Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Kindred ❯ Day Five - 8 AM ( Chapter 8 )

Disclaimer: Naruto is the brainchild of Kishimoto-sama, and I am not worthy. I merely borrow the manga's characters and situations, and make no money off of them.

AN: Thanks for the reviews ^__^

 

Day Five - 8AM

 

 

Gaara had always wondered what it was like to have a déjà-vu. He'd never been subjected to one; it seemed that being inhabited by Shukaku gave him the kind of psychological problems that scared away lesser types of mental blips.

"Come on, we don't want to be late. Put on your shoes."

"I don't want to go."

Temari had tried to explain the sensation to him, but this was the first time Gaara thought he might actually know what it felt like.

He got up and headed towards the exit to his study. He lifted the curtain just as Chiro moved to duck beneath it. Gaara stopped, but the kid didn't and barrelled right into him, despite having a whole second of reaction time available. Gaara hadn't bothered to step aside.

Chiro staggered back, eyes wide and wary. Strange how his fear seemed to come and go. Gaara had carried him yesterday; what was he looking so alarmed about now?

"Chiro." Lee was putting on his Stern expression, doubly effective on a face so mobile and so extremely serious when it wanted to be. "Gaara cannot watch over you today. You should already thank him for taking care of you yesterday. Today, we-"

Lee stopped talking and faced the door, as Gaara had; both Shinobi had heard the faint sound of footsteps up the sandy path to their house. A few seconds later, there was a polite knock.

"Were you expecting someone?" Lee asked, pulling a reluctant Chiro out of the study. "Don't worry, we'll be on our way right now. Come on, Chiro, Gaara has to work."

"It's Taidaka Minne," Gaara informed him, heading to open the door.

"No, it can't be," Lee said, hoisting up Aki one-handed as the kid tried to dive-bomb out of his arms again. "She's expecting us at her place in ten minutes, and- Minne-san?"

"Good morning, Kazekage-sama, Lee-san."

Gaara examined the woman on his doorstep with a flicker of curiosity. She didn't look much like her brother, which probably wasn't a bad thing as far as an anxious child was concerned. She was a small woman with a dark complexion and serious eyes. The set of the jaw was similar to Taidaka, perhaps.

"Minne-san? Did I misunderstand?" Lee appeared at Gaara's shoulder, radiating confusion. "I thought I had to bring the kids over at eight this morning."

Minne looked uncertainly at Gaara.

"I asked her to come and pick them up," Gaara said. "She can watch over them for a few hours. Without you."

"What?!" Lee stared at him- and Gaara felt a small grip on his sleeve.

"I don't want to go," Chiro said.

"You will." This was the first time Chiro had dared to say something like that to him, he noted. "Lee can join you this afternoon."

"Gaara-" Lee muttered, sounding a bit tense.

"I want to stay here," Chiro said to Gaara's knee.

"You can't. Neither Lee nor I can watch you this morning."

"Why?" Chiro asked, it was almost a whisper but it had faint undertones of rebellion that didn't quite dare to be outright. That was also new.

"Lee and I have been busy for several weeks now, and we'd like to have-"

"Gaara!"

Lee had gone beetroot red, while Aki complained in an agitated babble about the sudden noise next to his ear. Lee darted a mortified look at the third adult present, but Taidaka Minne was wife, daughter and sister to Shinobi, even if she wasn't one herself. She had the fixed expression of a person who could control her emotions and had too much respect for her Kazekage to judge what he was saying, or even listen unless directly addressed to her.

"...-some time to ourselves," Gaara finished as he'd intended, a bit exasperated. He'd been given the lecture by Lee, Temari and Kankuro on three separate occasions; you did not talk about your sex life in front of other people, particularly your brother (Kankuro had added that last item and insisted upon it). Gaara had respected the human taboo ever since, but just because of one candid comment he'd made in front of a few Councillors shortly after Lee had moved in, his siblings and lover still assumed the worst as soon as the subject threatened to tend in that direction.

Lee closed his eyes and said, in an overly calm voice: "Minne-san, would you please excuse us for a moment? Oh, and could you take Aki for me?"

The woman scooped Aki up in her arms without a comment. Gaara could see the Taidaka family resemblance more markedly now. Then Lee reached out and snagged Gaara's arm in much the same no-nonsense way as Minne had picked up Aki. Gaara sidestepped Chiro, freeing his sleeve from the boy's grip, and followed Lee to the study.

"Gaara." Lee jerked the curtain shut with a frazzled gesture. "Look- I - that was rather high-handed of you! And I can't believe you asked Mi-hmf!"

It appeared that Lee was cross with him. This happened on a regular basis. Lee had a great, noble and forgiving soul, but he also had a temper and a streak of stubbornness a mile thick. And he sometimes seemed to take things Gaara said or did in a rather illogical manner. In this instance, Lee's anger might be justified, but Gaara had had his reasons too, and before he got yelled at, he was going to make sure Lee knew what they were.

And it felt good to have that strong body against his own again. Lee tried to step back, but Gaara didn't let him move away, and caught him up against the wall near the curtain without breaking the rough kiss. His hands fastened on the curve of Lee's jaw; fingers tangled in silk-fine hair, making Lee stiffen and shudder. Lee's scent - soap, shampoo and sweat - caressed Gaara's senses.

"Hm-..."

Lee tried to twist his head away, mouth open to object. A tactical mistake; Gaara moulded their bodies together, grinding his hip lightly into the juncture of Lee's legs, and caught any words that might fall out of his lover's open mouth with his tongue.

He broke the kiss only when he felt sure Lee would not start talking again immediately.

"I want you," he whispered in Lee's ear, and felt the body against his quiver.

Lee's hands were on his back, sliding up to his shoulders- they jerked him back just as Gaara had assumed the discussion was over.

"Just a minute. I- I know it's been frustrating, but- but I'm still angry, damn it!"

But he didn't look half as angry as a minute ago, Gaara noted. Gaara's argument was only working because Lee really needed this. Of course, Gaara knew full well that saying 'Lee, you need this' was the best way of getting Lee to deny it angrily, and challenge himself to do without sex for another month to prove it, or something equally preposterous. Though at this point Gaara had to say something, anything, because from the way Lee was drawing himself up, he was about to launch into a major lecture, and that was rarely conducive to getting laid.

"We need this," Gaara improvised.

From the way Lee's eyes widened and the corners of his mouth drooped, it had had more effect than Gaara had anticipated.

"Gaara..."

"Please," Gaara breathed into Lee's ear, leaning in, getting their bodies close together again-

They both broke apart and turned sharply towards the entrance to the study. A second later, Chiro squirmed beneath the curtain. The boy looked startled, seeing them just on the other side, but he didn't ask any question, he merely headed at high speed towards the nook beneath the window seat.

Damn it...Gaara glanced at Lee, expecting to have all his work undone. His lover certainly looked torn, and he was keeping a foot of distance between them in a way that gave Gaara the impression that if he advanced, Lee would step back even if it meant ploughing through the wall behind him.

"I...just don't want them to end up alone. I don't want them to feel..."

"You are not going to be able to be with them day in and day out," Gaara pointed out logically. "You'll have to leave them with someone sooner or later. You said they'd be here for a few weeks, perhaps a couple of months. You may be on leave, but you cannot stop training for that length of time."

Lee's expressive eyebrows twitched, and Gaara knew he'd scored a point. Lee could control base impulses such as lust, but training? That was sacred.

"It's a bit soon to leave them with a babysitter," Lee muttered, though he sounded far from convinced. "I was hoping to find someone to watch them next week, so I could get back into shape, but today-"

"Chiro stayed with me yesterday and the day before, and he'll be a good deal safer and more nurtured at Minne's," Gaara countered.

Lee appeared lost in thought, gazing over Gaara's shoulder at Chiro. Gaara glanced that way as well. Chiro had picked up the notepad and pencil he'd left there the previous day, but he wasn't drawing. He was watching them, eyes wide and liquid with alarm, as if just seeing them whispering together frightened him. Even Gaara thought the kid looked pretty small and miserable there, and he assumed the argument was lost for good. But Lee had apparently not drawn the same conclusion.

"I think you're right," the Jounin said slowly. "Not about his safety, or the nurturing bit; I'm sure you're a great, um, a great carer." Lee was such a sweet liar. Such a bad one, too. "But I think he should go to Minne's today. Chiro?"

Lee walked up to his cousin, who huddled a bit further under the window seat. Lee had to reach under it to scoop him out.

"Chiro, Gaara's right. He and I have some things we have to do. I'd like you to go with Minne-san. Okay? I'll join you in a few hours."

Chiro took that statement like a death sentence. Lee looked at him gravely and placed a finger beneath his cousin's chin to tilt the small face up towards his own.

"I know you've been through a lot recently, but you have to be brave and face forward. You are the son of Shinobi, Chiro. You have to be strong and determined and overcome your obstacles. Can you do that for me? You'll make me very proud if you do. I'll be there as soon as I can, and we'll have a great time this afternoon. I think you'll feel better for getting out of the house and seeing people. You can even make some friends! Minne-san has two boys, and one of them is your age."

Chiro looked about as enthusiastic as a worm being pulled out of the ground by an enthusiastic blue jay. But Lee was definitely of the 'face down your fears' school, which was only considered good parenting in a Shinobi village; he wasn't going to let his cousin wallow in dread and isolation. He picked the boy up and carried him towards the front door, telling him about Courage and Youth and Spirit, and reminding him of a passage of last night's story about Gai-sensei. If this bucked Chiro up in any way, it wasn't at all visible.

Minne-san was waiting for them patiently. She was murmuring something to Aki and bouncing him up and down in her arms in a way that Gaara could have sworn would make the kid howl like a warning siren. Instead, Aki burbled and almost looked happy for a change.

Lee took a couple of minutes to give Chiro the usual instructions to respect his elders, do everything Minne said, and not leave pencil marks in her home.

"Thank you so much, Minne-san. I hope they won't be too much trouble-"

"They won't be," Minne told him firmly, reaching for Chiro's hand. She gave the boy a warm smile, and Chiro stared at her as if that wasn't what he'd expected at all. He didn't look like he trusted her fully yet, but he didn't jerk away from her touch, and he walked after her when she stepped out into the courtyard.

"Thanks," Lee repeated. "I'll be by before noon. I'm sorry, but you see, Gaa- the Kazekage and I have to work on something..."

"Of course, Lee-san," Minne said politely, with a brief look back that made Lee flush. Gaara didn't know why Lee had bothered to make that one up. Minne was married to an extremely proficient Jounin - probably the only man in the village who'd met with her brother's approval - and she could read a situation well enough even without Shinobi training. Besides, she had two children, and she must have produced them somehow; she undoubtedly knew what sex was.

Minne left, holding Chiro by the hand as she walked briskly towards the exit to the courtyard. Chiro trotted to follow, looking back several times at Lee and Gaara in what might have been a beseeching manner. Gaara ignored him. Chiro was no longer his concern for this morning. Minne would treat the boy her Kazekage had charged her to watch with utmost care. Chiro would be quite safe; it was his older cousin Gaara was concerned about.

Lee stared at the courtyard entrance even after Minne and the children were long gone. He finally closed the door with a firm shake of his head, turned towards Gaara and smiled tenderly.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, stepping up and slipping his arms around Gaara's waist. "I've not been a very good companion these days. The kids...well, I did warn you they made life complicated. But I shouldn't let them distract me from you entirely. You're my most important person, after all." His hands were gentle and soothing as they caressed Gaara's back. "I'll have to go to Minne-san's before lunch, I can't let her carry the burden of feeding the boys all by herself, but we have a few hours where I can focus on you and take care of your needs." He nuzzled Gaara's hair. "What do you want to do? Shall I-"

"Go upstairs, get undressed, lay face-down on the bed. I'll be there in a minute."

Gaara stepped away. Lee stayed where he was, empty arms still held out as he blinked in confusion. "Er...what?"

"Go upstairs, get undressed, lay face-down on the bed," Gaara repeated, since saying things twice seemed to work with Chiro. "I'll be there in a minute."

"But-but-"

"Move," Gaara chided, already halfway up the stairs.

He headed towards the bathroom to get what he needed. It took a few minutes; Lee had put a lot of the bottles and tubes and wipes away, and had shoved their original possessions all the way to the back.

When Gaara opened the door to the bedroom, Lee had partly complied and gotten as far as his underwear. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, his green suit in his hands and a bewildered look on his face.

"Gaara, what's-....huh..."

Lee's mouth stayed open, his round eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up. Gaara had taken the time in the bathroom to strip.

It appeared that Lee had forgotten what he was about to say. Gaara put the bottle down on the bedside table, pushed his stunned lover back onto the bed and crawled on top of him. Lee didn't blink or stop staring until Gaara pressed their bodies together and kissed him.

Gaara applied himself to getting as much skin contact as he could, licking Lee's mouth and slipping his tongue past Lee's teeth. He wished he was better at this. Lee could do the most amazing things to Gaara's body. Gaara tried to return the favour, but at the back of his mind he was aware that he didn't fully grasp how these things worked. It made him cautious about innovating, because he couldn't tell ahead of time what might arouse, or what might turn Lee off or even hurt him. He stuck to imitating Lee most of the time, and that was safe enough. Lee certainly didn't seem to mind; when Gaara pulled back, the big black eyes were still wide, but there was a nice flush on his cheeks, and his arms had wrapped around Gaara's shoulders to keep him close.

"You...you're a pain in the ass when you're trying to get your way," Lee said, but there was no anger in his expression now. Apparently Gaara had been forgiven for whatever he'd done wrong this time.

Lee's strong arms were pulling him down, but Gaara had another aim in mind. He freed himself, straightened up onto his knees and tapped Lee on the thigh.

"Strip and lay down on your stomach."

Lee looked curious, but he didn't ask any questions; he smiled good-humouredly instead and rolled over, moving fully onto the bed, his body lithe and powerful as he stretched out. The early-morning sun fell through the shutters and striped his body like a tiger's. Gaara thought he caught a murmur of 'kinda short foreplay' muffled into the sheets as Lee slid out of his underwear. Then Lee, propped up on his forearms, looked over his shoulder at his lover with an expression Gaara needed no effort to decipher. That expression changed when he saw the bottle that Gaara had picked up.

"No, Gaara, you don't have to do that, I'm fine, I-"

"Lie flat," Gaara murmured, uncapping the oil.

For a split second, Lee looked about to argue. Then his lips twisted into a tired grin.

"I've been completely out-manoeuvred, haven't I."

"Yes."

"Well, as long as that's understood..." Lee sighed and stretched out flat. He was nearing the end of his tether. Too many decisions and responsibilities, and not enough rest after his trip back from Konoha at inhuman speeds, ripping open micro-wounds in his muscles he'd always have as long as he used the Lotus to fight. Yes, it was high time Gaara took this in hand.

Gaara poured the oil direct from the bottle. It landed in graceful loops and arcs along Lee's back. A slight shiver twitched the bronzed skin, but the room was already warm with the promise of a hot desert day to come, and Lee smiled at the cool sensation.

Gaara spread more on his hands while he watched the squiggles slowly slide down Lee's skin, then break into droplets as his body warmed the oil. The drops rushed over the valleys and ridges of muscles and scars, licking their way from Lee's shoulders to the small of his back. It was all rather distracting, but Gaara had a job to do. He called his wandering thoughts to order, loosened his fingers with a few business-like flicks and set to work.

Years ago, when his lover had moved in with him, Gaara hadn't known what living with Lee would entail. He'd thought it would be nothing more than cohabitating and being able to screw more conveniently. He'd never realized just how much effect it would have on him. For the better, of course, but it had still been disturbing and new and a bit daunting for a creature such as himself, when he realized how thoroughly Lee was going to move into his life and change it.

But one advantage was that Gaara was in a position to take better care of this important person. Because Lee sure didn't; he showed some respect towards the weapon that was his body, but he pushed himself too far all the time. The very nature of his special attack, the Lotus, implied muscle damage on a regular basis. His friend Haruno teased him by insisting that the two villages should develop a brand new field of medicine for his sole benefit; Gaara failed to appreciate the joke.

Gaara didn't know how a normal human would have dealt with this situation. Temari had implied that she'd have nagged Lee to take better care of himself, and then bitched at him until he went to the therapist when he failed. Gaara, not used to depending on others, had taken the charge onto himself. It might also have something to do with his natural and in-depth paranoia. He didn't like the thought of someone working on Lee's back and maybe sticking a knife into it. So when faced with Lee's regular aches and pains and occasional damage, Gaara had borrowed some books from the clinic's library, traumatized a few medi-nin specialized in Taijutsu injuries by interrogating them on their profession, and learned how to give one hell of a good massage (as Lee had informed him on more than one occasion). The fact that they both enjoyed it was incidental, but a nice bonus.

Gaara smoothed the dribbles of oil around Lee's back and felt the skin beneath his fingertips shiver with pleasure. The Kazekage's lips twitched into a smile, one that Lee was the only person to ever see. His lover's skin felt warm beneath his hands, muscles defined without being bulky. Lee's frame was solid and powerful, built for strength and super-human speed. One look at his body and you could feel the might coiled there like a spring. And that was only the topmost layer of sand in the dune, as the Suna saying went. Lee's real power resided in his determination, in his strength of will, and in the ability to send chakra crashing through that well-balanced frame, turning it into a weapon that could give even Gaara of the Desert a hard time. Gaara felt a shiver rush down his own skin and coil up in his loins, but now was not the time for that. Later, hopefully, if Lee wasn't too worn out. But right now, Gaara had to take care of this man who meant so much to him.

He started with the shoulders and dorsals. Lee made a noise of pleasure deep inside his throat, though Gaara's fingers were digging hard into his back. Gaara had learned that he needed to apply considerable pressure to get anywhere at all with the steel hawsers that masqueraded as muscles and tendons in Lee's highly-trained body. Gaara took his time; he screwed his thumbs into the dips between each muscle, massaging the fibres hard enough to badly bruise an ordinary person. Lee just sighed with relief, and slowly his body started to unwind beneath his lover's touch. All this would get more blood flowing through the tissues and accelerate the healing process. Satisfied, Gaara finally left the shoulders and back and descended to Lee's legs.

His fingers traced the scars he'd put on that beautiful body years ago. His thumb pressed into the jagged triangle where Lee's femur had broken skin after Gaara had shattered his left leg. Gaara felt no remorse regarding those injuries. He didn't think he could feel guilt like normal humans did; Gaara only felt the need to balance the scale, as if settling an account. He'd caused Lee a serious injury. When Lee was unable to fight Kimimaro because of it, Gaara had fought in his stead and saved Lee's life. The debt had been paid. When he'd next seen Lee, he'd not felt that he'd owed him anything, though he'd expected nothing but mistrust from the Leaf Jounin anyway. That was the way of the world.

But as it turned out, Lee had born him no grudge from the start…and it wasn't mistrust he'd shown Gaara when they'd next met…

There was no guilt as Gaara kneaded the muscles beneath those scars, no, but he did feel something. Like a breath of panic at the thought that in his madness, he'd nearly robbed himself of something so precious.

Lee's eyes had closed, there was a peaceful look on his face and his body had loosened. Gaara felt tempted to leave him like that, but there was more to do. He moved to Lee's side and gently rolled his lover over. Lee blinked but didn't say anything. He watched as Gaara massaged the front of his legs, his arms, the tight muscles in his chest and belly.

Gaara wiped his hands on his own thighs, leaving streaks of oil. Lee's eyes widened, following that movement as if entranced. Then Gaara slowly reached up, fingers barely brushing the scarred skin until he'd reached Lee's face. He rubbed the temples and the cords of the neck, then threaded his fingers through the silky black hair, gently massaging the scalp, fingernails barely scratching.

Lee's face went a pretty pink, partly excitement and partly a bit of embarrassment. Gaara had found that this aroused his lover entirely by accident, but he was glad to know it; he could never figure out why Lee thought it was embarrassing to be sexually stimulated by fingers running over his neck and through his hair. If someone wrote a book on the ins and outs of normal human behaviour, Gaara would be infinitely grateful and would read all thirty volumes of it assiduously.

Gaara could feel Lee's erection warm and hard beneath his thigh as he leaned against his lover. The proximity and the intimacy had aroused Gaara as well. Lee tensed, rubbed his body against Gaara's slowly, very slowly as if tantalizing them both by holding back as much as he could. Fingers caressed Gaara's cheek, the curve of his ear, slipped through his hair, gripped his skull and pulled him down into a long deep kiss.

When his mouth was released, Gaara could feel the breath flowing in and out of his lungs, fast and deep; it felt like it was washing out some of the darkness within him. Lee's hands caressed his shoulders, his back, down to his ass and thighs; the touch left trails of light and sensation in its wake. Shivers of pleasure, sparkles of energy.

An arm slipped around his waist, keeping him clasped to Lee's body, and the Jounin shifted beneath his lover's weight, reaching out to the right side of the bed.

"Don't move," Gaara ordered.

"Hm? I was just going to get the lube-"

"I'll get it. Stay still."

Lee settled down again, smiling good-naturedly while Gaara moved off of him, crawled over to the bedside table and opened the drawer.

At the same time his fingers fastened on the jar, he heard something. His eyes narrowed, and outside the bedroom door the Sand surged in its container like the tail of a cat lashing in annoyance as it picked up his mood. Somebody had scuffed the courtyard sand right outside the front door. Damn it...

He waited, but there was no knock. Might have been his aide, or one of the Councillors. They'd have been intercepted by his bodyguards. Not the extra men that Taidaka had posted, but the discreet circle of protection that had guarded his house for years, and allowed him to let down his defences and indulge in such moments of pleasure. They knew that when the bedroom shutters were shut, their Kazekage did not want to be disturbed. They would run interference and head off anybody who didn't have a truly urgent need to see him.

Lee lifted his head to see what Gaara was doing. Before he could ask a question, Gaara had his hands on him again. Lee blinked as he found himself gently but firmly rolled over onto his side, his legs bent at hips and knee and pushed forward. He didn't object, though. Gaara sat there behind him for a few seconds, looking down at him and enjoying the familiar rush that was beginning to run up and down his spine. Then he reached for the lube.

Gaara was the passive partner when they had sex, as a rule. He let Lee choose positions and such; Lee was the one who had all the ideas and the predilections, and all the determination and enthusiasm that characterized him, whether he was the one taking Gaara or vice versa. Gaara had little to no sex drive if it didn't involve Lee, and he had no preferences. Top or bottom meant little to him; his needs went deeper than that. But this time he would make the choice. The Jounin had been dropped into an unusual situation and put under stress for days, and Gaara thought that Lee wouldn't mind if he was spared having to make yet another decision this morning. Gaara would take it out of his hands and make sure his lover relaxed. From the way Lee let Gaara handle him and only blinked in sleepy pleasure, Gaara thought he'd made the right call.

Lee breathed in deeply as Gaara's fingers slipped into him. He arched, and reached back towards Gaara, fingers blindly beckoning. Gaara edged closer and leaned down to rub his face against Lee's shoulder, still slick with massage oil. This was good. This was the moment when words started to mean less, and their bodies started communicating at a deeper level, a synergy they otherwise found only side by side in battle.

He caught Lee's fingers in his mouth, then licked his way down the palm to the sensitive place near the inner elbow. Lee's skin was warm; it tasted of salt, massage oil and the faintly chemical flavour of the bands he'd wrapped his arms in earlier. The taste was familiar and arousing as it lingered on Gaara's tongue. But he used his free hand to gently push Lee's arm down again, against the sheets and out of Gaara's immediate reach, not wanting Lee to move around and get excitable and athletic again. Lee could be highly arousing when he was fucking himself on Gaara's fingers, but that was not what Gaara had in mind today. It didn't look like it was on Lee's mind either. His eyes were half-closed, almost glazed with pleasure, and the rapid rise and fall of his chest was the only movement Gaara was going to allow him.

"I'm ready," Lee whispered, and the slight buck of his hips said as much too, but Gaara put his free palm on Lee's thigh, stilling the movement, and took a few more minutes to make sure, fingers stretching Lee's anal muscles and testing their elasticity, as well as caressing and rubbing and titillating the nerve endings some more. Lee liked it hard and right away, but not today. When he was sure his lover was quite ready - and getting ever so slightly impatient, as well as massively hot and bothered - Gaara reached for the jar again, scooping up some more lube to spread on his penis. He lay down on his side behind his lover, nudging one of Lee's legs up a little and supporting it with his own. Front to back, with Lee not having to move a muscle...good. Gaara stayed propped up on one elbow, though, so he could keep his eyes on Lee's profile delineated against the sheets.

At the very limit of his perception, Gaara was aware that the person who'd been at the door hadn't actually left and was waiting. For all they mattered right now, they could be waiting on the other side of the universe and for the rest of forever.

Lee's eyelids flickered and his lips parted as he was penetrated. His fingers twitched as if they wanted to grab hold of something. His breathing hitched and his hair spilled across the sheets, black against white. Gaara drank it all in, feeling the excitement start to burn in his soul as much as the pleasure pulsed in his body.

He eased in another inch, and put the palm of his hand on Lee's thigh, stilling an incipient jerk back into his movement. Gaara wanted to do all the work today, and give Lee nothing but pleasure.

The pleasure - the purely organic one - clawed at Gaara too, pressed around his cock, curled in the small of his back, traced shivers up his spine as he pulled out and plunged in again, a bit deeper. Gaara paid it only scant heed. Lee's tongue had darted over his lips and that took up all of Gaara's attention.

His fingers caressed the solid frame, wonderfully relaxed for once; the shoulders, the ribs, the bronze skin of Lee's stomach...His thumb drifted up the line of Lee's sternum, curved around nipples like two gold coins, pinched, caressed, rubbed...He wanted to touch everything. He wanted to slide into Lee's skin. Ease in, meld and never be parted. Stronger than any who would harm them. Gaara slipped an arm around Lee's waist and pressed them close together, inexorably finishing the last thrust into his lover without pause. Lee gasped and shuddered with pleasure and the hot flesh pulsed and tightened around Gaara's sex as if Lee never wanted to let him go either.

Gaara caressed Lee's arm and covered the strong hand with his own. Fingers folded over fingers.

"Hmmm. Move," Lee whispered, the words trickling from his mouth with barely a movement of the lips.

Gaara moved, eyes fixed on his lover, absorbing every little sign and letting them burn in his mind and senses. Lee never wore a mask around him, but more than that, he understood, he understood Gaara, he knew what his lover needed.

Gaara had tried to masturbate once, nearly two years ago. The memory brushed him distantly as the squeeze and release around his cock reminded him of his own fingers fumbling. Lee had been gone for over three months on a complicated mission in Fire Country. Gaara had kept busy, but during the quiet moments and sleepless nights he'd missed Lee like a phantom limb. Too long, they'd been together too long; a weakness, whispered the part of Gaara that was of the desert, of blood, murder and monsters. He'd grown too used to the Jounin's presence, to his friendship, to his body. Gaara had tried touching himself, some shallow comfort in Lee's absence, but perhaps a part of him had wanted to know if he could do without his lover, satisfy himself, suffice to himself as he had for years, loving only himself...

It had been frustrating and pointless; even imagining Lee there, Gaara had been unable to get off. He wasn't human enough; simply pumping up and down on a part of his body and hitting a few pleasure spots was not enough for him. It wasn't what he needed.

This was what he needed.

Lee threw his head back as Gaara ground into him harder, again and again and again. Mouth open, eyes blind, fingers clenched and a small moan trickling past his lips. This was what Gaara needed; to see this. To get this close to another human and share something. To feel his lover react to him and see his existence reflected in every one of Lee's movements and groans of pleasure.

He thrust in and out fully now without restrictions. His hand brushed a path along Lee's body, up his shoulder, over his jaw. He tilted Lee's head around so he could get a better view of his flushed face. He rocked forward and dropped a kiss on the parted lips, breath brushing his mouth quick and warm, and then he leaned back again because he wanted to watch.

"Ah-..." The blush was spreading down Lee's neck and putting a kiss of pink on his nose. Gaara felt that smile twist his lips again. This...this moment was one of those that could justify an existence.

Lee's hips were twitching into Gaara's movements, but nothing as powerful as the way Lee usually rammed himself backwards in these circumstances. His Lee was normally a very physical lover, but he was indulging Gaara's silent request and letting him do what he wanted. It was a powerful feeling; Gaara's hand caressed the shivering, tensing muscles of Lee's thigh like a reward. The two lovers were breathing hard, the creaks of the bed and the small noises Lee made a counterpoint. Lee was starting to shudder every time Gaara thrust in.

Without breaking their steady coupling, Gaara's hand touched the muscles of Lee's belly, slid down to cup the warmth of a very ready erection. His fingers lingered feather-light over wiry black hair, wrinkled skin, the veins and pulsing heat of Lee's cock, the slickness at the tip. His hand was still oily from the massage and the lube, it helped keep his motions smooth and steady as he squeezed and pressed. Lee groaned, a short, low noise deep in his throat. His eyes were screwed shut. Gaara stared at him, taking in every movement, every twitch, every proof that Lee was feeling him deep inside and that this gave him so much pleasure-

"Ah!"

Lee threw back his head against the sheet, tensed- his face tightened, but only for a moment. The cock in Gaara's hand pulsed, slick heat spilled over his fingers.

Lee's eyes were still closed as his hips moved in time with his lover's hand. The expression on his face...he looked like he was floating. As if the world had let him drift free, just for a moment...

His face was all Gaara could see. Ripples of pleasure, hard, almost painful around his cock, up his spine, tightening the spring in his loins- the air pounding in his lungs was rich with Lee's heat- Lee-

Gaara slid his hand down Lee's arm again. He jerked helplessly as the climax rushed through him- fingers grasped his, squeezed. He gasped- pressed hard into the warm back, buried his nose in Lee's shoulder, and joined him in that moment...

Lee was breathing slow and deep. It caused the muscles in his back to tighten away from Gaara's chest, letting a mean little breath of cool air slip into the gap, before the next inhale brought them back into contact again. Gaara slid his arm around Lee's waist and pulled them more tightly together; his other arm had ended up beneath his body and was complaining about this mildly, but Gaara was in his happy place now and really couldn't be bothered with anything physical.

What I said earlier wasn't entirely untrue, he thought. He needed this, but so did I.

Lee made a happy little mumbling noise. Gaara lifted his head just enough to see a slice of Lee's profile, the eyes heavy with sleep and released tension, the flush on his face fading.

Gaara kissed the nape of the strong neck and whispered those stupidly short words, no more than a handful of letters between them. He'd learned to say them a couple of years back, they pleased Lee so much, but Gaara was still not human enough to fully understand them, since he totally failed to see how something so short and simple could ever convey the pleasure, the pain, the worry, the joy, the light and the darkness, the closeness and the differences that Lee had brought into his life.

"Hmmm, I love you too," Lee murmured with a sleepy smile, eyes already closed.

"Rest now," Gaara whispered, leaning back just enough to let his limp sex slip out of his lover, then closing the distance between them again. He grabbed a bit of sheet, jerking it out from under the mattress and messing up the bedding. Lee was half asleep by the time Gaara had swiped up the spills.

Gaara watched him drift off. It was not even ten o'clock yet. Lee would have a couple of hours to sleep before he'd have to go to Minne's and take care of his duties. Gaara was half-tempted to let Lee sleep the rest of the day and not wake him up at noon, but that would leave Lee angry with him all over again, and it would injure Lee's sense of responsibilities.

The next two hours would ideally be spent right where he was, wrapped up in his lover, watching dreams chase each other across Lee's expressive face, listening to the gentle breathing, the steady heart beat, and basking in the warmth of Lee's body. Gaara would have liked nothing better. But he hadn't felt the person at the door leave. He might have been too distracted, but then again, maybe they were still waiting and it was a fairly urgent matter after all. He would have a hard time resting if he didn't check first. Duty called.

Gaara got up, remembered to slip on his yukata, and headed out as silently as an elite Shinobi could. Though from the way Lee had just started to snore softly, Gaara could have donned chain mail and stomped out of the room and it wouldn't have made a difference. Lee was an amazingly heavy sleeper for a ninja.

He hauled the gourd up by the strap to swing from his shoulder, and descended the stairs. He could hear a voice outside. Gaara went to the front door and opened it silently. His aura was hidden as always, but the man sitting on the ground in the courtyard still shot to his feet and spun around. He wouldn't be much of a bodyguard if Gaara could catch his back that easily.

It was one of his regular shadows, the four ANBU whose presence at the outskirts of his perceptions had become familiar over the years. What was much more unusual was to get a glimpse of the man's face, especially with that chagrined expression on it. Chiro was sitting at his feet on the sandy ground of the courtyard, holding and examining the mask that should have been covering the ANBU's mortified face.

“Um- Kazekage-sama, I apologize-“ The man looked torn between saluting and tearing the mask away from the child.

“What's he doing here?” Gaara asked, cutting to the chase.

Chiro looked up at the sound of Gaara's voice. He jumped to his feet, fitted the mask onto his face and trotted over to the Kazekage a bit haphazardly. The mask was too big, he couldn't match both eyes to the holes, which were nothing but fine slits anyway. It took practice and a sense of chakra to be able to move and fight with the mask on, but Chiro seemed to be game to try. He stopped right in front of Gaara and looked up at him through the mask.

Gaara gave the ANBU the kind of heavy look that requested an immediate explanation. Then he tempered it a bit, since it appeared his subordinate was on the cusp of succumbing to utter humiliation as it were. Gaara reached down, took the mask away from Chiro and tossed it to its owner, who gratefully caught it and put it on. Chiro looked at the mask regretfully, the ghost of a pout on his features, but he didn't say anything.

“Ah, Taidaka-san brought him back. She wanted to drop him off with Lee-san, but I informed her you were not to be disturbed,” the guard said. “Apparently the kid- Chiro- um, she was worried. He was just sitting in a corner, refused to speak or move, he looked really very upset. He...seems better now."

There was strangled embarrassment in the ANBU's voice, since both men were looking down at the object of the discussion who'd wandered back over to him and was staring up at the mask hopefully. He was quite a far way away from upset.

"She wanted to talk to Lee-san- apologize- but she had to go back, a neighbour was watching the other children for her. I said I'd bring you Chiro as soon as you were fini- available. Ah, I apologize about the mask, sir, but it was distressing him. I- he was a lot calmer after I took it off.”

Of course the mask would frighten him. The cold blank surface was meant to spark fear in the heart of the hunted, and Chiro thought he was on the ANBU's hit list as it were. Gaara didn't mind having his bodyguard take the mask off if that stopped the boy from getting hysterical. The courtyard was safe, the man had been aware of his surroundings, and Chiro wasn't in any position to recognize the ANBU's identity or compromise Suna's security with that information.

What worried Gaara was something more intangible. The mask had frightened Chiro. But when the guard had removed it, Chiro had taken it from him and put it on…

Chiro turned around slowly as he felt Gaara's gaze. He looked a bit apprehensive, but when Gaara stood aside and motioned towards the door, he trotted past him, heading towards the study.

Gaara nodded, both thanks and dismissal, and his bodyguard disappeared in a relieved puff of air. The Kazekage walked through the reception room to his den, where he wasn't surprised to find Chiro ensconced beneath the window seat. Chiro was looking around slowly. If he was searching for his pencil and pad, he must have left them at Minne's. Stupid kid, Gaara thought, but the reflection was only tired and resigned. He dropped the gourd off in a corner and went to sit down at his desk.

"Chiro."

The boy glanced up, huddling a bit and examining Gaara as if to determine how cross he was.

"What happened?"

Chiro stared at him blankly, but if he thought that was going to get him out of answering the question...Gaara stared right back without blinking until Chiro finally winced and looked away. The boy got to his feet and walked over to the desk until he could slouch against its side, staring at the floor.

"What happened?" Gaara repeated.

Chiro stuck his fingers in his mouth and proceeded to look like a whipped puppy. That had zero effect on the Kazekage.

"Boy, you stayed with me for two days. You had considerably more reasons to be frightened then. What. Happened."

Chiro cringed and mumbled something. Gaara only caught the word 'blame'.

"Minne took you in. She came to pick you up earlier and she was nice to you. Why do you think she'd blame you?"

That closed-off look was hovering in Chiro's eyes. Gaara felt as if something slender was slipping through his fingers. He resisted the urge to petrify the child with a deadly unblinking stare that would wring the reason out of him. Chiro hadn't looked happy going away with Minne's, but neither had he seemed all that freaked out. What could have happened at Minne's to-

"You met her children," Gaara said, with sudden understanding.

He waited until Chiro nodded.

"You thought they would treat you like the ones in Konoha."

Chiro nodded again almost immediately. Gaara had reached him in the gathering silence before it could fully form around Chiro again.

"They don't know about your father," Gaara said bluntly, ignoring the boy's flinch. "You have no reason to be worried about them."

"They'll know," Chiro whispered, his voice barely audible.

"How would they? Even Minne doesn't know."

That earned him a blank look. Chiro and logical deduction were still only nodding acquaintances.

After a long minute during which it appeared that Chiro was trying to figure it out, the boy concluded: "Somebody would tell them."

"Who?" was the implacable question, but Chiro had an answer ready.

"The man with the mask."

Gaara frowned. "The one who watched you outside the door just now?"

"No." Chiro's face suddenly lit up a bit. "He was nice. Can I play with him again?"

"No. He's got work to do. You mean the man in the mask who stopped you the other day, when you ran away."

"I didn't run away," Chiro said, staring at Gaara's knee.

"What were you doing?"

"...Don't know..."

"How could you not know?"

Chiro gave him that big-eyed, bewildered look that finally convinced Gaara that children before the age of six would be incapable of rational thought - and impulse control - if their very lives depended on it.

"What did the man say?" Gaara asked. Chiro must mean Taidaka. His presence would be more than enough to scare a child. He was enough to scare most adults.

Chiro was silent, but this time it wasn't the silence of an obdurate brat. It was the silence that lived inside Chiro's head, the one that both protected him and isolated him from the outside world. Taidaka had probably asked him about his father. That'd be a subject Chiro would have a hard time broaching for quite some time.

"Chiro," Gaara said, in the hard, measured monotone with which he ordered men into battle, "that man would not have told those children anything. He works for me. He follows my orders, and I have ordered him to say nothing."

Chiro blinked and looked Gaara full in the face for the first time since the conversation started. Gaara decided not to mention that 'the man' was the children's uncle. That'd just confuse the issue at this point. Even if they'd been his sons instead of his nephews, Taidaka would not have divulged information his Kazekage had asked him to keep secret.

"The children in Konoha might have learned the facts from their parents, but we're in Suna. We're hundreds of miles away from those people. The children here don't know anything about you. You have no need to be afraid of Minne's boys."

"I wasn't afraid of them," Chiro said with a frown. "One of them is smaller than me. And the other one has glasses."

Gaara tried to fit this into some kind of logic and failed. "If you're not afraid of them, then you'll go back to Minne's tomorrow, and you'll behave." Gaara decided he could stand watching the boy for another afternoon; his workload had returned to normal and he could make up for lost time at night.

"...I don't want them saying things."

"Saying what? I told you they won't know."

Chiro looked unconvinced.

Gaara rested his chin on his fist and examined the boy. "Don't you want to play with those children? Make friends?" he couldn't help but ask. Gaara would have killed to have friends when he'd been Chiro's age. Killed being the operative term, unfortunately.

Chiro shook his head, though Gaara thought there had been a second of hesitation.

This was a problem. Lee and Gaara would not be able to watch him continuously. They had to work, train, go on missions- they both had busy schedules that would not accommodate a child trailing after them. Besides, Gaara had the feeling Lee had been right earlier. Having the kid stay under the window seat for weeks was not a solution.

"Those children won't bother you," Gaara said, inspiration stirring, "because you are under my protection."

Chiro looked up quickly.

"I'm the Kazekage. In Suna, I'm as important as your Hokage, and you are my guest. That protects you."

"...Really?"

"Yes," Gaara answered, hoping this was true. He wasn't really sure how children would behave, really. Chiro had taught him that logic was not always their strong suit. He remembered the children he'd interacted with when he was young. They were probably right to fear him, in retrospect, but in that case they should have either toadied up to him, or else given him a very wide berth. Ignoring him while he was only a few feet away, or calling him a monster to his face, or telling him to stay away, even throwing rocks at him on one lamentable - and never thereafter repeated - occasion...Kids didn't seem to have good risk assessment faculties.

He wasn't sure what the village children thought of him now. Was he their bogeyman, like he was in Konoha? Or did they hold him in the same wary respect as their parents did? Was he the Kazekage in their eyes, or was he Gaara of the Desert?

But Chiro didn't need his uncertainties. The boy needed his protection. The protection of the scariest monster in the village, so much more dangerous than those kids at Minne's...Gaara still didn't get that part, but he thought it must make sense in Chiro's head, the same way justifying his existence by snuffing out others had once made sense in Gaara's.

"The people in this village respect me and obey my orders," Gaara said slowly, an idea taking shape, half-formed in the darkness that Chiro partly shared. "And they're afraid of me. You know that."

Chiro nodded promptly.

"So if you tell those children that you have my protection, do you think they'll dare bother you?"

This was definitely not the tack that Lee would choose, Gaara was sure. So much for being a 'good carer'. But Gaara knew fear, and he knew power, and he knew how to get people to leave him alone. If that was what Chiro wanted.

"What about if they tell the ANBU where to find me?" Chiro said, and there was a hint of challenge in his voice. This pleased Gaara for some reason.

"The ANBU are not hunting you down," he stated, but then his eyes narrowed and he added, "and they're afraid of me too."

That seemed to impress Chiro no end. He grasped the edge of the desk with his fingers and inched close, the look on his face open and completely trustful. Strange kid...

"I was created to be Suna's greatest weapon. The other villages are afraid of me." They certainly slapped quite a few travel restrictions on him when he visited other countries. "The people of Konoha respect me, and some of them are my friends, but they still fear me. Lee is the only exception, and he lives here with me." And Naruto, but he didn't count. Even someone as misinformed and traumatized as Chiro was not about to believe that Naruto was capable of hunting down and killing a four-year-old.

"So if I tell them that you protect me, they'll leave me alone?" Chiro asked.

"Minne's boys? Yes. But if you don't say anything and just be nice, they'll let you play with them instead," Gaara found himself saying.

Chiro looked at him dubiously.

Gaara hesitated, a rare event. Why was he doing this? For Lee? For this kid who'd brought Gaara nightmares and bad memories and a faint hint of fellow feeling? For the memory of a desperately lonely young monster...? He'd never wanted to interact with the children. They were Lee's responsibility, and Gaara would have helped him with that as much as he could, the way Lee helped him, but Gaara had rationally assumed the best way he could help was to stay well the hell away and avoid hurting them or scaring them. But Chiro just didn't seem to follow the plan.

That didn't mean that Gaara should interact with him now, of course. Chiro's best hope was to get over his trauma and return to normal, and Gaara had never really grasped what that was. He'd do more harm than good. Gaara's nature was cautious, geared to reacting to what hurt him and not reaching out to others. Unlike Lee. 'It's better to act and get it wrong than never act at all!' his lover always declared, and if he'd not had that motto, he'd never have dared to kiss Gaara in the first place, with the elements crashing around them and madness screaming through the air...

"Tell you what," Gaara said slowly. "Give Minne's boys a chance. Play with them. They'll rag you a bit, but that's to be expected." Shinobi raised wolves, not lambs, and a certain amount of rough play and testing was always going on at all age. "I think that if you let them, they'll be your friends. But if they're not, if they try to blame you for what your father did, then show them this."

In the far corner, the cork popped out of the gourd. Chiro's eyes went wider than soup plates as a veil of sand wound its lazy way across the room and into Gaara's palm. The boy didn't run away or freak out though. Maybe Gaara should be worried about that, but instead he felt a distant flicker of approval. The kid had strong fears, but he wasn't a coward for all that.

The small pack of Sand curled, compacted and solidified in his hand into a gourd smaller than half of Chiro's palm. Gaara held it out, and Chiro took it from his hand without any hesitation, eyes still wide.

"If they harass you, show them that, and tell them that you are under the protection of Gaara of the Desert. They might not be your friends after that, but they won't dare hurt you either."

Chiro stared at the miniature container in awed silence. Gaara fished around his desk drawers, then went to look near the weapon rack. He found a leather cord binding a few shuriken together. He stuck the metal blades into the wood of the rack and knotted the cord around the bend of the gourd. He hung it around Chiro's neck, under the t-shirt.

"Now you can go to Minne's tomorrow," Gaara told him.

Chiro glanced up at him quickly, but there must have been something about Gaara's demeanour that informed him that 'I don't want to' would be a very bad option at this point, so he nodded and felt at the Sand beneath his top.

"Good." Gaara picked up an empty scroll and a charcoal pencil and motioned towards the window seat. Chiro obediently took the drawing materials from him and went to amuse himself, occasionally drawing out the gourd and examining it. Gaara unfurled a letter he was writing to Tsunade and set to work, though at the back of his mind, he was trying to figure out what he was going to tell Lee tonight when the Jounin undressed his small cousin to give him his daily wash and saw what hung around his neck.

 

 

TBC...