Gaara frowned and tilted his head a little. He was legitimately confused. “Didn’t say no? With regards to…?”

Luke, you’re going to have to be blunt. Just ask Gaara if he’s ever screwed around.

He didn’t, and yet… It didn’t feel right, withholding this kind of information from Luke. Especially after he had essentially given the ninja an out, an excuse not to reveal anything else. Maybe just a little more, as long as he was able to pull up those sensitive facts. How could Luke make such a bold declaration, though… claiming something like that… He had to be exaggerating.

“I wasn’t coerced into escalating that bond,” Gaara reflected quietly, gaze focused on a random aspect, some distance off. “It was one-sided, from the beginning. I accepted the proposal, even knowing those terms. Perhaps I was… careless.”

Or just that desperate for acceptance. Hadn’t he struggled to change and mold himself into someone that his village would like, just so everyone would stop hating him? And then, he formed an emotional attachment to Sai, and allowed emotions to overrule his sense of logic. In spite of warnings from his siblings, and their expressed worries on how they believed Sai would hurt him, emotionally. How pathetic. He really did deserve what happened, in the end.

This topic was making him grow increasingly uncomfortable, as the minutes ticked by. In spite of the warm temperature, Gaara was beginning to feel cold, within his body. Abruptly, he rose to his feet and made a gesture for his Moogle to come join him.

She pouted at having to leave already, but made sure to give Ion a proper hug, before flitting over to her Hero’s side. They would see each other again really soon, right?

“You should sleep, Luke,” Gaara suggested in a soft tone, “New challenges await us, in this world.”