The admittance had Luke blinking, a hint of color appearing on his cheeks, soon after. While the replica had other people he cared about, there were certain...reasons he considered Gaara to be someone he felt closer to. Smiling with an air of gratitude within it, the look on his face quickly turned sheepish. Reaching to scratch at the back of his head, he started to saying something, only to wind up tensing his brow, "Waste my time with what?"

It wasn't until after he felt the hug get returned that he let the smile return. There was no need to rationalize the hug, in spite of Gaara's efforts to do so -- if asked, he would make it pretty clear he'd simply done it...because he'd wanted to. After about a minute, he pulled away. His hands lingered in their soft grip on the ninja's upper arms. Green eyes shifted across the other teen's face, a moment.

Suddenly, there was an awkward feeling. Looking to the side, he released the other redhead. With that, he gave a sort of awkward smile and attempted to distract from the fact that he was blushing, "So, uh...When do you think would be a good time to start training, together, again?"