"There is no love lost between us." - Miguel de Cervantes

"Do you see them?" I asked for the tenth time in the past hour, peering over Kyan's shoulder as we stood on the roof, taking turns staring through a pair of binoculars at the village gates.

The rain had finally stopped and everyone seemed to be thankful that it only lasted for five days. Most of the village's streets turned to mud, making messes in houses and other buildings. Luckily, the sun had come back out and was shining as brightly as usual, forcing heat down on all of us.

"I d-don't think so," she whispered, trying to steady her hands. During the time the siblings were gone, she had spent hours in Gaara's study chair, flipping through his books and memorizing important details. The process of the Sunagakure government truly interested her.

I frowned impatiently. We'd been waiting and watching for a total of three hours. We had already gone to check out the building for the restaurant. It was medium-sized, a bit smaller than the one back home, and would definitely need some patching-up done. But other than a few problems, it was perfect.

"Oh, wait!" Kyan suddenly gasped. "I-I see Gaara's hair!"

I yanked the binoculars from her hands and gazed into them, squinting my eyes. She was right; they were back!

We didn't waste any time running back into the house and forcing our feet quickly into our shoes. Within three seconds, we were out the door and running through the streets.

Unfortunately, the streets were just as crowded as they had been before the rainstorm. We avoided as many people as we could, but the ones we did accidentally run into, we shouted a quick, "Excuse me!" before continuing on.

After about five minutes of dodging buildings and people while sprinting as fast as possible, the siblings came into view. Temari, who was the first to see us, beamed and waved her hand high over her head. She wasn't my aim, though.

I hurled myself at Kankuro, wrapping my arms tightly around his neck, somewhat throwing him off guard. He staggered a bit, but quickly regained his composure to wrap his own arms around me, pressing me tight against his body.

We both exhaled slowly at the same exact time and whispered, "I missed you…"

()()()

The rest of the day flew by in a rush. Kyan and I were seated down at the table by the siblings. Gaara sat at the head while I sat next to Kankuro and Kyan sat next to Temari opposite of us.

"This is the lease to the building," Gaara explained, pushing an important-looking document my direction. I glanced over it, feeling my face scrunch up in confusion. "It basically says your family owns the building for two years. At the end of those two years, you need to apply for another lease. If there is considerable damage to the building, you pay the owner compensation in addition to the monthly payments."

"Sounds like a lot," I muttered, fumbling nervously with my own fingers under the table.

"Just don't allow any damage to the building and the payments won't increase," Gaara suggested. "You pay ten percent of your earnings at the end of each month and that's it."

"Its n-not so bad," Kyan added. "As l-long as people keep c-c-coming to eat."

"All that's really left," Temari said, "is decorating the place and hiring people. There are tons of unemployed people in Suna, so you won't have any trouble finding willing workers."

I chewed on the inside of my cheek. This whole thing was extremely nerve-wracking to me. I wasn't comfortable with any of this, but it was better for the business and for Konohagakure, the origin of the food chain. But knowing I was basically in charge of this whole operation, of hiring and firing, and of running this branch made my stomach curl into tight knots.

My body jumped slightly when a hand was placed on mine under the table. I glanced up at Kankuro, who was peering down at me from the corner of his eyes. Slowly, I curled my fingers between his.

"Are you okay, Haketa?" Temari asked, picking up on the obvious panic on my face.

I forced a smile and nodded. "Its all just a little…overwhelming, I guess. I've never had to deal with this sort of thing before."

"Well, its not like you have to do this alone. We can help you with interviews and budgets. Kankuro is actually pretty good with counting currency. That's about the only thing he can do right," she teased, trying to lighten the mood. Kankuro only glared at her, though, before turning to me.

"You'll be fine."

More than anything, I hoped he would be right.

()()()

I wanted everything to slow down so I could step back and actually think my next actions through. But that wasn't happening.

The very next day, maintenance men were hired to make the building presentable again. As they worked on the inside, I sat back on a chair and watched them rebuild, paint, and decorate. Windows were washed, glass tables were polished, and the floors were swept. The back kitchen was sanitized repeatedly until the entire place smelled like ammonia.

The employee interviews were held at the Kazekage's office. I wasn't alone with this part, though. The two brothers accompanied me. Luckily, I sat between them to receive input from both sides.

It was a long and tiring process. Many different kinds of people came in and were asked the same questions. Prior work experience, criminal records, personality quirks, etc. While Kankuro and I kept the nervous possible workers busy with interrogations, Gaara silently wrote down his observations on a piece of paper.

At the end of the day, I was left alone in my room with pictures of people I hardly knew much about spread about on my floor and bed. I sat in the middle of the chaos, feeling a migraine coming on quickly.

"Haketa?" a muffled voice called through the door, followed by two quick knocks.

I sighed and glanced around, not really feeling up to hopping over pictures to answer the door. "Come in," I replied. "Its unlocked."

Kankuro entered, a cup of steaming tea in his hand. He smiled softly at me, which I hurriedly returned.

"Thought you'd like something to drink," he said, swiftly moving to my nightstand table to place the cup down.

"Thanks," I whispered, turning back to the pictures.

Since the siblings returned from their mission, I hardly saw much of him, aside from the interviews. Even though only a day had passed since then, it felt like weeks.

"Have you decided on anyone yet?" he asked, his eyes dancing from face to face. I reached under my leg and pulled out a single picture.

Her name was Azai, a 17-year-old single mother with huge blue eyes and choppy blonde hair. She had come into the interview and was asked about her family. Her answer was that her parents had disowned her after finding out about her pregnancy, and the father of the child had been killed on a mission. That's when my decision had been made.

"Just one?" Kankuro muttered.

"Yeah. Its just so hard, you know, finding the right people for this. I don't want to hire someone who will intentionally mess it up for my family."

"You're stressing out way too much over this." He began gathering all the pictures from my bed, bundling them into one pile and setting them next to the cup of tea. "You have a whole week to figure this out. Slow down."

"I can't," I replied, stretching my legs out in front of me, thanks to all the room I had now. "This is really important to more people than just me."

He laid back on the bed, folding his arms behind his head. "Just relax," he told me.

Eventually, I decided he was right. Everything with the exception of hiring was ready to go, and I had a whole week to get that going. Taking just one night off from working and thinking wouldn't be so bad.

I crawled closer to him, lying on my stomach near him. He grinned down at me before reaching over to move a stray flock of hair from my eyesight.

"You look so tired," he informed me with a soft chuckle.

"Oh, thanks for the compliment," I mumbled, rolling my eyes and propping my chin up with my palms. "This is all just really stressful."

"I know. But Temari even said you're not alone with all this crap."

I sighed and collapsed my head onto his chest, focusing solely on his heartbeat. For just that moment, everything melted away - all the stress of the restaurant, the paperwork, the future employees. I forgot about it all.

All that mattered, at that exact moment, was Kankuro.

I inhaled deeply, taking in the scent that I remember falling into all those months ago, and that I was falling into again. I thought about those nights of coming home, smelling exactly like him, and falling asleep pretending he was still next to me.

What was wrong with me? I made a promise to myself, once I'd gotten over the heartbreak (or so I thought I did), to never feel this way about him again, given the chance.

But Kankuro had changed in that six months we spent apart. There was more maturity and confidence in the way he carried himself, and he seemed to think before acting most of the time instead of acting on impulse. If I said he was a completely different person, I'd be a liar.

He was still immature at times; tugging at my hair whenever it was pulled back, making faces at me from across rooms, and constantly arguing with Temari. He still spaced out at random moments and he still shut himself in his room for hours to work on his puppets. I knew not to disturb him when he was in "work mode."

"What are you thinking about?" Kankuro suddenly asked, yanking me away from my thoughts.

"Nothing."

"You've been staring at the wall for ten minutes straight. There's no way you're thinking about nothing."

"I'm just tired, like you said."

"Want me to leave so you sleep?"

"No!" I answered too quickly. My head shot up from his chest to look him in the eyes, which gave me an odd stare.

"Haketa, are you okay?" he asked. I opened my mouth to answer, but I knew if I told him I was okay, it would be a lie. I wasn't really sure how I was. Too many things were running through my head.

"I…" There really were no words I could say to him.

My gaze traced all the features of his face. His jaw line, the way his brows knitted together in the sense of concern, and then finally, his lips, which slightly curved downwards. I swallowed, my heart beating heavy in my chest, and leaned toward him.

There were no words that could be spoken between our lips touching.