Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, I just wanted to show Gaara trying in his own way to woo Sakura.

"Oh, come on, admit it Gaara, you're emotionally dysfunctional."

Sakura rolls her eyes as she shoves open a door in the Hokage Tower.

Gaara frowns slightly, arms crossed and following her as she does her normal duties as a sort of unofficial Hokage assisstant.

"I am not," He states flatly, wondering why the only thing he can think of is what her hair would feel like running through his fingers. What does this mean?

He still finds it strange, not having Shukaku here. He knows that right now he would roll his eyes, laugh as malevolently as he can, and say in his deepest macho voice that I know exactly what it means, I just don't want to admit it because I am dysfunctional... A person who hates so is not seen as the same... And all that crap.

Sakura laughs, and she dosn't even bother to put a hand over her mouth. It's totally unihibited and it throws Gaara a bit, who is used to everyone acting so stiff around him it's like those sticks have only just been shoved up there. Sakura carries on chuckling as she glances back at the Kazekage, who has already gathered himself and is watching her calmly now. She shakes her head as she jumps down from the tower, and Gaara follows, deciding to land on his feet without the aid of sand. It's a bit show-offy, really, to do that all the time. And lazy.

"Okay, then, you're not. You're just a bit slow."

She pauses, as if thinking over what she said again, and then laughs some more. As she shifts the tall stack of papers onto her hip to make it easier to fish for her huge collection of keys that she mostly doesn't need, a very strange thought occurs to Gaara.

It looks like she's carrying my baby.

Then Gaara shakes himself mentally, knowing that he must stop this, it's hardly appropriate for him to be thinking these things about the Hokage's prized student. Tsunade would, he was sure, have his balls for breakfast if she knew some of the dirtier things that had breifly crossed his mind.

And anyway, nonsense, why would anyone be carrying his baby?

I don't want babies...

Gaara frowns again, fingers digging into his arms as he reminds himself forcefully why he cannot allow this - this infatuation.

He finds himself ordering his sand to relieve her of the stack anyway.

"Thanks," Sakura says, distracted, as she examines the many keys she's holding up. Her face assumes an comical expression, tongue out, eyebrows at unsual angles, as she tries to remember which one she needs and where it is. Is it even here? Maybe it's the other one...

Gaara sighs silently when she draws out another huge collection of keys and moulds his sand as it filters into the keyhole. He turns the hardened shape and the lock clicks. After a short pause, Sakura pushes open the door and tucks the keys into her back pocket, inevitably drawing Gaara's eyes downwards. He nearly flushes pink, instead of staring and hoping that she did that on purpose.

"Hey, Gaara," She's slipped inside in a second, and is poking her head around the door.

"What?" He asks in his perfectly stoic voice, nothing pointing towards his inner frustration and guilt.

"If you like, you can drop that off for me at Tsunade's office. I would be careful, she can get quite paranoid when she's drunk sometimes. Mind you don't spill any sake on anything."

Sakura smiles cheerfully and shuts her door. A second later Gaara blinks slowly and looks towards the stack of reports still hovering in the air a foot in front of him. He glares at it, then at Sakura's front door.

Then he turns the key in the lock again, and walks into her home.

"I think you're forgetting something."

"Which is?"

Sakura walks back out of her living room, eyebrows raised.

"I followed you around all day, I helped you with your tasks, I took you out for lunch, I kept your day free of Lee, and now I'm about to go and face a paranoid well over fifty-year-old for you."

"Thanks!"

Gaara dosn't say anything.

I should have my arms uncrossed, so I can fold them stubbornly... It doesn't have the same effect if I'm doing it all the time...

"Fine," She rolls her eyes and steps forward, stepping again until she's definitely invading what most people respect as personal space. "What else do you want?"

She asks it in a mock-innocent voice, and yet it's a sharp warning at the same time. It says 'be careful here, or you're history'.

"I want to take you out for dinner."

Sakura drops her head in dispair and keeps there a few seconds, before headbutting him lightly and saying, sounding close to laughter again,

"And that, my friend, is why you are slow."

"I don't understand what you mean," He says smoothly, and her head shoots up so she can fix him with a stare.

"You were meant to kiss me," She growls. She had been looking forward to it, planning (okay, as she went along, but it was still planning) it, dancing around certain subjects, been slightly more flirtatious and he has reacted to everything exactly as she expected, until now.

Now he's decided to be deliberately obtuse.

Damn him.

"...So kiss me!"

"And what if I don't want to kiss you? I want to take you out for dinner."

Sounds of stomping feet and hair being pulled. And then ripped out painfully by their pink roots. Sakura doesn't even notice and concentrates on not hitting him over the head with her favourite iron frying pan.

"Well I want you to kiss me. Now."

She'd been waiting all day for this!

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I want to take you out for dinner."

"...Why?"

She deflates a bit, wondering what this means. Doesn't he want to kiss me? Surely kissing me is skipping the dinner thing, where when he takes me home he kisses me. Then she fires up again, thinking leave it to you to ruin what would have been a perfect first kiss. Now I'm going to kill you and feast on your entrails, which is hardly romantic.

"Because it's better than asking you out for breakfast. Is it not?"

Silence.

She realises he is asking a genuine question.

"Yes, Gaara, it is."

"So will you come out to dinner with me?"

Audible grinding of teeth as Sakura stares at him in disbelief. Oh dear God, please let this be a slightly embarrassing joke...

"Yes."

"Good. Now I will kiss you."

"Maybe I don't want you to kiss me anymore. Maybe I feel rejected."

Sakura huffs and crosses her arms, looking away to the side.

She's surprised when he moves forward in an instant and kisses her gently, perfectly, but not really. She knew that he had natural talent when it came to this sort of thing, at reading her emotions. He was quite thoughtful and kind too, always pulled out her chair (even if it was with sand, it's the thought that counts), asked her how she was, helped her and everything. And he didn't seem to be a total pervert, which is a miracle for poor Sakura, who has spent large quantities of time around Kakashi, and more than a few seconds with Jiraiya. It was so difficult to find a gentleman these days... even Lee made pointed comments about her "blooming" in certain areas.

"Can I touch this?"

"No, Gaara, you cannot."