-Matsuri's POV-

Ino informed me that while it was fine to wear a shirt over the stitches in my side, they'd likely heal better if I didn't. Naturally, I was wearing a shirt when I finally entered the bedroom.

"Hey! How'd it go? All patched up?" I nodded at Kankuro, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, and stepped closer before leaning my head to the side so he could see the stitches there.

He got to his feet and leaned in a bit to get a closer look, making my face warm awkwardly, "Damn! I didn't realize it was such a long graze. That's like three inches." I nodded, taking a step back when he finally sat back down.

"I bet you have a hell of a bruise from the taser, huh?"

My teeth grit. He wasn't wrong in the slightest. A deep purple, almost black, bruise had spread across my lower stomach, the center of it being the point of impact from the weapon. The injury happened hours ago, but the shaky feeling from being zapped for such a long period of time had still yet to completely fade.

Tears rose to my eyes, but I blinked them back, "Yeah, it's really dark."

The older Subaku brother gave me such a flirty grin that I couldn't tell if it was serious or not, "Let me see it." That man knew I didn't have anything under the giant shirt I was using as a nightgown other than my underwear because he and Gaara both saw them the first morning after we slept in the same bed.

I shot him a glare as I crawled past where he was sitting to get to my spot in the middle. He snickered and pulled the blanket back to let me get under the blankets before clicking off the light and joining me and his silent little brother.

"All jokes aside, you were a complete badass today, Matsu."

I turned my head in his direction and almost jumped in surprise when I realized he was facing me and laying a bit closer than usual. Making myself mask my discomfort in an effort to not make the situation awkward, I shook my head with a frown, "I don't consider what happened today a good thing at all."

"Why not? We were able to capture that kid! We're gonna ask Sakura to try and remove that thing on his neck so we can figure out what it is."

My chin quivered and I turned my head back to center so I could stare at the ceiling, "That girl," my voice wavered and I struggled to keep my composure, "She was just a little kid."

It was silent in the room for a few moments before Kankuro spoke again, this time in a much softer voice, "I know nothing I say will make you feel better about her, but I'm really happy we got there in time to save you." I turned my head to look him in the eye again and his face was completely serious. He wasn't teasing me like usual.

"T-Thank you," I stuttered out before turning my back to him in an attempt to politely refuse to acknowledge the odd shift in his behavior.

Gaara stared at me in silence, his mouth in a firm line. My heartbeat quickened as I was reminded of my earlier self-realization. After glancing past my face, likely to see if his brother's eyes were open, he hesitantly reached in between us to pull my hand into his before closing his eyes and appearing to focus on sleep. In his own way, I think he was trying to comfort me. I let myself fall asleep with his hand keeping mine warm.

Only a couple hours later did I wake up feeling extreme discomfort around my side. A groan rumbled my chest before I even realized I was awake and I repositioned my body slightly to try and ease the ache. It didn't help. I tried to move again, only for a sharp pain to shoot through my side and a startled cry to tear from my lips as I shot up to a sitting position on the bed.

Both Subaku brothers woke up and I apologized multiple times as I struggled out of bed so I could go to the bathroom and make sure I hadn't torn my stitches out. The wound was throbbing. Once there, I lit a couple candles to prevent unnecessary use of electricity before carefully pulling my shirt off over my head.

Not only was the skin on my lower abdomen still almost black, but a dark bruise had formed around both of my bullet wounds as well. I angled my body to the side and gingerly tried to inspect the stitches on the injury there, but couldn't get close enough to the sink's mirror to see clearly.

It didn't seem to be bleeding, but that didn't mean that something wasn't wrong. I sucked in a breath when I tried to rise onto my tip-toes to get closer to my reflection, only for it to sting. Frustrated tears welled up as I gave up on that tactic and tried to bend my body in an odd way to look at it, only to fail that way, too.

In an attempt to not lose my temper or start crying, I sat on the floor and brought my knees to my chest so I could wrap my arms around and rest my forehead against them. My ribcage throbbed steadily with pain as I sat there taking deep breaths.

It was still uncomfortable, but it wasn't as bad as it was when my shirt had been covering it. I've never gotten stitches before, and definitely not with sewing thread, so I wasn't sure if this was a normal occurrence. There weren't any pain medicines in the house and even if there was I'd refuse to take them because they'd need to be saved for injuries much more serious than mine.

Before I knew it, I'd fallen asleep. When I came to, I felt something warm against my side. My eyes crept open and I sat up straight in shock, only to wince when the motion tugged at my injuries. My brow furrowed and I grit my teeth, looking over through one winced eye to see I'd been resting my head against Gaara's shoulder as he sat on the floor beside me. The boy was staring at me in silence.

A small sound of surprise came from my lips and I fumbled for my abandoned shirt to put it on since I was sitting there in my bra and underwear, "Gaara!"

He stood up so I wasn't looking down at him and watched as I winced when the shirt brushed against my side. I let out a frustrated groan before giving up some of my dignity, "Can you look at it and make sure I didn't tear anything?"

He wordlessly knelt down on one knee and pulled me forward by my hands to stand directly in front of him at the same time. I gingerly lifted the shirt, face ablaze, so he could see. He hesitantly lay a hand on my back and guided my body to turn so he could get a better visual of it. I squeezed my eyes shut and let my head fall back in mortification.

Warm fingers gently inspected the skin there and the pressure honestly helped soothe the pain a bit, making my head snap back down so I could see what he was doing. A relieved sigh left my lips before I could stop it and he glanced up at me as though he'd done something wrong. I shook my head to silently reassure him and he took just a few more moments to check over the stitches before pulling back and rising to his feet. I let the shirt drop to cover me.

"It looks fine."

I nodded, feeling bashful since he'd seen so much of my bare skin. It was different from last time, where I was under the blankets in a completely dark room. The candles were still burning and nothing hindered his vision.

"Thank you. I'll, um…I think I'll stay in here so I don't have to wear this."

He grabbed my hand without a word and led me back into the room. I was confused, but got into bed when he gestured for me to do so. Kankuro, thank the heavens, was out like a light. When Gaara joined me, he surprised me by climbing on top of me with his knees on either side of my body.

An intense mixture of excitement, fear, and confusion came over me and I just barely bit down on a squeak that tried to escape my lips. My body immediately began to tremble when he sat back on his knees, the blanket falling to his hips, and gripped the bottom of my shirt. Even though I was terrified, I didn't stop him as he carefully pulled it off over my head.

Teal eyes danced down to my mid-section and I fought the urge to wrap my arms around myself. This wasn't like him at all. Climbing on top of me and taking my clothes off…That's something I never thought I'd witness Gaara do.

Then, suddenly, I was on the left side of the bed and Gaara was in the middle with his back to his brother. Before I could react, he gently rested his hand against the stitches at my side to ease the throbbing there. That's when I realized what was happening.

The same bittersweet feeling from earlier rose back up into my chest and I made myself look down at his chest rather than at his eyes. Having impure thoughts about him when I'm his only friend was incredibly selfish. No matter how much we cuddle or how much he starts to talk to me, I couldn't let myself slip even once or it could ruin all the progress we've made.

I feared the worst, and the worst was that he would react badly and revert to how he was: full of rage and terrified of everyone around him.

I fell asleep eventually, still grateful he'd helped me even if it stressed me out. Come morning, I was incredibly comfortable. Then, reality hit me and I became afraid to open my eyes. If the person my body was tangled with was Gaara, I'd royally fucked up while asleep.

One of my arms was up over his shoulder, but my other hand was pressed flat against something firm and warm that felt like bare skin. He had a shirt on when I fell asleep so he'd either taken it off (highly unlikely) or I'd slid my hand under it. My leg was in between his and our feet were tangled.

As the sleepy cloud in my brain cleared, I realized in disbelief that I wasn't the only one who'd partaken in selfishly cuddling. I felt a bit relieved that I wasn't the only one who'd unconsciously gotten close. His hand still rested on my side, but his other one had wrapped under my body to hold me against his chest and I felt that his face was nuzzled into my hair.

A warm feeling spread throughout my body and a small smile dared to tug at my lips, but I held it back. If this was the only moment where Gaara would accept my more than friendly affection, then I wasn't going to make it end more quickly by waking him.

"Are you hurting her, though? She kinda got fucked up yesterday," Kankuro's hushed voice met my ears and I felt confused because it sounded like he was in the middle of a conversation.

I was stunned to my core when Gaara was suddenly speaking quietly into my hair, his tone more annoyed than usual, "She's fine. Shut up."

The blanket was up high enough to cover most of my face, a fact that I was happy about.

His big brother grumbled in a childish voice, "It's not fair that you get to cuddle her. Move over. Let me have a turn!"

"If you touch either of us, I'll kill you," the younger brother responded in a threatening voice.

Kankuro let out an exasperated groan before I felt the bed move, likely him throwing himself against the pillows in defeat, "I don't know why she cares about you so much…"

The urge to blow my cover so I could sit up and chew the man out was interrupted by Gaara replying in a slightly softer voice, "Me either."

The bed moved again after a moment of silence, "Temari's gonna kill you if she sees this y'know."

"The only reason she'd see is if you tell her and she comes in here."

"Damn it, you're right…"

"Leave."

Kankuro sounded more irritated, "Why? I wanna make sure you didn't force her into anything."

The aura in the room got dangerous and I decided it was a good time to "wake up" so the two didn't murder one another. I gingerly moved to stretch slightly as I took in a deep breath, feeling Gaara's fingers twitch slightly against my bare skin.

"Matsu! Are you okay? Is he hurting you?"

I opened my eyes and felt a very real blush rise to my face when I realized I had, indeed, pushed the redhead's shirt up so I could rest my palm against the middle of his stomach. Soft muscles beneath pale skin met my eyes and my breathing picked up substantially. It felt so nice that I hadn't really pictured what he must look like.

Gaara, obviously picking up on my anxiety, removed his hands from me and pulled back a bit. When I met his eye, a wave of panic came over me and I tried to move a bit further away, only to fall off the edge of the bed with a loud thump.

"Mats-! Hey, what the fuck man?"

I frantically got to my feet in time to see Kankuro, with the blanket over his head, being shoved out of the room so the door could be closed and locked behind him. My blush warmed further when Gaara turned to look at me with an irritated expression. I covered my face and shook my head as I whispered, "I-I am so sorry! I didn't mean to force myself on you in my sleep!"

Something soft landed on my head and I uncovered my face to see it was the shirt I'd worn to bed last night and gave him a puzzled expression.

"I liked it," the redhead didn't bother averting his gaze as I nervously fumbled to pull the item of clothing over my head with a red face, "I want you to do it again."

Once my body wasn't so exposed, I got closer to him and lowered my voice so Kankuro, who was trying to talk to us from behind the closed door, wouldn't overhear, "N-No Gaara, I can't. It's not fair to you." A wave of sadness ached in my chest when he looked confused by my response and I was forced to try and explain, "I don't know how to say this where you'll understand…"

"I thought you liked me."

My eyes widened as his face fell into one of masked disappointment and I frantically pulled his hands into mine, screaming at myself internally when he almost flinched at the sudden movement, "That's not true! I do like you, Gaara! The issue is that…the type of like that I feel for you is a bit different than what you're thinking."

Teal eyes studied my face as I tried to wordlessly show him how desperate I was to not hurt his feelings. After a pause, he looked away and I was stunned to see a slight pink on his cheeks, "You aren't interested in me romantically, then?"

My eyes narrowed in confusion and my mouth fell open slightly in disbelief. He…understands these types of emotions? So, when I said I didn't feel the same way as him, he thought I was rejecting him.

Tears rose in my eyes, a blush met my cheeks, and I shook my head slowly as I tried to understand the situation more clearly, "D-Do you like me that way?"

He remet my eye and turned his hands over in mine to hesitantly interlock our fingers and pull me a bit closer, "I started to see you that way in the last few weeks of The Program. You wouldn't give up on me even though I was so awful to you. After the night on the roof, I told myself I'd try to at least be your friend, but I'm not satisfied."

My guess at his understanding of emotions had been way off and I felt more guilty than anything else because I underestimated him. I pressed my forehead lightly against the middle of his chest to hide my face as I broke into tears.

Gaara didn't seem to know how to react and only spoke after a few moments, "It wasn't my intention to hurt your feelings just now."

I gingerly pulled away to look him in the eye, pulling one of my hands from his to wipe at my tears. He spoke again before I could get myself together, "You're special to me and I want to be someone special to you, too."

Tears still running down my cheeks, I softly caressed the side of his face, "You are an important, special, and precious person to me. I like you in a very romantic way, Gaara. I was worried I'd scare you away if I said anything."

His guarded expression relaxed and softened in a way I've never seen before, making me stare in awe at how cute he looked when he wasn't glaring. When he spoke, his usually gritty voice was much smoother as though he was finally able to relax, "I told you that I'm just nervous around you, not uncomfortable."

A small laugh slid past my lips and I nodded, moving my hand from his face to wrap around his waist and hug him, "You did, didn't you?"