Adopted: Book 1 Refracted Sand [REWRITING]

Adopted Ch. 39 Behind Closed Doors

Suzume woke up to see Gaara reading a book beside her. He looked over at her, noticed she was awake, and closed the book. "Suzume."

"Gaara-sama..." She realized there was a strain on her hand and lifted it to see it in a death grip on Gaara's. She swiftly let go. "I'm sorry! Did it hurt? Does it still hurt?"

"No. It numbed over an hour ago."

Suzume panicked and seized his hand to massage the feeling back into it. After she calmed down, Suzume saw the cast around her leg.

"The doctors said it was a small fracture and they'd healed most of it and your external wounds. The cast is only for precaution," Gaara told her.

Suzume nodded and her lips pursed. "Konata baa-sama...?"

"She's fine. Her head injury was minor but they're worried about how much smoke she took into her lungs."

Suzume inhaled deeply then exhaled slowly.

"They said we can discharge you once you wake up. I'll wait downstairs while you visit Konata-san in room 405."

Suzume looked up at him in surprise as he gathered up his things. "I thought you'd want to see her before we left," he answered her unasked question.

He was at the door before she knew it. "Your crutches are over there." He gestured to the said crutches leaning against the wall armslength from her.

"Thank you, Gaara-nii," Suzume said.

Gaara was facing away from her so she couldn't see what expression he was wearing, "I'll be waiting downstairs."

Konata was sleeping when Suzume arrived. The girl hopped over to the side of the bed.

The woman was old, but age didn't disturb her peace. Her skin sagged and her hair grayed and that was fine, because she could sleep peacefully. Suzume was almost taller than the old woman now when a year ago she was able to be smothered in the folds of Konata's clothes and feel how small she was.

Now Konata was small under the cover of blankets.

Konata's chakra... Suzume couldn't feel it then but when she first woke up to find herself open to the world, Konata's chakra was small. It was a small, Suzume thought, that knew it was big.

It was young.

Suzume changed the water out of the vase of flowers by the bedside and then slipped back out of the room.

She didn't feel anything wrong with her foot so she took the cast off and placed it neatly, along with the crutches, near the receptionist area.

She met up with Gaara in the lobby and, after signing her out of the hospital, they went home.

"That wasn't an ordinary house fire, Gaara-sama," Suzume said as they walked along the path. "Somebody started it."

A coldness possessed Suzume's tone and gaze and an uncomfortable weight twisted in Gaara's chest.

"Why do you think so?" he asked simply.

Suzume was too wrapped up in her thoughts to answer him and Gaara didn't pursue the topic further. He convinced himself that Suzume would cool down once she was given more time and this bad premonition he was feeling wasn't worth acknowledging.

Later on, Gaara would wish he'd said something more.

_ _ _

Suzume burst past a double team and smoothly tossed the basketball into the hoop. The blow of a whistle called the end of the game with a result of 75-5 and curses from the losing team replaced the usual cheering.