Hiraeth

Ino cocked her head and regarded Gaara carefully. He was staring off into space which in of itself wasn’t unusual at all. However, he wasn’t picking at his skin or even fidgeting that much, causing a small smile to cross her face.

“So, Gaara,” She began, tapping her fingers on the table to get his attention. “Lee told me some very interesting information.”

Gaara fixed her with a blank gaze. “And what would that be?”

“Uh, only that you two are officially dating now.”

She was surprised when Gaara hardly reacted, just nodded mutely and pulled out his phone as he began to type something.

“Aren’t you like excited at all?”

“Very. Can’t you tell?” He said almost dryly, not even bothering to look up from his phone.

Ino frowned, leaning forward on her elbows across the library table and scrutinizing the boy in front of her with narrowed eyes. He continued typing and she sighed, realizing she wouldn’t get anymore information out of him on the subject. Her eyes flickered up to the kanji on his forehead.

“Hey, so I’ve been meaning to ask, when’d you get that tattoo?”

He paused and slid his eyes over to her, expression guarded. “A year ago. Junior year.

Her eyes widened and she made an awed noise. “Waaah, when you were sixteen? Don’t you have to be like eighteen to get one though?”

Gaara shrugged. “Kankuro has connections.”

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “Of course he does.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Gaara looked at her warily but didn’t question her further, returning his attention to his phone.

“Why’d you choose ‘love’?” She asked, and immediately the boy’s shoulders tensed. “Sorry, I just know tattoos usually have a special meaning or whatever-”

“It does have a special meaning.”

“...Go on?”

He looked up at her, placing his phone down on the table. His face was closed off. “All my life I was told I was incapable of love, but I eventually met someone and I realized that was wrong. I lost contact with him and lost someone to love but I didn’t want to forget it. I got this tattoo as a reminder.”

Ino was silent for a moment, just taking it all in and the fact that that was the most he’d ever spoken to her in one go. “That someone... it was Sasuke wasn’t it?” she asked quietly.

He nodded, something serene about his expression and that’s when it all clicked.

“You’re still in love with him, aren’t you?”

He nodded again and Ino closed her eyes and rubbed at her temple, the information being too much to handle. “But why? He beat you up and was so shitty to you!”

Gaara winced at the loudness of her tone before frowning at her. “He didn’t beat me up, his friends did. He tried to stop them and apologized to me afterwards.”

“Okay, that doesn’t change the fact that he- wait, when was the last time you were around him long enough for him to apologize?”

There was no answer and at the faint blush creeping up his neck and the way his uninjured fingers began clawing their way into the wood grain she gasped.

“Fuck, Gaara, don’t tell me you-”

“So what if I did?” he said, voice low and head bowed.

Ino took in a deep breath, about to lecture the boy when she remembered what Kankuro had told her and Lee, about how unstable Gaara was. She didn’t want to add on to that or make anything worse, make Gaara think worse of himself than he already did.

And so with a forced smile and a guilty conscious she shook her head. “Nothing. I was just surprised.”

When Gaara lifted his head and the corners of his mouth lifted into the ghost of a smile she realized that the boy might not even realize that what he was doing was wrong. She had already assumed that she was Gaara’s first friend, and after Kankuro had expressed disbelief anyone wanted to be around his little brother she gathered that he had never really had a chance to socialize with people before now. He might have no idea what he was doing was against social norms.

She bit her tongue and inclined her head slightly. “So, uh... did you finish the pre-calc homework?”

——-

She waited until she saw Sasuke walking alone to the cafeteria to grab the back of his backpack, pulling him into an empty classroom and slamming the door behind them.

“Ino- what the hell?” he gasped, ripping out of her hold and taking a step back. “What’re you-”

“Tell me about you and Gaara.”

Sasuke looked at her suspiciously, subconsciously tugging at the fabric of his sleeves. “You already know. We were friends when we were kids.”

She clicked her tongue and crossed her arms, standing in front of the doorway to block his potential escape attempt. “No, I mean recently.”

“Is this about Kiba and everyone fucking with him? ‘Cause I already tried to stop them-”

“Uh no, I’m talking about fucking with him in a different way.”

His face screwed up in confusion before his eyes widened. “How did you-”

“I asked him if he was still in love with you and he said yes, then I figured out what you two have been doing.”

She expected him to deny it, maybe to even look somewhat slightly ashamed and try to leave. What she didn’t expect was for his face to contort into a satisfied smirk and for his posture to straighten. “He said he still loves me?”

“Yeah, but-”

“Then what’s the problem?”

Ino gawked, staring at Sasuke as if he had grown a second head. “‘What’s the problem?’ The problem is that both of you already have boyfriends.”

Sasuke’s eyes narrowed. “You think that matters to me?”

“Excuse me? Don’t you see that what you’re doing is fucked up? I don’t think Gaara even knows this is wrong.”

“He’s not that innocent. And even if he was he doesn’t need to know,” Sasuke said nonchalantly. “Besides, even if he is dating Lee he won’t be for long.”

“Wait, what? You wouldn’t-”

“You’re right. I won’t. It’s just that Gaara doesn’t need him and he’ll realize that soon enough.”

Ino grit her teeth, taking a step closer to Sasuke and was pissed when he held his ground, just looking down at her with that infuriating smirk. She didn’t see how she could have ever been attracted to him. “Lee’s a thousand times better for him than you’ll ever be.”

Sasuke merely smiled wider and somehow that made her even angrier.

“If you don’t tell Gaara that this is fucked I will,” she snarled.

“Will you?”

Ino froze, face blanching.

“He’s already so fragile you know,” Sasuke continued, voice dripping in venom. “You really want to break him more? You know that’ll only make him think he’s more of a shit person than he already does.” He placed a hand on Ino’s shoulder in false comfort and she recoiled. “Real noble of you, Ino.”

She hated the mocking tone in his voice, hated how he spoke to her like she was a child, and hated that he was right.

“Sasuke,” she said, tone icy. “He’ll find out eventually.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“He- he’s not stupid! Someone else will find out and tell Lee or Naruto, and oh god, what about Naruto?”

“He’ll survive,” were his last words on the subject, stepping around the shell shocked girl and leaving, closing the door behind him and leaving Ino in the empty classroom with thoughts racing a thousand miles per hour.