Gaara + Mina

"Hey, Mina!" Naruto called down the road to Mina.

"Hi!" Mina said. "How's my number one favourite ninja?" She asked.

"He's sad to see his best friend has her bags packed. Again. Where are you going now?" Naruto whined. Mina worked out of Konoha as a translator. Other villages would hire her to interpret for foreign guests of the state or just help out with a back log of documents.

"I'm going to Suna for a month or so." She said.

"Weren't you just there?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, I guess the Kazekage needs a lot of help. Listen, I've got to go, I'll write to you when I get there." Naruto sighed.

"Fine." He said, pulling her in for a big hug. "Take care."

0000000000000000000000000000

After three days of travelling Mina came at last to Konoha. She went straight to the Kazekage's office, since she must be immediately needed for them to have called her in again so quickly. She told the guards at the Kazekage's office who she was and they let her in. She knocked on the door of his office and slowly opened the door, sticking her head inside. "Uh, hello? Kazekage-sama?" She walked inside and closed the door behind her. He looked up from his desk and motioned for her to sit down. "I got here as soon as I could. I figured it was important."

"No," He said. "Mina, would you please call me Gaara?"

"Oh," She nodded her head. "Yes, of course. Well, urgent or not, what is it you called me here for?" Gaara leaned back in his seat.

"I'd like to offer you a permanent position here as a translator." Mina was caught completely off her guard by this.

"Uh, my home is in Konoha and I prefer to stay there. If you need a full-time person I can recommend a couple of my colleagues who are in a much better position to work out of Suna." She explained.

"I would be happy to offer you an annual salary of 80,000 with six weeks paid vacation. You can have any office you'd like."

"Wait, that much for only a year? Are you crazy? That's insanely high." Mina was lucky if she could scrape together 20,000 a year. That was way too high for an ordinary translator.

"I'm willing to pay enough to make you stay here. I've contracted you out for a month here anyway. You can think about it all you like. Meanwhile, you may return to the office you used the last time you were here. There are some documents already on your desk." Mina shot up out of her chair to get to work. "None of them are urgent," He added quickly.

Mina giggled a little and Gaara cocked his head, not understanding what she thought was humorous. What on earth was Mina doing here, anyway? What could he possibly want from her for eighty grand a year?

"Thank you, Gaara, I'll get right to it." She smiled and left his office, heading down the hall towards her own office. It was wonderfully cool inside, a nice change from the heat of the sun. She sat down at her desk and started to read a transcript of an interview in Russian. The Cyrillic hand writing seemed really familiar. "That's weird," Mina remembered this conversation, had she been there? "No," She said. "No, I've already translated this document into English." She said. She turned around and opened her filling cabinet where she kept copies of documents. By six o'clock she had matched every document on her desk with a translated version from her filing cabinet. "That's strange, someone must have made a mistake." She looked at the clock, quarter after six. Gaara's office closed at six, maybe she could speak to him about it before he left. Mina packed up her things and turned off the lights, heading out of the door. "Uh, excuse me," She said to a guard who had been standing outside of her office. "I need to speak with the Kazekage, do you know where he might be?" The guard seemed startled that Mina had anything to say to him.

"Are you Mina?" He asked. She nodded her head. "Well, please follow me, Miss." She followed him right out of the building.

"Where are you taking me?" She asked him.

"To see the Kazekage. He left specific instructions to bring you to him if you asked."

"It's a small matter. It can wait until tomorrow. I don't want to bother him at home." Mina was almost running to keep up with the guard's long strides.

"We're here, please go ahead, Miss." He gestured with his arms for her to climb the stairs of a beautiful mansion, which she took to be Gaara's home. Mina knocked softly, almost hoping no one could hear so she could leave and check into her hotel to sleep. No such luck, a girl opened the door. She had blonde hair tied back and she looked to be about five years older than Mina. At first she looked at Mina sceptically, but then she smiled as she took in her appearance.

"You must be Mina. Gaara said you might drop by. Come in," She held the door open and Mina thanked her, walking inside. "I'm Temari, Gaara is my younger brother."

"Oh? It's nice to meet you." Mina said.

"Aw! You're so cute. It's nice to meet you, too, sweetheart. Gaara's just in the kitchen." She took Mina by the hand and led her out of the ridiculously luxurious foyer and into the kitchen. In the center was a large island at which Gaara was seated. He was wearing a black t-shirt, reading the paper and absently eating from a bowl of strawberries. "Gaara, your friend is here." Temari said to him as he looked up. He seemed relieved, as if he had been waiting for Mina to come. "I'll leave you to it," Temari said, and she disappeared. Gaara got up.

"Mina," he said. She put her bag on the counter and walked over to him. She sat on the stool next to his and he sat down again.

"Uh, hey Gaara. Sorry to bother you at home like this." Gaara shook his head.

"You're always welcome here." He said softly. He was acting kind of weird, he wasn't as guarded as she remembered him being. In fact, he seemed almost vulnerable and sweet.

"So I translated those documents on my desk." She said, waiting for him to make a comment.

"That was quick." He said. She sighed impatiently.

"Gaara, I translated them three months ago. Why did you ask me to come here if you were just going to pay me to waste time?" She asked. Gaara looked down and smiled to himself. Mina couldn't remember if she had ever seen him smile before, but it was cute and shy. Mina smiled too as Gaara looked up to speak.

"I really enjoyed having you around. You just made everything brighter. Work was easier, sleep was easier. I started to enjoy lunch hour because there was a hope you would come eat with me. I didn't know any way to get you back here except to lure you in through work." Mina laughed.

"You're so strange!" She laughed some more. Gaara waited uncomfortably for Mina to compose herself. "Oh," She said, wiping a tear of laughter away. "I think I might have done the same thing, though." Gaara smiled again.

"I thought I was being foolish."

"Yeah, you're a fool." Mina said, giggling some more. "But you're the best kind of fool."

"Does this mean that we can be friends now?" Gaara asked. Mina nodded.

"Absolutely."

00000000000000000000000000

It had been three months since the two of them had become friends. Mina missed Naruto terribly, but she truly loved Suna. Her and Gaara were getting closer all of the time, and she couldn't help but think that she would rather be his girlfriend than just his friend. Now Mina was temporarily moved into Gaara's house since she spent all her time there anyways, and when Gaara was busy working, his sister would hang out with her. One night Mina started to explain her dilemma regarding how she felt about Gaara to his sister.

"I mean," She said to Temari. "he's not seeing anyone, is he?"

"What, Gaara? Hell no."

"Do you think it's such a stretch that we could be together?"

"Not at all," Temari reassured Mina. They heard someone come into the house and Temari grinned. "Now you can ask him yourself." She said, leaving. Just then Gaara came into the kitchen.

"Hey Gaara!" Mina said.

"Hi Mina." He said back. "This is going to be tough," Mina said to herself. She didn't want to lose Gaara as a friend. But it would be better this way because otherwise she would have always wondered what could have been. "What's wrong?" Gaara asked. He saw that Mina looked conflicted.

"Gaara, you like me, right?" She asked.

"Where is this going? You know how much I care about you. Of course I like you." He pulled out the stool next to her and sat down, staring at her while she nervously tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. Gaara sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Why don't you tell me what's really bothering you?"

"I don't want be your friend anymore." Mina said. "I want to be, you know, with you."

"I don't understand," Gaara said, his quiet voice seemed full of sorrow and rejection. Mina came closer to him and slowly put her hands around his face, pulling him closer. When he was inches away from her face, she looked into his deep eyes and tried desperately to convey her feelings. Then she leaned in, lips slightly parted, and kissed him. His lips were smooth and cool and they moved in perfect synch with Mina. When she pulled away it felt like they had been kissing for hours, not moments.

"Gaara, don't you understand now?" She said, petting the side of his face. He smiled and nodded his head.

"Let's go talk upstairs," he said in a near whisper. He brought her to his bedroom and she was impressed at how cool his room was.

"It's so big," She marvelled. "You have a patio in your room? How cool is that!" She skipped over and went outside on the deck. The night was cold and quiet. She surveyed the town. "It's beautiful here," She said. Gaara surprised her when he wrapped his arms around her from behind.

"Aren't you cold? Come back inside." He gently pulled her back in and closed the patio door. She sat on his bed and pulled her knees up to her chest.

"I've never had a real boyfriend before," She said. "What do couples do?"

"I don't know," Gaara said. He sat down next to her and pulled her into his chest. "I've never been a boyfriend before. But I imagine that couples do things like this." He said, leaning for a kiss.

0000000000000000000000000

"Temari!" Kankuro hissed at his sister. He was standing at the top of the stairs when Temari turned around from the book she was reading to look at Kankuro. "Get over here!" He hissed again. He sounded urgent and excited. Temari quickly and quietly ran up the stairs and curiously followed her brother down the hall when he stopped outside of a bedroom.

"This is Gaara's room." Temari said quietly. Kankuro shushed her and motioned for her to listen at the door.

000000000000

"Oh," Mina cried out, dragging her nails down Gaara's back. He sped up his thrusts and the pain that initially had been so much was gone and it faded into pleasure. Pressure was building up inside of her as Gaara moaned again an incoherent version of her name.

"Mi-Oh, Mina," He said. Suddenly there was a gush inside of her and Gaara's thin, sweaty body collapsed onto Mina. Her chest heaved with panting as she felt Gaara pull out, and the pain was slowly coming back. "Mina, did-uh," Gaara said, as he flipped onto his side and crept next to her under the covers. "Mina, did that hurt?" He asked softly.

"Tremendously." She replied. "But that was," She paused and sighed. "Extraordinary."

"Yeah? You liked it?"

"Of course, did you?"

"These past few hours have been the best of my life, Mina. I love you." Mina smirked, completely satisfied.

"Gaara, I love you, too."

00000000000000000000000000000

Kankuro and Temari quietly walked back downstairs to discuss what they had heard. "Did you-"

"No! I thought you might have told him about-"

"You're his older brother! The sex talk is your territory!"

"Well, regardless, he found out what it was." Temari frowned.

"Kuro, you need to talk to him."

"No. Never."

"What if she gets pregnant?"

"She won't get pregnant."

00000000000000000000000000000

A few months had passed since that night. Mina was sitting at the counter in the kitchen, eating breakfast with Gaara and his family. It was time to tell Kankuro and Temari. When she told Gaara she was pregnant he was so happy and excited, which relieved Mina immensely because she had been scarred shitless and contemplated running away to become a nun.

"So," Gaara said. Temari and Kankuro looked up. "Mina is pregnant." Temari looked at Kankuro and Kankuro looked at Temari.

"That's, uh-"

"That's great!" Temari said. "You two will be great parents." Kankuro winced and nodded in agreement as Temari kicked his shin under the table over and over again. Mina smiled, positively beaming. Naruto was coming over soon to stay with her during the pregnancy. When she told him in a letter that she was expecting and wanted him to come out he said he was really excited and he would be honoured to stay with Mina if she wanted him to. Gaara put his hand gently on her knee, and Mina realized in that instant as she looked in Gaara's eyes that this decision to be with Gaara was the best choice of her life.