The last Uchiha leaned back on a hand as he sat upon the front step of his lonely family estate. His dark, intense gaze rose from the path leading up to his home to the bruised clouds roiling angrily above.
He'd been waiting for her for quite a while now. She had been due to arrive from her latest mission that morning, but now, it was already well into the afternoon, and she had yet to appear as promised before she left.
Thunderheads had rolled in while he waited, and a small part of him began to worry. He knew that her team was in the village. Naruto, who had accompanied her this time, hadn't said anything about any sort of injuries that warranted hospitalization of any kind when they'd spoken not long after the team's return, but the Uzumake had been known to miss out on rather important details in the past.
The select other few that he could ask and actually receive honest answers from without an accompanying barb – audible, physical or both – were all out of the village. Like it or not, complete faith in him was still a long way off. For many, that state would always be completely impossible to achieve.
Hyuuga Neji was one. Even worse, Hyuuga Hiashi was another. On a personal level, it honestly didn't bother him particularly much. They had every right to suspect him of betrayal at any time, and despite the fact that they were wrong, the two men still clung to that conviction as they do life. Where he in their place, he'd likely feel the same way.
Sasuke sighed, pivoted slightly in place and drew a bare foot up to rest on the polished wood, draping his arm over the upraised knee as he broodingly continued to watch the sky.
Those two were the most troubling of them all, thanks to a few rather surprising, mutual feelings their cousin and daughter shared with him. This was the last thing he would have expected to happen when he'd first returned, yet there it was. That attraction, that surprising affection, was why he put such import on the feelings of her relatives. She cared, so he couldn't simply brush off their disapproval without hurting her in the process.
As it was, Sasuke had injured entirely too many people already in his blind quest for revenge. Hinata included. Now that his head was finally clear once more, he did not want to repeat that performance again.
He frowned as lightening lit within the clouds, turning their swollen bellies a deep shade of purple for seconds at a time before being chased away by the attendant thunder. He frowned when the first fat drops of rain spattered the surroundings.
Slowly, he stood and turned to slip inside to fetch an umbrella to use during his own search – to hell with what anyone would think – when the approach of a familiar chakra had him turning in place. "Hinata?"
The figure at the gates broke into a run just as the downpour started. He stepped down and met her partway, pulling her close against his chest. For a moment, the rain beat down on them as he simply held her, pressing his lips to her soft hair as she buried her face in his shirt. Her scent was so sweet; her warmth so comforting. The contours of her perfect body fit perfectly against his.
The Uchiha could feel the Hyuuga heir trembling against him. He placed a gentle kiss to her crown. "C'mon," he murmured and led her back to the empty house. "Let's get you dry. What took you so long?"
The young beauty winced slightly at the question, but rested her temple against his shoulder as they walked. "I couldn't get away from the estate, Sasuke-kun. I'm sorry for worrying you."
Sasuke shook his head slightly and ushered her in after she removed her sandals. He grabbed a clean dish towel when they entered the kitchen where tea was waiting to be brewed and stopped her with a gentle hand to her shoulder. That soft touch slid up to cup her face and tilt it up so he could softly dab the moisture from her lovely face with the terrycloth. "Don't apologize. I'm just grateful that you're not hurt."
Hinata met his eyes, but before she could say anything, found his mouth pressed to her own. With a trembling sigh, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and allowed herself to be backed into the counter. "Thank you," she whispered against his lips when the kiss had come to a reluctant end. "I've missed you."
He said nothing in return, opting instead to stroke his hands over her rain-slick hair and express his own relief and longing in a single, searing kiss. He drew the tab of her zipper down from her throat to its end. When the fabric parted, he slid his palms over the mesh of her undershirt, along her flat belly, tracing the swells of her breasts and stilling at the firm curve of her shoulders. Steadily, he eased the jacket off and draped it over a chair, before lifting her and carrying her to the bedroom.
She deserved more comfort than what his kitchen had to offer.
Gently, he lowered her to the bed and caught her lips in another kiss as he leaned over her. This one was far gentler, but the fire riding just under its smooth surface brought heat to their blood. As his fingertips found warm flesh under her top, he could feel her small hands slipping under the folds of his top and caressing the hard plane of his chest, then wandering over his skin as she pushed the fabric away.
The chill of the room went unnoticed by them both when clothing was fully discarded, overruled instead by the heat of touch, the slide of lips, the slick taste of skin under sinful tongues and the occasional delicious sting of teeth. As passion-fired bodies surged with each other, the storm outside furied against the landscape.
As he joined with her, her sighing moan only fueled the blaze within his being. As their bodies moved, his intense gaze drove her nearer to madness than she had ever been before. As completion ripped through their straining beings, they both finally knew what it was to truly belong with another.
It didn't matter whose daughter she was, nor what doomed clan he borne of – all that mattered now was the rain-filled night and the way they warmed the sadness filled home they lingered within.
SasuHina art-trade with fairheartstrife on DA. :) I'm rather happy with how it came out...enjoy everyone out there in fanfic-land!