Gaara sat alone in a destroyed office on the only piece of intact furniture, the couch his wife worked and napped on. He hung his head and abusively ruffled his hair as the sand particles crushed another piece of his already destroyed desk into the wall.
He failed. He failed the one person who he could depend on.
Hinata stood tall in her stance, Byakugan activated, hand glowing dangerously. Kankuro coughed behind her, wobbling as he stood after his hit, hand clenched to his chest. It wouldn't move. He couldn't effectively move his puppet with one hand. The missing-nin she missed with her Byakugan during her break surprised them.
Hinata was ashamed that she let herself get so drained that she hadn't noticed them, but she was tired and had to rest between long sessions. They were doing wall examinations, preparing for the storm season. Prolonged use of her Byakugan drained her chakra considerably. It shortened her range and use times.
Low on chakra and stamina, she knew she wasn't going to hold out for long. She held her ground and ordered Kankuro to get up and find help while she kept them from entering the wall.
Kankuro watched his little brother grow from the worst monster he could imagine to the leader he was today, and in a few seconds, he watched him revert.
Gaara returned to the medical center. His limp wife in his arms, eyes murderous, the medics didn't move to touch Hinata as he barked at them to take her.
Hinata was battered and bloody. Her clothes were soaked in what he hoped to be enemies' blood rather than her own. She barely moved on her own as medics tried to have her respond to them. Gaara stood in the corner of the emergency room, shaking furiously. When Gaara caught sight of him, his face scrunched in anger, and before Kankuro could react or run, he was ripped from the medic attempting to heal his arm and slammed to a wall with the crushing weight of the blood-soaked sand.
'Where were you!?" Gaara barked in a voice that wasn't his own. "You shouldn't have left her to fight on her own! She was exhausted!"
"She… sent me to get help!" Kankuro coughed, kicking his feet, but there was no finding the floor. "I was hit before the fight even started." If his brother wanted him dead, no explanation was going to stop him.
"Gaara!" Temari laid her hand on her fan in an empty threat. "You need to leave the medical center! You are scaring the staff. They can't help her like this!" She waved her arm to the frightened medics. "Hurting Kankuro will not change what has happened."
Gaara turned to glare, flaring with rage.
"You can blame me later. Right now, Hinata needs you to go calm down," Kankuro coughed.
Gaara looked back at his wife, and the sand swirls calmed for a moment. Then he and his sand were gone, leaving Kankuro to drop to the floor in a heap.
Temari knocked on Gaara's office door, surprised it was still attached to the frame. No one dared come toward it for days, but the yelling and crashing from down the hall was near-constant until today.
"What do you want?" Gaara growled from the other side.
"She's awake. She asked if you were alright. She's not happy you haven't been eating." Temari explained with a frown. "Will you come to see her?"
"I should stay away from the staff." Gaara sounded wounded.
"A visit won't hurt if you don't threaten anyone again." When Hinata woke up, her first words were asking for the brothers.
Those days of uncertainty destroyed him. He was completely attached to her. This was not a healthy relationship, but then again, when had his life ever had a healthy relationship? A dependent one was healthier than his lack of empathy for anything like he had before Naruto.
Gaara opened the door miserably. The permanent rings under his eyes were darkened, he was paler than usual, his hair was tangled, and wild, shoulders dropped. Temari had never seen him so… weak?
Temari's heart dropped. She opened her mouth to say something in reassurance, but she wasn't sure she had the words. She moved forward for the first time since before he was able to walk on his own to hug him.
Gaara tensed, but his face soon dropped limply to her shoulder in his misery and lack of energy to push her way.
Gaara was not interested in complaining about the new physical contact from his sister as she dug him slowly to the hospital by his elbow. It was odd to think she was comforting him even more so that this was his fault. He didn't protect his wife. He didn't give her a detail. He was too busy to think that she might be attacked, that his brother wasn't enough, that the wall guard was near enough, that she would have enough energy to protect herself.
Kankuro warily watched from outside her door. Temari laid a hand on Gaara's back, pushing him in. "She's waiting for you."
Gaara's eyes wandered to the bed where Hinata laid. "She's been napping a lot, still low on chakra. They might keep her another day before ordering bed rest," Kankuro mumbled.
"It's okay to wake her." Temari pushed him further toward the bed before closing the door behind him.
Hinata was pale and sickly, her hair braided messily by someone else. She looked weak, so unlike her. He sat next to the bed and laid his hand over hers. It was cold from being out of the blanket.
Hinata jumped, blinking at the room. "Gaara."
"I didn't mean to wake you," Gaara didn't have the energy or drive to hide his misery from her.
"Gaara, what's wrong?" Hinata turned her hand over to grip his. "I'm okay. Kankuro-san is okay. You should be glad." She tried to smile at him. "We were protecting the village."
"You shouldn't have been alone outside the wall, especially in your condition. You told me how draining the sessions were. I should have known you were vulnerable." Gaara laid his face down to press his forehead to the back of her hand. "Don't forgive me for being careless."
"Gaara, this isn't your fault," Hinata brought her other hand to run back, untangling his abused hair.
Shukaku was screaming differently.
"I knew how tired I was. I knew more than anyone the effects of using the Byakugan that frequently. If anyone were to blame for the carelessness, it would be me." Hinata explained the moments before they were attacked. She tried to pin the blame on herself for not being observant, but he wasn't letting her blame herself. She was the victim.
"Stop," Gaara demanded. Hinata obliged and focused on his head, sliding her fingers through until there was no more resistance or knots.
"You haven't been taking care of yourself," Hinata whispered. Gaara sat up, snatching her hand from his head to keep her from putting him to sleep. Hinata giggled. "Catch me?"
"You have used enough chakra." Gaara accused.
"Then lay with me." Hinata slid over. "There is nothing more they can do but let me recover and rewrap me. You won't be interrupting." She tugged on their clasped hand.
Hinata smiled reassuringly like it was going to be okay. She forgave him. He didn't deserve it. He didn't want it. Shukaku damned him for refusing her. He was outnumbered.
Gaara removed his outer robe, laying it over her and her blanket. She opened them both to let him in.
Gaara curled into her and buried his face into what he may not have had anymore. Hinata whispered assurance into his hair, laying a kiss on the top of his head he didn't deserve.
Temari and Kankuro looked at each other solemnly. "Well, I don't think you're at risk anymore."
"I don't see this as better." Kankuro slid down the wall.
"He let me hug him," Temari sat beside him. "He just looked so broken. I didn't know what else to do."
"I don't think I've ever hugged him," Kankuro admitted, laying his head on his knees.
"You held him when he was a baby." What was that? Twenty-some years ago?
Kankuro shrugged. "I don't remember that."
"You were pretty young, too." Temari nodded. "I barely remember him being a baby or even without the mark on his forehead." She motioned to her forehead where Gaara had his kanji scar.
"If anything ever did happen to her, do you think he would recover?" Kankuro wondered grimly. They knew the facts. They would likely die young, though Gaara would likely outlive them all. The likelihood of death was part of the job description, but it didn't make this incident scare any of them any less.
"I think he wouldn't be the same. Maybe he would be like he was before, closed off. He let her in, and then she would be gone, like everyone before. It would undo everything. He would never let anyone in again in case he might lose them." Temari sniffed, annoyed with her tears. "It's never fair for him, is it." She wiped her eyes before the tear fell.
"Almost rather he'd be angry with me. Not kill me, but toss me into something, so he wouldn't look so broken." Kankuro mumbled. "I've never seen him look so… young, but like old?"
"Yeah," Temari leaned on her brother. "We never needed to protect him, but he's never had weakness before her."