Affection Blooming From A Desert (Gaara x OC)

Chapter 7: Making It Official

Akina was trudging through the desert under the harsh sun heading in the direction of the village gates. She had enough of the heat so she decided that for her day off she would visit one of the more popular oasis several minutes outside of the village. After a few hours of swimming in the cool water, she was ready to go home.

She had another date with Gaara tonight and this time she invited him over to her place so she could cook them dinner. Since their first date, they had gone on several more in the last month. In those last dates he would always be the one to initiate them and he planned them all. Akina thought she would return the favour this time by cooking him a good meal. It still felt surreal to her that she was actually dating the Kazekage, something that she didn't think would ever happen. But here she was, on her 6th date with him and still just as happy as she was on their first date.

Akina had never been in a relationship before, she hadn't even gone on a date before Gaara. Everything she felt was new to her and it was somewhat scary and nerve wrecking. She also had a lot of questions that she didn't know the answer to and it was pretty embarrassing asking her aunt about it. The biggest thing on her mind was when was it appropriate to take things a step further and become boyfriend/girlfriend? Surely a month of blissful dating would be okay...right? She was waiting for a sign from him but now she thought about it, maybe she should be the one to make the move, afterall, no one said it had to be the guy that initiated things.

Akina put those thoughts on hold, right now she had to visit the market to purchase some groceries for the dinner she was going to make tonight. Half an hour later she was on her way home with a bag of shrimp, eggs, beef, onions, carrots, scallions, cream cheese, milk, and flour. Tonight she was planning to make gyudon for the main course, some shrimp tempura on the side, and a cheesecake for dessert. Since the cheesecake would need to firm up in the fridge for two hours, she started on that immediately. Once she was satisfied that the cheesecake was mixed to the perfect consistency, she gently placed it in her fridge and started to prepare the other ingredients for the beef rice bowl.

As she was slicing the onions and deveining the shrimp, she couldn't help but worry he wouldn't like the food she was cooking. It's not that she wasn't a good cook, she was just worried that what she made would not be up to his standards since he had a professional chef at his beck and call, and he ate at the fanciest restaurants in the village. Maybe his palette was too sophisticated for her ameteur meals.

'Well, no sense in worrying about that, he's going to be here in a couple hours anyways.' She thought.

The food wouldn't take that long to cook so she decided now would be a good time to shower and get ready. She drew a bath and threw in a lovely rose chamomile bath bomb into the water. The bath bomb fizzled and produced a nice bubble bath. Akina gingerly lowered herself into the water and thoroughly scrubbed herself clean. After a good wash she dried herself and wrapped a towel around her body. She made her way to her closet and began rifling through her clothes.

She wanted to look nice but not too fancy since it was just a simple dinner. After a few minutes she settled on a nice navy blue skirt with white polka dots and a loose white shirt. She gave herself a once over in her mirror, once she was satisfied with her look she went downstairs to start on dinner.

While the rice was cooking she mixed the onions, beef and carrots in a pan and brought a pot of water to a boil for the poached eggs. When the food was almost done she grabbed two white bowls from her cabinet. First she scooped a cup of rice into each bowl and layered the beef mix on top of the steaming rice. She gently placed a poached egg on top of each bowl and sprinkled some chopped scallions and roasted sesame seeds on top of the food. She looked at the two dishes and damn they looked good, she was pretty proud of herself. She grabbed a small shallow plate to place the shrimp tempura on. Just as she plated the last piece, she heard a knock on the door. She quickly wiped her hands on a kitchen towel and ran to the door.