Gaara and Naruto had been friends for a few days, although they hadn't been able to hang out much. On top of that, they wouldn't be able to hang out for at least another three or four days because Yumi and he were going out to her brother's house. The female had already talked to her younger brother, Ryuu, about it. He was ecstatic to hear that Yumi was fostering and was more than willing to let the two of them stay there for a few days.
Gaara was sitting on the hyperactive blonde's bed, watching him play a video game that he had never played before. Naruto had offered him a turn several times already, but Gaara declined each time. He was just as content with watching Naruto play, which was actually very entertaining, especially because he was very dramatic.
"So you're leaving tomorrow, right?" Naruto asked, his eyes still glued to the TV screen. Gaara didn't like it when he didn't have eye contact during a conversation. It made him nervous when he couldn't see into the other person's eyes or see their face clearly. Even though it really bothered him, he chose not to say anything. He didn't want to upset the first friend he had ever really made. Gaara was still unsure of whether or not they were truly friends, since he still didn't fully understand the concept, but he liked the sound of it. Just the thought that he actually had a friend his age made him feel somewhat completed.
"Yeah, I'm leaving tomorrow," the soft-spoken male murmured. Naruto nodded, still not taking his eyes off the TV. Gaara watched as he sliced a zombie in half. He shuddered involuntarily as he imagined blood gushing out of the fictional game character. Naruto had turned off the bloody effects in the options menu since Gaara had asked him to. Normally, he wouldn't have done it without some kind of explanation, but he could tell that his newly made friend didn't feel comfortable with explaining. Gaara really appreciated the fact that he wasn't pushed about the subject, which was one of the reasons he really liked having the blond as a friend.
"How long are you going to be gone?" Naruto's deep blue eyes widened as a large gang of zombies swarmed his character. Gaara smirked slightly as his friend began bouncing frantically up and down on the bed. Naruto sighed angrily as the zombies devoured his character and big red letters reading, "GAME OVER" appeared on the screen.
"I don't know," he admitted. "Between two or three days, I guess." Naruto finally looked him in the eyes, which made Gaara feel a bit more at ease somehow.
"Do you think that you'll be back before the weekend?" Gaara nodded and Naruto smiled. "Great, because I don't really have anything planned for then, so we could do something. Maybe we could kick a soccer ball around. Do you like soccer?" The shy teen blinked his sea-foam green eyes and shrugged.
"I don't know. I've never played before."
"You haven't?!" Naruto asked in shock. Gaara shook his head. "Then we are definitely going to play some soccer before the summer is over."
"Fine with me," he sighed.
"Awesome! Oh, and you're going to have to meet my friends. They're always busy during the summer, so if we don't see them now, we'll see them when school starts up again. You are going to go to school here, right?" Once again, the redhead shrugged.
"I guess so." Naruto stared at him for a couple moments before starting to jabber on once more.
"Well, either way, I'll make sure that you meet them." Gaara just nodded and listened to the blonde chatter away about an endless amount of random things.
XxxxxxxxxX
Gaara was standing by the car, watching in slight awkwardness as Yumi and her brother hugged each other tightly. Sea-green eyes watched blankly as the man kissed the female on the cheek. To say the least, he felt completely out of place there. He shouldn't have really been there at all, since he wasn't really an actual member of the family.
Ryuu slowly walked away from his sister and approached the pre-teen. A warm smile spread across his lips as he held out a hand to Gaara.
"It's nice to finally meet you," he said happily. The redhead took hold of his hand firmly and shook it. "Yumi has told me quite a bit about you and I'm glad to be able to meet you in person." Gaara nodded.
"It's nice to meet you too," he replied in his usual hushed voice.
Ryuu took their bags for them and led them into his home. The house was a decent sized two story home. On the inside, the walls were painted with earthy colors and the furniture was earth colored as well. There were several vases of flowers as well as potted plants in the windowsills. Hanging on the walls were pictures of people, whom Gaara assumed were members of their family.
They were met by a woman holding a small bundle of life in her arms. She grinned brightly, her blue-green eyes sparkling vibrantly. Her eyes went from Yumi to Gaara and her smile widened, if that was even possible.
"You must be Gaara," she said sweetly. The young boy nodded, watching as she carefully gave the baby to Yumi. She then walked up to him and bent over slightly so that she could meet him in height.
"I'm Jenna," she introduced herself. "You have no idea how happy Ryuu and I are to have you here." Gaara's eyes widened immensely as the female suddenly brought him into an embrace. His body stiffened and he suddenly felt rather confused. Why was this woman hugging him? She barely even knew him, yet she was showing him affection.
To his relief, she let go a couple of seconds later. He saw that Yumi was looking over at him with a smirk plastered on her face. Was she really getting amusement out of watching him being uncomfortable around others?
"Let's go have a seat in the living room, shall we?" Jenna suggested. Yumi nodded and followed her into the living room, Gaara tagging along behind.
He sat beside Yumi on the couch, watching the baby that his foster parent was cradling. The two females talked to each other, sometimes breaking out into small fits of laughter. Gaara didn't really pay attention to what they were talking about. His main focus was on the small infant. The baby was gripping onto the blanket that was wrapped around her and was suckling on a yellow pacifier. He could hear the quiet noise she was making as she suckled, and occasionally heard her make a small grunt.
"Gaara…" The teen was jerked back to reality and he looked up at Yumi with questioning eyes. Yumi was smiling at him, and so was Jenna.
"Do you want to hold Hailey, Gaara?" Jenna asked, smiling even more. His eyes widened and he quickly shook his head. "Why not?"
"I… I don't know how…," he admitted softly, looking down at the ground with sad eyes. Gaara gasped when he felt a sudden addition of weight on his lap. Looking up, he saw Yumi gently transferring the baby over to him. She repositioned his arm slightly so the infant's head would be resting in the crook of his elbow and so that he would still be holding onto her.
Gaara looked down at Hailey with quizzical eyes. The young infant looked right back up at him, her eyes glued to his. She then spit her pacifier out and it fell onto the couch. Her eyes stared at him intensely and Gaara found that he couldn't help but smile slightly at her.
Hailey cooed, bringing her fingers to her mouth and sucking on them. Gaara continued holding the small child while Yumi and Jenna talked with each other. Once again, he toned their voices out. He could feel the infant squirming around slightly in his arms.
"Hey, Gaara," a voice said gently. Gaara looked up and saw that Ryuu was standing right in front of him. He blinked his sea-green eyes, staring at the man before him. "Do you want to help me make dinner?" Gaara thought for a moment before nodding. Yumi took the small infant back from him and the redhead slowly stood up.
He followed the taller man into the kitchen and they both washed their hands. Silently, they prepared dinner. Gaara rinsed the vegetables while Ryuu chopped them up for a salad.
"Yumi told me about your past," Ryuu eventually confessed. Gaara winced upon hearing this, afraid of what he thought about him now. He did his best not to show his worry, though, and continued to wash the vegetables. "It sounds like you've come a long way. I really admire your strength." The redhead nodded slightly.
"I don't really like thinking about the past," Gaara said softly.
"I'm sorry; I won't bring it up again. So, how do you like living with my sister so far?"
"It's different, but I like it," he answered.
"I could tell that you were a bit intimidated earlier." Gaara sighed and turned off the water, drying his hands off on the dish towel.
"I don't really belong here. All I'm doing is intruding in on you guys." The pre-teen cringed when he felt someone lay a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"You're not intruding on us, Gaara," Ryuu assured him gently. Gaara looked up at him with blank eyes and saw the man smiling brightly. "We'll always consider you a member of the family." Gaara bit his bottom lip and looked down at the ground with uncertainty.
"You're just saying that to make me feel better." Ryuu chuckled slightly.
"It's probably not worth anything coming from me, but Yumi really cares about you a lot. She thinks of you as family, and if she thinks of you that way, then I'll do the same. Even though we don't really know each other that well, I have a very good impression of you." Gaara attempted to smile, but it didn't work out so well. He was happy to hear that people were willing to give him a chance though.
XxxxxxxxxX
A bored pre-teen stared out the car window, listening to the radio as he and his foster parent headed home. Every now and then, he would catch Yumi glancing over at him with a smirk plastered on her face.
"Why are you smiling at me like that?" he finally asked, sounding slightly agitated. The female laughed slightly.
"You really liked Hailey, didn't you?" she asked, giving him a curious look. Gaara looked down, slightly embarrassed.
"So what if I did?" Yumi shook her head.
"It's nothing. I just thought it was cute the way you two bonded."
The atmosphere in the car went back to being silent, except for the sound of the radio in the background. The pre-teen rested his head against the glass window, mulling over something in his mind.
"Yumi," he began. The woman gave him her attention. "Do you really think of me as part of your family?" Yumi gave him a surprised look, which made him feel even more insecure than what he already was.
"Of course I do, Gaara!" she chirped, sounding rather happy about it. "I've always thought of you as being very close to me, and now I think of you as being even closer." The passenger smiled ever so slightly, looking out the window with thoughtfulness showing in his eyes.
"Yumi, thanks for everything," Gaara said softly. Yumi smiled and chuckled softly to herself.
"You've already thanked me enough, hun. Really, it's all right." Gaara nodded and continued staring out the window.
So what did you guys think? I didn't like this chapter as much, but who knows, maybe you guys will love it. Please let me know what your thoughts are because it really does help me out.
A special thanks to the following reviewers who reviewed last chapter:
kitkat kezia, Sorami-san, Gaara-frenzy Natsuki Death, pizzaslices, Yume Ninja, Kitsune Slave, Cuzisme, Lela Rye, Lighting Wings, RainBunnyBow, and Bree.
Thank you all for your comments. As always, I really appreciate them. I'm also happy because most of the reviews were on the longer side, which is awesome and makes me feel oh-so-wonderful.
If you haven't already noticed, I now have 200 reviews for this story. Because of this awesomeness, even though I already started chapter 22, I'm going to start it over and make a special twist to it. 0.0 Hopefully, it will turn out right.
Hopefully, the chapter will be up sometime next weekend. If not, I'm extremely sorry. My ideas aren't coming as freely as they used to and require me to do more thinking.
PLEASE REVIEW!! THANKS!!