The drabbles in this collection may or may not have a storyline. They may or may not contain AU, crack, and mature themes. They may or may not be entirely romantic. They may or may not be very long, but no matter what, the main pairing will be GaaMei (or MeiGaa, whichever). And no matter what, I do not own Naruto.

This first one will be part of a series of tutor!Mei and student!Gaara drabbles that I'll most likely have ongoing.

TITLE: Tutor 1

PAIRING(S): GaaMei

GENRE: General

RATING: K

For three years, she'd lived a peaceful life.

Her family's enterprise was back on track. She was forgiven, renamed the heiress. They'd all died soon after—maybe they knew. She was left the entire estate, but she didn't worry much. There was a man who'd been by her side since she was born as a family friend who saved her from the duty of balancing finances and keeping up with what's popular in the toy industry. Not that she didn't keep an eye out for potential ideas.

Studying French had been her true dream from the day she first flipped to the wrong channel and sat in front of the television set, entranced by a three-hour French movie she didn't understand a word of. Their words rolled off the tongue so quick, sweet, and romantic. She wanted those words all to herself. Craving that fluency so badly, she took to learning French alone from books and movies until high school when she had the opportunity to take classes that she was far ahead of from the start.

Labeled as teacher's pet, she didn't really care. It was nice to talk to someone who spoke the language so naturally, so… effortlessly. It was happening right in front of her and she was so happy; everything else in her life became a blur.

That is, until her third year of college when she was offered to tutor. Her teachers were no strangers to the passion she had for French, so they asked her if she would like to teach. Well, not so much teach as guide other students along in French. And by students, they meant student. She wasn't sure of it at first, completely unconfident, so she took a while to think it over.

The decision was made final less than a day later. If it was just one student, she could handle it. She would transfer all her fiery determination into this one little person, make them crave the words just as much as her, make them aimer French until they could no longer breath without hearing those fluid sentences just flow over each other like a waterfall. The mere thought of it made her sigh in bliss.

Unfortunately, that one student would prove to be a bigger challenge than anyone expected.

They were introduced in his family's garden, his older sister acting as a mediator. Underneath the arch which flowers crawled up stood a fragile-looking, expressionless boy with brick-red hair that was grown out and nearly covered his eyes entirely. Despite his unapproachable appearance, she stuck a hand out and smiled.

"I am Terumi Mei, your new French tutor."

He stared at her coldly. Not even coldly, she concluded after holding his gaze for a stretch of time. Those green eyes without pupils showed nothing. Absolutely nothing. She suppressed a shudder when he blinked those eyes and finally gave way to a handshake, so brief that she hardly had any time to understand his hands, though they had felt just as small and fragile as he looked. Pale, slender fingers that might've belonged to pianist. "Gaara," was all he said.

Then he turned his eyes on his sister who grinned approvingly. "Say please," she said in a sing-song.

Gaara made no visible change in expression, but his sister sighed. "Fine. Go."

He turned and left without a backwards glance. Mei watched him go in surprise. "Um, are we not supposed to…?" she started uncertainly, raising her eyebrows in question at his sister.

"He's… shy. Maybe tomorrow."

Mei nodded numbly, unable to forget his eyes.