Chapter 23

"So it was you two that cleared out my food stock....Yes, I saw it.....No.....Naruto!....Oh yes you are! You are not getting out of this one....That's right.....Tomorrow, I'll meet you at the store.....Yeah and make sure to bring your big wallet, buddy."

Sakura hung up the phone in a huff. It had been Naruto and Kiba that had cleared out her fridge after all. And not just them it seemed. No wonder her apartment hadn't been totally destroyed when she came home, Sai had been accomanying the two hooligans. Being the neat freak artist that he was, he had kept her place cleaned up. It seemed odd that the usual stoic and antisocial painter would do something nice for her, but then Sai was always full of surprises.

He had even once been her carpool for a week when her old vehicle had up and decided to bite the dust. She had been overly grateful to him, which he had voiced to her in his usual monotone and fake smile. "It's what comrades do, Ugly." Had been his exact words at which point threw her into a rage. He had drove her to work and back that day with a black eye, and still, a fake smile present on his bruised face.

Sakura's forest eyes turned to her red-headed guest and she smiled tightly at him, half her mind still on the blonde that was going to pay dearly for not only clearing her fridge, but for interrupting something that she had been craving. Naruto had better be wearing a full on padded suit the next time she saw him, because he was going to need it.

"That would be the guy that cleared out my fridge." she growled and rolled her eyes. She saw Gaara's eyes flash with an emotion Sakura saw as jealously, and she grinned. Was he jealous of Naruto? Of all people, Naruto.

Naruto was like a brother to her, why in the world he would be jealous of the blonde? Sakura smiled and laughed at the idea. Gaara watched her carefully, regarding her like she had a second head. Waving her hand dismissively at him, her eyes bugged out of her head when she caught the time on her wrist-watch.

"Oh no! Gaara we have to leave! Now!" she sputtered, already grabbing his sleeve and rushing for the door. Gaara's eyes narrowed and he grunted, planting his feet, causing her grip to slip off him.

"Ugh!" The pinkette whirled around and snatched his hand this time, gripping tightly, her eyes anxious as she glared up at him. "Come on! I was supposed to have you back an hour ago!"

Gaara still didn't budge.

What was his problem!? "Gaara! Do you want to never be allowed outside anymore?! That's what she will do if you don't come on!"

Sakura yanked on his hand, Gaara's eyes tightened as he took a step after her grudgingly, obviously not appreciating not having a choice and being forced away from the home it seemed he had only just entered. Only the coldness of his silent room at the facility waited for him now, ice hands out-stretched and cruel smile on as it beckoned for him to come 'home'.

Disgust swirled within him and he grimaced as his strides lengthened behind Sakura so she wasn't dragging him. Sakura burst from her door, causing it to swing dangerously on it's hinges as if seeking a rebuke. Gaara easily dodged the door before it slammed behind him. Sakura jumped off the stairs easily, not taking the time to walk down them while Gaara followed more easily.

Sakura's ears were ringing with her anxiety and irritation. She wanted to punch something, but she wanted to mourn, too. Oh how badly she wanted to drag the redhead behind her back into her room and drive both their senses wild. She wanted to drive him wild. The pinkette's steps slowed as image after image of a submissive and begging redhead flashed into her mind's eye.

Gaara eyed her with angry curiosity. Her skin was beginning to flush, her breathing speeding up, and sweat was forming on her brow. His pale eyes focused one her hands as they trembled at her side, before sliding down to her shaky legs. She couldn't possibly be this worried about taking him back late, Tsunade wouldn't dare fire her. Not when she was the only one ever to get a reaction from him.

And besides, he wouldn't let her leave.

Just as he breathed in a breath to make a sharp comment on her worries, he stopped, his mouth slightly open. He took in a deep, long breath through his nose, scenting the air that surrounded Sakura. Gaara's mouth snapped shut as his eyes zeroed in on the back of her head as they reached the car. His cold gaze watched as she stiffened, but her actions only increased.

A smirk of malice and cruel teasing lifted his lips slightly and he stepped up behind her. Sakura immediatly tensed, her labored breaths cut off quickly at his closeness, his body heat wrapping around her like a live animal. Her emerald orbs darted to the side, trying to catch a glimpse as he stood behind her.

His smirk grew into a deathly grin as he leaned forward, whispering darkly into her ear as his nose pressed into her soft, pink locks.

"I can smell what you're feeling," he growled and a noise of shock escaped Sakura's lips. "Your very body is saturated in it."

Sakura's face turned red with shame and embarresment. He was lying, there was no way he could smell her arousal, he was just fishing.

She felt his hands ghost over her arms before sliding across her hips and settling just above the waistband of her pants. She shook when one of his thumbs slipped past it, rubbing tauntingly against the newly exposed skin. Fire sparked from his fingertips and scorched her, inside and out.

A needy, almost completely silent moan whispered from her.

He was just fishing, but he had caught a sucker.

"We don't have to leave just yet, Sakura." Gaara's voice said softly, stirring her insides so much more and spiking her craving. "Tsunade won't mind. I'll make sure of that."

It sounded so tempting, so easily in her reach. And yet....

"W-We....I have to t-take you back, Gaara." she stammered, taking his wrist and pulling it away from her. "I can't...I can't risk it."

Her voice held no conviction, had no strength. She knew she sounded like a three year old trying to convince someone she hadn't just commited a 'no-no'. Inwardly she was screaming and crying because what she so desperatly wanted was so close, so damn close.

Gaara didn't fight her against her wishes, though he knew she was wanting him as much as he was craving her. He wasn't an idiot. However, he felt exceedingly stupid as he stepped back and let her have space. He could almost feel her surprise as she looked back at him with wide, bright eyes. He bit back the snarl that bubbled so close to the surface at seeing her emotions so exposed. It would be too easy to break her down right now and take her back in the house.

But that held no fun at all. She was better willing, more of a challenge for dominance if she let herself go with him.

And he had every intention of having her do that, just as soon as that certain chance presented itself. This was not the time.

Without another word, both got into the vehicle and sat in silence as the drive back to the facility began. Each were lost in their own thoughts, brooding, angery, frustrated, and lust-filled as they were, neither gave a hint as to what they were thinking.

No matter how badly the urge to throw the other onto the ground and fuck them until time held no meaning in the world became, they controlled themselves. Barely.

XXX

Tsunade hadn't been happy. At all. Sakura cringed as she recalled the chewing out she had recieved for bringing Gaara back late.

"I was this close," Tsunade had yelled, holding her index finger and thumb barely an inch apart, her face red with anger and irratation. "...to calling the police! Or going after you both myself!"

Sakura's eyes closed as a grimace of regret exposed itself on her features. Maybe she shouldn't have brought him home with her at all, maybe she should have just left the restraunt after the confrontation with Sasuke -she flinched at the name, her own thoughts stumbling over it before rushing on- and drove him straight back to Tsunade and avoided the yelling altogether.

She sighed quietly. No, she was happy that she had taken him back to her place. Not just because she wanted to have him to herself, but to show him the stability of a home. The freedom of being away from the facility and being on your own. To her, he had seemed quiet content in her small abode.

And she rather liked him there, too, she admitted to herself.

Sakura groaned deep in her throat as she stood from the comfy chair in her living room. She had left the institution a few hours ago, with a fleeting heated kiss from Gaara and a few words from herself to remind him that she was forcing him back out tomorrow.

"And maybe," She had teased him as she walked down the hall away from him, forcing herself to not look back at the intimidating figure leaning against the doorframe, his lean, strong arms crossed over his chest. "If you're good, I'll let you take me back home earlier tomorrow so we don't get put on Tsunade's hitlist."

She could feel his dangerous, deadly smirk curve his lips without turning. "If I were you, I'd get some sleep tonight. You'll deffinatly get a workout tomorrow, princess." he had growled after her.

When she had finally allowed herself to look over her shoulder at him, her eyes wide with surprise at his comment, he was already disappearing behind his door and the powerful urge to join in behind that one barrier almost overcame her.

And now she stood in the middle of her home, her insides vibrating with excitement, impatience, and anxiety. Sakura dragged a hand down her face in irratiaton.

I should have just taken him up on the offer earlier today, she thought irritably. Screw Tsunade's temper, it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Again she disagreed with herself. In the end, even if she had followed him back into her home, Tsunade would have gotten her at the end of the day. Her job would have been on the line in an even more dangerous level if she went with her desires. Sakura was glad she had not followed Gaara's wants that mirrored her own for once.

Sakura's cell phones' shrill ring broke through the silence, tearing her from the train of thoughts abruptly.

"Hello?" she questioned breathlessly, still startled by the sudden sound.

"Still have the same number I see, Sakura. And here I thought you had changed everything about you when you ran away from me."

Sakura's blood ran cold, her legs went numb, and she could hear a distant ringing in the back of her head as warning sirens rang louder and more piercing than any sound imaginable. Her fingers trembled, threatening to drop the phone as she wanted to do nothing more than turn and run. Flee from nothing and everything.

"What's the matter, Sakura? Don't you have anything to say to me? You surely didn't have much to say earlier. Though, your little boy toy had plenty, didn't he?"

She could clearly hear the malice in his voice, yet her voice was trapped in her throat, the fear choking her so violently she was surprised she hadn't yet fallen from the threat.

"I never really pinned you as the type to go after a drug addict. I mean, how low can you possibly sink? You're still stupid, too, no doubt. Does he know how weak you are? How annoyingly pathetic and hopeless you can be?"

His laugh rang in her ears, silky smooth and so confident. Sakura realized she was crying, silent broken sobs that jarred her body as she stood in the middle of the room. He wasn't even with her, and yet he could still shatter her into a million, tiny, scared pieces.

Why did she allow him to do this to her?

"Come now, are you crying?" his dark voice teased her, and it only made the tears burn her eyes in anger, still flowing so easily. "I can hear you sobbing. It amazes me that you still cry at the drop of a hat. How pathetic." he scoffed. "Does your little fuck buddy like it when you cry? Or does he comfort you and lie to you that things are going to be better?" he snarled, picking at her broken and mangled heart. "I bet he likes it, I bet he wants you to be vulnerable. You were always easier to fuck when you thought it was out of comfort."

A broken, destressed noise cut through Sakura as her knees shook. He had no right. No right at all!

Why did he have to call her, drag her through the dirt - over phone of all places - and smear her face into all her flaws again? She knew she wasn't perfect, she was the farthest thing from it. She knew there was nothing special or exotic about her and she didn't let compliments go to her head. She was nothing more than another face in a crowd, a shadow on the wall.

But why did he have to dredge up the past? When things were just finally settling, he had to pop up.

"I'm wondering, though. Is he as big a screw-up as you are? Or can he get that bad? You know he is just using you, right? No one can love you. That's impossible. He's just going to pull your strings like a little puppet master because you are that easy. What a fuck up you both are. Does he - "

"Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up!!" She screamed into the phone, shocking the man into silence. "You know nothing about him! Nothing! Stop acting like you do when you don't! He is a good person, twice the man that you could ever dream of being! He's not a bastard from Hell like you, he actually listens to me! Gaara doesn't treat me like shit, like his own personal punching bag! For once, I've finally found someone that will not stomp on me like you did!"

She stopped, her breathing heavy and ragged. She had never, in all the years she had known him, rose her voice to him. Never spoke a word of utter defiance in his direction. The fear that had been chained to her had kept her in line.

Only now did she realize that not even a dog was treated as bad as she had been. Had been used as she had. Sakura had never deserved it.

Her voice was shaky, but calm as she spoke into the phone again. "Don't ever call me again. There is nothing you need from me, and there is absolutly nothing I want or need from you. Stay away from me, stay out of my life, I don't want to ever see you again." After a moment's hesitation her voice carried over the line with strong conviction. And no hint of fear anywhere in her tones. "You don't control me anymore, Sasuke."

XXX

Gaara's eyes gazed up at the ceiling of his room, lazily tracing patterns into the water-stained plaster that seemed to have seen better days. Most of which before he had been admitted and confined to this place. His fingers twitched at his sides, rubbing the blanket under him.

He could still smell her.

He let his pale eyes slide to the smudged window and stare at the moon. Taking a deep breath, he thought back over their little 'act' that had happened in his room. Her scent burned his senses as it wrapped warmly around him. A twinge of aggrivation sparked within him for being so caught up in her, before distinguishing just as fast as it had appeared.

It was too late to be thinking about that. Way too late.

Rolling onto his side, facing away from the moon's critical beams, he pressed his nose into the rough material of the pillow. Her scent was so warm and inviting, and he found himself wishing she was here with him. Under him. Wrapping herself around him.

Gaara felt his body relax into the mattress, sinking into the lumpy cushion bit by bit as the night dragged on. His eyes opened slowly before closing again. He found the feeling odd, getting tired like this. Sakura hadn't given him his dosage, sayings he was wanting to know how he would sleep if he didn't take it.

It didn't bother him much, not getting the meds, because, honestly, all they did was turn his world gray and almost unbearable. Except for her pink hair. That characteristic of hers stood out worse than a green thumb. He was grateful when she was near after his dosage, so he could at least some form of color.

Even if it was pink, of all colors.

It wasn't long before he felt himself drifting off, falling serenely into a pit of darkness where not even dreams plagued him so deep was his slumber. It was the first sleep he had achieved on his own, and he found it quiet intriguing. Even as he slept, his mind still marveled at the feeling of resting voluntairly.

Before dropping off completely, Gaara's fingers tightened their hold unconsciously on the pillow beneath him and buried his nose sleepily into the scent, breathing her in deeply.

And then he let go of and let the exhaustion yank and drag him down deeper into the black hole. Sleep engulfed him eagerly, like a man to water in the desert. He didn't mind, he didn't fight it. Sleep wasn't so bad when he could smell Sakura so close to him. It wasn't as good as having her warm body next to him, but it would suffice.

For now, anyway.