She sees a face in the mirror.
It's not hers, she's damn sure.
Because there are no split lips, dry skin, flat hair, and puffy eyes in the Hyuuga line. There is no ashen skin, no cracked nails and developing bags under her eyes. There is no such thing in her family. Especially not after something like a wedding gone horribly, horribly wrong.
She twists the wedding ring on a shaking hand that can't be hers, fixes the dress that can't possibly be on her shoulders, and breathes out air she wasn't aware she wasn't breathing. Takes another look.
Can't be hers.
Because she sees a woman that's lost her hope long ago, in a fight when she was thirteen, desperate, and stupid. Because the woman that stares back at her with white eyes is bleeding from her lips and her heart is pounding faster when she sees, and she is bleeding a little more because of it.
She turns around, to the sink, splashes the cold water from the tap that says Hot onto her face. The kunai in her hand clatters on the tile, but she doesn't mind because when she turns around, she sees a different face.
She sees a woman that's lost her dignity long ago, in a dream that she had when she was thirteen, lovelorn, and pathetic. It was a sweet dream. One that put her here, under the hateful eyes of the person she hates most, those hideous black eyes.
She strips herself naked, looks at the tenketsu burns that should have fadedseven years ago. Looks at the gash on her arm that should have fadedfour years ago. Looks at the blood that slips down her thighs. Examines the marks on her shoulder blades, the mysterious birthmarks that every Hyuuga was born with, that looks like scars where wings were ripped out.
And she hates this, this thing that's staring back at her. She turns her gaze up to a sky that was never really all that big, curses in the name of a god that she never really believed in, and hopes that rain will fall as surely as her tears, onto the body that has been marked by something unwanted.
She stares at the woman in the mirror.
She sees a monster.
It's name is Hinata.
It's curse?
Innocence.
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Side-fic to I Promise. It might not make much sense without reading it alongside the original fic.
