He couldn't escape, every direction he turned was a new dead end, the sky was blood red, and moonless, he was running out of time, a tightness taking hold of his chest, and squeezing to kill. He rubbed at the area, and looked to his left, finding an empty area of desert land, to his right was dead ground packed so tight with abandoned, and rotting buildings that there was no room to move between. Behind him was a cliff he didn't dare look over, but he saw ice climbing down, and spreading to his feet like invasive vines; turning back around, ahead of him was a grave with a tombstone containing the names of himself, and the family he's grown attached to. Each plot of dirt was tossed, and turned differently, according to the way the person died. Yashamaru's caught his eye, the dirt was thrown carelessly over the hole like nobody took the time to cover it. Temari's grave had the dirt even, and level with the ground, Kankuro's didn't have dirt over it, he could see the deep purple coffin in it. Gaara's was dug up, and the coffin was set beside the grave, it was open, and Xavyn found his feet carrying him to his love's corpse.

Gaara's face had been slashed down the left side of his nose, and cheek, he was holding something in his hand. Xavyn saw a glimmer of gold, and reached into his own shirt, pulling out the locket that went to the key his partner held. The key sparkled underneath Gaara's hands, and Xavyn fell to his knees, holding the soft, and gentle hands he knew well. "Why am I alive? Why am I not with you?" He snuck a peek at his own grave, and not surprisingly, found it empty. Above him, the sky rumbled, turned black, and unleashed a downpour that began to wash away the dirt of the graves, taking his family along with it. He jerked up, waking himself up from the nightmare, and immediately searched for Gaara. "I'm here, Xavyn." A familiar hand grasped his, and squeezed, he let himself be pulled against the other body in the bed. "You're cold, are you alright?" He asked, rolling to face Gaara. "Yes, I'm fine. What happened in your dream? You were mumbling." Xavyn sighed softly, and kissed Gaara's shoulder. "I was standing above your grave, and Kankuro's, and Temari's, and Yashamaru's, and...and mine was empty. I was the only one alive."

Gaara didn't want to imagine what that must have felt like, but his boyfriend was clearly trying to keep his fearful noises to a minimum, and he offered the plush unicorn. Xavyn hadn't realized he let go of it in his sleep, and nodded, the toy was gently placed in his waiting hands. He cradled it to his chest, and wiggled his way up against Gaara, throwing his leg over his partner, and smushing the toy between them, his arm around Gaara's neck. "I don't know if your dreams have a specific meaning, but I'm nowhere near prepared to die. Especially now when you need me most." Xavyn continued kissing along the collarbone, and chest, Gaara's hand in his hair kept him pressed close. "Are the others ok?" "Others? Temari, and Kankuro are fine. Do you want to check on them?" "Yes please." Gaara slowly sat up, and got off the bed, holding his hand out for Xavyn to grab, and stand on his own. He walked his partner to the other bedroom where Temari lay curled up on her bed, fan layed on the floor beside the bed, her chest rising, and falling slowly.

Xavyn let out a quiet sigh of relief, and was taken to the living room where Kankuro normally slept, but he wasn't on the couch. They heard a clatter from the kitchen, and Kankuro was noisily eating something he dug out of the fridge. Xavyn nearly passed out, and his grip on Gaara's hand tightened. "There, you see? They're alright." "Hm? What's up guys?" Kankuro asked between bites of food, noticing the tight grip his friend had on his brother, and the plushie. "D'ya have a nightmare?" Xavyn nodded, Kankuro held his arm out, and the youngest dove at him, snuggling at him in a desperate attempt to ease his mind. "It's alright, brat. It's just a dream." Kankuro rubbed Xavyn's back, and allowed himself to be used as a pillow. He took the youngest to the couch, sat down, and got comfy on it so he could pull Xavyn on him, and eat at the same time. While he'd never admit it out loud, Xavyn loved to sleep against the oldest brother, it made him fall asleep faster than with Gaara. He loved his partner, and didn't want him to see sleeping with Kankuro as a form of rejection.

Xavyn crawled on the lap of the Puppeteer, and leaned against him, falling asleep against his shoulder in minutes. Kankuro chuckled, and Gaara sat beside them, running his hand through Xavyn's hair. "He's been having more nightmares lightly, I'm not sure what to do anymore." "Probably just stressed out. Why don't we all explore or train tomorrow? Like we did when we were kids."  "Maybe we should." The siblings did just that the next day, they all created a clone that attacked each other while the real ones attacked each other as well. Xavyn worked on Taijutsu despite his family saying it would be ok to use his own jutsus. He couldn't help but think back on all of his training, and hard work up until that point, and he realized what had been missing from before. Once he found it out, he felt invincible, and used Blood Puppet Jutsu on the eldest two, making them burn through their chakra. He created a clone to attack Gaara while he danced around, and toyed with the others. "Mind if I cut in?" Baki's voice came from behind Xavyn, and he turned, only to be met with a kunai against his throat; he froze.

"You can't always expect your teacher to play nice." Baki slowly, and carefully dragged the tip of the knife across Xavyn's throat, and watched his pulse flutter, and thrum harshly under his skin, Xavyn struggled not to get aroused from it. "Blood Solidify Jutsu." Xavyn gathered chakra in his hand, and went to reach for his teacher's leg, but he was caught, and spun to the ground, landing on his tailbone. He whined, and rubbed at the sore spot, Kankuro helping him up. "What the heck is Blood Solidify jutsu? Are you still making new blood jutsus? Xavyn that is incredibly dangerous, you're gonna push yourself too hard." "I don't need to use too much of my own blood anymore, I figured out a way around it. Almost." That caught the teacher's attention, and the clones poofed away. "Tell me what all of your jutsus do." Xavyn sighed, and wrapped his arm around Kankuro's shoulders. "Well there was the first one I made that allowed me to use my chakra to manipulate the blood of something else. The next one was bloody rose which makes a person's blood flow to their heart until it explodes, blood puppet will allow me to control a person's entire body as long as I'm relatively close to them, and the soldifying one will allow me to freeze the blood where it is."

Kankuro couldn't help but step away from his friend, the jutsus being too weird, and psychotic for his tastes. Xavyn gave him a pleading look, and tried to hold onto Kankuro but the elder stepped out of his reach, Temari replacing him, and hugging Xavyn, pressing his head against her shoulder. He relaxed against her, and Baki said something about danger level, and consequences, but the youngest couldn't have been bothered to care, too wrapped up in his dream, and goals. Baki sparred with them until his students dropped. Xavyn got hit in the ribs, and grunted as he fell to the ground, hand on the injury, and tears in his eyes. "You ok?" Temari asked, having been the one to cause the injury. "Hurts...ouch...oh fuck." He had trouble getting up, and had to lean on the oldest sibling. "Let's get you to the hospital alright?" Baki made his students ramen while he waited for Xavyn, and Temari to return. Temari had broken two of Xavyn's ribs, and the news had him biting his lip until it bled.

"I'm sorry, Xav. I didn't think I went so hard on you." "It's ok, I'd rather get hurt by my family than my enemy in a battle." They made it back home, and Xavyn immediately climbed onto Gaara's lap, and leaned against him as much as he could. Gaara wrapped his right arm around Xavyn's middle, avoiding his left ribs at all cost. Xavyn breathed out slowly, and held his partner's hands. "What's the damage?" Kankuro asked. "Two broken ribs. He'll live." Gaara pressed gentle kisses between Xavyn's shoulder blades, and nuzzled at him. "Xavyn that means no training while it's healing. Absolutely none, I'm more than willing to tie you down for a month if I have to." Already, Xavyn was squirming out of discomfort at the thought of not training yet again, but he knew better than to argue. The only issue he was going to have was boredom, which would lead to him self harming. "I'll keep you distracted." Gaara murmured against the cloth. Xavyn didn't feel like eating, but a stern look from his teacher told him to at least have a bite. He ate a few bites, and found himself hungry enough to finish it.

He looked at the frog in Gaara's lap, wanting to reach out, and touch it, play with it, hold it even, but he refrained. Gaara gave him a sideways glance, holding the toy out to him. Xavyn gently took it, kissed the mouth of the toy, and pressed the mouth to Gaara's lips in an indirect kiss. Gaara chuckled, and moved the toy only to kiss Xavyn's hand. Xavyn giggled, and moved his other hand to cup Gaara's cheek, the elder asking him why he got a frog. "I guess...I j-just wanted you to r-remember something good about our p-past." Gaara smiled, and turned, kissing the hand, and wrist against his face, which made Xavyn blush a bright rosey pink. "The frog is cute, but you're cuter. You are the best thing that came out of my childhood." The younger couldn't hide his wide smile, and leaned in to nuzzle at his partner's neck. "You think I'm cute huh? Well I'll just have to see what I can do about that." He nipped at Gaara's neck, and got a quiet moan in response, their hands finding each other, and locking together.

"G-Gaara...when I'm with you, it feels full. In my heart. It's warm, and fuzzy, and it...it feels nice. N-not the empty, and angry f-feeling I had before." The elder moved the toy aside, and pulled the younger onto his lap to kiss him. "I understand how you feel, I feel the same way when I am with you. When we were alone...it was cold inside, like an empty freezer, but when I'm here with you, it's like...it's what I imagine sitting on a beach, and watching the sunset would feel like." Xavyn made a sound that meant he was pleased, and rubbed the tears out of his eyes. "Aw you're such a sap, little bro." Kankuro's voice came from the doorway, and Xavyn leaned down to kiss Gaara, then lay on him like a blanket. "Yeah he is." Gaara blushed at the way he was being talked about, and hid his face in Xavyn's shirt. "Come on, Baki wants to talk about the Chunin Exams." That got Xavyn's attention, and he sat straight up to turn, and look at the middle child. "What's...the Chunin Exams, and why do I feel like it's something bad?"

That was the day he learned what his village considered to be Gaara's true, and only purpose in life. It made him sick to his stomach, and he thought he would throw up. Gaara rubbed his back when it eventually did come up, and felt a pain tug at his heart from watching his boyfriend's emotions manifest into vomit. These days, he swallowed his feelings, and threw up away from anyone near him. He tried to find comfort in the older siblings, sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, and he would even go to sleep with one of them. Temari spooned him in her sleep, and it was more comforting than he imagined it to be, Kankuro held him like a stuffed animal, and Gaara pulled Xavyn so his head was on Gaara's chest, and the elder played with his hair. He didn't know which one eased his mind the most, but he appreciated the efforts his family put in to help him stay calm. He was currently watching Kankuro work on one of his puppets, noting he'd made a new one, and got to see the elder without any face paint. He couldn't stop himself from reaching forward, and running his hand through Kankuro's hair, pushing it back from his face. "You look really pretty without the paint. You look scary with it, but you look really pretty without it." He didn't miss the blush that crept up on the Puppeteer's cheeks.