Gaara stopped with his hand on the handle and held the light feathery sound of her laughter.
He felt Shukaku shutter, he didn't like something about this. He pushed through the feeling and opened the door to his brother flopped on a couch and his fiancee smiling at him from her chair nearby.
The possessive beast anger flared so heavily he had to stop and cringe, the light feeling left the room.
"G-Gaara?!" He heard her chair fall back and her stubbled footsteps. She cautiously took hold of either of his arms.
He felt the feeling leave and looked at her worried face and his stomach dropped. He didn't want to see that. He growled inwardly at the beast who seemed just as irritated at himself.
"A-are you okay?" She curled her fingers gently around his forearms.
"For now." He mumbled looking at her hoping she would leave it for later.
She examined his face and nodded understanding and helped him to a seat before picking up the one she knocked over.
Kankuro eyed him warily until Hinata joined them. She sat close to him. Reachable distance, he wasn't sure if he needed to think that or she really thought about things like he did.
She chewed her lip wondering if he wanted to talk about it or not. She curled up in her spot with her book that she didn't want to read and stared at the page worrying about him.
"Hinata you are not reading." He sighed.
"I-I am." She mumbled focusing her eyes on the page realizing it was still the title page and never flipped it to her spot. She pouted being caught closing it.
"It was Shukaku." He explained. "Violent reaction to entering the room, to be honest, I'm not sure why." He picked up his papers and moved to the couch setting them on the arm.
"H-He didn't like the room…?" She mumbled. No that wasn't it, he was an intelligent creature, what was in the room. Her and Kankuro, he calmed down when she came over so it wasn't her. Kankuro? He didn't react like that to just seeing him before. What was happening? She was sitting with Kankuro, laughing at his dramatics. Realization hit her with all of Kiba's old jealous tendencies when they were kids, with Shukaku recent reactions to what she did it wasn't that ridiculous.
Could a creature so old really be so childish? "Sh-Shukaku-san that's not okay!" She said looking up at Gaara sternly trying not to take too much immediate offense to the idea.
Gaara stared back and went rigid blinking at her.
"Y-You can't punish Gaara when you don't like what I do with others, i-it's horribly rude." She scolded.
He had never heard such silence in his head. Shukaku had never been scolded directly at least not through him, her stern look was almost amusing if he wasn't scared of how he was about to react.
She sighed. "I-I don't understand you or what you think of me, but I do not like it when you punish Gaara when you're unhappy with me." She continued sternly, her eye softened. "I-I willing to listen and work with all of our comforts but I refuse to isolate myself and I refuse to condone punishing Gaara for my actions."
Gaara only partly understood.
He felt mixed feelings come in waves. Mostly anger and confusion. At least he wasn't alone.
She offered her hand. "I-I'm marrying you, Gaara, but that means I'm taking you both as life partners. I-I want that to be comfortable for all of us."
Gaara realized she was talking to him now, he took her hand and her smaller fingers curled off his firmly as she laid them between them.
He wasn't sure how to react to this, she was directly saying she was choosing to live with Shukaku just as much as she was him. She was willing choosing to live with Shukaku. She wanted to live with them both, not just living with him with Shukaku as an unwanted guest. He repeated that in his head a few more different ways. It wasn't something he considered. Was he happy? He wasn't sure. His face heated unusually and he felt Shukaku settle to think about what she had said.
She was accepting all of him, the part that was all him and the part that he couldn't quite control. She was accepting Shukaku as an entity and as a part of him. Had Shukaku even been offered an olive leaf like that? Not just in his lifetime, but in the beast's lifetime? He hated humans, was this why he liked her? Did he see this?
Shukaku's anger embed away purring started back in, he was oddly content with her still it would seem. "You scolded him I would expect him to be furious." He mumbled still heavily confused by both her and the beast.
"H-He's not angry with me?" She rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand. Looking up question.
"He's purring again." His confusion was meet with a bright smile.
He hadn't been in this position before it was usually the other way around, and he didn't know what to do. It was getting late and she had fallen asleep. With the confirmation that she and Shukaku agreed on or rather Shukaku had accepted whenever she had, she went back to her book and he went back to his paperwork. She had curled up next him rather than her spot at the other end and as the night went on, his arm had taken the place of the armrest usually did. They curled together fingers laid in her lap under her book. By the time he noticed how late it was getting, she was already dead asleep on his arm, book settled in her lap forgot. Should he wake her so she could go to bed, she wouldn't wake him. She couldn't sleep upright like that all night, but if he moved more comfortably would he wake her? He knew she could be a light sleeper, being in his presence probably wouldn't help that.
He set his papers aside moving carefully as he could, he released her hand and ran the arm that she was laying on behind her letting her head slide on to his collar bone. His hand moved to hold her lower ribcage testing moving her, she was still asleep enough she didn't even stir. Was she really so trusting of him, she didn't even feel unsafe when being moved while he was here?
Her legs tucked under her were another problem they were tucked away from him so he was not reaching them on his own, he summed sand to come under her knees lifting her only enough to lay her legs out. He was careful to keep to the outside of her nightgown, the grit against her skin would no doubt wake her.
He moved to lay out with her, she was tucked safely in between his side and the back of the couch, like always she irradiated heat a novelty in the cold desert nights. With a wave of his hand and some sand, the blanket that was kept in the room specifically for when she fell asleep on his couch was over them and the light was out.
It was only then it came to him that he could have laid her down by herself and went back to work, but he pushed the idea aside. So often she was awake making sure he was comfortably asleep, he had never had the chance to be the second to sleep.
As his eyes adjusted to the new lighting he looked over her sleeping face. Her temple was pressed into his collarbone, and what was free of her still damp hair fell over her pale features. She was even softer looking asleep, but that he knew, he had seen her asleep on this very couch before.
Something about this stirred a possessiveness that was his own.
He tried to identify it reason. She was so deeply trusting him with her sleeping form, she was openly vulnerable to him, he felt the primal need to protect and keep.
He laid his free arm over his eyes and laid his head back. Was this what Shukaku saw? When he looked at her.
'She can't be human.' Shukaku mumbled at him. 'Humans first reaction is always fear, to protect themselves.' Gaara listened hoping for some answers. 'Her first reaction is to protect us, always.' He continues to muse. 'When cornered in a box with a rabid beast, the first thing she did was give up her safe exit for its comfort.' His thoughts were becoming more scattered and became nothing more than ramblings of events.
Gaara sighed. That wasn't the least bit helpful and all of that he already knew. Though she was human, too human, to breakable. A ninja, but unlike him, she was easily harmed if caught off guard or in a storm. He closed his eyes trying to will away the confusion, he didn't need to think about any of them. She was safe here, she was sleeping silently within his reach, he could protect what he had claimed as his.
As if to prove his point she shifted moving her arm more comfortably onto his chest revealing her left hand and the ring she told him she cherished.
She never took it off. The feeling of her was always there. Even the whole way in Konoha he could feel her touching the sand ring.
He moved to lightly lift her hand, she didn't want it changed from what he understood, so he wouldn't add anything without her permission. From his point of view, these grains of sand were hers now. It help him keep a comfortable connection to her, he could feel her anxiety or compassion when she fidgeted with it.
He wondered if she knew what the sand had done, how blood soaked it once was, he suddenly wondered if he should have exposed her innocence to such spilled blood. Looking back down at her calm face it was easy to forget her hands held the blood of her enemies before.
She didn't fit what he thought of a female ninja. Unlike his sister and other Suna-nin, and even Naruto's pink teammate, she kept her sweet, kind hearted nature despite her exposure to violence.
The proof was in the calluses on her hands. Her hands were polished but held thick skin and small white scars from her fighting style, in comparison his hands barely held calluses from his pen. He ran his thumb over the calluses on her palm and her tiny finger curled around his larger hand.
He sighed, he was trapped now.
He fell asleep rather easily with the sound of purring and even breathing calming his thoughts.
***TheUnstableLiz***
**Thank you! Thank you! Thank you all for your wishes for my health! You are all so sweet! My cat is not so sympathetic and want to sit on my keyboard as I write.
**Fun note with a bit of back story. When I write these chapters I usually naturally stop at 4 or 5 pages which translates to any were between 1500 to 2500 without my author note. Not sure why, and people have complain about the short length but it just how it comes out. I was so into the scene I was writing I looked down to see I had wrote 13 pages that's just the first run, I usually add paragraphs when I go back through, 3 chapters in one siting! I love this next set of chapters. I hope you do to.
This story is secondary on my to do list. This will only be updated after my other story Lavender Clouds has.
I appreciate CONSTRUCTIVE comments and reviews.
I can not answer questions of guests. I don't want this section a mile long and bloating the word count too much.
If you have a question please log in and PM me. I will answer any and all questions!
I will also point out that anyone who is out of character by a lot is the fault of me not knowing the character well enough and I apologize for that.
I apologize for spelling and grammar, I am a computer scientist, not a writer.