Alright people, this is the end! Thanks for reading and for the kind reviews. But please don't mind me. I actually may have made myself tear up a bit while writing this one...

"Lady Hiro, thank you again for making the journey here to meet with me," Gaara said, all calm politeness as he bowed deeply to the scheming woman.

"O-of course, Lord Kazekage," Lady Hiro answered, also bowing. But when she rose again, her eyes betrayed her nervousness. Clearly she knew her intentions had been discovered, dealt with, and she was now expecting some punishment. "Thank you for your hospitality."

Despite his cool exterior, it took every fiber of Gaara's being to prevent himself from killing the foolish woman in front of him. It wouldn't take more than a flick of his finger. Only a brief glance at Kankuro, standing dutifully at Gaara's side, gave him the resolve to let her go. Kankuro's face paint was back place, carefully designed to disguise the bags that spoke of his restless night as he had struggled against the effects of the poison. Gaara had sat beside him throughout the night, watching his older brother struggle for breath and continue to refuse proper medical treatment, all for the sake of avoiding plunging the Village into a war that they had didn't have the resources to fight.

And here he was, standing beside his Kazekage on legs that had yet to regain full mobility, doing his duty with a strength that Gaara had not realized his brother possessed.

Thankfully, Baki volunteered to accompany Lady Hiro and her party to the village entrance, leaving the three siblings alone. Temari let out a sigh of relief and Gaara walked quickly around his desk and made it to his brother's side just in time to catch Kankuro as his knees buckled. Gaara all but dragged him to the nearest chair, pressing the puppeteer's larger body into it.

"Sit."

For once, Kankuro didn't argue. Gaara fixed him with a frown, trying to figure out how he was going to articulate his still wildly confusing thoughts.

Temari glanced between her two brothers, apparently understanding that this was something the two boys needed to speak about alone. She strode toward the door. "I'm going to see about getting us some tea."

Gaara watched Temari's back as the door snapped shut behind her. That was also something he'd never noticed before. Regardless of the fact that she was the only female sibling, Temari had never been one for domestic chores. She simply didn't have the patience, preferring to power through life with brute force. And yet she had always insisted on serving Gaara herself. The Kazekage's residence was equipped with several cooks and servants who could easily have brought them refreshments, but Temari made a point of steeping their tea and bringing it to her brothers herself even after returning from long, strenuous missions. Even now that she was a jounin and he was Kazekage, if she was in the village she always made a point of stopping by midday to bring him a fresh pitcher of water and replace his glass.

Gaara sighed, amazed at his own blindness. He had been so consumed by his belief that he was feared and unwanted that he had failed to see that the love he so desperately desired was right in front of him the whole time.

He also wondered vaguely just how many attempts there had been on his life that his siblings took so many precautions with him.

Walking back around his desk, Gaara leaned foreward and braced himself against the glossy wood, gathering his resolve. "Kankuro-"

"I'm not going to stop, you know." Kankuro cut him off sharply, and Gaara was surprised to find the older boy staring him down. "Even if you don't think of me as your brother, even if you don't believe I care, I won't stop trying to protect you."

Ah yes, he'd said that once, hadn't he? He'd been such a fool… Gaara shook his head, struggling to articulate himself. "I... don't want you to stop."

The puppet master looked stunned. "What?"

"I just want to know why." Gaara sounded tired, and he knew it wasn't because he didn't sleep at night.

"Why?" Kankuro frowned, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Because you're my otouto, you idiot."

Gaara blinked, that familiar, unnamed feeling of warmth spreading throughout his body. Surely it couldn't be that simple. "But I am also a monster. I murdered your mother, your friends… I threatened your life. How does a blood-bond overcome all my sins?"

"You're not a monster." Kankuro answered quickly and with such conviction that Gaara swore he felt his heart stop. "And you never were. You were a little boy who couldn't control a demon stuck inside you by a sick father who cared more for the village than his own children."

"But…" Gaara's mind raced. How was Konkuro so sure about him, when Gaara himself couldn't rightly say if the bloodlust came from Shukaku or his own dark desires? "But you feared me."

"I never feared you, I feared that thing inside of you. And every time it got loose, I feared it would rip you apart and I would lose the little brother I'd never gotten a chance to know." Gaara still didn't look convinced, and Kankuro groaned, closing his eyes briefly. "Phh, are you really going to make me say it?"

Gaara could only stare.

"Fine, fine… I protect you because I love you, otouto."

Kankuro, he... loves me?

Why his knees suddenly felt weak was beyond him, but Gaara sank down into the chair behind his desk nonetheless. He found himself saying, for what felt like the millionth time in the past few days, "I don't understand."

Kankuro sighed, massaging his temples with one hand. "Love isn't something you can explain, otouto. It's just something that is, that grows naturally."

Gaara watched in fascination as his brother flushed and he realized that Kankuro didn't usually talk about things like this. But even though the older boy squirmed uncomfortably, he continued speaking. "I knew I loved you from the moment Mother told me I was going to be a niisan. But I only got to see you once before Father took you away to be raised by Uncle. You were so small… I was afraid that Uncle would crush you with in his big hands."

"And when you were brought back to us," Kankuro paused, swallowing thickly, "you were so different. We all were. Father was never around anymore and then when he was he was always… so angry. And you were always so angry. Everyone kept telling me to stay away from you, that you were this uncontrollable monster, but every time I looked at you I could only see the otouto I had always wanted."

Kankuro paused, finally glancing up at his little brother. He immediately blanched, rising jerkily out of his chair. "Oh shit, Gaara…"

Gaara himself was surprised to feel warm tracts of liquid rolling down his cheeks. He couldn't remember the last time he'd cried. Maybe after Yashamaru… But that didn't matter anymore. Kankuro… wanted him. Kankuro had always wanted him. Gaara was wanted.

Kankuro looked horrified, like he'd broken his otouto. His reached hurriedly across the broad expansive of the desk and grasped Gaara's wrist, but that only seemed to make Gaara cry harder. The young Kazegae fought to maintain a blank expression, surprised at himself for breaking down like this. He wasn't sobbing, like he'd seen other people do at funerals, but silently shaking, tears streaming down his face and breath coming in short gasps. Gaara was the feared jinjuriki of Shukaku, the Fifth Kazekage of the Village Hidden in the Sand. The fact that his older brother was all but holding his hand should not make him cry.

And yet it was hard to ignore the fact that Kankuro was the first person to voluntarily touch Gaara since Yashamaru.

"Please don't cry," Kankuro begged, clearly unsure of what to do. "I know I didn't handle myself well. I was a shitty niisan. I called you a demon and let you grow up thinking you were alone. I tried, but I couldn't always protect you. And I'm sorry."

Gaara shook his head, still unable to stem the tears rolling down his cheeks. It was too much. Why was Kankuro apologizing, when he'd done so much right?

Kankuro's expressive mouth tightened into a flat line, and he released Gaara's wrist. The appendage seemed to throb, aching with the loss of his warm touch. But to Gaara's astonishment, rather than walking away Kankuro stumbled around the side of the desk and pulled the young Kazekage up into his arms in a firm embrace.

Stunned, Gaara stopped crying. Hesitantly, he leaned into the hug, feeling warm and secure against his brother's broad chest. Rationally, Gaara knew that Kankuro was still weak from the poison and he should be at least sitting down. But something else brought his arms up and had his hands grasping his brother's shirt as though he would never allow them to be parted.

Kankuro spoke, and his voice resonated through his chest and into Gaara's head. "Shh, niisan is here. And I will always protect you."

Standing just outside the Kazekage's door, Temari felt tears gathering in her own eyes and the tea tray quivered precariously in her grasp. She longed to go to her brothers and hold them both herself, but she knew this was a moment for the two of them alone.

"Lady Temari?" One of Gaara's chunin assistants approached her curiously. "Do you need me to get the door for you?"

Temari her head, blinking to dispel the liquid that had gathered. "No, I'm alright. I just peeked in and think I will come back in a bit. Lord Gaara is… well, he seems quite busy at the moment. Perhaps you could take this back to the kitchen for me?"

"Oh course, m'Lady." The assistant took the tray from her easily and headed off down the hall.

Glancing back at the door to the Kazekage's office, Temari allowed herself a smile. Years of heartbreak and missed opportunities couldn't be healed overnight, but it looked like she and her siblings were finally on the right track.