Chapter summary: Gaara gets into a few more awkward situations and the culprit is the same orange wearing blond he wished to never have to see again.

He woke up at the sound of someone banging on the doors.

At first, he startled, disoriented, until his vision came back to focus and he saw the end of his bed staring at him. He frowned at it until he remembered falling asleep like that yesterday. The sharp ache in his neck and other joints told him it wasn't his best idea. His drenched in sweat clothes only proved the point further.

He tossed the suffocating blanket away.

There was more knocking on the door, then rattling of the doorknob and Gaara froze. He searched his mind for comfirmation that he managed to lock his doors yesterday, but couldn't find the answer and had to suffer another few moments of mild panic before realizing the doors weren't opening. He waited, standing still.

His sister's voice echoed from the other side of the doors. She huffed Again? followed by a louder shout directed to the occupants downstairs. "He locked the door again! I can't go in but he probably heard me."

No, he didn't, he thought. But he could guess it was about him getting up and coming to eat breakfast. He wasn't hungry. He hardly ever was. It was more of a chore to him than anything.

His joints felt stiff, but the desire to stretch was mild, so he ignored it. He padded through the room towards the bathroom. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he had to grimace at the sunked eyes and dark shadows under them. There was also smears of previous day's make up on his face. Pale face and coal black eyes… he looked like a character from a dracula movie. Expect the vampires looked more healthy than him. If he had the capacity to appreciate humour, he probably would have found it ironic. He didn't. Pulling onto the skin of his cheek, he let it stretch.

What an unpleasant face.

Splashing his face clean, he proceeded to add an extra layer around his eyes to hide the dark shadows. When the black ringed eyes stared back at him from the mirror, he felt better, if only a little. The rings hid perfectly what he didn't want to be seen.

When he reached downstairs, he wasn't surprised to see his family already having started eating without him. It was a frequent occurrence. Probably because seeing him made them lose apetite somehow. He didn't see how it was his problem.

He picked the spoon to eat his cereal while pointedly ignoring his siblings' attempts to hide their discomfort at having him by the table.

He glanced at his father who had the laptop on the table with its screen pointedly blocking the youngest son from his view. He didn't care. It was just annoying to have his head bump into the edge of the monitor every time he tried to take a sip. After five such attempts he gave up, pushing the food away. He stood up without saying anything and made his way towards the entrance, putting his shoes on.

"Makes sure he gets to school," his father's voice sounded from the kitchen. By he he meant Gaara. The name Gaara repulsed him, he had once said. Tying his shoelaces he pretended he didn't hear his siblings' complains about having to follow him around. He was prepared to go alone, maybe this time for sure, but his father somehow managed to work a system where he pushed Temari and Kankurou to always go to school together. Otherwise he would never step foot in there.

He briefly glanced at the two of them as they came into the hallway and walked through the doors ahead of them. He could hear curses behind him and flailing of hurried dressing.

He didn't care.

As the gates of Suna High appeared in his vision, he knew he had to prepare himself. School was hard in that way that he couldn't completely avoid people. It was like a full time amusement park with people running around hallways and brushing your shoulders without looking back. He managed to trick himself into thinking that there was an invisible wall between them and him and if he just ignored their whole existence, it'd all end sooner.

It worked, most of the time. If someone unwanted, which qualified as anyone, tried to speak to him, he would just glare at them and they would leave him alone. The Ultimate Defence his siblings called it mockingly. That's why on the regular Monday, that this day was, he expected nothing different. He would suffer his way through the classes and then go back to the safe confines of his room.

The commotion inside the hallway should have been his first sign.

Because he usually ignored such things, he didn't even think to take a cautious look around as his siblings disscussed the transfering students from Konoha High. He walked towards his locker and only managed to open it before a familiar shriek reached his ears.

"AH! I know you!" the voice said, and Gaara prayed it was a nightmare which he was yet to wake up from. "Ice cream cone," it then said and he felt the upcoming need to disappear. He heard murmurs behind his back, and he knew the only shield between him and the curious eyes were the still open locker of his. But that wouldn't last. Soon there would be people and questions and… he needed to get out of here.

Slamming the locker with force, he made a mad dash towards the stairs to where his classroom was located at, but not without hearing his nickname being called once more.

He counted the small blessings. Such as him having the very last seat by the window. It was located far away from any other rows and the seat before him had been emptied a month ago because the student transferred. He felt safe with the distance he had from the other students.

He stared blankly as their Math teacher, ten minutes late into the lesson, finally emerged from the sliding doors.

"You're late!" the chorus of voices greeted him, and Hatake Kakashi replied in his usual lame wit. Gaara just tuned them out. His Math teacher was a peculiar being. While it was weird enough for him to be teaching both PE and Math, he also had a weird look; half of his face was covered in a mask, for reasons unknown. When asked, he would joke about having a hideous face and wanting to protect the students from being scarred to death, but nobody really believed that. Not that it mattered. He was only mildly interested in the prospect of walking around with a mask on his face. But when he asked the teacher if he could use one of his own, he was rejected. The system was unfair like that.

"I hope you all did your homework," Kakashi said to the class cherily.

He didn't.

Staring at the blank sheets of his notebook, Gaara wondered if there was ever a chance of him completing it. It probably wasn't. While he was clever enough, he had no motivation to do the work and as long as he wasn't caught, he could live like that.

His attention momentary shifted back to Kakashi when he announced a new transfer student.

He already didn't like the idea.

His eyes drifted towards the empty seat in front of him and silently mourned the loss of it.

As long as the person in front of him kept to themselves, he could handle their presence.

As the teacher called his name Gaara thought he didn't hear him right. While apparently he shared the same school as the loud brat from yesterday, there was no reason for him to also share the classroom.

As luck would have it, the blond strode inside the classrom with a stupid grin on his face, wearing the same orange suit as yesterday. "Yo, everyone! I'm Uzumaki Naruto. You better remember that. I love ramen and hate complicated math problems. Let's get along." As the classroom joined him in with the chuckles, Gaara was brought back to his own problem at hand. He tried to find a way to disappear and be unseen, but holding his arm before his face only backfired for him in the worst way when Kakashi, thinking he wanted to ask a question, put the class's attention towards him. Including the blond.

"Ah! There you are! I finally found you, Ice Cream Cone."

Ice Cream Cone? What's that? It's so funny. Whispers started among the classroom and the hand that held the pencil nearly snapped it in two.

"Oh? So you know Gaara-kun? Why don't you go sit in the seat before him."

The pencil snapped in two.

"Got it, boss," Naruto exclaimed an affirmitive and casually went for the seat, dropping the backpack unceremoniously on the ground and turned ninety degrees in his seat.

By that time Gaara had already adjusted his stance, and was back to staring straight ahead, teal orbs glaring at the grinning blond.

"Yo," he waved at him. "So, Gaara, huh? Nice name. I was wondering how to call out to you, since you didn't give me your name, but then I remembered the ice cream cone and it was just so funny-" No, it wasn't. "-so I called out to you but then you ran away again and-" He really had to stop talking before Gaara had to commit a crime in public. "-people started to speak to me so I lost you sadly, but then, what do you know, we're in the same classroom! It must be fate." Yes, my fate to murder you, the redhead thought as he glared at the chatterbox and willed him to shut the hell up. Their classmates kept glancing at the two of them curiously, and it was just a matter of time before Kakahi also noticed them-

"Are we disturbing you, Naruto? Gaara?"

Gaara pointedly turned his head to stare at the window and left the blond to fend for himself.

"Ehh, well if you're asking me honestly…"

"I advice you to think carefully before answering that," Kakashi warned him and at Naruto's yelp the classroom started to chuckle.

It would end soon. No, it won't, his mind unhelpfully supplied. But at least this day would end soon. And after that, he could blackmail his way into transfering schools. Somehow. But then he would have to be the new kid and that was just terrifying. His eyes once again found the back of the blond's head and he wished he could set it on fire. Maybe in the chemistry class.

"Well then," Kakashi was once again speaking to class. "We're now going to revise a few similar problems that your homework consisted of. Be ready to write it down."

"Eh, but I don't have anything, Kakashi-sensei!" the blond yelled out protestingly.

The teacher sighed. "Ask Gaara-kun to share. Now then," he simply said and went back to write it on the board.

As the azure blues connected with his narrowed teals, Gaara dared him to even attempt to take a peek at his notebook. He dared. The tanned hand slowly crept towards his notebook which was still open on an empty sheet of paper and before he could grab it, the redhead quickly shut it and pulled it out of reach. "Don't," he said warningly. It didn't work.

"Oh, come on. You know all this stuff, I just want to take a peek."

"No."

"I'll be quick. Promise."

"No," he repeated more firmly and was met with a puppy eye look. It didn't suit him in the least. It weirded Gaara out, if anything. "Stop that. It's disgusting," he spoke unintentionally and was met with the silence of the classroom.

His heartbeat quickened.

"Would you like to share with the classroom, Gaara-kun?" Kakashi asked. "Perhaphs your homework?"

He felt eyes on his front and side. They were burning. He kept his eyes on the blond who was the cause of this and spat the word harshly, "No."

"Hmm," Kakashi hummed. "Then you can leave it on my table."

His day wasn't supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be an ordinary, boring, meaningless day of his miserable life. It wasn't supposed to give him panic attack because he felt the weight of the meaning of having a blank sheet of paper in his notebook. His homework wasn't important. Hell, he could do it in his sleep. But admitting he actually didn't do it meant he would be judged, and questioned and their opinions of Gaara's life choices forced upon him and he hated this. He hated being in this situation. He hated the attention. And the most he hated the blond who was innocently staring at him like he hadn't just ruined everything.

The fist which held the remains of the pencil in his grip kept clenching until it was white.

He could feel his blood rushing to his ears, and how his throat started closing up. While his eyes were still looking ahead, his vision clouded with dark spots and he couldn't see properly anymore.

The mere idea of him losing control in the classroom only increased his blood pressure further.

He was going to lose it… any time now, he knew it…

"AHH, that's not fair Kakashi-sensei!"

The voice was so loud and abnoxious that it somehow managed to bring him back from his inner world. He watched in mild fascination how Naruto suddenly slammed his palm against the table and proudly announced, "I want to take on that problem!"

Kakashi quirked an eyebrow. "Oh? You think you can do it without help?"

"Sure I can! Just bring it on and you'll see my brilliance," he boasted loudly. "I bet you can't think of a problem hard enough for me."

Kakahi's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, followed by a chorus of encouraging ohhh's. Before long Naruto was standing in front of the board, staring at the numbers like they were written in an alien languge. "Wh-what is this? Is this a code or something?" he asked and had the whole classroom laughing.

"You're the one who said you can take on any problem. So integrals should be easy enough for you."

"No! I asked for an actual mathematical problem not some random symbols on the board! Come on be serious!" he yelled out through the roaring of laughter in the room. He then considered. "And what is even an interga-something? Is it edible?"

With his breathing back to normal, Gaara couldn't help tracing along the features of the loudmouthed blond with his eyes. He was starting to have an… effect on him. Somehow feeling in debt to the blond only made him want to crush him more. He was the one who started it, so why should he now feel like he owed him anything? He didn't. He didn't care. He was still going to be setting his hair on fire in the chemistry class.

After realizing how childish he sounded, his face twisted in a scowl.

As the blond finally went back to his seat, he briefly glanced at the redhead, but for some reason his cheeks had a faint of pink in them as he scratched his cheek and avoided Gaara's eyes directly.

Gaara couldn't understand him at all.

Turning back to face the window, Gaara tried to not wonder whether the blond did it for his sake.

It didn't work.

It was the first time in a long while when he thought about something for longer than thirty minutes.

to be continued...

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