Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

A/N: Rock Lee

Lee was not entirely certain how he had gotten himself into this situation.

Round black eyes closed in a pained grimace as the warm, soft body snuggled up against him wiggled. Again. After a moment, he opened them and focused determinedly on the television screen, forcing himself to concentrate as the two main characters raced across rooftops, barely evading the shuriken thrown by their pursuers.

It had all started a few days after Sakura's wedding, when he had asked Neji to spar with him as he usually did. Lee couldn't remember exactly what he had said, but the next thing he'd known, Neji had stalked off in a flushed, embarrassed rage, and Tenten had just stared at him with what looked disturbingly like pity.

When Lee had tried to ask her about Neji's odd reaction to a simple request, Tenten had just patted him on the shoulder and left. Confused and unhappy, Lee had trained by himself that day, pondering his teammates unusual behavior.

Nothing, however, compared to the surprise and alarm he felt when Gai-sensei had shown up at his apartment the next morning and demanded to know why Lee had never told him he was gay, and hadn't Lee known that of course Gai would be supportive and understanding of his beloved student's preferences?!

Lee had, of course, tried to explain that he wasn't gay, to no effect. He did, of course, admire his sensei with all of his heart and soul, but sometimes the older man had a rather distressing tendency to ignore everything anyone said when it was contrary to what he wanted to hear.

In the resulting drama and tears it had come out that Gai was gay himself, and the other shinobi nearly overcome with joy with the thought that this was yet another characteristic he and his precious student would share.

Which, some dark, rebellious part of Lee whispered, explained a lot.

And when Tenten had decided to bring Lee along on what she called 'girls night out' Lee had protested. Mightily.

But then he had made a discovery of enormous proportions.

Being labeled as 'gay' might well be the best thing to ever happen to him.

Lee had never had many friends as a child; first for his disabilties, and later, as his peers' focus had shifted, for his appearance. The few friends he had managed to make (Neji, Gaara, Naruto) were not what you would call... demonstrative. If Lee was entirely honest with himself, he would have to say that the only affection he could remember ever receiving was from Gai-sensei.

Now, for the first time in his life, Lee was part of a group, even if the group was 'one of the girls'. The first time that Ino had gone out her way to say hello to him after the news had come out, Lee had nearly fallen over in shock.

His alleged homosexuality did alienate him from a number of the male population of Konoha, but frankly, most of those who shunned him now for supposedly being attracted to men were the same people who had shunned him before for his clothing choices and exuberent mannerisms. So it wasn't as if anything had really changed on that front.

The only downside Lee could see was the ever more likely possibility that Gaara was attracted to him, (Lee was almost dead certain that the red-haired boy had once used his sand to grope Lee's butt, and the Sand-nin had been sending him some very intense looks the last few times he had been in the village) but Lee was fairly certain he could deal with that when the time came.

And a very large bonus, he had to admit, was that it allowed him to be closer to Sakura.

As Rock Lee, the man with the unrequited crush on her, Sakura had had as little contact with him as possible, in order to not (as he found out later) 'lead him on'. As Rock Lee, the man with the unrequited crush on Neji, Sakura was determined to be a supportive and empathetic friend to the sweet boy who had been so kind to her when they were children, and had had his heart crushed by Neji's rejection.

He had jumped at the opportunity.

Lee was not a stupid man. He knew that all he was doing was making himself fall even further in love with her, a woman who was not only not interested in him, but was married to someone else as well.

He just didn't care.

He had sworn that he would always be there for her that day in the forest so many years ago, when she had looked up at him with those huge, frightened green eyes. Had promised to protect her forever, to be whatever she needed him to be, for as long as she needed him to be it. And Rock Lee kept his promises.

He shifted, surreptitiously trying to move himself further away. And so it had come to this: himself, Ino, Tenten, Hinata, and Sakura sitting on the couch in Sakura and Konohamaru's living room, having a movie marathon. Normally this would be just fine with Lee, another chance to spend time with the woman he loved. Until Sakura had started to get tired, and had cuddled up to the person closest to her. Which, to his horror, was him.

Sakura, beautiful, wonderful Sakura, was tucked up practically on top of him and Lee absolutely could not react. If Sakura realized he was affected by this, after having been allowed to interact with her, to talk and laugh with her without being pushed away 'for his own good'... Lee could not bear the thought. Bad enough that she was married to another man, if Lee couldn't at least be her friend...

It was times like this that Lee really wished that he could hate Konohamaru.

Because he knew, knew that Konohamaru could not possibly love Sakura as much as he did. When Lee had first seen Sakura, it had been as if the world had tilted on it's axis, and his life had changed forever.

He had looked at her, and had known, in every fiber of his being, that this was The One. Some might accuse him of being shallow, of falling in love with a pretty face, but Lee knew that something inside of him had recognized the wonderful person, the diamond, you could say, that had been hidden beneath the rough of immaturity and inexperience.

He had believed in her, and had been proven right.

And he had hoped, and prayed, and dreamed every single day, that someday she might feel for him even a small portion of what he felt for her.

Then along came laid-back, wise-cracking Konohamaru, who had swept Sakura off of her feet and straight to the altar.

Oh, how Lee wanted to indulge in the luxury of hating the younger man.

But Sakura loved Konohamaru, and Rock Lee was incapable of hating anything that Sakura loved.

So Lee would watch over Konohamaru, and protect him from all harm, so that Sakura would never have to know the pain of losing her husband. Even if it meant that she would never love Lee. When it came time for children (Lee stubbornly pushed away the pang in his heart) he would love them too, and treat them as if they were his own, and always be there if they needed him.

Because when Rock Lee loved, it was completely.