Family Love Makes Me So So Emotional Asdfghjkl - Tumblr Posts
I like to think that, roughly a year into the early timeskip, while the sandsiblings are still trying to learn how to be people-much-less-siblings with each other, Kankuro just.....Starts telling his siblings he loves them. Maybe it slips out on accident the first time- Gaara cooks his first really good meal and Kankuro is so in awe that he's like 'I LOVE you holy shit this tastes GREAT' and Gaara freezes, and then so do Kankuro and Temari cause they're still conditioned to panic when he freezes like that but they're trying not to, and it's a very tense like 10 seconds before they notice that Gaara's face is. Rapidly turning the same color as his hair. And it's just so cute and they carefully tease him about it for the rest of the dinner cause he's so cute, and he's 14, and they love him. they do. they love him.
But temari is still temari, so she doesn't make a habit of just saying it. Kankuro, who is still Kankuro, does make a habit of saying it, because Gaara blushes every time, and it's just. a warm little reminder that Gaara is allowed to be his little brother, now. And, of course, hell breaks loose in Suna when Kankuro realizes that Temari will also start blushing- though she doesn't go silent, she starts sputtering and calls him stupid and leaves. But. It's a instant argument winner for a solid few weeks while she gets used to it, and he abuses the hell out of that. Even when she stops blushing and storming off, it still makes her stop mid argument, and usually prompts her deescalating the argument (read: letting him win), because she has trouble saying it back but that's okay cause he knows that's how she shows it.
It's all fun and games until, about 4 months into Kankuro's new favorite game (fluster siblings by being the only one who can blatently express and display affection), Gaara strikes back. Kankuro waves him off as he goes to work with a teasing-but-genuine 'Love you bro! have a great day!', like he has for weeks now, expecting Gaara to go red and hurry off without further comment, like he has for weeks now when instead.....Gaara turns around, looks him dead in the eyes and- face beat red, of course- very sincerely says 'I love you too.' And, see, now the game isn't fun anymore, becauses Kankuro isn't winning. Gaara leaves, and Kankuro sits there, staring blankly at the door and trying to work through the MANY emotions that response prompted, for like. an hour. He got beat at his own game and when Temari stumbles across him and asks what happened only for him to blush so hard she can see through his fucking face paint? She's going to laugh so hard she breaks a rib.