Vindicated
Chapter 11: Mistakes
Dragon man 180: I find it humorous for some reason that you like the Kyu character. Most people don't cause she's SNG's oc. Oh well. I glad u like her.
Junsui Kegasu: Catching up yes. But I have a reason. I don't have to come up with a new chapter every time I'm finished with one. Unfortunately I think I am going to catch up soon….I feel bad.
Chronic-fever: I just give them a glare or two. You'd be surprised what a bit of panda makeup can do to people. O ack! I just realized that the picture of me on deviant is me without a hat or bandanna on! (stares) (Shukaku: Dude…you should feel honored…her family barely sees her without a hat on…and you got to see her, first impression, with out it!) (h-r flutters away….) (Shukaku: doesn't sng look funny? She hates getting her pic taken)
ShaJen: It actually is kinda that hard. Sometime you suspect and you're completely wrong and you feel bad cause you suspected. But some people who are hide it so well that no one ever finds out. and with some people you just think that they're overreacting to a punishment of are angry with their parents. Funniness thing?...I got it all from my sister. Me and her spend hours just coming up with random stuff that leaves us dying from laughter on the floor. I'm a pretty shy, quiet person alone, but together we're like…unstoppable. (glomps sng)
Despite the protests from his siblings, Gaara insisted on going to school the next day. The swelling and bruises on his face had gone down much faster then normal thanks to Kyu's extra treatment. The two brothers hadn't let her see his back, though, so his arms, shoulders and back still ached and screamed in pain every once and a while, and his siblings knew it. He insisted on going to school though, and trudged there deliberately while they trailed behind him, looking worried.
Ukon was waiting for Kankurou with his twin brother, wanting to know every detail that happened when Kyu came over.
"So….how did it go?" Ukon asked nonchalantly.
"How did what go?" Kankurou asked, narrowing his eyes.
Ukon didn't answer, just gave him pointed looks and grin. Kankurou glanced at Gaara who shrugged.
"Yesterday," Sakkon explained, boredly. "With Kyu. Ukon is proud of himself because he convinced her to go over to your house."
Kankurou blinked.
Dot.
Dot.
Dot.
Crack.
"YOU SENT KYU OVER TO MY HOUSE WITH OUT ANY WARNING WHATSOEVER?"
"Uh—"
"Do you realize how embarrassing it is, to have the girl you like show up at your house while you still in your pajamas and robe?" Kankurou hissed.
Sakkon spit and choked on his coffee.
"I thought it would be cute," Ukon said. "And I thought you would give me a discount cause that was nice of me."
"A discount?" Gaara asked, looking up at his brother.
Kankurou laughed. "He buys candy from me sometimes," he said. "Go inside, find Neji or something."
He gave his brother a push towards the school door. Gaara went where he was pushed looking back at the three older boys who waved. Gaara rolled his eyes and went inside.
When he was gone, Kankurou smacked Ukon across the head. "You idiot!" he said.
"What? Kyu thought you guys were—"
"Not Kyu! Don't mention that stuff to Gaara!" he hissed. "He doesn't know, neither does Temari," he added, glancing over where Temari was talking to her friends. "I don't want them to know, alright?"
"Ok, sorry," Ukon said, scratching the back of his head. They walked into the school together. "You know…I got a phone call last night," Ukon said, stopping at the soda machines. "From Kyu."
Kankurou stopped.
"What did she say?" Kankurou asked.
Ukon took his soda out of the thing and started walking away.
"Ukon! What'd she say?"
Gaara went straight to his 1st period class, though school didn't start for another twenty minutes.
"Good morning, Gaara," Genma greeted pleasantly as he walked in. "Missed you yesterday. You got the stuff all typed out for me?"
Gaara pulled a disk out of his pocket and handed it to him. "I didn't know how many copies you wanted," Gaara explained.
"That's fine," Genma said, slipping the disk into his computer. He opened the file and examined it. "Excellent. Good work, thanks."
"You're welcome," Gaara replied, surprised at the complement. "Oh, I have the makeup work from yesterday." He pulled out the papers Kyu brought out of his side bag and handed it to him. "I'll get a note tomorrow."
Genma nodded. "That's fine."
Gaara turned back to go sit down and happened to glance outside as Neji glanced at him and kept walking. Gaara quickly sat down at his desk, memories of the argument on the phone flooding back to him. He remembered saying something nasty, but couldn't remember what. All he remembered was being very mad at Neji and Neji getting mad back.
(1st period-Grammar 12-Kankurou)
"Ukon! What did she say?" Kankurou demanded as Ukon led him into his class.
"What did who say?"
Kankurou stopped as Ukon turned around.
"Kyu-chan!"
"Ukon-chan!"
GLOMP!
"What did who say?" Kyu asked again smiling brightly.
"Kankurou wanted to know what—"
"What his friend said about…getting a driver's license around here...heh," Kankurou said quickly.
"You don't have your license yet?" they asked.
Kankurou shrugged. "Never needed it," he said.
"Have you taken driver's ed?" Kyu asked.
"Yeah, a while ago, I just never went for my actual license."
"Well, there's an administration about ten minutes from here next to the driving school," Kyu said thoughtfully. "I could drive you there on like Sunday or something…actually, Sunday would be best cause I'm busy on Saturday."
"That's so nice of you, Kyu-chan!" Ukon said jumping in between them. "You know what? If I didn't know any better, I'd say you liked Kankurou."
Kankurou and Kyu blushed and quickly returned to their seats as Kurenai bodily threw Ukon out of the room and shut the door behind him. Both planned to not look at each other for the rest of class, but Kurenai didn't know this and made them partners for the next project, forcing them to speak. In short sentences. Very short sentences. With no eye contact.
(2nd period-art- Gaara Neji)
Art class was hell for Gaara. Neji refused to look at him or say a word to him, keeping a sour face throughout the whole class period. After the bell rang and the students filed out, Gaara ran to catch up with Neji.
"Neji, I'm sorry about last night," Gaara stammered out, worried about his reaction.
"Sure you are," Neji said.
"I am! I'm really sorry," Gaara insisted, crestfallen at the cold shoulder. "Please forgive me?"
Neji paused for a moment. "No. I'm tired of you lying to me and keeping secrets from me about something that I really wanted to help with. Besides, you're right. Why would you want to talk to, let alone go out with, someone who likes soccer so much? And why would I want to talk to, or go out with, some freak insomniac, who's too scared of his own damn shadow to do anything right?"
With that Neji turned and continued down the hall, leaving Gaara alone in the hall. Gaara stared after him, in complete shock, shaking and biting his lip to stop it from trembling, not even hearing the snickers from students as they walked past him, but he did notice they stopped instantly as someone came up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"And people say I'm an ass," Itachi said sneering after the Hyuga. He steered Gaara down the hall to the redhead's next class.
"I—I don't want to talk to you," Gaara said, trying to shake him off.
"Aw…why you gotta be like that?" Itachi cooed, his arm going around Gaara's shoulders.
"P—please, stop it," Gaara said, trying to edge out of Itachi's grasp.
"I could get Neji to like you again if you want," Itachi said, catching his attention.
"Why would you do that?"
"Cause," he said shortly. "Look, the best way to get him back is to make him jealous," Itachi told him. "People think this only works on girls, but it actually works on everyone."
"But…that would hurt Neji and make him…more mad at me…"
"Only a little. But it will give him a push I promise. He hurt you didn't he?"
"But…"
"I swear it will work. Just make him a little jealous."
"How?"
"Go out with someone else."
"What?"
"Yeah, and make sure he finds out about it. That'll make him real jealous."
"I don't like anyone else," Gaara said.
"You don't have to like them to go out with them."
"But I don't know anyone who'd do that," Gaara said, dismissing the idea as he turned into his class.
"Why are you trying to dodge this?" Itachi asked, pulling him back. "Don't you like Neji?"
"Yes!"
"Then why aren't you trying to get him back?"
Gaara looked down at the floor distressed. Neji being mad at him was one of the things he was completely terrified of. He didn't think anything could make Neji not be mad at him now. He turned and started back for his class.
"I'll do it," Itachi offered suddenly, taking his shoulder to bring him back. "But, you know, just for a little while, alright?"
"…..I'll think about it."
"Alright."
Gaara did think about it. All day. And the more he thought about it the more he thought it might work. He really knew nothing about relationships. Itachi seemed to though…but there was always a little nagging voice in the back of his head asking him why Itachi? Why not Haku who wasn't creepy…or well not that creepy?
As he walked to his 7th period class, he met Itachi again. The older boy stopped him and leaned against the lockers, smiling down the foot distance to Gaara's face and asked him if he thought about it.
As if on cue, Neji walked around the corner and saw them. He stopped short, eyes wide. Gaara stared at him wide-eyed as well, like a child caught doing something wrong. But then he gritted his teeth and turned back to Itachi.
"Sure, I'll go out with you," he said, smiling.
"Great," Itachi said, smiling down at him. "How's Saturday? I'll pick you up at your house."
"Ok."
"Perfect," Itachi leaned down and kissed Gaara's forehead, running his fingers through his red hair. "See ya later."
He turned and walked down the hall. Before turning into his class, Gaara glanced towards Neji. The white eyed boy had a hurt look on his face. There wasn't anger, just hurt and sadness; like he had just watched his world collapse at his feet. Gaara hurried into his class before he could see that look any more. It hurt him to see Neji's face like that. But then he remembered what Neji had said to him earlier and glared at nothing, pushing Neji's expression from his thoughts. He made him hurt, so why couldn't he make Neji hurt a little?
(7th period-English- Kankurou and Neji)
"Neji what's wrong?" Kankurou asked as Neji sat down next to him with the deadest, most unbelieving look on his face.
"Gaara….he…" Neji couldn't finish his sentence.
"Yeah, you two had a nasty argument last night," Kankurou said, as the bell rang. "Gaara was pissed."
Neji didn't say anything else the rest of the period, even when Iruka called on him to answer a question. He just continued to stare at nothing throughout the whole period.
Why did Gaara do that? And why Itachi? Neji was sure Itachi was the one who made him do it, but Gaara had seemed willing. He hadn't meant what he said earlier. He was just hurt because Gaara didn't trust him enough to tell him what was happening. He let Itachi kiss his forehead! No blushing, nothing! What was up with that? That hurt a lot; and Gaara had called him a soccer obsessed freak.
Flashback
'Why would I want to talk to, or go out with, some freak insomniac, who's too scarred of his own shadow to do anything right?'
End Flashback
'Oh, my god, I'm disgusting! That was so mean!' He could admit that he was a soccer obsessed freak, but that was too personal. He must have really hurt Gaara's feelings. He put his face in his hands. How could he have done that to him? Didn't Gaara already have enough problems?
After the bell rang he got up slowly and followed Hinata out to the black suv and got in.
The three siblings, well Temari and Kankurou, watched them drive off, then looked over at Gaara who had already started to walk home.
"Gaara? What happened?" Temari asked, confused.
"Neji and I broke up."
"You broke up with him?" Kankurou asked.
"No, he broke up with me."
Temari and Kankurou shared a look of confusion. "Then why is Neji the one who looks like no one loves him?" Kankurou asked, pointing.
"Because no one does."
Temari and Kankurou bother raised an eye brow and stared after their brother.
The next day in Art class, Neji came in and saw Gaara already sitting at his desk, copying the drill. He swallowed hard and went over to his desk and got his stuff out and sat down. Gaara was completely ignoring him, not even acknowledging that he was sitting there. After a while's silence, Neji started to say something, but Gaara put his headphones on and played his cd. Neji looked down at his painting, distressed; he had been ignoring Gaara yesterday. He could tell when Gaara apologized that he'd truly been sorry. He knew how Gaara felt now. Why did he say that? He hadn't meant it.
"Good job, Gaara, that's looking very good," Shizume-sensei said as she came around to look at their work.
Neji glanced over at Gaara's canvas. The rest of the class was starting on acrylics themselves and their assignment was to paint an emotional landscape. Gaara painting was red based. In the center was a child kneeling in front of several dead people. The houses and tree behind her were on fire and there was a shadowy figure coming out of the child. It was very roughly painted, since Gaara didn't have a lot of experiment using paints, but it looked good.
Neji stared. 'What a morbid painting…' he thought to himself, he knew right off what emotion it was though, which was the assignment. Angst. Or depression and anger. (an h-r original)
The teacher gave Gaara some tips to add more effect to the fire and showed him how to apply the paint to show texture. Neji looked away and stared down at his desk. Normally, Gaara would have come to him asking for help…instead of the teacher. Gaara was scared of adults. Neji tried not to let the hurt show on his face.
'He'd rather talk to an adult…then me…?'
As the bell rang, this time Neji hurried to catch up with Gaara. He tried talking to him, but Gaara kept walking and continued to ignore him. Finally, Neji had enough.
"Come on, stop it!" Neji said moving in front of him. "Look I'm sorry I yelled at you yesterday, I am. But you don't have to ignore me like this."
Gaara glared at him, then moved around him and continued walking. Neji tried again, moving in front of him and grabbing his shoulders. Gaara winced slightly, but Neji didn't see it.
"Look, don't go out with Itachi," Neji said. "He's bad news!"
"Don't tell me what to do. You're not my boss," Gaara said, moving backwards out of Neji's reach.
"I know I'm not!" Neji persisted, blocking his way. "But Itachi isn't a nice guy, he'll hurt you!"
"So it's ok for you to?"
Neji stopped short and stared at the sudden accusation. 'No it wasn't ok for me to hurt you!' Neji's mind screamed. 'But Itachi'll hurt you worse! Why wont you listen?' The words were stuck in his throat and he couldn't make them come out. He couldn't make Gaara understand.
"If you don't want anything to do with a 'freak insomniac' like me, then just leave me alone," Gaara said finally. He pushed passed Neji and started down the hall.
"Gaara!" Neji called desperately after him. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean that yesterday!"
Gaara didn't make any move that he heard him, just continued to walk away from him.
Neji tried apologizing to Gaara everyday, but Gaara would squeeze his eyes shut and hurry down the hall away from him. On Friday Neji followed him to his third period class, stopping him before he went in.
"Please, Gaara!" he cried. "Listen to me!"
"No! Let me go!" Gaara said, trying to pull out of his grasp.
"Listen to me first!" Neji said, gripping his shoulder tighter.
"Now, Hyuga, don't go loosing your temper on little Gaara," came a smooth voice behind Neji.
Neji turned and glared at Itachi. "Oh, you can shut up and get lost," Neji snapped. "This is your fault anyway!"
"Is it really?" Itachi said, eye brow raised.
"Look, I know what you're trying to do and I wont let you!" Neji said, angrily.
Itachi grabbed Neji's wrists and yanked him away from Gaara. Gaara had never seen Neji look so mad before. His angry face, his tone of voice, his body languages…they were all like his father's. His eyes widened in fear, but Neji's anger wasn't directed at him Neji stood in front of Itachi looking ready to snap and kill both of them.
"What the hell are you doing?" Neji yelled.
"You were hurting him," Itachi said simply.
Neji started at this and looked passed him at Gaara. He looked very ashamed of himself and his anger faded.
"I—I'm sorry, Gaara," he said, but Itachi cut him off.
"Get to class Hyuga," Itachi said, blocking Gaara from Neji's view.
Giving Itachi one more glare, Neji turned and trudged down the hall. Gaara stared after him, slightly mortified.
"Neji's mad at me," he said, worry staining his voice.
"No, he's not mad," Itachi said, smiling down at him. "That's jealousy. See? It's working."
Gaara looked up at him, not thoroughly convinced, then back at Neji's departing back.
(Saturday night)
"Please?"
"No," Kankurou said in a bored voice, turning the page in the magazine he was reading.
"Why not?"
"Because I can't go with you."
"I'm fourteen, Kankurou, I can go to the mall by myself!"
"No. You. Can't."
"Why?"
"Because."
"That's not fair! I want to go to the mall. I don't want to stay in the house all night," Gaara crossed his arms and stood defiantly in his door.
"To bad," Kankurou said, turning another page. "We'll go tomorrow, I promise."
"But I wanna go now! I can walk to the mall by myself; it only takes like 10 minutes to walk there. Neji and I've done it together."
"You are not walking to the mall, alone, on a Saturday night," Kankurou said, looking up at him.
Gaara glared and stomped into his room, throwing a small temper tantrum and slammed the door shut.
"Don't slam the door," he called.
And of course because he said this, Gaara opened the door and slammed it 3 times harder then he did the first time. Kankurou rolled his eyes and went back to his magazine. Why the hell did he want to go to the mall so badly anyway?
Gaara watched out his window until he saw Itachi's black truck pull up at the end of the drive way. He grabbed his coat and slipped quietly down stairs. Kankurou had his head phones on and his back to the door so he didn't notice anything.
As Gaara walked up to the truck, his stomach began churning and that little voice was nagging at him. Why the hell was he doing this? He didn't know. He wanted to make Neji jealous. Why Itachi? Spur of the moment? He didn't know. The look on Neji's face was still playing in his mind. Maybe he really didn't want to do this. But he felt he couldn't back out now.
Itachi unlocked the door and Gaara got into the passenger's side. Itachi smiled at him and patted the middle seat. "Sit here."
"I'm ok."
"Sit here."
Gaara swallowed hard at the stern voice and scooted over.
"That's better," Itachi said. He pulled back onto the road and started driving, putting his arm around Gaara.
Gaara thought the ride to the mall would never end. Itachi's arm was snaking up and down his side and stomach, nearly going past his waist line. He did once causing Gaara to flinch so bad Itachi grabbed him to keep him from going anywhere. When they got there, he hurriedly got out and waited for Itachi, fidgeting. This was already starting to be a bad idea, but he didn't have time to think because Itachi came up and led him into the mall.
They walked around, going into a few stores. Itachi insisted on them walking with his arm around Gaara's waist, his hand underneath Gaara's shirt. Itachi took him into nearly all the stores Neji never took him in. Gaara now saw why. All of them had something perverted about them. Itachi seemed to think it was hilarious that Gaara couldn't stop blushing each time he showed him something different. Gaara told Itachi he wanted to leave.
"Why's that?" Itachi asked, his face in Gaara's neck, hand snaking up higher under his shirt.
"I—I'm hungry," Gaara stammered, trying to pull away.
"Alright," Itachi steered him out of the store and into the food court.
He paid for their meals and took Gaara over to a table. He stopped Gaara as he tried to sit down. He wanted Gaara sit on his lap as they ate. Gaara mumbled that he didn't want to sit on his lap, but Itachi glared at him and told him that he didn't have a choice and forced him to sit.
Blushing, Gaara tried to ignore the stares people were giving them. Itachi ate a little of his food, but spent the rest of the time Gaara ate busy kissing and nibbling at his neck and ear. His hands moved slowly from Gaara's sides to his stomach to his legs. Gaara never felt so uncomfortable in his entire life, he could barely eat. When he paused eating, Itachi placed a hand on his chin and tilted his head around, placing a deep kiss on Gaara's lips. Gaara whimpered and tried to pull away, but Itachi held him, digging deeper. Gaara was gasping for breath when Itachi finally pulled away, contenting himself with chewing on Gaara's earlobe. Finishing as fast as he could, Gaara mumbled that he had to go to the bathroom and ran into the restroom.
He shut the stall door and heaved a sigh of relief. He was really regretting this now. Itachi wouldn't stop touching him and kissing his neck and he really didn't like that. And he kissed him! Gaara spit into the toilet, wiping his mouth, then spat again. He couldn't believe Itachi actually kissed him. He hadn't expected it at all and he wasn't sure if he liked it.
He never wanted a cell phone before, never needing to call someone, but he really wanted one now. He wanted to call Neji and say how sorry he was and ask him to come 'save' him from Itachi. He'd even call Kankurou, even though he knew Kankurou would be mad.
He leaned against the wall and wrapped his arms around himself, making himself as small as he could. Each time Itachi touched him he felt dirtier. It was horrible. He didn't want to go out there again. He wondered how long he could stay there in peace before Itachi came looking for him.
"Thought you said you had to go."
Startled, Gaara looked up and saw Itachi climbing over the stall and into his.
"I—I don't want to do this anymore. I want to go home," Gaara said, moving away from him.
"Already? But you haven't thanked me for taking you out yet," Itachi said, coming very close to him. "I was doing you a favor, wasn't I? You wanted to make Hyuga jealous, didn't you?"
"N—not any…more," Gaara said moving away. "I'm sorry, I want to go home. Please take me home."
"No," Itachi said, making sure the stall was locked.
"What?"
"You shouldn't back out of something once you start. You wanted to make Hyuga jealous…Let's make him really jealous."
Gaara tried to move away from him, but Itachi grabbed him and pinned him to the wall, rubbing his waist into Gaara's. Itachi moved his hands up and down Gaara's sides under his shirt, bringing it higher and higher, revealing his stomach and chest. Gaara whimpered and tried to move away as Itachi's fingers ran along his chest. He felt Itachi smiled as he buried his face in Gaara's neck, licking and biting at the base with the force of a vampire.
Grr...damn u Itachi...