Madhouse
Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose, a displeased frown on his handsome face.
How had he come to land himself in this situation? Oh, right. Now he remembered.
An annoying voice shouted out, "Are you constipated or do you always look like that, Sasuke?"
His scowl deepened as a chorus of laughter rung all around him, amused by his obvious discomfort.
The laughter of a whole bunch of people he didn't really care too much about.
Well, except for one.
Hinata sat next to him at the dinner table, her soft tinkling laugh a part of the din.
"Hanabi, be nice," Hinata reprimanded, though a smile could still be heard in her voice.
"Hmph," snorted Hanabi. "I am nice… when people are nice in return. But your boyfriend isn't nice at all, so I see no reason to be nice to him either." She then gave Neji a sneaky high-five beneath the table.
Hyuuga Hiashi pretended not to notice, a small grin upon his face.
Finally, after having composed his face into a slightly more dignified smirk, he turned toward the Uchiha. "So… Sasuke. What are you up to these days?" His forced nonchalance was clear in every one of his movements, and in the amused smirk he wore like a proud sergeant's war medal.
Sasuke shrugged, glaring at the clan leader as if trying to read his thoughts. Surely the man's forced indifference meant he was trying to pry some information out of him? So Hyuuga Hiashi knew interrogation techniques after all…
"Nothing much. Tsunade still doesn't trust me enough to give me any missions outside the village, so I'm mostly running errands for her," Sasuke said.
Hiashi nodded. "Yes. Yes, if I were Hokage-sama I wouldn't trust you with anything outside the village either." He chuckled once. "I wouldn't even trust you to run errands inside the village walls. Just goes to show how forgiving the fifth is."
Everyone excluding Hinata and Sasuke chuckled at this, their laughter sounding less like light-hearted banter and more like the cackling of wild animals excited over a particularly weak piece of prey.
But the prey wasn't weak. In fact, it could very well take down the entire pack of hyenas by itself.
Sasuke smirked, anticipating their response to his comeback.
"Hmm… I guess you could call it forgiveness. But the way you say it makes it seem as if you think the Hokage is an idiot, as if you believe that the leader of the village and one of the legendary sannin could be so foolish as to trust me. You don't seriously believe that, do you, Hyuuga? I'll have to tell the Hokage you don't think too highly of her."
The laughter stopped immediately. Hiashi's grin slid off his face like water.
So the boy wouldn't be taken down easy. Fine, he could continue for as long as necessary.
"No, boy. The Hokage is wise and knows exactly what she is doing. And you give me the respect I deserve, or you'll never set foot in this house again," he threatened, his voice turning deadly enough to send chills through everyone at the table.
Except for Sasuke, who merely shrugged, smirk still firmly in place.
Beside him, Hinata was frowning in disapproval. This dinner wasn't going like she'd planned.
She had wanted a nice, quiet dinner, with her team, family, and (it gave her a secret pleasure just to think the word) boyfriend.
Instead, it was a complete disaster.
Why couldn't her father lay off of him? Why must he act as if Sasuke was an enemy ninja that needed to be cross-examined? And did Hanabi and Neji really need to grin so evilly whenever Sasuke looked uncomfortable?
At least everyone's enjoying the food, thought Hinata, unable to be a complete pessimist.
The food was delicious. If there was any reason that Sasuke had come to the dinner in the first place, it was because he knew what a good cook Hinata was. Even Akamaru had wolfed down a healthy serving of the meal.
After forced casualness, snide remarks, and questions drowning within hidden meaning, the tense dinner was finally over.
Hell must be a nice place, thought Sasuke as he stood up stiffly from his seat, not realizing that he'd been sitting nearly immobile through the meal.
This must be the most difficult mission of my life…
Worse still, it wasn't over yet.
There was a new torture lined up for him. Hinata dragged him by the arm towards the living room for some after dinner tea.
Oh joy, thought Sasuke as Hinata sat him down between her teammates.
"I'll be right back," said Hinata and went off to make the tea.
The atmosphere became edgy once again.
Hiashi was seemingly absorbed in some scroll about the history of the Hyuuga clan, though his eyes would narrow at the Uchiha when he thought he wasn't looking.
Neji glared at Sasuke as if hoping his gaze would burn a hole in the village traitor, and Hanabi followed his lead.
Kiba drummed his fingers on the table in front of him as Akamaru proceeded to do some very strange things to Sasuke's outstretched leg.
"Get off me," growled Sasuke at the canine currently bouncing on his leg.
Kiba barked a laugh. "Let him, he'll be finished in a minute. It is mating season, you know…"
Hanabi and Neji snickered at the look of disgust on Sasuke's face. They began to laugh harder when his eyes widened and he stood up quite suddenly, scratching beneath the collar of his white shirt.
There was a strange prickling on his skin, like so much stinging fire, or perhaps like the tiny claws of miniature insects digging into his epidermis, over and over again.
And he huffed as he realized that miniature insects was probably a very likely reason his skin was prickling this way.
Shino was watching him intently, though still managing to look detached.
"I seem to have let some stinging fire claws out. Hmm…" said the introverted ninja.
As soon as his sentence was finished, a faint buzzing was heard and the irritation stopped.
And Sasuke was stomping out the door.
---
That had been the first of the Hyuuga manor dinners.
Many more followed, Hinata being as optimistic as she was, forcing the most important people of her life to eat together at one table.
Except she failed. She failed 22 times until she finally realized that Sasuke and her family and teammates could not coexist happily at one dinner table.
Mating season had lasted a long time, and Akamaru had found that Sasuke's leg was a very suitable mate.
Shino seemed to be unable to control his insects when he was in the Hyuuga household. How very strange that it only seemed to happen at the rare dinners when Sasuke was present.
Hanabi had a very imaginative mind and never failed to find some insult or other for the Uchiha heir.
Neji had an uncanny knack for glaring and tossing sarcastic comments to counter Sasuke's snide remarks.
And Hiashi remained Hiashi. Over-protectiveness, threats to kick Sasuke out of the house, and long probing stares reigned supreme with the clan leader, and he failed miserably at trying to act casual about the whole affair.
A complete disaster, Hinata had once called it.
A madhouse, Sasuke had told her one time. You live in a madhouse, he had said.
Madhouse. It was an apt description.
---
Knock, Knock, Knock
Light streamed in through the window, hitting Sasuke right in the eyes.
Who the hell could be knocking this early in the morning, he wondered.
Irritated, he covered himself with his blanket.
Maybe if I ignore it, they'll go away, he thought sleepily.
Go away, go away, go away…
Knock, knock, knock
Damn.
He rolled out of bed, mumbling something about somebody's mother under his breath.
How he hated being woken up so early in the mornings.
He made his way slowly to his door, not even bothering to throw a shirt on, his eyes closed even as he maneuvered through his messy living room.
Fingers closed tightly around the doorknob, and black eyes squinted through the light coming through the door, the body in the doorway but a silhouette in the glow of the sun.
As his eyes adjusted to the light, he recognized the person in the doorway.
Slender, with long dark hair and eyes like clouds.
Hinata.
It was Hinata, a suitcase in tow, with Kiba and Shino carrying a couple of boxes each.
She smiled at him, nervous for the first time in a long time.
"Um… Sasuke? C-can I move in with y-you?"
He didn't miss how her voice broke, or how her eyes looked down, or how she blushed.
And when he didn't answer, she stuttered some more.
"Of c-course, if y-you d-don't want t-to… I'll just leave," she said quietly and began to turn on her heel to leave.
"No," said Sasuke. "Of course you can."
He stepped aside to allow her in, with her suitcase and boxes of items.
What he didn't expect was her relieved embrace.
"Thank you, thank you!"
In went the suitcase, followed by the rest of Team 8.
And he returned her embrace, even as he began to feel an itch around his neck and a bouncing on his leg.
Madhouse. It was an apt description for the Hyuuga manor.
Madhouse. It was now an apt description for the Uchiha aparment.
And he knew he wouldn't have it any other way.