There were boxes everywhere on the floor as Ino tiptoed around them, a sharpie in her hands as she continued to label them.
"This one has pots and pans… and this one has the plates… and this one has pantry food…"
"Ino, honey, you sure you don't want these extra sheets?" her mom asked.
"No. We have plenty. And besides, it's just one bed."
The older woman sighed with a nod. "You sure? Doesn't hurt to have extra blankets."
"Yes, mom. I'm sure," came her reply with a yawn.
She had been awake since seven in the morning, cleaning the apartment and putting everything into boxes as Gaara went to pick up the moving truck. She had given her bed and dresser to her parents a week ago, opting to use Gaara's bedroom set.
Moving was tiresome, yet she looked forward to sharing a new home with him. Their new apartment was on the opposite side of the city, closer to the restaurants and nightlife. It was a spacious one-bedroom on the sixth floor of a ten-floor building. Its new appliances and exquisite lighting gave it the feel of luxury, something she loved.
Gaara, Neji, Shikamaru, Kankuro, and Naruto arrived and started loading the moving truck with the furniture and boxes. Ino grabbed one of the boxes as well but was immediately stopped by Gaara. He took the box away from her.
"You shouldn't be lifting,"
"Why not? It's not that heavy,"
"You can strain a muscle, and that's the last thing you want," he replied while looking at her chest, reminding her of her still-healing injury. She grunted, despite knowing that he was right. She was scheduled to start work in two weeks, and the last thing she wanted was her injury causing her to delay that.
It took the men an hour before the truck was fully loaded, leaving Ino and her mother standing in an empty apartment.
"I'll be back once we drop off our stuff," Gaara told her, giving her a brief kiss on the cheek before leaving.
"Is it me, or does Gaara look more...built? His muscles seem to be more...noticeable..."
"Mom! Ew! You're like double his age!"
"Well excuse me! First of all, he's an adult, not some teenager. So don't ew me, young lady! Second of all, it's a compliment. He's definitely gotten more handsome,"
Ino rolled her eyes at her, despite knowing that what she just said wasn't a lie at all. Gaara's physique did get bigger. Not in a dramatic body-building way. But his abs became more prominent and his arms a bit thicker. She made it a habit of tracing his abs at night before going to sleep.
It took the men an hour after moving everything into the new apartment to finish assembling the furniture. Neji and Shikamaru reassembled the bed frame as Kankuro and Naruto took care of the rest of the furniture.
"You've got a pretty good view from here," Shikamaru pointed out, hands in his pockets as he stared at the slow moving clouds.
"Yeah, that's why we selected this one," Gaara said, "The windows bring in a good amount of sunlight. And Ino already has ideas of how she wants to decorate this room."
"Is it far from your jobs?"
"No, about the same distance as our previous apartment. It's closer to the supermarket we shop at, which is good."
"How is she doing? With the healing."
"Better. I know she gets nightmares sometimes. Not as bad as from two months ago, but occasionally she gets them. Sometimes she'll tell me about it… But when she doesn't, it becomes harder."
"Let me guess, she pretends like it's nothing but her expressions give it away,"
Gaara nodded. "Yeah. I think she worries that I'll get tired of her talking about it."
"Ino's very self-conscious. It'll take a while for her to let go of that,"
"Yeah,"
"Did she enjoy the vacation, at least?"
"She did,"
"Oi, what are you two gossiping about!?" Kankuro asked as he walked over to them, "Naruto and I just finished hanging the TV. Anything else you need help with?"
"No. Ino and I can do everything else,"
"Cool. Oh, and by the way Gaara, you owe me a hundred bucks,"
With her mother gone, Ino was left alone in the empty apartment. Waiting for Gaara to come back, she walked around and remembered the events from the past year.
Upon walking into the kitchen, she noticed a small stain on the floor, near the stove. Ah, the moment she had dropped a boiling pot of ramen…
She remembered that evening clearly. The kitchen sink had become clogged, and Gaara took it upon himself to fix it. As she stirred their dinner, Gaara had been sitting on the floor for nearly an hour clearing the pipe. Although the kitchen wasn't small, it was tight in some areas. The stove was situated right next to the sink, which had prompted her being careful not to step on her roommate.
"Is it fixed now?"
"...It should be…" Gaara said, standing up and turning on the faucet.
Ino went back to stirring the ramen, eager to finally be eat-
A splash sound was heard, prompting Gaara to take a few steps back and bump into her. Ino had been so intrigued in watching the dinner cook that she didn't have enough time to move out of the way, causing her to lean onto the stove and elbow the pot. Soon enough, their dinner and water from the sink covered half their kitchen, and the two simply sighed in defeat.
"Should we get pizza?"
"Yeah…"
"Ino?"
The blonde turned and smiled at her incoming boyfriend.
"You're finally back! What took you so long?"
"We assembled all of the furniture. Are you ready to go?"
"Yeah, but I'm going to miss this place. So much has happened. Good and bad. Like the time you bumped into me and I spilled the ramen,"
He gave her a smile, "Yeah, I remember that. We ended up getting pizza for dinner,"
"Yup,"
"Now that I think about it, you and I had dinner almost every day."
Ino agreed to that, remembering how they would either take turns or cook together. She remembered some of her colleagues telling her various things upon finding out that she was leaving with a male.
"Your roommate is a guy? You know men don't like cooking or cleaning. Girl, you'll be cleaning up after him soon!"
"Oh, he's your roommate? Good luck living with a guy for a whole year! I've been living with my husband for twenty years, and you would think he would know how to wash his clothes!"
"Guys love to leave the damn toilet seat up. You'll be falling in one of these days!"
The first two statements had been incorrect when it came to Gaara. The last one was true, and Ino could count the numerous times she had a heart attack trying to sit on the toilet and realizing that the seat was up.
"What's so funny?"
"I was just remembering the time I had to pee really bad...and you left the toilet seat up,"
"You could have put it down,"
"I was in a rush, and didn't realize until I felt myself almost fall in,"
Gaara chuckled at that, "I'll try to keep that in mind. But no promises."
Ino rolled her eyes as she walked around the empty bedroom she occupied for a year.
"There are no trees by our new place," Gaara said, "so you shouldn't be seeing any bugs,"
"Good! Can't stand those slimy bastards."
Gaara recalled the various times she had barged into his room and begged him to kill whatever thing was crawling in her room. Unfortunately for her, her bedroom window had been near a tall thick tree which hosted palmetto bugs. During the fall and winter times, the bugs barely came out. But during the summer times, it was bad. Because the tree branch had been so close to her window, the bugs would stay by her window and slide through once said window would be opened. And this, of course, resulted in disaster for her. When he had eventually explained to her why her room was getting these bugs, and nowhere else in the apartment, her response was typical Ino style.
"Then I'm going to cut that damn branch down!"
"This city actually has restrictions on that… You'll need to get a permit and provide reasoning as to why you need the whole branch cut. And then pay a fee,"
"Ugh, fine! Then I'll just remove some twigs from it! I'm sure they won't notice…"
True to her words, one day she had sat by the window ledge and broke the twigs closest to the window.
"Oh, remember that old lady from upstairs! The one who asked me for your number!"
"...I...remember," Gaara said, remembering the woman who had to be in her early nineties. Gaara had helped her once with her groceries and after that, she had become infatuated with him. There would be times she would randomly drop by and ask for him. And Ino, being the mischievous woman she was, would invite the older woman for dinner and allow her to sit right next to him.
The elderly woman did this for almost a month before suddenly stopping. Even though her affection for him made him uncomfortable, Gaara was always friendly to her since he knew she was simply an old woman living by herself.
"Do you know what came of her?"
"Actually, I do. Eventually I found out that her grandkids had moved her to a nursing home since she was getting early signs of dementia,"
Gaara blinked at her, "Is that why she always kept asking for my number, even though she had it?"
Ino nodded, "Probably. I wonder if she had dementia this whole time, considering most people get it in their fifties or sixties."
"I see… Would you know which nursing home she's in? I would like to visit her, and tell her about us."
Ino smiled at the idea, "I don't, but considering her grandkids live not too far from here and there's only two nursing homes in the area, I can make some calls. I think she'll be ecstatic to see you. Don't be surprised if she starts asking us about having kids."
Gaara groaned before kissing her cheek, "One step at a time… Ready to go? We need to hand over our keys… And I also need to stop by the ATM,"
"ATM? For what?"
"...I have to give Kankuro a hundred bucks, in cash."
"Why?"
"I lost a bet,"
"What was the bet?"
"Whether I would sleep with you before or after our lease ended. He was pretty confident that it would happen before,"
"And you were confident that it would happen after?" she teased, watching as he rubbed the back of his head nervously.
"I didn't want to make things awkward if I were to approach you while being your roommate… But considering everything that's happened, I regret not doing things sooner."
Ino pecked his lips, "We're together now, and that's all it matters."
Holding hands, they looked around their now ex-apartment one more time as more memories filled their minds. And while the journey had been an interesting one, both smooth and bumpy, they were both glad that eventually it led to them starting something new.
"Well, here's to a new chapter of our lives," Ino said, a bit sad yet optimistic.
They exited their now-old apartment as Gaara turned off the lights and locked the door behind them for good.
And suddenly you know…
It's time to start something new and trust the magic of new beginnings.
The End.
Author's note: Well, this is the END! I would like to thank everyone who left me reviews throughout this fic! it motivated me to keep writing and not leave this unfinished. I have A LOT more GaaxIno fics in mind...but i think I need to give my brain some time to rest.
Anyway...
Let me know your thoughts on the whole fic! Thank you!