(( eyes pop out of her head Wow!! I got 5 reviews out of the four asked! I guess being slightly demanding really does work. But the demanding-ness was actually motivation for me so you know the drill-- four reviews will earn you all a chapter! And as for the Lemon in Bloody Acquaintance-- I'll try to put that up tomorrow. It's really late right now.))

Chapter 4: The Truth Hurts

Chikage couldn't believe she'd really said that to the scariest man in Suna. Who did she think she was, demanding the admission of LOVE for a peek at her stupid drawing? Sure, it was her best yet but still, it was FAR from actually good.

'At least it keeps my privacy intact,' she thought as she saw the look on Gaara's face. It was so sad... she almost teared up herself. Then she smiled as she opened up to a new page and began to draw.

Gaara looked at her out of the corner of his eye and the sadness melted into curiosity. "What are you doing?" he inquired as he went to see her progress.

Whatever possessed Chikage was very seductive because she slipped the notebook away from his view and said, "Ah, ah, ah... no peeking until it's done." Then she blushed deeply as she continued her drawing.

He blinked once... twice blankly before nodding and sitting down. 'Fine, it's not like I really cared what she was doing.'

Five minutes went by until Chikage declared success. "It's done. Do you wanna see it?" she asked shyly as she held out the page.

Gaara nodded but made no move to get up. "If you want me to see that picture, you can just sit down with me," he stated stubbornly. Like he was really going to get up to please her.

She gave a lame look and pointed at her skirt. "I'll get my clothes dirty," she excused.

Snorting, he replied, "Around here, you can get dirty just by walking around. We live in a desert, girl, now either show me the picture or leave."

'Jerk... you're just lucky I like you!!' Chikage thought as she sat down. "My name is Chikage, Gaara-san, not "girl". But here, see?"

Gaara looked down and saw that it was him she had drawn. The bright sun was shining, everyone was smiling, and off to the side, just in the corner, was him. He was the only sad person in the scene. There were no tears and all emotion was devoid in his face. But his eyes looked sad. In such detail, it almost scared him. Almost... but he was Gaara and he was afraid of NOTHING.

"You made me look sad. I don't get sad anymore."

"Liar..." Gaara glared at Chikage only to find that tears had filled her eyes. "You are sad. I can see it. Everyone else pretends that you don't matter because of how you were born, but I know that you matter-- EVERYONE matters. And you aren't like that anymore. Shukaku is gone so everyone else should stop being such stupid assholes and beg your forgiveness!"

A tear slipped down her face as she grabbed her book and stumbled up into a running position, taking off towards her home. Now she did it! She talked so poorly about everyone else that if anyone had heard and had loose lips, she would be hated even more than usual. Stones would fly and bruises would turn her into a Dalmatian-hybrid.

'But so what?!' she asked herself.

Chikage knew she spoke the truth. They were all wrong. Gaara was right and he was still treated so poorly that it was only a miracle that he had tried smiling at everyone until Yashamaru betrayed him. She loved his smile and wished that her skills were innate so she could have captured it on paper way back then. He didn't smile anymore-- he COULDN'T smile anymore. He had tried and they had failed!

'No. WE all had failed,' she thought in horrifying realization. 'I'm no better than they are!!'

And with that thought... Chikage ran faster than she ever had before to further the distance between herself and the boy she loved-- to escape the reality that by never speaking up for him and never speaking TO him she had been just like the very people that hated her for her infatuation.