Disclaimer: Hasn't really changed much from the first 5 or so chapters.
A/N: Hope nobody has lost interest yet. It's only going to get better from here. I promise.
Somehow I had managed to find my room without getting lost. As I climbed the stairs, his original warning echoed in my head.
This building is created like a maze. Many dead ends and traps for those who don't know the layout.
I paused at the top of the stairs and looked back down, half expecting to see Gaara, ready to pounce, but it wasn't Gaara that I spotted, but Temari. She waved at me and I gave her a half hearted smile. She jumped the stairs two at a time until she was standing on the one second from the top.
"Amanda, what's wrong? You look like hell."
I shrugged, "Well, other than your brother killing a really good buzz, and grounding me, and scaring the crap out of me, I'm just dandy."
Temari raised an eyebrow, "You got grounded?"
"Yeah, Gaara told me that I am not allowed to leave my room unless he calls for me. And that Tsunade lady said that the reason I'm here is because of something called 'Coochiyosay" or something. I dunno." I shrugged.
"The Kuchiyose technique? Wow...that kind of makes sense." Temari said with a nod.
"Well look, I'm going to my room, if you want, follow. I just don't need to get into any more trouble." I said and reached out to open the door.
"If you don't mind, I'll take you up on that offer, I have some stuff for you anyways." Temari said as she followed me in.
The first thing I did as soon as I walked into my room was kick off my sandals and flop down on the bed. Strangely enough, it had been remade during my absence.
Temari dropped a bag at the foot of my bed and nodded to it. I reached over and upended it on the bed and was thrilled to see that there was the bottle of shampoo that Temari had let me use at her house, along with half a dozen more shirts and three or four pairs of pants, and a few miscellaneous items...
"Tem-Chan, you're a godsend." I said as I popped the top to the shampoo and inhaled. I absolutely loved ginger.
"Did you just call me 'Tem-Chan'?" Temari asked me with a grin.
I stopped and looked at her for a moment, "Yeah, I think I did...please tell me I didn't sound like an idiot."
Temari shook her head, "No, that was fine, I guess this means we're friends." She said with a laugh.
"Phew, good. Kankuro gave me a crash course on the whole 'san' 'chan' 'sama' bit." At this Temari smiled.
"Seems like you're getting along with everyone."
I shook my head, "Not quite. I think your brother, Gaara, wants to kill me." I felt my face redden slightly.
"Oh? What did you do?" She looked curious. She hadn't heard yet? Maybe she had just gotten back.
"I hit him." I said and looked out the window.
"You did what!" She looked horrified.
"I just slapped him, he tried to keep me from the sake me and Kankuro were sharing after dinner." I didn't see what the big deal was.
"How is that possible? The sand stops all attacks..." She looked confused.
I narrowed my eyes, the sand? Oh yeah, last night...
The shruiken was only a foot away and I had it in my hand and had thrown it at him before I even realized it. A wall of sand shot up between Gaara and the shruiken...
"So it's like on auto pilot? He doesn't control it?" I was confused. Why would his sand stop a shruiken, but not my hand?
"No, he has control, but most of the time, it protects him on its own. That's how he got the nickname, Sabaku no Gaara, or Gaara of the Desert." Temari tapped her chin, trying to figure out two things. Why had Amanda been able to hit Gaara, and after hitting him, why was she sitting here before her unhurt?
"Tem-Chan, can I ask you something?"
"Hai, what is it?"
"What's Gaara's deal? The whole sand thing, and why is he an ass and you and Kankuro are nice? You're all related, right?" I was curious, and I figured now would be as good a time as ever, seeing as how I might not be going out for a long time.
"Hn, that's a complicated story, and I'm not sure if Gaara would appreciate you knowing, but..." She winked at me, "He didn't tell us not to tell you anything, and this also ties into the history of the area." Temari sat down next to me on the bed, "Listen closely, because I doubt Kankuro would tell you all this, and I know for sure Gaara would rather kill you then tell you anything.
I nodded and she started her story.
"Well, you see. Gaara is the youngest out of the three of us. Kankuro is the oldest. When Gaara was born, my father performed a jutsu."
I looked slightly confused
"A Technique. He sealed within my brother the demon raccoon of the desert, Shukaku. In the process my mother lost her life. Well, the whole process was to pretty much create a super weapon for the Sand against anyone who attacked. Growing up, Gaara never had any friends. All the children were afraid of him, including me and Kankuro. Well, by the time Gaara was six, my father had ordered several assassination attempts on him because of some accidents. Gaara had killed several of the villagers, but they were true accidents. He didn't know how to control the sand yet, so my father wanted to end the deaths and he was willing to kill his own son."
Temari paused and looked at me sadly, "The sand protected him each and every time. It wasn't until my father gave my uncle the order to assassinate Gaara, that he snapped. My uncle, Yashamaru and Gaara were really close. Yashamaru was always there to protect Gaara from the hatred of the villagers and the slander. It was sad really, all those years of looking after Gaara, and he had a deep hatred within his own heart. That was the only reason he accepted the order. In the end, Yashamaru failed, and died in the process. I think what made Gaara snap, was having the one person who seemed to care about him, try to kill him. Ever since then, he was cold to every one, and lived only for himself."
All I could do was stare at the blonde sitting beside me, "You have got to be kidding me."
"She's telling the truth."
I jumped and slipped off the bed onto the floor. Standing in the door way was a brown haired young man. He was kind of on the stocky side, but he was wearing a black tee-shirt and pants. He looked vaguely familiar.
"Don't sneak up on people, Kankuro. It's not nice." Temari reprimanded him.
"Kankuro? Cat Head Kankuro? Where's your face and ears?" I demanded as I stood.
Kankuro smirked, "Just got out of the shower, I'm not going to put all that on just to come down the hall and harass you." He rolled his eyes, "It's barely worth the effort to walk down the hall."
I stuck out my tongue, "Meanie. You'll have to come and visit me. I got grounded."
"Eh?" He looked slightly confused.
"Still drunk or something? Or do you not remember when your brother told me 'no more drinky drinky' and I hit him?"
"Oh that. Actually, I tried to block out the whole incident. I'm surprised you are still intact." he said as he entered the room, shut the door, and sat on the floor.
I shrugged, "That Hokage lady gave me a 'get out of jail free' card and told Gaara that he couldn't hurt me. So he confined me to my room. I'm going to be so bored." I said with a sigh and flung myself back onto the bed.
"Well, want another Tarot reading?"
I replied by flinging one of the large pillows that were on my bed, at him, "Keep those demon cards of evil doom away from me." I said and covered my face with the other pillow.
Temari laughed and Kankuro knocked the pillow away.
"Jeeze, I was kidding." He said defensively.
"You read her fortune, didn't you?" Temari asked.
I pushed the pillow off to see Kankuro nod.
"It wasn't good I take it?"
Kankuro shook his head, "It was creepy. But there was one card that had me stumped until I looked up more definitions on it." He said and pulled out the Hermit card from his pocket and showed Temari.
"What's so weird about the Hermit?" Temari seemed curious now.
"It came up as her immediate influence. Who do we know that has 'A tendency to withhold emotion'?" He asked with an amused expression on his face.
"Oh hell no!" I said and rolled over.
"No way..." Temari said, not quite believing what Kankuro was hinting at.
"Gaara." All three of us said in unison.
"What?" An all too familiar voice asked from the door.
I yelped, there was a sharp intake of breath from Temari, and Kankuro grunted.
"Damnit, can't you knock?" I demanded and sat up, but instantly wanted to take back the question.
Gaara fixed his glare on me. I shrank back slightly.
Temari and Kankuro both stood up at just about the same time and excused themselves.
"I have to go train, see you Amanda." Kankuro said as he left the room.
"I have to go clean, see ya Ah-Chan." Temari said as she followed him out.
Damn them both. They left me here, alone, with a psycho.
Gaara watched them both leave and looked at me, "You were talking about me."
It was more of a statement than a question, so I remained silent.
He continued to stand there and look at me. It was kind of un-nerving. After about two minutes of the mutual stare down, he turned to leave. And I got the bright idea to say what I was thinking, again.
"Hey. I feel bad about before." I said quietly and he stopped just short of the door way.
"What I mean to say is-"
"I don't need your pity." He cut my apology short and quickly left the room.
I glared at the spot where he had just been standing. It was a rare thing for me to apologize to anyone for anything, and here this...this guy, cut me off and denied it? Uh uh, nope, don't think so.
I jumped off the bed and ran out into the hall after him, he was halfway down the stairs, "Hey, HEY! Don't you walk away from someone when they're apologizing to you!' I yelled down to him.
He looked up and glared at me. That glare, it was always a damn glare. Would it kill him to have some variety in his life, maybe a frown, or a scowl, but no. Always had to be the glare.
"You left your room."
I looked at the floor and nodded, I was three feet outside of my door, standing at the top of the stairs, "Yeah, so?"
"I told you not to leave." The glare was gone, and now he just looked creepy, no emotion what-so-ever. He really was the Hermit from the Tarot reading. Creepy.
"And I told you not to walk away, but you did. So I think it's an even trade. So you can stand there and stare at me and be all amazed that I didn't listen to you..." Oh, what a shocker, me, not listen? Ha, "Or you can come back up here like a gentleman and listen to my apology and then I will go back in my room and you won't hear a peep from me the rest of the night."
To my surprise he actually turned and came back up the stairs. I backed up and walked into my room and waited for him. He stopped at the door way and waited. I didn't think that would work, but it did.
"You can come in, you know." I said and sat down on the bed again.
He took two steps in and leaned against the wall, looking at me with expressionless eyes again.
"What I was trying to say before you walked away was that I'm sorry for slapping you. You should know a few things about me. No one gets in the way of me drinking, I have no respect for authority, and I hate, absolutely hate, being treated like a child."
He shrugged, "Fine." And turned to leave.
"Don't you have anything to say?" I demanded.
He glanced over his shoulder and looked at me, "Not a peep. Remember?" and the he was out the door.
It took all the self control I had to keep myself from running to the door and yelling 'peep' as loud as I could. But I kept my word.