Gaara woke up to the soft sound of Lee saying his name. At first, Gaara brushed it off as a dream; why else would the receiver of his affections be whispering his name so sweetly? After a while, the volume got louder and Gaara roused from his sleep.

Lee stared at the just woken up face of Gaara. His eyes were squinted by the soft light from the hallway, half of his face was red from laying on it, and half of his hair was messier than usual. Lee's heart skipped and he found it hard to get his breathing pattern on track again. How could someone looked the way Gaara did?

"Good morning, Gaara. Did you want to go to school today?" As if Gaara could get any cuter, he used one of the floppy sleeves covering his hand to rub his eyes. He gave a nod and crawled out of the bed.

With a smile, Lee watched Gaara stand right next to the bed trying to wake himself up. It took all of his self-control not to touch him or kiss him. Lee didn't realize how badly he wanted to kiss Gaara until now.

Gaara decided he was awake enough to get changed and he walked over to his bag on Lee's dresser and pulled out a shirt and pants. Before Lee could leave, Gaara pulled his shirt off and Lee's eyes couldn't be averted.

He hoped it was the lighting in the room being poor, but it looked like Gaara had scars up and down his backside. Lee's eyes widened and he kept his feet firmly rooted to the ground and didn't move. If he did move, he couldn't promise he wouldn't trace the scars with his fingers to see if they were real. If they were real, Lee hoped to god that they weren't from Gaara's father.

Lee quickly left the room before Gaara changed his pants and walked downstairs. Kakashi and Guy were already up, sitting at the kitchen table nursing cups of coffee.

"Good morning Lee! How are you doing today? Is Gaara going to be joining us?" Guy asked and Lee nodded stiffly and walked to the fridge to grab an apple. "Are you ok?" Another nod. "I don't like when you lie to me, Lee."

There was a pause, then a sigh, and Lee shut the fridge door. He looked in the direction of the stairs to see if Gaara was coming down. He heard the soft footsteps in the upstairs hallway and the sound of the bathroom door shutting. He switched his attention to his father.

"Gaara changed his shirt in front of me and I think I saw a bunch of... scars? All up and down his back... I do not know. It was kind of dark in the room... I am just worried I guess." Guy and Kakashi shared a look.

"What kind of scars did you think you saw, Lee?" Kakashi asked and Lee shrugged. "What did they look like to you?"

"I guess... just really long thin scars."

"Did they look new?" Lee shook his head.

"Not that I could see. The room was dark but none of them looked dark enough to be red." There was a silence in the kitchen after that and Lee was brought back to reality when he heard his dad wish Gaara a good morning.

"Where is your sweater? Are you not cold?" Lee asked and Gaara rubbed his arms and nodded.

"I am. I don't think Temari remembered to bring me sweater." He said quietly and Lee rushed passed him to find one of his sweaters in his room. He grabbed the first one in his closet and went downstairs and handed it to Gaara. Gaara tentatively put his hand out and took it, pulling it over his head and pushed the hood down.

"You realize you don't need to go to school today, right?" Guy insisted and Gaara nodded slowly.

"It's fine. I want to go." Guy took that answer and nodded.

"Would you like some coffee?" Gaara nodded.

"Yes. Please." Lee reached into the cupboard to get Gaara a to-go mug and Gaara filled it to the top with coffee.

"No milk or sugar?" Gaara shook his head. "I thought you liked your coffee sweet."

"I like my cold coffee sweet. Hot coffee doesn't really taste like anything to me. Are you ready?" Lee nodded and Guy jumped up.

"I'll drive you two to school." Lee paused.

"Are you sure, dad?" Guy nodded and smiled, although Lee could see it wasn't completely a real smile. "Okay. Thank you. Bye Kakashi." Lee waved, walking towards the exit. "Love you."

"Love you too, kid. Have a good day at school."

Lee hadn't seen Gaara nearly all day. He saw him briefly walking into a classroom, still wearing his hoodie. He hadn't realized he would be this stressed out after not seeing Gaara for a few hours, but here he was.

"Lee?" Lee turned to face Sakura and smiled.

"Oh, hello Sakura! How are you today?" He asked and she smiled warmly at him.

"You looked distracted, are you okay?" Lee gave a nod that didn't exactly convince Sakura.

"Come on. It's study hall now, so let's just go to the library. There's a sub anyway, he won't even care." Sakura said with a laugh and her and Lee linked arms. He didn't know when the tradition started, but him and Sakura usually linked arms when they walked. She did it with Sasuke sometimes when he was in a good mood, which wasn't too often.

"Okay." Lee let her lead him around the school, just being thankful for the touch of her skin on his. It grounded him. The feeling kept him in the present moment instead of dazing off in his thoughts.

"How has work been going?" She asked and he honestly didn't know how to answer that. It was a loaded question.

"I like the work." He wound up saying but didn't clarify and Sakura frowned up at him. "What?"

"Lee, something is bothering you and I can tell. I'd like you to tell me but I know I can't force you. Just know I'm here for you." She smiled and Lee returned it. He was very thankful to have Sakura on his arm. She was a fantastic friend.

"Hey bushy-brow." Lee looked to his side to see Naruto and Sasuke. Sasuke was still sulking but less than he had been. "Do you know what I saw in English class?" Lee looked at Naruto for a second before realization dawned on him. "Yup."

"What did you see?" Sakura asked, nosily and Sasuke chuckled, Naruto must've told him already.

"Just our old pal Gaara... wearing Lee's team sweater." Lee's face warmed up at that. He grabbed the first sweater he found. It was the sweater that the team got for track. It had the school's logo, and name and the back had his name on it. Lee didn't realize the implications.

"Oh really?" Sakura asked, she looked... confused.

"Yup." Naruto giggled gleefully. "So you wanna tell us what's going on between you two?"

No. Not particularly. Lee frowned, there wasn't a good way to go about this. He couldn't tell the truth to his friends about Gaara's abusive family situation! That was just not something anyone should go around telling people. Plus, Gaara trusted him.

"We hung out and he slept over my house since it was so late and he left his sweater at home so I gave him one of mine." Lee's cheeks were pink. Honestly, his lie wasn't big. He just left out the part of the story where they were in the hospital.

"He slept over your house, huh? What happened then?" Naruto gave an over exaggerated wink and Lee furrowed his brow.

"We slept. Honestly. Do you and Sasuke have sex with me when you sleep over?" The deadpan of the question got Naruto to flounder.

"Lee! That's gross!" Naruto cried and Sasuke chuckled at Naruto's ridiculousness. "I would NEVER sleep with you!" That garnered a lot of unwanted attention. Lee's face turned red, he looked around at the crowd that was staring at them, and thanked every god known to man that Gaara wasn't there for that comment.

"That is really more than okay with me, Naruto. You are not exactly my type." Lee's voice was soft, as if he were letting Naruto down easily. Naruto glared and pointed at him.

"IS IT BECAUSE I'M NOT A REDHEAD?! IS THAT WHY YOU WOULDN'T SLEEP WITH ME?!" Sasuke covered his face in his hands and quickly walked into the library and Sakura punched Naruto upside the head.

"NARUTO! STOP BEING OBNOXIOUS AND EMBARRASSING LEE!" Naruto nursed the sore spot on his head and cried, running into the library after Sasuke. Sakura shook her head and held onto Lee's arm tighter than she had before. "Come on Lee." She led him into the library and the first thing Lee saw was Gaara.

If Lee was red before, he was positively crimson now. Sakura felt him tremble under her arm and looked at him, cupping his cheek in her hand.

"Are you okay, Lee?" She asked gently and Lee felt like he was going to explode if he stayed in the library. He nodded quickly and Sakura dragged him to a table. Gaara and Lee held eye contact for a few seconds until Gaara looked back down at his book and began writing.

Lee was absolutely smitten. He stared with fondness watching Gaara do his homework and for whatever reason thought it was the most precious thing anyone has ever done ever. Sakura frowned when she saw his attention stayed glued on Gaara even after being across the library.

"Lee!" Lee's head snapped in her direction. "What are you doing?"

"I..." Lee didn't have anything to say. What would he say? Sorry, I was staring at Gaara because I think he's cute.

"Whatever, just stop it. We're all here." Sakura said and sat down at the four-person table that Naruto and Sasuke occupied.

"We see your lover is here." Naruto whispered with a grin and Lee groaned.

"If you do not stop making fun of me about Gaara, I will leave this table." Sakura scoffed at that.

"No you won't. Come on Lee. Stop being silly. You've been ignoring us for days. It's our turn to have your attention." Sakura insisted and Lee frowned at that. He wanted to offer the idea of Gaara sitting with them, but with Sakura acting so strangely, he decided against it.

They all did their homework in a comfortable silence (except Naruto, who was playing on his phone) until Sakura finally snapped.

"Lee. Seriously. Stop with the leg." Lee turned to her and noticed he was bouncing his leg and wondered how long he'd been doing that. He gave her an apologetic look and she frowned at him and went back to work. He couldn't concentrate. How could he when Gaara was a few yards behind him? How rude of him was it to walk into the library and allow himself to be rushed away without saying hello? Lee felt extremely bad, especially with everything he discovered that day so quickly pushed himself away from the table and walked to Gaara's table, ignoring the protests from Sakura.

Lee sat down at the table and Gaara's eyes looked up. Lee smiled softly.

"Hello Gaara. I haven't seen you much today." Gaara grimaced at that. "What?"

"I just... I didn't think it mattered, you seemed content with your friends..." Gaara went back to writing and Lee felt terrible.

"You are my friend too. It was very rude of me to not say hello to you when I saw you. My other friends are just upset because I have not been paying attention to them lately... I have been... distracted." Gaara nodded and said nothing else. For whatever reason the silence bothered Lee a great deal.

"Where are your friends?" He asked and Gaara stopped writing and looked up at him with the most honest confused expression Lee had ever seen.

"You're sitting right there."

"No. Your other friends." Gaara slouched down even more.

"I don't have any." He continued writing and now Lee felt even more awful. Did that mean that Lee was Gaara's only friend and Lee was rude enough to not say hello to him? Lee was heartbroken.

"Would you like to sit with me and my friends?" He asked and Gaara shook his head. "Please? Just this once. I would like you to meet them. Officially." Gaara looked up at was met with Lee's begging expression and sighed and nodded slowly. He began packing his things up and Lee jumped up with a smile. He looked over at his friends and Naruto was giving him a thumbs up. Sasuke was just smirking and Sakura wasn't looking, just avidly writing in her notebook.

Lee brought Gaara over, grabbed another chair and put it between him and Sasuke. Gaara sat down slowly and looked at everyone at the table.

"Hey man!" Naruto grinned. "What's up?" Gaara shrugged and sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. He wasn't sure how to interact with people. Naruto looked like he just had a realization and slammed his hand on the table. "That's right! You're Gaara! Man, let me just tell you..." Lee felt a sense of dread and hoped Naruto didn't say anything embarrassing. "You can cook! Or bake, or whatever. One day, Lee brought home some pastries and I swear I gained like 67 pounds that day."

Lee was pleased because he could tell the compliment meant a lot to Gaara. If there was one way to make sure you were placed in good regards with Gaara, it was to compliment his baking skills. Gaara was very proud of them.

"Thank you. That is kind of you to say." Sasuke nodded, wanting to make Gaara feel comfortable for Lee's sake.

"Yeah, I must've eaten one of each muffin and whatever else he brought until I felt sick." Gaara appreciated that comment too, even though Lee knew Gaara complained about the amount of muffins he made on a regular basis.

"I told you he was amazing." Lee said with a grin. Gaara flushed and shuffled in his seat. He was getting embarrassed with all of the compliments. "And the cakes he makes are beautiful." Lee added. "Even if they are covered in jam." Lee got the rare smile from Gaara and he covered his face and shook his head with a small laugh.

"If only there was something that wasn't jam that would've been a better option for covering a cake." Gaara said flatly and Lee grinned widely.

"Certainly. I would think buttercream, but I do not want it too sweet. Everyone knows there is no sugar in jam. It is the better option." Gaara smirked at Lee and Lee's face warmed for the umpteenth time. He wondered if his cheeks would just be completely red around Gaara at all times. "So what are you working on now?"

"Just homework..." Gaara opened his notebook to a section covered in math problems. "You?"

"Oh, me too!" Naruto snorted.

"Yeah ok. You couldn't sit still long enough for that..." He muttered and Lee glared at him. Sasuke chuckled and Naruto smirked at Sasuke.

"Are you almost done?" Lee asked, blatantly ignoring his friends.

"Yeah. It would be faster if there weren't 7 sub questions per question." Gaara mumbled and Lee nodded. What else could he talk about? What was there to talk about?

"Oh! Lee!" Sakura looked up and Lee turned to face her. "I've been meaning to ask, would you like to do something later?" The question came as a shock. Sakura never wanted to hang out with just him after school. It was usually a group thing. Maybe that's what she meant?

"Like, as a group?" He asked after a stunned second.

"No. Just you and me." She smiled sweetly and Lee honestly didn't know what to do. He remembered when he had the biggest crush on her and all he wanted to do was to hang out with her but he was always too nervous to ask after she shot him down when he asked her out.

"Uh, sure. Okay." Lee agreed and she smiled wider.

"Awesome! Can't wait. Meet me after 9th period. I'll see you guys later." She gathered her stuff and left and Naruto and Sasuke exchanged looks at each other and then stared at Lee who still stared in the wake of Sakura.

"What just happened?" Naruto asked and Sasuke shook his head slowly.

"I think Sakura just asked Lee on a date." Lee stiffened at that.

"Wait, what?" Naruto and Sasuke laughed loudly, almost getting kicked out of the library in the process. "What is so funny? I never said it was a date. I just said I would hang out with her. Why would she ask me out anyway? I already asked her out before and she turned me down."

"You asked out Sakura?" Gaara asked quietly and Lee turned to him and suddenly felt really embarrassed.

"Y-yeah but that was two years ago. It wasn't a big deal" Naruto cackled.

"Oh puh-leeze. You're literal wording was 'Please be my girlfriend, I vow to protect you till the day I die'." Naruto laughed and then teared up he was laughing so hard.

"Verbatim." Sasuke smirked and started to chuckle with Naruto.

"Come on guys! I was 14!" Lee whined and tried to stand up for himself without even realizing the stewing thoughts Gaara had in his mind.

Gaara sat stiffly in his seat, he knew he had a crush on Lee but nothing prepared him for the stabbing pain of rejection he felt after witnessing Lee agree to a date with Sakura. And then, finding out the corny phrase he used to ask her out, even. Gaara pursed his lips slightly in thought. He realized that if Lee wanted to ask him out, he would've. Clearly, he was brave enough.

Gaara bit back a sigh. He didn't want Lee to know the overwhelming feeling of disappointment he felt deep in his bones. What could he expect? Gaara knew he didn't deserve Lee. At least he was able to call him a friend. That should be enough.

Why didn't it feel like enough?

The bell rang and Gaara stood up quickly and put his books in his barely functional bookbag and fled from the library, barely even listening to anything Lee said after him. He needed time to think. He needed time to get over his stupid crush. And he needed time to settle the seething feeling of anger he got when he thought about Sakura.

Lee watched as Gaara left the library like a bat out of hell. He turned to face Naruto and Sasuke and they shrugged.

"I do not understand. Why did Sakura ask me out?" Sasuke smirked.

"You're dense. She's mad because you have a crush on someone else and now you'll stop doting on her." Lee frowned.

"That isn't true. Also it isn't nice. I will find out what the reasoning is after school today. There has to be a good explanation." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Yeah whatever Lee. Let's go to class." Naruto frowned at the situation as they left the library. He hoped what Sasuke said wasn't true. He didn't want to think that lowly of Sakura but he couldn't help but notice how angry she got when Gaara was mentioned or even around. What else could be the causer of that?

Naruto shook the thoughts out of his head and got lost in the sea of students in the school hallway. His last thoughts on Lee was silently hoping Lee figured out what he wanted enough to actually pursue it instead of pretending feelings didn't exist.