It is here. Oh yes it is (DUM DUM DUUUUM) This chapter is just focused around Gaara and Hogo, but fear not, you'll get updates on the others in the next chapters! I would not want to deprive you of them teeheee. I'm hoping people will like it, I'm worried I might have rushed it because I have EXAMS ON MONDAY (cries hysterically before running into a wall) Ahem. Teehee.
cheh - NOO don't tell me anything about Saving Gaara arc (covers her ears) I'm faithfully, albeit stupidly, waiting for the anime, even though my treacherous friends have caved and are just reading the manga. Don't get me wrong, I like reading the manga but I want to see the anime FIRST! Glad you liked my NejiHina bit, heheee, and YES I LOVE Kankurou, I have so much fun writing him!
Mina - A veritable HogoGaarafest awaits you! FULL to BURSTING of angsty and mushiness in equal quantity XD.
LinnyShidou - Awww thankee so much! My head will explode!
Blackeelamgal9 - Hehehe my chapters explode! Just like my head (points upwards)
AnimeSiren - YAY!
Iheartchopsticks - Yep, he indeed has! But he wasn't expecting company... mwahahhaaa!
i'manobody - Glad you liked XD Good luck with your exams, I feel your pain!
emily-the-elemental - You should be pleased, you're one of the reasons I finished writing this chapter because you were so demanding, lol! XD
Enjoy!
When her eyes opened this time her mind felt sharper, less shrouded in foggy incomprehension. She blinked slowly as the nightsky, a reality she could latch on to now, swam in and out of focus. That hissing, almost lulling for all it's soft, sinister murmurings, remained and she recognised it now. Still sluggish she carefully considered injuries. Her head ached, a low throb that would explain why her vision kept dancing. Her right arm felt freezing cold, almost numbed completely, but beneath that iciness she could feel the subtle adrenaline of redhot pain. She doubted she could move it, and as she slowly considered this she acknowledged that all of her was cold, but not as cold as she should be. The clouds continued to travel over her head as her breath formed icy mist above her mouth. The nights were freezing, the sky was moving above her, she couldn't move, and there was that hissing.
Eyes trailing to her right, and then her left, she blinked in recognition as she saw Lee looking down at her, seemingly moving alongside her horizontal form. She closed her eyes tightly in an attempt to force their obedience as the perspective of being unable to move herself whilst clearly definitely moving made her feel vaguely nauseaus.
"I'm glad you're awake Hogo-san." he said softly, and when she opened her eyes once more she saw his lips were blue from the cold. "...What's happening?" she managed to croak out, her throat feeling abrasive and cruel. He shook his head determinedly, "I don't know. I was attempting to make my way back to Suna when I... saw you two. I thought you were dead when I saw the way he was carrying you." Hogo let out her breath in a puff of repressed gathering of strength, before lowering her chin to glance down her body.
As she had expected the moment she had heard that slithering noise, she was resting upon a small platform of densely packed sand, a further amount coiling about her to provide warmth. From where her head came up to Lee, approximately to his waist, she presumed she was floating some distance from the floor. Her right shoulder, she peered round to examine, was entirely covered. Following her look Lee grimaced "I believe you were injured, but whenever I tried to look at it, the sand tightened. I think he's using the sand to stop the flow of blood."
Hogo nodded blearily, turning to look up at the clouds again as her mind moved with all the stunned quiet of shell-shock. She coolly considered that Gaara obviously wasn't thinking clearly - no matter how tightly he packed the sand it was hardly appropriate to protect a wound. She would get infected by the particles that would remain in the wound. But then maybe Gaara wasn't thinking at all. Reaching her from the recesses of her mind, tugging at her from the shades, was a memory of someone crying. Gaara, her father, herself. Whose tears it was she was remembering, it didn't seem to matter right now. Still attempting to force her vision into consistency she focused further forward, and approximately forty feet ahead of them identified the figure of Gaara.
"He's been like that the entire time. I didn't think it wise to go any closer to him; I thought if I surprised him he might do something to you."
Even from this distance the wind caught up and brought them the mutterings coming from him like a poisonous gift. She couldn't make out individual words, only sounds, but it was enough to make her throat constrict all the same. Delicate and tense, it would waver from a broken sob to a seething hiss only to degenerate into hysteria again. She was relieved Lee had not attempted to interact with him. The air surrounding him was dense with unrest. Gingerly, she attempted to sit up only to have the sand coil tighter, effectively pinning her. Gaara didn't even turn round to acknowledge this as he continued walking, shoulders hunched, contemplating his hands, turning them over and over, never ceasing in his mutterings. An errant thought wondered just how unusual they must look, seemingly stalking him from this distance when in fact they were being irrevocably led through the black night of the desert by the only man who truly knew it. Her heart lurched awkwardly as she thought of how like a funeral procession it looked - her funeral. But he knew she wasn't dead. Where was he leading them? She attempted once more to sit upright and the sand once more held her fast, not vicious but undeniably firm.
"Gaara? Gaara please let me up. I'm fine Gaara. I want to talk to you. Please?" she called out into the nighttime, her voice sounding loud and sonerous in the expanse of nothingness. He didn't even pause in his murmurings at her voice, confirming her belief that he'd known when she'd regained consciousness almost as soon as she had. Lee exchanged a concerned look with her at his lack of response, and Hogo noticed once again that Lee was shivering violently. She was amazed that he hadn't frozen in these temperatures.
"Please Gaara, you're hurting me. If you'd just..."
As soon as the words left her mouth she felt the grip on her lessening, disintegrating about her so swiftly that she had to speedily gather her legs under her as she dropped to the floor. Lee caught her arm to steady her and it was all she could do to bite back a shriek of pain, buckling even as Lee wrapped an arm round her waist. Gasping and gritting her teeth against the agony washing through her, fighting back down the waves of it that filme her vision, she looked round at her shoulder in amazement. Down to her wrist she was caked in dried blood and sand, the several inches deep wound festering with clotted blood and desert. She knew without trying that she would not be able to move her arm, and that even if she attempted to it would simply disrupt whatever feeble seal had stopped the steady blood flow. Lee stared likewise, wide-eyed before rummaging frantically in his weapons pouch for his medical kit, wobbling with the task of attempting to hold her upright and keep them both moving also.
"Leave it." she murmured numbly, barely registering the appalled look Lee gave her as she stared glassy-eyed into the distance. "There's nothing you'll be able to do with just a few bandages."
"Please let me at least try Hogo-san! I couldn't live with myself if I..."
"It's not your fault Lee-kun. None of this is your fault. I'll be... fine... I just need to... me and Gaara need to..." she gave up trying to form coherent sentences and allowed Lee to practically drag her after Gaara, head flopping uselessly across her shoulders. After another ten minutes or so of walking she weakly lifted her head to look about her. She knew this place. An outpost for the village that had been abandoned years ago as proving too easily overrun. Gaara had told her about it once. She knew when he was young that he had ventured out here alone when the beast was most hungry within him. He had never bought her here. Not before tonight.
A swift swipe of his hand and the entrance, long covered over by sand, rumbled across, further blackness seeping out to greet them along with an inpenetrable chill, the smell of age and sun-scorched rock filtering through the nighttime breeze. Lee stopped abruptly and held her fast as she dimly viewed that Gaara had stopped moving. Her eyes widened briefly and then she screamed, her voice tearing up into the silence and echoing out like an animal's shriek as the wound began burning, pulsating with all-consuming agony. And amidst all that burning pain, her head rushing with the shock of it, a prickling stabbing sensation as she felt Lee gasp beside her, gripping her tighter as her legs buckled once more. He held her upright as the individual particles of sand, stained red, drifted from her wound, meticulously separating themselves, the blood flowing as their disruption was removed. It formed a swirling mist before her for a second before they dropped to the floor and she followed them in turn, collapsing altogether twitching violently. Lee followed her down and began speedily bandaging the now cleaned wound, stemming the bloodflow as Gaara was swallowed up by the black of the entrance.
It was the second time Hogo had awoken to Lee's face hovering above hers, and she felt her face stretch into an almost deranged sleepy smile before she was even aware of her outer faculties, grunting with discomfort as she attempted to shift stiff limbs. Whatever she was lying on was hard and ungiving but at least it wasn't freezing cold.
"You've only been out for about ten minutes, don't worry." he reassured her, smiling back at her stupidly bleary grin. Everything she could perceive - which was not much aside from Lee's face and blackness - looked cotton candy soft, fuzzy around the edges. "W...What the Hell...?" she mumbled, stretching her arm up and flinching in slight pain, but nowhere near the pain she had been expecting, as she attempted to rub her eye. Lee immediately caught her motion and settled her back down gently.
"There were still some medical supplies here. Luckily I found you some medication that should stave off the pain of your wound." he explained briefly. Hogo felt that stupid grin spreading across her face until it felt like an oil slick of happiness.
"That would explain why everything is so... shiny..."
Lee chuckled quietly, glancing off to the side with a hint of nervousness, a nervousness that put a dent of awareness in to this blur of warm coalescing indifference Hogo was feeling. As the blurred edges started swimming and collecting together, sewing up to render her unconscious again, she felt very much aware that there was something she needed to do...
When she awoke once more Lee had lit the cabin with a few sparse stubs of candles and was attempting to prepare a fire by breaking up the wooden chairs that were around the observation room. Tentatively, she stretched up her right arm and, whilst she felt it twinge with pain beneath the careful bandages Lee had prepared, it was hidden beneath the thrum of detachment the medication provided her. With a wary motion she finally pulled herself upright, taking in her surroundings. The ceiling was low with numerous slits in the stone walls that undoubtedly provided perspective out in to the desert terrain, and a large table dominated the centre of an admittedly small room, still covered with sand-strewn maps. Off to her right a tunnel, swamped in blackness, doubtless led back out into the desert. Lee looked up from his ministrations and managed to give her a tight smile, nodding in the direction she was looking. "Its several miles long, the entrance tunnel. I'm amazed it hasn't collapsed over the years."
Hogo nodded dimly, scanning the room further as she stiffly turned and brought her feet to the floor. "...Where is he?" she asked finally, gripping the edge of the bench she had been laid on as she forced herself upright. Lee instantly came over to give her some support, holding her good shoulder gently before nodding to a door that was behind where her bench had been. She gave him a nod in thanks and carefully stepped out from beneath his arm. Her legs felt weak but they would carry her, and some things needed to be said. Visions, so long banished from her mind because they were useless, they would not help her, brought alive once more by her fevered dreams, duly replayed themselves with all the routine precision of a film reel. She watched them twist and writhe and left them there in her mind as she continued to move forwards.
She gripped the stone frame of the door before stepping into it's darkness. It took some time for her eyes to adjust to this intense black, only the dim light of the adjoining room offering illumination, but even before she could see anything she could hear his murmurings, breaking up with tears. Her skin prickled with awareness and her heart tore slowly, seamlessly down the middle, before she caught the vague outline of him in the opposite corner, hunched up against the wall, knees drawn up defensively. He didn't look up at her but she could tell he knew she was there. He was trembling slightly, whether from cold or misery she did not know, and she slowly slid down the wall likewise, maintaining her distance as he hunched more tightly together for a moment protectively. There was a long pause in which she waited.
"What were you intending to do?" he shuddered out finally, eyes glittering in the sparse light whenever his skittish movements rendered them visible. He did not look at her. "Wait until I was so wrapped up in you I could see nothing else before killing me? Offer me up to rebels so they could perform experiments on me?" The words came out in a jumble, his terrified frantic thoughts bubbling out at her.
"You know that's not true. If that was my intention I could have handed you over to them in the desert earlier." she said softly, watching the light slant across his pale cheekbones and into his shock of hair. She closed her eyes and her mother's face was covered in blood, her head was the wrong shape.
Even if his face remained the same it might as well have crumpled altogether for what his voice gave away. "... Why did you never TELL me Hogo?" he demanded in almost a whimper, his voice breaking with emotion as his nails dug into his knees. She swallowed down her own tears as she stared at the sandy floor "I knew you would never believe that I willingly wanted to be with you. That I willingly wanted to protect you with my life. You would not trust me."
He shook his head feebly, rolling back until his nape met the wall with his mouth twisted against the feelings assaulting him. "No... No Hogo, you... you never wanted me..." he wailed softly. She gathered a shuddering breath into her as these words cut her. She leant forward then, needing to feel some level of proximity, some familiarity with the man she had known, who she was hurting.
"Gaara, I won't lie to you. I hated you." he flinched at these words but she carried on relentlessly, needing to make him understand, needing him to know. As his had before hers, she could feel her voice break and crack with the sadness of a past she had never wanted to address or deal with.
"Gods I spent months, years attempting to despise you with my entire being, I had nothing left in my soul because you'd dried me up in taking the only warmth I was sure was real. Mother, love, sweetness she had the most lovely smile and I could see in my own father's eyes that he resented me for having her smile too even as he loved me. My smile was a blistered curse because it came from the woman who was gone that was better than I could ever hope to replace in this world. I was a poor replacement for a woman like her. I used to watch you on the rooftops and in the night and in all the places you revealed yourself, and plot and think about the day in which I could reap all manner of revenge upon you but it was futile and pathetic because you were stronger than me, you would always be stronger than me because I was a useless little girl and you had the power of a demon inside you. I wanted my life to be your death but you had killed my mother, so much faster, so much more skilful than I could ever hope to be.
I... TRIED to hate you Gaara. I was forced to grow up fast and I didn't look at you as a monster from childhood anymore, I couldn't understand how a little boy could have killed my mother. I wanted to hate you and that hate turned sour and introverted and all the same grew stronger every second because whenever I looked at you now I only saw a little boy. How was I meant to hate that? My life had been destroyed by someone who had never even had a life to appreciate the value of what he'd taken. For every time I saw my mother's face and felt my heart break again I remembered you were just as alone as I was now. I'd spent so long looking at you that I didn't even notice it at first. But I was alone. Months of mourning had turned into years, years of planning and training and burning inside my own skin while other kids played and made friends. I didn't.
I wanted to despise you but instead I ended up joining you. You met me on the other side of loneliness without ever having recognised my face. You had never known a mother and you had taken mine, so now... we were matched, only never so matched because my mother had loved me. In trying to hate you I had only brought you so close as to make you my parallel."
Gaara had progressively stilled as she had spoken and was now utterly motionless, his gaze fixed upon the floor. The tears Hogo felt were red hot saltiness on her lips as she leant further forwards, desperate for some kind of response, for him to know that she wasn't lying. "I can't hate you Gaara. I realised that years ago. How could I hate you? Even... even she didn't hate you, when she was assigned to..." Gaara's eyes flickered briefly and Hogo couldn't help but falter. Much as she wanted to, she didn't dare touch him, breach the gap that perhaps had always existed between them despite her efforts.
"How could you forgive me for something like that?" His voice was so quiet she could barely hear him, a tremulous catch of breath more than anything else. And he finally lifted his head and looked at her. It was the look in those eyes she knew better than any other, naked despair coating them. You will hate me and you will abandon me and see me as a monster because I am a monster. I will lose you when I never had you because monsters deserve nothing, and are allowed to keep nothing. It was that look and all it said that found her mouth working for her, saying these things she said she would never say.
"Because I love you."
Her mind and heart and stomach all recoiled at once as she saw his eyes widen, paralysis seeming to grip him. The room positively sparked with a dangerous charge as he continued to stare at her, his breathing becoming erratic before one hand jerkily reached up to touch his forehead. He began to fold into himself and she brought up a hand to apologise, to calm him, anything, but he only flinched more, leaping upright and prowling away in to the other corner, slinking to the wall for protection.
"Y...you... I... I need to think... Just let me..." he babbled, eyes wild as the sand near him began stirring restlessly. The one word she knew could incite all manner of terror and anger from Gaara even now after so long, and she had recklessly flung it at him because she couldn't bear him not understanding anymore. But how had she thought he would react? She let out a sigh that felt as though it had deflated every aspect of feeling from her bones, closing her eyes briefly to gain control of herself before wiping the tear tracks from her face, and walking towards the door.
"Don't go far." she couldn't conceal the look of surprise on her face as she turned back, watching his trembling hand skim the kanji. "I need to know you're close."
Lee made a conserted effort to look very busy as she trailed out of the other room, shuffling the maps that were on the table around as if he was determined to find the perfect way for them to look. The silence was more or less deafening as she collapsed wearily back on to the bench, resting her head between her hands and listening to the seconds trickle past. She closed her eyes tightly, allowing herself one minute wherein the emotional and physical burdens overwhelmed her, kicking and screaming for supremacy in her attention. One minute was all it was permitted, and as her chest demanded to cave in and let every howling contemptuous conviction free, she clenched her hands tighter around her head, and counted the seconds. Inarticulate ravings, burnt out feelings that couldn't be given names any more, names for dead feelings were pointless, names even for the living ones served her no good. She had to clench her teeth around all the noise because she knew if she opened her mouth that the hysteria would force its way out of her like an independant creature. She had offered herself up and now it was not for her to decide. She didn't even have the energy to condemn her own stupidity. Then she opened her eyes and tamped down the feelings until they were muffled inside her stomach, and stood once more.
Joining Lee by the maps, she gave them a quick glance before shaking her head in dismissal "These are all at least fifty years old - they don't have any relevence to us now." Gathering them up she threw them on the fire Lee had created. "If I know my father he'll be attempting to get back to Suna tonight. Shikamaru will no doubt have found shelter for the night." She continued, pacing about the table despite her lethargy and the occasional pain to her shoulder. Lee nodded in agreement, discreetly pushing the remains of the medication he had given her across the table. She shot him a cool look before swallowing down the last few tablets, nodding in reluctant appreciation. Lee's concerned eyes told her he did not trust that she was entirely herself still, and she doubted that she had entirely banished the haunted sense of years of misery unveiling themselves at once from her face. Nonetheless she continued her agitated pacing, not having the time or the strength to convince Lee that she was alright.
"What is an issue far more relevent to us right now, is what the missing-nin are doing. They can't rely on surprise any more now that we know their whereabouts and they aren't going to want us having the opportunity to return and share information we've collected. They're going to have to attack soon, tomorrow night at the latest." Lee's eyes skipped towards the black doorway,
"Shouldn't we be including Gaara in this discussion?" he asked, not missing the way Hogo's jaw tensed.
"... No. Leave him for now." Lee had become very good at not asking questions in his years of training with someone as monosyllabic as Neji, and knew better than to ask further. He had however also inherited Gai-sensei's unbound enthusiasm, and decided to take the situation as an opportunity for exercising this aspect of his personality. Grinning widely, he adopted his 'nice-guy pose' in an attempt to alleviate the tension filling the room. "OK Hogo-san! You are an accomplished kunoichi and I trust your judgement!" he exclaimed loudly. Hogo winced, feeling a headache coming on, but couldn't help but feel lifted, however minutely, by Lee's optimism and spirit. Smiling slightly at him she feebly returned the gesture
"Good to know Lee-kun. But there's something you should hear... Before you found me and Gaara, the missing-nin attempted to get me to side with them to stop Gaara. That means they still acknowledge him as a threat. Which is why I believe they'll be coming for us tonight."
Lee stiffened instantly at this, his attention trailing once more to the room Gaara was hidden in. Reaching across Hogo gripped his shoulder tightly, seeing his eyes widen at her firm hold as she pulled him forward. "It is our responsibility to make sure they don't hurt him. I don't doubt that they had a second plan if I refused their offer, and Gaara may well be the only person who can protect Suna from them. WE are the defence."
Lee's eyes practically gleamed at these words and Hogo was glad that she had someone who saw such odds as a challenge with her. The medication was working in at least alleviating her discomfort and for a few moment she felt heady, almost buoyant. It was pointless, ridiculous, to feel optimism or hope right now. But that didn't prevent her from relying on reckless abandonment. She could definitely handle that, knowing the numbers, knowing their circumstances. It was all she could rely on, the knowledge that she was just about stupid enough to throw herself into the situation irrelative to whether she would come out the other side. She had done it before far too often, and luck like that would not hold out forever, she knew that all too well. But it wasn't as if there was any other choice. She knew that she needed to maintain this feeling, this strength, for both herself and for Lee. And for Gaara.
Slapping Lee firmly on the shoulder, she grinned wolfishly "But it's not going to be a problem for us. We can handle it." she snarled determinedly, to which he grinned in turn. "YEAH! We can do it!" he yelled excitedly and she smiled in amazement at how willingly he got revved up.
"Hogo."
His voice was quiet and purposefully controlled, revealing nothing. All the same Hogo found herself dreading returning to that room and dealing with what she had started. His reaction would change nothing - he cared for her and she knew this, and her loyalty would not change even if he were to decide he detested her. Caring would simply have to be enough. Slowly, she made her way back to the doorway, feeling every nerve inside her tremble with tension. She already knew what the result would be, if not the words he would use. She knew the inevitable, but that did not mean she wished to hear it, even to get it over with. She would have rather if it had never been addressed, but then so much had been laid bare over this day that it seemed pointless that anything should remain hidden. A part of her that was insistent that she just run away, irrational though it might have been, was slightly less ridiculous than her thought that she had nothing to fear from Gaara. She had everything to fear from Gaara, but it had never stopped her before as she ventured into that cool darkness.
She was more than a little surprised when the door slid shut behind her and rendered her blind, but she gave no outer indication, merely clenching her hands tightly and attempting to soothe the savage beat of her heart. Now at least, she knew that Gaara was behind her. She did not bother to turn round, knowing she would see nothing, and yet strangely felt acutely aware that she could be seen. It was absurd she knew, but the thought remained as her heart refused to stop pounding. In the tense quiet she could hear her own breathing, soft and tremulous, making the dark feel claustrophobically close.
"I promised I would not insult you by saying I'm sorry. I don't expect your forgiveness."
She was unable to stop her head from whipping round as he spoke, sensing his closeness and feeling painfully self-conscious in this sheer black, vulnerable in a way she had not for years. She did not reply and still did not turn around though she could just detect his movements by the sound of clothing rustling, the gentle scuff of his shoes in the sand. Her breath shuddered out of her lungs shallowly as she wondered if he could hear her heart rate, the hairs on the back of her neck bristling in the cold.
"I don't know what you expect me to do." he continued in that brittle silence, and Hogo felt his hot breath on the nape of her neck but when she turned sharply again she knew he was no longer there.
"With what? My love?" she asked out into the black,attempting to follow his movement but no longer sure where he was. That seething power of his dominated the entire room, giving her no specific location, and she felt it swell in an instantaneous response to that word.
"...Yes." he said finally, with seeming reluctance. The bitterness of her dread was intensified by relief, relief that she was exactly where she had expected to be, dread for the exact same reason. But she had known he would respond in such a fashion, so why did it still matter? She swallowed hard, willing her voice to come out cool, detached, and almost managing it.
"You don't have to do anything with it. It's not like normal gifts. You don't even have to accept it..." she found herself faltering as she felt the heat of his body behind her, becoming rigid with feelings of unease and misery. He was so close, and yet in this blackness and with these words lodged in her throat she couldn't bare turning to try and see him. He could not be more than inches away, she could hear his breathing, like hers tight with tension, rustling the still air. Was he toying with her? She let out a sigh of resignation, giving up every attempt at composure and distance from this.
"I didn't mean to cause you upset Gaara. It doesn't matter, what I said, you don't have to..."
Her heart finally stopped its hideously fast pounding, stopped altogether, as she felt his arms snake around her waist, pulling her hard up against his chest. His hot breath bit into the side of her neck and she could feel him trembling against her as his hold tightened. She was glad he was holding her because she was sure her knees were going to buckle.
"It matters. Just tell me what to do."
Still knowing she would see nothing in this dark she looked down at where his arms were locked around her slim waist, feeling him rest his forehead against the nape of her neck, his breathing shallow. Her skin tingled, nerve ends screaming everywhere his hot breath touched. Hesitantly she skimmed her fingers across his arms, as if attempting to verify that they were there, feeling them clench around her possessively, pulling her back up against his firm chest more securely.
"Just... just do whatever makes you happy. That's all I've ever wanted - that's all Love means." she replied finally in trembling tones. The rise and fall of his chest against her tense back moderated slightly as he contemplated this response, and she was unable to prevent herself from arching back against him and letting out a startled groan as his nails scraped bluntly across her abdomen.
"What makes me happy..." he repeated, more to himself than anything else, and then Hogo found herself being spun round and practically tackled to the floor, grunting as all the air left her lungs and his entire body length wrammed into hers. Before she could even gather breath her mouth was voraciously claimed, a clumsy desperate kiss that had her tasting blood but she didn't care because all she could hear were the keening noises of need coming from Gaara's throat that were degenerating into growls. Something approximating a strangled gasp escaped her as he bit her bottom lip hard, nipping and sucking, murmuring incoherently into the kiss as his hands trailed wherever they could reach. Her mind was reeling, this couldn't be happening, it must be the medication, he couldn't really be... The fingers interlocking with hers, pinning her hands above her head, the tongue in her mouth. This was real.
"Don't be lying... Don't be lying..." Was all she could hear as she returned the kiss, tasting blood on his tongue and gripping his clothing, pulling him closer if such a thing were possible. She felt one of his hands coil into her hair, fisting a handful and pulling her head back to nibble and lick her throat. She hissed in annoyance at the pain and he let out practically a purr of enjoyment as she followed in kind. There was nothing delicate about it, he knew she would not break just as she knew he wouldn't, and they needed this, after so many insecurities and hateful words. And then he was kissing her again with a depth that showed her words weren't going to matter ever again, ravaging her mouth with sensuous demanding. A moan that was almost hopeless in its utter want came out as hot murmurings against her lips before his hands were fumbling, tugging at her clothes in a search for more warm flesh, slipping under her top and exploring the expanse of silky skin. She slid her hands up onto the bare skin of his muscled back, nails scratching trails which he growled in feral delight over, taking her mouth again. When he bit into the juncture of her shoulder and her neck she bucked up against him helplessly, giving a breathless moan that degenerated into laughter "Are you... marking me?" she gasped as he continued sucking across her throat to the other side of her neck, nibbling on her earlobe. "...Beautiful..." was the only discernible word she heard, her heart clenching while his attentions turned to her shoulders, shoving her top aside in the quest of his hot mouth for more skin. "You talk too much, and you wear too many clothes." he growled in annoyance, still straddling her but sitting up to tug adamantly at her clothing.
"And you're a grumpy spoilt brat." she countered laughingly, her clever hands skittering up his top across his taut stomach and chest. Gripping one of her hands he pulled her up to meet him effortlessly, shifting his hips closer to hers, breath wafting across her face.
"Idiot"
"Moron."
"Loser."
"Brat."
"Mine. My Idiot." he murmured, smiling into the kiss he pulled her into.
Then abruptly bright light scorched their closed eyelids and they were both recoiling, squinting at the intrusion. Through her bleary eyes Hogo could vaguely see the sillouhette of Lee.
"Oh.. OH! Oh I'm so sorry I thought you were ahhhhh..." They could both practically feel Lee's blush from where they were. Gaara had made no attempt to climb off Hogo and was continuing to glare in Lee's direction, clearly recovering from the bright light faster than her. "I thought you were fighting."
"We were. We were having a very serious fight and you should leave." stated Gaara in an intimidating monotone, somewhat detracted from by Hogo bursting into hysterical laughter beneath him. Both men looked at Hogo as if she had grown an extra head as she clung to the front of Gaara's shirt, giggling manically before gaining her composure. After much pointed shoving Gaara reluctantly got off her, fixing Lee with a look that could have killed were Lee not desperately looking at anything but the two of them, his face an impressive shade of scarlet. "There's only a few more hours to the night. If the missing-nin are going to come it'll be soon." he said before scuttling off back into the other room.
"Another interruption? Maybe someone's trying to tell us something." groaned Hogo, stepping towards the door only for Gaara's arm to loop her waist. She amiably swatted him away, trying to gather her flustered thoughts and make light of the situation.
"Later." she said with mock disaproval, as his eyes devoured her.
"Later?" he repeated, clearly soliciting a promise. She caught the gaze and held it, smiling gently as she skimmed one hand across his cheek. "You know I wasn't lying right?" He turned into her hand and kissed the palm lightly, eyes still burning with such an overwhelming intensity that Hogo wondered whether her heart would ever stop beating this fast.
"I know it."
Hope you like, eeeeeeee, review away my lovely darlings! XX