Hiraeth

Ino was... nice. Slightly overbearing and loud, but nice.

It made Gaara uncomfortable.

Said girl was currently leading him around school, winding through the hallways with a vice grip on the short boy’s wrist (who couldn’t get out of it no matter how hard he tried, much to his annoyance) and chattering nonstop about the various clubs and activities provided at Konoha.

“And the drama club is nice, but really pretentious. There’s a pair of twins there who’ll bite off your head if you show any bit of talent so if I were you I’d stay away. Far, far away.”

Gaara nodded every once in a while, pretending like he was listening when in actuality he was combing the halls for the group of boys from earlier, and most of all Sasuke. He shuddered slightly, flexing his fingers in shame and anger. He had lost control in front of Sasuke and learned that the guy never actually liked him in the first place all in one day.

Ino abruptly stopped, drawing Gaara out of his thoughts with a “We’re here,” and a soft, reassuring squeeze on his wrist. He looked up at the sign hanging on the wall in front of him and turned to Ino.

“The library?”

Ino nodded and smiled down at him. “Yep. Figured you’d like some peace and quiet after today.”

Gaara looked down at his shoes and grumbled noncommittally, tugging at the jacket Ino had let him borrow to cover his torn shirt. She had also helped him wash the remainder of the blood out of his hair and comb it back to normal.

‘What are you doing? You’re actually letting her take care of you? Jesus kid, remember what happened the last time someone was nice to you? You ended up in a dirty bathroom and he admitted he had hated you all along. You really want to go through that again?’

Gaara resisted the urge to listen and beat the shit out of the girl like he was told before she could do it to him in favor of just nodding. “How’d you know?”

She looked down at him fondly and took a second to respond, anxiety building up in Gaara’s heart because shit what if this was a set up and-

“My younger brother has panic attacks once in a while and he always likes to cool off in a quiet place. Just thought it might be the same for you.” Without waiting for a reply she tugged him into the library, lowering her voice to a whisper to say “I have some friends I’d like you to meet anyways.”

Before Gaara could even protest she had sat him down at a table with three other occupants, all of whom looking up from their homework or books in surprise.

“Ino? Didn’t expect to see you in the library so soon,” a pale, handsome boy with long brown hair murmured, looking at Ino blankly before diverting his eyes towards a fidgeting Gaara. “Who’s this?”

“This, Neji,” she said almost proudly, “Is Gaara no Subaku. My new best friend actually.”

“What happened to Shikamaru?” a friendly looking girl with twin buns asked, smiling warmly at Gaara before addressing Ino. Ino frowned, huffing slightly in annoyance before speaking.

“Shikamaru and the rest of them are being assholes. Bullying is so middle school honestly.”

“Oh,” the boy who Gaara now knew was named Neji said before his pale eyes widened just a fraction. “Oh. Ino they didn’t.”

Gaara snapped his head around to look at the blonde girl, desperation pulling at his features because even if she seemed to somehow already know, no one else had to, no one else could-

“Yeah, they did, on his first day here too. Even according to them they just found him and decided to fuck him up for no reason.” She paused for a moment, beginning to smirk slightly. “Though you should see what he managed to do to Kiba’s face and Naruto’s arm. Apparently the kid packs quite a punch.”

And Gaara was about to prove it, about to prove just how hard he could punch because who the hell was she to spill his embarrassment to these random strangers who knew nothing about him and-

“You... You hit Kiba?” came a quiet voice, and Gaara forced himself to calm down enough to look towards the sound, locking eyes with a wide-eyed boy with an absolutely horrible bowl cut who had been silent the whole time up until now. And for some reason, the boy’s bizarre appearance managed to calm him down the rest of the way. He inhaled sharply before responding.

“Yes.”

One word. One word, but it made the strange looking boy’s face light up and break out in a huge smile, and Gaara felt blinded because no one had looked at him that way before

Well, maybe one other person, but Gaara pushed that thought down. It was no use to dwell on the past, even if the past had let his friends beat you up just a few hours prior.

“That is amazing!” the boy gushed, excitedly moving to grasp Gaara’s hand. Gaara flinched back and the boy looked momentarily troubled, and Gaara hated how guilty he felt for it, but as quickly as it had happened the boy was back to beaming at the redhead. “Barely anyone ever tries to stand up to Sasuke’s-” another flinch “-group and the fact you did so on your first day is so admirable I can’t-”

“Hey, quit loosing it over Gaara before the librarian comes over,” Ino whispered, an amused smile flickering across her face nonetheless. “You’re scaring the poor kid.”

“He’s not scaring me-” Gaara said crossly, only to be cut off by the friendly boy extending his hand across the table again and Neji sighing as if something inconvenient was happening.

“My name is Rock Lee, but you may call me Lee. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance!” He smiled warmly and kept his hand extended even when Gaara didn’t immediately take it, never once letting his gaze drop from the other’s face.

Gaara stared down at the hand numbly for a moment, waiting for his brain to catch up when he finally realized, that oh, this kid wanted to shake his hand and oh he was actually reciprocating the gesture, taking Lee’s calloused, warm palm in his own cold and clammy one and shaking it mechanically, and okay maybe he held on for a bit too long but the other boy didn’t seem to mind at all and maybe it actually felt sort of nice, but that didn’t mean anything.

Gaara only noticed he was blushing when he felt the heat rise to his face, quickly jerking his hand back and lowering his gaze to the wooden table top. He found himself suddenly very interested in the wood grain markings.

“...Right. So anyways, my name is Tenten,” he heard the twin-bun girl say, but it was like he was underwater or a great distance away from her, something other than Shukaku clouding his mind for the first time in a very long time.

“It is a pleasure to meet you,” Lee said, who hadn’t taken his gaze off Gaara once since he had sat down. “I hope we can get to know each other more in the upcoming year.”

“You too,” Gaara muttered, still not looking up. For once he actually meant it.

He didn’t see it but Lee’s face flushed a delicate shade of red right as the bell rang signaling the end of lunch. Ino clapped Gaara on the shoulder and pulled him up, waving to the group as she did so and Gaara mumbling a small “Goodbye.”

Only when they were nearly out of earshot did he hear Tenten teasingly say “Seems like you’ve got a new crush, Lee.” and when he didn’t hear any type of protest other than a small whine he allowed himself a small smile.