I may stop posting this story to this site since it doesn't seem to be garnering any attention.

"Gaara." Gaara stirred at the familiar voice but didn't wake up completely. "Gaara, wake up." Gaara opened his eyes and Kakashi stood by the side of his bed. "You didn't set your alarm. You're a bit behind schedule." Gaara looked at the clock at it was nearly 30 minutes after he usually woke up.

"Thanks Kakashi." Gaara rubbed his eyes and Kakashi left the room. Gaara got dressed and wondered why Lee didn't wake him up. He walked to Lee's room and saw the light was off and the bed was made. Interesting.

Gaara brushed his teeth and went downstairs to see Kakashi and Guy drinking coffee at the table. Kakashi held up a to-go mug and Gaara took it gratefully.

"Do you need a ride?" Guy asked and Gaara shook his head.

"Where's Lee?" Guy laughed happily, which was something much too loud for this early in the morning.

"Lee has started his intensive morning training. You'll be lucky to see him in the mornings." Gaara frowned and nodded. "Don't worry! He'll be done soon. Now come on! Let's get you to school." Guy stood up and Gaara looked at Kakashi confused and Kakashi shrugged.

"I guess we're bringing you to school." Kakashi said and stood up, following Guy outside.

"Let's go, rival!" Guy called happily and Kakashi rolled his eyes.

"I'm already behind you, shut up." The interaction made Gaara chuckle softly. They seemed to be like him and Lee. Gaara wondered if that would be them some day. Taking care of unwanted children. Gaara watched the backs of Guy and Kakashi and just the prospect of them taking him into their home was overwhelming. Gaara lived with them for a month now and they treated him well. Much better than Rasa ever did. Were most parents like this? Is this how Rasa was for Temari and Kankuro? Gaara frowned at the thought. Maybe Guy and Kakashi would hate him too if he killed their wife. Giving birth to Gaara was the worst thing his mom could've done in Rasa's eyes.

Gaara was amazed that with all the bad he's done in his life, he found two amazing dads like Guy and Kakashi.

"You coming, Gaara?" Kakashi asked from the passenger seat. Gaara blinked himself back into reality.

"Yeah. Sorry, just thinking..."

Sasuke slammed his locker door harshly and put his forehead on the cold metal. His brother was infuriating and he just wanted to be left alone. School was like a haven for him now. This was around the time their parents were murdered so he got really overprotective and annoying. Sasuke had his own car but Itachi insisted on driving him to school and picking him up. It was like this all November long. In December, Itachi would be too busy at work to do this and Sasuke knew the month was almost over but for now, it was frustrating.

"Hey Sasuke, whacha up to?" Naruto asked, leaning on the locker next to his.

"Nothing." Sasuke muttered with a scowl. Naruto frowned.

"Itachi being that crazy again, huh?" Sasuke groaned.

"You have no idea." It didn't help that Itachi found out Sasuke's sexual preference last month and kept giving him lectures on safe sex. Just because Sasuke knew he was gay, didn't mean he had a line of suitors at his doorstep. Itachi bought him a box of condoms and a book all about gay sex. Seriously? Big brothers are the worst.

"Sorry man. You able to do something after school or no?" Naruto asked and Sasuke's cheeks warmed and he pouted.

"I'm not sure, I'll have to ask. Like a 5 year old. I'm 17 years old, almost 18 and this is how I'm treated. Ridiculous." Sasuke rambled and his thoughts wandered. He realized it was a good thing Itachi didn't know about Sasuke's (painfully obvious) crush on Naruto. He didn't think he would ever hear the end of it. The only reason Itachi hadn't talked to any of his friends about it, was because Sasuke said he hadn't told them yet.

Which brings him to Lee. Lee has the biggest, gayest crush on Gaara and Gaara clearly has the biggest, gayest crush on Lee, yet Lee is dating Sakura. Hell, if Sasuke knew if Naruto had a crush on him, he would-

"Hey guys!" Sasuke turned to see Sakura bundled in Lee's Track & Field sweater. With how often it gets passed from Sakura to Gaara, it was a wonder if Lee bought it for himself or not. "How are you doing today?"

"Fine I guess. Sasuke is still being babied by Itachi though." Naruto filled her in and Sasuke glared at Naruto and Sakura looked at Sasuke pityingly.

"Oh I'm sorry. I know your parents died this month. How are you handling it?" Sasuke shrugged. He was 6 when they died, it wasn't like he remembered them much. He lived most of his life without them than with them. "If you need to talk about anything, I'm here." Sasuke nodded at the obligatory comment and opened his locker again to get his phone.

"I don't want to be here today." Sasuke sighed and Naruto grinned.

"Let's skip." He offered and the idea sounded nice. Sakura crossed her arms.

"You're not seriously that dumb to skip." She stated flatly. Sasuke frowned at that, he was one of the top students, it wasn't like if he skipped his grades would plummet. They would understand. "If Itachi finds out you skipped during November, he will freak out." Ah, that is right.

"I'll just say I don't feel well. I'm old enough to sign myself out." Sasuke pulled out his dark blue Soccer Captain sweater. He didn't have practice after school so it didn't matter. "You coming, Naruto?" Naruto grinned and waved at an annoyed looking Sakura.

"Fine. Leave. Be safe you two!" Sasuke raised his arm up as a response, but didn't turn to face her.

"Hey Sakura!" Lee greeted and she turned to him and saw his face was red and he was out of breath.

"You started training in the morning again?" He nodded. "Okay, just make sure you don't tire yourself out too bad. You still have to learn things in school for a few more months before you graduate." Sakura smiled and Lee laughed lightly.

"Yeah I know. It is just so nice to be able to work out again knowing I can train at the dojo! I am very happy." Sakura kissed Lee's cheek and he blushed.

"I'm glad to hear that. Now get to class before you're late. And Sasuke and Naruto are skipping today." Lee frowned at that.

"Itachi?" Sakura nodded and Lee gave an understanding look. "Well, I will see you later, blossom." He smiled at her and jogged down the hallway. Normally he'd walk her to class but their homerooms were on the opposite sides of the school and he was already written up for being late too many times.

While he was running he saw Gaara dropping Ino off at her first class. He was wearing his own red sweater, a nice pair of jeans, the tan boots he usually wore and was holding a to-go mug that Lee knew had coffee in it. Why did looking at Gaara make Lee so unbelievably happy?

"Gaara!" Lee chirped and Gaara looked away from Ino to stare at Lee. He smiled. "It feels so weird to not see you in the morning. I am sorry I missed you."

"It's okay. You're training now, right? You seem like you're having fun." Lee nodded enthusiastically.

"Oh yes, it is very fun! I was wondering if you would like to come to the dojo with me at some point." Gaara paused for a second. Lee woke up at 4am to get to the dojo to work out for 2 hours before getting ready for school at the dojo. None of that sounded like a fun idea.

"Yeah, of course." Gaara agreed and Lee grinned at him.

"That is great. I am very happy. Oh, how rude of me, good morning Ino! I will see you two later. Goodbye!" And Lee was off before either could say anything to him. Ino turned to Gaara with a smirk and Gaara groaned.

"Don't even start. It is way too early and this is only my second cup of coffee." Ino put her hands up defensively but kept the smirk on her face.

"I didn't say anything." Gaara glowered at her.

"I'm going to class now." Ino waved as Gaara walked down the hallway.

Gaara and Ino were working together again. Gaara was prepping the turkey for thanksgiving and Ino was filling the pie crusts they froze earlier. There was so much to get done and Gaara was stressing out. They had over 100 orders for pies and he absolutely hated making pie crust. Ino didn't mind but she was weird and seemed to like things that were rolled out. Temari kept hopping in back to help roll out pie crusts and apologizing to Gaara continuously.

"I didn't realize how many orders there was. Once I realized I stopped the front of house from taking any more. I'm so sorry." Gaara didn't respond. Ino teased him for his bad mood and finally he was done with the brine so he added the turkey and put it in the fridge.

"Seriously Gaara, you need to calm down. Being in a bad mood won't help us get done faster." Ino reasoned and Gaara glared at her and pulled out pie filling recipes and started doing counts. He walked to the fridge with a marker and in big letters wrote:

Apple: 43 (-12)

Cherry: 12 (-12)

Strawberry Rhubarb: 24 (-12)

Blueberry: 18 (-12)

Pumpkin: 28 (-12)

Total: 125 (-60) = 65

"You've got to be shitting me right now." Gaara angrily ran his fingers through his hair and hit his head on the door. "The pies have to be done by tomorrow and we have sixty five more fucking pies to do. Ino, how many pie crusts do we have in the freezer?"

"... six." Ino's small voice said and Gaara groaned.

"If it makes you feel any better, I called in help." Temari said with a nervous smile.

"Help? I hope you called in 7 fucking people just to sit here and roll pie shells. It took Ino 3 hours to roll out 21 pie shells yesterday. I am never doing pie orders ever again. I hate making pies." Ino sighed and started to roll faster.

"I understand Gaara. I'm sorry. You know how important you are here. Don't be upset. We'll have a number cut off for pies for Christmas if it makes you feel any better." Gaara scowled.

"The thing no one seems to understand is I somehow have to make these pies, prep for thanksgiving AND keep the pastry case stocked. How do you think I'm doing that? Magic? I'm not just pulling shit from thin air and it's getting really stressful keeping up-"

"Hey Temari, sorry I'm late. Here to help." Gaara shut up instantly and his eyes were set on Lee and wide. He closed his mouth tightly and Ino and Temari snorted and covered their mouths, turning away trying not to laugh. "Are you okay Gaara?" Lee asked, voice full of concern. He was at Gaara's side in an instant. "Do you need anything?"

"I... No... Lee what... are you doing here?" Compared to Gaara's fit 20 seconds prior, his voice was meek now. Temari and Ino thanked the gods that Lee was free to help out. There's only one person that could get Gaara to calm down. Oddly enough Lee could also wind him up.

"Temari said you were stressed about all the pie orders so I came to help you. I do not want you to be stressed out." Lee was tying an apron over his shirt and put a headband on his head with a smile. "So what can I do to help?"

"Um. You can roll pie shells." Lee nodded and walked around the kitchen with ease getting the things he needed together. Disposable pie containers, a French rolling pin, a scoop of flour, several wrapped portions of pie dough.

"Would you mind if I shared your table?" Lee asked and Gaara shook his head and Lee placed his things down and when Gaara looked at Ino and Temari they had shit-eating grins on their faces. Gaara glared at them and mouthed "shut up" and they started giggling again.

Lee was useless at a lot of things in the kitchen. As it turns out, rolling pie shells was not one of them. He rolled pie shells so quickly that him, Ino and Temari were done rolling the 59 pie shells in an hour. Gaara made more filling for cherry, blueberry, and apple pie while they rolled shells. Now Gaara was working on a big batch of pumpkin and strawberry rhubarb.

It took about 6 hours, but everything was done. The pies they made were baked and ready to be packaged. It was 10pm and everyone was tired of pies. Temari left after the pie shells were rolled to managed the front until Shikamaru showed up. When they were just waiting for pies to go in the oven, Gaara began working on his regular list. He expected Lee to leave too but Lee stayed the entire time to help.

Ino kept sneaking pictures of the two working together while she pretended to text. She'd send them to Gaara later, Gaara would yell at her for being a creep and he would save the pictures anyway because that's just what Gaara did.

"Are you ready to go home?" Lee asked and Gaara went to say Ino was driving him and Ino made the "cut it" motion and he stopped talking.

"Um. Yes." Ino smiled at Gaara from behind Lee and gave Gaara a thumbs up.

"At least tomorrow will be better, right?" Gaara sighed. Tomorrow they didn't have school because of thanksgiving. They had off Tuesday-Friday which made no sense why they couldn't have off Monday too. Just Desserts was closed on thanksgiving and the day before thanksgiving which is why everyone had to get their pies tomorrow. However for those two days Gaara had to make a thanksgiving dinner for about 20 people. It was going to be fun. He hated Kankuro with a passion right now.

"In certain aspects. Tomorrow I won't bake anything since we're closed for two days. I wouldn't want to throw out too many things. I still have to prepare for thanksgiving though. Will you be there?" Gaara realized he hadn't even asked Lee yet. Lee smiled at him.

"I would not miss it for the world."