"So Gaara-" Kakashi let his name hang in the air.

It was Wednesday afternoon. Gaara really didn't want to be here. Did he ever?

He was going to skip this session, but Naruto was waiting on the school steps, guarding the exit and making sure he stayed for the counselor session.

Meddling blond, Gaara thought.

"You and Naruto, ahh-"

"Who told you?" the redhead asked.

"First thing, rumors spread fast. Like really fast. Second, you two weren't exactly subtle. Third, well I saw you two in the hallway and, uh-"

"You're a pervert."

"I don't know why people are so uptight," Naruto complained on Thursday.

Gaara glanced at him, glad to be looking at anything besides the meal placed before him. That tantalizing, yet sickening food odor was drifiting into his nose and he wanted to eat, but his stomach was too tight. He was hungry, but he knew it would just come back up again. The blond was trying to relax him by chattering and it wasn't working. "I mean, seriously being gay isn't that big a deal. I joked about it all the time before! I never thought I was gay, though, 'cause I had a crush on Sakura. But finding out I was isn't a big deal! Believe it!"

Gaara wasn't surprised that Naruto wasn't surprised about his sexuality. The kid didn't seem like the type to care what others thought of him. But still, he was a little curious.

"Why isn't it a big deal?" he asked.

"Gay's just... the way you are," Naruto said. "If people have a problem, why should we change?"

"That's not what I meant. You didn't seem... upset or alarmed. Even someone who doesn't have a problem with homosexuality would be alarmed if they discovered they were gay. It's true you don't care about the opinion of others, but don't you care that you learned something different about yourself?" Naruto frowned as the thought crossed his mind for the first time. Why wasn't he more alarmed? He'd been so defensive and quick to yell at other people if they teased him, but why wasn't he affected?

"Because it's you, Gaara," Naruto said, grinning widely. "You're my friend and as freaky as it is and queer," here he started to giggle at his unintentional pun. Gaara would've been irritated if the blond didn't do this all the time. "I think just knowing it's you makes me feel comfortable about it. I guess you could say I'm gay for you," Naruto giggled, then began to laugh wildly out of control, making his last few words almost indiscernible from his laugh. Gaara stared at him with amusement. How had he found a person like Naruto? He was truly one out of millions.

"Well what about you? Why weren't you scared at first, then huh?"

Now that was an uncomfortable question. It was definitely not something he wanted to talk about because the answer was confusing to him. Affection of any kind wasn't something he was used to. It was an alien emotion to him. It was comfortable, in a way he'd never experienced. Compassion and caring and love were shocking emotions to him. Gender was the least shocking thing about it. Insignificant. Love in any form was still love. And he, like Naruto, didn't give a shit about public appearance.

When Gaara didn't answer, Naruto assumed it was uncomfortable for the redhead. He wanted Gaara to eat and making him uncomfortable was not the trick.

"Okay, new subject. What do you think of-" Naruto stopped.

Much to his and Gaara's surprise.

The redhead because he hadn't expected Naruto to shut up without him telling the blond to. Not that he really wanted Naruto to stop talking. It was oddly comforting, his voice.

And the blond because he usually blurted out whatever was on his mind. This time, he couldn't think of anything. Okay, scratch that, he could think of things to talk about, but were they the right things? His mission wasn't to make Gaara uncomfortable. His mission was the opposite.

Gaara glanced at Naruto. He sniffed the air. And plugged his nose as the smell of food drifted into his nostrils. The tantalizing smell was torturous.

The blond noticed this and scooted his chair closer to Gaara's. "Gaara, you have to eat something," he urged. "You're hungry, aren't you?"

Gaara nodded and breathed through his mouth. Then released his nose as he realized the smell was strong enough to taste in his mouth, which was worse.

"Just... talk," the redhead said.

"Just talk?" Naruto asked with some bemusement. "About... whatever?" Gaara nodded.

He took a deep breath, the moment of silence before the rapid spit fire talking began.

"So I was snooping around Jiraiya's room once and I saw this unfinished manuscript for his book and I was really curious, so I read it and you won't believe the weird, perverted stuff I read seriously! The old man is so dirty, I wonder if that's how his mind looks from the inside? Actually, no, I don't want to think about it or I'll puke! So I read his stuff and I thought of a great prank. I found this goofy kid book full of short rhyming storiees and wrote it down, then sent that in instead! Boy, his perverted publishers weren't expecting that! Man, you should've seen how angry Jiraiya was! Actually, it's good that you haven't 'cause-"

Gaara blocked out his words, letting them fade in a monotonous buzzing hum in the background.

His voice was all that mattered. He focused on that instead of the pointless story. A warm tingle ran through his chest and down to his stomach. He felt the tense muscles relax and his breathing became easier. He sighed in relief. And then Naruto cheered as Gaara began to eat. Slowly at first, then quicker as his stomach remembered the last meal it had had. And how long the wait for the next meal might be.

"Success!" Naruto yelled, punching a fist in the air. "Yeah, I am good!"

Gaara finished off his dinner and cleaned the dish off in the sink. In the sink, he could see all of Naruto's dirty dishes and knew Jiraiya would appreciate him doing what Naruto never did. Then, out of habit, he began to clean the dishes, suddenly needing to stand up and do something with his hands, keep his mind on something simple. "You're trying to make me look bad, aren't you?" Naruto grumbled. "Jerk." But he was smiling and soon he was standing and beside Gaara, trying to help. But it was obvious he'd never cleaned a dish before and he was more of a hindrance than help. Still, it was nice to have Naruto at his side, even if it did take longer than it would've if he'd been alone.

"That's it?" Naruto asked disappointedly when they were done and sitting at the table again. Naruto was watching Gaara spread his homework across the table.

"That's all you're going to eat?" "

"Sorry," Gaara apologized.

"No, buddy, don't be sorry, it's not your fault," Naruto said hastily, putting an arm around his friend's shoulder.

For once, Gaara didn't flinch. A spark of pain spiked through his bad shoulder and his muscles tensed ever so slightly, but he didn't flinch.

And Naruto saw this as progress too. He grinned and leaned close to Gaara. The redhead knew what he wanted and mimicked the movement. Their lips touched gently.

Before they could kiss properly, they were interrupted.

"Hey kids, what's up-?" Jiraiya's words suddenly trailed off.

As soon as he spoke, the two jerked away from each other, the blond so violently he fell from the chair. Gaara went back to look at his homework papers, a blush coloring his cheeks. Jiraiya's eyebrows shot up as he took in Gaara's light red skin and Naruto on the ground, a heavy blush on his cheeks. He was grinning his Naruto grin, that mischevious, happy grin. The kind that meant he was hiding something, up to no good. But was Gaara in on it too? Why were they both blushing? And why had they been so close when he'd come in? Their chairs were really close...

A small grin formed on his mouth.

Well this was certainly a surprise. He would have to tell Tsunade-

Oh wait. He couldn't tell her. She was going to visit her brother tonight, who's friend had recently died, and she was going to comfort him and go to his friend's funeral. She'd grumbled at first, saying she barely knew the guy and it would be kind of uncomfortable, but her brother had seemed so upset she felt it was her duty as the older sister. She wouldn't be back for a few days. Not until the end of the week, maybe next monday. While she was gone, he was stepping in. He'd protested completely, saying he hadn't been a teacher since Naruto was three and there was a reason he'd quit to become a writer of perverted books, but she refused to let Danzo take over for her, so she forced him to do it.

To the protests of many members of the School Board. But hey, it was only today and tomorrow. He could hold the school together for a couple of days right?

"Of course, you can, old man! Yay, my godfather's principal!" Jiraiya blinked out of his daydream. "Was I thinking out loud?" he asked.

Gaara nodded.

"And now Naruto's on a roll?"

Nod.

Jiraiya sighed.

Gaara hid his smirk. He imagined Naruto's babbling could get to anyone who couldn't look under the chatter, look passed the clutter and hazy gray fog, see the depth underneath.

Naruto tripped on the rumpled rug and fell face down on the carpet. Gaara chuckled. You had to look really deep, so it was no surprise no one could see through that stupidity cloud Naruto permanently shrouded his mind in. That was the only thing about him that was cloudy, though, besides his brain. The rest of him was pure sunshine. Jiraiya roared with laughter at Naruto's pain and the blond spat something angry at him. They began to banter, but neither of them had missed Gaara's first chuckle.

Whatever they were doing, pressed so close together all alone, skin touching if his eyes could be believed, it was working, Jiraiya thought, grinning.