au day, so there were loads of things I could've done.. buuut I went with eVERYBODY IS HAPPY AND NOTHING BAD HAPPENED EVER au, bc I just need to write something super fluffy and sappy tbh, it's not got much going on, but it's sweet so I'm happy with it

thanks to the organisers of this week, it was a lot of fun, hopefully there'll be more in the future I can get in on!

Enjoy!

Day 7 - Temari AU

She winced slightly as her hair was tugged through the tight loop, but the fingers gently loosening the band quickly soothed the pain.

Her mother patted her head and leaned back behind her. "All finished," she said, smiling at her through the small, circular mirror of her dresser, "what do you think?"

Temari carefully balanced her arms on the table – her mother automatically pressing steadying hands to her waist – as she twisted her head from side to side, examining her hair from every angle. It'd been impossible to tie her hair into a single high ponytail, as she'd wanted, it was just too thick and wild to ever stay in place, but much experimenting had finally found something that worked; four short, spiky ponytails, sticking out from her head in every direction, framing her face like big yellow flowers.

"I love it!" Grinning, she turned around on her mother's lap, inadvertently smacking her in the face with her new hairstyle.

The woman snorted, gently tugging on the topmost ponytails once her daughter was fully facing her. "I'm glad, you'll need to watch how you turn though," she said, "or we might have to just cut it all off!" Her words were scary, but her eyes were kind, as she pulled the girl's head closer to press a quick kiss to her forehead.

She gave her biggest frown, puffing her cheeks out wide. "I'll be careful, promise."

"Good; now then, you should go find your brothers, I'm sure they're bored without you," with that said, she lifted the small body off her lap and deposited it on the floor.

With her mother waving her away, she charged from her parent's bedroom, shouting a quick apology as she almost crashed into her dad in the hall just outside, but she didn't want to stay long enough to get a lecture, so she kept to her goal of tracking down her two younger brothers.

Their house was large and maze-like, so finding anyone was always a challenge, but she'd last seen them in the kitchen eating breakfast, Kankuro ate fast, so he probably already went back to the living room where all his toys were kept, Gaara ate really slow, so – even though it'd taken a long while to figure out a way of keeping her unruly hair out of her face – he was probably still at the table now.

Unfortunately, Kankuro got really bored when he was alone, so he'd probably-

"Temariii!" The wail gave her plenty of warning, as a light weight barrelled into her stomach; only nearly knocking her over.

She tried to look into Gaara's face, maybe calm him down a little, but he was apparently determined to keep it firmly attached to her shirt. Groaning loudly, she patted his soft, red hair, glowering at her other brother the second he peeked his head around the corner. "What did you do?" she demanded in her scariest Big Sister voice.

"Nothing!" He gave his most innocent pout. It didn't help at all.

"Gaara," she said softly, carefully pulling him away so that she could crouch down to look him in the eye – he didn't meet her gaze, but she wasn't expecting him to – "what happened?"

Rubbing tiny fists against his chubby cheeks, he managed to force out a few words, "T-threw a pu-puppet at me."

Kankuro immediately grimaced, finally appearing from around the corner, a small wooden figurine clutched in his hands. "I didn't mean to," he said, having the grace to look at least a little guilty, "I was trying to make it fly like Granny Chiyo does, but I didn't do it right."

She sighed, her brother meant well – usually – but he could be so clumsy sometimes.

"Did you apologise yet?" she asked, rolling her eyes when he just shook his head. "Then hurry up and do it already."

Dragging himself over to his siblings, he awkwardly held his puppet out, one of its skinny stick arms raised. "Sorry for hitting you," he mumbled, though his entire face quickly lightened when Gaara carefully took the puppets hand in his and gave it a quick shake.

"'nk you."

Everything finally resolved, she patted both of her brothers on the head, grinning down at the pair. "Great, so, how about we go and play outside now? I can show you a new ball game I learned!"

Kankuro was practically already out the door, dragging his baby brother behind him, she was almost worried that he wouldn't be able to keep up, but he was giggling softly, so she stayed behind just long enough to collect the ball her brothers had forgotten in their excitement.

Just before she stepped into the bright, hot sunshine, a small cough made her turn back.

Her father wasn't quite smiling, but his voice was low and soft when he said, "You did well calming them down."

Warmth greater than any desert afternoon flooded through her; she grinned and nodded.

"Be careful not to stay out too long though," he said, giving one of his usual stern looks. She nodded again and rushed over to give him a quick hug, before picking up the ball once more and heading out the door.

"Ah…" she glanced back again to see her father shuffling in the doorway, hand holding it open.

When a few seconds passed without him saying anything, she decided to take the initiative instead. "Yeah?"

He gave her one of his rare, tiny smiles. "Your hair looks very pretty."