Awww! Thanks for the nice reviews people! I love it! But I'm even happier that you all like the story:D
Anyways, here's the next chapter! Enjoy it, and let me know your thoughts on it!
Music: Title Track: "Love Like Winter" by AFI; End Credits: "Blue and Yellow" by The Used
Love Like Winter
Warn your warmth to turn away
Here it's December everyday
Press your lips to the sculpture
And surely you'll stay
For of sugar and ice
I am made.
--"Love Like Winter"
He waited silently on a high tree branch just outside the village gates. The snow fell silently all around him. In his solid black garb, he looked like a blemish on the pure snow. He was waiting for the last lights to be extinguished. When they were, he jumped down and landed lightly on the ground. Glancing around warily, he darted to the first solid wall he could find and pressed his back against it. He let his eyes, now red with his activated Sharingan, roam the empty streets. When he was satisfied that there was no one else about, he sprinted onward, heading towards the enormous Hyuuga mansion.
She had put out her lamp and crawled into bed almost three hours ago, but she was still wide awake. She had been staring out of her window at the drifting snow, and wondering if he enjoyed watching it as much as she did. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to go back to that day in the forest. The peacefulness of the memory was beginning to lull her to sleep, when she was suddenly startled awake by the soft crunch of snow under feet coming from outside her window. She quietly slipped out of her bed and moved over to the wall next to the window. Prepared to run and scream for her father should there be a robber or worse outside, she slowly peeked around the edge of the glass and looked out onto the balcony that hung off her room. Her gaze was met by a pair of blood-red eyes and she – convinced that she was face-to-face with a demon - let out a piercing scream and stumbled backwards, tripping over the hanging bed sheets, and landing with a loud THUD! on the floor.
"It's okay, it's just me," he whispered.
The look of terror left her face and she quickly stood and hurried over to the window. "What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I wanted to see you." He replied simply, smiling warmly into her face.
Their breath mingled on opposite sides of the glass as they became lost in each other's gaze. Hinata snapped out of it though, when she heard footsteps rushing towards her room.
"Oh, shit! It's my father! Hide quickly!" She ran to the side of her bed while he disappeared from the window.
A second later, her father came bursting through the door, followed closely by Neji. "What's the matter? What's wrong?" he asked frantically.
"Nothing. I had a nightmare and fell out of bed. I'm sorry for waking you."
Hiashi's eyes scanned the room; Neji didn't look convinced at all.
Hinata knew that she had to think fast if she wanted to avoid a lengthy full-room search, which would, no doubt, include the balcony. She knew that although Itachi had left the balcony, his footprints remained, evidence that someone had been there.
"Thanks for coming to check on me Father, Neji," she nodded to both of them, "I'm really sleepy though, and I'm sure that the both of you have busy days tomorrow, so you can go back to bed. I'll try not to have any more nightmares." She hopped back into her bed and snuggled under the comforter, sighing contentedly and, she hoped, convincingly. Hopefully they didn't hear her heart pounding nervously.
Thankfully, both of the Hyuuga men turned and walked out, closing the door behind them. She listened to their footsteps receding down the hallway, each returning to his room. She waited for a few more minutes after she heard their doors close before she let out a huge breath, kicked the covers off and went to the window once again.
She couldn't see Itachi anywhere, so she opened her window and leaned out, scanning her balcony. "Itachi?" she whispered, her breath forming small steam tendrils in the freezing air.
She was just beginning to think that he had left, when his face appeared, upside down, in front of her own, she gasped, but didn't scream again.
"As I was saying earlier, I wanted to see you again. It's been nearly two weeks, and I missed you." He said simply.
She smiled and replied, "I was missing you too. I'm glad you came. But you should be careful! If my father or cousin caught you…"
"Me?! I should be careful?! If I'm not mistaken, you're the one who nearly got us caught!" He sounded affronted, but he was grinning.
"Well regardless of whose fault it was this time, I'm just warning you for next time."
He smirked and rolled his eyes, which were now back to their normal black color. He extended one hand to her. "Come on up here, it's nice out."
"It's snowing and freezing," she replied curtly.
"So put some more clothes and shoes on." He said smartly.
She sighed in feigned exasperation, but a small smile played at her lips, "Alright, fine. Give me a second." She began to tiptoe around her room, picking up a pair of mismatched wooly socks, leggings to wear under her nightgown, her furry parka and her boots. She returned to the window, where Itachi's head was still hanging over the ledge from the roof.
"Ready?"
She nodded and grasped his offered hand. Once she had stepped onto the window sill, he effortlessly lifted her onto the roof next to him. They stood and he led her, still clinging to her hand, to a higher point on the roof. They sat in the snow, flawless except for their tracks, looking out at the village.
After a few minutes, he spoke, "So, you figured out who I am."
She nodded. "It wasn't that hard, especially when I saw your brother. You two really do look alike."
The smile faded from his face. "I wish you wouldn't say that. I try to forget about my family when it's possible." He didn't say it angrily, but she heard the tension in his voice and felt that if anyone else had said that to him, he would have severely injured them.
She turned to stare at him, but he wouldn't meet her gaze, and continued staring out at the quiet village. "I'm sorry," she finally said, "I won't talk about it again."
"Don't be sorry. It's my fault, not yours," he lifted her hand and pressed his lips to it.
She shivered slightly from the chill of the winter night, so he pulled her closer to him, his arm around her protectively. A contented smile formed on her face as they stared at the moonlit rooftops of Konoha.
It was around three in the morning when they finally decided to leave the roof. He helped her down the sloping rooftop and jumped down onto the balcony first, catching her as she slid down into his waiting arms. Even after her feet were on the ground, he continued to hold her. They held each others' gaze for a little while. Their bangs entwined as their lips met; blue-black and raven. He could taste the frost in her kiss and broke it off a lot sooner than he would have liked to, but he didn't want her to stay out in the cold any longer.
He gave her a small boost and she climbed through her open bedroom window. She turned to face him. "Do you want to come in?"
He seemed unsure at first. He glanced around the snow-covered balcony a little anxiously, then back at her waiting face. Her warm smile seemed to disperse any and all doubts and fears that he might have had, and he nodded, a smile crossing his own features.
She backed up as he gracefully climbed through the window, reminding her of a large, black cat. She sat on the edge of her bed, kicked off her boots, tossed her parka onto her desk chair and shimmied out of her leggings and socks, leaving her clad only in her nightgown once more. He stepped on the heels of his boots, pulling them off, and tensely removed his black cloak. He held it in his hands, unsure of where to set it.
This felt strange to him, being in her house, in her bedroom, no less. Two weeks ago, he would have never thought that he would be back in the Leaf Village, unless on a mission that would inflict some form of damage on it. Now, here he was, in the bedroom of the heiress of one of the richest families in Konoha. But his apprehensiveness was drained when she took his cloak from him and tossed it on top of her parka, placing her hands in his instead.
She turned her face up to his, and he marveled at how bright her pearly eyes were in the darkness. He brushed his hand against the smooth skin of her cheek before cupping it, and leaning in to lightly kiss her. She reached up and wound her arm around his neck, letting her fingers run through his jet-black hair. His hand slid from her cheek to her neck, gently caressing it, while the other moved to her hip.
Her mind was racing with thoughts of everything that she had ever heard about the infamous Uchiha Itachi: "He's a monster; He murdered his whole clan in cold-blood; He's a killer; He only left his poor brother alive to torment him…" She thought, If they could only see him now, how gentle he can be, they wouldn't say those things; they couldn't
She wanted to feel more of him. She opened her mouth against his, and ran her tongue over his lips. He needed no further urging to open his own mouth to her and their tongues began to dance. He tightened his hold on her hip, while she pulled him closer to her, if that was possible. She carefully backed up until she felt the edge of her bed against her legs, and when she did, she slowly sat down; he followed her downward movement, bending his knees, moving his hands so that one was on the bed, supporting him, while the other was on her back, holding her close, never breaking the kiss.
She began to inch backwards, giving him room to move onto the bed as well. She laid her head back onto her pillow, gently pulling him down with her. His lithe body was now stretched out beside hers, his mouth still covered hers.
She ran her hand from his wrist to his solid shoulder, then traced a line from his shoulder blade around his ribs and let it rest on his abdominal muscles. She marveled at how strong his body was; how firm the muscles were, and how they relaxed and contracted with every movement of his body.
His damn shirt is in the way, she thought, giving herself a good enough reason to slide her hand under the fabric and coax it off of him. Unfortunately, that meant that they had to break their kiss while he pulled the black shirt over his head. Although they were only separated for a few seconds, it felt like an eternity to her, and she almost frantically pulled him down to her again and began assaulting his mouth with a fresh onslaught of passionate kisses.
He kissed her back as fervently as he was kissed. He shuddered with pleasure at the warm contact of her hand on his stomach, his chest, his back. He softly ran his hand back and forth over her stomach, causing pleasurable shivers to overtake her. He grinned against her lips at the favorable reaction that he had caused her.
She kinked one leg up, so that her knee was bent, causing her nightgown to slide down her thigh. He moved his hand from her stomach to her thigh, gently caressing it. She shivered again. He began a stroke at her knee continued up her thigh to where her leg and pelvis connected and up to her smooth belly; he loved how soft and smooth and firm it was. Meanwhile, she was allowing her fingers to admire the various clefts and ridges of his abdominal muscles, all the while keeping her other hand tangled in his silky raven hair.
They had continued on like that for what seemed like forever, but was actually only about an hour.
He hadn't been sure about going any further than kissing and touching; at only fifteen, she was still very young, and he didn't want her to do anything that she might regret later. But she had been insistent, and it was made apparent that he wasn't strong enough to deny her what she wanted. The fact that he desperately wanted it too had made it much easier to give in. He had been so gentle, not wanting to hurt her. She had only uttered one pained gasp when he entered her; after that, she silenced any sounds that she might have made by biting her bottom lip hard when he wasn't kissing her. At first, he had been a little worried that they might be caught, seeing as how it was getting closer and closer to the morning, and he figured that some of the Hyuugas liked to rise early. But his worries had quickly vanished, leaving only the two of them.
He realized too late that they had forgotten to close the window upon their reentry from the roof, but thought that the steam rising from their heated bodies and created by their mingling breath added an otherworldly element of beauty to the moment. Now, as he held her sleeping form close to him, trying to shield her from the cold, he couldn't help but shiver as the sweat on his body cooled in the biting winter air.
Gently, he brushed a stray lock of blue-black hair from her eyes and lightly kissed her forehead. He thought it strange that they were together; they were so very different.
In fact, her entire being seemed to contrast his; if they had been colors, she would have been white and he would be black. She was the heiress to a great and honorable clan; he had destroyed his clan. She was so innocent and pure and good; his hands were stained with the blood of his family and countless others. She had a bright future ahead of her, and the ability to do anything that she put her mind to; his future was a dark one filled with violence and destruction. They were extreme opposites, and yet fate had seen it fit to throw them together, for better or worse.
It's the 'worse' that worries me, he thought. There wasn't too much that could happen to him, minus the fact that if he was ever caught in the village, he would most likely be imprisoned, tortured and then locked away forever, assuming that the males of the Hyuuga clan didn't castrate and then kill him first for tainting their heiress. But she would have to endure worse than he if they were caught. He could just see the women of the village whispering amongst themselves when she walked by in the street; hear the jeering voices of the teenage boys; feel the awkwardness of her friends.
But most of all, he could just picture her father, the anger and disappointment evident in his face, when he tore her apart for the sin she had committed. He could hear him now, calling her awful things like "traitor" and "whore", telling her that she had ruined not only her own name, but the name of her entire clan. He wondered if Hiashi would go so far as to throw his eldest daughter out, expel her from the family.
He shook his head, banishing those thoughts. They wouldn't get caught; he would make sure of it. He could endure suffering, but he would not allow it to fall on her. He unconsciously tightened his hold on her, and nuzzled his face into her hair, savoring the scent of lavender that he discovered there.
He had left when the first rays of the rising sun had fallen across the floor. He carefully slipped from the bed, dressed, and kissed her softly, not waking her, before climbing out of the window and dashing over the rooftops until there were none left and he had taken to the trees instead. He paused to look back for a moment, watching the sun come up into full view, turning the white snow into flakes of gold, then he turned and retreated with the night's lingering darkness into the forest.
And it's all in how you mix the two
And it starts just where the light exists
It's a feeling that you cannot miss
It burns a hole through everyone that feels it
--"Blue and Yellow"
