Chapter 8: Time can’t tell

The lives of our two heroes became busy with many irrelevant, unimportant things soon after this. Unbeknownst to the boys it had been planed like this. That had been a day of rest, like the one before it. But the new princess had many things to attend to, meetings to go to, and soon fell into ‘her’ old habit of little to no sleep. Lee had noticed this almost immediately, even though he had many things to attend to himself, but protecting the princess was still his top priority. One day, about a week after Lee had first started to notice the princess’s sleeping habits, he questioned ‘her’ about it.

“I noticed you haven’t been sleeping regularly.” Lee said casually during one of their few, precious moments alone.

“I never did even before I came here, I haven’t had regular sleeping patterns since I was ten.” Gaara said, openly honest, as always. The boys only had another couple of minutes before they were to report to the Grand Hall so Gaara quickly took advantage of the situation. Before Lee could even comment on Gaara’s lack of sleep the male-cross-dressing-as-a-female had himself pressed against the knight. And before Lee could make any sort of protest soft, hot lips were on his own. Gaara loosely put his fingers through the chain mail adorning the knight, to give his smaller form some sort leverage. The ebony haired male was taking part in the rough make out session without a second thought. They didn’t get as much time alone anymore, so moments like this were always savored by the two needy teens. After another half a minute of tongue clashing Gaara quickly pulled away, knowing that if they didn’t make it to the Grand Hall on time they’d have another rather harsh scolding given to them by Temari.

“Now we’ve got to hurry.” Gaara said to the knight as they joined hands. Fingers locked, they made a dash towards the Grand Hall, arriving with seconds to spare.

This how it was for a while, short ‘experimentations’ when they could afford to, and small public displays of affection where it was allowed. They spent plenty of time together, but more often than not, it was in front of some group of officials or nobilities. And it would be quite the scandal if the two suddenly started having rough sex atop the meeting hall table one day. I’m sure the readers would love for me to put that in the story, but no, we must conceal the fact that Gaara is a man at all costs. Even if it does mean no public sexual expeditions.

Days turned to hours and hours into minutes as the time flew past, the frustration between the boys grew. They thought many a time that they could be alone somewhere, together. But it always played out wrong, and people seemed to be watching them more carefully than usual. Paperwork, councils, gatherings, visitors, celebrations, they all seemed a hassle; the two young men were getting tried of hiding their love and having to limit their affections for each other.

But there was a major event coming up in their schedule. It had been early autumn when Gaara had first arrived there in the castle; his coming of age celebration was a bright star approaching on the horizon. He had an early winter birth date, which happened to fall right after the changing of seasons. The months and days are different here, so I shall not confuse you, and the climate is a bit off, too. But this is a fantasy story, what did you expect?

Gaara’s annual celebration was three passes of the moon Tirva away, about nine days and nine nights off. They had a little more than a week to prepare, so this contributed to their busy schedules and made it so they spent even less time together. They didn’t notice it so much in the day, having to do so many things at once, but the nights were rough. Now Lee was, to a certain extent, becoming an insomniac, while Gaara didn’t sleep almost at all. They did all their tasks, but with a forced effort and half-assed smiles. This was not unnoticed, but no one commented on it. Everyone was busy, from the farmers to the royal family itself. The end of autumn meant that they had to harvest all the crops, conduct extra meetings with other countries about trade, and prepare for the Festival of the Harvest, which was to be followed immediately by the Princess’ coming of age. Time was stressed; it seemed dreadfully long and franticly short at the same time.

When there were only six days left until Harvest, and seven until Gaara’s celebration, Kankuro returned accompanied by the officials of the land he had been staying at. They were there for trade, and Kankuro had decided this would be a good time to head back home. He usually didn’t stay so long in other countries, having had been gone for almost half a year, but he had encountered some resistance in the council. The war leader had stayed until all the resistance was turned to reassurance.

Kankuro’s return was a welcome occurrence in most cases. Gaara was finally to see his older brother again after all these years. Kankuro knew of the circumstances, so he wouldn’t blow Gaara’s cover, but he still found it quite odd, and laughed every time he thought of their upcoming encounter. Temari was glad to have her brother back, even though she usually didn’t get along too well with him, it was all that hateful sibling love. But the one person who dreaded Kankuro’s return like the plague itself was the hapless knight, Lee. He no longer stood close to Gaara during meetings or any other time, for that matter, and kept a constant two to three foot distance between them. Nervous, even though there was no way no way of Kankuro knowing about his activities with Gaara, Lee was freaking out.

So it came as no surprise to anyone when Lee fainted after Kankuro went to shake his hand. Okay, so it did come as a surprise and caused quite the ruckus in the Grand Entrance Hall. Kankuro, having thought he was still on good terms with Lee as he had always been, blamed it on the season. Temari blamed his bad nutrition, and Gaara stood inwardly dumbfounded but outwardly only mildly shocked. The real reason for Lee’s sudden spell was a mystery to all of them. No one would have (or should have) guessed that Lee was terrified of having his boss find about his relations with his ‘sister;’ The classic soap-opera scenario, only completely different.

A fellow knight who had been standing guard at the door immediately took Lee back to his quarters. Kankuro and Temari made for the meeting hall while Gaara somehow got out of having to attend the gathering. He had stated something along the lines of ‘Lee’s hurt, you can’t make me,’ but much more convincing than that. So he headed back towards the knights accommodations, though he didn’t realize until he was there that he had no idea where Lee’s actual room was.

“Is there a problem, your highness?” A knight’s voice coming from nowhere visible uttered. Gaara turned to the man behind him, a formless figure among unrecognizable faces.

“Yes, actually. Do you know where the knight Lee’s room is?” Gaara was finding it more and more useful being a princess everyday. But he was also learning of all the hardships it brought upon him, too.

“Right this way.” The nameless knight replied, leading Gaara halfway down the hall and to the left. “They just dropped him off in there. Do you know why he fell faint? It doesn’t seem like something he would normally do, especially in front of Kankuro-san.”

“I have no idea, sorry.” The man nodded and turned to leave. “Thank you.” Gaara said politely, the knight replied with a, “Not a problem, your highness.”

That’s how the rumor of Lee and the Princess’ relationship started among the Knights. They’d all seen the two holding hands and such, but some people still believed it was just Lee’s overly polite nature. This is where the group of men, who had more free time than they should’ve, started to speculate about their affiliation being strictly business or even just friends. So, in the halls of the knight’s quarters, you could hear the extravagant rumor of Lee and Gaara’s bedding arrangement. When Lee awoke this would just be one more headache to put up with, causing him even more frustration and embarrassment.

But back to the situation at hand, Gaara cautiously opened the medium sized, heavy, oak door that lead into Lee’s residence. It was his first time going into someone’s private lodgings other than his own since he was little. It wasn’t awe striking, it didn’t have a lot of extra space, and seemed a little cluttered. But it was breath taking for Gaara, especially the unconscious male that was atop the bed. He closed the door behind him, wanting to keep this vulnerable Lee all to himself. Lee was so innocent looking, so boyish, even though he was more than a year older than Gaara.

Gaara made his way over to Lee’s bedside, finding a small chair set by a writing desk and placing it next to the knight’s bed. Now that he was here, he had no idea why he had worried and rushed over here. Lee seemed merely asleep, with no say of when he was to awake. It could have happened in minutes, but more likely it’d be hours before the young knight was awake. From the color of his skin and his natural intake and release of breath, Gaara assumed he wasn’t damaged, and would be up again sooner rather than later.

The door opening took the ‘princess’ by surprise as ‘she’ turned to look, and a man walked into the room, carrying a black case. Gaara had no idea who this person was, and this said person knew exactly who Gaara was, so they took an awkward moment to look at each other. As the medicine man got it through his head that he’d be dealing with the princess as well as the unconscious knight on the bed he stepped forward to introduce himself formally.

“I usually don’t have to present myself to unconscious patients, so I beg your pardon for my rude entrance. I see you are here, Gara-hime, so I will introduce myself.” At this the man stooped to one knee, as people do when they formally introduce themselves to the royal family. “I am Alexander of the Godiana family, who specialize in medicines and medical care.” After his introduction the man rises and walks to the other side of the bed to examine Lee.

“Did he hit his head when he fell?” The doctor, Alexander, asked. It was much easier working on the patient when he could ask someone what had happened.

“No, Kankuro caught him mid-fall and handed him over to a knight who took him here.” Gaara said calmly, but really he was kind of nervous. He’d never liked doctors, and recently he didn’t like seeing other people touch Lee.

“Okay.” Alexander said simply, his hand on Lee’s chin as he inspected his face. He lifted the eyelids, checked the pulse, and observed his breathing pattern. He did it quickly and efficiently, but Gaara still thought the doctor spent too much time pawing at Lee. Under Gaara’s cold gaze Alexander finished up swiftly, noting that Lee was in perfect health. What caused the sudden spell was a mystery, even to him. Though, he suspected it was something psychological, not physical.

“He’s fine, he should awaken soon.” The doctor notified Gaara, gathering his medical devices into his bag again.

“Why did he faint?” Gaara asked directly, he wasn’t one to shield his bluntness.

“There’s nothing physically wrong with him. Though, I suggest that he gets more sleep. I suspect it had something to do with his behavior? You’ll have to ask him and find out for yourself. I’ll be leaving now, a pleasure meeting you.” And with that the doctor left, closing the door behind him.

Now all Gaara could do was wait, and from personal experience, he knew that fainting was a good way to catch up on missed sleep. But he couldn’t help but hope for Lee to wake up soon. He pondered, why had Lee fainted if the doctor said he was in good health. Lee had been acting strangely lately, distant and nervous.

The more Gaara thought about it the more he suspected the worst. At first he was worried it had something to do with himself, then he thought that maybe it had something to do with Lee not liking him. Which lead to Gaara suspecting that Lee had someone else he had fallen in love with, which would’ve explained everything perfectly, in Gaara’s belief.

All the while, Lee slept, and when Gaara turned to look at him once more his suspicions faded. Lee was too naïve for something like that, too innocent for something that dramatic. Plus, when would he have time for it? Lee was always by his side or running errands for someone, usually Temari. Gaara let out a hefty sigh of relief. What had he been thinking? He was becoming paranoid, that was it. He just needed to relax, but he realized there was no time for relaxation.

He rested his foot upon his knee, and wondered how much easier it would have been to do that if he hadn’t been wearing a dress. All the responsibilities he had as a princess, all the pressure. And what was this whole scandal for? Because he could manipulate sand, but he couldn’t even do it very well. He could barely control it, and sometimes he felt as though it was all a misunderstanding. His aunt had taught him how to do a lot more things, but he wished he had had more time to train with her. He still didn’t understand it, and never thought he would. He hadn’t even done it in a while, he wondered if he still could. They say you lose your gift if you don’t exercise it often.

That’s when he spotted the potted plant upon a shelf on Lee’s wall. He wanted to see, could he still use his gift? There were always some sand particles in the dirt here in Sabaku, which only proved that this once was a desert. Doing as he had been taught, and what was also based off instinct, he focused all his attention on the plant’s dirt. Then, grabbing hold of the sand particles that where in there, he tried separating them from the other particles in the mixture. After he had a good amount of sand seeping out of the dirt he lifted his hand, motioning the sand to lift from the pot. It worked, and there was a small cloud of sand hovering around the plant’s leaves. With his minds eye he tried to see what he could do with this small mass of sand. He brought it closer to himself, until it floated above his hand. He started by manipulating it into crude shapes, a circle or square. He found he could still do that with ease. He tried snaking it around his fingers, which he also still did gracefully.

Wanting to test himself, he decided to try something else. He moved the sand in a snake like mass towards Lee, up the side of the bed and toward his face. Moving the sand carefully, as to not get any into the orifices on Lee’s face, Gaara pushed back the knights bangs, with the same precision he would have if he had used his actual hand. He looked at the knights resting face, the sand still suspended over his brow. The course feel of the sand on his face had the knight stirring in his sleep, and before his eyes could open Gaara quickly moved the sand back into its place.

Slowly, Lee awakened, his round dark eyes opening slowly. He stretched, but stopped mid-stretch when his hand made contact with the red head seated beside his bed. At this touch he immediately retracted his arm and bolted up from his current position.

“Gaara-san, what are you doing here?” Lee said shakily, his movements jerky and his whole demeanor lacking any sort of confidence. Gaara just gave him a small glare, as to say ‘Stop acting so erratic.’

“You’re the one who fainted.” Gaara stated simply. Lee stopped his irregular behavior to try and remember what had happened. After a moment it all came rushing back to him and he blushed under Gaara’s cold, intense stare.

“Oh, yeah, about that…” Lee started, unsure of how to explain it, and not sure that even if he found the words to clarify it that he would say anything.

“The doctor said it didn’t have anything to do with your health.” Gaara continued, and decided to start his inquisition. “So why did you suddenly pass out?”

Lee, knowing one way or another Gaara was always going to get answers from him, decided against trying to lie or make up some excuse. “I was nervous.”

“About what?” Gaara asked, still not knowing how that would cause someone to fall faint.

“Well, it seems a bit foolish, but I was concerned Kankuro-san might suspect something.” Lee replied shyly.

“Suspect something? As in what?” Gaara, frank as ever against Lee’s shy tendencies.

“You know, as in us.” Lee confessed quietly, but Gaara still didn’t see the problem.

“You’re afraid of him knowing about our relationship?” The crimson haired teen didn’t see a complication, though it was probably because he didn’t care about most others opinions.

“He might not approve, you know. And he’s your brother, also my boss. I thought he might…” Lee didn’t finish, seeing the disapproving look on Gaara’s features.

“It shouldn’t matter.” Gaara said, not angrily, but on the verge of it. “And it doesn’t matter. Is that really why you fainted? You’re that scared of people finding out about our relationship?” Gaara wouldn’t get angry with Lee, but he was displeased with him, and that hurt Lee even more.

“I’m sorry, it’s just that…” Lee couldn’t finish; he didn’t know why it was such a problem. Why should they hide it, why did he want to keep it a secret?

“It’s nothing, you shouldn’t worry about it. If you keep trying to hide it, if you keep freaking out at the thought of other people finding out, then it’s hopeless.” Gaara was solemn, and the way he was talking of this frightened Lee.

“What do you mean, ‘hopeless’?” Lee questioned quietly.

“As in there’s no chance of it happening. If you refuse to accept the fact that sooner or later our relationship must go public then we can’t have one. I must announce my fiancé on my eighteenth birthday or be courted by the surrounding kingdoms princes.” The ‘princess’ looked at Lee, and his gaze made Lee’s words falter. The knight had known of the customs of the country, but he had refused to accept it. He didn’t want to acknowledge any of it; he just wanted everything to stay uncomplicated. But it looked like he had to make a choice. To either live an uncomplicated life without being intimate with Gaara, or to get through the complications and pledge himself to Gaara, as a husband.

“I’m sorry, but it’s all happening so fast!” Lee was overwhelmed; he didn’t like how this was all playing out.

“If you can’t take the pace then I guess it’s doomed to fail. Because in less than a week I’m to announce whether or not I have found a suitable suitor. And if I haven’t Temari is to arrange for my meetings with other men. But everything would be more complicated that way.” Now Gaara was downhearted, he really didn’t want to meet with other men, he really didn’t want to do any of this. And it’d be so much easier if Lee would just grow a pair and become self-confident. He looked away, and fixed his gaze on the door. He just couldn’t take looking into the eyes of the man who held his future in his hands.

Lee quietly moved towards the edge of the bed, knowing he needed to consol this dejected teen. If he thought he was overwhelmed, how must Gaara feel? It was his life that was going to change the most. And he needed someone to support him through thick and thin.

“You needn’t go looking, you’ve got someone right here.” Lee said, placing his hand on Gaara’s chin, turning him so that they faced each other. Lee may act with all the cliché possible, but he still got his point across.

“I’m glad.” Gaara said, a small smile gracing his lips before they were pursued by the knights. And any doubts about their predicament were washed away by this kiss.

Again the door opened abruptly. This time the one coming into the room was Kankuro-san himself. Even Gaara’s face was a little flushed at this.