Goodnight

Blood.

There was blood everywhere and her brother was sitting in the middle of it.

Temari's mind flashed back to the first time she'd seen the power that lied within the One-Tail. The men sent to kill him, her father's best soldiers, flayed and plastered against the walls of the village, their intestines out for the birds to claim.

One small boy, clutching his teddy bear and walking away like the sound of wheezing breaths and broken bones didn't phase him.

Temari was nine.... he was six.

She'd known firsthand the darkness that laid within her brother. Acts of cruelty expressed in mere boredom, a mind that placed no value on human life beyond his need to end it.

What she hadn't seen before, was the look on his face, when he held the body of the woman he cared for and the blood that dripped from her wrists, onto his arms.

"Temari." His raspy voice acknowledged her.

"Gaara!" She rushed to his side, her hands moving all over him, checking for any mortal wounds.

"What happened?!"

"I'm tired." He said.

Her eyes went to his face. "You're what?"

Gaara swallowed, his arms shaking. "Tired."

She looked to Rin, who seemed too still in his grasp, her chest barely moving. "She's draining your chakra. You have to let her go, Gaara. Release her, this instant."

"No." He groaned.

Temari's brow furled. "You don't have a choice. Drop her, right now."

"I won't."

"She's going to kill you, Gaara!"

"Then I'll die."

"The hell you will." Her hands came to Rin's shoulders and found them cold under her grasp. She began to pull her away, narrowly tripping over the captive in the process.

"Sand wall!" Gaara roared, summoning up what strength he had and propelling Temari away from him.

She slammed against the neighboring wall, but not enough to harm her. Despite his anger, Gaara set up a barrier of soft sand to lessen her impact.

His hand returned to Rin, holding her close. "She's still fighting. So, I'll keep on fighting."

Temari shook the dizzy out of her head and focused on her brother. "You can't. Look at her Gaara, her wrists are cut down to the bone, her body looks like she's fallen down a canyon. You have to let her go. Please."

His pale gaze stayed firm, his hold on Rin tightening. "She's still fighting."

Temari's expression shifted from fury to sorrow. "You can't let one person take you from your village, Gaara."

He watched as she crawled towards him, her hands up where he could see them.

Temari kneeled before her younger brother. "It's my job to protect you, remember? You gave it to me yourself. I was supposed to guide and strengthen you. How can I do that, if you're going to throw everything away for a woman?"

Gaara's hand shook when it rested on her shoulder. "Because she's the woman I love."

Her eyes shot to his face. "You... love her?"

He nodded.

She didn't know how to respond to that.

Kankuro said it before, they'd certainly discussed it, but hearing the words from his mouth directly, was an entirely different matter.

As much progress as her brother made in his rise to Kazekage, she didn't know he was capable of feeling that depth of emotion, let alone saying it out loud.

This was going to make everything so much harder.

Temari's hand came to his and she pulled herself closer, so that her forehead was resting on his, over the pair of bleeding shinobi. She'd never been this close to him before, but it felt right. Necessary.

Her voice was quiet and solemn. "If it truly is love, she will understand. I don't know Rin very well, but I don't think she'd forgive herself, if you gave your life to save hers. You need to let her go. Think of your people, of the families that depend on you, about your brother in the hospital and me, begging you to live. Please Gaara. Let her go."

His tired gaze turned to Rin, who hadn't stirred in what seemed like hours.

With every new slash, each blossoming bruise, the fresh mark across her face, he knew she was in the fight of her life and, more painfully, she'd sent him back, so he wouldn't have to fight it with her.

What else could he do for her?

The well of his chakra was nearly empty.

His limbs felt heavy, his body chilled.

Even though he'd died once before, this felt different. He was giving someone else his lifeforce and praying it was enough to save her.

But Temari was right. He didn't want her to be, but as usual, she was.

He was Kazekage, before he was anyone's lover, no matter how his heart broke with the thought. He'd made a vow to his people, his family. He couldn't compromise that.

Gaara shifted his weight, cupping Rin's face in his hand, pressing his lips to her forehead. His voice was broken, wavering in its cadence, as he whispered. "Rin. Come back to me. Don't stay trapped in that place. I need you to live. Please, please live for me."

~

Rin froze at the sound of another voice inside Haru's mind. "Gaara?"

"Come back to me."

Haru shifted on her lap. "Sounds like someone's calling you."

"Seems like it."

Gaara's voice sounded again, raw and pleading. "Don't stay trapped in that place. I need you to live. Please, please live for me."

Her friend sighed, using all of his strength to sit up. "You need to go."

"I know."

"So? Why haven't you gone, yet?"

She glanced around at the darkness in his mind. The vicious chains, the screams that still sounded in the distance. "I can't leave you here."

"I don't think we have much choice in that. It's my mind, after all."

"Look at this place. You don't belong here."

Haru shrugged. "Maybe not, but neither do you. You've got someone waiting for you."

She looked down, her heart sinking into her stomach.

He laughed. "Hey, don't make that face. I'm gonna be fine."

"No, you're not."

"Yeah... I guess not."

The walls of his mind shifted, the fabric deteriorating around them. Rin knew what was happening, the last traces of his body were falling apart. He was falling apart.

She felt tears well up in her eyes. "I'm so sorry."

"For what?"

"I wasn't able to save you in the end. I tried. Oh god, Haru, please know, I tried."

He took her in his arms, shushing her. "You did save me, dummy. You saved me from the hold she had, didn't you?"

"You did that."

"Yeah, but I'll give you a little credit. You need that sometimes."

She laughed, despite herself. She didn't want to laugh right now.

Haru sighed, resting his chin on the top of her head. "You know that guy, the one that's calling you?"

"Gaara."

"Right, Gaara. He's a good guy. I like him."

"You don't even know him."

Haru flicked her forehead, causing her to wince. "I know enough. He's seen your weirdness and is still around, isn't he?"

"Yes."

"Well, that should tell you something, shouldn't it?"

One of the four walls crumbled, the flashes of memory in Haru's young life moving like a jumbled bee's nest. Images of the habitat they grew up in, joking around the dinner table, a few passing trials, all laid out in a chaotic spread.

He watched them in amazement. "Wow, if I wasn't dying, this would be pretty cool."

Rin's breath hitched, her arms holding him tighter, as if she could keep him from fading away, if she tried hard enough.

Even now, she didn't want to stop trying. She couldn't.

He smiled, but it was pained. "Sorry."

"I know we're running out of time."

"Yeah."

"Can you tell me what happened to you? What parts you remember? I want to know why this all happened. How you came back from the dead and why I'm losing you again."

Haru sighed and shifted so he was sitting on the ground, holding Rin to himself. "In the lab, the last time you saw me, I didn't fully die. I think you know that part, though. They took me underground and experimented on my resurrection capabilities."

"For how long?"

"Hard to say. Years... I think. Lost track of time."

"I had no idea. I would have come to save you, had I known."

He smiled. "I never doubted that. I'd dream about you sometimes. Come up with scenarios where you'd sense my presence and come storming in. Never happened though."

Another wall collapsed, the memories spilling out like oil over water; images of their first night together, their first kiss, her laughing face at one of his pranks.

Haru mused. "I think I died for real. Kabuto... well, he upped his methods for experimenting with me. I don't feel like going into that part."

Rin wasn't a stranger to the cold man's eyes on her. She didn't have to imagine what he meant.

Haru swallowed, his breathing hitching.

She looked up at his face and saw the cold sweat forming, the paling of his skin. "Haru..."

He smiled at her. "I'm okay."

Rin held tighter to him, feeling him fade away, even as he spoke. "I remember darkness, then sharp, stabbing light and your mother there. She'd harnessed the justu Orochimaru used to bring back the dead, but lacked his control over it. Cost her, her youth, you know?"

"What?"

"Mm hmm, how long has it been since you've seen your mother? Before you came here?"

Rin thought back.

Yua said she was going to the Village hidden in the Snow, to further combine their technology with the shop's herbs and processes. She claimed she wanted to bring their practice to the new age.

That journey would have taken weeks.

"She knew I was going to the Sand. She knew everything."

He nodded. "Told me all about it. How much she hated you, her jealousies, everything. Half the time, I felt like a sounding board for her grievances, but the other half, well, you saw what happened. She'd cast on me day and night, working her way into my mind."

"She was the one who broke you?"

Haru sighed. "I think I was pretty broken before, but she didn't help. Sometimes she wore your face, sometimes not. That was the worst. She'd summon up images of you hurting me or me hurting you. I never wanted to hurt you."

Rin felt her arm being raised and he kissed the inside of it, bloodied and all. "I'm sorry I bit you, by the way. I could see myself moving, but couldn't stop it."

"It's okay. It wasn't the first time you've bitten me." She gave a small laugh and he joined her, holding her tight.

The third wall fell.

"Time's running out. You gotta go."

"I'm so sorry, Haru. I'm sorry for everything."

"Shh."

"But I..."

"No."

His hands brushed through her hair, twirling it around one finger, his lips coming to her ear. "I want you to know something, before I go."

"Hm?"

"I'm proud of you, Rin. I'm proud of the person you've become, especially after everything we went through. Everything you went through. The ways we've both been touched against our will and the things taken from us. But, don't let your heart stay broken, okay? Let him heal you, if that's what you choose."

"Haru."

His lips came to her cheeks, kissing away the tears. "I'm glad you walked around in my mind, one more time. Can I ask you for something? Just one more thing?"

"What?"

He pulled back from her and caught her eyes. "Can you smile for me? That's the one thing she never got right. No matter what else she copied from you, no one can smile, like my Rin."

She didn't want to smile. She wanted to curl in on herself and cry her heart out, but as always, when Haru asked, she couldn't say no.

Rin gave him the most convincing smile she could, though his face blurred in her eyes.

Haru exhaled, one soft breath. "Yeah, just like that."

His arms came around her one last time, as the final wall came crashing down around them.

"Gettin' dark."

She sniffed. "Yeah."

"Goodnight, 18."

"Goodnight.... 15."

~

Rin opened her eyes. Haru did not.