Adulterium

I: It Started With a Storm

It is raining. As it always is in this part of the country. But this rain is carried by a wind that lifts the freezing water into a tornado and crashes it against every inanimate and living thing. Why Gaara is out at this time is beyond anyone. The jerk-ish movements of his car are enough evidence of the fact that he should have stayed at home and away from this horrid weather.

But the redhead drives slowly and with an ease that juxtaposes the wild and angry rain and wind that hits his car.

Despite the weather, there are still a number of vehicles present on the roads. Gaara does not take the highway, in obvious caution of driver's who are not so careful in this kind of weather. Instead he drives on the local road; it will make this small trip last twice as long, but it is worth it to stay on the safe side.

The city he has entered is usually a bustling area but the tornado rain has prevented that this particular morning. The redhead is glad.

A horn honks behind him impatiently when he doesn't gas on the green light right away. He presses his foot on the gas, slightly glaring in his rear view mirror at the car behind him as he turns up the heater in his cold car.

And that's when it happens.

A point in the redhead's life that will change it in such a profound way, that this incident, if not had happened, would completely change the outcome of his entire life.

It is a car crash. A small one. Another driver racing to beat the yellow light makes contact with the left tail light of Gaara's small car, making it spin a full 180 degrees before stopping abruptly, tipping a bit, and crashing back down with an crunching sound.

The redhead behind the wheel is now verging on unconsciousness. His head has made harsh contact with the wheel of his car. It is a miracle he didn't snap his neck. His eyes droop a bit, but he doesn't quite know what is happening to him. He hears a loud tapping at his window. He ignores it, or rather doesn't have the energy to turn and look. He hears the tapper shouting behind the window of the small car. Cursing.

"Shit!" the person was saying. Male. "Shit, shit, shit!"

The redhead isn't fond of cursing, but in this moment, it doesn't matter to him what anyone was saying. All he knows is that his hands are growing slack against the wheel of his car, his head is falling tragically forwards, and his eyelids are losing the ability to hold themselves up.

A small clatter awakes him later on. He blinks up slowly, and tries to adjust to the bright light in the room. He sits up from his previous position and rubs his eyes furiously as an itch presents itself.

"You don't want to do that."

The voice startles him, and he looks up only to groan loudly at the sudden pain that surges above his left eye.

"Your head…pretty hard…blood vessels…left eye…"

His small hands reach to cover his eyes and he begins to breathe deeply as the words coming from the other person invade him in muffled and incoherent sounds.

"What…" he starts to say. He has a soft voice that breaks as he speaks. "Wh-ere…?" He feels an itch in his throat and is prepared to cough. Foreign hands on his face alert him, but he does not open his eyes; he doesn't want the pain to come back.

"Keep…closed…" The words coming from the other person are becoming clearer now. "Don't worry. You're not…too hurt. You'll be…able to move on your own in about an hour or so…" It is a male voice that speaks to him. Gaara dares to open his eyes. Icy green meets with bright blue.

The eyes smiled at him. "I thought I told you to keep your eyes closed." The man says softly. Green eyes blink repeatedly and quickly.

"Who…where—?" he stops short to turn his head, but regrets it seconds later when a sharp pain rises from his shoulder to his neck. It 's as if he had slept on one side of the bed for an entire night, leaving his neck stiff and his shoulder exhausted.

The blue eyed man 'tsk's at the redhead. "I told you not to move." He turns Gaara's head towards him slowly, careful to handle the head in a way that doesn't hurt his neck again. Gaara moves away in a small jerk, making the pain come back temporarily as he narrows his eyes at the man before him.

A nervous laugh comes from the other man. His hand goes behind his head in shame. "Hehe…that's…some glare you got there."

The redhead attempts to sit up, but finds that he is unable to. He never takes his eyes off the stranger, but cautiously leans back in the position he was in before he woke up. "Where am I." his voice loses the pain and confusion it had before, but he still feels the pain. It throbs across his body.

"Uh…" Gaara takes note of the blonde hair the man before him has. Blue eyes and blonde hair. A typical mix, but the man was handsome. "You're at the…hospital?" the man finishes. His voice is high towards the end, and he looks away nervously. "O-or at least that's where I told those guys I would take you….since it was my fault and all…"

Gaara makes a show of looking around, taking note of the clutter, the wooden floors and the piling boxes. "This doesn't look like a hospital."

Another nervous laugh. "Ha. It's….it's not. This is my house."

More staring.

The confusion creeps back on Gaara's face, affecting the glare he'd fixed on the blonde. "What am I doing at your house—" he tries to sit up, a small panic rising in him—

"N-now hold on. Wait." Tanned hands go on the redhead's small shoulders and keep him still. A troubled expression is on the man's face. "Wait, okay? Uhm – don't be….afraid? If you're scared don't be—"

"I'm not."

A pause. "Oh. Okay. Heh. Good. Uhm—"

"What am I doing here."

The blue-eyed man leans back, slowly taking his hands off the redhead's shoulders. When he is fully separated from the injured man he runs a hand though his hair and blows out a loud sigh.

"Right. What are you doing here? Well…" He laughs. "I hit you with my car."

Gaara blinks. Yes. Hit with the car. He remembers this. He remembers the suddenness of the whole thing. He felt it more than saw it. He remembers looking back for one moment, checking the blind spot, when something smashed into the trunk of his car, effectively jerking his head forward against the wheel and letting him slip into unconsciousness.

The redhead's mind was still in a sort of strange haze. He must have hit his head pretty badly. But he still knows he is in trouble. "The car…"

"It was an accident," The blonde continues again. His voice has raised an octave, and it sounds pleading. "I—" he pauses. "I mean, running the red light wasn't an accident, but hitting you was. I-I was in a rush and—"

"Where's my car?" Gaara lets his voice rise a little too, but a small throb above his eye makes his voice come out as a lame thing.

"Don't worry about it. I had my friend pick it up – it's in my garage. I-I'll fix it, no charge! I promise it's – hey…"

Gaara put his head into both hands. It wasn't what the blonde was saying, but it was like something was weighing on his skull all of the sudden, like a throbbing mass was pulsing and pulling his head down.

"You're in a lot of pain." The blonde whispers, and Gaara hears him moving around. "Don't worry about that. I've got something for that. If you'd just let me—"

"I need to go." The redhead says through closed teeth. He is thinking about what time it could be, and how angry a certain someone would be now that he screwed something so simple as picking up groceries and a book from the library up.

"Home? Yeah, home. I'll drive you. I don't—"

"No," It was supposed to come out as a shout, but it came out more like a sigh. With a lot of effort, the redhead picks his head up and tries again to glare at the blonde. "I'll go by myself. Where's my…" he tries to sit up, but ends up falling back down again.

"Be careful," hands are on Gaara's shoulders again. "You can't, not in your condition. I'll drive you home, and I promise I'll fix your car so you can come back and—"

"No." Gaara glared harder at the bright eyes that were so close to his own. "I just," a wince at a sudden pain, "I need to go—"

Blue eyes look lost for a moment, before they shake from side to side. "I'm so fucking selfish." His whisper is harsh. "I should have taken you to the hospital."

"No!" Gaara startles himself just as much as he does the blonde. His eyes dim and his shakes his head. "No hospital." He says more quietly.

"Uhm. All right then. I know what can help the pain though. I have the pills, you see? But I mainly brought you back here because…" another nervous laugh, "I haven't had the inspections for my car in…God knows – maybe years – and I knew that this accident would screw me over so bad, and my wife and I are way behind on the mortgage and I just—"

Gaara couldn't listen anymore to the rambling. The pain in his head, neck, and shoulders was pulling him in and out of consciousness.

"…I just ask that you don't press charges, okay?" And that was the man's voice coming to him again. "I'm begging you."

Gaara shakes his head, not denying or complying. "Take me home. Please."

A pause on the other end. "Uhm…Of course. I…look, about that pain. I have pills. And…you're not pressing charges right? Uh, no – let's not talk about that right now. The pain – I have something. Here."

Gaara feels something being pressed into his mouth, and he pulls away. "What—"

"Don't worry. It's from the hospital I used to work at. Strong stuff. It has similar effects of 800mg of condensed ibuprofen—"

"Stop," the redhead pulls away from whatever the man tries to shove in his mouth. No way was he going to accept pills from a stranger.

"Please, lady just let me do this, all right? It'll help I swear."

Lady? Gaara's sudden surprise catches him off guard long enough that the blonde is able to shove the foreign thing into his temporarily slack mouth. He is ready to spit it out right away but like magic, the mass melts into his mouth and evaporates before he can even blink.

"There." The blonde is giving him a half relieved, half smug look. "You're probably freaking out now, but trust me, sooner rather than later you'll be on cloud ten and that pain is gonna go bye-bye, I promise."

The redhead wants to say something back, but there is a haze behind his eyes. He doesn't know if it is the substance the man just gave him or if it is the impact on his head that was pulling another round on him again.

"Easy there."

More touching. Gaara is too tired to pull away.

"You can sleep here if you want – or just rest, whatever. But I'll take you home tonight and—"

"No…Now. I need…to go now." The pain isn't as bad but the fatigue slowly overcoming him was just as frustrating. "Need to make dinner…" he manages to mumble out, hoping the blonde man would somehow understand his circumstances.

Instead he hears laughter. "I'm sure whoever you've got waiting at home will understand." he says lightly. "So please, just rest a bit more and I'll—"

"Take me home. Please." The redhead isn't sure he managed the scalding tone he was aiming for, but the man before man is suddenly quiet, before he clears his throat.

"All right. All right. I'll take you home."

"Now."

"Right. Now. Right."

Several moments of silence followed after, but the redhead doesn't really notice. He is trying to breathe deeply and trying to think. What was he going to do about the car? What was he going to do about dinner? It was going to be very messy when he got home.

"My name's Naruto by the way. Uzumaki Naruto."

"Gaara." The injured man sighs out, trying to make eye contact.

The blond raises an eyebrow at the man's name. He smiles playfully. "Must have gotten teased for that one, ha. Isn't that a boy's name?"

Gaara hesitates a moment before putting his head down and sighing. He looks away from the blond man. "It is a boy's name." He says quietly. "A name appropriate for a boy - such as myself." He doesn't look at Naruto's reaction, but he knows it's ridiculous.

"A boy such as yourse…? Oh…..Oh.", It is a soft exclamation, but a powerful realization. "I'm…woah. I'm so sorry…" More laughter. "I just…wow – really? That's…wow."

Gaara looks at him with a mouth that doesn't smile, but he supposes it would if it wasn't for the fatigue hitting him.

"When I hit you," the blonde was continuing. "Don't tell my wife but I thought, 'shit I just fucked up a pretty girl's face', and I—" he stops short, laughing nervously. "I mean…I just…I didn't think you…I mean you look like…" the blond shut his mouth after that. He closes his eyes and shakes his head as if he was angry at himself.

Gaara gives him nothing in return, simply sits at on the strange couch he is on, and waits.

"You really can't blame me though…", says Naruto after awhile. He seems to be the type to recover from shame fairly quickly. He is looking at Gaara's clothing now. It isn't exactly feminine, but it isn't what a man would wear. It was a long dark shirt that stopped just above his knees and dark jeans hugged his skin.

"I feel more comfortable when I dress like this." Gaara mumbles. He doesn't know why he was even saying anything. It isn't worth it. All he wants is to go home, face the music, and hopefully get to sleep the horrid feelings of semi-distant pain away.

"And that's totally fine with me. Totally."

"Besides…," Gaara continues. "My husband likes it better when I dress this way." Gaara knows he would never say that unless he was under the influence of something. But for now he just doesn't care much about anything. His mind is acting up, and things were mattering a little less than they should.

"Your husband." Naruto's voice was strained, but somehow still welcoming. "Uh. That's great. I mean – if you like it too of course. Then that's great. Good for you." the man was scrambling around for words, and Gaara thought he felt the tug of a smile on his mouth but he was unsure.

"We're not legally married. Actually, we're not married at all." He says slowly, letting his mouth run ahead without him. "My husband doesn't want to associate himself with such trivial matters like marriage…but…it's nice to think that he is my husband…sometimes." he finishes quietly.

"Well." A swallow. "I don't think marriage is trivial. I mean – if he thinks so, that's cool I guess. But I think you people – I mean, not you people – wh-what I meant was people like you – No. That's not—"

And that did it. Small sounds are coming out of Gaara now. He is laughing. It is the barest of laughs but it is enough to make Naruto, who was now beet red, stop speaking and quietly laugh along too. When a minute passes the noise is dying down, and Naruto is stretching. "All right." he says. "Let's take you home."

He eyes the injured man on the couch with a small frown. "You'll probably need help getting up." He murmurs. "You shouldn't be moving at all yet. I don't know why you don't just stay here for a while. It'll do you good—"

"Please."

Gaara doesn't have to say anything else. He just hears Naruto sigh before there is shuffling again.

"Can you stand up?"

Gaara opens his eyes. He didn't even realize when he closed them. Can he stand up? He isn't so sure. He braces both hands on the soft seat beneath him and sits up. It isn't painful but it is a lethargic movement. "I think…" he begins, but doesn't bother to continue as he hoists himself up. Again, no pain, but a lot of fatigue.

He doesn't think much of the large hand on his shoulder. "Easy there. Just tell me when you feel faint. The stairs are right over there."

The redhead's heart sinks at the mention of stairs and he trips on something.

Naruto chuckles. "I don't think you can make it down these steps without falling flat on your face."

" …Just catch me if I trip." Gaara responds lamely. He's still not all there.

Naruto shakes his head. "Nah, I think I'll just take you down there the same way I brought you up."

Gaara is about to say something when the blond turns around and picks the man up from the floor. He isn't even in the right mind to gasp as he is being carried, but he unconsciously puts his arms around Naruto's neck. Naruto smiles down at him before going down the stairs fairly quickly. Gaara's head bobs up and down and with any more steps Gaara would have probably let go of the blonde, he was so tired.

Naruto puts him down just as easily as he picks him up. "How much do you weigh? Like eighty pounds?"

"A hundred ten." Gaara says absentmindedly.

More laughter in response. "Do you think you'll be able to follow me out?" he asks half jokingly. Gaara doesn't answer, but follows him down a hallway that leads to an enormous living room. Toys are littered everywhere. The couch, the dinner table, the fish tank—

"Sorry about the mess. It's my daughter. She's a bit of a little hurricane that one. And my son – he's sixteen –acts like a two year old too. Honestly, it gets pretty ridiculous around here."

Gaara stands in the middle of the room, taking everything in. The enormity. The mess. It was a nice house. "Children…I tried to have one of those..." his voice comes out as a whisper, and he thinks he doesn't want Naruto to hear him but his mind won't let itself care just yet.

"Right." And that was Naruto sounding nervous again. "Children. Yeah. They're great. And you and your…husband, always have other alternatives, right? Heh…"

They reach the door when Naruto is finished speaking. Gaara follows Naruto out of the house and into a garage that automatically flies open when the blond presses a button on the side of the garage door. In the garage Gaara sees his own car. The tail light is crushed and the trunk is curved upwards in an odd angle. His bumper also hangs loosely from its hinges. He sees the rear view of another car in the driveway as well. It is unscathed besides the orange paint job that was peeling off just below the bumper.

"That's my car." Naruto says while walking towards it. "My wife bought it for me about three years ago." He says opening the door. "I've wrecked it so many times though…It's a surprise it's still working."

When Naruto says that Gaara walks, however slowly, towards the front of the car and he sees that it received more damage than his own car did. The hood of it was also dented upwards, revealing the machinery inside, and the windshield was cracked on the driver's side. The bumper stayed in place but was dented in multiple places.

"I didn't think that…" Gaara starts to say.

Naruto smiles. "Yeah, it got banged up pretty bad. But I deserve it, right? Running a red light at sixty miles per hour in the pouring rain and what not."

When Naruto mentions rain, Gaara realizes that it isn't raining anymore.

"Come on, get in." he hears Naruto yell. He is holding the door open for him. Gaara wonders if the he still thinks he's a woman.

Gaara gets into the passenger seat and stares at Naruto when the man takes his own seat. "Can you drive like this?" he asks the blond slowly. Something – most likely the pill – was making his tongue feel heavy

Naruto nods his head with a little more enthusiasm than the question warrants. "Of course I can! Trust me; I've driven in worse conditions." When Gaara doesn't respond he continues on. "So where do you live?"

"Soonrise."

"Soonrise…? You mean that little brown village over the bridge?"

Gaara frowns. "It isn't a village. It's just a neighborhood. Why do…" he rubs his forehead, "why do people call it a village?"

A shrug. "Probably because of all the little brown houses and the fact that you guys practically have no source of urban civilization there." Naruto makes a turn to enter the road. "Don't you have to drive, like, to the next city to buy groceries?"

Gaara frowns. "We're not a village." He mumbles. "We're just…" he trails off as he remembers exactly why his husband wanted them to live there. His frown deepens a bit. "Besides...it's nice to... have to get away from Soonrise. Even if it's only to shop. It's all all I'm really allowed to do anyway. Shop. Other than that it's utter boredom at home, with unfriendly neighbors who keep to themselves..." He's said to much.

Naruto looks almost uncomfortable. "What?"

The redhead shrugs. "It's nothing. It's just that…where I live…its very quiet…and secluded from everywhere else. I guess people live there so they can be away from people, and do whatever they want without having others gossip about it…"

The blonde seems to catch the slightly bitter tone in his passenger's voice. "What's up?" he asks. Gaara only shakes his head. "Come on, are you alright? Is something wrong?"

"Of course not." The assurance is only a murmur in the injured man's hands, so it's not assurance at all, really. "It's just that…It's getting late…and I haven't started on dinner yet." He looks out the window. He thinks the post-storm look is beautiful from the window of a cruising car. Calm.

"Is this about your husband again?" Gaara is lazily startled out of looking outside, and turns to looks ahead. His eyes are drooping and he listens to his driver with half an ear. "I'm sure he can wait an extra thirty minutes for dinner…" Naruto continues with a frown.

A sound comes out of Gaara that almost sounds like a snort. "No…he won't like that at all…"

Naruto's frown deepens. "What's with this husband of yours? You just exaggerating all of this or is he a-."

"My husband's great. Just forget about it."

The redhead says it dismissively, but perhaps Naruto catches the edge to the tone. "Whatever you say…" he says, and that's all that said for the next fifteen minutes until they reach Gaara's neighborhood.

Little brown houses. All identical. There are no playgrounds, or parks, or toys in any driveway.

"Is it true that only old people live in here? Senior citizens and all that?"

It takes a while for Gaara to respond. It is because he has been falling in and out of sleep. "I don't see my neighbors. I don't know what they look like." He mumbles. He sits up in his seat, and wipes his eyes. "So tired…"

"What's your street number?"

Gaara gives it to him.

"What's your house number?"

Gaara gives it to him. "Park a street before the actual house." He says, already taking off his seatbelt.

Naruto raises an eyebrow. "The rain's starting up again. The least I can do is bring you all the way to the house."

"No,. My husband –I don't want –"

A very strong roll of the eyes from the blonde. "Your husband again. Of course."

"I don't want him to see your car…" Gaara replies calmly from the passenger window. "Thanks for the ride." He opens the door and exits out the car.

It's when Gaara is already several feet away that Naruto remembers something.

"Hey!" he yells, rolling his window down.. The redhead turns around to look at the blond and his eyes widen a little when he sees Naruto getting out of the car walking towards him.

"I forgot to give you my number." Naruto says simply when he reaches him. He hands Gaara a card. "This is an old thing, from where I used to work at. My phone number's there. Just give me a call tomorrow and we'll see how we can arrange the whole car thing."

Gaara takes the card. "I…thanks."

"Wait, let me get your phone number too."

"I don't—"

"Just say it. I'm good at remembering stuff like that."

Rain starts to fall a little heavy, and Gaara stares at the blonde for long moments before he recites the number to him.

"I'll call you." Naruto says when he finishes.

"No. You shouldn't call—"

"Gaara! Is that you?" Gaara doesn't know what he looks like but he's sure his face has never fallen so fast. He murmurs a quick farewell to the blonde and turns away.

Naruto looks up to see a man standing at the front door of what he predicts to be the Gaara's house. He has long hair that flows against the wind and even through the darkness he can see that the man is staring right at him. It is too dark to tell the expression on the man's face, but Naruto waves anyway. A small curt wave before walking away towards his car.

"Your sister called me a little while ago." There is a cigarette in Gaara's husband's mouth. "You weren't over there today."

"I got into an accident."

"Who was that man." It isn't a question.

Gaara looks away from the pale eyes of his husband and speaks in a steady voice. "Neji, please. He was just passing by. He needed directions…"

"Is that so? Where's your car?"

"It's at the repair shop."

"Then how did you get here-"

"I took the train."

Pale eyes do a once over at the wet clothes of a certain redhead, the distant and fatigued look in his eyes. "I'd be careful if I were you, Gaara." The man says quietly. There is a smile on his lips that tells two stories. Each one has a bad ending.

"Start on dinner." The eyes say, before standing with the man they belong to and walking up the stairs.

The rain begins to fall heavily on the roof of the house, and distant cats of the neighborhood howl in fear as thunder claps intangible hands in the sky.

And Gaara starts on dinner.

Word Count: 4,758

How's that for a remake?

End of Chapter