Gaara usually spent the nights watching the sky. He’d sit in the window sill looking at the moon’s glowing face, looking so long and hard that the image stayed with him even if he closed his eyes.

But he couldn’t sit still tonight. The demon inside was crying out for blood, chaos, destruction.

He clenched his fist and rubbed shaking hands against his forehead, gritting his teeth against claws tearing at his mind. “Not now, mother…” he murmured shakily.

Gaara knew he had to deny the singing in his veins, a deadly siren’s call waiting to be answered. He wasn’t in Sand village; he was in Konoha. For Sand’s honor, and for himself, he could not kill while he was a guest in their village.

So instead of gazing at the moon, he flitted from rooftop to rooftop over the sleeping denizens of the Leaf. Ninja patrolled the streets, but they did not sense him pass. He was glad; he wasn’t sure what he would have happened if they stopped him.

A flash of light caught his eyes, pulling them downward. Gaara slowed, his footsteps halting on a roof that overlooked a small yard.

In the yard was a boy, perhaps a year older than himself, flowing gracefully from one position to another. Gaara knew he was practicing martial arts, slowed down to the point that it became a form of meditation, a way to calm and center oneself. But in the moonlight, it seemed as if the boy were dancing, his long, dark hair highlighted with silver, and his light skin glowing.

“You know trying to hide from a Hyuuga is useless.” The boy continued his dance, not in his direction.

Gaara leapt lightly to the ground, and the boy turned to face him for the first time. Finally Gaara recognized him. “…Neji.”

Neji inclined his head. “Gaara.”

This close up, he could see that Neji wasn’t wearing his headband, revealing the dark mark on the otherwise flawless face. His pale, sea green eyes flitted over the seal, studying the cage represented there. But it was Neji’s eyes, bright like the moon, that drew him, calmed him.

“Why are you here?”

Gaara said expressionlessly, “I was looking for something.”

Neji’s eyebrows rose. “What---”

A loud cry rose from just beyond the clearing, breaking the stillness. Two familiar scents crossed the air – the smells of excitement and battle – and the demon within him suddenly flared awake, demanding he find out what was going on, join in the hunt. Distantly, through the red coloring his vision, he heard Neji curse.

He hesitated at the simple paper door separating him from the room beyond, because now other scents were assaulting him, and they were no longer so easy to identify. Whatever they were, the demon like it nearly as much as blood and death.

Neji walked up next to him, his posture tense, ready to react.

“They… are not fighting.”

“No, they’re not.”

The paper screen was open just the barest crack, showing a hint of the room inside. Gaara caught a glimpse of bare skin on skin, of hands traveling over a curved hip, of lips pressed to a muscled torso. And the people were moaning in a way that had nothing to do with pain.

“What are they doing?”

Neji stared at him for several seconds. “No one has ever explained?”

Gaara crossed his arms. “No.”

Neji’s colorless eyes search Gaara’s face. He recognized confusion, anger, loneliness. “They’re…” Neji paused, looking for the right word. “They’re making love.”

“That is how one makes love?”

Neji nodded. “Yes.”

Gaara was silent, staring through the crack at the couple on the bed, their nude bodies touching and feeling in places a stranger should not be watching. Neji would have pulled him away if he saw any hint of disgust or pleasure in Gaara’s gaze, but it was merely curious, observing.

After several moments, Neji stepped forward and soundlessly slid the door shut the last bit.

Gaara was looking at him now, eyes intent. It was similar to the look he’d worn before, when they’d heard the couple’s noisy lovemaking, but different, too… the intensity didn’t hold the edge of bloodlust he’d seen burning so brightly. Still, he saw another intelligence there, goading Gaara on…

Then Gaara’s hand was on the back of his head, and their lips were touching in an awkward, inexperienced kiss. For one second, Neji was able to feel Gaara’s surprisingly soft, warm lips on his own, before the boy just as quickly pulled back again, frowning.

“…How does this make love?”

Neji took a moment to breath deeply, pushing back his own confusion for the moment to answer Gaara’s. “What do you mean?”

“…You said this is how people make love,” Gaara reiterated. “How…do you… create love from this?”

Finally it clicked. Gaara had taken the phrase “making love” literally, and thought that love was produced through the act of sex, through the act of “making love.”

“…When I said they were making love, I meant they were having sex,” he said. He waved at the room just beyond the paper door. “That is how they express their love for each other.”

Gaara walked slowly to the middle of the clearing, while Neji followed. He didn’t say anything, but Neji thought the other boy finally understood.

There was something defeated in Gaara’s posture which hadn’t been there before, as if he’d found the answer to a long-time puzzle, but the answer wasn’t what he’d wanted. The kanji on Gaara’s forehead stood out when he tilted his face to the moon …Love.

It was a symbol of imprisonment, just like his. Unconsciously, Neji reached up and brushed his own forehead.

Neji acted on instinct, not letting himself think about what he was doing. All he knew was that he could ease the loneliness he saw in both their eyes.

He tilted Gaara’s face up and kissed him. It was better this time, not as awkward, although still very inexperienced on both their parts. But as Gaara responded and their lips moved together, something warm unfurled in his belly…

…And he wondered if Gaara hadn’t understand from the beginning the true definition of “making love” after all.

*********

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

This story was the second of a series of challenges between ChiByakko and myself, due to the fact that we kept on creating epic-length plots we had no intention of writing. For this challenge we set down these rules:

1) Fic must be 1000 words, give or take 50 words (so it didn't become an epic)
2) No missions or training (because both are overused and missions tend to become too long)
3) Pairing must be Gaara/Neji
4) A maximum of two other characters (besides Gaara & Neji) allowed, and only to facilitate plot.
5) Must include the random word "nude."  ...amazingly, it really was randomly chosen.

This story was my response. ^_^  I gave her the pairing of Neji/Kiba, and the random word "oracle."