Ato omoi gotoku retsu tsurete koori
A heart as cold as ice
By Areku1993
Chapter three: Hold Hands and Kiss and Stuff

"So where are we gonna go?"

Temari and Kankurou looked at Crow as if she were an enormous slug. Gaara watched them, curious to their thoughts of the strange girl.

"We'll just go out to eat or something. I'm hungry anyway." Gaara replied. "Temari, Kankurou. Follow us and I'll kill you."

Temari and Kankurou knew better than to disobey their demon-bearing brother. Temari shrugged. "Fine. Just remember they way home."

"I'm not stupid, Temari."

As Gaara and Crow left, Temari looked at the second youngest brother and said, "So, want ramen?"

"Going to play with Karasu. Oiling him up for whatever I have to do."

"Can I help?"

Kankurou stepped back nervously. "Temari, you're all nice..."

"Without a baby brother to be afraid of, I need something to do!"

Gaara slurped up his ramen with barely any words. Of course, he did slurp it up in a dignified manner. For he was a dignified person.

Crow just watched him, running a hand through her metallic blue hair. People did generally talk on dates. In fact, the GENERAL POPULATION usually talks when they're on dates. But Gaara wasn't like that.

Crow had started several times to spike a conversation, but it didn't work. Finally, she just said, "If you're not going to talk to me I'm just going to leave."

"There's no rule that said I have to talk to you."

"But that's what people do on dates! They talk!"

"People also hold hands and kiss and stuff on dates, but you don't see us doing that, do you?" He replied with a straight face.

"We could do that!"

"You want to hold hands and kiss and stuff?"

Crow sighed. "No, I want to be on a normal date!" Then, she gained that intelligent gleam in her eye and said, "But we could hold hands and kiss and stuff if you want to."

Gaara set down his ramen bowl. "What are you getting at?"

"Nothing, nothing. Just that..."

Gaara scrutinized her face and found no hints of thought. "What?"

Crow pointed. "You're already holding my hand."

Their fingers were intwined already, and Gaara didn't even notice. He stared blankly and began, "When did you...?"

"Me? You're the one who grabbed my hand."

"I did not!"

"You did so!"

"I did not!"

"You did so!"

"I did not!"

"You did so!"

"I did not!"

"You did so!"

Finally, when Gaara realized the argument wasn't going anywhere, he let go of her hand, recoiling like a injured snake. "You're tricky. And illusionist."

"Not quite." She smiled at him. Her teeth glittered with an alien light. "I'm just fast."

Something in that smile made Gaara smile back. And at that precise moment, Gaara knew her tricks.

"You're a humanic."

Humanicy was something the students learned about in the academy. It was not a bloodline limit, nor could it be learnt; it was natural. Like some people are psychic, some people are humanic, which means they can affect people depending on their emotions. If the person is happy and they smile, whoever they smile at is happy. If someone sees them cry, then they are sad. Most humanics learn from special senseis how to control their humanicy to use it at will. Humanicy could be identified by glitter; such as, when people smile, their teeth glitter. When they cry, their tears glitter. And so on.

Crow rubbed the back of her head, averting her eyes to look out a window. "Yeah, I mean, didn't you know...?"

"Why did you use your power just now?"

"I wanted to see you smile. You're cute when you smile. If you smiled more often, more people would want to be your friend."

I hate smiling. The Shukaku contradicted angrily.

I haven't smiled since you took over me.

Get up and leave.

No way. I don't want to leave her alone.

But I want to leave her alone.

Gaara sighed and stood up. Fine. He stepped away from his seat and shoved his hands in his pockets, leaving the ramen shop. Crow watched him walk by the window and stood up as well, paying the bill and leaving. She went the opposite way.

Pulling out some random mp3 player, she was happy to find it fully charged. Gaara turned his head to see her turning the corner, chewing what appeared to be bubble gum, tossing her mp3 player from one hand to the other.

She's so strange.

I know! Gaara replied to his demon. I don't get it. At one point she's all quiet, then she asks me out, and when I refused, she acts as if nothing happens. None of the other girls are like that. It's like she's lived so much longer, seen so much more.

Do you even know how old she is?

No, but I'm going to guess... 14, 15?

Seems right.

But how does she control her emotions with such ease?

It must be the teachings of the Dark Sand.

Gaara stopped in his tracks. Of course. The Dark Sand! Kurai-Sunagakure! I'm dumb. It must be the way they teacher their shinobi...

It must be.