Reprieve [GaaSaku]
Title: Reprieve
Fandom: Naruto
Prompt: #11 - Life 100_prompts
Character/Pairing: Sabaku no Gaara/Haruno Sakura
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1856
Summary: "Winning the kyokushin championships brought along all the satisfaction he’d thought he needed. There wasn’t room for anything else."
Authors Notes: Another spinoff of my fic Cold Front. Whacked myself upside the head because I hadn't posted a drabble in over two months. >___< Gomen. Beware the pointless and intense FLUFF in this one you might get cavities. It was brought about by a weird personal need.
~~xxx~~
11. Life
Growling, Gaara deposited his backpack unceremoniously on the floor beside the door with a loud thump. There were no lights on in the house and considering the late hour, it wasn’t exactly surprising. He rolled the shoulder that had been taking all the weight of his bag a moment before rubbing it with his hand when the soreness didn’t diminish. These late night training sessions before his 4th dan exam were going to kill him.
Because they trained their own students during the day, he and Lee, who was taking the exam with him, were forced to stay after dojo closing hours to complete their own training activities. Even though he wasn’t taking the test himself, Naruto was intent on them being in the best shape of their lives for this elite rank examination. He seemed more worried about the whole thing than either of the participants was. It probably had to do with the fact that this would be the first dan test to take place in conjunction with the Suna Dojo exchange program. Naruto wanted everything to turn out perfectly and for two of the top fighters of both dojos to show their true mettle. Even though Gaara thought the blond was overdoing it slightly, he didn’t begrudge his friend whenever he pushed him hard to train. If he was honest, he wasn’t particularly worried about his exam. After obtaining his black belt for the first time, going up to 2nd and 3rd dan had been a matter of course. Even though the examinations were extremely hard and involved an hour and a half of non-stop fighting against a long line of opponents, the redhead knew he’d be able to pull it off.
Still, training was necessary and Naruto was right, in a way. He really did need to be in the best shape of his life. This was why he was spending most of the night at the dojo, sweating and puffing as his friends put him through a series of drills that would’ve made some of the kids he’d trained earlier pass out. Needless to say, the whole thing left him exhausted. But he loved his martial art and nothing compared to the thrill of feeling his body respond to the demands he placed on it. Training with such intensity was always greatly gratifying and it left him with a tingling sensation of achievement. It was only after he’d take a shower and made his way into the late night air that the fatigue would come creeping in. By the time he and Naruto reached their apartment, the redhead was more than happy to fall like a rock unto his bed.
But not tonight; there was something keeping him wide awake as he left the dojo sometime after midnight and caught a cab. There was someplace he had to be.
Tiptoeing his way into the kitchen, Gaara tried to make as little noise as possible as he opened the fridge. He rummaged for a bit but finally found the six-pack of Gatorade he kept at the back. Jade eyes skimmed through the contents of one of the drawers in an attempt to find something edible that didn’t need any preparation. The inner light of the fridge shone brightly into the kitchen and illuminated the freezer door on his left; it suddenly revealed a note stuck under a daisy magnet above the ice dispenser.
“Tomcat, there’s some egg salad in the big tupper bowl. Knew you’d be starving! Hurry up and come to bed.”
Grinning from ear to ear, Gaara located the aforementioned bowl and proceeded to devour its contents happily. As he did so, a blissful feeling of contentment overcame him. It was a bizarre emotion for him and one he hadn’t exactly gotten used to yet. It would sometimes catch him unawares at the most peculiar moments, like whenever he found Sakura waiting for him when he finished teaching at the dojo or when she would sidle towards him on the couch when she was sleepy, her silent code for ‘let’s go to bed’. The intense feeling of satisfaction would start somewhere near the centre of his chest and make its way towards his limbs. So by the time they were walking hand in hand down the street or were warmly settled under the sheets, the feeling would be all-encompassing. It was just one of the many changes Sakura had wrought on his person. Before he had met her, experiencing such contentment had been a completely alien circumstance for him.
Even now, the more sceptical side of his mind would sometimes wonder just what the hell was wrong with him. After a thorough analysis it was clear he was evidencing all the symptoms of the condition commonly known as besotted idiocy. The cynic in him would protest and tell him the Crimson Death had a lethal reputation he needed to maintain. But Gaara would ruthlessly silence such sceptical notions. He had never felt more alive in his entire existence and he wasn’t about to leave the woman responsible for this novel condition any time soon. His inner cynic would simply have to deal with her.
It wasn’t long ago that, under similar circumstances, he would come home to an empty and half-furnished apartment. He would cram his day with training and teaching because there wasn’t anything else to fill his life with. Even though Kankurou and Temari had been around, they were too busy doing their own thing to be a constant presence. His fridge would have been empty and he would have had to lie on a cold and solitary mattress for the rest of the night. There had been nothing and no one to assuage his exhaustion, absolutely no motivation for coming home and certainly no source of comfort or anything even similar. Barren and desolate, his life had solely consisted of kyokushin day in and day out. He guessed it was the reason he’d gotten so good at it. Getting stronger and winning fights had been his sole objective. He’d subsisted one day and one fight at a time.
Back then, he didn’t really believe he needed to change. Gaara got his pleasures where he could find them and that had been enough for him. Winning the kyokushin championships brought along all the satisfaction he’d thought he needed. There wasn’t room for anything else.
But then life had come along and kicked him unexpectedly in the rear. How it always managed to do so even though you thought you were being alert was beyond him. In a matter of months things for him had changed drastically, in a sort of 180 degree fashion. He now had people he could genuinely call friends and a woman to share his days with. Gaara had always thought sharing his life with a female would be a pain in the ass, more hassle than it was worth. But when it came to Sakura, things had just progressed naturally and he had never really felt any sort of hesitation. As a matter of fact, he had felt a strange certainty and a need to be straightforward. He’d followed his instincts and, once again, they hadn’t failed to steer him down the right path.
That the pink haired doctor was the right path was never in doubt. The egg salad he had just finished eating was a testament to that. When had anyone else during his entire life cared if he was hungry or not after training? Naruto may have done so but his intentions were completely different; they had more to do with body performance and recovery times. Sakura, on the other hand, left him food in her fridge because she was worried about his personal comfort.
Yet again, it was a bizarre notion but one he was happy to welcome in his life. It was strange how you only realized you were bereaved when you were shown all the things you’d been missing.
After gulping down the Gatorade and placing the empty bowl in the sink, the redhead crossed the living room with a determined stride. The clock on the microwave had announced it was some minutes after one in the morning. It was time to get moving; he’d kept her waiting for far too long. He took his shirt off as he advanced and threw it unto the TV room sofa as he passed. When he got to the bedroom door, he took off his trainers while his eyes scanned the bed.
She was lying on her side, facing the door, as if actively waiting for him to show up even in her slumber. With a sly grin at her telltale position, Gaara stripped down to his boxers and lifted the covers to join his lover, who was deeply asleep in a thin camisole and a pair of boy-short panties. Sakura instinctively moved towards him when she felt his heat, mumbling incoherently and burrowing her nose in the precise spot where his neck met his shoulder. She unconsciously sniffed his skin as if to ascertain it was really him that had crawled into bed with her and that he hadn’t been conjured by a dream. Satisfied with what her senses were telling her, she kissed him lightly on the neck and settled more comfortably in his arms.
It was a kind of ritual she always performed whenever he came in late and found her already asleep in bed. How she managed to do all that without actually waking up always made Gaara chuckle in amazement. Needless to say, it was another of those instances when the intense feeling of contentment would creep up on him; that she trusted him so much and found such comfort in his presence was something that still left him slightly astonished.
But he took the lessons life threw his way in stride. If it was telling him to find reassurance in the most unlikely of places, he wasn’t about to complain. He had always prided himself in making the best of the opportunities to come his way. Right now he had the chance to experience reprieve from the barrenness that had filled his days for many long years in the arms of this pink haired woman. The redhead wasn’t about to look the gift horse in the mouth.
Brushing his fingertips down her back in smoothing lines, he let the fatigue from his training overcome him. Tomorrow being Saturday, he’d be able to spend the entire day with Sakura, a prospect that had kept him going even though he’d wanted nothing more than to collapse after leaving the dojo. Spending the weekends in her company was now the official highlight of his week, something not six months ago he would’ve considered ludicrous.
Strange how life shifted so you could open your eyes to hidden paths. Luckily, in his case, he was not walking alone anymore and if he had his way, his going would never be lonely ever again.
Breathing in the scent of her hair, Gaara closed his jade eyes and let her calm breathing lull him into the welcoming arms of slumber.
~~xxx~~
Fandom: Naruto
Prompt: #11 - Life 100_prompts
Character/Pairing: Sabaku no Gaara/Haruno Sakura
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1856
Summary: "Winning the kyokushin championships brought along all the satisfaction he’d thought he needed. There wasn’t room for anything else."
Authors Notes: Another spinoff of my fic Cold Front. Whacked myself upside the head because I hadn't posted a drabble in over two months. >___< Gomen. Beware the pointless and intense FLUFF in this one you might get cavities. It was brought about by a weird personal need.
~~xxx~~
11. Life
Growling, Gaara deposited his backpack unceremoniously on the floor beside the door with a loud thump. There were no lights on in the house and considering the late hour, it wasn’t exactly surprising. He rolled the shoulder that had been taking all the weight of his bag a moment before rubbing it with his hand when the soreness didn’t diminish. These late night training sessions before his 4th dan exam were going to kill him.
Because they trained their own students during the day, he and Lee, who was taking the exam with him, were forced to stay after dojo closing hours to complete their own training activities. Even though he wasn’t taking the test himself, Naruto was intent on them being in the best shape of their lives for this elite rank examination. He seemed more worried about the whole thing than either of the participants was. It probably had to do with the fact that this would be the first dan test to take place in conjunction with the Suna Dojo exchange program. Naruto wanted everything to turn out perfectly and for two of the top fighters of both dojos to show their true mettle. Even though Gaara thought the blond was overdoing it slightly, he didn’t begrudge his friend whenever he pushed him hard to train. If he was honest, he wasn’t particularly worried about his exam. After obtaining his black belt for the first time, going up to 2nd and 3rd dan had been a matter of course. Even though the examinations were extremely hard and involved an hour and a half of non-stop fighting against a long line of opponents, the redhead knew he’d be able to pull it off.
Still, training was necessary and Naruto was right, in a way. He really did need to be in the best shape of his life. This was why he was spending most of the night at the dojo, sweating and puffing as his friends put him through a series of drills that would’ve made some of the kids he’d trained earlier pass out. Needless to say, the whole thing left him exhausted. But he loved his martial art and nothing compared to the thrill of feeling his body respond to the demands he placed on it. Training with such intensity was always greatly gratifying and it left him with a tingling sensation of achievement. It was only after he’d take a shower and made his way into the late night air that the fatigue would come creeping in. By the time he and Naruto reached their apartment, the redhead was more than happy to fall like a rock unto his bed.
But not tonight; there was something keeping him wide awake as he left the dojo sometime after midnight and caught a cab. There was someplace he had to be.
Tiptoeing his way into the kitchen, Gaara tried to make as little noise as possible as he opened the fridge. He rummaged for a bit but finally found the six-pack of Gatorade he kept at the back. Jade eyes skimmed through the contents of one of the drawers in an attempt to find something edible that didn’t need any preparation. The inner light of the fridge shone brightly into the kitchen and illuminated the freezer door on his left; it suddenly revealed a note stuck under a daisy magnet above the ice dispenser.
“Tomcat, there’s some egg salad in the big tupper bowl. Knew you’d be starving! Hurry up and come to bed.”
Grinning from ear to ear, Gaara located the aforementioned bowl and proceeded to devour its contents happily. As he did so, a blissful feeling of contentment overcame him. It was a bizarre emotion for him and one he hadn’t exactly gotten used to yet. It would sometimes catch him unawares at the most peculiar moments, like whenever he found Sakura waiting for him when he finished teaching at the dojo or when she would sidle towards him on the couch when she was sleepy, her silent code for ‘let’s go to bed’. The intense feeling of satisfaction would start somewhere near the centre of his chest and make its way towards his limbs. So by the time they were walking hand in hand down the street or were warmly settled under the sheets, the feeling would be all-encompassing. It was just one of the many changes Sakura had wrought on his person. Before he had met her, experiencing such contentment had been a completely alien circumstance for him.
Even now, the more sceptical side of his mind would sometimes wonder just what the hell was wrong with him. After a thorough analysis it was clear he was evidencing all the symptoms of the condition commonly known as besotted idiocy. The cynic in him would protest and tell him the Crimson Death had a lethal reputation he needed to maintain. But Gaara would ruthlessly silence such sceptical notions. He had never felt more alive in his entire existence and he wasn’t about to leave the woman responsible for this novel condition any time soon. His inner cynic would simply have to deal with her.
It wasn’t long ago that, under similar circumstances, he would come home to an empty and half-furnished apartment. He would cram his day with training and teaching because there wasn’t anything else to fill his life with. Even though Kankurou and Temari had been around, they were too busy doing their own thing to be a constant presence. His fridge would have been empty and he would have had to lie on a cold and solitary mattress for the rest of the night. There had been nothing and no one to assuage his exhaustion, absolutely no motivation for coming home and certainly no source of comfort or anything even similar. Barren and desolate, his life had solely consisted of kyokushin day in and day out. He guessed it was the reason he’d gotten so good at it. Getting stronger and winning fights had been his sole objective. He’d subsisted one day and one fight at a time.
Back then, he didn’t really believe he needed to change. Gaara got his pleasures where he could find them and that had been enough for him. Winning the kyokushin championships brought along all the satisfaction he’d thought he needed. There wasn’t room for anything else.
But then life had come along and kicked him unexpectedly in the rear. How it always managed to do so even though you thought you were being alert was beyond him. In a matter of months things for him had changed drastically, in a sort of 180 degree fashion. He now had people he could genuinely call friends and a woman to share his days with. Gaara had always thought sharing his life with a female would be a pain in the ass, more hassle than it was worth. But when it came to Sakura, things had just progressed naturally and he had never really felt any sort of hesitation. As a matter of fact, he had felt a strange certainty and a need to be straightforward. He’d followed his instincts and, once again, they hadn’t failed to steer him down the right path.
That the pink haired doctor was the right path was never in doubt. The egg salad he had just finished eating was a testament to that. When had anyone else during his entire life cared if he was hungry or not after training? Naruto may have done so but his intentions were completely different; they had more to do with body performance and recovery times. Sakura, on the other hand, left him food in her fridge because she was worried about his personal comfort.
Yet again, it was a bizarre notion but one he was happy to welcome in his life. It was strange how you only realized you were bereaved when you were shown all the things you’d been missing.
After gulping down the Gatorade and placing the empty bowl in the sink, the redhead crossed the living room with a determined stride. The clock on the microwave had announced it was some minutes after one in the morning. It was time to get moving; he’d kept her waiting for far too long. He took his shirt off as he advanced and threw it unto the TV room sofa as he passed. When he got to the bedroom door, he took off his trainers while his eyes scanned the bed.
She was lying on her side, facing the door, as if actively waiting for him to show up even in her slumber. With a sly grin at her telltale position, Gaara stripped down to his boxers and lifted the covers to join his lover, who was deeply asleep in a thin camisole and a pair of boy-short panties. Sakura instinctively moved towards him when she felt his heat, mumbling incoherently and burrowing her nose in the precise spot where his neck met his shoulder. She unconsciously sniffed his skin as if to ascertain it was really him that had crawled into bed with her and that he hadn’t been conjured by a dream. Satisfied with what her senses were telling her, she kissed him lightly on the neck and settled more comfortably in his arms.
It was a kind of ritual she always performed whenever he came in late and found her already asleep in bed. How she managed to do all that without actually waking up always made Gaara chuckle in amazement. Needless to say, it was another of those instances when the intense feeling of contentment would creep up on him; that she trusted him so much and found such comfort in his presence was something that still left him slightly astonished.
But he took the lessons life threw his way in stride. If it was telling him to find reassurance in the most unlikely of places, he wasn’t about to complain. He had always prided himself in making the best of the opportunities to come his way. Right now he had the chance to experience reprieve from the barrenness that had filled his days for many long years in the arms of this pink haired woman. The redhead wasn’t about to look the gift horse in the mouth.
Brushing his fingertips down her back in smoothing lines, he let the fatigue from his training overcome him. Tomorrow being Saturday, he’d be able to spend the entire day with Sakura, a prospect that had kept him going even though he’d wanted nothing more than to collapse after leaving the dojo. Spending the weekends in her company was now the official highlight of his week, something not six months ago he would’ve considered ludicrous.
Strange how life shifted so you could open your eyes to hidden paths. Luckily, in his case, he was not walking alone anymore and if he had his way, his going would never be lonely ever again.
Breathing in the scent of her hair, Gaara closed his jade eyes and let her calm breathing lull him into the welcoming arms of slumber.
~~xxx~~