Love Me Like XO, Kill Me Like XO {LeeGaa}

Week Six {part two}

I'm very sorry that I know very little about martial arts, and I can't stop regretting that I made Neji the villain because he's actually one of my favourite characters. I'm gonna figure out some way to redeem him later on, haha. I'm also very sorry that I'm doing this to procrastinate revising for my A level exams (which are literally going on right now hahahahaaaaaaa).

Actually, I'm not that sorry about the latter. Thank you all very much for 1k reads!

Final note: my Italian is still amateur, I only know what Assassin's Creed has taught me. I'm going to Italy this Summer as well. Pray for me.

Gaara had, somehow, gotten into a sticky situation.

Okay, sticky was the wrong word. He was in a squishy situation. A very squishy one, actually. As expected, Konoha University's dream team of scholarship martial arts kids had beaten their opponents into the dust, earning them all a medal and a pass to the following round, which was to be held in the next couple of weeks. Sasuke, Sakura, Neji, and Tenten had all won their matches; so when Rock Lee ended his fight with a hefty thwack of his bokken (hitting his contender square in the chest) the team exploded into cheers, running over to attack the bowl-cut boy with big hugs and slaps on the back.

They had all made it. Lee had made it. And Gaara was so proud of him.

So as the poor, tiny redhead sat smiling at him from the audience stands, he suddenly realised that Lee was smiling back. He was also making obnoxious gestures for him to come down and join them. Gaara flushed a pastel pink: he was still wearing his, for lack of better words, outgoing clothing, and there were a lot of people in the arena. A few cameras, too. He lifted his hands and shook his head furiously, ignoring Ino's frantic rib nudges from the seat beside him and Naruto's chants of encouragement. Lee rolled his eyes, grinned, said something to Sasuke who smirked in response, and then bolted to the stairs. Gaara's eyes widened as his sort-of-boyfriend grew closer and closer to him, gulping at the determination in his onyx eyes. The cameramen at the sidelines were following him with their lenses, eyebrows raised at the new target for entertainment. Before he could comprehend what was about to happen, Lee pounced on him, locking him round the torso with muscular arms.

That was when the situation got squishy.

It got even more squishy when Ino wrapped her arms around them from behind, turning the embrace into a weird, three-way snuggle. Naruto latched onto his side like a leech. Then he had Tenten's face in his back, Sasuke's fingers ruffling his hair, and Sakura's content laughter in his ear.

He didn't know where Neji was, and he didn't care.

Gaara was in the centre of a giant group hug. He had a lot of mixed feelings about it, not all of them positive, but kept his mouth shut because he didn't want to ruin the moment. However, he felt extremely overwhelmed by all the affection and attention, and the shyest part of him wanted to find a dark corner to curl up in.

"Why-" he gasped, "why hug me? All of you?"

"Because you're our friend, and we love you." Ino said from behind him.

"And you put confidence in Lee. You helped him win, dude!" Tenten added.

"Sweet Gaara, dolce Gaara, my good luck charm." Lee murmured, pressing a kiss to his forehead.

Suddenly he was crying. His friends, somehow, were not shocked by this. They cooed at him and rubbed his back.

"Before I met you idiots, I was never this emotional." He choked out, attempting to sound angry but coming across as rather pathetic.

"It's a good thing you did, you sap." Naruto grinned.

Shoving them away, Gaara wiped his wet cheeks and nose with the sleeve of his bomber jacket. "Be proud of yourselves, not me. You guys did amazing." He dabbed at his face. "You also ruined my eyeliner."