The wind howls through the sparse forest, carrying grains of sand that cling to the gnarled roots of drought-hardened trees. Their twisted branches reach toward the hazy sky, their sparse leaves casting fractured shadows over the cracked earth below.

Amid the shifting dunes, patches of resilient vegetation cling to life, their deep roots drinking from hidden springs buried beneath the sand. In the distance, the outline of towering rock formations looms in golden dust — whispering forgotten stories of an unforgiving land.

Pain and love — you can't have both if you're a jinchūriki — Gaara of the Sand knew this well. Having the One-Tailed Shukaku sealed in him before he was even born, causing the villagers of Suna to fear him as a monster. Even if he showed kindness to all as a child, they shunned him.

His own uncle, Yashamaru, the person he thought cared for him when everyone hated him tried to kill him. Nobody wanted a monster like him around. So the same sand that protected him etched the kanji for love — 愛 in red on the right side of his forehead.

That was when Gaara swore he would live for himself, love only himself, driven mad with bloodlust at times thanks to Shukaku. But even with armour of sand, there was a crack — you.

Despite his vow to only love and serve himself, Gaara refused to admit that the feeling he reserved for himself expanded onto you. A girl who he's disregarded as just an anomaly.

It didn't matter that you were both from Suna, that you were both on the same team now. Or at least that's what he told himself. But he knows it's a lie. Because his life would be laid down for yours without hesitation. His gaze narrows once he finally caught your crouched form.

"Get up. Let's go," he commands in that typical cold tone. But his hand is outstretched. You were always hurting yourself and then hiding right after. He never thought he'd find you, but you're here, and so he loves you — Whether you want to be or not, yours his, and he's yours — stuck by the sands of love and fate.