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Arranged marriage, Gaara thought to himself as he stared out the window of his office, a grimace against his lips. After briefly meeting the last woman that his council attempted to suit him with, he was not pleased about them attempting again. Though the red head had come a long way in his life, he could not help that small part that wondered. Am I unlovable?
With his teal eyes, he simply gazed for around an hour, the hour before he would be meeting his female suitor. He could not help his lack of enthusiasm, as he had already gotten close to another woman who dashed off with her lover to elope. It was underhanded of her, sure, but Gaara could not entirely even blame the woman for running off. An arranged marriage does not always start with love, after all, and if the woman had someone she already loved, there was no reason for the whole arrangement to transpire.
"Kazekage, sir," he could hear one of his shinobi on the other side of the door, knocking gruffly as he addressed the young man.
"Come in," Gaara said absently, though he could not seem to pull his mind off of the blonde haired woman that had made him feel unlovable. His teal eyes had not even broken from the window as two sets of footsteps entered. "Yes?" His tone was somewhat curt, though absent in nature.
The man that addressed him prior stuttered over his words, clearly intimidated by the young man. After all, who in the sand village had not been intimidated by Gaara? It was simply to be expected, even after his nature had changed. "This is who the counsel found for you," he said awkwardly, attempting to get the Kazekage's attention.
The red headed Kazekage had not shifted his gaze until her gentle voice spoke up. "Y/N," she introduced, though she truly needed no introduction. Her familiar y/h/c locks and piercing y/e/c eyes had been an image burned in the back of the young man's mind since childhood.
His face read of shock, lips slightly agape as if he meant to formulate words to the young woman before him. Teal eyes took in the young woman's appearance, wondering if this had been some sort of a joke from the counsel. An exaggerated blink simply added to the awkward silence, before Gaara motioned his hand for the shinobi to leave the two.
"I-I'm sure you don't remember me," the young woman said shyly, moving her y/e/c eyes to the ground bashfully. "Lord Kazekage-sama."
Recovering from Gaara's own shock, he cleared his throat quickly, cringing slightly at the formality. "There's no need to be so formal with me, Y/N," he replied, though he could feel his heart leaping from his chest. "And of course I remember you. What kind of person would I be not to?"
"M-my mistake," she replied shyly, before her lips curled upwards. "I'm glad that you do."
After a moment of Gaara simply listening to the thumping of his own heart in his chest, Gaara rose to his feet, making his way out from behind his desk. Though the young man had not grown significantly tall over the years, he still towered over the young woman as he walked closer to her, causing her to glance upward a bit. "Did you agree to this?" He asked suspiciously, his teal eyes taking in how beautiful the woman had grown in simply a few years time. "I thought you were dead."
She giggled softly, awkwardness clear in her tone. "I-I," she started, before her words fell short. Biting her lip gently, she attempted to come up with the words to say to the man. "That explains why no one saved me." Her words were soft and light as she spoke, almost to the point that Gaara himself couldn't hear her.
Gaara found himself involuntarily moving his hands to each side of her shoulders, gripping her gently. As soon as he watched her flinch, his lips curled downwards to a grimace and he retracted his hands. "You're scared of me," he concluded woefully.
Quickly, the young woman shook her head, her y/h/c hair practically dancing around. "No, no!" She said hastily, pushing her own lips upwards into a smile. Her voice had more vigor than prior as she continued. "The scars are deep, and I'm so sorry! Maybe I shouldn't have volunteered. That lab was scarring, but once I heard that my Gaara was getting sold off to someone, I couldn't just stand by. I've loved you since we were kids, and I jumped at the opportunity. I'm so sorry." As she spoke, she felt tears cascading down her face. Her arms gripped one another as she shook at the thought of Orochimaru's lab, about all the horrible things she had been through before she was finally released.
Gaara watched the young woman's display with a grimace still against his lips. This grimace was not for the idea of him being unlovable, though. In this moment, he grimaced at the young woman's pain. He grimaced at the woman he always had a soft place in his heart for being harmed to the point that she flinches away from a simple touch.
"Y/N," he whispered finally. How badly Gaara wished to engulf her in his arms, to tell her that everything was alright, and yet he did not wish to scare her more. "Y/N, don't apologize. I'm happy that it's you."
Though tears still fell from her y/e/c eyes, she glanced upwards at those handsome teal eyes, her own softening in the slightest as they met. Her words were a little choked as she spoke, but she still forced them out nonetheless. "B-but, I'm a mess," she countered quickly. "I flinched away from your touch, but I want so badly to wrap my arms around you. You have no idea how much I missed you."
"I want you to be comfortable, Y/N," Gaara replied, his tone serious as he spoke. "May I take you somewhere?" He cautiously held out his hand to her, though he had not expected the woman to take it. His teal eyes still pleaded with her, though, and the hand stayed out even as she hesitated.
Sheepishly, it took a few moments for Y/N to take the red head's hand, but as she did, she hesitantly moved it so the two had their fingers intertwined. As her action was her own, and not forced upon her, she felt herself calming at the gentle action. Using her other hand, she quickly wiped her face of her salted tears before following the Kazekage to wherever he decided to go.
The two walked for a while together, and during that time she could feel the uncomfortable stares from people in the village. Though it had been years since Gaara had the one tailed beast extracted from his body, she knew the uncomfortable looks were for him. Carefully as she felt them more and more, she squeezed his hand reassuringly.
The two arrived at a stretch of plain in an alcove of the village hidden of the sand that the two knew well. Though the woman was from y/c/n she would often meet him in his own village to get away from it all. Involuntarily, a smile tugged against her lips, and she moved her gaze once more to glance upwards at Gaara.
"Do you remember the promise that we made here?" He asked curiously, his teal eyes glancing down upon Y/N once more.
Blush lightly dusted the young woman's cheeks as she remembered it fondly. Nodding, she allowed her smile to fully form against her lips. "I promised you that my love for you was eternal," she said shyly, letting out a soft chuckle. "More than once."
"And I promised you that mine was as well," he replied in his own soft tone, his own lips tugging into a smile as he spoke. "After Natuto showed me to open back up to others, I let you in and promised you that."
"I remember it as if it were yesterday," she said fondly, her cheeks darkening as she spoke. "I was worried you forgot, since that was after the chunin exam."
Gaara's voice was bold, full of seriousness as he spoke up once more. His teal eyes did not leave the woman's own y/e/c eyes as he did, fingers still intertwined with her own. "Do you still feel that way, Y/N?" He asked. "Do you still love me, after all this time?"
Swallowing hard, the young woman nodded immediately. "I don't break my promises," she replied confidently, though the blush still lingered against her cheeks. "I said eternal, Gaara."
"I want to hear you say it," he said, his voice still quite bold.
Her lips pursed to prevent the larger, dorky smile that attempted to flourish against her features. "I love you, Gaara," she said confidently, with a hint of sweetness in her tone.
"I love you, too, Y/N," he said softer than his previous tone, yet confidence still laced in it. "And if you'll have me, I'll gladly wed you."
She giggled softly, her heart aflutter at his words. Though she was taken to the sand village to apparently get to know Gaara, he was her childhood love. He was her only love, and those words solidified that she was his. "I wouldn't have volunteered if I didn't want to," she teased him softly.
"May I kiss you?" He asked, his voice a little sheepish as he moved his gaze to her perfectly pouted lips and back to her own y/e/c eyes. "If not, it's okay."
The young woman swallowed hard once more, preparing herself for the touch. Moving herself to face him, she nodded sheepishly, distrusting of her own mouth to formulate the words. She leaned in the slightest bit, showing that she was truly serious.
Gaara slowly moved in himself, his breath hot against her lips as he closed his eyes to place his lips against hers. He kissed her gently, moving his lips in sync with hers as he did. As he kissed her, he couldn't help allowing his mind to wander, thinking, Maybe I was wrong. Everything led me back to her.
To his surprise, as he kissed her, she disconnected her hand from his. She felt as he began to pull back, but her arms moved to wrap around his neck slowly, each movement careful as she did. The young woman brought him close to her in the most gentle way she could, allowing the kiss to deepen.
He moved gently as she had, afraid to scare the young woman. With time, his strong yet slender arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her into his embrace as he did. To his surprise, he felt the woman melt into his arms, into his warmth as the two connected once more.
Separating merely for air, his forehead rested gently against her own. In breathy words, he said, "I missed you so much, Y/N." He could not help enjoying every second of her in his embrace.
The woman allowed her lips to curl upwards once more as her eyes did not leave his own teal gaze. Within moments, she was pulling her love back into another kiss, melting once more into his lips. Though she thought she was simply happy to get out of that lab, Y/N was absolutely elated to have the love of her life back.