And back to my love/hate GaaMatsu.

Chapter six: Bedside conversation.

Matsuri woke to a rough tap on her forehead, followed by an irritated, "Hey, wake up."

She yawned, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

She raised an eyebrow at Gaara's appearance. He had changed from a blood red shirt to a completely black one. He wore dark jeans that could've made his many of his fangirls scream in joy or faint, depending which ones they were.

"You sleep like a rock, you know that?" he snapped suddenly.

"Then why did you have such an easy time waking me up?"

He grimaced, rolling his eyes. "I didn't. I've been trying to wake you up for almost twenty minutes. My last resort was physical contact- I feared Her Majesty's rage."

She rolled her eyes at the sarcasm in the last part of the sentence. "Stop calling me a queen, will you? Why do you do it anyway?"

He shrugged, "I guess the drama part has something to do with it. But then, I'm not quite sure."

She sighed, "Yeah, whatever. Just stop."

He sneered mocking. "Whatever you say, Princess. After all, your wish is my command."

She winced. "That's not much better, you know."

"Well, what DO you want me to call you?"

She groaned. "Matsuri!" she cried in exasperation.

Gaara made a mental note NEVER to call her by her name. EVER.

"Why'd you wake me up, oh-Loyal-Guard," Matsuri mocked.

"Loneliness, My Queen. I missed the sweet, silky sound of that summer lullaby you call a voice. I missed those large, innocent gem-stones that caress my very soul like the wings of a beautiful butterfly."

She gasped, weirdly surprised that such a romantic thing had come out of his mouth.

She was halfway through the thought, "This has got to be some sort of trap," when he finished, "Just kidding. I missed you as much as the chances of you dreaming about me are."

"Which is?"

"Not at all."

Matsuri grimaced. "You know what your problem is-"

"You?"

"-You take something perfectly romantic and you cannibalize it, and leave it bleeding there."

"You?"

She sighed, moving away from him. "Forget it! Just- Ugh!"

He grabbed her arm, pulling her back into her room. "You best not go out there. Or did that stupidly thick brain of your's already forget that there's someone after?!"

"Let go," she snapped.

He sighed, loosening his grip all the way. She wrenched her wrist away roughly. "Now answer me; why did you wake me up?"

He grinned. "That's a bit forward now, don't you think, Princess?"

She rolled her eyes at his joke. "Disgusting. Your answer; and it had better be a good one, else I'll think you a mindless perv."

He visibly winced. "Well, that's one way kill a joke. I woke you up cause I sensed that we we're being tracked."

Her eyes widened for a moment, then softened, returning back to a serious expression that she had grown used to wearing over the past three days. "Fine," she said calmly, "But I'm not leaving my home."

She'd put him through so serious crap, but this was just unfathomable. He put his hands to his temples, then moved them away in disbelief. "You know, you have got to be the strangest, weirdest, stupidest kunoichi I have ever met," he paused for a moment, letting it sink it, then he added, "And you may have a deathwish."

She rolled her eyes. "Do not. I just don't wanna leave my house a second time because of the SAME guy. No; this is my home and I will defend it."

He shook his head at her persistence. "You do realize that staying here would give him the perfect advantage to use this house as a trap that could haunt and/or maim us, like one of those kid horror books and movies? Just like that," he snapped his fingers, "we could be dead. And all because YOU wouldn't leave behind YOUR home. Is that what you want?"

"To die? No. But as you yourself pointed out, it's MY home. I'VE got to protect it-"

"And I'VE got to protect YOU," he pointed out. "Look, you can either come peacefully, or I'm dragging you out screaming your lungs off. Your choice."