I drove her back to my loft, all the while wishing that instead of her annoying little sister, I could be driving home Hinata. Hanabihad made it almost a necessity to point out everything on the streets, and decided to question my every movement, all the while still bothering me abut her "you-love-Hinata" conclusion.
"Will you shut up!" I shouted after a while of her prodding. "You are so infuriating!"
Hanabi, obviously used to others shouting out her flaws in her face, just snickered. "I'm not the one who has a crush on my cousin," she said, sticking out her tongue and flipping a lock of her hair behind her ear. "Besides, you seem pretty infuriating yourself."
I twitched. I used to have so much power over others—younger, same age, older… They all made way for me whenever I started yelling. And, yet, she doesn't. Who the hell is this girl?
Aggravated, I leaned back in my seat and stomped on the gas as soon as the light turned green. I glanced quickly at Hanabi, noticing the black eyes she had. Trying to distract myself, I asked, "And, what the hell is wrong with your eyes? Because, if that is makeup, I'm not letting you wear it."
That shut her up. Unexpectedly, her expression fell and she became silent. After a while, she said, "You're going too fast."
I grunted. "Speed limits bother me," I said simply, shrugging.
She didn't say anything until the next red light, a big thank-you. I relaxed a little at how silent the car had become. Although, I became bothered at how she'd dodged my question with a simple little statement. I asked again, this time calmer. "What happened to your eyes? If it's makeup, it's quite absurd."
This time she answered, but not calmly or annoyingly as I had expected. Instead, her voice was frustrated, and she snapped, "I got hit, okay! What else do you want from me!"
I pursed my lips in shock. Whoa, what caused that? I just stepped on a landmine, and it's left me still standing, wondering what just burnt me to crisps. I stared atHanabi wondering what caused her to explode like that. Was it how she'd been punched? Why she'd been punched? Who'd punched her? I thought about how long the train ride was. It should've been about forty-five minutes, and there was no chance that Hinata would be able to conjure up enough courage and power to punch her own sister and cause this much damage. So it had to be before…
But, why? Who? I sighed, stepping on the gas as the light turned green. After a moment of driving in silence, I said softly, "I'll have to fix up your eyes when we get home, regardless."
All that came from her was a grunt acknowledging she'd heard me.
XOXOX
We reached my loft around twelve. The rest of the drive home was silent, with me brooding over how to fix our already horrid situation and her sulking and pouting in the corner of the passenger seat. I opened the door, still holding her suitcase in my hand.
"I should probably fix your eyes now," I said, placing her suitcase on the couch. I heard the front door slam behind me, andHanabi grumbling, but I decided not to take it personally, since it was most likely going to happen a lot in the next three months.
She plopped down in the set in front of me, her lips twisted downwards into a snarl. "I don't like you," she said, matter-of-factly.
I smiled as I said, "The feeling's mutual, then." I walked into the other room to get my first aid kit. I didn't know much about healing black eyes, but after having countless clients walk into my office with an icepack over their eye, I decided that maybe an icepack pressed to it would make the black eye better. Just in case, though, I picked up my laptop and opened up a search site.
"What's that for?"Hanabi grumbled when I sat down on the coffee table in front of her, pointing to my laptop.
I typed in "black eye treatment" as I said, "I don't know much about healing black eyes, so I might as well research it."
Hanabi snorted. "Jus' give me a goddamn icepack an' I'll heal," she muttered, crossing her arms and looking away.
I began quizzing her on things that could end up being bad for us if it rang true for her. "Can you see fine?"
"I'm perfect. I've had these for an hour."
"That's insane. You're supposed to place a icepack on them immediately, not after a hour. Are you experiencing pain?"
"I have a helluva headache, but that's it."
"Brilliant. Is it persistent?"
"No, not really. I think it's cause I haven't taken any medication for the pain."
"So, you haven't taken aspirin? 'Cause, that thing's a bitch with black eyes."
"None so far. Hinata kissed both my eyes and that was all the treatment I got."
More than what I get. "You have raccoon eyes. Did you experience any head trauma?"
"Raccoon eyes? No."
"Can you move your eyes?"
She glanced up, then back down, then to me. "Yeah."
"Is there any blood in the whites or colored parts of your eyes?"
"I wouldn't know, dumbass."
"Jeez, I'm just asking." I studied her eyes for a minute, then said, "Nope."
"Anything else you want to question me about?" Hanabi asked condescendingly.
I pursed my lips, refraining myself from saying something I would regret later. I stood up and headed to the kitchen, to get her an icepack, or something that vaguely resembled one. As I was pulling out a towel to fill with ice, I heardHanabi say, "This is a sweet place you got here. What job you got?"
I grimaced. "I run a law firm." I answered anyway and placed ice on the towel. "It pays well," I added, knowing that she was probably thinking it anyway.
I heard her laugh.
I walked back into the room.Hanabi was fiddling with my laptop, scrolling through the treatment options on my black eye search page. When she noticed me approaching, she quickly turned away from the laptop and grinned impishly.
Brat, I thought. I sat in front of her, on the coffee table, again and handed her the towel. "Don't blow your nose," I said, remembering a tidbit of information that I read as I was scrolling through. "You got these shiners because you got hit, right? You shouldn't blow your nose because that could cause your face to blow up like a balloon. Sometimes the injury fractures the bone of the eye socket, and blowing your nose can force air out of the sinus adjacent to the socket. The air gets injected under the skin and makes your eyelids swell even more. It also can increase the chance of infection." I recited, wagging my finger at her.
Hanabistared at me in what seemed like a mix of shock and amazment. "How did you know that?" she asked, her jaw still hanging open.
I shrugged. "You spend four years remembering information for exams and an extra three years remembering client information." I scratched my cheek, thinking. "It gets imprinted and now it's just a habit I have. It's something that I'm sure happens to every lawyer."
She shook her head. "That's what's insane. I could never remember that much stuff from memory."
I shrugged. "Seven years of corruption and you'll get it," I said, grinning.
She sighed and placed the towel on her face. "Now, I have these two big ol' things on my face. I don't think I brought enough makeup to cover them up every day," she groaned.
I stared at Hanabi, confused. I would understand wanting to have an unsightly bruise on your face covered up—since, well, that doesn't exactly reassure clients—but she had such fair, pale, translucent skin, that she could probably pull them off as a new style. As makeup, like I had originally thought. Also, I wasn't the world's number one expert on cosmetics, but, wouldn't it be fairly hard to find makeup that's whiter than white? Because, that is, basically, how pale allHyuuga family members are.
I stood up, grabbing the suitcase I'd placed there earlier and her backpack. "C'mon," I sighed, tapping her head. "I'll show you your room so you can have a place to sulk without bothering me."
She growled, but obeyed.