Gaara watches, stunned, as Neji walks towards his room, giving him one last gentle smile before disappearing through the doorway. He too turns, intending to go to his own room and immediately fall asleep, but before he has a chance the door has already swung open and an exceptionally hyper Naruto is pulling him into the dorm. The blonde hops excitedly from foot to foot, grinning madly.

" Tell me everything and spare no details." Gaara rolls his eyes, just knowing that this was going to be a long night.

The next morning came both bright and unwanted. Gaara tossed onto his side, covering his head with the pillow and groaning. He, Sasuke, and Naruto had been up into the wee hours of the morning talking. It had all began with the redhead describing his date, but from there it morphed into a discussion of just about anything and everything. Never before in his life had Gaara talked at such length with anyone, including his siblings. Until now he'd never known the comforts of true friends, people whom he liked and who liked him in return. The thought brought a sweet smile to his face and he sat up, forcing himself fully awake.

" Good morning, Copper-Top." Gaara twitched slightly at Naruto's new nickname for him before deciding that it was at least better than Panda-Chan. The blonde was perched up on his bed, dressed in jeans and a bright orange sweatshirt with his hair still sticking out messily in all directions. Gaara smirked at him.

" Good morning, Goldilocks." Now it was Naruto's turn to twitch with horror as Sasuke, who was standing fully dressed in the doorframe, laughed heartily. After the raven gained enough control of himself to speak he turned to Gaara, chuckling lightly.

" You'd better hurry up and get dressed, we're leaving for breakfast in five minutes." The boy's green eyes shot open with surprise and he was immediately beside his suitcase, frantically searching for a decent outfit.

" Why didn't you guys wake me sooner?"

" I tried." Naruto said. " You bit me." As if to emphasize the point he pulled down his sleeve, showing off a bite mark on his arm. Gaara blushed.

" Yeah… I kind of have a problem with that." He chewed on his lip remembering all the wounds he had inflicted on his poor unsuspecting siblings. Sasuke laughed again, eyeing the clothes the redhead was pulling out.

" I'd skip the tight clothing and jewelry today, we're playing sports." Gaara nodded, grateful for the tip before pulling on some loose dark jeans and another band tee, this one was dark green and decorated with gold.

He offhandedly ran a hand through his red spikes, deciding there simply wasn't time to make them neat today. The last thing he did was run to the mirror and hurriedly apply eyeliner before turning to face his roomies.

" Okay, I'm ready to go now."

The trio walked out into the hallway where they found their counselors already waiting, Itachi glaring impatiently at them while Neji focuses his charming smile entirely on the redhead.

The walk to the cafeteria was quick but once they were there they discovered that they were once again running late and everyone had to scurry to get their food and finish eating. When the meal was over the group was guided out to the large sports field Neji had shown Gaara on his first day there. Memories of their first evening together helped the redhead will up the courage to speak to his crush.

" Hi." The Hyuga turned, startled that the redhead had actually approached him first.

" Hey." Gaara stared down at his feet, searching for a conversation topic, he'd really only planned up to this point. Fortunately for him Neji was outgoing enough for the both of them.

" You excited to play some soccer?" Gaara idly looked over to where the two coaches were having a heated argument over some unknown thing. They had been going at it for quite some time and while most of the campers were glaring at them impatiently the redhead was actually grateful for the delay.

" Not really I suck at soccer." Neji laughed.

" Well it was my favorite sport in high school but I guess it's not for everyone." Gaara blushed, immediately wishing he hadn't been so quick to complain. Suddenly the high-pitched screech of a whistle cut through the air. Whatever dilemma the coaches had been having was apparently worked out and the game was about to start. Much to both of their disappointment they were forced to separate and head to their assigned positions.

The game took a good forty minutes but thankfully Gaara avoided having the ball passed to him by constantly remaining in inconvenient places. He had decided five minutes into the game it was much more fun to watch Neji play than it was to participate. The Hyuga was an incredible soccer player, running after the ball nonstop, making countless goals, and doing kicks that sent him flying up in the air. Itachi too could hold his own but Gaara was trying his best to ignore that.

When the soccer game ended all of the tired, sweaty teenagers got a chance to eat lunch and cool off in the air conditioning before heading back outside for capture the flag. Gaara found it was even easier to not participate in this game; he simply ran and sat down behind a large oak tree while everyone else remained oblivious.

He stayed where he was, peacefully daydreaming, until an unusually haggard looking Neji suddenly stepped in front of him.

" Were you just planning on hanging out here all day?" He grinned playfully at the surprised redhead.

" I just-um- I don't like sports…" Gaara felt a bit embarrassed at revealing what he viewed as his geeky side to the guy he liked. The Hyuga however didn't seem to mind at all as he plopped down next to him.

" I'm pretty tired out actually, taking a break sounds nice." Gaara nodded slightly as a way of acknowledging the other's presence.

"So what's on your mind?" The brunette turned to face him with a cheery smile.

" Not much really. I was just thinking about last night…that concert was really cool."

" I'm really happy you had fun. I was kind of worried that TenTen ruined the evening for you." Gaara let out an airy laugh.

" I wouldn't give her the pleasure."

" Glad to hear it." Neji found the boy's forgiving attitude to be quite encouraging and felt a renewed sense of optimism wash over his body. Last nights chivalrous kiss was still fresh in his mind and he nervously wondered if now was the time to move things up a level.

Slowly, the Hyuga reached out to the side a bit, grabbing Gaara's hand in his own and giving it a light squeeze. For a moment all the other boy could do was blush and stare down at their entwined fingers before gently squeezing back.

The two remained like that; holding onto one another and staring off into the distance, happy to just bask in the peaceful moment.

Their contentment was suddenly interrupted as a large uprising of voices came from off in the distance. The sounds of campers screaming and coaches yelling pierced through the calm night air. Neji and Gaara glanced at each other briefly before jumping to their feet and rushing to the scene. There they found a crowd of kids staring in shock at a figure thrashing about on the ground. It was Sasuke; he was lying on his back, clutching his nose while blood seeped through the cracks in his fingers.

" Oh my God." Neji murmured, rushing to assist the injured boy as the coaches pushed back the spectators.

Gaara stood, mouth agape as his friend was lifted up and carried off of the field and towards the medical wing. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Itachi standing at the edge of the crowd, smirking in a very self-satisfied manner while Naruto looked between him and his retreating boyfriend in shock. The redhead felt his heart sink, he just knew Itachi had something to do with this and from the lack of attention he was receiving he'd gotten away with it too.

After that little incident the coaches found it impossible to restore order to the camp so the kids were just given the remaining part of the day off. Gaara immediately rushed to Naruto's side and looked at him questioningly as they began walking towards their dorm.

" I saw you staring at Itachi." The blonde's fists clenched up as he continued to glare into the distance. Nervously Gaara prodded further.

" Did he have something to do with what happened?" Naruto wheeled to face his companion, anger burning in his blue eyes.

"Of course he had something to do with it! Our flag was up in the tree and Sasuke and I were up there guarding. Then that stupid asshole Itachi climbed up to get it but before he Sasuke tagged him out. And then that bastard PUSHED him!" Over come with rage Naruto turned and kicked at the ground, sending a clump of grass flying. Gaara looked at him hesitantly.

" Did you tell the coaches this?"

"Yeah, and of course he said it was an accident and they fucking believed him." Naruto laughed bitterly.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the duo and when they reached the room Gaara immediately began reading while the blonde plopped onto his bed and blasted angry rock music, staring at the door impatiently.

Finally after twenty minutes of waiting Sasuke arrived back at the room. Much to the relief of both his friends he looked fairly normal, the only sign of his injury being a large bandage on his nose.

" Is it broken?" Gaara questioned softly.

" No, it was just a bloody nose and a couple of scratches I'll be able to take the bandage off tomorrow morning." Sasuke walked over to his bed and sat down, wincing slightly as this irritated the bruises on his side. His boyfriend leaned over the top bunk and examined him with a mixture of concern and anger.

" Did you get Itachi in trouble?"

"No." Sasuke rolled onto his side, turning his back to Gaara and purposefully ignoring Naruto's ranting about how unfair the whole situation was. The other two took the hint and let him be, each resuming their own quite activities.

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Itachi and Neji walked exhaustedly out of the conference room. They'd been forced to sit through Tsunade giving them a rerun of camp safety rules for the past hour and now all the Hyuga wanted to do was go back to his room, take some headache medicine, and go to sleep. Unfortunately for him Itachi had no intentions of letting him rest quite yet.

" What were you doing with little Gaara?" The Hyuga scowled warily.

"What do you mean?"

" I saw the two of you come walking out together from off the playing field." Itachi gave him a knowing smirk.

" Don't look at me like that we were just talking."

" Oh right." Itachi looked to the side, smirk widening. " I guess I should have expected that from a loser like you."

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I am so incredibly sorry for the long wait. I was grounded from the computer from the week and during that time I lost all my creative inspiration. And now I absolutely HATE this chapter. It was just so-ugh- it was so difficult to write but this as good as it's going to get. I'll try to make the next one better. Either way I hope you guys leave reviews. -Evie