~Anniversary~

Chapter one- In which Gaara is in deep s**t and things keep on getting in his way.

Gaara pushed back his window curtains to view the morning sunrise. He sighed warily as he took a glance at his calender. It was the anniversary of his ‘delightful marriage’ with the medic nin; Sakura. Suna's ever so great Kazekage, forgot to get his darling wife a present.

During one of his panic attacks, he heard a faint knocking noise from his door. Before he could grunt a, “Come in,” Temari swung open his door as well as her mouth. His sister drastically needed to learn that even though he wasn’t a blood craving lunatic, he was the Kazekage and deserved some privacy goddamn it!

“Garra, I have made dinner reservations for you and Sakura tonight!” His lovely sadistic sister briefly paused after she saw the look on his face. “You forgot, didn’t you.” More of a statement than a question.

The former loony slowly nodded. Afraid of what madness he might unleash if this news spread to his wife. His wife that trained under a certain sake loving Hokage.

Palm met face. “Gaara,” she whined, “How could you forget a day like this?! I swear if Shikamaru did this to me, I’d have his head on a platter!” A nice silver platter, with pineapples on the side of course.

‘Must be my lack of sleep,’ he thought wryly.

As if reading his mind, Temari took a deep breath to calm herself down. Must’ve been the new bond the siblings shared. Much patience was needed with Gaara. Most of which she didn’t posses. She stared him straight in the eyes and spoke in a normal voice she wasn’t using earlier. “I’m not helping you this time. You have until eight in the evening.”

Without waiting for a response, Suna’s new interrogator left as quickly as she came. It was then he realized he hadn’t gotten a word in throughout their little “conversation.” If you could call it that. Maybe it was just one of those days. Highly unlikely. “Damnit.”

A small inner voice told him to go maim something, anything. He ignored its tempting reasoning and impolitely told it to “shush.” Now he just had to figure out what to get his lover...

Perhaps breakfast would do him some good.

---

Thankfully, Sakura was no where to be found. This disturbed him somewhat. No matter, she could take care of herself. Worry began to seep into him. What if Temari told her that he forgot again. This would probably result in no sex. ‘Damn you Temari...’

Luckily, his panic attack was interrupted again. This time by a smaller voice.

“Daddy, are you okay?” He looked over at his little girl.

He shook his head. “You should put your hair in a ponytail,” Gaara reminded her softly. True, her vibrant red hair had milk dripping from various strands.

She gave him a toothy grin and stared at him with stubborn eyes. Her mother’s eyes that she made her own. “Later.” Chikako gave her teddy bear a hug before leaving the table. “I’m gonna go look for Mommy.”

For a small moment, Gaara reflected on his life. Ten years ago, he never imagined anything like this would happen. Never. But now, everything has so drastically different, it was hard to keep his degrading sanity intact. He could clearly remember his childhood, that his own father used him and even tried to kill him. He vowed to never treat Chikako like that. Nothing bad would happen to her as long as he lived.

However, by evening tonight, he might be six feet under if he didn’t hurry.

---

Gaara paced down the hallway. He still kept that “I can still maim you in two seconds if I desired to,” air around him. His troubles made him useless to the council. Making treaties with other nation that could benefit their own? Pft. His sex life was on the line here! Seriously, those council people need to set their priorities straight. An unhappy Gaara equals no pay raises for them.

“Uncle Gaara?”

Must he keep on getting interrupted in the middle of a crisis? Did they not sense the “Maiming aura” about him? Calm down, deep breath, there we go . . . “What?”

Temari’s little brat held something in his delicate hands. “Aunty Ino was visiting the other day and she gave me this book...” Ah yes, Ino’s brat and Temari’s got along quite well.

He raised an eyebrow as if to say, “Your point is...?”

Akira shifted nervously at his glare, “U-uh...I-it’s about flowers and I thought you could get Aunty Sakura some flowers...” So Temari told her brat, huh? His glare softened at his words, but still kept it since it helps keep his sanity in tack.

Gaara found himself back in his room, flipping through the book on his bed. Meaning of Flowers, by Yamanaka, Ino. ‘Figures...’ He must have read the book three times before carefully deciding which ones to get her.

Some cherry blossoms would be too cheesy and roses were cliche. Though he did love the meaning of roses; true love. But forget-me-nots meant the same thing. Yes, he’d get her a bouquet of forget-me-nots.

The only question was; where?

Crap...to Temari.

---


Temari tapped her foot impatiently, where the hell was he?! She gave Gaara directions to the marketplace two and a half hours ago! Ugh...

Meanwhile...

He looked around cluelessly, too proud to ask for help. Him? Need help? Don’t make me maim you...b***h. It must have been forever until he stumbled upon the floral shop. “Finally...” Gaara straightened himself up and maintained the aura he desired.

As he casually walked in as if he owned the place, the owner immediately bowed to him. Another realization hit him, with a few words spoken, Gaara could actually own this place. His reputation still clung to him despite what he’s done for this village of his.

Without a care for the bow, Gaara opened his nephew’s book and flipped through the pages, stopping on the one with the precious forget-me-nots. “I want these,” he pointed to the picture, “A bouquet.” Something told him to work on his ‘people skills’, but he ignored his conscience once again. He thought he drowned that voice out years ago with his murderous attempts, but things always seemed to come back to haunt him. So he added a little, “please,” to the end of it.

The old man behind the counter began mumbling to himself about mindless things. This made Gaara hope not to go senile in his elder years. After the mumbling ceased, the man looked up at him and told him to come back in thirty minutes.

Well...that went more smoothly than expected. Wait...this usually means something bad will happen. How did he know this? Simple, karma loathed him to such a degree, his last conscience went suicidal because it couldn’t deal with his demonic nature. No matter, if he was careful things might work out. Might.

Gaara took a step outside and was astonished with the sight the bestowed upon him. Basically it was an “Oh s**t,” type of moment that graced him on this lovely day. Outside, was a young man clad in forest like spandex. Usually his presence wouldn’t have bothered him since this ‘person’ often came on his anniversary to thoughtfully bring them gifts. No this time, it was what he was doing.

Rock Lee, current Beast of Kohana, was flirting with a young sand kunoichi...and she seemed to enjoying it. After the sudden shock Gaara made haste and left the scene. Creepy...

He watched them from a distance before going off, but made sure to stick close to the flower shop.

---


As Gaara walked back towards the floral shop, he passed a tavern. A plump man oozed out wildly in his direction. The scent of liquor masked the one of the nearby floral shop. He resisted the urge to put a finger to his nose or to kill him. To reassure himself he kept a little chant in his head; ‘I’m better than all these low lifes, I’m better than all theses low lifes , I’m better than all these low lifes...’

The man came closer while Gaara scooted closer to shop. His destination was near, but he feared this might take longer than expected. ‘Wait! I use to kill people without a second thought. This me we’re talking about. Gaara of the sand. Screw this drunken guy...wait...it’s a woman!’

Goose bumps crawled up his spine, taking pleasure in his shudder. Than ‘she’ spoke a liquor induced thought, “Hey handsome, lets say me ‘n’ you go have lil’ ‘fun’.” It added a little wink to the spoken out loud thought.

Gaara swallowed a barf and wished he was back watching Lee lay his moves on the kunoichi. ‘Keep your temper in check,’ the little voice remind him. Damn karma...hardly anything goes right nowadays. It moved a hand toward his perfect face as a gesture. Of what, Gaara wasn’t quite sure.

He kept his instinctual growl to minimum, “I’m married.” With grace, he flicked his right hand, pushing the hairy one back. While doing so, he showed off his wedding ring.

The slug oozed back into the tavern, needing more beer now. “All the cute ones are.” Either that or gay.

Gaara quickly left the scene.

He found himself inside the floral shop. For some reason the senile man thought it was unnecessary for Gaara to pay him. Whatever. He took the bouquet and left.

Now, the real challenge began, getting back without Sakura noticing the bouquet or the fact that he forgot.

End.

Should I change/edit anything?
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