Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters, and this piece of fanfiction is for the sole purpose of entertainment.
Pairing: Neji x Hinata
Genre: dark, angst?
Rating: PG-13
Words: 330
Warnings: incest
A/N: A very short drabble I wrote circa 2008; set roughly around the start of the series in terms of age.
Sometimes, Neji thinks that all of this is terribly, terribly wrong.
Rooftop, the early morning air harsh on the skin of his cheeks. They feel raw, the bite of late autumn chill marking his pale figure as conquered territory. He perches still as death upon the ledge, muscles taut and moonlight bleeding into the pale abyss of his eyes.
Ahead of him, a bared window exposes a darkened room.
She told him once, in a hushed whisper laced with shame, that she was still scared of the dark; that at night, she slept with the blinds open, letting the moonlight expose the invisible demons of her mind. He had looked indifferently into her eyes—so much like his own—and told her that she was unfit for a shinobi if she could not even handle her own fears.
Ever since then, he has sat outside her window in the dead of the night, the very physical manifestation of the demons that plague her mind.
A patch of moonlight illuminates half of the bed, and he sees the huddled curve of her body beneath the comforters. Even in sleep she curls in on herself, as if seeking to shy away from an all too cruel world. Someday, he thinks he will tell her that she cannot hide no matter how much she tries; that the demons stalking her will follow her to all the darkened shadows in which she seeks refuge.
She turns beneath the sheets, shifting until she is facing the window—facing the light that she believes will protect her. He stares at her face from afar, at the delicate features lax in sleep, and thinks: This is my cousin.
Then he stares at her arm, exposed from beneath the security of the blankets; at her upturned palm, the curve of her spindly fingers, the thin skin stretched over her wrist—and, with a ragged breath, he pushes his cold fingers beneath the warm elastic band of his pants.