Naruto One Shots

Desert Lily #1 (Kankuro Sabaku)

[Art work is not mine! Credit to unknown]

Requested by: Myself
[Idea (somewhat) inspired by the imagine above]

Keys:
- Y/N: Your Name

Word Count: 4,123

Warnings and/or Pre-Notes:
- Definitely going to do a part #2 and #3 cause I like this story line

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I hum softly to myself as I walk through the empty hallways of the Hokage mansion. I'm not a fan of the place. The muniment gives me the creeps; as do its residents.
     Well, just Lord Fifth. The way he slithers around the huge place, appearing where he pleases when he pleases. Given it is rightfully his home and always has been. Nepo-baby at its finest. Though I shouldn't be so harsh. Temari and Kankuro hold high standings in the village because of their father right alongside our Hokage.
     I should take it as an honor that our Lord welcomes me into his home, even if it doesn't seem he does it willingly.
     As if Kankuro's emotionally underdeveloped brother could hear my thoughts, a door swings open with the Sand's Kage walking out of it. He's wrapped up in his official robes, the Kage hat coating his face heavily from the oversizing. A big hat for a big-headed Hokage. I smile a bit at that. I am really mean, perhaps I should be nice to my village's leader. Or at the very least, be nice to the little brother of the man courting me.
     "Lord Fifth," I mumble, bowing my head down. If my thoughts can't be nice, my body language can be.
     "Do not bow to me," he huffs, my eyes catching a glimpse of the end of his robes as he walks toward me.
     "I didn't know you didn't appreciate respect," I mumble, snapping my head back up. I shouldn't have said that. My big mouth always getting in the way.
     Gaara tilts his head some, a sliver of confusion in his eyes as he looks at me. "I appreciate the respect given to me by all my civilians," he answers, tipping his hat back. It doesn't stay though, slipping right back down to coat his eyes.
     What a humorous little guy. I know very little about Kankura's childhood and even less about the childhood of his siblings. From the offhand comments and whispers around the village, it was not very pleasant, much less the luxurious one you'd expect for the princes and princess of our village. Even if only a fraction of the rumors are true, it would explain a lot.
"Is that so?" I ask, a bit of a smile pulling at the corners of my mouth.
"Yes," he answers shortly, turning on his heels and walking away. "Walk with me?" Gaara asks though it's more of a statement than a question. I obey, making quick steps so I can fall in pace with him. "What are your thoughts on sapphires?"
"Sapphires?" I ask, glancing at the young leader of our village. He's looking back at me, the paleness of his eyes catching me off guard a bit. I snap my eyes away, focusing on the hallway ahead of us.
"Yes," he answers shortly, eyes still burning into me.
"They're nice... I think."
"You think?" Gaara asks, stopping his movements.
I stop too, turning my attention back to the scary kid standing next to me. Our Lord is the same age as me, but despite that, he still has quite the baby face. "I've never seen one so I don't know."
He rolls my words over for a while, still looking at me as he does so. Our Lord's eyes are pretty despite their pale coloring of them. They remind me of Kankuro's, though Ro's are brighter than his brother's.
"Well," he starts, head tilted in confusion again. "A lady of your standing should know what a sapphire is."
"My Lord, I do not have any standing in the village. I'm not even on the waitlist to be considered for any standing. Perhaps you are mixing up my bloodline," I answer in a bit of a ramble.
Does my Lord not know who I am? I mean, I would understand since our village is quite large but his brother is courting me. Am I not the only woman Kankuro is courting? Maybe both of them were misled about my family. Is Kankuro going to stop courting me when this misunderstanding is cleared up?
"Of course, you have standing in the village. Quite a high standing, might I add," Gaara says, starting up his paces again.
I follow after him, face scrunched up with confusion. Did he not hear me? Maybe he just doesn't believe me. What has Ro told his brother about me? Is he ashamed of courting the daughter of a nightshade farmer?
"My Lord-" I try again, but get cut off.
"Gaara."
My voice catches in my throat, causing a small squeak to come out instead. "Gaara," I say quietly before continuing my sentence. "I don't think you understand-"
Once again, I get cut off. "I am aware of your bloodline. I am also aware of my bloodline. The same bloodline my brother shares. Even without my... egotistical brother, your family is quite useful to our village. After all, I don't know a single shinobi within the gates of the village that hasn't used nightshade after an injury."
Oh. Maybe he's not confused. "I still don't fully follow, my Lord."
"Gaara," he corrects again, causing the warmth of embarrassment to start crawling up my neck. "You shall eventually. I may not understand my brother but I am aware of his title, the title you'll inherit."
"I don't-"
"I must go. The meeting break will be ending soon. I shall see you soon I assume, Princess?" With that Gaara knocks on the door next to us before nodding at me. Before I can get another word in, he turns on his heels and starts walking back down the corridor.
My head is spinning as I look after him. What title am I going to inherit from Kankuro? How would I even inherit anything from him? Why was the Lord asking me about sapphires? Why would he want to walk with me? Why did he call me Princess? There's no way he meant it as a pet name, he doesn't even know what sarcasm is! Why would he want me to call him-
"Y/N?" A voice calls, cutting off my thoughts. I'm getting annoyed with getting cut off. Do people have no respect?
It takes a second but I do end up processing it as Ro's voice. "Ro," I call, turning in the direction of his voice. Even more confusion rolls around my head as I look at him. "You're... where's... goodbye," I stumble over my words for a second before closing the door, separating me from a makeup-less Kankuro.
My suitor hasn't kept his features hidden from me. He's taken his hood and forehead protection off around me before, showing his brown locks and his face better. I've even played with his hair before, usually picking out sand specks after a mission or training exercise. I've held his face so many times that I have the layout memorized and almost permanent purple ink on my fingertips from his makeup.
I've never seen Ro without his makeup though. He's very handsome with and without it on. I just wasn't prepared to see his bare face after the confusion dump his brother left me in.
I feel like this is a big step in our relationship... right? I mean, he's never seen me without makeup either. If Kankuro saw me without makeup I'd consider it a big step. Does he expect to see my bare face now too? Is he upset I saw him without his face paint on? Is he going to be mad? Maybe I should apologize. Maybe I should just go home.
A knock on the door cuts me out of my thoughts again. It causes more confusion to swirl around my head. The confusion is quickly racing towards upset territory. A second and third knock echo through the hallway, not helping the headache that has started to form from my overthinking. A fourth, fifth, and sixth knock comes before I decide to open the door again.
"Hello my Desert Lily," Ro says, a smile on his still bare face. His head is titled in confusion, the same way Lord Fifth's was a few minutes ago. The confusion has reached his soft eyes, concern mixing with it. "Are you alright?"
     "I'm... my..." I puff out my checks, trying to get words to form as I focus on Ro's face. I like him without his face paint. Don't get me wrong, he looks good in it, but his face is so handsome without it.
     "My little Lily," he mumbles, hands reaching out to cup my face. The roughness of his skin brings me some comfort and helps me sort my thoughts a little easier. "What is on your mind?"
     "You're not... you don't have your face paint on," I answer, sucking my cheek in so I can nibble on it.
     My eyes end up settling on Ro's mouth, memories of our first kiss swirling around my head. It happened a couple of days ago. It was sweet but short. I didn't want it to be that short, and I wanted it to happen again but it didn't. The Lord ended up needing him for something, so I didn't get what I wanted.
     "Do you not like it?" He asks, his words slow and careful as they fill the air. His tone is filled with worry, also evident from his scrunched-up face.
     "I-"
     "If you don't like it I'll go put some on. I don't mind," Kankuro rushes out, eyes blinking quickly as he scans my face.
     "You just... look handsome," I answer, tilting my head in worry. "Ro? Do you... you know you don't have to change your appearance for me right?"
     "Ya, of course, I know that," he rushes out, his breath a little huffy as he drops his hold on my face. "It would be, so lame if I... yes, I know that." I tuck his reaction away for later. I have the feeling if I push the subject it'll end up with us talking in circles. "So... um was the whole 'goodbye' thing just because of this?" He asks, circling his face a couple of times.
     "No, your brother has me doing mental laps."
     "Oh great, what did Gaara do now?" Ro asks, taking hold of my hand and gently tugging me into his room.
     This is another first. I've never been in his room before. It's how I expected it to look. Tools and puppet parts are littered all over the room. There's less mess than there is in his workshop, but still very much a puppet-making space. His bed is one of those huge fancy beds with the currents you can pull around it. There's a small couch pushed across from a TV, the coffee table in front of it covered in different scrolls and paper. The wood-shaving-covered desk in the corner looks the same as the coffee table. Two single doors are stamped into one of the walls, but both are closed so I don't know what's passed them.
     "My Lily?" Kankuro calls, pulling my attention from my surroundings to himself again.
     "He just... said a lot of confusing things."
     "Like what?" He asks, gently herding me towards his bed. I do as he wants, heading towards the bed before sitting on the edge of it, the footboard gently digging into my thighs.
"He asked me about sapphires," I answer, scanning over the room again. My focus is mostly on the puppet parts. Kankuro's art always interests me; all the different colors and how the parts are put together.
"He asked you about what?" Ro asks, voice chipped and sharp with anger as he asks his question.
"About sapphires," I repeat carefully, tearing my eyes away from a half-made spider-looking puppet. Ro's chest is pumping fast, eyes wide but I'm not sure why. His voice seemed angry but his eyes seem fearful. "Why are you upset?"
"I'm not upset. I'm fine. What... exactly did he ask?"
"Just my thoughts on them," I answer, trying to keep my voice calm in light in hopes it'll run off on my suitor.
"Okay, okay, okay," Kankuro mumbles to himself, pacing around the room. A piece of wood catches his eye, turning his panicked attention toward it. I watch as he toys with it, his eyes scanning the room for something. "What are your thoughts on them?" He asks, words broken up as he walks toward whatever he is searching for. It's a pencil.
I watch as he sketches soft lines into the wood, my eyes locking in his fingers that flex and relax against his work. "Haven't seen one so I don't have any thoughts on them."
Silence falls between us, giving me time to look over his half-worked art pieces again. When the board digging into my thighs becomes too much I decide to shove my shoes off and settle into the bed better.
Once I'm comfortable lying on my back with my knees propped up, Ro peeps up again. "Is that all you two talked about?" His words are careful again, attention on me as he scans my face. His face is the shallow 'trying to stay cool' look he does when we run into shinobis around the village. I don't know how to take that.
"No, we talked about some other things too."
"Like what?" Kankuro's sentence falls out so quickly that it almost overlaps the end of my own. Is he mad I talked with his brother? Is that why he's trying so hard to keep her cool?
"He seemed a little upset when I bowed," I murmur, doing my own scanning for a reaction. I've seen Ro mad before and it's pretty scary. Would he lose his temper with me? I'd be lying if I said the knowledge of what Kankuro can do didn't scare me. He is a puppeteer after all, which makes it pretty easy to control others, especially those that aren't trained as shunobis, like me.
His face softens, concern breaking the mask he tried to hide behind. "What do you mean by upset?"
"Lord Fifth was just a little snippy about me bowing to him. Well, I wouldn't say snippy. He was pretty relaxed about it and about me calling him Lord instead of Gaara."
Kankuro's mask is back up for a second before a huge smile covers his face. "My brother asked you to call him by his name?" I nod my head, yes, sending him a small smile back. "That's... chill," he murmurs, turning his attention back to his wood chunk.
My sand prince is a really happy person, but other than his normal 'happy-go-lucky' attitude he won't show his other emotions very much or for very long. I've accepted that if we do plan to start a relationship it'll take some time to build enough trust for Ro to be more open about himself and his feelings.
Once again silence falls between us, but this time Kankuro moves closer to me. He sits down on the edge of the bed, his back to me as he focuses on his handy work. I take the time to admire the soft outline of his shoulder muscles. Puppeteering works out your arms a lot and it has done Ro some favors.
Before I can stop myself I reach my hand out, letting my fingertips feather over his shoulder muscles. Ro tenses under my touch but slowly starts to relax as my hand dances over his clothing. "I want to talk to you about something," I whisper, sliding myself closer so both hands can rub on him.
The pencil scratches that were filling the space stop, but nothing else ends up filling the space. "So, the main thing your brother and me talked about was social standings."
"Gaara can be a little... unaware of what he says sometimes. Whatever he said probably just came out wrong."
"I don't know about that. He seemed pretty set on what he said," I mumble as I sit up. I shift myself around again, sitting on my knees. I make sure to keep plenty of space between us, causing my arms to stay stretched out. I start massaging Ro's shoulders instead of my light touches. I can tell he needs it from all the knots tightened up under his skin.
"What did he say?" Kankuro says, a soft groan following his words.
My heart flips at the sound as thoughts of our kiss fill my head again. I can feel the heat crawling across my face as the thought of asking for another - deeper - kiss keeps repeating in my head.
"Gaara said I have 'high social standing' and when I tried to correct him he kept insisting I did. He also mentioned something about title inheritance which I don't understand at all. Plus your brother called me 'Princess' and I'm pretty sure it has to do with all that cause I don't think your brother understands pet names," the words come out in a word dump, my attempt to shove the words out before my overthinking gets to me.
Ro's head tips back to look at me, eyelashes flutter on overtime as he rapidly blinks at me. I stare back at him, my eyes blinking a lot slower than his. "My desert Lily," he says, his words warm as they collide with my ears. The warmth continues to fill me up, making me feel like actual lilies are blooming in my chest.
"Ya?" I call back, my eyes settling on his lips again. I want another kiss. I let myself scoot closer, my hands dipping down to his chest as I move.
"You are aware of my siblings and my titles, ya?" He asks, eyes drooping over my face slowly. Kankuro's hands slide up, tangling themselves with mine, the wooden project completely forgotten.
I hum a yes, dipping my head down lower. The space between us is thin, so thin that only a sheet of paper could slip through. My mind races from our position. Should I kiss him? Should I wait for him to kiss me? Am I too close to him? Am I not close enough?
"Uh... with... our father being the last Kage, my siblings and I still hold titles of... um, princess and prince, which passes down to our life partners and kids." Ro's words come out broken again, his head tilting to take up more of the small space between us. His lips are so close to mine that I can almost feel them against me.
"Oh," I breathe out before fluttering my eyes closed. I need him to kiss me, I need him to do it now before my thoughts pull me back.
The bedsheets ruffle as Kankuro shifts again, his lips feathery light against mine. "There are customs that come with that though. Approval from the family Kage, family jewelry being gifted, and a dumb long list of all the other customs."
I can feel a desperate whine clawing up my throat from the teasing butterfly touches. "Kankuro," I whisper, a hum being sent back as an answer. I huff a little, coating his face in warm air.
I can feel the smile curling on his lips, which only makes the stifled whine even harder to hold down. More shifting fills my ears before the feeling of Ro's fingertips ghost over my neck. Shivers are chased by sparks that rash from his small touches. "I can't read your mind. Tell me what you want, my beautiful flower."
By the last syllable, my whine had won. The long soft mewl gets me what I want. Ro's hand slides around my neck, his palm barely against my neck, fingertips slightly denting my skin as he holds me still. His lips are finally pressed against my own, his mouth catching my noise before it's finished. Our lips dance against each other for a while, lungs screaming for air, and more sparks filling me up and sinking to my stomach.
When Kankuro pulls away another whine spills out, getting me sparkling eyes and a soft chuckle from my suitor. My nails dig gently into his chest as I attempt to pull him back to my lips. Once again I'm given what I want, a string of soft short kisses.
Sadly my kisses are cut off from a knock at the door. "I'm sorry," Ro mumbles, peppering a few more kisses to my lips before letting me go. I can feel the deep pout on my face as I watch him get up and walk over to the door.
He smiles at me softly, eyes soft and so full of admiration as he looks at me. "Absolutely gorgeous," Kankuro murmurs before turning his attention away from me.
I flap back on the bed, the tension slowly creeping out of me from the lack of Ro being wrapped up in my space. I watch as he opens the door, cracking it enough to fit himself in the open space but closed enough that I'm not seen. Is he ashamed of me being in his room? Or is he just worked up from our make-out session? Maybe it's part of the customs he was talking about? Is me being in his room against those customs?
The voice on the other side of the door is hushed enough that I can't make out the words but loud enough that I recognize it as Temari. "I know," Kankuro whines, slumping against the door frame.
Another hushed whispering before "No, she's not in here, that would be like so against the rules."
This round of mumbles is harsher, Temari's anger making her voice raise a bit. "I know!" Ro whines again, a groan following his words. It's not the relaxed happy groan from earlier though, this one is a pissy groan. "Ya, ya, ya. Give me a couple of minutes," he answers again before slamming the door shut. The frame creeks against the tension before falling silent again.
Once the door is shut Kankuro races back to the bed. His hand is instantly back in place, gently wrapped back around my neck, the other pinning my wrists down as he hovers over me. I can feel every inch of him pressed against me, securing my spot on the mattress.
He wastes no time, lips back against mine. Ro is a lot rougher this time; hand tighter on my skin, lips doing all they can to bruise mine, body pinning me in place. Kankuro's hunger is evident from the way he devours me, only pulling back long enough to suck in a quick breath before going back to my mouth.
"I'm sorry," he races out once he's gotten his fill. Ro's hands stay in place but are back to the light touches from before. He picks himself off of me a bit, giving me room to move around again. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have... I am so sorry, my little lily." More apologies fall from my suitor, each one chased by little kisses on any skin Ro can get to. His hand shifts as he jumps between my neck and my face.
"Ro-"
"I'm sorry."
"Kuro-"
"I shouldn't have - I'm sorry. I really should have - I'm sorry," I can feel the waves of panic ripping off of him, his kisses getting desperate as if he can kiss the experience off my skin.
"Kankuro," I call again, wiggling my wrists in his hold.
His hands drop off of me and shift to lifting himself off of me, leaving him in a push-up-like form. "I'm sorry," he says for the hundredth time.
"Why are you sorry?" I murmur, lifting my hands to cup his face.
Ro's head tilts, gentle kisses being pressed against my fingers. "I shouldn't have been so rough without asking," he whispers as if the words will click my reaction in the other direction.
"Kankuro," I call out smoothly, letting my fingertips slide against his lips as he presses more kisses into me. "It's okay, you're fine, I'm fine. Just give a little bit of a warning next time, okay?"
"Okay. Okay, I will, I swear, okay," he murmurs more to himself than me. It hurts a bit seeing how panicked he is. Maybe Kankuro fears what he can do to me more than I fear it myself. I think in our next meeting I should start poking at his life before me. There has to be a reason Ro fears himself so much. "I'm sorry," he says again, soft kisses tracing up my arm.
"It's okay," I answer again, softly playing with the ends of his hair. Perhaps my suitor's walls aren't as high as I thought they were.