OTP Prompt

Sabaku no Gaara

It was late at night, you were dead asleep despite struggling to find a comfortable position and having to get up at least three times to pee before you could finally fall asleep.  You woke up once Gaara called out your name, his voice barely above a whisper.  You feigned sleep, seeing as this was something he had done as soon as you had passed your first trimester and started to show, curious about what he was actually trying to do.  He called out your name a few more times, and you continued to feign sleep.

Gaara was careful as he moved, you barely felt the bed jostle as he did so, and you could barely tell that he was lying with his face only inches from your stomach.  You risked a peek as you lay on your side, seeing the Kazekage’s mess of red hair before closing your eyes once again, struggling to hear the man as he whispered.  You had been a gifted shinobi before you retired, leaving your home village and moving to Suna permanently, to spend the rest of your life with the man you had unexpectantly, but gladly, fallen in love with.  Still, despite your quick advancement through the Konoha ranks at a young age, Gaara was the Kazekage at fifteen.  All those things considered, you weren’t exactly surprised you just barely kept him in your radar.

“Hi little one,” he whispered, pausing as if unsure what to say next before he continued, “You…terrify me.  Not even here yet, and I can’t imagine losing you.”

It was rare to hear Gaara say so much so earnestly, he was generally a man of little words as his actions spoke far louder.  It took all of your self-control to keep from running a comforting hand through his hair, something that always calmed him, and even helped him sleep when seventeen years of insomnia due to being the Jinchuriki carrying the One-Tailed beast made it particularly difficult for him to sleep.

“The only other person to mean so much so quickly is your mother, I was barely able to call her my friend and I couldn’t imagine losing her.  She scared me just as much as you do, and with every day the thought of losing her scares me even more.”

You never knew that, you never knew his feelings towards you grew so strong so quickly, you never knew such a thing would actually scare him.  You could understand why, especially with his childhood, but you had never known Gaara to be scared of anything, even after his return from death which brought you to Suna in the first place. 

The temporary loss of the Kazekage sent the village into turmoil, and after assisting in recovering him, you were ordered to stay behind and help in further recovery efforts.  It took months, with the heavy losses sustained during the Akatsuki attack and the fact that the village kept running and needed more and more attention while you were trying to catch up on the work that was pushed off as well as put Suna’s numbers back together.  Then the war happened, and Gaara still seemed as fearless as always as you followed him.  To hear him admit something scared him, and the thought of losing you or your child was the cause of it…

You liked to pride yourself on your composure, and you would have loved to hear the other sweet things your husband had to share with your unborn first child, but you couldn’t stop yourself from looking down at Gaara and running your hand through his hair.  He briefly flinched, expecting you to be asleep before he looked back up at you, smiling down at him with that look of pure adoration he always wanted but was never prepared for.

“You know, you can say those sweet things when I’m awake too, it’s not like you have to worry about embarrassing yourself,” you teased lightly as Gaara moved to lay with you, looking directly in your eyes, “We’re married, with a kid on the way, and I’ve pulled you back from the land of the dead, and we went to war.  We’ve already experienced more ups and downs than most couples in an entire lifetime.”

His smile was barely visible, but you had no trouble spotting it as he gently kissed you before pulling you close, tucking you safely against him.  Your sigh of contentment was bordering on a purr as you cuddled up to Gaara, the two of you becoming a tangle of limbs as you fell into a comfortable sleep.