Chapter 8:
Raxiel couldn't believe how long it took them to buy the necessary items she would need for when she would be abandoned in her little hotel room the days that Gaara would be away. No matter how hard she tried to get out of each store as quickly as possible, it was somehow inevitable that they would always stay in each store for at least an hour. Gaara could sense her frustration, and he quickly caught on that shopping was not at the top of her list of fun things to do. He could tell her frustration grew even more when he insisted on paying for everything. He didn't think -… he knew she wouldn't be doing anymore shopping for a while.
Finally making their way out of the busy "metropolis," they started to walk back towards the hotel. Raxiel suddenly heard her stomach growl, and noticed her arms were shaking due to the fact that she had been holding a huge bag of groceries for a long time. Seeing that she was frustrated, Gaara had been kind enough to take most of the bags, and she knew she owed him for that.
Reaching her free hand into the heavy bag she was carrying, she pulled out an apple and tossed it to Gaara, not realizing in time that his hands were full. Raxiel gasped as she soon noticed the mistake she had made. She closed her eyes and flinched, but suddenly she heard something coming from his direction…
Sand…
She opened her eyes looking at Gaara to see that a hand formed by sand was right next to Gaara's face, the apple gripped inside of it. Raxiel's eyes widened in shock, noticing how the sand had caught it as if it was second nature to it.
"Gaara, I'm so sorry! I wasn't thinking! –"
"It's alright. There's no need," he said kindly to her.
Raxiel noticed his unusual friendliness and looked down, embarrassed by what she had just done. "It was meant for you to eat…" she said quietly.
Gaara looked over at her, realizing she was embarrassed. "Thank you," he said calmly while looking at her with sincerity. Raxiel slowly raised her eyes up to look at him, and noticed his the look on his face…
One she had never seen before on him…
Peaceful…
Almost, hypnotizing…
Slowly, her smile came back as they started to walk down the road again. After walking a few more minutes, Gaara heard a noise coming from Raxiel. He glanced over at her to see that she was, once again, digging into her bag she was holding trying to find another apple. He quickly ordered his sand to put the apple in one of the bags where the apple would be at the top, and dismissed it afterwards.
They soon came across a fork in the road. One of those roads was the one they had come from that morning to get to the village, while they had not traveled the other one yet.
"Do you want to take the other road?" Gaara asked nonchalantly.
Raxiel stopped what she was doing and looked up at him curiously. "Where does it go?"
"Same place, different scene," he said bluntly.
Raxiel gave him a genial smile. "Sure; that's fine."
They continued to walk, this time, choosing the path to their right instead. Raxiel brought her focus back on the apple she was still trying to grasp from the bottom of the bag. Her stomach was starting to make much louder noises. Gaara looked over at her, hearing the unusual sound.
The wind was eerily blowing. Leaves started to fall from the trees that surrounded the two wandering beings. Their pace was becoming slower as they were taking in the incredible old forest that the road had taken them.
Raxiel finally grabbed something in the bag…
"Ah-hah!" she cried out triumphantly. Gaara looked over at her to see her walking beside him, her tongue sticking out awkwardly from concentration, and her face only a few inches away from entering the bag. As she reeled back her arm to see what her hand had hooked onto, she smiled a golden smile. But her smile soon turned into disappointment as she lifted her hand up to see only an orange. She sighed, disappointed with herself.
"Crud…" she mumbled.
Gaara couldn't help but smirk at the expression on her face. She almost looked defeated.
And something else caught Gaara's attention…
Sweat was dripping off her face…
"Funny…" he thought. "I didn't notice how tired she was from walking."
As Raxiel was in deep thought while looking at the orange, Gaara abruptly stopped. Raxiel soon noticed and stopped along side him. She looked at him with bewilderment. "What's wrong?"
"We're resting."
"Resting?"
Gaara looked at her. "Yes, we're resting. Come on, over there by the spring."
They made their way towards the spring, Gaara leading the way. Trees covered two sides of the spring; while the other half of the spring was some what hindered by boulders that had fallen off the mountain that was behind the forest, making the spring an almost private area.
Raxiel sat down on one of the boulders right next to the spring, her legs crossed. Gaara found a boulder next to it and sat down on it. He glanced over at Raxiel to see her peeling the orange.
Raxiel looked up at him and then looked down at the apple she had "tossed" to him that was still in the bag. "Why don't you eat you apple I gave you?" she asked curiously.
Gaara made a quick glance down to the apple. "I'm not hungry right now," he said politely, managing to force a smirk at her, even though he wasn't feeling all that happy. Raxiel noticed his rare smirk and quickly smiled back at him. It wasn't very long though until her eyes caught onto something else.
As she spun around to look at the water on the other side of her, Gaara couldn't help but stare at her big, dark brown eyes that were shining with excitement. They were filled with so much life… so much love-
"Wait… Did I just think that?" he thought to himself. He shook his head, trying to get the thoughts out of his mind.
"Do you like water, Gaara?" Raxiel asked him curiously. Gaara noticed that she had moved off the boulder to sit down on the dirt next to the spring. Her finger was caressing the water as she looked down at it calmly. Her orange was sitting on the boulder. Gaara's eyes widened slightly from not catching her moving from the boulder to the water.
"Well," he said bluntly, "I'm not fond of it. Why?"
Raxiel shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. I thought you might like it. It kind of reminds me of you."
"What do you mean?" he asked curiously.
"Well, water can be calm and silent, only making sound when it needs to. It's different from everything else. It's much more mysterious."
Gaara eyed the girl in total shock.
Raxiel began to giggle, thinking about what she had just said. "But water can also be rough, strong, and angry. It can threaten people's lives in a storm, or it can create a huge fear in people's lives by trying to drown them."
She turned her head to put her eyes on him. They both made eyes contact with each other. "That's just the way I feel about you. You're different… from anyone else I've ever met. But it's strange. I also feel as though you are scared of something, like a tiny droplet that's not ready to fall from the cloud to the ground… I'm sorry. I rambled off."
She had read his mind…
She had caught him so off guard, all he could do was nod, acknowledging he forgave her for what she had called "foolish talking."
As Raxiel stood up, ready to go, Gaara noticed the red rose that had been in her hair all day.
Red… the color of blood… and yet it also resembles so much more…
What else could it resemble?
Gaara walked over to the boulder she was first sitting on and picked up her orange. Facing her, he tossed it to her. Raxiel tried to catch it, but it went further away towards the spring. Raxiel quickly lost her balance and fell into the water. Gaara's eyes widened. He walked over to the edge and saw her there, soaked all over. Her shirt was clenched to her body, revealing every curve of her beautiful figure. Gaara tried not to look any farther down other than her face, but Raxiel noticed his uneasiness and blushed.
"If I'm water," he thought, "then I'm all over her… I'm in her…"
Red…
A droplet of blood slid down Raxiel's face from her forehead where she had cut her face slightly by a rock in the spring.
It resembles hurt…
Pain…
"Are you okay?" he asked gently. Raxiel nodded, looking as though the fall had been nothing. Gaara held his hand out to help her, and she gladly accepted his offer. As he helped her out, the orange in her other hand, she smiled at him, giving him a "thank you" look.
"Let's go," he said as he started to walk away. Raxiel started to follow when she suddenly stopped and ran back over to the spring. Gaara was picking up all of the bags when he noticed her gazing out into the spring. He walked back over to her and noticed was she was looking at.
In the spring, two roses floated in the water, one red, and the other white. He stared at them with confusion.
As if Raxiel could read his mind, she began to speak, "This, from now on, will be our spring. I will always cherish this place and think of you and I here and how we've become such good friends these past two days. Besides, I think the spring needed something to remember us by, as well," she said still looking out over the spring.
"Our spring…"
Gaara thought those words as they turned around to walk the path towards the hotel.
