Since they were out of school until January, it was incredibly awkward in the house. Gaara rarely left his room and when he did, he left the house. Lee was becoming more and more closed off and he stopped answering any of his friends on the phone. He started getting really antsy and jealous whenever he saw Itachi pick him up for his piano lessons. It seemed that they went beyond what he paid for, the two spent a lot of time together lately.

Kakashi tried to get Lee to talk to one of them but Lee just shook his head. His parent's concern was getting more and more profound. Lee didn't really care. There wasn't much he cared about at this point. He sat at his desk and he worked on Gaara's Christmas present. He knew Gaara wouldn't appreciate it as much as he would've had they not fought, but he hoped Gaara accepted the present at least.

A part of Lee insisted that Gaara had to like it with all the time and effort he put in it, but then he remembered his birthday cake, it looked like it took Gaara a while and he didn't appreciate it as much as he should've. He was just so broken that day.

Gaara was still in the house and it made Lee sit on edge. His leg was bouncing and he bit his thumb a lot. He couldn't stand looking at their pictures anymore so moved away from his desk and sat on his bed and stared at the wall. There was nothing that made him feel any better.

There was a knock at his door but he didn't move to answer it. The door opened anyway.

"Lee?" Oh no. It was Sakura. Lee could cry right now. "Lee, sweetie, are you okay?" Sakura left the door wide open and walked across the floor and sat on the bed. "I was worried about you. You've been acting strange for a while. Are you okay?" Lee wanted to snap that she asked that question already but he heard the familiar hum of a car engine outside.

Seconds later, Gaara's door opened. He was dressed nicely. The sweater from Thanksgiving and a nice pair of jeans. His hair looked straight again and he was wearing his green beanie. He had his winter jacket hung over his arm and he grabbed his keys and bag before he looked up across the hall and saw Sakura sitting on Lee's bed. Lee wanted to reach out to him and say something-anything. But Gaara averted eye contact and stared at the ground and left the house without so much of a goodbye.

"You're fighting with Gaara." Sakura's words were flat, nothing like the soothing sound they were just a moment ago. "That's what has you so upset? Gaara?"

"I do not wish to talk about it." Lee said with his voice cracking. Sakura stood up from the bed angrily.

"Well tough! You always had this thing with Gaara. What is it even about? Why are you so obsessed with Gaara?!" Lee looked at her with desperation in his eyes, eyes that said 'please stop talking'.

"Sakura. Not now." Sakura pursed her lips.

"I can't believe you. After everything that happened between us and you're going to push me away from you because of him?" Sakura was getting hysterical and Lee closed his eyes and prayed that his parents weren't home to hear this pathetic onslaught. "You act like you're in love with him or something!" Lee's eyes opened slowly and he frowned, looking at Gaara's door. Sakura took an incredulous step back. "Oh my god... Holy shit. Are you serious?" She shook her head and laughed dryly. "You ARE in love with him."

"Sakura, I believe I asked you very nicely to refrain from this conversation. Can you please respect my wishes enough to do that? Please?" Sakura was livid. How dare he? She just found out that he didn't even love her, he loved Gaara! And he was sitting here moping about Gaara and ignoring her for days!

"No! We're having this discussion now!" Sakura's shrill voice exclaimed. Lee's patience was being tested heavily today and he was already wearing thin. "Are you or are you not in love with Gaara?!"

"Of course I am!" Lee snapped. "I literally could not imagine being more in love with him than I am! Is that what you want to hear? What the hell do you want me to say to you, Sakura?!" Sakura stared at him in awe. She never saw Lee angry before. He was never angry, especially at her. But the shock melted away into hurt and anger. Lee thought it was ironic how since they were talking about something SHE didn't want to discuss anymore, she stormed out of the house.

Lee felt a weight removed on his heart. It was only stunted by the realization that it was a little too late for it to matter.

While Gaara was playing scales on the piano, getting his fingers used to the motions, him and Itachi were trying to have a nice conversation. Gaara had been better today than yesterday or the day before. Itachi forgot what the first heartbreak sting felt like, but he did remember being upset. Gaara was coping with any way he knew how. Itachi was proud to have gotten him to write music instead of breaking someone's neck. Gaara insisted he was almost done with the lyrics and that was exciting. Itachi couldn't wait to hear the tune and match it with an instrument.

"Would you like to sing me a line of your song?" Itachi was more curious about how Gaara sung, he never did that at practice before. Gaara shrugged. "The chorus is usually the easiest part to sing if you wanted to try that." Gaara hit a few notes on the piano and hummed trying to get his voice tuned and then rubbed his face to get himself in the mindset.

"I'm out here on my knees, you and I will never be, I can't compete it's true. Can't give you what you need, but still my love is yours to keep, it's yours to keep with you. There's nothing I can do. I'm yours to keep..." Gaara trailed off for a moment but continued the song. "You said 'sing to me' ladie di I would sing you soft to sleep, I would hold you in the silence. But now, I'm awake, my mistake, I was wading in the deep, I was searching for an island, but I'm still lost at sea... This is nothing like I thought it would be. I'm out here on my knees, you and I will never be, I can't compete it's true. Can't give you what you need, but still my love is yours to keep, it's yours to keep with you..."

"That was lovely, Gaara." Itachi was impressed. He was always amazed when someone could turn their heartbreak into something beautiful.

"Thank you, Itachi." Itachi thought for a moment.

"What are you doing for your birthday?" Gaara shrugged.

"Probably nothing. No one really cared. I'm sure this year won't be different." Itachi frowned at him, he wondered how this kid's home life was before he moved in with Kakashi and Guy.

"It'll mean something to a lot of people this year, I promise you, kid." Gaara frowned.

"I'm not a kid. I'm a teenager. There's a difference." Gaara said flatly and Itachi chuckled.

"Oh I'm sorry for offending you, Mr. Teenager." Gaara smirked and playfully hit Itachi's shoulder with his own.

"Shut up." Itachi laughed again.

"Anyway, I was thinking, if we got together on your birthday, I could bring you to the studio and we could record some of your songs. I could put some instrumentals to it. It'll be fun." Gaara's eyes widened.

"You'd do that for me?" Itachi nodded.

"Sure I would. What are friends for?" Gaara smiled, he had such great friends.

On Christmas Eve, Kakashi and Guy demanded Lee and Gaara come downstairs for their Christmas Eve box. Usually it excited Lee but this year he just accepted it like a punishment.

"What's a Christmas Eve box?" Gaara asked after they handed it to them. This is where Lee would normally answer, but Lee wasn't himself lately so Guy did.

"Since Lee was a little kid, we would put together a box for the night before Christmas. It had Christmas pajamas, popcorn, hot chocolate, candy and a movie in it. We continued this tradition since Lee was two." Hm. Sixteen years. That was nearly Gaara's entire life. Gaara thanked them for the box and unwrapped it. He took out the pajamas first and couldn't help but laugh. It was a pair of footsie pajamas. They were red with little Santas all over them.

"Don't ask. I let guy pick pajamas this year." Kakashi sighed and Guy gave him a thumbs up.

In the box was movie theatre butter popcorn, a bag of reeses pieces, marshmallow hot chocolate and the movie Die Hard. Gaara looked up at them questioningly.

"Die Hard is a great Christmas film." Guy stated calmly and Kakashi laughed.

"Yeah. Also, Lee told us your favorite Harry Potter character was Snape and Alan Rickman is in that movie. We thought you'd like it." Gaara stared at the cover and nodded.

"I do. Thank you." He looked at everyone, even Lee. "I suppose I'll go get changed now." Gaara put his box of goodies down and went upstairs with his pajamas.

"Lee, I know you're depressed but acting like how you're acting isn't going to fix things with him." Kakashi explained.

"Yeah. You have to act a bit like yourself. Don't worry kid, Gaara will come around." Lee sighed and picked up his pajamas without looking at them and put his box down next to Gaara's.

"I know. It is just hard. I want him to like me again but he's so... cold."

"Lee, it's only been four days. I understand you miss him but give him time to cool down and then you two can have a discussion. He even said thank you to you today. Count that as progress."

Christmas morning came and the boys had to be woken up. Kakashi was angry that they weren't more excited but he knew he was just grumpy because Guy woke him up excitedly and he was up since 6.

Gaara was really confused when he was woken up for Christmas. He seemed to forget during Christmas you get a lot of presents.

He grabbed all the things he got for everyone and scrambled downstairs in his footsie pajamas. Lee couldn't believe how smitten he was even with Gaara angry at him. Gaara was the cutest and seeing him in those pajamas was the highlight of his day.

Everyone exchanged gifts and Gaara was very thankful for everything he got. This amused Kakashi and Guy because the only thing he opened so far was socks, a sweater, some underwear, stuff for his hair, and a Sherpa blanket. They hadn't given him his big gift. Gaara stood up and hugged them nonetheless and went to leave the living room to make breakfast and they called him back over.

"You didn't think that was all you got, did you?" Guy teased and Gaara looked completely lost.

"I never got anything before so this is the most anyone ever got me for Christmas. I thank you for it. You needn't give me more." Gaara insisted and Guy teared up at the humble attitude and Kakashi stood up and walked to the corner of the room. There was a long rectangular box with Gaara's name.

"Well, this is from me, Guy and Lee. We hope you like it." Gaara took it tentatively and looked at each of them individually. Even Lee. The gift was heavy so Gaara placed it on the ground and sat down with it. He looked up at Kakashi and Guy one last time and they ushered him along. He started ripping the paper off and when he caught the word in the corner his eyes widened and he quickly disposed of the rest of the paper. He looked up at them with shock and Kakashi and Guy were smiling, so was Lee.

"Seriously?" Gaara bit his lip trying to contain his excitement.

"Yes, seriously. Merry Christmas, Gaara. You deserve it." Kakashi said with a laugh and Gaara looked back down. His eyes watered and he opened the box to his new keyboard. It had a screen on it so Gaara could tell which note he was hitting and there were so many other features he couldn't concentrate right now because he didn't know what to do.

"Thank you so much."

Later on in the day while Gaara sat on his bed in his room and played with his new keyboard, Lee finally got the courage to give him his gift.

Gaara looked up when he felt eyes staring at him and Lee stood in the doorway holding a present.

"You didn't need to get me anything." Lee smiled wryly.

"Well then, it's a good thing I made it, right?" He took a tentative step in and looked at the package and bit the inside of his cheek. "Listen, I know you're upset and you have every right to be. But I've been working on this for a while and... it would mean a lot to me if you at least looked at it. If not, I understand." Gaara stared at him for a minute and was surprised by the lack of anger he felt towards Lee. He was also shocked at the lack of love.

When he looked at Lee, he felt nothing.

"Okay." Lee handed Gaara the present and Gaara opened it carefully. "It's a scrapbook." He said, mainly to himself. He opened the book to the first page and it was pictures of the café, pictures of Gaara in his uniform. The next section was dedicated to their apple picking trip. Gaara in the wagon, Gaara eating pizza, Gaara eating a donut. There was one page with the picture Lee took of Gaara in the tree, right next to the picture Gaara took of Lee in the tree.

Gaara flipped through the whole book and was surprised they had so many pictures together. There were even pictures with him and Ino, him with his siblings, him with Kakashi and Guy. It was clear that Lee spent a lot of time on the book. It still didn't bring back any feeling.

"Thank you Lee. It's great."

New Years took place at their house. There were some friends coming over and after a while, Gaara was surprised he didn't see Sakura. Could she not make it?

"Who are you looking for?" Ino asked and Gaara frowned.

"Sakura. She isn't here." He noted and Ino shrugged.

"So?" Gaara was just curious. What kept her away. Kakashi walked over to ask Ino and Gaara how they were and Gaara couldn't help ask.

"Where is Sakura?" Kakashi snorted and covered his mouth.

"Oh. You were serious? Um. They broke up." Gaara's eyes widened.

"What? What happened?" Ino asked, now amazingly interested in the conversation.

"I really shouldn't say. It... It was bad. Gaara doesn't need to hear it, I don't need him getting confused." Kakashi said and quickly walked away.

"What the fuck." Ino looked around and saw Sasuke. "Gaara, I'm going to ask Sasuke. He might tell me if you aren't around since apparently we're protecting your delicate sensibilities. Go do something and I'll let you know what I find." Gaara shrugged and walked away. Ino walked closer to Sasuke and waved him over when he noticed her staring at him. "What happened with Sakura and Lee? I heard they broke up?"

"Yeah they broke up... like... two weeks ago? I think?"

"Two weeks ago?! Why didn't anyone tell me?" Sasuke shrugged.

"I figured Gaara knew since they had a fight in the house. Guess he wasn't home." Ino rolled her eyes.

"No shit, Sherlock. What the fuck happened?" Sasuke looked uncomfortable.

"Well, just don't tell Gaara, Lee would be so embarrassed." Ino crossed her fingers and agreed. "Well I guess Lee was sulking or whatever, Sakura came over pitching a fit that he was ignoring her, then demanded to know if it was because of Gaara. Lee asked her to leave him alone and when she freaked out and said no, he snapped and yelled that he was in love with Gaara and she got pissed and stormed out. She called me crying but I couldn't really feel bad. She had to have known before they started dating. I'm just glad they broke up. They weren't good together."

"Okay. Thanks Sasuke." Ino walked away briskly and Sasuke frowned at her and walked back over to Naruto.

"Man, if you weren't gay I'd say you were hitting on her. Only I don't know how you flirt because I've never seen it." Naruto laughed and Sasuke felt a headache coming along and he stared into the distance.

If anyone knew how Sasuke was when he was flirting, it was Naruto.

"Gaara, boo. I got the tea." Ino called and Gaara stood up and excused himself from a conversation with Itachi.

"I'll be right back." Itachi just raised an eyebrow and followed Ino. "What the hell does that mean, Ino?"

"It means I have gossip." Gaara tilted his head to the side.

"What... does that have to do with tea?" Ino ignored the question.

"Apparently, Sakura came in, guns blazing, pissed that Lee was ignoring her because he was sad and she was like 'omg you don't even love me. You love that ho Gaara' and Lee was like 'gurl you better stop talking' and Sakura was like 'omg it's true tho' and Lee was like 'yeah you right tho.' So yeah." Gaara stared at her and blinked for a while.

"Did any of those words actually come out of their mouths?" Ino glowered.

"What she's saying is-" Itachi started and Gaara jumped. "Sakura accused Lee of loving you and Lee said yes he does. I assume you're talking about Sakura and Lee's break up that absolutely no one saw coming?" Gaara frowned.

"Now Gaara, don't think just because him and Sakura broke up that means you and Lee will get together right now. You should wait." Ino explained and Gaara frowned at her.

"I'm unsure I want to be with Lee anymore anyway." Ino frowned at him.

"Honey, I'm sorry he hurt you that bad..." Ino looked at Itachi. "But Itachi is still hot." Gaara groaned and walked away.

It was almost midnight and Gaara was sitting outside on the porch. He didn't like crowds and inside the house was much too warm. He saw Lee a few times walk by the glass sliding door but Lee didn't see him.

Gaara took the time to really think about his feelings and try to put them in perspective. Did he want to be with Lee? No. Not right now. He couldn't do it. It was nice to know that Lee finally made a step in the right direction though. He was glad to hear that he wasn't lying to himself anymore.

"I knew I'd find you out here." Itachi said and sat down on the lounge chair a few seats away from Gaara. Gaara just nodded. "You thinking about Lee?" Another nod. "Makes sense. It's a sad time to miss someone, New Years."

"Why is it a sad time around New Years?" Gaara asked and Itachi smirked.

"Have you ever heard of people kissing after the ball drops?" Gaara nodded and it made sense. "Have you ever had a kiss on New Years? When the ball dropped?" Gaara shook his head.

"Lee was my first kiss and that only happened last month. Or was it the month before? I can't remember. My mind is everywhere." Itachi frowned.

"I'm sorry to hear that, kid." Gaara glared at him again.

"I'm not a kid." Gaara argued and Itachi laughed again.

"You are to me. Now let's get inside real quick. The ball is about to drop." Itachi stood up and offered his hand to Gaara. Gaara took it and allowed himself to be pulled up but stayed standing instead of walking inside. The sudden force of resistance caused Itachi to pause and look back at Gaara. "You don't want to go inside?" Gaara shook his head. "Why not, kid." Gaara scowled.

"I'm not a kid. I said that already."

"30!... 29!... 28!..." The chanting started inside and Itachi frowned at Gaara who remained unmoving.

"Why don't you want to go inside? It's warmer." Gaara nodded.

"25!... 24!"

"I know but I'm comfortable out here right now. You can go inside if you want." Itachi shook his head.

"20!... 19!"

"I'm not going inside without you. If you want to stay outside and die of hypothermia I suppose I'll die with you." Itachi joked dryly.

"16!... 15!... 14!"

"Yes because that's clearly the smart option instead of just saying 'oh wow. Early onset hypothermia seems to be taking hold of Gaara. Let me take him inside."

"9!... 8!... 7!"

"You're a smartass, you know that kid?"

"6!... 5!"

"I'm not a fucking kid!"

"4!... 3!..."

"Then prove it."

"2!... 1!" Gaara yanked Itachi down with the arm that was still holding onto his wrist and took him by the neck and kissed him. "HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

Itachi was surprised at the kiss, that was for damn sure, but he didn't pull away. He wondered if he was helping Gaara this way. He waited for Gaara to pull away and when he did Itachi didn't embarrass him for putting himself out there. Instead he just looked impressed.

"You have balls, but you're still a kid." Gaara gave him a look which was different than any look he'd given him before.

"Give me 18 days." Itachi smirked.

"Gladly. Now, let's get inside. We don't need people wondering where we are..."

The only person that really did wonder, was Lee. And Lee decided he saw enough. He didn't need anymore heart break. If Gaara kissing Itachi made him feel better, fine.

Lee decided during that kiss, he would be Gaara's New Year's kiss next year. He just had to work on himself first. He needed to be able to deserve Gaara.