Chapter Five: Princes and Halves of Kingdoms

Kankuro was trying to mind his manners and not spy, but his resolve was beginning to fail. After getting up way earlier than he usually did just to match Gaara's schedule, but then waiting for him at the kitchen table for an hour anyway, he was now in front of his brother's bedroom door. And infinitely curious not only about how the date had gone last night, but also about why someone normally so insanely punctual was suddenly sleeping in. He didn't know whether to take it as a good or a bad sign.

He supposed he should lean more towards 'good', as that had been the case with all other deviations from the norm, lately. Suddenly Gaara was smiling to himself in his office (and he could swear that before he had noticed him coming in, he had been humming, too) –he had a date. He had barely touched the snacks Kankuro had brought him –he was just distracted and nervous about said date.

The food had been the reason he had gone to the office, or rather a believable excuse to pry what inside joke he was missing out on.

From a very young age Gaara had made sure to prepare most of his meals himself, as poisoning his food would have been the easiest way to assassinate him, especially when all direct attacks seemed to simply feed his sand. Kankuro was more than informed on the matter that to the right person, any and all poisons imaginable were easily available in this village.

As Gaara therefore only ate when he felt really hungry, especially during his insomniac years he had often just forgotten that he needed to. It was so much of a habit that if it hadn't been for his siblings, or his friends who occasionally dragged him out for lunch (Naruto included, though his infamous definition of lunch, breakfast, dinner and any meal at all couldn't be very healthy either), he would sometimes still have gone a whole day on nothing but tea. Now that he could trust the people around him, though, making sure to at least try any food he was offered –regardless of whether it looked less edible than his own first attempts as a self-taught chef of six years old must have– had become one of his ways of showing that trust, so it had been unusual.

Kankuro looked around to see that no one would catch him pressing his ear to the door. No sounds, not even snoring. Was he in there at all?

Apparently yes, since the door was locked. Well, weren't situations like this what keys were for…

With the quietness of the shinobi he was, he opened the door just enough to see inside. The angle and the darkness in the room limited his vision, but from what he could make out, yes, Gaara was still sleeping. And… what else was wrong with the picture?

It could be the scattered mess of clothing on the floor. Whenever he had seen his little brother's room, it had always been freakishly clean for a boy of his age. He supposed the classic explanation was that having had so little control over his life otherwise, Gaara took comfort in at least keeping his own stuff in perfect order (which had to be the biggest case of irony ever –Kankuro remembered wishing he could be too scary to be nagged at, too, the times any of their caretakers of varying quality had made a remark about the condition of his room). Even that chaos of an office desk was always neat and organized at the end of the day.

Speaking of misplaced clothing, Gaara had his back to the door and the blanket nearly reached his neck, but Kankuro could still tell that he wasn't wearing a shirt. Since when? Gaara always said the desert nights were cold, and though the building had a heating system, his slightly underfed body apparently still felt cold in any temperature lower than 'scorching', and that's why–

Wait.

How had he missed that?

Barely visible, obscured by a pale shoulder, was a head of messy hair in such position that it probably had a cheek pressed against Gaara's (now confirmed bare) chest. And was that a hand peeking from underneath the blanket, resting as if it had been on Gaara's back before its owner fell asleep? Yep, there was definitely an arm draped around his brother's waist.

Gaara was sleeping, possibly naked, and not alone. Kankuro turned away from the door to lean his back against the wall, collect his thoughts and grin for a while. Apparently the date had gone really well indeed.

He quickly reached to shut the door as quietly as he managed, when he suddenly heard a sound of sheets rustling inside the room. Just before he closed the gap between the door and its frame and hastily tiptoed down the hall and then the stairs, he heard Gaara's sleepy voice mutter: "Morning breath. Brush your teeth first."

Now, was that any way to talk to a lady when she was trying to tell you good morning with a kiss? Then again, she was probably used to and unaffected by Gaara's complete inability in the art of sugarcoating, if she had known him long enough to gain his trust and access to his bed.

Back in the kitchen of their little 'home' section of the Kazekage mansion, he found Temari making herself breakfast, mouth gaping in a yawn and hair 'down' (more like pointing in every direction). She eyed him suspiciously, by now being perfectly capable of seeing when one of her brothers was plotting something.

"Good morning, sis," he greeted her with a voice that added 'I know something you don't', and took a seat at the table.

"Hm, I hope it is one," she replied warily. "Where's Gaara, shouldn't he be up by now? I wonder if he's sick."

"No no, quite the contrary…"

"And what would that be?" Her gaze was urging him to drop any guessing games and get to the point, as she was becoming awfully curious about what the hell was going on. She sat down next to him –within range of some more effective interrogation methods, just in case.

"Oh, I guess he's just a little tired and recovering from his date last night," her brother threw at her like it was nothing special, still grinning.

"Date? Our little Gaara?"

"He's not that little anymore. And apparently he's finally realized it himself, too."

"Well, yes, but…" Temari was staring at her toast, trying to get the idea through to her head. Sure, Gaara had never really been a 'child' or a 'teenager', but she couldn't see him as an 'adult' very easily either. He was the Kazekage, but still… their little Gaara? Growing up? Going on a date?

"Come on now, don't look so shocked. Isn't it a good thing?"

Of course it was. She was being silly. She should be happy that her little brother was doing normal things like dating. In some ways, despite of his efforts, he was still very cut off from the rest of the human race, and acting about twenty years older than he really was. His allowing himself to be young and reckless shouldn't be limited to violent tantrums as a twelve-year-old. Temari just nodded and smiled, then quickly looked up at her other little brother.

"And what do you know about this? Who is it?"

Kankuro shrugged. "Didn't get to ask him, but I guess we'll find out soon." He then added the last sentence very audibly, making sure Temari was listening. "She's upstairs right now."

Temari blinked.

"WHAT?"

"Cuddling in his bed, more specifically. Didn't see her face, but I say we wait for them to get down for breakfast. He did mention yesterday that I know her." He recognized his sister's glare and quickly continued. They had all become very adept at sensing when one of them was plotting something. "Not like that! Geez, I can have girl friends without them having been my girlfriends."

Temari sat back in her chair with a huff, seemingly satisfied with the assurances. "I suppose it's better that she's already a friend," she contemplated. "We'll be seeing a lot of her from now on and I hope she isn't one of those trophy-wife-wannabes… though I guess I should trust Gaara to have better taste than that…"

"You almost sound like she's moving in already."

Temari glared again. "She very well may be. I know Kankuros don't take these things very seriously, but Gaaras mate for life. That girl upstairs is probably our future sister-in-law."

Kankuro gulped. Yes, she had better be someone tolerable in that case, all of the previous Kazekage's children were still living together, after all (because, really, why move out from the most well-off household in Suna?). Gaara had said Kankuro knew her, but nothing about her being his friend. What did 'definitely not one of your exes' mean, anyway? If she was obviously not someone he would ever date, would she also be someone he wouldn't get along with?

They both snapped out of their thoughts at the sound of footsteps down the stairs. Kankuro saw Temari's mouth silently form the words 'behave yourself', and anxiously directed his gaze at the door.

Gaara stepped in, alone, dressed in the kind of simple clothes he usually wore underneath his robes, looking no different from any other morning. He nodded at his staring siblings and made his way to the jug kettle sitting on the counter.

"Where's your girlfriend?" Kankuro asked, and immediately got smacked on the back of his head by Temari.

"Very subtle," she whispered.

"Putting some clothes on," Gaara stated, filling the kettle with a little more water than he usually needed. He was glad he had his back to his siblings, or they would have seen him smirking. Of course, he had been awake for about an hour already, waiting for Naruto to wake up, and had noticed Kankuro peeking into his room a while ago. A blunt answer to a blunt question.

"So uh… did you get dinner at all?" Kankuro tried, suddenly worried about his brother's eating again. Though it did also come off as an 'or did you just go to your room and skip straight to the good stuff?'.

"No." Gaara dug his tea out of the cupboard and continued his search. He was fairly sure of which shelf held the dish he knew his 'girlfriend' would want to include in his breakfast. Since he had visited him so often as a friend, they had an ample supply in their kitchen… somewhere.

Kankuro's only reaction to his answer was a raise of eyebrows and an amused 'hm'.

"We did eat, though, so don't worry," Gaara said as he returned to the kettle, having finally found what he was looking for. "We woke up around midnight and came down here for a snack."

He thought it best to leave out what else they had done in the kitchen, involving wearing only dressing robes (which had become opened dressing robes pretty soon, no less), trying to sit in the same chair, and things they had hurried back to the bedroom to finish. No reason to make the revelation any more traumatizing.

Two heads turned to the door again as another set of footsteps was heard on the stairs. Gaara simply sat down and set on the table in front of the vacant seat next to him a cup of steaming instant–

"Ramen!"

Temari and Kankuro stared speechlessly as Naruto strode to his seat, kissed their brother on the top of his head with a half-squeak-half-cooing of 'Thanks Gaara, you're the best', and begun to devour his breakfast.

Temari recovered first, with a twitch. "N-Naruto? What are you doing here?"

"Good question," Naruto grinned up from his already nearly finished noodles and sent a sly glance at his boyfriend. "Who knew Gaara was the type to have sex on the first date."

As both of his siblings seemed to have gone mute again, Gaara spoke up: "Temari, Kankuro –I'd like you to meet my girlfriend, Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto put an arm around Gaara's shoulders and waved a little with his other hand. "Hi."

This was a prank. It had to be. Then again… it made sense, didn't it? Who else did Gaara ever pay that much attention to; he even spoke about Naruto all the time when he wasn't around. Temari had assumed it was just because of the effects the sunny foxboy's view on life had had on Gaara's own, and because they had so much in common and Naruto had saved his life once… but how had she not noticed the way they looked at each other? Who had she been kidding, Gaara never looked at any girls like that.

And of course, somebody had to have done to Naruto's neck what Gaara's higher-collared shirt was probably hiding on his.

Beside her, Kankuro had obviously reached the same conclusion, though he put it less romantically.

"So am I to understand that you fucked my brother last night?"

"Honestly, no. It was the other way around," Naruto replied and stuffed the last of his ramen into his mouth, wondering whether Kankuro's once again surprised face was more due to what he had said or the casual tone he had said it with. It should be the latter –he was pretty sure the kanji on Gaara's forehead read out as 'ai' and not 'uke'.

"…I don't want details."

"You wouldn't be getting any," Gaara mumbled from behind his tea mug.

Temari sighed. "Well, you know what I have to say now, don't you." She leaned over to Naruto and looked him in the eye, making him move back in his chair. "If I ever see him upset and clutching his shirt over his heart because of you…"

Naruto nodded frantically. "…you'll kick my ass. Got it," he finished for her, not too keen on hearing her version of the rest of the sentence. "Trust me, I'd rather kick my own ass than hurt him. I could do that, too –shadow clones!"

Temari gave him a wide toothy smile that almost looked like a scarier version of his signature fox-grin, and ruffled his hair. "There's a good boy. Welcome to the family, then. Kankuro?" She turned to look at her brother, who also cowered a little at being the center of her attention.

"Oh, well, I guess I should have seen this coming a mile away," he admitted. "And I know I wouldn't be able to make him change his mind if I wanted to–" He was glad to see Gaara nod at this statement. No, he didn't really want to. Naruto practically was part of the family already. "–so I guess you're okay by me, too. Just remember what Temari said, because I'll help her."

"I promise. Want me to do a nice-guy pose, too?"

Kankuro gestured at him as if it was, naturally, to be expected, when a pale hand grabbed him by the sleeve of his t-shirt before he could get up. Concluding the 'introductions' with a look of both approval and amusement, Gaara moved on. "I will be taking a day off work today, except for one prearranged meeting taking place an hour from now. I would like your advice before that, Temari."

She nodded, and he turned to Naruto. "I will meet up with you once that's over. Don't go too far."

Naruto kissed him on the lips, watching from the corner of his eye the reactions of his newly acquired in-laws. "Wouldn't waste our day together on looking for each other all over Suna," he said with a smirk.

Gaara smiled back at him, trying very hard to ready himself to break a little girl's heart when his own was feeling so unprecedentedly intact. He knew this was still far from a 'happily ever after', and in the very least they would likely never be able to live together permanently, but their devotion to each other and their loyalty and ambitions for their villages didn't have to be mutually exclusive. If anything, these different types of love should serve to only strengthen one another further. Chiyo-baasama had entrusted this world to the two of them, and they would look after it together to their best ability.

But farsightedness aside, right now he was going to enjoy his week with Naruto, and perhaps a little more.

Yes, why not? The current Hokage should probably be made aware of the latest development concerning her successor, and it was quite frankly his duty to be present at that discussion (come to think of it, it wouldn't be much unlike the situation he had just put Naruto through). Surely it wouldn't be too much to ask to have Konoha lodge him for a week in turn, seeing as he wouldn't even require a hotel room, or a spare bed, for that matter.

And perhaps Naruto would even be allowed to walk him home after that.