Thoughts on Gaara crushing hard/ being incredibly down bad for Lee?
Ah, ok, I see you've activated my trap card.
I could write pages and pages about this concept (and have done), but just a couple of thoughts:
Gaara spying through Lee's window using the 3rd eye jutsu. At first thinking he's just looking for his friend, then telling himself that even if he knows where Lee is he still needs to make sure he's all right, then finally just sort of watching him go about his business. (He has no compunction about disclosing he's done this and doesn't see it as strange at all ... until stage 3 when he realizes feelings are getting in the way).
Avidly researching international law regarding Kage marrying citizens of other villages so he can come to the Council and lay the smack on them with precedent from other Hidden Villages like "This is the way of the future and peace" ... before he so much as asks Lee on a date.
Memorizing every little fact about himself that Lee drops in conversation and hoarding it like a myna bird. To the point that they go to the same restaurant in Suna like 2 years apart and Lee's like "Hmm ... what was it I had here that I liked before?" and Gaara recites his order with exacting precision right down to the beverage and requested spice level (maximum).
Gaara collecting little trinkets memorializing the time they've spent together and lining them up in the window of his bedroom. Carrying them back to Suna in a hidden pocket on the inside of his gourd harness that lies right over his heart. Feeling bizarrely melancholy when, e.g., a blade of grass that he plucked from the field he and Lee were stargazing in starts to wither and brown. Then ordering some of the same genus from Konoha (Ino is like "You want GRASS? Really? Just normal-ass field grass??" "Yes. I'll pay double in shipping." "Ohhh-kay! No further questions, I guess.")
Unconsciously mimicking the things Temari does with Shikamaru or Kankuro does with his crush-of-the-week but not fully understanding why they're gestures of affection. After their 3rd time cloudwatching Lee has to confess that he really hates lying still unless he's had a good workout first and Gaara feels both disappointed and embarrassed (a new emotion for him). And then blushes when a type of workout he hadn't considered springs to mind.
I've written a lot about them being penpals so I won't belabor the point but Gaara slowly letting slip more and deeper emotions into his letters until he's starting to worry he's said too much, but it's too late, the hawk's already flying away.
Staring at Lee doing literally anything, just, so intently. Everyone notices. Except Lee, of course.
Arranging mission schedules so that he's always in the village when Lee comes by. Requesting him for deployment to Suna under the slightest pretense. And of course requesting Team Gai for guard duty whenever he visits Konoha.
Learning taijutsu and actually practicing it so he has a chance to show it off to Lee when they get the chance to spar ... (you construct intricate rituals to touch the skin of other men etc, etc)
That's ... probably more than you asked for, lol.
