Getting a tree turned out to be a lot harder than anyone thought. They were constantly arguing about the kind, the color, the width, the height. That is, until Ino and Lee saw the most perfect tree.
They ran over to it excitedly. It was a nice height, not too tall, the width was perfectly proportioned, it almost looked drawn with how nice it was. The color was a lighter green and the pines weren't as prickly. It was the one!
Lee turned around excitedly to look for Gaara, only to discover he wasn't behind them. Lee gave Ino a confused look and she shrugged. They sprinted back the way they came, looking for Gaara but couldn't find him.
"Damn it! Why does he have to be so short?" Ino muttered and Lee smiled, he loved how short Gaara was, he thought it was cute. "Gaara! Damn, I really hope no one else gets the tree!"
Finally, they found Gaara. He looked to be lost, considering he was surrounded by the trees that... didn't have the easiest time growing. They were under 2 feet, lopsided, some of them didn't have that many branches. They were, in nice terms, hideous. Lee's step faltered when he saw Gaara staring at them with a look of concentration.
"Gaara! There you are. We found the perfect tree." Ino exclaimed happily and Gaara looked up and tilted his head.
"So have I." He said simply and Lee and Ino looked around trying to find a tree that beat theirs.
"Where?" Ino asked after a minute and Gaara walked through the stunted trees and knelt down next to one. This one wasn't the most hideous one, but it also wasn't a very nice looking tree either. It was lopsided, but it had a nice green color. There was a patch of branches missing so there was a large gap and it was probably a foot tall.
"I want this one." Ino smiled at him.
"Um, Gaara, that one is kind of small, don't you think?" Gaara looked up at her confused.
"I don't know, I've never celebrated Christmas. I assumed we were to find the tree that spoke to them the most and I am looking at this one and this is the one that calls out to me. It's small, unlikely to be picked by another family, it isn't perfect and I don't believe it's healthy enough to survive into next year. I want this tree. It reminds me of me. I want us to have Christmas together." Gaara explained calmly and Ino heard a choking noise and turned her head to see Lee sobbing.
"That is so beautiful Gaara! Of course we will buy this tree!" Lee embraced Gaara in a tight hug and Gaara looked at him oddly, not understanding the weight of his words on Lee.
"Hey kids! What have you found?" Guy asked and Lee turned to him and wiped the tears off his face.
"We pick this one." Lee announced while sniffling.
"Um... I don't believe that will fit all of Guy's decorations. Why don't we have two trees this year?" Lee agreed and turned to look at Gaara and saw that his saw was abandoned on the side and Gaara was using his hands to dig the tree out of the ground.
"What are you doing?" Ino asked and Gaara looked up.
"I don't want to cut him." He said innocently and Lee started crying again and helped Gaara dig the tree out from the ground. Guy and Kakashi looked at each other and shook their heads.
Lee and Gaara were setting up the tiny tree in Gaara's bedroom. It barely took up any space. Ino, who has had plenty of plant experience being how her family owned a plant nursery, took it upon herself to get a nice pot and soil for Gaara's new tree on their way home.
"Would you like some decorations for your tree?" Gaara stared at it and shook his head.
"No. Not yours, anyway. Nothing against you I would just like to have my tree have ornaments that mean something to me. We can decorate the one downstairs thought if you want." Lee nodded and thought of all the decorations they could make together for Gaara's tree.
Getting downstairs was a problem with all of the boxes of Christmas decorations. When they finally made it to the living room, it looked like Santa Claus vomited violently all over and everyone was impressed Guy managed to do all of this in 15 minutes. Kakashi sat on the couch with his arms crossed while Christmas music blared from the radio near Guy.
"What the hell is this?" Gaara asked quietly, as he'd never seen someone with that much Christmas spirit.
"This is hell. The deepest ring of it." Kakashi murmured and started reading his book trying to drown out the sounds of Christmas, considering it's not even December yet.
Guy made them help hang tinsel and Christmas lights around the house. He even through a small box at Ino and she opened it, scoffed, passed it to Gaara with a wink and grabbed a different box and walked away. Gaara opened it and tilted his head to the side but in neat writing on the lid of the box it said "hang in doorways" so Gaara walked to a doorway and looked up. He couldn't reach. He frowned.
"Lee. I need your help." For some strange reason he heard Ino laughing at his request, she was probably teasing him for being short. Lee was at his side in seconds with a smile.
"Of course, Gaara. What do you need?" Gaara held up the box and Lee turned pink but smiled anyway. "Oh! Um, yes, I'll help." Lee was pretty amazed at Gaara being so forward! Lee picked up the first piece of mistletoe and hung it up in the center of the doorframe and cupped Gaara's face and kissed him softly. "Anything else?" Gaara looked a bit startled at the random kiss and his cheeks heated up. Well that was random. Gaara looked back down at the box and there were 5 more pieces.
"There's still more." Gaara noted quietly. He wasn't sure why Lee would only help him with one and not the rest. Lee grinned and nodded.
"So there is. Would you like help with these ones too?" He asked and Gaara nodded, looking confused.
"Of course, why wouldn't I?" Seriously, did Lee think he was going to grow from doorframe to doorframe?
Lee followed Gaara around and Gaara picked the doorways that would have the mistletoe in them and Lee would pin them up and kiss Gaara each time. Gaara was getting more and more confused but he didn't think it was a bad thing. He liked when Lee kissed him. But why was he kissing him so much with Guy and Kakashi around?
When they were done, Lee gave him one more kiss, a bright smile on his face and walked away. Ino quickly made her way to Gaara's side and Gaara looked at her lost in thought.
"He kissed me." Gaara stated quietly and Ino raised an eyebrow.
"Well, yeah." Gaara seemed more lost at that statement.
"He kissed me 6 times." Gaara continued and Ino looked around and counted the mistletoe.
"Well, there is 6 pieces..." A thought suddenly came to Gaara.
"Wait. He kissed me because of the tiny plant?" Gaara asked and Ino stared at him for a second before breaking out into laughter. "What? What is so funny?"
"Gaara you're so cute though!" Gaara glared at her and she held her stomach, laughing. "It's a Christmas tradition, you silly! I thought you knew that! I thought you were just being super forward, like 'come on Lee, I have mistletoe, let's make out' or something. Oh that is too cute." Gaara's face heated up. If that's what Ino thought, it was probably also what Lee thought. How embarrassing.
The last thing to be decorated was the tree. Guy had strung lights on the tree already and all that was left was the candy canes and the decorations. Lee was putting the gaudy looking red bulbs on the tree that were honestly so hideous and Gaara was happy he decided to purchase his own decorations. Next came a different color bulb, silver. The tree looked so depressing with just red on it. The silver brightened it up. Guy put a box down between Lee and Gaara and when Gaara opened it he saw a bunch of really cheesy made decorations. One was a reindeer made from popsicle sticks. There was a handprint one turned into another reindeer, they were all really cute. When Gaara looked on the back he saw Lee's name written on them and a year.
"I made these in school." Lee explained as they hung them. There was a small one, shape of Santa, but the center was a picture of a 4 year old Lee on Santa's lap rocking a braid. Gaara smiled.
"You are very cute, Lee." Gaara commented and hung the picture up towards the top of the tree.
"So are you, Gaara." Lee said with a grin and Ino rolled her eyes.
Each piece from this box had a story behind it and Gaara fell in love with each decoration. But then, he picked up another one. It was a clothes pin painted white and made into a snowman. There was something familiar about it. And Gaara stared at it for a while before the memory came to him. He remembered making something similar in school when he was younger. He remembered giving it to his father and his father snapped it in half and walked away.
Gaara held the clothes pin tightly in his hand and he held it for so long that Lee noticed he stopped decorating the tree. He looked at Gaara and he saw the look of resignation.
"What is wrong?" Lee asked and Gaara frowned deeper.
"I have had a Christmas before. I didn't realize. I didn't remember until now. Do you mind if I take this decoration for my tree?" Lee said it was fine and Gaara was already out of the room and up the stairs. Lee turned to look at Guy and Kakashi who seemed concerned and Ino was staring up where Gaara left from.
"I'll go talk to him." Ino insisted and Lee grabbed her hand before she left.
"I will go too." She frowned but didn't say anything and they walked to Gaara's room.
His door was opened, he sat on the floor hugging his knees, staring at the tiny tree with the single decoration. They couldn't see his expression but Lee could guess it wasn't a happy one.
"Hi honey." Ino said softly and walked into the room and sat next to him, looking at the tree. "Would you like to talk about it?" Lee sat on Gaara's other side.
"I made decorations like this, I remember them. I never knew what they were for, we were just told give them to our parents. One year I made one like this. I gave it to my father and he broke it in front of me and threw it out. I heard him call someone on the phone. It was my school. He yelled at them for allowing me to waste my time with making it and told them to never do that again. I wasn't allowed to go to art anymore after that." Gaara stayed quiet and Ino hugged him.
"I'm so sorry honey." Ino said soothingly and rubbed his back. Gaara didn't seem like he heard the comment, he just looked at his tree with a pensive expression.
"What was Christmas like at your house?" Lee couldn't help but ask and Gaara shrugged. "You don't know?"
"Oh, I wasn't allowed in the house." He said simply.
"What... what do you mean? Where did you sleep?" Ino asked with more emotion in it than she intended.
"I slept in a shed outside. It wasn't bad, we lived in the desert so for the most part it was hot, but at nighttime it was cold. I was given a blanket and a pillow though." The way Gaara spoke indicated he had no idea how wrong it was for that to have happened. "I wasn't allowed to take showers often, only when my dad was out of the house. My sister would sneak me in and wash me. No one really talked to me in school since I smelled bad a lot."
"B-but... why did he do that?" Lee asked with his lower lip trembling.
"I killed my mom." Gaara said emotionlessly. "She died giving birth to me. My dad and my uncle were upset I didn't die instead of her so they just treated me like I didn't matter. I hope it made them feel better." Lee tackled Gaara in a hug on the floor and Ino joined the cuddle session.
"I will make sure you will never be treated that way ever again, I hope you know that, Gaara." Lee vowed and Ino covered his face with kisses.
"You guys don't have to do this. I got over all of it a while ago. It was just a memory that was brought up when I picked this up." He pointed to the ornament.
"If it reminds you of that, why would you like to keep it?" Ino asked, confused.
"To remind myself that even thought mine went unappreciated, there was a child out there that their parents treasured it, like Lee's. I'd like to think I suffered so another kid didn't have to. That's what I told myself, anyway. I'm done thinking about my father, can we do something else?" They immediately complied.
"I'm sleeping over. This time, we're sleeping. Got it, Gaara?" Gaara rolled his eyes. "Stop! It was an emotional day and I'm not leaving you."
"It wasn't emotional. I didn't get emotional once." Gaara admitted with a resigned sigh.
"But if you sleep over, I will not be able to keep an eye on Gaara..." Lee protested quietly with a frown.
"Suck it." Ino said simply and Gaara looked at them both.
"I have a twin bed, Ino. How do you plan on sleeping with me?" He asked and Ino hugged him and stuck her tongue out at Lee.
"With a LOT of cuddling." Lee flushed, whether it be from anger or embarrassment, Gaara didn't know.
"That is unfair." Lee crossed his arms and Gaara sighed again. These two were so annoying together.
"Let's just sleep in Lee's bed." Gaara decided and walked up the stairs. Ino had the grace to blush and Lee looked embarrassed but he wasn't going to complain about Gaara sleeping in his bed. He just really hoped Sakura didn't show up to see Ino and Gaara in his bed. He would have a lot of explaining, otherwise.
Gaara dressed in Lee's pajamas and Lee smiled warmly at him. Ino put on Gaara's pajamas and rolled her eyes at Lee. They all climbed in the bed, Lee at the wall, Gaara in the middle and Ino on the outside.
"Gaara is my snuggle buddy tonight." Ino said easily and Lee's eyes narrowed, as if saying "I'd like to see you try."