Chapter 23: Reverberation

In the days that followed Shikamaru's departure from Suna the weather turned from the mild, ash hot of spring, to the inferno that was summer. Two weeks in and all she could think about was how hot it was as the sun overhead blazed in the clear sky. Days had begun to melt together for Kira, the heat of the day seeping through even the thick sandstone that made up the Kazekage tower, leaving her drained and tired. She couldn't quiet remember if Temari had left two days ago or if it had been three. She wasn't even completely sure what she had eaten that morning, leaving her to wonder if her brain was melting and would soon drip from her ears. There was a solitary fan in the corner of the Kazekage's office that served as the only dampener on the heat, the large windows behind Gaara's desk holding no blinds or curtains.

Yet, despite the heat beating down on him, the young ruler didn't seem phased, skin dry of sweat and eyes never pausing as he read over the stacks of paper in front of him. This of course meant Kira wouldn't complain, no matter how much the sweat on her back was beginning to make her itch. And oh god, did it itch. Sitting back on the couch in the room, she tried to focus her attention on the winding string of knots in her hands while staying alert.

It just wasn't easy when she was so tired.

She often wondered why and how, after living in the desert her whole life, she had never really adjusted to the temperature of it. Her body just seemingly refused to cooperate, her skin turning red instead of a darkening brown and her sweat glands soaking her underlayer of clothes by the end of the day. It was manageable for most of the year, but during the summer it was nearly insufferable. Kankuro always found it fun to tease her and she always ended her days with long, ice cold shower that lasted about five minutes. It would have been longer, but water was too precious a resource to do much more. The heat was at least one thing that hadn't changed no matter what else happened. It was a comfort, seeing as everything else in her life had changed so drastically in the last year. Not just for her, but for everyone.

Sighing quietly, Kira finished off another knot and set the start of a necklace down on her lap. She brought a hand up and rubbed the bridge of her nose and the corners of her eyes, trying to message some energy into the area. She didn't want to think about everything that had been happening, didn't want to think about the rumors still milling about. Her mind was a constant swamp of heat exhaustion and worries, leaving her to ponder each and every one of them while she laid in bed at night.

She tried to focus on the less painful ones, tried to remember that the Nara boy was now looking into the archives for her to see if he could figure out just where she'd come from. She didn't expect news anytime soon as she knew he was quite busy with his own job, but she was still thankful. The two of them had spoken at length about her power while he was here and touched briefly on the fact that her mind refused to give her anything on who she had been before coming to Suna. Shikamaru was a very inquisitive, pondering person with a dry sense of humor. The more she'd spoken with him, the more she'd seen just why Temari liked him so much.

"Are you alright?" The soft inquiry of her friend, boss, and the boy she loved, brought her out of her internal thoughts. The redhead had paused, hand mid way to picking up the next report on the shorter of the two piles on his desk. He was giving her that worried, subtlely curious look and she felt her lips twitch into a small smile. She was always worrying him it seemed, but perhaps it was only fair, given she spent so much time worrying about him.

All's fair in love and war, right?

"Yeah. Just sleepy," she assured him, knowing that he knew how the heat made her feel. She had a sneaking suspicion she was the only real reason there was even a fan in the room to begin with. It was nice to break up her day like this, being able to speak with the redhead easily for a little while before being his silent shadow again. It had been an argument that he'd won too easily, but Kira supposed she couldn't play bodyguard every minute of the day. So around lunch time she took two hours off and while she could do whatever she wished, she normally stayed close by anyway, her ANBU mask tucked away.

Gaara didn't particularly like that fact, but there wasn't anything he could do either and she knew it. Plus, she knew he enjoyed her company enough that he let it slide rather quickly.

He nodded his head, accepting her answer and pulling the paper in his hand in front of him. She watched him for a moment as he read the first few lines of the report before he suddenly stopped again, the ghost of a frown appearing on his face. She straighten, brow raising. "What's up?" It could have been anything; those papers held everything from reports of ANBU bingo book updates to a merchant asking permission to sell furs.

His eyes flashed up to hers before he replied, sending that all too familiar chill up and down her spine. Gods, she loved that color. She clamped down on the feel quickly, snarling at herself to stop it. It can't happen, she couldn't tell him, not after what she'd seen during the meeting, not when he was taking enough heat from her being his guard.

"There have been reports of strange thefts occurring around the border with the Leaf from various different small villages several times now." He set the paper down and shuffled through the finished pile, plucking one out and looking it over in comparison. "It's been going on for a few weeks now."

"It's probably just a new outcropping of bandits," Kira assured him, remembering him talking about it a few times over the past week. "They're taking advantage of the fact that everyone is still recovering from the war." Even after nearly four months, the shadows of those events were still hanging there, if only a little lower. Gaara kept eye contact with her a few more moments before finally letting her gaze go with a small nod.

"Perhaps you are right. I will see about putting a team together to look into it," he decided, picking up both reports and setting them in their own pile to remind him of it later. Kira looked at the stack of paper again and felt her eye twitch.

She was suddenly very glad she'd never cared about being a Kage.

"Do you want any help?" she asked, standing up after putting her twine aside. "I can… Sort them for you?" Office skills weren't exactly her strong point. Why they expected people who trained to fight on a battlefield to do paperwork all day was beyond her. Gaara gave her an amused look as she shuffled over to the front of his desk and started peering over the documents, the scribbles of words and titles meaning little to her. He looked like he might have actually accepted her help, but right as he opened his mouth something dark outside the window caught her eye, causing her to tense and him to pause in speaking.

Something dark grew in the bright sunny day, too dispersed and flowing to be anything living, for the wind pulled and tugged at the shape far too easily. It took Kira about half a moment to realize what she was staring at was a plume of smoke. "What the hell?" Fires were for the most part band in Suna, only small contained ones allowed during the winter in fireplaces, but where there was smoke…

Her eyes followed the dancing mass to where it slipped behind buildings, coming from the business area in the corner where -

Her mind halted suddenly, knowing that Gaara had turned to look as well, but not realising just what that direction meant, not as quickly as she did.

"That's… it can't be," she whispered breathlessly, her lung refusing to work properly. She knew that part of town as well as she knew the back of her own damn hand. "The parlor..." She saw Gaara stand up at her words, saw the realisation flit over his face.

"We don't know that for sure," he soothed and he was right, but for some reason she knew it couldn't be anything else. The building had sat unchanged since her mother's death due to the fact that no one had any interest in it. Thus, Kira hadn't bothered to pack things up, even if several of her mother's friends had said they would help. To do so had been too painful a thought at the time and then the war had happened and Kira had avoided the building since.

Their eyes met again and for a moment both were still and silent, and Kira wasn't sure why her mind stopped racing and her hands stopped shaking but they did. Then Gaara gave the smallest of nods, perhaps seeing something in her eyes that she herself didn't comprehend, and suddenly they were both moving. Papers and twine left behind, both teens flitted from the office and made a sharp turn to the door that led to an outside balcony, a trap door on the floor of it and a ladder below. It was a fire escape that was hardly used and somehow seemed taunting now to Kira as she passed it up and stepped onto the stone railing, the ground two stories below.

She was preparing to jump - even as her leg ached at the mere thought of it - her mind not working correctly enough to feel good about jumping through shadows, when Gaara stopped her. Or rather his sand did. A sheet of it appeared, pressing against the lip of the railing, hovering there as if it belong. She didn't move, confused for a moment before the redhead jumped up onto it like he did often when wanting to travel fast. He didn't have his gourd on him, she noted, but that didn't mean he couldn't control the sand below. Turning he raised a pale brow and held out a hand to her.

It took her a moment, but then she realised he was offering her a ride.

Oh.

Heat flooded her cheeks at that as she took his offer and stood beside him rather close on his cloud of sand. Her heart kicked into double time and she would have been flustered by this even more so if it weren't for the growing plume of smoke that they headed towards. The wind whipped her hair back, picking up her tied strands and combing back any that had come loose.

It took everything she had to not start panicking when, as they closed in on the source, it became more and more clear that Kira had been right, a sick twisting in her gut at the thought of it. Even before they truly arrived she saw her childhood home - the mostly stone building edged in pale wood and adorned with a few stained glass windows - engulfed in flames.

As their transportation stopped a few yards back, still anchored in the sky, Kira looked it over frantically. Two of the stain glass windows on the top floor were untouched by the licking tongues of yellow, orange, and white. Fire crept up the sides, smothering the door in and chewing through the memories inside. Memories of her mother that she'd so stupidly avoided.

There were people below them shouting, curious and mostly concerned civilians - a fire like this during the summer was something they had a right to be worried about - and a small group of ninja keeping the former back. Two of the ninja appeared to be water users, as spouts were shot off at the flames that tried to reach out at near by buildings. Kira could hardly watch that though, her eyes were back on the stain glass windows in seconds, watching as the flames got closer and closer to them.

If the windows were clear, would the rooms behind them be safe? Her heart lurched at the thought of her mother's room - all of that color and life - being turned to ash just as her body had been. It made a deep yearning claw its way to the front of her mind, a need to save something, anything in that room. Her paints, a piece of artwork, her bracelets, anything. She could just grab the first thing she saw and be out in seconds right? Just jump from the floating sand she was on through the window and be back out in seconds. The flames weren't growing that fast.

Her body took a step forward, control by her heart instead of her mind even as it tried to reason that is was a bad idea. Another foot rose and fell and she moved to do so again, only for a hand to suddenly grasp at her forearm. Her head whipped around to see Gaara staring her down, eyes anxious and worried. He shook his head at her.

"You can't go in there." It seemed like he always knew what she was thinking. Still, Kira gave him a pleading look, silently asking him to let go of her. The redhead simply gave her a hard look and shook his head again and then silently started to form up sand around the sides of the building to keep the flames at bay. She knew he was right, the rational part of her brain telling her that from the start, yet another part of her refused to acknowledge that. He didn't understand, couldn't know what it felt like to watch her memories literally go up in smoke. She had to do something. She tugged at the hold on her arms, but the grip only tightened at her feeble attempt.

The window she'd been eyeing exploded and Kira flinched, hunching her shoulders as colorful glass scattered into the flames. Smoke billowed out from the new opening proving that she had been wrong about her fantic plan. Her gut feel into her feet at the sight. If she'd gone in there she would have been surrounded by flames. After a moment the new opening was covered by the rising walls of sand, baring all entrances completely. Her legs shivered, the still not completely healed one protesting slightly at the action before she all at once collapsed onto her knees, hands clenching in the sand. Gaara let go of her, clearly surprised by the movement, but didn't say anything and slowly maneuvered them towards the ground..

Kira watched numbly as he finished enclosing the torched building in sand, stopping the branching flames from growing to other homes. The few water users moved to the top of those walls and continued their job without pause. Kira saw all of it through a haze of shock and pain, her whole body trembling despite the heat of the day. Her eyes were pinned to the rising tower of smoke, her thoughts so frantically consuming that she didn't realise Gaara had set them back on the ground until he put a hand on her shoulder in a comforting manner.

"Why?" she whispered finally, her voice some what hoarse due to how dry her throat was. Her eyes were stinging from the smoke that was wafting into them as she blinked but remained just as dry even as her heart cried out that same word with all the hurt and confusion she felt. The hand on her shoulder gave a small squeeze.

"I don't know," Gaara replied after a moment, his head swiveled to the ninja working to get the fire out. "We'll find out, I promise."

Kira wasn't sure he'd ever been the one to initiate a promise between them, the surprise of that diverting her attention for a moment as she looked to him. His face was stone, emotionless and blank; even his eyes were that of a still pond. Swallowing tightly she just nodded her head and looked back at her old home. Slowly, she reached her hand up and covered his, trying to still the trembling in her limbs.

They didn't move from that spot until the fire was out and the sand walls were brought down. Two hours passed. Then three, then four. By then most of the civilians had been ushered away and Kankuro had showed up with both Baki and Shura on his heels. Once the two older men deemed the building safe - the stone blackened in places but still strong and stable - the group of them entered, Kankuro taking Gaara's place at her side.

It felt like walking into a graveyard. Ashes and burn pieces of decor littered the ground like tombstones, walls littered with scorch marks and smoke damage like fresh scars. The burned and partly melted remains of her mother's tattoo chairs and trays met them at the entrance as if to say 'it doesn't get any better'. A scarecrow in a field during a famine. Glass and soot ground under their footsteps as if they were bones, the young Kazekage and the two older ANBU spreading out to keep the promises Gaara had made her to figure out the cause. The puppet master followed his friend up the stairs to the living quarters with Kira feeling a bit like a ghost, it was all too surreal.

It was still quiet warm upstairs, what remained of the heat still rising to gather there. Kira's feet led her to her mother's room first, hoping to salvage something from the fire. Her door was gone, only blackened hinges half clinging to the frame were left behind. She stepped over to ashen wood in the doorway and entered the room.

There wasn't much left, nearly everything in the room had been flamable, from the long carved wooden furniture to the fiber dream catcher that had been hung on the far wall. An imprint of the large round object remained, and Kira numbly ran her hand over it, streaking the soot that clung there. The wall was still hot, hot enough that it scalded the pads of her fingers and she drew them back to eye the blackened skin.

"Kira?" The voice of the puppet master, her friend, had her turning at the waist to look at him. Kankuro stood a few feet into the room, staying back as if to give her space. His face was clean of paint, something she only realised now, and thus the lines of worry were easily seen upon it. "You alright?"

He asked not because it was something people were suppose to say, but because Kira knew that he cared about her, knew that she'd avoided coming back to this house because it had hurt too much. It didn't just hurt now though, it felt like claws had been shoved into her chest, each one digging in a little more with every breath. She shook her head, turning back around.

"Would you be?" she asked in return, eyes skimming the room for anything she could hold on to. All she saw were ashes and bones and melted piles of metal. Remains not worth a second glance. Kira didn't see anything that could have started the fire either, but she'd known it wouldn't be in her mother's room, seeing as it appeared to be the last spot the fire had spread too. She curled her fingers inward as she dropped her hands to the side and turned back around, not expecting an answer from Kankuro. He didn't say anything, couldn't seem to find anything to say to her question. She couldn't blame him.

"Let's keep looking," she said, a tired tone in her voice.

Kankuro simply nodded his head, reaching out and giving her closest shoulder a quick rub as she passed. She just nodded as well, thankful for the contact. They spent the next hour and a half picking through rooms and halls. Kira wasn't trained to know too much about fire damage, but she did know how to tell when something looked off in an environment, so she simply kept her eyes open. A part of her kept looking for something salvageable, but between the broken glass, charred wood and soot covered surfaces she soon realised there was no point. A few minutes into the search they saw a few ninja pass them, fire specialist that might catch something they missed. Kira and Kankuro stayed out of there way, pick through things as they waited and after they had left an hour later, the two friends made their way back to the original group.

They found the two older ANBU and Gaara in what had been at one time Kira's old bedroom. Shura was kneeling on the ground, hand pressed firmly to the middle of the floor, eyes open and a ring of glowing white light around his pupils. Shura the Third Eye. Kira had seen her teammate use his personally crafted Jutsu many times. Often he didn't even need to activate it to see what he needed, but for something like this, maybe he did.

Gaara's eyes flickered to her's for a moment, asking a silent question. Did you find anything? She knew he didn't mean signs of the start of the fire. Kira looked away, setting her gaze on Baki who was shifting through the piled up remains of a bed frame, and shook her head. Moments later Shura moved and her eyes went to him, as did everyone else's. The raven haired man blinked a few times, his eyes returning to the normal gray that Kira often thought must have been blue once.

"The fire specialists are right. After having it pointed out it's easy to see the fire was started here," he started and Baki let the wood in his hands fall back into place with a small 'thump'.

"Did you find anything else that they didn't?" the head of intelligence asked and Kira tensed slightly at the words. Her eyes flitted about the room, and indeed the walls were darker, covered in more soot and smoke dust than anywhere else. It was subtle, but ninja were trained to see subtle. Kira swallowed, taking another step into the room to get their attention.

"How?" she asked, confused, cutting off what Shura would have said. "This room should have been all but empty save the bed frame and a few papers." It had been her room, and Kira had moved, taking what belongings she had with her. "We cut off the power weeks ago." That left no room for electrical malfunction being the cause. It was only a few seconds after the words left her mouth that her sharply train mind gave her the answer, the words repeated aloud by Shura as if to confirm them.

"Arson," he stated, standing up once more. "The investigators said just what you did, and given the location other posibilities seem slim." He looked to Gaara and then to Kira a moment later and she could have sworn he was frowning under the veil he wore to hide his torn face. "Normally I wouldn't say it was much more than that but this room faces towards the village, not away, it wouldn't have been easy for someone to get in this way and not be seen."

"Not to mention that there wasn't much stuff in here to really start a fire with," Kankuro pointed out, rubbing his neck. "We cleaned it out pretty well."

"I'm aware," Shura agreed but was still looking at Kira and the shadow user was starting to feel like those claws in her chest were digging in faster than before. What was he getting at. "That's why I have my suspicions that they chose this room on purpose, knowing full well who it belong to."

Everyone in the room tensed, and finally, Gaara spoke.

"You're implying this was a threat, directed at Kira?" His voice was ice cold, enough so that it made chill go up Kira's spine, freezing her into place. Shura simply gave a single nod.

"With what has been going on as of late, it wouldn't surprise me."

The rumors. He was talking about the ear turning murmurs about her, about the council making a scene about it. The talons slid in fully and choked her breath, sinking into her guts. No one needed to tell her what this kind of threat was implying, not with the location and use of fire, destroying the house she'd first called home. She could hear the venom from the claws sizzling in her blood, alighting it with fear.

She wasn't welcome in Suna anymore.

…

The rest of the day didn't get much better for Kira or Gaara. With how badly she'd been shaking Gaara had told his brother to take her home, deciding he could go a few hours without a guard if that meant giving her some time to process what had happened.

Not that he was getting much work done either. Gaara found himself mostly just staring at the papers in front of him for the rest of the day, thoughts elsewhere. He knew as a leader it wasn't in his best interest to focus on smaller, single person matters, that the village as a whole came first. He couldn't help it though; he couldn't get the pass few hours out of his head. There was no way to really tell if what Shura thought was true or not. The arson might have been random, but the facts they'd found kept him from being able to believe that, and it led him to the same conclusion as the older man.

Someone had threatened Kira.

Gaara couldn't remember the last time he'd felt such an array of emotions in such a small amount of time. It had been horrible to have to watch one of his closest friends suffer like that, and to have to hold her back from doing something stupid... He knew she hadn't been thinking clearly, and he found himself thankful that he knew her so well. Yet, what had come next had been so much worse. He'd been worried and concerned before that due to how he knew Kira would react to being targeted, but once the facts had been laid out...

It was the council meeting all over again, but so much worse, and while he'd been able to keep himself under control, there had been anger in his veins. It had seeped into his bones and nearly choked him. He just didn't understand why it had flared up like that. It was true that he wanted to know who had done something so cruel, but in the back of his head Gaara knew that if it had been someone else's house, it probably wouldn't have caused the same reaction. Watching the pain and fear settle in Kira's eyes was nearly unbearable.

Why?

Signing another paper Gaara looked down at his desk once he'd moved it to the right pile. He tried to work through his emotions piece by piece but it had all melted into one thing or another. Worry. Pain. Anger. The only thing that had kept his head on straight was the other emotion that had overpowered all of the others. He didn't know how to describe it, only that nearly every heartbeat had pounded through him with the need to protect Kira from what had happened. He had wanted her out of that house, safe at home with him watching over her. He wanted, no, needed to keep her safe and that was why in the end he'd dismissed her for the day.

He had needed time to try and pull his head back together, but nearly four hours later and he felt no better. He ran a hand over his hair, frustrated and looked at the clock. It was much later than he had thought; dinner would have been served an hour ago. Not that he was really hungry after what had happened today, and he doubted the cooks food had been touched much at all by anyone else in the household.

His hand moved to his eyes and he rubbed them, the stress of the day dragging him down. Kira had started getting him to sleep at least three times a week now, and it was starting to cause his body to want sleep in a way he hadn't felt since he was a child. Glancing at the stack of papers he grimaced and then pushed back from the desk. He'd finish them later. If he stayed much longer either Kankuro or Kira would come drag him home anyway.

He made his way back to his family's housing, nodding to the few shinobi still at work in the tower. Opening the door into his home he was met with a quiet that seemed unnatural. Stale. Forced.

He remembered months ago when he'd come back home with his sister and seen Kira laugh for the first time, teasing his brother as they watched a movie in the family room. So much had happened since then, it seemed like it should have been years, not months. Stepping around the corner he found the family room empty and dark. It hadn't been used much as of late and suddenly the redhead wished he could go back in time to when it had been. When they'd had that Thursday night every week where they watched movies and Kira had fallen asleep on the couch.

Shaking his head Gaara walked across the room and into the hall, turning into his own room only to find the small desk light was already on. He paused from flicking on the main light, looking around the room before spotting the person who must have turned on the other one.

Kira was in her normal spot, a chair near the foot of his bed. She was slumped over in it, much like a few weeks ago, her chest and head sprawled along the covers, one arm pillowing her face. It looked as if she might have been resting her chin on a raised hand at one point, but having fallen asleep, had come to her current state. She must have been waiting for him to come back. Gaara wondered how long she'd waited and felt a bit guilty for it. He wondered if she had been hoping to talk to him about today, and indeed he had intended to go find her once he'd had a chance to change clothes.

Walking over, he saw she hadn't changed out of her gear from the day, her hair even still tightly up in a pony tail. The smell of smoke clung to her still, masking how she normal smelled which was always much more pleasant. His eyes combed over her face, but he saw no signs of tears or stress, just a blank, calm expression.

At least she was getting some sleep, despite the contortion of her body. How was that comfortable? He thought about waking her up or trying to move her, but hated the thought of disturbing her from the small amount of peace she was getting. She was so unguarded like this, it made her look more breakable. Innocent despite the blood on her hands and tasks she had done, all in service to the village, and to him. She was as loyal as they came, he knew that much and maybe that was why everything that was happening bothered him so much.

Why were people turning against her so suddenly? She'd done nothing wrong. Done nothing that really made her even stand out other than her job, which she did well. It was frustrating, to both of them. That protective sensation in his chest flare up again at the thought, making his jaw clenched. What was wrong with him? He let out a slow breath and moved to stand closer to her, eyeing her hair and knowing she'd have a headache in the morning if it was kept like that. He often wondered why girls thought dressing their hair in such ways was important.

His fingers twitched as he used a hand to reach for the tie in her hair grabbing at one end of the string, pulling gently. It let go easily, and her hair sprawled out like a current around her, the two small braids above each ear engulfed in the now loose strands. His hand lingered, fingers still holding the small tie before he simply dropped it and against his better judgement, as if to appease an itch he need to scratch, dripped his fingers down. Her hair was soft, like birds feathers as he carefully swept it back from her face and out of her eyes. Kira shifted in her sleep at the touch, letting out a sigh and Gaara paused for a moment. He knew the simple gesture felt nice, Kira had done it several times to help him sleep.

Should he stop? Keep going?

He brushed his fingers once more over her scalp before pulling back, unsure of what he was doing or why he was doing it. His heart was nearly beating out of his chest, warmth spreading through his body, fingers tingling. He didn't know what he was doing, but he liked doing it.

"Nnng… Gaara?" Kira's grogging voice broke him from his thoughts and he looked to her face to see one of her eyes open, if a bit sleepily. The redhead swallowed and nodded his head, embarrassed for being caught doing… whatever it was he was doing.

"It's me," he answered quietly and she blinked a bit, her lips turning down slightly in her sleepy haze. She must have been tired to be so out of it. "Are you alright?" he asked, and in response she sighed and pulled herself up from the bed, shaking her head as if to clear it. She ran a hand through her hair like he had, brushing it away from her face as clarity reached her eyes.

"Damn, I didn't mean to fall asleep," she grumbled, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. She stood, stretching her arms over her head. "Sorry about that, I'll just get out of your way." She didn't move to leave right away, but bent to pick up her hair tie from the ground at a lazy pace. Gaara eyed her for a moment, having taken a step back when she'd stood. Was she stalling?

"Kira," he called her attention to him and she looked over, freezing half way up in her movement. "We should talk about what happened, if you're up for it," he finished, half wanting to say something else, half wanting to tell her she didn't need to say anything. Something was on her mind though, that much was easy to see. She straightened slowly and bit at her lip, eyes shifting away from his again.

"Do you… do you think it was a mistake?" she asked in a whisper, her hand rising and swiping a lock of hair behind an ear. "Making me your guard?"

She said it so plainly, it surprised him, though he had known she might ask that at some point, given what had been happening. He just hadn't thought she'd start with such a question. His heart clenched in his chest at the thought, stifling the warmth that had been there.

His mind drifted to just how much things had changed because she was his guard, or even before that, when she'd protested his lack of one. Kira had without a doubt, opened his eyes to a few things he had never considered. His siblings had better, more fulfilling jobs now and Gaara understood a bit more about his father's motivations from her. She'd been there to reassure him when he couldn't settle his thoughts and had trusted him from the moment they had truly met. Her insight was invaluable and the bond that they had was priceless.

If he had never thought to make her his guard, never pondered the idea at all, would he know her like he did now? They knew each other well enough that words were not always needed to relay their thoughts. Would they be as close, trust each other in the same way? He wasn't sure they would. They'd be friends yes, but not in the same way. Training with her, being so close to her made him feel different. Having her with him made him feel stronger, made his doubts smaller, made him-

His thoughts halted there spinning for a moment, staring at her but hearing something else. Temari's voice seemed to echo in his mind at that moment, recalling her words from before about a discussion he'd taken to heart.

...They make you stronger...

...It's this instant wanting to always be near them and to want to be there for them, protect them….

...Your heart aches in a way that you never want it to stop...

Gaara stopped breathing. Words and thoughts and events clicking together like someone had finally finished a circuit in his head. Kira. He'd wondered if he would ever feel the way his sister had said it felt, but he'd been feeling it all along, hadn't he? It was Kira.

...Sometimes, I think, love can sneak up on people...

Was he… was Gaara in love with Kira?

The thought of not having her by his side was almost painful now that she'd asked that question. He never wanted to even think about that. How had he never seen it?

"Gaara?" Kira questioned, turning to look at him fully, concerned by how long he was silent. It wasn't a good time to have an epiphany, not when silence would feed her doubt.

"No," he said quickly, surprise flitting across her face at his slightly strangled tone. He swallowed, trying to clear his throat of how tight it felt. "Nothing I have ever done involving you has been a mistake Kira." Except, perhaps not realizing just what he had been doing. Stupid. He felt so stupid. She watched as her eyes flickered down again, and the hand she had raised rubbed at her neck before dropping to her side as if it weighed too much.

"It's just starting to feel like I'm losing my place here," she admitted. "After everything I did in order to gain a spot in this village… This is my home but… it seems it is all too easy to erase every trace of that."

Just like how her mother's house had gone up in smoke.

It was that thought that reminded the redhead of an earlier event, not long after Kankuro had ushered her away from the scene. Slipping his hand into his pocket he scooped up the contents inside, feeling the small, flat shapes gather in his palm. Closing his fingers around them, he pulled his hand back out and then held it out in front of him. "Kira?"

The young ANBU looked to him at his beckoning, and when he nodded to his head, her golden eyes slid to it. After a moment she raised her hand again, moving it palm up under his own to take what he was holding out to her. He opened his fist and the small colorful shards rained down into her hand. He'd taken a few moments to use his sand to file down any sharp edges, if only to make sure she didn't cut herself. Kira blinked and then stared dumbfounded at dozen pieces of stained glass in her hand, no bigger than a thumb print. When she finally spoke, it sounded choked, breathless.

"Where did you..."

"All of the windows broke," Gaara started when she seemed to lose her words. "But the one you had been planning to jump through," his voice sharpened a bit at that, reminding her of her stupid actions. She winced a bit but the redhead continued. "The glass was blown out of the building, thus the smoke and fire didn't have much of a chance to harm it, just the fall." He knew she'd been looking for something that had survived in her mother's room, and when she'd returned empty handed, Gaara had thought of the window. He hadn't said anything because he hadn't been sure. Glancing at the colored fragments, the light in the room making them sparkle he wondered if it was enough. "I thought maybe you could use them in your hobby." He'd seen her use beads and shells before, so he had thought maybe glass would work too. At the time he'd thought it would comfort her and it hadn't been much trouble to do so. Now though, with his new realisation, Gaara wondered if he'd done it simply because he knew Kira had needed it and he wanted to see her happy.

Not because she was just his friend, but because seeing her in pain was unbearable. Because he loved her.

Gaara didn't realise her hand was shaking until he saw something splash into the pile of glass there. Eyes flashing up he was met with the girl he cared more about than he thought possible, crying. He nearly flinched, momentarily wondering if his idea had backfired and made it worse. That was, until her hand closed around the shards and she moved.

It was a lot like what had happened after the war in the hospital room, except this time Kira wasn't hobbling across the room on crutches. Instead she just took the needed step forward and went crashing into him, her free hand digging into the fabric of his vest as she pressed her face into his shoulder.

Just like before the young ruler tensed up, unsure of what had just happened. Still, he could hear her quiet crying with the sound so close to his ear and feel her limbs trembling at the force of it. After a few moments it became clear she wasn't going to say anything, but Gaara came to the conclusion that she wasn't upset with him after all. Rather, perhaps his gift had finally broke the dam she'd been trying to hold back. Ninja weren't supposed to cry, but he'd told her months ago that it was alright too, and now, Gaara was exceedingly glad she had listened.

This time, he didn't need his sister to tell him what to do. His limbs moving almost of their own accord as they wrapped around her back in a loose hug. The hand closest to her head ran fingers through the hair on her back and Gaara took in a deep breath before finally speaking.

"Trust me when I say this, that your place is by my side Kira. That won't ever change."

He just hadn't realised till that moment, the way she stayed by his side might change to something very different.

-Smiles devilishly- Please review?

DROH