Ino was being a pig; she would admit that she probably had eaten over half of the delicious and non-lethal food that Gaara had spread out on the table for their dinner. Finally after she felt her stomach violently protest another bite, did she fling herself onto the bed in happiness.
"I can now die happy!"
She disregarded her wet hair on the pillows as she snuggled further in. It was so tempting to just sink into them and sleep but she wasn't really that tired. Letting her eyes lift she looked to see Gaara still sitting on the floor, his expression the most soft she had ever seen on him.
It made her full stomach twist in unease.
Curling in a smaller ball she kept her eyes on him.
"Gaara…come here."
Instead he stood up and took a shower.
At the sound of water running, Ino sighed and rolled onto her back. What was this? He had clearly set up this little, she grinned, love nest with some intention. Whether or not it was for any actual deviant reason not withstanding. The whole time so far he had stayed an appropriate distant away from her, the conversation staying on neutral safe topics.
It scared her.
More so since the whole day she had been trying to prep her self for a sooner than she thought farewell. Of course they had talked about a long distance, that it didn't matter, and all that romantic jazz. But the reality was that it did matter, and that it could damage even the strongest of bonds.
It seemed increasingly important to let him know how she felt. With anything she had or could use.
Oh dear.
….
"So you don't care about those two at all?"
Kankuro felt cheated as he sat at the bar with the third member of the Konoha team. Chouji was a pretty fun guy to be around. He wasn't abrasive nor was he obviously intelligent to the point where you felt stupid just by breathing.
In fact he was currently spending his time between a plate of food and a large pitcher of beer. Something that he shrugged happily when Kankuro raised his eyebrows at the order. Apparently he needed a lot of alcohol before even getting remotely drunk. A quirk to his family's jutsu.
The young ninja took a deep drink before sending him a grin.
"Nah, Shikamaru is worrying enough for both of us and…"
Kankuro waited while Chouji seemed to stared at the wall with a thoughtful expression. After a minute the man shook himself and shot him another grin before resuming his routine of drink then food.
"This is the most content I've seen Ino in a while."
He snorted and took a sip of his much smaller drink. Chouji laughed alongside before continuing.
"I know, believe me, the three of us have been together almost our whole lives. I know how that sounds."
…
Ino felt very discontented at the moment.
He had only been in the shower for ten minutes, which was a record for the lizard, but it was long enough for her to talk herself into a million circles of doom and gloom while basically lying on a cloud of silk and comfort. It was horrible.
She wasn't even sure if she wanted to kiss him or bite him in a really unromantic way.
Heaving herself up, Ino grabbed some water and walked over to the window to pensively wait until the jerk decided to show himself again. The sky was dark, although she noticed that Suna never really became pitch black like Konoha did. When the sky was clear and the moon and stars were out, there was enough light that her eyes only had to adjust a little before being able to see. At home the forest made it seem dark, dark, dark. It was nice because she needed pitch utter black to fall asleep.
At least she used too.
Sighing Ino turned to watch as the door opened and Gaara came out with a hand running through his damp hair. His eyes were still surrounded with the darkest shadows. She wasn't sure if they would ever completely go away; even if he did develop a proper sleep cycle schedule. They looked smaller though, not as thick, so maybe in time.
"Time."
The word was breathed out as she walked towards him. He had stopped at the edge of the pillows and blankets. His eyes had been taking her in as she had been doing the same; two people not really aware of what they were doing being so introverted in their thoughts. The gaze sharpened to focus on her as she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him.
It was a tight hug.
After a second of hesitation she felt his arms tightly wrap around her in response. This was one of the best parts of Gaara. Pressing herself closer she buried her face in the crook of his neck and pressed her lips against his skin.
She might have grinned a little when his chest hitched and arms tightened around her briefly before he adjusted them so that one hand slid under her hair to hold her head and the while securing a hold on her waist. For a weird moment she wished they were just one person so she didn't have to feel the painful wrench in her stomach at the thought of leaving him and could always feel this hug.
"Such a good hug."
He huffed on her neck softly at her groan of admission before he pulled back enough to look at her face. Ino childishly wanted to fight to stay buried but instead felt very mature for leaning back to return the stare.
Gaara didn't look convinced. The hand that held her head slid to her cheek where it lightly rested as he pulled her until their foreheads rest together.
Then he said, very firmly.
"No."
Pulling away Ino flopped down on the cloud of pillows and glared at him.
"Yes."
Gaara, who she realized was only wearing long pajama pants, kneeled down besides her and continued his mile long Kazekage stare.
"No."
Huffing like a kid being told to go to bed, Ino felt her lower lip jut out just a little as she rolled onto her stomach and faced away from him.
"Shut up."
He slapped her butt. Ino started to whip around to give him a good kick somewhere that would leave an impression but his body pressing heavily down on her back prevented it. Wrath of divine punishment sputtered and stalled as she hitched about twenty degrees as he lifted himself off her to slide his hands up her sides; taking her shirt with them. Feeling sweetly disoriented she absently lifted her arms to help the process and the shirt appeared on the pillow next to her head.
Lightly roughened finger tips slid down her shoulders, she held her breath when they whispered down the side of her breast before continuing down her side to the hem of her shorts. He pressed a kiss between her shoulder blades before resting his head there.
"Breath Ino."
Ino let it out in an unattractive gust. The bastard didn't give her enough time to recover fully as his hands were curling around the edge of her sorts and tugging them down and over until they landed next to her shirt. Feeling like a scared doe from Shikamaru's family land, Ino was positive her entire insides froze as those hands traced from the rather flat arch of her feet to the back of her knees. They paused for him to place slow kisses there before the fingers spread wide and made their way higher and closer to -
Ino flipped around, knowing he let her. Meeting his eyes she placed a shaky hand on his wrist.
Then grinned like a dirty old man.
"So you did make this for a seduction?"
It would have sounded raunchier if she hadn't needed to swallow half way through. She was impressed though, that he didn't miss a beat or dropped his gaze from hers.
Gaara didn't answer though, instead he leaned in and kissed her. Ino's stomach spasmed painfully at how soft it was and instinctively pushed back harder - opening her mouth in invitation and challenge. She felt his smile before he responded.
Suddenly, Ino found herself on her knees, hands tightly holding Gaara's face as the kissed escalated from demure to vicious. His hands were molded to her ribs under her breasts - thumbs occasionally brushing their underside and causing Ino to jolt. During one of those her mouth gasped and he took advantage to slip his tongue in. After that she started to forget the earlier disarray of emotions.
That's when it clicked. She had told him to shut up; he had known - as always- what she was thinking and instead of arguing with her in a way that she could win he was showing her. A goodbye wasn't permanent, not for him.
Oh god and he was showing her.
Ino bit his bottom lip, hard. Gaara softly ran a hand down her back.
She raked her nails down his back, not drawing blood but enough that it had to sting.
He broke from her mouth to place a kiss gently on her collarbone.
Ino might have actually growled.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and tried to throw them back onto the damn sexy bed but Gaara just turned into it and rolled them until he was lying down and she was straddling him. He laced their fingers together; not even flinching when she clenched them painfully tight. His other hand came up to cup her face; eyes turning dark. Ino felt trapped until after a minute he spoke; so quietly she almost couldn't make it out.
"Kiss m-"
Glass shattering gave her a bare second to jerk to the right just before Gaara yanked her under him. She tried to see the window, but the position was awkward and Gaara wasn't letting her move on inch; a hand pressing painfully tight against her shoulder.
"Gaara!"
There was a rumbling sound and several pairs of footsteps coming down the hallway. Ino had this irrational urge to bolt towards her clothes which wasn't going to happened. Straining her neck upwards she brought her free arms up to grab Gaara's shoulder just as her eyes caught something sail through the broken window.
"Explosive!"