Day 4

Prompt: Emergency


The tap tap of the laptop keyboard was the only sound in the room as Hinata made the final corrections to the term paper for her Biochemistry class. After reading through it one final time, she pressed save and heaving a sigh of relief. Hours, days , of writing and researching and revising and editing, and now she was done. Hinata leaned back in her chair and stretched. It felt like a huge burden had been lifted off her shoulders.

The digital clock on her nightstand showed that it was two in the morning. The library wasn't open at this hour, so she'd have to wake up earlier than usual tomorrow morning in order to go print out her paper. Around seven maybe. Still, that meant getting a solid five and a half hours of sleep tonight.

Yawning, Hinata turned toward her computer so that she could email the file to herself. But when she tried to open her web browser, nothing happened. The cursor wouldn't move, no matter how much she swung the mouse back and forth.

Oh no. In desperation, she tried summoning the task manager. Loud ominous beeps began emanating from the machine as the cursor turned into the spinning blue circle of death. Please God no.

But God either wasn't on her side that day or was busy with something else. The computer let out one last angry beep before the screen turned black.

Hinata stared at the dark screen for a full minute, too afraid to turn the machine back on. Finally, she gathered all her courage and pressed the power button. Nothing happened. No matter how many times she pressed that button or how long she held it down, the screen didn't even flicker.

Did this mean that her computer was broken? All the blood in her veins turned to ice water at the thought. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't be too big of a problem: she'd just get a new one. But the sole copy of her term paper was on that hard drive. She'd just barely passed the first semester of her Human Anatomy class. If she didn't turn in this paper, she'd fail for sure.

Failure. The word sent shivers down Hinata's spine. If she failed this class, then any thought of impressing her father and making him proud would fly out the window. He would look at her with unsurprised eyes and think 'I knew it' and he'd be right. And what if he got angry? He'd spent so much money on her education, and she couldn't even pass a lousy class…

What if he disowns me? I'll be out on the street picking food out of trash cans, Hinata thought, shaking.

Logically, she knew that her father would never disown her for something so trivial. But logic died a quiet death whenever fear entered the picture. She needed to hand in that term paper.

Lunging for her phone, Hinata scrolled down her list of contacts until she reached the very bottom. Her thumb was about to hit the call button before pausing at the last second. It was two in the morning and he was probably asleep. Should she really disturb him at this hour? In the end, consideration also died a quiet death.

Off in the boy's dorm building, Sasuke was, like most students, not sleeping. Instead, he was at his desk, designing a program for an end-of-year final project. Suddenly, his cellphone lit up and began to play a catchy pop song. It was the ringtone that went off whenever one of his "friends" (could you still call them friends if you wanted to strangle them half the time?) called. He cast an annoyed glance at the caller ID. I swear if Naruto got stuck in a tree again I'll

All mental processes ground to a halt when he saw the name being displayed: Hinata Hyuga. He could feel his face heating up as he carefully pressed the "receive" button.

"Hello?" he said, trying to sound cool and nonchalant and not like his heart was racing a million miles per hour.

"Sasuke? Oh thank God you picked up." Hinata's usual soft and soothing voice sounded hysterical. "My computer won't turn on and I don't know what happened but I think it's broken and my term paper's on there and I really, really need it or else I'll fail my class and I don't want to pick stuff out of dumpsters and I'm sorry for bothering you but please, please, please help me."

It was amazing how she managed to say all that in one breath. "Um," Sasuke said, glancing at his computer and the program he was working on. He was ahead of schedule, so he could afford to take a couple hours to help. "I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Thank you so much," Hinata said, sounding close to tears.

Ten minutes later, Sasuke arrived at Hinata's dorm door, computer bag in hand. A frazzled Hinata let him in. Her hair was a tangled mess and she wouldn't stop wringing her hands. Her bottom lip was pink from chewing on it.

"Here it is," she said, gesturing at the laptop on her desk. She looked at it warily, as though it contained a deadly monster that could escape at any moment.

Sasuke sat down at her desk and tried to turn it on. He had about as much luck as Hinata. Bending down, he check the power cord, the electrical plug. Everything seemed to be working fine, so the power supply wasn't the problem. This was going to be more of a hassle than he thought. Sighing, he got out his own laptop and began searching the Internet for solutions.

"Can you fix it?" Hinata asked, worriedly hovering over his shoulder.

"I'm not sure," Sasuke admitted. He glanced at Hinata. "You said your term paper's on here. Did you make a backup copy or store it in the Cloud or anything?"

"N-No" Hinata said, embarrassed. She'd meant to, but it somehow always slipped her mind. Never again, she promised herself

Sasuke clicked on the top result of the Google search. "I'll try my best," he said. As much as he wanted to be the knight in shining armor, he wasn't about to make promises he couldn't keep.

"Okay," Hinata pulled up a chair and sat down. She was determined to stay awake until the whole thing was finished.

Hinata's alarm went off at 7:30, just like it always did on Friday mornings. The pale-eyed girl groaned and shifted in her seat. Her neck was stiff from sleeping in an upright position for so long and her limbs felt sore. Yawning, Hinata slowly open her eyes…and froze at the sight of Sasuke sleeping at her desk. What was he doing here?

Then it all came flooding back to her. The broken computer, panicking about being homeless, calling Sasuke at two in the morning.

She got up and walked over to him. He was sleeping on top of his closed laptop. Tools, screws, and her computer hardware were strewn haphazardly all over the desk. "Sasuke? Sasuke please wake up," she said, shaking him slightly

The Uchiha woke up with a start. "Wha? Hinata?" He glanced wildly around the room, disorientated, before spotting the computers on the desk and remembering why he had come in the first place.

"Were you…" Hinata prepared herself for the worst.

Despite the dark circles on his eyes, Sasuke smiled and picked up a blue flash drive that had been lying right next to his laptop. "Everything's in here."

Wide-eyed and disbelieving, Hinata took the memory stick and stared at it like it was the world's biggest diamond. It might as well have been.

"I didn't manage to save your computer though—" Sasuke apologized. But before he could finish, Hinata sprang forward and hugged him with all her (surprisingly powerful) might.

"Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you," she chanted, tears of relief forming at the corner of her eyes.

"Can't…breathe," Sasuke rasped. The force of the sudden movement had knocked the wind from his lungs and the strength of her squeeze didn't allow much room for breathing. His cheeks were bright pink; he blamed asphyxiation.

A couple seconds later, Hinata pulled away and grabbed her backpack. If she hurried, she could get to the library, print out her paper, and still hand it on time. Shouting one last "thank you Sasuke" over her shoulder, she dashed out of her room, flash drive in hand.

Sasuke stared blankly at the door for a moment, his cheeks still bright pink (asphyxiation, he'd insist), trying to memorize every moment of that brief contact. Finally, he shook himself out of his stupor and began packing his things. He needed to get back to his own bed and take a nap.