Romancing the Kazekage- A Gaara Love Story

The Tempest & The Moon

Before the chapter beings I would like to make something clear: sometimes Ai will say words in Japanese (to the best of Valentine's ability) in the middle of "speaking" English. I have done this because I think it is a good way of demonstrating that Ai speaks a different dialect to Gaara (namely a more poetic and therefore older version of Japanese).

For those of you that have a mother-tongue that is not English or know of someone whose first language is not English, you may find that when they speak English they will throw in a word of their first language/mother-tongue as they feel that English does not do justice to what they want to say. This is the same effect I am going for; Ai traditionally speaks an ancient, more beautiful version of the language so dips in and out of either dialect. It is simply to add a little more realism to the story.

Let me know if it works out.

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The morning following the festival saw Suna buzzing with excitement over a new Kazekage, over a new era of prosperity. The red headed shinobi that they were all talking about walked through the palace- greeted by smiles and cheerful waves to which he had no idea how to respond. Gaara simply nodded thanks to anyone who greeted him and blushed as young women in the palace smiled at him in a way they had never done so before. In a way, Gaara almost missed being feared; at least then he was not put under any pressure to interact with anyone.

The Kazekage approached his office and opened the door to find Ai, lying on her front on the chaise chair that lined the windows of his office. She was dressed in shocking pink with the embroidery of pale green and blue flowers twisting around her figure. It was the simplest Gaara had ever seen her dressed; with a thin gold chain around her neck, matching minimalist anklets and bangles and small gold studs in her ears. Her hair was tied up in a braid but she let a few loose curls frame her face as she lay, nonchalant and unaware of her discourtesy. She looked like a doll, almost, porcelain and ornate, lounging in his office as though it were hers. At the end of the chair she had put a small table on which she had placed playing cards. She did not look up as the Kazekage entered.

"What are you doing?" Gaara asked as he walked into his office. She kept her gaze on the playing cards in front of her, occasionally looking at the few cards she had in her hands. The pack of cards was decorated with flowers and golden numerals; Gaara eyed them with scrutiny.

"Winning a bet," the girl gestured to the cards laid out in front of her and continued to ignore him. Gaara sighed.

"What are you doing in my office?" Gaara snarled and began to grow impatient as she still did not look over to him. Ai sighed and blew a curl softly away from her lips.

"Growing bored of the conversation offered therein," Ai replied with such insolence that the Kazekage shut his door loudly, walked over to her and waited for her to look up, all the while trying to prevent his brow from furrowing in frustration. He would not respect her actions by reacting to them. "Do you need something, Kazekage?" Ai asked sweetly and looked up to him with a smile. Her electric blue eyes, full of mischief, caught sight of his face and for a moment she was paralyzed by him. He noticed the smirk fade from her face as she took in the sight of him. Unaware, as Gaara always was, of what he did to women, he shoved an envelope in her face.

"Take this to Kankuro," he said loudly and it seemed to shock her back to Earth. Her eyes widened and blinked up at him as Gaara nudged the letter towards her. After a moment Ai shot him a look of indignation before returning to her game. The Kazekage jerked in shock; "hey!" He shouted at her; how dare she ignore him? Ai continued to pick up cards and inspect them before smiling and placing them into the growing pile in her hand.