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

Chapter 29

    I take her by the hand toward the center of the festival where a gazebo has been set up and framed with lights with a small bench in the middle. She raises an eyebrow but lets me lead her under the gazebo. I can feel the eyes of our friends and likely a majority of the villagers on me as I swallow the fear building up in my stomach. She looks up at me in confusion and I smile in response and tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear before speaking.
"Kaida, I just wanted to tell you how much you mean to me. My life changed completely when I met you; you taught me how to actually feel things and to care about something. All I wanted to do was get to know you more and protect you, and now you're my world. I never wanted to know what it was like to lose you, and when I did I was crushed and I never want that to happen again. I want you in my life forever, I love you..." I pull a small black box from my pants pocket and open it as I get down on one knee. Her hand flies up to her mouth in shock as she stares down at me. "Kaida Hattori, will you marry me?" I brace myself for her to say no or something to go wrong.
"Yes!" She finally says as she starts to cry.
She tackles me in a hug as the surrounding crowd cheers. She pulls me into a kiss and I feel like my heart is going to explode. When we part I slide the ring on her finger. I chose against a large stoned fancy ring because it's not her style and instead got a silver ring formed to look like vines with a single diamond in the center. She tells me how much she loves it before kissing me again. When she pulls away again I wipe her tears away and help her to her feet. We turn around to find Ino, Sai, Shikamaru, and TenTen waiting for us, Kaida's camera in hand.
"Good job Gaara! The plan went perfectly!" Ino cheers, wiping away tears of her own.
"Plan? You planned all of this? How many of you knew?" Kaida asks, her hands resting on her hips.
"All of us. That's why I came over for the girl's day last week and Gaara and Shikamaru spent so much time together. We did awesome!"
A grin crosses her face and she hugs everyone else before returning to me and wrapping her arms around me. We all talk together while the music starts back up and people return their attention to the festival. Suddenly Kaida stops in mid-sentence so we all turn to her to see what's wrong. Her eyes cut to Ino and she points at her.
"Is that why you asked me that question the other day!?"
We all turn to Ino for her response.
"What question?" Oh Kami, Who knows what she asked.
"You asked me if I was prepared to be the Kazekage's wife and be practically famous all the time."
I shoot a look to Ino who hold her hands up in defense.
"Hey, I just asked the question, she didn't think anything of it."
Kaida tosses a piece of candy at Ino and it bounces off her forehead.
"So, are you prepared for all of that?" I ask.
"Of course I am. I was practically famous over there anyway for hanging out with you. And I'm sort of famous here for exploding."
"Pretty much." Ino chimes in.
The breeze picks up and blows cherry blossoms through the air. One lands on the railing next to me and I pick it up and carefully put it in Kaida's hair. As I look up again I finally notice that the kids aren't with us so I ask where they'd gone and Ino explains that their moms agreed to watch the kids for the night so we could all have fun at the festival. I notice Kaida flinch when she says moms and I remember that Ino and Shikamaru's fathers died. I kiss the top of her head and she seems to perk back up before grabbing onto Temari and Ino's hands and dragging them off.
"You're a lucky man, Gaara. She's a great woman." Shikamaru says as we watch them disappear in the crowd.
"I know. You're lucky to have my sister as well."
"What about me?" Sai asks.
"You picked Ino, what is there to say?" Shikamaru and I retort at the same time.