Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Midnight Passing ❯ Challenge 3 ( Chapter 3 )

Title: Midnight Passings

Author: scottishfae

Fandom: Naruto

Pairing: GaaraSasori

Challenge #: 3

Rating: M

Summary: Every person passes through another's life leaving behind a distinct fingerprint that molds them into who they will eventually become (series of oneshots/drabbles) Yaoi,Shonen-Ai

 

A series of One-Shots according to the 20Loves Challenge. Each one-shot is mildly related to each other by one repeating character or another.

 

All Normal Disclaimers Apply

 

 

 

Sorry for the delay, this had to be the hardest thing for me to write thus far. I don't know Sasori's characterization as well as I would like, since I'm using him as a main character. Also, though I knew the situation I wanted to happen, I'm not that familiar with it and it's very difficult to write about something you don't know about. So if this one-shot completely sucks, I'm sorry.

 

With that said, I would like to dedicate this one-shot (sorry it sucks!) to Nathanaelle (on FFN) who has been extremely supportive of this whole series and left wonderful reviews. It's for people like you that I write these for (as well as myself) and I just want to say thanks.

 

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Gaara had been enamored with him since the first day he arrived at Suna High.

 

The red-haired punk, the only child of two famous stage actors, waltzed two hours late into the upper crust public school after spending over tens years at one of the most elite academies in the nation, Akatsuki, before being kicked out for ill-behavior.

 

The two had become friends because of their shared distaste of people and the mainstream behavior of the "rich and famous". Both redheaded teens exuded contempt for the people around them and went out of their way to separate themselves from those that they abhorred.

 

Gaara had no friends before Sasori, preferring a solitary life than a false one that being the youngest son of the Mayor provided. Gaara's mother had died during childbirth, a fact that both his father and two elder siblings held against him. Because of this, Gaara had been separated from the rest of his family in their large mansion, and held little contact with them on a daily basis. However, Sasori seemed to spend even less time with his family.

 

It was the older of the two redheads, Sasori, who had first introduced Gaara into “the ways of the world”. The two teens had gone to a party hosted by a former classmate of Sasori's. Deidara, a “friend” that studied by Sasori's side in the arts program at Akatsuki, had taken up residence in a large loft in the inner city and had invited Sasori and Gaara to come visit. Gaara, who was by all means a sheltered youth, was surprised when he walked into the large apartment. It was an explosion of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, without the rock and roll part.

 

Classical music and modern art had combined with alcohol and various drugs to produce a veritable orgy for anyone encapsulated in the scene. They had barely walked into the room when the door was shut behind them and two buxom young women swept them away into the haze.

 

Neither youth remembered a lot about that night, or any of the parties that Deidara held thereafter. Sasori, a long time pro of the drug scene, introduced Gaara to as much as he dared. The younger redhead couldn't help but notice that the hardcore stuff was kept from him, with Sasori's angry advice to never touch anything beyond.

 

Gaara hadn't realized it then, but Sasori was already on a collision course with his own end, something that the troubled youth was more or less aware of. That didn't stop him, one night on one of his worse LSD trips, to confess his affections towards Gaara. The confession was made when Sasori was sure that the invisible spiders were about to eat him whole and the more sober of the two decided it was just something said during the moment.

 

The next day, when Gaara woke up to his friend curled up in his lap, he couldn't help the overwhelming emotions of his own attraction towards the teen. He brought a pale hand to trace the contours of the other's face. His heart raced when Sasori sought out the warmth his hand provided. It was the beginning of what ended up in a strange, and yet destructive relationship.

 

Every party, every emotional high, brought the two together a little more until they consummated their growing relationship one night. They awoke the next morning in Deidara's bed, both in a lot of pain. It was in those early morning hours that Gaara first saw the damage Sasori's lifestyle was doing to him. He stayed silent, respecting the other teen, and his own privacy.

 

His silence couldn't continue forever, however. The longer the two dated, the longer he noticed how the teen's body was disintegrating. Each party took a little bit of Sasori's health and he was looking less like his real self and more like an empty puppet being pulled along by the drugs he was taking as if they were hidden strings pulled by some unknown puppeteer.

 

The fights began as the usually uncommunicative Gaara voiced his opinion on Sasori's habits and health. Each one was ripping an irreconcilable crevice between the two teens. Gaara stopped going to Deidara's parties, hoping that Sasori would follow suit. He did not and not too long after that the two redheads stopped seeing each other altogether. Sasori dropped out of school and moved out of his house, much to his parent's feigned despair. Truth was, they, like the school and most of the community, were happy to see the troublemaker disappear. That is, all but Gaara was happy to see him gone.

 

A day didn't go by that the younger redhead didn't worry about his former boyfriend and friend. Calls to his cell phone were useless, as his parents had taken it off their account. Deidara had sworn that he hadn't seen the other teen, though Gaara could tell the blond was lying to him. He had no doubt he was housing his former classmate but was, for whatever reason, not letting others know.

 

Days passed to weeks, weeks to month, and Gaara's worry, though not fading, shifted to the back of his mind. He had become even more introverted and he returned back to his normal habits, pre-Sasori. His unhappiness must have been evident, for even his siblings noticed the difference in him. Temari, the eldest of the three, often times would act as if she wanted to approach her youngest brother, but didn't know how to. He continued to ignore them, however, and to seclude himself from the rest of the world.

 

So things continued as they always had and the months stretched onward. It was as if Sasori had just been a pebble tossed into a fleeting stream, and now that he had sunk to the bottom his entire existence was forgotten and the world could continue as it was before. That is, until one early morning phone call awoke Gaara at 3 a.m. to the voice of a frantic Deidara.

 

Gaara listened to Deidara panic as his mind ebbed away from the grogginess of sleep. He instantly became awake at the mention of Sasori. After being asked to repeat himself, Deidara explained that Sasori had had a particularly bad trip and they had dumped him at a hospital and ran. They didn't want to get busted for illegal drugs, but they didn't want their buddy to die.

 

The redhead was out of bed and dressing while Deidara filled him in on all the details. Once he confirmed the hospital they had dropped him at, he hung up the phone and rushed out towards the garage. Temari, who had been awoken by Gaara's clumsy attempts to dress while holding onto his cell phone, stopped him before he rushed out of the house. She demanded to know where he was going and it was all he could do not to rip the woman apart while he explained to her the urgency he was under.

 

Both siblings, along with a still half-asleep Kankurou who had come down in the middle of the story, were now barreling down the mostly empty streets making their way to the inner-city hospital. Gaara had never known his sister to be such a daredevil, but as she laid on the petal so that the expensive foreign car could no longer register the speed they were going, he found that he appreciated having his sister there to help him out when he needed it most.

 

They got to the hospital in record time and rushed out into the lobby. Behind the desk was a darkly tanned woman wearing white and looking more like a stripper than an actual nurse. Temari demanded to know where Sasori was being kept before Gaara could open his mouth. The nurse gave all three siblings a strange look, as if she was measuring them up, and then turned to her computer to look up the patient. She turned back to them moments later saying that he was in ICU and not able to have visitors. Gaara slumped to the ground, his back resting against the large oak desk. Startled, the nurse looked over it to check on the redhead. Temari explained to her that he and Sasori were close and he had gotten an urgent, anonymous phone call that the other was brought here.

 

One of the hospital's resident doctors had been walking through the lobby when Temari had begun speaking. Recognizing the three teens as being family of the Mayor, he quickly approached them. Apologizing to them for the misunderstanding, he said that because of the circumstance he would be happy to show the trio to the room their friend was being kept in. For once in his all of his years of living, Gaara was grateful for his father's high standing within the community.

 

They were seated at first in a dimly lit waiting room that held three other people, all huddled onto the lightly padded chairs trying to sleep. Kankurou settled himself down into one of the seats as well, taking the offered coffee Temari had poured from the pot inside the room. Gaara refused one and just began staring through one of the large clear-glass windows down the hallway where two large doors labeled `ICU' were stenciled for all to see.

 

The sun dawned and Temari made the call home to inform the staff (and consequentially their father if he, by the off chance, noticed their absence) of their whereabouts. Hours passed and nurses and doctors came in and out of the ominous doors. The doctor that had first brought them up to the private lounge had returned on several occasions to profess his apologies on their delay in seeing Sasori but his condition was still too unstable for anyone to enter but staff. He assured them that soon they would be admitted to the room.

 

Eventually, once the hospital had identified the teen, Sasori's parents came into the lounge, their award-winning performance of worry over their child's state almost convinced Gaara that they cared. Almost. The redhead watched as the two parents began to make calls, first to their press agent, designating what should exactly be released to the public, and what should be kept from it. He listened as they falsely claimed to have tried to urge him to clean up and to attend certain detox clinics, but all had been unsuccessful. It made Gaara rage to think that the famous actors only cared of their son when it was beneficial to them.

 

Kankurou approached his younger brother who had barely moved an inch since first being received into the waiting room. The two said nothing, but with a motion of his head, Kankurou urged the younger to follow him out of the room into the hallway. Gaara was reluctant but eventually agreed and they left the suffocating atmosphere.

 

In the hallway a nurse waited with a bundle of what looked to be spare nurse clothing. She was tall, her hair cut short in a messy bob, and she looked overworked and tired. She gave the two boys a small smile. Kankurou explained that the nurse, Shizune, had agreed to show Gaara where Sasori was being kept but he would have to dress the part to pass by the nurses' station and be allowed to enter.

 

Shizune handed the bundle over to Gaara who quickly moved to the bathroom to change. He sloppily folded his normal clothing and handed it back to his brother when he returned outside. The nurse was waiting out there with a smile and another piece of cloth in hand. "As cute as your hair is," she said earning herself a sneer from Gaara, "it'll make you stick out too easily. Put this on, it won't make you stand out nearly as much."

 

She leaned over and tied the surgeons cap around his head. Happy that he looked more the part, she turned to the elder brother and nodded. Gaara moved fluidly behind the woman as they passed through the double doors and down the hallway. The smell of illness and medicine intensified as they walked through, making Gaara's throat clench and his eyes water. Shizune whispered to him to act natural. He steadied himself and the two walked, successfully, by the busy nurses' station where two attendants were looking over instructions for patients that had been left.

 

"He's just down here," Shizune whispered as they neared the end of the hallway. "I have to warn you though," she paused here, unsure of how to continue. She fiddled with the end of her blue nurse's top. "There is a lot of longtime damage, things that we couldn't fix now and then added to everything he took last night to OD himself on," she paused again to take a deep breath before continue, her voice just a tremble of a whisper. "I think he knew what he was doing when he took everything he took."

 

Gaara nodded, moving his hand up to grip the cap on his head and drag it off his head. His red locks sprung flee from its confines and spiked abnormally around his head. "Listen, kid," Shizune said placing an arm on his shoulder to stop him. "I hate to say it, but I don't think he's going to make it. I don't think he wants to either. I," she stammered. "I'd be prepared to say my goodbyes."

 

With that said she moved, nervously, to a nearby wheelchair that was posted outside a room, and sat. Gaara stood there; staring at the doorknob daring him to enter and see the condition his friend was in. He shifted nervous green eyes over to the seated Shizune and she gave an encouraging smile.

 

The smell was tens times more pungent in the room than in the hallway and Gaara stood in the doorway for a few seconds while adjusting to the medicated air. The sound of a heart monitor and the odd click and hiss of a respirator filled the room. The window was covered with a thin sheer to allow natural light in without harming the patient's eyes. The ICU rooms were usually only single patient rooms, unless things became too overcrowded.

 

From his vantage point in the room, Gaara could only see the end of the bed. The curtains were pulled so that, from the knees up, Sasori was hidden from view. Only his feet, blanketed in the white woven blankets of the hospital, were visible. He stepped in a bit more, allowing the door to slowly swing shut. With heavy steps the redhead approached the bed and with each step more of Sasori was revealed to him. Tubes connected to the heavily emaciated boy in several places with a mask covering part of his face to help with his breathing. His skin looked rubbery and its sickly paleness was a stark contrast to the blue veins that were scattered underneath.

 

"Sasori," Gaara groaned in a half-sob. He reached down and, with the utmost care, took one of the other teen's hands into both of his. His skin was cold to the touch, all the more evidence of the redheads losing battle.

 

His name being rasped startled Gaara and he jumped, dropping the other's hand back to the bed. Sasori winced. His eyes were just barely open and he looked to have pulled out the tube that was once down his throat. Gaara was unsure how the other teen had managed this without him noticing.

 

"Gaara," his voice crackled again. A small smile graced his lips as he reached out with what little strength he had. Gaara took his hand to help him and held it as tightly as he dared.

 

"Sasori, why?"

 

The other teen just squeezed the other's hand. His eyes had already faded from their normal sandy bronze to a dull brown reminiscent of rotting wood. The life within the boy was slowly ebbing away from reality and both teens realized this.

 

"I'm sorry, Gaara." He managed to get out. Breathing was becoming increasingly difficult and the other teen was beginning to worry. He wanted to call for someone, anyone, to help his friend but the slowly fading grip Sasori held on his hand indicated the boy didn't want anyone else in the room.

 

Sasori tried to shift a little, and with the help of Gaara, he was able to make enough room so that the redhead could climb in next to him. Precariously, afraid of putting too much weight on the other boy, he slipped next to the other. He lay on his side, his thumb unconsciously stroking the top of Sasori's hand.

 

His eyes were beginning to droop more and it was becoming harder for the teen to stay awake. Gaara attempted everything to keep the other from falling asleep.

 

"You're talkative tonight," Sasori said in a soft murmur.

 

"It's morning, probably afternoon by now," Gaara corrected. The other teen attempted a chuckle but it came out more as a rasped cough. Gaara smiled slightly at the attempt.

 

"Hey Gaara, I'm sorry."

 

"You've already said that," Gaara said, his own drowsiness trying to overtake him. He shoved it off though, thinking of his friend.

 

"You're tired?"

 

Gaara simply nodded, his nose rubbing against the other teen's arm in the process.

 

"Let's go to sleep together then. A nice way to go, having the only guy you loved sleeping next to you."

 

Gaara's eyes widened and he angled his face up so he could see Sasori better. The other teen had already closed his eyes, the effort to keep them open too much for him now.

 

"D-do you need me to get anyone for you first? Your parents, a doctor, a priest?" The other mumbled quietly as he wrapped his free arm around the other's waist.

 

Sasori shook his head. "Doctors can't do anything for me, and they know it. My parents wouldn't care and a priest...I've been beyond saving for years now. You're the only one who brought me anywhere near salvation, and even then, I ended up pushing you away."

 

"Sasori," Gaara started but was interrupted.

 

"You know," he said. "I would rather walk the earth next to you as a ghost, than go to heaven and never see you again. I've missed you Gaara, and even though I know there is no hope for me anymore, I know I won't leave you again. Just," a cough racked his body and he struggled to breath once again. "Just don't forget me, please."

 

"Never," Gaara whispered, tears flowing quietly from his eyes to dampen his shirt and the other's. "I love you Sasori, always have, from the first day I saw you."

 

"Good," Sasori said with a muscle spasm that could have been mistaken as an attempt at a smile. The two drifted off into silence. The slowing beating of the heart monitor the only noise overtaking the room.

 

"I love you too Gaara," the boy said before sleep overtook him. Gaara mumbled something in return as he too left consciousness.

 

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The funeral had been nice, dramatic, and overdone. Sasori's mother had made a scene in front of the press camped outside of the cemetery gates. Throwing herself over the casket of her son as the priest read from a well-rehearsed speech, amending it here and there for personalization.

 

Gaara stood away from the crowd of people who were there only for its social implications. His siblings stood next to him. Temari held onto his arm with a heavy grip, her own eyes tearing up with an honest display of emotions. Kankurou stood next to him, stock still, looking a bit disgusted at the crowd in front of them. Gaara couldn't say he wasn't grateful for siblings' sudden appearance in his life; it was making things easier, slowly, to cope with.

 

Temari had suggested doing something as a memorial for his lost lover and friend. She had been thinking of something like a plaque. Or a ceremonial releasing of a message filled balloon, like one read about every once in a while. Instead, the ever-unconventional redhead went and did something more drastic.

 

Kankurou had chuckled a bit and Temari gasped when Gaara walked into their living room with a red kanji tattooed on his forehead.

 

"Cute, Gaara, cute," Temari said dryly while investigating the body art. "But what does it mean?"

 

Gaara allowed a small, sad smile to slip on his face as his memory turned back to the better times he had had with Sasori. His attention returned to his sister who was looking at him with a mixture of curiosity and worry.

 

"Love. It means love."

 

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So the end for this challenge. Semester just started for me, so my time to write is either going to be cut in half or doubled, depending on if my classes are boring or not. I'll try and get out the next one-shot as quickly as possible. I'm planning on making it a happy GaaraNaru with a small encounter with Sasuke in order to fulfill 20loves' requirements.

 

Please leave me a review or a comment as those help me out a lot. Thanks for reading!