Title: Rain & That Girl
Author: embryonica
Rating: PG ( K+ )
Challenge: Showered With Love
Pairing: SasuHina

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Feeling (and probably looking, he groused mentally) like a drowned rat, Uchiha Sasuke squished in his soaked zouri down a hallway in the Hokage Tower to the missions room to hand in his report. He dripped all over the hardwood floors, ignoring scandalized looks and outcries from passersby, and tried his best to forget how utterly clammy he had become after entering the warm building.

'It's because of that pestering dobe,' he thought with a scowl, remembering how Naruto had delayed him for over five minutes while Sasuke had been zipping over rooftops to deliver the scroll containing the detailed summary of his mission. The sole survivor of the Uchiha clan had already noticed the darkening sky and planned to turn in the report and get back home before the thunderhead opened. Thanks to his boisterous former teammate, however, the raven-haired jounin had fallen victim to a sudden springtime downpour. It had seemed a waste to complete nearly the whole journey just to turn around and hightail it back to the compound for a hot bath and dry clothes, so Sasuke had simply continued on his way despite the rain.

Leaving a trail of water puddles and drops behind him on the floor for some poor sap to mop up, Sasuke entered the mission room to find but one shinobi at a desk, a lone kunoichi absorbed in her paperwork. When he cleared his throat, unintentionally emitting more embarrassing wet noises, her head flew up and he saw it was Hyuuga Hinata. Her pale eyes widened at the sight of him and she leaned down out of view behind her desk, rummaged for something on the floor, and popped back up with a fluffy white towel, a large lavender thermos, and a delicate-looking china teacup hand-painted with scientific illustrations and descriptions of medicinal plants. Sasuke wondered what exactly she was doing, but waited to find out, knowing she was not a frivolous individual after having undertaken a few missions with her. He could even admit to himself (never to anyone else, though!) that she was a competent kunoichi, leaps and bounds beyond her younger self who had often stuttered and hesitated to take action.

Hinata set the thermos and teacup down before leaving her chair and approaching Sasuke, the folded towel held in both hands. She offered it with a shallow bow and said politely, "Please."

With a muttered word of thanks, Sasuke grasped the clean-smelling terrycloth and did his best to soak up the rainwater drenching him. When he finally returned his attention to his surroundings, Hinata was waiting to take the towel back. He handed it over and she hung it from the back of her chair to dry. Then she held out the teacup to him and said softly, "It's hot apple cider."

He nodded in acknowledgement and took the cup into his hands, reveling for a moment in the warmth seeping through the porcelain. He took a small sip and found it neither too hot to drink nor too sweet for him to enjoy. After imbibing a bit more, he took the cup in one hand and with the other removed his report scroll from one of his vest pockets. Hinata evinced a small smile and unrolled the scroll to check its contents, but her eyebrows drew in and her lips fell into a frown when she observed the contents of the report.

"Uchiha-san," she said, slowly raising her head to meet his eyes, "I'm afraid this will have to be redone."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. He never had to redo mission reports! "Why?" he demanded.

"Um, it seems that this one"--she turned the parchment for him to see--"got wet."

Indeed, the paper was wrinkly and the ink ran all over the place, transforming the writing into mostly illegible blotches. Sasuke hissed in displeasure. "Dammit!"

"If you don't mind, Uchiha-san," Hinata murmured, interrupting his infuriated mental ramblings, "I'll write the new report if you dictate it to me, that way you won't have to worry about getting it wet."

Seeing the advantage of this, Sasuke nodded. She invited him to sit down, so he grabbed another chair from an empty desk and looked on as she cleared space on her desk and retrieved a clean scroll and pen. As he took another draught of hot cider, she filled out his name and rank and looked at him to provide the rest of the information.

Some fifteen minutes later, they were finished and Hinata held out the scroll for him to review and sign. He noticed she seemed to know more shorthand than he did himself, making the report much shorter. He grunted his approval, scrawled his signature, and handed the parchment back to her. She stamped it with the day's date and quickly added her own signature in a different color ink to indicate who had received and approved the report.

"Thank you for your hard work." She accepted the empty teacup from him and replaced it and the thermos from where she had initially retrieved them. Sasuke turned to leave, but her soft voice calling his name stopped him. He glanced back to see her proffering a blue umbrella. "You can return it when you find the time," she told him with a smile.

"What about you?" he asked after a pause. "You'll get wet."

"I'll be fine," she replied. "Please use it. It's no trouble for me."

"No," he insisted. "When does your shift end? I'll come to return it then."

"I'll be done around two this afternoon," she informed him.

"See you then."

With that, he exited the room. Down on the street, sheltered by the blue umbrella, he stopped for a moment and looked up at the window in front of which Hinata had been sitting. He caught her figure through the wet glass, pearlescent eyes watching him. He lifted one hand in a wave and smirked when she blushed and tore away from the window.

Despite his squishing sandals and muddy, cold feet, Sasuke kept that sharp smile on his face all the way home.

-finis-