They're in a tiny shop full of porcelain trinkets when it all starts to go awry.

Gaara is walking to the next table over - looking at some teacups - when Sasuke suddenly feels a bit...off, and doesn't know why. They've been out all day, and he's felt fine - if a bit tired - but for some reason the incense and closed space switches something in his brain that he doesn't see coming until it hits.

Why? He was fine a few minutes ago-

Sasuke feels his stomach drop and his heart start to hammer, stumbling and feeling his back connect with the small table behind him. His hand clumsily reaches back to support him, and he only distantly hears the commotion he's causing, but everything is suddenly very far away and yet too close all at once. His lungs seem to stop working and his brain fills with static.

The attack is so sudden that it knocks the wind out of him, and he can't breathe.

His panicked daze lights up in sharp pain as he feels his hand lands on a piece of broken glass on the table he's stumbled into. Sasuke grits his teeth as it slices into his palm, glass embedding deep into the skin of his hand.

"Sasuke?"

Gaara's voice cuts through, and Sasuke struggles to breathe while keeping it together as much as he can and locating where the omega is all at the same time.

"Sasuke." Gaara says again, and Sasuke opens his eyes a crack, starting to shake. Gaara is in front of him, green eyes on his own and looking at him in obvious concern. Sasuke at least has his wits about him enough to realize that the omega has covered them both with his shield, blocking everyone else in the shop from seeing Sasuke's breakdown.

"I think you're having a panic attack." The omega says gently, "Can you hear me? Sasuke?"

"I-I…" Sasuke gasps, unable to take in any air.

How weak was he? That he couldn't handle this?

He realizes his face is in the crook of Gaara's neck a bit too late, and when he finally notices what he's doing he flinches and tries to step away, face burning.

What was wrong with him? Omega's scent glands were both sensitive and private. What the hell possessed him to just step forward and place his nose where the redhead's scent was strongest? What was wrong with him? What the hell is happening?

Why can't Sasuke think?

And the sounds of the shop are immediately too loud, and everything is too bright, and Sasuke feels like his brain is imploding on itself. A strange mix of embarrassment and panic settles inside him, and he suddenly feels so ashamed that he tries to stumble back and turn away, but two hands take his shoulders and stop him, gently turning him back to face the Kazekage, who looks up at him with concerned eyes. His scent is strong and sweet in that familiar way that Sasuke knows is meant to soothe him. It does.

"S-sorry, I-"

"It's okay." Gaara says gently, looking a bit flushed himself, "Did that make you feel any better? Are you alright?"

"I...can't b-breathe." Sasuke gasps, bloodied hand clawing at his chest as his panic begins to mount. The pain only adds to his building hysteria, and he can't get any oxygen no matter how he tries. He can't tamper down the panic because suddenly he can't breathe or speak and he's scrabbling for his sword but he can't find it because it's not there and-

"Can I touch you?" Gaara asks, and Sasuke gasps for air but nods, shaking.

He feels like he's pulling apart, limb from limb. Sasuke's lungs start to burn.

Gaara carefully takes his hand, placing it on his own chest.

He wants to say that Gaara doesn't have to do this. That if he left and never wanted to speak to Sasuke ever again after this he'd understand. That he doesn't have to be here, holding Sasuke together and getting Sasuke's blood on his coat.

He can't. Not just because speaking is difficult right now, but because he doesn't want Gaara to leave. He doesn't want Gaara to run from him. He wanted Gaara close.

"Feel that?" Gaara asks, inhaling and exhaling, so Sasuke can feel the movement of his chest as he does so, "Follow my breathing, alright?"

Gaara

When he feels Gaara's thin chest expand he does his best to breathe in, and when he exhales Sasuke does also.

"You're doing great. Just keep following me." Gaara says, and Sasuke clings to his voice in the quiet, dim sand cacoon the omega has encased them both in. It blocks out the sounds of the shop, and blocks people's stares.

Sasuke feels his head getting light, and he stumbles forward and into the omega, feeling Gaara's arms come around him.

He melts, exhausted.

Sasuke realizes he hasn't been hugged in so long.

Something in Sasuke is raw and needy for this affection that Gaara so readily shows him. He doesn't know where it came from, but maybe that part of him has been there all along, he just needed someone to see it. Gaara hugs him and tells him he's okay, that he's safe - his voice soft in Sasuke's ear - and the Uchiha's heart does that thing he can't describe once more.

What was this feeling called?

When he catches his breathe a bit more Gaara pulls away to look up at his face, searching. Sasuke sees the smear of blood on Gaara's coat, guilt bubbling in his chest.

He's ruined Gaara's coat.

Gaara shakes his head, "Don't worry about that, Sasuke. Breathe." Gaara says softly.

He didn't even realize he said that out loud, that's how shaken Sasuke is right now. He doesn't know what happened, but something about the noise and the small space set something off inside him.

"Let's go outside." Gaara says, taking down the shield. The shopkeeper looks at them curiously, and so do a few of the customers in the small section they're in. Sasuke freezes.

"Don't look at them." Gaara says, "Just keep looking at me, okay?"

Sasuke nods, shaking. Yeah. He can do that.

"Let's get you out of here." Gaara says gently, taking Sasuke's shaking hand again, quickly leading him out of the shop and onto a vacant street.

"You'll get better air out here." Gaara says.

"Thanks." Sasuke croaks, still trembling. He realizes he's holding Gaara's hand incredibly tight despite the pain - getting blood on the omega's palm - but he can't let go. Letting go of the redhead feels like drowning and Gaara just got Sasuke's head above water. He can finally breathe again, but he still feels like his skin is coming apart, like he can barely keep his brain present and focused on anything other than the omega in front of him.

Gaara guides him to a bench and Sasuke sits down heavily, immediately putting his head between his knees, fighting a sudden bout of nausea. Once it passes and he gets some air, all he feels is frustration with himself. What the hell was that? What set him off? Sasuke bites the inside of his mouth, fuming.

"Perfect." Sasuke murmurs bitterly, sitting up and looking at his bleeding hand in Gaara's, "I'll be the resident crazy guy here too."

Fuck. What the fuck is wrong with him? The one place people don't look at him funny and he has a mental breakdown in a china shop of all things. In front of who knows how many people.

And usually Sasuke wouldn't care , but he wasn't looked at differently here, and he needed that. And he seems to already be on track to fucking it up because for some reason his brain couldn't handle normal things like shopping.

Pathetic.

"Actually, I'm the resident crazy guy in this village. Have been for years." Gaara says, "So you'll need to pick a different title, sorry to say."

Sasuke looks at him, surprised by his reaction. Gaara doesn't look at him with pity, but with veiled amusement. The omega turns his hand over, examining the wound currently still dripping blood onto Sasuke's pants. His hands feel cool and soft on Sasuke's own, and that calms him a little more.

"I've had breakdowns all over this village." Gaara says, "So, if anyone gets to be the village crazy person, it's me. I've earned it, and put in a lot of work."

And for some reason, Gaara's words make him laugh. It's small, and breathless since he's still regaining control over his lungs, but it helps. The tension leaks from his shoulders and he nods.

"That's fair, I guess."

Gaara gives him that smile and takes a handkerchief out of his coat pocket, gently wrapping it around Sasuke's bleeding hand. The Uchiha's breath catches a bit at the action as he watches Gaara's careful fingers pick out the glass he can reach and then wrap the cloth around the wound.

"Oh. Y-you don't have to - I'll just get blood all over your -" Sasuke starts, feeling his face heat up.

Gaara shakes his head, "It's fine. There's still glass in it, and I think you'll need stitches, actually."

"I can do it." Sasuke says, face going blazing hot, "You don't have to bother. I don't want to make you feel like you have to - "

Gaara blinks at him, "You shouldn't be stitching yourself up. Come on, let's get you to the mansion."

He takes Sasuke's hand and leads him down the street and towards the mansion, and Sasuke is grateful that he doesn't have to deal with this alone. As mortifying as it was to have a breakdown over something so stupid in front of Gaara, he still always preferred having the omega there than not.

Gaara slows down for him, since Sasuke is still a bit dizzy and lightheaded from his episode earlier, but before too long he's pushing open the door to his office and leading Sasuke inside. Sasuke realizes that Gaara held his hand the entire way there.

Gaara settles him on the small couch in his office, before he gets to work picking the small pieces of glass out of his hands with a some tweezers and cleaning the wound. Sasuke bites the inside of his mouth as the solution burns, and Gaara starts to wipe it down.

"I'm sorry. I know it stings." He says, giving him an apologetic look.

Sasuke shakes his head, "It's okay. Don't be sorry."

Gaara focuses on stitching his hand, and Sasuke takes full advantage of the fact that he can stare at him without him noticing. Some of Gaara's hairs are lighter than the rest. Still red, but less deep. Some were even darker. Sasuke's never noticed it before.

The door opens, though neither of them notice. Gaara's too busy making a neat row of stitches on Sasuke's palm, and Sasuke is too busy watching Gaara's face as he concentrates. How his non-existent brows furrow in concentration and his lips purse just a bit. How his green eyes are sharp with focus.

"Oh. Am I... interrupting something?" A voice asks. Sasuke tears his eyes from Gaara for the first time in half an hour and is faced with the sight of Temari standing by the door, looking at them with an eyebrow raised.

That's how Sasuke learns that both of Gaara's siblings have the same suspicious expression.

Gaara startles and looks up at her, cheeks pink, "Temari. I...I didn't know you'd be here so soon."

"Yeah…" she says, looking between them, eyes settling on their still connected hands, where Gaara has paused wrapping up Sasuke's injury.

"So what's...this." she says, gesturing between the two of them. It's not a question, more like a demand, if anything.

Gaara's face flushes deeper and he slowly continues wrapping Sasuke's hand.

"Just some stitches." Gaara mumbles, not looking his sister in the eye.

Blond eyebrows raise and Temari looks at Sasuke, then her little brother.

"Right…"

Sasuke briefly entertains the thought of saying something, but he's sure nothing helpful would come out. Besides, his face is so red he feels like his brain might be frying. That, and he's exhausted from having a panic attack not even an hour ago.

He isn't sure why. He was just getting stitches. Sure, they were sitting very close - pressed to each other's side - and he was staring pretty hard at her brother when she showed up but...that was…

It was just...

Something passes in Temari's eyes, and then she smiles.

"You should stay for dinner." She says, "I should get to know the guy who's taking over my liason position, don't you think?"

Gaara looks panicked, and Sasuke feels like the invite has nothing to do with Sasuke taking over her post and duties, but staying means staying with Gaara, so he finds he doesn't really care.

"You don't have to if you don't want to." Gaara rushes to say, face red, "I'm sure you're busy-"

"It's fine."

"See? It'll be great! We ordered takeout." She says, clapping her hands together and grinning.

Gaara looks at his sister suspiciously. She just smiles at him and takes his hand, leading him out the room as Sasuke follows.

"So, Sasuke." She asks, turning to look at him, "How is Suna treating you so far? What happened to your hand anyway?"

"It's good. Different." He says, before looking down at his bandage, "And I had an...accident with some glass."

"Well, it looks like Gaara took good care of you." She says, eyeing her brother smugly. Gaara just looks ahead, very pointedly not giving her the satisfaction of a reaction.

"Yeah." Sasuke agrees. Temari seems to take note of that, though Sasuke isn't sure why.

Kankuro and Shinki are making the table when they arrive - the little boy helping his uncle set the plates and serve the food - and the child hugs Sasuke's leg in greeting.

That makes him smile, just a little bit, "Hey, Shinki."

"Hello Sasuke."

Kankuro gives him a wave that Sasuke returns, hand stinging a bit. Thankfully the pain has dulled significantly.

"Staying for dinner, Sasuke?" Kankuro asks, handing him a plate.

"Yep." Temari says, shooing Sasuke into a seat across from Gaara's.

Gaara helps Shinki onto his chair, situating him and giving him his bowl.

"Can I have juice?" He asks.

"You've had a lot of sugar today, Shinki. You can have some with breakfast in the morning, okay? Here's your water."

The little boy nods and takes the cup his father hands him. Gaara carefully helps Shinki drink his water without upending the entire thing onto himself.

"You're such a mother hen." Temari teases.

Gaara narrows his eyes at her, "So you keep telling me."

Kankuro chuckles.

Sasuke catches Gaara's eye as he gives his sister another fondly exasperated sigh, and their eyes lock, just staring like they've forgotten anyone else is there.

The table goes quiet as they eat but neither of them notice, eyes on other other until Kankuro clears his throat. The moment breaks and they both startle, looking away and flushing, continuing to eat their food.

"God, you two. How often do you two just stare at each other like that?" Kankuro says, raising an eyebrow.

"They do that a lot." Shinki says innocently, kicking his feet, happy to be in the conversation.

Sasuke almost chokes on his water, and Gaara freezes, his sand pressing against the wall like it also wants to escape the room.

" Do they?" Temari says, looking at the both of them before smiling at Shinki.

"Yes. Their faces get really red, too. Sasuke was in father's bed once and then father started smelling really good and their faces got even redder. It was funny." Shinki says, innocent to the catastrophe he's causing.

Temari's eyebrows raise again, and she blinks at Sasuke, then Gaara, who both opt to look at anything other than everyone at the table.

"Is that so?"

Sasuke's face goes blazing hot almost immediately, and he sees Gaara go red too - green eyes darting everywhere and pointedly not looking at any of them.

Shinki opens his mouth to say something else, but this time Gaara is faster.

"Okay. Time for your bath." Gaara decides, getting up quickly and picking up Shinki, leaving the room. Kankuro takes the child's empty bowl to the sink, smirking at his brother's quick escape.

"Goodnight, Auntie Temari." Shinki waves happily from over Gaara's shoulder, "Uncle Kankuro. Bye Sasuke."

"Goodnight Shinki!" Temari calls, waving back at her nephew as her little brother escapes the room. Sasuke waves, face still burning as he watches them leave.

"See ya buddy!" Kankuro calls.

Sasuke has no idea what to do. He just fiddles with his water and chopsticks, trying not to look at anything - or anyone - in particular. He sort of wants to sink into the floor, but he'll settle for jumping out of a window or just setting himself ablaze with his amaterasu. He's not picky.

"So." Temari starts, "Kankuro has told me that you're here a lot. What made you wanna take over my old position? Seems like an interesting choice for you."

Sasuke isn't sure what to say, but he's sure that 'I have an inexplicably strong urge to stay close to your little brother' probably wouldn't go over well.

"Something...new...I guess." He manages. It isn't a lie.

"Mmhmmm." She says, smirking, "Shinki's a chatty little thing, huh?"

Sasuke coughs, face going hotter, "Y-yeah. I guess."

"Remember when he first brought Shinki home?" Kankuro asks, rising from the table and gathering the glasses to put in the sink, "That kid is the cuddliest little dude now."

Temari rises to help him, and Sasuke decides to do the same. He still remembers the manners his mother taught him, after all.

"Yeah, he wasn't always though. Before Gaara adopted him he hardly seemed to know what human contact was. " She says.

Sasuke frowns, embarrassment temporarily forgotten and giving way to curiosity. He gathers the chopsticks and places them in the sink. Kankuro nods at him, grateful for the help.

Kankuro frowns, "Yeah. He was with some fucking scuzzbag who wasn't taking care of him, before. Asshole barely responded when the baby cried, so Shinki just...stopped reacting altogether since he was left alone for so long. It was so weird. Super sad, too."

Sasuke looks at them both, surprised. Who would do that to a baby?

"Gaara was furious. Arrested the asshole and adopted Shinki immediately." Temari adds, taking a stack of plates from Sasuke and handing them to her brother to put in the sink, "First time I met the kid he barely even responded to voices, like he didn't know what to do with attention since he was hardly ever held after he was born. But Gaara came along and...well, he was always holding him and hardly ever put him down, especially those first few months. He got reaclimatized to contact again pretty quickly. Started crying again too, because he knew Gaara would come running to feed him or change him or give him whatever he needed. It was a complete 180. And now look at him. You can't separate him from Gaara without the little guy throwing a tantrum."

"I'm sure he helped Gaara, too." Sasuke murmurs, almost to himself - deep in thought and remembering what Gaara said that night, about Shinki being the child he chose, the one that was truly his through and through, "Especially after what that Lord and the council did to him. Losing that first baby and all."

After going through that, Sasuke didn't think it was too off the mark to assume that Gaara benefited greatly from taking Shinki in, especially after losing a baby not too long ago.

He doesn't notice that both Temari and Kankuro have gone silent - absorbed in his own thoughts about what he's been told - until she speaks again, sounding shocked. Kankuro is just staring at him with a look of disbelief.

"He...he told you about that?" She breathes, eyes wide, " Gaara?"

Kankuro's brows furrow, "All of it?"

Sasuke blinks at them, nodding, "...He did."

They look so surprised that he thinks he may have said something wrong, until he remembers that Gaara said he hasn't even told Temari or Kankuro the entire story. Their reaction suddenly makes sense.

"I...wow." she says, "Gaara doesn't tell anyone anything. Especially not things like..."

Sasuke doesn't know what to say to that.

She shakes herself out of it, gathering herself, "Sorry, it's just…"

"I get it." Sasuke says, running his hand through his hair, looking away, "He's a private person."

"Yeah." She says, still looking a bit surprised, then she opens and closes her mouth, like she has more to say but can't quite get the words out yet.

"I...never wanted him to feel like he had to do something like that for me." Temari says, looking so raw and sad for a moment, "I never wanted him to feel like he had to do anything that hurt himself so badly to make me happy. He has a lot of guilt about his past, and he's a bit too selfless. It can be a...not great combination, sometimes. He always feels like he has to make it up to everyone for how he was...before, even at the cost of himself." She says, "I worry for him. Always will."

"He knows." Sasuke says, "He just didn't want to worry you."

Temari looks at her hands, "Yeah. I know."

The moment breaks when Gaara returns, smelling like Shinki's bubble bath and toothpaste.

"Are you two interrogating him?" Gaara asks, eyes narrowed at his siblings.

Kankuro snorts, "You're just in time. We were just gonna start taking blood samples from him."

Sasuke snorts.

Gaara glares at his brother.

"I'm sorry for any strange behavior these two have exhibited." Gaara says, elbowing Kankuro in the ribs. The puppeteer looks indignant.

"Look, we weren't being rude to your boyfr-"

Gaara elbows him harder. Temari snickers and Gaara shoots her a weak glare.

"You two are always harassing my friends." Gaara says, sounding a lot less like a Kazekage and a lot more like an annoyed little brother.

It's actually pretty funny, watching the three of them. Sasuke doesn't talk much, but watching them interact is highly entertaining. Apart they're all upstanding shinobi, but together they're a bunch of children.

But eventually it's dark and Sasuke remembers he has a cat to feed, so Gaara walks him to the door and gives him an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry if they said anything that made you uncomfortable-" Gaara starts.

Sasuke shakes his head, managing a small smile, "They didn't, it's alright. It was...it was nice."

Gaara looks surprised for a moment, before nodding in relief.

"Okay. I'm - that's good."

"I'm sorry about earlier." Sasuke says, looking away as embarrassment settles back in, "I don't know what happened, or what set me off in that shop, I just-"

"You don't have anything to apologize for." Gaara says, "Really."

"I got blood all over you-"

"It's nothing, Sasuke." Gaara assures him, "Don't worry about it."

Sasuke takes a breath and nods, looking at his bandaged hand.

" How does it feel?" Gaara asks, and it takes him a moment to realize the omega means his stitches.

"Oh, it's...it's better. Thanks for stitching me up."

"You don't have to thank me." Gaara says, "Really, it's okay."

"Still." Sasuke says, "You calmed me down back there. It helped. Thanks."

"Then you're welcome."


Kankuro glances at Temari from where they watch through the crack of the front door, listening to their brother and the Uchiha talk. Temari nudges him out of the way to get a better look, and he grumbles before she puts her finger over her lips, glaring.

'Shut up!' she mouths, 'You'll get us caught!'

'Move your chunky ass over then!' Kankuro mouths back, nudging her away from the door to look, 'I wanna see.'

They nudge at each other for a bit - glaring and silently bickering - until they can both peer through. They stay there for a few minutes, just watching and listening until they can slip away unnoticed. It's when they tiptoe back to the kitchen that Temari finally sighs and looks at her brother, brows furrowing in thought.

"I think this is heading somewhere more than this friendship they're claiming it is." Temari says, peering at the front door to make sure Gaara was still outside with Sasuke and not hearing their conversation.

"Duh. That's what I thought too, that's why I wrote you and told you about it, but...isn't he married?" Kankuro asks, "Isn't that what Shikamaru said?"

"I've been thinking about that. And honestly, I really don't think so. Or rather. Not really." Temari murmurs, thinking.

"The hell does that mean?"

"I mean, have you ever heard Sasuke talk about Sakura Haruno at all? He's never with her, and whenever I see her she's alone. Maybe with Ino Yamanaka, but never with Sasuke. It's like he avoids her, or something."

"Who the hell is Ino?" Kankuro asks, raising an eyebrow.

"The blond girl? Whatever-" Temari says, rolling her eyes, "The point is, maybe they're married on paper but I don't think they're... together , you know? They're too distant, and Sasuke doesn't seem interested in seeing her. Ever. He doesn't even go back to the Leaf unless he has to. And even then, Shikamaru says he only gives mission reports to Naruto. He never stops to see her. It's like he doesn't want to be around her, or something. And all of a sudden he's spending all this time with Gaara? Suddenly signing up to change villages, presumably to stay close to him? I mean, even Shinki talks about Sasuke."

"I...yeah, actually. That makes sense. And when we were kids he seemed annoyed by Haruno, more than anything." Kankuro says, thinking, "And Gaara actually talks to him. I mean, he told Sasuke about the miscarriage. He didn't even want to tell us about that. Do...do you remember when we found him? In the bathroom that day? He was all bloody and sick and it nearly gave us a heart attack."

"Yeah. He was fucking miscarrying as we busted the door down, and even then it took almost two hours to coax the story out of him."

She frowns, remembering finding their little brother pale and shaking on the bathroom floor, bleeding and trying to clean the blood with a towel and insisting he was fine. That he didn't need help, and that they shouldn't worry themselves with him. Temari's heart almost gave out. There was so much blood, and Gaara looked so weak, sick and depressed. His eyes were red, like he'd been crying.

She doesn't like remembering it. She knows Kankuro doesn't either. They'd had no idea about anything that Gaara was dealing with at the time.

He'd been quiet lately, and seemed a bit tired and there were times when he'd suddenly look so sad, but he simply insisted he was fine and changed the subject, no matter how much they pried and begged him to confide in them. And then when they found him in the bathroom and learned that he'd been forced, assaulted and was now losing a baby he was never meant to have, she'd been furious. Kankuro had blown up, too.

She and Kankuro took care of the Lord who hurt their little brother, in the end. To this day they still hadn't found him. Or the body. They'd handled it quick and clean, leaving no evidence or leads, though she guessed that the council suspected they were involved in the pervert's so-called 'mysterious disappearance'.

It was a pact that Temari and Kankuro made that night, when they finally got the truth out of Gaara. He'd been asleep between them - tear tracks on his cheeks and his stomach hollow and aching - as Temari pet his hair and Kankuro paced like an angry lion, wanting to rip apart everyone responsible.

"I don't know the extent of how close they are, but...Sasuke even talks to Gaara differently than he talks to anyone else. Have you noticed? It's...softer." Temari says, pushing the memory to the back of her mind.

Kankuro wrinkles his nose, "Gross."

"Don't be immature." She says, "You and Kiba are just as mushy."

"Fine, fine." He sighs, "Yeah, I...I noticed that too."

"So, now what?"

"I don't know. I mean, something is obviously going on between them, plus...Sasuke's an alpha so…" Kankuro bites his lip, reaching for the sake on the counter, "I mean, I talked to Sasuke a little bit about it, but that was a while ago. I don't think he really realizes what's happening between them either."

"And Gaara definitely doesn't." Temari says, "I guess we'll just have to watch and see where this goes."

Kankuro pours them both a drink, "Fuck, I guess. What if this goes bad?"

"Then we step in. But until then, if they don't realize anything yet then what can we do?"

"Yeah, you're right."

Gaara steps back into the kitchen then, glancing at his siblings.

"Are you two drinking all of my sake again?" He asks, removing his coat and placing it on the back of a chair, oblivious to the fact that they were talking about him just a moment before.

"Might as well." Temari grins, moving to ruffle his hair before he can duck away, "It's not like you drink it."

Gaara huffs and pats his hair down, "I should check on Shinki."

"Go on, mother hen."

He sighs at his sister's teasing, making his way down the hallway. Kankuro moves to pour himself another glass, and Temari pinches his arm.

"Ow! What the hell?!"

" That's for calling me chunky earlier."

"I was joking!"