Chapter 11

Lee slept through his alarm the next day. Lee hadn't slept through his alarm since… Actually Lee could not remember a time when he had slept through his alarm. And even though he'd slept through his alarm he hadn't gotten much sleep. He'd spent most of the night having an identity crisis.

It had started with him being angry with himself. If Gaara was fine with people knowing about their relationship he should not only be fine with it, he should be happy. Lee thought that he'd be ecstatic when they finally dated publicly. Lee thought that's what he wanted, but maybe it was just happening too soon? But it had been weeks…

How did that saying go? 'Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.' He wanted to simultaneously proclaim his love for Gaara from the rooftops while hiding in a hole from the judgement of the world. And now it was too late to be casual about it. 'Haha, just kidding about the whole identity crisis thing, I am totally fine with being in a relationship with another man.' Had it bothered him that he was in love with another man before? Obviously he knew Gaara was male and he was attracted to him. Lee loved Gaara. But as he thought more about it Lee had always been more in love with the idea of love and had never really thought about it practically.

He couldn't even bring himself to come out to coach Gai and he was the closest thing Lee had to a father figure in his life. He'd come out to Sakura but she was sworn to secrecy. Naruto probably could have guessed it a while ago. So who was he worried about judging him?

It wasn't something he could easily reason with. It was deeper and more subconscious. It was years of indirect and direct messages about homosexuality being wrong, homosexual men being weak, and homosexual love being immoral. A lifetime of hearing fag used as a slur, gay equated to stupid, and queer said to ostracize. In real life and on the media gay romance was doomed from the start. They didn't get the fairytale endings. They were restricted to supporting roles and stereotypes.

Lee knew he shouldn't care about all of that, but he did. Lee knew that when he was bullied in the orphanage until he was black and blue they only called him a fag to hurt him, not because they knew anything about him. Lee knew that freshman year when the upperclassmen threw him into a trashcan and called him gay it wasn't for any reason other than to make him feel weak. Lee knew that the rumors that he slept with coach Gai to get on the varsity track team his freshman year were not based on any factual evidence but that they were only circulated to try and break him. But he hadn't broken.

…So why did he feel like he was falling apart?

"You've been crying." Gaara commented casually. That is what had finally woken Lee.

"What time is it?" Lee sat up quickly, rubbing his face and looking around frantically, not wanting to acknowledge Gaara's statement.

"About 6:30." Gaara replied without looking. Lee gave him an inquisitive look. "When I noticed the time and hadn't heard you get up for your morning shower I came to see what happened."

"Thank you, Gaara. Now I can make it to at least half of morning practice." Lee threw the covers off and quickly made his way to the bathroom.

At first Gaara thought this was almost rude, by Lee standards, but then he realized Lee was embarrassed and trying to avoid the subject of him crying. Gaara did not like to see Lee so distraught, he decided, but he did like how unguarded Lee had looked when he'd first awoken. Lee's hair had been a mess, tousled by his tossing and turning in the night, but it had been oddly charming.

When Lee got out of the bathroom he found Gaara sitting on his bed ready to go.

"If I drive you can make it to all of morning practice." Gaara commented, throwing Lee's already packed gym bag and backpack at him.

"I-" Lee started, but he didn't know what to say and he didn't want to start crying again so he decided on, "thank you, Gaara."

Gaara replied with a non-committal noise as he grabbed his own bag and started walking out the door. When they were in the car and on their way to school Lee asked, "So what are you going to do in the hour and a half before school starts?"

"I haven't decided yet. Maybe I'll watch you practice." Gaara replied with a smirk. Lee went red and tightened his grip on his seatbelt.

"I would be too embarrassed to focus properly." Lee remarked quietly.

Gaara thought of the few images he had of Lee fresh from working out, his clothes sticking to him, his face flushed with exertion…

"Please slow down, Gaara." Lee practically squeaked from the passenger seat.

"Sorry." Gaara mumbled as he refocused on the road. He decided watching Lee would also be too distracting for him.

Gaara waited until Lee caught his breath to comment, "I'll probably just get some work done in the library." Gaara was almost disappointed by Lee's sigh of relief.

They got to school without further incident and went their separate ways. There were not many students there and even a lot of the staff was just arriving so the school was pretty empty.

Now, Gaara had said he would be in the library but he hadn't promised not to watch Lee practice. There just happened to be an open seat next to the window over-looking the track and Gaara just happened to decide to sit there. The library was on the second story of the school and just close enough to the track field that Gaara could see the distinct shapes of Lee and his coach. He would've needed binoculars to get a good look at Lee practicing, but just watching him from a distance was enough.

Lee was fast. Gaara had known he was fast but had never actually seen him in action. And this was just his daily training regime. It seemed almost silly to be impressed by Lee's speed but he was. He owed his life to Lee's speed, after all, so that might have explained why he couldn't stop watching him run.

Gaara was so distracted, how did his legs move like that? How long could he keep up this pace? Was it just him or was Lee going faster instead of slowing down?

"Hey, Gaara!" Naruto practically shouted at Gaara, which made Gaara finally turn his attention away from the window but also earned Naruto a stern glare and hush from the school librarian. Naruto whispered sorry to the librarian as he took the seat across from Gaara.

Gaara was displeased by Naruto's distraction and even more irked by the fact that Naruto was now blocking part of his view of the track. Gaara made an attempt to look out the window around Naruto's head, doing his best to ignore the blonde spikes in his peripheral.

He couldn't ignore Naruto's shout, though. "What happened?!"

This earned Naruto a glare from Gaara and the librarian, the latter gave him a warning that the next time he caused a disruption he'd be kicked out. Naruto mouthed sorry before turning his attention back to Gaara. Specifically, Gaara's neck.

"What does it look like?" Gaara's voice was already quiet enough for the library.

"Well I know what it looks like, but I just didn't think, ya know, that it could be, well…" Naruto whispered, but he made a show of getting even quieter and placing his hand as if he were sharing a secret, "a hickey."

Gaara almost laughed, Naruto was being so juvenile about this. Naruto must have been surprised to see Gaara smile because he looked shocked.

"We're practically adults, Naruto, grow up." Gaara commented, which made Naruto pout. Proving Gaara's point about him needing to grow up.

"I'm not so shocked by the what I'm more curious about with who."

"With whom." Gaara corrected.

"Don't correct my grammar at a time like this you know what I'm asking." Naruto was obviously frustrated and Gaara couldn't help but smile. It was very off-putting to Naruto, to say the least.

"I'm not supposed to say," Gaara paused, glancing back towards the track meaningfully, "but you could probably guess."

It took Naruto another minute and a few more obvious nods by Gaara in the direction of the window to get Naruto to look towards the track and finally put two and two together.

"You mean bushy brows?" Naruto was supposed to be whispering but he was still too loud. Gaara hushed him, looked around to see if anyone had heard, then nodded.

Naruto pretended to barf, made a silly face, but then turned to face Gaara seriously. "This is the happiest I've seen you in… well, ever. So I'm happy for you two weirdos."

Gaara realized he was also glad to have Naruto as a friend. Gaara had taken him for granted before, but Gaara could acknowledge that Naruto was actually capable of being an okay person. Sometimes.

Naruto scooted a little closer and whispered, "So why are you keeping this under wraps?"

Gaara concealed a sigh, "Lee would like it to remain a secret." Naruto nodded seriously, obviously giving this statement serious thought.

"Wait, 'remain'? How long…?" Naruto gestured in the air and expected Gaara to understand. Somehow, he did.

"A few weeks." Gaara answered, glancing back out the window. He saw Naruto's shocked expression out of the corner of his eye.

"And nobody told me?" Naruto's feigned hurt was almost entertaining.

Another moment of silence passed before Naruto commented, "Ya know, it's strange that Lee wants to keep it a secret. You'd think he'd take an ad out in the school newspaper declaring his love and happiness in no less than two pages worth of text."

Gaara gave Naruto a look that expressed his agreement. Gaara didn't want to say anything but he did find it odd that Lee wasn't all for their relationship going public. Lee seemed like the type to want to hold hands, wear matching shirts, go on cliché dates together, and openly confess his love 24 hours a day.

"Oh." Naruto's tone caught Gaara's attention. "Oh."

"'Oh' what?" Gaara questioned, irritated by Naruto's unusual silence.

"I think I might know what's up." Gaara simply glared at Naruto but he shook his head. "No, I gotta talk to bushy brows about it first."

"Naruto Uzumaki I will punch your lights out right here in the school library if you don't tell me what you know immediately." Gaara's tone was stone-cold serious and Naruto knew that wasn't an empty threat.

"Um, okay, so…" Naruto started nervously, refusing to look Gaara in the eye. "When we were at the orphanage Lee was bullied." Naruto paused but Gaara could tell he had more to say so he waited.

"The other kids called him a fag, I'm pretty sure they didn't even know what that meant but they'd heard it used as an insult and because Lee was different they singled him out." Naruto sighed and when he glanced at Gaara he saw the young red-head bristling with rage. "I tried to stand up for him but they just picked on us both when I did that so Lee asked me to stay out of it."

Before Gaara could comment Naruto continued, "And freshman year was pretty bad, too."

"What happened?" Gaara couldn't believe Naruto would add a comment like that and not elaborate on it.

"What, you don't remember?" Naruto received a glare in response, "I thought everyone and their mom heard about the drama with Lee freshman year."

"What happened?" Gaara repeated angrily. Naruto put up his hands in defense.

"Sorry. Well, the upperclassmen in gym class thought Lee was gay so they tormented him relentlessly. And then when he made the varsity track team they took it to a whole new level." Naruto was obviously uncomfortable sharing all of this, but he honestly feared Gaara more than he feared Lee.

"I skipped gym." Gaara remarked, remembering he still had to make up that credit. "And I don't pay attention to gossip. I will only ask one more time, what happened?"

"All right, so at first it was the normal stuff, graffiti on his locker, hiding his clothes, trash-canning him. But when he made the varsity track team and some of the upperclassmen didn't they started a rumor that one of them had seen Lee… Aw, man do I really have to say it? It was bad." Naruto was very uncomfortable at this point but Gaara's glare was intense. Naruto lowered his voice so it was barely audible and looked away while continuing, "They said one of them saw Lee having sex with coach Gai and that was the only reason he got on the varsity team."

"That's obviously not true." Gaara responded, Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Duh, that's why I said it was a rumor. But the fact that it's not true didn't stop almost everyone from believing it." Naruto looked away again, "Man, I even remember Lee panicking because he knew if the rumor spread to the teachers that Mr. Gai would be fired, and it was his word against almost everyone else's on the team at the time."

"Names." Gaara demanded suddenly.

"What?"

"Their names. I want their names." Gaara was furious.

"Dude, I don't remember their names, they were 3 grades ahead of us. I doubt if even Lee remembers their names."

"I can look them up. We're already here in the library. I'm sure there's a yearbook with a picture of that year's track team…" Gaara started to stand up to ask the librarian but Naruto caught his wrist.

"Is that what Lee would want?" Naruto gave Gaara a serious look, Gaara looked away and yanked his wrist out of Naruto's hand.

"No, but it's what I want." Gaara made his way over to the librarian and Naruto sighed. The one thing Naruto knew about Gaara was that there was no stopping him. He guessed that was one thing him and bushy brows had in common.

Gaara came back over to the table with the yearbook from their freshman year. It didn't take him long to find the page dedicated to the school's varsity track team. It was less than 3 years ago but Lee looked so much younger. Gaara easily spotted him in the rows of students.

"Talk about a trip down memory lane." Naruto commented, glancing at the page and also easily spotting Lee. Gaara did not have any distinct memories from freshman year, it all felt like a monotonous blur. Gaara literally didn't recognize any of the other students, but he took out his smartphone to take a picture of them for future reference. He made sure the names were legible in the picture before closing the yearbook and putting his phone away.

"Don't do anything too drastic." Naruto commented.

"No promises." Gaara replied and got up to put the book back.

The bell rang and they went to class. Gaara tried to act normal when he saw Lee in first hour but the information he had learned from Naruto had him seething with rage. He also suddenly felt very possessive over Lee. Gaara wanted to protect Lee but knew Lee did not need protecting, and that if Gaara tried to protect him it might make Lee feel weak.

Lee noticed Gaara's anger but incorrectly assumed it was directed at him and deflated. The study hall was so quiet, Lee didn't even feel brave enough to whisper. He turned to a new page in his notebook and wrote 'I'm sorry.' He then turned it to Gaara as if they were helping each other with homework, so no one even gave it a second thought.

'For what?' Gaara wrote quickly and turned the notebook back towards Lee.

Lee held in a sigh as he replied 'For not wanting to be open about our relationship. You seem upset.'

Once Gaara had read the reply he quickly took back the paper. 'That's not what I'm angry about.'

Lee gave him an inquisitive look and wrote, 'Then what is the matter?'

Gaara thought it was endearing that Lee didn't even use contractions when passing notes. But he didn't know how to respond. As he was trying to think of what to write the teacher gave them a meaningful look.

"I hope you two aren't passing notes. Not only is that outdated but it'd be embarrassing if I had to confiscate it." Lee blushed as he took his notebook back.

"Nope, just getting some help with math. Thanks Gaara." Lee lied nervously, but it was enough for the teacher and other students. Just to be safe, though, they didn't try to talk for the rest of the period.

During the passing period Gaara decided to ask Lee, "So have you ever had a phone?" The comment about notes being outdated had made Gaara think they wouldn't have needed to pass notes if they were texting. Half the class used their phones during study hall and the teacher never minded unless they spent the whole period on their phones.

"I had one, a pay as you go phone, but I lost it and have not bought another one." Lee responded, happy to know Gaara wasn't upset with him but still curious as to what had made Gaara so angry earlier.

"We should go get one today." Gaara replied, and before Lee could respond they had to go their separate ways. Gaara was already down the other hallway before Lee could react.

By lunch Gaara had already texted Temari and gotten permission to add Lee to their plan. She said she could meet them at the store that evening. Gaara was surprised how easy it was to get her to agree. Temari was just happy to actually receive messages from Gaara. She'd gotten him a phone years ago but she'd only ever received a handful of texts from him. Also, getting Lee a phone had the added benefit of being able to get a hold of Gaara more easily.

"Gaara, I…" Lee started when he got to the table but Gaara interrupted.

"We're adding you to our plan, we can go when you get out of practice. Temari said she'll meet us there." Gaara said all this while Lee took his seat.

"Plan?" Lee questioned, not sure what Gaara meant.

"Phone plan, it's cheaper to add you to ours. So you don't have to get a separate one."

"But I can pay for it on my own." Lee offered, not wanting to feel like a burden.

"I expected you to say that." Gaara was glad to see Lee smile. "You can work that out with Temari, she takes care of the phone bill."

They eat in comfortable silence for a few moments before Lee remembers he never got to ask Gaara what had upset him earlier.

"Don't worry about it." Gaara responded, quickly growing angry remembering what had happened.

"You saying that only makes me worry more." Lee replied, and he wished he was braver because he wanted to take Gaara's hand but his nervousness stopped him.

Gaara liked being blunt and to the point, but he realized this was neither the time nor the place for this conversation. "I will tell you later." Lee continued to look at him imploringly, "I promise," Gaara added, which finally seemed to satiate Lee.

Another moment of silence, but Lee couldn't help but notice they were getting significantly more stares than usual.

"Is it just me, or-" Lee's question was interrupted by Gaara.

"It's been like this almost all day. I just wish they'd stop taking pictures." Gaara answered Lee's unfinished question, obviously annoyed. At this point he almost wished he had agreed to cover it up. But did he even own any turtleneck sweaters?

"Has anyone asked?" Lee was just curious. He knew Gaara wouldn't break his promise.

"Naruto figured it out." Lee had expected that. "No one else has been brave enough to ask." Gaara glared at the girls with their phones currently turned slightly towards him for good measure.

Lee wanted to make a comment about Gaara scaring them away but he didn't. Lee smiled easily when Gaara's stare finally returned to him and continued eating. Lee felt his chest swell with affection and had to keep himself from calling Gaara 'cute.'

"So are you done at 7 today?" Gaara asked, Lee nodded.

"Yes, but I will most certainly be in need of a shower so please do not arrive until 7:15."

"When are the finals?" Gaara asked, knowing they were soon.

"Regionals are this Saturday and Nationals will be two weeks after that. As long as I place in the Regionals I will be able to compete in the Nationals." Lee lit up when talking about track.

"I'm sure you won't have a problem, you're very fast." Gaara stated, though Lee took it as a compliment.

"Thank you Gaara," Lee paused, then realized, "But when have you seen me run?"

"Um…" Gaara's pause spoke volumes. Gaara could have easily lied about it but instead he stayed silent. When he looked back at Lee he was still smiling.

"You were watching me this morning, were you not?" Gaara nodded and Lee swore he could see Gaara lightly blush. It was almost too much for Lee, he wanted to scoop Gaara into his arms right then and there but he refrained. "I realized that you can see the track from the library and I had my suspicions."

The bell rang signaling the end of lunch and they continued on to the rest of their classes. In English Lee noticed a couple people staring, pointing, and whispering about Gaara but no one had the courage to talk to him directly.

Gaara made plans to pick Lee up at 7:15 precisely and they would go to the store from there. Gai noticed Lee was a bit distracted towards the end of practice and let him hit the showers early. Lee didn't want to over-analyze his feelings and he was so worn out from training he could easily ignore the nagging thoughts in the back of his mind.

Lee was out of the showers and ready to go by 7, but he saw Gaara was already waiting in the parking lot for him.

"I thought we agreed to 7:15." Lee commented as he got into the car.

"I thought there might be traffic." Gaara replied, then added, "There wasn't." Gaara would not admit he'd gotten there half an hour ago, impatient to see Lee.

Gaara sent a quick text to Temari before heading over to the store. Lee fussed over his seat belt and obviously had something on his mind. Gaara knew what it was but did not want to bring that up yet, so he started a different conversation.

"Would you mind if I watched you at regionals Saturday?" Gaara thought it was more polite than just showing up, though he knew even if Lee said he did mind he'd go watch him anyway.

"No of course not. I just did not think you were interested in that sort of thing so I assumed you were not going and did not inform you it was this Saturday." Lee replied.

"I'm only really interested in you." This caused Lee to blush, though Gaara did not notice because he was driving. "What time does it start?"

"It starts at 8," Lee paused and Gaara cringed at the thought of having to be outside with people so early on a Saturday. "But I am not competing until about 10." Lee added with Gaara's previous statement in mind.

Lee was impressed by all of the phones in the store, and protested when Gaara insisted he get a smartphone.

"It's about time you joined us in the digital age, Lee." Gaara commented in the store, the store clerk nodded and Temari laughed.

"But what if I break it?" Lee caught the small price tag and his already large eyes widened. "This one phone is worth 3 of my paychecks," Lee commented quietly.

After a bit more arguing they finally agreed on a less expensive smartphone with a very protective case. Lee tried to pay but Gaara reminded him they were putting it on their plan.

"At least let me pay my share, Temari." Lee pleaded as they checked out.

"Oh don't worry, I'll make sure you earn this." Temari grinned and added "But I don't want your money." Lee's face fell and he went very pale.

"What do you want?" Lee asked quietly as they were leaving. Temari thought about it, they stood just outside the store and before moving to the parking lot Temari thought of something.

"Gaara won't shut up about your food. I've never seen him finish a full plate before but he claims to like your food. Cook for us." Temari smiled, but when Gaara gave her a glare she added, "It doesn't have to be right now, and it doesn't have to be all of the time. But Kankuro and I would like to try the wonder chef's food for ourselves."

Lee was blushing, and looked away while replying, "Of course! But I promise it's not all that great."

"I'll be the judge of that." Temari replied, handing Lee the bag with his phone in it. "I'll see you two at home." Temari headed for her car and they went to Gaara's.

Lee spent the drive home putting 5 contacts into his phone. He hadn't even realized Gaara had a cell phone until today. He put Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro's number in using Gaara's contact list. He was surprised to see Naruto in Gaara's contacts and added Naruto's information to his phone as well. Of course the last contact he added was Coach Gai. He sent a generic 'This is Rock Lee' message to his few contacts so they could have his number as well.

"This is hard to get used to." Lee commented as Gaara parked the car, typing on the screen was tough and it's taken him the whole car ride to do that simple task.

"It's convenient, though." Gaara replied as they went into the house.

At dinner Kankuro and Temari convinced Lee to cook for them on Sunday, and gave him a hard time about his first name (which they had forgotten). When Gaara and Lee got back to their rooms Gaara asked if he could join Lee in his room.

"You do not really have to ask. You usually do not." Lee replied, to which Gaara shrugged.

Gaara sat on the couch and motioned for Lee to sit next to him. Originally Gaara was going to use this opportunity to talk to Lee about what Naruto had informed him of earlier but when Lee sat next to him all he wanted to do was kiss him.

Lee kissed back hungrily and awkwardly, twisting himself so their mouths could more easily meet. Gaara thought a more practical solution would be for him to straddle Lee's legs but Lee stopped him. Lee didn't stop Gaara when he started kissing his neck, though. Gaara really wanted to leave a mark on Lee. Lee's flesh was tanner and tougher than his own, it would take more effort to leave a mark. But he didn't want to leave a mark that would make Lee uncomfortable.

Gaara pulled Lee's shirt down and tested a spot on Lee's collarbone with his tongue. Lee responded with a low moan which only intensified when Gaara began to bite and suck. Gaara held Lee's shirt out of the way with one hand and trailed his fingers down Lee's torso with the other. Lee stopped him before his hand could stray too low but feeling Lee's toned abdomen through his shirt was still very hot. Gaara hummed in appreciation and the vibrations on his skin made Lee feel like his heart might beat right out of his chest.

Gaara pulled back to inspect his handiwork. He was frustrated. "There's hardly a mark."

Lee bolted upright, "Is there a mark?" Lee's hand went to touch where his skin was still wet with Gaara's saliva.

"Not really." Gaara reassured Lee, plus it was below where he normally wore his shirts anyway.

"Are you disappointed?" Lee asked, seeing Gaara's face and hearing his tone made it obvious he was.

"Yes." Gaara replied, inspecting the already fading hickey.

Lee did not like disappointing people, especially his most important person. "Okay, here." Lee stated as he moved to take off his shirt completely. Gaara was confused but not complaining.

"Just, ah, one. And please make sure it is low enough to be covered easily." Lee blushed nervously and bared his neck to Gaara.

Now, Gaara had been pretty sure of his sexuality, even before this mess with Lee. But seeing Lee bare-chested in front of him, breathing hard and basically offering him his body? There was no doubt about it, Gaara was one-hundred percent gay.

Lee practically squirmed under Gaara's intense stare and it took Gaara a moment to remember what he was supposed to be doing. Once Gaara recalled what he was supposed to do he resumed his task with gusto. Lee's hands roamed through Gaara's hair, down his side, and sometimes even clutched desperately at the couch cushions. After a few more attempts, a lot of moaning and panting, Gaara finally succeeded in leaving a small but dark bruise. It was made even more prominent when Lee's blush finally started to fade from his chest and neck. Lee's face was still completely flushed, but he was finally catching his breath.

"That's much better." Gaara smiled, pleased by his success.

"I am glad." Lee replied, his eyes half-lidded. Gaara pulled his face closer to start kissing him again.

Their arousal clung to the air, hot and heavy with its weight, but neither of them felt ready to address it. It was much too soon and yet it felt like they couldn't do it soon enough.

"May I use the shower?" Lee asked timidly. It took Gaara a second to understand why the hell Lee would ask to use the shower in the middle of…

"Oh. Of course." Gaara replied, moving away reluctantly. Lee excused himself and quickly went into the bathroom. Moments later the water was running.

Lee stood directly under the cold water and hissed at first with the pain of the cold hitting his extra-sensitive over-heated body. Cooling himself down was easier said than done, his body temperature attempting to race back up whenever he thought of Gaara sitting in the next room, just as aroused as he was, wanting this as much as he did. This was a whole new kind of self-discipline. But when he thought of it as a personal challenge he started to take back control of his body. Even though he was a teenager and awash with hormones didn't mean he had to rush things. Lee wanted to take his time.

But when Lee got out of the shower and saw the mark Gaara had left on him in the mirror he had to splash his face with cold water. After calming himself Lee moved closer to the mirror and lightly touched the mark. It was sensitive, but the dull ache was almost pleasurable. Lee then realized he'd forgotten to grab pajamas to change into. He put a towel around his waist, hoping Gaara had already gone back to his own room.

Gaara was still in Lee's room. Not only that, but Gaara was still on the couch. He was lying on his back, his pants pulled down just far enough for…

Lee could not tell what kind of noise escaped his throat but he did feel his face and body flush as his nose began to bleed. Gaara caught a glance of Lee as he raced back into the bathroom, one hand holding his towel while the other attempted to catch the blood from his nose.

Gaara knew he should have finished sooner but it was hard. He didn't have much experience with arousal and even less with masturbation. He had been close when he'd heard Lee get out of the shower, but hadn't expected Lee to come back so soon. But getting caught by Lee had put him over the edge, and he climaxed as soon as Lee shut the bathroom door.

But now he was a mess. Gaara had really not thought this through. He'd been riding the waves of passion but now that he had crashed on the shore he almost felt… embarrassed. Gaara made himself as decent as he could, though he was still in complete disarray, and grabbed Lee's pajamas. Which is obviously what he'd come back into the room for.

Gaara was polite enough to knock on the bathroom door before attempting to open it. He found it locked. Lee was so busy trying to simultaneously calm himself down and carve that image of Gaara into his mind that he barely registered the knock. He splashed his face once more with cold water and made sure his nose wasn't bleeding anymore before opening the bathroom door.

"Gaara, I am-"

"Sorry." Gaara interrupted. This small apology shut Lee up immediately. Gaara continued, "I should've gone back to my room." Gaara made a show of handing Lee his clothes, "And here."

Lee couldn't help himself. He forgot he was clad only in a towel and that the evidence of what Gaara had just been doing was very much apparent by his clothes. He pulled Gaara into a tight embrace, though just for a moment before remembering he was naked. Gaara also pushed away, aware of what was on his clothes and what now appeared to be on Lee.

"It is okay. Thank you for my clothes, Gaara." Lee noticed Gaara staring intensely at his stomach and looked down to see what he could only presume to be… Lee flushed as he grabbed a hand towel to wipe it off.

"I think I'm in need of a shower." Gaara stated, unable to look Lee in the eyes.

"Yes." Lee agreed, making his way out of the bathroom to give Gaara some privacy.

Lee put his pajamas on in the safety of his own room and noticed he could still faintly smell Gaara in the air. It was enough to distract him from sleeping. He pulled up his phone, which had been charging, and decided to browse the internet. Well, first he had to figure out how to do that. Luckily that was pretty straight forward and did not take too long. But then Lee had no idea what to look up to distract himself. Everything thought-path lead back to Gaara. So Lee made the most obvious choice and googled Gaara Sabaku. This choice was also an obvious mistake but Lee went through with the search anyway.

The amount of results surprised Lee, though when he thought about it, it made sense. There were some school-related sites, information on his family's company, even a few news articles from the incident a few months ago.

Had it really only been a few months? Lee realized January wasn't that long ago but it felt like another lifetime. He'd made more progress with Gaara than he ever dreamed possible. Not only that, but Gaara seemed to be changing for the better. And they were in a relationship! So much had happened since that fateful day in January…

Lee kept searching through the links until he stumbled across what appeared to be a chat forum. One of the topics was labeled 'What bitch gave Gaara a hickey?!' Lee was too curious not to click the link.

The chat discussion started with a user posting a picture of Gaara with the hickey crudely circled and they simply put angry emoticons after the picture to express their rage. Lee read the comments made by other users, there were some interesting though albeit incorrect theories proposed. The most common hypothesis being that some new girl named Fuu had given him the mark. These girls were vicious with their death threats and very protective of Gaara.

Lee touched the mark just under his collar. He almost wanted to tell them the truth, or maybe post a theory about it anonymously. But instead he put his phone on the bedside table and soon fell asleep. He was the 'bitch' that had given Gaara a hickey, and Gaara had given him one as well.