(Mai POV)
I was walking to the spot where I had told Gaara to meet me at. I was worried that he wouldn't show up, because he didn't know where I meant or because he didn't care. I still wasn't sure that if the two months that separated us had made our relationship better or worse. I knew though that if it came right down to it I loved him. I could tell it was strange for him to admit his feelings, years of hiding them for almost everyone had done that too him. I sighed and thought about the place I wanted to show him now that the moon was rising. I had found it during the time I was being 'trained' by my sensei. I looked down the street and saw no one waiting for me, I quickly searched the area for a chakra patterns and felt two, one was Gaaras, the other I could faintly recognize but it seemed...different then the one I knew. I sighed and shook it off sensing that the person that the pattern belonged too wasn't going to attack anytime soon, if ever. I looked around and realized that Gaara didn't know I was there yet. I smirked and searched for his pattern again and noticed it was up in the tree that was near by. I quickly jumped up onto a building and hid myself and my chakra, I then jumped over to a tree branch deciding to mess around a little bit and somersault a few times before landing without shaking the branch at all. I leaned down and kissed Gaara on the cheek before he figured out I was here.
He spun around quickly almost making him fall off of the branch, the look of shock and confusion then fear of being embarrassed was priceless and I fell to my ass laughing at it. He just frowned at me knowing he had giving me what I was hoping for. "Aw come on Gaara! Cheer up a little, make a joke, chill out or something!" I told to him once I could stop laughing a little bit. He smirked at me and I felt like I would regret what I had just said since he was much stronger then me and I wouldn't be able to get away even if I wanted to because of his sand. Before I could try and figure out what he was doing he had picked me up bridle style and was jumping from rooftop to rooftop with me in his arms looking up at him a little surprised and worried about what he was going to do to me. He looked down at my face and smirked again, that didn't help the worry at all. When he finally stop I saw we had came to a small clearing with a pond in it. He then walked right over to the pond and almost dropped me in. I was terrified for a second that he would drop me in and I let it show on my face. I guess that's what he was going for since he chuckled a little and put me on solid ground.
Okay note to self: NEVER tell Gaara to joke around, weather or not you are joking yourself. He will scare you and possibly do whatever you just did to him right back. So basically it's just plain a bad idea. But I do wonder why he did that. He past a few rivers and other ponds but he seemed to want to come here, and here alone...just what are you planning Gaara?
Gaara looked at me wondering what I was thinking so deeply about. It worried him that he went too far, I could feel it coming off of him. It was painful to feel, that he thought that we were that fragile, that we could break apart and not talk to each other again. It made me want to cry but I held the tears in just because I was a genin didn't mean I had to act like one, and I didn't want Gaara to take them the wrong way. "So Gaara, why here?" he looked at his feet embarrassed that I had noticed, again just because I was a genin didn't mean I had to act like one. "Gaara? Look I won't ask if you don't want me to know I just thought I would ask." he sighed and looked at me his emotions unreadable. "Mai you really shouldn't walk around with your heart on your sleeve, it makes you more vulnerable. I-I don't know what came over me earlier. I showed emotions like I did because I saw you get hurt. I don't want that to happen again during a battle or something. I can't show them, a good ninja will never show his feelings, I have to follow that teaching until I die." he sounded so sad as he tried to explain himself my heart broke for him, well it would have if it wasn't being crushed slowly and painfully as he spoke. I couldn't hold the tears back much longer but I had to say something to him, I knew it would break us apart for a long time but I had to say it. "You don't get it do you? I showed what I felt when I was around those I cared about but because I knew that fighting and even k-killing would lead me closer to finding the one person I cared about more then anyone else, I did it all. I never let anyone truly know how much I was dying inside when I hurt someone or remembered something about you, I felt like my heart was being torn into pieces when I thought about the fact that I may never get to see you again. I never once cried and it made me fight all the harder when it came down to it, it made me want to remember everything, and to just be able to see you again even though I knew it would hurt when I did, and I was right except I got hurt somewhere else besides my head. My heart feels like it's being ripped to pieces, crushed and then left behind to bleed out. Do you get it now Gaara? When you love someone it can be a good thing or a bad thing to leave them to try and protect yourself. Think about it."
I walked away from him crying and not looking back, wishing with all of my ruined heart that things could go back to how they were before I lost my memories. I felt like I was stronger then and my heart was whole, not torn to shreds. I had Gaara then and nothing to worry about besides what my first mission would be. Then Orochimaru came and caused me so much pain it took someone much stronger then me to deal with it without crying, if anyone even could. Naruto would have broken down weeks ago, Sakura couldn't have even left without crying her eyes out whereas I may have cried a little but was determined to do what I had to, Sasuke well I wasn't sure really sure, he had gone though so much and never cried once, he might have been able to deal with what I had to. I stopped walking when I realized that I was sobbing and could barely breath, I knew I would have to sit down soon so I didn't hyperventilate and pass out. I walked a little farther till I found a bench on the road out of the village, I collapsed onto it near hysterics. I didn't really know why I was crying so hard really, I think I was just letting out all of the pain after months of just living with it and now my new heartache wasn't going to help me stop anytime soon. I was trying to regain my breath when I felt someone coming closer to me, I tensed up not wanting for anyone to see me in my weakest moment. I looked up as they neared and saw it was Temari, I was slightly relieved, after all I knew she cared about me, I was still her friend even after a long separation.
She stopped when she heard crying and looked around for where it was coming from then saw me lying on the bench with tears streaming down my face. She looked shocked that I would show emotion like that in public, she knew I had sometimes cried when I was alone or sleeping but never when other people could see me. "Mai? What happened to you?" she said as she ran over to me and started hugging me tightly trying to calm me down. "Shh calm down I can take you back home is it unlocked?" I nodded grateful that she understood that I couldn't do anything for myself at that point. She picked me up not unlike Gaara did, I shouldn't have thought of that since it made me cry harder, Temari just looked down at me worried since I had never been like this in my life. When we got my house she walked right in and laid me on the bed. And started to get things from around the house she knew I would need. Tissues, a wastebasket for said tissues, an extra pillow I had in case I needed to hurt something, and herself. She was enough to make me calm down a little. She started to hand me tissues and giving me comforting words for hours at least until midnight but I wasn't quiet sure, everything seemed to be shown at me in different perspective of someone who had just been hurt almost unbearably by the person they cared most about. "Now that you've calmed down enough to speak can you tell me what happened? Please I want to know why your hurting so bad." she sounded so truthful that I couldn't help but to trust her right now in my time of weakness. "Gaara." was the only word that I said at first, Temari looked beyond shocked that her little brother could make me cry like this. "What did he do?" she eventually chocked out from behind her shock and anger. I started to tell her everything that had happened since I had jumped out of the Hokage's window, I wasn't sure how I managed to not cry at all while I was telling her.
I figured that I was out of tears and couldn't produce anymore even if I wanted too. When I was done I could feel the anger at her little brother filling her up as she almost started screaming and running to go and attacking him for giving me a heartache as severe as this one and making me relive the memories of pain that I had. "Temari..don't say anything about this unless he asks..at least not to him..I don't want to know how much it takes for Shukaku to come out again..I don't know if I could stop it this time.." I whispered to her my voice hurting from talking so much and crying. She looked at me nodded and went to go and get me something to drink. I stared after her still a little too numb to even really think about anything. When she came back I took the glass of water from her without really changing expressions. She looked at me again pity in her eyes. I didn't want pity I wanted to go kill Gaara, but I also wanted to go and kiss him because no matter what he did to me I knew that I would love him, a fight couldn't change that. "Mai I have to go back to the hotel soon or the guys will start to worry about me, but I'll come back tomorrow, okay?" she told me hoping I would trust her to came back. I nodded knowing that she wouldn't break her promise unless something hugely important came up last second. She hugged me and left without another word, she knew that 'goodbye' would make me loose the grip I had tried so hard to regain after Orochimaru came to me. I was more grateful to her then she knew and probably ever would. Soon after that I feel asleep from pure over excretion and mental strain.
(Temari POV)
As I left Mai I knew I wasn't going to be able to not yell at Gaara about this. The poor girl really loved the boy and he went and said something stupid! I swore that if his stupidity didn't kill him some day I would just for making Mai cry like that. She was easily one of the strongest people I knew, she had never been afraid of Gaara even after she knew what he could do and she had never cried in front of anyone before, sure sometimes I heard her whimper in her sleep or notice she had slight streaks on her face right away in the morning, but she never let anyone know that she was hurting inside before. She just took it and never gave up on who or what she believed in, that's why she was Gaara's friend and now, I guessed, lover. As soon as I got out of her room I ran as fast as I could towards the hotel that we were staying at knowing that Gaara wouldn't be asleep so I could yell at him until the sand started to came at me. He scared me even though he was my younger brother, that damned Shukaku is the only reason he isn't like the rest of us, he could be normal if it wasn't for the demon.
I got to the hotel pretty quickly since I was running as fast as I could. When I got to the door Kankuro opened for me before I had even knocked I wasn't looking at him though I was glaring at the slumped over form on the couch. I guess Kankuro figured out that I would attack if I wasn't help back since he put some chakra strings on me so I couldn't move without him willing me to do so. I glared at him and growled "Do you have any idea what this idiot did?" I spoke it with as much venom in my voice as I could. Both him and Gaara looked at me shocked that I should know what happened before they told me. "Yeah. From what I can tell our little bro here screwed up his relationship pretty badly. I guess that's were you've been then." Kankuro said that as if he knew half of the pain that Mai was having to deal with. "Kankuro I don't think you realize that she has been crying for hours and I only ripped myself from her side trying to help her because she was so tired that she looked almost dead. If you know anything about Mai at all you should know that she doesn't cry. Ever. He broke her heart, ripped it to pieces at that." Gaara looked up at me as I spoke unable to put his feelings into words since he sat there with his mouth hung open and a pained expression on his face. I almost felt bad for a moment but then I remember that he had caused this pain himself, and had hurt Mai in the process. I growled at him wordlessly. He just shook his head and then buried in into him hands again, obviously have no idea what to do, especially since I was on Mai's side in this, let's just say he was lucky I didn't know how to break Kankuro's chakra strings.
"Temari, you don't know both sides of the story." Kankuro almost pleaded with me. "I don't need to I know what was said, and that was bad enough! Can't you two figure out that she didn't even know if Gaara cared or not then he went and said something stupid!" they looked at me again shocked once more. "Okay so both of them were scared that the other didn't care about them and thought they had just acted on memories then. Gaara's been beating himself up because he saw how much she cared after trying to push her away, if it wasn't for the sand I'm not even sure we would still even have a little bro." Kankuro said truthfully. I stared at Gaara shocked that he actually did care about someone other then himself.
He starting to get what it means to truly love someone. It has a lot of hurt involved, some relationships more then others..this is one of those..but I know that if they both learned how to show what they really felt then they could live happy and together without ever having to worry if the other still loved them or not...I also don't really think all of Mai's new friends helped out to much earlier...they made it seem like she had lived here for more then two months and that she was really attached to them... I'm not fully sure on what to do but I do know I have to make sure that they don't end up hating each other for a simple misunderstanding. I would hate myself for letting that happen.
I sighed and then realized I was the only one who had both sides and could do anything about it besides Gaara, and well he was scared of Mai right now, afraid that she would reject him again. If I was going to have to do this they better have some pain pills since I was already starting to get a headache thinking about what I had to do. "I'll help you fix this but in the end it really only depends on how you and Mai react to what I'm going to do." Gaara looked up at me scared as I walked away, Kankuro had released his strings on me so I could freely walk into my room leaving the two boy's too wonder what I was going to do next. Truth be told I wasn't sure myself yet I'd figure something out, I always did. Then a sudden plan came to me and I grin came to my mouth and I knew what I had to do.
WAHH! Just when they get back together they fight and ruin it! I'm sooo not being nice here... oh and remember to put in your opinions on what village mai should go to, sand, leaf or both! Now I can ask you who you think Mai should end up with! I already know but I figured I should ask you guys cuz after that well...you never know... One thing I'm happy about right now is that none of you know where i live so you can't kill me! Okay anyway this is the last of my pre-written chapter and now I'm going to have to start writting them again and figure out what Temari's got planed since I got writers block after this.. So wish me luck!