Hinata made up a tray, wondering if she took it to his door if the wall would close again. Temari got him to keep the door uncovered, but she was once again unsuccessful in getting to come out while she was there. Temari always came out of his room with a heartbroken look on her face. It was clear that she wanted him to be happy, and she felt like she did something wrong that was making him act this way, but how much was she able to be around when he was growing up?

… Did they have someone stay with him when he was a child? Gaara had been exiled for years. Surely they didn't just send a child that young to live in the desert by himself to be checked on once a month? Could a child that young even be trusted to feed himself? They didn't just expect the beast to take care of him, did they?

Was the voice in his head all he had to talk to?

Shukaku was known as one of the cruelest and angriest of the beasts, now, that may just be folklore, but wasn't that the reason they used to send him out here? So he couldn't hurt anyone?

Hinata needed to stop thinking about it. It was putting a pit in her chest, and there wasn't a lot she could do to make it go away once it was there. She collected the tray and headed to the door. Maybe she should request he put a ledge out here so she wasn't setting it on the floor.

Before Hinata could fully put the tray on the floor, the door latch opened. Hinata froze to watch the small gap that the open door made. Maybe Gaara was thinking what she was. Hinata set the tray in the gap and slid it into the darkness without looking. The last thing she wasn't was to spook him and have the door snap shut in her face.

The door stayed a jar as Hinata returned to the kitchen. Maybe Gaara was getting a little braver.

Gaara curled in his spot, waiting. Hinata had finished the dishes, and she lingered in the kitchen for a little too long. He waited for a few days for her to want to explore again. He thought about making it more obvious or maybe sending out a note to explicitly tell her to explore, but the tight feeling in his chest that awaited her reaction didn't want it just as much as it craved it.

Hinata padded toward the hall, and Gaara froze, waiting. She paused at one of the previously empty rooms that was now set up with a full set of sand furniture. She entered the room cautiously, pausing with her hand on the wall like she was afraid to go in, but she did.

Her hand slid over the details over the back of the chair and the desk but didn't sit down. Her hips rested against the desk as she turned to the rest of the room.

What was she thinking? Did she like it? She seemed so disappointed with how empty each of the rooms were before.

Would this make her happy now that she had something to explore?

Hinata picked up the returned tray. Gaara took them every day, keeping the door open around mealtime to accept them. It was progress, and at this point, it was all she could ask for. She took the tray back to the kitchen and realized one of the bowls was entirely untouched when she took off the lid.

Hinata padded back to the door, and she could feel that the door had tension, like it was ready to snap shut just hearing her come back down the hall. She stopped short of the door. "Do you not like sweets?" She waited for an answer, but one didn't come. "Okay, I'll make sure I don't serve you anymore."

Hinata tried to ignore her anxious heart rate as she returned to the kitchen. What if he was upset that she asked? The door didn't slam shut, so maybe it was fine.

… Right?

Being in constant quiet made her overthink everything.

Hinata slid in his tray and returned to the kitchen, only to pad back with another. At first, Gaara thought maybe she couldn't fit everything on, but once she sat down on the floor, shy of the door, it was clear what she was doing.

…But why?

"I hope you don't mind," Hinata said in a low voice on the other side of the door. "I… didn't want to sit alone today." Her chopstick clicked against the bowls.

Gaara hesitated to collect his own. Could he eat with her there, hearing the clicking like he was hearing hers?

"Before I came here, I didn't know the desert was so cold at night." She was going to keep talking at him? "It makes sense there is nothing to really hold the heat, but it just doesn't feel right coming from a temperate climate. It's like summer in the day and winter at night."

What was winter like where she was from? Temari once said they had snow that stuck to the ground in piles that could be formed into a ball and made into creatures. It could snow in the night freeze of the desert, but it was sparse and gone before morning or before it even hit the ground.

"At night, sometimes It's nice to curl up in a big blanket to keep warm, but it's too hot in the morning unless I get up before the sun is out, and it's still too cold." Hinata mused to herself between bites.

Gaara picked up a bowl and started to eat as he listened.

"I don't know why I needed to tell you this today… I guess I just felt…" Alone. "Never mind." Hinata's eating became more rapid until she was done. Then she collected her tray and left without another word.

Gaara looked at his bowl, now alone on his side of the wall. He wished she stayed.

'Then you should have said something.' Shukaku mocked.

Hinata settled back down with her meal and rested her head against the wall. Some meals, especially breakfast, when she was still not really fully awake, she didn't say anything, but the awkwardness she felt sitting silently on the other side of the wall made her want to talk, and if Gaara wasn't closing the door, then she took that to mean then he was inviting it.

That was the only thing she had to go off of.

"… The walls in my room, did you make them thicker?" Hinata asked, knowing he wouldn't answer. She didn't notice it the first day, but the next she noticed the window sill had more room when she leaned on it and space around her potted plant than it didn't before. It was obvious when she looked at the door frame, but the door frames weren't something she looked at often. "Thank you, I think it's delayed it getting too warm in the morning." It may have kept the heat in a little long at night too, but she couldn't be sure if that was just her imagination.

Hinata was now sure that he was listening to her. Gaara was actively trying to make her more comfortable. He just refused to solve their biggest problem.

"I knew the desert was hot, but I guess I never thought about how it's never humid. Have you ever experienced humidity?" Hinata paused for an answer that wouldn't come. "It makes the heat stick to you when it's warm, and it makes cold air feel damp, and it makes beautiful experiences like dew in the morning." Would he know what that was? "Little water droplets that cling to grass early in the morning until it's warm enough that it evaporates back into the air."

Was there a warm, comfortable feeling in the desert that gave him the same feeling that waking up on a humid morning early enough to see the dew did to her?

"Usually, the only time it gets really dry is deep into the winter when it's so cold that the air doesn't hold moisture." It was weird to be surrounded by so much water in the form of snow and not have enough water in the air that her lips would crack.

It was so hot here that Hinata had to keep her hair up all the time. It was actually starting to be a constant annoyance of how much it hurt to have her hair heavy long hair up all the time, but even if she was sitting perfectly still for an hour, her hair would stick to her. If she was going to continue living her, maybe it was time to let it go.

It had a history for her, a painful one that maybe she should have let go a long time ago. At this point, she wasn't sure she was ever going to see the boy who inspired her to grow it out ever again. Maybe if she took this first step in letting it go, she wouldn't feel the same as she did when she left.

Hinata sniffed, and only then did she notice she was crying and just silently sitting on the other side of the wall. Not that she thought Gaara would mind. The door was still open after all.