んな夜に: On this night


Disclaimer: I miss the SJ magazines... *sniff*...


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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ Chapter 9: Juxtapose


Her throat was dry. Horribly dry.

She didn't want to move, though. Didn't want to wake up and face reality.

She'd dreamt about them again. About HIM again.

It was similar, but not the same. She had been at a concert, backstage this time, watching K7 perform. Sasuke was onstage crooning into the microphone, Sakura was singing a high harmony, and Naruto was running up-stage and across, high-diving all the fans in the front row. The lights when she peeked out behind the side curtains were blinding; she was wearing a fancy dress (for some inexplicable reason), and Naruto had turned after the end of the song, run over to her, led her onstage, and sang a beautiful song that he'd composed for her. Sakura and Sasuke and Sai had watched from the sidelines. Tsunade and Ino were there, too, holding flowers, and Shizune was smiling from the crowds. Neji and Hanabi and her Father were all cheering from backstage.

It was an impossible dream, but a hopelessly romantic one, a dream that isn't easy to wake up from. But even as she surrendered to consciousness, she felt the magic begin to wear off.

Along with the needle in her wrist.

She flinched. Another IV. She hated the IV's. They were weakness. Weakness incarnate. You had an IV if you couldn't take care of yourself anymore, if you couldn't walk or eat or heal. Sick people needed IV's. Dying people needed IV's.

Unbidden, a dark part of her mind whispered cruelly.

I can't even keep my body alive.

Stop it, she moaned inwardly.

She closed her eyes, trying to think of blue eyes and blonde hair and stage lights and music and-

My own body doesn't think it's worth saving.

"No!" She sat up, eyes wide, heart pounding with something almost like desperation. Blood rushed to her head, and she flinched again; the motion jerked her IV hand ("The right's the right one," Shizune had said happily after examining the veins in her wrist the first day Hinata'd needed one), making pain sliver through her arm up to her elbow. She took a deep breath, doing her best to calm herself. The air conditioning was running (like always); for once, it calmed her.

After establishing a semblance of normalcy (because nothing could ever be normal again, she conceded, when you knew you were dying) she carefully reached out and picked up her orange laptop from the small rolling tray beside her bed. She didn't recall placing it there; someone must have put it there while she was out.

She booted it up, relieved it had power enough to do that, then checked the date.

Well, I slept through the night, at least. She felt her lip begin to tremble, but bit it. Weak. She clicked on her web browser, pulled up a favorited excerpt of a K7 concert.

She closed her eyes.

She didn't need to see it to know that Naruto was the one to start the song. Cheers erupted as the crowd recognized the slow piece, then began to wave their hands back and forth slowly in rhythm. Sasuke played chords while Sakura provided soft singing, intended less for actual sound and more for overtones. Naruto began.

Rage, they said, against the bitter night

Fight the words coming out of their mouths

Time is wastin, so you'd better run

Go before its all said and done

She saw the lights shimmer suddenly around the group as the chorus approached. Naruto continued, suddenly going from his low range to his clear, strong higher range. She saw his expressions, even clearer than she heard his voice, and saw the pained, pensive emotions flutter across his face while he serenaded the crowd. Right at the climax of the chorus, Naruto switched to falsetto, giving the impression of a softer dynamic with equal intensity.

Then the clip ended. Her eyes opened again.

She'd never seen the whole song online; Hokage Entertainment Industries was dead strict when it came to copyright infringement. In fact, Hinata had never heard the entire song at all. The song was exclusive to the "Yoru" album, one of the first K7 albums ever released. One they made before achieving worldwide fame. The album was particularly rare, and considered a valuable collectors item. She didn't know the song name, but she knew that K7 only recorded it on "Yoru," and only performed the song live once.

The night after that performance, Sasuke Uchiha left the band.

He had supposedly disappeared in the middle of the night, not even bothering to hand in resignation papers or bothering to even call HEI about his leaving. Instead, O-Sound announced that it would be releasing Sasuke's first single shortly. They proceeded to do just that; HEI tried to sue, but bribery to the higher-ups on O-Sound's part kept them from achieving anything.

Hinata thought it was terrible. She never understood why Sasuke would leave K7, and she still didn't. But wasn't that the entire mystery? Three years, and still only Sasuke knew exactly why he had chosen to leave, chosen to leave on that night, chosen to forsake his bandmates and best friends for money and power.

She laughed softly to herself.

But wasn't that how life went? Everyone gave up something for another. Sasuke was only one of centuries worth of people who had chosen the ephemeral aspects of life over the important ones. Superficial, silly, stupid, useless, weak. She and Sasuke shared that in common.

Of course, Sasuke had the rest of his life to realize his mistakes. He might never. But he had time.

She had less than a year. She wouldn't ever get the chance.

She closed the window, snapped her laptop closed, and carefully, gently put it again on the bedside tray. Then she slowly lay down and shut her eyes, resigning herself to more sleep.

Maybe if she dreamed enough about Naruto, she wouldn't worry about him in real life. The prospect of seeing him again made her nervous, fidgety, and flighty, and she couldn't bare those things. She was terrified to meet K7 again, unannounced, taken unawares. She didn't want to make a fool of herself. She fainted so much already. Weak, so weak. Fragile. Beaten, like the moon with her craters.

She HATED her own weakness.


Neji sat bored in a chair. He had enrolled in summer college prep courses as soon as school had let out, upon Hinata's insistence, but had found that he already knew everything the class had covered this far. Two weeks in, and he'd skipped most of last week. He didn't do much else throughout his days; on occasion, he drove Hanabi to go do social things with her friends like a typical teenager.

But he wasn't a typical teenager.

Sighing, he tuned out the professors droning voice (kinematics were too simple to have an entire week dedicated to them, in his opinion) and let his mind wander.

It had been a surprise to see Naruto again so soon; no amount of foreknowledge could change that. Naruto was the kind of person who always took you by surprise, no matter what. If it weren't for his cheerful attitude and pleasant demeanor, he probably would've been sent to reform school for his devious nature. Naruto was many things, but "normal" was not one of them. They shared that in common.

In a way, it should've been obvious that Naruto would join a band and continue his studies privately. He was, after all, unpredictable; the fact that he could switch moods on a beat (literally) and carry a tune was proof of that. It was something unexpected.

And what was Naruto, but the epitome of the unexpected?

His phone vibrated. Neji pulled it out of his pocket, placed it in his lap, and read the text he'd just received.

We're going to the movies. Wanna come? -Tenten

He couldn't help but smile, ever so slightly.

Tenten was one of his friends from school, who'd helped him through his familial and personal struggles. She was one of the few people who he let into his heart before he met Naruto.

"We" meant, of course, Lee and Tenten, along with (possibly) their old instructor Gai.

He knew they were trying to cheer him up, bring some normalcy into his life.

He stood abruptly, chair grating against the floor. The professor's eyes fell on him, but Neji simply pushed it back into place and began to leave.

"I'll be back," he lied smoothly, and in a flash and the slamming of the door, he was gone.


Hinata felt her heart pound when the phone to her room rang. She nervously fingered it, fingertips gently brushing the cold, white plastic, wondering whether she dared answer, before finally gathering herself and picking up.

"Hello?"

"Hinata!" Shizune's voice was bright, cheerful, and brought Hinata calm. "A boy's here to see you. He says he's a K7! member."

Hinata felt her heart leap.

So much for calm.

"O-Okay," she replied nervously, unable to say anything else.

"Shall I send him up?" Shizune's prompted gently.

Hinata felt her hand trembling as she gripped the phone more tightly.

"S-Sure."

Shizune hung up, and Hinata tried to breathe normally. She replaced the phone and lightly touched her hands to her cheeks; she could practically see them flushing. She could definitely feel the heat rushing to them.

Hastily, she smoothed the sheets around her, ran her fingers through her hair in a vain effort to comb it, licked her front teeth anxiously. Time passed, but not slowly enough; she could imagine Naruto in the elevator, grinning, watching the screen that flickered with numbers. 2, 3, 4... And finally, her floor. Oh God, he was probably stepping out right now, turning towards her room-!

Relax, she commanded herself. She took deep breaths, hoping they might calm her. They helped, but her heart was still beating quickly. It could be Sai. It doesn't have to be Naruto. Don't faint. Don't faint don't faint don'tfaint-

Her thoughts came to an abrupt stop when the door to her room opened.

And she felt the color drain from her face.

"U..." She couldn't say it. Didn't DARE say it.

This was all wrong. So horribly, terribly wrong.

"Hello, Hyuga Hinata."

No, no, no, not...!

Onyx met pearl, and she screamed.


Annoying.

Typical.

Plain.

Uchiha Sasuke regarded the girl with the white eyes with a look of disdain. She was pale, wide-eyed, a deer in headlights, frozen.

No.

Her heart monitor was starting to beep furiously, and he was getting more irritated with every sound the machine let out.

No.

She wasn't frozen.

She was terrified. And breathing fast.

Sick and bedridden, but still able to muster up a healthy ounce of fear.

And her illness hadn't seemed to have impacted her lungs. She'd screeched like a harpy, like a sparrow as a hawk swoops in, and it was a sure sign of her terror. She hadn't been expecting him, then. It had startled her.

Scared her.

Fear.

Directed towards him.

Good.

His eyes trailed over her body. She was curvy, even through her sheets. Her hair was matted and messy, uncared for. She'd probably just woken up.

Not a true beauty, not a total mess.

Right in the middle, he concluded. Average. Typical. Plain.

Annoying.

"Tch." He scoffed. Audibly. Her wide eyes blinked at the sound.

Cry.

Cry. Weak, useless, superficial, silly, annoying. Crying would suit her. It would be a typical reaction for a typical girl.

He expected tears. He thought, for a moment, he saw them gathering in her pearl eyes.

But then her pearl eyes narrowed.

"Get out."

This was not the girl from the video. Frail, silly, weak though she was, this girl had good lungs. There was the slightest rasp to her voice, only detectable to a highly trained ear such as his own, which implied the coughing she suffered from frequently.

But her voice, even with that, was still strong, much more resilient than he'd thought.

He scowled.

Breaking her would take more time than he'd thought.

"Let me explain."

She shook her head vigorously.

"Get out," she repeated, louder this time.

His eyes narrowed. He glared at her, and after a moment, she caved.

She wasn't frail, but she wasn't strong, either. That much was almost painfully obvious in the way her eyes drifted downward to the ground, then snapped up to glare at him beneath her dark bangs.

This was as close to permission to speak he was going to get from her. Not that he needed it - her voice could carry, but so could his, and he was much more practiced in getting a word in than she was.

"I'm representing K7."

Her eyebrows raised in skepticism.

"Y-You're not even IN K7."

"Unofficially," he said dismissively. It wasn't his point, after all, and in any case, it was irrelevant information. "But O-Sound and HEI have come up with an agreement to collaborate, just for you." He smirked wickedly. "Don't you feel special?"

She continued to glare daggers at him. He glanced to the steady beating of her heart monitor. Despite her anger with him, she was doing remarkably well at quelling it: her breathing was full and even, and although she was tense, she wasn't frozen anymore like when he'd walked in.

"Your Father's already signed an agreement with us," he continued.

There. Finally, a wince. Betrayal flickered through her eyes.

Delicious.

Annoying.

Kind of like-

"We're free to have media and press involved now." His smirk grew. "You'll be famous. You already are, but the world will LOVE this-"

"Stop it-"

"-the tragic story of a dying girl who gets her wish fulfilled. All caught on camera."

"Stop it!"

She shrieked at him, hands clenched on the edges of her bed. Her eyes were almost wild - but not frenzied, just overwhelmed - she probably couldn't take much - how annoying-

"I'm only telling you the truth," he said in his calmest voice. She whimpered in response, hands going to run nervously through her hair.

And yet her heart monitor was still just as stable as it had been before.

But, he observed, she was fidgety. Annoying.

Her movements stopped suddenly, and then her pearl eyes were glaring at him again.

"Truth," she spat. "You're O-Sound." She turned away from him, form shifting to face her window. "There's n-no truth in that."

Tch. Stuttering. She wasn't frail. But she wasn't strong.

If he put enough pressure on her, she'd snap, just like any old wooden pencil. Seemingly made of hard stuff, but really pretty hollow. Empty. Weak, in the long run. Annoying.

The defiant way her arms were crossed, legs splayed out on her cot, brought to his mind the image of another girl, just as defiant, just as annoying.

"Go away."

This time, he chuckled.

"I'll be back." With that, he did as she'd asked. He turned on his heel and slid out of her room.

But he heard the erratic blips of her heart monitor before the door closed, and couldn't repress his grin.

Oh yes, he would break her.

And it would be easy, if she cooperated so beautifully.


A/N: Been awhile since an update. Here ya go, folks! Wonder how Hinata's gonna react now? (Well, I know, but you guys don't XD) As always, thanks for your support!

Gay Rights, y'all. Just saying. I'm straight, but they need their rights, too. We live in America, after all. Equality, and all that jazz. Idc. I just don't like homophobia. It's lame and shallow. So. Yeah.

Review or follow, either will still rock my socks! BUT reviewers get stars. For realz, y'all. STARS. I know what III would do if I were you...