Oh, I like this thread. YAY!
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Dedication: To everyone. XD Like, actually. And cookies for all of you!

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Hana thinks the world is sick, sometimes.

It is a sick world, where noble girls are expected to be simply play-things and pawns in the game of alliances and marriages that constantly plague the royal court. A world where secrets must be kept to protect people. A sick world.

It's not something she understands.

But it is winter, and there is snow outside, and Hana knows -wishes, really- that the court wasn't such a suffocating, fixed thing. If it wasn't, she would be out in the snow in a flash, dancing and playing in the trillions of flakes that currently line the ground.

Hana curls her knees up to her chest - she doesn't care how unladylike it is; it is the most comfortable position in the world, and she will revel in it.

Kiba is getting married tomorrow.

It is strange - a winter wedding, that is. Hana remembers that Ino once said she wanted a summer wedding.

But Kiba has always loved the snow, and apparently, Ino wanted to make him happy.

Hana smiled, because really, they are such children, even still, even now. They are just children who play an adult's game, when they should really be playing outside in the snow.

They should be out in the snow, just like Hana wishes she could be. Instead, she turns her eyes to the inside of the room, and eyes her husband.

Itachi is spread-eagled on the bed, limbs tossed at odd, funny angles, and his eyes are closed in sleep. Hana almost giggles softly to herself; he looks very innocent, and Hana knows he is anything but.

It is a nice change, and she unfurls herself to walk over to him. She sits down on the bed next to him, and stares at the lines on his face. They are both tired, and both have ever lost the chance to be children.

It is impossible to be children in the middle of a war.

But Hana is happy now. She is married, and is currently the Lady of the House of Uchiha (Fugaku had retired, and had named Itachi be his successor, Lord Uchiha, under pressure from his wife. Mikoto had wanted to see the world before she died, and what Mikoto wanted, Mikoto got).

And it is quiet nights like this that Hana loves, when the snow is drifting down in heaps, and everything is a bright sparkle in the morning.

Yes, the world is sick, Hana thinks.

But it gets better, with a little love, a little trust, and a lot of duct tape.

Of course, even a year ago, those three things were in short supply, and Hana knows that had Naruto not married that sweet little Hyuuga girl, there would have been a war. She also knows that if the Nara boy had not been sent as ambassador to Suna, there would have been more then 'war'.

There would have been slaughter, had Suna even considered an alliance with Sound.

Hana purses her lips in disgust. Sound. What a distasteful place.

But they didn't, and she knows the Nara boy is very busy wooing Suna's eldest child, and current princess.

Hana smiles to herself, and traces her fingers along Itachi's cheeks. He is really a beautiful person, she thinks. Beautiful and dark and wonderful.

His eyes flicker open, and he stares at her. "Hana," he says, and she smiles again, this time at him.

"Good morning, sleepy head," she says as he sits up. He looks at her for a minute, in a dress made of midnight blue velvet, her hair loose and long around her face, and a smile on her lips.

He looks at her for a long, long time, and Hana wonders what he sees.

"Are you happy, Hana?"

She blinks at him, confused. Of course she is happy, how could she not be? "What do you mean?"

"Are you happy? With me?"

There is fear in his voice, and Hana wonders why. She knows for a fact that no one else in the world could ever handle her constant neurosis. She looks at him very carefully. "I smile when I'm with you, Itachi."

"Smiling doesn't mean you're happy."

"I only smile when I'm happy, Itachi."

"So you are, then? You're happy?"

Hana nods, and he pulls her into his arms. He lays back, and together, they lay on the bed, quietly, calmly.

"Kiba's wedding is tomorrow," Hana whispers into his ear.

Itachi nods, and she can feel the rumble in his chest when he says "I know. He'll be good for Ino, and she for him."

Hana nods into his chest. "I just want him to be… happy. As happy as we are."

Itachi looks at her, a slow smile on her lips. Her fingers are cold, he thinks, and pulls her a little closer. "Yes," he says. "As happy as we are."

And then he kisses her forehead, and closes his eyes.

Her voice shakes him from his almost-sleep. "Itachi… I want to play in the snow. Right now," she says. She shakes him to let him know that yes, she means it, and that no, he is not getting out of it.

She watches him simply pull himself from the bed, and offer her a hand. Joy explodes in her chest, and she knows that he loves her for her, not for who she should be.

As the walk out into the snow, she decides she'll tell him her secret tomorrow. A summer baby, she thinks. It will be a late summer baby.

The world is still sick, but Hana laughs as snowflakes drop on her tongue, and she knows that even though it is sick, it is slowly getting better.

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fin.