I have to say, while I can picture everything about this in my brain, the juxtaposition of ancient Roman culture with Japanese names still makes my brain go buh. Thanks to the person who suggested a Beta, but I'm still flying solo with my grammos and such intact. I don't think I ever had a beta, more because it takes time to vet someone and then you need a healthy working relationship etc. Something to consider for the future, but right now I just don't have the time-energy. :3

Disclaimer: See Part I

Food appeared, and they ate.

Gaara ate exactly enough to maintain himself but he seemed to take no joy in it. Sakura liked food well enough but usually found it more time consuming than enjoyable. Today she drew out this midday meal far longer than ever before, feeling his eyes on her every mouthful she took. Even sipping water every mouthful she knew it would stick in her throat.

Eventually he got tired of watching her chew and moved over to a table covered in maps. He started taking notes, no doubt planning his next maneuver, and she knew he would be at this until she wanted to interrupt him. Gaara was oddly meticulous for someone who also seemed so wild in the heat of battle. The fear he generated would have given him power but power alone would not keep someone in a leadership position this far away from the venal committees of Rome.

It would be very easy to bow out of talking at all. She could write a letter or spin all day and no one would know. She could claim that they spoke and he refused; who would question him? But the idea that she had no backbone hurt her pride and she knew that there was no way she could let it go. The coward's way out was a dream.

"Gaara," She had never spoken his name so intentionally and it grated on her nerves.

He looked up from what he was doing and she felt like, for the first time since he saved her, he really saw her as a person. These weeks here she had been furniture, until his brother had come to visit her and then she had been Gaara's furniture. The protective instinct might not give her a buffer against whatever madness plagued him, but maybe the way she had healed him and the peaceful time they had spent would mitigate the temper others feared.

"Why did you bring me here?"

The question caught them both off guard. She had meant to talk about his siblings, or ask about how he entered the elite Roman cavalry, but it seemed her subconscious had had other ideas. He betrayed a crack of emotion, sliding his eyes away from hers and drawing his lips together tightly.

"I don't know."

"You didn't bring me here to be your, uh, spoils." He snorted as if she had said something surprising and a little funny. "And there was no way you knew that I was as good a doctor as many you'd visit in Rome, if a bit untried. So why bring me here?"

He didn't like that she hadn't dropped the subject yet, and she could see him clench his hands and unclench them slowly. "I didn't kill you."

"That's a reason?!" Folding her hands in front of her chest she let her exasperation spill out.

"It is for me." Gaara seemed almost apologetic about that comment. "You're not just another victim. You could have been, but you weren't. I don't know what that means, and until I know I thought it was better to keep you close."

Victim. Is that how he saw people? Real warriors, not the career military men who did it because it was expected or because of pride in the empire but the people who took to fighting because something inside of them was hungry for it, she had thought they were broken. Her father's whole life, and a lot of hers, had been devoted to putting people back together and the idea of someone driven to do the opposite by some quirk of personality made her feel profoundly sad. That the gods chose certain people to destroy and others to heal rang hollow.

There was a moment of silence as they both sank into their own thoughts. "Your sister thinks I should go back to Rome." Sakura said softly.

If it had been an attempt to gauge his reaction it wasn't working well because all he offered her was a slow blink. His hand, which rested on the map table, rustled some papers.

"I should return. There are a lot of details about the estate I need to see to, even if it isn't huge, and I'm the only heir." And I'll be hounded to marry immediately, mourning or no, her brain supplied unasked.

She stood suddenly, wanting to pace as if motion were an answer to his preternatural stillness.

"I can't stay here forever anyway; I don't know how to live in this world. What I know is the city." Sakura had the feeling like she was trying to convince herself more so than Gaara. "My friends and what remains of my family still live in Rome, or at least near to it. I'm surprised Ino hasn't rushed up here despite—"

Whatever she was going to say next died with a squeak as the map table's slender wooden legs snapped under the pressure of Gaara's hand bearing down on it. A vein stood out on his lean bicep, pulsing, and he took a deep shuddering breath before he could look her in the eyes again.

"No." Gaara visibly struggled to find the words, his accent thick. "You need to be here."

"In case you noticed, I'm no longer frozen in grief every waking minute of the day. I'm not one of your troops, and I'm not part of your village." Not wanting to leave was losing out to not wanting to be ordered to stay amd she felt anger spark, familiar and empowering. "I'll send you a reward that will more than make up for everything you've done for me."

He stared down at the map table and then ran stiff hands through his hair. Choking on the words he yelled out, "I don't want gold, I want…" he made a feral noise in the back of his throat and swiftly moved to her side. One hand grabbed her by the hair, forcing her to look at him as he searched her face for something only he could elaborate on. Disgusted, either with Sakura or himself, Gaara released her suddenly letting her stumble to the side and took up his sword as he exited with force. The tent shook, and so did Sakura.