Chapter 8: An understanding of sorts
The house smelt nice, a redolence of Jasmine and Lavender combined, However It was dim lit, the moon was casting an idle ray of silver light and the silence felt so thick, so sturdy.
They stayed in silence for an immeasurable time, each contemplating what to do, before Sasuke finally decided to reach out.
"Hyuuga, come sit with me, we need to talk"
She left the common room with a heavy heart towards the bedroom where he was sitting, he motioned for her to sit down beside him.
He observed her, as he motioned to the spot next to him, her eyes held a certain measure of caution, submission and a natural hue of melancholy. She was hesitant, that he could feel and he could also feel waves of embarrassment practically reeling out of her.
'I should have lit more lamps; she must be furiously blushing right now'
She could hear him chuckle and she imagined he must be smirking.
She was terrified.
He reached for her hand and pulled her down by the wrist beside him.
"Easy here, Hyuuga, I don't bite, beside if I had an intention or aptitude towards anything, I would have had my fill by now"
She seemed to slacken just a small measure, but she was still fidgeting uncontrollably beside him.
"So what are your expectations towards this marriage?"
Nothing
"Hyuuga, how do you want this thing to work?" He repeated louder this time.
"I .. I don't know Sasuke-san"
"Look, I know we Both had to do this for the greater good and all, and now that we are 'officially' married and five lands, you and your nephew are safe, my due here is done, I would have left had Kakashi not asked me to stay and I think you didn't have expectations about me being your spouse, so it wouldn't hurt if everything here remains platonic"
She was both baffled and relieved, she did not find it in her heart to think about marriage after Neji's death, much less marriage to the Uchiha, she could guess he was pretty much the same when it came to marrying her of all people.
However, she was surprised he hadn't even attempted to … Never mind.
She knew she wasn't beautiful or charming enough to draw anybody's attention, let alone his & from his exuding arrogance around his fan girls, she knew his standards were high.
"Hyuuga, what are you thinking, disappointed much?'
"Not at all, Sasuke-san"
"You mean to undermine me"
"No, god forbid, I am just saying that well. It is just that …"
'She is so easily flappable' He chuckled again
"It is fine, Hyuuga, we will consider this a 'mission' of sorts until we can resolve the situation, OK?"
"OK, I guess"
'He has a very morbid sense of Humour' she noted
"so now to my terms: you don't use the Byakugan when I am around, you can go wherever you want but give me a hint about where you are heading for security reasons as foes could still be lurking around. My stash of personal belongings are off limits, whatever happens in this house, stays in this house and last, if you have any leniency towards any body, I expect that you would respect me enough to push it aside until this issue is resolved" He tersely stated 'It won't be long, any way'.
She looked slightly offended
"We, Hyuuga, respect marriage terms enough to know when we should drop out our leniencies, your terms are fair and I shall stick to them"
She sounded almost indignant
'Even shy Hinata has the Hyuuga Pride'
"Good. Now, How about yours?" Sasuke continued
"huh?"
"Your terms?"
She didn't have any expectations to begin with, let alone terms. Sasuke entirely took her by surprise.
"I see you have no terms here, any way those term applies both ways"
"No "she blurted "I have two terms"
"And they are"
"Tama is free to come and visit any time"
He smiled a little
"Of course, not just your nephew, anybody you want, but you let me know first"
"And you never force me to do anything I don't want at all"
"Fair enough" he resumed "Now to the lodging arrangements, you will use this room during your stay, and I will use the one next door, goodnight Hyuuga"
"Goodnight Sasuke-San"
That went unexpectedly well …
Clinical but much better than they both expected.
He jolted up to a strange smell, wondering where on earth he was.
'Home'
He almost forgot.
It is a mixture of aromas wafting through the house,coming from the kitchen, and contained sounds of pots and plates being taken & put on counters and stoves.
She stood there humming softly, utterly consumed in her cooking.
It was eerily familiar. He was forcibly willing himself to forget, to ignore the similarities between this scene and another one he was part of along time ago.
"What are you doing?"
She stumbled, almost dropping whatever she was holding.
Startling her is becoming his new favorite past time.
"Good morning Sasuke-san, I was making breakfast"
"I see, bakeries as well, you must have woken up very early"
"I am a Diurnal person"
He was rather nocturnal.
"Well, hand me the plates"
"What?!" her gaze drifted to his one arm.
"The plates, Hyuuga, I can carry a couple of plates with my hand, quickly, it is too warm in here"
He was helping her setting the table.
Admittedly, she cooked so well.
Sasuke learnt to scrap a couple of meals himself, being alone and all and they were fairly edible yet nothing came close to this.
"Don't cook again, Hyuuga"
She was mortified.
"Otherwise we won't be able to stay in shape"
He seemed to want to ascertain that his sense of Humor was terrible, she thought. Wait a minute, that was like the second time he was actually joking, more so giving her a backhanded compliment on her cooking! was she just professing that the Sasuke Uchiha, the brooding Sasuke Uchiha had a sense of Humor?!
Stranger things have happened, thinking about it now, the whole thing was surreal, he was surreal.
Was he always like that? Then why was he always branded as an ice prince? Sure, he was not as overt as Naruto or did not seem to try like Sai but ...
Anyway, that was too much to analyze, and she had been close for only a little while.
"You did not try the cinnamon rolls" she gestured towards one
"As tempting as they smell, I have an aversion to sweets, I am more on the savoury side"
He developed a biased aversion to most things Itachi liked, not just sweets.
She smiled, a genuine smile at that that before she resumed
"I see, we can try to sway you away from this aversion, You can basically try them with something bitter like black coffee or tea to break the edge of sweetness much like we did with Neji" he could feel her voice quivering just a little bit before she quickly recovered.
"I am done; I will handle the plates this time" she hurried to the kitchen
She swore to herself that she would try to forget, try to move on and she didn't mean to trip but anyway she takes seems to lead back to something about Neji, an attribution of sorts, the memory of Neji soaks through her very being and as much as she wants to spare herself the pain of the memory & the guilt of putting him on the line, the guilt of her living. As
much as she wants to forget, in equal measure, she wants to remember, she is terrified his memory might slip away oneday, his voice which was always resonating in her head was already fading, becoming distant like dreams when you wake up, like unclear brush strokes on a faded canva, she wants to hold onto him, she wants to keep him alive in her memory, her childhood companion, her loyal brave cousin.
Tama helped her hold onto him that long, but now that he is growing, becoming his very own person ... it is becoming hard to remember ... to set Neji's features apart from his.
It turns out different people can never be the same, even if they are as close as father and son.
In that brief moment of relapse, she had noticed Sasuke for he was looking at her, Sasuke didn't say anything, He wasn't a man of many placate words, if of any, but somehow, the look on his face mirrored her own, if she was bold enough, she might have thought he knew exactly what was going on in her mind, she might have thought he actually understands
'Maybe, I understand'
Their wounds were still raw and by the looks of it, it doesn't seem they would close anytime soon.
'Do they ever close?' she wonders, because she would feel Hiashi sneaking at night to his brother's memorial, his wife's memorial and she knows that Tenten still feels the pain of Neji's loss even worse than she does.
"So I am heading to Kakashi's office, you?"
"The marketplace then the Hyuuga compound"
"You will be back by?"
"Noon, probably"
"very well, then, I will see you later, Hyuuga"
"Oh, I almost forgot" She ran out of the kitchen carrying a small wooden bento in hand
"Take care, Sasuke-san" She handed him the box with a small smile
'She was really polite to a fault' he thought.
