugging every nurse in sight, silent tears streaming down her face as she laughs with them for what is likely the last time.
"C'mon," Temari drawls, studying her fingernails. She turns to the setting sun, the handle of her fan outlined in orange. "We've got a council to publicly disgrace."
Hinata turns to him, smiles, and holds out her hand.
"Let's go," she says, pushing her hair behind an ear.
He smiles and takes it. "Yes. Let's." Together.
Despite everything, despite all of the pain it's brought him in the past, he allows himself to believe, just for a moment, that maybe hope really does exist.
A/N: The (unofficial) end of BOUND! I'm posting the epilogue after this, simply because this is such a painfully short chapter. I would expand on it, but I wrote this six months ago and so my creative juices are all but gone.
NOTE ON THE LAST CHAPTER:
It seems I caused some confusion in the last chapter, so here I will qualify.
In this fic, Matsuri has no chance, romantically, with Gaara. She never has. From the beginning, she's been the steely little kunoichi who Gaara initially sees as a kid (In this, she's 14. I'm not saying being 14 makes you a kid, but I'm pretty sure that, unless you're incredibly mature and developed, 18-year old guys with their heads screwed on all the way won't be going for you. Just sayin'), and later as a little sister. The whole point of the ending in the last chapter was to reestablish their friendship. He talked to Matsuri about his problems because she caught him while he was trying to escape from them and convinced him to let loose. He didn't run to her. They fell asleep from exhaustion, not curled into each other's arms.
That part was also to signal a definite change in Matsuri's character, from the emotionless, martinet ninja to the passionate, youthful girl—I'm basically transitioning her from who she is in this fic to a more mature, bearable version of who she is in the anime.
On that note, there's really no reason for Hinata to be jealous or upset. She's too confident about the strength of their relationship. She knows about Matsuri's feelings, naturally, but isn't threatened by them in the slightest, because she knows that sometimes, the best confidants are the friends who aren't completely immersed in the situation discussed. She's just happy for both of them, because Matsuri's found memories with her first crush and Gaara's strengthened another bond. :P So don't be saddened by the end of the chapter, and don't worry, this was never intended to end with GaaraxMatsuri.
I thought their characterizations by this point should have made these things evident, but I'm really sorry they didn't. I'll work harder next time.
Also, because this is so dreadfully short, I'm uploading the epilogue as well. :D