Chapter IV

Wash the dishes…

Sweep the floor…

Clean out the gutters…

Pull out the ten foot weeds from the backyard…

Scrape the fourteen layers of crap off the stove top… Oh Lord!

A few days ago, Hinata had been more than ecstatic that Naruto found her a job; it hadn't been her dream job -far from it-, but it was her first real job and she had been thrilled nonetheless. But three days of working with Sasuke and listening to his arrogant, brooding voice, spewing orders at her left and right was making her go insane.

He had been working her to the bone and she knew he was doing it on purpose too because he still hadn't gotten over the whole pink shorts incident. How many times did she have to apologize for that?

He was manipulating her but she just wouldn't allow herself to quit because of her pride. She would not allow another man to deem her weak and frail or add another person to the already long enough list of people who thought she was a pathetic girl. She promised herself that she would work for him for the whole summer, no matter what. But trying to keep that promise was getting harder and harder every time she saw him.

The worst part of it all was that she was actually afraid of him. No, she was deathly afraid of him. The way he looked at her, with his angry and judgmental scowl, made her feel so uncomfortable that she would resort to a stuttering wreck. And after the alley encounter, she had made a metal note to stay at least ten feet away from him at all times.

So here she was, standing in the middle of Sasuke's living room looking up at a twelve foot ladder that she was suppose to climb so that she could dust off his ceiling fan. Hinata couldn't help but wonder if he deliberately thought of these ridiculous chores for her to do, just so he could see her squirm.

Hinata sighed. This was the last task of the day and it was already five o'clock and so dark outside because of the murky clouds that had been looming over them the whole day.

Hinata fiddled with her fingers, something that she did when she was nervous. She glanced over to the figure who was sitting on the sofa reading some type of book on techniques. He was stuck inside of the house because of the bad weather.

"Ah, Sasuke?"

Sasuke raised a brow and looked at the smaller girl before returning his gaze back to the book. "What?"

"I don't t-think it's a good idea f-for me to climb the ladder," Hinata spoke softly.

"Why not?"

Normally, this task wouldn't have been so bad and she wouldn't have complained, but she was mildly afraid of heights and terribly allergic to dust.

"I'm n-not good with heights and I'm a-allergic to dust."

Sasuke looked uninterested. "Will it kill you?"

Hinata looked at Sasuke with a confused expression. What kind of question was that?

"N-no. I just sneeze a-a lot."

Sasuke turned a page in his book. "What doesn't kill you will only make you stronger."

"Ah, I g-guess," Hinata replied in a small voice. So much for making him feel sympathetic towards her problem. Why did she even bother to tell him anything when all he did was ignore her requests and pleas?

Hinata was about to climb the ladder when Sasuke got up and stood on the opposite side of the ladder.

"I'll stand here and hold the ladder stable," Sasuke said calmly as he once again buried his nose in the book.

Hinata was surprised by his offer and his ability to show any compassion towards her. Even though he was just standing next to the ladder and reading a book while she made her way up, she felt safer having him next to her.

Hinata truly appreciated the nice gesture, but then realized that the only reason he was even home was because there was a thunder storm going on outside and he didn't have anything better to do. Go figures!

Hinata climbed the ladder slowly; good thing she didn't wear a skirt today and started to dust the fan with the feather duster. Huge chunks of black dust that had been collecting over the years fell to the ground. Even though Hinata made sure to dust everything off in the opposite direction, some of the particles had made their way up her nose.

Hinata could feel the urge to sneeze but tried her hardest to keep them in as she continued to dust away. The harder she tried to hold it in, the worse it was getting and as she learned over the years, nothing ever went the way she planned.

Hinata just couldn't hold it in anymore and a trail of sneeze, after sneeze, after sneeze struck and before she could do anything she lost her balance and started to slip off the ladder.

Hinata screamed uncharacteristically and wailed her arms frantically in an attempt to regain her balance but fell backwards and right into something nice and warm. She held onto Sasuke's shirt as a reaction to the fall and leaned in closer to his warm body. He smelled so good.

Wait? Why was she smelling Sasuke? Why was she in his arms?

Sasuke had actually caught her? That was a little too nice of him…

Hinata opened her eyes as she glanced upwards and stared into mysterious, beautiful orbs of darkness. Why was his expression always so unreadable? For a split second, she saw his eyes soften and she forgot where she was. All she knew was that she was in this breathless moment… with him.

He held on to her tightly as they speechlessly stared at each other. The pitter-patter of rain drops falling outside could be heard and suddenly the harsh quip of thunder broke both of them from their trance. Hinata blushed as she regained her sense.

He roughly let go of her and she fell to the ground with a thump. So much for saving her from falling to the ground.

"Don't do that again," he said coolly as he walked away.

Like she wanted to fall into his arms anyways, although she had to admit it felt nice, like something out of a fairy tale! Her blush deepened. She shouldn't be thinking those thoughts about Sasuke; he hated her and she disliked him, immensely. Although she couldn't help but smile just a little.

It had been a long day and nothing sounded better then a nice hot shower and the comfort of her own bed. She was craving for some sleep...

Just then another flash of lightening harshly struck the earth and all of a sudden all the lights in the house went out. They were both swallowed up by total darkness.

A/N: I'm not particularity happy with this chapter. It was kind of all over the place with not enough detail or dialogue. I think I'm coming down with a severe case of writers block and I just don't know where I want to take the story. I might re-do this chapter. Blah! Life sucks! I promise the next chapter will be extremely long... I'm going to have fun with the idea of two teenagers stuck in a dark house in the middle of a storm... Hmmmmm...

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