Chapter TWENTY
A flick of his hand and the sand moved to do his bidding. Within seconds, Gaara created a small surface of floating sand. He led Sakura onto it, then levitated them off the ground.
From up here, they could looked down at the lights of the festivals. People were buying food and beginning to make their way towards the raised stands at the edge of Suna. The fireworks would be raised above the desert.
Gaara pulled out the second box of dango and held it out for Sakura. She took a stick and Gaara placed the box down between them. They sat there in comfortable silence, listening to the buzzing of the crowd below.
Sakura peeked curiously over the edge of the sand disk, looking down at the people lingering the Festival grounds.
Gaara tensed, worried that she would fall.
But he knew he wouldn't have to worry. Sakura was circulating her chakra to her limbs, so that she was attached to his sand without disrupting his own chakra flow, which kept the sand up and together.
Like always, Sakura's chakra control impressed him.
It might also do with the time Sakura spent with him, and in turn, his chakra bad his sand.
'And she spent most of her life wrapped in some collar or another.'
Gaara flinched.
Shut up.
"Gaara-sama?" Gaara opened his eyes and flinched away, this time only because Sakura's face was so close to his.
He could feel her breath on his neck! Why hadn't he noticed?
Sakura jumped a this sudden movement and he forced himself to calm down.
"Gaara." He corrected automatically.
Sakura blinked, then quickly looked down. "Ga...Gaara..."
Gaara felt himself flush, and quickly turned to face the sky, willing the fireworks to start.
The first one erupted in the sky a few minutes later.
Sakura jumped in shock and surprise at the sudden sound and Gaara smiled softly, knowing that because Sakura was so aware of her surroundings, things that happened that she didn't notice surprised her.
After the initial surprise, Sakura's eyes were fixed on the explosion of color, eyes wide and full of curiosity she had forced herself to hide as a child.
Gaara smiled softly, promising to remember this sight forever.
His next action was something that was both out of instinct, and something that would change his life.
Gaara took Sakura's hand and brought it up to his lips. He gently kissed the tips of each finger before he laced his own with hers and lowered their linked hands back to the ground.
When both of them felt the warmth spread from within their chests, they understood.
They knew this was where normal people hugged and kissed and whispered words of sweet nothings to each other.
They had seen plenty of that during the festival.
However, Gaara simply squeezed Sakura's fingers and felt her do the same.
Neither looked at each other, eyes fixed on the explosion of color lighting up the sky.
Because their relationship was more, ran far deeper than that.
Because they had always been together, from even before they became an insomniac trapped in his own dreams and an object that held more feelings than any being.
Because their whole entire meeting had been brought together by secrets and misfortune and evil, their relationship built through layers upon layers of betrayal and pain and tears they were unable to shed.
Because they had only known one way to ask for comfort and one way to give it, one way to cry and express the twisted, only form of love they knew.
Because no one explained it, and judgement had been made through countless numbers of observations and exposures to blood and weapons and words and screams of fear.
Because they didn't understand and no one corrected them or offered them any help or pointed them to the right path.
So they knew.
They knew and they understood.
They were no longer who they were before.
They had moved on from the times where they had stood, just the two of them, armed with armor made through knowledge of pain and fear and abandonment and blades forged of the wish that they never go through the emotional terror ever again, facing the world on unsteady feet, given no choice but years too young to truly understand.
But the pain would never go away, and one could only face it and hope that the flow of time would slowly wear away at it until it became nothing more than a distant memory buried under times spent together.
In a world where bloodshed was used as a means of communication and betrayal was as simple as a break up, beauty came at a price, visible only to those who had witnessed the truly dark side of life.
So, for now, they would allow themselves to admire the beautiful side of life where they were just Gaara and Sakura, for tomorrow they would be back to Kazekage and his most trusted subordinate in a world full of enemies and lies and the danger of death right around the corner.
This would be their own little salvation, proof of how far they had come and how far they could still go.
This chapter of their life, so full of suffering and pain and tears, was over, and a new chapter was beginning.
A new path was opening up in front of them, a path that they had paved through with their own will and effort.
A path that was no longer a journey of self.
A path full of possibilities and choices they previously didn't have.
A path lit by friends.
A path they could journey knowing who they were.
A path they would travel together.
So...this is it...
Yeah...
OUR FIRST EVER COMPLETED STORY!
Thanks to those who followed this story to the very end.
We know a few of you might be disappointed about how...uh...un romantic? the ending was.
We actually had a very hard time writing this, because we didn't exactly know how a pair of emotionally damaged teens would express their love for one another.
We wanted to go with the careful affection approach and this was something both of us are pretty satisfied with.
Due to a few demands and requests, we may be posting a sequel story to this one, which will probably focus on Sakura and Gaara's relationship, as well as Kabuto, and the time the and Sakura spent together in his lab.
If you want that, please leave us a review or PM us.
Maybe they'll kiss there... :3
Read and Review!