Alas! A cornucopia of love. Unfortunately for me, the power of this never ending supply of bounty does extend to granting me rights of ownership to any of below mentioned characters. OR the Potter Puppet Pals, but you know... I'll survive.
Shades of Grey Chapter 3: Haze
"Hey Sasuke. Are you doing anything tomorrow evening?" Naruto looked like a kicked puppy, trying to use charm and failing miserably against the cold granite walls of his roommate's defenses.
"You'd better not be asking me out on a date."
"Hell no. But I do have one with this amazing girl… but the only way she'll say yes is if we can find someone to watch over her roommate. She's uh… blind."
Sasuke didn't immediately refuse. This was good news. Naruto tried his luck farther. "I was wondering if you'd watch her for an evening… I'd make it up to you! Please Sasuke?" There was an ingratiating whine in the blonde's voice. Sasuke decided it might be worth it. After all, if he did end up scaring the girl away, he'd never have to see her again.
"You'd make it up to me, hn? And if I said that dinner for the next week couldn't be ramen, or anything remotely related to ramen would you still be asking me?"
"Yes! Alright, fine. If making me starve makes you that happy, fine." Naruto looked only mildly dejected.
Sasuke went back to typing. "Try not to take this girl out to Ichiraku, right?"
"Hanabi. What is the first thing you learned about magic?" Cold grey eyes looked down at the girl without sympathy.
"That I shouldn't bother other people when they're trying to do it?" However, Hanabi rarely cared about sympathy. Her father had been saying for a long time that rebellious wasn't a 'phase' with Hanabi. Hiashi was probably very annoyed with her right now.
"Hyuuga Hanabi, what is the most basic difference between the Light and the Dark?" The withered man before her snapped like a twig. Hanabi mentally chalked another tally mark to her side of the score board. She clasped her hands in front of her and began summarizing six months of lessons.
"Those that work with the pure Dark deal in blood to raise and use their power. Those that choose the pure Light control magical energies through force of will. Most magics are impure, favoring one or the other, but are rarely uncontaminated. Very few mages have enough control to rely on clean magical energy of either Light or Dark. Most mages do not have pure blood, so their heritage often gives them an early edge. However it is their will to learn that allows them to fine tune their control over the school of magic they choose. There is influence from both beliefs that is too ingrained to censor." Hanabi paused. "Would you like me to continue?" she asked sugar sweetly.
"Impudent girl. It is clear you understand and grasp magic. So what bubble-headed notion did you have that made you want to interfere with Hyuuga magic older than even the Council?" the stately, if somewhat vulture-like, woman on the left demanded.
"I wanted to see if I could improve it."
"You what?" "Presumptuous child!" "You'd dare?"
"Well, most of the time antiques can be replaced with the newer and better."
There really wasn't a whole lot that could be said in the face of this bold faced cheek. Hanabi made a mental note to inform her sister of the general proceedings of the morning later in the afternoon.
"Hello? Oh, hi Hanabi. What trouble have you gotten into this time?" Ten Ten snuck another sip of her water bottle as she dabbed her face with the towel. The joys of speaker phone. She really did wonder at how lucky they had been to get this apartment and the mini dance studio in it. Kurenai said that the only way people like them saw the 'Rooms for Rent' sign is if the House itself approved, but Ten Ten withheld judgment on that. Kurenai may have been an excellent customer of Liu metal working, and she may have used what she bought against the other worldly evils that popped by from time to time… but there was only so much Ten Ten would pretend to believe.
"Yes, I'll get your sister." Ten Ten walked out of the studio and into the bedroom she and Hinata shared.
"Hinata, you're sister's in trouble again."
"Thank you Ten Ten." Hinata's hand searched for the phone on the bedside table. The other continued its perusal of the book on her lap.
"Hello Hanabi. What have you done to the Elders now?"
"Neh, Sasuke-teme, I really owe you for this." Big blue eyes tried so hard to look sincere.
"I know." Hard black eyes didn't look away from the computer screen. Sasuke had long since fine tuned his ability to tune Naruto out so he could concentrate on work.
"Seriously. It's not like you to agree to babysit just so I can go out on a date."
"I'm not completely heartless." I don't think even I would be cruel enough to make someone sit through a date involving the moron and any girl he deemed 'interesting'.
"Right… try telling that to some of the girls over at the Looking Glass." Naruto hadn't actually meant to be rude. Sasuke was out of his chair and across the room in a second anyway. His fist was curled in Naruto's shirt, and he was snarling an inch away from the blonde's face.
"How I play with my food is none of your business, you stupid excuse for a—"
"Knock knock! Oh my. Are we interrupting something?" Both men looked toward the door at the disruption. Cheerfully loud and drop dead gorgeous, how the hell had the moron managed to get a date with this eyeful? "Quickly, innocent roommate of mine, cover your eyes!"
"Ino… was that really appropriate?" A soft silvery voice floated to Sasuke's ears from behind the blonde.
"You took offense? I'm so sorry, darling!" Ino wailed and flung her arms around her roommate. Sasuke and Naruto were left staring at the gold sequined starburst on the back of her dress.
"Not me. I meant about opening the door without actually knocking." There was a head of dark hair visible from the tangle of femininity. Pale hands carefully extracted the rest of the body. Ino effortlessly returned her limbs to a cool pose.
"It's just a bachelor pad, and they left the door unlocked. Don't worry your little head about it, Hinata. Ooh." Ino, having finally managed to get a good look at Naruto's roommate, made appreciative noises. "Hinata, it's a crying shame you can't see the view."
"Ino… don't you and Naruto have a reservation to keep?" Hinata chided her roommate lightly.
"That's right. Come on, we're going to be late if you don't stop chatting it up." Naruto moved around a motionless Sasuke and headed toward the girls. Sasuke had plenty of girls. He didn't need this one too.
"Oh, it's not like they're going to cancel a Hyuuga reservation just because the party is a few minutes late. Naruto, introductions are the first order of business!" Ino pulled Hinata into the room. The dark haired woman allowed herself to be dragged with the comfortable tolerance of one far too used to it.
"Right well, that's Sasuke behind me." Naruto pointed to his roommate over his shoulder. "And I'm Naruto. I'll be taking care of your blonde problem this evening, Miss…"
"Hinata. Hyuuga Hinata." Hinata bowed slightly.
"Yep. She got us the reservation." Ino chirped gleefully. None of the three noticed Sasuke tensing ever so slightly at the name.
Ino stuck her head over, talking past Naruto. "By the way, thanks for watching over Hinata this evening. Our other roommate had a job to go to."
"Hn." Sasuke glared to the left of the party in the doorway. At least the one he'd be taking care of wasn't loud or obnoxious.
"You two really should go." Hinata remarked daintily.
"Right, right. Don't do anything I'll make you regret, now. Bye you two!" Ino called as she was removed from the apartment.
"I'm not a very good conversationalist." It seemed like a confession he should make early on. How exactly, was he supposed to keep her occupied while their roommates were out?
"At least you're honest. I'm sorry for burdening you with my presence, but Ten Ten has an evening job. If you could just guide me to a chair, I can amuse myself. I brought a book." She really shouldn't complain. Ino wasn't her caretaker; Ino would get out more if it weren't for her. However, no one liked it when she was by herself, for more reasons than the obvious. She could understand that, but it was Sasuke who had to suffer the whims of the blonde hurricane.
"Okay… well, I should be typing, so if you want to read, I'll just turn on the lamp so you can… fuck." He could have hit himself.
She laughed. She really couldn't help it. True, she wasn't used to new people, but she was entirely used to her situation. Usually the best way to fix times like these was…
"Well, if you like it with the lights on, it makes little difference to me."
He was gaping at her, she was sure. She'd have been surprised to find she was wrong. Normal men would have been shocked such a delicate flower could suggest such a thing. It knocked them so off balance they stopped thinking about her 'condition' and placed her on a level closer to themselves.
Sasuke however, bit back a smile. Then he remembered that he didn't need to. He took her hand, surprised at how soft it was. He could feel the petal lushness brushing against the calluses of his own hand.
"I'm not much of an exhibitionist; I wouldn't do it in front of a window, lights on, off or purple. No matter how pretty you are." Having led her around the table and to the chair across from him, seating her with chivalrous aplomb, he let her go and went back to his spot, and began tapping away.
He didn't seem to realize that he'd paid her a compliment. Perhaps he was one of those men who were just natural flirts. She mentally shrugged it off and felt for her book, looking at as much of the room as she could distinguish. It didn't seem like the typical pigsty bachelor pad, but who knew what mess lay beyond the anteroom. And she didn't necessarily mean old laundry. Hinata could feel the gentle pluck of shields getting used to her presence. She and they were probably right in their suspicions that she would be spending a lot more time here.
Sasuke hadn't been aware he'd complimented her. He'd merely said what sounded right in his head. He looked over at her consideringly. This was the girl in the picture? She was pretty in real life yes, but those soulful grey eyes couldn't see. It struck him as wrong, that those beautiful eyes couldn't see around them. Well, he thought to himself as he absently saved his document, watching her open her book to the marked page, at this rate, I don't think I'd mind if they made this a weekly thing.
And there we have the end of Chapter Three... it's so exciting.