A/N-This one was 4 pages when I wrote it out on vacation this week. Enough said. Enjoy and Read and Review.
Different
Summary-When Gaara's possessive jealousy becomes too much, Mika makes the hard decision to end it. Can Gaara change her mind? Based on 'Not that Different' by Colin Raye
Timeline- just after they've arrived in Naruto's world, 5 years before where 'When Reality Becomes Blurred' is right now.
Disclaimer-I don't own Naruto or the song 'Not that different' by Colin Raye
Mika stormed into her new condo that she was keeping in Suna, her black hair…and her boyfriend trailing behind her. "I don't believe you!" she exploded once the door had slipped closed. The sand master summoned the cork and stuffed it in the orifice of the gourd and glared at his girlfriend. "What's wrong now Mika? All I did was try and defend you!" he said, exasperated.
"Against what? I'm so sick of your jealousy! That's what's wrong!" she said loudly.
Flashback(Mika's perspective)
She walked through the streets of Suna, bewildered. A vague thought asked why her boyfriend had neglected to give her a map but she shoved it aside and continued her search for her destination-an ice cream shop.
Finally out of desperation, she did the thing that the guy would never do…making it a good thing she wasn't a guy. She asked for directions, from a man in a Chunnin vest who was walking towards her.
He was in the middle of telling her that, in order to eat the best ice cream in the city, she should go up two streets, take a left and..
Mika took a look at the man, roughly in his 20's oddly. He seemed to be trying to say something but couldn't do anything except claw at his neck….
Where a strand of sand, the width of a fishing wire, was wrapped around his neck.
All hell broke loose.
End Flashback
"That's not what I saw." Retorted Gaara. "He was out and out flirting with you." Mika gritted her teeth and ground out "I. Was. Asking. Him. Directions." She said slowly so her boyfriend would get it.
Flashback (Gaara's Perspective.)
He stood on the rooftop of the Kazekage building. It was the kind of building where you could see the entire city from this one point. Easily, from this vantage point he had, he picked out the black head of his girlfriend weaving her way through the streets of Suna very obviously confused.
Having forgotten to give her a map, he couldn't help but feel slightly responsible for her current state of confusion. Oh well. She looked cute when she was all bewildered and lost.
His eyes, however, narrowed when he watched her stop and talk to one of his Chunnin. They narrowed even further when he saw the way he looked at her. He stood this for about a minute until his thin patience ran out and he summoned his sand to around the man's neck.
End Flashback
"And you." He said accusingly. "Almost looked as if you were flirting back." She rolled her hazel eyes. "Gaara you should know me better than that. If you had just given me a map I wouldn't have had to ask for directions and this wouldn't even be an issue!" Her anger seemed to drain out of her while she said this.
She buried half of her face in one of her hands and clenched a fistful of hair in frustration, exhaling loudly through her nose. This wasn't the first argument she had had with Gaara and she highly doubted it'd be the last. She sank into one of the two chairs that sat at the kitchen table as she contemplated what to do.
Until she came up with the final solution. One that was going to have to work…for both their sakes.
"Gaara…this…what we have…is never going to work." She said softly. It felt as though someone had thrown a heavy weight against his stomach. "W..what?" He breathed, feeling his anger subsiding being replaced by a feeling he couldn't-or wouldn't…identify.
Still not looking at him, she said quietly "I thought it would be cool…when I lived in the other world…to have a possessive/jealous boyfriend…but I couldn't…can't…handle it. And…" she looked up and drove the final dart through him. "We're just too different." He couldn't speak.
Hurt by the fact that he hadn't responded to her statement she stood up and turned her back on him. "Tomorrow morning I'll be returning to Konoha and I will not be coming back." She said softly. "Now please leave."
When he had obliged her and left, moving quietly as though he hadn't just gotten horrible news. She shut the door behind him softly and slipped to the ground, sobbing softly.
As soon as the door was closed behind him, he had left to his usual spot on Kazekage tower…where he called himself every foul name known to man. "Too different." He echoed her to the empty streets of Konoha. 'Why couldn't you come up with something Sabaku' he growled at himself.
Mentally, he began to list the reasons why Mika would say that they were too different. She was emotional, he was stoic. There was one difference. He got jealous easy, she didn't…wait. A smirk grew across his face. That wasn't entirely true. He recalled the look she got on her face whenever a member of his fan club was bold enough to hit on him.
Not different.
This gave him an idea.
Her apartment was almost bare. Even as she shoved the last but of clothes into her suitcase, pink streaks shot over the horizon.
It was time to go.
Someone knocked on the door. Closing her suitcase she started for the door. But Gaara came in first.
"Let me ask you something before you go. Please." He said in a tone that broke no room for arguments. Reluctantly she sat down and heard him out.
"Do you laugh?" not seeing a point to this but wanting to get out of Suna fast, she nodded. "So do I. I laugh every time I see the look of jealousy when a fan girl hits on me." She turned scarlet and looked at the floor.
"Do you love?" Again, she nodded. "So do I…I love you."
"Do you hope?" His constant questioning was beginning to unnerve her and he could tell this. "Bear with me. Do you hope?" "Yes." "So do I. I hope to spend the rest of my life with you."
"Do you try?" Nod. "So do I. I try to make sure our relationship is everything I can make it."
"Do you hurt." A statement not a question. She avoided his eyes and said, "Yes." "So do I. I hurt at the mere thought of losing you."
"Do you need?" Before she could reply before continuing, knowing what her answer would be. "So do I. I need you with me." He said in a soft voice, intense jade eyes boring a hole into her head.
"Do you fear?" She nodded. "So do I. I fear for your life whenever the Hokage sends you on a mission, solo or not."
"Do you cry." He whispered this, not making it a question because her eyes were already filling with tears. "So do I. I cry inwardly at the thought of losing you."
He reached out a hand to turn her face to look at him. "We're not that different."
Mika pulled her chin out of his grasp. "It's too late. Please…don't make this harder than it is." Standing up, she said softly. "Have one of your Chunnin please bring my other things to Konoha in the near future."
"No." he conjured a cloud of sand. "The sand will take it-and you-to Konoha, safely. I don't trust any Chunnin with you."
He turned his back and left the room.
Before she could start crying again, she stepped into the swirling sand and let it take her home.
Three weeks later she was on a date. She herself thought it was too early but it was at Seyann's insistence, backed up by Michelle via mirror that she sat opposite to Hyuuga Neji in the bar.
As he held up his end of the conversation, she sat there, smiling and nodding.
This was wrong.
If anything, Neji was better suited for her friend Michelle…not for her. She had left the love of her own life.
Finally she interrupted Neji shaking her head gently. "Neji, I'm sorry but I shouldn't be on a date so soon." She started to stand up and pull a bill out of her purse for her end of the bill. He reached out to take her wrist and stop her. He smiled. "Keep it. It's a pick me up on me. Personally I think Seyann was foolish for pushing you out on a date so soon. If you ever need to talk, just call me up and I'll listen. You don't even have to class this as a date…it was drinks between friends." Mika smiled and said "Thanks Neji."
As she chattered softly with her friend later, she asked this question, one that had been burning in her mind for the past three weeks, since she left him. "Seyann why did you think that Gaara and I made such a cute couple."
Sey pondered this for a moment before answering, "You're so different." Mika gasped and began to tremble. Seyann didn't hear her and continued, "You're so emotional, he's so stoic…you fight verbally and he fights with his sand…but through those differences you are still the same. Like…He's the only one who can use sand and you're the only one who can turn random things into weapons…you're two of a kind and yet because you're both individual you're the same. You both have the same emotions…"
At this, Mika stood up. She had a look on her face that betrayed her inner emotions-regret, fear of loss…turmoil and conflict. "That's…why I left him…I said we were too different. But he was right." Her eyes grew a faraway look. "I have to go back." "What…To Suna? Mika wait!"
But Mika was gone before Seyann could say anything to object.
Thunder rumbled the house, causing him to look up from the paper work he was currently scowling at.
Rain, in the desert, was a rare thing., and when it came…it was remarkably violent.
Sighing he closed the folder and rubbed his sinuses. Rain, however violent, was refreshing…
She was refreshing.
Why did everything remind him of her?
He wished, with all his heard, he could've persuaded her to stay. Managed to persuade her that they weren't that different…if only…
He slammed his fist into the desktop as he stood up. What if's…should've…could've…. how many times had he thought those words over the past three weeks?
He walked through the house as the rain started to pound the roof. Making a spontaneous decision, he turned his steps towards the door, wanting to go outside and stand in the rain. Hey. He was Sabaku no Gaara…he was allowed to do strange things. He swung open the door…
And Mika stood there, drenched from the rain, and from her tears.
She didn't tell him she loved him…she didn't have to. Loving him had never been an issue.
Taking a shaky breath, she said, "I laugh. I love. I hope. I try. I hurt" her eyes filled with more tears "I need. I fear. I cry."
Taking another shaky breath "I'm sorry Gaara…Please forgive me…I was wrong."
"We're not…that different."
A/N-cries I like this one-shot. If you haven't heard this song…listen to it, it's good.
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