Lee woke up the next morning to his alarm blaring at 4:25. He had to be at work at 5 for training. He didn't mind much. He was able to get a good night's sleep. The night before he couldn't sleep because he was so excited. Now that he got that excitement out of the way, sleep came easily.
Lee's bed was a king sized bed, he used to have a twin, but Guy wanted a new bed so gave Lee the old one. It took up most of his room, but at least Sasuke and Naruto were happy they didn't have to sleep on the floor. Both of them had plenty of room on the bed, more now that Lee was leaving.
The floor was cold on his feet and it felt nice. It woke him up more at the temperature change from his warm bed. Lee grabbed his uniform from the top of his dresser and walked to the bathroom to shower. Usually he took one at night, but Sasuke and Naruto kept his attention the entire time.
After his shower, the clock read 4:40 and Lee tiptoed to Sasuke's sleeping form. Lee heard the down pouring rain from outside and was not looking forward to walking.
"Sasuke." He whispered and Sasuke's eyes opened slowly. "Can I borrow the car?" Sasuke gave a nod and went back to sleep. Lee smiled and grabbed his rain coat and rain boots and left the room in a hurry.
The house was so quiet at this time, he loved it. He could hear snoring from Guy's bedroom though and stifled a giggle.
"You headed to work?" Kakashi asked, scaring Lee half to death. Lee turned to face the man sitting on the couch, nursing a cup of coffee.
"Yes. I will be back around noon. Naruto and Sasuke will probably sleep until 10, I am taking Sasuke's car." Lee explained, pressing the start button on the car. It was probably super cold outside with the rain and he wanted the car as warm as could be.
"Oh boy, you're leaving us to babysit the boys." Lee grinned.
"They just love you, Kakashi." Kakashi rolled his eyes and shooed Lee out of the house. "Goodbye Kakashi! Love you!"
"Love you too, kid."
The ride to the café was pretty terrifying. The sky was black and the rain was coming down so hard, Lee had a difficult time seeing with his wipers on full speed. When he finally got to the café, he didn't want to get out of the car. He really didn't want to get wet. He should've brought a change of pants. Lee took a deep breath and jumped out of the car, lunging for the front door, which was thankfully opened.
Lee's coat dripped water onto the welcome mat and he looked around the café. The lights weren't all on so it had an eerie vibe to it.
He heard rustling in the kitchen and wiped his boots and pulled off his coat and followed the sound of the noise.
When Lee walked into the kitchen, there was Gaara, sitting on a stool, piping roses and putting them on a sheet tray.
"Good morning Gaara!" Lee said happily and Gaara turned to him.
"Good morning Lee. How did you sleep?" The question surprised Lee, he didn't think Gaara would as about his well being. The question made him smile wider.
"I slept wonderfully. How about you?" Gaara shrugged.
"I haven't been to sleep yet." He admitted and Lee's posture slouched.
"What? Well why are you here? Are you ok?" Gaara nodded slowly, putting all of his attention into the roses.
Lee sighed and went to the bathroom to hang everything up. Once he was back in the kitchen, Gaara was putting the sheet tray into the speed rack in the standing freezer.
Lee turned to look over the swinging doors that led to the dish pit and saw that there was a decent amount of dishes stacked up.
Gaara broke down his piping bags and squeezed the excess buttercream into quart containers and stacked them neatly back on the shelf. Lee watched in interest as he walked to his small clipboard and crossed something off of the list. There was at least 35 different things crossed off. Lee was amazed. He left at 5pm, it was now 5am and Gaara hadn't slept? He'd been working for 12 hours? When was he going home?
"Are you done now?" Lee asked and Gaara scanned the list and shook his head.
"No, I have to make caramel now. I used it all for filling cupcakes. Temari won't be happy if there isn't any caramel to use for up front. She has a half quart but she is anal." Lee snorted at the comment and Gaara looked over at him with his lips curled up somewhat.
"Speaking of, where is she?" Lee asked and Gaara shrugged.
"I don't know. We may open later today because of the storm. Temari is usually here at 430 to start opening. I think she said the power went off last night. Perhaps she slept through her alarm." Gaara walked to the oven where he had pots stacked on top and found it difficult to reach the copper bottom pot he needed. Lee quickly made himself available and grabbed the pot for him. Lee didn't realize how much shorter Gaara was than him. He loved it. "Thank you."
"No problem! Would you like some assistance?" Gaara looked at Lee thoughtfully.
"I suppose if you'd like to. Can you get out the heavy cream and butter?" Lee nodded enthusiastically and quickly went to the dairy side of the fridge and pulled some out.
Gaara weight sugar in the pot and poured water in it and mixed the sugar and water with a gloved hand. Lee watched with interest. He put a tablespoon of something Lee didn't know what it was in the pot and mixed that too. He placed the pot on the stove and turned it on and grabbed two quart containers and a small scale. He scaled out his heavy cream and diced the butter and weighed that too. He then looked at Lee.
"That's it until the caramel cooks." Every time Lee was with Gaara, he was impressed by the simplicity of things. How was it that easy to make caramel? How was it that easy to make anything? Gaara just floated around the kitchen with ease. Where did he learn all of this stuff.
"How long does it take?" Gaara shrugged at the question. "When do you know it is ready?"
"Smell." Gaara said simply and Lee was confused. "When it's ready it will smell sweet. You could also use a thermometer, but ours broke a while ago." Gaara said simply.
"That is so cool that you can do that!" Lee grinned and Gaara gave a small tug at the corner of his lips.
"I appreciate it. Would you like a drink? I suppose you don't want coffee, you're already awake." Lee smiled bashfully.
"Actually, if you could, I would love one of your drinks." Gaara looked at him confused and then nodded.
"The espresso drink?" Lee dipped his head in agreement. "Glad to hear you enjoyed it." Well that was an understatement if Lee'd ever heard one. Lee considered getting Sasuke one. Sasuke liked coffee. Naruto didn't.
Lee followed Gaara to the front counter. Lee saw the clock over on the wall with the TV's and the time read 5:13. Temari was almost an hour late. Wow. He returned his gaze to Gaara and suddenly Gaara turned to him.
"Would you like it iced or hot?" Lee considered his options. It was rather cold in the building but he really liked the iced drink.
"I will take it cold." He decided and Gaara smirked a bit. He made both of the drinks iced and led Lee to the sitting area. The couches were very comfortable; Lee now knew why Naruto and Sasuke had no qualms spending 3 hours on them. Gaara sipped his drink; his legs crossed and pulled his hood over his head. He was wearing a sweater under his chef coat.
"You are cold?" Lee asked and Gaara nodded.
"Where we lived was very hot all of the time. I'm not used to this kind of weather." He admitted and Lee was happy to hear some sort of tidbit of knowledge on Gaara's life.
"Where did you live?" He asked and Gaara sighed softly.
"The desert. The one across the country." Wow, that was a pretty big move.
"Why did you move?" Lee asked easily and noticed how Gaara tensed up. "Are you ok?"
"I don't want to talk about it." Gaara said stiffly and Lee immediately felt bad.
"Oh I am so sorry; I did not mean to pry." Gaara relaxed a fraction, brought his straw to his lips, and drank his coffee. The silence was deafening and Lee wished he could break it but had no idea what to say. Regrettably, Lee couldn't focus on anything but the mysterious reason why Gaara moved. Thousands of different reasons ran through his head and each was worse than the next. He decided he should stop focusing on that if he were going to concentrate at all.
"How do you like this area?" Lee settled for and Gaara's posture relaxed slightly.
"It's okay. The school is easier than my last school." He admitted simply and Lee wondered how schools could be easier. Wasn't there standardized testing? "It's nice to be somewhere different. Although, I do miss the warmth of the desert."
"You grew up in the desert?" Gaara nodded. "Well I can understand why you would prefer it then. Personally, I like this type of weather. Rainy days are the best days. They are nice to relax in bed and watch movies with friends or family." Lee said with a fond expression, Gaara's expression soured.
"I wouldn't know what that feels like." Gaara said with an air of sadness. Before Lee could question him on it, Gaara stood up and made his way to the kitchen. Lee debated on if he should follow him or not. Was this Gaara wanting to be alone? Did he want him to follow? Lee decided to follow anyway. Gaara should not be alone when he was sad!
Lee made it to the kitchen in time to see Gaara whisking in the butter a few pieces at a time. He stood by the stove and Gaara let his eyes wander to Lee's face. Lee liked the feeling of having those gorgeous eyes on him.
"Next step is whisking in the butter slowly. Then add the heavy cream. Then it's done." Gaara said simply and Lee nodded and was mesmerized at the motion of Gaara whisking. It was oddly calming.
"Does it bother your arm?" Lee asked and Gaara shrugged.
"Not the caramel, but sometimes when I whisk something by hand and its thick it does. For the most part, you get used to it."
"Shit! Lee I am so sorry!" Lee was jerked out of his trance at Temari's voice. She ran into the kitchen completely soaked. "My car died and I had no cell service. I was on the side of the road. I had Shikamaru pick me up, but the rain is so bad. Luckily, I brought extra clothes. I will be right out." She ran into the bathroom and Lee stared sadly at Gaara. Well he supposed it was time to work, not just talk to Gaara.
"You're really catching on quickly." Temari said, impressed. Lee smiled shyly.
"I was not lying when I said I was a fast learner." Temari found the statement was usually said as a brag, but Lee's tone suggested otherwise. He was a really genuine guy.
"Well, you keep smiling at customers, it's good for business." Lee saluted and Temari smiled at the absurdity of it. "You're weird, Lee." She said, surprisingly fondly. Lee liked the gentleness of her tone. He wasn't used to people calling him names in a nice manner. They usually just made fun of the way he looked or dressed. "I'm impressed you handled the lunch rush very well. Too bad the rain destroyed the breakfast rush. That's where most of the money comes from."
"I bet." He looked sadly at all the delicious pastries and baked goods. "I hope everything sells. I would not want them to go to waste."
"Would you like to take some home with you? Gaara prepared for the breakfast rush of Saturday. There's no way we're going through all of this." Lee smiled appreciatively.
"Only if you are certain. I would love anything Gaara made." Lee paused and flushed at the comment and stared at the floor, embarrassed.
"I'm sure he would appreciate the thought." Temari said with a warm smile.
"Lee! These are amazing!" Naruto was going to choke if he kept eating that way. Sasuke looked at Naruto as if he'd grown additional appendages.
"Isn't Gaara talented? These are marvelous." Lee praised, eating a scone.
"Gaara made all of this?" Kakashi said, surprised. "How does he find the time?" Lee suddenly got upset at the thought that he left and Gaara was still in the kitchen. He'd been there working for 18 hours! He didn't seem more tired than he normally looked either. He hoped Gaara could find time to sleep soon.
"He does not sleep much." Lee said softly and continued eating his scone.
"This is like the millionth time you've mentioned Gaara since you got the job." Kakashi said bluntly and Lee's face colored and he glared with indignation.
"Aw, Lee has a crush." Naruto teased and Sasuke chuckled, not saying much, but eating a s'mores muffin.
"At least I did not have a date with him on the couch at the café like some people I know." Lee retorted and sent Naruto and Sasuke into another heated debate on how much they hated each other. Lee grinned and Kakashi shook his head.
"Son, you've got some evil bone in you, you know that, right?" Lee just gave him a sly smile.
"A lovers quarrel so soon in the day?" Guy said as he walked in the room, the look on Naruto and Sasuke's faces was priceless. Lee actually bust out laughing
"I would not date someone as big of a loser as he is." Sasuke said childishly and that brought on a whole new argument. Lee really did love his friends.