Void. A Gaara Story.

Five

To put it frankly, the stay at the Sabaku family mansion was not boring per say but rather quiet. Very quiet. The only people in the huge house were Baki, Murasaki, Gaara and Fuu. There were no helpers whatsoever.

Some helpers were called in on occasion maybe to clean the house or render some services but that was it. After they were gone the house reverted to its old boring state.

For somebody as outgoing as Fuu, the silence was nothing short of nerve wracking. She was used to jumping about and being spontaneous for crying out loud! Her humongous cast did nothing to help matters. It sucked being confined to a place because of an injury and to make matters worse, it had been a tad difficult to tail Gaara because of it.

Said redhead was practically a living ghost in the house. At least ghosts make noises, Gaara? No. He seldom talked, seldom laughed, seldom made an appearance for more than twenty minutes to Fuu and the other occupants of the house.

Come to think of it, Fuu had never actually seen Gaara smile before. Even in the TV drama he acted along with Hyuga Neji and Ten Ten and in photoshoots before he quit the entertainment industry altogether Gaara never smiled, only a slight quirking of his lips.

Was he some kind of Ice Prince or something? Why was she even bothering herself with another person's business? If Gaara didn't want to smile whose business was it? Nobody's.

Fuu shook her head as if doing that would get rid of her wandering thoughts. She was writing a report back to her boss about her secret investigation on Gaara. There was nothing much about the redhead to write though. After she was done Fuu cleared her records and shut the laptop down.

She always made sure to cover up her tracks in case Baki and Murasaki decided that she needed to be investigated again. Fuu stretched her arms and back with a languid yawn. She had been on the computer for what seemed like hours.

The dark skinned woman picked up her crutches and hobbled to the kitchen to hang out with Baki and Murasaki, maybe get some things about Gaara out of them.

"Hello Murasaki-san, anything I can help with?" Fuu asked/announced her presence as she entered the state of the art kitchen. The old cook was bustling around the place in preparation for lunch when Fuu came in.

"Gracious no child, you are injured!" The woman exclaimed exasperatedly as she always did any time Fuu offered to help. The younger woman couldn't help it though. She always felt uncomfortable when people were busy with something around her and she was the only jobless one.

"Doesn't mean I can't at least help to peel the onions or something-su. I have to do something or I'd go crazy-su!" Fuu wobbled to where Murasaki stood over the counter and collected the bowl of onions and knife from her. She then hobbled to the island and took a seat there in order to peel the onions comfortably.

Murasaki had an astounded but fond look on her face at the woman's antics. "Very well, peel the onions." She chuckled. Fuu ended up doing all the vegetables available because she coerced Murasaki into allowing her.

"Ne Murasaki-san?" Fuu called after some minutes of silence had passed between them.

"Yes?" The old woman hummed absently as she worked seasoning into the fish.

"If you don't mind me asking, is Gaara-san always this quiet?" Fuu asked.

"No." Murasaki replied. She didn't say anything for a while after that so Fuu thought that she had dropped the topic until she spoke again. "Gaara-dono has always been quiet but not this closed off. He just came back home after many years so I am afraid I do not know what bothers him."

Murasaki stared at the now frying fish in the pan. It spat and hissed at intervals, breaking the silence in the kitchen. Fuu was silent because she was trying to think of possible reasons for Gaara's withdrawal. She surmised that it had something to do with the reason he quit acting.