Give Me Everything Tonight
Title: I Wouldn't Stop This Feeling
Type: Snippet
Rating: T-M
Fandom: Naruto
Couples: Mention of LeeGaara with mild TenTemari and KankuroKiba.
xXx
“To the shinobi of Suna.”
Lee lifted his glass of soda with a sigh, accompanied by Tenten, who threw hers up in a drunken salute.
“To the people who continue to ruin our lives!” She chimed in with happy mockery.
“Tenten!” He chastised in a rushed whisper, “that’s not very nice!” His eyes scanned the remainder of the customers in the bar, hoping that none of them were from said village.
“I’ll drink to that!” A new voice slurred, and much to Tenten’s obvious and Lee’s hidden distain, owner of said voice plopped into the seat right beside the brunette at their secluded little table in the corner. They had picked the seats as far away from eavesdropping ears as possible so they could talk about their current, and rather pressing, issues. The table itself didn’t really do much except pretend to be one, as it was so broken and wobbly that placing a drink on it would mean certain doom. The graffiti obscured the original color of the surface, and had so many carvings that you could hardly read any of them.
Which was probably good, considering Lee was almost certain someone had immaturely drawn a piece of the male anatomy in the corner.
“Hello, Kiba.” Greeted Lee in not his warmest voice, but his terse tone went unheard by the drunken fool who leaned on -and nearly fell off of- the table.
“Ehhh!” They were pretty sure that was supposed to be a ‘hey’ but he had long since become too drunk to remember some words had more letters in them. He threw his arm around the weapon’s mistress, who then immediately removed it as if it was soiled linen.
“Man!” He addressed Lee, leaning over the table to stare blearily up at him. “I totally agree, man. All they do is, like, fuck shit and fuck us up!”
Even Tenten, who had a few drinks in her already, didn’t quite get that one.
“So you guys, like, screwing Mrs. Sand-in-mah-Panties and Mr. Porcelain Doll? Cuz then we’d be a freaking… triplet-family-thing.”
“I’m sorry, who?” Asked the female of their trio in obvious confusion, whereas the taijutsu master just wrinkled his nose at the choice of language.
“Y’know… Like the other two sand siblings.”
“Wait… You mean Gaara-san and…” Kiba didn’t even notice that Tenten didn’t want to say Temari’s name, he immediately jumped in as she trailed off.
“Yeah.” He nodded his head as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Mrs. Sand-in-her-panties and Mr. Porcelain Doll. Clever, huh?”
Tenten just stared at him agape; pretty sure her best friend was trying to find a way to scold Kiba without sounding too obvious about it. Everyone knew Gaara and Lee had been friends for quite some time, so defending him wouldn’t be out of the expected, but he was probably trying not to get mad either. After all, they were there bitching about those exact people, but Kiba didn’t have to know that.
“You know, if you want us to put up with you I need another drink.” She tried to shoo him away with her hands, but he stayed stubbornly where he was and wrinkled up his nose at her childishly. The sober of the three could only imagine where this was going to go; he knew Tenten could sometimes get a little more opinionated when she had a few too many of those drinks she ordered.
“Anyways,” The tone she was using only meant trouble, “you slept with a slut who wears make-up.” She paused for a moment, replaying it in her head, and then added something. “Who is a guy!” She pointed her glass at him accusingly “You cannot judge anyone right now.” She took a satisfied gulp of her beverage, hoping she had deterred him from sticking around. Unfortunately for the two Team Gai members, they forgot to deny that it was the sand siblings they were talking about. So the Inuzuka went right on assuming things.
“Man, maybe you should move to Suna.” Grumbled the dog trainer, “then we can call you a sand-bitch too.”
Lee just put his head in his hands and tried to block out the world. There was no stopping the wrath of Tenten now.
“I’m sorry; the only bitch out of everyone here is you.” She countered haughtily. “You were the one who was done in your sick fetish position by Suna’s biggest man-whore. And this Leaf-bitch could kick your easy-skank-ass!” She challenged, slamming her empty glass down onto the table, causing it to teeter dangerously close to falling over; the glass sliding precariously to the edge.
“What would you do? Give me a paper-cut?” He retorted, and Lee decided it was probably a good time to step in before things got out of hand.
“Okay!” He stood up and clapped his hands to settle the two of them, “Kiba-san, I remember Kankuro-kun saying he was looking for you, actually!” He nodded earnestly when the dog-lover stared up at him perplexed. “You should go see what he has to say.” He helped the younger shinobi stand up and waited until he was out of sight before sitting down again.
“Dear god.” Groaned his best friend; throwing her palm to her face. “How dumb and annoying can you be?”
“He is not bad sober.” Lee responded meekly in his defense, staring over at where their guest had exited the bar. He was making sure he hadn’t overheard that and decided to come back and start another fight.
“It sucks when you stay sober.” She pouted, slumping back in her seat. “I wish you could drink without…” She made a grand gesture to the whole place. “Y’know, breaking shit.”
He sighed again.
“Anyways,” she continued on, going to take a drink from her glass only to be disappointed when she remembered it was empty. “This wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for that damn earthquake and sandstorms! How many damn sandstorms can one place have?!”
Suna had been maliciously attacked by nature this year. Normally sandstorms weren’t too bad, and they had precautions to handle them. The only problem was that a huge quake had nearly done the village in, and they were in the middle of their drought and sandstorm season. They were expected to be hit by at least three major ones this year, and they had decided it would be safer to move the citizens and genin to Konoha. This meant that the small village was now over-populated with people, and even though Gaara, and Temari had offered to stay back the citizens of Suna agreed that it would be better for their Kazekage to remain safe. Every time the inhabitants went to move back, another storm would hit.
What was worse, it was Konoha’s rainy season, which was really a culture shock for the Suna natives. At the beginning Tenten made jokes that they would all melt if they stayed there too long, but so far no luck. They had been in Konoha for exactly two months, with nothing to do except live in surrogate homes. The Kazekage tried his best to still act as the leader, sending the genin’s on missions so they could get their experience for the upcoming chunin exams, but he was scrounging for things they could do.
With Suna as their main base, it was nearly impossible for reconnaissance to continue. Although Tsunade did shirk off some missions onto the Suna genin, it was hardly enough. As such, they had nearly taken over all the good training fields. People were either treating them like interesting social experiments, or getting angry at them for taking up so much space.
However, this wasn’t exactly the problem the two occupants at the table had with their guests from Suna. It was more along the lines of: “Oh my god, what the fuck just happened?”
“So,” She waved her hand to get his attention, “let me get this straight. Just because I kissed Gaara on the cheek, now he’s having some weird discovery phase?”
He nodded glumly, and gave her an unimpressed look. “Thank you for starting that, by the way.”
She threw up her hands in defense. “Hey, don’t get mad at me. I just found out I was finally getting the grant on my dojo, I woulda kissed anyone at that point. Drunk OR sober.” She stared mournfully at the bar, as if telepathically asking the bartender to teleport her another one. “Besides, how was I supposed to know he’d run off to you and start harassing you about it?”
He gave her a look, and she knew that wasn’t what happened at all. In reality, Gaara had become caught out in the rain talking to a Jounin from his country. He hadn’t wanted to alarm the shinobi about him getting wet and being unable to use his sand, so he talked naturally and then sort of panicked after he left. The closest house to that location was Lee’s, and he had shown up on his doorstep looking like a drown rat. Being the annoyingly hospitable person he was, he invited him in.
They got to talking, Gaara brought up the Tenten kiss thing, and then things just went downhill on a slippery slope from there.
“How, exactly, did the conversation turn into a kiss from there, again?” She asked, genuinely confused and how things could have changed so rapidly, and if Lee knew he would tell her.
“Well, I’m not exactly sure.”
“Uh, you were there, how were you not sure what was happening? Did gravity decide to say ‘hey let’s fuck with Lee and Gaara’ and then you just ended up on top of each other?” She gave him a disbelieving look, “seriously, how did it happen?”
Lee leaned back in his chair and groaned.
“I’m wai~ting.” She sing-songed.
“Well, I am waiting to hear about how you sexually assaulted Temari.” He retorted, throwing the ball back in her court since they were pointing fingers.
Her look darkened. “Oh come on, not fair.”
“I will not say anything until you tell me what happened. At least the kiss was mutual, but from what I understand you right-out jumped her.”
“Okay, FINE, we went out for a couple drinks. I guess someone slipped a jutsu on me and boom, shit happened.”
He stared at her unimpressed. “Okay, so when are you going to tell me what happened?”
Now it was her turn to groan, “Fiiiiinnnneee. We ended up going out on a mission, it was just to make sure some of Suna’s and Konoha’s genin were returning safely because there was talk of suspicious activity in the area. We met up with them and then we were ambushed. One of the enemies managed to get me separated from the group- yes, I know I was an idiot- anyways, so we end up a little further away than expected and he slaps this weird-ass charm on me.
Apparently this thing was supposed to make me sleepy, but you know how many poisons I’ve been exposed to and fucked around with. I’m friggin immune to everything now, so I guess it started… Y’know… Making me a little…”
“Frisky?” He snorted with the use of the word, and she gave him a very unimpressed look.
“Yeah, okay. Laugh all you want, at least I didn’t start up a relationship with the leader of another village… Sorry, low blow, my bad… So either way, I kill him and make it back to the village and we report off and I start feeling a little bit funny. I TRIED to get her to leave me alone, but the damn bitch just followed me home. What was I supposed to do? I was a little preoccupied with certain thoughts?”
“You could have outrun her, you know.”
She leaned forward and her voice dropped down to a dangerous whisper. “You try being so horny that anyone is looking good at this point and having someone you like follow you into your home. Running away was the farthest idea from my mind, believe me.”
He made a face as if to say ‘TMI’, and she just ignored it. “So lover boy, you gonna tell me your story or do I have to start making outlandish guesses that will embarrass the shit out of you?”
He sighed in irritation, “I already explained this Tenten, I don’t remember how it happened it just did. He was -and you have to promise not to tell anyone or you are putting him in serious danger- he was telling me about how he couldn’t use his sand, and then…” He trailed off, his brain going over the events and deciding which ones he wanted to cut out in the storytelling. “He said that he had always assumed the sand would attack the first person who came close enough to kissing him. Being that vulnerable had its perks, I guess, and he asked me to do him a favor. I already knew what he was going to ask, don’t look like that, and I… I guess I didn’t mind.”
“So… You have feelings for him then?” She leaned forward, trying to clarify the meaning behind the event. “Does he know this? Do you think he wanted YOU to kiss him, or do you think he was just enjoying the fact that he COULD kiss someone?”
The taijustu master’s face fell, and she knew he had already thought of this and had probably come to the same conclusion on his own. It was just so much more difficult to admit these sorts of things and when someone gets it out into the open it can be a bit painful. She was sure that Gaara hadn’t meant to hurt him by it, and he probably wasn’t sure of the social contexts that came with his request. Any other person would be able to catch on to someone liking them if they agreed to exchange a kiss, but who knew what went through the redhead’s mind. He could be faking his social retardation, or living in complete naivety to the can of worms he had opened.
“So what happened next…?” Questioned his best friend in a pushy way, he knew she was just worried but he also felt like maybe she was getting some sick gratification out of this. Who was he kidding? The fact that they were both in the same boat was making him feel so much better about himself and his pathetic-ness.
He decided to indulge her. “Nothing, I stopped it and then he stayed in the spare room…. Yes, Tenten, your room but you don’t live there so it IS technically the SPARE room. Anyways, he left in the morning. He did, uh, thank me though. He said he was genuinely thankful for me doing that and he really appreciated it. I guess that made me feel better about it, like helping a friend in need. The only problem is that… it kind of happened again.”
If Tenten’s eyes could have bugged out of her head at that moment they would have. She had been wondering why he had looked so conflicted. If it happened once it was a simple experiment that was over and swept under the rug after a few awkward conversations. If it happened a second time there was something up.
“It is our rainy season, you know? So the next time it rained I was a little worried. I paced around for an hour hoping that he wasn’t being attacked by someone who had somehow overheard us. By the time he showed up I was nearly relieved to let him in. I kept thinking about how he was safer as long as someone was with him who he could trust.
He made some comment about how the rain now gives him good memories and I kind of snapped. I didn’t exactly yell at him but I was so freaked out about knowing his weakness that I scolded him for not being more careful. He told me that he had about twenty or so minutes before his sand was soaked and in that time he could run away or find someone to help him.
I didn’t believe him, and I said there was no way his sand could really last for twenty minutes in a torrential downpour. I shouldn’t have said it because he got this strange look on his face, the next thing I know he’s saying he should go because he has things to do. Naught an hour later he shows up back at my house soaking wet and nonchalantly tells me I’m right, had it only taken ten minutes for his sand to become completely useless.”
Tenten could imagine the horrified look on her friend’s face after that revelation, and she felt the sudden urge to go smack a certain leader for giving her teammate early ulcers. Lee lapsed into silence, the pain in his expression probably due to the memories of that night and how terrified he must have been. The implications wouldn’t have gone unnoticed; to have someone basically say their life was in your hands was as empowering as it was horrifying. If anything had happened to Gaara, Lee would have taken the blame in both a political and emotional sense. He would have never forgiven himself.
On the other hand, to know that you could finally touch people without fearing the worst was probably a very gratifying feeling. The redhead probably wasn’t thinking of the repercussions at all; after living in fear of water for so long it had been dulled down compared to his childhood. Lee had discovered the initial fear to be crippling, but Gaara was probably reveling in the fact that someone who he really trusted knew and would protect him. He was also discovering the elation of intimate contact, and Tenten knew just as much as any person filled with hormones and a natural drive for desire, how addictive that was.
To have your intimacy stunted and then given to you only on certain opportunities was cause for a little thoughtlessness. To the leader of Suna this was precious time wasted, and he could now take advantage of it. Who better to discover these feelings with than someone who has announced to everyone within hearing distance that they would protect the kazekage as if he was his own hokage? It was like hitting the jackpot for someone who wanted to explore but not be worried about betrayal. Everyone and their dog knew how beautiful Lee’s heart was, and he would never take advantage of anyone. This was also his downfall; people took advantage of him.
Now Tenten was starting to get a little more furious than she would be sober, and she felt her face darkening. How dare that all-important brat use her friend like this, didn’t he realize that this was putting Lee through hell? How could someone be so blind to something like this, did he really think this wouldn’t inevitably hurt him? The poor spandex-clad shinobi could do nothing but be led to the slaughter house; this was the problem with being friends with an important figure head and developing feelings for that same person. She felt listening to the rest of the boy’s before her story would only keep adding fuel to the fire of indignation she had in her stomach.
“Anyways, I was horrified and I told him so. He said that he knew his limitations and no one else did. He said he was very careful about this experiment and he would never replicate it if the odds were not in his favor. I got really mad at him for the first time since we became friends and I asked him why he was doing this. He said he trusted me and he was sorry for being selfish. After that, I had no idea what to say, so I kind of fell into the couch and just stared at him.” At this point he paused and chuckled darkly. “To be that powerful and willingly take it away from yourself…”
She reached across the table and comforted him by gently placing her hand over his. It must have been tough for someone who worked so hard to be strong to see someone just hand their strength over like last year’s least favorite birthday present. It was the cosmic slap to the face, and she had some hope that maybe that was it and Lee had decided this was not worth his time and told the source of his problems so. Unfortunately, like most problems in their lives, things seemed to always spin around so quickly that they couldn’t do a thing but hold on for the ride.
“He sat down beside me.” Lee was no longer telling her the story, he was reliving it. “He told me he couldn’t stop thinking about it. He said he didn’t know if it was because it was his first or if it really meant something. He said he was so angry that he couldn’t tell the difference. He knew he didn’t trust any other person to have done that, and he said he would never do such a thing with his other aquaintences. He understood that it was special, and that it meant something.” Now the brunette could see where this was going, and she wanted to growl at what she knew Lee must have felt after hearing that.
Leave it to the redhead to know exactly what to say so he made the taijustu master feel special enough to want to do it again. As long as he thought this would never have happened with anyone else, it would be exactly like telling him he loved him and wanted to be together. After being obsessed with trying to become special and not just another shinobi, Lee had another fault where anything that made him stand out above other more obvious choices made him feel accomplished. Without knowing it, the kazekage had tapped into that and now her best friend was wrapped around his finger like the red string of fate.
“He said he didn’t want to duplicate that feeling with anyone else, that he only wanted that feeling and its accompanying actions to be…” He came back to Earth before he admitted the embarrassing conviction to any eavesdropping ears in the bar. Tenten knew the last words were probably ‘between them’ or something to that effect.
“So,” she summed up the remainder of the evening pretty accurately. “He made some insinuation that he’d like to do that again, and since you having underlying feelings for everything you shouldn’t, made out with him like a couple of teenagers.” The hurt that flashed across his face almost made that dig not worth it, but she was so tired of people taking advantage of him that maybe her harsh words would somehow sink in before he got in over his head. “I know you probably did more in the heat of the moment, and I understand that you now feel conflicted but Lee…”
She leaned forward completely serious and dropped her voice to an articulate whisper. “He has no idea what he is doing; can’t you see you’re just an exciting experiment? What will happen when he wants to try this with someone more socially acceptable? You’re his FIRST kiss, and punch to the face granted, but you can’t be the last. He will eventually realize that it’s you or his country. Or hell, the fact that you care about him may not even cross his mind! He may just think you are a great friend and you’ll always get great Christmas and birthday presents.”
The fact that she had reduced him to the verge of tears tore her apart inside, but she would have never said that sober and she couldn’t let him keep doing this to himself. She had done her stupid stunt with Temari, but she could chalk that up to some stupid jutsu and walk away. She barely remembered half of it anyways, it was just some hazy memory where she knew she did something wrong. If they had exchanged words it did not cement into her memory. Temari would never pursue it, so she was safe but Lee was the one in trouble. She would take her obsession with the blonde sand sibling to her grave, but being in love with the kazekage would send Lee to his.
“I know.” He murmured, slumping back into his seat and hiding the left side of his face with his hand. He had his eyes squeezed shut and he looked like he was in physical pain. “That’s why I needed to tell someone, what am I going to do the next time he shows up at my house?”
“Damnit Lee!” Now the glass really did topple off the table, but since it was cheap plastic it just bounced off the floor and rolled underneath it. “Tell him that you’re gonna be the one who is hurt in the end and he has no right to do this to you. Tell him if he really is your friend he will leave well enough alone and pretend like this never happened. He will go home to Suna in the next month or so and try this on some girl who will look good on his arm.”
“Is it too hard to ask that I get something out of this before I do that…?” He winced when it left his mouth, but at least he was being truthful about it.
She felt her heart drop when she realized what he was asking, and how hard he had fallen now that the door had been presented to him. “Can you really do that and then give him up? Do you really think you can keep playing along until that happens and then cut the ties cleanly? On top of that, you’d just be doing to him what he did to you. You’d be using him knowing that it would eventually lead to nowhere.”
“Why is it socially acceptable for other people to do that and yet the fact that he’s the kazekage changes everything?” He sulked.
It was true, and they both knew it. Being a figurehead meant that everything came down to politics even if it was personal. If anyone found out Lee would be inadvertently ruining the suna native, and then there would be ties made that would never be broken. From there who knew what the redhead would feel, even if there was the smallest chance that he was hoping for the same thing. The only way this would work is if they looked at it as an emotionless transaction of bodies, and Lee sure as hell would never be able to look at it that way, never-mind the sand-user.
The fact that they were men didn’t help it one bit either.
“This is such a mess…” He groaned, his head hitting the table with an audible thunk.
“Pft, you’re telling me…” She almost followed him. “Why couldn’t things be simple, when all that mattered was becoming a chunin and beating the shit out of traitors? Why did sex and relationships suddenly start mattering…? I can’t believe I’m gonna say this but I wanna be twelve again, even if that means having to re-learn all the jutsu’s I have now perfected…”
“You’re going to wish you were never born when I’m done with you.”
The weapon’s mistress froze at the sound of that voice, and Lee slowly raised his head to follow the origin of those words. The two members Team Gai just sat in shock that Temari had come to find them, or rather, one of them. Her piercing blue eyes were locked on the back of the weapon’s mistress’ head, looking like she would like it to self-combust any moment now. When the brunette finally did turn to look at her she crossed her arms and gave off quite the terrifying air.
“Oh.” Was all the younger girl could think of saying. She sat staring in a stupor, as if in disbelief that the other woman was actually there. She had thought she was going to be safe, and now all she could think of was the wrath of a being sliced to ribbons. Even buzzed as she was, she knew she was screwed. The fact that the blonde had sought her out meant that the events of a few nights ago were not about to be ignored like they never happened.
“At least your face tells me you understand the gravity of the situation.” She put her hands on the table and leaned forward until she was staring down Tenten mere inches from her face. “What you did is a criminal offense in Suna. I don’t know what you people consider rape here in Konoha, but a description of that night covers the basics in my country for an assault charge.”
“I…”
“You, what? You’re sorry? Well let me tell you one thing. That ‘sorry’ you just gave covers the kiss you forced on me. The tying me to a chair and having your way with me? It’s going to take a lot more than a few words to make that go away.” She grabbed her roughly by her arm and hauled her up until she was standing. The brunette just let her, looking absolutely petrified of the blonde. “You are coming with me, and you’re going to use that sick brain of yours to come up with a reason why I shouldn’t ruin your kunoichi career in the next ten minutes.”
Lee stood up, but even when he did he knew he had no power there. Tenten had done something that he couldn’t erase, just like she couldn’t get rid of his memories of kissing the Kazekage. The blonde flashed him a warning look and bruised Tenten’s skin as she dug her nails into her arm. She then dragged her out the door and into the unforgiving night, leaving the taijutsu master to watch in their wake. He wanted to follow, to make sure that Tenten groveled properly for forgiveness. He hoped she had sobered up enough to realize that she couldn’t smart-mouth her way out of this one.
So much for ignoring it until it went away. He now realized that the Sand Siblings couldn’t be expected to take these affairs lying down, he had to do something about the one that was blossoming between him and Gaara before it was too late. Hoping that he could expect one more blissful night before cutting ties now seemed pathetic for even suggesting it. He had forgotten how hard and cold the people of Suna were bred and raised, since the redhead had been nothing but his own brand of friendly these past few months. Take that away and he would fall back on the Country of Sand’s teachings. He couldn’t afford to have that happen, and it was silly to think otherwise.
He needed to talk to him, to lay everything down on the table, say everything Tenten had said and his own feelings mixed in. Gaara would not hate him for being truthful, and since he was a logical thinker he may be able to come up with a better solution than Lee. Hiding behind his emotions would only cause the both of them more pain and disgrace in the end. As with everything in his personal life, he needed to think like a Shinobi. The pros and the cons needed to be considered, and he couldn’t decide this on his own when it involved the both of them.
He didn’t want to be on the side of Gaara that Tenten is of Temari. He owed the redhead that much as a friend. It would be harder in the end, since Tenten had no real emotional relationship of attachment, but it would be worth it to talk about.
He let his legs carry him to the place where he knew the sand user was staying and started up into the sky. Dark clouds loomed over head, and he prayed that they would wait until after his talk with the kazekage. It was like the rain unlocked all his body’s wants and let his mind take a back seat; he didn’t need that just yet.
He didn’t know what he was expecting when he knocked on the door, but when the object of his worries opened it he knew he had started on the right track.
Type: Snippet
Rating: T-M
Fandom: Naruto
Couples: Mention of LeeGaara with mild TenTemari and KankuroKiba.
xXx
“To the shinobi of Suna.”
Lee lifted his glass of soda with a sigh, accompanied by Tenten, who threw hers up in a drunken salute.
“To the people who continue to ruin our lives!” She chimed in with happy mockery.
“Tenten!” He chastised in a rushed whisper, “that’s not very nice!” His eyes scanned the remainder of the customers in the bar, hoping that none of them were from said village.
“I’ll drink to that!” A new voice slurred, and much to Tenten’s obvious and Lee’s hidden distain, owner of said voice plopped into the seat right beside the brunette at their secluded little table in the corner. They had picked the seats as far away from eavesdropping ears as possible so they could talk about their current, and rather pressing, issues. The table itself didn’t really do much except pretend to be one, as it was so broken and wobbly that placing a drink on it would mean certain doom. The graffiti obscured the original color of the surface, and had so many carvings that you could hardly read any of them.
Which was probably good, considering Lee was almost certain someone had immaturely drawn a piece of the male anatomy in the corner.
“Hello, Kiba.” Greeted Lee in not his warmest voice, but his terse tone went unheard by the drunken fool who leaned on -and nearly fell off of- the table.
“Ehhh!” They were pretty sure that was supposed to be a ‘hey’ but he had long since become too drunk to remember some words had more letters in them. He threw his arm around the weapon’s mistress, who then immediately removed it as if it was soiled linen.
“Man!” He addressed Lee, leaning over the table to stare blearily up at him. “I totally agree, man. All they do is, like, fuck shit and fuck us up!”
Even Tenten, who had a few drinks in her already, didn’t quite get that one.
“So you guys, like, screwing Mrs. Sand-in-mah-Panties and Mr. Porcelain Doll? Cuz then we’d be a freaking… triplet-family-thing.”
“I’m sorry, who?” Asked the female of their trio in obvious confusion, whereas the taijutsu master just wrinkled his nose at the choice of language.
“Y’know… Like the other two sand siblings.”
“Wait… You mean Gaara-san and…” Kiba didn’t even notice that Tenten didn’t want to say Temari’s name, he immediately jumped in as she trailed off.
“Yeah.” He nodded his head as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Mrs. Sand-in-her-panties and Mr. Porcelain Doll. Clever, huh?”
Tenten just stared at him agape; pretty sure her best friend was trying to find a way to scold Kiba without sounding too obvious about it. Everyone knew Gaara and Lee had been friends for quite some time, so defending him wouldn’t be out of the expected, but he was probably trying not to get mad either. After all, they were there bitching about those exact people, but Kiba didn’t have to know that.
“You know, if you want us to put up with you I need another drink.” She tried to shoo him away with her hands, but he stayed stubbornly where he was and wrinkled up his nose at her childishly. The sober of the three could only imagine where this was going to go; he knew Tenten could sometimes get a little more opinionated when she had a few too many of those drinks she ordered.
“Anyways,” The tone she was using only meant trouble, “you slept with a slut who wears make-up.” She paused for a moment, replaying it in her head, and then added something. “Who is a guy!” She pointed her glass at him accusingly “You cannot judge anyone right now.” She took a satisfied gulp of her beverage, hoping she had deterred him from sticking around. Unfortunately for the two Team Gai members, they forgot to deny that it was the sand siblings they were talking about. So the Inuzuka went right on assuming things.
“Man, maybe you should move to Suna.” Grumbled the dog trainer, “then we can call you a sand-bitch too.”
Lee just put his head in his hands and tried to block out the world. There was no stopping the wrath of Tenten now.
“I’m sorry; the only bitch out of everyone here is you.” She countered haughtily. “You were the one who was done in your sick fetish position by Suna’s biggest man-whore. And this Leaf-bitch could kick your easy-skank-ass!” She challenged, slamming her empty glass down onto the table, causing it to teeter dangerously close to falling over; the glass sliding precariously to the edge.
“What would you do? Give me a paper-cut?” He retorted, and Lee decided it was probably a good time to step in before things got out of hand.
“Okay!” He stood up and clapped his hands to settle the two of them, “Kiba-san, I remember Kankuro-kun saying he was looking for you, actually!” He nodded earnestly when the dog-lover stared up at him perplexed. “You should go see what he has to say.” He helped the younger shinobi stand up and waited until he was out of sight before sitting down again.
“Dear god.” Groaned his best friend; throwing her palm to her face. “How dumb and annoying can you be?”
“He is not bad sober.” Lee responded meekly in his defense, staring over at where their guest had exited the bar. He was making sure he hadn’t overheard that and decided to come back and start another fight.
“It sucks when you stay sober.” She pouted, slumping back in her seat. “I wish you could drink without…” She made a grand gesture to the whole place. “Y’know, breaking shit.”
He sighed again.
“Anyways,” she continued on, going to take a drink from her glass only to be disappointed when she remembered it was empty. “This wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for that damn earthquake and sandstorms! How many damn sandstorms can one place have?!”
Suna had been maliciously attacked by nature this year. Normally sandstorms weren’t too bad, and they had precautions to handle them. The only problem was that a huge quake had nearly done the village in, and they were in the middle of their drought and sandstorm season. They were expected to be hit by at least three major ones this year, and they had decided it would be safer to move the citizens and genin to Konoha. This meant that the small village was now over-populated with people, and even though Gaara, and Temari had offered to stay back the citizens of Suna agreed that it would be better for their Kazekage to remain safe. Every time the inhabitants went to move back, another storm would hit.
What was worse, it was Konoha’s rainy season, which was really a culture shock for the Suna natives. At the beginning Tenten made jokes that they would all melt if they stayed there too long, but so far no luck. They had been in Konoha for exactly two months, with nothing to do except live in surrogate homes. The Kazekage tried his best to still act as the leader, sending the genin’s on missions so they could get their experience for the upcoming chunin exams, but he was scrounging for things they could do.
With Suna as their main base, it was nearly impossible for reconnaissance to continue. Although Tsunade did shirk off some missions onto the Suna genin, it was hardly enough. As such, they had nearly taken over all the good training fields. People were either treating them like interesting social experiments, or getting angry at them for taking up so much space.
However, this wasn’t exactly the problem the two occupants at the table had with their guests from Suna. It was more along the lines of: “Oh my god, what the fuck just happened?”
“So,” She waved her hand to get his attention, “let me get this straight. Just because I kissed Gaara on the cheek, now he’s having some weird discovery phase?”
He nodded glumly, and gave her an unimpressed look. “Thank you for starting that, by the way.”
She threw up her hands in defense. “Hey, don’t get mad at me. I just found out I was finally getting the grant on my dojo, I woulda kissed anyone at that point. Drunk OR sober.” She stared mournfully at the bar, as if telepathically asking the bartender to teleport her another one. “Besides, how was I supposed to know he’d run off to you and start harassing you about it?”
He gave her a look, and she knew that wasn’t what happened at all. In reality, Gaara had become caught out in the rain talking to a Jounin from his country. He hadn’t wanted to alarm the shinobi about him getting wet and being unable to use his sand, so he talked naturally and then sort of panicked after he left. The closest house to that location was Lee’s, and he had shown up on his doorstep looking like a drown rat. Being the annoyingly hospitable person he was, he invited him in.
They got to talking, Gaara brought up the Tenten kiss thing, and then things just went downhill on a slippery slope from there.
“How, exactly, did the conversation turn into a kiss from there, again?” She asked, genuinely confused and how things could have changed so rapidly, and if Lee knew he would tell her.
“Well, I’m not exactly sure.”
“Uh, you were there, how were you not sure what was happening? Did gravity decide to say ‘hey let’s fuck with Lee and Gaara’ and then you just ended up on top of each other?” She gave him a disbelieving look, “seriously, how did it happen?”
Lee leaned back in his chair and groaned.
“I’m wai~ting.” She sing-songed.
“Well, I am waiting to hear about how you sexually assaulted Temari.” He retorted, throwing the ball back in her court since they were pointing fingers.
Her look darkened. “Oh come on, not fair.”
“I will not say anything until you tell me what happened. At least the kiss was mutual, but from what I understand you right-out jumped her.”
“Okay, FINE, we went out for a couple drinks. I guess someone slipped a jutsu on me and boom, shit happened.”
He stared at her unimpressed. “Okay, so when are you going to tell me what happened?”
Now it was her turn to groan, “Fiiiiinnnneee. We ended up going out on a mission, it was just to make sure some of Suna’s and Konoha’s genin were returning safely because there was talk of suspicious activity in the area. We met up with them and then we were ambushed. One of the enemies managed to get me separated from the group- yes, I know I was an idiot- anyways, so we end up a little further away than expected and he slaps this weird-ass charm on me.
Apparently this thing was supposed to make me sleepy, but you know how many poisons I’ve been exposed to and fucked around with. I’m friggin immune to everything now, so I guess it started… Y’know… Making me a little…”
“Frisky?” He snorted with the use of the word, and she gave him a very unimpressed look.
“Yeah, okay. Laugh all you want, at least I didn’t start up a relationship with the leader of another village… Sorry, low blow, my bad… So either way, I kill him and make it back to the village and we report off and I start feeling a little bit funny. I TRIED to get her to leave me alone, but the damn bitch just followed me home. What was I supposed to do? I was a little preoccupied with certain thoughts?”
“You could have outrun her, you know.”
She leaned forward and her voice dropped down to a dangerous whisper. “You try being so horny that anyone is looking good at this point and having someone you like follow you into your home. Running away was the farthest idea from my mind, believe me.”
He made a face as if to say ‘TMI’, and she just ignored it. “So lover boy, you gonna tell me your story or do I have to start making outlandish guesses that will embarrass the shit out of you?”
He sighed in irritation, “I already explained this Tenten, I don’t remember how it happened it just did. He was -and you have to promise not to tell anyone or you are putting him in serious danger- he was telling me about how he couldn’t use his sand, and then…” He trailed off, his brain going over the events and deciding which ones he wanted to cut out in the storytelling. “He said that he had always assumed the sand would attack the first person who came close enough to kissing him. Being that vulnerable had its perks, I guess, and he asked me to do him a favor. I already knew what he was going to ask, don’t look like that, and I… I guess I didn’t mind.”
“So… You have feelings for him then?” She leaned forward, trying to clarify the meaning behind the event. “Does he know this? Do you think he wanted YOU to kiss him, or do you think he was just enjoying the fact that he COULD kiss someone?”
The taijustu master’s face fell, and she knew he had already thought of this and had probably come to the same conclusion on his own. It was just so much more difficult to admit these sorts of things and when someone gets it out into the open it can be a bit painful. She was sure that Gaara hadn’t meant to hurt him by it, and he probably wasn’t sure of the social contexts that came with his request. Any other person would be able to catch on to someone liking them if they agreed to exchange a kiss, but who knew what went through the redhead’s mind. He could be faking his social retardation, or living in complete naivety to the can of worms he had opened.
“So what happened next…?” Questioned his best friend in a pushy way, he knew she was just worried but he also felt like maybe she was getting some sick gratification out of this. Who was he kidding? The fact that they were both in the same boat was making him feel so much better about himself and his pathetic-ness.
He decided to indulge her. “Nothing, I stopped it and then he stayed in the spare room…. Yes, Tenten, your room but you don’t live there so it IS technically the SPARE room. Anyways, he left in the morning. He did, uh, thank me though. He said he was genuinely thankful for me doing that and he really appreciated it. I guess that made me feel better about it, like helping a friend in need. The only problem is that… it kind of happened again.”
If Tenten’s eyes could have bugged out of her head at that moment they would have. She had been wondering why he had looked so conflicted. If it happened once it was a simple experiment that was over and swept under the rug after a few awkward conversations. If it happened a second time there was something up.
“It is our rainy season, you know? So the next time it rained I was a little worried. I paced around for an hour hoping that he wasn’t being attacked by someone who had somehow overheard us. By the time he showed up I was nearly relieved to let him in. I kept thinking about how he was safer as long as someone was with him who he could trust.
He made some comment about how the rain now gives him good memories and I kind of snapped. I didn’t exactly yell at him but I was so freaked out about knowing his weakness that I scolded him for not being more careful. He told me that he had about twenty or so minutes before his sand was soaked and in that time he could run away or find someone to help him.
I didn’t believe him, and I said there was no way his sand could really last for twenty minutes in a torrential downpour. I shouldn’t have said it because he got this strange look on his face, the next thing I know he’s saying he should go because he has things to do. Naught an hour later he shows up back at my house soaking wet and nonchalantly tells me I’m right, had it only taken ten minutes for his sand to become completely useless.”
Tenten could imagine the horrified look on her friend’s face after that revelation, and she felt the sudden urge to go smack a certain leader for giving her teammate early ulcers. Lee lapsed into silence, the pain in his expression probably due to the memories of that night and how terrified he must have been. The implications wouldn’t have gone unnoticed; to have someone basically say their life was in your hands was as empowering as it was horrifying. If anything had happened to Gaara, Lee would have taken the blame in both a political and emotional sense. He would have never forgiven himself.
On the other hand, to know that you could finally touch people without fearing the worst was probably a very gratifying feeling. The redhead probably wasn’t thinking of the repercussions at all; after living in fear of water for so long it had been dulled down compared to his childhood. Lee had discovered the initial fear to be crippling, but Gaara was probably reveling in the fact that someone who he really trusted knew and would protect him. He was also discovering the elation of intimate contact, and Tenten knew just as much as any person filled with hormones and a natural drive for desire, how addictive that was.
To have your intimacy stunted and then given to you only on certain opportunities was cause for a little thoughtlessness. To the leader of Suna this was precious time wasted, and he could now take advantage of it. Who better to discover these feelings with than someone who has announced to everyone within hearing distance that they would protect the kazekage as if he was his own hokage? It was like hitting the jackpot for someone who wanted to explore but not be worried about betrayal. Everyone and their dog knew how beautiful Lee’s heart was, and he would never take advantage of anyone. This was also his downfall; people took advantage of him.
Now Tenten was starting to get a little more furious than she would be sober, and she felt her face darkening. How dare that all-important brat use her friend like this, didn’t he realize that this was putting Lee through hell? How could someone be so blind to something like this, did he really think this wouldn’t inevitably hurt him? The poor spandex-clad shinobi could do nothing but be led to the slaughter house; this was the problem with being friends with an important figure head and developing feelings for that same person. She felt listening to the rest of the boy’s before her story would only keep adding fuel to the fire of indignation she had in her stomach.
“Anyways, I was horrified and I told him so. He said that he knew his limitations and no one else did. He said he was very careful about this experiment and he would never replicate it if the odds were not in his favor. I got really mad at him for the first time since we became friends and I asked him why he was doing this. He said he trusted me and he was sorry for being selfish. After that, I had no idea what to say, so I kind of fell into the couch and just stared at him.” At this point he paused and chuckled darkly. “To be that powerful and willingly take it away from yourself…”
She reached across the table and comforted him by gently placing her hand over his. It must have been tough for someone who worked so hard to be strong to see someone just hand their strength over like last year’s least favorite birthday present. It was the cosmic slap to the face, and she had some hope that maybe that was it and Lee had decided this was not worth his time and told the source of his problems so. Unfortunately, like most problems in their lives, things seemed to always spin around so quickly that they couldn’t do a thing but hold on for the ride.
“He sat down beside me.” Lee was no longer telling her the story, he was reliving it. “He told me he couldn’t stop thinking about it. He said he didn’t know if it was because it was his first or if it really meant something. He said he was so angry that he couldn’t tell the difference. He knew he didn’t trust any other person to have done that, and he said he would never do such a thing with his other aquaintences. He understood that it was special, and that it meant something.” Now the brunette could see where this was going, and she wanted to growl at what she knew Lee must have felt after hearing that.
Leave it to the redhead to know exactly what to say so he made the taijustu master feel special enough to want to do it again. As long as he thought this would never have happened with anyone else, it would be exactly like telling him he loved him and wanted to be together. After being obsessed with trying to become special and not just another shinobi, Lee had another fault where anything that made him stand out above other more obvious choices made him feel accomplished. Without knowing it, the kazekage had tapped into that and now her best friend was wrapped around his finger like the red string of fate.
“He said he didn’t want to duplicate that feeling with anyone else, that he only wanted that feeling and its accompanying actions to be…” He came back to Earth before he admitted the embarrassing conviction to any eavesdropping ears in the bar. Tenten knew the last words were probably ‘between them’ or something to that effect.
“So,” she summed up the remainder of the evening pretty accurately. “He made some insinuation that he’d like to do that again, and since you having underlying feelings for everything you shouldn’t, made out with him like a couple of teenagers.” The hurt that flashed across his face almost made that dig not worth it, but she was so tired of people taking advantage of him that maybe her harsh words would somehow sink in before he got in over his head. “I know you probably did more in the heat of the moment, and I understand that you now feel conflicted but Lee…”
She leaned forward completely serious and dropped her voice to an articulate whisper. “He has no idea what he is doing; can’t you see you’re just an exciting experiment? What will happen when he wants to try this with someone more socially acceptable? You’re his FIRST kiss, and punch to the face granted, but you can’t be the last. He will eventually realize that it’s you or his country. Or hell, the fact that you care about him may not even cross his mind! He may just think you are a great friend and you’ll always get great Christmas and birthday presents.”
The fact that she had reduced him to the verge of tears tore her apart inside, but she would have never said that sober and she couldn’t let him keep doing this to himself. She had done her stupid stunt with Temari, but she could chalk that up to some stupid jutsu and walk away. She barely remembered half of it anyways, it was just some hazy memory where she knew she did something wrong. If they had exchanged words it did not cement into her memory. Temari would never pursue it, so she was safe but Lee was the one in trouble. She would take her obsession with the blonde sand sibling to her grave, but being in love with the kazekage would send Lee to his.
“I know.” He murmured, slumping back into his seat and hiding the left side of his face with his hand. He had his eyes squeezed shut and he looked like he was in physical pain. “That’s why I needed to tell someone, what am I going to do the next time he shows up at my house?”
“Damnit Lee!” Now the glass really did topple off the table, but since it was cheap plastic it just bounced off the floor and rolled underneath it. “Tell him that you’re gonna be the one who is hurt in the end and he has no right to do this to you. Tell him if he really is your friend he will leave well enough alone and pretend like this never happened. He will go home to Suna in the next month or so and try this on some girl who will look good on his arm.”
“Is it too hard to ask that I get something out of this before I do that…?” He winced when it left his mouth, but at least he was being truthful about it.
She felt her heart drop when she realized what he was asking, and how hard he had fallen now that the door had been presented to him. “Can you really do that and then give him up? Do you really think you can keep playing along until that happens and then cut the ties cleanly? On top of that, you’d just be doing to him what he did to you. You’d be using him knowing that it would eventually lead to nowhere.”
“Why is it socially acceptable for other people to do that and yet the fact that he’s the kazekage changes everything?” He sulked.
It was true, and they both knew it. Being a figurehead meant that everything came down to politics even if it was personal. If anyone found out Lee would be inadvertently ruining the suna native, and then there would be ties made that would never be broken. From there who knew what the redhead would feel, even if there was the smallest chance that he was hoping for the same thing. The only way this would work is if they looked at it as an emotionless transaction of bodies, and Lee sure as hell would never be able to look at it that way, never-mind the sand-user.
The fact that they were men didn’t help it one bit either.
“This is such a mess…” He groaned, his head hitting the table with an audible thunk.
“Pft, you’re telling me…” She almost followed him. “Why couldn’t things be simple, when all that mattered was becoming a chunin and beating the shit out of traitors? Why did sex and relationships suddenly start mattering…? I can’t believe I’m gonna say this but I wanna be twelve again, even if that means having to re-learn all the jutsu’s I have now perfected…”
“You’re going to wish you were never born when I’m done with you.”
The weapon’s mistress froze at the sound of that voice, and Lee slowly raised his head to follow the origin of those words. The two members Team Gai just sat in shock that Temari had come to find them, or rather, one of them. Her piercing blue eyes were locked on the back of the weapon’s mistress’ head, looking like she would like it to self-combust any moment now. When the brunette finally did turn to look at her she crossed her arms and gave off quite the terrifying air.
“Oh.” Was all the younger girl could think of saying. She sat staring in a stupor, as if in disbelief that the other woman was actually there. She had thought she was going to be safe, and now all she could think of was the wrath of a being sliced to ribbons. Even buzzed as she was, she knew she was screwed. The fact that the blonde had sought her out meant that the events of a few nights ago were not about to be ignored like they never happened.
“At least your face tells me you understand the gravity of the situation.” She put her hands on the table and leaned forward until she was staring down Tenten mere inches from her face. “What you did is a criminal offense in Suna. I don’t know what you people consider rape here in Konoha, but a description of that night covers the basics in my country for an assault charge.”
“I…”
“You, what? You’re sorry? Well let me tell you one thing. That ‘sorry’ you just gave covers the kiss you forced on me. The tying me to a chair and having your way with me? It’s going to take a lot more than a few words to make that go away.” She grabbed her roughly by her arm and hauled her up until she was standing. The brunette just let her, looking absolutely petrified of the blonde. “You are coming with me, and you’re going to use that sick brain of yours to come up with a reason why I shouldn’t ruin your kunoichi career in the next ten minutes.”
Lee stood up, but even when he did he knew he had no power there. Tenten had done something that he couldn’t erase, just like she couldn’t get rid of his memories of kissing the Kazekage. The blonde flashed him a warning look and bruised Tenten’s skin as she dug her nails into her arm. She then dragged her out the door and into the unforgiving night, leaving the taijutsu master to watch in their wake. He wanted to follow, to make sure that Tenten groveled properly for forgiveness. He hoped she had sobered up enough to realize that she couldn’t smart-mouth her way out of this one.
So much for ignoring it until it went away. He now realized that the Sand Siblings couldn’t be expected to take these affairs lying down, he had to do something about the one that was blossoming between him and Gaara before it was too late. Hoping that he could expect one more blissful night before cutting ties now seemed pathetic for even suggesting it. He had forgotten how hard and cold the people of Suna were bred and raised, since the redhead had been nothing but his own brand of friendly these past few months. Take that away and he would fall back on the Country of Sand’s teachings. He couldn’t afford to have that happen, and it was silly to think otherwise.
He needed to talk to him, to lay everything down on the table, say everything Tenten had said and his own feelings mixed in. Gaara would not hate him for being truthful, and since he was a logical thinker he may be able to come up with a better solution than Lee. Hiding behind his emotions would only cause the both of them more pain and disgrace in the end. As with everything in his personal life, he needed to think like a Shinobi. The pros and the cons needed to be considered, and he couldn’t decide this on his own when it involved the both of them.
He didn’t want to be on the side of Gaara that Tenten is of Temari. He owed the redhead that much as a friend. It would be harder in the end, since Tenten had no real emotional relationship of attachment, but it would be worth it to talk about.
He let his legs carry him to the place where he knew the sand user was staying and started up into the sky. Dark clouds loomed over head, and he prayed that they would wait until after his talk with the kazekage. It was like the rain unlocked all his body’s wants and let his mind take a back seat; he didn’t need that just yet.
He didn’t know what he was expecting when he knocked on the door, but when the object of his worries opened it he knew he had started on the right track.