Until The Stars Fall - 1306

It had started out as quiet meals between the two of them, when her husband was away (in addition to a surplus of old money, he was a well known business man, providing much of the Nin issue gear in the village). They would meet and talk quietly over what the cooks made, or what she herself put together, when one or the other was not off on a mission. If he were being frank, and he often was, Neji thought it lucky her husband hadn't seen a problem in her continued career as a Nin, because he had a feeling it would've destroyed his cousin (despite her strength, Hinata was still limited in many ways).

They would sit respectively across from each other, propriety always marked and held in perfect check.

Neji supposed it wasn't very surprising (Hinata being the creature she was) that he'd eventually begun to sit beside her, laughing over silly and simple things. They would smile and drink a lot and pick food from each others bowls. They shared a quiet comradery, which was all the more beautiful for it's secretness.

Hinata confided all the things she loved about directing the main house, as well as her struggles (hates, because she was too much of a lady to speak harshly of the Hyuuga, even when she silently thought so). Sometimes, his cousin had said, she thought her inheritance was in name only.

Neji had answered in his calm and reassuring way, and Hinata had smiled, granting him her beautiful blush. He hated the fact love was so complicated, cursing every god and devil in-between that made him still want his married cousin.

He remembered (with a touch of fondness and overwhelming regret) that it was early spring when they'd come together as lovers. She'd been crying in the training room over a broken flower pot (he never did figure out the reason why) and Neji, always close and always listening, had hastened at the sound. She'd explained through sobs how it was nothing, that she was fine, tugging fitfully at the hem of her thin kimono, and he'd replied dryly how it was obvious she was not fine and it was something. Neji supposed (looking back on it now) it had been wrong to watch the perfect swell of her breasts, as they moved in time with her tears.

He remembered how he'd only wanted to make it stop. His single use was preventing her pains, her troubles, and he was angry that he couldn't even do that right.

It made him so angry that a man who should've been with her every moment of every day, barely showed a minute's interest.

He always had a terrible temper.

In a fit of frustration and unrequited love, Neji had dragged her towards him, pulling her up on her knees and smashing her lips into his. They were warm and soft and tasted like the strawberries she'd eaten earlier, and he'd thought, dear god how could it be everything and nothing like he'd ever imagined? He'd tasted and relished every inch of her mouth.

She hadn't made a sound though, and feeling ten kinds of fool, Neji had been on the verge of letting go and high tailing it for the mission desk (he'd thought a deadly A-rank or something similar would've been welcome at the moment).

However, to his immense despair and simultaneous relief, his too-sweet Hinata had lifted her small hands and cupped his face, holding him there with a woman's strength. The only kind of power she ever truly held over him, because even his ridiculous curse mark couldn't bid him to do something if he didn't want to.

She'd half laughed and half sobbed when they parted, and he'd seen in her eyes all the emotions he knew must've been swimming in his.

The rest had been a flurry of ties and soft material, and Neji hadn't even fully taken off his hie-ate before he'd had her pinned against one of the dojo walls. Her strong and curvy legs wrapped around his waist.

He'd taken her in the dark, hiding from the heat and harsh reality of the day.

Somehow (in the most tortured part of his mind) he'd always known Hinata was a screamer. The sound of his name tearing from her swollen pink lips had threatened to unman him. No stupid appellations, no Neji-nii, no nii-san, he'd thought wildly as he'd thrust into her, just Neji - just his name.

He'd decided then and there, with no mind to the dark phantom of her husband and loom of their family that he could grow quite accustomed to the sound.

Adultery, incest, it all rang so sordid (something he'd never have a part in were he given the option) but every time he looked at Hinata, words simply failed. She was beyond the stain of such things.

...o0o...

It would be a year next week, Neji mused, as he slid his tongue down the smooth curve of her stomach, and he wasn't finished growing accustomed to her yet. He still couldn't get enough of the sound of her voice, breathless and shy, or loud and demanding.

He felt her tug at his hair, and he smirked into the hem of her panties, moving to inch the strap down with his teeth. He licked at the sensitive skin, and feeling more in a teasing mood, swiped long slow, strokes along the sweetest part of her. She nudged at his shoulder blade with a dainty heel and he chuckled, the sound reverberating deep if her sudden moan was anything to go on - - and it usually was, as Hinata was terribly expressive. He slid his hands beneath her bottom, giving it a sharp squeeze, before lifting her up so he could taste her properly.

He thought it strange and oddly arousing that every inch of her was as sweet as her lips.

Neji knew it wouldn't last forever (a dalliance he tried to convince himself, if only so his heart wouldn't blacken entirely) and one day he wouldn't feel her climb soft into his bed when her husband failed to come home. He wouldn't have the touch or taste of her lingering in his mouth, or the hot comfort of her surrounding him, holding him just right.

It made him sick and so damn happy that they fit together like the pieces of a puzzle.

He'd decided that some noble with not a scar to his name could never attest to so much, and if Neji held her a little tighter than was wise, or stayed up too long just running his fingers through her hair, it was only to convince himself of this fact. Hinata never said anything (she'd told him once, tears in her lavender eyes that were-not-quite-like his own that she didn't like speaking of another man when she was with him - - as if he could ever deny her) but he knew, an animal's knowing, that her husband could never have her the way he did.

For now Neji would kiss her in the dark, follow ten yards behind in the day, and damn fate and all those stupid consequences.

He'd grown so tired of waiting for inevitable things.

A/N - this has turned into a complicated thing in my head. It's gonna end up a couple chapters that are pretty much stand alone, but still work in the arc of the theme. I've already got the drama mapped out in my head.

Next chapter, Hinata style: what happens when our tragic beauty finds out some potentially devastating news (look at PenCorp, trying to be vague, god how she sucks!)? Ku Ku Ku, Hyuuga drama of the worst kind. God, I love forbidden love. Incest and adultery? Be still my beating heart.

Review, darlings.

P.S - psst! Thanks to Sunako no Ai - I think I will use your suggestion, prolly when I do the next chapter and can map out the appropriate credit in the Summary. I ended up sticking this in as a chapter a couple days out, and then deleting it immediately, b/c it didn't flow the way I wanted - I'm picky as HELL. So now it will be more than a oneshot. Sorta. Like a series of oneshots. Bleah.