Gaara did not get a second of sleep.

The past few days had been absolute hell, in every single sense of the word. Despite Ami comforting him yesterday after what her brother had said to him, he was still very much reeling from his words. He was absolutely certain that Takehito had somehow convinced Ami's mother not to approve of them getting married—and he couldn't blame her if she didn't approve.

Sitting on the roof of the small one room building that he and Kankuro had been staying in, watching as the sky grew lighter and lighter, Gaara didn't notice Ami's mother walk out of the faction's main building and onto the back porch until she whistled loudly, "Gaara! Come off the roof and help me make breakfast—we should talk." The woman put her light brown hair into a high ponytail before chuckling at the shocked face he made, "It's going to be a good talk, come down."

There was a small pause before he used his sand to teleport off of the roof, ending up next to the older woman on the porch. "Yes ma'am. What do you need me to do?" following her inside he nodded as she told him to start a pot of coffee and start making rolled omelets. Looking up at the wall in front of the stove, Gaara was shocked to see a photo of himself, Kankuro and Temari right after he had become Kazekage, hanging up there along with countless other photos of Ami's siblings and what he took to be more distant family members. Gaara looked at Michiko in an incredible amount of confusion, "Why are we… on the wall? My siblings and I?"

"Hmm?" the green eyed woman peered at the picture he was speaking about before chuckling as she made rice and miso soup for her children's breakfast. "Oh! That's where we put pictures of family. You haven't thought about it have you? Your siblings and you have spent more time with Ami than any of us have. She left the village when she was seven to move to Suna, where she's been for fourteen years. All three of you know her and have influenced her more than any of us have. That makes you her family, which makes you our family as well. Why do you think Akio and I send you all gifts on holidays and your birthdays?"

Gaara stared at the woman in shock, he had never thought about it like that at all. He felt a tinge of guilt—whenever he had received a gift from the older woman he hadn't really done anything. No thank you note, no reaching out with a letter. "I… thank you very much ma'am." Flipping an omelet, the redhead looked down intently at the frying pan as he cooked, he didn't even begin to understand how to deal with women who treated him in any sort of matronly way—the man was completely out of his element.

He just wanted to go home.

Chuckling as she stirred the soup, "You're welcome Gaara. Anyways what I wanted to talk to you about was about how you wanted to marry Ami." Michiko smiled to herself when she saw the man tense up in the corner of her eye, "You have my permission. I've watched how you two act together these past few days and I do think my daughter would be happy married to you."

The man spun around to thank her, when he saw a tired Ami trudge in with his sister—both women looking like the could use several more hours of sleep. Mouthing an incredibly sincere thank you to his future mother in law, Gaara set out the cream and sugar on the table before handing both Temari and Ami a cup of coffee. "Good morning you two. How'd you both sleep?"

Ami was the only one who was able to speak—Temari was never truly functional in the morning until she had some sort of caffeine. "We slept alright… excited to go home though…" running a hand through her blonde hair she looked up at her love with bleary eyes, an eyebrow raising up in confusion as she noticed that Gaara had an uncharacteristically large smile on his face. "What're you so happy about?"

"I'm just happy to be able to take you home." Putting a plate of food in front of both of them, grinning softly at Kankuro when he walked in, "Eat up, we're leaving for Suna in an hour."

The next hour was filled with goodbyes from all of Ami's siblings who lived on the compound, assuring Akio that they had all their supplies well stocked, and packing their bags. Soon enough they were at the gate of the small village, saying one final farewell to all that had wished them goodbye before the four of them set out to their home village.

Kankuro looked over at Ami for a few seconds before looking forward once more as they began the trip back to Suna, "Ami, your family is nice for the most part, your home village is lovely but—"

"You never want to come back there do you, Kankuro?" cutting him short as she looked over at the older brunette.

Shaking his head vehemently, not caring as Temari laughed at him "Never in a million years, I don't know how you lasted for three and a half fucking months holy shit Ami, that place is crazy as hell."

The trip back to Suna was uneventful, the four of them getting back in just two days. Walking through the streets of Suna, the moon and lanterns lighting up their path; Ami, Kankuro, and Gaara waving goodbye to Temari as she went to her apartment with Shikamaru. As the three entered the Kazekage mansion, paused before speaking "Who's turn is it to cook tonight?" She didn't know the order of things anymore now that she had been gone for so long, as well as Temari moving out.

"It's mine. I was just going to make a hot pot since it's easy enough." taking off his hat and knapsack, Kankuro tossed them both onto the couch before opening the fridge. The man froze for several moments before doubling over and covering his mouth. "What the fuck is that smell-!"

Gaara looked curiously at Ami before striding into the kitchen, the redhead covering his nose and mouth as he smelled the rotting stench of almost everything in the refrigerator. "Good god what happened, it smells like something died."

The blonde woman peered into the kitchen, coughing a bit "Oh my god I can taste it-" pinching her nostrils so she couldn't smell anything at the very least. "You two remembered to empty the fridge before you left so nothing would go bad right?" looking at the two men who just stared at her in confusion, Ami rolled her eyes. "Oh my lord you two- okay. Kankuro why don't you go and pick us up some takeout alright? Pretty sure that Udon place is still open. Gaara and I are emptying the fridge."watching as the brunette all but ran out of the house. Ami began pulling out all of the rotten things from the fridge, setting them on the counter one by one. "Use your sand to throw all this crap out, outside okay? It'll make everything smell if we keep it inside."

"Alright, alright." leaning against the wall as his sand tossed everything away in the trashcans outside, Gaara couldn't keep the smile off his face that had persisted for the past few days. She was finally home, and even though some things were different now that Temari had moved out, it was close enough to what he considered normal to finally get him to the point where he was happy again. He was also already planning out what he would do for his proposal- he wasn't a romantic person in the slightest, so that would be hard. Sea foam green eyes widening as he realized he would have to get a ring for her- finding her size would be hard since she had no jewelry, but he was certain he could figure something out.

Ami did her best to get rid of the smell in the kitchen, lighting several candles they had to try and mask the scent along with opening almost every window she could. Raising an eyebrow when she noticed Gaara spacing out she poked the kanji on his forehead gently before pressing their lips together briefly. "What're you thinking about?"

The redhead smile down at her, wrapping his arms around her waist as he pulled her in close. "I'm thinking about you." kissing her in return, resting their foreheads together once he pulled away. "I'm glad you're home."