Chapter 24

-Matsuri's POV-

Ino informed me that while wearing a shirt over the stitches in my side was fine, they'd likely heal better if I didn't. Naturally, I was wearing a shirt when I finally entered the bedroom.

"Hey! How'd it go? All patched up?" I nodded at Kankuro, who was sitting on the edge of the bed and stepped closer before leaning my head to the side so he could see the stitches there.

He got to his feet and leaned in to look closer, making my face warm awkwardly, "Damn! I didn't realize it was such a long graze. That's like three inches." I nodded, taking a step back when he finally sat back down.

"I bet you have a hell of a bruise from the taser, huh?"

My teeth grit. He wasn't wrong. A deep purple, almost black bruise had spread across my lower stomach, the center of it being the point of impact from the weapon. The injury happened hours ago, but the shaky feeling from being zapped for such a long period had yet to completely fade.

Tears rose, but I blinked them back, "Yeah…."

The older Subaku brother gave me such a flirty grin that I couldn't tell if it was serious, "Let me see it." That man knew I didn't have anything under the oversized shirt I was using as a nightgown other than my underwear because he and Gaara both saw them the first morning after we slept in the same bed.

I shot him a glare as I crawled past where he was sitting to get to my spot in the middle. He snickered and pulled the blanket back to let me get under the blankets before clicking off the light and joining his silent little brother and me.

"All jokes aside, you were a complete badass today, Matsu."

I turned my head in his direction and almost jumped in surprise when I realized he was facing me and lying closer than usual. Making myself mask my discomfort to not make the situation awkward, I shook my head with a frown, "I don't consider what happened today a good thing at all."

"Why not? We were able to capture that kid! We're gonna ask Sakura to try and remove that thing on his neck so we can figure out what it is."

My chin quivered, and I turned my head back to the center so I could stare at the ceiling, "That girl," my voice wavered, and I struggled to keep my composure, "She was just a little kid."

It was silent in the room for a few moments before Kankuro spoke again, this time in a much softer voice, "I know nothing's gonna make you feel better about that, but I'm really happy we could save you before it was too late." I turned my head to look him in the eye again, and his face was earnest. He wasn't teasing me like usual.

"T-Thank you," I stuttered out before turning my back to him in an attempt to politely refuse to acknowledge the odd shift in his behavior.

Gaara stared at me in silence, his mouth in a firm line. My heartbeat quickened as I was reminded of my earlier self-realization. After glancing past my face, likely to see if his brother's eyes were open, he hesitantly reached in between us to pull my hand into his before closing his eyes and appearing to focus on sleep. In his own way, I think he was trying to comfort me. I let myself fall asleep with his hand keeping mine warm.

Only a couple hours later did I wake up feeling extreme discomfort around my side. A groan rumbled through my chest before I realized I was awake, and I repositioned my body slightly to try to ease the ache. It didn't help. I tried to move again, only for a sharp pain to shoot through my side, and a startled cry left my lips as I shot up to a sitting position on the bed.

Both Subaku brothers woke up, and I apologized multiple times as I struggled out of bed so I could go to the bathroom and make sure I hadn't torn my stitches out. The wound was throbbing. Once there, I lit a couple candles to prevent unnecessary use of electricity before carefully pulling my shirt off over my head.

Not only was the skin on my lower abdomen still almost black, but a dark bruise had also formed around both of my bullet wounds. I angled my body to the side and gingerly tried to inspect the stitches on the injury there, but I couldn't get close enough to the sink's mirror to see clearly.

It didn't seem to be bleeding, but that didn't mean something wasn't wrong. I sucked in a breath when I tried to rise onto my tip-toes to get closer to my reflection, only for it to sting. Frustrated tears welled as I gave up on that tactic and tried to bend my body oddly to look at it, only to fail that way, too.

To not lose my temper or start crying, I sat on the floor and brought my knees to my chest to wrap my arms around them and rest my forehead there. My ribcage throbbed steadily with pain as I sat there taking deep breaths.

It was still uncomfortable, but it wasn't as bad as when my shirt had been covering it. I've never gotten stitches before, and definitely not with sewing thread, so I wasn't sure if this was normal. There weren't any pain medicines in the house; even if there were, I'd refuse to take them because they'd need to be saved for injuries much more severe than mine.

Before I knew it, I'd fallen asleep. When I came to, I felt something warm against my side. My eyes crept open, and I sat up in shock, only to wince when the motion tugged at my injuries. My brow furrowed, and I grit my teeth, looking over through one winced eye to see I'd been resting my head against Gaara's shoulder as he sat on the floor beside me. The boy was staring at me in silence.

A slight sound of surprise came from my lips, and I fumbled for my abandoned shirt to put it on since I was sitting there in my bra and underwear, "Gaara!"

He stood up, so I wasn't looking down at him and watched as I winced when the shirt brushed against my side. I groaned frustratingly before giving up some of my dignity, "Can you look at it and make sure I didn't tear anything?"

He wordlessly knelt down on one knee and pulled me forward by my hands to stand directly in front of him simultaneously. I gingerly lifted the shirt, face ablaze, so he could see. He hesitantly laid a hand on my back and guided my body to turn so he could get a better visual of it. I squeezed my eyes shut and let my head fall back in mortification.

Warm fingers gently inspected the skin there, and the pressure helped soothe the pain a bit, making my head snap back down so I could see what he was doing. A relieved sigh left my lips before I could stop it, and he glanced up at me as though he'd done something wrong. I shook my head to silently reassure him, and he took a few more moments to check over the stitches before pulling back and rising to his feet. I let the shirt drop to cover me.

"It looks fine."

I nodded, feeling bashful since he'd seen so much of my bare skin. It differed from last time, when I was under the blankets in a completely dark room. The candles were still burning, and nothing hindered his vision.

"Thank you. I'll, um…I think I'll stay here, so I don't have to wear this."

He grabbed my hand without a word and led me back into the room. I was confused but got into bed when he gestured for me to do so. Kankuro, thank the heavens, was out like a light. When Gaara joined me, he surprised me by climbing on top of me with his knees on either side of my body.

An intense mixture of excitement, fear, and confusion overcame me, and I just barely bit down on a squeak that tried to escape my lips. My body immediately began to tremble when he sat back on his knees, the blanket falling to his hips, and gripped the bottom of my shirt. Even though I was terrified, I didn't stop him as he carefully pulled it off over my head.

Teal eyes danced down to my midsection, and I fought the urge to wrap my arms around myself. This wasn't like him at all. Climbing on top of me and taking my clothes off…That's something I never thought Gaara would do.

Then, suddenly, I was on the left side of the bed, and Gaara was in the middle with his back to his brother. Before I could react, he gently rested his hand against the stitches at my side to ease the throbbing. That's when I realized what was happening.

The same bittersweet feeling from earlier rose back into my chest, and I made myself look down at his chest rather than his eyes. Having impure thoughts about him when I was his only friend was incredibly selfish. No matter how much we cuddled or he started to talk to me, I couldn't let myself slip even once, or it could ruin all our progress.

I feared the worst, and the worst was that he would react badly and revert to how he was: full of rage and terrified of everyone around him.

I fell asleep eventually, still grateful he'd helped me even if it stressed me out. Come morning, I was incredibly comfortable. Then, reality hit me, and I became afraid to open my eyes. If the person my body was tangled with was Gaara, I'd royally fucked up while asleep.

One of my arms was over his shoulder, but my other hand was pressed flat against something firm and warm that felt like bare skin. He had a shirt on when I fell asleep, so he'd either taken it off (highly unlikely), or I'd slid my hand under it. My leg was in between his, and our feet were tangled.

As the sleepy cloud in my brain cleared, I realized in disbelief that I wasn't the only one who'd partaken in selfishly cuddling. I felt relieved that I wasn't the only one who'd unconsciously gotten close. His hand still rested on my side, but his other one had wrapped under my body to hold me against his chest, and I felt that his face was nuzzled into my hair.

A warm feeling spread throughout my body, and a small smile dared to tug at my lips, but I held it back. If this was the only moment Gaara would accept my more than friendly affection, I wouldn't make it end more quickly by waking him.

"Are you hurting her, though? She kinda got fucked up yesterday," Kankuro's hushed voice met my ears, and I felt confused because it sounded like he was in the middle of a conversation.

I was stunned to my core when Gaara was suddenly speaking quietly into my hair, his tone more annoyed than usual, "She's fine. Shut up."

The blanket was up high enough to cover most of my face, a fact that I was happy about.

His big brother grumbled childishly, "It's not fair that you get to cuddle her. Move over. Let me have a turn!"

"If you touch either of us, I'll kill you," the younger brother responded threateningly.

Kankuro let out an exasperated groan before I felt the bed move, likely him throwing himself against the pillows in defeat, "I don't know why she cares about you so much…."

The urge to blow my cover so I could sit up and chew the man out was interrupted by Gaara replying in a slightly softer voice, "Me either."

The bed moved again after a moment of silence, "Temari's gonna kill you if she sees this, y'know."

"The only reason she'd see is if you tell her."

"Damn it, you're right…."

"Leave."

Kankuro sounded more irritated, "Why? I wanna make sure you didn't force her into anything."

The aura in the room got dangerous, and I decided it was a good time to "wake up" so the two didn't murder one another. I gingerly moved to stretch slightly as I took a deep breath, feeling Gaara's fingers twitch slightly against my bare skin.

"Matsu! Are you okay? Is he hurting you?"

I opened my eyes and felt an authentic blush rise to my face when I realized I had pushed the redhead's shirt up so I could rest my palm against the middle of his stomach. Smooth muscles beneath pale skin met my eyes, and my breathing increased substantially. It felt so lovely that I hadn't really pictured what he must look like.

Gaara, obviously picking up on my anxiety, removed his hands from me and pulled back a bit. When I met his eye, a wave of panic came over me, and I tried to move a bit further away, only to fall off the edge of the bed with a loud thump.

"Mats-! Hey, what the fuck, man?"

I frantically got to my feet in time to see Kankuro, with the blanket over his head, get shoved out so the door could be closed and locked behind him. My blush warmed further when Gaara turned to look at me with an irritated expression. I covered my face and shook my head as I whispered, "I-I am so sorry! I didn't mean to force myself on you in my sleep!"

Something soft landed on my head, and I uncovered my face to see it was the shirt I'd worn to bed last night and gave him a puzzled expression.

"I liked it," the redhead didn't bother averting his gaze as I nervously fumbled to pull the item of clothing over my head with a red face, "I want you to do it again."

Once my body wasn't so exposed, I got closer to him and lowered my voice so Kankuro, who was trying to talk to us from behind the closed door, wouldn't overhear, "N-No Gaara, I can't. It's not fair to you." A wave of sadness ached in my chest when he looked confused by my response, and I was forced to try and explain, "I don't know how to say this where you'll understand…."

"I thought you liked me."

My eyes widened as his face fell into one of masked disappointment. I frantically pulled his hands into mine, screaming at myself internally when he flinched at the sudden movement, "I do like you, Gaara! The issue is that…. Well, the type of like I feel for you is a bit different than what you think."

Teal eyes studied my face as I tried to wordlessly show him how desperate I was to not hurt his feelings. After a pause, he looked away, and I was stunned to see a slight pink on his cheeks, "You aren't interested in me."

My eyes narrowed in confusion, and my mouth fell open in disbelief. He…understands these types of emotions? So, when I said I didn't feel the same way as him, he thought I was rejecting him.

Tears rose in my eyes, a blush met my cheeks, and I shook my head slowly as I tried to understand the situation more clearly, "D-Do you like me, Gaara?"

He remet my eye and turned his hands in mine to hesitantly interlock our fingers and pull me closer, "When we fought, I wanted to be your friend, but it's too dangerous for people to be close to me. Then, at the asylum, you-" Gaara's breath hitched, and he paused before retrying, "After that, I decided to try for your sake. I know I don't deserve you, and I should just be grateful you don't hate me, but I'm…I'm not satisfied."

My guess at his emotional capacity had been way off, and I felt guiltier than anything else because I underestimated him. I pressed my forehead lightly against the middle of his chest to hide my face as I broke into tears.

Gaara didn't know how to react and only spoke after a few moments, "Did I hurt your feelings just now? It wasn't my intention."

I gingerly pulled away to look him in the eye, removing one of my hands from his to wipe at my tears. He spoke again before I could get myself together, "It's selfish, but I want you to see me as someone special, too."

Tears still running down my cheeks, I softly caressed the side of his face, "You are an important, special, and precious person to me. I like you very much, Gaara. I was worried I'd scare you away."

His guarded expression relaxed and softened in a way I'd never seen before, making me stare in awe at how cute he looked when he wasn't glaring. His usually gritty voice was much smoother when he spoke, as though he could finally relax, "I told you that I'm just nervous around you, not uncomfortable."

A small laugh slid past my lips, and I nodded, moving my hand from his face to wrap around his waist and hug him, "You did, didn't you?"

Rather than accept my embrace, the redhead pushed me back with a hand on my shoulder and a severe expression, making me frown, "I don't understand. After everything I've done to you-" I cut him off, averting the subject so he couldn't focus on his guilt, "When is your birthday? There's so much I want to learn about you."

Teal eyes widened in surprise before he awkwardly turned them to the side and downward, a charming pink meeting the bridge of his nose, "January nineteenth."

"Matsuri, cough twice if you're in danger!" Both of us turned to glare at the closed bedroom door.

Sighing, I offered Gaara's hand one last squeeze before releasing it, "He's not going to go away no matter how long we ignore him."

"Wait." I stopped, turning to face him once more.

His slight blush remained, but he met my eye line steadily, "What is yours?"

Warmth enveloped my heart as I tilted my head and smiled happily, "February nineteenth. Exactly one month after yours, so it'll be easy for us to remember, right?"

He appeared stunned briefly before nodding once, gorgeous teal eyes warmer than I'd ever seen.