She's A Witch

Hours passed in a dreamless sleep, warm and complete.

If they could stay in this world, this wonderful world of kindness and love, then nothing else mattered. Their limbs were heavy, their breath deep and even, it was unclear where Rin began and Gaara ended and neither felt like solving the puzzle.

Rin knew the pleasurable Eden that was denial and procrastination, but she also knew it would end, as most stints in Paradise did.

She was wasting time here, these were the few precious hours she could spend cramming in final pieces of information, practicing her steps and her speech, doing what she needed and yet, the thought of leaving the safety of his arms, made all of it seem distant and unimportant.

Gaara's breath was a steady metronome that her heart matched.

She reached up a hand to stroke around the lines of his eyes, he must have been so tired too. This would be an ordeal for both of them.

Rin wondered what the rest of the Lands of Fire and Wind would see when they looked upon the love of her life. Would they think he'd matured? Aged since the last time all the nations were joined? He'd brought the Sand to a place of prosperity and relations between the villages had never been stronger.

Her fingertips brushed over his brow and traced the mark that he kept hidden with his hair. The elegant lines of red curving together to form the word "love" and brought a smile to her face.

Despite the heaviness of her body, she rose on her elbow and trailed her lips along the symbol, feeling him shift from sleep to waking with a small. "Hm?"

"Gaara."

"Yes?"

"We need to wake up."

He groaned. "No."

Rin smiled and kissed his forehead again. "Yes, my love. We have to face this day and you have to go get all pretty for the ceremony tonight."

Gaara wrapped his arms around her and fell back to the bed, taking her down with him. "I'm plenty pretty."

He squeezed her tighter which released a stream of giggles. "That's true, but you have to get extra pretty for the delegates, or they just may call this whole thing off."

"And would that be such a bad thing?" Gaara's voice was small against her temple, but she didn't miss it.

Rin unlaced herself from his arms and sat up in bed, trailing her fingers along his. "Yes. We've both worked too hard to just turn around now. Whether I succeed or fall on my face, I'm not going to let you go on feeling like I didn't fight for you."

The Kazekage held her hand tightly. "That's supposed to be my line. I'm the one who fights for you."

She lifted his hand to her lips and kissed it gently. "Not this time. You're already fighting for the entire village every single day. This time I fight for you. You just watch. I can stand against the competition…. one way or another."

She managed to sound sure, but he didn't miss the faint tightening of her grasp around his hand. He brushed her hair out of her face. "I'm sure you will."

Rin leaned into his cool palm and sighed. "Any last-minute advice?"

Gaara looked out the window at the late morning light. They were surely searching high and low for him now, the thought of him being in bed was still foreign to everyone. He could see now why so many people sought proper rest. If it felt half as good for the rest of the world, as it did being in her arms, then he understood why so many people had a hard time leaving the bedroom.

His eyes returned to her, as his hand went to the back of her head, pulling it gently to touch his. "Just keep your eyes on me. No matter what the others say or how intimidating they seem. Remember you are the one I love. You are always the one I choose."

Rin closed her eyes and Gaara kissed between them. "No, no, keep them open, my love. Look at me. Always look at me."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Gaara's words were sweet in her mind, as much as they were valid. Like a lighthouse in the storm, if she kept her eyes on him, she wouldn't falter in her steps. He was the prize, everything else was secondary.

Her steps brought her to the library door for a final study session, but the dusty scent of books and hushed whispers made her stop. She couldn't go in. Couldn't take one more sentence of information. She was tapped out.

Instead, Rin decided to go into the village one last time.

A brisk walk would calm her nerves before she had to be locked in her room, primped and primed to face the others. She wouldn't have an entourage of servants or even a hand maiden to assist her. It was going to be all her own efforts.

But that was best. Rin wouldn't know what to do with herself if she were being fussed and fretted over. The whole thing would be entirely too awkward.

By the sun in the clear blue sky, she guessed it was around 11 in the morning.

The village was up and running, each shop and booth sounding a cry of goods that sounded like a melody. When she first arrived, she didn't understand the tune, but now, she could sing in harmony if she wished and she liked that fact.

While she wasn't winning any popularity contests on the horizon, this fact amplified by the way the woman in the jingling veil hid her wares as Rin walked past, there were small glimmers of hope now and then.

The man at the apple booth gave her a small, shy wave.

The story-telling jewelry smith offered her a chipper "good morning" and she smiled at the crowd already swarming to hear another riveting tale of action and romance lost.

"Rin!"

She stopped her walk and turned around to the sight that brought the greatest joy and the biggest hope in this place.

Koji, and a swarm of around ten children who followed him, came running through the dusty streets.

Rin bent down to their level and held out her arms. "What a crowd this is! Why aren't you all in school?"

One of the girls offered a broken-tooth grin. "We're playing hooky on Mr. Soma."

"He's going to be so mad!"

"Too mad…" A young boy muttered, hiding his hands behind his back.

Rin was sure those hands had met the teacher's bamboo stick more than once. "My, my, he certainly will. I imagine his face will be as red as… as…"

She glanced around and the apple cart she'd passed before. "As those apples over there."

Rin laughed to herself, until she noticed the hungry eyes looking at the cart. Her brow drew together. "Who hasn't eaten breakfast today?"

Slowly, a wave of little hands rose.

She sighed. "Aren't your parents feeding you before you leave for school?"

There were a few exchanged glances, each shamed and sad.

"What? What's wrong?"

Koji stepped closer to one of the smaller boys and put his hand on his shoulder. "We're thh…he… or…or…orphans here."

Rin's jaw dropped. "All of you?!"

They nodded.

The girl with the open grin frowned. "Our parents were killed in the Great War. Some live with relatives, but most of us make do with what our families left."

"And the Sand is happy to let you live on your own? Who is the oldest?"

A blonde boy raised his hand. "I'm Akira. I'm thirteen. I look in on the younger ones sometimes."

Rin nodded and noticed the young girl hiding behind him. "And the youngest?"

He bumped her and she surfaced, holding his hand. "Sara."

"And how old are you, Sara?"

She held up five fingers.

Rin's heart sank. "I see and if it's like this here, I assume it's the same in other villages as well?"

The children all shrugged, Koji replying. "D…d…don't you h…have orphans in the S…S..Sound?"

They all looked at him as if he'd said a dirty word and back to her. The curiosity about the village no one went to and rarely spoke of was tantalizing.

Rin stood up, brushing the dust off her legs. "Who wants to hear about where I came from?"

The once hesitant hands shot up and Rin laughed. "Well, I can't tell a story on an empty stomach. Why don't we buy some apples from that nice man and make a picnic of it?"

"Yay!"

She approached the booth, where the owner was already packaging up the fruit, clearly eavesdropping on the scene. To her surprise, he not only gave more than she ordered, but a discount as well.

Her wallet was comfy and her heart warm. Perhaps there was kindness in the Sand, after all?

Rin walked over to the steps of the Kazekage's house with her crowd of little listeners in tow, a feminine Pied Piper to everyone who passed.

She sat on the step and drew Sara on her lap, giving the bag of apples to her faithful Koji to pass around.

"Okay, everyone, take an apple and I'll tell you about the Village hidden in the Sound."

The audience of rapt attention was a rare sight as it was, but the girl sitting in the middle of it, with a Sand child on her lap, was enough to make the people passing by freeze in their tracks.

It wasn't just children who were curious.

Rin told them about the high mountains filled with trees and how the tops of them seemed like they could reach the sky. She moved her arm in a wave motion to describe the flowing river that passed by her home and all the flowers she would pick for her sleeping potions.

The girls seemed especially interested in that part, if not one or two of the boys.

"Did you like picking flowers when you were a child?" One of the little girls asked.

Rin smiled and winked at her. "I was never a child."

There was a chorus of gasps and confused faces.

"What do you mean?"

"All grownups were kids once."

Rin's smiled turned mischievous. "I'm not like other grownups."

"It's because she's a witch" A plucky little boy offered, and he received a bop on the head from Koji.

"Sh…she's not a w..w…witch."

The boy rubbed his head. "That's what the grownups are saying! They said she put a spell on Lord Fifth and that's why she's allowed to live in the mansion."

Rin let out a laugh that sounded like sunshine. "Is that what I did?!"

She laughed so loud and so fully that the children around her started to laugh as well and, unbeknownst to her, the adults who were listening, started to chuckle as well.

Rin held her side, the pain of her laughter bending her over, nearly lodging Sara from her lap.

She righted the little girl and wiped a tear away. "Ah, that was a good laugh. No, I can't say I have the honor of being a witch, but I am very good with magic."

Their eyes turned to her with renewed interest and the boy who called her a witch drew close. "What kind of magic can you do?"

Rin's face melted into a smirk. "I can make boys change color."

"What? No one can do that!"

She gave him a "come-hither" gesture with her finger and when he did, she planted a quick kiss on his cheek.

The boy rubbed his hand on his face. "Ew! Girl cooties!"

Rin held out a hand. "And behold! The boy has turned red!"

There were peals of laughter as two of the girls started chasing the red-faced boy, claiming they could do the magic too.

The watching adults chuckled and went back to their work, suddenly feeling themselves more at ease with the sight of the strange Sound girl.

There was a magic Rin could do, but it wasn't in charms or hexes, she had the ability to make people feel at home around her and it was working.

She was so focused on the chasing children to her right and the little one nuzzled on her lap, that she didn't notice the beautiful girl making her way to the mansion, full entourage in tow.

Not until that entourage stopped right in front of her.