Resonance (Kakashi x OC, Gaara x OC) -- Book 2

Chapter 12: A New Beginning

A Sand shinobi showed Naruto and Sakura to their rooms. Keiko stayed behind and watched their backs as they left.

"You know I'd never force you..." Gaara began.

Keiko stared at the door as it closed behind her squad.

He continued, "I know you came here willingly, but I'd never force you to do anything you didn't want to do."

"Well you ought to know, no one can force me to do what I don't want to do," she said eyes flashing as she continued to stare at the door.

Gaara said nothing. He stood there, staring at her expressionlessly for a long moment. When it became clear he had no intention of breaking the silence, Keiko turned to him.

"I'm sorry, I am not angry at you. I just, need some time," she said.

Keiko went back out to the balcony and crouched down. She traced with her finger the sand that had gathered from the dust storm growing on the horizon. She swirled it around like a pouting child. She had just lost Kakashi only a few months ago. She felt something familiar stir in her when she looked at Gaara's face. She was expecting this to be an arrangement out of duty and so she could find new purpose. Above all, so she could honor her promise to Kakashi's memory that she would train. She cared about Gaara, but she hadn't ever thought of him that way.

But that wasn't true, a small voice said fairly. Her mind drifted back to when Gaara was saved by Chiyo-oba-san, how something had stirred then. She pushed the thought aside, angry at herself for tarnishing Kakashi's memory in this way. He would want her to be happy though, the small voice said. She barely even knew the guy and he was always so...blank, she shot back at it.

Gaara came out to the balcony, an invisible shield around him repelling the sand as it blew more violently. Keiko hadn't even noticed it picking up while she was lost in thought.

"You're our guest here, for as long as you want. I won't push you into anything, but I am going to ask you come inside. Sandstorms can get very dangerous."

She followed him back inside under the umbrella of his shield. When she stepped through the doorway, the sand lifted from her clothes and hair with a wave of Gaara's hand. "Thank you," she said.

There were a couple larger rooms near the Kazekage's room meant for family if he ever wed. He took her to the largest room and bid her goodnight. She went to the window and tried to look out, but the sand cloud was so thick now, she could see almost nothing through it. She lay down on the bed and was asleep almost instantly.

It had been a long time since she had flashbacks of war. Even after the recent battles with the Akatsuki, usually her thoughts only came to her as feelings when she was awake. Seeing everything replayed while she was asleep was another matter. She wasn't in control. And sometimes they had a tendency to be even worse than they were in life. Sasori laughed menacingly as her hands turned red, and she was suddenly drowning in a pool of blood. *Poof* She woke up in the hospital wing, and Kakashi was a puppet with no body.*Poof* Gaara turned into the one tailed beast and swallowed Naruto whole.

She woke up in a sweat. Gaara was kneeling next to her with his hand on her arm. "No!" she snarled, fangs bared as her eyes glowed red dangerously. To his credit, he didn't jerk away.

"You were shouting in your sleep," he said.

"I'm sorry," she said, looking down at her elongating claws, "I was having a bad dream. You must think I'm a...."

"Monster? So was I, if you remember," replied Gaara.

"But you're not anymore."

"That doesn't mean I don't remember," he said, standing. He poured a glass of water from the pitcher by the bed and handed it to her.

"Do you ever see their faces?" she asked.

He didn't reply. "The faces of those you've killed? The faces of those you've lost..."she continued.

"Every day," he said. "I didn't used to until I met Naruto. Once the way I saw people changed, I started seeing their faces in a different way."

She thought about that for a moment. That was exactly how she felt about the people in the Hidden Leaf. Things were different in this world. She sighed. "Well I doubt I'm going to be going back to sleep any time soon. Will you stay, for a while?" she asked.

"Sure, but just let me know if I violate your space," he said, grinning, she thought for the first time.

"So hardened sand DOES crack sometimes," she shot back.

He slumped down on the bed next to her, leaning his back against the headboard. "I'm learning to at any rate. This is all so different to me."

"You're where I was before, the first time I started feeling accepted by humans. I feel like part of me is going backwards now, and I don't want that. That's part of why I came here, to keep moving forward," she said, "and to train hard."

He looked sideways at her, reading the determination on her face.

They sat in silence for a while before she sat the water glass down on the table next to her and leaned back against the headboard next to him. She could feel the warmth radiating from his shoulder that was only an inch from hers. She listened to the wind outside howl as it lulled her back to sleep. After several minutes went by, she started leaning to the side involuntarily as her body relaxed. Her head drooped awkwardly onto Gaara's shoulder. He wasn't really sure what he should do. He didn't want her to wake and snap at him again. He gently put his arm around her and repositioned her so she wouldn't slide face first down into is lap. When she didn't wake, he leaned his cheek against her head and drifted off to sleep himself.

Beautiful and kind, and damn sexy Kakashi had called her in his journal. In her dreams she replayed her repeated snapping at Gaara. She didn't feel like she was any of those things right now. She had been short and nasty to him since she arrived, all because she was worried about betraying Kakashi's memory. Gaara didn't know anything about what she was feeling inside. He probably regretted asking her there. Gaara. She felt warm. She opened her eyes slightly to a darkened room. The moon and stars now shone through the window as the storm had died down. She felt arms wrapped around her in the dark. "He really stayed. After how nasty I was," she thought. She drifted back into sleep with the feeling of warmth surrounding her, inside and out.