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“Gaara.”
Gaara glanced up, his eyes darting over that sunny smile and golden beam. He took in his bright eyes, deep with years of pain and dread, but shining all the same. “Naruto,” he greeted, enjoying the way the name danced on his tongue.
Naruto beamed, his mouth stretching impossibly wide. Gaara almost wanted to turn away in fear of going blind, but how could he ever miss a second of Naruto’s warmth? Even if the sight seared painfully into his eyes?
Naruto was always like that. Impossibly bright amid the chaos of darkness that persistently clung to him. Or perhaps it was him who clung to the darkness. Gaara’s gaze slid behind Naruto, taking in the dark looming figure behind him.
“Sasuke,” Gaara greeted. He tried to keep his voice level, but it lacked the distinct warmth Naruto’s name produced. Sasuke didn't seem to mind. He nodded slightly before averting his gaze.
Gaara silently watched him, an ugly feeling curling in his stomach. Of all the bright people who would compliment Naruto’s brilliance, he chooses one whose gloom drags him down. Gaara silently took a sip of his sake as the couple made themself comfortable at the bar. He couldn’t help but belatedly think that he would be better for Naruto. At the very least, he’d treat him better.
Naruto beamed at Sasuke, taking off his jacket and throwing it over Sasuke’s arms, fussing over him even as the other man scowled at him. He laughed at Sasuke’s huff, slipping his hand into his, intertwining their fingers with a grin.
Gaara felt there was something off about their dynamic. After all the suffering, all the pain Sasuke caused, how come Naruto was still the one chasing after him? For once, Naruto deserved to be the one who was pampered in their relationship.
The redhead paused, staring down into his sake glass with a somewhat troubled expression. He would pamper Naruto. Treat him like the wonderful friend and lover he is. He knew hundreds of others who’d do the same. So why was Naruto so insistent on being with Sasuke?
Gaara sighed. Well. He supposed the heart wanted what it wanted. He knew that all too well. Still, he couldn’t help but pity Naruto. It was a shame for such a bright man to fall for someone who never appreciated him.
He watched silently as Naruto yammered on about something or another. Not once did Sasuke respond, or even make the noncommittal hum of acknowledgement he liked to do so much. Gaara huffed, silently standing up and placing some money on the counter. He couldn’t watch this anymore. It was pathetic. Perhaps he was more pathetic for staying.
“Naruto. I’ll be leaving now.”
“Already?” Naruto pouted cutely, making Gaara’s heart jump. He bowed his head. “I’m afraid I’ve Kazekage duties to return to. It was wonderful meeting you, as always.”
Naruto laughed, excitedly spitting out way too many words for a goodbye. Gaara walked past him, nodding at Sasuke as he left. Sasuke gave him a hesitant nod, before turning back towards his boyfriend. Gaara shook his head, putting his hat on and leaving the bar, an exasperated sigh left in his wake.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gaara frowned slightly, haphazardly shoving a myriad of cat treats into his pockets as he awkwardly shuffled through the streets. The moon was bright tonight, making the world glow a purplish hue when its light collided with the night. It was quiet, save for the muffled shuffling behind closed doors and rustling of the animals in the shadows.
Every time he came to Konoha, Gaara made it a point to drop by and feed the three little stray kittens across the block from Ichiraku’s. He wasn’t sure why. Even without him there, the kittens were very obviously well fed, what with their plump bellies and shiny fur. Perhaps Gaara liked the idea of giving the kittens the affection of a home that he grew up without. Perhaps he just liked the idea of caring for something, or someone.
But today, it seemed someone beat him to the chase. Gaara turned the corner into the alley, expecting the kittens to start meowing and nuzzling his feet as they usually did. Instead, they huddled around a figure sitting on the ground, purring contently as he scratched their ears.
Gaara stepped forward, and his breath hitched at the sight he saw. A scene of pure serenity. Sasuke sat with his legs crossed on the alley floor, two of the kittens curled up in his lap while the other nuzzled his leg. The briefest of smiles graced his lips as his slender pale hand softly scratched the kittens’ chins.
The moon truly loved him. It graced him with a shimmering light that seemed to make him glow with a white halo. The light blanketed his features, making the edges of his dark eyes shine silver. His hair softly framed his face, fluttering around his cheeks. The dirty alley seemed pristine, simply due to its proximity to him.
Sasuke looked delicate. Nothing like the harsh man he knew who murdered without mercy. Even with his bias against him, Gaara couldn’t help but admit he was ethereal.
But even if Sasuke’s looks got him the affection of thousands, Gaara knew that Naruto wasn’t one to dwell on attractiveness. If he were, then Gaara wouldn’t be so irked by the fact that he loved him.
Gaara stepped forward almost unconsciously, something inside him urging him to bask in the light of this almost divine being. Sasuke’s head shot up in alarm, his rosy lips parted slightly as his muscles tensed noticeably, causing the kittens in his lap to mew in protest.
Gaara stilled, the weight of Sasuke’s sharp stare almost too much to bear. He stepped further into the alley, letting the moon’s light bathe him. Sasuke relaxed when he saw him, but he didn’t soften like he did when he thought he was alone. In contrast, he seemed uncomfortable, his hands stiffly petting the kittens as his eyes darted around, glancing everywhere but at Gaara.
The redhead almost felt remorse for catching him in such a vulnerable moment, but he couldn't bring himself to regret seeing that picturesque scene. He nodded politely at Sasuke, who gave him the barest of head tilts back. Gaara grabbed a treat from his pocket, leaning down to offer it to the kittens. Two of them promptly hopped away from Sasuke to check out the food, but one, a midnight black kitten, stayed curled up in Sasuke’s lap.
Sasuke scratched her neck fondly, as if thanking her for staying. Gaara silently watched him, barely noticing as the kittens nipped his fingers in an attempt to snatch the treats from his hand. Realizing that Gaara wasn’t about to give out any more treats, the two kittens lost interest, abandoning him in favor of mewing at Sasuke to pet them.
Gaara admitted, he was somewhat surprised. So the Uchiha had been the one taking care of them. He hadn’t expected Sasuke to be so good with animals. Then again, he didn’t really expect much from Sasuke in general.
He stood up slowly, watching Sasuke gracefully interact with the kittens. He had always thought that he and Sasuke were the same in their suffering and pain. He had considered himself better for choosing salvation in favor of Sasuke’s hatred. Looking at the man now, it was hard to believe that Sasuke was ever a part of the darkness. He couldn’t help but wonder. If he had chosen darkness, would Naruto have chased him the same way he did Sasuke? Would he have been the one he loved?
Gaara turned to leave. Deep down, in his heart, he knew what the answer was.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I’m gonna propose to Sasuke.”
The room, full of Naruto’s friends and citizens of Konoha, here for a friendly get-together– and to catch a glimpse of Konoha’s hero– went silent. Gaara felt his heart drop.
Everyone exchanged uneasy glances. Kiba was the first to speak. His face was pinched like he had just bit into a lemon. “You… are you really sure about him?”
Naruto’s eyes furrowed. He glanced around, confused. “Of course? Why wouldn’t I be?” His eyes darkened slightly. “I thought you all would be happy for me.”
“We are!” Temari exclaimed, her hand intertwined with Shikamaru. “It's just…”
“He doesn’t deserve you,” Kiba interjected, his face still twisted. Temari kicked him under the table, shooting him an ugly glare.
Naruto huffed, standing up abruptly. His eyes flashed with betrayal, as if he couldn’t believe the inner thoughts his friends were revealing to him. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“I mean… he did betray Konoha,” Sai unhelpfully added, his blank expression somehow making the tension worse. “He betrayed you too. And your friends. And tried to kill you multiple times.”
Naruto grit his teeth. “Shut it, Sai. He was suffering. He was hurting. He didn’t mean it. And he’s sorry!”
At this point, Sakura was glancing over from the neighboring table, her eyes sharp as she watched the conflict escalate. She gripped the side of her chair slightly, her expression overflowing with overprotectiveness.
“So? Gaara suffered a lot too, and he didn’t betray his country.” Kiba nodded over at Gaara, who averted his eyes. He didn’t want to challenge Naruto’s decision, as it was his life, but he couldn’t help but be a little curious.
Naruto’s eyes narrowed. “What? Why the hell are you bringing Gaara into this? What does he have to do with anything?”
Kiba sighed, rubbing his head in exasperation. “I’m just saying Naruto, you’ve got choices ! Men and women both. Is there any reason it has to be him? What if he betrays us again? Is he going to go haywire anytime something traumatic happens? We’ve all been through shit, but we never betrayed each other like he did.”
Gaara flinched slightly as he saw the expression on Naruto's face. Kiba seemed to notice it too, as he guiltily avoided Naruto’s quickly reddening eyes.
Naruto’s voice was terrifyingly calm. “You had your clan. Everyone else had family. Sasuke didn’t.”
“Neither did you ,” Kiba pushed. “But you became a hero.”
“Yea!” Naruto snapped, baring his canines. “And my entire clan wasn't murdered by my brother! I want you to imagine it! Just imagine your sister murdering your whole clan in front of you, and then forcing you to relive it hundreds of thousands of times!”
Gaara noticed Sakura stand up abruptly from the corner of his eye. She stared Kiba down in a death glare, her muscles tense, but Gaara couldn’t find it in himself to pay attention to her, his eyes fixated on the scene in front of him.
Kiba had gone deathly quiet, but Naruto kept going. “Hundreds of thousands of times! Watching someone you loved and looked up to murder not just your family, but your whole fucking clan! Raping your mind with gore! Over! And over! And over! He was eight! Fuck! If Itachi were still alive today, I may have killed him myself!”
Naruto huffed, his chakra blazing dangerously as he tried to catch his breath. Kiba’s mouth fell open slightly, the color draining from his face. He sounded a little choked as he looked down at the ground. “I didn’t know.”
Naruto paled, his chakra deflating rapidly. “You weren’t… I wasn’t supposed to tell you that. That wasn’t my secret to tell.” He took a shaky breath, grabbing his jacket and briskly walking out.
A beat after he left, a loud cracking noise blasted through the room. Gaara’s head shot around to see Sakura standing in front of a table split down the middle, the wood splintering gruesomely. She lifted her eyes to stare blankly at Kiba, full of an unspoken threat. She slowly stepped towards him, her eyes terrifyingly blank.
The woman stopped in front of him. She spoke slowly, her voice cold. “The only reason you’re not beaten within an inch of your life right now is because you were just saying what they were all thinking.” She turned around to face the rest of the people in the room, who flinched away from her gaze. “And if I were to nearly kill all of you, Tsunade would beat my ass.”
Her voice softened slightly, but her eyes remained sharp, glaring at Kiba. “Besides, despite the monster you all make Sasuke out to be, he wouldn’t want me to hurt you. It would just add to his guilt.” With that, she grabbed her stuff, hurriedly following after Naruto.
The room was silent for a long time. Gaara stared at the door Sakura and Naruto left through, his mind pounding. He didn’t know either. His mind strayed back to that delicate, delicate man he saw in the alley. How could anyone hurt him? And his own brother?
Gaara gulped. It seemed criminal to imagine a younger version of that beautiful man suffering so. Over. And over.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Noone objected when Naruto got on his knees and proposed. He did it in their old school classroom, surrounded by all his friends, who cheered him on enthusiastically. Sasuke seemed a bit taken aback. He stared down at Naruto silently for a good couple of minutes. Just as Naruto began to sweat, Sasuke grabbed his arm and teleported the two of them out of the room.
The room grew hushed, then burst into concerned whispers. Noone said it outright, but Gaara could practically hear what they were thinking in their minds. Their confusion. Their judgement of Sasuke. Their disapproval of Naruto’s choice.
The whispers stopped when Sakura slammed her fist into the wall, her eyes glinting dangerously. But the people continued to whisper in their heart if they couldn't speak aloud.
The room grew increasingly restless with each moment that passed with Naruto and Sasuke still gone. The only one that seemed unperturbed was Sakura, who stared silently at the spot they disappeared as if she knew something the rest of them didn't. Knowing her, Gaara didn’t doubt that she did.
A couple of minutes later, Naruto returned to the room alone, wide eyed with a flushed face. He glanced around at the room, and everyone immediately reached out, prepared to comfort him. Naruto shook them off, his voice breathily exclaiming. “He said yes.”
When the crowd had no reaction, Naruto repeated it with a beam, holding his hand up to show the shiny gold ring with a tiny cat engraved on the outside sitting on his finger. The room burst into cheers and celebration, everyone whooping aloud and clapping Naruto on the back, screaming their congratulations. Gaara smiled softly, happy for Naruto despite the pain in his chest.
“Hang on,” Sakura exclaimed, her lips twitching upwards. She reached out and grabbed Naruto’s hand, sliding the ring off his finger.
She examined it curiously, before turning to Naruto with a sly smirk. “I thought you got silver rings? To match Sasuke’s eyes , I recall you saying.”
Naruto’s face flushed red. He gently grabbed the ring from Sakura, showing her the inside. On the back of the ring, a clean ‘Usuratonkachi’ was engraved in Sasuke’s handwriting. Sakura screamed in excitement when she saw it.
Naruto laughed sheepishly, rubbing at the back of his neck. He fiddled with the ring in his hand, biting his lip nervously. “Yeah, apparently I wasn’t the only one with marriage on my mind.”
Sakura tackled Naruto into a hug, unable to contain her excited squeals. “Ah! Ah! Ahhh! I’m so so so happy for you two! About time you dumbasses got it together!”
She fondly pressed her forehead to Naruto’s, her voice dropping into a low whisper. “You deserve this. Both of you. To be happy.”
Naruto laughed nervously. “It’s kind of crazy. You know I’ve always wanted a family. A home to call my own.” He placed the ring back on his finger, staring at it in an adoring wonder. “I wouldn’t have ever thought that Sasuke would be both of them for me. Not in my wildest dreams.”
Sakura squealed again, pulling Naruto into a bone-breaking hug. “Uh– Sakura,” Naruto croaked, unable to breathe. Sakura pulled back, then punched Naruto’s arm, hard . The blonde let out a grunt of pain, nursing his definitely bruised arm. The smile dropped from her face as she deadpanned, “I better be the best man at your wedding. For both of you.”
Naruto let out a breath of laughter. “I don’t think that's possible? How would that even work?” Sakura’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “You’ll make it work.” Then, she squealed, the smile back on her face. “I’m so happy for you! I love you both so much!”
Gaara smiled weakly, stepping forward to extend his congratulations to Naruto. He was truly happy for him. It was strange. He hated that he could never be anything other than happy for him when Naruto was happy. Even if it was because of Sasuke.
However, weirdly enough, recently it was less ‘even’ and more ‘especially’ if it was because of Sasuke.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gaara couldn’t help himself. He drank himself into a stupor during their bachelor party. They’d insisted on having one together, which just drove the knife in deeper.
He didn't think he rambled too much, but the bartender seemed to disagree, glancing at him with a somewhat annoyed expression as he commented on his unusual chattiness.
“He doesn’t deserve Naruto,” Gaara muttered, half drunk. But for some reason, this time, he didn’t believe his own words.
The bartender glanced over at him. He hummed, stirring the drink in front of him. “I won’t pretend to understand how you feel. But it seems to me, that despite your complaints, you don't really know this man at all.”
Gaara frowned. “Of course I know him. He’s my best friend. I’ve been looking at no one but him for years.”
“Not him.” The bartender stared pointedly at the redhead.
Gaara huffed slightly, staring down at his drink. The bartender shook the mix in his hand, reaching across the bar to pour it into Gaara’s drink. “I apologize if I’m mistaken. I’m normally not the type to interject, but you seem you’re open to advice.”
The man hummed, running a finger over the rim of his drink.
The bartender smiled slightly. He calmly wiped off the counter in front of him with a towel, then threw the towel over his shoulder. “Have you ever really gotten to know him? Make friends? Or do you just glare at him because he bagged the guy you like?”
“I-” Gaara’s voice trailed off. He frowned. He couldn’t… could he? Has he really been judging him? Like the others had judged Gaara once? Without a semblance of evidence to support their glares?
Gaara’s eyes widened, his lips pursing slightly. Perhaps… he was right. Perhaps he was simply blinded with jealousy and never truly saw Sasuke for what he was.
His mind wandered back to the day at the bar. He had thought that Sasuke was simply being ungrateful as Naruto pampered him at the time, but he never truly looked at the man. His gaze was solely on Naruto, so he missed the light blush that dusted over Sasuke’s cheeks when Naruto gave him his jacket. He didn’t see the small smile that graced Sasuke’s face as he watched Naruto talk animatedly. Or the worried frown and subtle tap on Naruto’s leg to keep him from drinking too much. He realized that Sasuke didn’t respond, but he remembered every single word Naruto said. Perhaps it’s the Sharingan, but even then, Gaara wasn't sure he’d be able to, despite his infatuation with the blonde.
Then, his mind helpfully supplied that memory of Sasuke in the alley. That beautiful, beautiful man, who softly held those kittens as if they were precious to him. As if he actually had a heart. And then his mind recalled what Naruto had said about that beautiful man. About Sasuke and his brother.
Gaara was wrong. It wasn’t that Naruto fell for Sasuke at the mercy of his own heart. Their relationship wasn't one sided or strained. Gaara simply couldn’t see what Naruto saw. Until now.
The man sighed, standing up and leaving, his cape billowing around him as he walked. Gaara was wrong. Sasuke may not be the brightest or most expressive person, but his love for Naruto knew no bounds. It was wrong of him to judge based on his jealousy when he barely knew the man.
Gaara looked back at Sasuke, his gaze tentative. Initially, all he could see was a cloud of burden and gloom surrounding him, but now that he forced himself to pierce through the smoke, he realized that Sasuke shined in his own way.
Not bright and powerful and overwhelming, like Naruto’s sunny disposition, but softly and serenely, like the soft glow of moonlight that illuminated the night. As Gaara walked out the door, he begrudgingly admitted that they fit well together. Like the sun and the moon.
The sun and the moon. And the rest of them were just one of millions of stars that faded into their background.