When the storm retreats at last the city is buried. It's a mess.

But the people go about their business with happy faces, clearing away the mess. I marvel at these resilient people, and wonder how often they have to go through all this. By the afternoon some streets are becoming apparent.

At the embassy we're having a party to celebrate.

I was planning to go in whatever I could find in my closet, but yesterday Temari came to get me and took me shopping. And by shopping what I mean is that she got me to look through a bunch of old dresses that just happened to be in the embassy and pick one to have reworked.

The end result is actually very nice, and it was a way to pass the time anyway. I look much nicer tonight than I did that first night I went to a party here. I also have time to get myself all fixed up and pretty. Temari came by early to 'help me get ready'. Mostly she just waited around and ate all my food.

"There's never enough food at these things," she says while eating some leftover rice. "And it's always that fancy shit that's supposed to be an 'acquired taste'. Pfah!" She makes a very unladylike gesture, and I roll my eyes and retreat into the bedroom.

Temari follows me in. She stands in the doorway and looks around. "The other place was nicer." she says bluntly. I swear, I have no idea how she and Gaara both managed to become political figures.

"That's a cute little cactus." she says, noticing it on my night stand. "Who gave it you?"

"I don't know. It was in the room when I got here." I don't tell her that I moved it into the bedroom because I was lonely.

"Hm." She finishes eating my rice in silence and leaves the bowl on the coffee table. "Let's go already!" she yells from the living room. I quickly check myself in the mirror, decide I look good enough and follow her out the door.

As we approach the hall I can hear the low buzz of conversation coming from inside. It sounds like the party has already started.

"Damn. I was planning on being fashionably late," Temari grumbles, "but I didn't expect everyone else to be such keeners. Well, what can you do? Let's make this look good." She slips her arm through mine and we walk into the room together.

The hall is full when we make our entrance. It does feel like everyone looks up as we go in, staring at us standing at the top of the stairs, but then they quickly turn away, back to whatever they were doing. As we're walking down the stairs I notice that a group of people (mostly men) have come away from the crowd and are making their way towards us.

As soon as they reach us they crowd around Temari, each of them demanding her attention. I feel immediately uncomfortable and out of place. I try to slip away, but Temari holds on tight.

I look up at her, see how radiant she looks now. She really is beautiful, and she talks easily with those around her. Now she's all smiles and politeness, somehow talking to everyone at once.

But I'm the one whose arm she's holding. I see the men giving me funny looks, and I know what they're wondering. The few women in the group pretend not to notice me at all, but I catch them glaring at me out of the corner of my eye. I guess they don't like Temari showing preference to me. I would stick my tongue out at them, but that would be a little too inappropriate I think, and I don't want to be talked about all over the embassy. Not for something like that especially.

I scan the crowd, looking for a familiar face, but I find none. The only person here that I really know is Temari, it would seem. I guess I'm stuck with her for now.

I stand around and try to be patient, but it's hard. Temari tries to include me, to get me into the talk, but a lot of it is politics. It seems everyone here talking to her has something to tell her about Suna politics. Or romance. There are a few men who are just obviously attracted to her. And some who are both.

I wait quietly for a little while, but I soon tire of standing nearby and being ignored.

"I think I saw Watanabe over there," I tell Temari quietly, "so I'm going to go look for him ok?"

She looks at me quickly, one eyebrow raised. For one moment I'm certain she's seen right through my lie, but she shrugs and nods soon after, and I'm glad I didn't react.

I sneak away from Temari, and lose myself in the crowd. Once I'm sure she can no longer see me I move away from the bulk of the crowd. I pass through them, scanning the faces I pass on my way to the wall, but still there is no one I recognize. I'm sure Watanabe is here, and the others too, but I can't find them. I don't really feel like looking for them either, so I grab a glass of champagne off the tray of a passing server and find myself a nice quiet spot by the wall. Well, not exactly quiet, but it's by the wall anyway.

Another server comes by with little snacks, so I take some of those. I'm suddenly very hungry, and I wish I had eaten with Temari. I take a bite of the food and realize just how right she was; I guess this is a taste I haven't yet acquired. I wash the flavor down my throat with more champagne.

I finish the glass, and still I haven't recognized anyone. The room is getting hotter and stuffier by the minute, and now that I'm here all I really want to do is leave. If it weren't for Temari I might just have skipped this night altogether.

I watch people talking for a while. The band starts up and a large space in the middle of the room is cleared for dancing. It's nice, I guess, to be able to celebrate like this. I should be happy; I should feel content. The storm is over; the bad guys have been captured…

But they haven't. Not really.

I put down the empty glass and walk away from it. I'm about to sneak out onto one of the balconies, but then I hear voices from outside. I remember now what happened last time I went out on one of those, and decide not to go. And what's strange is that it's not the thought of meeting Gaara out there that stops me, but the thought of what he would think of me if we did meet again. He might think I'm doing it on purpose, that I'm seeking him out, and I don't want to appear too eager.

But am I looking for him?

Now that I think of it, he should be here. After all, everyone who's anyone has come out, and he is the Kazekage. That's certainly someone.

I shake my head, trying to clear him out of my brain. I slip out a door and into a room off the ballroom. It's empty, thank goodness, but it's still full of the noises of the party behind me, and it's still stiflingly hot. I find a door at the other end and go through it.

I find myself in a hallway, and follow it down to the end, where it opens up into a big space. After a moment I recognize the entrance way of the embassy.

I sigh, feeling much more comfortable. When did I become this way, I wonder, happier in my own company than in a room full of happy people? When did I become so anti social?

I walk to the window and look outside. The embassy was one of the first buildings that had the sand cleared away from it, but for convenience's sake we (the foreigners) have been asked to stay inside for another day. I hate it. In Konoha I was never cooped up like this, even in a storm. Of course, we had different storms back then.

I wonder how they're doing, back home. I hope it's started to rain again, but I doubt it has. If it had we would have received word right away, and we probably wouldn't be here anymore.

I lean my forehead against the cool glass. If there's one advantage to having a giant forehead, this is it; this soothing feeling that makes my whole body feel cooler.

I hear soft footsteps behind me and quickly jump away from the window. I spin around to find myself face to face with the man I had thought I was avoiding.

Gaara.

He stares at me in silence, and I can feel an infuriating blush creeping up on my cheeks. It must be from the heat.

"Nice night." I say softly, not sure really what else I can say. I feel so stupid. Why does he always make me feel stupid?

He nods in response. "Then I wonder why you aren't taking part in it." he says.

"It's, ah… too hot in there." I say lamely. In a way, it is the truth though.

He nods. "I don't much enjoy crowds either."

I smile at him. I can see why that might be. In fact I have this funny mental image in my mind, of Gaara standing in the middle of a crowd, glaring up at everyone around him… I scratch a pretend itch on my nose to cover up my smile. "Don't you think they'll miss you in there?" I ask. Judging by the suit he's wearing he must have been at the party too.

He shrugs. "No more than they'll miss you." I know that usually that would have offended me, but when he says it, it just seems so funny. He's the Kazekage, for god's sake, and who am I? A nobody, really. Just another faceless ninja. "And I made a double just in case." He goes on. "They won't notice the difference; they're too busy talking to notice if I'm quiet or not."

I can't help myself; I snort. Immediately afterwards I cover my mouth in embarrassment, but then something amazing happens.

Gaara smiles. He actually smiles. Just a little smile, but it's still there. And it's not psychotic, or scary, and it doesn't make him look like he's about to kill anything. This is not his smile of old days, when he was possessed. This new smile, it makes him look… nice. It makes him look good.

I quickly turn back to the window to hide my face, which is no doubt red as a tomato. I can not be thinking these things about Gaara – no way!

"Sakura…"

I turn to face him again, hoping that my face has cooled down at least a little bit, or that he'll just chalk it up to the heat. I did say it was too hot didn't I? "Yes?"

For a moment he says nothing; he just stares at me, and then he speaks. "Temari told Seri to give you some time off, away from the hospital, so that you can recover. With Luo in the hospital and the trial, with everything, she didn't think you would want to have to deal with work as well. I don't know if Temari has told you yet."

I thank him for the time off, even though it's really the last thing I want. I need work to keep my mind off things, not more time to consider what I could have done more. But it was done with me in mind, so I feel I should at least act like I'm grateful.

We stand in silence for another long moment. I'm watching Gaara, but he's looking out the window behind me, past me.

"Nice suit," I say at last, spouting nonsense in my eagerness to say something. "It suits you."

Gaara looks down at the suit he's wearing. "You think so? I hate it. It looks ridiculous."

I laugh. "You're right of course. I don't know why I said that; you look much better in your everyday clothes." And then I realize that I like the way he looks. And I realize that I have a situation on my hands. This is not good.

But I can't think of this now.

I hear a rumbling sound, and after a minute I realize that it's his stomach. "You didn't eat before the party either huh?"

He nods. "I should have listened to Temari." he says ruefully.

"Listen…" I say, sure that as I say it I'm making a mistake. "I have a bunch of food, real food, in my apartment upstairs. Would you like some noodles or something?"

"Are you inviting me to your room?" he asks. The way he asks it doesn't make it sound suggestive at all somehow; he just sounds surprised.

"Well, I mean… I guess so. But really just for food." I stammer. "I'm hungry too, so I thought – I figured we could eat together. I wouldn't mind the company. And by company I don't mean… I mean…" I sigh, giving up. I just keep digging myself deeper into this hole I've made.

My stomach makes a grumbling noise.

"Noodles would be nice right about now." Gaara says, showing surprising diplomacy. But now that I think of it, his diplomacy shouldn't surprise me. After all, he must have to deal with situations every day that require at least some level of diplomatic thinking.

"Really?"

He nods. I don't know how he manages to keep such a straight face all the time. If I was in his shoes at this moment I would be laughing my ass off at me.

"Oh. Ok. Then follow me." I lead him up to my room. I tell him to take a seat at the table while I search through my cupboards.

"Wow. Nothing but instant noodles. Temari really cleaned me out earlier." I mutter, and set the kettle on to boil. "Do you mind having instant noodles?" I ask Gaara.

He shakes his head. "I've never had them before." he says.

"You've never had instant noodles before?" I repeat. I'm in shock – I shouldn't really be, it's silly – but I am in shock. "Not once?"

He nods.

"…wow. Maybe I shouldn't be ruining your body then. As a medic I know how bad these are for you. Not healthy."

Gaara shrugs. "I'm sure I'll live."

I place a bowl in front of him and sit across from him with my own. It feels funny, and in some strange way comfortable, to be sitting here with Gaara in our fancy clothes.

"Shouldn't you have sent a clone?" Gaara asks after a moment. "They'll be noticing your absence soon."

I shrug. "I doubt it. There's so many people down there they'll never be able to know for sure that I'm not there."

"I wouldn't be so sure. Temari worries about you now; ever since the assassination attempt she has. With Luo in the hospital, and the assassins still out there…"

"Can we not talk about that now please?" I cut in. "Let's just talk about happier things ok?"

He nods, and silence settles over the room. My chest feels like it's constricting – my heart hurts, and I feel like I'm about to cry. Instead of crying though, I laugh at our situation.

"I guess we have nothing happy to talk about do we?" I ask bitterly.

"I like these noodles." Gaara offers. I stare at him for a moment. I never expected something so… innocent to come out of his mouth.

I laugh. "Well, that's something." I say. "That's something anyway."