Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Given The Chance ❯ Three Favors ( Chapter 13 )

Chapter #13

Three Favors

 

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and Co.

 

Hehe! I am so happy with this chapter right here because … well you just have to read to find out now don't ya?!!! Enjoy this long (and minorly fluffy) chapter!

 

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Even a person who has never slept a wink in their lives needs rest. After hours of paperwork and other boring Kage chores Gaara though for a moment he had gone blind, but thankfully leaving his office had helped correct his tired eyes. If he had to read or sign any more documents he was sure he would go insane. So then why did Sabaku no Gaara find himself heading towards her house again? That same troublesome girl that more then often infuriated him, confused him, and in his eyes probably the most annoying person on the face of the earth. He didn't have a clue in the world! All he knew was that after meeting her and trying to figure her out, he was drawn to her for some unexplained reason. Gaara couldn't recognize a feeling etching at the back of his mind every time he met her that had compelled him to save her earlier when she could have been rid from his life and he would have done nothing to cause it. Again he didn't have a clue in the world.

 

[One day your damn emotions are going to drive me insane you baka kid,] the Shukaku grumbled stubbornly, [I'll never understand you stupid humans, and you don't even seem to realize what effect a woman can have on a person.]

 

`Shut up you bastard raccoon,' Gaara snapped in his mind, as usual he was in no mood to listen to him go on.

 

The Shukaku didn't say much else but Gaara could still sense his cocky ass consciousness in a far corner of his mind muttering, [Clueless little baka.]

 

By the time he arrived at her house all the lights were out including hers, but it was not like it was the first time he had ever come to spy in her while she slept. Gaara had hoped observing her more would help him completely understand what it was she did that kept him compelled to return night after night. It had not helped in the least, it only made him frustrated, and a frustrated Gaara is a damn pissed off Gaara. Needless to say he had a shorter temper than usual throughout the weeks he had known her…

 

Gaara's mind commanded the sand to find its way through her window and unlock it as usual, after so much spying he knew the house better than anyone else outside the Iwate family, maybe even a little better than a few members. Silently opening the window was second nature, he already knew if he lifted it too quickly it would make a tedious squeak, but it was still a simple matter for him to get in and out of the house before the idiot dog Kobi detecting his presence and alerting Cassandra's equally stupid brother.

 

The red head froze in the center of the room for a moment noticing the room had been rearranged to accommodate two beds. Cassandra's bed was still below the window but where her bookshelf had once resided was another bed whose occupant was snoring loudly under an array of blankets.

 

“She snores and talks in her sleep,” Cassandra groused as she opened her eyes and sat up in bed, “I swear I must have been so bad in a former life and the gods are punishing me with her. I have to say this is actually cruel and unusual. She is just the type of person that no matter what she does just pushes every one of my goddamn buttons.”

 

Gaara glanced at the sleeping form, “You should keep your voice down she might wake up, she might not take well to me being here.”

 

“That's another thing, I would love to wake her up to silence her snoring, but there is a problem. I can't wake her up. She sleeps like a rock.”

 

His sea foam coloured eyes shifted over the sleeping form with a sense of unease, “Why the hell is she here anyway, and why in your room?”

 

“Her apartment got destroyed in the disaster and there are no spare rooms in this house so we are sharing for now,” Cassandra grumbled into her pillow glowering lightly at the other bed when she noticed Gaara was still unsure about staying. Giving a sigh and putting on a small smirk she grabbed her pillow and threw it as hard as she could at Gina and spoke in an alarmingly loud tone, “Hey beach whale you snore like a banshee how about putting a freaking sock in it?!”

 

Gina simply rolled over in her sleep and continued snoring.

 

“See what I mean,” Cassie muttered, “You can set fire crackers off in her nose she is not going to wake up. I've had to listen to that all night so I should know.”

 

“Hn,” Gaara growled in response.

 

Switching on her beside lamp Cassandra began shuffling through the drawer of her bedside table and pulled out a box of cards, “Ever play Crazy Eights Gaara-kun?”

 

The look on Gaara's face gave a pretty good answer on its own so Cassandra just chuckled softly and tossed aside her comforter so they could have a relatively flat place to play, “Well I am awake now so I need to kill time, not that I could actually get to sleep with Gina going on with her snoring like she has been, so tonight you're going to learn!”

 

“No.” His statement was predictable. He was the Kazekage after all so how would it look if he were to play a childish card game with the one person that could push every one of his buttons at the same time with her clueless and sarcastic nature.

 

“What is poor Gaara-kun afraid I'll beat him? Are you just scared to loose to a girl Kazekage-sama,” she teased waving the deck of cards around in front of his nose like a red and black fan, “Come on I won't go to hard on ya!”

 

Still insisting on being stubborn the red headed Kazekage sat down on the edge of the bed and watched Cassie expertly shuffle the cards in her hand before dealing them each eight cards. Of course he had no clue about card games, no one had ever been brave enough to play them with him, but there was no way he was going to leave and just let her continue running off at the mouth, “You're going to regret taunting me stupid girl.”

 

“You're going to eat your words when I beat your ass, may I remind you that I have not yet even taught you how to play,” Cassie reminded.

 

`I have got to find a way to shut her smug little mouth,' Gaara growled inwardly when he realized she was right. Again.

 

It didn't take long to teach Gaara who had always been a quick learner anyway and he was able to get good pretty quickly, but for some reason he had only been able to beat her about forty-five percent of the time which was beginning to bother him. After a little more than a half an hour when Cassandra had once again tied with him for wins Gaara tossed his hand back on the pile stubbornly refusing to continue with something so idiotically trivial only to get suckered into a grudge match by the little raven haired girl's continued taunting. She even gave him incentive by offering that the winner would be able to ask three requests of the person who lost. There was no way Gaara was going to let her win.

 

“You know you are way too easy when you're challenged, you kind of remind me of a stubborn little kid, so I am hoping you won't just chicken out if you end up loosing,” she said as she began to lay cards down on the pile, `Its actually kind of cute that he even pouts in his own way when he looses.'

 

Gaara just scowled and put down his card.

 

The teasing continued as the game went on, the last round seemed to drag on particularly long, no one really seemed to be winning until Cassie gleefully announced, “Last card!”

 

`No way,' Gaara still had a few more cards to go, unless he could make her pick up more he was screwed.

 

“Tee hee,” she gave an exaggerated girlish giggle as she placed her last card on top of the pile and threw her arms up in the air in victory, “I win!”

 

“I'm leaving,” he stated suddenly as he got up from the bed and headed for the window. There was no way in hell he was going to stick around after that bet. Why the hell did he agree to it anyway? She had been right when she had said that he acted childish whenever he lost at something, though he was still a beginner and Gaara loosing wasn't really that much of a surprise to Cassandra. Gaara refused to look her in the eye or give her any other sort of acknowledgement as he opened the window.

 

“Not happening,” she didn't even have to think about it, she simply reached out and grabbed the fabric of his sleeve stopping him in his tracks, “You owe me there Gaara-kun.”

 

`What the hell,' Gaara glanced back at her who returned his gaze with a stubborn smug little smile, as per usual her eyes held no fear or hate whatsoever, `Even my father hated me, my siblings never dared to contradict me or approach me, so why the hell is she acting like a baka …' He wouldn't even admit in his own mind that something about her made him want to stay even just a little longer, he couldn't explain it, but then again Gaara wasn't the most experience with emotions of any type other than anger and resentment which meant something like longing was completely out there for him.

 

With the same growl of annoyance as before Gaara sat at the edge of her bed and crossed his arms over his chest. This was Gaara's way of pretending me wasn't actually pouting like a child, he didn't even realize it himself until Cassandra so willingly pointed it out, it got on his nerves how easily she seemed to be able to read him.

 

Cassandra chuckled, `I don't get it I have known Daiki-kun for much longer yet I find it easier to talk to Gaara than anyone else, its odd, even for me.'

 

“Ok then the three favors now what will I ask,” Cassie murmured putting her hand under her chin and chewing on her lip like she always did when she was trying to think hard. Gaara noticed that the time he watched her writing music at the piano, though her pencil was normally the substitute for her lower lip, “Hm…”

 

If Gaara had eyebrows (which I find hilarious that he doesn't have in the first place) one of them would have been doing the annoyed anime twitch. He muttered, “Sometime tonight, I just want to get out of here. I don't know why I even keep coming here, stupid girl…”

 

“That's it,” Cassandra gave a loud whisper/yell as an idea finally came to her and she pointed to Gaara as she finally announced her first favor, “Say my name.”

 

“What?” The slightly perturbed red head had half been expecting for someone like Cassandra to demand something stupid and/or insane. He didn't expect such a ridiculously simple command, even he had to be slightly surprised how easy she was going on him.

 

“Well I believe to have never heard you call me by my name, not once, you always just call me girl or wench,” she crossed her arms, “I don't really care, whatever floats your boat really, but I would like you to call me by my first name at least once before I turn into an old maid.”

 

“This is stupid.”

 

“Come on Gaara you know it, I did introduce myself formally - well kind of anyway - and if you need a refresher course the name is Cassandra, though people call me Cassie if you would prefer to call me that. Take your pick, I'm waiting…”

 

“Fine,” pausing for a moment Gaara seemed to be having trouble actually forcing himself to give her even the small respect of using her name, “…Cassandra…”

 

“There now that wasn't so terrible was it,” the satisfied ebony haired teen said with a grin, “Now for your next little task you … Hm … you have to smile!”

 

Giving a no-way-on-god's-green-acre glare Cassandra gave a nervous laugh, “Ok, ok that one can wait, but it has to happen sooner or later and I charge interest so you better not put it off to long you got that Gaara-kun?”

 

“Feh.”

 

`Since I met Gaara, Daiki seems to come to mind a little less each day, I wonder…' a small smile crossed her lips, “Close your eyes.”

 

“Why,” asked Gaara suspiciously.

 

“It's the third favor,” she stated as-a-matter-of-factly, “Its not hard to do so suck it up and just shut your eyes for a minute will ya robot shinobi?”

 

Giving her one last suspicious glare Gaara decided to get it over with, “This better not be some type of stupid trick.”

 

Her smile lessoning slightly a slight tinge of doubt began to appear on Cassandra's face for the first time in a long while. (Of course Gaara couldn't see it so he was out of luck in that department) She sucked in a deep breath letting a small shy smile return to her face and decided that it was no time to chicken out. She leaned in close to him so that their noses were almost touching. Upon feeling her breath Gaara was severely tempted to open his eyes to see what the hell was going on. He could even feel her hand resting lightly on his knee since she was shorter than him and needed something to lean on so she could be eye level with him. Cassandra was sitting on her knees hesitating only for a short moment before leaning forward and giving him a soft kiss on the forehead.

 

At that moment it would have almost been possible to actually hear the gears in the stunned Kazekage's mind grind to a complete halt, kind of like a broken conveyer belt, during that time every inch of his mind was void of any thought whatsoever. His eyes had snapped open at some point while they were frozen together in that pose where even Cassandra remained unmoving for a few moments with her lips still placed close to the `Ai' symbol on his forehead.

 

`Wa… eh…neh…' Gaara's mind slowly began to start up again though he began to wonder if he was hallucinating for the obvious reason that no one had ever kissed him before so his brain was doing an extremely slow reboot.

 

Cassandra just gave her best grin and giggle as she messed up his already spiked red hair and stuck out her tongue, “Never change Gaara-kun you're way to fun to mess around with!”

 

`What just happened,' Gaara asked himself finally getting up to full speed again. His hand traveled up to the spot where Cassie had kissed him as he wondered if Temari had fed him tainted food or something, `Was that real?'

 

Gina's loud and rhythmic snoring suddenly ended with a snort and a yawn as she suddenly began to wake up, what a time too, Gaara was still half out of his mind trying to figure out what had happened to him when he heard Gina murmur tiredly, “Damn Cass why do you have your lamp on? It totally woke me up…”

 

Gina had not yet opened up her eyes so he had a few seconds to get his butt in gear and get the hell out of there before the pest of a girl made a scene (which we all know she would). For the Kazekage a few seconds was more than enough time to slip out the window again and leave no trace that he had even been there at all. Gina was none the wiser.

 

“You're snoring was keeping me up so I decided to play myself at Solitaire,” responded Cassandra dryly.

 

“I don't snore,” the blonde retorted in a defensive tone before a slight evil smile crossed her lips and she laid back in a relaxed way with her hands behind her head, “You know our parents seem to really like each other. I wouldn't be surprised if the move in was permanent, and of course if I am going to stay here in this tiny room with you it will completely need to be redecorated. Nothing much maybe a new paint job, shuffle the furniture a bit since I like my bed next to the window, and of course this nonsense about you hoarding everything in that closet will stop. Girl, I have way more cloths and nice things than you do, a dresser just isn't going to cut it you got that?”

 

Gina had to be the perfect example of a two faced bitch. As long as anybody like her father or other company was around she was the sweetest person in the world and when they left her true personality came out. It always seemed that Cassie had the grudge on Gina for no reason when it was completely the opposite. Compared to Gina's actions against her Cassandra was outright gracious to her which was not easy when every moment of Gina's time seemed to be dedicated to making her life a living hell.

 

Not even dignifying the question with a response Cassandra tucked her cards back in her bedside table, pulled her covers back over her legs and turned out her bedside lamp. She slept that night facing the wall away from Gina hoping to be able to get to sleep before her snoring started up again.

 

`What would Gaara have said if Gina had been asleep just a little bit longer…?' She wondered as sleep finally began to come to her.

 

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He sat staring at the ceiling for a long time, a long time, dawn was finally starting to turn the sky from black to pink by the time he finally sat up in his bed for a moment to try and think again.

 

[Are you planning on doing anything other than thinking of her?]

 

Gaara was not really in the mood to argue with the Shukaku so he attempted to just shrug him off and ignore him, but the raccoon demon was nothing if not persistent.

 

[Damn it, you're emotions are annoying.]

 

`W-what feeling is this anyway,' he asked hoping that maybe the Shukaku would be good for something other than getting on his nerves, `this emotion … I've never felt it before it feels so strange…'

 

[Feh I'm a demon I don't understand these feelings humans get. If it bothers you so much then go ask one of your idiot siblings, at least then you can stop thinking about it after that. How I got stuck sharing a body with you I'll never know.]

 

For once in his life the Shukaku had a point, Temari and Kankuro would be sure to know something about what was happening to him, maybe they could explain the feeling in his heart got at the moment Cassandra kissed him. Though since Gaara didn't have a lot of respect for either of his siblings it was a pretty big `maybe' for him. Plus there was the fact that they would get those smug all knowing grins on their faces that he hated. But if he wanted to find out exactly what the fuzzy feeling in his mind was about what else could he do? If he didn't find out it would just drive both him and the Shukaku insane.

 

With a groan the red head got to his feet and made his way out of his room and downstairs where both his siblings were sitting on the couch. Temari was reading one of her favourite romance novels and Kankuro was mindlessly flipping through the TV channels hoping to god that something worth watching was on. They didn't notice Gaara's presence in the room, or rather they didn't pay much attention to it since Gaara mostly kept to himself and friendly sibling greetings bounced off him like tennis balls on a brick wall. Figures, the one time it was almost painful for the young Kage to swallow his pride and ask something of them he had to get their attention too. For Gaara it was easier said than done.

 

He gave a nonchalant cough to get the attention of the two of them. His blonde sister casually looked up from her book while Kankuro didn't even bother responding. If it had been a normal interaction between Gaara and his siblings he would have simply stated his orders and went on his way but in that situation that was not really an option.

 

“I have a question for the two of you,” his voice was authoritative and strict as per usual, he really didn't know any other way to address people. Gaara, the eternal people person … no that just didn't work. He walked almost robotically over to the couch and sat himself between Kankuro and Temari with his arms crossed like he always had them and stubbornly glared at the carpet for a moment.

 

Kankuro finally took actual notice since his brother had never willingly sat on the couch with them to talk, “What is it?”

 

Gaara wasn't particularly sure how to word the question that seemed obvious and simple in his mind so he said the first thing that he though would make sense and be as painless to him as possible, “What does it mean when a person gets an odd sensation in the pit of their stomach? Almost like the sensation a person gets when falling, and their heartbeats speed up too.”

 

“You mean when a person gets butterflies in their stomach,” asked Temari who cocked a questioning eyebrow.

 

“Butterflies?” Gaara was pretty much clueless about such expressions so `butterflies in the stomach' sounded pretty odd to him.

 

“It sounds like it,” Kankuro responded, “It's a sensation people get when they are nervous, embarrassed, or even like someone. Why?”

 

“No reason,” the youngest sand sibling said quickly before getting to his feet and quickly leaving the room before anyone could say anything more about the subject.

 

Temari's eyes followed her youngest brother with the same questioning look on her face, “What do you think that was about?”

 

Kankuro simply shrugged and went back to flipping TV channels, “Who knows with Gaara.”

 

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Hehe Gaara has butterflies in his tummy! Ever wondered what it would be like if someone decided to kiss Gaara? Well his brain gets stuck that's what happens and it made that `eh' sound and everything lol!

 

Yes, I know it's a kiss on the forehead and not a lip-lock, but its cute damn it! Lol! Yes as I said before it takes a few chapters before the fluff begins to overload (which it will do eventually I guarantee that).

 

Thank you all for the reviews I love you so much!

 

Lil_Pix