i.

Lee is standing and he shouldn't be. Gaara can, on some deep, vague level, understand this--but it is a rudimentary knowledge because he has never lost anything he could see; he has never had to give up anything he still remembers the reason for, if he ever knew--he has never known utter failure, so he has never had to fight for it.

When the boy's teacher appears, and brushes away the harsh onslaught like so much dust--for what is sand, really, but an innumerable mass of small broken pieces--Gaara does not understand, because he has never protected anybody but himself; he does not understand the tears this great, dark-haired and -eyed person can shed so easily, because Gaara does not understand the kind of pain--the kind of bittersweet ache that radiates from a bright, slow burn deep inside--that comes from caring so deeply for another person.

Yashamaru had spoken of pain on the inside of people, and he had spoken of love--another's love to heal it, because love is a salve for places regular salves cannot be applied.

This was before Yashamaru said he hated Gaara; before Gaara, as a child, killed the uncle who spoke of love and tried to kill him first.

It is probably because of this that Gaara does not know love.

But when he sees Rock Lee and Gai-sensei, he thinks he may at least see it.

And that deep, slow burn starts to flare up.

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