Midnight Meetings and Blood Red Roses

She feels an overwhelming sense of homesickness after two years – after all, she had lived in Suna for quite a while.

There are long fights and arguments and discussions but eventually, her parents allow her to visit her friend turned penpal for a few weeks. Kari is careful to avoid to Kazekage compound and any redheads while in Suna. She sees the hatred the village for Gaara and she hears of Gaara's frightening exploits and she can't help but feel fear.

She remembers Maiko-chan's terrified eyes when she'd walked past a bed of beautiful Suna desert roses in the park.

'Kari-chan, come away from there!'

'Mou, Maiko-chan, what's wrong?'

Maiko's lips tensed.

'They say the roses are so red… because of all the blood Gaara spilt over them. The blood of the Suna Shinobi.'

One evening, she's returning to Maiko's home from visiting a family friend when she bumps into someone accidentally. Kari had been busy admiring the purple coloured sunset over the long dunes of sand and hadn't been paying attention. She gets up and picks up the book she'd been gifted from the family friend.

'Mou, I'm so sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going. I hope –'

Her sentence is cut off when her eyes confirm that she has indeed, bumped into Suna's ultimate weapon. Her breath is caught in her throat as she stands there, paralysed. And then.

'Gaara-kun.'

She whispers reflexively and it's possibly the stupidest thing she could do because the words pull Gaara out of thinking – if he had been thinking and his cold teal eyes take her in wordlessly and sand slivers toward her. She notes the word kanji that Gaara now seems to have on the left side of his head and thinks how it is the absolutely most inaccurate word to describe Gaara.

She whimpers as the sand wraps around her ankle and she remembers the pain from over three years ago. Not again.

She trembles as the sand makes its way up her legs, and the book she was holding drops onto the surrounding sand with a thud. This time, no one would save her.

Gaara's eyes flicker onto the book that fell. Aesop's Fables. He stares at her. She doesn't see his lips move, doesn't see him move, as the sand falls back onto the ground,loosing it's shape and Gaara disappears with a warning ringing in the air.

'Next time… I'll kill you.'

She falls to the ground, trembling, as she's left in the dark alleyway.

She takes extra care, the next few weeks in Suna to make sure she doesn't bump into anyone, that she doesn't see Gaara as she blends in with the crowd.

Maiko-chan follows Kairi to Konoha for a few weeks as well to visit and Maiko laughs as she runs through the grass and picks flowers and walks around in short sleeves because she can and she won't get a sunburn.

Somehow though, everything has changed. And she starts feeling less and less homesick after the last visit.