Kankurou and Gaara walked down one of the isles of Target, the older boy pushing a grocery cart in front of him.

"I can't believe Temari made me take you school supply shopping," he grumbled. Gaara just sighed and shook his head in disappointment.

"Maybe if you had already gotten your school supplies, she wouldn't have forced you to take me," he suggested. His older brother smirked and shook his head.

"Don't pay any attention to me. I'm just complaining. It's not really any trouble. You are my little brother after all." Gaara groaned as his brother pulled him into a bone crushing hug. He pulled away and took a few steps to the side. He stopped and picked up a thick binder for the AP Biology course that he was going to take. His brother thought he was crazy, but he really liked biology. Danielle was taking AP Chemistry, which was supposed to be just as hard, only in a different sense. She would have to memorize a bunch of formulas and do a lot of math problems. He would have to memorize a bunch of categories, descriptions, classification keys, and stuff like that. Naruto wasn't taking any AP courses, saying how it was too much work.

"So how's everything between you and Danielle?" Kankurou asked suddenly. Gaara stopped dead in his tracks and glared at his older brother.

"What's it to you?" he asked coldly.

"Well, I just thought that I would make sure everything was going alright. You know you can ask me about stuff in that genre, right?" The redhead sighed and nodded. "Good. Then start talking."

"I really don't want to," Gaara muttered, putting a few folders into the cart.

"Come on Gaara. I may not know you as well as I should, but I do know that this is the first relationship that you have ever been in. You can't seriously tell me that you don't have any questions." The redhead stared at the ground with blank eyes.

"Kankurou, I don't really want to discuss something like this in public." The older boy smirked and chuckled.

"Yeah….. I kind of forgot about that little aspect." Gaara sighed and shook his head again in disappointment.

After about an hour of school supply shopping, Kankurou proceeded to drive his brother home. On the way, they stopped by a park and took a short walk. They sat down on one of the wooden benches, staring off into space for a few minutes.

"Start talking little bro," Kankurou told him. Gaara sighed, slumping in his chair a bit.

"We kissed," he told him softly. A light blush painted Gaara's cheeks, making his older brother smirk.

"Really?" Gaara nodded.

"Only once though, and it could have gone better."

"It's okay Gaara," his brother assured him. "First kisses aren't really supposed to…"

"Naruto caused us to fall off the bridge immediately afterwards," he interrupted. Kankurou chuckled, patting his younger brother on the shoulder.

"Okay, I see what you mean."

"What do I do now?" Gaara asked, looking up at Kankurou with sad eyes. "I really like her, but I'm still not comfortable with a lot of things she is."

"What do you mean? Are you not comfortable with kissing or something?" The redhead blushed slightly and looked down at the ground in shame.

"Touching," he whispered. "Danielle is always making the first move. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?" Kankurou frowned, thinking deeply about how to answer his brother's question.

"That's the stereotype on relationships I guess," he began, "but it doesn't always have to be that way. This is your first time."

"It's Danielle's first time too." The older boy sighed.

"Gaara, you and Danielle are two totally different people. She's more social than you are. Most females are more social than males, or at least that's what everyone says. She's just acting on her feelings. You don't have to do anything that you're not comfortable with."

"I know that, but I kind of want to. I want to know what it's like, but my insecurities are always getting in the way." Kankurou chuckled and Gaara glared at him.

"Then don't think about it. Just do it. That's all I can think of. Maybe start with small things, like putting an arm around her at the movies. Then you can work your way up to the more touchy feely stuff." The redhead sighed, climbing to his feet.

"I feel so stupid. I'm 17 years old and I need to ask my brother for advice." Kankurou laughed.

"It's not that bad! It could be worse."

"I guess," he grumbled.

XoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooX

It was Danielle's 18th birthday. Most people would see this as an exciting moment, but Danielle didn't. She thought of it like she thought of every birthday. It was almost like another normal day to her, only she just so happened to have been born 18 years ago on that day. That's all that it meant.

Gaara found out that it was her birthday and drew another picture that she could put on her wall. He drew a poster sized picture of a classic, medieval fire-breathing dragon. He used watercolor paint to give the picture some life. He painted jet-black and crimson red. He hated using watercolors, but he loved how it looked if you used it the right way. He had to start over several times before he got it the way he wanted it. Even then, there were some things he didn't like about it, but he was running low on paint. He didn't have much of a choice and it was the best out of all the others.

Gaara also took Danielle out to see a movie, which also gave him a reason to try and get closer to his black-haired friend. During the movie, he nervously draped an arm around her shoulders. Danielle was a little surprised at first, but didn't let him know. She knew that he was trying and was taking a rather big step out of his comfort zone. Smiling lightly to herself, she rested her head against his shoulder, which brought Gaara even more out of his comfort zone. She was aware of that, but he had started it. He would get used to it eventually.

Gaara wanted to get over his feelings of discomfort. He wanted to learn to like the sensation of touching. If it weren't for this fact, he would've pushed Danielle away. He would have made her get out of his little security bubble. He knew that if he did, though, he would never learn to like being touched, or touching someone else. He wanted to be with her. He wanted to learn more about this unfamiliar feeling called love.

Yay for you all! I decided to be nice and post this chapter up a day early. I know, I'm amazing. XD joking. Anyway, I've gotten chapter 27 typed up and I'll work on chapter 28 this week. If all goes according to plan I don't have anything major to do, then I'll post Next Wednesday. I'm hoping to start working soon, but that hopefully won't cut into my writing time too well.

Also, on another note, I'm also posting another Gaara X OC story. It's not a pairing and it's not a Highschool fic, although it is AU. I would be absolutely ecstatic if you all would check it out. I don't want to give a giant summary about it, because that's what the prologue is for. Just check it out!

A special thanks to my everfaithful readers!

Lyris88, Dimly, NeferNeferi, Misfit band geek, Yume Ninja, Readerfreak10, Animestar001, and AddictedtoBleach.

Thanks to silver0scorpion, whom reviewed for chapter 9.

Thanks to all of those who favorited this story or added it to your alert list. I truly hope to receive a review from you all. That would make my day.

Check out my other story. It's called "Save Me From Insanity".

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