After having decided where he should take Neji for the night--home with Temari and Kankuro wasn't an option when he was drunk--Gaara decided to have the cabby drop the two of them off at a local park. The backdrop of the park was filled with the dense growth of trees and playground equipment. Dragging Neji out of the cab, Gaara pulled him halfheartedly toward a bench that Gaara wasn't a stranger too. Occasionally he would go to the park to drink as he enjoyed swinging, especially so when drunk, but usually he was sober when he would go there.
"Guess it's jus' us," Gaara frowned as he propped the other man up against the bench, grumbling as his form wouldn't hold itself of and toppled over on top of him. Were he sober he could have figured out a way to keep Neji up without using his own body for Neji's stability. Sighing, Gaara simply let Neji's head lay on his shoulder, trying to imagine that no one was touching him. Squeezing his eyes shut, he tried to forget all of the reasons behind his distaste for the sense of touch.
The red-head's eyes opened quickly when he heard a sound; the Hyuuga man had made another noise in his drug-induced sleep.
"He almost crawled in here and told me that he took pills again. I was pissed." Naruto rambled with a scowl on his face as the two conscious people in the gas station waited for the cab to get there.
"He always does the same thing when he," Naruto paused, face darkening to a level Gaara hadn't seen before, "When he tries to kill himself. He takes pills one at a time, and after a certain amount of time he comes to his senses and comes and finds me." Naruto was fuming, something that Gaara didn't know Naruto was capable of doing.
"It's happened three times now."
Remembering the conversation he had with Naruto before the cab had picked the two of them up, Gaara wondered if his siblings would tell him he was weird for not wondering why Neji wanted to die. Gaara found it more strange that anyone wanted to live.
Glancing down to Neji, Gaara's lips pursed as he thought about what he would tell the other man the next day. How does one take care of the suicidal? Gaara's thoughts buzzed through his mind in a hazy manner, drifting in and out of coherency from the alcohol.
Naruto returned to his seat after hanging up the phone, stating that the cab would be there within fifteen minutes. Gaara honestly couldn't care less about the timeframe; time doesn't mean much when you're drunk, after all.
"I remember when we first met. He was so cold, still is on the outside, but he warmed up to me. He's had a lot of pain in his life, Gaara." The blonde spoke the words sadly, reaching out to pet Neji's hair again, fingering through the thin locks as he continued speaking:
"He's one of my best friends, so don't let anything happen to him, 'kay?" The words came with that same look of determination that Naruto always seemed to have glued to his face. It wasn't so much as a question as it was a statement, and Gaara found that he couldn't refuse. Glancing down at the weak looking man whose head had made friends with the table, Gaara silently made a vow that nothing would happen to him, even if it was only for Naruto's peace of mind.
Coming out of his thoughts, Gaara watched how tenderly Naruto touched the other man, and he couldn't help but wonder if the brunette and Naruto were more than just good friends. Shifting his eyebrows together, Gaara tried to think back on what little he knew about friend relationship and lover relationships. From what he knew friends didn't touch each other so intimately, but he couldn't be sure, seeing as how he had nothing to compare Naruto's bond with Neji to.
***
White eyes opened slowly with the rising of the sun. Neji moved his face in his half-awake state to hide his eyes in Naruto's neck. He didn't catch the burst of red that Naruto's hair didn't hold, nor did he notice that the scent he was currently smelling wasn't Naruto's; he was only part awake, after all. He moaned slightly as he woke up a little bit more, yawning in what he believed was Naruto's neck.
"You lived, that should make Naruto happy," A voice that was definitely not Naruto's spoke. Neji's eyes went wide and he threw himself backward, causing himself to fall ungracefully off of the bench. Looking up from his place on the ground, he took in the sight before him: a red-head with the word 'love' in kanji on his forehead; Neji didn't bother with anything beyond his face and head, it was more than enough to recognize that it wasn't Naruto he had nuzzled into just minutes earlier.
"Who are you? Where's Naruto?" Neji demanded, eyes narrowing. Neji realized that he probably didn't look very threatening, as he was still clothed in the pajamas he was wearing the night before, when he had decided to kill himself. He wore a white t-shirt--no longer pristine, for when he threw himself to the ground it had met with dirt--and a pair of blue and white plaid cotton pajama pants; the outfit was something he would normally never be seen in outside of his house.
Gaara looked down at the man, still slightly drunk, though he had drank the last sip of his alcohol over approximately two hours before the sun began to rise. The first thing he noticed about Neji was that the entirety of his eyes were white, it was confusing. For a brief moment he wondered if the man before him was blind, but changed his mind when he saw Neji whipping his head from side to side, trying to decide where he was, Gaara presumed.
"Naruto sent you with me. He's entrusted me to look after you until he gets off work." Gaara stated, not an ounce of emotion in his voice as he spoke.
Neji looked up and down at him, before turning to his side to get up, he found that he couldn't however, as his vision started fading in and out and a wave of nausea took him over. The farthest he had managed to get was onto his hands and knees before the vomiting set in.
Gaara watched the scene intently, making sure that Neji wasn't throwing up blood, and that nothing too detrimental was happening to the man. Vomit had always managed to disgust Gaara, as he imagined that it did everyone, and he felt the man on his knees before him should feel particularly lucky that he was paying so much attention to him that he was willing to watch him puke to make sure he was okay. He kept reminding himself throughout Neji's sickness that he owed this to Naruto.
Upon finishing, Neji wiped his mouth with the backside of his hand, spitting what remained in his mouth to the ground quickly.
"When--" He paused, feeling another wave of nausea come over him, using one of his arms he held his stomach, and with the other he held himself up. Eventually he gave up on holding himself up with one hand and rocked his body back to just sit on his knees. Coughing, he continued talking:
"When does Naruto get off of work?" He asked, holding his stomach the entire time.
Glancing at his watch, Gaara met eyes with Neji, "One hour and forty-seven minutes." Gaara immediately turned his attention back to the rising sun.
"God, the sunrise is enough to kill me," Neji admitted, as he closed his eyes tightly and turned his face away from the sun. Gaara looked back at the man when he spoke, tilting his head slightly, he wondered if it was sensitivity to light due to a headache or if it was his unusual eyes causing the sensitivity.
"Is it your eyes?" Gaara asked, finding himself minutely curious about the other's eyes. He had never seen entirely white eyes before.
Neji moaned and turned his face back in Gaara's direction, eyes squinting as Neji looked at him.
"Are my eyes the reason I'm sensitive to the light?" He questioned the other, deciding that was the most likely reason for the question. With a nod from Gaara, Neji continued.
"No, it's just my head. It's killing me," Neji stated, moving one of his hands from his stomach to his head. Frowning, he suddenly wished that he actually had the balls to take the entire bottle of pills at once, instead of one by one; that way there would be no turning back. Sighing, he thought back to his other failed attempts, noting that he felt the same level of misery each morning after.
Gaara nodded again and raised himself from the seat, brushing down his clothes as he went.
"Come on," As he spoke the words he turned away from neji and began walking down the small concrete path toward the road.
Tilting his head Neji questioned him silently, before standing up.
"Where are you going?" No way was Neji agreeing to follow him without first knowing where the two would be headed.
"I can get you pills to stop the vomiting and the headache," Gaara never quit walking, as if he knew Neji would follow him.
Slightly hesitant, Neji did just that, as he decided he wanted the nausea and headache gone.