Does he ever train? I wonder what he does when he needs to improve his skills… I sighed, watching the red haired boy walk by the training area. I had never seen him training before.

"Nikkou?"

"Huh? Did you say something?" I looked at the two ninja who had stopped training. They were staring at me. I hadn't heard them talking.

"She asked if you wanted to come over tonight," Kankuro shook his head at me. I always zoned out when I thought about Gaara.

"Sure," I hopped on a fence, "you guys can come over if you want. You know you're always welcome at my house." They had asked if I wanted to go over to their house, but I knew they would rather go to mine. My parents were dead so we wouldn't have to worry about asking permission and they wouldn't have to risk running into their brother.

"Great," Kankuro smiled. Temari told me he liked me, but I didn't believe her; Kankuro was like a brother to me.

"Uh huh," I was still thinking about Gaara, not paying much attention to the conversation.

"You need to stop thinking about him," Temari was still looking at me.

"He's dangerous," Kankuro agreed with his sister, "you should really stay away from him."

"I know," I smiled slightly, they both looked worried, "but I want to see him smile. He's always alone."

"That's because he's a monster," Kankuro sighed.

Temari walked over and leaned against the fence I was sitting on. "We just don't want him to kill you too."

"I know," I squinted at the sky, the sun was starting to get pretty low, "but I can't help but feel bad for him…"

Temari and Kankuro were my closet friends, the closest thing I had to family. They were the only two who knew about my crush on the demon. They didn't approve, but they couldn't do anything to stop me from feeling this way. They thought I was reckless… someone like me, someone with no ninja training, shouldn't get close to Gaara… but I couldn't help it. I would wander around the village or get lost somewhere and I would see him. I always ignored their warnings and refused to keep my distance. When I saw him, I went up to him and said hello. Sometimes I even tried to have conversations but he didn't talk very much.

His eyes are so empty… I want to see something in them.

I heard Kankuro's voice, but I didn't hear what he had said.

"Sorry, what was that?" my head snapped up when Kankuro touched my arm.

"I'll take that as a yes."

Temari laughed at her brother. "Usually that would mean no."

"Well today it's a yes," he frowned.

"You're an idiot," Temari shook her hear.

"Screw it," he put his weapons away, "come on Temari, if she isn't paying attention then she doesn't care when it is."

I struggled when Kankuro picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. he started walking back to Suna with me.

"Really, now?" Temari punched Kankuro, making him drop me, "I thought we were going to train more."

"It's almost dark," he grabbed my arm and helped me stand, "let's just call it quits for the night."

"You're just excited because you've wanted this for a long time.'

"Where are we going? What don't I care about? What did I agree to?" I felt like I had missed something important.

"Don't worry about it," Temari smirked.

Oh no, what have I gotten myself into this time? Why can't I ever just pay attention to what's going on?!

We were almost to the village when I saw Gaara. I slowly left my friends and went over to him; I could feel a blush creeping onto my cheeks as he glared at me.

"Hi Gaara," I smiled at the ground.

"What do you want?"

I looked up at him, blushing harder. "I just wanted to talk for a minute."

He stared at me with his empty eyes. "What is your purpose here?"

"Well… I just wanted to talk… I didn't have a reason not to come over."

He opened his mouth to say something else, but he was interrupted by Kankuro.

"Nikkou, come on!"

Gaara walked away after glaring at his brother. When I walked back over to my friends, I had a huge smile on my face. Out of all of the times I had spoken to him that was the most he had ever said to me… or, almost said. I could get him to say 2 things at the most; he usually didn't even stop to look at me.

"What was that about?" Temari hissed.

"I wanted to talk to him, I'm still trying to make him smile," I giggled, "he almost looked surprised this time."

"That's because no one ever talks to him. People try their best to avoid him," she was watching Gaara walk away.

"Well I want him to know he isn't alone. I don't care if everyone hates him; I don't care if I should be afraid of him… I'm not going to run away from him like everyone else does! He's been alone for long enough, it's time someone showed him they care."

"Stay away from him, the people of this village all have a good reason to avoid him," Kankuro started pulling me toward my house again, "he won't care if you die…he could easily kill you if he wanted you dead."

"Well he hasn't done anything to me yet," I pulled my arm away from him; "he hasn't been hostile or violent toward me. I have yet to see this monster that everyone says is inside of him."

"So what's going on?" I asked Temari after she pushed me into my room. Kankuro was sitting in one of the chairs downstairs.

"You're going on a date with Kankuro," she smirked at me

"What?!"

"He asked you on a date when you were zoning out. He took you're confusion as a yes."

"Why are you helping him with this? I thought we were friends!"

"We ARE friends," she made me sit down while she started brushing my hair, "That's why I'm helping him with this."

"But I don't like him," I sighed and let her get me ready for my date. I knew Kankuro wasn't her favorite person, but she would rather have me with him than with Gaara.

I might as well humor her, it's not like I have much of a choice in the matter… it will just be easier to go along with the dumb idea… besides, what's the worst that could happen, it's just one date.

"Put this on," Temari pulled a light purple dress out of my closet. It was one of the few dresses I owned, one of the ones I hadn't worn before.

"I don't like wearing dresses," I mumbled when I had the strapless dress on. It ended just above my knees.

"Well you're wearing it. You're supposed to dress up for dates, right?" she pushed me in front of a mirror, "besides, it looks nice."

I looked at myself. It did look kind of nice. The purple was the same color as my eyes and half of my short, bronze hair had been pulled back.

"Let's go," she grabbed my arm when she got bored, "I'm hungry."

"You're going too?" I asked…

I thought dates were supposed to be with an even number of people. Wouldn't having three there be awkward?

"I'll be at a different table," she shook her head, "I need to make sure he doesn't try anything weird."

"Sure," I thought about what she had said about being hungry.

She probably just wants to make sure she gets something good to eat too.

"Nice," Kankuro smirked down at me.

"So where are we going?" I was starting to feel uncomfortable; he was still staring at me.

"The restaurant by the academy, I'm not sure what it's called." He rubbed his neck and laughed.

Temari was walking behind us, keeping a safe distance; she said he didn't want to have to listen to her brother try to flirt.

"Oh no," I stopped when we were a few blocks from my house, "I'll be right back… I forgot something."

Temari sighed. "Try to hurry."

I ran back to my house and grabbed some money. Kankuro was my friend, but be could be cheap; he probably didn't have any money on him right now. As I was leaving my house, I saw Gaara down the street.

"Hello again," I walked over to him. I know I said I would be right back, but talking to him shouldn't take very long.

"Why do you always talk to me?"

"Because… well…" I thought about how to answer, "it's because I like you."

"You… like me?"

"Yeah," I blushed slightly.

"What does it mean to like someone?"

"Well, sometimes it means you want to be someone's friends, but sometimes it means more…" I thought for a moment, "it means more for me…"

"More?" he sounded confused.

"Yeah, umm… it's not quite as strong as love, but it's similar."

"How do you know what it is? What does love feel like?"

"Well, it's kind of hard to explain… but for me it's like my heart feels light and fluttery," I smiled at him. He was still staring at me, "it's almost like my heart's going to fly away."

What the-? I looked down and saw sand climbing up my legs.

"W-what are you doing?" I looked at him, starting to panic. The sand was around my waist and it was climbing quickly. He wouldn't answer me, but I saw something slowly fill his eyes. "Gaara?"

He was smiling at me, he had an insane look in his eyes.

"Y-you aren't a monster! I don't think you're a monster! You don't have to do this…"

He's enjoying this? My like really does mean nothing to him… If I had reached out to him sooner… maybe things could have been different… the sand was around my neck now, at least I finally got him to smile…

"I'm sorry," I smiled at him before I was completely encased in sand, "Maybe things could have been different…"

Kankuro, looks like I'm going to miss our date…

"She's taking too long," Kankuro looked at Temari. They were both worried about their friend. Temari started running to Nikkou's house without saying anything. It didn't take long for them to get there.

"Nikkou?" Temari checked all of the rooms, "Nikki?!"

Kankuro paced around the room and looked out the windows. "Dammit… Temari! She's with Gaara!"

"Shit," the girl ran down the stairs and followed Kankuro.

When they got to their brother, it was already too late. Nikkou was completely covered in sand.

"Sand coffin," the red haired boy smiled as the girl was crushed by his sand. Temari and Kankuro watched in horror as their friend's blood slowly discolored the sand.

"What the hell did you do?" Kankuro's anger was stronger than his fear. He just watched the girl he liked be killed by his brother and he hadn't been able to do anything to stop it.

"Don't," Temari grabbed his arm to hold him back. She didn't like it either, but she wasn't going to let him do something stupid… there was nothing they could do for her now.

"Dammit…" Kankuro jerked his arm out of Temari's grip and ran toward Gaara.

"Kankuro! Think first. Do you think she would want either of us to die for this? She's already gone… you can't bring her back.

"Shut up!" He stopped moving and glared at his brother.

Gaara slowly turned to the two. His menacing smile was now gone, replaced with a slight frown. He put his hand over his heart and looked back at his sand. "I needed it to be heavy again, I don't want it to float away…"

This is my first story with Gaara, please review and tell me how it was… I hope you enjoyed it and I'm sorry if it wasn't very great.