The next day at work, Gaara eagerly did whatever he was told and fulfilled customers' requests without so much as a whimper. Though he carried a look of stone cool on his face, his anxiety was getting the better of him, particularly in regards to tonight's outing. What should he wear? How should he act? When should he arrive? He tried easing his anxiety by going to the gym after work, but it didn't do much good.

By the time Gaara got home, the agony of these decisions had not let up. Eventually, he decided that he was just gonna wear a clean pair of jeans and a Metallica T-shirt. Even though he was more of a fan of the Cliff Burton era, he figured that the band had enough mainstream cachet with their larger body of work that the ladies wouldn't question him wearing it so much as if he wore a Traitor's Gate T-shirt. Plus, he figured it would still go well with his Schott leather jacket. He then opened the linen closet and rifled through the various colognes and deodorants that he'd gotten over the years, mainly as gifts from Temari. He had never been one for that sort of thing, but damn it, he wanted to impress tonight! Besides, if Naruka could wear Chanel No. 5, he figured she couldn't be allergic to whatever he would put on. Eventually, he settled on a bottle of Cruiser cologne and gave himself a slight spritz behind both ears. As he was checking his facial hair growth, he heard knocking on the bathroom door.

"Hold on, Kankuro!"

After checking his bodily hair, Gaara exited the bathroom soon enough, threw on his leather jacket and boogied on down to Brewed Awakenings.

Once he got to Brewed Awakenings, Gaara scanned the parking lot, looking for Naruka's Chevelle. It was easy to pick out amongst the generic Asian compacts and SUVs that otherwise filled the lot, so he assumed that she was already inside. He found out how wrong he was when he got glomped from behind on his walk to the café.

"YAY! I knew you'd make it!" Naruka held on tight as she took in Gaara's scent. "Oh yeah, now that's what I'm talking about!"

Gaara blushed. "Pleased to meet you too, Naruka."

"Hey, don't be so modest, babe! Go ahead, tell me that this is NOT the best part of the day!"

"I will admit, I have been anticipating this for quite some time now."

Naruka giggled. "Aw, you're so sweet, Gaara!"

Recognizing that the date was better spent inside, the two entered the joint and walked up to the cashier, a redhead.

"What can I get you?" asked the cashier.

Gaara stepped up first. "I'll have a medium hot coffee…black."

"And you, Miss…?"

"Hmmm…" Naruka stroked her chin, and then snapped her fingers. "Gimme a large latte with caramel, a double chocolate muffin and an Asiago bagel with cream cheese!"

"Anything else?"

"Nope!"

Just as Gaara was pulling some cash out of his wallet, Naruka had her card ready and scanned it. Thus, Gaara led Naruka to the nearest empty table, where they sat down and took off their jackets.

"Naruka, was it really necessary for you to pay?" asked Gaara.

"Why not?" said Naruka. "You work hard, and you deserved to be treated well! Believe it!"

"But I was the one who insulted you and offered to take you here, so I feel it's only fair that I should have been the one to pay."

"I get what you're saying, but who cares as long as we have a fun time?"

Gaara nodded. "You do have a point there. Now then, tell me about yourself, where are you from? I haven't seen you around for that long."

"Originally, I'm from Boston, but I couldn't take city life that much longer, so I moved to Glocester."

"Glocester? That's where I live."

"NO SIR!"

"Yes, I do."

"Where exactly do you live?"

"My house is right near the Ponaganset Reservoir."

"NO SIR! That is TOO funny! I moved near there, too!"

At this time, another employee – a brunette – brought Gaara and Naruka their stuff. Naruka chose to sample her coffee first. A tiny sip elicited a hearty "mmm" from her.

"You like the coffee, I presume?" said Gaara.

"Babe, this is what I call a latte!" said Naruka. "You definitely picked one hell of a place to get coffee!"

"Well, I'm glad you're enjoying it…"

"Something wrong, Gaara?"

Gaara rubbed the back of his head. "Oh no, nothing's wrong...that is, unless you count the fact that I yelled at you and insulted you wrong."

Naruka reached out and touched Gaara's free hand. "Hey, don't worry about it! Everybody makes mistakes! Hell, I punched my friend Sasuke one time!"

"Oh? Can you tell me more?"

"This was back in elementary school: he and I were playing basketball, and I got mad because he kept refusing to pass the ball to me, so I, like, punched him in the face."

"I suppose that's understandable."

"I was really scared because I was forced to eat lunch in the principal's office for the whole week and I was afraid he wouldn't like me anymore, but we're totally over that now! Believe it!"

"Well, I'm glad you're able to look past your past, because quite frankly, I've done things that still haunt me."

Naruka got up, walked to Gaara's side of the table, sat down next to him and laid her head on his shoulder.

"Babe, it's OK to mess up!" said Naruka. "Nobody's perfect! The important thing is that you're here now and that you're willing to admit your mistakes!"

Gaara wrapped his arm around Naruka in spite of the fact that her touch made him blush.

"Thanks, Naruka. This means a lot to me."

Naruka giggled. "You're welcome!"

"So, I wanted to ask you about the model you bought last Saturday: have you been building models for long?"

"Well, I did build some of those snap-together models when I was a little girl, but this is my first time building one that has to be glued and painted, so this could be fun."

"I've built a few models myself, and I must say, it can be laborious, but the results are worth it."

"Cool!"

Having soothed Gaara's spirit for now, Naruka returned to her side of the table.

"Say, why didn't you get any snacks?" asked Naruka.

"I just didn't feel like it," replied Gaara.

"But aren't you hungry?"

"No, not really, but I understand why you asked."

"OK, I was just making sure."

"So tell me, Naruka, what else do you do besides model building and exercising?"

"Well, I like watering my plants. Oh, and dancing!"

"You must go out to plenty of clubs then."

"Nah, not really. Why bother when you have a bitchin' sound system at home?"

"Point taken. As for me, I like working out, watching movies and TV shows, tending to my cacti and socializing."

"Wow, I had no idea you were a people person!"

"Actually, truth be told, I hate most people, but deep down inside, I also want to make sure that they can sleep at night because I care about their health and well-being."

"Why do you say you hate people?"

"I…er…nothing. Maybe I hate certain things people do, like when they stomp on glue packages at my store."

Naruka did her best to suppress laughter. "What!?"

Gaara chuckled. "Yeah, somebody did that last Wednesday, and I wanted to break the neck of whoever did it."

"It's OK, I've wanted to hurt people, too! But you know what?"

"What?"

"When you spend enough time around people, you tend to realize that they're not so bad after all! Believe it!"

"Funny thing is, I want to believe it, but sometimes, it gets really hard."

At this point, Naruka was trying to suppress laughter.

"Naruka, why are you laughing?"

"You said 'it gets really hard!'"

Gaara crossed his arms. "I was being serious."

"I know; I just have a dirty mind sometimes!"

Gaara loosened his pose and had a little chuckle too. He didn't expect a woman like her to be so frank about what was on her mind, but he also kept in mind that this was only the first date.

"Know what?" said Gaara. "You're forgiven! I mean, I for one think sexuality is a normal thing! Granted, I didn't expect you to talk about something like that on our first date, but OK."

Once they'd consumed their stuff, Gaara and Naruka exited the café.

"Naruka, thanks for going out with me tonight."

"Thank you for offering, babe! I had so much fun!"

"Say, I forgot to ask…"

Naruka tilted her head. "Yeah?"

"What's your favorite food?"

"Why, it's ramen!"

"Ramen, you say?"

"I do say!"

"Fortunately for you, I know this excellent ramen eatery in Providence…"

Naruka put her hands on her cheeks. "NO SIR!"

"Yes ma'am. It's called Ganko Ittetsu, and it's on the corner of Thayer and Waterman. Would you like to go with me tomorrow night at 7:00?"

"Oh, yesyesyesyesYES!"

Naruka gave Gaara another big hug, which he once again returned with a smile on his face.

"Naruka, did I tell you how much I enjoy being hugged?"

"Gaara, did I tell you how much I enjoy hugging people?"

"You're too kind, you know that?"

"Of course I do!"

"So modest, too!"

Naruka giggled before breaking away from the hug. "Have a good night, Gaara!"

"You too, Naruka!"

Gaara returned home with a big smile. When he entered the house, he saw Kankuro sleeping on the couch in the living room. Ordinarily, he would let sleeping brothers lie, but he felt so good about himself that he shook him a bit.

"Huh…wha…?" Kankuro looked around. "Aw crap, I missed the end of In Tandem! What do you want, Gaara?"

"Guess who had the best time of his life tonight?"

"I take it your date went well?"

"Not only that, but I got a SECOND DATE tomorrow! Oh, I think I'm in love!"

"Hey, don't blow a fuse, man! This is only your first date, you know?"

"I know, but still, this is a HUGE step forwards for me!"

"Gaara, get some sleep. You got work tomorrow."

Gaara mocked Kankuro. "Gaara, get some sleep. You got work tomorrow."

"Man, if I weren't so tired, I would kick your ass."

Gaara simply ignored Kankuro and got ready for bed. This time, he hugged his pillow, not out of sadness or regret, but out of sheer happiness due to finally being able to get his foot in the door.

Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.