Gosh Diddly Darn It
Izuku vaguely recalled Gaara saying he'd kill everyone if he fell asleep.
That was a problem in itself, but there was a worse one.
He was asleep.
Tossing and turning and digging into Izuku's arm with his nails, that looked like he sharpened with sandpaper for some reason, but asleep.
Izuku panicked, because his friend was having a nightmare or something and-
He was possessed by Shukaku, right?
And if you're possessed, it takes control-
"FRIDGE!" screamed Izuku, rolling over and shaking his shoulders violently.
The gourd in the corner of the room shuddered, and sand came spilling out.
Izuku started breathing quickly, but grit his teeth in determination.
To do what, he didn't know.
. . . Wait, didn't Gaara have a sister?
Named. . . Temari?
Izuku shook his head and began lightly slapping Gaara in the face.
"WAKE UP DARN IT!"
His eyelids twitched, and Izuku sighed.
The sand was twirling all around the room.
Izuku did nothing but gasp as it began sharpening into spikes and slamming around him.
But. . . The spikes didn't hit him.
He saw them veer off course and hit the wall.
"Thank All Might-"
Gaara's eyes opened.
And they sure as heck weren't green.
--
Gaara felt. . . Foggy.
He knew from experience that wasn't a good thing.
Shukaku had tried, or was currently trying, to take control.
He felt someone shaking him, trying to get him awake.
Probably Kankuro or Temari.
But then Gaara felt something wet on his cheek, and he didn't know what it was.
It was weird.
He tried to open his eyes, but it was too much.
He tried to move something, but he couldn't.
Gaara knew it would be catastrophic if he didn't do anything.
He could be trying to kill someone right then and if he gave up, they would die.
An innocent person would die because he was too tired.
That's pathetic and weak.
So he opened his eyes.
Deku was looking at him.
He was crying.
"OH THANK GOODNESS YOU'RE AWAKE I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!"
Deku pulled Gaara up and hugged him.
"Why-" Gaara stopped. What would happen if he kept talking? Would Deku abandon him? Would he want him dead? Oh god what I'd they took part in a battle to the death? Deku would surely die.
"I had to punch you in the face to wake you up. Ahm- so-sorry."
"It's- fine."
Gaara was still quite confused as to why Deku was hugging him- he was a monster, a creature of destruction and pain.
You don't hug creatures of destruction and pain.
He shrugged his shoulders, to get Deku off, his face burning.
Deku let go.
"Sorry- I like hugs," said Deku.
"Why are you bleeding?" Gaara asked.
"Well- you kind of stabbed me with sand- not that that should be a cause of concern."
"I think that's a cause of concern."
"Yeah- I think I'm going to pass out-"
"Deku, what are you talking about- OH."
Deku fell back into Gaara's arms, and he saw a spike of sand sticking out of his back.
"Shukaku did this," Gaara tried to convince himself. "Shukaku."
He tried to carry Deku in a way that wouldn't injure him even further, but decided the sand could do it since he had the muscle mass of a worm.
--
Temari was just trying to eat breakfast.
When she heard weird noises, she decided she definitely owed Kankuro ten bucks.
Nevermind-
Gaara was trying to carry the green haired boy whose name she never got up the stairs.
The kid was crying while unconscious, and Gaara decided halfway up the stairs just to make sand get him the rest of the way.
"Temari, do you know healing jutsu?"
Temari paled.
"I- I think Kankuro does- I'm not sure-"
"Just-" Gaara took a deep breath, Temari saw his apathetic demeanor slowly cracking- "find someone who does."
Temari nodded and got up from the chair and ran upstairs, deciding Kankuro was probably in his room listening to music instead of being productive.
"KANKURO!" Temari yelled, slamming open the his door and wrinkling her nose at how absolutely disgusting his room was. "DO YOU KNOW ANY HEALING JUTSU!?"
"Yeah- why?" Kankuro asked.
"Green boi has been stabbed."
"I got contacts, stupid, I'm not colorblind anym-"
"NOT GAARA GREEN BOI JUST-" she sighed- "GET THE HELL DOWN HERE!"
Kankuro shoved off his headphones and literally jumped off the top of the stairs, stuck the landing, and looked around wildly.
"WHO DIED!?"
--
Kankuro was listening to his favorite song, "Crazy = Genius" by Panic! At The Disco when Temari screamed like a maniac and Gaara learned feelings for once.
Green Boi was laying on the couch when Gaara asked something.
"He'll be fine, right?" he'd asked.
"Yeah, he'll be okay," Kankuro had said.
Green Boi woke up in like ten minutes, which was good because Gaara would have killed everyone in Suna if it'd been longer.
"You're wearing a lot of lipstick," Green Boi said.
Kankuro scowled.
"Oi, I saved your sorry ass, you should be thanking me."
--
"You should be thanking me," said the boy with cat ears.
Izuku paled instantly.
"I'm sorry- thank you for saving me, by the way- hey, at least I didn't break my arms this time," he tried to joke, only to realize nobody got it.
"Right- sorry."
He scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
"Uhm-, I'm Izuku- you are?"
"Kankuro," said the kid with a black sweatshirt and face paint and a weird hood.
"I'm Temari," Temari said. "Sorry about being so crazy yesterday." Izuku saw her sweat nervously. "I was a bit drunk-"
"It's okay," Izuku said. He turned to Gaara, who was leaning against a wall.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"What?" Gaara said, jerking his head up.
"Are you okay?"
"Why are you asking me that?"
Izuku saw Temari put her head in her hands and Kankuro tip his head back, screaming at the ceiling.
"Well- your eyes were black, so that wasn't good- and you did say you'd kill everyone, and something about Shu-"
"Yes. I am fine," Gaara said, probably trying to hint for Izuku to shut up because that was sensitive info or something.
Izuku didn't believe him, obviously, but it's fine. He'd ask later.
Kankuro went back upstairs, probably to his room, still silently screaming at the ceiling.
Temari followed Kankuro, but winked at either Izuku or Gaara, or both.
They looked at each other.
--
Gaara sat down next to Deku.
It was his fault that he'd gotten hurt, he stabbed in the gosh darn back for truck's sake.
"I'm sorry for stabbing you in the back," Gaara said softly.
Deku gave headpats.
Gaara's face was probably red.
"I'm serious."
"I didn't say anything," Deku said slyly.
"You implied something, probably."
"What?"
". . . Not sure yet."
"Okay."
Gaara sighed.
"No, I-" Deku wouldn't be mad if he apologized, right? He was admitting it was his fault. Not like anything bad could happen- "I'm sorry. I stabbed you in the back with sand and now you're hurt and I'm sorry."
Deku was looking at him blankly.
"W-what!?"
"It's not your fault, Gaara-kun."
"What are you-?"
"It's not your fault," Deku said again. "It wasn't you, I'm no expert but your eyes turned black." Gaara saw Deku lace his fingers together as he shook his head. "It wasn't you."
"How do you know?" Fridge- Gaara definitely did NOT mean to say that out loud.
"Well, I d-dont think you would do- do some-something like that on purp- on purpose."
"But how do you KNOW, Deku-kun!?" Gaara felt something in his chest. His heart felt squeezed, and his stomach dropped to his knees, and he wanted to cry but also scream.
"Because you are a goOD PERSON!" Deku yelled.
"BUT WHAT IF I'M NOT!" Gaara was too far in to shut up now. "YOU'VE ONLY KNOWN ME FOR A DAY! YOU DON'T KNOW ME!"
--
Izuku sighed.
"This is gonna be another Kacchan thing, isn't it," he murmured.
"What?"
"Fine." Izuku sighed. "LET'S FIGHT!"
Izuku saw Gaara blink in disbelief.
"Wow," the Green Boi said. "Sorry, it worked on Kacchan."
"Who's Kacchan?"
Izuku smiled nervously.
"He was my c-childhood fri-friend."
"The same one that called you useless?"
Izuku chuckled. "Yup, that's the one."
Gaara sighed. "He sounds like he has a superiority complex and an inferiority complex at the same time."
Izuku grinned.
"And being someone with a God complex and monster complex at the same time, I know firsthand that can be pretty catastrophic."
Izuku snickered.
--
Deku snickered.
Gaara felt his face flush.
"Sorry for yelling at y-"
"I never thought I'd be the one to say t-this," Deku said. Oh crud did the think he was rude for being angry? Or a monster? He was a monster, but he didn't want Deku to think so!- "but h-holy crap you ap-pologize a l-lot."
"I don't want you to get mad," Gaara said defensively.
"AAH! I DON'T MEAN THAT AS A BAD THING JUST YOU APOLOGIZE MORE THAN ME AND SINCE I ONCE APOLOGIZED BECAUSE A DOG BIT SOME RANDOM PERSON, AND IT WASN'T EVEN MY DOG, THAT'S SAYING A LOT."
Gaara's mouth curled up slightly, which felt weird.
Deku grinned and gave headpats.
"You're smiling!"
Gaara let himself grin, causing Deku to grin, causing Gaara's face to get hot.
But Gaara's face fell as he heard a whisper of, "you owe me ten bucks."
Deku whirled around to face the stairs.
Gaara's eyes widened as he saw green lightning crackle around him.
Temari ran down the stairs.
"We were betting on how gay Gaara us," Temari said.
The redhead flushed and grit his teeth.
"I swear-"
"Hey Green Boi-"
"My name is still Izuku."
"I'm calling you Green Boi." Temari cleared her throat. "Anyways, do you wanna hear the events leading up to that?"
Gaara saw Deku glance at him, and he snarled slightly.
Izuku shrugged, completely disregarding the scowl on Gaara's face.
"He might kill me-" you don't know how right you are, stupid truck- "but sure!"
Temari grinned. She resembled a jackal or something. Gaara was resisting the urge to put her in a very nice sand coffin.
"Sit down, this'll take a bit."