[AIM & Email Log] First Date Part 1

[sombresands]

Who: Rock Lee and Sabakuno Gaara
When: Saturday 22nd
What: Lee and Gaara go out on their first official date
Where: Train station, Omotesando Shopping District, Train station again then Lee's apartment
Warnings: Soft shounen ai and a bit of angsting on Gaara's behalf
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They had agreed to meet at the train station, since it was easiest to reach Omotesando that way. It wasn't a long train ride, luckily.. Gaara adjusted the scarf around his neck since down here in the train station it seemed even colder then it was outside. He put his hands into his pockets and watched the large crow of passengers, mostly foreigners, bustle around.

He lifted one hand up to check his watch. Lee wouldn't be too away now, he said to meet him at two thirty. Roughly an hour after classes at high school finished on Saturday. It was around two fifteen now, so he knew Lee would be arriving soon.

Lee was running late! It was an unyouthful, horrible thing to do especially on his first date with his most important person, and he was looking forward to the 'fourth', and who missed the bus in this day and age?! Lee cursed mentally as he ran, sliding just a bit around a corner as he pelted up the stairs to the train station, ten minutes after he said he'd be there.

He arrived and stumbled to a stop before leaning forward, cheeks pink from the cold and hands braced on his knees, and tried for a breathless smile. "G-gaara! Sorry about being late ... did you have to wait long?"

Gaara looked down at Lee, all pink faced and breathless, before he shook his head slightly. He had heard the thundering footsteps making their way up the stairs, and somehow he knew it was Lee's and not another commuter who was running late. Seemed Lee had a distinct pace when walking or running, that was easily identifiable for those who knew it.

"No, not long." he said before he motioned to a free seat. "Sit down, you look like you're going to pass out."

"No, I am fine," Lee protested before righting himself, hands bracing against his hips. He had dressed very casually for this, his only baggage a small blue back-bag slung over one shoulder. His sleeves were long like normal, with matching blue fingerless gloves over both hands, and a simple scarf wound about his neck.

"I am just glad I did not miss the train," he told Gaara before blowing a small stream of air up at his hair, ruffling his bangs a bit with a rueful smile, "it would be very unyouthful to be late for my own date!"

"Maybe." Gaara mumbled before he rubbed his hands together. Maybe he should take a leaf out of Lee's book and wear gloves. March was warming, slowly but it was still insanely cold now and then. He blew on his hands, warming them momentarily with his breath before he sought out his wallet in his pockets.

"So I read your sensei is hiring on someone to look after the dojo while you're away..?" he asked, as the two began walking to their right sub station which would take them directly to Omotesando.

"Yes," Lee agreed as he cast Gaara furtive look, worrying at his lower lip between his teeth as he noticed how Gaara was rubbing and flexing his fingers.

"It is a youthful college student named Tobi! I got to meet him yesterday, he seems so nice and eager to learn the ways of the Noble Green Beast! I have faith that he will keep things well under control while we are away at the competition."

Lee inched closer before coming to some internal decision. He tugged free one glove, using his teeth and fingers, then the other before offering them with a small smile. "Here ..."

"Hm?" Gaara had been glancing at a poster, detailing a new electric guitar that was coming out soon. His old one was wearing, but he knew he'd never be able to afford a new one off the rack. He turned and stared at the glove for a moment, before he smiled. "Oh.. is that all right?" he asked as he reached out and just snagged at one of the finger holes, but not pulling it away yet.

Lee had always worn gloves, and bandages. Gaara couldn't recall a time in school, or out, that he had seen his hands bare. This certainly was a first.

Lee glanced over at the poster before smiling wistfully. He knew that Gaara was very into music, it would be so nice to be able to buy him things like that ... still, he knew if he won the Sasuke Competition like he was hoping, the winnings would be going towards helping Naruto with the damages to his floor, and the rest to his Gai-sensei to cover, well ... quite a few remaining medical bills.

He wasn't really in it for the money, so much as the fun of doing the challenge itself.

"Hmmhmm," Lee nodded before winking one eye shut as he released his grip on the gloves, his left hand curled loosely in his pocket. "You need them more than I do!"

"Thank you." Gaara smiled and bowed his head slightly in even more thanks, and pulled the gloves onto his hands. They did little to help his cold fingers, but it was a nice gesture none the less. He pushed one hand back into his pocket either way, but the one closest to Lee continued to sway against his body as he walked.

They stood on the train station, and Gaara glanced up to the screen above their heads. The train was only a few minutes away, apparently.

"So are you looking forward to your trip?" Gaara asked as he looked up (Lee was a good head or so taller then him, after all) at him. The Sasuke Competition was a hot talking point with his boyfriend, and he knew he was training even harder then usual in preparation for it. Still, Gaara would miss him when he left. A lot.

"Yes! I am very excited about it," Lee's eyes danced as he grinned, "I have been told that if I pass the first set of obstacles I might end up on television. I will have to be very careful..."

He glanced over at his boyfriend and marvelled for a moment, inwardly, that he could even refer to him as that. Gaara was his boyfriend. He grinned a little to himself and bounced, and resisted the urge to tangle his fingers with Gaara's, since he was fairly sure that would get them strange looks. Lee did not mind the looks, but he thought maybe Gaara would ...

"Gai-sensei has purchased tickets to come with me and cheer me on, so that makes it even better!"

"I wish I could go with you." Gaara said quietly, but he knew he couldn't. For one he had spent what money he had saved from his New Years money and birthday money on Lee's train ticket. Plus his sister would never allow it, she had talked with their neighbour after all. The old woman would regularly check in on him and his brother, so even if Lee was staying home Gaara couldn't go spend the night like he had.

The train arrived with a rush of warm air, and both had to stand back as passengers disembarked. Gaara then, suddenly, snagged at one of Lee's hands with his own and led him onto the train. It was hard to read if he did this just to hold Lee's hand, or if it were just so they wouldn't get separated by the onrush of passengers.

Gaara was hard to read, when it all came down to it.

"I wish you could come too," Lee told him, even though his voice ended up mostly drowned out by the sudden rush of opening doors, pedestrians and train sound. He flushed and tangled his fingers tightly back through Gaara's, and tried not to lose him in the crush.

He wedged in behind him as everyone crowded in, and finally managed to find two seats so they could tumble down and relax, and watch everyone else stow baggage for the short trip and seat as well.

Even then, his hand didn't pull away from Gaara's... even though it was his left hand. It wasn't as though he had anything to hide, not anymore. "I can call you every night and tell you how things are going. I do not have a laptop ... but maybe the rooms will have Internet? If they do I will check in from there!"

Gaara too, made no move to pull his hand away. He could feel, but only just, some bumps along Lee's knuckles from his free fingers but that was it. But the two could get away with holding hands on the train, everyone was so wrapped up in their own worlds they hardly noticed the two teenage boys on their first date together. Gaara shifted slightly, and his knee brushed against Lee's own as he got comfortable.

"I'd like that." he said, meaning the phone calls. "As for the internet.. most hotels offer pay per hour Internet." Gaara knew this from going to multiple cities when he was growing up on 'business'. Normally he wound up sitting in hotel rooms or foyers as his father would talk business with doctors and the like. Computers were a usual thing to find now a days.

"It's getting warmer now." he said absently, since the mass body count meant a lot of body heat pushing out. Or maybe the train was heated? He didn't know, he had never taken this train before.

"Mm... I will have to ask Gai-sensei but I do not think it will be a problem for me to be online an hour or so a day until I return home," Lee mused thoughtfully. He wasn't much of an 'Internet addict' like some, he preferred to talk and hang out with his friends in person, but in long-distance situations it seemed the better method for communicating.

"And good," he referred to the weather, fairly beaming, "I hope it stays warm, I do not want you to get a relapse and fall ill while I am gone, Gaara!"

"That probably wouldn't help your chances of winning if you had to stop and sneeze every few seconds, if you had a relapse." Gaara mused, pondering said mental image of it. Lee had shown him a few clips of Sasuke Challenges on the Internet, and it looked really hard. But something he felt Lee could handle, but no with a sneezing fit.

He then leant against Lee, and rested his head against his shoulder. The train ride would only take fifteen minutes, but still, a long time with bustling people talking loudly into their phones and yammering to each other.

"Yes," Lee laughed at the mental image. Imagine, getting past the tightrope walk only to sneeze and take the plunge right before the finish line! It would be humiliating, but hilarious disaster. He dropped a very secretive, hidden kiss against Gaara's hair and blinked pleasantly. It really was getting warmer.

He had cleared the entire evening and had finished all of his homework for the day early, so he would be able to be with Gaara for the entire afternoon and evening stress-free. Lee wanted to focus all his attention on Gaara today.

Gaara had spent his day like he usually did. He hadn't gotten a lot of sleep, so had spent most of the time awake before school on homework that was supposed to be worked on over the spring break. Half his exams were done with already, and only a few more remained that would be happening on Monday and Tuesday. Then, came spring break.

...and he'd loose Lee for the entirety of his holiday. The thought alone made Gaara's hand tighten around Lee's own. That's why this date was so important, he wanted to at least be able to look back on a time the two spent together that wasn't at school in classes or on the roof, or at Lee's home with a small smile. It would keep him sane throughout the time apart.

"I will not be gone the entire break," Lee told him before resting his cheek over against Gaara's hair, "just five days I think ..." Still, especially since their relationship was so new, it worried Lee to be away from Gaara for so long a time...

What if someone else swooped in with sparkling teeth and manly, dynamic eyebrows and stole him?! Lee scowled briefly, hidden, and made a mental note to challenge anyone who tried.

The train finally rattled to a stop, the doors hissing open, and Lee stretched and waited impatiently for the patrons in front of them to file out the doors.

Gaara got to his feet and tugged Lee along behind him and they stepped out into the brisk, outdoor air. This station was out in the elements, unlike the one they came from which at least had walls and a ceiling. He shivered as the cold air met his face, and he wondered why he hadn't brought his goggles. Or his beanie.

"It's even colder here." he mumbled, but maybe it was coming from the fact that they had come from a heated train, and that made it feel like it was especially cold.

His hand still remained firmly linked with Lee's as they made their way from the station to cross the street, to where the shops were lined. There were clothing boutiques, fashion accessories stores, and places to eat. Also there were a few buskers playing instruments along the road. A nice atmosphere, for a first date.

"Is there anywhere you want to go specifically?" Lee went a bit cross-eyed as his breath fogged the air in front of him, and he laughed before huffing a stream of hot air from the very bottom of his lungs, to watch as it misted away in the breeze.

Life's little pleasures, he decided happily, were the best ones.

"We could go window-shopping. Or eat! I have some money, I want to take you to a cafe or something but I think it might be too cold to eat outside."

"If we ate outside I'd freeze my nuts off." Gaara said, with all the tact of an elephant charging through a china shop. He walked in a way that made it so he was pretty much right up against Lee's left side, eyes looking at the store windows.

"I guess window shopping is best for now.." he mumbled as he glanced at a jacket that was on display in one of the windows. It was bright red with a lot of buttons and straps, certainly something relevant to his own fashion style.

"Plus I need new mascara." he added.

Lee flustered and laughed, and shook his head in a baffled way at the way Gaara spoke so easily. Sometimes the things that came out of Gaara's mouth were just shocking to Lee, but then, he didn't exactly take offence to them.

"I would rather something like that not happen," Lee agreed vaguely, before perking as he went nose-to-glass for a moment with a window in order to check out a lime green scarf and ear muff set.

One thing Gaara would swiftly learn if shopping with Rock Lee for very long, was the boy's penchant for going after designs and 'Fruits' fashions over more modern fashion. He just loved the colours!

Gaara watched Lee in just how fascinated the other seemed with the lime green scarf and earmuff set. He glanced at the price on display with it and frowned slightly. He was short, if he had a little bit more maybe...

...well he did have his job now. Maybe he could come out here while Lee was away and buy it for him. It could be a welcome home present or something. He glanced at some other sets on display, bags, shoes, the like.

"Like I said before," he said, "colours suit you. The school uniform really does little for you... but me," he touched his deep red jacket. "I like dark colours. We're really opposites, aren't we.."

"I suppose we are," Lee shrugged and blinked, since he'd never really considered it before. He was an optimist, sometimes blindly so, and Gaara was an all-out pessimist. Lee preferred loud happy techno or brash music where Gaara liked emo, classical, and more meaningful tunes.

Lee dressed brightly, Gaara dressed in dark shades ... but hey, opposites attracted right? He smiled brightly for him and tilted his head a bit.

"Those colours look best on you! You would look unusual in lime green Gaara. Like Christmas!"

"Probably." said, as he considered what he would look like, wearing those bright colours that Lee tended to wear. He would look... very, very strange. Not like Christmas, more like a freak of nature.

He continued walking and came to a stop not too long after outside a cosmetic's store. Gaara had spotted the 'Storewide Clearance!' sign and that meant bargains for makeup that was normally super expensive.

"Is it all right if I go in there?" he asked, pointing to the store, glancing at Lee.

"Sure!" Lee agreed as he trailed Gaara inside, sidestepping a few pedestrians who were chasing one another with squirt guns and laughing up a storm. Tourists from the look of it, possibly American, they had fanny-packs and cameras. He smiled and shook his head in amusement. How youthful!

Perhaps someday he and Gaara could chase one another around a shop in America and be the strange foreigners who got such weird looks...

Most of the art eluded him, and Lee paused to squint at a sculpture, baffled, before moving on. Lee tended to miss most of the 'deep meaningful' things that artwork claimed to have. To him, a sphere was a sphere, even when suspended by string. A painting of a box was just a painting of a box, and so on.

Gaara glanced around the store, which unsurprisingly was full of young teenage females looking at eye shadow, lipstick and blush. He waved in greeting at the store clerk who greeted him, and he made a beeline towards a shelf, which had what he was looking for.

Mascara, and eyeliner. "Yes.." he said quietly as he picked some up, it was his favourite brand and it was half price. He took at least three of them before he spotted some foundation as well.

Maybe Gaara was metro sexual, he certainly got called that by his brother now and again. How many young teenage boys wore make up on a daily basis anyhow? "Yes. Just these." he said to the clerk.

"Shopping for your girlfriend?" she asked as she rung up the price.

"No." Gaara said as he pulled out his wallet, looking through his bills.

"Oh..? No girlfriend then?" she asked as she fluttered her eyelids at him. Maybe they were for his mother, or sister.

She was flirting, and it was obvious. Gaara however was either ignoring it, or was totally oblivious.

Lee, however, wasn't oblivious at all. He peeked curiously at a few aisles of sparkly looking things, bindi's, eye shadows and pastes, and followed Gaara as his boyfriend picked out the products he wanted. Lee had never used anything like this (and had a nagging feeling he'd look unyouthful and ridiculous if he did), but Gaara looked so cute like that ...

Apparently he wasn't the only one who thought so. Lee's brows slammed together as he frowned sternly at the clerk, even though his possessive glare went ignored.

"Well, my name's Narumi," she continued flirtatiously before scrawling something down on Gaara's receipt. "Here's my number. Call me sometime."

"Huh?" Gaara blinked as he stared down at the receipt, at the number. Why did she give him her number, of all things? It turned out Gaara really was oblivious to it all. He eyed it for a moment before he looked at her, folded the paper and set it into his wallet. "Thank you."

She smiled and waved as he left with Lee.

"Strange." he said as he set his small bag of newly acquired makeup into one of his jackets pockets. He looked up at Lee, and saw he wasn't exactly happy. "What's wrong?" he asked.

Lee felt a little sick inside as he watched Gaara thank her and pocket the receipt. He had not even left for his challenges and already people were making unyouthful advances on his most precious person! He shrugged helplessly at Gaara's question and ducked his head, trying to sort it out into words.

"Nothing," he finally settled on, because he did not really know how to explain that sudden surge of jealous anger at seeing such a thing. It would just make Gaara think he was acting weird anyway, Lee thought, freaking out over something like that.

How was it that he knew more about how this sort of thing worked than Gaara did? Usually everyone else had to explain things to Lee, not the other way around! "It is nothing," he repeated quietly, "are there any other stores you want to see?"

Gaara had a feeling that Lee wasn't being entirely truthful to him. Something back there had gotten to him, and Gaara was certain he was going to work out what. He mentally replayed what happened. The girl, whose name he had already forgotten, had asked him things. She asked if he had a girlfriend, he said no.

Then she gave him her number.

He blinked a few times as his mind slowly processed this. She assumed he was single, was that it? Lee was upset because someone had made advances on him and he hadn't even realised. Gaara had no idea how to bring up the topic again, now... he didn't want to upset Lee at all but already he had set a foot wrong. And on their first date, to boot.

He shrugged slightly, "Not really.. want to just walk around a bit more before we go eat..?"

It hadn't been only that the girl had given Gaara her number, but that he hadn't corrected her and told her that he was with someone else. Lee had known their relationship was going to be a secret but ... just how much of a secret was it?

"Sure," he agreed amicably enough, and spun to walk backwards wide-eyed for a moment in order to watch a group of cosplayers passing by in extremely outlandish costumes, from a show he was only vaguely familiar with. The tourists from before, the American ones, had stopped and were taking pictures.

"Wow," he scratched at his hair and shook his head, amused.

Gaara looked at the cosplayers for a moment, before he held up his phone and took a photo too. When Lee looked at him, he shrugged. "I like 'He is my Master'. Even if it's a string of boobs sex jokes." Gaara replied before putting his phone away again.

He hadn't corrected her, on the basis of she had no right knowing his personal life. Gaara wasn't about to come out to a girl who worked in a cosmetics store, of all places. But he made a note not to go into that store again, since she might be more persistent next time.

"Lee," he started, but trailed off. What was he going to say? Even he didn't know how to word how he felt about his screw up in the cosmetics store. Even if Lee would argue till he was blue in the face that he was fine, Gaara knew he wasn't.

"He is My Master ... I do not remember that show, does it run on the weekends?" If it didn't chances were Lee wasn't very aware of it - he didn't watch much television at all. Most of his free time was spent either training, working, or studying late into the night so he could keep his marks up.

"They must really like the show a lot to dress up like that, especially with it so cold outside," he marvelled, "I admire their youthful enthusiasm!"

He glanced over at Gaara with a curious blink when he heard his name, but nothing else forthcoming. "Yes?"

"...it's.. about a boy whose parents died in a car accident." Gaara continued lamely, latching onto the topic of 'He is my Master' rather then try to talk about what had happened. "He's really rich.. and these girls end up working for him. Most of the time he gets beat up for being a pervert for making them wear..."

He looked after the cosplayers, all the girls in lacy, black maid outfits that were quite revealing. "...those. Plus there's a crocodile. But.. yeah. It plays during the week mostly."

He put his hands into his pockets now, before he continued walking. The cosplayers were going in the different direction, so at least this way they wouldn't be seeing any panties if a strong gust of wind came about. Gaara didn't know how Lee would react to such a thing, but.. he'd dislike it if he saw it.

Lee blinked in amusement. He really didn't have much exposure to things like 'harem anime's or stuff like that. True he led a sheltered life, but that was mostly due to the fact that he spent his time doing other wholesome things and just -- hadn't been put within range of most of life's perversions.

To the point where, as a teenager, he tended to be almost oblivious to them. "Oh," he mused before shrugging, still lost, "a crocodile ...? Well, it sounds ... interesting?"

It sounded kind of weird to Lee, but what was his judgment scale for 'weird' anyway? Especially when only a minute or two later he went wide-eyed and darted in excitement to a new store window, where they were selling things like training weights.

"Oh wow! I did not know they had a store for these here!"

Gaara had to quicken his pace to catch up with Lee since he had so suddenly ran to the store he was now peering into. He came to a stop and looked in with him, and smiled slightly.

Like Gaara to mascara, like Lee to training weights. "I didn't realise they came in colours..." he said, since they came in different sizes, as well as colours.

They were lined up in such a way that it echoed that of a rainbow in the sky. He looked up at a store mannequin that was wearing some outfit people wear when they work out, and Gaara couldn't help but imagine Lee wearing that.

It was pale green, with white stripes down the side, and very... very tight.

Lee followed Gaara's line of sight up to the outfit and smiled sunnily, before declaring strangely, "I own that one in dark green! It goes well with my orange leg warmers." It was a colour combination that Lee clashed quite often in fact.

He drooled a few minutes longer over the displays he could see from the window before moving away.

"I do not dare go inside," he confessed, eyes bright and shining, "I already own many weights and youthful outfits of training, and I would buy things I do not need."

"Could I watch you train?" Gaara asked quickly, since Lee already owned something like that on display in the store. "I mean. I've only been on the receiving end of your abilities in the past but I'd really like to see for myself.."

Oh yes, he would like to see Lee train. Stretching, push ups, chin-ups, whatever it was that Lee did. It would certainly be something Gaara would enjoy seeing.

Especially if Lee trained in outfits like that, that revealed absolutely everything. Spandex looked pretty ridiculous on most people, how would Lee look in dark green spandex with orange leg warmers doing all his exercises every day?

"Sure," Lee agreed easily, eyes brightening and teeth shining in a quick, happy smile. "You can join in if you like! I can teach you several youthful training exercises?"

"Oh. Me?" Gaara asked, as he rubbed his arms through the red material. "I'm not... really good with things like that." his physical shape was through genetics, more then hard work. Gaara had been raised as his father to use his brain, and hands more then to depend on his body in the ways Lee did.

But still, it might be interesting to be taught how to do those things. It would give him and Lee something else to connect over, as long as Lee didn't make him do it all the time.

"...but if you think I can.. sure, I'd like to." he nodded.

"Yosh!" Lee punched the air and beamed, "we can start youthful training together after my absence at the Sasuke challenge! I look forward to it very much!"

At least this new development seemed to brighten Lee's mood up quite a bit, even if it did ride on the heels of such a crushing blow to the very foundation of their relationship, in Lee's eyes.

As long as no one else flirted with Gaara and went uncorrected, Lee would let it slide. He flinched and shivered at another cold gust of wind, and rubbed at his freezing nose.

Part Two