Garra looked at the time. He was meant to meet his fiance and his brother for lunch today.
He got up, closing his work, and made his way down to the living area they were to meet in. As he came to the door, he could hear Hinata's airy giggle on the other side.
He felt Shukaku growl. He didn't like anything about this.
Gaara paused, wondering if the beast was mad with her. Why now?
He pushed through the feeling and opened the door. His brother was lazily strung over a couch, and his fiance was smiling at him from a nearby chair.
The possessive beast's anger flared so heavily he had to stop and cringe. The light feeling left the room.
"Gaara?!" Hinata crossed the room. Within seconds she cautiously took hold of either of his arms.
Gaara felt the feeling fade. He looked at her worried face, and his stomach dropped. Neither of them wanted to see that. He growled inwardly at the beast, who seemed just as irritated at himself.
"Are you okay?" She curled her fingers gently around his forearms.
"For now." He mumbled, looking at her, hoping she would leave it for later.
She examined his face and nodded, understanding. She pulled him back into a seat and sat nearby, her face still holding the look of concern. She excused herself and brought in a tray from lunch.
Kankuro eyed him warily until Hinata joined them. She sat close to him. Reachable distance, he wasn't sure if she did that on purpose. He didn't know if she thought about things like he did.
Hinata chewed her lip, wondering if he wanted to talk about it or not. She curled up in her spot with her book that she didn't want to read and stared at the page, worrying about him.
"Hinata, you are not reading." He sighed.
"I am." She focused her eyes on the page, realizing it was still the title page, and never flipped it to her spot. She pouted, caught, she closed it, and put it off to the side.
"It was Shukaku." He explained. "Violent reaction to entering the room. To be honest, I'm not sure why." He picked up his papers and moved to the couch, setting them on the arm.
"He didn't like the room…?" She mumbled, confused. No, that wasn't it. He was an intelligent creature. What was in the room? She and Kankuro, he calmed down when she came over, so it wasn't her. Kankuro? He didn't react like that to just seeing him before. What was happening? She was sitting with Kankuro, laughing at his dramatics. The realization hit her with all of Kiba's old jealous tendencies when they were kids. It was identical to Shukaku's recent reactions to what she did. That was ridiculous.
Could a creature so old be so childish? "Shukaku-san, that's not okay!" She said, looking up at Gaara sternly, trying not to take too much immediate offense to the idea.
Gaara stared back at her and went rigid.
"You can not punish Gaara when you don't like what I do with others. It's rude." She scolded.
Gaara had never heard such silence in his head. Shukaku had never been scolded directly, at least not through him. Her stern look was almost amusing if he wasn't scared of how he was about to react.
Hinata sighed. "I don't understand you or what you think of me, but I do not like it when you punish Gaara when you're unhappy with me." She continued sternly, her eyes softened. "I am willing to listen and work with all of our comforts. However, I refuse to isolate myself, and I refuse to condone punishing Gaara for my actions."
Gaara only partly understood.
He felt mixed feelings come in waves. Mostly anger and confusion. At least he wasn't alone.
She offered her hand. "I'm marrying you, Gaara, but that means I'm taking you both as life partners. I want it to be comfortable for all of us."
Gaara realized she was talking to him now. He took her hand. Her smaller fingers curled over his firmly as she laid them between them.
Gaara wasn't sure how to react to this. Hinata was directly saying she was choosing to live with Shukaku just as much as she was him. She was willingly choosing to live with Shukaku. She wanted to live with them both, not just living with him with Shukaku as an unwanted guest. He repeated that in his head a few more different ways. It wasn't something he considered. Was he happy? He wasn't sure. His face heated unusually, and he felt Shukaku settle to think about what she had said.
Hinata was accepting all of him, the part that was all him and the part that he couldn't entirely control. She was accepting Shukaku as an entity and as a part of him. Had Shukaku even been offered an olive leaf like that? Not just in his lifetime, but in the beast's lifetime? He hated humans. Was this why he liked her? Did he see this?
Shukaku's anger embedding away, purring started back in. He was oddly content with her. Still, it would seem. "You scolded him. I would expect him to be furious." He mumbled, still heavily confused by both her and the beast.
"He's not angry with me?" She rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand. Looking up in question.
"He's purring again." His confusion was met with a bright smile.
"I'll take that as an agreement then."
Gaara hadn't been in this position before. It was usually the other way around, and he didn't know what to do. It was getting late, and she had fallen asleep with the confirmation that she and Shukaku agreed on or rather Shukaku had accepted whenever he had. She went back to her book, and he went back to his paperwork. She had curled up next to him as the night went on. His arm had taken the place of the armrest usually did. Their curled together fingers laid in her lap under her book. By the time he noticed how late it was getting, she was already dead asleep on his arm. The book had fallen into her lap, forgotten. Should he wake her so she could go to bed? She wouldn't wake him. She couldn't sleep upright like that all night, but if he moved more comfortably, would he wake her? He knew she could be a light sleeper. Being in his presence probably wouldn't help that.
Gaara set his papers aside, moving carefully as he could. He released her hand and ran the arm that she was laying on behind her, letting her head slide onto his collarbone. His hand moved to hold her lower rib cage, testing moving her. She was still asleep enough that she didn't even stir. Was she so trusting of him? She didn't even feel unsafe when being moved while he was here? He remembered that she had been a light sleeper before. Was she just that tired?
Her legs tucked under her were another problem. Gaara summoned sand to come under her knees, lifting her only enough to lay her legs out. He was careful to keep to the outside of her nightgown. The grit against her skin would no doubt wake her.
He moved to lay with her. She was tucked safely in between his side and the back of the couch. Like always, she irradiated heat, a novelty in the cold desert nights. With a wave of his hand, the blanket he kept in the room specifically for when she fell asleep on his couch was over them, and the light was out.
It was only then it came to him that he could have laid her down by herself and went back to work, but he pushed the idea aside. So often, she was awake, making sure he was comfortably asleep. He had never had the chance to be the second to sleep.
As his eyes adjusted to the new lighting, he looked over her sleeping face. Her temple was pressed into his collarbone, and what was free of her still damp hair fell over her pale features. She was even softer looking asleep, but that he knew. He had seen her asleep on this couch before.
Something about this stirred a possessiveness that was his own.
He tried to identify its reason. Hinata was so deeply trusting him with her sleeping form, she was openly vulnerable to him, he felt the primal need to protect and keep?
He laid his free arm over his eyes and laid his head back. Was this what Shukaku saw? When he looked at her.
'She can't be human.' Shukaku mumbled at him. 'Human's first reaction is always fear, to protect themselves.' Gaara listened, hoping for some answers. 'Her first reaction is to protect us, always.' He continues to muse. 'When cornered in a box with a rabid beast. The first thing she did was give up her exit for its comfort.' His thoughts were becoming more scattered and became nothing more than ramblings of events.
Gaara sighed. That wasn't helpful, and all of that he already knew. Though she was human, too human, too breakable. A ninja, but unlike him, she was easily harmed if caught off guard or in a storm. He closed his eyes, trying to push away the confusion. He didn't need to think about any of them. She was safe here. She was sleeping silently within his reach. He could protect what he had claimed as his.
As if to prove his point, she shifted. Her arm moved more comfortably onto his chest, revealing her left hand and the ring she told him she cherished.
She never took it off. The feeling of her was always there. Even the whole way in Konoha, he could feel her touching the sand ring.
He moved to slightly lift her hand. She didn't want it changed from what he understood, so he wouldn't add anything without her permission. From his point of view, these grains of sand were hers now. It helped him keep a comfortable connection with her. He could feel her anxiety or compassion when she fidgeted with it.
He wondered if she knew what the sand had done, how blood-soaked it once was. He wondered if he should have exposed her innocence to the spilled blood, looking back down at her calm face, it was easy to forget her hands held the blood of her enemies before.
Hinata didn't fit what he thought of a female ninja, unlike his sister and other Suna-nin, and even Naruto's medic teammate. She kept her sweet, kind-hearted nature despite her exposure to violence.
The proof was in the calluses on her hands. Her hands were polished but held thick skin and small white scars from her fighting style. In comparison, Gaara's hands barely held calluses from his pen. He ran his thumb over the calluses on her palm, and her fingers curled around his larger hand.
Gaara sighed. He was trapped now.
He fell asleep rather easily, with the sound of purring and even breathing calming his thoughts.