All I Ever Wanted Was Love
And I'm Alone
Gaara's POV
I feel… weird.
It sounds strange for me to even be feeling anything.
Most of my feelings should have been eaten away by Shukaku by now.
Then how am I able to feel this way?
Why…?
I feel so empty…
But she…
Kisa…
Her presence fills my void…
I feel so… lost.
There was once a feeling that I once had for her.
What was it?
… Love.
But…
What is love?
Regular POV
Gaara took a deep breath- breathing in the fresh fragrance of the surrounding quiet forest.
He had just finished scrubbing the last bloodstain off his pale skin- it felt good to be clean.
Especially without the armor of sand sticking to his skin.
Sand and water didn't mix, that he knew for sure.
Slowly, the red-haired shinobi slouched back into the water, letting the soothing hot water seep into his skin.
If he could, he would go ahead and sleep in the hot spring- however, he knew that if he did, he would wake up to a flat, dead piece of earth.
But if Kisa were here with him…
He gave another silent sigh- setting a record of sighs for one day.
It still hadn't occurred to him how on earth Kisa had the power to keep Shukaku in check when he, the medium, couldn't.
"Maybe-'
The sound of rustling leaves brought him out of his thoughts.
Narrowing his eyes, he scanned the area and carefully listened for an intruder.
A quiet padding of footsteps that came from the other side of the spring that was hidden from his view by a large boulder brought Gaara climbing out of the hot spring.
'I'm still wet…'
He grabbed a towel to wrap himself in, and dried himself as fast as he could. Then he turned to grab his clothes… or at least where they should have been.
'Where are they?'
This was strange, he was sure that he had left his clothes by the towel…
He cocked his head- what kind of pervert would take his clothes?
Gaara shrugged the idea off as he went about on his search for his clothes.
'Could it have been Kisa?'
He rounded the side of a boulder.
"Hey there…"
Gaara was greeted with a friendly smile from Kisa.
He presumed that he was supposed to feel a bit embarrassed in front of a girl with only a towel covering the necessities, but he was Sabaku no Gaara, and being embarrassed was something he would never do.
"Ah…" Gaara looked away from the girl to prevent himself from seeing the small amount of laughter that was dancing in her eyes. He saw his clothes hanging on a rack supported by two tree branches.
'So that was what the rustling was…'
"Oh!" he heard the girl exclaim when she noticed him staring at his clothes that were now wet.
"I washed your clothes for you," she explained, "They were a bit… bloody. I hope you don't mind."
His only response was to turn his clear aquamarine eyes to her and blink, then look away again.
'She's gotten pretty good at sneaking around- she managed to finish washing my clothes in the same hot spring that I was in before I even noticed. Or was I just not paying attention…?'
He drifted off into his little world of consuming thoughts.
"Oh… you must be getting cold- I'll go get a robe for you so you can wear it while your clothes are drying," Kisa said, hurrying past Gaara to go back into the cabin.
He didn't see her going to get something for him to wear.
He saw her leaving him.
Leaving… him…
Alone…
He reached for her.
"AHHHH!"
Children screamed for their lives as the sand enveloped them.
Their fingers clawed savagely at the desert ground, desperately trying to find something to grab a hold of.
But the sand kept pulling.
They were getting closer.
To it.
They hadn't been running from a small child that was no bigger than they were.
They had been fleeing from a monster- a monster that mercilessly spilt blood.
Some began praying for their lives.
Some began saying goodbye to their family and friends.
Some just screamed.
In the midst of all this…
A small, timid, shaky voice came from the 'monster'.
"W-Wait… don't leave me alone…"
I don't want to be alone anymore…
"…Don't leave me alone!"
Sand appeared at his feet, encircling him first, and then reaching out for her.
Shocked to hear Gaara call out like that, Kisa turned around, only to see a wave of sand coming at her.
'A sandstorm?'
Instinctively, she cried out as she fell to the ground holding her arms in front of her, as if to protect herself. A flash of blue erupted from the red orbs on the bracelets on her wrists.
Gaara froze, watching his sand come crashing down on Kisa as she became engulfed in a blue light.
"Kisa!" he called out stumbling towards where he had seen her last.
The sand disappeared back into the ground as soil as Gaara controlled it with his hands. Slowly, a ball of blue appeared as the sand sank back into the ground. The shinobi watched it curiously as it became unearthed from his sand.
"Kisa?"
The twelve-year old girl was sobbing, her hands to her face, with a clear blue ball of something surrounding her.
"Chakara…" Gaara realized as he felt the strong presence of such a large amount of chakara before him.
'Strange…' he wondered.
He hadn't felt a such a large amount of chakara emanating from Kisa earlier.
'Where did this all come from?'
He approached her as the blue ball of chakara surrounding her disappeared.
"Kisa…" Gaara slowly knelt before her, reaching out for her.
Her tearful eyes went up to his face.
"Kisa… I'm…"
She threw herself into his arms. Gaara watched with a loss of words as she kept crying.
"I was so afraid…' she said.
Gaara thought she had meant that she was afraid him, until he realized that she was clinging to him.
"…Why?" he questioned, confused now.
She sniffled as the tears began to slow.
"… they… they all disappeared…" she said, "… they… never came back."
He watched her with troubled eyes.
Was this why she had always been scared of sandstorms?
"Kisa…" he murmured her name. he moved his hand to left up her chin to look into her eyes.
'I always liked looking into her eyes,' he remembered how pretty they were.
Kisa's eyes travel up from the ground to his dark rimmed eyes, but not before seeing the glint of sunlight on blue.
"My necklace!" she exclaimed her eyes went back to a blue orb on a thin chain, hanging about Gaara's neck.
Gaara looked back down at the necklace he had always worn, but stopped noticing after all those years.
"… It's… yours…," he stated, not wanting it to sound like a question.
Her fingers touched the pendant, lightly brushing against his chest.
Suddenly, Gaara backed away from her, blushing from their previous close proximity, and when he had been wearing towel, no less.
Kisa looked a bit startled, but laughed it away as she brushed the tears away from her eyes.
"Come on," she stood up, grabbing his hand and helping him up as she began leading him back into the cabin, "Let's go get you something to wear."
Gaara pouted, but something inside of him began pulling at the corner of his lips, making him smile a bit.
From what he could understand, he loved this feeling he had inside of him right now.
But maybe… just maybe… he could learn to love her again.