Quick warning: I am really bad at writing romance. I don't know why I even bothered trying to write a story like this, but... well there you go. You have been warned.

"It's raining." Gaara said from his post by the window. "I hate rain."

Not that Sakura could hear him from her place in the bathroom. If it wasn't for her soft humming Gaara would have thought she'd drowned in the bathtub hours ago.

When had her humming stopped being annoying and become such a comforting sound, he wondered. He concentrated on the sound of the rain, trying to block out the sound of her strange musical voice, but it was hard.

He looked up when the humming stopped and moments later Sakura came out of the bathroom, her skin pink and clean. She stood in the doorway for a while regarding him.

"You could use a bath too." She said finally, "And a shave."

Gaara turned to look back at the rain, slightly embarrassed.

She walked up behind him, "What now?"

"Nothing." He said and walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind him.

Outside Sakura watched the closed door, but there was no sound from inside. She pressed her ear to the door, but there didn't seem to be any movement inside.

She opened the door to find him standing inside fully clothed and staring at the empty bath angrily.

"Tsk," she tutted at him and nudged him in the back, "Do you need me to help you?"

He turned and fixed her with a look that managed to be both horrified and angry at the same time. "I was just-"

She cut him off before he could finish his sentence and tugged at his shirt, "Lift your arms." Just like a mother she pulled off his shirt and poured his bath for him.

"Come on, get in." she said, strangely unaffected by the fact that he was half naked. 'Well, not unaffected exactly…'

Gaara sat in the bath and didn't move as she rinsed and shampooed his hair. "You should take better care of yourself. We don't want to get back home looking like hobos." She said gently, rinsing the shampoo out of his hair. "You need a hair cut too."

"Now tilt your head back," she instructed. She sat on the edge of the tub so that his head rested on her knees. Carefully she started shaving his chin. It was strange how little hair he had on his chin really, considering that he wouldn't have been able to shave for months.

Gaara watched her face as she concentrated on his chin, but she couldn't help but notice the look in his eyes. His expression was so achingly sad and yet blank of the emotions she wanted to see in them she felt ready to cry again.

Instead she scolded him. "Stop looking at me like that or I'll cut your chin open."

Gaara's lip curled a little upward and he closed his eyes. Sakura stopped her actions for a moment to watch him. Just how black his eyes were. She was about to reach out and touch his eyelid when he opened his eyes again.

"Breathe." he said suddenly, quietly, touching her lips lightly with his fingertips.

Sakura started at his words and realized she had stopped breathing. She watched him take his hand away, feeling a strange sense of loss. She realized she wanted him to touch her now; she wanted him to hold her and how she longed to hold him, to run her fingertips over his eyelids and through his hair. To trace the outline of his tattoo with her lips a hundred times over.

"Would you like me to finish?" he asked.

"No, you just relax. I'm sure you haven't done enough of that lately," she quipped sarcastically, pulling herself back to reality.

He reached up suddenly and grabbed a lock of her hair, pulling it out to its full length, just past her shoulder. "You know, I'm not the only one who could use a haircut."

"Actually, I was thinking of growing mine out again." No, she hadn't been. Why did she say that?

"Hm." Gaara let go of her hair and dropped his hand back into the water with a little splash. "Maybe I'll grow mine out too."

Sakura swore suddenly.

"What?"

"I was just thinking. I was going to say that I'd cut your hair in your sleep." She grinned lopsidedly. "Your condition is quite annoying you know."

"I know."

Having finished shaving his chin Sakura planted a quick kiss on Gaara's forehead and got up. Before she could get out of the bath he grabbed her ears and pulled her face back to his, but then he stopped. Sakura opened her eyes again to find his face so close, but he was just looking at her, asking her. She smiled and descended the rest of the way to his lips.

Finally Gaara let go of her, slowly, reluctantly, and she found she was reluctant too. But she wasn't worried letting go of him now, because she knew they would have plenty of time in the future. She got up out of the bath, stepping out onto a clean white towel. "I'm leaving now, but you still have to clean yourself up proper." She said as she dried off her feet. "If you come out of here smelling like anything other than soap or flowers I'll send you right back."

Gaara snorted at the closed door and looked down at his pants, soaking wet in the tub. Well, he needed to wash his clothes anyway.

On the third day of walking Sakura got sick of it.

"I'm sick of walking. This is getting us nowhere fast."

"So?"

Sakura glared at Gaara. "You know, you're really annoying when you're ignoring my meaning." He just watched her with the shadow of a grin on his face. "Can't you… I don't know; fly on your sand or something?"

"I wouldn't exactly describe it that way, but yes."

"So let's go already! I want to be home!"

Gaara stared at her for a little while longer then he held out his hand. She took his hand and they were instantly surrounded by a cloud of sand.

She had expected to feel like she was flying, but the sand under her feet was perfectly solid; it just felt like they were standing still while the world moved past them. She could hardly even see the land they were passing outside. It was just lucky that the sand cleared for a moment when they were just outside the town.

"Hey! Let me down now!" she yelled in Gaara's ear.

"I can hear you just fine with out your yelling. You're standing right beside me." He said as the sand around them fell away and drifted back into his gourd.

"Sorry." She said sheepishly, "I just want to walk the rest of the way."

"Oh, still afraid of being seen with me?"

Sakura frowned at Gaara, but he just grinned wickedly. "Sometimes I hate you, you know that?" she saidd, and skipped back to him to hold his hand, "But right now I'm still just too happy to see you."

Hand in hand they walked back home. And if people stared and pointed at them they did not see, and if people whispered about them, they did not hear. They were home.

Benji jumped on Sakura the moment he got home and saw her sitting in the living room. "Took you long enough!" He pulled his head away from her shoulder to look in her face, "Where's Gaara?"

She gestured at the bathroom door with her head, "I think he's nervous, or embarrassed with just how bad his hair looks."

Gaara came out of the bathroom then, apparently he had heard her comment. "My hair does not look bad!"

Benji just stared with his mouth hanging open at his choppy hairstyle. Sakura turned to look at Gaara and was soon rolling on the ground laughing. Gaara gave her what could have been called the 'look of death' in his younger years, but she just laughed.

"Why would you even try to cut your hair yourself?" she wheezed out through her laughter.

Benji tried his best not to laugh at Gaara, but he couldn't really help himself. Gaara growled at them and stormed out onto the roof.

When Sakura finally got herself under control she shrugged at Benji and went into the bathroom. Moments later she came out with a pair of scissors. "Let's go then."

Benji smiled as he followed her to the roof. How marvelous, that at the end of everything they could go back to being the way they were so easily. Well, not the end of everything…