Twirlygigs and Gizzards: The Unlikely Continuation of an Unlikely Romance
Chapter 8: Comfort and Condolence
A/N: Well, first, I'd like to announce that about a month ago, Twirlygigs and Gizzards reached it's 10,000th hit! (And since then has gone onto have 10,724-ish!) Wow... I'm... just, blown away. Thank you, all of you, so much, for making this story what it is... I'm hoping that you know by now, being the ones who created it and all... I'm still trying to figure it out, myself.
The walk back to the Sand residence was quiet, almost awkwardly so.
"Is something wrong?" Gaara asked, looking up at his brother and sister. "Temari? Kankuro? Is everything all right? Why did you come to get me?"
"Oh, everything--," Temari sighed and squeezed Kankuro's hand a little tighter. "Everything's fine, Gaar-gaar."
"We just wanted to spend some time with you," Kankuro said brightly, noting unhappily that his sister had been put out of commission, leaving him alone in this. "We haven't gotten to see you much lately, bro. You've been spending all your time with this Sakura girl."
"I know... I'm sorry, I didn't know you wanted me around."
"Of course we want you around!" Temari exclaimed, and Kankuro felt he shouldn't correct her. "You're our baby brother, you're a part of everything we do."
"But that doesn't mean that we have a problem with Sakura," Kankuro added. "We're glad you met her."
"Me too," Gaara whispered. "I like Sakura."
Kankuro felt that this was a bit redundant, but said nothing. "Why don't I make us something to drink when we get home, and we can... hang out and talk..."
The three sand siblings sat around their dinning room table, their hands wrapped around the root beer floats Kankuro had whipped up.
"So, Gaara," Kankuro tried again to break the topic on his own; he knew that Temari would join him once he got the ball rolling. "We were thinking about Sakura,"
"What about her?" Gaara asked, his expression studiously innocent.
"You and her, well, really seem to get along..."
Gaara watched the ice cream melting in his glass. "Yeah..."
"And, well, Temari and I kind of thought... if this relationship is going anywhere, you know, long-term, maybe... it would be best... I mean, there are things,"
"Gaara," Temari broke in. "We love you. I know you don't believe me when I tell you that, and I don't know where you got the idea that we don't, but we do, very much. And we want to see you and Sakura be together, if it makes you happy, but we don't want you to have to... hide who you are."
"I don't have to hide around Sakura. She knows who I am," Gaara said simply. "She may be the only person who knows who I am."
Kankuro sighed miserably. He had grown up alongside his little brother, and he knew exactly what Gaara meant. People looked at him and Temari, and most of all, at Gaara, and they saw rumors, gossip, and urban legends, and formed these those into three children who looked like Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara, but otherwise had nothing to do with the trio. Gaara had it the worst, and Kankuro could imagine how wonderful it felt for him to be around Sakura, who just thought of him as another boy, who made an honest attempt to get to know him.
"Yes, Gaara," Temari said (Kankuro knew that she understood, as well), "But..."
" There are things she needs to know," Kankuro threw in.
"You need to tell her about Shukaku," Temari clarified.
Gaara sighed. "I know... she needs to know... because," he grinned up at them. "if you think about it, she's kind of dating him, too."
Later, Temari and Kankuro agreed that this was just about the creepiest thing they'd ever heard.
It was a little after midnight, and all the Haruno household was asleep. Sakura had left her window open to let in the night breeze, as the days had begun heating up for summer, and a tiny sliver of moonlight fell across her sleeping form.
A tiny pebble hit against the window frame, making a little wooden "ping". Sakura turned over in annoyance without waking up.
Another pebble hit. The sleeping Sakura moved an arm over her ear, blocking out the sound.
A third pebble flew through the air, missed the frame and kept on sailing, through the window and into Sakura' s bedroom.
Gaara heard the "Ouch!" and saw Sakura come to the window, a kunai in her hand and a red lump on her forehead.
Sakura rubbed the sore spot left by the rock that had awoken her and stared suspiciously outside when Gaara appeared next to her window, supported by a small floating island of sand that formed a chakra balcony off of her window.
"Gaara?!" Sakura gasped, lowering her voice to a self-conscious giggle. "What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to talk to you," he replied, his spirits lifting as only Sakura's smile could make them. He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the window. "Come with me... I don't want to wake you family."
Sakura pulled back, blushing in the dark. "Wait," she whispered, "let me put on some pants first."
Gaara nodded. Sakura watched him for a second. "Well? Turn around."
"Oh..." He turned his back obediently as Sakura set to covering her floral-print panties with some pajama pants.
"Ok, ready," she whispered, climbing out the window onto the sand platform.
Gaara liked to remain outwardly neutral in the little arguments that his sister and brother had continuously throughout the day, so though he never would have admitted it, he agreed with Kankuro. Tree houses (especially the one in their new home) were pretty awesome.
"This is so beautiful, Gaara-kun," Sakura, another appreciator of tree houses, whispered as they sat against the wooden walls, watching the crescent moon rise behind the leaves.
"Sakura-chan, there's something you need to know about me," Gaara said after a moment, still unsure how he was going to explain all this. (Usually his explanations were designed to be menacing, and they did the job quite well). "I'm... I'm different from other people. Before I was born my father... placed this... evil spirit inside me. He hoped to make me strong, so I could protect our village, but... instead I was just a freak... a monster born to destroy,"
"You're not a monster, Gaara-kun," Sakura said quietly, laying a cool hand against his cheek. "You're a human being, and having Shukaku stuck inside you doesn't change that at all."
Gaara gasped. "You-- you knew about Shukaku?"
Sakura laughed gently. "Of course. We have a little saying here in Konoha; a secret shared by Naruto is never a secret. Once he found out, it was all over the village in hours."
"So, all this time-- you asked me to hang out with you, knowing what I am? You weren't afraid?"
"Why should I have been afraid? I wasn't challenging you to a fight or anything... now, that would have been scary."
"And--," Gaara just could not wrap his brain around this. "Everyone knew? But, just a few days ago, I saw those friends of yours, Ino and Chouji, at Aru's, and they smiled at me... they were nice to me. Do they know?"
"Yes, they know," Sakura assured him, gently amused.
Unable to comprehend all this, a sob wrenched itself from Gaara's confused little throat, and he flung himself at Sakura, wrapping his arms around her neck and burying his head against her chest. "All my life, everyone's always been afraid of me," he whimpered between sobs. "They've always hated me... even my father... they wanted me dead,"
Sakura cooed sympathetically and wrapped her arms around the crying mess that was Gaara, rocking him back and forth. Sakura knew a lot of boys, and her experience with Naruto and Sasuke had taught her one thing; the only difference between a boy and a little child like her siblings was a little testosterone. Deep down, they really just wanted someone to hold them.
"Poor baby," she crooned, stroking his hair, "I heard about your father... and your mother, too... it must have been so hard for you, growing up like that... poor baby... poor angsty baby,"
"Sakura-chan," Gaara whimpered. Sakura squeezed him tighter. She wanted to hold him until his pain went away. She could almost see it, like he was bleeding; he was in so much pain... He had been hurting so badly for a such very long time... she wanted to heal it, make it all stop. And so she held him.
"So, you knew everything?" Gaara asked as his tears were slowing. "How I can't sleep and everything?"
Sakura gasped. "You can't sleep?!"
At 3:00 am, Adult Swim began rerunning and Temari, her "stories" over with, turned off the TV and began to lock up the house and prepare for bed. She paused as she walked by the glass doors that lead to the backyard. That pool sure looked inviting in the moonlight... too bad Kan-kun was right, she didn't know how to swim. Something told her that deciding to take a little jaunt into the water at this hour of the night would lead to some interesting yet morbid headlines in the next morning's paper. She carefully slid open the door.
"Skinny Dipper's Gruesome Corpse Retrieved from Private Pool," she joked to herself, padding silently across the quiet patio. "Body was unidentifiable. Home's owners have no comment. In other news, Temari of the Sand, one of the most illustrious kunoichi from Suna, has been reported missing," She dipped her foot into the water, watching the starlight reflected on the surface ripple. "She was last heard watching cartoons at 3 in the morning. Her family is... less than frantic, although her brother Kankuro has offered a root beer float to anyone with information leading to her recovery. Her other brother, Gaara, was unavailable for comment, as he was allegedly seeking comfort from his alleged girlfriend. The brothers deny any connection between her disappearance and the body fished from their pool this morning. "I'm certain my sister didn't have breasts," Kankuro assured reporters."
Temari stared at the water, once again still and calm. She added, slowly, not so lightly, "When informed of the situation, the Kazekage replied, "It can't be missing. I saw some in the fridge this morning."(see footnote) Lord Kazekage is scheduled to take a senility test next Thursday..."
Her voice trailed off, and, as though entranced, she leaned forward, holding her arms in front of her in a diver's pose. She bend her knees slightly, as though preparing to spring, closed her eyes, took a deep breath...
Suddenly, she laughed, straightening her body out, and dipped her foot into the pool once more, kicking some water across the surface. "Man, I've got to stop watching Foolie Coolie and Eva back to back," she muttered to herself, continuing her journey across the yard to the old maple tree.
Sakura and Gaara were cuddled peacefully in the corner when Temari's spiky blond pigtails poked their way over the threshold. As silently as she was capable of, she climbed the last few rungs of the ladder and into the tree house, making her way, quiet and ninja-like, over to the two children. Sakura was asleep, and Gaara, his eyes closed, was listening to her breathing, trying to match his own to hers. Temari knew, because it was a game that he used to play at night when she and Kankuro were tired, when they were little... before everything followed their uncle straight to Hell, anyway.
She shook Sakura's shoulder gently, whispering, in her very best maternal voice, "Sakura, sweetie, put your shoes on. We're at Grandma's house."
"Hubduh... five more minutes, mom,"
"Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan, come out to play!" Temari chanted in her ear. Sakura awoke, looking around her confusedly. Gaara opened his eyes, looking vaguely disappointed.
"Temari,"
"Come on, wake up, both of you," she insisted with a sardonic smile. "you need to take Sakura home before dawn, Gaara-chan."
As Sakura was about to climb back into her bedroom through the window, Gaara noticed something sticking to her hair and pulled it out. A twirler.
Sakura felt the tug at her hair and turned around. Gaara held it up long enough for her to see what it was, then tossed it over the edge of their sand platform. The little seed pod spun gracefully around and landed quietly on the ground below.
Reference: Tamari is a type of soy sauce.