This is a prompt response to a quote prompt on reddit, "If I wasn't worth your time then, what makes you think you're worth my time now?" By Illogicallogical.
"...So it's your vacation soon, right?"
Temari's question lilts into the air with the kind of hope that makes Gaara feel sick. His hand tightens minuscule around the pen in his hand, but he forces it to relax. He finishes signing another mission form and carefully lays down the pen perfectly parallel to the vertical mission scroll.
"I will be spending my vacation in Konoha. You and Kankuro must stay here and finish settling immigrant clan disputes, " Gaara responds. His voice is as monotone and final as it had been before Naruto saved him. Before Naruto showed him real love, real friendship, and trust. He motionlessly notices Temari tense and frown.
"Again? Don't you think we have some-" Temari fidgets guiltily before she straightens and continues like the prestigious kunoichi she is, "-catching up to do? There's this bakery that's finally been rebuilt that we can visit! Their bread is fantastic, Kankuro and I used to go there when we were kids-"
"I have already finalized plans for my stay in Konohagakure." Gaara smiles delicately with genuine excitement, "Naruto will be showing me how to make rice noodles from scratch, " Gaara finishes as he stands up from his desk, and slowly begins collecting his things.
Temari openly scowls a motion usually not seen in Kazekage Gaara's office.
"You spend too much time in Konoha. The war's over, you should stay here and familiarize yourself with your village-"
"I am perfectly familiar with this village. I am completely loyal to this village. I am perfectly capable of deciding what to do with my time. I will be spending that time with my brother, Naruto." Gaara coldly states. His eyes widen slightly as he takes in Temari's slightly defensive stance, her hands ready to form seals. He takes a moment to assess himself and breathe.
His shoulders are hunched childishly and he painfully, unwillingly registers the presence of his sand, sitting in the large gourd in the floor to his left. He clenches his fist and the sand within the gourd to stops rattling. A steady breathe filters out of him as his body softens.
"I'm sure there have been plenty of other times we could have visited the bakery. Remember to tell Kankuro that black ink is needed to finalize the forms. He is not allowed to skate off his duties yet again, "
Gaara stiffly exits the office, leaving behind a sister that doesn't even know that he's mildly allergic to gluten.
As Gaara exits the village and from their sight, Kankuro scoffs. Temari remains silent.
"I told you that he was still the same stuck-up bastard," Kankuro says scathingly. A plume of jealousy rumbles in his chest as he imagines and remembers his little brother raising sand to protect Naruto. Bitter regret bites at his throat as he remembers flinching violently at the slightest twitch of a younger Gaara's gourd.
"We don't get to be his siblings, " Temari whispers into the dry air. Kankuro huffs and shifts from one foot onto the other.
"We were the ones that had to deal with an unstable jinchūriki as a brother, not Naruto," he argues half-heartedly.
"Naruto actually reached out to him. All we ever did was ignore him until the time we started having genin missions together, " Temari says.
"...We were kids, " Kankuro says. He has said the same excuse before, over and over again every time Temari brings up their childhood without Gaara.
"So was Gaara. So was Naruto," Temari responds, another sentiment repeated over and over.
It's been two days since Gaara has left for his week-long vacation in Konohagakure. Temari and Kakuro quickly settle the largest clan disputes and leave the more minor cases to other people.
"I'm going to go see how Gaara is doing, will you come with?" Temari says offhandedly.
"Are you insane? He hardly wants, nor needs us!" Kankuro says incredulously.
As Temari packs her things, Kankuro watches wryly before going to his room to pack his things also.
When Temari and Kankuro enter through the gates of Konoha, they are greeted by a brightly-smiling Naruto and a familiarly-impassive Gaara.
Temari and Kankuro plaster on pleasant grins as Naruto gives a brief tour of the newly rebuilt Konoha. They gravitate towards Gaara, but Naruto somehow gets in the way. It's impossible to tell whether or not it is on purpose. Gaara sticks close to Naruto's side, his sand travelling freely behind them. Temari and Kankuro do their best keeping in paranoid glances to the trail of chakra sand.
"This was my childhood neighbourhood!" Naruto exclaims as he gestures wildly at the freshly built apartment complexes. The buildings are clumped together with natural chaos, fresh white paint beams back and green light bounces off nearby foliage and onto the walls. Gaara smiles as Naruto talks about his 'funny' memories associated with the area.
"Wow, you had a whole apartment complex to yourself?" Kankuro asks, not fully paying attention to Naruto's stories.
Naruto stills ahead of them. Off to the side, Temari can see a strained smile stretched across Naruto's cheeks. Gaara sends a glare back Kankuro.
"Ah, I had a single apartment, but just not very many neighbours-" Naruto barks out a laugh as he throws a loose arm over Gaara's shoulder. Gaara doesn't even tense as Naruto touches him, "-you'd have to be lower than dirt poor if you had to live around someone like me,"
"Oh. Where was that ramen place you said that was legendary?" Temari asks, quickly forcing a change of subject.
Temari and Kankuro sit across from Hokage Naruto and Kazekage Gaara at the new and redesigned Ichiraku Ramen restaurant. The patrons look kind of amazed at the company sitting with them. Naruto is holding up a menu and is quietly pointing out different dishes to Gaara. Gaara listens and pays attention with astounding focus.
When a fresh-faced young teen comes to take their order, Naruto happily asks for "three of 'the usual.'" To Temari and Kankuro's surprise, Naruto continues to speak,
"And Gaara will have the Chicken Gizzard Soba Noodle dish! Leave out the house sauce and switch out a third of the vegetables for the gizzards,"
Before Kankuro can stop himself, he sneers and burns a light glare into Naruto,
"Gaara can order for himself, he doesn't need someone else doing that sort of thing for him-"
Kankuro is cut off by the soft but dangerous voice of Gaara himself.
"I will have exactly as my friend ordered for me, thank you Naruto, and thank you, Miss," Gaara says to the waitress.
Before she even turns to Kankuro or Temari, Gaara elegantly shoos her away and leans back in his chair. His face is stone as he assesses them.
"What are you two doing here? I assigned you to work, I'm sure," Gaara says. Naruto frowns lightly and looks over at Gaara's siblings.
They stiffen and guilty smile at Gaara. Temari hurries to explain,
"We finished the largest ones early! The lesser disputes were passed to someone else,"
Gaara's face hardens and Naruto winces.
"I explicitly ordered for you both to work on those clan disputes. They are delicate and members from each of those clans have jobs that give them the same level of clearance required to overview disputes. Do you know who you gave those 'lesser' clan disputes to? I thought we were past letting corruption go rampant in our village," Gaara says severely. Temari's nose crinkles up as she stands and places two angry palms against the table.
"We just wanted to spend some time with you! You always leave and you're always leeching off Naruto and treating him as if-" Temari sharply turns her head towards Naruto and leans forward towards his stunning form, "As if he's your brother! As if he's more important to you than Kankuro and I are! He's just another Jinchūriki! I don't see how he's special! He what, hugged you? We were the ones that had to deal with your borderline cannibalistic tendencies! We had to apologize to the families of civilians that you killed-"
Kankuro stands up and fearfully covers her mouth with his hand. Around them, sand is slowly rising up, trickles of the grain extend and reach towards Kankuro and Temari's terrified huddle. It stills and sits sharply shaped in the air, poised to dart forward and spear the two.
Naruto snaps out of his stupor and turns toward Gaara.
Gaara, short even while standing, is staring straight into Temari's frightened eyes with his own wide, focused eyes. His pupils are tiny within his gaze, and his eyes are widened comically large. It would have looked innocent and curious if Kankuro and Temari had not seen this expression before Gaara gleefully crushed and ground up somebody.
Gaara tilts his head slightly and flicks his wrist. His siblings flinch, but the weaponized sand in front of them doesn't move. Instead, sand, softer than they've ever seen with grains as large as dust, curls up and wraps around Naruto's wrist. Naruto silently stands up and shifts closer to Gaara to protectively looms over his shoulder. Gaara turns his gaze back towards his siblings, his head slightly tilted.
"Do you not like Brother?" Gaara asks, eerily similar to the inflection he used to place on the word "mother" when he was younger.
Temari's face collapses from scared to angry rather quickly, and her shouts of "He's not your brother," are muffled by Kankuri's tight palm against her lips.
The sand poised around Temari and Kankuro begins to move again. Both siblings flinch violently and Kankuro forces Temaru to take a step back. The sand collects itself and returns to Gaara's feet.
"I am perfectly capable of controlling my sand. You two will go back to Sunagakure and will finish the work I have given you. Dismissed," Gaara orders. A vague touch of killing intent swirls in place and around his siblings. Naruto stands awkwardly behind him but places a comforting hand on Gaara's shoulders. The red-haired boy eases his shoulders and he shifts slightly closer to Naruto's friendly form.
Before Temari can say anything else, Kankuro bows and forces her down into one as well.
"Yes, Kazekage-sama. Enjoy your stay," Kankuro says robotically before yanking Temari with him and quickly leaving.
As soon as they exit the shop, Naruto wraps his arms around Gaara,
"That was kind of scary y' know, " Naruto mumbles to his red-haired friend.
Gaara grins tiredly and remarks knowingly, "You weren't scared at all,"
"Of course I wasn't!"
"I would like to try the dish now," Gaara states unnecessarily before clumsily pulling himself out of Naruto's embrace.
Naruto laughs and smiles warmly. As they both sit down, the young waitress quickly attends to them. Gaara stares wide-eyed at the large bowl of noodles, an actual expression of wonder and innocence overtaking his features.
"It's gigantic, right! Teuchi has recently started using the big family-share bowls for my friends and I! Did y' know he was one of my first precious persons-" Naruto excitedly begins another story of his childhood.
Gaara smiles back warmly, completely different from the show he put on to test his blood siblings.