For kamecchi on LJ.
A Choice
There was a brief pause, choked silent by Neji's rattled sigh. Fear clung to Hinata's chest, and she wavered, resolve crumbling at her inability to look her father in the eye. Neji's hands tightened on his forehead protector, his mask against the world's cruel designs.
He had watched, helpless, as they had thrown away his key.
"Well then, it is decided," Neji declared brusquely. Hinata felt a brush of cool air as he stepped past her, jaw set and eyes locked upon the door.
As the door shut with a contained clatter, Hinata didn't believe it had been decided at all.
He had become the shadow of a shadow, a mere whisper of what could have been a great man. Bound to her, for eternity, a reluctant protector who felt that he could be so much more.
At first Hinata had not been comforted by his constant presence behind her, because he was a storm, brewing and seething behind a blank exterior. His forehead blazed one night as she undressed underneath his watchful eyes; he stumbled into a candleholder, gasping in agony before tumbling onto the floor.
She never told her father, because she was his protector as well as he was hers. Two unwilling beings, bound together until death.
His bed was forbidden, but as the years slipped her seamlessly into his arms, it became her refuge. Her husband was lifeless; he was a gruff man, and he ruled while she pretended to be important. And so in the stables she panted Neji's name, hands clutched around his neck and back injured by straw.
He was a shadow of a shadow, but he became her light. He stayed by her side, bound by duty and the curse on his forehead. But he bound himself to her with more than just fate.
"Neji," she said one day as she seeded her garden, "do you still believe in fate?"
"Yes." A simple answer. "I still believe in fate." He leaned his head against the shed and looked towards the sky with a brief smile.
"Do you believe my garden is fated to grow?" She giggled slightly, pouring the water carefully on the newly turned soil. "Because, I think I can make a choice, even though I am expected to watch over it. To care for it, or to not care for it, you know?"
"Well, Hinata-sama, maybe you are fated to choose to care for it or not."
"But is it my choice, or is it fate's choice, then?"
Neji shrugged awkwardly, smile tugging insistently at his lips. "Who knows?"
"I think I can choose," she said confidently, standing up and attempting to brush her dress off. The dirt smeared and stuck, but she shrugged and turned towards him. "And I believe…" She glanced around her before taking his hand in hers. "I believe that you can as well."
His hand tightened and he winced, but she knew that his eyes were smiling.