Okay, I lied, maybe this might not be the final chapter of the InoGaa... but happy new year, anyway!

Ino watched the desert moon from the top of the Administration tower, marveling at how the collective vapor from the warm bodies below her made it look like somebody had forged the sky and stars from frosted glass. After three months of working as Gaara's secretary, the Kunoichi still found things in Suna that left her breathless; the sheer pleasure taken in running along the smooth ceramic buildings left her panting in some unknown cove among the ventilation chimneys almost every week. Her precious flowers didn't grow here, although the yearly monsoon left the sands transformed into a miasma of blooms from the latent cacti, making them all the more precious to her.

She shivered, and instinctively drew herself further into the blanket. The hardened clay that she sat on was still warm from the day, but the air had turned unbearably chilly once the night went full swing. Pausing to take a sip from a lukewarm cup of coffee beside her, she looked up and tried to remember the position of Lupus in the sky, trying to understand Tenten's fixation with horoscopes and the like. She could understand how the practice evolved, since the stars and moon were more or less reliable in times, but the idea that the time the child was conceived having an impact on personality was a little beyond her.

A grain of sand tipped from her bench, and she smiled to her right, catching the Kazekage in mid stride as he walked silently towards her. Clearing her mug from the only other space, she nodded as he accepted the invitation to sit and slumped down awkwardly, hands drooped between his legs.

"Busy day?" She asked, patting his leg. He turned his ringed eyes to face her and nodded, silent. She continued on, shaking her head a little to get more blood to her brain, not noticing the way his gaze lingered on her hair.

"You know, I think Kankuro would like to delegate for a couple of weeks, let you have a break."

"He hates paperwork." Gaara confessed, "He's only doing it because he's worried about me. Not to mention that the elders would call Nepotism into suspicion."

"It's not a promotion, he's just taking up the less important stuff, like the D-ranks and Academy reports." Ino reminded him, feeling her arm trace up the side of the unresponsive man's robe to rest on his shoulder, slowly kneading the tense muscle underneath the red fabric.

"If you can explain that one to the Elders and actually convince them, you're more a genius than the Nara." Gaara chuckled, holding back a groan as she massaged out a particularly strained knot. They continued on in silence, Ino having a little difficulty giving a backrub with one hand and drinking coffee with the other.

Eventually, the rubbing stopped, and Ino withdrew her fingers back into the coarse wool blanket, trying to conserve as much warmth as was possible.

"A drop for your thoughts."

Ino jumped at the sudden question, no, demand. Gaara wasn't looking at her, more rather staring directly at the moon with an intensity that she couldn't help but gawk at. Pulling herself together and biting her lip, she contemplated something that would probably end the conversation there. It was too nice, sitting in silence, to let a simple platitude get in the way.

"Horoscopes. I know they're bogus, but I can't help but feel there's something to them."

"There is. There's a grain of truth in it."

"No kidding?" Ino blinked as Gaara flashed her a rare smile, one that she found he only used when he was given the chance to teach somebody something. To be fair, though, she'd only caught that smile at her, maybe he was just trying to be friendly?

"No. The time of birth denotes what foods would have been in season, and what the mother would have eaten during that time. Not only the nutrition of the baby, but the ease of access to certain proteins and foods can alter the mental growth of the brain." Gaara used a finger to direct the sand that had blown in since the balcony had been last cleaned, forming a circle with twelve notches. "In winter, with the longer nights and lack of mammalian prey, fish would have been the food of choice, as well as foods that kept well, like potatoes."

"I see." Ino nodded, wondering why Gaara had taken an interest in this himself. Was the Kazekage suspicious? Did he touch wood, wear a horseshoe around his neck or avoid stepping in the cracks? That was blackmail material, sure enough…

"And then there are the activities performed while the baby's brain is forming. In Summer, the clan would most likely emigrate if it was nomadic or begin toiling the fields if they were a community. That could mean different jobs and laxities on the new mothers, and so therefore-"

"I get the drift, Gaara-kun." Ino sighed, giggling when he flinched at the familiar suffix, "So how do you know this stuff?"

"We're a desert people, Ino. We were delving into astrology, maths and chemistry centuries before your people did." He replied, looking rather smug as he did so.

"Oh really? If your people were so smart, how come we're at the same technological level, hmm?" Ino teased, but she knew the answer even before the word left the Kage's lips.

"Trade."

"Let me guess, you traded ideas for food."

"That's a very simple way of looking at it, but yes, we did have difficulties sustaining our people and our cities when the Dry season ran too long." Gaara nodded, impressed. "In return, you offered some of your ideas to us in return for more luxurious goods."

"Konoha? Good ideas?" Ino scoffed, not entirely proud of her homeland, "The best idea we ever had was to form up the Torture and Interrogation sections, all the Kami know we use them a helluva lot."

"Steel."

"Huh?" Ino turned back, meeting with the Green eyes again, biting her lip once she caught herself staring again. She made up her mind to end the conversation quickly and get the boss indoors; he was burning up around the face from the cold.

Waitaminute, isn't it the other way arou-

"Konoha has very, very good steel. The Blast forging techniques are probably more valuable then any five S-rank secrets you could care to mention. In addition, the Iron sand around the Kabashi shore is very poor grade, and-"

"Gaara, stop."

"Why?"

"You're babbling. You don't have to tell me so much, you know."

They both sat in silence for a moment. Ino looking at her hands, cupped in her lap over the blanket, Gaara staring at the moon again with a distant expression. After a good ten seconds, he spoke again.

"I was trying to impress you."

Another ten minutes, this time with Ino's face slowly heating from the possible implications.

"Did it work?"

It was a while before the Kunoichi was able to respond, clearing her throat several times until she felt confident enough in the stability of her voice. She glanced at him, noticing with a tinge of guilt that he was copying her posture, looking very small as his eyes played on the short fingers that curved over each other.

"I'm… impressed, but not because you're so informed, Gaara." She blurted out, regretting it immediately. If she hadn't said the last part, he wouldn't have bothered to ask the inevitable question that followed:

"Then why are you impressed?" His voice was soft, unwavering. She could imagine him praying in that tone, almost reverential and never quite believing what anyone told him, blunted by human wrath and the sour taste of betrayal.

"Because you tried. Because you always try, even when you shouldn't, even when you don't want to." Ino tried to think of a way to come up with a better way of putting it. "Well, it's like running Suna country, right? People don't think you'd want to, or even would be good at it, but you try anyway, right? And you surprise them, because you love the country that hates you and you want to make it prosperous, and a country run by hate is a weak one."

"That was a very long explanation." Gaara nodded.

"Gee, thanks. Anything else you want to add?" She huffed, annoyed at the smug look that once again hinted at the corners of his mouth.

"It was also very accurate. But it is lacking something."

"Gaara, if the words 'Topless' or 'Striptease' enter the next sentence, I'll show you why Kankuro flinches every time he passes me in the halls." Ino clenched her fist, hoping that the similarities twixt Naruto and Gaara stopped at the persistence. Perversion in a Tanuki-vessel could have very, very sticky consequences… literally.

"Commitment. A man can give up; want to give in, especially when logic tells him so. He makes a commitment to the things he loves, and he lives for those till the day he dies." Gaara made a choked sound that could be interpreted as a held-in laugh, but Ino was too busy listening to the words.

"And I made a commitment to this village, even if it hasn't given one back. But that's all I have wanted, even if it is not returned, my love for my home is probably the thing that's kept me alive all these years."

Ino sighed into the air, a cloud of vapour pouring from her mouth to curl into nothingness before the stars. "That's very… very noble of you, Gaara."

The silence returned, the cup of coffee cold and still between them as they watched the moon and stars.

"And what about you, Ino? Do you have a commitment? Do you have someone or something to commit to?"

"No, not really. I'm still deciding."

"Would…"

"Hmm?" She asked, confused. For a moment there, Gaara of the Desert had sounded tentative, almost afraid. But one look at his face showed the usual stoic exterior that she had come to find comfort in, almost… admiration.

"Would you like one?"

"It would be nice, I guess. But I've no idea what-"

"Me."

Ino froze, the words dying in her mouth. Commitment? Gaara?! Was he asking for marriage?!?

"I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I… what?!"

"What is the matter?"

"W-we barely know each other! I had to tell you off the other day for making me an omelet… again! I can't marry a man who doesn't appreciate that people eat other things for breakfast! There's other stuff, like cereal, and toast, and leftover cake-"

"Ino."

"- pie! And another thing, my parents would flip! Imagine if I came home and said 'Oh hi, mom, dad, I'm married now and I'm popping out three babies a week! Sorry you missed it! And they'd be all-"

"Ino."

"- over the head with a fridge! Then I'd have to go and explain to all my friends that-"

"Ino!"

"-Goat tied to the bed!!"

Panting a little from her outburst, Ino pulled herself together and gave the Kazekage her deadliest glare. "Yes, Gaara-sama?"

She gloated a little inside as he drew back, and gloated some more when he visibly gulped. She ceased to gloat when the movement began focusing her attention on his lean, smooth neck…

"I didn't mean marriage."

"Oh." Ino couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. She would have been able to brag to her friends that she'd turned down the leader of one of the biggest countries on the Earth if that was the case.

"I meant a bond. Of friendship." Gaara smiled, and Ino –in spite of the cheesiness it all must have seemed to an outsider listening in—felt herself going gooey.

"Awww, Gaara-kun, that's so sweet!"

"Yes. A bond of friendship."

"Yup!"

"Then marriage."

If there was a sound to describe Ino's mind at that moment, it would have been clunk.

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?!"

--

"I can't believe this is happening! How could you!" Ino hissed, clad in white and shooting evil eyes at the groom on the altar.

"You don't want this?" He asked her, and she couldn't help but whimper a soft 'yes' and try to answer why she wanted him, his lonely standing or his unconditional love, his nobility.

Ino couldn't answer, and kissed him anyway.

Righto! Now, there's a poll up on my profile, check it out. And remember to click the link at the bottom of my profile, it's a great spoof of popular animes and pretty damn fun in the bargain. Oh, and review too, that would be sweet. Feel free to question me!