Characters: Shino, Hinata
Summary: You see her, and without light that is all you can do.
Pairings: onesided ShinoHina, onesided NaruHina
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
He sees her caught in the pale sunlight, a shiver of white flesh that almost gleams in the sun. Her long hair swishes behind her, her pale eyes half-closed in the glare (somehow the sun, even when half-veiled by silver cloud, can cast a too bright light), and she smiles, wistfully, before she retreats under the shadows of a tree and sits in its shade. A pale flush stains her cheeks.
Shino doesn't have to guess at what Hinata must be thinking of, to bring that sort of lingering smile to her face and the blush to rise in her translucent skin. He knows.
It's amazing, how she can smile like that, for someone who has never seen her or comprehended her quiet beauty.
He sees her there, caught in the light, illuminated even in the shadows. A pale, thin creature, who seems so delicate, seems so frail, but only seems as such because she has yet to rear her head and shown the far extent of her courage and her strength. A flower who has yet to bloom, but when she does will be stunning, magnificent even.
Having always been able to see her, Shino can appreciate what lies underneath Hinata's skin.
She still needs protecting, if only because she overreaches herself in her strides and steps and sometimes to near fatal effect.
Hinata's kindness is as the gentle rush of spring wind and that it's such a rarity among her kin makes it even more stark and noticeable. Shino isn't sure where the kindness comes from, isn't sure how she's been able to keep it in the atmosphere in which she was reared, but Hinata has a kind word and a kind hand for everyone and her kindness can melt the ice off of anything.
And no one else seems to even guess at it, but Shino knows by heart all of her sadness, all that which causes her pain.
But he can give her no comfort. And one who stays in shadows can not hope to outshine the sun, even if that sun is uncaring and never notices its devotees.
Hinata wants the one who burns brightly, for she has no light to call her own and Naruto generates enough for the whole world. Shino has no light either, and in all practicality he knows he can't compete with Naruto. The war has already been fought and lost. That Naruto has no idea that there was a war changes nothing.
Hinata catches the light, though she has none. It gleams across pale, smooth flesh, and she tips her head back against the tree trunk and smiles, lithe and frail and breathtakingly lovely.
He who stands in shadow wishes, for just a moment, that he could catch the light too.