A Virgin Kiss

Chapter 26: The Fire

As the duck cooked, the rice boiled, and Gaara and Neji sipped on some tea, Gaara talked about nights around campfires under the desert sky, how Temari and Kankurou would play go or shogi while Baki-sensei would clean his weapons or whittle on little bits of wood and sometimes talk of Suna’s past—its battles, its great leaders, its times of sorrow.

“Did you clean weapons, whittle, or play games of strategy?” asked Neji shifting on the soft bed of sand Gaara had made for him to lay stretched out on his side, facing the fire.

“I watched my team do that, and when they fell asleep, I watched for enemies and stared up at the stars,” said Gaara. “I know a lot about go and shogi from watching all those games, but I’ve never played. When Baki-sensei and Kankurou played, the games were intense. I hope Temari is learning better play from Shikamaru—she hated being the one who almost always lost.”

“You’ve never played go or shogi, Red, not once?”

“No, I guess that’s another thing I’m a virgin at,” said Gaara as he removed the rice from the fire and set it down to cool a bit. “Get your chopsticks out, Neji, because this duck is ready to eat.”

Neji didn’t move, but just watched Gaara skillfully slicing the water fowl, asking, “Did you cook on a lot of your team missions?”

“We rotated duties; a shinobi needs to learn and practice all the skills needed for survival.”

“But it sounds like you were the only one keeping watch,” commented Neji, finally sitting up as Gaara filled their bowls with rice and duck.

“No, everyone had their shift—I watched stars when it wasn’t mine. Do you do a lot of cooking for Team Gai on missions?”

“Itadakimasu!”

“Itadakimasu!”

After a while of eating and some mutual complements on the killing and cooking of the duck, Neji finally answered Gaara’s question about his own cooking experiences with Team Gai. He found himself telling about how Gai-sensei would overspice the food because he was convinced that hot, spicy food gave you more energy and kept you youthful. Like Baki, Gai too would tell stories around the fire, but his favorite topic was stories of the many challenges between himself and his eternal rival, Kakashi. It was one of Gai’s dreams to have Kakashi put on a green suit like his own and run laps around Konoha as the result of losing a bet or challenge, Neji revealed.

Gaara grinned and told Neji a story Naruto had told him about Gai giving him one of the green suits to train in. He had wanted to wear it until Jiraiya had pointed out how badly it fit around the ass. After their laughter died away, Gaara asked, “So does Gai try to pressure you and TenTen into wearing those green things too?”

“No, it’s a tradition for Hyuugas to wear white, so he never pressures me. And if you were wondering why TenTen always wears pink, it’s because it reminds Gai of her sex. She always starts talking about kunoichis, flower arranging, and the use of feminine whiles and seduction whenever Gai brings up the superior nature of those green outfits and hints how he has extra ones.”

“She’d look good in it, though,” said Gaara.

“Hmmm, I guess if you like girls and green, but I prefer boys and red. What do you think about a red shirt for your birthday?”

“You don’t like green, Neji? Any green?”

“I like your green eyes, Gaara, but Gai and Lee wear enough green that I don’t need to see anybody else in it. What? What are you making that face for?”

“I bought you a green shirt, damn it. I thought it would be a nice change from all that white.”

“You got me a shirt?”

“You got me a shirt!”

“I sliced up one of your shirts, Red, I owed you that.”

“Well, you also got me an expensive necklace. I can buy my lover a shirt if I want. I can’t help it if he is such as ass that he won’t wear it.”

“I’ll wear it for you, Red, as long as it isn’t a spandex turtleneck, that is,” added Neji making a face.

Gaara started laughing.

“It is?” asked Neji in disbelief.

“No, I’m just picturing you in green spandex. It would be a real different look for you.”

Neji started to laugh himself suddenly, gasping out, “Shino, picture Shino in that! And he have to cut holes in it to let his bugs out!”

“Asuma-sensei is even harder to imagine in it—or Jiraiya,” pointed out Gaara.

“Oh no, oh god, that’s a horrible thought—stop it!”

“Tsunade would set off a rash of severe nosebleeds, but what about Chouji?”

“Shut up, Red, shut up!” said Neji, but he was grinning.

“Fine! Why don’t you just take the dishes to the lake and clean them—I believe that was next on your list of things to do.”

`Yeah, right before fucking,’ thought Neji, `but I’m too stuffed to do anything.’ But all he said to Gaara was, “Ok, I’ll wash up, and why don’t you dig out that present you bought me, so we can see how I look in green?”

“First, you need to tell me why the Hyuugas wear white, though,” said Gaara as Neji began gathering up the things to wash.

“Oh, yeah, and you need to tell me about your fantasies, too, Red—we never finished that conversation either.”

“Then why are you so damn slow, Hyuuga?”

“I’m giving you time to think, Red, think hard now while I’m washing up.” And then Neji was gone before Gaara could say something else that got him riled up and annoyed. Damn it, the Leaf nin thought, why was he always attracted to guys who pissed him off so that he didn’t know if he wanted to fight or fuck? Why couldn’t he fall for someone dreamy and quiet like Shikamaru? Or that chuunin Izumo? Hell--because he’d be bored shitless by them. Lord, Gaara had got him a green shirt, would it be something like that one Neji had gotten him? Gaara had looked damn good in that shirt . . .

When Neji climbed back down into the hollow, carefully avoiding the traps they had set, Gaara had made two soft beds of sand and spread their blankets on them—on opposite sides of the fire. That was normal for two ninjas camping out, but it wasn’t what Neji had been expecting. Well, hell, Gaara sure wasn’t boring. And he looked pretty good out of that rusty brown coat he wore and with a plain black t-shirt over his black pants. But that mesh one he had on that first night they’d talked—damn, he’d have to get another one of those for Gaara. Shit, why was he so clothes conscious all of the sudden? He felt like when—when he fell in love and would try on ten different things before heading out to meet Genma. But Genma, Genma had never looked like Gaara did, not even one tenth as sexy.

As Neji lowered himself down on his blanket, he told Gaara, “Did anybody on Team Baki ever tell you that firelight makes your hair glint and your skin seem to glow? And the shadows around your eyes seem thicker and blacker in light of the flames.”

Gaara shrugged, “Baki said I look more like a fucking demon at night which gives the team another advantage for night fighting.”

“If that’s what a demon looks like, I want to be haunted, Red, no, hell, I want to be possessed.”

“Hmm, you should take off that white at night, Hyuuga, you blend into the night about as well as a festival lantern. So why does your clan wear white?”

Neji tossed Gaara’s things over to him and put his own bowl, cup, and chopsticks and one of the cooking pots away in his pack. He pulled out a black t-shirt as well and started to strip down as he told Gaara, “It’s a way of showing off. It reminds people of our eyes, our blood limit inheritance, but also that we use the gentle fist style—we can kill without blood. And with our defensive skills and Byukugan, we almost never are injured or hit to the point of drawing blood.”

“But it makes you more vulnerable since it’s so visible.”

“So does your hair, Red, but I don’t see you covering it up.”

“Hmmm, hey, don’t put on that t-shirt, open this and try it on,” said Gaara tossing a tissue-wrapped package to Neji over the fire.

Neji caught it and opened it quickly without any care for the paper. The shirt was indeed green, but it wasn’t the dark, dull green that Gai and Lee wore. It was a soft greenblue not quite aqua, not quite teal, maybe more a light seagreen--the color of Gaara’s eyes. The fabric was a soft wool, maybe even cashmire, and it was a simple pullover with three-quarter length sleeves. When it was on, it felt soft and warm, but not heavy or bulky like a sweater. Neji stood up and moved around to Gaara’s blanket and dropped down next to the sand nin.

“It’s my favorite green,” he said, “Gaara green. Does it look as good as it feels?”

Gaara leaned back from Neji to slowly inspect him. After a minute or so, he said, “Only if it feels pretty damn good, Hyuuga. So do you like it?”

“Yeah, I like it,” said Neji, pulling Gaara over for a kiss. But Gaara was less responsive, passive in the kiss. Neji reigned himself in—he was going to learn patience. He would let Gaara lead tonight. He stood up and returned to his own blankets, thanking Gaara for the gift even as he was taking it off and putting on the simple t-shirt. He took off his forehead protector as well and shook his hair, running his fingers over it. A few stretches and he lay down so he could look into Gaara’s eyes, not the fire.

Gaara also stretched out, his hand playing with Neji’s gift around his neck. The red gold glinted in the firelight. His hand then slide down to his stomach and pushing up his t-shirt, Gaara scratched himself across the lower edge of his ribs. Neji flopped down on his back, so he didn’t have to watch. He pulled a senbon out of his weapons pouch and casually began to suck on it, rolling it in his mouth. Hopefully the redhead would find that as distracting as Neji found his itching.

“I’d like to play a game with you in Suna some night,” said Gaara.

“What game?”

“Oh, my first game of shogi or go, you pick,” said Gaara.

“Sure,” said Neji, feeling inwardly disappointed—crap, the minute Gaara said "game," all he could think about was playing sex games in bed. But maybe one game could lead to another. “Want to bet on the outcome?” he asked lightly.

“Trying to fleece the rookie, Hyuuga? That’s not very sporting.”

“Ok, no betting till you beat me three times, Red. Deal?”

“Deal.”

“Hey, we had a deal earlier about what we’d do tonight, and we haven’t quite finished working through that list.”

“I’ve been practicing my sweet talk, White Eyes. So I guess I’m getting good at it—you want to fuck?”

Somehow, the way Gaara said fuck annoyed Neji. Neither one had said anything about love today. Gaara had last told him he loved him when Neji had been trying to hold back his orgasm last night to make sure his lover would come first. Was he just a fuck to Gaara?

“Want out of the deal, Hyuuga?” asked Gaara.

Neji rolled back up on his side to look over at Gaara. He took one look, and his mouth said, “No." But he made no move to cross over to the Sand nin's side of the fire. The only sign he was not quiet calm was that he started sucking a little more fiercely on the senbon in his mouth.

“You want to be sure I’m wanting to fuck, don't you, White Eyes?”

“Yeah, I do, Red.”

Gaara’s bed of sand rose up and moved over the fire, over Neji, and settled down on the cold side of the Leaf nin, away from the fire. The Kazekage's hand pulled the senbon from Neji’s lips and chucked it away. “If you want to suck on something, why don’t you suck on my fingers, Hyuuga.”

Oh, shit, thought Neji—he wants to be seme. But he opened his lips anyway—Hyuuga Neji wasn’t a coward.