Disclaimer
Don't own anything. See chapter one for more info.

Chapter four: The Sunrise

Kenoyo woke up earlier than she had expected to. The sun was still rising outside when her feet touched the ground. She heard a small ruffle of clothing and footsteps coming from the kitchen, so she trudged away from her room to go see who it was, hoping with all of her heart that it was Gaara. She wanted to see him again so badly, he had been trotting in her mind all night since their conversation. The girl had no clue why he stuck in her head, probably because she felt as if she had to be his friend.

Or maybe because she had feelings for him?

'How can I have feelings for a guy that I just met?' she asked herself with a long sigh. But Gaara had this little air around him that made her just want to reach out to him and give him a long hug, something he probably had never gotten in his entire life.

But when she reached the kitchen, she felt slight disappointment as she noticed Temari busying herself with making breakfast. The sister instantly felt the chakra emitted from Kenoyo and turned around, bidding her a good morning with her usual confident attitude.

"Good morning, Temari. Have you seen Gaara this morning?" Kenoyo asked her with a smile of greeting.

Temari cocked her head slightly, but didn't make anything out of her question as she answered her, "Yes, he's outside."

Without another word, she walked out of the house and found him sitting just outside the door, his back to the house. He didn't react to her presence when she came out, didn't greet her in any way as his eyes stared the rising sun.

"Can I sit with you?" she asked him quietly and he shrugged in response, still not saying a word. The girl sighed in slight discouragement, wondering if he was angry at her questions of last night. Finally, she said, "Look, Gaara, I'm sorry about what I said. Don't be angry at me, I was being nosey and I won't do it again." Like she wanted to prove her point, she lowered her head and kept her eyes away as she sat beside him.

But Gaara was quick to answer, "It's alright, Kenoyo. As I already said, I'm not used to talking about myself."

They both drifted into a strangely comfortable silence for a few minutes, but Kenoyo didn't want to spend their 'alone time' in complete silence. "How come you have a tattoo on your forehead? What does it mean?" she asked, breaking her earlier promise of not being nosey anymore.

A shadow crossed Gaara's face, but she didn't see it due to the fact that her eyes were focused in the distance. "This tattoo is a kanji for love and it means that I will never love anyone but myself, and that I care for no one but me. I live to kill, seeing people suffer makes me feel alive," he said coldly.

Kenoyo shivered slightly as his cruel words, but she had the perfect phrase to counter it. "Well what about the other side?" she asked, "The one that you never had a taste of? The kind of life where you'd get along with everyone and you'd have feelings of warmth, friendship, happiness… or maybe have a relationship!"

Since she was sitting directly beside him, their arms slightly touching each others', she felt him stiffen at the word "relationship". Grinning to herself, she pushed on, "Don't you ever feel jealous of the couples holding hands, when they kiss in front of everyone? Don't you ever wish that you had a girl to protect, to hold in your arms when you're discouraged and know that she's your reason to live?"

Gaara sighed and lowered his head in sadness. He said, "Well the only two girls who ever talked to me were you and Temari. All the other girls think of me as a monster, they don't even try to see who I am… Temari's my sister, so technically you're the first girl who pays attention to me..." he stopped, letting his sentence dangle slightly.

Kenoyo's head turned to him and her face lit up with a smile. Her cheeks turned to a slightly pink shade and she laughed quietly before turning back to the sun as it made the sky turn a light purple. She broke the silence between them and said, "Well no guy can hold my attention like you do, Gaara. I love being around you, whether you believe it or not."

Gaara turned to look at her and opened his mouth to speak, but the moment was broken as Temari shouted, "Gaara! Kenoyo! Come and eat! Kankuro, wake up!"

The pair's conversation stopped there and Kenoyo was the first to get up. Gaara, though, stayed behind just a few seconds to reflect.

--Gaara's P.O.V--

'She is, after all, pretty... I don't know why she hangs around me, why she's working so hard to make me talk about myself. But it's actually as if she cares about what I have to say, unlike the few people I talked to in my lifetime. Even when I tell her how cruel I am, she doesn't seem to care, she just blows it off like it's nothing. But I know it bothers her. Maybe I do stand a chance…' he thought to himself as he guided his eyes back to the sun, getting mentally ready for another day. But this day wouldn't be as horrible as the others; he had Kenoyo to hang onto if he was to get lonely now. He had a feeling that she wouldn't push him away, no matter how badly he was considered a monster by the rest of the village. He sighed, picking up a handful of pale sand and letting it fall slowly from his fingers as his mind wandered to Kenoyo, her beautiful smile, stunning blue eyes and slightly tanned skin. He stared back at the sand in his hand and in the pale glow of the moonlight, it looked almost like the same color as her skin. Shaking his head, he wiped his hands on his shirt and stood to walk in the kitchen for breakfast.

--Kenoyo's P.O.V. --

Her heart raced frantically as she slipped in her bedroom and changed in new clothes. Her mind was whirring madly, as Gaara's words turned into her head non-stop.

"Temari's my sister, so technically you're the first girl who pays attention to me..."

She repeated those words to herself over and over again, wishing with all of her might that it meant that he would enjoy being in a relationship with her. Hugging herself excitedly, Kenoyo twirled in her bedroom before laughing to herself quietly and falling on her bed. Sighing deeply, she tried to calm down her racing heart. But as long as Gaara was in her mind, it would beat like crazy, and there was nothing she could do about it.

A/N – Actually I think I'll stop here and start up on chapter five.
Review if you like the story please, because the more reviews I get the faster I'll write! Promise!

Take care!