Part 4 – Where will you go? (by Evanescence)

He strides down the hallways, his feet heavy, pearl-white robes dusting against the sandy floors. The voices of the council members still echo in his head. They still wish to send his lover, his mate, back to her home village. Away from him and back into the hellish environment she grew up in.

The hateful glares.

Spiteful whispers.

The ostracism.

You're too important for anyone

To play the role of all you long to be

As ruler, he has the power to overthrow their decisions in favor of his own, to keep here with him, but only just. He is a figurehead as well as protector. So much is expected from him and war is something that cannot be risked out of his own personal feelings.

But I, I know who your really are

You're the one who cries when you're alone.

He goes straight to the window of his bedroom, resting his hands on the sill and staring out at his village as night falls upon them, a dark blanket sprinkled with white jewels.

He too has lived through a harsh, difficult life. Isolated by dark glares of hatred and fear. His heart aches, the pain almost physical, but tears have long since been outside of his abilities.

Dried up and cast aside during his childhood.

But where will you go

With no one left to save you from yourself

Her slim, strong arms slip around his middle from behind, her small body and firm breasts pressing into his back. He closes his eyes and exhales shakily, sinking into her embrace, warm and comforting. She is his only escape from the demanding world that surrounds them.

You can't escape

You can't escape

It is almost frightening, how well they know one another. She alone understands how heavily his duties weigh upon his shoulders, how he would have crumbled to his knees and given up long ago had she not been there to caress and hold him. To catch him as he fell and keep him on his feet, even if only barely.

Her lips attach themselves to his pale neck, canines ghosting over his pulse with the eerie semblance of a vampire. A wave of golden tresses spill down her cheek and over his shoulder.

You think that I can't see right through your eyes

Scared to death to face reality

He turns around in her arms, clear blue meeting worn green chained by rings of black. Her fingers cup his cheek, stroking and comforting as she melds their lips in a desperate kiss. He squeezes his arms around her, trembling with the intensity of a child.

No one seems to hear your hidden cries

You're left to face yourself alone

A tear falls from her eyes, sliding down her whiskered cheek and between their lips. A sweet, but bitter kiss that leaves a craving that is impossible to sate.

But where will you go

With no one left to save you from yourself

You can't escape

The truth

Heavy clothes pool on the floor, entangling between their feet. He gasps for air as she parts their lips to tickle along his jaw line and neck. Her knees bend, and she sinks to the ground, pulling him down with her, her body impossibly warm against the chill, desert night air.

Not even the moon dares to shine, and he clings to her anxiously, her hot skin and golden hair shining like a flame.

I realize you're afraid

But you can't abandon everyone

You can't escape

You don't want to escape

His breath, burning and shaky, mingles with hers as the thrust simultaneously, as if they could sear their flesh together with the ferocity of their emotions. He whispers into the shell on her ear, words he cannot even remember saying causing her crystalline eyes to water and a smile to grace her soft, tanned face.

She whispers back, tremulous, voice broken, and places butterfly kisses over his eyelids.

I'm so sick of speaking words no one understands

Is it clear enough that you can't live your life alone?

I can hear you when you whisper

But you can't even hear me screaming

His arms lock around her, fingernails leaving bloody, red crescents on her back as he finally shatters, spine arching as he screams her name, emotions laid bare to her and only her.

Where will you go

With no one left to save you from yourself

You can't escape

The truth

"Naru!"

She exhales, her breath nearly ending in a sob. "Gaara," she keens, "Oh, Gaara." She repeats his name like a mantra that can save their tainted souls, peppering him with seemingly endless kisses.

I realize you're afraid

But you can't reject the whole world

Spent, her body slumps beside his, sweat intermingling, connecting their bodies into one. Her long, calloused fingers slide through his cherry-red tresses, slick with heat and sweat. His pale hands hold her firmly by the waist, stomachs and noses touching, legs tangled in an impossible knot.

Chains binding them together; silken and unbreakable.

You can't escape

You won't escape

His body begs for sleep, and she clings to him, a silent plea to stay, but as Kazekage his duties seem to never end, especially if he wants to keep her. The blue and white robe rests anew upon his shoulders, and as he prepares to leave, her pink lips latched onto his throat, he wonders, not for the first time, if she is the only thing that keeps him sane nowadays.

His salvation.

You can't escape

You don't want to escape

"Don't go," she murmurs.

Remorsefully, he pries away her clinging fingers and kisses her once more, deeply, before exiting through the door. Back into the world they both dread to face and live within.

"I promise," he whispers, and closes the door behind him softly.