The Return (Book 2 of It's Not Forever) COMPLETE

Chapter 19

    When we reach his office door, Kankuro waits in the lobby so if Gaara gets mad at him it would give him a few second's head start. I knock on the door and I hear him call for me to come in. I enter and he doesn't look up from his papers until I put the bag on his desk. His face flashes from surprise to disappointment. I frown at his last expression and ask why he's disappointed to see me. He scolds me for leaving the house when I'm not supposed to.
"Kankuro let me! He's in the lobby. But I wanted to see you and I brought you lunch and I'm so tired of being stuck in the house Gaara-kun."
"The therapist says you'll overwork yourself if you go out too often."
"The therapist can kiss-"
"Kaida..."
"I'm fine. I can walk without crutches and everything. Can we please go to Konoha? It'll be fun!"
I flash him my best smile and wait for his response. He sighs and rubs his forehead.
"I was going to wait until after I got home to tell you but I had it set up for Kankuro to take over for a couple of weeks and we'll be leaving for Konoha in the morning."
"Really?! Yay! Thank you Gaara-kun!"
I go around his desk and hug him and kiss his cheek causing him to blush. He convinces me to return home and pack for the trip but asks that I send Kankuro up to the office on my way. I giggle and kiss him before heading downstairs, cooing Kankuro's name along the way. I find him downstairs hiding behind a tall plant. I tell him that Gaara wants to see him and he shouts 'no' before hiding further behind the plant. I shuffle to the side as a trail of sand tickles my leg and latches onto Kankuro's ankle. It knocks him down and drags him across the room while he screams like a child. I call out that I'll meet him at home then leave while the sounds of his screams echo through the building. I cheer when I get back to the house, thankful that I am alone for once. It would be rather embarrassing to be seen dancing around like an idiot. A few minutes of excited dancing and squealing later, I calm down enough to go upstairs to pack for the trip. I wonder what it'll be like and what has changed. I don't even know who the casualties were in the war. Gaara would've told me if someone close to me had passed away. He won't tell me anything about Konoha though, wanting it all to be a surprise I suppose. I can't wait until tomorrow. I don't think I will be able to sleep tonight!
I wake up to Gaara lightly kissing my forehead and I yawn and stretch before opening my eyes. I grumble at him to go away and let me sleep, but when he teasingly tells me that if I don't want to wake up we'll skip the trip, I jolt out of bed and take over the bathroom. I come back out showered and dressed in a navy blue sundress. Sadly dresses seem to be the easiest thing for me to wear with my weight loss. I grab my bag after clipping my weapons belt around myself to hang loosely on my hips and head downstairs to cook breakfast. To my surprise Kankuro is sitting at the table with a decent looking and smelling breakfast of eggs and bacon. I raise an eyebrow and sit down, staring down the food curiously.
"There's no poison in this, right?"
"I didn't cook it. Ask Gaara."
I look up to find Gaara stealing a piece of bacon from my plate. I sigh and roll my eyes before taking a piece.
"Since when can you cook Gaara-kun?"
"I've always been able to, you just do it first."
I stick my tongue out at him and motion for him to sit as I pour cups of coffee for each of us. We eat while I bounce in my chair impatiently. After breakfast we say goodbye to Kankuro who heads to work as the stand-in Kazekage and we head toward the village gates while the sun is barely starting to rise. By the looks of things, if we go relatively fast paced we should be there by tomorrow morning at this time. If we go slowly, it'll be the following morning.
"I know you're excited to get there but we're going to take it easy."
I deflate and shoot him a look.
"I'm fine. I can walk and run perfectly fine. If I start feeling weak we can stop or you can carry me but if you keep babying me I won't get stronger."
"I don't want you to get hurt." He responds and I stop walking and turn to face him.
"Gaara, I know you worry about me, Kami knows I worry about you too, but we're ninja. We're built to get hurt and get stronger. Our lives are about getting hurt. Just because I may not be immortal any longer does not mean I'm made of glass. Please stop worrying so much. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon."
He pulls me into a hug and I feel him sigh into my hair.
"I'm sorry Kaida, I just worry about losing you again. I had to watch you die twice now and I don't want to see it again, especially if you may not come back again. I'll try to stop worrying so much. We'll go at a normal pace but if you start to hurt or feel weak, let me know."
"Thank you, Love."
I kiss his nose and he pulls my face down until our lips meet. We pull away and rush off through the trees again.