Yearning

Chapter 4

"Are you two insane?"

Temari stared in horror at her younger brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law, while Kankuro rolled on the floor laughing behind her. Gaara and Hinata simultaneously pointed at each other. Temari just looked on in exasperation and sighed.

"Just tell me what happened."

The two chocolate-covered figures looked around at the mess they'd made in the Chef's state-of-the-art kitchen and then at each other. Hinata began. "W-well I walked into the kitchen to ask Chef for a treat, b-but Gaara-sama was in there and Chef wasn't."

Hinata walked into the kitchen, her mind swimming with thoughts of a piece of moist, delicious cake, to find Gaara with his finger in an enormous pot of chocolate. Hinata knew that Chef would hate that if she knew, and proceeded to try and make him stop, but he just stared at her and kept licking the finger he'd pulled out of the pot. Just when he was about to commit the most horrible crime of sticking that same finger back in, Hinata pounced at him and, in the process, knocked the whole pot over on them both.

They sat there in the great puddle, totally shell shocked, until Gaara reached over and ran a finger down her cheek. He then licked it completely clean. Hinata blushed under the chocolate that obscured most of her face. Gaara knowing, although he couldn't see, smirked at her. Hinata just stared for a second, then splashed her hand in the chocolate and drew a curling mustache on his face.

Gaara drew her a mono-brow in return and soon it was full out war! They ran around leaving chocolatey footsteps and hand prints all over the kitchen. They tripped in new puddles they'd consequently made. They threw globs of chocolate at each other and got it into things that would be hard to clean later.

The two were holding each other's hands like sumo wrestlers, and trying to stay on their feet when Temari walked in. They immediately lost their balance and fell flat on their buts.

Temari was, again, gawking at them. After a moment, where the only sound was Kankuro's laughter and the screams of pain caused by said laughter, Temari shook her head and looked to Hinata. "You know, this is your mess and you two should be the ones to clean it up" Hinata looked properly chastised. . . almost like she was about to cry. If looks could mangle and kill, Gaara would be serving up Temari-Sushi.

"I-I'm s-sorry! W-we were having so much f-fun! I didn't r-realize we were making a m-mess!!"

Gaara rubbed her chocolate-coated hair. "It's okay Hinata-chan. Temari and I will clean it up, you can just go take a bath."

Hinata looked almost offended at the thought. "N-no! It's my m-mistake too! Temari shouldn't have to help either!" Temari gave a little "yes!" behind her back at being saved from her punishment.

Gaara sent Temari another glare but quickly went back to Hinata. "Okay, okay, Hinata-chan. Don't worry. No ones angry with you. It's alright to have fun sometimes. You and I will get this done and go take a much needed bath." He took her hand and pulled her to her feet, then turned to Temari. "Get the cleaning staff in here to supervise and bring materials."

Hinata was already trying to scoop what she could back into the pot. "The head cleaning lady's not gonna let you and Hinata do her job so easily.", Kankuro said with a shake of his head.

Gaara cocked an eyebrow. "Well she can suck it up and allow Hinata to do whatever pleases her."

Temari just sighed and went off to do his bidding. It took the two of them four hours to finish cleaning the entire kitchen, including time added for the head cleaning lady's fussing.

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIGHT

As soon as they returned Hinata took Gaara's advice. It took a lot of bravery seeing as she was still working on how timid she was. Huh. It was odd how the only person she didn't completely revert around was Gaara.

She shook her head furiously, attempting to banish such thoughts, and Gaara looked at her a little strangely. "Problem, Hinata-chan?" She blushed and shook her head again. He stared at her, knowing she'd lied. She gave up and nodded. "Can you come with me?" She looked truly concerned, and Gaara couldn't say no.

She led him down two hallways and stopped at the last door on the right. Temari's room. Hinata raised her hand to knock, then stood frozen. Suddenly, before he could say a word, she grabbed hold of his hand and knocked as forcefully as she could. Temari opened the door immediately, looking fierce. "What the –?" She stopped and smiled in confusion when she saw Hinata. "Finished cleaning Hinata-chan?"

Hinata nodded and pushed her index fingers together in her classic sign of nervousness. "Um. . . About the wedding plans."

"I really liked all the things you picked!"

"But – "

"Oh! And I found the perfect dress! I wanted to show you!" Temari took off into her room. Hinata stayed where she was, slightly shocked that this was happening again. Temari came back waving a dress book in the air. "Look! Look! It's so perfect! There's a . . ." Temari went on and on. She was completely oblivious to Hinata's growing anger. Gaara though, was very aware. Hinata was squeezing his hand as if she was in childbirth. He feared for Temari's life a bit. Hinata's hair now obscured her face and she emitted an aura that could maim or kill.

Finally the dam broke. "It's My Wedding, Temari!" Temari finally stopped talking and stared at the normally meek kunnoichi. Gaara's eyes widened minutely. "I didn't pick any of that! You did! You just asked random questions and completely ignored my answers!" At this point Hinata seemed to realize she was yelling, and deflated. "Um . . . What I mean is; Will you please let me have a say in my own wedding, at the very least?" She gave Temari her most pleading look. Temari's face held no expression at all, then finally bloomed into a slow smile.

"You bet, Hinata-chan!" Then she walked into her room and closed the door. Although that was very rude, Hinata was glad she didn't fight her on the matter. She smiled brightly to Gaara, who had pulled a chocolate bar from somewhere on his person.

Gaara was proud of her. His quiet shy and compliant Hinata had stood up to his rowdy outspoken sister. He was happy for her. Such skills would help her in the future. If she couldn't stand up to Temari she'd never be able to stand up to the manipulative overbearing people she'd deal with as his wife. It was nice to know he wouldn't have to watch over her 24/7. Although he probably would anyway. With a shrug of his shoulders he pulled out a candy bar and walked beside his fiancé in silence. It wasn't long before he felt her stare.

"What?" Gaara raised an eyebrow at her. Hinata said nothing, just continued her staring. Then, as if it had never been there, his chocolate was gone and Hinata was racing down the hallway. Gaara growled and smirked as he chased her. They ran through twining hallways, up staircases, and past servants, who dropped whatever they were holding and stared in open-mouthed shock.

Hinata giggled as she ran, just enjoying being Gaara's prey. Eventually they reached the dim hallway that contained their rooms and, just before she reached hers, he tackled her. They stumbled but he managed to hold them both up, with Hinata pinned to the wall. In the same moment they both realize the position they were in. Time ceased as they gazed upon each other. Slowly, Gaara leaned in inch by inch. "G-Gaara-kun, w-what are you doing?"

Gaara's eyes grew darker the closer he moved. "Nothing" Then his lips were on hers and as much as she knew she should push him away, she could do nothing but enjoy the feelings he was invoking in her. He kissed her softly, sweetly, in a way which made her wish he would give her more, give her all that he had. She wanted all his passion and fire, everything. Yet she had no idea where any of this was coming from.

Gaara's heart raced a-mile-a-minute as he looked down on Hinata's flushed face. Her eyes were still closed and her lips were slightly puckered. She was even cuter than normal. He sighed internally. There was nothing he could do. He was totally and thoroughly lost on this one, adorable, kind, patient, beautiful girl. He gave up fighting it and angled to take her lips once more.

Hinata's eyes opened and she awakened, as if from a trance. She yanked herself back to avoid a second kiss and almost cried at the confused and hurt expression she saw in his jade eyes. She backed away, touching her lips, then ran into her room in tears.

She didn't cry for the love she'd betrayed. She cried because she didn't feel like a betrayer at all. She felt nothing wrong with being in Gaara's arms. Rather it was all too right. It felt so perfect that it scared her. Yet, had she not very long ago been pining after some mysterious figure? How could she simply move on so readily, like a common whore?

She soon found that none of it mattered to her yearning heart. None of that mattered to the heart that told her to turn around. To run back into his strong safe arms and everything would be okay. Hinata Hyuuga did not turn.

Ok!!! Sry for the LOOONG wait! I have had a bit of writer's block, at least where this is concerned. Other than that i've just been busy! I've pretty much got the whole 5th chapter planned (possibly 6th too) so it shouldn't be long! So thank you for waiting and Gomen Nasai! *bows deeply* I wanna change the title so from now on, even if I can't figure out how to change it , the title written at the beginning of the story will be "Yearning". I'd thought this chap would be longer than this but I guess not. Sry 4 that 2. Thanks!!!!