Chapter Text
The lock clicked, and Temari entered the apartment. She threw her keys on the counter next to the door and dropped a shopping bag.
“Oh my god, have you really not moved since I left?” She exclaimed as she pulled her shoes off her feet.
“Mmm,” Kankurou said, without looking up from his game.
Her siblings were lying on the unfolded sofa in the living room, both completely engulfed in their phones. Kankurou lay on his stomach and Gaara used his brother’s back as a pillow.
“It was unnecessary,” Gaara said indifferently.
“Why am I surrounded by lazy boys?” Temari sighed, taking off her coat.
“Relax, Temari, weekends are meant for recreation,” Kankurou pointed out.
Suddenly, a message popped up on top of his screen, causing Kankurou to lose his game.
It was from Deidara.
- Where the hell are you?! -
For a second, Kankurou hid his face in the hard upholstery of the sofa and groaned.
- Home. - He typed back.
- Get your ass back here! -
- Don’t want to. -
Immediately, the phone began to vibrate from a stream of endless angry messages.
“Gah! Take it! I don’t want it!”
Kankurou threw the phone approximately in his brother’s direction. Gaara blinked as the buzzing black rectangle landed in the crook of his elbow. He took it in his hand and, pressing the small button on its side, turned it off.
“Better,” Kankurou sighed and laid his head on his crossed arms.
Temari chuckled. She co*cked her head to the side, pulling her earring out of her ear.
“I presume, your mean boyfriends are back in town?”
“Not my boyfriends.”
“Mmmhmm, they simply give keys to their apartment to just anyone.”
Kankurou opened one eye to look at her.
“It’s just a mutually beneficial arrangement, that’s all.”
“And are they aware of it?”
“It’s funnier if they aren’t.”
“Kankurou...” Temari breathed out with exasperation and put her hands on her hips. “You will ruin my political career one day by having your cold corpse pulled out of the river, and all I will be able to say is: he had it coming.”
“Wow! Heartless,” Kankurou turned his head to his brother. “If they kill me, you will avenge me, right, Gaara?”
“Yes,” his younger sibling said, without looking away from his phone. “But you can break up with them if you don’t like it.”
“Whoa, hey now, don’t be so hasty. Think of all the benefits.” He began to bend his fingers, counting. “I can use Sasori’s workshop whenever I want, all my materials are paid for and I don’t have any problems organizing an exhibition or finding clients.”
“And what do they get?” Temari asked, picking up her shopping bag from the floor. “Your charming personality?”
“They are using me to reach high places and lift heavy stuff. Same as you two, basically.”
“Oh, yes, and bites and hickeys all over your body are just a recurring accident,” Temari said, walking past her siblings into her room. She ruffled her brother’s hair on her way, managing to remove her hand before Kankurou slapped it away.
“That’s just a side effect of being handsome!” He shouted after her.
“Ha! Boyfriends~” she sing-songed, closing her door.
Kankurou sighed. He took his phone and turned it back on. If he would spend the night at Sasori’s, he could return back the next day to watch a movie with Gaara while Temari was on a date.
He scrolled down the wall of messages without reading and wrote back:
- Fine, fine. I’m coming. -
He threw the phone away, hid his face in his folded arms, and took a deep breath.
It wasn’t that he hated being in the company of both sculptorsthatmuch, but it dried him way too damn quickly. To deal with them on a regular basis he needed nerves made of titanium and fortified mental walls.
Kankurou looked at Gaara and moved his shoulder, attracting his brother’s attention.
“Come on, the pillow time is over, I need to get ready.”
“Mmm.”
After he paused the game, Gaara slowly moved from his brother’s back to the armrest of the sofa.
Kankurou hopped on the floor and walked into the bathroom, taking off his hoodie as he went. He rummaged through the cabinets until he found his outliner and paint. He was finishing mapping out the pattern on his chest and stomach when Temari walked out of her room.
“What do you say, boys?”
Kankurou poked his head out of the door to get a better view and Gaara looked up from his phone. Their sister was wearing a new evening dress that exposed her legs and chest. It looked stunning on her... if you forget striped socks on her feet instead of heels.
“It’s good,” Gaara said.
“Is this for tomorrow? Damn, I hope you two will go straight to a motel because otherwise your date will have to hide a boner the whole time.”
Temari chuckled and Kankurou returned to the mirror.
“Good. That’s exactly what I’m hoping for. We are moving way too damn slow.”
“Then it’s perfect.” Kankurou’s voice came a little strained because he had to crane his neck to put a streak of paint under his chin. “Don’t forget to glitter your boobs.”
“Yeah, yeah, I will raid your stock later,” she said waving her hand.
Kankurou took a bigger brush and returned to his work.
He wished his own thing slowed down. Sasori and Deidara demanded too much of him, he just wanted to have sex and talk about art once in a while.They, on the other hand, wanted to put him on a leash to be their little lapdog.
He was painting over the scars under his chest when he decided to look in the mirror and almost dropped the brush when he saw Gaara standing right behind him in the doorway.
“Jeez, Gaara, don’t spook me when I’m putting my stuff on. If I mess up, this sh*t is a hell to wash off.”
He rattled the brush in a jar with a special solution, clearing it of excess paint before washing it under water.
“Kankurou.”
“Mm?”
“Are you going to move in with them?”
Kankurou snorted.
“What for? I already have a sharp-tongue blond and redhead creep at home. All my needs are met.”
Gaara still looked... well, either skeptical or worried, it was hard to tell. Bothered, in any way.
Kankurou turned around to look at his brother directly.
“Don’t worry, I’m too prideful to be their pet.”
“They are going to insist.” His brother was still frowning.
Kankurou fanned himself with his hand, trying to somehow speed up the drying of the paint.
“Pff, let them try.”
