Hiraeth

Sasuke was pissed to say the least but he couldn’t act like he was or his friends would ask.

And that pissed him off even more.

He didn’t know how she did, but he was certain Ino had seen through his bluff and knew what he and Gaara had once.

Not that it mattered anymore, the little creep had ruined it, fucking
destroyed anything they might have had and any feelings he might have harbored.

Right?

Besides, he had Naruto now, someone, albeit annoying and infuriating and frustrating as hell at times, much better than Gaara ever was. He had no reason to protect Gaara, someone who had wronged him, and had no reason to be this fucking angry that he was following Lee around like a lost puppy.

White hot rage bubbled up in him as he saw Lee place a hand on Gaara’s shoulder and saw that Gaara only flinched slightly but made no move to back away. They stayed in that position until the bell rang, just talking, yet the hairs on Sasuke’s neck stayed raised until Lee removed his hand and ran off to his next class, Gaara’s expression falling back into it’s usual state of neutrality as he headed towards the gym. Sasuke followed the boy’s movements with his eyes, eventually pushing off of the wall he was leaning on and heading towards the gym himself. It was time for class after all.

He entered the locker room and headed over towards his friends, exchanging greetings with them and removing his shirt as he scanned the room for a certain redhead.

Only to make sure he wasn’t getting into trouble or beating the shit out of someone of course.

His friends were laughing at something, probably making fun of Naruto for eyeing up Sasuke again when Gaara’s name caught his ear.

“...Yeah, he went and changed in a stall, fucking weird.”

Sasuke felt his eye twitch but stayed silent except for a scoff. His friends looked at him curiously and he subtly gulped, raising his head up high before speaking. “He’s insecure as fuck last time I checked and for good reason. Why wouldn’t he be?”

Naruto frowned and Kiba chose now to be the perfect time to speak up.

“Kid probably cuts himself or something like that, gross gashes up and down his arms and shit. Wanna bet?”

Sasuke’s fingers flexed around thin air, wishing he had a throat to curl them around instead as his friends laughed, some nervously.

“Hey... that’s kinda fucked up, Kiba,” Naruto said, hands fidgeting with each other as his frown deepened. A few people in the circle nodded and Kiba looked around incredulously.

“What? Do you actually think I’m wrong? Naruto, look me in the eye and tell me I’m wrong.”

Naruto sighed, making no move to make eye contact. Shikamaru shrugged. “He’s probably right anyways. I wouldn’t put it past him.”

Sasuke slammed his locker shut loudly, causing his friends to jump and look at him in surprise. He frowned and jerked his head towards the gym.

“Let’s go. Class is about to start anyways.

His friends murmured their assent and began to follow him. Sasuke stopped just at the exit of the locker room and looked back at the stalls, seeing a small pair of sneakers in the gap between the stall door and the dirty tiled floor.

“Besides it doesn’t matter what’s on his body. Who would want to get close enough to find out?”

——-

“Dodgeball. Perfect.” Kiba grinned as he stared predatorily at the small redhead standing off by himself in the corner of the gym. Sasuke’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Gaara, wearing the unusual long sleeved shirt gym uniform option. What Kiba said couldn’t be true, Gaara had never mentioned anything like that...

Sasuke bit back a harsh breath as he took in how beautiful his former boyfriend was, light filtering in from the high windows and casting over the boy’s pale face. Even when they video chatted nightly he never got used to it. He guess he couldn’t really blame Lee for falling for the short boy, but he knew Lee would hurt him, that no one else could handle Gaara but Sasuke, that he was the only one right for him-

“Sasuke?” Naruto’s voice snapped him out of his spiraling thoughts, and he looked down at Naruto with more fondness than usual. “Hey, uh... why do you keep staring at Gaara?”

Sasuke blinked, and the lie came out easily. “I can’t stand him. He was fucking insufferable when we were kids, super clingy and annoying. I’m just pissed to see him again.”

Naruto’s brow furrowed but he looked somewhat relieved. “That’s kinda shitty, Sasuke... Whatever, I was just worried that you might...”

Sasuke smirked and grabbed Naruto’s chin, raising an eyebrow. “Worried I might what?” He didn’t wait for Naruto’s response, taking a quick glance to confirm that Gaara was looking at them before kissing the blond quickly.

The gut wrenching guilt was almost overshadowed by the vindictive pleasure coursing through his veins.

Almost.

——-

The dodgeball game was brutal to say the least.

Kiba and Shikamaru were made captains, Shikamaru getting stuck with Gaara who was unsurprisingly picked last, people muttering that they didn’t want a “scrawny fairy” dragging their team down.

“What a drag,” Shikamaru complained to his teammates. “Dodgeball’s already the worst and now we have this guy on our team.”

Gaara made no indication that he heard them despite being in the huddle, instead choosing to stare blankly at the wall over a teammates shoulder. Sasuke glared at the boy, both happy to be able to hurl a dodgeball at his stupid face and also disappointed to not have his stupid face on his team.

He heard Shikamaru sigh and tell Gaara just to try not to get hit and with that the coach blew his whistle and the game began.

Halfway in and his team was winning easily, and no one was trying to hit Gaara surprisingly as he wasn’t deemed a threat.

Until Sasuke felt a ball go whizzing past his head, nearly hitting him. He tracked the ball with his eyes and noticed with a growing panic that it was on a collision course right towards the small boy on the other side of the court. For a second he felt the horrible gripping reality that he wanted to intercept it, wanted the ball to hit him instead, when the slap of skin on rubber was heard.

Gaara had caught the ball, and Sasuke felt the panic he felt slip away and be replaced by relief and shock.

There was a beat of silence until suddenly Sasuke felt the air leaving his body, and for a split second thought he had been punched in the gut. No one moved, just staring at Sasuke when the coach blew his whistle and pointed at him.

“Uchiha, you’re out! Go sit on the bench!”

Sasuke’s eyes widened. He had never been hit in dodgeball before, never been sent to the bench, and he looked at Gaara who was staring blankly back at him, hands empty, and that’s when he realized Gaara had hit him with the dodgeball and gotten him out.

Slowly he made his way over to the bench, watching as people on the opposing team made their way over to Gaara and attempting to congratulate him because “Jesus, no one’s ever gotten Sasuke out before,” and sat down, an ugly feeling rising up in him. He was...

Embarrassed.

He hated it. He decided right then and there that he hated it and that he hated that the boy he loved made him feel this way. In his tirade he didn’t even notice his silent confession, trying to rack his brains because the Gaara he knew would never hurt him, and the only change he could think of was Lee, and that Lee must be influencing the small boy, turning him against Sasuke and that just wasn’t allowed.

He never once thought about the fact that his own group were the ones harassing Gaara, and that maybe he himself was the reason Gaara was acting like this.

He numbly watched the rest of the game, watched how Gaara was a significant help in taking out the rest of his team, and watched how the boy shrunk away from the praise and attempted friendly back pats, taking slight pleasure in how he wouldn’t let anyone touch him before he remembered that he didn’t flinch away from Lee and the feeling was gone.

——-

Gaara didn’t appear in the locker room after gym class ended so Sasuke hung back under the guise that he needed to talk to the coach. His friends left, grumbled discontent about Gaara leaving all of their lips except for Naruto (who had always seemed slightly uncomfortable when threats were made about the redhead) and Shikamaru who had just stayed quiet about the boy ever since his team won.

The bell rang signaling the end of school, and Sasuke was about to leave before the door to the dimly lit locker room swung open, Gaara’s small figure pushing past it.

Sasuke stayed hidden behind a row of lockers, watching Gaara intently as the boy exhaled shakily.

“Yeah, I know, okay? Just shut up.”

Sasuke winced as he listened to the boy talk to himself. He knew Gaara had... problems with hearing things, had talked about it to him back in sixth grade, about how confused he was when no one else heard what he did, about how he thought he was crazy. Gaara had stopped talking about it a few weeks later, so Sasuke had just assumed it went away and never brought it up again.

Evidently he had been wrong.

He quietly made his way over to the boy, the primal urge to comfort him taking over when he stopped, watching as Gaara took his shirt off and eyes widening in horror as he took in the multiple red welts along his back, sickly purple and yellow bruises wrapping around his sides and marring his pale skin.

“What the fuck,” He breathed out without thinking, Gaara whirling around in surprise and staring up at him, hands coming up to cover his chest which Sasuke noticed was also covered in bruises.

“Sasuke-?” He began before Sasuke cut him off, stepping forward to which Gaara took a step backwards.

“What happened?” He said uncharacteristically softly, a voice he had ever only used when talking to Gaara.

Gaara faltered, eyes softening momentarily at the tone, and Sasuke smiled in his head, bingo, before they hardened, and he took another step back.

“Why do you care? It doesn’t concern you,” The redhead bit out, glaring daggers at Sasuke.

Sasuke’s eyes widened as he scoffed, taking another step forward and causing Gaara to back up yet again until his back hit the wall and he let out a pained hiss.

“Oh,” Sasuke began, sneering down at Gaara who was practically trapped between the wall and him now, only a few inches of space between their bodies. “And who does it concern? Lee?”

“Lee? What-”

“Don’t think I haven’t noticed. He’s bad for you. He’ll just use you and drop you.”

Gaara’s eyes darted from left to right, and Sasuke felt pleased that the boy had nowhere to run, had to give his attention to Sasuke and talk to him, maybe like old times-

“Fuck!”

For the second time that day Sasuke doubled over, this time Gaara’s own head substituting for a dodgeball. In his crouched position he heard Gaara hurriedly gathering his things, and just as Sasuke found the strength to get up, Gaara’s cold, imposing tone kept him rooted to the spot.

“You don’t have to tell me who’s bad for me or who’s not. Don’t worry, I already learned my lesson with you.”

Sasuke grit his teeth, staggering into a standing position as Gaara neared the exit. “Stay away from Lee,” he rasped out, and the other stilled momentarily, as if about to say something before he bolted out the door, and as it swung shut Sasuke thought he heard a choked sob.