Chapter 3:

"Aaah! Got'cha!" the sensei said, relieved. He finally got off of the younger man, quick to also notice Gaara and Raxiel watching. He smiled at them politely.

"Hi there," he greeted as he was walked over to them. Raxiel smiled at him genially, and Gaara watched her, realizing how relaxed she was with talking to him. Gaara shifted his gaze towards the slightly older man, noticing his body language between him and Raxiel. Beginning to become jealous, Gaara's smirk soon vanished. Gaara thought that the older man's smile at Raxiel seemed almost too kind.

Soon the man slightly blushed with embarrassment. "I hope you didn't watch us the whole time we were going at it," he said nervously.

"No, we just got here," said Raxiel, her laughter quietly returning. The man smiled, even more intrigued by her. Gaara began to become annoyed by the stranger.

Suddenly, the blonde-haired boy quickly stood up and ran over to them. "Iruka-sensei! I really am hungry! Can you, please, just let it slide by once?" he whined, looking at the man, this time, with seriousness in his face.

The man looked down at him and smiled. "Alright. Fine, but next time, could you just ask, please?" Soon the older man held out the coupon for which they had been wrestling, and, in the blink of an eye, the blonde-haired snatched it, looking at it pleasantly. He looked at the sensei gratefully. "Thank you! Oh, thank you, thank you thank you!" and quickly he darted towards the town.

Raxiel had finally quit laughing once they were all watching the "lightning bolt" charge into the village. Once he had disappeared from their sight, the sensei turned around to face them again, smiling at them, once again. "Please, excuse the scene. My name is Iruka. Tell me, are you new here?"

Raxiel returned the smile as Gaara only glared at him. "I am; I'm not sure about Gaara though."

Iruka looked over at the scowling redhead. "Gaara, I assume?" he asked.

Gaara mumbled a reply to the man, "…Yeah." Gaara had already come to a conclusion: he hated this guy's guts. Iruka smiled at him only for a moment until he placed his eyes back on Raxiel's. "Who might you be?" he asked politely to Raxiel. Looking a little embarrassed, Raxiel apologetically replied, "I'm sorry! My name is Raxiel."

Iruka began to look at her even more curiously. Gaara soon caught on, and interrupted his mesmerization on Raxiel. "Come on, Raxiel. Let's get you to a nurse." Turning her focus on Gaara again, Raxiel nodded in agreement, but before they could leave, Iruka began to speak again. "If you're looking for a nurse, there should be one who lives close to the town. Just ask the owner of the ramen shop where she is; he should know," the sensei said. Raxiel nodded to Iruka gratefully. "Thank you."

Iruka paused hesitantly. "Umm if you're here tomorrow, perhaps we can talk again." Raxiel was about to respond, but she noticed Gaara was already stalking away. Forgetting Iruka's invitation, she quickly sprinted to catch up to him.

Gaara didn't wait for her. He didn't look back to see if she was coming or not. Another person had rejected him. Another regular person had won her companionship. Trying to make her voice inaudible, he grunted as she caught up to him.

"Hey, Gaara," she said sounding like her full strength had almost returned, "what's the rush?"

"You need to see a nurse quickly," he said almost uncaringly.

Raxiel noticed his strange behavior. "Actually, I think I'm okay. I can just go tomorrow, since it's pretty late."

Gaara remained silent.

As they walked into the town, Raxiel started to scrutinize the area, noticing all of the different shops and how unique each one was. Quickly, she caught sight of an ice cream parlor and smirked.

Gaara was just about to ditch Raxiel, knowing she'd be fine with this Iruka guy. She seemed happy with Iruka instead of hesitant like she was with him…

"But she wasn't scared," he thought. "She really is different, but darn it! She could never care about me…"

Looking down trying to think of something to say to ditch her, he was suddenly taken by surprise to find someone's hand grabbing his arm. He looked up to see that it was Raxiel. She was pulling at his arm, smiling at him genially. In fact, it seemed she was smiling at him even more affectionately than the smile she had given that Iruka guy.

Raxiel tugged at his arm again. "Come on, Gaara! Let's eat something."

"Huh? What? It's midnight. Aren't you tired?" he asked her, still trying to ditch her.

"We've been walking all night. Don't you want something cold to soothe your body? Besides, I've got money, and I'll pay for it."

"Get rid of her, Gaara!" the voice inside him called. Noticing her eager face, Gaara quickly turned the voice inside him off and returned his attention to her again. Finally, he closed his eyes and nodded. Raxiel, pleased by herself to get him to go with her, finally let go of him and smiled a smile just like the one the blonde-haired kid had when he had received the coupon.

As they walked into the parlor, Gaara sat down as Raxiel paid for the pleasurable treats. She sat down next to him as they ate them.

"Is this your home-town?" Raxiel asked. Gaara looked over at her. He watched as her tongue made its way over her lips to wipe off the excess ice cream. He started to wonder what her lips tasted like…

"Gaara? Are you okay?"

Snapping out of his concentration, he quickly replied, "Yeah. I'm fine." He soon noticed her happy face turning into concernment, but she didn't ask him anymore questions. Gaara kept his eyes out the window that was right next to him.

He wondered…

Wondered what kept her from asking more questions like she had been doing in the past…

With their treats eaten, they began to walk towards a hotel that Gaara knew was by the village.

But Raxiel, on the other hand, came to a conclusion that she wasn't sleepy. She looked beside her at Gaara to see that he was staring ahead at the road.

"Hey, Gaara-"

"Curse it!" he thought. "Her voice… It's too…-"

"I'm not tired; I'm just going to hang outside tonight."

Not liking what she had just said, he tried to come up with an excuse to get her inside where it was safe. " …Raxiel -"

"I'll be fine. Hey, I'll see you tomorrow, okay? Thanks for everything," she said hurriedly, and quickly she began to walk away, not wanting him to persuade her into getting a room.

Gaara watched the brunette slip away from him. He examined her from bottom to top, watching her disappear little by little. And as she got farther away from him, he couldn't help but feel that he needed to be beside her in the that dark night.