Cataclysmic: a sudden, violent upheaval causing destruction or great change. Synonym: disastrous; Antonym: peaceful
Peace: a period of calm; a soothing moment; freedom from conflict. Synonym: harmony; Antonym: cataclysm
A 'cataclysmic peace': an oxymoron which implies that any event which is meant to be harmonious is in fact disastrous and will cause a drastic change. Example: Trying to repeat the past for an anniversary with no hope that the reaction will be similar; and yet the unexpected happens.

Part 1: Remember?

He took a deep, steady breath. Naruto joined Gaara on the bed in their rented cabin for the weekend to celebrate the Sabaku boy's eighteenth birthday. He put one leg up between them to face the other teen. He twisted the class ring from his pinky finger and held it up.

"Do you know what this is?" Naruto asked.

"An extremely old class ring?" the other supplied as his answer. His heart began to race. What's Naruto up to, exactly…?

"That's right," he said with a smile. His hands quaked with nerves. And that old crawling feeling from when he 'hated' Gaara nipped at his skin again. "It was Kyuubi's when he went to Konoha High. It's has a real sapphire on it, and is fifty percent silver. And y'know, I never got why people buy class rings or why they pass them down to their children. It never made sense to me."

"It's a 'coming of age' type of ordeal," Gaara said slowly. How does this relate to his present? Naruto wasn't going to… give him that ring, was he? That's would mean… 'Oh, my God.' Gaara thought. He raised a hand to his mouth and hid it from view.

Naruto shrugged. "I guess so. You get class rings to remember your high school years, and sometimes, in those cheesy movies my mom used to watch, they were used to 'go steady' with someone; which is like getting engaged to me. Pretty silly, huh?"

The redhead shook his head. Through his hand, he mumbled out: "Not to me."

"Well, I'm glad we agree; it's not silly to me, either. I think it's the opposite, in fact: it's very serious."

Naruto reached for Gaara's free hand (his left) and slipped the blue-stoned class ring, labeled 1986, onto his ring finger. And he didn't let go. His hands warmed the pale one between them, and his nerves vanished. Although they felt as if transported to Resshin, for his newly ringed hand began to quiver in Shippuuden's.

"Naruto…" Resshin breathed out so slowly it felt like the name took an eternity to roll off his lips. It's almost as if his heart stopped.

This proposition had been too much for Gaara, and he had cried and rejected the ring with a simple, 'I can't accept this'. And that's all there had been to it.

Afterward…

How did I ever get to deserve you? How does karma work, that if I've been a heartless clamshell over half my life I receive something like this? The Sabaku boy thought dimly.

"Some people need a break, you know," Naruto said as if to answer his thoughts. "Some people are good really deep down, and just need a bit of pushing to get them to show it. And then some people are just bound together, so no matter what one person is like, they find their precious person at one point in their lives."

Progressively, Gaara found his voice to reply. "Where did you get that from, Naruto?"

The other shrugged as he kept one arm around the redhead's waist and turned them to face the direction of the cabin. They were ready to head back… if they walked slowly. "I think one of those phrases might've been based off a fortune cookie or something my dad said. But I know for a fact that my mom said the first one. 'Some people need a break, dear,' she told me when I was little, a while before her death. 'Because some people can't grow up like you did. You'll understand when you're older, Naru, that everyone has problems. And sometimes, you need to think about that before you open your mouth.'"

"Why did she tell you this?" Gaara had asked out of curiosity.

"Because I got into a fight with Sasuke in first grade. We weren't always friends and hell if I know we are today. Anyhow, my mom was trying to explain that just because I have a good life, that doesn't mean everyone else does. And that I should be kind and courteous to others. I gave him a bruised knee, though. It was purple and blue from the top to the bottom and all the way around the front. If I hadn't been so flimsy, I probably could've dislocated his kneecap." He chuckled lightly. "Still… I understand what she meant. I don't think I ever fully did until after I got into that fight with you in eighth grade. By freshman year, I felt guilty about it, even if I swore to still hate you."

The poet's eyebrow muscles came together at that statement. "You felt guilty? Why?"

Naruto smiled sadly. "Because after you lose a parent, you tend to look back on everything they ever said to you. And I thought about what she said about people having a break. And I thought: 'Damn, I should have cut that guy a break; he probably was having a really bad day, and who knows, maybe he had a bad home life, too. And I only made things worse.' Which now I know is the truth, isn't it?"

Gaara merely nodded. That had been the truth. But he had been too thoughtful at the moment to say so, or say much of anything. Naruto had said some extremely meaningful things without knowing it. And those words had helped the redhead in a tremendous way.

o0o0o0o0o

Five years have passed to the day since they met at Starbucks after being e-pals for an entire month through a mandatory school assignment rightfully named the Faceless-and-Nameless project. Their technology teacher, Iruka Umino, had been the one to assign it. And since that day when his e-partner, Resshin, revealed himself to be his greatest enemy, Gaara Sabaku, Naruto Uzumaki – named from his mother's maiden name and raised by her half brother Kyuubi Bijuu – had rethought through things and came to be in love with the redhead. And, even though he hardly showed it, Gaara felt the same way for the knuckleheaded blonde.

Even if the night Naruto proposed that they go steady had gone completely awry, they had stayed together because both were so unwilling to let go. One rejection of a gift wasn't going to get in the way, not when the two had finally found each other. Besides, like Naruto had told him, some people are bound together, and shouldn't ever be taken apart. Not when they're two halves of the same whole.

So here they are, sharing a flat since both their college debts are so huge. Gaara had graduated early that June with a bachelor's degree in Literature. He's working with an editor for a big-time publishing company to get his poems printed in collective books. Naruto, on the other hand, is scheduled to finish college with a general (unspecific) bachelor's degree in December, and have his graduation ceremony in February of next year.

Now, it's on this five-years-to-the-day early evening in September that Naruto comes into the house with mail in his hands.

"Hmm," he hums in a chipper tone, "What do we have here? Gaara, we got invited to a wedding."

"Whose is it?" the blonde's roommate asks dully, his eyes glued to the page of a novel.

"Temari's and Shikamaru's." He laughs in reply. "How much you wanna bet your brother will pull a funeral-moment on us and cry again?"

Gaara looks up, a quizzical look on his face. He couldn't believe it; the lazy Shikamaru Nara, a long-time friend of Naruto's, is going to marry his older sister? Personally, Gaara thinks their entire engagement is a joke. Their relationship can't possibly last in his opinion. And yet it appears that it is. He would love to see that wedding… and he will, in a little over half a year. Although he doubts that Kankurou will cry at the wedding.

"The date is set to be the thirteenth of May next year; about seven months away. What a coincidence… Do you know what today is?" the hurricane asks cheerfully as he comes to sit beside the earthquake. The talk of marriage made him remember something; now he's going to see if Gaara remembers as well.

"Saturday?" he replies as he turns the page of the novel he's reading. The wedding news pretty much left him speechless, so he's glad Naruto doesn't dwell on it and moves on to another subject.

Naruto smiles and shakes his head. "That's not what I meant."

A small frown crosses Gaara's hairless brows. "Then what did you mean? The date? It's the –"

"Nope; not that either," the blonde smirks. "Want me to tell you?"

"Since I have no idea what you're talking about… yes, tell me."

"It's the five-year anniversary of when we met each other at Starbucks. I think that's even more important than our five-year anniversary of when we got together because without that meeting, we wouldn't be together, would we?" he explains gently. "Plus, five is a good number… half of ten, which in years, would be a decade. Half a decade… wow. How many high school romances (besides your sister's and Kiba and Hinata's) do you know lasted that long so far? I don't even know if Neji and TenTen will get back together, since she seems to be a bit mad at him at the moment."

Gaara looks up from his book and cocks his head slightly. Where is the blonde going with this?

"And since I actually remembered this year and we both aren't busy for once, I thought it only appropriate to give you something to celebrate." Naruto continues.

Suddenly, Gaara is panicking. The last time Naruto gave him a gift out of the blue it made him physically shut down and mentally spazz, ultimately leading to a rejection to his hurricane from him. Which is something he never expected would happen; he had been sure that Naruto was only temporary, and that someday things would drift and like everything else good in his life, Gaara's love would leave him. Yet it didn't happen, and they were even living together from the start of college to today.

It's funny; their guardians, Shukaku and Kyuubi, only agreed to let them live together because they knew the two boys were too unsure and shy to have sex, even if they were in love. In some ways, their love was too deep and pure to be full of lust. It sounded a bit unrealistic to say such a thing, especially about two young boys like themselves, but Naruto wasn't going to force Gaara into anything he didn't want to do, despite his own inner perverted wishes.

Yet here Gaara sits, being forced into something, although not sexually related. He calms his breath and looks into Naruto's richly cerulean blue eyes. "And what would that be?"

"This," the blonde says simply. He pulls out a box and opens the lid. Kyuubi's old class ring from his senior year of high school, year 1986, lay on a pad of faux black velvet.

Without meaning to, Gaara gasps. It's just as he feared… and wished for. He said he wanted to make it up to Naruto back when he first rejected this exact ring, so this is a big opportunity.

Naruto bends down on one knee. "I know it's unofficial, and we can't have a real ceremony or anything, but… will you commit to me for the rest of your life?" Easily translated to, 'will you marry me?'

Pulling on a performance like the actor he had been in high school, Gaara stands and hardens his face. "Naruto. You've asked me this once already," he states with an almost cold voice. "And before, I refused to accept it."

Shippuuden's face falters, and he stares like a buck caught in headlights, wondering what's about to happen.

"But this time…" he paprika-haired man says slowly as his face softens. He crouches down to be eyelevel with his hurricane. He picks up the tiny black box and slips the ring onto his left hand on the finger beside his pinky. "…I can't refuse, can I?" And he gives Naruto one of his rare smiles.

And Naruto returns the smile tenfold. He stands (hauling Gaara to his feet in the process) and gives the redhead the biggest, plumpest kiss he's ever given. He's more than blissful, if there is such a thing on Naruto's happiness scale. "I really didn't think you'd accept, Gaara, I was so nervous! But you did, and I… Oh, thank you so much!" He buries his face in the crimson red locks, which smell like vanilla and sandalwood like they always do.

Gaara lays a pale, newly ringed hand on Naruto's shoulder and turns his head to get another kiss from the blonde. "You shouldn't thank me. I owed it to you," he breathes onto Naruto's mouth. He doesn't give enough time for his hurricane to ask him to elaborate, for after he says those words he dives for yet another kiss. This one he deepens to get a taste of the fiery, ramen-laced cavern he's come to memorize through the years.

Out of nowhere, a moan leaks into the kiss from Naruto's end. Gaara's never treated him this way in the past… and daresay he is enjoying it.

"You're more vocal than usual," the poet notes.

"Get those lips back here," is the response. He taps his own beaming lips with his fingers to indicate where 'here' is.

But Gaara shakes his head and settles into Naruto's lap. He doesn't want to return to Naruto's lips; he's curious now what other sorts of moans he can squeeze out of the blonde. Plus, he has to give a good gift in return, right? And a 'thank you' for the opportunity of accepting the ring, since he turned Naruto down the first time around.

So, moving ever so slowly, the redhead inclines his head and closes his eyeliner-layered lids to kiss a thick trail along Naruto's jaw from ear to ear. Under his horomone-filled fingers, he feels flesh rise with goosebumps on Naruto's arms. Gaara nearly smiles to himself, but instead brings a soft spot of skin into his mouth from just below the blonde's ear, on the side of his neck. Shippuuden lets out a purr-like sigh and wraps his arms around his …fiancée?... tighter while muttering incoherent things.

For reasons he can't locate currently, Gaara finds Naruto's clothing an obstacle and much too warm for his liking. So, with great care, he removes the blonde's festively orange t-shirt and glides his hands over the burning, satisfyingly smooth expanse of the tanned chest beneath.

Naruto chuckles and lifts Gaara from his thighs. "I have a feeling this is going to be a lot different than our usual movie-night couch-centered make-out sessions." He sends the redhead a mischievous glance and motions his head to his bedroom. "Shall we make our marriage official?"

Gaara blinks. All he had been about to do was nip at Naruto's collar bone and maybe swirl his tongue around one nipple or both; not entirely go all-out and into the other boy's pants. Suddenly, pre-wedding-like jitters course down Gaara's already adrenaline-fueled body, causing his heart to bat around inside his ribcage. Is he prepared for what Naruto's suggesting? No doubt the blonde has been prepared since at least the past three years, but… And they've never indulged in such an act before, not even close, and yet…

Slightly unsure, he follows Naruto into the bedroom and watches the blonde's grin grow. Part of him (his brain) knows this isn't a smart idea. But the rest of Gaara (his body) knows this is. For once, a hint of lust edges his love, but the edge is small compared to his nerves.