Hiraeth

For the first time in what felt like forever Ino was grateful to catch sight of Sasuke in the halls during lunch period.

If anyone knew where Gaara might be it was him.

“Sasuke!” she yelled out, waving her hand in the air as the boy turned around and rolled her eyes at the sight of her.

“Yeah that’s right, roll your eyes,” she huffed out, trudging towards him and latching onto his arm, not caring when he recoiled.

“What the fuck do you want?”

“Uh, what I want to know is where Gaara is.”

Sasuke frowned, finally ripping his arm out of her grasp. “He doesn’t care what you think. He’s already made up his mind.”

It was her turn to roll her eyes. “Yeah, I don’t really care about you guy’s illegitimate love affair at the moment, I just need to see him.”

He regarded her carefully. “Why?”

She sighed and crossed her arms. “The dance is tonight, right?” she didn’t wait for him to respond. “And I highly doubt he has a tux or anything like that.”

She felt a small vindictive pleasure at the way he deflated, something like guilt crossing his features. “I didn’t even think about it.”

“You know he can’t get in if he isn’t up to dress code.”

“Yeah, I’m well aware. What do you want me to do about it?”

“Uh, hello? You’re rich as fuck, Sasuke. Lend him some money so he can go and buy a suit or whatever.” She smiled at his look of indignation. “Or you can just let him show up and get kicked out immediately. He’d probably be crushed.”

He cursed and glared at her. “Fine. Get it today and give me back the left over cash.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a thick wallet, extracting four bills from it and shoving them at her. “And I want the receipt.”

She smiled at him sweetly before directing her gaze down at the money, jaw dropping. “Sasuke, this is like four hundred dollars.”

“Yeah? So? How much do tuxedos usually cost?”

She shook her head, pulling out her own wallet and placing the money inside.

Uh, a decent one around two hundred?

“Nope, this is perfect.” She snapped her wallet shut and paused, a sick idea coming to her head. “Well, you know... He probably needs shoes too.”

“What- shoes?”

“Yep. Have you not noticed?” She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “He wears the same beat up sneakers everyday, they’re probably like his only pair. You really think he has dress shoes?”

She was happy to see the new wave of guilt cross his face, and even more pleased when he begrudgingly opened his wallet to hand her two hundred more dollars.

“Don’t you fucking dare spend anymore than you need to.”

She pocketed the extra money and smiled sickly sweet up at him.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

——-

Finding Gaara was surprisingly easy after she wheedled his location out of Sasuke.

It was harder to get him to actually talk to her.

But after lots of long stretches of silences, occasional yelling, some tears being shed (she wouldn’t say whose) and a heartfelt talk she was leading him off the roof with their arms linked and friendship rekindled.

She didn’t tell him why she was taking him to the mall after school, only placing a finger to his lip and shushing him as he frowned at her.

She didn’t even notice his limp until they entered the store they needed to be in.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. Why?”

She nodded down at his uneven gait and watched as his ears turned pink.

“It’s nothing.”

She didn’t inquire further and pretended like she didn’t suspect the real reason.

——-

“Do you like any of these?”

Gaara stared at the line of suits in front of him and shrugged. “They all look the same.”

She gasped and slapped him on the shoulder. “Um, what? Gaara, are you colorblind? This one is clearly midnight onyx while this one is dusk black.”

He snorted and shook his head. “What’s the difference again?”

She watched as he ran a hand over the fine fabrics and lingered on one in particular.

“This one?”

“Yeah?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“So you do prefer midnight onyx huh?”

She smiled genuinely as he rolled his eyes, pulling the tuxedo off the rack and holding it loosely in his grasp.

“Let’s go.”

“You know you have to try it on, right?”

He looked up at her like he didn’t understand what she meant and she felt a similar confusion take over her.

“You try on clothes, you know that right?”

“No?”

The gears turned faster in her head as she looked down at him.

“Do you usually just not try on clothes before you buy them?”

“I’ve never bought clothes.”

She stopped.

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve never been clothes shopping.”

She looked at his clothes, from his beat up sneakers that all of sudden looked far too big, to his baggy and unnaturally frayed jeans and finally to his ratty and faded shirt.

She realized she had only seen Gaara in about three of each clothing categories since the start of the school year and in only one pair of shoes.

Fuck.

“Where um... where do you get your clothes then?”

He shrugged but his expression was guarded. “Kankuro gives me his old ones sometimes.”

So his dad didn’t even think to provide him with the hand-me-downs.

Something like fury rose up in her as she took in the sight of the small boy in front of her in too big, too old clothes that now seemed to swallow him up.

She forced a smile and grabbed his wrist.

“Hey, Gaara? Wanna go clothes shopping?”

He looked up at her in surprise, eyes flickering from his captured wrist to her blinding smile.

“Didn’t we just...?”

“Nah, I mean like actual clothes shopping. For important stuff.”

The badly concealed wonder in his eyes as they looked at other racks of normal clothes was enough to both stoke her anger and quell it.

When they checked out and he asked her how she had so much money she waved him off and said it was from work.

Sure, it was bitchy, but she had been planning to pocket the extra cash for herself after they bought Gaara’s tuxedo and shoes.

But obviously there were more important things for it to be spent on anyways.