Adopted: Book 1 Refracted Sand [REWRITING]

Adopted Ch. 6 A Promise Made to be Broken

Temari flipped over on her bed and slammed her hand on the blaring alarm placed on the bedside table. She slowly picked herself up and just sat in the middle of her bed for a second. Still half asleep, she slipped on her slippers and dragged her feet over to the door. After she closed the door behind her and entered the bathroom, she noticed with sleepy eyes that Suzume was already brushing her teeth.

It was like a tornado had blown through Suzume's head overnight. The first time Temari had witnessed her little sister's bedhead, she'd actually been impressed how she could do that to her hair; some strands were even defying gravity.

The pair examined each other with the same bleary eyes and nodded a 'good morning.' They stood in front of the sink, sleepily brushing their teeth together.

At the breakfast table, Temari was now entirely awake and eating her cereal as the boys made their own breakfast. Suzume, on the other hand, was sitting in her chair, her hair still a bird's nest, and her cardigan slipping off her shoulder on one side, and in the middle of the world of the living and the world of the sleeping. Hisoka had pounced onto her lap and sat staring up at her owner in what seemed like exasperation.

Kankuro sat down across from Suzume and Gaara sat next to her, both staring at her disheveled appearance. Kankuro took out a camera from nowhere and snapped a picture of the brown haired girl. Temari went to the kitchen to place her empty bowl in the sink while Gaara flattened out Suzume's hair. The blond came back and placed a new bowl of cereal in front of her sister while Kankuro fixed the little brunette's cardigan.

Temari and Kankuro sat down in their places once again, the blond lowering a mug of coffee onto the table in front of her.

"Good morning, Suzume," they all greeted simultaneously.

Suzume lurched out of her daze and she snapped her head around wildly. When she gathered where she was, she looked at each of the shinobi with wide eyes.

"G-good morning!" she said, flustered. She hesitated. "...gomenasai..."

There was a silence before Temari and Kankuro burst out laughing and Gaara was covering his smiling mouth underneath his hand, his shoulders shaking as he held back his laughter. Suzume's cheeks turned bright red as she lowered her head in embarrassment, the cat patting her face with a paw, trying to be reassuring.

That was how the morning started off.

Gaara had been the only one who had work that day and Suzume was vacuuming the entire house. Kankuro was finishing some reports in his room and Temari was out buying groceries.

Suzume struggled with the large cleaning device, climbing the stairs up to the fourth story with strenuous breaths. Once she got to the top, she heaved a relieved sigh and started up the cordless vacuum. After the hallway and the other five rooms, she opened the door to Gaara's room and entered.

She looked around in interest at her brother's room. It was an orderly room, almost like nobody was living in it. The window was open, letting in the warm desert breeze that made the white curtain flutter. The bed looked cold and unslept in, the desk had papers stacked in neat piles, and books and folders were stored in the single towering bookshelf that had been shoved to the side. Then, living in this almost dead room, were pots of cacti. A squirt bottle was next to the row of plants and they were a bit cramped on top of Gaara's windowsill. Suzume turned off the vacuum and went to close the window to keep even more grains of sand from making their entrance into the house.

Suzume heard a footstep and rotated around to see Gaara in the doorway.

"Hello, Suzume," he said as he went over to his desk. "I just came to get something I forgot."