"...What... what are you doing to the shrimp?" Gaara stared down at a bowl that had the shrimp and for whatever reason, also the cup of white wine needed to make the white wine sauce.

"I'm marinating the shrimp in the wine!" Gaara slowly looked up at Guy, then back down at the bowl.

"There is so much wrong with this, I honestly don't even know where to begin." Gaara rubbed his temple feeling a headache come on.

This had become sort of a tradition the past few days. Kakashi or Guy would try to impress Gaara with their "fancy" cooking and fail miserably. Lee begged them to stay with just regular home cooked meals, but they insisted to be fancy. Currently, Guy was failing miserably at Shrimp Scampi. A dish that Gaara said was too easy to screw up. It turns out, he was very wrong.

"What's wrong with that?" Guy asked, upset and Gaara just continued to stare at the bowl.

"I think you broke him, Guy." Kakashi smirked and went back to reading at the kitchen table and Guy pouted.

"Sit down. I'll fix this." Lee laughed at Guy's grumble and watched as Guy joined them at the table.

"So Gaara, what did dad do wrong? I am curious." Lee asked as he leaned forward on his elbows sitting at the table.

"First off, you can't really marinade shrimp in liquids this thin. If it were a sauce that would be one thing. This? You're just soaking it in liquid that will be immediately cooked out of the shrimp once it's cooked. Second- wait. Did you put the garlic in here too?" Gaara asked after straining the shrimp and watching chunks of garlic come out from under the shrimp.

"I thought it would be a good flavor..." Guy mumbled and Gaara ran fingers through his hair and took in a deep breath.

"I see you also added the butter... And melted it. Did you literally add all of the ingredients to a bowl to 'marinade'? Do you know how to make shrimp scampi?" Guy pouted for the umpteenth time and Kakashi laughed even harder. "Please tell me there's more wine. I can't use this wine it's messed up the whole recipe."

Lee jumped up to get Lee the wine since Guy was sulking and Kakashi was too busy laughing at him.

"So Gaara, what are the proper steps to making shrimp scampi?" Lee asked, throwing a teasing look at his dad.

"Step one. Add olive oil to the pan, cook shrimp. Take shrimp out. Step two, cook garlic until you can smell it. Step three, add wine and reduce. Step four, of your cup of butter, add a tablespoon at a time to slowly melt into the mixture without breaking it. Step five, add seasonings. Step six, add the shrimp back, voila, you're done. It is literally so easy to do."

"Wow dad, you couldn't possibly mess up more than you did." Lee laughed and Kakashi wiped a tear from his eye.

"Fine then, Gaara can cook from now on."

"Fine." "Thank you." "Thank god."

"Rude."

Gaara looked at the computer screen. It was verifying his donation. Two thousand dollars to the donation to keep Kakashi and Guy's dojo opened. He made sure he clicked anonymous.

"I can't believe the school is actually doing that lame Halloween dance thing." Naruto complained while he folded his homework into an airplane. Naruto, Lee, Sasuke and Gaara all sat on Lee's bed doing homework. Lee and Sasuke were at the head of the bed, Gaara was pressed against the wall at the foot of the bed, and Naruto laid sprawled across the middle.

"I thought that thing was cancelled because some guy threatened to bomb the school." Sasuke said nonchalantly.

"It was just Deidara..." Naruto mumbled like that meant something.

"No, he was heavily reprimanded and we're having the dance anyway." Lee said as he solved his math problem. "Is anyone of you going?"

"I might so I can spike the punch bowl but I dunno." Naruto threw the airplane and it fell down within 4 inches.

"Of course you are, loser." Sasuke rolled his eyes. "If Naruto goes I'll have to go and stop him from getting into trouble. But you Lee, are you going? With Sakura?" Sasuke smirked and Lee blushed and looked harder at his homework. Gaara's grip tightened on his pencil but he said nothing to draw attention to himself.

"W-well I am unsure. I really do not want to go but Sakura has asked me several times. I do not want to dress up..."

"Oh puh-leez. You can dress in your uwagi and be done with it." Naruto swatted his hand.

"Are you kidding? Sakura would throw a fit. 'Lee, you wore that sweaty thing to take me out?!' " Sasuke impersonated with a girlish shrill.

"You guys are not nice to me." Lee said, face still burning. He glanced up to look at Gaara and noticed Gaara was not only not part of their conversation but it looked as though he was avidly trying to avoid being part of their conversation. "Are you going, Gaara?" Gaara looked up, slightly startled to hear his name. Lee repeated. "Are you going to the Halloween dance?"

"Um. No. Probably not." He shook his head and Sasuke looked up.

"Why not? You can yell at Naruto with me. It'll be fun." Naruto glowered.

"Sasuke, how are you going without a date? Haven't like 3,002 girls asked you already?" Sasuke scoffed and crossed his arms but said nothing. "They did! And you said no? Aw, shucks, Sasuke. You really know how to make a guy feel loved." Naruto teased and Sasuke scowled at him.

"What is Sakura making you dress up as then?" Sasuke asked and Lee shrugged. "I'm amazed."

"She will probably show up to my house with a costume, honestly." Lee said simply and turned the attention back to Gaara.

"Why are you not going?" Gaara sighed.

"We are catering the party. Not all of it, just the desserts and such. I won't really have time to get a costume or get ready." Lee frowned.

"That is unfair. I do not want to go if you cannot go." He decided and put his homework to the side and grabbed his phone. "I am going to tell Sakura I am unable to attend."

"No Lee, it's fine, really." Gaara argued half-heartedly.

"We can throw fake blood on your work uniform!" Naruto offered. "Then you can be like a killer chef or something. There! No need to get ready."

"Naruto why the hell would he run his uniform for one party?" Naruto didn't comment.

"SO my idea is perfect without flaw-"

"No." Naruto pouted and ripped another piece of his homework out of his packet and began folding it.

"Suit yourself..."

The day of the Halloween dance, Gaara didn't see Lee at all. It was a Saturday and the past few days he'd been working such long hours to prep for the party that he hadn't had time to see Lee. It didn't help that Lee requested off on Saturday for... whatever reason.

Gaara made trays and trays of cookies, brownies, pie tarts, and pretty much anything small that could be eaten with fingers.

Temari was in the back with him now helping him package stuff into boxes for the school to pick them up (or Kankuro was delivering. Gaara didn't pay attention. It was right across the street so it didn't really matter.) She kept sending him worrying glances but he didn't pay her any mind. He knew why she kept looking at him. She wanted to ask about Lee, she was just being polite about it.

"Aren't you going to go to the dance?" She asked finally and Gaara shook his head slowly. "Why not? You worked pretty hard for it."

"I don't want to go." Gaara half-lied. He really didn't want to go to the dance but he wanted to see Lee. He didn't want Lee going to the dance with Sakura. It gave him such a burning feeling of hate that he couldn't swallow it. "Why don't we take a coffee break?" Gaara nodded reluctantly. It was 4, the dance started at 7 and they were mostly done packing. He was just getting frustrated.

Temari and Gaara situated themselves at the counter and Gaara slowly sipped his sweet drink and Temari sipped her hot bitter coffee. The door chime went off and both siblings looked up and Gaara stopped himself from scowling.

Sakura.

"Hello! Would you like your usual?" Temari asked and that question just made Gaara even angrier. She was a regular? Gaara grit his teeth and took a step back, letting Temari work on Sakura's drink.

He watched her brew a shot of espresso, pour milk, pour sweetened condensed milk, a shot of vanilla, ice, espresso on top and whipped cream.

That was his drink. Why did Sakura drink his drink? His heart thudded angrily in his chest, he could tell he was flushed and quickly looked at the ground.

"Oh! Can I please get a cinnamon roll? I want to surprise my boyfriend. They're his favorite." She said cutely and Gaara turned around with as much calmness as he could muster and walked to the kitchen slowly. He didn't want Sakura to think she annoyed him. She couldn't know she won. She probably came here on purpose.

Gaara put down his coffee with shaky hands and walked to his makeshift bedroom in the storage closet and laid on the lumpy mattress and stared at the ceiling. His body ached, his heart burned and his eyes stung. He wished he would stop trembling, he couldn't keep himself still. His breathing was heavy and he bit down hard on his thumb.

Lee never told him that he was dating Sakura. He always skated around that subject. Why would he keep it from him? Gaara lived with him, Gaara spent all his free time with Lee. Lee was Gaara's best friend and Lee didn't find himself worthy to tell him he was dating someone. Why Sakura?

Gaara was angry. He was angry thinking about Lee sweetly making Sakura a drink he made for Lee. The thought of her coming in while he was working and him drawing sappy hearts all over the stupid cup, saying something equally as sappy like 'I made this especially for you. It's sweet like you' or some dumb shit like that. Him buying her drinks or not even charging her. Him buying pastries at the end of his shift, after saying bye to Gaara and going and sharing pastries GAARA MADE with HER. Gaara worked himself up so bad he was having a hard time breathing. When did it become so hard to breathe?

Temari opened the door slowly and saw her brother having a panic attack on the futon and rushed to his side.

"Honey, what's wrong? Gaara? Are you ok?" She pulled him into her chest and held him tightly and rubbed his back with circles, trying to calm him down. "I love you Gaara. I love you so much." She said softly as she rocked and he broke and cried.

Temari never saw her brother cry like that.

Lee didn't visit.

Gaara laid in the dark storage closet and stared at the clock's blurry red numbers. It was almost passed midnight and Lee hadn't come for a visit. He didn't stop there on the way to the party or stop on the way back. He didn't text to see if Gaara needed a ride back to the house. Nothing.

He was with Sakura.

Gaara closed his eyes and fell asleep, his body completely exhausted from feeling.

When Gaara woke up, it was 9 in the morning on Sunday. He usually woke up earlier than that but he was exhausted.

He sat up and ran his fingers through his very messy hair and looked at his phone. Dead. He pocketed it and took several deep breaths. He didn't want to go out there. What if Lee was there?

When Gaara finally got his nerve, he opened the door and peered out into the kitchen. Temari was there baking things off and Gaara frowned.

"I'm sorry Temari. You should've woken me up." He said quietly and Temari looked up, almost like she'd seen a ghost. She was at Gaara's side in an instant and hugged him.

"Hey Temari, I was wondering if-" Kankuro paused when he saw the tender moment he was interrupting and didn't say anything else, just walked over and joined the hug. He saw Gaara's face. He looked terrible. He didn't know why, but Lee wasn't here so maybe it was him?

"Is Lee here?" Gaara's question was muffled in Temari's shirt.

"No honey, he requested the whole weekend off."

Well... Where was Lee?

"I did get a few calls from Kakashi and Guy though. They were worried about where you were. I told them I stayed with you last night. They said to let them know when you and Lee wouldn't be coming home." Gaara's eyes opened and he felt the ache again.