Hiya.
If I had to pick a favourite chapter, it would be this one. Conveniently, also my favourite number. ;P
Enjoy. ^_^
…
Chapter Eight.
...
The dull, monotonous alarm reverberated through the palace. Someone in this place must've known a jutsu that could amplify sound, because no alarm was naturally this loud. It felt like Sakura's head was going to explode when she woke up to the early morning, reverberating blaring. She groaned, rolling out of bed and fighting with the sheets that had joined her before climbing to her feet. This was not a very nice way to wake people up. It wasn't very kingly.
She ate the small breakfast that was waiting for her, as usual, then suddenly remembered something, running to her laundry basket and throwing the lid off.
Karin's dress.
The one she'd been wearing when Sakura and Ino had—literally—unclothed her. It had the Oto emblem on it, blaring loud and clear who it belonged to.
Speaking of blaring, she thought as the alarm died down, making her eye twitch.
At the sounds of people outside her room, she panicked, hiding the dress under her bed, knowing only Ino ever looked under there, and ran to her closet. Her normal army of maids were nowhere to be seen and Sakura could only imagine what kind of spectacle was going on outside her room.
King Rasa was not going to take this well.
Sakura spared a thought to wonder how Gaara would react as she dressed, then pushed that down and fixed her hair as best she could (it was short, so whatever), and ran out of her room, forcing confusion onto her face.
"It's true," one of the ladies she'd never bothered to talk to said, while walking past Sakura's room with a friend and sparing the pinkette a cursory glance. "She's gone."
"How did she get out?"
"No-one knows. But I can only imagine it was one of those ghastly servants from the east wing that let her through."
"But why would anyone do that?"
"Does it matter? Only a plebeian would run out on someone like Lord Gaara."
"I certainly wouldn't. I wonder who he'll marry now."
Sakura ignored them, forcing herself not to grin as she made her way through the upper floors and remembered her antics the night before.
.
They dressed Karin in a set of unused set of servant clothes, ignoring her look of disdain as she fiddled with the seams of her outfit.
"Is this really necessary?" She asked.
"If you want a distant guard to not call the alarm before you've even made it to the outer walls, yes," Ino said. "Just remember to keep the hood up."
.
Sakura's room was situated in the east wing; she kept to the upper floors as she strode through, greeting people she was friendly enough with and looked around for any indication that anyone knew someone outside the servant class might have had something to do with Karin's disappearance.
After a while, finding nothing, Sakura took her morning stroll in the gardens and sat for a while, listening in on a conversation with some gardeners as they talked about King Rasa's rage.
"This'll be the end of talks with Oto, mark my words."
"Did we really need them, anyway?"
"The king seemed to think so, and he's a smart man."
"Hm. Maybe another alliance with someone less flighty would benefit Wind better, anyway."
Sakura smiled at that and closed her eyes, enjoying the morning sun. It wouldn't surprise her if Rasa was sending his guards to follow Karin toward Oto. Which was not where she was headed, but anyone who didn't know anything about her personally wouldn't know that.
She remembered what Ino and Karin had said the night before, as the three of them got ready to leave Sakura's room under the cover of darkness.
.
Ino warned Karin that heading home would be too dangerous.
"That's what they'll expect," she said. "Take a different path and stay off the main roads. But as soon as you can, disappear into crowds. That's the best way to throw off pursuers. Even a dog will lose a scent with enough people around."
"I'll go to the free cities," Karin said, nodding her head in agreement with Ino. "That's where Suigetsu's clan is based and father has no idea I even know he exists."
There was no way Rasa would know of her lover either, or even guess that as her destination.
"Escaped many angry kings before?" Sakura asked, teasing the blonde.
Ino poked her tongue out at her. "Just you wait until I get my title back. I'll kick your arse."
Sakura laughed. "Okay Karin, let's get you out of here."
Karin nodded in agreement. "Let's."
.
Sakura turned her gaze up at the sun as the gardeners moved to another section to begin weeding and fertilising. Her presence here was expected and unobtrusive. She waited for a little while before getting up; it was almost time for her training, and today, being late would be too suspicious.
Sakura hurried back to the upper floors and took the main corridor to save time, but as she turned to head into it, she froze in place.
King Rasa was storming down the corridor toward Sakura, his face red and his steps heavy. His fury seemed to have an aura of its own, blotting out everything around him. As though it had a life of its own. She imagined she could feel his menace. She quickly stepped into the corridor and out of the way, off the ornate path along the floor. The nearby servants bowed and pressed themselves against the walls. Terrified, Sakura copied one of the noble ladies nearby who was merely curtsying and staying out of his way.
She realised too late that his whole family was striding behind him and Sakura accidentally locked eyes with Gaara as he followed his father, looking like it was just another lazy Sunday morning. She didn't notice the way Kankuro smirked at her knowingly or the way Temari rolled her eyes and Queen Karura just looked curious.
Her lips parted, her breathing deepened, lips parting; she swallowed nervously. Those intense jade eyes bore into her green ones for as long as he could muster before the five of them turned a corner and strode out of sight.
...
Days later, it seemed the king was still on a rampage.
Sakura kept up her morning routine of a stroll through the gardens and decided it served multiple purposes, including easing her nerves and maintaining a sense of normalcy as she fought to pretend she hadn't stolen the future queen out from under the nose of the royal family. She broke the routine to head into the library, however, not looking to repeat that moment in the main corridor a few days ago. She desperately wanted to see Gaara, but not with his whole family around.
No-one could get suspicious that she might actually have motivation to undermine his now abandoned engagement. As she settled down for a good read of the classic Wind novels about ninja and chakra wars, Sakura couldn't help but remember her farewell to Karin, and possibly the last time she would ever see the girl.
.
They stuck to the shadows as much as possible. Ino had served tea to the guards tonight and slipped a little sleeping concoction into their drinks. Not enough to make them realise they were drugged, come morning, though. They were just sleeping on the job. Ino had no intention of dumping this on some unsuspecting servant. This was her idea, and therefore her risk.
Sakura took a hold of Karin's trembling hand as they entered the servants' wing and followed Ino's lead, avoiding all the frequently traversed corridors as they made their way to the west guard's tower. Karin almost hyperventilated as Ino knocked out a guard with a surprisingly robust vase and Sakura helped the blonde drag him out of sight as quietly as possible.
"This'll give you a head start," Ino said, wiping her brow. "This guard tower is the one on this side with the wider field of view; the only others that might spot you will just assume you're another servant heading out to the stables."
"How can I ever repay you two?" Karin asked in a scared whisper.
"Don't get caught," Ino said, smirking.
Sakura hugged Karin. "Find your happiness and don't look back."
She may be a bit of a pretentious princess, but Karin was okay in her book.
.
Rasa was storming through the servant wings again, slamming things and accusing everyone around him of treason and ordering guards on double shifts. Or so they said. Sakura heard about it all second hand as she avoided that wing to keep herself out of suspicion, and she cringed as Ino told her about him upending trolleys in the kitchen and laundry and yelling at the matrons in charge to thoroughly check the quarters of all their staff.
She hadn't expected such a violent and lasting response from the powerful king. Which showed how little she understood about the politics of arranged marriages.
What kind of tyrant is he?
This made her glad she'd helped Karin, even if it had been selfishly motivated, but she worried about the servants who were bearing the brunt of his anger. If she'd known this was going to happen…
Ugh. Who was she kidding? She would still do it. She was such a selfish bitch.
"You did what you had to do," Ino told her when she confided her guilty thoughts to her. "He'll calm down eventually and this will just be a dark moment that everyone will want to forget."
The grapevine was running in overtime and people were speculating on who the culprit was, but no-one dared suggest someone of the noble families had a hand in it. Even though she wasn't born to their ilk, Sakura was still considered above servants, so she was spared suspicious glances; even the soldiers she was still training with in the days that followed said nothing and didn't change how they greeted and sparred with her.
A week later, the king stopped his tirade and returned to the war efforts; he could hardly ignore it forever.
Ino was right. And Sakura was in the clear. She had nothing to worry about. Now all she had to do was find an opening to talk to Gaara. To see him. Easier said than done.
Then one evening, she finally remembered that Karin's old dress (with the Oto emblem on it) was still stuffed under her mattress and she had a moment of panic, trying to decide on the most discreet way to get rid of it as she rushed up to her room after her training.
She ran the possibilities through her head as she walked quickly toward her room, eventually deciding on the incinerators; they would be in the west wing and along the outer walls on ground level. She'd heard that they used fire chakra to burn things for fuel and to destroy unwanted objects, which sounded pretty efficient to Sakura.
But before she could sneak around and make her way to one of the incinerator rooms, she needed to sneak the dress through two wings without anyone noticing it. And she needed to bathe. The maids always had a tub of hot water ready for her each night, so Sakura shed her clothes quickly upon reaching her room and got to work cleaning out all the gunk from her day in the training grounds.
Her thoughts strayed to Gaara as she washed, wondering if he was happy or annoyed that his fiancée was gone, and if he was trying to avoid another arranged marriage. She wanted to see him, but he'd been so busy lately, with his father's ire and the war campaign keeping him occupied.
She sighed, taking a few moments to further enjoy the hot water before getting out. As she dried herself off and dressed, she silently thanked Ino for suggesting that her tub be emptied in the morning instead of late into the night, since the king's strict curfew for the servants was still in place—some things were taking longer to die down.
She grabbed Karin's dress and fumbled around her closet for something to wrap it with. It would have to be something she didn't mind losing to the incinerators.
When did I get so attached to clothes, she asked herself as she had trouble deciding.
Eventually she just grabbed her sweaty, dirty fighting clothes and tore them in a few places (not the seams) to excuse why they were a lost cause, if anyone spotted and questioned her. She squashed Karin's dress and rolled it as tightly as she could before wrapping her own clothes around it.
She sighed, relieved to see it was good enough to hide it, before slipping out of her room and carefully making her way toward the west wing of the palace.
Thank the gods for my unusual strength.
...
Gaara had been avoiding Sakura, for no reason other than shame. The elation he felt at Karin's escape made him feel guilty, but it also made him wonder if he really was that much of a horrible prospect to people. Sure, he and Karin didn't really get along, but neither did Kankuro and his wife. Was fleeing the palace the only option she felt she had?
And there was the guilt again.
Why was he worried about his ego over being rejected by some harpy when this was hurting their relationship with the Oto lords? The answer was clear: he'd rather marry Sakura and go to war with Oto than have anything more to do with Karin.
Gods I'm pathetic.
"Stop moaning," Kankuro said, stretched out on the chaise lounge next to him.
They were in Gaara's room and his brother had been whining for the past half hour that with everything going on lately, he was supposed to go back to his wife for a few months and try again for that grandchild their father (and mother) demand he sire.
Gaara wouldn't put it past Kankuro's wife to be taking medicinal herbs to prevent it.
"At least your harpy had the decency to run away," Kankuro said, sitting up and seemingly done with complaining about his own life. "Go find Sakura and fuck her already. I'm tired of your self-flagellation." He stood and left abruptly.
Gaara frowned in indignation at his brother's blatant hypocrisy but when he calmed down, realised Kankuro was right. He had to do something—get rid of Sakura or fuck her. The past weeks had been torturous. Though the idea of hunting Sakura down and giving into his wants and needs felt good, it also made him extremely nervous. He always prided himself on being in control of his faculty and sex was—from what he'd been able to gather—all about losing control. To some degree. He was going to be a bumbling fool; he just knew it.
Hence his shame and avoidance of the woman in question. But it was time to get over that. He nodded to himself, steeling his nerves. That settled that, then.
Gaara stood up and walked over to a wooden box in the corner of his room, opening it to reveal the package he'd had ordered in town recently and smiled. Sakura was going to love it, he knew it. But first, he had a suspicion to confirm. Something that had been bugging him about how Karin had escaped. He closed the box and grabbed a cloak before leaving his room. Sakura didn't seem to realise it, but the room he'd moved her to was not too far from his own. The royal family technically had their own wing, but it was mostly for show; the rooms up there were cold too often and Gaara's actual room was in the upper floors of the north-east wing, only a few minutes of fast walking from Sakura's room.
The royal wing was mostly used for balls—entertaining important people.
Gaara braced himself as he walked and slowed as he approached Sakura's room but then stopped in his tracks as her door opened and she slipped out. She looked like she was trying to be sneaky; nervous and jittery mannerisms weren't really her thing. He stepped into the shadows to avoid her noticing him then watched as she looked around warily before taking off in the opposite direction to him. He frowned as she stepped into the shadows of the walls like she was trying to avoid detection and followed her discreetly.
What was she doing heading into the servants' wing?
An impossible suspicion he'd had over a week ago niggled at him. As he watched her head down the steps toward the west wing, he remembered that this was the direction his father believed Karin had snuck through. Sakura led him toward the outer walls on ground level and he knew suddenly where she was going.
The incinerator rooms. But why?
His gaze fell to the bundle under her arm and his eyes narrowed. She was going to burn something she wasn't supposed to have, that much was obvious. He let her get as far as entering the upper level of the incinerator room and stopping to unwrap the bundle before the dress that lay beneath the outer wrapping was revealed to him, and a familiar emblem seemed to blare at him.
Karin's.
"What the hell?"
Sakura spun around and her eyes widened.
Gaara strode forward and snatched the dress out of her hand, grabbing her other wrist to keep her from fleeing. "What did you do?"
She wouldn't answer or look in his eyes and he so desperately wanted her to. The truth was he wasn't as angry as he appeared, but he couldn't help the feelings of betrayal and fury that bubbled up inside him regardless; as strong as the confusion at her actions and elation that she'd done something like this allegedly for him.
For us?
But why?
"Gaara, I…"
She didn't finish that thought and Gaara had to rein in his emotions. It would be naïve to think he was being too hard on her; she broke the law and pissed off his father (not to mention allowed the terrorisation of hundreds of servants). But he was enjoying the result of her scheming and he would be a hypocrite for not acknowledging that, at least. He didn't care about the consequences to Oto or Karin or her father. Hell, he didn't care that King Rasa was furious about this.
Fuck the law.
But… Gaara couldn't let this slide. Not really. His father would have her executed, so letting him in on this was out of the question. He had to keep this quiet. He gripped the dress tighter, hating Sakura in that moment for forcing him to do such a thing, but then let out a deep breath and looked at the incinerator. You needed a fire jutsu to use it, so he wasn't sure what she was trying to do. The thick steel was capable of resisting the hottest fire possible using chakra and was open to the air to keep the steam from building up inside the palace.
But it didn't solve Sakura's problem.
Gaara contemplated just tossing the dress to the floor and letting the morning crew find it, but then that would stir his father into another whodunnit. He groaned and decided to keep the dress out of the way himself, for now. He tugged on Sakura and sent granules of sand out to make sure no-one else was around as he pulled her along behind him. He felt her resist at first but then quickly give up; her klutzy footfalls indicated she was having keeping stride with him, but he didn't slow down, forcing her to keep up with his long strides.
Gaara contemplated stopping by his room to discard the dress first but didn't want to hash this out in a room he couldn't flee himself, if need be. He gripped Sakura's hand as he realised his fingers had released her wrist and slid down to clasp her fingers instead.
"Gaara—"
"Shut up," he said, when they arrived at her door and he opened it without pausing.
He slammed it behind them then spun her around and shoved her against the wall, much like he had that day they almost kissed. And again, he pressed himself against her, dropping the dress as her torn fighting clothes fell from her hand. He was done pretending she didn't affect him. He was done not taking what he really wanted.
The demon inside him wanted to take her right away. To punish her so very thoroughly for what she'd done. Then shower her with thanks and appreciation, for the same reason. He was so torn. What the fuck did any of it matter anymore? He couldn't stop himself from what was about to happen, if he tried.
"Did you want this?" Gaara pushed his hips into hers and she moaned. "Did you commit treason for my dick?"
She blushed and closed her eyes.
"Or do you have some fanciful notion of being in love with me?"
Her eyes flew open and he groaned, feeling himself harden as she silently answered his suspicion.
"Fuck." He pulled away, grabbed her shoulders and pushed her toward her bed.
As Sakura stumbled against the mattress, Gaara started undoing the buttons on his shirt. She watched, her mouth hanging slightly open, as he quickly shed himself of his shirt and licked her lips as her eyes hungrily ate at his chest. For someone so lean, his muscles were tight and well-defined.
Gaara smirked, now undoing his trousers and bending down to rid himself of this last impediment to her eyes.
She just stared at him as he waited a moment to let her take in his naked body. She bit her lip gently. He was not flaccid. Apparently, her perusal turned him on. But she knew enough from her own experience that he was still not ready.
"Take your clothes off," he said.
Sakura wondered if he really was a virgin like she'd thought as he stood there, unabashed under her gaze and ordered her to get undressed. But she quickly acquiesced, sliding off the bed and dropped her own clothes to the floor.
For his own part, Gaara was trembling inside. Somehow, he was able to maintain an external appearance of calm but that was going to change very soon. His eyes widened in delight as he stared at her nude body and moved slightly as though attempting to cover up, but then clearly decided not to; he growled in anticipation. Then he was pouncing, grabbing her and throwing her on the bed before climbing on top of her, pinning her in place.
He shifted to mould himself against her groin; once again, it did not escape either of them that his pelvis fit snugly into hers. And they were both very aware that though they'd seen each other naked but had yet to even kiss.
Gaara lowered his mouth to hers and she lifted her knees, making his dick slide along her nub and causing them both to moan. He nipped at her bottom lip and slanted his mouth to suckle at hers, absentmindedly grinding his hips against her and creating a friction between them that was both arousing and exciting his body.
Their moans filled the room and he moved faster, humping her desperately as their kiss intensified. She scratched his back, locking her legs around his hips as he shook, excited and nervous. It occurred to her this really was his first time, and Sakura pulled out of the kiss. He growled but she palmed his chest with both hands, tweaking his nipples and smirking at the way that made his eyes roll into the back of his head. Her left hand trailed along his bicep as her legs released their death grip on him and he stopped humping her a full second before her right hand reached down and grabbed his dick.
He almost came right then and there. She had to admire his restraint.
Sakura started rubbing along his tip, watching him as Gaara stared into her eyes, his breath coming out shallow and hot against her face. She gave a particularly hard pull on him, making him growl, then let go and wrapped her legs around his hips again. She wanted so much more foreplay, needing his head between her legs before anything else, but there was a growing need much stronger than that—to have him inside her.
This was the culmination of months of built up tension. They could do the rest later.
Gaara took her hint and grabbed his dick, pushing against her folds and slowly inching his way inside her. Sakura shifted her hips and helped him guide himself, moaning deeply as he made it all the way in, filling her up to the hilt.
"Fuck," she moaned.
And he was off, in all his enthusiastic glory, thrusting in and out of her like there was no tomorrow and Sakura cried out, lifting her hips to meet him; his rhythm settled better once she started this and it didn't take long for them to move in synch.
Gaara couldn't think. He couldn't focus. All his concentration was on not finishing too quickly as he took her roughly. Her noises almost sounded like crying, but he couldn't stop himself if he tried. He was finally fucking her, finally getting his rocks off and gods forgive him he never wanted another quim for as long as he lived. It occurred to him for a moment that there were a number of steps he'd bypassed, but all his concentration diverted solely to taking her hard and fast, like he'd been fantasising about doing for months.
Eventually, he threw his head back and hollered, coming hard and hot inside her before thrusting a few more times and slumping over, exhausted.
They were definitely going to be doing more of this.
…
XXX
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AN: Ah, how my lemons have evolved lol. ;)
R&R
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