Sorry for the wait, I'm a busy bee. And sorry the last chapter was total shit, hopefully this one is a bit better.

"Why is Daddie cranky, Mommie? Daddie, are you cranky?" Kyo wiggled his prepubescent hips with an innocent smile, his finger rubbing against the small under-developed teeth in his mouth.

"You're walking down a hall right?" Sasuke grabbed his son's wrists for another hypothetical story.

"Daddie, I'm not walking down a hall." Kyo rocked back and forth on his heels the way he always did.

"You're walking down a hall, aren't you?" Kyo simply nodded. "It's dark. There are three doors, one door has a bunch of new toys, the other has your brother behind it. In seven minutes the house is going to explode, which are you going to save?"

Kyo stopped his rocking and stuck his index finger into his mouth, eyebrows furrowed. This was his thinking face. "Can't I just come back for Sasuke?"

"Sasuke, please don't play mind games with the children." Hinata walked into the kitchen, where Sasuke and Kyo casually sat enjoying a mediocrely prepared breakfast. She looked beaten, tired and somewhat annoyed.

"Come along, Kyo. We must be preparing for your training." The oldest nurse came in, sweeping the young boy into her arms and hurrying him out of the room. Even she knew what had went on the past three days concerning the Lord and his wife. The entire house was speaking of it, to deaf ears. The Lord was back to his old antics of confusion and terror, although this wasn't news.

As soon as Kyo and the portly nurse who readily swept him up and took off were out of ear shot, Hinata turned to him.

He glanced up at her for just a moment, he felt cryptic today.

"This seems like something really trivial to be upset over." He said, reaching for the news paper which was on the edge of the table, for the purpose of having something to look at other than his wife. This was his way, he'd be angry, infuriated even but no matter what he would always accuse Hinata of holding a grudge when there was no real grudge to be found.

"If you don't want me to have this, fine. Cancel the credit tab and everything will return to normal."

"I want you to have this." He nodded his head as if his derived answer was obvious. "I have a bad feeling about it is all. You're my wife, the marital councilor did say I can no longer control your life." he spoke so humorously, flipping through lifeless and unimportant pages in the slaughter fest that was their weekly news paper.

"Isn't this what you want?" Here came the never-ending onslaught of questions with a motive the size of a blue whale backing them. She approached him, twirling her hips ever so slightly, unintentional yet nearly automatic, she'd learned this trick just days after their last marital crisis. "You should have the best of everything, that's what I want to give you."

His gaze surrounded her lower body, it had been his intentions not to play into her immature game but he was a man of only so many statutes. He didn't know what it was today that made him so attracted to the former Hyuuga. She had always been gorgeous, nearly irresistible, worth dying for by a normal man's standard, yet barely anything special to him. Now, in her darkening of age, he found every thing she did more sexual than ever. A simple smile corroded his will power, a turn of the head deflated his confidence. He was a slave to the woman he was so natured to overpowering.

"Don't try to appeal to my selfishness." he answered in a low groan, examining her menacingly. "Come here." his arm jutted out for her to grab onto, she readily accepted it, wrapping her fingers around it and giving him plenty of access to pull her in. She sat on his lap, as directed and immediately went to brushing her fingers up against the greasy film that existed on top of his unkempt hair. He kissed her chin as their faces barely rubbed together.

"It's so unlike you to engage this right here." Hinata giggled, a sound muffled by her lips pressed against Sasuke's stressed neck.

"My mood is liable to change." He shrugged in a certain devilishly cocky way which Hinata enjoyed so greatly. He gently intertwined his fingers into hers, kissing her shoulder as he dragged them down his chest to the groove that was the zipper of his weekday slacks.

Hinata blushed deeply, a normal defense of her's. "You're embarrassing me." she groaned happily in some derived sense of sensuality and ecstacy. "Perhaps we should go upstairs."

"Actually, your stooge should be arriving soon. It is Monday." He gave a false yawn to emphasize his sarcastic displeasure, standing up which caused her to in turn slide to her feet. His guilt trip would soon follow, a reverse psychological tactic. At times Hinata felt like their marriage was a game of chess, a game she had no chance of winning. "Besides, I've got some business to attend to this morning."

"Define business." Hinata tilted her head, the questioning wife.

"Absolutely not." he responded almost sing-songly, picking his suitcase up from the sideboard.

After many years of his silence, Hinata learned not to ask questions. Questions always got her into an existential threatening situation. She was vexed and repulsed by them. Marriage counciling with many doctors and "professionals" taught her to always ask questions but never suspect without reason. Contrary to that, she always suspected without reason and failed to ask questions. Sasuke took that and went about his way, it was no bother to him that she refused to ask him questions or rather she refused to demand an answer. This may have been the reason they didn't seem to fall into altercations as often at this time as much as they did before.

"Daddie! Daddie! Daddie! What that?" Kyo came running into the room, well actually he came tripping into the room. Tripping over his pants which were around his ankles at that. The nurse followed him clumsily, frightened that he was disturbing his father which could possibly cause a loss of her job. He paid them all specifically so he'd only have to be bothered with his children when he felt like it.

Kyo pointed to Sasuke's suitcase, lazily hanging in his hand.

"It's a suitcase, Kyo." Sasuke said as if he were highly aggravated, regardless of how much he desired he found it devastatingly hard to be cruel to his children; especially Kyo. Although Kyo was more hyperactive than Sasuke (his junior), he was more social and more direct, he reminded Sasuke of so many parts of himself-whereas Sasuke junior was silent and illusive, genuinely straying away from human contact which explained his absence at the moment.

Kyo's eyes opened wide as he smiled, like this was his greatest discovery. "Ohhh." he said blindly with the sweetest smile. He turned, pointing to the table. "Suitcase." he said, slapping it. Hinata giggled but it quickly ceased.

"That is a table." Sasuke said as if Kyo was supposed to know.

"Ohhh." he smiled, laughing. "That suitcase." he pointed to Sasuke's briefcase. "That table." he turned and slapped the table.

"That's right." Sasuke nodded as he began walking away.

"What that?"

It wasn't long before that, incidentally, that Hinata opened the door to the man she'd who's visit she had been both anticipating and dreading. She did want this, the training itself and personally she thought she needed it desperately. She had only hated it because she felt as though Sasuke would hate her for it. Even knowing that, she dressed herself in subtle clothes, which she would wear proudly as she stressed her aging body to the point of desired collapsing.

It almost felt like she was unprepared to see the rippling current that was Rip Dansei. She blushed, it was a guiltless blush for several reasons actually. The first being that it had been nearly three hours since Sasuke had left for work and his junior was in training, her only worry was Kyo who was happily playing in the nursery. The second was that every maid, nurse and sitter seemed to stop in their tracks, they were all halted by the specific sight of this man. Though the gossip of this new desire of Hinata's had spread amongst the staff of their home, they all had no idea how attractive the trainer would be, let alone that he would be male. Of course, Hinata knew well and so did Sasuke. It wasn't until now that she was at a loss of breath, just glancing at him. He stood tall, nearly taller than Sasuke with a muscular, classic shape that represented what Hinata thought to be chivalry and courage. His hair was shorter, unlike her husband's, cut decently and his eyes betrayed his innocent appearance.

Hinata (and everyone else for that matter) suddenly felt tragically underdressed.

"Mrs. Uchiha, you're even more radiant than I remembered." He grabbed her hand, shaking it but in a gentle, unequal fashion. Hinata didn't care at all, the contact seemed to ignite her insides.

"G-good morning...Mr. Dansei." Hinata responded, it took her a moment to even realize he was speaking to her.

"Oh please, it's nearly noon." He laughed, stepping inside the house without a formal invitation. Hinata watched his fine movements, he seemed to open yet so guarded and unexposed. "What a classy home." He gazed up, circumspecting the room with wide and somewhat impressed eyes. "But I bet that fancy, rich husband of yours maintains all these antique commodities." he said, running through his vocabulary to find a word to describe their home which was filled with strategetically placed junk.

"He has described it as filthy." Hinata spoke in such a low tone it could barely be heard. She was so amused really, her modesty overwhelmed her more human qualities. "This is actually the...the room we'll be using...to train."

Rip glanced up at her in some shock as he poked and fingered a miniature statue of a lonely samurai frozen in time and compacted into a priceless porcelain figurine. "Don't you have a room for training?"

"We have an entire training deck." Hinata didn't mean so appear so shallow, at times she forgot that the average person lacked those things she convened as everyday necessities. "...But our son...Sasuke uses it to train during the day. You see, he's seven and he's begun his training process so he must train very often...to please my husband." Here she was explaining every canyon of her life, well perhaps not every detail but much more than she would normally let on.

"Well isn't your family official." he responded, mood noticeably dropped and a hint of sarcasm showing through. "Well we can move this table and turn ...this thing around." He said, his hand hovering over a piece of art Sasuke had been given by a colleague as a gift for their anniversary. Hinata had only wondered what it was once before, after that she simply ignored it's existence but she had no doubt in her mind that it was worth more than the lot their home was on. It seemed to be a cross between a man laying on his side, ready to die-and a butterfly attempting to absorb the soul of a giraffe.

Their training went forward as thus, she did everything she was asked. The exercises were simple and she was pleased at her ability to do them so quickly and effortlessly. Even in her nearing middle-age shape, she could indeed manage to jump up two feet in the air and clap her hands over her head. She was elated, much of the feeling may have been her own falsified over-exaggeration of her excitement but she felt inspired nonetheless. She had even invited the man to come to dinner with her and her husband that night. The lord would be extremely upset, possibly already irritable from his stressful and trying day at his office; yet this sense of self gave Hinata the uncanny and temporary ability to do this with little remorse or thought for regret.

Just because she refused or lacked the mental capacity to care whether or not Sasuke felt abused or angered by her invitation, that didn't mean she hadn't anticipated his reaction. He came home that afternoon in a daze, dragging himself in the door and dropping his briefcase right there. He began unbuttoning his shirt before he'd even walked upstairs only to see this man sitting in his livingroom, the tiny and underdeveloped foot of his infant son grasped in the man's hand. Words did not fly out as marital counciling had advised against it, instead he smiled the most placid and ingenuine smile. Strangling his wife with his eyes and defacing her soul through his teeth.

Now here they sat, twenty minutes into an awkward dinner that took place down town, the same location at which they had an altercation during the period they'd been separated years ago. Sasuke sipped from a glass of red wine, the sophisticated neck of the glass was placed between his middle and ring finger as his lips made contact with the brim. He glanced about, his shoulders were just now beginning to uncurl as this had been his third glass. Hinata sat next to him with a ridiculous smile. a modest but adolescent smile. She continued to peer back and forth between Rip Dansei, who sat across from her and Sasuke who sat next to her, very closely at that. He was, After all, a possessive man. Rip, who had been working on his third or forth glass of red wine himself, elegantly ate the slab of steak that was in front of him. Hinata merely stared at him, fingering her autumn salad with her fork while Sasuke stabbed his broiled mesquite chicken and onions with his knife.

"Hinata does very well with her exersices, she's a natural." Rip spoke, bits of food still being processed in his mouth. Sasuke groaned, he was truly a disgusting creature, to him atleast. Hinata only saw quirky, adorable even. "She was built for gymnastics, I'm telling you. She's got the perfect body for it."

Sasuke raised a brow, he had a feeling he'd be doing this a lot for as long as this charade of a ordinary occurrence persists. "You've seen her body?"

All eyes around the table were him Sasuke's direction. Hinata's heart pounded at a ridiculous rate, in worry that Sasuke would frighten her new friend and he would never return. "Well, did you?"

"Well not entirely, but I'd be willing to bet it's a sight to see." Rip chuckled as if the poorly told joke was hilarious. A vein appeared on Sasuke's forehead, one he'd developed shortly after Kyo was born. There was just something hellish about raising one child who refused to speak and another who refused to be silent.

"No, it's not." He replied sternly. Rip stopped laughing, Hinata's eyes were pointed at her lap and Sasuke glared at the two of them. It was obvious that Sasuke wouldn't be happy until the entire dinner was finished in silence.

"Well damn." Rip turned, looking down at the watch on his wrist, which Sasuke noted to be "cheap" and worth relatively close to nothing. " I should be going, gotta open shop tomorrow." he chuckled uncomfortably, rising from his seat.

"Please stay." Hinata spoke. Sasuke's eyes darted to her as he was just starting to unwind at the idea that this asinine fool would be leaving. "We've ordered drinks already, it would be such a waste to let your wine just sit there." It wasn't quite the most valid excuse but it would work for this moment in time.

"Well, you know I never say no to free drinks." he laughed once again. "But I really should go." He pulled his coat from behind the chair he sat in and pulled it on. "It was just fantastic seeing you again, Hinata." Rip's hand rested on Hinata's shoulder for a moment and Hinata could feel her face beginning to burn. She was one to detect her own weaknesses with that damned blush of hers. "It was nice seeing you too, Mr. Uchiha."

With that having been said, he walked away and Hinata watched his back angrily as he walked out the door of that establishment. Sasuke laughed to himself menacingly, his plan had panned out well. Hinata's anger was just going to be another one of things he had to deal with. As if he were not used to her neurotic outbursts and silent streaks already.

"If it makes you happy, I'll drink his glass." Sasuke said in some sense of twisted and inconsiderate humor. "Well not really. I would never drink from the same cup as him." He reached across the table, grabbing the man's cup and dragging it over to his side. As soon as it was fixed on the edge, he gently fingered the bottom causing it to fall off the table anc crash to the floor, shattering glass in every direction. Startled patrons jumped and looked around to see what had fallen. "These damned table cloths can be quite cumbersome. They tend to be a bit slippery."

The calmness in his voice disgusted her.

"Excuse me, ma'am." Sasuke reached out, tugging on the aprons of a well dressed waitress. "I seem to have broken this glass on the floor, by accident of course."

The waitress peered down at the mess of crimson wine and broken glass at her feet. "Oh, I apologize." She had no reason to apologize, obviously. "Of course we'll have this mess cleaned immediately. The broken glass is free of charge, Mr. Uchiha." she hurried away into the kitchen, abandoning the table of elderly people she was attending to.

Sasuke had a way of mending the formality of things. He could turn the classiest eating establishment into a mess of blood-like liquids and shattered glass. He was repulsed by this life, he always had been yet he lived it so well. Even so that others would follow in his quirks and actions, if only to receive some of that carved from birth charm that he withheld. Even the glass that he'd broken was gratis, yet it was worth more than hundreds he was sure.

He smugly sipped from his own cup. "Feel no remorse, my darling. This night should have been about us from the beginning." He said in some guilt for his actions. "Besides, how can you be angry when we have each other?"

"I'm not angry." she responded and that was all she would give him.

"You seem angry, you've got your arms crossed and you're staring maliciously at your salad." he frowned.

"I'm not angry. I've just come to the realization that my husband would go to extreme lengths to escape the company of my personal trainer." She said. "I'm not as angry as I am disappointed in the maturity you've shown to me."

The wine he was drinking got caught in his throat as he suddenly felt he should scrutinize this situation further. "You think I've been immature?" He asked but it was more like a command.

"No." she replied, lowering her head submissively.

"Well of course you do. Perhaps I haven't used my best judgement." Hinata's head shot up faster than ever before. Sasuke just admitted to being wrong. Even repentively. Their marriage councilor was extremely tough on humility acceptance. As a result, Sasuke apologized and became quite quick to consider his own faults, for about a week. After the counciling stopped, Sasuke slowly reverted, as did Hinata.

"What?" her blood froze in her veins with anticipation.

"I should be more considerate. After all, this entire ordeal, as it may be; isn't about me. It's for your sake, so I should perhaps step aside and allow progress to take place. You do deserve that much." Sasuke nodded. Hinata still glanced around, unsure of what really just occurred in front of her face. Was he sincere or was this a mind game set up to make her feel sorry for having an opinion? Most likely, the latter.