Told you I'd get the next chapter up soon :DD! And I stuck to my word this time... Aha, yeah. Thanks to those who are reading my story. I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint or confuse anyone...
†Havoc--- --- ---
Chapter 8: Hurt
Gaara rolled off his bed a few hours later, grumbling. It was still too early for him. He felt like he could sleep for a week. He rubbed his eyes and walked over to one of the windows, pulling aside the drapes. It was still cloudy and dark outside, and though the rain had subsided, it looked as if it would storm at any minute. Gaara went to again wipe away the fog from the glass but stopped when he saw the faint smudges from where he'd written on the window the night before. Pursing his lips, he hastily turned away from the window and crossed to the opposite side of the room, recalling what had happened last night. Gaara grabbed a t-shirt off an arm chair in the corner of the room and pulled it over his tangled hair as he crossed back across the room to the door.
Smoothing down his shirt as he went, Gaara sped down both flights of stairs and straight into the kitchen. He was extremely hungry, having not eaten dinner the night before. Having bad eating habits on the weekend was normal for Gaara. The family was only usually "together" on weekdays, and on the weekends, everyone went there own way and cooked for themselves or ate out with friends. Gaara rummaged through the fridge and the cabinets to find something satisfactory to eat, and it wasn't until he sat down at the table and was digging into his bowl of cereal that he realized how unusually quiet the house was. Gaara looked up at the clock on the microwave and the glowing green number told him it was nine thirty. Normally, the kitchen would still be bustling around his time, it being the time Temari and Kankuro usually surfaced for breakfast.
Gaara left his partially finished breakfast on the table and scooted his chair away from the table. He made his way over to the refrigerator to check the dry erase board that was magneted onto it. The board usually told where family members were or if there was a message for someone. Gaara scanned down the board. Temari had spent the night at a friends, Kankuro was at practice for his new found love, football, and Yasha was... At the hospital. Gaara furrowed his brow. Yasha was at the hospital filling out some forms and picking up Boku.
"I hope he got some deadly incurable disease," Gaara mused aloud. But of course, if Yasha was picking him up at the moment, whatever had happened to him must not have been life threatening. He walked back over to the table and picked up his bowl. Gaara dumped the remains of his soggy cereal down the garbage disposal. He didn't feel very hungry anymore.
Afterward, Gaara drifted into the family room and stretched out on the couch. He didn't mean to, but before he knew it, he was asleep. It seemed like only moments later that Gaara heard the door open nosily and someone come stomping into the house. All of the sudden Gaara felt himself being yanked off the couch and dumped on the floor. Gaara moaned and slowly opened his eyes to see Boku sitting down on the couch where Gaara had been lying moments before. Gaara looked him over and saw that his arm, the one he didn't use to throw Gaara to the floor, was in a sling.
"Serves him right." Gaara wanted to laugh.Instead, he just dragged himself up from the floor and sulked back up to his room. As he made his way up the stairs, Gaara could hear Yasha scolding Boku. She was telling him not to overexert himself or put too much strain on his other arm. Nothing about the fact he had just thrown his child to the ground. But Gaara didn't expect that. He just shook his head and retreated to the confines of the attic.
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Gaara stayed in his room all afternoon. He worked on his art projects but discarded almost all of his drawings. Gaara also went around his room and gather all his rolls of film he needed to develop. Gaara had taken so many pictures for school, he'd forgotten about the ones he had taken outside of class.
Later in the afternoon, he heard his brother come home and drop all his pads and equipment off before taking a shower and leaving once again. Not too long after, the phone rang. Gaara glanced over at the caller ID and read the name "Uzumaki" on the screen.
"Naruto." Gaara picked it up hastily after the first ring. "Hello?" It came out too fast, making it seem as if he was out of breath.
On the other end of the phone Naruto chuckled and made small talk before getting down to business. Naruto wanted to know if Gaara knew what was wrong with Sasuke. That his mood had been even more extreme than usual and that it scared him. Gaara told him he didn't know. That was only half a lie.Gaara could take a few guess, but he also thought that there was something deeper behind what was wrong with Sasuke. So he stuck with his answer of "I don't know."
After a bit more chat the two said their goodbyes. Gaara set down the phone and walked away from his desk. He assumed his normal position propped up on his bed with a book and began reading. Later that evening, Gaara heard the front door close and the car pull out of the driveway and down the street. Gaara assumed the house was now empty and it was safe for him to journey back down stairs.
As soon as he got downstairs though, Gaara saw he was wrong. Boku was still sitting on the couch. He had also assumed that the car leaving meant Yasha had driven Boku somewhere, but again, he was wrong. Boku looked up as soon as Gaara hit the bottom landing of the stairs. He locked gazes with Gaara, and stood up, making his way toward him, determined.Gaara took a defensive step back but seeing the look in Boku's eyes, turned and fled right back up the stairs.
Gaara knew what was coming, but he was more afraid now that he had been at any other time. Something was different in Boku now, something seemed to have snapped. Gaara reached his bedroom once again and could hear Boku's heavy footsteps coming up the creaking stairs as he fumbled with the lock on his door. He knew it was no use. Gaara stumbled back as Boku slammed himself against the door, shoving it open. He could feel himself shaking out of both anger and fear. Not only was Boku different, but so was he. Gaara tried to relax his body so maybe the damage wouldn't be as great. Boku stood staring at Gaara for a long moment before striking Gaara, with his good arm of course. Gaara felt the familiar sting of flesh colliding with flesh. His hand instinctively went to the spot where he had been hit. But that wasn't the only blow.
Boku kept coming after Gaara, each hit becoming harder. Boku mostly focused on Gaara's face and torso. Punching, hitting, anything to make Gaara suffer. Gaara fell to the floor several times, bleeding, coughing, but Boku didn't stop. The first few times he just dragged him back up, hitting him more. After a while though, since it was hard to pick someone up and beat them all with one arm, Boku just left him on the floor, kicking him in the stomach and ribs.
With one last kick, Boku walked out of the room, slamming the door closed behind him.Gaara lied on the floor, gasping. It was hard to breathe, each breath he took hurt more than the last. For the first time Gaara could remember, he began to cry. Silent tears that just trickled down his face and onto the carpet to mix with the blood. Gaara's only thought before he slipped into sweet darkness, was that he would have to clean up the mess on the floor.
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Gaara couldn't remember anything when he first came to, but when he tried to lift his head and get up, the wave of excruciating pain that washed over him helped him remember. After much effort, Gaara rolled himself from on his side to on his back. He looked around the room. He was still in the same place as he was the night before, no one had bothered to come check on or help him. He suspected Boku had something to do with that. Gaara figured it was the next day because there were now hints of light that didn't come from the lamps peaking into the room.
It was a long time before Gaara could drag himself into a standing position. He wobbled, almost collapsing again, but after stumbling around a bit, steadied himself on his end table. His vision got fuzzy at the corners and he sat down heavily on his bed. Gaara pressed gently at his face and body. Almost every placed he touched was tender and sent pain searing through him. Gaara groped around in the end table drawer until he found the Tylenol bottle. He emptied the rest of it's contents into his palms and tossed the empty bottle in the general direction of the garbage can, missing horribly and gritting his teeth and grimacing against the pain. He picked up his ever-present glass of room temperature water and swallowed down the pain killers.
Gaara rolled over on his bed and lied flat on his back. He lifted his hands to see them shaking and covered in his own blood. Gaara sighed and coughed, making his head throb and his vision blur. Of all the times Boku had beat him, this had been the worst. Gaara took in a ragged breath and closed his eyes. Within moments, he fell into sleep.
When Gaara woke up again, it was in the early hours of the morning. Several hours before he would be getting up for school. The pain had subsided slightly, but everything still hurt. Gaara knew he wouldn't be allowed to stay home from school. That was unheard of. It would mean something was wrong, that something wasn't right within their household.
Managing to drag himself out of bed, Gaara trudged over to the full-length mirror. First he surveyed his face. Bruised. Blood had trickled down his forehead and dried leaving burgundy stains across his face. He lifted his shirt up and over his head, regretting it as soon as he did. It hurt. Bad. Gaara then studied the bruising on his body. It was just as bad as his face, minus the blood. Gaara stood shirtless in front of the mirror staring at his reflection.
More than anything, Gaara hated himself. His tiny pale frame just hung there, and in Gaara's mind, was just asking for a good beating. He thought himself pathetic, like he wasn't worth it. Gaara had never thought these things before, and he wondered why; they all seemed so obvious. He punched the mirror, cracking it. Broken Glass, blood, pain. Gaara swore, and held his injured hand as he exited his bedroom. He willed his legs not to betray him as he crept down the stairs and too the bathroom. Gaara had to let go of his hand to hold the railing, smearing blood a majority of the way down. What a mess. A mess that he would have to take care of later.
Gaara trudged as quietly as he could manage down the hall and into the bathroom. He turned on the water in the shower, adjusted the temperature, then grabbed a wash rag to press against his hand. Gently, he stripped all the way down then carefully climbed into the shower. Gaara let the water just wash over him until it turned from a reddish-pink, to more of a clear color. He then tenderly washed the remaining blood off of his body. Afterward, he dried himself off and wrapped the towel around his waist and gathered his clothes up off the floor. On his way to his room, Gaara stopped at the hall closet and took a new bottle of Tylenol.
Back in his room, Gaara checked the clock.Cleaning himself up had only taken about an hour and he still had a few more before the school bus would come.He lied down on his bed hoping to get some more sleep, but realizing it was useless after tossing and turning, Gaara got up and got fully dressed. He packed his bag for school and slung in over his shoulder, wincing as he did. He stuck the undeveloped film inside his bag as well, then picked up his camera and left.
Quietly, he exited his house and made his way down the front path. Everything was so still at this time and the sun was still just rising in the sky. He uncapped the lens of his camera and began snapping pictures every now and again as he wandered around the neighborhood. After a while, Gaara realized how completely exhausted. With a glance at his watch, he noticed it was also time to start heading back for the bus. His body ached and he hadn't even started to think of an excuse for his injuries, so he decided he wouldn't give one.
Gaara pulled on the hood of his sweatshirt as he approached the bus stop. As usual, Sakura and Ino were already there. AS he walked up, Ino made a point of stopping the conversation and glaring at him. Gaara only sighed and waited the few minutes for the bus to come rolling up. When he walked onto the bus, Naruto waved to him from his normal seat on the bus. Gaara ignored him and picked a seat close to the front. That way, when he got to school, he could quickly flee away from the crowd of people.
A few stops later, Sasuke got on the bus. Gaara instantly tensed. Sasuke hesitated for a moment next to Gaara's seat and looked like he was going to keep moving, but then sat down right next to him. Gaara fold his arms tight across his chest and moved as close to the window as he could. He felt like Sasuke was watching him and a look out of the corner of his eye confirmed his suspicions. Sasuke was looking straight at him as if he had asked him a question and was awaiting an answer. Gaara quickly averted his eyes and bowed his head lower.
The ride to school felt extra long and awkward. As soon as the bus stopped outside of the school, Gaara flew up from his seat causing a whirl of pain in his head. He put his hand to his forehead and gave a small groan. Sasuke gave him a look but said nothing, then exited the bus. Gaara followed quickly behind and walked in the opposite direction Sasuke had, hoping to get lost in the crush of students frequenting the grounds.
Gaara rounded the side of the building and though he was finally alone when he felt someone lightly grab at his arm and he stopped walking. He looked over his shoulder to see Sasuke right next to him again. Gaara roughly knocked his hand away and was about to continue when he felt Sasuke grab his wrist. Gaara tried to jerk away but Sasuke's grip was firm this time. He pivoted quickly to face Sasuke but couldn't look at him, wouldn't look at him.
"Just go away," Gaara growled forcefully.But Sasuke wasn't going anywhere.Again Gaara tried to pull his arm away, but all it did was cause pain to shoot through his body. Sasuke placed his free hand under Gaara's chin and tilted his head up so they were looking each other in the eye. Gaara's body froze then relaxed, he stopped trying to pull away from Sasuke, and Sasuke took a step closer to him. Sasuke didn't say anything, just scanned Gaara's face with his eyes. Gaara averted his eyes once again.. What was going on?
