A Virgin Kiss

Chapter 22: The Present

Gaara dried Neji’s hair with a towel as he sat on the edge of the bed, repeatedly stopping to carefully take out any knots.

“Hey, at this point I usually just brush it for a while and let the air dry the rest.”

“I don’t own a brush, White Eyes, so unless you walk around with one on you, you’re out of luck.”

“Uh, well, I do have a small one—“

“Hmmm, no wonder Kiba thinks you are vain!" Neji scowled, and Gaara added to distract him, "But if you could carry those embarrassing things Shikamaru gave you, I guess there’s no reason not to have a brush. Speaking of those damn things, I suspect at least one of them needs a good wash.”

“If you wash it, I’ll tell you all about how I won it,” said Neji.

Gaara thought about that for a while as he ran his hands over Neji’s damp hair, looking down at the bright green curse seal and those fascinating white eyes. He didn't want to stop what he was doing, but he was curious about what the toy actually looked like since he had not in a position to see it during their sex. And afterwards it hadn’t even occurred to him. “If you tell me everything that happened to you from the moment I left you this morning, you got a deal,” said Gaara.

The sudden, brief look of horror on Neji’s face surprised Gaara. The Leaf nin shrugged saying, “Red, I’ll take your deal, but I think you’ll find it’s not a pretty tale.”

“If you had to live it, I can hear about it!” said Gaara as he knelt down looking for the toy. He was a little surprised to find it was a bright red thing, a big bright red thing. He headed for the bathroom, calling back over his shoulder, “I want you on the bed with your brush ready to tell me a story when I get out.”

Gaara took his time in the bathroom. After washing the toy, he was incredibly conscious of his ass and felt the need to use the toilet. And once he sat down, he sort of lost himself in thought wondering how Kankurou would deal with him moving Neji into his room. Damn, he’d need a new bed—he had a ridiculously tiny one since he never used it except to sit on and look out the window right by the bed—the window with no curtains! Fuck, he’d need to move the bed or get curtains. Hell, maybe he should just move into one of the guest rooms—yeah, that would be better—or, god, in his father’s rooms? When Gaara had been made Kazekage, his father’s old rooms had been made available to him. But he’d never used them. Just entering them made him ache—remembering the horrible things his father had done to him . . .

Shuddering, Gaara quickly cleaned up and left the bathroom. He refused to think about his father, about the assassination attempts, the cage . . .

Neji had pulled down the covers and was lying on the side of the bed further away from the bathroom, facing him. The sheet was pulled just up to his waist, and the way he was reclining on his side, his head propped up on his elbow, was a sight worthy of a painter. He could have been the symbol of manly youth—the young warrior—no, a prince, since most warriors wouldn’t have such long, beautiful hair. The green marks of the curse seal on his forehead only drew your attention to his beautiful hair and white eyes. Gaara wondered again that Neji would hide that green mark all the time—but he knew that it was the burden the Hyuuga had to bear, something that brought him pain. But looking at Neji, reclining with the sheet only accenting the elegant curve of his hip and the shape of his thigh, was no burden.

Frozen in the doorway at the sight, it took Gaara a while to register the things on the bed in front of Neji—a small brush and a little box wrapped in white paper with a red ribbon on it. A present? Oh, yes, it was Kakashi’s birthday tomorrow, maybe today. Gaara looked at the clock, noting that yes, it was after midnight. For some reason he felt suddenly exhausted, like he needed to sit down.

“So Kakashi is coming over?” he asked slowly.

Neji rolled those white eyes of his, “Yeah, I told him and Iruka to come over and join us for a hot foursome to celebrate his birthday.”

“I don’t want to have sex with Kakashi and Iruka! Neji, you promised we would be exclusive,” protested Gaara, fighting the sudden strong awakening of his sand. It was embarrassing enough to be hurt by this, but to have his sand explode out in the room would be even more humiliating.

“Red, you just kill me sometimes,” said Neji shaking his head. “That was sarcasm. You’ve heard of sarcasm, right? When you say something so clearly the opposite of what you mean that it’s funny?”

Gaara’s heartbeat sped up, his sand stilled in its gourd, and he started to feel an odd rush of happy anticipation. Was this what hope felt like?

“Come here, Red, and get in the bed,” said Neji. “I want to be holding you when I give you this present.”

It was like an orgasm—the flood of good feelings, that sense that he, Gaara, not Shukaku, was here in this body feeling all this pleasure, this sense of wonder that things could feel so painless, this happiness, this feeling of fullness, contentment, wholeness. God, love was indeed something powerful, something stronger than hate! And with a piercing clarity, Gaara fully grasped what he'd begun to understand earlier in the evening--why love made Naruto so strong.

This wondrous, happy feeling, this love—oh, yes, it was worth fighting for, fighting for when all strength was gone, when it was agony to move at all. The vision of Naruto painfully dragging himself towards Gaara when Gaara couldn’t move—this amazing thing that was love was what Naruto had been trying to protect, what he had been fighting for. This was how he loved Sakura and Sasuke. Sasuke—oh god, that was why Naruto couldn’t give up on Sasuke even when he’d tried to kill him—love.

Gaara felt Neji’s arms close around him, “Gaara, what is it, love? What’s got you frozen here?”

“Love,” said Gaara softly, “I just realized why love makes you strong, why you don't want me to use my chakra tonight, why even if I was an inch from death, I'd do all I could to fight for you. I know why Naruto can’t give up on Sasuke—he loves him.”

“Sasuke? Ah, baby, don’t think about that asshole! He's incapable of love unlike a certain sexy Kazekage. But seriously, you think Naruto and Sasuke were lovers? That might explain why Naruto never . . ." Neji's voice trailed off.

"Never what?" asked Gaara, curious.

But Neji just said, "I can’t see them having sex—I never got that sense being around them.”

“You don’t have to have sex to feel love, Neji. I can tell you sex and love don’t have to coexist. But Naruto loves Sasuke, I know it.”

Neji smiled, surprising and dazzling Gaara. "Well, I think you might be right. But I don't want you thinking about Naruto now. I love you, and I’m right here.” The Hyuuga swung him up in his arms and plopped Gaara down on the foot of the bed. The redhead watched as Neji got on the bed and started fussing with the pillows, arranging them so he could sit up against the headboard comfortably. “Here, Red, get between my legs and lean back against my chest,” he said holding out his arms.

Gaara hurried to do so, wanting to be held by his beautiful lover. He let his head fall back on Neji’s shoulder with a happy sigh and looked up into his lover’s eyes. “I love you, White Eyes.”

Neji gently kissed Gaara, saying “I love you, too, Red. I was thinking you might leave today, and I didn’t think I would be leaving with you.” Neji put the little wrapped present into Gaara’s lap. “I got this, so you would remember me and to thank you for the pleasure you gave me--and because you captured my heart, and I just want to please you and love you. I couldn’t special order anything, so it’s not exactly what I’d like to give you.”

For him!! Because the beautiful, powerful jounin, the genius Hyuuga Neji, loved him! He had captured his heart! That was a statement that Gaara knew he would spend hours at night thinking about for the rest of his life. But, more importantly, right now he had this thing in his lap, another gift! A WRAPPED gift! His first wrapped gift! His heart was pounding wildly in his chest. Slowly Gaara pulled off the ribbon. He carefully pealed away the paper, not tearing a single bit of it. He set both ribbon and paper on bedside table, noting his hand was shaking. It was a black jeweler’s box. He opened the lid and cried out, "Neji!" as he saw the kanji for love that he had marked on his head in red gold, hanging from a chain of white gold. He tilted his head back, moaning, “Neji,” and then the wonder that was a serious kiss from Neji made him moan even more, and his body became ready for love.

Neji broke the kiss and started to laugh, his hand reaching down to caress Gaara’s erection. “I take it you like my gift, Red? Wanna put it on?”

Gaara didn’t feel capable of speech beyond saying his love's name, so he just nodded. Neji’s hand took the box from Gaara, and the other one reached around Gaara to help. He put the box down on the bedstand and opened the clasp of the chain. “Lean forward, Red,” he said. Gaara did, and Neji fastened the chain around his neck. Then he pulled Gaara back, tilting his body to one side, saying, “Let’s see.” With one arm around the Sand nin, Neji’s other hand came up and gently traced the kanji hanging from Gaara’s neck. Then his hand moved up and traced the one on Gaara’s forehead. “I thought you should have one of these that came with love, Gaara,” he said softly.

Gaara turned and fiercely hugged Neji, trying to spill out his love and thanks, but all that came out was a muffled series of somethings that sounded like, “ummph--love you—ji—ji--perfect--love.”

“Hmm, Ji-Ji, I like that nickname, Red—can you use that one instead of Screamer next time we’re at a dinner party?”

But then Gaara moved up from kissing and talking into Neji’s chest and claimed Neji’s mouth. Somehow the kiss turned into Gaara licking Neji’s eyebrows, kissing and licking the curse mark, then his temple, and moving down to one ear.

“Hey, Red, stop munching on me and brush my hair—we had a deal,” said Neji. Even though his words were discouraging, the tone of his voice made it clear he really wouldn’t mind if Gaara munched on him all night.

“Yeah, ok, but you’ve got a story to tell—what was this bet and why in the world would it lead Shikamaru to give you such things as that, that giant red thing—“

“It’s called a vibrator, or more properly, it’s a vibrating butt plug, Mr. Shy.”

“God, he better not be putting things like that up my sister’s ass! And clamping her nipples—well, actually that’s ok, I know Temari wouldn’t let him do anything she didn’t like.”

“Then why care if he puts something up Temari’s butt, Red? You’re not being very consistent here.”

“Neji, just shut up—she’s my sister, ok? Do you want to talk about shoving things up Hinata’s butt?”

“Ah—god, that’s gross, Gaara, cut it out!”

“Yes, it is—that’s the whole point! My sister is fooling around with a freak that hands out sex toys!”

“Calm down, Gaara, seriously—Nara is like his pussy-whipped dad—come on, I don’t see him doing anything to piss Temari off. And, seriously, they were new; they were in sealed boxes when he gave them to me. I think it was his idea of a joke, or, hell, he’s got an amazing brain—I wouldn’t be surprised if he thought it might be useful for us. And come on—you liked it didn’t you?”

“Hmmm,” was all Gaara said.

“You want me to use them on you again to see if you do like them?”

“Give me the brush, Hyuuga, and start at the beginning of your day. I want to know who healed every bit of your body. Who got to look at your ass?”

Neji moaned, “Oh, god, it was awful, Gaara, awful. I went from the heaven of waking up to your kiss to the hell of—oh, god, I don’t even want to say it.”

“Only cowards can’t face the facts, Hyuuga. You gone soft?”

“Damn it, Sakura had her fingers in my ass, Gaara! She was checking for tearing and bruising. And Shikamaru was watching! She healed every damn hickey you put on me—god, I didn’t want her looking at my ass, but since she’d already shoved her hand in me, I figured it was sort of like locking the barn after the horses had gone. Stop laughing! It’s not funny!”

But Gaara couldn’t stop—he fell down on the bed and rolled about laughing.

“Hey, just you wait till Shikamaru sics her on your ass—who will be laughing then?”

That did make Gaara stop, but he was still grinning as he said, “What my poor little jounin couldn’t stop a chuunin from giving him a medical exam? What happened to that famous perfect defense of the Hyuugas?”

“Oh, god, I wasn’t expecting an assault in one of the most heavily watched buildings in Konoha—do you know how many ANBU have this place under surveillance?”

“Not enough, evidently,” said Gaara, laughing again.

That was too much for Neji, who jerked the brush out of Gaara’s hand and said, “You’re going to stop laughing, or I’m going to spank your ass with this hairbrush.”

Gaara laughed harder, “Is that what you said to Sakura when she had her fingers in your ass?”

The wrestling match that started at this point wasn’t very quiet. But no one interrupted, and there was no damage—to either ninja, that is. They ended up splitting the cost of the broken lamp and smashed table the next day since they couldn’t agree on who had been responsible for that. Gaara, however, made sure in the morning before they left to buy Neji a new hairbrush since he had most definitely been the one who had reduced Neji’s to a handful of splinters and bristles.

Inspired by his awareness of Neji’s gift around his neck, Gaara spent the time while Neji was packing and getting some last minute instructions from Tsunade shopping for some presents for his siblings, Lee, Kiba, Tsunade, and Neji. He got cards for a few others as well.

Temari walked with Neji and Gaara a half mile or so away from Konoha. It was then that Gaara gave Temari her gift—two beautiful hair pins—and for the first time kissed his sister good-bye. Temari hugged her brother fiercely for the longest time, and then, to Neji’s surprise, she hugged him as well and whispered thank-you to him. She headed back to Konoha leaving that tell-tale wisp of smoke behind, but also two rather quiet and thoughtful ninjas.

But they were also young and in love, so it wasn’t long before laughter could be heard by the ANBU unit secretly tailing them. The ANBU captain who later filed the report on the Kazekage’s departure wished he had left the mention of the laughter out. It hadn’t been fun being grilled by Moreno Ibiki, ANBU’s head of interrogation, about whether or not the team had been sure they were following Gaara, not a clone or another ninja in disguise. The Kazekage was not the sort to laugh ever. But Hyuuga Neji certainly wouldn't be fooled by a clone, so eventually Ibiki had to accept that Gaara of the Desert, the fearful WindShadow, had laughed as he walked along the roads leading away from Konoha.

It was going to take a while for everyone to get used to Gaara in love.