Written for one of the extra prompts of NejiHina Week: Sleep/Dream

Braid neatly redone, Neji tied it off efficiently - he found it irritating, but the braid was far better to deal with when in ANBU gear than leaving his hair loose - and glanced at Dove. He nodded acknowledgement before leaping up to take watch, and Neji sighed, settling himself to sleep, or at least make an attempt.

It was long in coming, though Neji trusted in his partner to keep them both safe. They had been pushed hard over the past few days, and he was still keyed up from their mission - would be, likely, until they returned to Konoha. Possibly for a while after.

When he did eventually fall asleep, it was to a strange, twisting blackness. He frowned, or thought he did, reaching out into it, not that he could really tell.

If his soulmate were asleep before him, he should fall into their shared dream . . . if she were yet awake, one of his own would form until she joined him or stay if she were not to sleep while he did. This nothingness was odd and unfamiliar. Neji shifted uneasily, trying to remember anything like this ever happening before, but all he could find in his memories were so many shades of their shared dreamscape.

Neji smiled as a lush garden with paths of white tile or perhaps thick grass - it wasn't certain, they were constantly shifting - formed around him.

"Neji-nii-san!"

Neji's smile widened and he crouched a bit as Hinata wobbled towards him on her tiny unsteady feet, wrapping her in a tight hug when she made it to him. She clung to his shirt and snuggled into him.

"Hello, Hinata." he greeted, forgoing the honorific he always used in the waking world.

Hinata was beaming when she drew back, and Neji giggled, gently tugging a lock of her hair. "Play with me, Neji?" she asked, bolder than she ever was around their parents - her parents - and Neji let himself be dragged off amongst the flowers she so loved . . . which were suddenly many times taller than the two of them, though still bright and cheerful.

"N- Neji-nii-san?"

Neji whimpered, unable to stifle himself, and curled up a little tighter. Most hurts disappeared when he dreamt, and he had hoped this one would be the same, but it cut so deeply into him that it was a part of him even here. He sniffled.

A small hand brushed his shoulder, more tentatively than his father's touch earlier, the gentle attempt at offering comfort. It hadn't worked. Nothing had.

Neji sniffed and tried to quiet himself.

The touch moved to his brow and Neji sobbed, though being touched there didn't actually make it hurt any more than he already did. Hinata didn't draw away, either somehow knowing this or just pushing past the thought that she might cause him pain.

"Oh, Neji. . ." Hinata all but collapsed across his side, curling close. "Sorry. Sorry. . ."

Neji opened his eyes to look at her, his lashes wet with tears. Hinata was crying too, pressed so tightly against him it was like she was trying to take away the ripping ache that had become part of him, spreading from his brow outwards.

"Not you." Neji said with a sniff, shifting to wrap an arm around her in return, the path under them suddenly softening until it felt like his father's futon.

"Is me." Hinata keened. "If I wasn't. . ." Her eyes welled with yet more tears. "How could Daddy. . . Because of my birthday. . ." She sobbed, though she was obviously trying to quiet herself.

Neji hugged her, holding on tight, and gingerly let their heads rest together. If nothing else, being so close to Hinata made his heart ease.

"Hinata?" Neji hummed to himself as he pulled aside the huge stands of sunflowers to slip between their sturdy, flexible stalks. Hinata loved to play among them, and sometimes to make him search her out or see if she could surprise him by leaping out from between the tall, leafy plants.

Neji almost always saw - and felt - her coming, but sometimes he pretended not to, turning his attention towards her only in time to catch her bright, laughing smile as she pounced on him in something that was more an effusive hug than an attack.

There was a flicker of movement between the sunflower stalks to his left, and Neji bowed his head a little. "Hinata. . ." he called again, and laughed as she suddenly erupted out of the leaves, spinning to catch her as she leapt, both of them toppling to the ground which was suddenly soft as pillows beneath them.

Hinata giggled against his shoulder. Neji hugged her tight as she shifted so she wasn't lying directly on him, taking comfort in her soft, warm presence.

Something he wished he had more of in the waking world - her, or. . .

Neji bowed his head, hiding his expression as it twisted with upset. Neji was too old to think wishes would change his world, though, and nothing would bring back his father.

His father who had died because of the hard man who wore the same face, yet . . . was so different. Had died because of being part of the Branch House. Had died because of the caged bird seal.

Neji bit back cries and smiled as Hinata wriggled in his arms and tickled him playfully, giving him a sweet, hopeful smile. For now at least, Neji was not alone, and Hinata was happy and kind and cared for him.

Surely he could at least take comfort in that?

"Neji?

Neji folded himself even tighter, sliding back in the rocky crevice that had formed at the edge of the garden when he wanted it, asked for it, even without words. There had never even been an end or edge to the garden before, nothing but their waking bringing them out of it around them.

But now. . .

Neji could not face Hinata, did not want to face Hinata.

Hinata who was the other half of his soul, who shared his heart, who had been there at his side and in his mind ever since she was born and their dreams twined their souls together.

Hinata who was the daughter of the man who had been the death of Neji's father.

Hinata who was Main House and thus above Neji in every way.

Hinata who was shy and quavering as a mouse in the waking world, delicate and retiring.

Neji- He couldn't.

Hinata called his name, searching for him, but Neji never moved from his spot, and Hinata never found him. Neji wondered if it was because the dreamscape knew he wished she would not, or because she did not truly wish to, or because they somehow did not-

Neji's already bleeding heart ached at the thought that there might be something wrong with their bond, that they might not have been meant to share this.

But he did not come out from his hidden place until the dreamscape faded and he woke.

Neji swallowed almost nervously as the dreamscape built around him, green and bright and . . . not quite so rich as it had once been. Long ago, when he - when they - were young.

This time, for the first time in many years, Neji did not struggle to break away, to hide in the fragmented pieces that made up the very fringes of the dreamscape, or simply wake himself.

He walked across the garden with its soft, bright paths, into the sunflowers.

The flowers still towered many times his own height, though he was much taller than he had been when they first grew here in the dreamscape. Neji's lips curled a bit at one corner, but he proceeded through with confident steps - this place was familiar, would never be otherwise, no matter how Neji might have struggled to turn aside from it or for how long.

A pang wrenched his heart. Neji should not have turned aside so fiercely, if not in the waking world at least here. Here where it was safe, here where it was theirs alone, here where they had known each other and grown together and. . .

Hinata was sitting in a shaded clearing, tiny and round, a few of the sunflowers walling off the small space bowing low on weak stalks as though sickly. Her back was to Neji as he pushed through the plants.

"Hi- Hinata." Neji hesitated only for an instant over dropping the honorific - though Hinata had at times, he had never used them here, not in this place, between him and her.

Not the honorific that existed to distance him from her in the waking world.

Hinata spun to face him, and her wide, bright eyes filled with tears. "Neji. . ."

"I-" Neji hesitated again, taking a slow step towards her, then another, faster, as she struggled to rise and meet him. "I am sorry," he said, as he could not voice when he tried to face her in the waking world, "what I did to you, to you," he didn't need to gesture to the dreamscape around them as it pulsed softly in recognition, "it was . . . unworthy."

"Neji." Hinata said again, sniffing.

"I will leave if you . . . if you wish it." Neji said, lifting his chin and straightening his back. "It was cowardly of me to-"

"No, please." Hinata said softly, reaching out one hand to him. The bandages she wore in the waking world were still with her here, and she looked weak and pained, though she did not bow to either. She was stronger than Neji had thought - stronger, as he should have remembered she was, because he knew her as no one else did. "This place belongs to us both, I have no right to wish you out of it."

"Hinata-"

"And I would not, had I the right." Hinata continued with a tiny smile, and gestured gently in welcome. She was composed and elegant and had lost none of the inner strength or softness Neji had known of her so long ago, as he shut her out . . . shut himself away from her. From the comfort and warmth and gentleness of her soul twined with his.

Neji all but collapsed to the grass before her, and marvelled as she reached out and brushed a hand over his hand, his shoulder, his face.

Neji jolted at a light touch to his shoulder, spinning and leaping to his feet at once.

Hinata smiled at him shyly, tipping her head so her hair fell halfway across her face, even as short as it was. Neji stared for a moment as she murmured an apology for startling him. Hinata had grown quieter still than she had ever been when they were young, and swift-footed. Neji had not been on watch but he had not been - never was - carelessly unaware of his surroundings, yet he had not had any idea of her presence before she was upon him.

"Hello." Neji said awkwardly, and half-bowed his head, torn between how he must respond when he met her in the waking world and how he felt he should respond to her here . . . as old as his memories of time with her in this place were, and strange as many of them felt to him now.

Hinata reached up and tilted his jaw upwards again, not to bare his throat but to nudge him into holding his head high.

Neji's eyes widened, and Hinata smiled at him slightly.

"You should not lower your head here; you should never lower it in shame." Hinata said softly, with gentle emphasis, and tentatively ran her fingers over his cheek. "I. . ."

Neji tilted his head as she dropped her hand. "What is it?" he asked, his voice softer, gentler, than he had remembered he could be.

"I missed you." Hinata said, lowering her eyes, her shoulders bowing forwards a little.

Like she was expecting a blow, verbal or physical.

Hinata had not looked thus when she faced him across the floor of their challenge, not even when Neji had hurt her so very badly. She looked like this when her father spoke, when the Clan Elders spoke.

Neji's jaw tightened so hard it hurt.

He reached up, the smooth movement slightly less gentle but no less insistent than her own had been, and forced Hinata to look up.

"If I should not, no more should you." Neji said simply, trying a smile he had half-forgotten he could wear.

"Here, at least, we can be as we should be." Hinata said with an almost sorrowful curl to her mouth. "And we can stand as the equals we are."

Neji didn't wait for the dreamscape to finish forming around him, already running deeper into it, the tangled and strange plants not hindering him but . . . unfamiliar.

Neji's stomach twisted with worry as he pressed on. She was here somewhere, this place might look different - even feel different - but Neji knew the feel of his own dreams against those shared with her, the dreamscape that bound their souls.

The sound of flowing water caught his ear and made him turn, curious but more . . . worried. He made for it and found a small river, barely more than a stream, winding through some of the strange new plant life.

Hinata was lying in the water, even her face fully covered by the rippling rush of the current.

Neji almost choked, running for her though he knew nothing could harm her in this dreamscape. "Hinata!" he cried, sliding into the water and plunging his arms unwarily deeper into it, dragging her up and into his hold.

Hinata was still and quiet as Neji hauled her out of the water, but the plants around them began to shift and straighten, growing brighter and taller. Sunflowers burst from within the strange interloping plants, and more rose from the ground close at their sides. The river long paces away rushed ever more angrily but was unable to do anything more.

Hinata convulsed and coughed, not spitting up any water but looking as though it was a struggle to breathe all the same.

Neji cradled her a little higher in his arms, letting her rest against his chest, wishing he could offer more help.

Hinata eventually opened her eyes with a tired flutter of her lashes, staring blankly up at the brilliant yellow petals above their heads. Neji stroked her sodden hair away from her face, unable to quite still his hands as they roamed over her body, making sure she was breathing, wasn't injured, though he knew. . .

"Neji?" Hinata rasped, and Neji hugged her tight, the embrace dragging her into sitting up fully, one of his hands splaying over her back.

"Hinata." Neji breathed, throat painfully tight. "We're looking for you. We knew you were ambushed, taken, but. . . Where are you?" he demanded. "What happened?"

Hinata weakly returned the embrace. "Some sort of trap . . . spirit, mind?" she said brokenly. She stroked his back and side with one hand. "You pulled me from it."

Neji's heart clenched painfully and his breath caught, but he didn't have long to contemplate that before Hinata was haltingly telling him where to find her team in the waking world. Neji held her close and listened intently.

As soon as he woke he and the rest of his team would be on the way to find them.

Hinata walked up beside Neji and settled at his side, leaning over until her head rested on his shoulder. "Hello, Neji."

"Hinata." Neji said, his voice rasping a little. He was in better condition here than he was in the waking world but evidently the dreamscape could not wash everything away. "You are. . ." He knew she was real, but part of him - the part that had found her, limp and unconscious, blood seeping terrifyingly from beneath closed lashes - worried she was not.

"If you would wake up with me," Hinata said gently, bumping into him, "you could see for yourself. And we can get a little care taken of you, as well. You really haven't moved from my side, have you?"

Neji's breath caught. No, not since Tsunade brought her from surgery and settled her into a room to await her awakening, and before then had only barely been able to let her from his sight knowing she needed the care Tsunade could give her and that he would only hinder that if he followed. If he could have through the elaborate chakra seals in the operating room she had been taken to, Neji would have watched her even there.

Neji had been sitting beside her, and while a part of him had fought sleep . . . not only had his body and mind desperately needed it, he had hoped to find her again here.

"You woke up?" Neji asked, shifting as Hinata wound her arms around his right arm, snuggling closer.

"Only a little. Only enough, I think, to go from blackness to then fall into . . . here." Hinata said peacefully. "I will try, though. If you will." She rubbed his forearm with one hand. "If you will promise me to let someone help you, too."

"If you wish." Neji said, his throat tight. "If you wake."

If Hinata woke she could have anything she wanted of him, Neji thought with reckless devotion.

Hinata pressed her cheek to his shoulder for a long moment, then straightened away from him and nodded, smiling. "I will." she promised. "Thank you for finding me." she added, and kissed his cheek before rising, almost fading away before him.

Neji swallowed, put a hand up to his cheek, then covered his eyes as he fought back tears.

He focused on waking up to see her well outside the dreamscape.

Even then, when she had been so hurt - when a trap had ripped at her mind and soul - there had been no falling into nothingness between them. Neji shook his head, a spark of worry lighting in his chest.

The darkness - nothingness - twisted and rippled around him, then faded away with beams of dappled sunlight pressing through it. Neji smiled, relaxing as he moved forwards into the stands of sunflowers straining to unreal heights far above his head.

He went looking for Hinata, but almost lazily, winding through the sunflower stalks and running his fingers over their leaves as he passed. She was here somewhere, and they would circle around to each other eventually, and the pure peace of the shared dreamscape in itself was soothing.

Neji could feel the tension of the long mission he was on falling away. Some of it would return - would still be there - when he returned to the waking world, but not all, he suspected. Some of it would have been salved away by this place, and-

There she was, stalking him through the greenery, soft-footed and quick, her silence perhaps even more complete than Neji's when he was hunting. Neji simply . . . knew her, sensed her, was always attuned to her - even outside their dreamscape, but here?

Neji hid his smile and didn't look towards her, allowing her to creep into position as he continued his slow pace, wandering among the plants.

Hinata lunged out from behind a stand of sunflowers that obligingly swayed outwards just before her, giving her a clearer path, and landed gracefully on Neji's back, tumbling them both to the soft grass. Neji laughed, twisting beneath her and rolling them over as she giggled and gave way easily, only to continue the movement until Neji lay beneath her again.

He smiled, amused, as she sat up, poised astride him with her hands splayed on his chest.

Feared ANBU captain, taken and subdued by a playful pounce.

Neji laughed again at the thought, and reached up to bury a hand in Hinata's hair, drawing her down to him as she gave him a quizzical look. She smiled against his mouth as their lips met, then shifted to stretch out with him once more, pressing down against him and returning his kisses with warmth and affection.

The sunflowers bowed inwards over them, the light dancing around them in rich shades of yellow and green, as they tangled together in the grass and traded long, sweet kisses.