Prologue

Gaara lay silently and watched Hinata sleep. It was something he could do for hours, just watch her breathe in and out, resting in his arms, tangled up in the sheets of their bed. He knew that ironically enough he had used to hate it when she watched him, but now, nearly three years on from the day where he’d kissed her in the snow and then invited her back to the room he was staying in in the Village Hidden in the Leaves to… talk… he really couldn’t get enough of her. She was so beautiful, so innocent even though her very profession was characterised by fighting and the taking of life. Even through all the pain and the blood that utterly drenched her boyfriend’s hands, she stayed innocent…

Gaara shifted her a little so she was lying even closer to him, her head tucked under his chin, his arms wrapped softly around her. He stared down at her with an expression in his aquamarine eyes that no one else would ever, ever see and smiled in a way that could only be described as tender. She muttered something in her sleep and slid a little closer to him, still soundly asleep but somehow sensing that he was there. He reached out and brushed a lock of dark hair out of her eyes. She stirred under huis touch and opened her eyes. Gaara smiled again and leant down to brush his lips lightly across hers.

She smiled sleepily, not quite awake yet. “Love you, Gaara…” she murmured and slid back into sleep.

Gaara was definitely not what could be described as an emotional kind of guy, but he still had to fight back tears, a sappy smile on his face, at her words.

Love wasn’t a word that the two of them said often, they just knew the feelings that the other had. So when one or the other actually said it, it was a pretty big deal. Gaara could remember the first time he’d said that he loved her. The expression on her face had been the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. She’d smiled and slowly turned dark red, fixing her eyes on the ground as she whispered, “I love you, too…”