miikka-xx: something i've been toying with. was planning to be lighthearted but came out as badly-written, rushed crap with clichés abound. And no, it is not like Twilight, at all.

Title: passherby
Rating: T
Summary: Sasuke's been contemplating the meaning of life and meets Hinata, the reluctant vampire. sasuhina. complete.
Warning(s): swearing, implied nejihinasasu (for a total of 3 lines), clichéd.

passherby

boy, don't you ever let her pass you by.

Depression was so overrated. He was not depressed. He was just, sort of, you know, sick of people. It might have started when his brother moved out (thank god), granted the additional detail that he was moving in with his boyfriend was absolutely traumatizing, but Sasuke had been realizing the utter pointlessness of simply living. And it wasn't a sudden thing. He had contemplated about it for a while. It had occured to him one day when the obnoxiously loud conversation had drifted into his ears, yelling about the horrors of having parents who wouldn't let them buy their favourite jeans. Sasuke then decided that most of the people in this country were absolute morons if that was what they lived for.

It's not like he wanted to die or anything. Maybe move towns, no, countries to where people's biggest concerns weren't imported mascara and brand name jeans. Perhaps he was being too harsh. Perhaps they did have more depth to them than physical appearance. Yet he never saw it. He wanted to see it. Hell, Sasuke had toyed with the idea of Africa, until someone decided giving guns to seven year olds was a good idea.

Sasuke did not want to get shot by some kid half his age. He had his pride, damnit. So he decided that he'd stay in Japan until he got some fancy degree framed in laquered oak wood that weighed half a dozen pounds before ditching the place. He needed some depth. He needed to have friends that were dedicated to something bigger then them. Something worth something bigger than their egos.

Oh sure, not all his friends were shallow morons destined to be the money-grubbing businessman you saw in every generic movie ever spouted out about Japan. Naruto was a little dull but he knew, almost intuitively, everything going around him. And Sakura was someone he had originally pegged as 'ditzy moron who wears organic eyeshadow' until she raised her hand in Social Studies and single-handedly won a debate against the professor.

Well, there was more than overwhelming a teacher, there was some sort of raw honesty that he saw sometimes in his friends. Glimpses of what they really thought, emotions and words, things that revealed their true nature. Sasuke craved those moments. He appreciated them to no extent. And, damnit, he wasn't going to be a hypocrite. So, here was Uchiha Sasuke, residential ice block, who actually wasn't an ice block, but someone living honestly.

It was a cold night, under a lamppost, waiting for one of the last buses to come take him home after a late-night movie with Naruto, when Sasuke met Hyuuga Hinata.

She was extremely pale, with wide white eyes (that unnerved him a bit but he brushed it off) and petite frame. She was a frail-looking thing with hesitating steps when she approached the bus stop. He shifted from the middle of the bench to the end politely.

She blinked and smiled slightly before sitting down on the free space.

"Th-Thank you," she said softly. Sasuke nodded and breathed a plume of air into his cupped hands. He glanced over to see if she was cold as well. He blinked in surprise. She was wearing a simple sweater and capris with flats. No goosebumps were visible and hell, she looked perfectly content in the cold. He watched his breath leave his mouth for a few moments before looking over again.

Sasuke's breath hitched.

She wasn't breathing. There was no little puffs from her mouth or nose. Her chest wasn't even moving, not even barely. Hell, she hadn't blinked the whole time she had been sitting beside him. Was she dead? Did she die beside him? Post-mortum making her sit erect like that on the bench?

Sasuke snapped back to reality when she moved to face him. She smiled tremulously.

"A-Ano, I'm Hyuuga Hinata," she greeted quietly. Sasuke simply stared at her until the statement sank in.

"Sasuke," he offered. She bowed her head slightly.

"Sasuke-san, then," she replied. He nodded once, watching her intently. Nothing. No breath, no blinking. She widened her eyes when she saw his intent staring and blinked slowly. Blinked slowly and hard.

Sasuke snorted. Fake.

"Why aren't you breathing?"

"Wha-?" squeaked Hinata.

"You don't breathe, you don't blink and you don't feel the cold. Why?" Sasuke pinned her with a glare, trying to intimidate an answer out of her.

"I-I-I," she blinked again, fake, "I don't know what you're talking about, Sasuke-san!"

Breathing started coming out of her mouth, erratically, her chest heaving. Sasuke snorted again. So fake.

"Stop acting, Hyuuga," he snapped. He loomed over her, standing in front of her as she managed to even out her (false) breathing and started batting her eyelashes like a desperate fangirl.

"A-A-Ano, I'm going to leave n-now!" she cried out, pressing a hand on his chest to make him move.

Oh he moved, alright. He freakin' flew. That one push and he was landing on his backside across the street, thankfully deserted at this hour. He stared at the terrified girl standing back on the curb, hands fumbling in her pockets.

"What the hell." Sasuke voiced out flatly. He just got thrown out of the way by a girl half his size with the will-power of a leaf. In autumn. Quickly, Hinata pulled out a phone from her capris which then began beeping and ringing all over the place.

"I-I'm sorry! I have to take this!" yelled out the petite voice of Hinata from the other side of the bloody road. Sasuke growled and got up, sore as hell, stalking back to the curb.

Hinata mumbled intelligibly and Sasuke clearly heard a male voice shouting something like, "You screwed up again?"

"N-no!" she denied, "I just, um, lost my grip and he sort of fell."

Twenty feet away, added Sasuke mentally.

"He fell?" asked the voice, clearly unconvinced.

"Y-Yes, Neji-niisan."

"In a splatter of blood and gore or can we still clean him up?"

"Um, he can hear you, Neji-niisan," mumbled Hinata. The other line went silent for a few seconds.

"Well?"

Hinata blinked, "Huh?"

"Aren't you gonna tell him?"

"O-Oh! Oh. Okay," she agreed quietly, glancing through her eyelashes at the incredulous Sasuke. She exchanged short goodbyes with the man and hung up. He noticed vaguely that she had stopped breathing and blinking.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, ah, to do that," she gestured helplessly at the other side of the road he had ended up at.

"What the fu-" Sasuke breathed in, "what exactly are you?" Hinata touched her pointer fingers together and looked away,

"A-Ah... d-don't laugh, okay?" she whispered, an embarassed blush enveloping her face.

"Uh-huh," he said flatly. Right, because being thrown across roads with girls that looked borderline anorexic was goddamn hilarious.

"I, um, I'm a, ano..." Hinata squeezed her eyes shut, "a v-vampire."

Sasuke began walking away.

He really needed to leave this country. Seriously. Or at least this city. Because it seemed there were some really messed up people in this place. Really messed up people. Why did all the crazies come out at night? When people are alone? Sasuke had walked home after she had uttered those words (which resulted in words like 'mentally unstable' and 'drugs' to appear in his head). Sasuke sighed and buried his head in his arms as the math teacher droned on. He glanced at the clock. Last period.

Sasuke bit back a groan of displeasure as the thought of cram school slammed into his head. It was almost winter so no sunlight would be out when he would be walking to cram school, making it deathly cold. Again. Like that night two days ago when he met the crazy. Of course she wasn't a vampire. Why the hell would they exist? Wouldn't someone notice bodies emptied of blood or bite marks on the neck? Yes, he had read Dracula so Sasuke thought he was pretty well educated to the theme of vampires. Of course, the one key rule, vampires don't survive in the sunlight. They die. Horribly. Flame and ash and apparently lots of screaming.

One would think the vampire population would be extinct by now, with the difficulties of killing for victims and the many time limits set in the night. Sasuke slammed his head against his desk. Why was he thinking about something so stupid right now? Soon, the bell rang and they were dismissed for the day. Sasuke found his bag, stopped at his locker, grabbed his shoes and began walking to cram school.

He bought a burger and munched on it until the building was in sight, the moon hanging low beside it. Damn, it was so early, Sasuke grimaced. He tossed his garbage away and found a seat near the back to sleep. And then she walked in the middle of French class.

"Students, for the remainder of the winter, Hyuuga Hinata will be joining us. Please treat her nicely."

She looked different in the uniform; long skirt, frazzled hair (by the wind, he thought idly) and a terrified looking face. Atleast she had seemed composed the night they met. Hinata murmured something to the teacher which was then quickly instructed.

"Uchiha-san, please move to the empty desk beside you so Hyuuga-san can sit beside the window."

Ssauke jerked up and irritably shifted seats, glaring at the look of familiarity that graced her petrified features.

"Ah, Sasuke," she mouthed to herself, watching him before hurrying over to the window. Once the class had started, she discreetly cracked open the window, taking a deep breath of fresh air. She then quickly turned back to her notebook and continued jotting down notes dutifully. Sasuke stared at the ridiculous picture of normalcy she painted, alternating between looking at the blackboard and writing in her notebook. A vampire his ass, Hyuuga Hinata was just a cracked out schoolgirl who had an overactive imagination and a stupid accomplice on her phone.

Sasuke buried his face back in his arms and tried to sleep. Yet his gaze constantly flitted over to her. At her absolute normalcy. She was so... ordinary, plain except for her eyes. Her eyes, a blank white that was slightly unnerving. Sasuke pressed his palm to his eyes, forcing them shut so he could ignore her presence. Simply ignore the crazy sitting beside him.

"Ah, professor, it's 'le sang', not 'la sang'," she piped up from the corner. Sasuke looked at the board.

Les vampires sont morts, alors pour survivre, ils doivent chercher pour la sang-

Vampires are dead, so to survive, they have to look for blood-

Sasuke stared stupidly at the blackboard before ripping open his french booklet to the designated page. Why the hell were they studying an essay on vampires? Why? Oh sure, the french grammar was excellent and all, but honestly. Growling, he tossed his book to the ground in frustration. It was as if the world was determined to not let him forget about that ridiculous night with her.

Hinata looked at the tossed booklet and picked it up, handing it back to Sasuke.

"A-Ano, here," she said quietly, nudging him slightly with the paper. He gave a her a glare and snatched it from her hand.

"I-I apologize for last time, did you make it home okay?" she asked. He huffed.

"Obviously," he snapped back.

She seemed taken aback, but didn't back down, "Y-You didn't believe me, did you?"

"Of course not. You're on drugs is what you are. Or belong in a mental ward."

"Neji-niisan said that's what you would've thought," she mumbled, dejected, "but I didn't lie, you know."

"Uh-huh," he deadpanned.

"Wha-What if I prove it to you?" she offered, so quiet he might've misheard. Sasuke jerked suddenly to face her.

"What are you gonna do?" he challenged, "show me your fangs, burn yourself with holy water, bend iron in half?"

Hinata blinked hard, fake, and cocked her head, "Okay."

Which was probably how he ended up in front of a church in construction with lots of metal lying around and a small bowl of holy water before the altar. Hinata fidgeted beside him, distinctly uncomfortable.

"I don't normally go into these things," she confessed softly, "I'm Buddhist." Sasuke gave her a blank look and walked inside, completely disinterested in everything around him as he marched up to the basin filled with holy water. Hinata tagged along, squeaking in surprise whenever she glanced at the various murals that were painted on the walls. The coloured glass panes made the moonlight eerie and foreboding yet Sasuke trudged on, totally unaffected by the surroundings. He peered into the water, which looked the exact same to tap water for him but glanced back at Hinata. She shuffled forward, swallowed and held out a hand.

"I-I'll put in a finger, okay?" she mumbled. Sasuke nodded and watched. Her trembling hand approached the basin until her nails scraped the edge, Inch by inch, she slid her index down into the water.

A scream.

Sasuke winced at the wail that erupted from her throat as her index blackened and shriveled. He wrenched her back from the basin, making it toppled over and spill. It touched her shined Mary-Janes and Hinata screamed louder. Sasuke picked her up, running back towards the entrance, out into the moonlight. Her screams turned into hiccups as she curled into him, cradling her hand to her chest.

"T-T-That h-hurt..." she moaned out, clutching the front of his jacket. Sasuke eased her down on a street bench and flipped out his phone. Using the light from the screen, he inspected the finger. It was black and shirveled around something more small, something thinner. Bone. Her skin had shrank all around the bone.

"I'm taking you to the hospital," said Sasuke, maneuvering her hand so it wouldn't touch anything. Hinata jerked her head towards him.

"D-Don't! I won't go!"

Sasuke growled, "And why the hell not?" Hinata squeezed her eyes shut, as if the image of him was too much to look at.

"Because, I'll die. Because there's sunlight and windows and I'm... Sasuke-san, I am a vampire," Hinata told him meekly. Sasuke shut his mouth, scrunched his eyebrows and slammed his fist on the wood back of the bench.

"Shut up. Shut the hell up."

Hinata touched his hand, her ice cold skin making him gasp. She looked at him, straight into his eyes.

"Please."

Sasuke watched her silently. Uncurling his fingers, she brought his wrist to her mouth, pressing her lips gently againt his skin. He shivered at the kiss, watching her mouth part and her tongue snake around his wrist. It was intimate, this feeling, he thought idly, seeing her eyes close and saliva coat his skin. Two pinpricks appeared and scraped against his veins, before tensing and plunging through.

Pain. It was instantaneous. Then pleasure. Pure, unalderated pleasure. Her throat worked, swallowing intently, as her tongue caught the trailing droplets. This is what being high is like, Sasuke moaned, feeling the pressure build up in him. Hinata gave one last suck and pulled his arm away quickly. It was the last straw. Sasuke gave a long, shuddering gasp, as the feeling imploded making him drift in a state of euphoria. It had felt so damn good. Why?

"I-It's getting better," murmured Hinata, watching her injured finger regrow muscle and tissue. Sasuke took a deep breath and gave in, sinking gracelessly to the pavement on his knees.

"You're... a vampire," he mumbled, trying to even out his heartbeat and breathing. Hinata nodded slightly and slipped off the bench.

"It's supposed to feel good. Vampiric saliva releases endorphins into the system to override the pain," explained Hinata softly, helping Sasuke back to his feet.

"You're a damn vampire," repeated Sasuke with more feeling, letting the truth sink slowly into his brain. He looked at the gash in his arm and winced. He could feel it now. Little pricks of pain, soreness.

"You didn't believe me," she accused quietly. He looked at her disbelievingly.

"Well, I do now," he pointed out, fishing out a kerchief from his bag and pressing it to his wound. Hinata tilted her head thoughtfully.

"True," she agreed.

They walked off.

He met her again the next day at cram school. She seemed serious about this education thing, taking all her notes and answering questions. She was a studious-seeming student with flyaway dark hair and unnerving white eyes. Sasuke got used to her though, after contemplating all night the chances of vampires surviving till this century. One would think a scientist would have caught a specimen and dissected him on a lab table somewhere. He guessed this wasn't the case.

Anyways, he simply ignored her presence, taking random naps during the self-work times and re-evalutating how he saw the world. He idly wondered if his brother's boyfriend was a werewolf, with the gray hair and eyepatch. Then crushed that thought before some werewolf bit him to prove it to him. The bite wound from Hinata on his arm had been quickly wrapped up once he had been walked home by her. Thankfully, his parents were out for dinner so no suspicious questions arose. Though his brother had called. Which resulted in a one-sided conversation about 'taking care of your parents after I'm gone' and other random crap Itachi liked to spit out to put him on the mother of all guilt-trips in any given situation.

Sasuke righted his thought process before it became even more convulted and was surprised to see Hinata passing him a note half-way through Math class.

Shall we go on a walk after this?

Sasuke stared at it then scribbled down a haphazard 'sure' before passing it back.

They were the last ones out of the classroom. Him resting his head in his arms and her packing all her stuff away carefully in her backpack. It was a thoroughly normal scene and the teacher ignored them from his desk. He muttered to himself while looking over his papers, and for the first time, not making words like 'weird guy' pop into Sasuke's head. His definition of normal now included everyone human. Concluding in Hinata as being the only abnormal anomally he knew. He was sure she wouldn't mind.

"Shall we go?" interrupted Hinata in her usual soft voice as she touched his shoulder lightly. Sasuke stirred then got up lazily, picking up his bag.

"Ah, let's go," he affirmed, sauntering over to the door. Hinata smiled, amused, and followed obediently.

"You're quite different," she remarked casually as they left the classroom. Sasuke looked back and watched her curiously.

"Hm?"

"The boys I knew, they were very quiet, a bit cold and very disciplined," Hinata explained, her features turning contemplative. He fell into step beside her.

"Who are they?"

Hinata smiled wistfully, "ah, they're gone."

"How old are you?" asked Sasuke as they walked through the cold, night air. It was deserted, with flickering lights and leafless trees adorning the path. Hinata tapped a finger to her lips as she thought.

"I was transformed back when kimonos were daily clothing," answered the girl vaguely. Sasuke balked, stumbling at bit before regaining his step.

"You're what? Like a few hundred years old?" he asked incredulously. Hinata giggled.

"No, not that old. Perhaps a bit over a hundred or so. It all just blurs together after the first decade."

"Uh-huh, right," said Sasuke mockingly, looking at her flatly.

"It was my cousin who transformed me. An exchange of blood. He took some of mine and I took some of his," continued Hinata, her voice still as soft, "I was due to be married off. My cousin was believed to be dead for five years."

Sasuke was silent, nodding to encourage her. Curiosity was an understatement. He was hungering for knowledge, be it about vampirism or the enigmatic Hyuuga Hinata.

"And during the new moon, he showed up. Slid open my door and bowed deeply. 'Hinata-sama, come with me.'" She shook her head with a smile, "as if I had a choice to refuse. He always talked like that. Of course I accepted so he showed me his glittering teeth, his cold skin, explained that to live while being dead required the warm blood of the living. It was quick. We were gone before daybreak."

"Your cousin, where is he now?" inquired Sasuke gently, cautious to probe before she closed up.

"I have no idea!" she laughed, "but he calls me usually. To check up on me. Neji-niisan has always been like that."

Sasuke stumbled again.

"You mean that guy! The guy that told you to tell me? That's your great maker?"

Hinata nodded, her eyes glittering in laughter.

"And your fiance? How'd he take it?"

Hinata shrugged.

"Perhaps he married my younger sister. Perhaps the engagement had been called off. I will never know. Only his face and his name. And that is a curious fact indeed," she added.

"Well then? His name?"

"Curious indeed," repeated Hinata, looking at him thoughtfully, "His name was Uchiha Madara."

This time Sasuke actually stumbled and fell.

Here he was meeting a woman that had disappeared magically from his family history books. The one woman who could've changed history of the Uchihas. She had that great power once. The power solely given to women. To change the fate of a family. He wondered if she knew that Madara had been closing in on fourty while she was the ripe age of 17 or so. A second wife to the Uchiha widow. And she had never showed. Word was she had eloped with an unknown man.

And here, Sasuke realised that that was the night she had indeed run off, dead to the world. No one would think of her any longer. Her family would outcast her in shame, her sister and relatives would pass away from old age, the Uchihas might give her a line or two in their books, an unknown entity with no name and face but the woman who could've changed everything for them.

"Why?"

Hinata shook her head.

"I don't know. I loved Neji-niisan, so I trusted him, left with him. And now, I meet the boy who could've been one of my descendants. Life is indeed curious."

Sasuke inclined his head, "indeed." He traced a finger down his bandaged wrist.

"Why do you keep living here?" he asked suddenly. Hinata looked at him, surprised.

"Because I like it here," she answered. Sasuke shook his head.

"No, I mean, what's the point? You've been here for a century and some, and you still want to stay? Why? What's the point?"

He hated this question. He hated trying to answer this for himself. It always frustrated him, made him think about things he didn't want to. He wanted a clear-cut answer. He needed something concrete, that he could stand on, compare with. Something he could use for himself. Why would she keep being here? Stuck in her home country for a century and some. Her family was dead, rotting and her cousin had left her in some godforsaken city. Why was Hyuuga Hinata, older than his grandfather, standing before him, absolutely content with a life of blood and darkness?

Hinata quirked her lips before answering.

"Maybe so I could meet you."

And then she bowed and left.

Depression was stupid. An absolutely worthless feeling, like crying and anger. Didn't change anything. Did not affect the situation in any way whatsoever. Only, usually, made it worse. So that's why Sasuke made it a point to isolate himself from those emotions. Keep his distance from situations that could put him in that state. And then she came crashing in, with a cell phone and a soft voice and one of the more charming smiles he had seen.

Hyuuga Hinata.

She had just strolled into his life, tore up the very fabric of his world and then gave him that one last goodbye.

She never showed up for cram school after that night.

Sasuke sat on the bench at one in the morning under the flickering gaze of the lamppost, waiting for the late night bus to make its rounds. Naruto had dragged him to another Friday night slasher fic with the same obscenely boring plot but great gore scenes. He appreciated that the director provided loud screams in order for the crowd to not fall asleep in the theatre. It was a good additional detail. His phone vibrated in his pocket and he slipped it out, wincing at the name on the screen.

He answered it.

"Yeah?"

"Otouto," greeted Itachi with a smile in his voice, "you're still up?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "no shit."

"Don't be like that. There's a package for you at my apartment. Would you mind picking it up?"

"At one in the morning?"

"Hm? That late already? Well, it came an hour or two ago. Thought you'd want it."

"I'll stop by," sighed Sasuke, idly wondering if it was some sort of sick prank. After a while, the bus rolled up and he got on, flashing his pass before sitting in the back. He leaned against the window, watching the lights flash by. There were two other occupants. One with closed eyes, listening to his music and a tired looking girl with hair tied up in buns. He ignored them until he heard a shuffle beside him. Rolling his head lazily to the side, Sasuke looked up.

White eyes.

White eyes drowning him, enveloping him, pulling him down and suffocating him. White, so pure, untouched, all-seeing white.

"Hinata-" he caught himself, seeing it was a guy, with long hair and earphones lying across his shoulder.

"The Uchiha," he smirked, his voice echoing in his head. Familiar. Distinctly familiar.

"Neji?" asked Sasuke, staring blankly at the effeminate male.

"Hyuuga to you," retorted Neji, slipping beside him. He parted his lips, chewing his gum leisurely as his fangs flashed and glittered in the lights flashing from the window.

"It's been a year," started Sasuke, entranced by the shining teeth, "since she left. I doubt she's in the city anymore." Neji blew a bubble, schooled his features as his eyes blinked methodically after three second intervals.

"I know," he replied simply, "just wanted to see what kept her here for so long." Sasuke blinked in surprise.

"Long? She stayed for a whole week, that's short in even human standard time."

Neji busied himself with his hair, pulling it from his neck and letting it fall back down. It was so precise, predictable, controlled. Sasuke knew he wasn't even remotely human. Years of practice in communicating with humans probably helped. The boy turned back to Sasuke after the routine.

"Human standard time?" Neji smiled, looking cold and cruel and undescribably beautiful, "so you believe then."

Sasuke snorted, "hard not to when you burn when touching holy water then heal automatically after sucking blood."

"Excuse me?"

Sasuke started in surprise as the whole demeanor of the boy beside him changed. From taunting and cruel and powerful to cold and deadly and horrifically angry. Neji's lips curled to a thin, grim line and his eyes lost any flash of playfulness. He spit his gum out to the side and leaned towards his companion slowly, like a snake. A very poisonous, angry snake.

"Hinata-sama was hurt?" His voice was absolutely dead, carefully enuciating each syllable like it was the question between life and death. And, if Sasuke guessed right, it probably was.

"It was self-inflicted. I gave her my blood and she was as good as new," answered Sasuke as carefully as he could. Neji hissed quietly, his upper lip curling in disgust as his fangs caught the light again.

"Aren't you special?" spat out the vampire, "got her lips on you, felt that desire in your core, felt that vicious tug between euphoria and pain. I should kill you for defiling her that way."

Sasuke involuntarily shrank into the seat, feeling the material dig into his back. He was terrifying, absolutely horrible in his anger yet still enchanting. A very beautiful man in a very young body. He looked barely eighteen, but was beautiful, charming. Sasuke couldn't stop looking at him as Neji leaned in, ghosting his lips against the boy's jugular. Cold, ice-cold, that's what his lips felt like. The fleeting kiss on his neck made shivers rack through his spine.

"I should kill you," growled Neji, mouth against a vein that was pounding with blood. He pulled away quickly, righting himself back in his seat.

"You love her," blurted out Sasuke in realization. Neji's head jerked towards him, hair whipping back.

"What did you say, Uchiha?"

"That's why you made her into... into that. You love her. You wanted to keep her forever with you."

"I would advise you to shut up."

Sasuke's lips curled into a smirk, "you're in love with Hyuuga Hinata yet you left her. Why?"

Neji's expression of disgust deepened even further, "She wanted to meet Madara's kids. A human attachment. She was quite taken by him, you know. Disgusting old man. I took her away from that. God knows where she would have ended up in his perverse hands."

"She would have been my great-grandmother," answered Sasuke succintly.

"Perhaps," answered Neji coolly, "or she could have ended up as a pretty puppet used by the Council as Madara became taken by other women younger than her."

"Is that why your almost 150 years old and still walking this country?"

Neji seemed surprised at the change of subject but recovered quickly.

"To protect Hinata-sama? Yes. That is all the reason I need."

Sasuke looked out the window.

Maybe that was a good enough reason for him too.

He met her two years after she had bowed and left him standing on that deserted sidewalk with so many questions and so many more confessions. The encounter with her cousin was brief after another bout of insults over family heritage and Sasuke needing to get off to get to his brother's. The package was simply a box with a piece of paper inside. In elaborate kanji, it had merely one word on it. 'Uchiha'. That's when he knew she would come back. A sign, a simple little note notifying him she hadn't forgotten. Perhaps, never forget.

He met her two years later.

She looked exactly the same, with flyaway hair like a typhoon had blown through the dark locks and milky white eyes that threatened to drown him. He was older, taller, his face more defined, cheekbones jutting out and lanky dark hair tied up in a short ponytail at his nape. He almost looked like a spitting image of his brother but with distinct differences. His features were a bit softer, eyes a bit bigger and a lazy gait. He was standing in the dark shadow of the convenience store, chewing a meatbun as he tried to find his bus pass in his bag.

"You dropped it. Here."

White eyes. Sasuke let the meatbun fall from his mouth onto the concrete as he stupidly stared at her. White, white, white. Pure, untouched white.

"I missed you."

Hinata screwed up her eyebrows before curling over in giggles. Sasuke finally realized the absolute stupidity of the statement he had just blurted out and busied himself with grabbing the bus pass from her hand and stuffing it back in his wallet.

"I... I missed you too," she admitted, recovering from her fit of laughter. He involuntarily slumped over, relieved and disbelieving.

"Didn't you leave?"

"Ah, I did. But I decided to come back," she told him. Sasuke watched her curiously.

"Why?"

"Because I found the answer."

"To what?"

Hinata smiled gently, "to the point of living."

Sasuke shivered when she took his hand and placed it on her chestbone, between her breasts. He was too entranced by her that he failed to notice the intimacy of the position.

"There's no heart beat," she said. He nodded in response.

"That's because you-"

Hinata cut him off, "the answer is... The answer is, when I'm with you, I can hear it beating."

Uchiha Sasuke took in a sharp breath before leaning down and pressing a small kiss on the corner of her mouth.

Hinata hiccuped, "and when you do that, I feel tears running down my face and when you're gone, I feel the cold."

"That means your alive."

Hinata smiled, a bit shaky and very much happy:

"When I'm with you, I feel alive."

...and that was all the reason I was looking for.

AN: and ta-dah, it's over. i wish real life was like this. anyways, yes, the ending is left open. maybe true love conquers all and sasuke lives happily ever after as a blood-sucking fiend. or maybe, it was a bittersweet parting when naruto the vampire walked by and sasuke got ditched. ahaha. i hate that pairing. or maybe hinata will die flashily in sunlight and sasuke will move to africa. who knows. i just felt it was appropriate to leave it open. i would love to hear your guys' versions! drop a line to let me know. :)