Lee
It took him a while to register what was really going on. When it did hit him, he almost lost control of his instincts entirely and went primal on him. Through means unbeknownst to himself, he managed to possess enough self control to not go primal on him like the beast within him screamed at him to do.
He won’t get a mate out of this, he won’t, he won’t, he—
“Gaara? Are you okay? I’m sorry, I must have come off as being too intense.” Lee releases him from the hug, allowing him space to breathe, yet it doesn’t last for long as his too excited pheromones fill the air, making this harder for him to control, “I know it must be a lot for you to take in, but I really do owe so much to you… It’s only because of you that I won’t be mated to Neji automatically if I lose in a fight against him and he can’t control me with the chakra he put in the mark anymore either. I am free now and it’s all because of you! Maybe I’m being too crazy when I say it, I don’t care though.”
What else could he say to make this harder on him?
First he’s hugging him—Gaara’s never been hugged before so this feels like an out of body experience to him—then he’s thanking him so profusely and now he’s got more to say? What else can he do to make this harder on him?
“Meeting you has been the best thing to ever happen to me. Thank you so much for all that you’ve done for me.”
That. He can do that and really make him snap.
Suddenly, before Lee knows it, sand is randomly shooting all over the place inside the flower shop as Gaara struggles to maintain his civility—no, his own sanity—after everything he’s been told by him.
“What’s wrong? Did I do something to upset you again? Did you lose control of your sand because of me? If so, I’m—”
“Don’t apologize! I don’t want to hear any apologies out of you for this!”
Before the omega can say anything else to really make him lose all control in a breakdown, he unleashes his grievances on him, “Why are you like this to me? Why do you thank me? Why do you speak to me as though I am a friend to you when I am nothing but stranger?”
“I’m like this towards you because I may not know you or what you’ve done in your life, but I like to give everyone a fair chance.” he glances away from him at that moment, making Gaara calm down enough to notice his own apprehension in his eyes as he speaks on what may be a sensitive topic for him, “It’s also because I like you Gaara and if it weren’t for you, I would be mated to Neji now. I know I would have been if I hadn’t been so set on doing the right thing the day you marked my hand. I wouldn’t have a future if it weren’t for you—I’d be stuck mated to some conservative alpha who’d want me to birth pups after my first heat, stuck in a dead life…but thanks to you, I’m free to live my life as I please it.”
Gaara is taken aback by this, yet he smiles with closed eyes and shrugs to him when facing him again, “I know you probably don’t want me to like you, but how can I not? You saved my life from a miserable path when you used your sand on my hands. I will always be grateful to you for that no matter what and I will always want to thank you for it. I know we’re not friends, but it doesn’t mean anything to me. I will always speak to you like a friend because I know despite your rough exterior, you’re a good person.”
The alpha is suddenly composed…only to scoff at what he’s been told, “Good person? Who are you to say such ridiculous things? You do know why I reek of blood, don’t you?”
Lee’s eyes open to this and Gaara doesn’t stop himself from trying to tear down this omega’s image of him in front of his eyes, “I’ve killed many people…even my own mother with my birth. I live only for myself, I love only myself, and whenever I need to feel alive, I work with the demon within me to take a life so I can validate my existence to myself. Good person—how can you call me such a thing when I am none of the above? Tell me, how can you justify any of what I’ve done, any of who I am as a person to yourself?”
He doesn’t waver on his spot. No, Lee takes a moment to process this information and replies with what he feels in his heart is the right thing to say, “I don’t doubt your claims. I know you’re not the type to lie or sugarcoat anything you say to me. I appreciate that about you; far too many alphas and betas in my life sugarcoat things so severely to me it makes me believe they are patronizing me because I’m an omega who can’t handle ‘alpha and beta issues’. You did bad things in your life, but there’s always more to the story. I know there’s more you’re not telling me and because of those missing details, I can’t say you’re actually a bad person. You may not be completely good—who is? No one is completely good or bad, everyone has some redemptive qualities to them. It doesn’t mean I will ever think less of you…anyone can change, even you, Gaara. I know if you opened yourself up to it, you could change for the better like I had and still have to.”
He approaches him a bit closer and makes his stance on this clear as day, “You did bad things, but everyone has. I know I have—”
“Let me guess, you didn’t worship the ground an alpha walked upon once. How bad indeed.”
“No, I didn’t do that—I did something far worse…” Lee doesn’t like to think about it yet he knows Gaara won’t believe him unless if he says it to him, “I didn’t stand up for an omega relative of mine and they wound up being mated to someone awfully abusive towards them.”
Gaara is having a hard time believing the honest, bravehearted Rock Lee would ever do such a thing, “Like you would ever do such a thing.”
The genuine guilt in his eyes had caught him off guard, he’ll give the omega that one, “I’m not lying to you. I was very young when it happened—my clan is strict and very conservative. We are a poor clan though so it’s not uncommon for omegas in the family to be mated off to wealthy alphas or betas in order to get some money out of the wealthy mate. My cousin and I were close, close enough to where I knew of their fears of being mated to this alpha who was cold, cruel, and sadistic towards them. The clan didn’t know of it—if they did, they wouldn’t have done anything about it, but I know their parents would have despite the risk of being disowned. I never said a word about it because I was threatened by the potential mate with murder if I did. I was scared and I acted out of my own selfish need to survive—”
“It’s not selfish. Any child in that position would have done what you did. That doesn’t count as a bad thing like you think it does.”
“But it—”
Gaara silences him with a hard, “Unless if you’ve killed someone or something, tortured someone, or went out of your way to cause someone innocent harm in any way on purpose, then don’t tell me you’ve bad things as well. It feels insulting and like I’ve wasted my time hearing you berate yourself for something other people are at fault for.”
Lee pauses and his guilt is gone, leaving him with the carefree aura Gaara has come to associate him with, “You see? Stuff like this is why I cannot say you are completely bad! You didn’t have to make me feel better about myself, yet you did it anyway. You never had to see me in the hospital, yet you did. You never had to alter Neji’s mark on me or take anything I desire into consideration yet you still did no matter what. You could have killed me many times over and you never did either. Because of that, no matter what you do, I will always give you the benefit of the doubt enough to do this whenever I please.”
He hugs him for a second time, making Gaara wallow in his own primal urges to mark the omega no matter what.
Once more he manages to avoid mating the omega, but the moment he’s released from the hug, he heads over to the door of the flower shop.
Thinking he was finally safe the moment he went outside, he heard the sound of a gentle bell ringing in the air as Lee caught up to him to ask, “Ah, wait, Gaara! I need to know, why didn’t you ever kill me when you had the chance? Why didn’t you remove the mark in my sleep at the hospital when you had the chance?”
Gaara quickly turns this on him with a sharply spoken, “Where did you get that bruise on your face from?”
Lee immediately covers it, with the alpha keeping his back to him the entire time, “Don’t ask me questions if you can’t answer mine. The day you can tell me what happened after our matches were over is the day I can tell why you I didn’t get rid of the mark right away.”
“Wait, you want to know what happened after the battles were over? Why would you want to know that?”
“Like I said before, where did you get that bruise from?”
He can admit Gaara has a point there, “You’re right. It’s unfair of me to demand answers from you when I’m not answering any of your questions. I hope we can see each other again sometime soon. I do like talking to you.”
“Which is strange, but oddly enough something I can see you doing for anyone like me.”
“No, not for anyone like you—just you.”
…And just like that, Gaara went from a rather quick power walk to flat out using his sand to get away from him faster than he was before. He didn’t quite get why, though. Maybe he said something that offended him…oh well. He did mean it when he said it: he wants to speak to Gaara again because he knows he will be gone after the exams are over and he does like talking to him, no matter how strange that may be in his eyes.
Inoichi exits the flower shop to stand by Lee and tell him, “It sounds to me like you’ve got it pretty bad for this alpha.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“What I mean is, you seem to like him a lot and if you ask me, he likes you back. He doesn’t seem to be able to articulate it well, though.”
Lee doesn’t quite believe this due to his own experience with Gaara, “I don’t think that’s his problem, I think may be he’s not used to people being nice to him. I know I was somewhat like that when I first trained with Guy sensei… I think you’re wrong about Gaara and I, though. There’s no way any alpha that handsome would ever look at me and want to mate me.”
Inoichi frowns, finding Lee’s lack of self esteem to be a red flag of something pretty damning about his clan, “Lee, you’re a cute omega. There’s no way he wouldn’t want to date or mate you.”
“No, it’s fine. I know my worth and I know it’s not on par with his.” he looks up to the darkening sky, a glow in his eyes that read of despair as he mused, “I’m lucky to have him in my life, but I know he won’t be staying for long. Once the Chunin exams are over, I’ll never see him again and he’ll find someone new to spend time with, someone who’s good enough for him.”
Lee knows there’s no point in getting his hopes up.
Gaara is far out of his league looks wise. Not only that, but he’s amazing in so many ways he simply isn’t. There’s no way anyone as powerful or handsome as him would want to date or mate someone like him. Gaara is also very blunt on top of it all; if he were interested in him that way, he would have confessed to it by now.
No, Gaara doesn’t like him like that, and he won’t allow himself to think otherwise.
Not only that, but his mother’s threat rings ominous in head as he remembers the painful truth: this is his last month of freedom.
This month is the last full month he has to spend with Ino, Naruto, Guy sensei, and Tenten…this month is the last full month he has to speak to Gaara and show him all of the gratitude in the world before he’s mated off to either Neji or put on auction.
He knows his mother well enough. He knows she wasn’t bluffing when she threatened to put him on auction. He knows if he doesn’t mate Neji when the exams are over, he will be put on auction whether he wants to be or not and he will be sold off to some alpha or beta from a foreign land who won’t be Gaara and he’ll lose everything he has…
There’s no point in thinking about crushes, potential crushes, or feeling anything romantic for anyone else. He’ll have to decide if he wants Neji as a mate or some random alpha or beta from another land so he can make the best out of his future mating situation.
“Worth? You’re worth just as much as him, if not more for being as patient, kind, and loving as you are to him. If you ask me, he’d be crazy to let someone as sweet and accepting as you go.”
He pauses in his thoughts to Inoichi’s words, wanting to believe them deep down only to know it could never be true. Gaara’s out of his league and he doesn’t like him. He cannot afford to distract himself with conspiracy theories like this, not when he still has yet to choose what he will do regarding his mating situation.
“…Maybe, but Gaara’s blunt. If he liked me or wanted to date me, he would have said so. He didn’t and that means he doesn’t. I’m fine with being his friend if that’s all he wants me as. All I ask is to speak to him a few more times before he leaves me behind for good, that’s all.”
Before Inoichi could stop him, Lee was already walking in the opposite direction Gaara went and heading back to his home with the grim reminder of his soon to be fate weighing heavily on his heart.
When he arrived back to his home—his tiny apartment that was tidy despite the small size and less than ideal location—he was met with a letter hanging on his door by a thick needle. Knowing it came from his parents, he removed the needle and took the letter with him inside his home. There, he turned on the light and read the letter, with a inhale he didn’t know he had until after he exhaled upon reading it.
Lee,
I am writing this letter to you to let you know I have begun the process of filling out the paperwork to sell you on auction should you be too incompetent to mate Neji Hyuuga. If you do not mate him after the exams are over, I will sell you off and you will never see this village again. For your own sake, I’ve sent you a copy of the form so you understand how dire of situation this is for you and how imperative it is you do not mess this up for us.
True to her word, right behind the main letter was a copy of the form she filled out for the auction he’d be sold at if he doesn’t mate Neji when the exams are over.
The form is mainly long winded paragraphs essentially asking the parents of the omega if they understand the ramifications of selling off their omega child (ie, running the risk of the omega ending up in an abusive home with an abusive mate, raped and killed on the first night, or leaving the village with a foreign mate to meet an unknown fate that could be worse yet) with both of his parent’s signature at the bottom along with his name right below them, under the part where it states ‘I hereby give up ownership of my omega child, Rock Lee, to the auction house’.
Make the correct decision and your fate is certainly going to be much better. Make the wrong one and you’ll suffer as you should. Either way, time is not on your side. Don’t use this time to dilly-dally about; use it to decide your future as wisely as you can manage.
I’ll see you when the exams are over at the clan home at sunset, until then, goodbye for now, omega
…It’s official then. He’s going to have to make a big decision for himself soon whether he wants to or not.
He will have to choose between Neji or a random stranger at auction, all while facing the fact that no matter what happens, he will never see or hear from Gaara again.