Lee folded his hands, leaning forward to prop his chin up on them. Sitting across the table from him, examining a fork with an expression of boredom on his face was Gaara. Lee couldn't help but smile at the younger man, eyes tracing over him, gaze settling in the curve of the sand-shinobi's neck, rolling out along his shoulders, down his slim arms.

He's so beautiful…Lee thought to himself, a tug at his heart emphasizing the reflection.

"So, what can I get you boys?" Lee jumped, startled out of his contemplation by the waiter. He looked up at her, a woman in her later years.

"um…I'll take a salad and some fish, please." He asked for the food politely, with a smile on his face.

"okay, hun. And you?" She motioned to Gaara with the pen she carried, arching an eyebrow.

"I'll have steak." Gaara said, his answer to the woman curt.

"Okay, give it a few minutes and we'll have your food right out, Kazekage-sama." The smiled, and turned back for the kitchen.

Gaara frowned after the woman, line around his eyes creasing with annoyance.

"What's the matter?" Lee tilted his head to the side slightly, curious. He rested his chin on the back of his hands, fingers laced together.

"I wish people didn't know who I was." Gaara mumbled; he sighed, looking back to the table and then to Lee.

"I like knowing you." Lee smiled, winking. "if I didn't, things would surely be terrible."

Gaara smiled slightly, shaking his head, "you're strange."

"I know." Lee grinned, "But you don't mind.

Gaara rolled his eyes in answer; he hadn't felt so…free in a long time. There was something about Lee that made him want to just let it all go, to just let the moment take over, maybe smile. Lee's charisma, perhaps; it was something about the youth that drove Gaara to want to reach out and pull him close. Something wanted to make him defy himself and just let his heart rule over his head. The Kazekage sighed, allowing a smile to slip to his lips as he shook his head at the leaf-nin.

A few minutes of idle chatter later, which mostly came from Lee, the food arrived. Lee attacked his with a ferocity that set Gaara back a bit, his eyes widening. The salad disappeared in an instant, and the fish even faster. He had barely finished half his steak before Lee was licking sauce from his fingertips, and trying to scrub a spot off of his bandages with the napkin. The leaf-nin paused, looking up.

"Isn't the food here good?" Lee smiled, watching Gaara resume his consumption of the rest of the steak.

"mmhm." Gaara mumbled around a mouthful.

Lee leaned back in his chair, waving the waitress back over, "ma'am, ma'am?"

"Yeah, darlin'?" it was a different waitress this time, an old woman with a kind smile, "what can I do for ya'll?"

"can we have some ice cream?" He looked to Gaara, "you like ice cream, right?"

"I've never…" Gaara started.

"cool! We'll take two." Lee grinned up at the woman, "please."

"sure, just give me a minute." She hurried off towards the kitchen, disappearing behind a pair of swinging doors.

Gaara gave Lee a look from across the table, "Is it good?"

"hmm?"

"Ice cream… is it any good?" Gaara took another bite of his steak.

"You've never had it! I thought you were joking…well, if you like sweet things, then you'll like it." Lee beamed across the table, "I promise."

"Mmf." Gaara's noncommittal response was, once again, uttered around a mouthful of steak.

A few minutes later, the woman reappeared, doors swinging shut behind her, carrying two ice cream cones- vanilla. She handed one to an eager Lee, and the other to Gaara who gave both her and the ice cream a disdainful look. The sand-nin looked across the table at Lee, who had already started to devour the icy treat, licking his lips every few bites. With a shrug, Gaara took a taste.

When Lee looked at his companion a moment later, it send a shiver down his spine and a blush rushing to his cheeks. The way that Gaara's tongue flicked from between his lips, the smudge of ice cream near the corner of his mouth. How the treat melted over the edge of the cone, dripping onto his hands.

Suddenly, his beloved bodysuit was a little too revealing for his tastes.

Yet…he couldn't tear his eyes away from Gaara, watching the sand-nin put a delicate fingertip to his mouth, tongue swirling around it, licking it clean.

When Lee's head hit the wood in front of him, Gaara looked up. The green-clad youth had slumped forward onto the table, head hidden in folded arms, shoulders twitching.

"um….Lee?"

"Hnn…."

"…I'm not going to ask if you're alright." Gaara reached over and prodded Lee's cheek with a sticky fingertip.

"I'm fine. I promise. I swear." Lee mumbled from the tabletop; Gaara could see that his face was bright red.

"…Lee…"

"why'r you so cute?" Lee muttered, shifting to glance up at Gaara for a second, before hiding his face again.

"oh." Gaara frowned, a red tint creeping to his cheeks.

"Sensei will be mad if we get back late." Lee mumbled from his arms. Distracting himself with other thoughts was, hopefully, working.

"yeah. Lemme get the bill and we'll go."

"I'll pay half." Lee looked up, his cheeks still rosy. He reached into the pouch he wore and fished out a crumpled bill, putting it down on the table. Gaara sent his sand to get his money, letting coins and several bills flutter to the wood.

"I can't stop you." Gaara shrugged, before standing, "well, ready?"

"I'm always ready, Gaara!" Lee grinned, standing and sending a quick prayer to several different gods that his 'problem' had gone away. With a quick glance, he assured that it had.

They found themselves walking down the main street of Konoha a few minutes later, standing a slight distance apart, just enough to that there was space between their shoulders. There were giggles from around them, accompanied by the usual whispers of

"look at him…can't he learn to dress properly?" and "ugg…just…ugg. The bowl cut sucks."

Lee didn't really mind the jeering so much, in fact, the young nin was used to it. Gaara, however, had an increasingly sour look on his face.

"Lee. Do they always do this?"

"Do what?"

Gaara look up at him, a scowl on his face, "make fun of you."

"…..yes. But it's alright, I'm used to it, please don't be upset with them." Lee gave Gaara a pleading look.

"What's the Kazekage doing with a loser like him?" Someone passing by them mumbled, chuckling under their breath.

Before they knew it, this person had been swept off their feet, and was flat on their back looking up at a glowering sand-nin. Gaara let the sand pin the man down, spreading across his chest with enough pressure to hinder his breathing.

"care to question my motives again?" Gaara's voice was low, a growl tearing at the edges of his usual monotone.

"N-no Kazekage sir!" The man stammered, struggling to free himself of the sand.

"Lee is not a loser, or anything else that you wish to call him." Gaara's voice had dropped to a barely audible growl now, his fists starting to clench at his sides.

He jumped when he felt a bandaged hand on his elbow, "Gaara…it's alright. Please let him go…he didn't do any harm."

Gaara blinked, looking at the gentle expression on Lee's face, "you're too kind to people, Lee."

"I know." Lee sighed, tugging at Gaara's elbow again, "let him get up."

With a sigh and a scowl, Gaara released the man, who cowered for a moment before scrambling to his feet and running.

Gaara shook his head at the man, and turned, walking away. Lee trotted to keep up with him.

"We'll go train with sensei a little more, alright? Then we can go back to my place for dinner and, well, you need a place to stay for the night, don't you? Then we can-

"I don't like them making fun of you." Gaara interrupted Lee sharply, "there's nothing about you that's horrible like they say. You're…a perfect model of a person. Determined and brave, and relying on his own strength."

"Gaara, I…"

"you are."

Lee smiled, shaking his head slightly, before moving to run backwards in front of Gaara. He reached out, lightly brushing a thumb across the other man's cheek, and winked.

"you're beautiful."

"T-thank you." Gaara, for the first time that day, blushed deeply and looked away.

Love was a strange thing.

: ……………………………………………………… :

Authors Note: Good lord…this took me longer than expected to get finished. Um…some parts of it are kinda sketchy, 'cause…I dunno. I've been really emotional lately, crying a lot and not being able to focus. There's one part in here where I tried to cheer myself up—I've always had a thing for boys and ice cream cones, I guess. Sorry that it ends so abruptly. Mood swings and bad night do that. I hope that someone other than myself enjoys this chapter. - sigh -