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“Sorry but that won’t be enough for two rooms–”
“That will not be a problem!” Lee was soaked through, but the chill wasn’t so bad–at least, not for him. Gaara, on the other hand, was shivering beside him, his teeth chattering behind pursed lips.
“–and one bed,” the inn’s attendant finished, raising an eyebrow.
“O-oh,” Lee squeaked.
“That’s fine,” Gaara snapped at his side. “We’ll take whatever’s available.”
“But Kaze–” Gaara silenced Lee with a look and a snap of his chakra.
“It’s fine,” Gaara said heavily.
“I’ll just need an ID,” the attendant said, eyeing the two. “Just one night, right?”
“Yes, please.” Lee handed over his papers–fake for the sake of the mission–with a tired smile.
The storm had caught them unawares in the midst of tracking a missing nin. They’d been separated from their team hours earlier and had been in the process of setting up a camp under the shelter of a rock formation when thunder had rumbled overhead.
The downpour had been too heavy for them to safely remain out of doors, so they’d packed their things and made for the nearest town.
Rainbow Country–home to Amegakure and ceaseless rain–was dotted with random inns all along the most traveled roads and it didn’t take long for them to find a safe place to rest.
Once they’d been checked in, the attendant led them up a flight of stairs and to a room at the end of a long, narrow hall.
“Bathroom’s just down the hall,” the attendant said, pushing the door to their room open. He dropped the keys into Lee’s hand. “Have a good night, gentlemen. Check out’s at noon.”
The door closed behind them as thunder boomed across the sky and Lee’s heart sank. Their room was smaller than what a hundred-and-fifty ryo a night should have got them: the bed was small, but only slightly smaller than the room, and and had been pushed right up against the wall to provide enough floor space for a little bedside table. Apart from that, the room was barren, with hardly any space for Lee to do his stretches in.
“This is quite the predicament,” he said with an awkward laugh, a lump forming in his throat.
“What’s the issue?”
“Well,” Lee began, “when he said there was only one bed, I had assumed it would be… bigger.”
“I don’t sleep,” Gaara said flatly. “You should know that by now.”
“O-oh, of course.” Lee wasn’t disappointed per say. After all, it wouldn’t be fair to share a bed with Gaara when he secretly harbored feelings for him. He definitely hadn’t been privately hoping for the chance to share a private moment in close quarters, moonlight shining in Gaara’s eyes as he confessed–
“Do you want to take a shower first?” Gaara’s voice cut through Lee’s musings like a kunai to the throat.
“N-no! You go right ahead! I think I will just dry off and shower in the morning.”
Gaara shrugged before disappearing from the room, leaving Lee alone with his disappointment and denial.
Lee dropped his bag on the floor, where it squelched and water pooled. At least it had a water-proof lining, he thought as he rummaged through for a towel and something to wear.
He unzipped his flack jacket, patted his face dry, and toweled off his hair before the dreaded task of peeling himself out of his sopping wet suit. Though he loved his suit dearly, it was not meant for extreme weather conditions–especially not such heavy rain which made it stick to him like a magnet.
He grunted, scrunching his face at the unpleasant feel of his suit slowly peeling away from his skin. He was halfway out of his suit when the door opened and Gaara walked in.
Lee squeaked and fell to the floor with his suit stuck around his thighs.
“We should go over our plans for the morning.” Gaara paused, staring at Lee, sprawled out at his feet. “What are you doing?”
“Getting out of my suit?”
The corner of Gaara’s mouth twitched and he stepped over Lee, moving to the bed. “I didn’t realize it was such a production getting out of that thing.”
“It is not usually,” Lee said, picking himself up from the floor and pulling the suit back up to hide his modesty. “But it does stick terribly when it is wet.”
“Ah,” Gaara said, gaze two pinpricks of reflected moonlight.
Lee shifted, face suffused with warmth. He cleared his throat. “Would you mind turning around while I change?”
Gaara’s gaze snapped to Lee’s. Lee hadn’t been aware it had wandered away from his face until that moment and his sense of embarrassment heightened. He covered his bare chest, smiling sheepishly.
“Sorry,” Gaara said gruffly, turning away to stare out the window.
Lee changed as quickly as he could, removing his drenched suit and hardly bothering to dry himself off further before throwing on his shirt and shorts.
“Done!” he declared, wringing his suit out before he could think better of it. Water splashed onto the floor, pooling around his feet. “Oops.”
Gaara’s towel landed on his head, still slightly damp from his shower. “We should go over our plans for tomorrow, and then you should rest. A good night’s sleep in a proper bed would not go remiss.”
“Proper rest is important,” Lee agreed absently, mopping up the small puddle. “You should try resting some too.”
Gaara let out an annoyed huff, a barely audible puff of air escaping through pursed lips.
“I do not mean sleep,” Lee hastened to add. “Just… rest. Your body and mind will thank you for it.”
“I take your point.”
“Do you want to leave at sunrise?” Lee asked, turning out the light and climbing onto the bed.
“That would be best. We’ll need to find an aviary so we can contact the others. In this rain, my sand will be useless.”
“I am sure Darui-san is taking good care of everyone else!”
“I have no doubt, but it’s my responsibility to ensure the safety and success of this mission. That last attack caught me off guard.”
“You should not beat yourself up. We were all surprised! There is a reason our target is in the Bingo Book, after all!”
Gaara shifted at the foot of the bed, glancing up at him. “Will you kick me if I sit here while you sleep?” he asked, fingers grazing the edge of the bed.
Lee felt his face warm instantly. “N-no! Of course not!” After a moment of consideration, he added, “But it would probably be more comfortable up here, so you can lean against the wall.”
Gaara eyed him skeptically. “And you won’t attack me in your sleep?”
“Why would I do that?” Lee asked, caught between exasperation and horror.
“Your teammate informed me that you have… unusual sleeping habits, and I have observed you on this mission–you do sleep different from the others.”
Lee was grateful for the darkness of the room because his face was hotter than a furnace and most likely beat red. He buried his face in the pillow, mumbling, “I did not realize you had been watching me.”
“There isn’t much to do besides observe my surroundings late at night,” Gaara pointed out. The bed dipped and creaked as Gaara’s weight settled beside Lee. “I’m sorry if that was a breech of your boundaries. Temari says I’m prone to doing things that most would find off-putting.”
Lee shook his head, face still hidden within the fluff of his pillow. “It is all right.”
“Do you need the blanket?” Gaara asked, rising from the bed briefly.
“No, I will be too hot with anything else on.” When he wasn’t on missions, Lee was used to sleeping in the nude with just a thin sheet between him and the air. It was the only way he could stay cool at night, otherwise he’d toss and turn and wake up drenched in sweat.
“It’s freezing out,” Gaara said, disbelief hidden in the flat note of his voice.
Lee laughed. “I am always too hot,” he explained. He lifted his head, holding his arm out towards Gaara. “Feel me.”
A rush of adrenaline followed his request, which only made his body warm further, but he quashed it down as quickly as he could. Gaara eyed the arm before him, the green of his eyes skating across the scars that criss-crossed along Lee’s skin.
Gaara’s fingers were cool against Lee’s burning skin. They left a feather light trail of cool air in their wake. Gaara’s hand wrapped around Lee’s wrist for a brief second before he released Lee, looking away. “You feel like the desert.”
There was a reverence in the way the word ‘desert’ rolled off his tongue, as though the very word were sacred. The tone hit a nerve in Lee, something hot and deep burning at his core. He swallowed past a lump in his throat.
“I suppose my scars are a bit rough,” he croaked, staring up at Gaara, his gaze unintentionally beseeching.
“I meant your skin is hot,” Gaara clarified. “They are rough though.”
“They used to call me ‘hot-blooded’ when I was a kid.” Lee laughed, a note of bitterness creeping into it. “I suppose this is not what they meant.”
“Doubtful.”
An awkward silence fell between them. The space between them in the bed warmed, like a beacon for Lee to move closer. He kept his gaze rooted to the wall before him, laying so still he might have been maid of stone.
Beside him, Gaara stared ahead, in much the same fashion, unmoving except for the careful rise and fall of his chest.
“I’m usually cold.” The abruptness of Gaara’s voice in the silence made Lee jump, his heart racing like he’d just taken off his weights.
“O-oh?”
Gaara held out his own arm. “See?”
Lee could barley hear anything over the cacophony his hear was making, over the sound of blood rushing in his ears. He reached out and touched the bare, unmarred skin of Gaara’s arm, running his whole hand across the soft skin of his inner arm. The cold seeped into his hand before the feel of soft skin registered with his damaged nerve endings, and Lee drank it in as though he were the desert Gaara had said he was.
If Lee was a desert, Gaara was the cool water that could save a man from death.
Lee’s mouth went dry at the thought. He pulled his hand away, trying to leech some of the cool from Gaara as he went.
“Are you always this cold?” The whisper of Lee’s voice, in contrast to the abruptness of Gaara’s, felt too intimate. It felt as though he were revealing himself in the darkness of their little hotel room. He looked up at Gaara, a new question in his gaze.
Gaara nodded. “It’s worse here. With all this rain.”
Lee had never wanted to kiss anyone as badly as he wanted to kiss Gaara in that moment. He wanted to press himself close, sap the cold from Gaara’s body and give him his own warmth instead. He wanted to kiss him until he complained of fever.
He shoved his face into his pillow, afraid that somehow Gaara would be able to read his thoughts.
“I’ll let you sleep.” Gaara shifted and the bed dipped until Gaara arm–cool and soft–pressed against Lee’s.
“I hope you get some rest too,” Lee murmured, petulant in his frustration with himself.
Lee didn’t fall asleep as quickly as he usually did. He kept his body still, so still he felt stiff, and the heat of embarrassment made it all the harder to calm his racing thoughts. He wanted to roll over and talk to Gaara more; he wanted to reach out and take his hand; he wanted to throw caution to the wind and wrap himself around Gaara until he drifted off.
A cool breeze settled over Lee, making him shiver. Chakra–warm with familiarity, and gentle yet strong–settled over him like a blanket, cooling his burning skin. He jerked, looking up to find Gaara watching him, his eyes intent and wide as the full moon hanging outside their window.
“Forgive me,” he murmured, gaze unblinking. “I should have asked.”
Lee shook his head, a giddy grin stretching across his face. “Thank you.”
Lee fell asleep moments later, smiling foolishly.
When he woke in the morning, as the grey light of early morning broke through the clouds above, it was to find himself tangled around Gaara, who seemed perfectly content, if not outright pleased by the opportunity to steal Lee’s warmth.
“You could have told me you were cold,” Lee teased, voice muddled with sleep.
“I thought I did.”
Lee laughed, stretching his arms high above his head. Gaara watched him, a languid smile lighting up his face.
“Did you rest well?”
“I did. And you?”
Lee’s grin was as warm as the sun. “I did. I should sleep with you more often–I mean–that is not what I meant! I simply meant that you are a good sleeping partner–uh, no, I meant–”
Gaara laughed, warm and low, as sweet as honeycomb. “Lee, you’re babbling.”
Lee flushed, his face an inferno. “I-I-I–”
Gaara’s hand against his cheek stopped him mid-babble. The coolness of his skin soothed the heat in Lee’s face. “Breathe, Lee. I know what you meant.”
Lee’s heart sank. “You–you do?” he squeaked.
“I do.” Gaara’s smile, small and amused, left Lee all the more confused. His hand dropped from Lee’s face and he rose from the bed, stretching out the kinks in his back. “We should hurry. We don’t want to get caught in another storm, after all.”
Despite the lack of inflection, Lee could hear the implications in Gaara’s words all too clearly. He jumped from the bed, grinning like the fool in love that he was.
“Oh! Absolutely! It would be–most unfortunate if we were forced to find shelter again!”
Gaara’s responding laugh was all the confirmation Lee needed to know that maybe, just maybe he had a chance after all.