The Denial Twist
x.x.x
p0g0stick
x.x.x
Separate Chapters ftw!
Read and review!
3k hits and 40 reviews?
Haha!
And for those who are still reading, next chapter will be up on Tuesday—AND THERE ARE KISSY FACES :O
Double yay!
XXX
Disclaimer: Naruto? Me? PAHAHA.
XXX
"So now you're left, denying the truth
And it's getting in the wisdom in the back of your tooth
You need to spit it out, in a telephone booth
While you call everyone that you know, and ask 'em, 'Where do you think she goes'?"
XXX
The conversation with her father had been short and sweet, a quick exchange of, 'how are you?'-s, and some questions about the last week (asked by her father), with questions of how Hanabi's boarding school tour and orientation (asked by Hinata).
Near the end, Hinata had asked to speak to her younger sister, and spent a good twenty minutes of Hanabi ranting and raving about Randall Avery Preparatory School for Girls (she; 'liked the gothic-esque chapel and the awesome food,' but, 'hated' her peers with 'the utmost intensity—they were such snobs'.)
Once the young girl had hung up with her younger sister and father, wishing them a safe journey home and writing down their flight numbers, she placed the phone back on its cradle in Neji's room.
Only to have it ring again the second she placed it back.
"I'M NOT ANSWERING IT," Neji seethed, lying still in his bed, the covers completely covering his lithe frame.
Hinata laughed at her poor cousin's misfortune and picked the phone back up, pressing the 'answer' button and holding the body to her right ear.
"Hello?"
The young girl left her elder cousin's room, closing the door behind her softly as she went, trying to give the poor man a peace of mind.
"Hyuuga?"
Hinata sighed, hadn't she just dropped this boy home?
"Y-yes? I hate to sound rude, but I just spoke to you about forty five minutes ago…"
The young man groaned on the other end of the receiver, running his hands repeatedly through his messy hair.
He hated asking for favors.
"Can…fuck, can you bring me some of that salve stuff? The ointment? My swellings getting worse…"
"Do you have any ice?" Hinata asked, knowing that at least if he had ice and painkillers he could manage for the remainder of the day.
"What the hell…do I look like a penguin to you?"
The young girl groaned inwardly, annoyed slightly at the young man's response.
"Yes, a stupid, incompetent penguin that can't do anything for himself and must rely on other's to do things for him." She huffed into the receiver, hoping that at least that hit a deep chord. How rude could one person be? She was only being nice!
On the other end, Sasuke ground his teeth together, knowing that if he didn't ask and answer nicely that he'd be stuck with this horrible, swollen eye.
He hated being respectable sometimes.
And asking for help.
But he wasn't going to apologize.
"No, Hyuu-HINATA. Can you…please…bring the. Salve. To. Me?"
The young girl pondered this question for a few minutes, unsure of how to answer. Truthfully, she really wanted to call Ino back, or maybe stop by the young girl's house.
But taking the ointment to Sasuke wouldn't take long, and then she could just drop it off to him and go straight to Ino's from there.
Besides, Hinata preferred talking in person to talking on the phone, unless they were someone as brooding and demeaning as her father…or Sasuke.
She shuddered.
Had he been here in person, it would have been difficult for her to call him stupid, incompetent and whatever else she had called him.
But then again, had her anger clouded her vision and her thoughts, she wouldn't have cared.
Only, once she had said it, he would have probably kicked her in the stomach and sucked her blood.
That's what vampires did right?
The young girl sighed.
She was being cruel now.
So, to take her mind off of her cruelness, she began to gather up supplies inside her little white box to take to Sasuke.
XXX
Naruto kicked the phone and its cradle off of his bedroom side table.
It clattered to the floor and the crack it made, echoing through the house, seemed to satisfy the young man somehow.
Naruto Uzumaki wasn't one to hold back emotions, or try to smooth them over, or even bottle them up, unless it meant hiding something from someone else to protect their feelings.
He was honest, but not brutally, he didn't usually want to damage people like that.
Right now, he found his emotions getting the best of him, and tears began to seep out through his shut eyelids. They rolled down his cheekbones, and fell down onto his angular jaw line. The last time Naruto had cried was when he had received his college acceptance letter, but those were tears of happiness.
These tears, were because he had done something so wrong, so completely out of line, and it was all because of Sakura Haruno.
But Sakura, he didn't want to blame her, he didn't want to pin the fault on her, because he was taking the break up so badly.
It wasn't her fault she didn't like him anymore.
And Sasuke! Sasuke fucking Uchiha, one of his best friends…this was probably all over him!
But Naruto couldn't hate anybody.
These two conflicting emotions, grief and hatred, they didn't mix well, and the young man was pretty sure that he had never felt these two different emotions, at least not at the same time. He had felt each at least once, but never together.
Never.
And that's why it kind of scared him.
XXX
"I don't usually do house calls," Hinata smiled wanly, entering Sasuke's house.
It was all as she had remembered it a few hours ago.
Overgrown vines, dilapidated stones and weeds constricting and sucking the life out of anything else that lived inside the yard…Hinata bet that if she just stood there, after a few minutes vines would be creeping up her legs and weeds would be trying to rip her sandals to shreds.
How utterly terrifying it was.
She had always imagined the Uchiha mansion to be…sort of…
…clean, neat…pristine…much like her own…but it was the complete opposite.
And she felt that way about the inside too.
Sasuke basically snubbed her and went over to sit on a dark colored couch in what the young girl took to be his living room. The floors were all neatly tiled with marble, and the walls were all a soft white, but there were used clothes all over the floor, unwashed dishes in the sink, bags upon bags of garbage, used napkins and wash cloths strewn, and a pot of coffee that was about three days old, judging by its smell.
The young man's eye was swollen over painfully, you could tell. A deep, brackish purple-black ring lined below his eye and around the brow arch. Hinata had to control the reflexive wince that she had felt approaching when she saw it.
His lip had healed nicely, but Hinata was sure that Sasuke couldn't even open his swollen eye, and had to rely on the vision of the other.
She began mulling over how much the size of the tender skin around had increased as she started to pick up Sasuke's old clothes and fold them onto his kitchen counter.
When the young girl didn't follow Sasuke into his living room, he turned around and caught her picking through his mess.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"O-organizing your house, it makes me s-sick to have to see all of this mess," and this was the truth. She could only tolerate so much. It was like some horrible disease.
The young man rolled his one good eye and strode angrily back over to the young girl.
"I'm a grown man, I can take care of myself," he grabbed her hand, forcing her to drop his black jean pants he had last worn four days ago, "now hurry up and give me the stuff and then you can leave."
"Fine," Hinata pulled her wrist out of Sasuke's much larger grasp and grabbed her white medicine box she had placed atop the young man's kitchen table.
Carrying the box over to the couch, with Sasuke trailing behind, Hinata sat down onto the couch and the young man followed suit. She turned to stare at him, noting that even sitting down he was much taller than her.
But still just as thin.
Did he even eat?
He obviously couldn't—there were no clean utensils or plates! What did he eat on? And there were enough garbage bags to fill a city dump!
The young girl took out the ointment, and unscrewed the cap dabbing a small dosage onto her index finger.
"Don't move," she instructed so seriously, Sasuke almost found it humorous and had to suck in his mocking laughter, in fear that she'd have all she could take and just leave him, swollen, bruised and all.
The cold salve tickled and soothed him at the same time, and he shivered.
"Why is it so cold?"
"Be quiet, and don't move or else I'll poke you in your eye," she commanded, and he groaned.
Hinata felt like slapping the silly boy, he groaned and complained too much, it could really gnaw away on one's optimism.
When she had properly covered the area, she drew out a large gauze bandage and placed it entirely over his eye. You didn't have to, really, but it didn't matter—tough shit, it wasn't like he could open it anyway.
"Why are you covering my entire eye with this bandage?"
She didn't answer him.
"Fine," the young man groused, pulling his face away from the young girl's hands.
"Don't move!" the young girl commanded, grabbing Sasuke's face and pulling it back to face her, completely clueless of just how close they truly were, as she had been working on his eye from his profile.
Their noses almost touched.
"Well, aren't you done?" The young man demanded, completely etching out any uneasiness the young Hyuuga girl was feeling.
When Hinata didn't move her hands from his face, Sasuke frowned.
"Are you going to let go of my face?" he questioned, watching a light blush seep across the ridge of Hinata's nose.
"A-ah, yes, sorry," Her fingers quickly moved from the young man's cheeks onto her lap.
She cursed her light blush, wishing that instead she could feel incredible hatred towards this young man. Her heated face cooled quickly, however, when she remembered how rude he had been today…and last night.
"Alright, just put some ice on it—" Hinata began but was quickly interrupted by Sasuke.
"I don't have ice," Sasuke groused, glaring at her with his one good eye.
He'd seen her blush. He knew it—she was just like every single other girl.
Then the young girl glared fiercely back at him just as she had that other day in the car.
"Then go make some," she commanded.
"Make some? Do I look like I have an ice maker in my house?" Sasuke glared back harder, eyes like slits.
"It's the simplest task, you numbskull. Pour water into an ice container and freeze them. Even if they are only in the freezer for an hour they should be pretty cold; and then you can put them into a plastic bag…" this time, instead, the girl lowered her glare and just looked at him without any emotion.
This perturbed Sasuke even more than when she had been glaring at him—now her expression was completely unreadable!
That wasn't fair.
"I don't own an ice container, or any plastic bags," He snubbed her, moving over to the other side of the couch and leaning into the corner were the sofa's arm met the back.
He grabbed the remote control from the nearby side table and switched the television on.
"What DO you have in this house? Do you at least have a bathroom? I bet it hasn't been cleaned in years!"
Actually, this was true. Sasuke couldn't remember the last time he had fully cleaned his house…or did any chores.
His silence said it all, as he flicked the channel to some trashy mid-morning talk show. Once he had done so, there were a lot of high-pitched beeps, censoring the foul language that the talk show guests were spewing.
"…do you mean to tell me that this house hasn't been cleaned in years?"
More silence, the only noise emitting from the television set.
"…Not since my brother went to college," the young man finally spoke, raising one foot onto the couch. It almost touched Hinata's thigh.
"How long ago was that?" Hinata asked, choosing to stand now instead.
Sasuke shrugged and turned off the television.
"Are you done? You can leave now," he sighed, "need me to show you the way out?"
"So you just live in this mess? You don't bother to at least clean it up a bit?" She gestured wildly to the clothes and dirty dishes.
"Why not? They'll just be there again within a day or two…" he stared at his dirty clothes, "…I don't know how to do laundry." Sasuke shrugged again and tilted his head back to stare at his ceiling fan.
Silence enveloped them.
It hung for a few minutes before Hinata broke it.
"Alright, good-bye then, Sasuke," She walked towards the door, trying to effortlessly dodge the mess.
Until she tripped over a large 20 ounce water bottle and fell down, colliding with the kitchen table and a large pile of the young man's clothes.
Sasuke groaned, slapping his head over his face.
What a clumsy girl.
XXX
Neji Hyuuga was finally getting some decent rest.
The house was completely still, and he was rolled into a cocoon inside his bed, hair tucked into a hair tie and wearing a simple shirt and boxer shorts.
On the east side of his bedroom, the window was open releasing a soft summer breeze.
This was the life.
Well, it was until…
'DING-DONNG…
DING-D
DING-D
DING
DING
DING!'
"SOMEBODY ANSWER THE BLOODY DOOR!"
The Hyuuga seethed.
They had 6 bloody maids inside this house, (or was it seven…? Eight…? Oh well, who cared! There were enough to go and get the door!)
More 'ding-ing' ensued and eventually the young man got out of the warm confines of his bed and stormed to the door. It was difficult, he noted, stumbling down two stair cases in a sleep-deprived state, as he tripped up a few of the bottom stairs on the last case, landing on his bottom on the floor.
Grumbling, Neji rubbed his sore bottom and unlocked the front door, pulling it open to reveal a very distraught looking Ino Yamanaka.
Wow.
She was a mess.
Her hair was pulled back into a low ponytail, not high like she usually had it, and her usual beige complexion was rather…
…red.
Her nose was a deep, sore scarlet color, probably the result of having blown it too many times. Her cheeks were smudged rouge, too distraught to be make-up, and her eyes were rimmed unflattering with a lighter red shade.
The young girl was wearing what looked to be her pajamas, an oversized shirt with their old school's sports team on the front. It was a deep gray, and there were specks of water littering the front of it.
She was wearing long, baggy cotton pants with candy canes on them…Christmas in June?
"Ino…?" Neji couldn't believe that this was Ino—she never went anywhere without any make-up on, he knew this as a fact when he and Hinata were younger, and Ino had come over countless times to sleepover, each time declaring to not leave the house without a nice, even base coat of foundation, some mascara and a touch of gloss.
"Is H-Hinata home, N-Neji?" Ino asked, stuttering slightly.
"Uh…last I checked…come in, you can go up to her room," the young man ushered her in, praying to God to not let this young girl burst into tears in front of him.
Neji was surrounded by female family members, but despite that, he was still bad with a crying female.
He was powerless against it.
Whenever Hinata or Hanabi were having a rough time, the young man left it to the maids or the girl's female friends to console them.
When girls and tears were involved, Neji Hyuuga knew to stay far, far, FAR away from it.
"Thank-y-you, Neji," Ino mumbled, climbing through the doorway as the young man in front of her moved to the side, and watched as she climbed the stairs at a snail's pace.
The young man followed behind her, but at a suitable distance.
Girls and their hormones.
XXX
"I cannot believe that this happened," Hinata groaned, massaging her left ankle. It was growing slightly red and sore.
"It's your own stupid clumsiness," the Uchiha sighed, walking over to the young girl who was on a surprisingly clear spot on his floor.
"No, it's your mess, that's what it is," Hinata grumbled, flushing underneath the elder man's fierce gaze. Not only was he intimidating, but now she was embarrassed having ruined her confident strut, which was supposed to lead her out the door in a triumphant blaze…
…and instead left her on the floor with a twisted ankle.
"My mess was here before you, you're intruding in on its space." The young man commented, kicking away an old pair of pants.
Instead of offering him and answer, Hinata ignored Sasuke and began trying to rotate her foot.
She winced in pain.
Carefully, the young girl grabbed onto Sasuke's kitchen table and tried to lift herself up, but failed miserably when she pressed weight onto her ankle and foot.
Lowering herself back onto the marble floor, the young girl sighed and stared over into the living room where the young Uchiha had retired to once she had ignored his verbal stab.
Hinata was usually the one to be giving help, and when she needed to be given it, she didn't feel like asking for it.
Especially from this young man.
But Hinata swallowed her small bit of pride and decided to ask.
"Ah…Sasuke…c-can you…" she paused to sigh, and catch herself, "can you help me onto the sofa?"
The young girl braced herself for whatever the Uchiha would throw at her next.
But instead he didn't answer her.
The only thing that the young girl heard was a long sigh, and the shifting of couch cushions as the young man walked over to her, making a makeshift path through the junk that littered his house.
Surprising enough, he actually grabbed her on her upper left arm and placed it over his shoulders, helping her to her feet. Once she was standing on her sturdy right foot, the young man helped Hinata hobble over to his couch and placed her down.
"Thank-you," the young girl mumbled, rubbing her sore ankle.
The Uchiha shrugged, and then sat down beside her,
"So how are you going to get home now?"
Hinata looked at him.
"I should have known," Sasuke sighed, cradling his head in his hands.
XXX
Tenten woke up face down on a cushion, her arm underneath her stomach, legs sore, and soaking wet.
Her hair was knotted and smelled like soil as she sat up in an unfamiliar bed, groaning as her arm she had been laying on produced pins and needles from being numb for so long.
"Where am I?" The young girl asked, but no one answered.
The bed she was in was a single, covered in thick blue sheets and a comforter, inside a room of the same light blue as the bed's sheets.
Slowly, the young girl lowered herself from the bed and walked over to the vanity mirror inside the room, grimacing at her own reflection. Make-up was smudged (why had she let Ino put some on her?) her dress was inside out (god only knows how she got it zipped up like that) and her hair was soaking wet and hanging down in distressed waves.
Sick of seeing her reflection, Tenten instead walked over to the door, and opened it tentatively.
The young girl winced as she heard a cruel, loud howl, ricocheting throughout the hallway she was staring into.
"Goddammit, shut up! We have someone sleeping in the guest room, silly dog," a voice rose up against the large howl, and instead, the howl turned into a whimper.
Tenten began creeping down the hallway, the tiles beneath her feet were cool and comforting compared to the sore blisters she was developing on the balls and heels of her feet.
Once she reached the end, the young girl looked into the room connected to the hall, and realized that it was a kitchen. There was a young man, his back turned to her, wearing a white shirt and plaid boxer bottoms. He was angrily running his hands through his unruly brown hair.
Then the young girl spotted the dog.
"Kiba?" Tenten wondered aloud, and the young man confirmed her thoughts (and disbelief) as he turned to look at her.
Next to him, his dog, Akamaru turned too, and began galloping to the strange girl, growling.
Tenten shrieked at the running dog, and ran back into the room, slamming her door just before the dog could reach her.
Panting, she turned and locked the door out of pure fear.
She had never been too much of an animal person. Sure, she loved the outdoors better than any person she knew, and did not mind insects (bugs), amphibians (frogs), reptiles (snakes, lizards), birds…even cats and dogs were nice, even rabbits!
But she did not do well with a wild animal pounding after her.
The horror!
Once her breathing relaxed back to normal, the young girl slowly got up, and pressed her ear to the closed door, trying to listen through to see if she heard the dog anywhere by the door.
"Tenten!" Kiba called, followed by a few quick knocks, "sorry about Akamaru! He didn't mean any harm, I swear…look, I put him outside, and he won't come after you again."
That seemed to satisfy the young girl and on the other side, Kiba heard a silent click and breathed a sigh of relief.
Now how he was going to tell the young girl what had happened? That was another story entirely…
Gradually, Kiba watched as the young girls head poked out from behind the door, her eyes becoming level with his chest.
That couldn't be helped—he was quite tall.
He would guess that he was about six feet tall, but he hadn't measured his height in the past two years, so the young man had no clue.
"I'm sorry about that, you see, Akamaru just saw you as an intruder…"
"N-no, it's alright, it's no problem," the young girl responded, slowly removing her from the room. She closed her eyes, trying to catch herself again.
"So…why am I here? With you?" Tenten questioned, her eyebrows furrowing.
He wasn't the one she had been with last night, so why was she suddenly inside his house, sleeping in his bed?
Bit by bit, pieces of the small hours of the morning flooded into her mind, but they were so clouded over by sleep that Tenten couldn't make heads or tails of it all. All of the memories were so blurry, even certain bits of prom.
"You passed out on my front lawn," Kiba sighed, feeling almost sorry for the poor girl. She was one of Hinata's close friends, and they had ridden in the same limo together to prom…
But other than her being Hinata's close friend, and having her in his high school biology class, the young man knew little to nothing about her.
Tenten's eyes widened then became drastically forlorn and large, like a calf's…then eventually her eyebrows furrowed and she was scowling childishly.
"I don't recall passing out…" She mumbled.
"I don't expect you to…?" Kiba responded, looking completely perplexed.
Did she really think he had done something to her?
No way!
Kiba was very good natured…most of the time. Sure he had a bit of a reputation from a few girls he had dated and…well…with, but for the most part he was very tame…
Eh, scratch that.
He wasn't always tamed.
But he had gotten better in the past few years, really.
When the young man had first entered high school he had…had his moments, but he wouldn't recall them.
Of course, a good party every now and then didn't bother him, as he had quite the appetite for hard liquor and alcohol.
It was just something that you picked up along the way; it wasn't like he drunk a six-pack at day and then had a good round of tequila shots at night. He was a social drinker, having a beer every now and then and when the setting and scene called for it…a few harder drinks.
But nothing over the top.
If one thought they knew Kiba, one would think that he was the prime description of 'over-the-top'.
The truth was, as many people thought they did…no one really knew the true description of Kiba. He'd leave that to his closer friends—Hinata, Naruto, Shino…those three who knew Kiba better than probably himself.
"So…you didn't…do…any—" the young girl began, but Kiba cut her off.
"No. No, no, no." he shook his head and his arms together at the same time.
"Alright," Tenten stared up at the young man still, "so what happened then?"
"I told you—you passed out on my front lawn!" Kiba protested, "I came out to check on the sprinkler system, you were there on the grass asleep, I swear."
He made a holy cross sign with his finger tips. Down, up and across.
"So…what did happen then?" it was more of a rhetorical question, and the young girl had muttered it underneath her breath, then stared up at the young man, "where's your bathroom?"
"There's one in the room you're in—on the right, see that door? Right through there."
He watched as the young girl made her way into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.
Something told him whatever had happened last night, wasn't good.
XXX
"Ah! You're—ah! Hurting me! Put me down—P-p-put me d-d-down!" Hinata whimpered, thrashing inside the Uchiha's arms.
"Shut up, you're fine," Sasuke grumbled, "now hold onto my neck or else I'll drop you and you'll have more than just a twisted ankle."
Hinata silently complied, wrapping her arms around the young man's neck and latching each hand with another.
When she had asked the young man to take her home, she hadn't exactly expected him to wrap his arms around the back of her knees and mid-back, and then lift her up, airborne.
Hadn't it just been a few hours ago she had helped HIM down her hallway and down HER steps?
And she doubted the Uchiha could lift her anyway—he was so thin, looked so weak…and he suffered from lack of sleep, lack of food…it was rather perplexing how he had found the strength to lift her.
Granted she was rather petite, but still…
He smelled like sweat.
The little hairs on the back of his neck rubbed against her wrists, and she kept shifting her hands, which should have annoyed the Uchiha but each time she snuck a look at her carrier, he simply stared ahead.
Really, Sasuke Uchiha wasn't one to go prancing around, carrying strange girls he had almost seen naked to their cars, but he still felt bad for being so rude to her (since when did Sasuke Uchiha CARE?) and there was no way they could both hobble across the mess that was his front yard, what with all of the vines, broken stepping stones and overgrown weeds.
And he liked the way her small hands felt behind his neck.
Every now and then she would shift them, and they would brush against the back of his neck and hair so softly, that the young man felt so…relaxedand so…well, almost content.
It was too nice.
But just like that clicking sound she made in the car, he didn't complain, just quietly enjoyed it.
Enjoy.
That wasn't a word he had used in a while.
Also, he didn't want to have to talk to her, because then he'd want to talk to her face, and somehow he knew that if he talked to her to her face, his eyes would begin to drift…and drift…down to her ample cleavage which was easily viewable through her tank top.
It wasn't his fault; he couldn't control what she wore.
Or what his eyes did.
Once the duo had reached the car, Sasuke slowly placed her on her feet and leaned her against the hood of the car.
For a split second, as the young man had placed her down and began to rise from resting her legs against the cars grill, their noses had momentarily brushed. Hinata's arms were still tightly wound around the young man, and this had only increased the proximity between the two, making this small brush very awkward and uncomfortable for two people who weren't technically used to contact beyond their comfort zones.
Especially with the opposite sex.
Bar that Sasuke had been pulled, prodded, pushed and groped more than enough during his life, but that didn't mean that he had enjoyed it…
…or counted it as physical contact, more like just being pushed around like someone's rag doll.
Hinata was used to contact with her friends and family, but not with some complete stranger.
Sasuke, well, he wasn't a COMPLETE stranger…but he wasn't a friend, maybe just bordering on acquaintance.
Hinata could smell the ointment she had put on his eye.
It was sickeningly minty.
Both pulled away quickly, and Sasuke backed away by two steps.
"Where are your keys?" he asked, a bit miffed that for a second he had actually let down this large wall he had taken so many years building…for this girl.
This pathetic girl, with her twisted ankle…and her weak stutter…and her clumsy nature…and her…
"H-here," Hinata mumbled, jingling the keys out to him.
The young man grabbed them, and opened the car, getting into the driver's seat.
Hinata sighed, guessing that he wasn't going to come and get her. Instead, she hobbled around the hood of the car and slid into the passenger seat, pushing the chair back so much so that she could stretch out both of her legs.
Sasuke avoided her form at all costs, and instead started the car, fiddling with the air conditioner as he did so.
"Did you…did you lock your house?" Hinata inquired, noting that the man hadn't gone back to lock his door. Wasn't he afraid of being robbed?
"It doesn't matter, I'll be back here in a few minutes…this neighbourhood is pretty safe…I bet no one thinks that I live there," he grumbled, fixing the mirrors inside the car so that he could easily see the road behind him.
"Y-you…you do know how to drive…d-don't you?" Hinata asked, probing more at him.
"No, I just carry around my license because I like to look at myself," the young man rolled his one good eye, and Hinata blushed furiously.
And angrily.
"I was j-just asking…" Hinata sighed, fiddling with a strand of hair.
Afraid to ask another question, lest that the young man bite her head off, Hinata silently wondered to herself if he could even drive with one eye.
Maybe she should dr—
He began reversing and trying to make a three point turn and Hinata's thoughts were caught off guard as he jerkily switched gears more times than necessary.
Hinata buckled in tight.
XXX
Ino wheezed into the tissue that Neji had offered her.
The young man sighed.
This girl hadn't been inside this house for less than 5 minutes and he had to come running because he had feared that something had happened to her when he heard a bloodcurdling shriek.
Instead he had found her, a clump on Hinata's floor, hands over her eyes and breathing in ragged breaths.
So now, Ino Yamanaka could add Neji Hyuuga to the ever growing list of people who had actually seen her shedding tears, and it made her angry with herself.
Ino's pride 'bar' was set high.
Her most used seven deadly sin was pride, she thought highly of herself most of the time and lead other's to think high of her also.
Ino wasn't just any other girl, any other 'person'.
She was a strong, stable, confident, brave and at the same time, caring, gentle, and honest.
But Ino wasn't weak, and she hated being so vulnerable, especially around Neji Hyuuga, who was probably almost as close to her boyfriend (was he still her boyfriend now?) than her or Chouji Akimichi…
It was so depressing, and sickeningly ironic.
So it was so embarrassing, when Neji Hyuuga had come in, extremely hesitant, and offered an unopened packet of on-the-go tissues.
She ripped through that pack, using every single tissue, within the following five minutes. And she dared not look at Neji, who was kneeling down in front of her, watching awkwardly as Ino blew her nose, wiped her eyes and cheeks, ran her hands through her hair, then broke down and began the same cycle again.
Neji was not very in touch with his feminine side, much opposed to popular belief as mentioned before, and when a girl was crying, he would probably be the first to be excused from a room.
But now, Neji was unsure of what to do.
Ino couldn't just sit here, all alone, without his cousin, crying her eyes out.
Neji wouldn't probe, he hated when it was done to him, but he'd just sit there on his knees until Hinata returned home.
Wherever his cousin had gone…she was disappearing a lot lately. It was very unlike her.
Just like it was very unlike the Uchiha to get drunk and slur a whole…colourful…
Whatever—that was in the past now, and he was going to just let it go. Now, as he tried to direct his gaze from Ino he stared at the clock on the wall and sighed.
It was well past noon.
The young man had gotten a substantial amount of sleep anyway.
But, Neji's ears perked up as he heard a car door slam.
Hinata was home?
XXX
The young girl groaned as Sasuke closed the driver's door, and waited outside by her gate for her to get out.
But she didn't budge.
He was going to help her, whether he liked it or not.
It took Sasuke a few minutes to realize that Hinata was not going to leave the car, and groaned. He didn't feel like…touching her…again. It made him uncomfortable, to be so close to a girl without her forcing herself on him.
He was letting her be close to him.
Physically, not emotionally.
No one would ever pass THAT barrier; at least he was sure no one would…
Sasuke grumbled again, slamming his fist on the car's door. Hinata ignored it, finding his fits of anger now slightly humorous.
The young man opened her door, and leaned down, picking her up again as he had done so before, gruffly asking her to place her arms around his neck (wincing as she did so, and struggling against the nice feeling he got as her fingers curved around his spine.)
There was no way that her hands were purely natural—they were too soft, too small to be real. Pissed at himself for letting himself enjoy the feeling, he stomped off, trying to hold onto Hinata tight enough so that she didn't fall.
At the doorstep, he placed her down, and grimaced as her right hand stayed on his shoulder, keeping her balance.
She squeezed it as she began to fall the opposite way, and this made his muscles tense.
"Where are your keys for the door?"
"I…d-don't have t-the—"
The door opened towards the pair.
XXX
"What…the hell, Hinata?" Neji's eyes widened, seeing Hinata's small hand on the Uchiha's shoulder.
His younger cousin just sighed and didn't satisfy him with any other answer.
"Hinata, answer me," Neji seethed, beginning to get very impatient, "why are you with the Uchiha?"
Hinata groaned this time, surprising Neji.
"It's a long story, alright? Can you help me inside Neji, my ankle is twisted," the young girl reached out her hands to her cousin and he complied, steadying her and helping her hobble towards her room.
Sasuke stood awkwardly in the hallway, and then began to turn.
"Don't leave just yet, Uchiha…I want to talk to you," Neji growled, and made sure that instead, Sasuke closed the door behind him and followed the other two up the stairs. Neji turned to his younger cousin, "you have a visitor…Ino came…I don't know what the hell happened but she's spilling more water than a crack in a dam."
Hinata stiffened.
Ino never cried.
The last time Ino had cried was when her parents had divorced. But that had only been a few tears. The young girl had cried into Hinata's shoulder, and Hinata had in turn just stroked her head and whispered a few comforting words.
It hadn't been much, but soon Ino had shed all the tears she had, complained about a headache, and fallen asleep on Tenten's bedroom floor, where the two girls had been for a sleepover.
Tenten had been making scrambled eggs and blueberry waffles for breakfast, and trying to send her younger brother's off to baseball and tee-ball practice.
Ino made Hinata promise not to tell anyone she had cried, and Hinata had complied.
But now…why was Ino crying? She had let Neji see, so that meant this thing was big.
"Alright…she's in my room?" Hinata asked and Neji answered her with a curt nod.
Hinata paused in front of her door, and tentatively knocked before entering. Sasuke wished he could make a noise at this, since it was technically Hinata's room…what did it matter if she walked in on Ino doing anything?
Once inside, Hinata turned and closed the door before Neji and Sasuke could protest.
"My room," Neji hissed to Sasuke, "…now."
And both of the young men turned and walked towards Neji's room.
Sasuke grumbling the whole way.
XXX
"Ino…" Hinata gasped at her friend. Ino was curled on the floor, sniffling and blowing her nose every now and then.
"H-Hina?" Ino asked, perplexed, and looked over to where she believed the young girl to be, "Oh, Hina! O-oh, H-hina, it was so awful…I did…and then…and I didn't want to…and Sakura…" Ino collapsed into Hinata's arms, and the younger girl rocked her elder friend back and forth, smoothing her distressed blonde tendrils with one free hand.
"Wait…how does Sakura come into play with this?" Hinata questioned, and Ino looked up at her friend, her red-rimmed eyes making the blue stand out brightly, and bluer than a cloudless sky. It was so eerie it was beautiful.
"I…oh, Hina…I…I was a horrible friend…I…me…Naruto, and then…" Ino collapsed again, groaning and sobbing, hiccupping and blowing her nose.
Hinata just cradled her friend inside her arms, and soothed her by humming a lullaby.
Within two minutes, Ino had fallen asleep, and Hinata instead woke her up, helped her walk to the bed (even on her swollen ankle) and put Ino to bed.
It was going to be a long week.
XXX
Neji sat on his bed, and offered a chair to Sasuke, the one right by his desk.
Sasuke shook his head.
"That's alright, I'll stand," he cleared his throat, resisting the urge to touch his black eye in front of the man who had given it to him.
"Suit yourself," Neji sighed, and ran his hands through his long hair.
Sasuke watched the young man warily.
"I'm not going to come at you again," Neji growled, "I just want to know why."
Sasuke looked out the window.
He couldn't tell Neji about what happened. Bar that it was so embarrassing to both him and Hinata—he had been stuck outside, had sought refuge in Hinata's room then seen her in simply a towel and nothing else—but that he didn't want to tell Neji, for fear that the young man WOULD come after him.
What could he say?
That he was attracted to Hinata?
No, he wasn't.
Not in the slightest.
Sasuke Uchiha did not fall for girls.
Nor did he fall for men—he just wasn't someone like that, and he would go around the rest of his life saying it, even if he got mocked for it.
Those around him could blame it on those stupid bitch fan girls who had left him with sleepless nights, scared to death that he'd be molested in his own bedroom.
Itachi had said to deal with it.
It felt good
Sasuke spat at his elder brother and let it lie.
"Well?" Neji Hyuuga seethed, "I am waiting…"
Sasuke opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
Then, there was a soft knock on the door, and without hesitation, Sasuke opened it, revealing a very confused looking Hinata.
"Hinata, I'm having an important discussion with Sasuke, get out," Neji shooed her, using a much harsher tone than before.
"A-ah, alright, Neji…uhm…but…it's not Sasuke's fault." The young girl chirped, before walking inside fully much to her cousin's displeasure, and sitting next to Neji on the bed.
Both Hyuuga's stared up at the Uchiha.
"Still waiting for an answer, Uchiha," Neji growled, not caring in the least anymore if Hinata was there.
"I don't like Hinata, if that's what you think," Sasuke growled back, grinding his teeth.
"Then what the hell did you mean when you said that thing last night?" Neji stood up at lightning speed, about to just knock out this disrespectful piece of sh—
"It's alright, Neji…it was me that…well…" Hinata went over and latched her fingers around Sasuke's forearm, "I came onto Sasuke. He didn't want me, but I—well, I liked him…" Hinata stared at her cousin with large, pleading eyes, "don't blame the Uchiha."
Sasuke's one good eye twitched, Neji felt impossibly woozy…
And right then, the fabric of the universe was ripped in half, chewed up by a dog, and spat out, followed by the apocalypse.
But Hinata just stood there, wondering why the fuck she had just done that.
XXX
"What…WHAT…WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT HINATA?"Neji shrieked, gripping bundles of hair in his tight fists.
"I said that I—"
"NO, I FUCKING HEARD WHAT YOU FUCKING SAID, BUT I REFUSE TO FUCKING BELIEVE IT!" Neji was a complete wreck now, and Hinata and Sasuke backed up at the same time.
"It'd be best if you left now," Hinata turned to look up at Sasuke.
"…probably…" the young man breathed, staring at the girl.
Did she really like him?
"I don't really like you," Hinata breathed, pushing him with her hands, "but you're okay. And I don't like fighting…physical fighting." She clarified, pushing the young man towards the doorway more and more.
"…ah…alright…" Sasuke stared at this girl, completely absorbed in what she had just said, even if it hadn't been true…
Girls had confessed their love for him before, but none had…
None had actually said that they LIKED him…as a person…
That he was 'okay'…he'd rather be 'okay' than loved at any time. And for some reason, this made him feel bigger and better than he had ever been.
"You're okay too, Hyuuga," he breathed, before exiting and running down the stairs, out to the street, where he decidedly sprinted towards the bus stop.
It was…okay, being 'okay'.
XXX
NEWSFLASH!
OMGWTF that sucked. :D:D
is hit in the head with a giant trout)
Yeah, yeah I'm sorry :(:(
And if you think you know what went on with everyone else…YOU'RE WRONG!
No, seriously, tell me what you think happened, you're probably all right since I'm bloody predictable :P
Thanks guys, for reading, really, and sticking through these past chapters with me, all the reviews have meant so much. This chapter was a bit OOC, but it happens, and some constructive comments would be awesome—but some lovely ones would be too.
Seriously, you guys have been FANTASTIC.
Loves!
xoxo