Asleep on his shoulder was his wife. On her lap was a pampered ball of sand that her hands laid on. He glanced up at his sister-in-law, falling asleep in her seat, curled up on the arm of the chair.
"You can see the resemblance." Temari joked, setting down a tray from the kitchen. She returned to sitting on her boyfriend's chair, draping her legs over his lap. Shikamaru didn't comment and put a hand on the space above her knee.
"Yeah, and then they open their mouths and are opposites," Kankuro added.
"I'm not sure where Hanabi-sama gets it." Neji frowned at the smaller Hyuga.
"Overdeveloped sense of competition and superiority." Shikamaru voiced in a half-mumble.
Kankuro snorted. Gaara looked over his new family. If she was anything like his wife, Hanabi was only sleeping over the group's noise because she trusted them. Not only that, but she felt comfortable enough to fall asleep in front of them but did not think it was rude. Temari, who last year wouldn't have told him of the boyfriend, was openly affectionate toward him. Kankuro, who didn't speak to him before, was now openly telling jokes to a less-than-enthused Neji.
Hinata snuggled into his side, happily resting among the family she had created for him.
This was all because of her and the natural kindness that brought people to her. She gave him the best wedding present, and she didn't even know.
Waking up the first few mornings was disorienting. Gaara woke to the presence of his wife engulfing him. A mess of hair if she forgot to pull it up, the scent of her soaps on her skin, the sound of her breathing, her warmth.
Gaara moved out from under her. Hinata blinked at him with a hummed question. "I'm getting up. Go back to sleep." She laid her head back down as he tucked the covers back in where he had been. He quietly moved around the room. Something he did without thinking now, he took extra care not to make excess noise, though it wouldn't bother her much if he woke her by accident.
Hinata joined him in his office for breakfast, as always. Then their days were the same. Her time that had been taken making his wedding present was now replaced with the oversight and planning of the compound for the Hyuga.
As usual, she would come to his office in the evening. He would either notice her start to drift, or she would tell him it was getting late and ask him to bed. He slept comfortably with her there, so much so she stopped her treatments.
Gaara watched her tuck her hair to the side and curl the blanket around her from the chill of the night before snuggling in. He put an arm around her and pulled her in.
"You have been making that face all day," Hinata told him.
"What do you mean?" Gaara tucked his face into her shoulder.
"Like you don't know where you are," Hinata explained into his shoulder.
"I am not used to this yet." Gaara tried.
"Mm?" Hinata pulled back to look at him.
"I am used to you, but you are here now all the time." Gaara didn't know what he was saying.
"Is that bad?" Hinata tilted her head. "I can move back to my old room."
"I don't think that it is bad. It is just not something I have adapted to yet." Gaara explained with a furrowed brow.
"The feeling or the idea?" Gaara hadn't thought about that. He was used to her being around but had awoken in her presence before. Their day was mostly the same otherwise. Was it the thought that it would stay this way? That there was no risk of her leaving? Was it that she now was his? He had something he could keep?
'If you are going to become a hopeless romantic, tell me now, so I can stop listening.' Shukaku dramatically gagged in his head.
"I'm not sure," Gaara curled his face back into her shoulder.
Shukaku gagged again and curled behind Hinata's legs. Hinata unwrapped an arm and reached over the blanket to pat his head on her hip.
"As long as it's not bad, then we have all the time to figure it out, right?" Gaara could feel her smile.
Hinata nodded on her shoulder.
His.
Hinata yawned. Gaara wasn't going to bed anytime soon, but her day was draining, filled with arguing with Hyuga. She didn't want to leave him in here alone, though. The later into the night it got, the more stressed he got. She set her book down and curled up on the arm of the couch.
She felt a sand tail lay over her stomach. She curled an arm around the rest of the body, forming onto her stomach.
"You going to nap with me, Shukaku-san?" Hinata lazily pet Shukaku.
'I get more action than you.' Shukaku laughed in his head.
Gaara sighed. He needed to get this done tonight.
Shukaku curled up on his wife on the couch, similar to how she treated the dog her teammate had. She spoke to him like he was a person too. Did she do that to all pets?
'I am not a pet!' Shukaku snapped at the observation. He buried its nose into her ribs, receiving his wife's arms curled tighter around him, proving Gaara's point.