Lithium

Chapter 20

"You should really pay attention to your surroundings. They become very dangerous when you least expect it."

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"Honestly Kayla, how many times do I have to tell you – No!"

"But... But Yahra-chaaan! You have to, please!"

"Kayla, I'm going to come out there and beat you. I swear to God..."

It had been like this for the past twenty minutes, the two women arguing over the phone. Kayla's responses were muffled but they were still auditable even where he was sitting from a crossed the table. Gaara could've sworn that Tsuyahra was going to explode anytime now. They had been arguing over her going out into the country to visit her sister's family. Apparently the parents hadn't seen their 'adoptive' child in years, and yet no matter how many times she said no, Kayla was still persistent.

Gaara sighed softly, bringing his hand up to his forehead, his fingers brushing against his tattoo as his jade eyes slowly shifted up from the table to Tsuyahra. It had been a little over a month since Tsuyahra had come home asking him to pry into his older brother's privacy, to try and pin-point what was going on in his and Kayla's relationship. Needless to say, he didn't do anything of the sort. He was a very busy man now, with his company now starting to get the booming business that they needed.

"Then that'll be awesome! You can come see them, you know they miss you!" Kayla's voice took on a higher pitch, more for excitement than anything; apparently she pretended to not hear that she was going to beat her down.

"Kayla..." Tsuyahra had her eyes closed, her hand gripping the telephone tight enough that her knuckles started to turn white, "I am not coming out there! I have things to do right now; I can't just up-and-leave like you can. I need to find something that'll help me with my writing!"

Tsuyahra's eyes slowly opened, and her hand loosened its grip on the phone; she had been so exhausted from just getting back from a CD promotion over in the states, and needless to say she was still very jet-lagged from the time difference. Licking her lips she finally leaned back in the chair and let her head fall back a bit, her long hair falling over the chair and hang just above the floor.

"Seriously though, please Yahra-chan? They really do miss you, and I haven't seen you in a month. You could bring Gaara with you too, you know," She was trying so hard, her voice now pleading, trying to get down to Tsuyahra's heart so she would give up.

And she sighed softly, lifting her head and looking at Gaara. The look in his eyes told her he was going to use this to his advantage. The glint in his eyes – the mischievousness that she rarely ever saw from him... The bastard was planning something, and like slow-motion she watched as he lowered his hand to the table and start opening his mouth.

"Gaara Sabaku, don't you dare say anything, I swear to God I will jump over this table and beat the hell out of you," Her eyes narrowed dangerously, her voice taking on such a tone that she was trying to be as serious as possible, but with his lips curving into a smirk. He was going to do it, and he obviously didn't fear the wrath of the woman in front of him.

"I'm sure Kayla's parents would appreciate seeing you again, Tsuyahra," His voice, it was thick with amusement; it seemed to dance around in her brain, stabbing it over and over. It wasn't long until she heard a scream from the phone and she had to drop it onto the table so her ear would stop ringing from the sudden outburst.

With the phone now out of her hand, and Kayla thoroughly distracted by Gaara pretty much saying they were going to go, she wasn't going to back down on what she had just said to him seconds earlier. Pushing the chair out from underneath her with the back of her knee's she stared him down, her tri-coloured eyes glinting with such evil that even Gaara's eyes widened ever so slightly before the smirk returned to his lips. It was like a challenge.

"Whoo-hoo! Mooom! Tsuyahra's coming to visit and she's bringing her fiancé too!" Kayla's voice was more muffled now that the phone was on the table and she was yelling away from the phone; but even though she was yelling the two in the kitchen couldn't hear her. For you see, Tsuyahra had decided to grab the table and flip it over so that it would hit Gaara in the face, and in the midst of the table flipping into the air, Gaara had effectively moved out of the way when the heavy table hit and crushed his chair. Standing there, the two of them were having a death-match by staring each other down.

Needless to say, Tsuyahra was losing – and she was losing very badly, and when she realized this she smiled sheepishly and laughed lightly, trying to ease the situation; but nothing was happening. Slowly, Gaara took two steps towards her, towering over her like some giant and she felt so small compared to him now that she realized it.

"Heh-heh... I love you Gaara," She smiled again, taking a step back from her spot as he took another, his eyes narrowing more. Slowly, he started to lower himself towards her, before his hand reached out and grabbed the phone and putting it to his ear,

"We'll be there tomorrow. She'll call you later," He didn't allow Kayla to get another word in before pressing the 'end' button on the phone and putting it on the counter that was behind him.

It was very, very uncomfortable when he turned back to face her with a dark grin on his face; and her first instinct? Well, it was simple – She booked it out of the kitchen... well, tried to at least. Having forgot that the chair she had just pushed back with her knee's had actually fallen only a couple inches behind her, and her turning around with the intention to full-out sprint it around the house, she had successfully tripped and landed on the chair, breaking one of the legs as she went down.

The first thing that registered in her head as she fell and broke a chair leg was pain, pain in her right wrist. Hissing lightly, she rolled off the chair and onto the ground on her back, cradling her arm against her chest. Apparently it was very misty in the room, but it cleared when she felt something wet slide down her cheek and Gaara was instantly in her view, crouched down beside her. He looked worried but he was also trying to hold back a laugh.

"Ow... What the hell?" She blinked a couple of times and Gaara shook his head, grabbing behind her shoulders and pulling her into a sitting position. Finally it hit her and she slowly turned her head to look at the chair and she sighed, lowering her head in embarrassment.

"Are you alright, Tsuyahra? You should've known the chair was there."

Was he mocking her? She raised her head and looked at him, eyes narrowed. "Shut up! I forgot about it... Ow, my wrist really hurts though,"

"Probably, here," Gaara reached out and took her hand in his, turning it various ways only to have her hiss. His fingers slid from her hand to her wrist, pressing against the bone and she bit her lip to hold back the cry. "It's not broken, probably just strained. Idiot," He sighed softly, and pulled her to her feet.

"I am not an idiot. It's your fault." She was acting childish now, a slight pout forming on her lips. "I think I deserve something in compensation for what you did to me, you're an abuser!"

Gaara only responded with shaking his head and moving to grab the table and put it back in its place; and he already knew he had to go buy another set of chairs since they were both broken now. Suddenly, the phone started to ring and he raised his head to look at it, but Tsuyahra had already grabbed it and pressed 'talk'.

"Hello, Tsuyahra speaking." She continued to cradle her arm close to her chest, playing up the pain part as much as she possibly could to make her fiancé feel bad. Apparently it wasn't working much.

Gaara turned his head back to the table and as he finally set it up-right again, a loud crash echoed through the kitchen as a large red brick flew in through the window and onto the table, skidding off and landing on the ground, a small white paper tied around it. Gaara's first instinct was to look and see if there was anyone outside, but there was no one there – they had run off.

"...What?" Tsuyahra's voice came out breathless, causing Gaara's eyes to shift back towards her; the look on her face was that of horror. What was said? She swallowed slowly, her eyes shifting down to the brick, her hand shaking as she held the phone to her ear. Gaara took the indication and grabbed the brick, pulling the piece of paper off of it and opening it.

You think you can get away from us? We should have stopped and come after you when you got out of the van that they took you in; but because you harmed one of my boys...

Well, that just means we're going to kill you, Tsuyahra Yakuchi, as well as that man of yours, Gaara.

You won't be safe... and neither will your family be.

There isn't a place safe for you. No one is safe from us.

You will die.

And so will everyone you know.

Sayanora, Yahra-chan.

The letters were hand-written, in such a way that it was hard to read; but the meaning was true to the fear that suddenly resounded in his chest. His heart felt like it was going to explode. Slowly, his jade eyes shifted back to Tsuyahra, and there were tears in her eyes, teeth gritted tightly, she was trying so hard not to suddenly yell, or cry.

"Don't you dare touch her; you keep your hands off of her! I swear if you harm her, I will kill you!" Her voice caught him off guard; she was so cold.

Laughter filled the phone, causing Tsuyahra to shudder slightly. "Oh? You'll kill me? Are you sure about that?" The voice was male, and he started to laugh again, "Not before I kill her first,"

Click.

It was silent until the phone started beeping in her ear over and over. No...Not him. Why was it him, of all the people that it could have been... why? The phone dropped out of her hand and onto the floor, smashing into pieces, and slowly, her legs couldn't keep her up and she pressed against the counter before sliding to the ground.

"...Why?" Her voice sounded so broken, so distraught. The word kept echoing in her head as she tried to piece it together.

"Kayla, honestly you're starting to worry me. What is with you lately? You're all… happy and you're acting like you have everything in the world, when you obviously don't." She motioned to the kitchen they were in; it was actually pretty ratted down, and small like a trailer.

She sighed and put her cup down on the table, her blue eyes saddening and dropping their guard. Looking up at her sister she sniffled lightly, tears brimming her eyes. At this Tsuyahra immediately got up and walked over to her, wrapping and arm around her shoulders.

"What's wrong?" Kayla went to open her mouth but closed it, as if she wasn't ready to say what she wanted to. Tsuyahra squeezed her shoulders lightly. "It's alright Kayla, what's wrong?"

She took a deep breath in, and exhaled slowly and shaky. "Kankuro… I… I think he's cheating on me, Yahra-chan…" She paused, choking lightly on sobs. "I had a phone call… the other day and there was a woman looking for him. She said it was 'important' a meeting of some sort, and that he needed to be there as soon as he could. Me; thinking it was his work, told him to go. He didn't come home until 11 last night and he smelt like a woman's perfume and there was lipstick on his neck."

Gaara was by her side, trying to get her to get up and move out of the kitchen should they throw another brick through the window, but she wouldn't budge. Her hand slowly moved from its spot on the ground to grab his arm tightly. She wasn't looking at him; she stayed staring at the floor.

"You didn't look into Kankuro like I asked you too... did you?" Her voice sounded so small, so broken. All he could do was shake his head, wondering why she'd bring him up.

"Kankuro's going to kill her..." She paused, her hand gripping Gaara's arm tightly, her nails digging into his skin. "Kankuro and Natasha are going to kill her."

R i d 3 r: Sooo, how many of you hate me for not updating in what? Over a year? Yes, yes, BASH ME! DO EET! :D Yeah, I'm sorry guys. Work had been extremely time consuming – I had been promoted and I worked every day, it sucked so I never could get on writing this story. But, I demoted myself, so now it's all good! I'll have more time to update. And! I'm putting in random titles too. I find they can be fun.

Anyways, I hope this chapter is good for you guys. Finally getting the drama back into it.

If ya'll have any questions please ask, I highly appreciate it, and review please! It's been a while since I've wrote a chapter, I might have lost my edge.