Chapter Eighteen: While You Were Sleeping Part III
August 8th, 2009, 2:45 pm
By the time Gaara and Cordi reached the bedroom, the fluffy contraption of sheets and pillows where they were meant to do the deed was practically staring them down, demanding if they really wanted this. The whole way here, Gaara had been imagining what he'd do to Cordi once he got her here, his mind whirling with tantalizing image after tantalizing image, and now it was a blank. He felt like a child in a candy shop for the first time. He wanted to try it all, but he knew he only had the one shot. He could put several tricks in it, but he wasn't aiming to just pleasure himself. He needed to get her off. So what tricks he could use, he couldn't decide, because she was offering her body to him on a silver platter for the next day or so, as he understood it. So, even if he was successful in his second chance, that day did not have enough hours for everything his craven mind whispered it wanted.
"So, what do you want to do?" Cordi asked, clearly excited, but he also caught a hint of nerves in her tone.
Gaara was silent. He hadn't been able to decide, and now what? Her dark brown eyes looked up at him. His gaze narrowed on the bed. Why did seeing it make the decision more difficult? He'd been imagining having his way with her for months, and now he was there, he had nothing.
Suddenly, he realized he didn't have to decide anything if he didn't want to. He was in control. He could cede control over to her until he had a better formulated plan. "What would you do?"
Cordi scoffed. "Why would you want my opinion? Before last night I was completely inexperienced, and I think that showed." He frowned at her, and she clarified, "I didn't go. And I know I wasn't moving that much in the beginning to set you off, like you claim."
"That wasn't your fault," he stated. "I was a bit in my own head."
She made an odd face, laughing, "Why?" He licked his lips trying to think of a rebuttal, but her mind worked quickly. "Unless …" her face scrunched before she uncomfortably asked, "You had done it. You and Matsuri, right?"
He blushed as he confessed his shame, "No." He chewed on the inside of his cheek. He was a twenty-year-old man, the Kazekage of the Wind Nation, Leader of the Sand Village, and he was still a virgin. At least before last night.
"Oh," she breathed, sounding relieved.
He sighed, "Go ahead. Laugh. I'm sure the idea is very silly." He knew the Council had its opinions about that status.
Cordi shrugged nonchalantly as she stated, "You being a virgin makes a whole lot more sense to me than hearing you were dating Matsuri." He glowered at her, not appreciating her pity. "Seriously, if they ever get to an epilogue in the comics that just showed you as a parent, the mere insinuation of you having that kind of relationship with a woman would cause riots in the fandom chats. You're kind of written as having only one of the four primal F drives of biology. – Y'know. Fight, flight, food, and fucking. Shit, I don't even think you eat in the show."
"You're rambling."
"The point, you were written like you didn't need or want any of that. Romance was never your thing. So, you being a virgin last night makes total sense," she summed up.
He only scowled at her. He wasn't sure what was worse: Cordi thinking he and Matsuri had done it, especially after knowing what Matsuri had done with Kankuro; or her world saw him so far removed from basic human needs they thought he didn't eat or want human companionship. Sure he didn't have any understanding of how relationships worked before this year, but that didn't mean he didn't want one. He still had that basic drive to find a mate, even in the most carnal sense of the word, but it was a battlefield he didn't know how to navigate. And he did not engage on battlefields he could not navigate, not unless forced.
She cleared her throat. "If it were my choice, I'd load the bases."
Now he was lost. "What?"
"You know, first base, second base … Ninjas have baseball, right?"
"Yes, but I don't know what that has to do with sex."
"Oh." She frowned as she thought about it, then said, "Well, the point of baseball is to get as many players to hit all the bases and head to home plate, right. In my world, the bases became code for how intimate people can be. First base is kissing. Second is petting above the belt. Third is petting below the belt. And Home or homerun is full-on sex." She was blushing hard by the end of her explanation. "So, when I say load the bases …"
"You mean do each," he filled in, stepping towards her.
"Yeah." she breathed.
It was simple and covered almost everything. He liked that. He was decided. He closed the distance between them, his breath puffing on her lips as he stated, "One request."
"Uh-huh"
"You get completely naked first."
She pursed her lips, then stated, "If you don't get naked first, I don't get to see your junk, which is what I'm curious about right now."
He frowned at her.
"Fred said Kankuro wasn't circumcised, and surmised you probably aren't either. And I don't know what that looks like," Cordi explained. "And I didn't get a good look this morning, and I couldn't really see anything last night, so…"
He blinked at her, then asked, "What is circumcised?"
Cordi opened her mouth to explain, then paused, looking away from him as she blushed. She opened and closed her mouth like a fish out of water. She rubbed her earlobe as she admitted, "It just means your dick looks different than the models I've seen in Health Class."
Gaara blinked at her. He had no idea what she was talking about, because as far as he knew, his bits were completely normal. He didn't try to compare himself whenever Kankuro dragged him to the Konoha baths. Although he could see how some people might classify himself as well-endowed, he knew Kankuro was roughly the same size. "Dicks look different in your world?" he finally asked. That might have explained some of his issues last night.
She blushed harder. "Not all," she answered quickly. "It's just popular in my country for boys to be circumcised when they're born, but it's an optional procedure the parents decide on. So the models and images they showed in Health Class were circumcised. But ya'll don't do that here, apparently."
He raised his hairless eyebrows at her explanation. If he understood, people in her world altered the penis to be more fashionable. "That seems barbaric."
"I shouldn't have said anything," Cordi grumbled. "It's just now I'd like to know what it looks like, since I've never seen one before."
Gaara pursed his lips, then gave a mild shrug, unbuckling his belt, dropping the leather strap with a thud and then unbuttoning his pants. He dropped the front of his pants and underwear enough for his member to be visible. She knelt to get a closer look, her gaze full of genuine curiosity at his half-flaccid member. "Huh," she breathed. "It really does look like he's in a turtle neck, or a sleeve." She reached up to touch him, he guessed to look inside the sleeve, and his member twitched at her touch. Her hand jumped back at the movement, then she mumbled a small, "Sorry."
"Don't worry about it," he breathed.
She reached again, touching his shaft with her fingertips, petting it all the way down to his auburn curls at the base, her thumb stroking gently around the head. He let out an involuntary groan at the sensations, as she traced her fingers down, around his scrotum then back to his shaft. He could feel he was growing in her hand, and she held it up to her and said, "Oh, is he coming out?"
He pulled back, recalling he was in charge of things as he buttoned up his trousers, dictating, "Now your turn. Strip."
She looked mildly offended, or sad that he took his member away. "I don't get to see him fully erect?"
"I'm not the one who needs warming up," Gaara pointed with a playful smile.
She bit her lip, then muttered, "Fine," and pulled off her t-shirt and kicked off her shoes. She undid her pants, pulling them off her, leaving her in a plain bra and teal panties. She stood a little awkwardly, scratching at the back of her head, clearly not sure he liked what he saw.
He did. He smiled wolfishly at her as he ordered, "Remove them."
She reached behind her, then the bra fell loosely to the floor, freeing her large boobs which drooped from the weight. He wanted to touch, but he had to wait. He had to see her completely naked. To know she was under his every whim, as she'd offered. She slid her panties down, now completely bare to him. Her folds were crowned with black curls that fueled the animalistic burning he felt for her every day. His heart pounded as he looked at her. Her usual confidence was stripped with her clothes as she grabbed a pillow to cover herself, but he grabbed it first, shaking his head, growling "Don't." He was enjoying this. She blushed and refused to meet his gaze. It was a side of Cordi he'd never seen before, but he got the sense this was her truest form. A girl who projected strength, but in actuality was just as nervous and unsure as he was.
He pulled her close, feeling her body touch his through the thin veneer of his clothes. He pulled her lips to his, searing her with a deep kiss, and he felt her arms encircle him, clinging to him as he licked her mouth. His fingers drifted down, itching to run to this second base. He maneuvered her onto the bed, letting his thumb caress her nipple for a second before removing his shirt and kicking off his shoes.
He climbed on the bed, and with a finger under her chin, lifted her head so she looked at him in the eyes. He wanted to say something suave and charming, but he didn't. Instead, he smiled at his own observations before pulling her into another kiss. This kiss, while still full of passion, was soft and tender. He pushed her arms above her head, feeling her bare chest against his before his hands returned to her wonderful breasts, kneading and squishing them until she gasped as his thumb played more deliberately with her nipple. His curiosity of these wonderful appendages that somehow provided milk for infants piqued. Perversely, he wondered if he sucked hard enough, would he be able to taste that? He broke their kiss and guided the nipple to his lips, and sucked gently, as if on a straw. She moaned, dropping a hand to the back of his head as she arched herself into his perversion. She draped her other arm over his shoulders, holding him closer as he sucked on her, which shot surges to his hardening member from the sensations. Especially when she lifted her legs to leverage her hips, grinding against him as she whimpered, "Gaara, please put it in me."
His mouth dropped its new toy as he allowed his hand to travel down to those dark curls, as he growled, "Patience. We haven't even hit third."
She bit her lip as she whimpered again, her hips moving almost searchingly for something. Her breath caught and her hip curled into his hand as it crested the mound of flesh between her legs. She fisted his hair as her hips rolled towards his hand again as she begged, "Please Gaara. Finger me."
Gaara felt lucky, because this he had read something about. He was a little ashamed to admit when he was first engaged, and he read the Ichi Ichi Paradise novel to get an idea on relationships, that didn't shy away from the sexual parts. Instead, he took notes, and when it came to fingers, her remembered the simple instruction to start with one, then work to three, and keep a thumb on the bud. He inched his fingers down until he found the hole he was looking for, still a little further back than he expected, but his thumb could maintain access to the bud, that in all the diagrams he'd seen, reminded him of the stamen of an orchid, with his first finger diving deep into the flower, already dripping with its nectar. She arched her back and bucked and gasped as the pad of his finger stroked her from the inside before his second finger unfurled in her.
"Gaaraaaa" she rasped under his ministrations. "Don't stop. More."
He unfurled his third, and she was groaning incoherently as she bucked against his hand. He needed to hear more of his name in her gasps. He needed her to crash, then bring her to the brink again. He saw her breast standing at attention as she let his hand fuck her, and he caught the nipple in his mouth again. That did it. She let out a scream, and her insides clenched around his hand, and he knew he needed to feel her do this when he was inside her. The lights flickered off as her insides filled with liquid satin and she vibrated through her whole body, groaning as if her brain had abandoned her body. As she began to unclench, the lights came back on, and Gaara knew he'd been successful.
She laid back down, breathing hard as he slipped his fingers from her, before maneuvering himself to kneel over her, undoing his pants before pushing them down. Thanks to her earlier demonstration, he was so hard, he ached for the sweet release of her vagina. He kicked his pants off with his underwear before nestling his hips easily against hers between her sprawled legs. He kissed her again, ready to take them home. Their kiss was magic to him, feeling new and exciting while this whole situation also felt completely natural. He was lost in her smell and the sensations of her as one of his hands cupped her breast, kneading it like dough again. He could feel the head of his member dragging against the soaked mound of folds until she wrapped her legs around his waist and his tip found a dripping hollow. Almost as if his subconscious remembered exactly how to penetrate her from last night, his instinct told him to press in, and he did. His sand held her perfectly for him to invade her.
He slid into her, easier this time, and instead of a pained gasp like last night, he heard her mewl in pleasure. He tested moving out of her and back in, and she rolled with him, clutching onto his shoulders, and her legs wrapping around his hips. He felt a shock roll down his spine, and he felt his sand drop its hold around her, but he didn't worry about it. He was deep in her, and it felt right. It felt like he belonged there. Like it was home.
He could feel she was still tight, but the lubrication from pushing her over earlier helped. He tested moving out of her, and instead of a pained hiss, she gave him a pleasured moan. And she gasped again as he pushed back in, surprisingly getting a little deeper this time. He pulled back out then in again, reveling in the sensations and the sounds of her moans. He set a rhythm that felt easy for him.
He lowered his mouth to her nipple. He licked and sucked at the pink bud. He heard her breath hitch. Even though there was no milk, the moans his tongue on her nipple elicited from her, paired with the more exaggerated rolling of her hips allowing him deeper and deeper in her was enough to feed him.
He was lost in the haze of the beautiful sensations she drove in him when she gasped, "Kiss me, Gaara."
He did, now splaying out over her as he kept rolling his hips against her. They panted into each other between desperate licks and nibbles as her legs tightened around him, making it impossible for his hips to pull as far away as they had been, which was fine. His member was home deep in her core, and their kisses only heightened the sensations between them. Suddenly, she gave a shuddering gasp as she whispered, "Gaara …" against his lips, clutching him tightly as he felt her spasm around him, her moaning incoherently as he thrust into her filling his ears. Again, the lights flickered, and the power went out again. He tried to focus through it, but the sensations of her so tight around his member mixed with her chest against his, their hearts pounding against each other, and the taste of her mouth. It was all too much. Something in his core he'd been feeling building with every thrust broke, and like a tsunami, he felt himself flooding into her again as he groaned. He grimaced as the feeling stole his conscious mind, arresting all thoughts and leaving only the sensations as his body autonomously pumped hard and fast until the wave ebbed.
Her brown eyes found his seafoam gaze as he panted and grunted as his sperm shot into her, and he felt a little self-conscious of his expression as soon as he finished. Kankuro had mentioned sometimes people made weird faces when they did such a thing, and he worried he was one of those people. Unlike last night, he was completely visible to her in the afternoon sunlight. As they panted against each other, the lights came back on, and the hum of electricity returned.
"Did you just …?" she asked between gasping breaths.
He nodded vaguely. "I think … yeah," he grunted. His breathing was hard, like hers. "You?"
She smiled, her eyes looking into his with a loving gaze. "I think," she answered softly. Sincerely. She leaned her head up, pressing her lips to his with a grin.
He sighed with relief, feeling he'd accomplished something before rolling off her. Both of them laid there silently, looking at the ceiling as they processed their thoughts and caught their breath. For the most part, Gaara couldn't believe he'd just had sex for the second time, and it felt right. The first time had clearly been a trial, with neither of them knowing exactly what to do. The round last night hadn't matched up with what Gaara had read or had been told. But this time, it was everything he'd imagined. And with a woman he'd only kissed a couple times, but that he'd been lusting over for well over a month. Especially since just yesterday, he'd been told he'd been kissing all wrong, was essentially intimately inept, and had been dumped by his girlfriend. But it was the most amazing feeling he could have imagined with anyone.
He rolled over to look at her, watching her gasp as if she'd run a marathon. He felt a small smile come to his face, knowing he'd had it in him all along. He just needed the right woman to make the right offer.
"I need water," she blurted, turning to look back at him only briefly as she asked, "You need water?" Before he could even answer, she said, "I'll get us some water." She sprung up, walking to the bathroom completely naked as she grabbed the two sipping glasses in the corner of the sink and filled them up.
Gaara pushed himself up to watch her, enjoying how her body moved without clothing. Her hips moved with an unusually exaggerated gait, and he realized it was because he'd been inside her, opening her hips up from the inside in such an animalistic way. A part of him was proud to see it, and wondered if her gait would be permanently altered by him. She returned to stand over him, handing him a glass as she drank her own. He looked her over as he accepted it, sipping as he soaked in her body in the afternoon sun hungrily.
She frowned as something caught her eye on him. "What?" he asked.
She reached down to his left shoulder, and he couldn't believe he'd forgotten his scar momentarily, and he blushed. Her finger traced the outline of the stab wound, only an inch and a half long, but widened in an arrowhead like shape, with puckering around the shape raised where the red fingers spread. Then fingers of red lightning scars spread like tree branches out from the stab wound. Most of the fingers only reached out two or three inches. Her finger traced the longest finger of the scar up over his shoulder and onto the base of his neck, passing the hickey she'd given him yesterday, nearing his spine. "Sasuke's Chidori," she breathed.
"He was the first one to make me bleed," Gaara stated, reaching towards it, not that she needed to be told. If she'd seen the strike in the show, she knew he'd never bled before then.
Her finger ran along the longest branch, and asked, "Is this why you switched to only wearing turtlenecks?"
Gaara gave a small nod. "For the longest time, I was invincible. Even many jonin and ANBU couldn't lay a finger on me. But this," he said, pointing to the scar, "this is proof I wasn't. Proof I'm not invincible." He pressed his lips together in a line, then added, "And as a jinchuriki listed in the bingo book, and especially as Kazekage, I still need people to think I am invincible. To think twice about attacking me."
She chewed the inside of her cheek, placing her hand over all of it, then said, "It's a defense tactic."
He grunted an affirmative. They were silent for a while, and he finally said, "I understand if you find me a little more repulsive now." In all honesty, he was always self-conscious about his scar. Bright red against the pale skin tone. The stab wound was jagged and unclean. Unlike the scar on his forehead, which had healed evenly, looking more like a tattoo than a scar.
She knelt down and kissed his scar, and said, "You're not repulsive. It gives you texture." When he only frowned at her, she said, "I have a bunch. Each scar is a story, see?" She pointed to a spot in the middle of her forehead and said, "I sacrificed my face for pizza." As Gaara looked closer, it took him a minute to realize she was in fact pointing at a scar in the middle of her face. It blended with her skin well, until you looked closely and saw the texture changed in the shape of a crystal shard. She pointed to her knuckles where the scar was smooth, and the color had blended well, just the texture was off. "I got curious if balloons catch on fire. Turns out they do." She pointed to her other wrist to a jagged white line, adding, "Random being-clumsy-with-a-pencil incident." Then she pointed to one on her hip that had faded to white as well, but was long and large, spanning her love handles to her womb. "Jumped up too quickly tending the fire place and busted the glass door." She pointed to her knee, to a large circular scar, adding, "Wrecked my bicycle when I was seven." She smiled up at him who only looked at her minorly confused as she said, "See? Texture."
He pointed at one that caught his eye on her forearm and asked, "What about that one?" It was three white dots in a curved line, one more of a line than a dot, and her face fell for a second looking at it.
"Depression," she answered. She pursed her lips, then said, "When I was eight, I started biting myself as a way to cope and punish myself." A bitter glimmer entered her eye as she said, "I remember thinking to myself that everyone had to hate me for a reason, even if I didn't know what it was. That everyone couldn't be wrong about me. When I was at school, and the kids would turn me away or say something about me, I'd go to the bathroom and bite myself." She pointed at the scar and said, "This one was the last time, when I was nine, almost ten. The teacher had put a suggestion box in class, and one of the popular girls got the entire class to write 'suggestions' about me. Everything from the clothes I wore, to how I participated in class, to how I wore my hair, or that at recess I'd started reading books because no one would talk to me. The teacher stood me up in front of the class, and read every single 'suggestion.' I remember mentally shutting down until I could be excused to the bathroom after the reading lesson. I bit myself as hard as I could as I cried. Clearly too hard. When I got back to class, the teacher noticed I was bleeding. The school called my parents, and my parents homeschooled me for the rest of fifth grade. They fought with the district to do it, but ultimately won, because I was self-harming at school, and according to my testimony, for two whole years. I felt bad about leaving, because I know me leaving was hard on Ronnie. I kind of abandoned her to those girls, but they actually liked her." Her voice was shaking, and a tear slid down her cheek as if she'd been back there for a second. She blinked hard, and frowned at him, "That took a dark turn. It was supposed to be fun."
He reached towards her, and pulled her to him. She sat down, grabbing a pillow to cover herself, shy from her confession. "You are just like me," he breathed. It was odd to think he'd found someone who'd known a taste of the darkness he'd experienced. Naruto, while he knew the jinchuriki half, had never hated himself to wanting to harm himself. Gaara had wanted to hurt himself, but was unable to thanks to his sand. Cordi had hated and hurt herself, despite her unorthodox means.
"I know," she said, pursing her lips. "It's why I liked you. Naruto had been lonely, but he hadn't been in the void, or struggled to find the light there. You? I recognized it immediately. That rage and frustration within yourself."
He frowned, because clearly she'd been able to pull herself out of it. She'd found the light without meeting someone like Naruto. "How'd you escape it?" he asked.
A bitter smile played on her lips before she winced and said, "Revenge."
He blinked at her, unsure he heard her clearly. "You wanted vengeance?"
She nodded.
"You wanted to kill them all?" he asked. He remembered for a long time that had been his goal. But that didn't seem to fit, especially with her claiming she couldn't kill anyone earlier.
"No," Cordi answered quickly. "Ya'll's view of vengeance is very narrow here, apparently. Always eye for an eye, life for a wrong doing." She shook her head. "No, death is counter productive. The vengeance I settled on was the slow, sweet, cold kind. And genius if I say so myself. My revenge was to live an amazing life they'd be jealous of in spite of their attempts to break me." The bitter smile she wore grew as she added, "Make them eat their words. I wanted them to see their failures in the shade of my success, and regret what they did to me. For that regret to keep them up at night. I wanted them to torture themselves with how they tortured me."
He blinked at her, unsure what to say. He'd never heard such a pacifist version of revenge. But as revenge plots go, it was the only one he heard that didn't isolate one's self. In fact, to make it work, the opposite had to happen.
Cordi moved her glass to take another sip, then said, "This is a very odd conversation to have naked."
He exhaled a chuckle, muttering, "Yes it is." He took another sip as she did, then put his glass down, done for the moment as he asked, "So, what now?"
She raised an eyebrow at him, swallowing her gulp before setting her empty glass next to his and smirked as she set aside the pillow she'd been using as a cover, letting him see her fully again. "Now," she uttered dangerously, leaning over him, causing him to lean back, "we have sex again, except," she grabbed his member making him gasp, squeezing it gently back to life, "I'm in control, and you're screaming my name."
A shudder of arousal went through him as her coal dark eyes burned into his before she knelt down, lowering her lips to the head of his penis. The sight was more searing than any dream or vision he'd had before, mixing with the sensations of her actually kissing the head of his penis, then licking it. Torturously slow. He fisted the pillow and groaned as she sucked on the head. He bucked up needing his dick fully in one of her orifices, and she pinned his hips down to the bed with surprising force. His hand moved to her head, to push her down onto him, and with quick reflexes, she slapped his hand away. She removed her lips from the head of his dick with an audible "pop" and glared up at him. "I told you," she purred, her teeth grazing his shaft, not hard, but tantalizingly threatening, reminding him who was in power here as she shot him a wolfish smile of her own, "I'm in charge."
"Yes ma'am," he breathed, in wonder this woman was so comfortable torturing him in such a way.
"Don't 'ma'am' me," she growled, then smirked, squeezing his member in her hand, causing him to moan. This was what his dreams, his fantasies were made of. "Say my name."
"Cordelia," he breathed desperately.
She dragged her fingertip along his shaft as she asked, "What happened to 'Cordi'?"
Her touches were so tantalizing, and this control she exhibited was exhilarating. He bit his lip to suppress his hips from rolling towards her. "Cordi," he rasped. "Please."
She smiled. "That's better."
He watched her, mesmerized as he saw her dive, her mouth sucking his member down, and his eyes rolled back from the sensations of her tongue massaging the underside of his shaft along his vein. His imaginations couldn't compare to her, and his groans and grunts she pulled from him with every lick and suck brought him closer and closer to the edge. "Cordi," he said over and over, a fervent prayer she continued. His toes curled and his fingers fisted the sheets, and he was moaning her name. He was going to blow.
She pulled her mouth off him and he whined at the loss of the sweet cliff, only for her to press a finger to his lips to silence him. She climbed over him, positioning herself on top of his hips, reaching for his member before aiming him and lowering down, taking him into her womb again. She perched forward, her hands on either side of his head as she began to ride him hard, and he enjoyed every moment of it as she pulled his head back, exposing his neck so she could adorn his skin with kisses to his ear. Then she moaned her demands in his ear, and he whole-heartedly complied. If she said to kiss her breasts, he did. Grab her ass, he did. And when he got close, she stopped and demanded he beg for her, and every-time he did, her name dancing on his tongue between praises and pleading for release. Until she began to slow, and she ordered, "I need you to fuck me."
His grip on her hips tightened bruisingly, and she nodded as he moved her hips for her, biting her lips. "Cordi," he groaned deeply, first giving her a deep kiss as thanks as he began to move in her. He flipped them with ease, giving him full control and pushing in deeper than before, then he plowed into her with reckless abandon, earning Cordi's pleasured screams of his name as she clutched at him, and he came several times harder than the first few times, he practically saw stars. He collapsed on her, and she laughed as her legs fell to his sides, her hands in his hair as they heaved their breath together.
Her hands grazed over his shoulders as his body twitched. "You're trembling," she murmured.
He looked up at her, his gaze a mix between exhausted and adoring. She kissed his lips, and he brushed his lips against hers back as he said, "I'll make you more silph-tea later. I need a nap."
She chuckled as he slumped to the side, only barely as his lower half remained in her, their legs a comfortable tangle, and their bodies sticky with sweat. He hugged her close to him, his head resting against her chest and hand never leaving her breast. Her arm was wrapped around his shoulders, and her other hand absently traced circles in his scalp. Soon enough, she heard his soft snores as she felt her own consciousness waning, barely registering his member had retracted out of her. She kissed the scar on his forehead, then snuggled in and drifted to sleep.
"This seat taken?" a woman asked, strolling up to Kankuro, who sat quietly at the hotel bar. He only drank a club soda tonight after the toll he put on his body last night. Kankuro looked up from his drink to see a familiar woman, somewhere between his and Gaara's age. She had dark, almost black hair and was built like a super model. However her good looks were well hidden by her thick glasses that made her eyes appear swirly and buglike.
Kankuro knew it was Shijima Hoki, a friend Gaara had made after the fiasco that was the Marriage Meeting in March. As Kankuro understood it, Shijima was Hakuto's older sister and bodyguard for the meeting. When Gaara ran off after Hakuto was kidnapped, Shijima went with him. After a battle with Hakuto's kidnappers, Shijima was downed before Hakuto was killed, and Gaara avenged her. He brought Shijima back with him to Suna as his comrade, and had made her an active Suna Jonin. That was until after he returned from the Chunin Exams, and gave her the much-desired post of guardian of the Wind Daimyo.
His team had met up with hers and the Prince at a large oasis near the western border of the Demon Desert in the Mirage Hotel, the very same hotel Gaara's failed marriage meeting occurred. Their rooms were the pinnacle of luxury. Even the hotel was luxurious even though it was outside a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, owned by a regional daimyo. At least the lake the bar overlooked was magnificent. The East Wing of the hotel was barred off though due to reconstruction. No doubt thanks to the terrorists back in March that crashed the meeting. It looked almost done, but it was likely they were waiting on some materials to be delivered to finish. Living in the expansive desert, it was easy to assume such a problem because even Suna had similar issues, despite being one of the most populated cities in the Land of Wind.
"Hey," Kankuro grunted before taking another sip as she slid into the bar stool.
Shijima eyed him oddly, then grunted sarcastically, "You're oddly chipper."
"I'm having a bad couple days," Kankuro replied, finishing his drink.
Shijima gestured to the bartender to double Kankuro's order, then leaned toward the somber puppet user and asked, "Anything I can do to help?"
"Can you go back in time three weeks and smack me before I fuck up my life for good?" he asked darkly. The bartender dropped off the club sodas, and Kankuro grumbled, "Thanks."
"'For good?'" Shijima quoted, swirling her drink, adding, "Surely it can't be that bad," before sipping her drink. She swallowed, then added. "Even permanent tattoos can be removed. Injuries managed."
"I'd say getting a girl pregnant is pretty permanent," Kankuro grumbled, knocking back the drink, feeling the burn of the carbonation.
"Shit," Shijima hissed, placing her drink on the bar. After a moment, she asked, "I take it since you're not married, it wasn't a planned thing."
He stifled a burp as he placed his glass back on the table. "Nope," he replied.
She waved at the bartender, and called out, "Can we get some gin for these tonics?"
"No," Kankuro called out over her. "I practically drank myself to a coma last night. I'm still recovering. And we shouldn't be drinking on duty," he reasoned.
Shijima sat there silently with him, letting him stew in his self-loathing before asking, "Who knows about it?"
"Besides me and the mother?" Kankuro more said than asked, but she answered with a nod anyway. "Her team. My siblings. Our teacher. Possibly Cordelia. Now you."
"I'm honored you trust me," she stated, fingering the rim of her glass.
He shrugged. "You're friends with Gaara, and he's sometimes a better judge of character than I am," he admitted. Then Kankuro frowned, and asked, "You aren't Gaara's secret ex-girlfriend, are you?"
She frowned, "I don't think so." She wrinkled her nose as she added, "I didn't know he had a girlfriend. I mean, despite almost marrying my sister, he always seemed – above dating."
Kankuro chuckled, "He's still just a man."
Shijima rolled her eyes. "I know. But you have men like you. And you have men like …" she flopped her wrist, and he got the insinuation. "Then you have men who don't want either."
"Gaara's reserved, but he likes women," Kankuro stated. He shrugged as he said, "He just doesn't act on them because he doesn't know how to, I think. I know of one or two fleeting crushes he's had over the years. First, Tsumugi from school, who I think was pretty mean to him, and might have left a lasting impression." Shijima stared wide-eyed at the information, but also somewhat surprised as Kankuro said the last bit as if something had just clicked in his understanding of his brother. "Then Sakura for a time after the Akatsuki kidnapping incident. But I think he knew she was far too in love with Sasuke to attempt anything. Plus, he saw her perform a medical procedure, that while impressed him, did also disgust him. And he couldn't see her hands the same way." Kankuro shrugged, waving off the memory as he added, "Now, it's Cordelia, who he finds annoying, but was also found groping yesterday."
"Groping?" Shijima repeated.
Kankuro nodded, sipping back his new drink. He grunted as he swallowed, adding, "Clearly he's learned to act on his crushes."
Shijima scoffed, shaking her head. "I leave for a month, and miss all the good gossip. Gaara groping Cordelia. And she was ok with it, right?"
Kankuro bobbled his head oddly, adding, "From what I hear, she was very into it."
"Lucky bastard," she huffed, sipping her drink.
Kankuro frowned at her curiously, then asked, "You swing for the home team?" Given bastard was usually a masculine term, it was clear she was calling Gaara the lucky one.
She gave a half shrug, grumbling, "It's not something I openly talk about, but it's also not really a secret either."
"Huh," Kankuro breathed, his brow furrowing further. "But you're really pretty."
She shook her head with a bizarre expression, as if the two were mutually exclusive. "Ok, and I like to eat forbidden oysters. What's it to you?"
Kankuro barked out a laugh. "Forbidden oysters?" he almost shrilled.
She grumbled embarrassingly, rolling her eyes instead of blushing as she said, "What my ex used to call them."
"Good name for 'em," Kankuro chuckled, taking another sip. "Inexplicably fishy."
Shijima frowned. "Not the ones I've tasted."
Kankuro decided not to comment on that, realizing it was possible he had less experience with it. The silence between them lingered before Shijima spoke up again, "So. Daddy."
Kankuro made an odd face, then said, "I've never had a lesbian call me 'Daddy' before."
"I was more talking of your kid, who'll call you 'Daddy,'" she corrected with a bitter wink.
He rolled his eyes, grumbling, "Right." He sipped, then hissed, "Shit, I forgot about it for a second."
She pursed her lips, her gaze full of understanding. She grabbed her drink, asking, "So, you gonna marry her?"
He let out a long breath, his lips making a horse-like sound as he blew out, then admitted, "No idea. Either way, my kid's fucked." He downed his fourth glass of club soda, and gestured for more.
Shijima rolled her eyes. "Surely, you're family's not that bad." She bobbed her head as she looked at chandelier illuminating the tower of liquor behind the bar, adding, "Gaara's one of the kindest men I've met. Brutal when necessary, but incredibly kind."
Kankuro sneered, adding, "Gaara, while he's Kazekage now, has no idea how taxing it was growing up. He was secluded with Uncle Yashamaru, which while isolating and caused its own problems, also saved him from being a public figure as a child." Shijima's expression made it clear she didn't understand what kind of plight Kankuro was dreading. He sighed and explained, "I grew up being told I'd be the next Kazekage. That I had to walk and talk a certain way. Look a certain way. And if I was standing next to my father, I had to be perfect. And I knew I never measured up. I didn't inherit the kekkei genkai. Even becoming a ninja wasn't enough. I had to be the best, because what would the village think?" He laughed bitterly as he added, "And for what? To be murdered for another coup after my years of service?" He shook his head hard. "Everyone thinks life in the Kazekage clan is so gilded because we run Suna, but they don't think about the horrors we endure. The hoops we jump, knowing our own people will kill us." He shook his head hard. "No. I'd never want to bring a child into this mess."
He pursed his lips, breathing deeply through his nose, shaking a little as he shoved down the bitter emotions, trying to appear numb. No one except Temari knew that about him. Experienced it like him, even though her only a fraction, since she wasn't a boy born in their line. He'd never wanted the title. He cried when their father was found dead, not out of the sadness the average person felt at losing a parent, but panic that the Council was going to turn around and ask him to step up the next day.
The way Shijima looked at him, she could see the very real ghosts in his eyes, the trauma of such a gilded childhood.
"So, you'll let her marry someone else? Have another clan raise your child?" Shijima offered after some time.
Kankuro shook his head. "That plan's impossible too. The kekkei genkai is a recessive gene, depending on chakra natures, meaning there's a possibility my child could still get it. Meaning it would be identified as part of the clan, regardless, putting it back into Kazekage clan shitshow." He rolled his eyes as he added, "Plus, Gaara and Temari would never forgive me." That was a given. This child granted Gaara and Temari freedom to be with whomever they wanted. Not claiming the child rescinded that freedom. On top of that, they both were loyal to their blood ties. Gaara had even mentioned to Kankuro that he looked forward to Temari expanding their line when they thought she and Shikamaru were still getting married. Kankuro shirking his child would just piss them off.
Shijima pursed her lips, twirling a strand of her hair in thought, then said, "You know, we're missing one very likely possibility."
Kankuro frowned skeptically. "What?" he demanded, genuinely curious what she'd thought of that he hadn't.
Shijima made a face as if it were obvious, then said, "You could be having a girl."
He frowned, then thought about it. If it was a girl, she'd be a bit in the Kazekage limelight, but no one would expect anything of her. Girls couldn't become Kazekage, and therefore couldn't threaten Gaara's position, and the status quo would remain the same, while also giving Gaara and Temari their freedom. He could raise a girl like he wanted, without worrying what the Council said about preparing the next Kazekage. "It could be a girl," he said, sounding renewed to the idea.
"Fifty percent shot," Shijima added.
That changed everything. He held up his glass for a toast to her, saying, "To having a daughter."
Shijima raised her glass, a genuine smile on her face for helping Kankuro. "To having a daughter," she repeated, clinking her glass against his. They drained their glasses, Shijima a little quicker than Kankuro. She added, "You'd just have to worry about horny guys who'd knock her up and leave her high and dry."
Kankuro's smile fell to a sour expression immediately. "Why did you have to say that?" Because now he was clearly worried about that.
Shijima's eyes widened, realizing her error as she wracked her brain for a remedying comment, then offered, "Sh-she could be a lesbian."
He laughed, then shook his head. "Maybe. More likely, I'd just be scarier than any guy she'd bring around." An evil smirk appeared on his face as he imagined, "I could just throw him in the black ant."
Shijima got up, dropping some money on the bar, and punching his shoulder gently. "Glad I could help you out," she offered.
"Thanks," he said, an easy smile finally appearing on him that had been absent since Matsuri had given him the news.
She leaned in, and said, "Still, if it is a boy, you should trust in Gaara to help protect him from those expectations." Kankuro looked at her worriedly at the suggestion. "He's done so much in five years. Surely changing how the post of Kazekage is decided is on his list, and he wouldn't subject your kid to the expectations you were."
Kankuro looked at her, the pleading hope in his dark eyes clear that he wished that were true, but he couldn't hang his future on that. She pursed her lips, then left, then said over her shoulder, "You should get some sleep. We leave early tomorrow morning."
August 9th, 2009
The girls spent all of their afternoon at the hospital. Fred had brought new flowers, and caught up with Shikamaru, who'd decided that there would be no training until Rox woke up. Gaara had sat with Cordi and her friends for most of the afternoon, each having difficulty not smiling at each other. Although, Cordi more so than Gaara. And while everyone noticed, no one commented.
Instead, they talked about everything else. Old stories from school days. Old games they'd play. What was popular in their world. What they'd miss. Fred lamented that she'd miss the new season of Supernatural coming out, especially because in the previous season finale, they'd let Lucifer free from Hell, and the Apocolypse was starting. That started a whole tangent on their world's mythology, and the difference between demons there and demons here. Although that started a debate on whether they actually existed or not. While Fred was the only one who didn't believe in them, the other girls opinions varied on their exact powers and whether they existed on another plane, or if they were very real, physical beings.
As the day dragged on, Sakura came in twice, checked Rox's oxygen and announced she was back up to ninety-five percent, meaning she'd wake whenever her mind was ready.
At six, they decided to step out. Fred, Lynne, and Ronnie citing that while training tomorrow was canceled, they still had class in the morning. As they walked out, they turned to Cordi and asked, "You promised to come to dinner with us," they reminded her.
She nodded before turning to Gaara, realizing she'd forgotten to mention it to him. "You'll be alright, right?" she asked, not wanting to leave him in a lurch.
"Uhm," he grumbled, unsure how to answer.
Shikamaru stepped up next to him, stating, "He'll come with me. I'm meeting with Naruto, and I'm sure he'd want you to join."
Gaara nodded, a soft smile as he said to Cordi, "I'll be fine. I'll see you back at the hotel."
She blushed and nodded, turning back to follow her friends. Gaara's gaze stayed on her as she walked away, hating to see her leave, but not minding watching her walk. After a long moment, seeing them turn at the corner, he turned back to Shikamaru who smiled at him deviously, tonguing his cheek as if he knew what Gaara had just been thinking. Gaara suppressed his own blush.
After their afternoon romp yesterday, they'd napped for a few hours, then got dressed, drank the tea, and left for dinner with barely any words passing between them during the meal itself. Then he offered to take her shopping, citing her complaints about her lacking pajamas and that she'd need more tactile gear as a ninja. She picked out two pajama sets and two nightgowns. As for her ninja gear, she picked out some puffy cargo pants that bunched at her calves, and an armored mesh t-shirt under a black tank-top that showed off her impressive cleavage. She also found some black leather bracers that shielded her hands, wrists and forearms, while also hiding a knife at the elbow. He stated she'd get Suna issue sandals when they returned, to which she said she'd prefer to wear the ridiculous boots she always wore. Much to his surprise, they weren't as ridiculously fashionable as he thought, when she took a kunai and tapped it against her toe, and it rang as if hitting metal. She informed him back in her world, they were called steel-toed combat boots. The toes were armored, and hidden by the leather. He agreed she should wear those, realizing how useful they actually were.
As soon as they returned, they had sex again, not even bothering with the pretense of getting dressed for bed, kissing as soon as the suite door shut and dragging each other back to Gaara's bed as they stripped each other down. Their touches bruising each other as they held themselves together, clutching at each other with desperate abandon. And then they did it again, rough, how Gaara had first dreamt of taking her. And then again for good measure. The last time, soft and sensual, drowning in the sensations of their kisses and their mouths traveling over each other's body, their touches and tongues worshiping the skin of their lover. Until they'd collapsed naked in the bed, unaware of where one of them ended and the other began.
They'd been rough. They'd been sensual. They'd left bruises and bite marks on each other amidst tender kisses and caresses. He'd never felt more content.
He couldn't describe the feelings, the exhilaration that drove him to having sex with her five times in one day. The only thing he could compare it to was the excitement of learning and mastering a new jutsu. You couldn't wait to try it again and again to make sure you had it right.
They'd awoken late this morning with him inside her, and he had her again before they got ready for the day. He couldn't imagine a better way to starting the day, deep inside her as she clutched at and moaned for him.
"Well, well, well," Shikamaru grinned. "Looks like things between you two have changed for the better."
Gaara blinked at him, smiling secretly, then said, "She makes the power go out."
Shikamaru's smile widened proudly, his head tilting and his eyebrow raised. He nodded. "That's a lot more subtle than an earthquake."
Gaara exhaled a chuckle through his nose at Shikamaru's comment, then gestured out. "Shall we?"
Shikamaru chuckled, shaking his head as he stepped around the Kazekage and led him to where he was meeting Naruto for dinner.
"Alright!" Ronnie rounded on Cordi as soon as they had her separated from her Kazekage. "You've been positively glowing all day."
"Not to mention Gaara hasn't been able to take his eyes off you," Fred added with a knowing smirk.
Cordi blushed as Ronnie pressed, "Ya'll had sex again."
Cordi pursed her lips and hummed a small, "Mhmm."
Ronnie's eyes brightened excitedly. "Did he get you past go?" Cordi couldn't contain her smile, despite how hard she pressed her lips together. Ronnie's smile widened. "He did, didn't he?"
"A couple times," Cordi answered, her face flushing bright red, but her smile incandescently happy.
Fred leaned in this time, asking, "How many times?"
"Seven," Lynne answered.
Cordi balked at the spirit user, and gasped, "LYNNE!?"
"Seven times?" Fred laughed, the let out a whistle. "Wow, you're a bit of a slut."
Cordi blushed hard.
"Be careful. If you don't slow down, you'll get a UTI," Ronnie added, sounding a bit worried.
Cordi chased after Lynne, howling, "That was private."
"You both were practically screaming it all day," she countered, dodging Cordi's swipe.
Cordi scowled at her. "How do you even know how many times. I wasn't even counting."
Lynne smirked, "You aren't, but he is."
Cordi was taken aback by that as Fred chuckled deeply. "Hmmm," Fred said, tapping a finger against her lower lip in mock contemplation. "Can't take his eyes off you and is counting how many times he gets you off. Methinks the Kazekage is cunt-struck."
Cordi frowned at the eldest of the friends. "Cunt-struck?"
Fred nodded as if she knew all, and Cordi would be wise to heed her advice. "Well, it's too early for him to be in love with you. But men can become cunt-struck as soon as a woman offers it up." When Cordi looked troubled by the comment, Fred laughed, "For women, it's a good thing. It means he'll bend over backwards, do anything, to have access to it."
Cordi shook her head, "I-I don't want that."
Fred scoffed, "Every woman wants that."
"I don't," Cordi said. "He's the Kazekage of the Land of Wind. His choices carry a lot of weight, and I don't want him to make a bad political choice because of my influence."
"Yeah. You don't want to end up like Monica Lewinsky," Lynne chimed in, her tone understanding.
Fred rolled her eyes at both of them, adding, "After watching the show, I have a very hard time seeing Gaara addressing his village, and saying, 'I did not have sexual relations with that woman.'" Her Bill Clinton impression was impeccable, finger wag and all.
"Still," Lynne added, "he is an important figure, and that means you should handle things with caution."
"Life's too short for that," Fred grumbled. Then she shrugged, turning to Ronnie, and asking, "You've been awfully quiet. What do you think?"
"Hm?" Ronnie asked, sounding very distracted. Then she smiled, even though it didn't quite reach her eyes as she said, "I'm just happy Cordi's getting some, and she's enjoying it. Seven times is not something to rub your nose at."
Lynne looked up at the sky and sighed, "Man, I'm behind." The other girls looked at her curiously. "Everyone has met and either dated or fucked their cartoon crush, except me. I'm usually never this far behind. I'm usually middle of the pack."
Cordi pouted sympathetically at her, then said, "Sorry. But it's difficult to ask the of a dead man."
"Oh, he's not dead," Lynne corrected. "He apparently helped out in the war against Kaguya Otsutsuki, and is used as a spy by Konoha now."
Cordi blinked at her, very confused. "I thought the war was against the Akatsuki."
"Kaguya manipulated Madara, who manipulated the Akatsuki to enact the Infinite Tsukuyomi and bring her back to life," Lynne explained, frowned a little with confusion as she added, "I think." She shrugged, stating, "I downloaded the information off of Naruto. It's a little difficult to explain. Just, all you need to know is Kaguya was an alien of the Otsutsuki clan, which devours planets' life forces by planting a ten tails in it and growing the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life puts people under a genjutsu to devour them and turn into chakra fruit, which the Otsutsuki eat as delicacies. If the tree is large enough to project the Tsukuyomi onto the moon, making the Infinite Tsukuyomi, it can cast the genjutsu over the entire world, and devour the planet's inhabitants totally."
Cordi blinked at her. "Aliens."
"Yeah, we didn't believe her either," Ronnie stated. "But we asked around, and it's apparently true."
"Otsutsuki," Cordi repeated. The name sounded familiar. "Is that who they thought brought us here?"
Lynne nodded. "Apparently, they can travel through dimensions."
"Meaning they're the only ones who could be behind our arrival," Cordi filled in.
"Don't forget, your son said we figure out how to return eventually," Fred added. "Maybe we have the power, but we just don't know it yet."
"We're here," Lynne announced, ignoring Fred's suggestion. "The best barbeque place in Konoha. It's Korean style barbeque, but still amazing."
Lynne walked in first, getting a table, with Fred following close behind. Ronnie stood next to Cordi, looking at the older friends as she said, "I noticed you glossed over Lynne saying Sasuke's alive."
Cordi's gaze narrowed sourly as she said, "I'm hoping Kishimoto is smarter than that. Sasuke's war-crimes being forgiven is a dumber plot-twist than aliens." She rolled her eyes, clearly realizing bad writing was sometimes a staple of long-running shonen animes. "I'll believe it when I see it."
They followed the older girls in to their table, moving onto more friendly topics as Cordi filled them in on the happenings in Suna, highlighting her weeklong prank-fest on Kankuro. And that she was becoming a genin as soon as she returned.
Temari sat at the kitchen table, tapping her pencil against her shoulder as she looked at the mostly blank letter in front of her. All the letter said at the top was the date and, "Dear Shikamaru."
She had struggled for the last day and a half to put the words to paper. If she should put the words to paper, and send them to Shikamaru. Cordi had mentioned that Shikamaru and Roxanne had broken up. But if it wasn't for the fact Roxanne was in the hospital, she would have written him.
Their problems were solved. Kankuro's child meant she could marry Shikamaru and move to Konoha without issue. It was a no brainer to tell Shikamaru this. That they could at long last get married.
But every time she put the pencil to the paper, she couldn't find the words to lead into it. She could put it bluntly, but it was still technically classified. Only Baki and the siblings, plus Matsuri, knew about the pregnancy. If someone tampered with the letter, and read it, that could cause problems for Kankuro claiming the child, since he and Matsuri weren't married. Had it been any other clan, it wouldn't have mattered, but they were the Kazekage clan. People could riot, or worse, attempt to kill Matsuri. It was a serious security issue that the Council took very seriously. She barely remembered her mother, but she remembered both her parents sitting Temari down when they announced she was having another brother, but that she wasn't allowed to say anything about it, even to her friends.
Clearly, the same rule applied here.
She grabbed the letter and balled it up. It was better to wait until Kankuro made his decision on how to handle the situation. Surely he would agree with what the Council would most definitely stipulate. That he marry Matsuri.
But until that was done, she couldn't say anything. Not unless she saw Shikamaru in person.
Gaara sat on the couch reading the book he'd just bought on his way back to the hotel from dinner. It was the First Volume of the Shinobi Military Strategy Handbook. It had been a long time since he'd read it, and he got it, and the other two for Cordi. The third had just been released, and he thought it was a good idea for her to read up, since she'd start her ninja career when they'd returned. The first had come out when he was still a student, while the second when he'd become Kazekage.
He'd gotten back a while ago from dinner with Shikamaru and Naruto, who had been surprised to see him in Konoha, until Shikamaru explained the predicament with Rox, and Gaara explained he'd escorted Cordi here personally, since she wouldn't wait for a proper ninja escort. Naruto joked if he enjoyed the ease of a D rank mission, since he was never subjected to one as a genin, to which Gaara told him going to another country meant it was a C rank mission, and so his record was unsullied.
He closed the book when he finished the second chapter, looked at the clock, and frowned, seeing the flashing zeroes, meaning the clocks hadn't been reset after the power outages. He chewed his cheek, realizing that could be a potential problem. He'd skipped out on desert, mostly because it was yokan with chopped chestnuts, which again he found disgusting. But also because he was ready to get back to Cordi. Even stopping for the books, he'd debated, just because he was eager to be with her again.
He guessed he'd grown accustomed to her company. It was understandable. He worked with her every day, and lived with her. And this weekend, he'd enjoyed her company in his bed. Especially yesterday and last night.
He heard her coming off the elevator and down the hall before he sensed her. He knew it was her because she was singing a song from her world he'd heard her play in the shower once or twice.
"Seems the road less traveled / Shows happiness unraveled / And you got to take a little dirt / To keep what you love / That's what you gotta do / Sayin' you love but you don't / You give your love but you won't / You're stretching out your arms / To something that's just not there / Sayin' you love where you stand / Give your heart when you can / If you could only see the way she loves me / Then maybe you would understand / Why I feel this way about our love/ And what I must do."
She unlocked the door as she continued, "If you could only see how blue / Her eyes can be when she says / When she says she loves me."
She smiled brightly at him, and he felt his heart skip as she pulled out her headphones and paused her musical device. "Hey," she said.
"Hey," he said back.
She held up her device and said, "I like to listen to music when I'm walking alone."
He frowned, and asked, "Is that wise? Hindering one sense when you're by yourself."
She wrinkled her nose in thought and replied, "I've been told my resting bitch face and my brisk stride tends to scare people." He tilted his head curiously at her answer, and she added, "You've never seen me walk alone. But I've been told I look murderous. Which isn't true. I just walk with purpose."
He smirked. "I don't believe you."
"I'll go outside and prove it," she said, pointing at the door. "Watch me with the sandy eye."
He made an amused frown as he corrected her, "My third eye."
She shrugged as she opened the door, putting her headphones back in. "To-may-to, to-mah-to. Knock on the door when you're set up." She stepped out and closed it behind her, and he rolled his eyes.
"She is so odd," he mumbled to himself before gathering his sand in his palm, and connecting his third eye to his optical nerve, then sent the sand out to the hallway. He saw her turn around at the end of the hallway and flick her hair and put her musical device in her pocket. He couldn't believe he was doing something so stupid, but he knocked on the door, and watched her walk back down the hallway. Her movement wasn't similar to his quiet slinking. Her head didn't hang like his used to, the way he looked out at everyone from under his brows. She did none of that.
No, her shoulders rolled back, her chest forward, and her chin up. Her lips did have a scowling pout. But murder was all in the eyes, Gaara knew. Her eyes were narrowed, hooded and looked forward, as if focused on a far-off goal as her stride rolled forward evenly, each step deliberate and purposeful. Her posture allowed her hair to catch the wind and bounce as she moved, as did her breasts. It looked like the cross between a model walk and a queen walking to a public execution. The type of woman who wasn't looking to kill someone, but would throw you on the pyre if you bothered her. Temari had a similar walk, except more battle ready.
Cordi walked back into the room as Gaara pulled the sand back to him, disconnecting the chakra nerve. She smirked at him, and asked, "Did you see it?"
He stepped up to her, his lips pursed in odd understanding as he said, "You are a very strange girl," as he leaned into her, before planting a gentle kiss on her lips. He didn't do it for any reason other than he wanted to. He pulled away, appreciating the blush on her cheeks as he said, "I got you something."
He stepped over to the stack of books, and handed them to her. She looked somewhere between surprised and confused. She tilted her head to read the title of the large book on top. "The Shinobi Military Strategy Handbook." She turned them in her arms, seeing the spines as she added, "Volume One, Two, and Three." Her tone sounded a bit surprised, and confused.
"They're a must read for any ninja," he stated. Then he blushed, suddenly realizing that wasn't a gift one gives their girlfriend, and embarrassed for his idiocy. He let out a grunting grumble before adding, "I just figured that since …" He subconsciously crossed his arms as he stumbled out his excuse for such a poor gift. "Even though you're not going through the academy, you're still becoming a ninja. And that's … something." He grimaced inwardly. Why was he so bad at this?
She put the books down, and he closed his eyes and sighed, berating himself mentally. "I'm sorry. I am terrible at this. I just saw them on my way back and thought …" He cut himself off, realizing whatever he thought, he thought wrong. What woman other than Temari appreciated strategy guides.
He didn't notice her standing so close to him as she said softly, "You are so cute." His eyes flew wide in shock as she kissed his cheek. His heart pounded and he felt his cheeks blush bright red. No one had ever called him that before and meant it. At least not to his face. Other than Cordi the night with the cookies. As she pulled away, she added, "Thank you."
"Y-you're welcome," he stumbled out. She stepped away, putting her purse down on one of the barstools, and he watched her every move. He looked at the books curiously, and asked, "You like them?"
She licked her lips, then answered, "I really appreciate the thought behind them, and they're library edition hard copies, which I also like."
His eyes narrowed thoughtfully, then filled in, "But you're not going to read them."
She turned to him plainly, "Well, they're text books. How often do you crack open your encyclopedias?" He pursed his lips and looked down. She was just being kind to him. "But they look pretty on the shelf, and who knows, you might need to look something up in them at some point."
He blushed. "I can return them."
"Don't you dare," Cordi said quickly. He looked at her confused by her defensive tone. "They're my books, which I'll use to restart my library." He narrowed his gaze on her, his head tilting slightly as she added, "And as the meme says, 'Get that bitch a library. Bitches love libraries.'"
He blinked at her for a second, and asked, "What?"
She sighed, smiling at him knowingly as she said, "You'll learn quickly, girls are like dragons. They collect whole hoards of stuff." He frowned at her, even more confused as she continued, "I collect books, pretty journals I'll never write in, pencils," she rolled her eyes as she added, "jewelry, music, and decks of playing cards."
He blinked at her again, then asked, "Should I have written that down?"
She rolled her eyes, and instead asked, "How about we play a card game? I've got both Uno and a regular card deck in my purse at all times." She chuckled as she fished in her purse, clearly pulling them out as she added, "Actually, I taught the jonin who rode with me on the train to Suna how to play Uno. Totally whipped Kankuro's ass. But Maki picked it up pretty easily." She held up a thick deck of cards that had clearly seen better days tied together with a frayed curling ribbon. The tops were red and black with yellow letters spelling, "UNO" across them. The other deck she held was a standard playing card deck.
"Then maybe we should play with the other deck," he suggested.
She frowned, looking at the regular playing cards, then said, "Ok, but no poker." He raised a hairless eyebrow at that, and she rolled her eyes as she admitted, "Your poker face is much better than mine."
He looked at her innocently, "I don't know what you mean."
She frowned at him, clearly already suspicious of him, then said, "We'll play Rummy. I can teach you that quickly if you don't know." She sat down at the table, and he sat across from her as she began to explain the rules of the game. The point was to get rid of all your cards in the way of melds or playing on your opponents' melds. It sounded exactly like a game he used to play with his Uncle Yashamaru, Jinra. She dealt the cards, and they begun to play.
After seven turns, she frowned at the table pityingly. She had three melds laid down. A straight in diamonds of four cards three through seven, three twos, and three fives. "You don't have anything?" she asked as she discarded a ten of spades.
"Not yet," he said, looking only at his hand as he drew his card for his turn. He saw the two of diamonds, and exhaled softly. It did mess with his plans a little, as he couldn't just throw it away. She had two melds it went to. It would be too obvious. He put it in front of him, and said, "There. A two."
She laughed. "A two?"
He nodded.
"Which one are you laying it on?"
"The other twos."
She made a face, and asked, "You have more options on the straight."
"Maybe I don't want you getting the ace," he reasoned as he discarded a jack. There was another Jack sitting several cards under that she'd lamented losing. He'd already tempted her with the Queen of the suit, but she didn't take it.
She scoffed with a bright smile, "Smart move, Gaara," as she picked up her earlier Jack with his new one. She was pulling up over half the discard, a whole eight cards. She laid down the row of jacks, all four. She took a few seconds to reorganize her hand of twelve cards. She then laid down three nines, of which only one had been in the deck, and discarded the ten. "I'm beating you so bad right now, I feel like I have to incentivize you to put some points on the board."
He blinked at her, and asked, "What do you have in mind?"
"If either of us loses with negative points, they have to play the next game without their shirt," she offered. She smiled at him as if she knew it was impossible for him to turn this against her, and that if he didn't enter the game soon, he was playing shirtless.
He furrowed his brow, pursing his lips as he looked at his cards. "That is an interesting proposition." He closed his hand, tapping it on the table, then said, "Fine. Negative points means no shirt next round."
Cordi looked at him smugly. "Alright then."
He opened his hand back up, and gave a mildly distressed sigh as he said, "Now that really changes things."
"Just do your best."
He sucked on his teeth, then picked up the last six cards of the discard starting with the king of hearts, laying down the three aces in his hand, including the diamond ace, the three kings and three tens he now had, and the eight and nine of diamonds he'd been was holding onto, and discarded the seven of clubs, emptying his hand and ending the game. He displayed his melds on the table, and said, "Jinra," as was custom when winning a hand of Jinra. He then smiled at her innocently. Expectantly, letting his gaze drift down to her chest and back up to her eyes in an obvious movement. With the ace in her hand she'd picked up earlier, and the queen, she was well in the negatives with her low card melds.
Cordi's jaw hung open, looking at her cards, then the table. She began to count her points, coming to the same conclusion Gaara had when she'd made the proposition. She then scowled at him, half confused, half furious as she asked, "Did you say 'Gin'?"
"Jinra," he clarified.
"As in Gin Rummy?" she asked.
He made a curious pout. "Is that it's full name in your world? Here, it's called Jinra."
She coughed out a disbelieving laugh. "You hustled me."
He pursed his lips expectantly, then asked, "Well, are you going to honor your proposition?"
She scoffed, reaching down and yanking off her t-shirt. She then chucked it at his face, and he smiled at its warmth before reaching up, and folding it for her and setting it next on the couch beside him. He watched her furiously gather the cards back into the deck, enjoying her movement without her shirt as she began shuffling the cards together angrily. She was actually rather good at shuffling. Very similar to a dealer in the gambling halls of Tsumi Shi, if they wore only bras.
"You want to play again?" he asked as she did her fourth shuffle and bridge.
She tapped the cards on the table, and said, "Nope." She slammed them on the table in front of him, and ordered him, "Cut 'em," tapping on the top of the deck.
He blinked at her, appreciating seeing her competitive spirit. He picked up half and set them aside. She picked up the other half and set them over. She tapped them one more time on the table, then began dealing feverishly, her breast bouncing so much from the movement he was surprised her bra contained them. "We are not playing Rummy or Jinra. Or whatever the fuck you call it." He'd gathered that since she'd passed the seven cards to start the hand. "We are playing a little game called Egyptian Rat Screw, which requires speed. And since I know your speed stats are shit, we're. Playing. This."
He leaned back, a little in awe at seeing this side of her. He'd hustled her on an easy game she thought she was teaching him, and now she was clearly setting up a much more difficult game.
She finished dealing the entire deck, each of them having half. "Ok, rules. The point of the game is to take all the cards. You can take them by slapping the deck or by royalty. Slapping is only okay on doubles or sandwiches. Any mis-slaps means you burn a card. If you misplay out of turn, it means you burn a card. Any cheating means you burn a card. Burning a card means it must be put under the deck, and isn't playable until it is reclaimed. If it's a royal, tough shit. Also, royalties work as such: if you lay a royalty down, your opponent has a certain number of chances in a row to lay another royalty down, depending on the card. Jacks give your opponent one chance, Queens two chances, Kings three, Aces four. If the opponent fails to lay a royal, the deck goes you. However, if there is a slap to be made in a royal run, the slap overrides royalty claim."
Gaara frowned at the table, trying to organize his deck as he said, "I think I get it."
"I'm going to show you once," she added, "when casting cards on the deck, you must pull them like this," she showed him a movement that pulled the card away from her, allowing him first view, adding, "If you do it any other way, it's considered cheating, and you must burn a card."
"This is strict," he commented.
"Uh-huh. Additional rule for this game between us," she added finally, her glare settling on her. "If you have to burn a card, you also have to lose a piece of clothing."
He took a deep breath, then grumbled, "Alright."
"Alright," she huffed, flicking out her top card, stating, "I'll start." It was a three of hearts. She then pointed at him to pull his card out, and he did. The game started slow, them throwing out cards aimlessly until she surprised him with a shockingly fast slap on double fours, claiming the twelve cards in the deck. She then threw out another card, adding, "If you claim a deck, you play the next card."
He pulled the card off his deck wrong once, and she was on him until he took off a shoe. She'd also lost a shoe for a miss-slap, and Gaara realized that even though she was down a shirt for the game, she still wore more clothes than him. She had extra a pair of socks and a bra in her arsenal. Whereas he only had his two shinobi sandals, his shirt, his pants, his belt, and his boxers. For the most part, they played in utter silence, both paying attention to the rising decks. She'd claimed two decks before he got his first measly six cards with a jack. As he put the cards on the bottom of his deck like she had been doing, she asked, "So, you said you have your father's kekkei genkai, which is what made you compatible with Shukaku."
"Yes," he answered.
"So, it's the same electromagnetic power that helps you control sand, right?"
Gaara threw out a card as he grunted, "Mhm." He thought he saw double sixes and slapped. When he pulled his hand away, he saw it was a six on a nine. "Damnit," he hissed under his breath at his mistake.
Cordi chuckled, "Burn a card and some clothing."
Gaara frowned as he slid a card under the deck, and looked at her challengingly as he pulled off his other shoe. He set it next to his other one neatly, and play continued as his toes wiggled against the carpet. He did always like the feel of that.
"I thought the only Kazekage who had that power was the Third," she continued.
"No," he sighed, pulling out an ace. While it started the royals, he'd already found it was generally useless. "The electromagnetic power is a kekkei genkai of many clans, although most use it to repel or attract weapons to targets. Only the Kazekage Clan created a hiden ninjutsu to manipulate metal sand."
"But you can manipulate all sand," she clarified as she pulled out a queen.
"That's because I was shukaku's host," Gaara stated as he pulled a three and then an eight. She picked up the deck. He shrugged as he added, "Also according to my mother's records, she and Uncle Yashamaru were the last of the Mirage Clan, which used earth-release sand for genjutsus."
"Huh," she grunted interestedly. "So, did your father use iron sand, like the Third?"
"No. Gold dust," Gaara answered plainly.
Cordi looked up at him bewildered, a pursed smile on her lips as she asked, "Gold dust?"
"Yes," Gaara answered, looking at her directly.
She blinked, clearly trying her hardest to keep her smile from broadening as she added, "Like a magical fairy princess."
Gaara stared her down, appreciating her humor, even though he had difficulty applying the image to his father. "If a fairy princess could decimate an army or subdue a the Shukaku."
She made a face as she said, "So, less Goldilocks, more Rumplestiltzkin," as she threw down her next card.
"I don't know what that means," he said as he threw out his next card.
"Goldilocks was an idiot blonde girl who stumbled into a bear's home, and decided to eat their food and take a nap," Cordi explained. "Rumplestiltzkin was a magical imp who spins straw into gold in exchange for a woman's firstborn child, which he then eats – or tries to eat. I can't remember."
Gaara looked at her briefly with a bewildered expression, which he then schooled quickly as he said, "Is that another one of your world's weird tales, like the puppet with the growing nose?"
"Fairytale, yes," she answered. They were silent for a moment before she stated, "That's his new nickname, by the way."
"What?" he asked. "Who?"
"Your father," she said. "They never said his name in the anime, so I'll just call him Rumplestiltzkin."
His brow furrowed feeling a little odd that the woman he was intimate with would just arbitrarily name his father after what sounded like a story-book villain. While he was sure he didn't love his father, he had still forgiven him and understood his father's decisions, especially as Kazekage. "His name was Rasa. Meaning 'sand demon.'"
"Weird."
"What?"
"It means 'slate' where I'm from."
"Slate?"
"Yeah. Like chalkboard." Cordi said with a stiff nod. "I only know that because of the phrase, 'Tabula rasa,' which is ancient Latin for 'blank slate.'" She gave an empty shrug as they continued playing, only for her to say a few moments later, "I'm still going to call him Rumplestiltzkin."
He licked his lips, eyeing her carefully, then said, "You talk a lot."
She looked at him wide-eyed. "Excuse me?"
"You say a lot of pointless things," he said, setting his deck down. He tilted his head thoughtfully, then added, "Even going to sleep doesn't stop your rambling."
She scoffed. "You're being rude. Is it because you're not winning?"
"It's because you won't shut-up about my father," he answered, "while you're half naked."
She gestured to her bare chest, stating, "This is your fault. And why should I censor myself because you're uncomfortable?" She crossed her arms under her breasts challengingly, pushing the large boobs together and increasing their cleavage. Gaara couldn't help but stare as she said, "If you want me to shut-up, make me."
His gaze flicked back up to hers for a second, and then he stood as he said, "Alright." He took two long strides over to her around the table, and slammed his lips to hers, his tongue pressing for entrance, which she gave. He licked at her, claiming her mouth angrily. She let out a squeaking moan as she wrapped her arms around his neck and shoulders, and stood up with him. She felt his fingers travel over her back, his lower hand sneaking his fingertips into the waistband of her jeans.
She pulled away for a second, feeling lightheaded and breathless as she asked, "Why are you kissing me?"
"It's the only way I know to shut you up," he answered honestly before seizing her lips again with more fervor.
Part of her knew she should be angry at that answer, but the ruling part of her mind was well distracted by the magic his tongue's moves shot through her body. The only thing keeping her grounded in reality was the sensation of only one foot having a shoe on. She used her free toes to help her kick off her shoe, only to accidentally kick him in the shin.
He broke the kiss immediately, hissing at her, "Ow! Why are you kicking me?"
"Sorry, sorry. I was just trying to get my shoe off," she said quickly, her expression sincerely apologetic. He looked at her, a little dumbfounded as she grabbed his head and said, "Sorry. So sorry," as she pulled him back down into another sweet, but passionate kiss.
The intensity grew between them quickly as she pressed herself into him, and when that wasn't close enough, she hook her leg around his. Their panting breaths were heavy against each other as they licked and nipped at each other's lips. "A-are we …. Are we gonna have sex again?" she stumbled out against his lips between pants and kisses.
"I'd like to," he answered.
"Ok," she said with a stiff nod. Then, using his shoulders, she jumped up, wrapping her legs around his hips. He grunted and stepped back from the sudden weight. "Take me to the bedroom," she directed.
"O-ok," he grumbled. He walked her over as best as he could, his balance and maneuverability not great with the extra weight on his front. He was used to the extra weight on his back. He grumbled to himself more as he tried to maneuver them through the door.
"Y-you ok?" she asked.
"Yeah, it's just a little awkward," he stated as he got them into his bedroom.
She blushed. "It's just something I've always seen couples do in movies."
"Mm."
He collapsed them both on the bed with him on top of her as she let out a loud, "Oof." He pushed himself up by his forearms before he looked into her eyes deeply, and she stroked his cheek as she chuckled, "Hi."
"Hi," he breathed back.
She chewed her lower lip, trying to contain her smile before she leaned up and kissed him again. The kiss this time was easy and comfortable, even though he was nestled comfortably between her legs. He felt her fingers touch his forehead, then run through the part of his hair, shocking tingles trailing his skin, and he knew she was turning off his sand. She pulled away, and directed, "Shirt. Off."
He straightened, then deftly began to unbutton. Gaara's movement was slow, and deliberate. He licked his lips pensively, his narrowed gaze never wavering from hers as he slid his shirt off his shoulders, listening to Cordi cat-call, "Ow ow! Take it off!" and then cast it aside carelessly.
He enjoyed seeing her look at his chest like a hungry wild-cat. It made him feel oddly alive as he was suddenly keenly aware of how hard his heart was beating. He went ahead and unfastened the belts of his gourd holster, then dropped them on the ground. "Bra," he directed.
She quickly reached behind her and pulled it off, freeing her breasts from their prison. His gaze followed their movement as he undid his pants. He stood up to pull them completely off, and Cordi took hers off as well. He then ran his fingers up her thighs as he got back between her legs. His hands brushed over her sensitive folds, then grabbed the tops of her underwear and pulled them down, completely off her. Her breathing became more exaggerated with his fingers trailing movements along the sensual areas of her thighs. His fingers moved up to pet her folds torturously soft, enjoying seeing her biting her lip as she moaned, her eyes fluttering closed as she grabbed her boobs provocatively. "Do you want this?" he asked as he saw her hips start to roll into his fingers.
"So much it hurts," she rasped.
His fingers spread her folds apart, and his middle finger stroked the skin between the bud and the hole.
"Inside," she cried softly.
He complied, dipping his middle finger in, stroking some, and then his index finger. With his other hand, he pushed one of her hands away, and then claimed her breast, first with his left hand kneading it like dough, and then his mouth on her nipple as he slipped in his ring finger. He continued his ministrations, eliciting moans and cries from her that made him harder and harder.
"Gaara, I'm gonna—"
He quickly removed his hand, his mouth dropping its favorite toy, and stood, quickly dropping his underwear in a pool at his ankles. He resumed his position between her legs, lifting her legs around his waist. He positioned his dick at her entrance, and pushed only his head in, until he grabbed her hips, lifted her up, and rammed her onto his dick. She let out a pleasured cry as he pulled her off, and rammed her back onto him. He did that a few times before she cried out, "Kiss me, Gaara. Please."
He dropped her hips, instead settling over her so their bodies connected all the way up. He planted a tender kiss on her lips as he rolled his hips in. Softly at first, clutching at each other with desperate, loving, need. His right hand traveled to her breast, kneading it again as his left grasped her shoulder for leverage for harder pumps into her. He stopped kissing her so he could suck on her nipple instead. She ran her fingers through his hair, holding his head perfectly against her breast, and her touch sending shivers down his spine.
Her fingers dug into his shoulder as she began to gasp. He could feel her tightening around him. He gave her nipple two exaggerated licks, and rasped, "Yes, Cordi. I want to feel you cum."
"Oh, Gaara," she cried, her hips rolling against him before she let out a loud gasp, and her core tightened like a twisted coil. He watched her head roll back and her eyes roll up. Her hands fisted his hair, and her nails dug sharper into his shoulder. The power flickered off as she gave a guttural cry, and he felt her spasming around her.
He chewed his lip as felt the possibility of him to cum, but he held off momentarily. There was a stronger one around the bend. As he felt her calming down, he whispered in her ear, "My turn."
He then propped himself up by his arms so he could ride her hard. He wouldn't be surprised if her insides were bruised by his tenacity. But it felt so good. She couldn't contain the pleasured cries as he felt her building up again quickly. "Gaara, I can't—" she panted incoherently, clutching desperately at the pillow above her head. "I'm gonna—"
"Cum with me!" he grunted as he felt himself crossing that threshold to one of the strongest ejaculations he'd ever felt. He grunted with each thrust, as he felt his seed shoot out of him.
The high pressure of it on her g-spot caused her to scream out, "YES! YES!" in time with his thrusts as she came again. "Fuck, yes!" she cried as the sensations radiated through her until her orgasm reached her head, and her cries became incoherent animalistic groans as the lights flickered off, then back on as they finished.
They collapsed together, and he slipped out of her, planting gentle kisses on her cheek, down her neck and shoulder as he maneuvered her in his arms until they were spooning under the covers. "You fuck amazingly," he rasped in her ear. His fingers trailed up and down her body, and he murmured as he nuzzled into her neck, "Your skin is so nice. So smooth."
Her hand found his, and interlaced her fingers with his, bringing his hand up to her chest. "You're pretty amazing too," she murmured, dipping her head down to kiss his knuckles. She rubbed her lips against his knuckles, and he straightened his fingers, his middle finger applying mild pressure as he pet her lip until she opened her mouth, and licked his finger. His finger stroked her tongue, and her mouth closed, sucking in his finger gently. The sensations were intoxicating as his mind immediately transferred the sensations of her sucking on his finger to his member.
He clutched her tighter to him as he murmured into her ear, "You bewitch me."
She slipped his finger out of her mouth with a pop as she asked, "Is that what you think?" She turned slightly to face him as she added, "That I bewitch you."
His fingers traced her jawline he whispered, "I think buying you the pajamas was kind of a waste of money," before he kissed her lips, and he pressed his half-hardened member against her bare ass.
She pulled away, biting her lip as she whispered, "You want me again?"
"Always," he answered.
She licked her lips pensively, then raised her leg over Gaara's, so his member rested at her entrance. "I might not go. But please use me," she panted. He rolled his hips, so his dick rubbed against her opening as his hand fell to her breast. He palmed her breast tightly as their hips rolled together. She began to arch her back so her hips were positioned better for him, and their hips rolling did allow him to slip in. "Fuck," he breathed against her ear as he began to pump into her softly, his hand reaching around to pet her bud as he moved in her. This was lazy, sensual sex that he learned last night felt best before they fell asleep. Slowly, the sensations built up again, and he saw her fisting the covers as she grunted. He kissed her shoulder as her back arched more, giving him further access to drive deeper in her.
She panted out a small, tired, "Gaara, oh, ah…" as a small orgasm rippled through her. He only knew because the lights flickered a little bit.
He bit her shoulder softly as he ejaculated softly into her a few moments later. He let out a ghostly groan as his seed sputtered into her again, not nearly as pressurized as earlier, but the sensations were still just as sweet and warm.
He pulled out of her, and she could feel herself dripping with his juices as she ran her hand through his head again, the small shocks in her fingertips turning his sand back on. He clutched her tightly to him, before he waved, directing his sand to flip the switch on the lights, cascading them in the darkness of night. His nose burrowed into her neck behind her ear, and he whispered, "Sleep. Or I'll have to take you again."
She pressed further against him, and whispered back sleepily, "Don't threaten me with a good time."
His hooded gaze looked over her profile one last time, pulling her impossibly close as she pulled the covers up to her neck. He let his senses be drowned in the scent of her hair and sweat from their sex, finding the smell soothing as he drifted off to sleep, his body spent but content with her in his arms.
Ronnie sat quietly on her bed, drawing in her notepad. It was past eleven in the evening, and while she was usually tired at that time, tonight she was restless. She never claimed to be an amazing artist, but she did have some skill. Cordi had frequently gushed about her artistic talent, even as young girls. The first conversation she and Cordi had that let Ronnie feel she could open up to her was about her drawings. Cordi had sat next to her on the bus, crying because everyone else had blocked the seat next them, until Fred, who was sitting with Rox, told Cordi to sit next to Ronnie. That was the birth of their beautiful friendship. At first, Ronnie thought she was an annoying cry-baby. On top of that, Ronnie didn't like being at a new school, and was adamant she wasn't going to make any friends here. But as Cordi's tears calmed to silent sniffles, she gushed about the giraffe Ronnie had been working on. It was the first time someone had told Ronnie she was good at something. Everyone always praised Fred's artwork over hers. So Ronnie decided to show Cordi her other work. By the end of the bus-ride, they were best friends.
Over the years, Ronnie's style and choice of subjects changed. Sometimes it was animals. Sometimes abstracts. Sometimes worlds. Sometimes plants and flowers. She had a whole phase of angels in fifth and sixth grade.
Tonight, she drew something familiar. Home. At least the view of her family's farm from the front porch of house. She'd gotten the barn drawn on the other side of the field, and the pond under the willow tree in the middle. What was unsettling to her was the horizon. She knew there was a mountain rising on the horizon past the tree-line, but she'd begun to forget exactly where it was. Was it directly behind the barn? Further to the right? She couldn't remember. Instead of focusing on it, she'd moved to the cows at the fence. They'd owned Sweet Mama the longest, and her stark white face was easy to draw, but she was also having difficulty remembering how her black spots looked. Domino was a little easier, since she was split in half brown and white with intermingled freckling spots towards her hind quarters.
As she shaded the cows, she heard something hit her window, sounding like a rock as it hit the glass. She frowned, looking at the window when she heard another rock hit it.
"I'm not giving up!" she heard Kiba call outside. She leaned back, knowing better than to go to the window. She shouldn't have slept with him last night. Not until he understood what he did. Why it hurt her. Why she felt so betrayed.
"Just come downstairs. I know we can talk about it," he called up at her.
She felt tears prickling at her eyes, and she hit her head against the wall of her bathroom. Why did she make things difficult for herself?
"I forgive you for using me last night," Kiba called back. "I forgive you for breaking my nose. Also for throwing me out naked and getting me thrown in jail this morning. I also forgive you for tricking Tamaki into giving you half the story."
She heard her sister's window snap open next door, and Fred yell down at him, "Hey, Asshole! Clearly she doesn't want to talk to you!"
"This has nothing to do with you," Kiba snapped at her.
"She's my sister. It has everything to do with me."
Lynne's window snapped open as well as she yelled out, "Me too."
Kiba growled then snapped, "You can let her speak for herself."
"I think she is," Fred stated.
"Tch. Ronnie, I told you I'm in love with you, and I meant it! I still do." Kiba called up to her. "And I know –"
"Don't listen to him, Ronnie," Fred yelled to her sister.
"I KNOW THAT THIS ISN'T THE END BETWEEN US!" Kiba called over her sister. "I love you, and I think a part of you loves me back. And that's why this hurts so much. It's why you let me comfort you last night."
"Fucking and comforting are not the same thing," Fred scoffed. "Just like a lapse in judgement is not love."
Ronnie wanted to sock her sister right now, but she also didn't want to give Kiba the hope that he could just make it better. There was only one way to stop him, stop this. She sighed as she looked over to the light switch.
"You have no idea how we feel about each other!" Kiba snapped. Fred scoffed, as he continued. "You have no idea what Ronnie feels. How alone and isolated she is in your group! You're wrong about her, and you're wrong about us! So, Fuck off!"
"You fuck off!" Fred howled, back.
"Ronnie, please! If a part of you is still in love with me, just come downstairs and talk to me!" Kiba called up.
His only answer was her light going off. He didn't see her leaning against the wall next to her doorframe. Didn't hear her crying as she slid down the wall, and curled in on herself. Didn't hear her silently cursing herself for fucking things up and hurting her heart again. Hurting his heart, too. Because of course a part of her traitorous heart still loved him, wanted to be with him. But she also refused to let him think what he did was ok. That he could pull something like that on her, and it wouldn't change anything. Because it did.
Kiba blinked back tears staring at her dark window, knowing it meant she wasn't going to hear him out. That her answer to his pleas would be deafening silence. His breath hitched as he felt a sharp pain in his heart.
"I think you have your answer," Fred snipped.
He scowled up at her sister's unforgiving gaze, but didn't say anything as he turned to leave. That was it. They were done.
Cries. That's all Kankuro heard was cries. He looked around, recognizing he was in the waiting room of Sunagakure's hospital. Sitting next to him was Gaara and Temari.
"KANKURO!" someone screamed in the distance.
"What is that?" he asked them.
His siblings remained silent, as if they heard nothing.
"KANKURO!" again the voice called.
He walked out towards the screaming, feeling pulled toward the sound. He saw a door at the end of the hallway, and he knew the screams were coming from that room. His pace picked up as the hallway stretched forward, the door always getting farther away, until he was running. Finally he burst through the door, and was finally in the room, out of breath. Matsuri laid sprawled out on a table, her legs splayed out uncomfortably in stirrups as doctors crowded around her. Kankuro rushed to her side, saying, "I'm here."
"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!?" she snapped.
He shook his head quickly, confused. "I was …" He couldn't recall. The last thing he remembered was his mission in Ao Nami, but that was months ago, right? "I was in the hall," he finally answered.
"You missed everything!" Matsuri cried.
"I know. I'm sorry," was all he could think to say. He couldn't even remember the past nine months, but he knew he wasn't by her side for them.
"One more push," the doctor directed. "He's almost out."
"He?" Kankuro asked, a little upset it wasn't a girl.
Matsuri growled over him as she pushed with all her might. Then the room filled with the cries of their baby, loud and cold. The doctors swaddled the baby quickly, and handed it to Kankuro, saying, "Here's your son."
Kankuro looked down, seeing a cute infant, his cheeks like chipmunks storing nuts as he cried. Kankuro tried to shush him softly, and turned to Matsuri. "Do you want to hold him, Mats—" he cut himself off as he stared at the empty table. "M-Matsuri?" He looked around, not seeing her at all, and he called out more panicked, "Matsuri?"
He tried to stop the doctors, but they continued their tasks as if he didn't exist. He ran outside to the hallway, ignoring the babe's wailing as he saw his siblings walking toward him. "Gaara, Temari. What do I do? The baby's crying, and I don't know what to do. Is he hungry?"
Temari rolled her eyes, huffing at him, "You're the baby's father. You act like you haven't been caring for the child for six months."
Kankuro frowned, then said, "The baby was just born."
"The baby was born months ago," Temari corrected him. "Have you even been taking care of him?"
Kankuro didn't remember. He thought it had just happened, but his memory filled in the gaps that it had been months since Matsuri had given birth. But he hadn't cared for the child at all. It was a miracle the baby was still alive. "Yes," he lied, hoping it was convincing. "Yes, I've been taking care of the baby."
Temari scowled, then asked, "Then what's his name?"
To Kankuro's horror, he realized he'd never named his child. He didn't know what to call him.
"You're a terrible father," Gaara finally said. "Worse than our own."
"Stop," Kankuro pleaded.
The baby's cries became louder as he tried to get Temari and Gaara to stay. He looked down at the baby, and saw his face was covered with the blanket. Kankuro pulled it back, whispering, "That's all you need. Blanket off your face."
As soon as the baby's face was revealed, Kankuro was horrified to see his own adult face, but his voice was like an infant, piercing cries. His eyes looked back into his own, and he wasn't sure if he was himself or the infant. "Why Dad?" the infant asked in his own voice. Kankuro dropped the baby from shock, but he also felt like he was falling before jerking awake, cold sweat dripping down the back of his neck. His heart pounded as he panted as if he'd been sprinting across the desert.
It took him a moment to assess where he was and what had happened. He was in Ao Nami, in his hotel room, after the first speaking engagement of the Daimyo heir apparent.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, grumbling to himself, "Just a dream." He took a deep steadying breath to calm his heartrate as he flopped back onto the bed, his head against the pillows. "Just a dream," he mumbled again, trying to dose off. Even though the dream was vivid, feeling almost real, he wasn't one to look into dreams past their surface. It was just a manifestation of his feelings about his predicament. No more. No less.
At least he hoped.
A cold chill shivered down Gaara's spine, waking him from his sleep. His tired eyes looked around the bed blearily until he realized Cordi wasn't there. He sat up, looking for her only to find her naked form standing in front of the window, holding a blanket around her as a make-shift dress. He got up, and she turned to see him, murmuring, "You're awake."
"It's cold without you," he answered, walking up behind her.
He encircled her waist with his arms, needing her warmth against his body again, dipping his head to plant kisses along her neck and shoulder. He whispered against her skin, "Why aren't you sleeping?"
She sighed as she looked up. "Something Lynne said. That Rox was back home in her coma. Just made me realize I miss them. My family back home."
His arms squeezed tighter, pulling her gently into him, as he sucked in a steadying breath at her answer. He didn't say anything, but the idea of her suddenly leaving filled him with dread. She couldn't just leave him after this afternoon.
She looked up to the sky and a smile drifted to her face. "The stars are beautiful."
Gaara twisted his head up. "I never really noticed before."
"You never noticed?"
Gaara made a face, answering, "They've always been just tools used to help travel."
Cordi scoffed. "Back home, we used to check out the night sky whenever we could. We lived just far enough outside of town that we could see the whole night sky. It was gorgeous."
Gaara chewed the inside of his lower lip, feeling a little jealous she had such memories. "And now?"
Cordi let out a sigh. "It's still gorgeous. Even if a little different. I don't see Orion, or the Big and Little Dippers." Gaara frowned. He knew the basics of the star stories, but the ones she stated weren't familiar. He looked at the skies, realizing how different their worlds must be if even the stars didn't align. Finally she added, "It just makes me realize how much I miss my family."
"Sakura just said your sister was making great improvements this afternoon."
"No. My parents. My brother," she amended. He chewed his cheek, realizing his error, looking down. She didn't notice as she continued, "I'm glad I've got my friends, and I'm in this amazing world doing amazing things. But I really miss them."
Cordi began to wonder what they were doing. She realized with everything going on in the world of Naruto, it was easy to forget that there was another life they left behind when they came here. They had been gone for a little over two months now. She knew her parents were probably franticly searching for them. A pit of guilt welled in her stomach at the thought. She wished there was a way to tell them she and Rox were safe, and doing well. Not just she and Rox, but the rest of the squad's families as well. All of their parents, and probably even their brothers, would be beside themselves with grief.
Gaara's silence at her confession made her think maybe he shouldn't be burdened just yet with some of her melancholy thoughts. "Sorry," Cordi replied. "I just realized I had kind of started to forget."
He kissed her forehead, his arms squeezing around her. "Come," he whispered. "To bed." She let him pull her back to bed, snuggling comfortably into each other. Her eyes were still on the stars, until she saw the glittering moonlight reflecting off her finger, and she saw the promise ring her parents had given her. A promise to wait until marriage. At least wait for the right guy who wanted the right things from her and for her. For a man who would seek to love her rather than own her. Even though she'd turned the ring around, guilt gnawed at the back of her mind as she realized she'd truly forgotten the spirit of what they'd taught her, wanted for her.
Wow, you're a bit of a slut, echoed Fred's voice around her psyche.
You don't want to end up like Monica Lewinsky, echoed Lynne's.
I think buying you the pajamas was kind of a waste of money, echoed Gaara's voice.
She knew she was incredibly attracted to Gaara, and he was to her as well, apparently. But she wasn't sure if he understood. Neither of them had been in a relationship like this. Both of them were just figuring this out.
Cordi began to panic that they'd started too fast. They'd had sex before he even agreed to date her. And here she was, naked in his bed because they'd had sex again, two days in a row. As if they couldn't control themselves. If this was the start of their relationship, would he expect sex every day? Yes, she appreciated it now, being so intimate with someone when she'd been so worried about losing another. But what would happen when they returned to Suna, and normal life got in the way? Would he get upset, or lash out at her for rejecting him because she had headache or something? And what would happen if the tea didn't work like he said? She was taking his word on it, although she had read on the tea box "prevents pregnancy," but she didn't know how well or how certain that was. What if she got pregnant, and Gaara didn't want to be with her anymore? Or worse, what if he married her out of duty, and grew to resent her? She couldn't handle that.
Suddenly, she saw her entire life stretched out in front of her. Married to the Kazekage, and happy with all that entailed. Or cast aside and ruined, shunned by everyone she interacted with in the Sand, because she'd just given her virginity away and nothing ever turned out like she'd imagined. Over the years, she'd developed a superstition about her own thoughts. If she imagined it, it wouldn't happen. It never did. So, if she saw her future happy, it was almost a guarantee it wasn't going to happen. She'd already given him everything, because she wanted to say damn the consequences. But the consequences were real. They did exist. She'd made that promise her ring symbolized for a reason.
Her heart pounded with sudden regret, not for the act itself, which was beautiful, but for realizing the investment sex was. Sex like they had, intimate and deep, was the most a woman, at least Cordi, could give to a man. It was the highest risk for her. Because while it was important, sex was never something she wanted as her identifier, good or bad. It was why she'd picked Gaara. She knew he wasn't the type to tell people or use it as a means for status, which lessened the risk, but didn't eliminate it. Sex meant something to her. It meant she was all in. And even though she asked him if he was all in as well, she'd gotten the sense he hadn't quite understood her.
As if sensing her panic, she felt Gaara's arms wrap tightly around her, pulling her into him. "It'll be all right," he whispered. "Roxanne will wake up soon."
She shook her head hard. "That's not it," she stated shakily, dread pitting in her gut as she thought about what she felt she had to say. She felt him shift, trying to look at her, but she couldn't meet his gaze until she got it out. "Just … can we keep this in Konoha?"
His silence was deafening, but he didn't move, didn't remove his arms from her. After a minute, he breathed, "I'm not sure I understand."
She sat up, pushing him away a bit. "It's been a whirlwind, y'know? I mean two days ago, you were dating Matsuri, and I would have never predicted we'd be right here, in each other's arms, or, hell, even having sex."
He looked away, blinking his confusion before mumbling a small, "Ok?" She could tell from his tone he was feeling a little defensive.
"I just," she started, her panic seeping into her tone as she searched for the words. "Going forward, I think we need to think of this weekend in the context of everything that happened."
His eyes narrowed as he looked at the opposite wall. "I'm not following," he stated.
"What I mean is…" she started, then chuckled half-heartedly as she muttered, "What do I mean?"
He looked at her narrowly, as if telling her to pick her words carefully.
"Ah!" she gasped as she figured it out. "There's no pressure here. In Konoha, I mean." He frowned as if he didn't understand her at all. And she understood why. There had been pressure, or stress, but it was focused on Cordi and her family. "We flew out here because I was going face something horrible. Something personally horrible for me. And I'm really grateful you've been here, and didn't let me face it alone. You've been a rock for me to cling to, and it's something I've really needed. You've been perfect."
He looked at her, seeing the sincerity in her eyes, but her tone sounded like she was saying goodbye. He blinked as he tried to understand, but it wasn't making much sense. She'd told him she played romantically for keeps. So, why was she suddenly letting go? Unless she realized she didn't want to be with him. After this evening, he hadn't thought that was possible. His heart stopped at the thought as he breathlessly asked, "Do – Do you … regret having sex with me?"
"NO!" she yelped quickly, and he was relieved he'd misunderstood, although only a little. There was still something wrong, and he was terrified it was something he'd done. "No, I don't regret sleeping with you. Especially not in the context of how it happened."
He sat up, even more confused. "Then I don't understand what the problem is." He looked at her needing an answer. She looked heavenward, as if it would fall out of the sky, and he scowled. "Is there a problem?"
"I don't know," Cordi said with a wince.
"Then why are you talking like there is?" Gaara scoffed bitterly, and she knew she'd hurt him unintentionally.
She tried to grab his hand to comfort him, but he pulled his hand away. "I'm sorry," she sighed. "I'm not sure how to explain what I'm feeling. What I'm worried about. Not in a way that won't initially hurt you, which I don't want to do."
"I'd rather you'd just say what you're feeling," he said stiffly.
"There's pressure," she answered. "There's a lot of pressure."
"You think I pressured you?" Gaara balked, sitting up completely, horrified she'd thought of him like that.
"NO!" she howled over him.
"I didn't push you to have sex with me," he argued. "You said you wanted me to …"
"Please just let me get this out!" she yelled over him, punching the bed with frustration. He pursed his lips, crossing his arms and fixing his gaze to a point on the bed. She took a deep calming breath as she said, "Here in Konoha, there is no pressure. I'm just a girl in need of comfort, and you're just a guy providing it. But in Suna …" She shifted her hands to show that it was different. "In Suna, you're Gaara of the Sand. You're the Kazekage there. Which means if we don't handle whatever this is correctly, in Suna, I'll be …" She teared up a little as she tried to explain what she was terrified of, and she was thankful Gaara didn't interrupt as she found her words. "In Suna, I'll become … Shit, I'll become Monica Lewinsky."
Gaara frowned. "I don't know who that is."
She scoffed, "Remember how I told you our government is headed by a man called the president, who essentially functions as the Kage and Daimyo." He nodded. "Well, fourteen years ago, we had a president named Bill Clinton, and he had an affair with one his interns, essentially secretary, named Monica Lewinsky. The affair became public because he was impeached for suspected criminal activity, and the affair proved he'd lied in court, which is illegal. His reputation recovered. Hers never did. She became a notorious house-hold name across the country, and it destroyed her life."
He was silent for a moment, then he grumbled, "I think I understand."
"You do?" she breathed hopefully.
"Yes. You regret having sex with me," he stated.
"No. I don't regret having sex with you," she argued back. "Weren't you listening? It's just the pressure."
He looked at her tiredly. "You're regretting the pressure my title will cause you. But that title is a part of me. I can't change that. I am the Kazekage. Ergo, you regret having sex with me."
"No, I don't," Cordi huffed. "You're twisting my words. The Monica Lewinsky example is what I'm facing with you as a Kazekage on public scale. But the pressure is still there even if you weren't the Kazekage."
He looked to the ceiling, even more confused now, as he growled, "So, it's me!?"
"NO!" She looked at him wide-eyed, her hands up like she wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake him. Then she rubbed her eyebrow as she huffed, "My god, we're going in circles. Why is it so hard?"
"Then I'll make it easy," Gaara huffed, throwing the covers off as he swung his legs out.
She turned to see him bend over, grabbing some boxers, knowing he was going to sleep in the other bed, which wasn't what she wanted. "Just stop. I don't want you leaving."
His seafoam glare found hers as he exasperatedly asked, "What do you want? Do you even know?"
She glared back at him, and he gulped. He wasn't sure whether to be angry, scared, or turned on under that gaze. "Well, for one, I don't want you patronizing me. Let's start there," she hissed. He crossed his arms, but his gaze didn't waver from hers. She pointed at the bed, and said, "Second, I want you to get back in bed, and stop taking what I'm saying personal, because it's not you that's the problem. And third, I want you to fucking understand that when it comes to sex and how society looks at it, the woman is branded a slut and a whore while the man is applauded. I want you to understand I have a lot more at risk if others see this as something it isn't. That when I decided to sleep with you, it meant that I was trusting you with something that could destroy me. That I broke promises for. That having sex with you meant a lot to me." She was crying from her frustration as she said, "Because I needed you. I needed you so I knew I wasn't alone in this. And I still need you, because it's not over."
Gaara dropped his arms to his side as he listened, feeling some of the pain she was feeling. Some of the confusion and doubt.
"I also want you to understand that these past few days aren't normal for the beginning of relationships. Normal romantic relationships don't hit light speed and end in making love on the first day." She shook her head, moving her jaw as if sucking down something bitter as she added, "Not unless it was actually just sex, meaning it didn't actually mean anything." She closed her eyes tightly, shaking her head as if dismissing that comment as she clarified. "But it did for me."
"It did for me, too," Gaara finally said, his gaze tired as he looked at her. That made Cordi smile, even if sadly. He took a steadying breath, deciding to open up to her a bit, since she'd essentially laid herself bare to him. "When Matsuri … when we called things off, Matsuri insinuated I didn't know how to be intimate. That I couldn't be intimate. And the Council has made it very clear that they think I'm so broken that I wouldn't be able to be with a woman and provide an heir when necessary. That not being able to do that was putting Suna in jeopardy in the long run. And after what Matsuri told me, I … started to believe it." He chewed the inside of his cheek, feeling himself trembling, either from the cold or from nerves from being so open with someone. "And then I kissed you." He shook his head as he added, "So, yes, it meant something. But I don't understand what the location has to do with it."
Her shoulders dropped, then she shrugged as she answered, "It's because we're away from normal life. Worrying about nothing except for something we can only wait on. We're not worrying about what people will say, how we'll be impacted. If this is going somewhere or if it isn't? That doesn't matter here. Being in Konoha is like … being in a fantasy, because it's just us," she stated. "If you have the same expectations for normal life that you do for a fantasy, you're setting yourself up for failure."
She sighed, reaching for his hand as she asked, "Do you understand? I still need you until things here are resolved. But when we return, I need you to not hold me to the same expectations or judge me for needing you while we're here. I also need you to protect me with your discretion, because the world isn't kind about this. In Suna, we need to go slower, if we're going to pursue a relationship."
He nodded, suddenly understanding what she was saying. It wasn't over. They just couldn't keep this up in Suna. Not at the rate they were going. It was too fast, and setting themselves up for, if not failure, then unnecessary difficulties.
He grasped her hand back, chewing the inside of his lip as his thumb rubbed circles over her knuckle. "So, you want to slow down when we get back to Suna?"
"Yes," she stated, sighing with relief that he finally understood. "Ideally, we wouldn't have sex until we knew we wanted to marry each other."
He nodded, sitting next to her, still rubbing his thumb over her knuckle as he repeated, "Ideally." He didn't know why the thought was as hollowing as he felt. It was how he'd originally imagined things going before kissing Cordi. Maybe it was because he finally realized what he'd be missing. But he understood. She was right. If they didn't temper their expectations, they'd only be hurting themselves. Even if the idea of going back to square one with her like they hadn't shared these amazing moments made him dread returning already.
She chuckled as she added, "I mean, barring any emergency or natural disaster."
"Of course," he replied, as if that were only logical. He licked his lips before looking her directly in the eye as he clarified, "But while we're in Konoha …"
"We're still in the fantasy," she answered, trying to hold back her smile.
He leaned closer to her, feeling that pull he'd gotten so used to over the past two days, stating, "Then I better make good use of my time here." He grazed her lips first, and he felt her arms drape around him. He didn't understand the pain he felt when he thought she'd regretted their sex. He didn't understand the anger he felt, or why he'd lashed out. He also didn't understand the relief he felt when he finally did understand what she was saying. Or how happy he was that she was kissing him back as he eased her back, and pinned her to the bed, nestled between her legs. All he knew was he was happy that he had at least another day to experience this bliss. Arguably happier than he'd ever felt, as he penetrated her again, hearing her gasp as he found his home deep in her again and began riding her as he clutched her to him, showering her in kisses until they came together, their voices combining into a chorus of moans, groans, mewling whimpers, and a benediction of their names panted against each other's lips.
August 10th, 2009
10:23 am
"Mr. Bingley was good-looking and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant countenance, and easy, unaffected manners. His sisters were fine women, with an air of decided fashion. His brother-in-law, Mr. Hurst, merely looked the gentleman; but his friend Mr. Darcy drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien, and the report which was the general circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year." Cordi read aloud to her sister. She paused as she saw Gaara walk into the hospital room with their teas. "Thank you," she mouthed as he handed hers to her before sitting down on the bench next to Shikamaru as she continued to read, "The gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the ladies declared he was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley, and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud; to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having the most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend."
"Sounds a bit like you," Shikamaru joked quietly to Gaara as he sipped on his tea from earlier. Cordi had been reading all morning, and when her voice had started to sound raspy, Gaara had offered to get them teas while Shikamaru still nursed his.
Gaara frowned mildly at the shadow ninja, and asked affably, "Is this the Bingley guy?"
"Darcy," Cordi answered. "The main romance of the story."
Shikamaru scoffed, "Disagreeable countenance being unworthy to be compared to his friend? How is that any way to describe the romantic lead?"
She looked at him slightly annoyed as she stated, "It's realistic way to describe him. Throughout the book, he's described as being horribly unsociable and unfriendly. It's why Elizabeth doesn't like him at first. But his actions and the lengths he goes to for those he cares about speaks volumes. And that's why Elizabeth falls for him."
"She doesn't fall for Bingley?" Gaara asked, a little confused.
"Bingley is much too mild mannered for Elizabeth," Cordi clarified. "He ends up with Jane, who suits him perfectly." Gaara shared a look with Shikamaru, both clearly confused by her explanation. Cordelia huffed, and said, "Bingley is a soft-spoken man who needs to be led. Jane matches his temperament, and in a few pages when they are introduced, you would see why. The main character, however, is Elizabeth, who is strong-willed, independent, and incredibly smart. Darcy, while reserved, is not nearly as soft-spoken as Bingley. He wants a woman who can handle herself, like Elizabeth. And Elizabeth falls in love with him because his actions prove he is incredibly honorable and willing to sacrifice himself for those he cares about. He does so first for his sister, then Bingley, and then Elizabeth's family." She looked at the book with great care as she finished, "While he's not generally sociable, he loves deeply."
She blushed as she realized what she was saying to whom, and added, "Which is the whole point of the book."
Shikamaru made a bored face as he asked, "And this is yours and Rox's favorite book from your world?"
"It was the book our Mom used to read us when we were sick," Cordi clarified, setting the book in her lap. "And we used to watch the miniseries every summer." She sighed, adding, "Lynne said she's dreaming of being home, and this was our favorite thing with our Mom before we flew over the rainbow."
"Flew over the rainbow?" Shikamaru asked. Gaara shook his head mildly, as if stating such odd turns of phrase were the norm with Cordelia.
"There was a very famous movie from our world where a girl from a world, completely in black and white, gets sucked up into a tornado, and she lands into an alternate world full of color," Cordi explained, looking at her sister rather than at the two men whom she was talking to. "It's prefaced by the song, 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow,' which describes the world of her dreams where she lands. It's a song everyone in our world knows." She expression grew bittersweet as she looked at her sister, adding, "Mom used to sing us that if we weren't feeling well either."
There was only silence in the room before Gaara said, "Sing it."
She looked at him with wide eyes, then looked at Shikamaru, clearly wondering if he minded. Shikamaru shrugged, gesturing for her to do it.
She cleared her throat, sitting up then sang, "Somewhere over the rainbow/ Way up high/ And the dreams that you dream of/ Once in a lullaby, oh/ Somewhere over the rainbow/ Bluebirds fly/ And the dreams that you dream of/ Dreams really do come true-ooh-ooh/ Someday I'll wish upon a star/ Wake up where the clouds are far behind me/ Where trouble melts like lemon drops/ High above the chimney tops that's where/ You'll find me, oh –"
Suddenly, another voice, raspy and weak joined her as she sang.
"Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly"
Cordi's head whipped around, and saw her sister finally awake. Cordi's shock was momentary, but her relief was immediate. She collapsed on Roxanne, hugging her by her shoulders tightly as she sobbed, crying tears of unfiltered joy.
AN: Again, Happy Holidays. Please remember to like/favorite and leave a review. Still healing from surgery, but I'm glad I was able to write these chapters to the fullest of the moments within them. It sets up a lot, and has helped me fix most of the plot points I was unsure of in the coming chapters. We'll be back on track in the next 2-3 chapters. Again, a lot of plot stuff with the relationships happened here, that had to be built up. I've especially liked writing Shikamaru and Gaara's interactions. Gaara needs a brother right now to deal with all he's feeling, and in the Hiden, he felt that connection with Shikamaru, and I hadn't really gotten to explore it until now.
Also I feel these chapters are kind of the real start to Kiba and Ronnie's relationship. Just because before them, they were just the annoying lovey-dovey couple that does the whole "No you hang up" BS that really just makes you want to throw those people into a giant fire. There was no nitty gritty, really. Ronnie didn't go deep, but now she is. Sorry, but Fred and Lynne's relationships don't pick up until way later.
And next chapter is all Rox. It'll be a long look at her coma dreams, which were influenced by all the scenes in her hospital room.
Can't say it enough, but again, please remember to review and keep sending positive thoughts. I'm still healing, but the doctors were clear they do not want me over-resting and building up scar-tissue. While I'm being more careful about straining my wrist, your words really help me get back into the habit of writing, which in the long-run will help me continue healing/ prevent further pain.
