Chapter Text
#10
At first there was only darkness.
Then slowly there was a light, shinning through the cracks.
Images of the times he was not sure were real kept appearing before his eyes; on his side, a shade of pink mixed together with a glowing green and a white splotch a bit further to the left.
“…waking up…”
“…gonna…be okay..?”
His head felt like it was on a rollercoaster; the colors spinning in front as he tried to stare at the light with half-lidded eyes.
Something rumbled inside his chest; a deep continuous sound which made his rib cage ache. He felt his hand instinctively move towards the offended area, but didn’t count on what it’d cost to move the said limb. It was like his whole arm was being pierced by scorching needles – he hissed in response.
“Careful,” a voice by his side said.
With great effort he forced one eyelid to focus at the image ahead. His eyes narrowed impossibly thin as he did so. He probably appeared glaring.
“Whe-,” his voice sounded like it hasn’t been used in days, hoarse and scratchy, he tried again, “Where am I?” he finally asked, his question seemingly causing relieved sighs to be exhaled inside the room.
“So good to have you back with us, Gaara-kun,” a familiar male voice said on his left, making Gaara twist his neck to take a better look. Sure enough the infamous copy-ninja, the Rokudaime Hokage, was facing him with eyes closed and a quirk around his mask, which the redhead could only interpret as his smiling face.
Plopping his head back on the pillow in the horizontal position, Gaara tried to get his bearings. He couldn’t remember much. He knew there was a fight, an enemy that attacked Konoha but he wasn’t sure of how it ended. When he dwelled deeper into the thought, he got reminded just who was fighting by his side through all that.
The teal eyes suddenly forcefully opened.
“Naruto,” he breathed out, and began to push his body into a sitting position. At once the siering pain which seemed to travel throughout the length of his entire body paralyzed him. Gritting his teeth, he felt his body tremble from the strain.
“Gaara!” Suddenly he was being maneuvered to lay back down, though he kept resisting. “You can’t get up yet. Your body is just starting to heal from the thirty two piercing wounds I have healed,” she said in an exasperated huff, probably knowing well enough how troublesome patients worked. Naruto especially.
At the recurring thought, a pale hand shot out to grip onto the pinkette’s sleeve, stopping her from going further. “I’m…fine,” he managed to say, as he forced himself once again to put himself in a vertical position. His vision swam before his eyes. “How’s Naruto?”
“Gaara, you should really rest-“ she started again, when another presence joined her, gripping onto the redhead’s elbow to help to steady him.
“There’s no use in stopping these two, Sakura. Rather, maybe seeing each other would help to speed their recovery. Right?” He grinned at the panting Kazekage, who smiled in gratitude to him.
A few days passed since Gaara regained his consciousness and stumbled his way to Naruto’s chambers, staying up in close premises to look after the blond. He could hardly remember, but apparently, the force of the exploding kunai which Hoshino Mika used to constrain Tora with, was enough to knock the barely mobile duo unconscious.
For a moment he feared that it would be his last memory of Hoshino Mika but it seemed she had managed to survive the blast, and though severely burned, she was undergoing treatments while in custody of Konoha. The council was waiting for Gaara to get better to hold a Kage summit to address this international issue.
Feeling his shoulders slump from such thoughts, Gaara adjusted his grip on the pencil in his hand. With his back against the paper doors, the redhead was in the middle of drawing the outline of Naruto’s form, keeping himself busy while on the watch.
It had been days, but the blond wasn’t waking up.
At first the sheer notion pushed the redhead into panic, surely, if Naruto couldn’t regain consciousness, the damange dealt for him must have been immense. His worries were quickly put to rest, when Sakura explained that because of the poison in the jinchuuriki’s body, they had to reseal Kyuubi temporalily, to let the poison leave the body and heal on its own.
As his fingers moved to draw the shades of irises on paper, a sudden groan left the blond’s mouth. Freezing in his work, Gaara quickly pushed the drawing aside and slid his body towards the made-up bed on the floor.
“Naruto?” he asked softly. When there was no respnse, he reached out to cover his palm against the blond’s forehead, feeling him puff warm air against the inside of his wrist as his body seemed to relax further in the sheets.
Staring at the peaceful expression on the blond’s face, Gaara let his back lose some of its tension. He settled himself for a more comfortable position on the edge of the bedsheet, while keeping his fingers lightly brushing the perspiration dampened bangs.
As his eyes followed the path down the tanned cheecks, he felt a sudden urge to brush his pads against the visible whiskers. So he did. There was a slight resistance against the otherwise smooth skin in the area. It was a wonder. Such a tiny detail but somehow it made Gaara feel closer to the blond, like he now knew something not many did.
He wondered how many more of such things he could discover.
A part of him still felt the slight reluctance in accepting what their relationship was promising to become, mainly because of the guilt the recent attack had caused him, but another part of him was just so tired of running away, of pretending that he couldn’t have what he wanted. After all, Naruto made sure to tell Gaara time and time again that he didn’t hold him responsible for the actions of the enemy. And above all else, he understood, what it was like to have an uncontrollable power.
Sighing, he felt his fingers slide away from the blond.
He stared at the faraway corner he had been occupying, the drawing pad laying forgotten, then his eyes shifted to the soundly sleeping Naruto and couldn’t stop his heart from clenching with affection.
“Wake up, Naruto,” he muttered quietly inside the room, resting his head on the bent knees as there was no response heard.
Sometimes Naruto seriously debated the intentions of the higher being above when he, whoever that might be, allowed him to wake up in this pain.
His body was literally on fire, and he kept cursing everyone he could think of, mostly Kurama, because what was that stupid fox doing.
It took him a while but when he finally managed to open his eyes with a gasp, he found himself in a darkened room.
Weird.
He didn’t remember anything.
Shaking such thoughts as unimportant, the blond proceeded to roll over when the sight ahead made him freeze.
He must be still dreaming, he reasoned, because that would be the only explanation why Gaara was sleeping peacefully by the side of his bed, on the floor.
It must be cold!
He grabbed for a blanket from his made-up bed, covering the redhead with it.
Then he froze again.
Because the sight ahead wasn’t changing, and the aching of his body kept reminding him that dreams wouldn’t have been able to hold out with such stabbing sensations.
Slowly plopping back on the bed, the blue irises simply stared at the closed coal painted lids.
What was Gaara even doing here?
It was a mystery.
A mystery he was more than happy to enjoy, while it lasted.
He pushed himself into a fetal position, to keep some warmth for himself as he continued to stare, watching the slight breach between the lips as they puffed air with each exhale.
This still didn’t look real enough to him.
Frowning, he reached out one finger to poke it in Gaara’s check.
It made a dimple where the digit met skin.
“It’s the real deal,” he wondered out loud, wide-eyed.
Feeling excitement growing inside him, Naruto propped himself on his elbows, palms supporting his chin, as he continued to stare at the beautiful specimen in his line of sight.
The outline of the small nose, the plump lips, the teal eyes, yes, the shade of which he still couldn’t fully understand which were staring back at him blearily… wait, what?
“Naru..to?” the timber voice asked, making Naruto startle and his elbows to slip, causing him to fall straight for the redhead’s nose, only to be stopped by a cloud of sand.
“Hmphpsh,” he muttered incomprehensibly as his mouth kept eating the active sand.
He seemed to have lost his balance, as only with the help of hands on his shoulders did he manage to straighten out. A pair of teals were staring at him with something akin to astonishment. “G-Ga-“ he began, but then felt himself getting sick and quickly stood up to rush for the bathroom.
He rinsed and rerisned his mouth several times before he felt like he’d live.
With a big satisfied sigh, he closed the bathroom doors to rejoin the room.
Gaara was already sitting upright, slight worry in his expression.
Rubbing the back of his head, Naruto grinned. “Hey, sorry about that, hehe,” he said with a sheepish look on his face.
“Are you okay?” The redhead’s concern was endearing but Naruto was already feeling way too embarassed with the whole ordeal.
“Yup, perfectly fine.” He raised a thumbs up to emphatise on it, then went to sit oppsite of the other boy.
With hands in his cross-legged lap, Naruto waited for Gaara to break the ice.
Surely he knew what they had to speak about now.
A minute passed.
Another.
But the intense staring of the redhead didn’t stop.
Naruto stared back, blinking.
Well, this was…awkward.
“Um…” A hand come up to scratch behind his head. He scanned his brain for anything he could talk about, but was abruptly saved by a deep sigh coming from the redhead.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” he said, eyes closing in relief.
“Oh,” Naruto breathed. “Yeah.”
As two pair of eyes connected next, Naruto could see something shift into the teals, something very tender and soft replace the usually stoic and impassive look. He felt his cheeks begin to burn and found the other pales ones start to reden in response.
He darted his eyes sideways, as his heart increased in speed.
What the hell?
He silently cursed the awkward atmosphere, which he was yet to understand the cause of.
As he felt the shift in the air, he glanced up, and suddenly Gaara was that much closer to him, getting closer still until a pair of arms wrapped themselves around his frame, causing Naruto to stiffen and his eyes to nearly bulge out of their sockets.
“Huh?” he breathed out, unsure of its meaning.
“I thought I have seen the last of you,” the low whisper by his ear didn’t make matters better for the blond. His skin began to prickle and sweat a little as his brain was registering that there was no error in Gaara’s sudden affection, but rather it was purposeful.
With a sigh, the pale arms retreated from his back and slid down his arms.
“I…don’t know, if what you said before still stands, but… I’d like to give you my answer, if it does,” the carefully put words made Naruto blink.
What did he say?
He racked his brain until it came back to him, and his cheeks burned crimson red.
He confessed his love to Gaara, didn’t he?
As he stayed quiet, dwelling on the embarrassing thoughts, Gaara started to pull away, taking it as a rejection, and Naruto was nearly to late, when he realized what was happening.
With slight panic, he grabbed onto the retreating limb, squeezing it between his fingers.
“It does!” he yelled out, more loudly than their quiet chambers required.
Sheepish, Naruto continued, this time in a lower voice. “I want to become your family.”
The sudden hitch in the redhead’s breathing didn’t go unnoticed by the blond, and that seemed to be enough for him to get over his sudden bashfulness. Seeing the affect his words had on him, Naruto wanted nothing more than keep telling things that made him smile.
The teals darted from one side to another of his face, as Gaara seemed to be lost at words. His mouth halfway parted, he seemed to be unable to form a thought, and a crease of frustation formed onto his forehead.
“Gaara-“ Naruto meant to assure him, that he didn’t need to rush, and that he could take his time, but what he wasn’t prepared was to feel a soft pair of lips meet his own in a chaste but somehow urgent kiss.
Now it was his turn to hitch a breath, and further. He started hiccupping.
Gaara pulled away then, staring at him, wide-eyed, as Naruto clamped his palm against his mouth to stop the sound from leaving him.
It didn’t stop.
Hiccups continued.
And his cheecks burned.
The first sound of laughter, took Naruto by surprise, but then realizing the absurd situation the two have gotten themselves into, Naruto couldn’t help joining in.
It was just so…freeing. He finally felt like they were both in sync, and without confusing emotions restraining him, he jumped the redhead, causing them both to fall back on the bedsheets.
They groaned at the impact, but as the whiskers-covered face came into view, Gaara’s face turned tender as he whispered. “I love you too, Naruto.”
As the dreaded Kage summit was nearing, Gaara confided in Naruto about making an official statement about their relationship. He wasn’t ashamed of it, and he had no intentions of being secretive about it. Having secrets about a political affair never ended well.
“Hmm,” Naruto hummed, with hands crossed as he thought about it. “You sure the old geezers are going to be okay with this?”
“If you’re refering to my possible favouritism to Konoha, then it shouldn’t be a problem, considering my arranged marriage meant to strenghten the bonds with Iwa. With what happened with Hoshino Mika, though they claim being unware of such threachery, I find it in my rights to chose a diferent alliance to strenghten.”
Naruto frowned. “Huh? Are you thinking about marrying someone else?”
Something dark pooled in the blond’s stomach as he thought about the possibilty of that.
He got his nose poked.
Blinking, he found Gaara’s face staring at him. “I meant you.”
“Eh?”
Naruto stared at him a few moments, then. “Are we getting married?”
The smile that appeared on Gaara’s was beautiful.
He vowed to make the redhead smile more.
“Let’s not rush into things,” the redhead said, as he watched the blond fondly.
Naruto thought he had to make some things straight.
“Hey, Gaara,” he began, his eyes sporting a serious look. “You’re mine, right?”
At the sudden possesive words of Naruto, the teal orbs widened. He blinked, before slowly nodding.
Seemingly satisfied, Naruto nodded. “Good. Then let’s continue where we left off,” the blond said with a grin and pushed Gaara backwards.
As lips attacked lips, Gaara could barely form a coherent thought, his body pushing into the tanned one. And while Naruto seemed uncertain about some things, his instincts always led him where he needed to be. He let himself relax into the feeling, finally allowing himself to feel free and loved.
If anything, Naruto was the only who could have done it.
the end.