Chapter 21

He really would have killed the man in front of him, had it not been for Sakura holding his wrist. Even though she was seeking comfort and protection her hand still served as a restraint. In the back of his mind, Gaara could feel the monster in him snarling and spitting inside its' cage. Screaming to be set free as it's claws reached out between the bars. This time, instead of stretching toward the sky for freedom, it reached toward that man, screeching for his blood and fear.

But the bars were holding him - Sakura was holding him. She was always keeping him back. Why? Why couldn't she just let him out so he could kill that man? Why couldn't she just run away from him? Didn't she know that she was toying with the Devil by staying? He could kill her, yet she stayed. What was wrong with her?

What was wrong with him?

"Surely you haven't forgotten me, Sakura. It hasn't been that long."

The man's voice was silky, a mocking gentleness to it that was easily seen as fake. Sakura trembled, and Gaara felt her hand shake as she gripped him harder. Rage bubbling just under the surface, and Gaara glared at him.

"S-Sasuke." Sakura whispered and shuffled backwards half-an-inch. Gaara glanced back at her before looking back at the man she had spoken to. He was staring at Gaara now, looking him over with an air of distaste. Gaara smirked at him.

Sasuke, as Sakura had called him, took a few steps foreward. He was close enough to touch them now, and Gaara heard Sakura's unsteady breathing become quicker and more unstable. The man was smiling, it made Gaara's blood boil. The way his lips turned up made it seem like he was thinking, Yeah, she knows me. I know her, too. Oh, I know her real well. As if to confirm Gaara's thoughts, Sasuke licked his lips as he fixed his smoldering eyes on Sakura.

Gaara felt acid in his throat, burning it, and he wanted to throttle Sasuke. Brake his neck and cut off his limbs one by one.

"That's right," Sasuke said under his breath and reached out for Sakura's hand. "I knew you couldn't forget me."

Gaara's hand whipped out the moment he felt Sakura flinch violently behind him. Of course he would have done something anyway, something to cause harm to the man, but when Sakura reacted in fear behind him, it struck him in some way he couldn't quite understand and made him do something right then. His hand wrapped tightly around Sasuke's wrist in a vice grip.

Sasuke winced and jerked his hand, only to pause and glare at Gaara when he found he wasn't going to be released. Gaara smiled easily at him, his eyes dark and deadly. His gripped tightened it's hold as he pushed Sasuke back, causing him to stumble before he regained his footing.

"Rats should know not to touch what doesn't belong to them." Gaara snarled as he twisted his hand slowly to the left, watching gleefully as Sasuke's face contorted in pain as his own wrist followed the movement. He struggled against Gaara's hold only once, discovering quickly that doing so only hurt him more.

"What the hell?! Let go, damn it!" Sasuke ground out as he tried to pull his wrist free, wincing harshly as the movement only twisted it more. Gaara's eyes bored into the man's skull, almost begging him to do something that could be considered provoking so he could kill him. One thing he did know, was that he had to be careful. If not, he wouldn't ever be able to come out of the facility again, and imprisoned there until he died.

"You don't seem so sure of youself now, Rat. What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" Gaara mocked, stepping foreward and driving Sasuke back, away from Sakura.

Sasuke gritted his teeth and snatched at Gaara's hand with his free one, scratching at it. "Fuck you." he snapped. Gaara pushed foreward, putting his weight into his arm as he shoved Sasuke away and into a car behind him.

Sasuke muffled as noise of pain as his back collided painfully with the car behind him, denting the side slightly, and groaned as he propped himself against the vehicle.

"Go crawl back into whatever trash-can you came out of." Gaara snarled and turned on his heel.

Ignoring the shouts from the man that he had pushed, Gaara grabbed Sakura by the elbow as he passed her and directed her to the passenger side of the car. After forcing her in, despite her protests, he snatched the keys from her and walked to the drivers side.

"You fucking psycho! I'll get you locked up you bastard!" Sasuke growled as he glared at Gaara with cold onyx eyes. Gaara smirked.

"Too late for that." He said and slammed the car door closed, blocking off the next words from Sasuke's mouth.

XXXXXX

"Gaara, I - "

"Don't."

"It's just - "

"Don't."

"But I want - "

The sound of squealing tires echoed around the road and assaulted the ears of both occupants in the car as Gaara slammed on the brakes in the middle of a deserted street, whipping the steering wheel to the side. Sakura screamed and clutched at her seatbelt, her emerald eyes shut tight in fear.

As the vehicle swerved off the pavement and slid into a patch of gravel and dead grass, Sakura opened her eyes and gulped in air to calm her nerves.

Was he crazy?! What was he thinking, did he want to kill them?! Sakura jerked her head to the side to chew him out. To scream at him for almost making her have a heart attack when, not twenty minutes ago, Sasuke had almost done the same thing! The stress was already piling on her, he did not have to go and practically crash them in her car just to add more worries and frustrations to it.

"What the hell is-"

"How does he know you."

Sakura blinked at the sudden demand and hate burning in his voice. "...what?"

His eyes cut to her, and she froze. "How does he know you." he repeated slowly, deadly.

Sakura stared back at him, confused at what he was asking. Was he asking about Sasuke? How had Sasuke known her? She almost cringed at the question. How deeply she wished that he didn't know her. That what they had had in the past was nothing more than a nightmare from her subconscious. That it had never happened in the first place. She coveted the thought of never have meeting him in the first place.

Gaara grinded his teeth together as his gaze burned into her skin. His hands tightened their death hold on the wheel, and he felt like breaking it. Just to be breaking something if it wasn't the neck of the pretty boy's throat. Gaara sneered at the thought. How easy it would be, to just wrap his hands around his throat, squeeze, and twist. To hear the finality of the 'crack' when the pressure became to much. To feel his body go limp and drop to the floor. To watch the body drain of color and see eyes glazed over from death.

It would be so easy. Too easy.

Sakura's eyes burned at the assualting memories of Sasuke. "He...I..."

She turned her brimming emerald eyes to him, silently begging him to understand her unspoken words. His cold jade eyes stared back at her, and she saw the fire in them, the insanity burning just under the surface. She could see how much he wanted to hurt something, anything. How his jaw was clenched and his fingers wrapped tightly around the steering wheel. Sakura could see the restraint fighting against the urge to let go, and her heart pounded. He was so close to the edge, so close to jumping off and plunging into the darkness she had dragged him out of. So ready to dive back in, if just to revel in the blood of one man.

Was he really willing to throw all of that away, all those months of climbing and striving for the light, of finally having a chance of leaving that damned place behind him, her , only to hurt someone he had just met?

"Gaara..." she whispered his name pleadingly, wanting him to understand that he couldn't jump.

His muscles tensed dangerously under the skin, and she let a strangled sob escape her aching throat. She couldn't let him slip through her fingers! Not when she was so in love with him that it physically ached her body to see him so angry and upset.

"You don't understand!" she said as she fumbled with the seatbelt, and crawled into the middle seat to cradle his head in her small hands. Her palms rested firmly on his defined features, and she gazed helplessly into twin pools of ice that effectively trapped her like a rabbit in a snare.

"Please..." she whispered hoarsly. "...please, Gaara."

"Why won't you tell me?"

For the first time since she had come to the institution and was put on as Gaara's doctor, Sakura saw raw emotion in his gaze. His eyes gleamed with anger, but underneath that, in plain sight only for her eyes, was the hurt and confusion. And a child-like curiousity that would have seemed so out of place on anyone else, but seemed to fit him just right.

Seeing this, hearing him ask her instead of demand, holding him in her hands, and feeling her heart beat in her chest for him, made something in Sakura snap. Before her mind could catch up with her mouth, she found herself spilling everything out to him. The truth about why she was so terrified of Sasuke. How she knew him. And why she never wanted to see him again.

Sakura poured out her stories of abuse, how Sasuke would come home drunk and beat her senseless before taking her in the most violent of ways. How he treated her worse than a dog, and forced her to do anything he asked. If she ever refused, she would get slapped around until she aquiesed and did his bidding. How he constantly put her down by calling her weak and annoying.

All the while, Gaara's eyes never left hers. His hands had long left the grip of the steering wheel and were fisted onto his jeans, his knuckles white. Sakura's own hands lay in her lap, twisting together as her anxiety threatned to choke her.

As she spoke, her gaze flicked around the car, not able to look him in the eye. She knew what he must be thinking. How weak she was. Of course she knew she was weak, she had been to weak to leave Sasuke before things got bad. She had been to weak to fight him off. She had been to weak to stand up for herself, and look where it had got her. Scared and reduced to a sniveling coward in his presence.

It was pathetic. And she knew this, and she knew that Gaara knew it, too. But it hurt more than she thought it would to have him think this. More than anything she wanted to prove to him, of all people, that she was strong and she could handle stress and that she could handle him.

When she finished, she glanced up at him. His facial expression was blank, and she inwardly cringed at the lack of reaction. With Gaara, no response was either bad or good. It all depended on him. The silence was knawing at Sakura, and she wanted to scream just make some noise. Her fingers trembled and she clenched them to hide it.

"...Sakura, look at me."

Sakura's petal green eyes slowly rose to meet his, filled with shame and apprehension. Once meeting his gaze, she took in the hard set of his jaw, and the rage in his eyes. Though the anger was evident, his voice was calm when he spoke.

"He did this to you?" He asked in a low, controlled voice. Sakura nodded. "Did you love him?"

Sakura started to nod, but paused and stared at the man across from her. Had she ever loved Sasuke? Or was it just out of habit after fawning for him most of her life? Did she love him, or just the idea of him? Her fantasy Sasuke, the one that would always come back and apologize after hurting her, was sweet and loving. Had she only loved what she made Sasuke to be in her head and not the monster that had weakened her?

Sakura's eyes bored into Gaara's own, and she squared her shoulders. "No, I never loved him." She answered, her voice resolute, strong, and determined. After such a long time of being looked down upon and called hopeless, it felt infigurating to be so sure of something. She had never loved him, that was for sure. She had only fallen in love with the Sasuke she had dreamed up and thought of when the real monster was before her.

She had been blinded by her naiveness and ignorance.

Gaara leaned over to Sakura slowly and pressed his lips against hers in a placating, almost gentle kiss. Sakura felt her insides melt and drip to the floor. His lips lingered on hers, not pushing or demanding, just in his own way showing his sympathy and urge to make it better. Sakura felt grateful, and lifted her hands to run through his blood red locks softly. She felt him sigh against her lips and she opened her eyes slowly to take him in.

His gaze was darkened and she felt herself drowning in his eyes. As he pulled away from her, Sakura tugged him back and rested her forehead against his. Where Gaara's scar for love cut into his skin, Sakura could feel it burning into her own flesh with a delicious feeling and she smiled.

With a swift kiss to his nose, Sakura pulled away and chuckled at his annoyed expression as he turned back to the road. As he started the car back up, Sakura looked out the window and felt a yearning to go home.

"Gaara, do you want to see where I live?" she questioned and looked over at him curiously.

His eyes flickered over to her and he smirked. "Which way?"

Sakura smiled. "Turn left at the next exit."