Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Voices ❯ We Make a Promise ( Chapter 6 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

A tree released a few flower petals to the sky as the wind blew. Summer was very close and the flowers were already giving up their spring blossoms for a more comfortable warm weather look, trees don't wanna be seen with scorched flowers clinging to them. It may sound crazy but that's the way Rock Lee saw it as he walked home with Gaara that, end of May, day. It was strange that Gaara wanted to spend so much after school time with him, not so much strange in a bad way it was nice walking home with the boy everyday. Sometimes Naruto and Shikamaru would be with them as well other times they'd be alone. And when Lee had band Gaara waited for him; the red haired boy would then walk home with him and his friends that the shorter male didn't know but he never seemed to mind he just never joined in the conversation. Which also was fine, if he didn't want to talk he didn't want to talk no big deal. Today was different though, today Lee has been invited home with Gaara- inside the boy's house. In all their time walking together he's never once been past the walkway to the door, same with Gaara at his uncle's house.

The front door is unlocked before being pushed open by Gaara. The shorter male walks into his home stripping down from his green uniform as soon as Lee stepped in behind him. Being polite the Rock child turned his attention any place else while Gaara removed his shoes and jacket. Lee hoped those were the only things to be removed, it was hard to tell with Gaara. From what Lee knows about him the boy is very comfortable with himself and has said things from stuff that's happened to him privately to publicly. Lee didn't need to hear about the boys first time masterbating or that he killed his puppy when he was four because he thought it would come back alright if he re-twisted the head back in place. Chilling. As his large eyes glanced about the dimly lit room he was amazed at how many flower arrangements were in the place. The Tsuna's must be a florists dream customer. They have very old furniture, the designs not as modern as you'd see in most homes. It was cozy, like being in a cottage out in the woods really.

"Aah!" He yelped when his eyes settled on a woman sitting on the couch, gaze out the window. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you there Mrs. Tsuna." Lee laughs nervously scratching the back of his head. "I'm Rock Lee, eigth year student. Its nice to meet you!"

Looking perplexed at the wide-eyed boy, Gaara says in a flat voice. "She can't hear you." Dropping his bag onto the couch, he walks through the living room.

Shocked by this, Lee follows asking. "I'm sorry, I didn't know your mother was deaf- wish I knew sign language." He taps his finger to his chin trying to remember some simple signs that he's seen.

Entering the kitchen Gaara replies. "No, she's depressed."

Lee opened his mouth to say something but nothing came up, he just snapped his mouth shut struck by such a statement. Depressed? How do you even get depressed? Is it like a cold floating around in the air? That much sadness just did not make sense to Lee. Watching Gaara move about the kitchen getting glasses and things he asks. "Will she be ok? Has she talked to anyone?" Genuine concern laces his words.

"Why?" Asks Gaara absently. Pulling a glass container from the fridge, he shows it to Lee. "Do you want something to drink?"

Baffled by Gaara's attitude about the whole thing he simply nods to the question then answers the former question of 'why'. "Because she could get to such a place where she may want to..." He glances into the living room then sidles up to Gaara to whisper. "Commit suicide."

Pouring a glass of grapefruit juice for Lee and orange juice for himself; he remembered Lee saying the first time his family found out about his problem was from him having a simple glass of orange juice he knew the boy would need something else to appease his thirst. Handing it to Lee, he spares him a glance before moving past him into the living room.

"Don't you care?" He asks following.

"I've seen dead bodies before." Walking past the basement he nods to it; Lee shuddered just thinking about a body being down there and quickly hurried up the stairs. "My room is on the right."

'How can he not care about his mothers well being?!' Thinks the male, looking over his shoulder to where the woman is seated. 'Does his father care? Or his brother or sister? His uncle- she's his sister for Heaven's sake!' Coming from his thoughts as he enters the males bedroom. He looks around in wonder of how someone with so much.... personality doesn't have a frighteningly black colored room or red.

Its actually really sparse, nothing in it but a bed and dresser next to it. A lamp on the desk is also nothing special, a closet with vented doors sits in the center of the middle wall. That's it. Nothing. Not a poster, nor picture, no sign of anything enjoyed by the male. The only two things that indicated someone inhabited the room and it wasn't just a spare used for guest is a brown stuffed bear on the boys bed and a venus flytrap on the windowsill.

Noticing that Gaara's green gaze is drilling holes into him he smiles. "You've got a nice room."

"You're lying." But he didn't look like he cared either way.

"Ahaha, yeah." He slips his arms shyly behind his head. "Sorry, I was never any good at lying." Deciding a drink was the better option than talking at the moment and he takes a big swig of the grapefruit juice expecting an unpleasant tartness but it was actually delicious. It even has a pleasant ruby color to it.

Gaara takes a seat on the bed, then nods for Lee to join him. The taller male does and they drink in silence. A comfortable silence.

Lee closes the front door after their entry. "Uncle?!" He called out to the man. "I'm home!" No reply. "Guess he's not here." He slips out of his things, shoes at the genkan and school jacket in the small closet close to the door. "Guess we've got the place to ourselves," he then mutters. "I don't suppose you'd want a drink or snack we already had one at your place."

"Does it bother you?" Asks Gaara.

"Does what bother me? Getting snacks together?" He figures. "No."

"I mean being alone."

Frowning thoughtfully, Lee than says with a bit of defense. "I'm not alone."

"When your uncle isn't here then you're alone." Gaara explains walking around the living room touching things. Other peoples homes always look so strange to him and always so many lights on or windows open.

Fully offended, Lee balls his fist at his sides, back straight as a rod he barks. "So what if he's not here, I'm not lonely!"

Looking at him curiously, Gaara says in his usual flat tone. "Don't be angry."

"I'm..." He started to say bitterly then calmed his words. "not angry. I was yelling because you weren't listening."

"I was listening."

"Than you just didn't understand. I'm in an empty house but I'm not alone."

Gaara shrugged.

"Hmph! And I suppose you're always around someone when you're at home?" He walks over to the red head as if he were gonna bop him on the head if he responded wrong.

"Where is my mother going that I'd be left alone?"

Smirking, Lee crosses his arms. "Aha! Your mother isn't in a well place so you may as well be alone for all the attention you give her."

"Touche."

"Anyway, nevermind that. I'm not alone, you're not alone we've both got the world around us empty homes or not. Come upstairs." He takes the shorter males hand into his own. "My room's this way."

Upstairs. Lee, very animatedly, arms spread out, shoves open the door to his bedroom. "Ta-daaaaa!" He said it as though he were throwing a surprise party for the guest that hid to throw one for him.

Gaara took in the room with interested eyes. The walls are a sort of cerulean blue with a light to dark design, spats of white are all over the walls like someone took a paint brush and beat the bristles over their hand to have it come out the way it looks. Gaze now lowering, Gaara notices the dark blue carpet, thin and smooth, but the kicker was a round, medium in size and canary yellow throw rug that Gaara was beginning to guess represents the sun. Upon further inspection, he walks to a brown bureau customized with sun and moon nobs. Lee's bed has planet covers and dark blue sheets on it. He can see that by the crisp way the bed has been made up revealing the unfitted sheet underneath from its slight fold over the blanket.

"Its childish." Is his critique.

Lee was floored! How could he not fall absolutely in love with this room?! His uncle, Gai, took particular care in locating these objects for his nephew, knowing about his love of the stars and space. When Lee was younger he had no real interest it jumped from left to morning like any normal kid, but when his father introduced him to the solar system Lee's been in love with it since and never left home without the telescope his uncle bought for him on his sixth birthday. He would drag it to and from the place.

"But I like it." Gaara wrapped up his opinion. "Do you like the stars or something?"

Glad that the boy liked it, he trots over to him beside the window. "Not just that! But the entire solar system, its just so cool." He watches with pride as Gaara inspects his gold lined wooden telescope. "This was my favorite birthday present." He explains.

Gaara touches it as though it might break. "Mm."

"If you spend the night sometime we can look at the stars together." Lee smiles brightly. "Its like having your own personal show this way."

Blinking, Gaara looks at Lee. "You're sick."

Taken aback, he snaps. "Excuse me!"

Gaara shakes his head to the boys offense. "Your chest is crackling when you speak." He walks closer causing Lee to back up a step. He remembers Lee mentioning signs and things from his condition. Drooping eyes, crackles, fever, and dizziness when breaths are excerted.

Blushing, Lee says quietly. "Oh. You noticed that?" He laughs nervously. "I- I didn't mean to, its just that you make me kind of nervous."

"How?"

"Aha...ha.... you're just so attentive. I guess I'm not used to such an intense gaze." Saying that his friend seemed a bit hurt, Lee quickly waves his hands to clear the air. "Its not a bad thing! Honest!" Gaara's making Lee's chest very painful right now, as it rises and falls rather hard as his heart escalates.

Reaching his hand out he grabs a hold of Lee's before pressing himself to the male, other arm holding around the taller males thin waist. On his toes a bit, he leans upward pressing his lips lightly against the taller males for almost a split second before he moves not too far back from him. "You make me nervous too, but... I like it." Holding a hand over his heart. "Good and bad, all at the same time. That's what I feel from you."

Lee felt like he's just been dipped in hot grease as his cheeks light up. His first kiss.... First kiss. What would people say? What would his uncle or parents say? What should he say to the person who did it?! His tension eased when Gaara's head rests on his chest.

"You've stopped crackling." Looking up at him, he asks. "Do you feel better?"

Lee's head moves up and down mechanically.

"Lee," he says almost like he's been asleep and just woke up. "Do you need anything from me?"

Blinking, he looks down at the top of the shorter males head. "Need anything?" What was that supposed to mean? What could he need from Gaara except maybe for him to back up a step or maybe come in closer- maybe it was time he left. What do you do in times like these?

"Yes. I feel like there's some reason that I'm drawn to you. That maybe I've been given a second chance to help you with something." He pulls away from the older boy. "Since the accident I've been thinking about you and myself."

"What have you been thinking?"

"I could have died, I should have but.... I didn't." Gaara looks a bit uneasy. "And I wake up and there you are, in my thoughts, on my cast." He lifts the once bandaged arm that's been freed from its casing over the last week. "You're everywhere and I wanna know why. Is it because you spoke to me when I was dead? Is it because I'm not ever alive and I'm just following you to help you before you die as well. I want to know." Lowering his gaze he says mostly to himself. "I wouldn't help you to keep you alive; you're nice. I think I'd like to have you with me all the time."

Frowning, Lee asks in a sad voice having missed the end of what the boy said completely. "Why are you so obsessed with death? Is it because your father is a funeral director or because you've got bodies in your basement?"

"No."

"Gaara, if you were dead would I be talking to you right now?" He asks seriously.

With a shrug the shorter male looks out the window at a spikey haired male coming up the stone path to the front door of the Maitou home, distracting himself with something jumping in the grass. "I don't know a lot of things anymore. I'm confused."

"How can you be so casual with life? Yours, your mother's.... its not right."

"What do you want when you're dead, Lee?"

Thrown off he asks. "Hmm?"

"What do you want when you're dead?"

"I... I don't understand the question."

Looking at the door when hearing the bell, he says calmly. "I want to belong. I want to belong to everyone and everything and not feel invisible anymore. The world makes you invisible and no one seems to care. There are classes and groups but when you're dead you all belong to the same thing... nothing. But you're not alone you're just nothing together." Taking a step away from Lee he says. "I have to go. You've got company."

Lee didn't know what to say. First kiss and now this. Gaara's such a strange boy and what could he mean by wanting something when you're dead? He'd want to live truthfully. Maybe Gaara got it wrong to think he has to do something for him, maybe its He, Lee, that has to do something for Gaara.

A boy with so much underlying passion can't honestly want to die. He touches his lips with thoughts of the little red head leaning up towards him. The image of the panda-eyed boy leaning up to him would be forever burned in his memory. He felt so sorry for Gaara, but not pity just sorry. He had no idea about the things going on in the boys head. He thought that Gaara would be a, spoiled, pretty boy with a kind heart when he'd first seen him. He'd have tons of friends and girlfriend or boyfriends- now that he's received a kiss from him. But it isn't like that at all. Gaara's lonely. Very lonely by the way he talks. I have to save him. I just wish I knew how.

.............

"You mean he was in your room and you didn't do anything?" He sucks the accumulated cheese from his fingers after plunging them into a bag of Cheetos to scoop some of the crispy snack out. Kiba decided to fix himself a snack of a ham sandwich and Cheetos. "You're so weak."

"Am not." Lee crosses his arms with a frown on his face. "Besides, I think something might be wrong with him."

"Like what?" Kiba's over by the sink now rinsing the mayonaisse from the knife he'd used to spread it.

"I don't know if I can talk about it to someone else; is there a friend code I'm breaking by doing that?"

The Inuzuka boy smirked a sharp toothed smile, shrugging a reply before taking a bite of his sandwich.

He and Lee head into the living room to the couch where a show is waiting to be watched; the show has been paused so they wouldn't miss anything. Taking up the remote the bob-cut boy presses play before setting the remote back atop the coffee table infront of him. They watch tv in unspoken silence the only sound of living things is Kiba's crunching now and then. Lee is downtrotten and tapping a nervous foot wondering what to do about Gaara.

"Hypothetically speaking-..." He starts, finger in the air as he does so.

"Gaara said to me," corrects Kiba.

With a nervous laugh, Lee nods. "Gaara said to me...." He bites his upperlip trying to keep the words in but they slip past the baracade anyway. "I think that Gaara may be depressed like his moter."

"Hm." Was the brunet's only response.

Cocking a brow, Lee leans over to see his friends face. "Well, doesn't that bother you?"

"Should it?" Asks Kiba. "I don't even really know Gaara or his mother for that matter. Anyway, I'm sure he's fine; the guy just naturally seems weird if you ask me."

Defeated to anyone seeing his side of things he slumps in the chair. "I'll bet you'd pay attention if I told you he kissed me." He mutters.

Reaching for the remote Kiba mutes the tv. "He kissed you?" Slamming his fist into the males chest, he grins. "How was it? How long? Was it just now when he was here?"

"It wasn't long, so quick I thought for a moment I was fantasizing, but yeah it was just before you came over." He doesn't sound to thrilled about it.

Snickering with satisfaction, he says. "I knew it. You can't spend half a month with a guy without wanting a little action. You two were just a matter of time."

"I don't know about that, but what am I gonna do about him and his mother?" Hearing the televisions volume go up, he snaps. "Kiba! Listen to me!"

"Can't hear you Lee, the volume button is stuck."

Sighing in frustration he returns his attention forward ignoring the arm that goes behind Kiba's smug faced head. He needs to speak to someone with a clearer head than Kiba. Someone responsible and level-headed. Tonight he would call Neji, the most repsonsible guy he's ever met.

.....

"Whose Gaara again?"

Wanting to whine like a four year old, Lee says sternly. "The red head, the one that got hit by the car- you remember?"

"Vaguely."

"I've been walking home from school with him sometimes, he's been with us occasionally!"

Holding the phone back aways, he says calmly. "Stop shouting Lee, it doesn't matter. What about him?"

"I think he may be secretly depressed like his mother. I don't want him to hurt himself because I really like him, and it would make me sad if I helped him to the hospital and the guy ended up hurting himself."

"Lee, you're not this kids guardian angel, he's responsible for himself- and his parents are responsible for him. If anything were wrong I'm sure they would help him."

"You're worse than Kiba.... Maybe you're right, though, I'm not his guardian angel. I'll see you tomorrow right? Last day of school before summer holiday."

"Yeah. The Uchiha's are having a barbecue, don't bring anything."

"Okay. See you later."

"Bye."

Hanging up, Lee bites his upper lip in thought. The Uchiha's? Sasuke is the most reasonible guy I know. I'll call him! He'll have good advice.

The phone rang about five times before the younger boy picked it up. "Hello?"

Brows furrowing in confusion, Lee says in a hesitant voice. "Uuh, are you alright? Should I call back another time?"

Sasuke didn't reply and from the boys end Lee could hear low panting. He should really stop working out when on the phone, he could hurt himself that way. But a low moan sounded causing the boys hair to stand on end. That's not something you do during a work out. But he couldn't be, its only 9 o'clock!

"Maybe I should call back?" He says quickly.

"No. What is it?" Asks Sasuke finally remembering why he had a phone in his hand.

"What are you doing?" He had to know. There was no way a fourteen year old was having... well there was just no way Sasuke would be doing something in his house that early in the night without realizing that his parents could walk in.

"Nothing. What is it?" He sounds impatient now.

"Nevermind," he blurts out when hearing Naruto in the background. "I'll talk to you at school. Bye." He hangs up before he hears anymore. That was awkward. He shudders getting an image, his mind trying to figure out who might be on top. Curse his overactive imagination. "I've gotta take a shower!" He declared to no one before dashing from the room.

At Sasuke's home. Naruto looks questioningly at Sasuke then asks. "What was that about?"

"I don't know, just keep pushing." He instructs pressing his feet into the wooden floor while his back shoves into the foot of the beds headboard. They've been trying to move that giant thing under the window since eight and he was beginning to think it wasn't going to work.

"Forget this!" Shouts the blond. "Its not gonna move. Anyway we're wasting time when we could be..." He whispers into his boyfriends ear.

Scrunching his face Sasuke stands. "Go home, Naruto."

Gaara's breaths began to shorten as the invisible yet very felt assault on his body rolled to a close. Panting, he clutches the sheets under his palms to calm himself a bit further. Glancing at the neon clock on the dresser, he makes a note of the time. It happens the same time every night, lasting about the same amount of time. Sitting up, he reaches for a glass of water he brought up with him but when pressing it to his lips he ends up dropping the glass to the floor shattering it. Fingers come up to his lips as that small contact with them, there in the dark, reminded him of pressing his lips to Lee's. He had eaten dinner fine, drank and everything, but things are always a different story when you're in the dark and its no one but you.

Why did I kiss him? I've never wanted to kiss anyone not that I'm aware of. Dropping his feat to the side of the bed, he steps on the glass without so much flinching as he leaves the bed and bedroom. Down the hall he travels into the living room and over to his mother who is asleep on the couch. Leaning over he stares at her face, then reaching out a hand he touches her hair.

"It won't make a difference what happens to you? Will it? You can't feel anything in there." He places a blonde lock behind her ear.

"Gaara?" Yashamaru emerges from the kitchen hands wiping out a glass.

Smiling, he walks over to his uncle wrapping his arms around him.

Chuckling the man says. "I'm glad to see you too, but what are you doing up? Its kind of late."

"I can't sleep."

"No prolem. I'll come sit with you until you can. Is that alright?"

"Yes." Releasing his uncles waist, he leads the man upstairs to his room. He might get some sleep tonight if he's there with him.