Sugarplum

It wasn't dark when the junior ballet classes next door ended, but by the time Sakura had showered, changed, and packed to go home it was plenty dark and lonely outside the gym. All the girls had been picked up except one and it made her groan in agitation to see who.

"Cousin picking you up, Hamburger?" Sakura called out, tone teasing.

Hanabi looked up from her phone and glared. "That's not my name."

Sakura chuckled and then dropped her bags down on the opposite end of the bench before plopping down beside the younger girl. She caught sight of Hanbi's glare and Sakura felt her lips curl at the ends.

"How is Milkshake these days?"

The younger girl huffed and turned her face purposefully away from the boxer. "My name is Hanabi, use it. Hinata's name is not milkshake, so quit calling her that. God, you've known us for years."

"Ah, honey you know I only give nicknames to the people I like."

"You call Neji jackass."

"I said I give nicknames. Jackass is just a reminder of his personality. Plus, it rolls off the tongue easier than ass stick."

The first signs of good humor flickered in the young girl's eyes, but Hanabi was a Hyuga and Hyuga were known to be perfect, prim, and proper. Snickering at foul language wasn't a Hyuga trait, even if it was hilariously accurate.

"Have you gotten any communication from home?" Sakura asked in a more leveled tone that lacked the teasing tilt of words from earlier.

Hanabi looked back down at her phone and clicked open the message icon. "Yeah. Neji said he was on his way."

"When was that?"

Hanabi hesitated, but clicked off her phone and looked away. "Six minutes ago."

"Ballet class ended half an hour ago. What was his excuse twenty five minutes ago?" Sakura looked back over her shoulder at the glass to the dance room. "Not even the teacher is still here."

"He's been busy, not that you would understand anything about that." Hanabi coughed and drew her jacket tighter around her. "He'll be here when he can."

Sakura unwrapped her scarf and tossed it at the kid without explanation. Hanabi looked up, startled and started to say something, but shut her mouth when she saw Sakura plugging her earbuds in and leaning back into the bench seat, arms crossed and leg bouncing to the beat of her secret song.

This hadn't been the first time Neji had been painfully late to picking up the younger Hyuga girl, and Sakura doubted it would be the last time. She wouldn't admit to it, but the fact that her cousin didn't seem to care about what happened to her made Sakura steam. Sure, the gym wasn't a hole in the wall joint, and membership was pricey if you didn't teach classes on the weekend, but it was still a semi public place with strangers coming and going all hours of the day. Hanabi was only thirteen, after all.

When it had been Hinata and Sakura taking ballet classes together in grade school Neji was never late, but that was years ago and Hinata wasn't Hanabi.

Five minutes later Hanabi's dangling leg bumped Sakura's. She peaked one eye open and then sat up when she saw Hanabi pointing to her earbuds.

"What are you listening to? It's too loud and I can hear it."

"My music isn't too loud, it's this place that's too quiet. Here, take one."

Sakura offered one of the buds to Hanabi and the girl glared at the offer. Sakura rolled her eyes and pulled out a tissue to wipe it down before offering it again. Hanabi took it tentatively and held it close to her ear, but didn't insert it. A few seconds later her head started to sway and then bop.

After another track of The Red Hot Chili Peppers Hanabi was comfortable enough putting the bud in her ear and leaning against Sakura's side. The proper shell all Hyuga girls were forced to wear started to melt with shared music and thick knit scarves.

When the lead vocalist was singing about snow and a white world where where all the tracks will be concealed and there's nowhere to go Sakura noticed the new arrival to the parking lot. She paused the music and tugged her earbud back from Hanabi who protested at the loss until she Saw Neji walking up to the door.

"Jackass is here."

"I thought you said he was ass stick."

Sakura couldn't help but snicker. "Yeah, that one. Get up and go to him or he'll get pissed at having to come all the way in here to pick you up like a child or whatever it is he says when he's stupid and mean." Sakura didn't mention anything about Hanabi really being a child because she knew how the girl would take it.

Hyuga girls grew up too fast.

Sakura packed up again and started to walk away in the opposite direction, since she parked in the back.

"Your scarf!" Hanabi called out.

Sakura waved over her shoulder. "Keep it, Hamburger."

Sakura went back to her empty apartment with the laundry dangerously piling at the end of her bed and a fridge more empty than her bank account. She had meant to pick something up on the way home, but was more tired than she was hungry, so she went to bed after brushing her teeth with the idea that she would do better tomorrow.

She didn't.

"You have a pet rat."

Sakura snorted. "No I don't. I told you it's a mouse and he's not my pet. He just comes out when I do my laundry and I feed him now and then."

"That's practically the definition of a pet. You're giving him food and shelter in exchange for artificial affection."

Sakura pretended to be hurt by the younger girl's words. "Nothing about Napoleon's affections is artificial. And in addition to that point, let me remind you that he lives in the laundry room. That's not me providing him shelter, ha!"

"You really should be shaking your head or talking to me like that, not after you just admitted to going down there to feed him when you don't even have laundry. Also, I thought you're supposed to report pets to the landowners. You're sheltering a fugitive of the law."

Sakura couldn't help but smile, even if it was at her expense. "Napoleon and I can be fugitives of the law together if that's how it's gotta be. I can dye my hair and go into hiding."

Hanabi raised a critical brown in apparition of Sakura's hair. "You'll have to. Who has pastel pink hair?"

Depressed people.

"People who love themselves and are made out of sunshines and rainbows and gumdrops. Plus, it's natural, don't you know anything about me yet?"

Hanabi pretended to give up and stare out the glass windows across the lobby once more. "Whatever."

Sakura reached over and tugged at the familiar thick knit scarf that was undeniably the cheapest thing she wore. Everything else was designer, except for a simple second hand accessory.

"I'm not giving it back if that's what you want," Hanabi grumbled.

"Nah, I just thought it was cute you kept it. Has it been keeping you warm? It's not the most fancy material so I get it if it's not up to par." Sakura let her hand drop back to her side. "You don't have to force yourself to wear it if you don't like it."

For a while the girls sat in a comfortable silence that didn't need to be interrupted. The sky outside was dull and growing darker behind the choke of thick clouds. It was cold enough that Sakura thought she could smell snow in the air. It was finally December, after all. Christmas carols had been blasting since before Thanksgiving and Sakura had only recently started noticing them.

"What are you working on in ballet now?" Sakura asked, watching as the last ballerina emerged from the locker room to head home on her own.

"You can't hear the Nutcracker Suite through the walls?" Hanabi asked with an edge of sarcasm.

"That you?"

Hanabi nodded. "I'm nothing special though, just a flower. Hinata was the lead dew drop fairy when she was my age."

Sakura winced at the hurt tone. "That's not true. When Hinata was thirteen she was an angel and she didn't get the role of the dew drop fairy until she was sixteen, almost seventeen."

"I don't think so," Hanabi said.

"No, I'm right because I was there. Like most of the other thirteen year olds, she was a doll at fourteen because she could memorize positions well, and then at fifteen she was a snowflake because she had great stamina compared to some of the other girls, which your father was oh so proud about. She was sixteen when she was the dew drop fairy. I don't know what you hear at home, but I don't think you're anything less than your sister."

Hanabi's expression had melted from something akin to depressed into one more closely resembling a glower. "Oh, I've heard plenty at home. You know she was Clara when she was seventeen, the last year she was with the junior group. It's all dad's been saying since I started with the same group. He wanted me to do better, but now…now he's just pacified if I'm only as good as her."

"Your sister is your sister and you are you. Do you enjoy dancing?"

Hanabi's glower lessened. "Yeah."

"That should really be all that matters."

The younger girl rolled her eyes. "You make it sound so ideal. It's not as easy as you say." Hanabi pulled at the collar of her shirt from under the scarf. "But, there's only two more weeks left and then I can worry about my roles for next year."

"Are you going to stay with the junior ballet group during the spring and summer seasons?" Sakura asked. She reached for her phone and flipped through the musical collection until she found something she thought Hanabi might be more receptive to.

Hanabi shrugged, clearly done with the conversation.

Saying nothing, Sakura offered the girl an earbud and let Paramore play. The music was old enough and angry enough to be appropriate. The girls sat together in silence for another two songs before Hanabi sagged against Sakura's side.

Neji showed up before they could get halfway through the Riot album and, like the last few times, Sakura left the back way and avoided running into the Hyuga she always thought of as a jackass.

When she got home that night she felt an unusual tug in her heart that wouldn't abate until she pushed back her things in the closet and drew out the old plastic coat protector. She laid it out on the couch an unzipped it down the front, peeling back the layers to gaze upon the expensive costume that had soaked up a childhood's worth of tears six years ago. There was still flecks of gold glitter caught in the folds and creased from when her hair had been painted with it.

Sakura tugged it out of the plastic and held it up to the light. It was still breathtaking in a painful way as she turned the Sugarplum Fairy costume this way and that. Sakura had never felt more magical than when she danced alone on that stage under all those lights in pastel pink tuule and golden sequins. She had thought it would have been enough, that she would be able to go back if she was perfect and had all the magic of that moment, but the melody finished, and the audience cheered her off stage and into the wings where no one could see her cry for a thing they couldn't understand.

"It was a stupid dream," Sakura whispered to the costume. "It didn't really happen."

Sakura slipped the dress back into the protective plastic and zipped it back up with fond fingers. She was careful to make sure it didn't wrinkle as she pushed it back into the darkest part of her closet, out of sight and out of mind once more.

Somewhere outside a neighbor was playing Christmas music so she turned on her phone speaker and let Fall Out Boy play to drown out the sound of an old man dreaming about a white Christmas.

Sakura did not sleep well that night, nor did she dream of sugarplums and candy canes. All she dreamed about was plague and destruction and another long and lonely winter where red eyed rats nibbled on what was left in the aftermath of something terrible.

'Your brain has a hole that you fill with the worst ideas because you don't believe in anything good anymore, Sakura.'

On Saturday Sakura taught several morning classes and would be finished by noon. She still had another half hour to go but, as luck would have it, she had to ask a different girl to cover for her while she got sick in the bathroom from what she could only assume to be bad Chinese food.

That's how Hanabi found her.

"Are you…okay?"

Sakura glared up over her shoulder before jerking and ducking her face back into the bowl as more of her dinner came back up. She absently marveled at how long she had been able to ignore the pain in her stomach before it became a puking problem. She hoped it would all be over soon.

"I guess that's a no." Hanabi shifted awkwardly in the bathroom, biting her lip and looking to the door. "You need me to get someone? Maybe some ibuprofen?"

"Food poisoning, babe. Pain killers ain't gonna do the trick this time," Sakura laughed, swaying back and forth before heaving up what she could of the bile left in her throat.

"Ew," Hanabi whined, jumping from foot to foot. "How did you do that?"

Sakura pulled some toilet paper off the roll and wiped her mouth before flushing that down the toilet, ignoring the way Hanabi looked ready to gag at the though of touching some like 'toiler paper' to her lips. She was such a princess and it made Sakura smile in spite of the pinch in her stomach. Hanabi was too cute to ignore teasing.

"It's nothing you need to worry yourself over. I'm sure you're eating much better than I am, anyway." Sakura stood, pushing up and off the wall like it was too much to stand with just her leg's strength. She wobbled a little but felt much better after having already thrown up. "What are you doing back here anyway? I thought the other end of the gym had the nice bathrooms."

"They're nicer but they're further away. Besides…um, you're teaching people today so I thought I might see you if I went this way."

Sakura had cupped some water into her mouth and was spitting it out into the sink but paused. Hanabi's face was lightly dusted with pink and the kid fidgeted almost as much as her sister even though she glared hotly when she caught Sakura staring.

"You're sweet. Thanks for worrying, but I'm fine. I need to get back out there, Tenten is covering for me but I have a class so I can't leave them alone for long. You have practice late today?" Sakura asked.

Hanabi nodded and turned to follow Sakura out as the older girl exited. "Not really. We've been here since seven thirty. After this the only ones who need to stay are the ones with main roles. Hinata said she would pick me up today so I don't have to wait for Neji."

Sakura laughed, holding open the door so Hanabi could exit ahead of her. "That's good to hear. Milkshake always was better about those sort of things than your cousin. If I see her I'll stick around to say hello. I'm going now, see you around, Hamburger."

Sakura snickered to herself as she jogged back over to the room with her class in session. Behind her she could hear Hanabi huff in agitation and retort with a snappish 'It's Hanabi!'

Sakura finished up her class and made her way through the sea of ladies desperate to stay in shape for any mess of reasons, from self betterment to a worthless husband to a friend's wedding in the Bahamas. Sakura had been told on numerous occasions that she was a bit too biter to be believed, but Sakura laughed it off and tried her best to make it into a joke. Most people bought it, others knew her a little too well to be deceived.

"Hey."

Sakura jumped but turned on her heel to see Tenten there. Like Sakura, Tenten wore a low cut crop top tee shirt with the gym's logo colored across the front. Unlike Sakura, she hated the uniform shirt with a passion and wore a darker cami underneath it.

"Yo, thanks for covering for me today. I'll make it up to you later, promise," Sakura laughed, feeling silly for being jumpy in the gym of all places. She felt more at home with a punching bag than a bed most days.

"Yeah, you seem fine now, but are you sure you're okay. You were pretty white there," the older girl asked, staring keenly at the marks of exhaustion around Sakura's eyes. Sakura hadn't bothered to try and cover up the bags under her eyes or explain them away. Normally no one cared or took notice. She forgot about Tenten.

"I'm feeling better since throwing up. I'm pretty sure it was food poisoning. I had some funky Chinese food last night, and it was good, like, really good," Sakura said with a wave of her hands for emphasis, "but I think it must have been bad if it made me sick like that. Sorry you had to cover for me. I swear I'll make it up to you."

"Whatever, forget about it. You were gone less than ten minutes. That's not worth even thinking twice about. Take care of yourself a bit better next time." Tenten gestured to the door. "Go home and rest for once, kay?"

Sakura blew an exaggerated kiss as she walked backwards, out of the room with her bag already over her shoulder. "Babe, I love you, thank you!"

Tenten groaned at Sakura's childish voice and theatrics, but blushed all the same. "Just get out you weirdo. Geez."

Sakura turned and left the room for the hallway where she knew all the junior ballet dancers gathered to practice together. She had taken only a handful of steps before she felt another pull in her gut that made her brace against the wall. It wasn't food poisoning that made her waver on her feet, but there was something wrong with the pit of her, the core of her was unsettled.

"Hanabi?" Sakura breathed. She looked up and saw through the glass window Hanabi alone in the room, practicing positions on the bar. There was no reason or logic behind it, but Sakura felt something odd and wrongwrongwrong about the young girl.

Sakura forced herself to move and pushed the door the rest of the way open. Hanabi looked up and glared, upset about having been interrupted, but the glare faltered when she saw Sakura bunched over and hobbling into the room.

"You okay? You said you were fine when I last saw you in the bathroom." Hanabi broke out of her position and started to jog over to Sakura.

Like a light switch the pinching pull was gone from her gut and Sakura felt fine. She blinked and straightened, running a hand through her hair and making a show of being fine. "What do you mean? I'm all good."

Hanabi glared. "You did that on purpose."

Her expression made Sakura laugh. "Don't blame me for wanting to tease you a little. It's so nice to know you care."

"I don't care. Jeez, leave me alone. I can wait for Hinata on my own."

Sakura dropped her bag onto the floor under the bar and sat down, stretching her legs out in front of her. "Well of course you can, but isn't it more lonely to do it that way? Don't mind me, I'm just resting over here and I'll be so quiet you won't be able to tell me apart from a mouse. Honest!"

Hanabi huffed but went back to the bar and began to position herself with the mirror as her guide. Like her sister before her, she was a dutiful practitioner of the basics. With her strong foundation, Hanai built her dance with moves memorized in muscle and sinew.

'There's something wrong with her.'

The thought hit Sakura like a bolt from the blue, making her bones tingle in the aftershock. She didn't know where it came from any more than she knew it was true. Something was off about Hanabi and it showed in the listless way she fell into a well worn pattern of steps. There was something lacking in her movements and Sakura recognized that missing piece as 'spirit' or 'soul' or the Pathos of Dance. Hanabi was idle in her steps.

"Are you okay, Hanabi?"

The called upon girl stumbled and grabbed for the bar to steady herself. She looked back over her shoulder and her eyes were almost narrowed enough to be a glare, but the edge wasn't there.

"What are you doing calling me by my name?" She huffed angrily and turned around to face Sakura. "You're the one who was sick and you're the one who said she would shut up while I practiced. Quiet as a mouse, remember?"

Sakura hid behind a sly smile and shrugged her shoulders. "Mice really aren't that quiet, in my defense."

"Don't-just don't bother me okay. I'm fine. Quit looking at me like that."

Hanabi shook her head and turned back around, but there was a hike in her shoulders that needed to be smoothed out before she could raise her hands into the correct position. She tried and then groaned before attempting it again.

Sakura watched, head heavy, as Hanabi did her best. It wasn't perfect, and at first it was a little stiff, but then a bit of her spirit slipped free and Sakura almost froze when she saw the change take over Hanabi. The young girl seemed to melt away from the world and become lost in a dance all her own.

Sakura's heart ached and then the pain bloomed in her once more. Like a knife in her back she gasped, a soundless exhale, and fell to her knees. Hanabi danced on, blind to the world, too caught up to see Sakura in her distress or the distortion of time and space at the far end of the room.

Years. It had been years, an entire lifetime ago, but Sakura would never forget the sight.

"Hanabi!" Sakura screamed.

The young girl stumbled out of a spin, expression stormy, but the mice were already swarming in. Hundreds of them in every shade and size, with black, brown, and red eyes, glistening like jewels. Hanabi screamed at the sight of them and staggered towards Sakura, tears of fear caught in her lashes as they started to swarm at her ankles, crawling up her legs.

Sakura grabbed for her and the moment she made contact the mice seemed to redouble their efforts to swallow both of them in a swirl of fur and whiskers. Hanabi was crying, screaming Sakura's name and kicking when she could.

"Don't fight them yet, just hold on!" Sakura hollered, pulling Hanabi close. She shut her eyes as tiny mouse feet scampered over her face and into her hair. Hanabi tried to pull away, but Sakura tugged her back into her arms and covered her as best she could while the magic sucked them down. A thousand squeaking voices filled the air and the last of the light winked out of existence, replaced with fur.

Down, down, down they fell.

AN: I know someone is gonna be mad about all these new stories, but they are both (mostly) finished and just seasonally released. Sugarplum has like, five chapters, and should be done before January. Basically it's a personal challenge to update an old half finished fic with a more solid plot.

Not all heroes are chosen ones.

Pairing: ItaSakuSaso