A/N: Yes. For two months, I've totes-mi-gotes been MIA. I have a good excuse, though! Finals! Schoolwork! Sleep! I'll try to keep updates at least once a month from now on, though.

On another note, it's been a while since I read A Midsummer Night's Dream, and I mixed Demetrius and Lysander's parts. Hozuki is playing Demetrius and Juugo Lysander, not vice versa as I previously asserted. To any theatre-junkies that raised their eyebrows and then shrugged it off, I ask your forgiveness. :)

And to sophia666, who has still not gotten her oneshot: Soon. My excuses will be in that update. :P

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto or anything related to it. :P

Chapter Twenty-One

She was seeing stars. It had taken so long to come to terms with how she felt about Sasuke, but now that she had, it all just felt...right. Different as they were, they just seemed to fit, like two pieces of a puzzle. He was the only one who could love her no matter who or what she was, she the one girl who could put him in his place and make him stay there. And since his confession they'd been almost honeymooning, as inseparable as turtle doves and sappy as a maple tree. In a few days they'd be giving their first performance, which meant that rehearsals basically took up whatever time they didn't spend studying (I.e., making out.) The TAGS girls came over for the dress rehearsal, lugging massive, Anko-sized crates of make-up and presenting their designs, which had been approved by their Drama head and then by Deidara, and were currently dragging off their respective actors to the dressing rooms, their bandanas hanging a little low on their noses. They were to present their final costumes, one by one, to Kakashi, who inspected them with a magnifying glass before passing them on to their corresponding actor.

"Sasuke-kun," Hinata murmured against neck, shuddering when he nipped hers in response. "Kakashi...he'll be looking for us soon...!"

Sasuke smirked, placing a soft kiss right below her ear. She'd always known, deep down, that he was the kind of person who fixated on certain things and hung onto them with the tenacity of a pit bull. Which was unfortunate, since said object of his attention at the moment happened to be her. The moment the TAGS girls were ushered in and given the proper, respectful greeting, he'd dragged her away for his amusement. They'd ended up in a vacant dressing-room, curtain drawn.

The moment that curtain had snapped shut, she'd been hella nervous and ready to bolt. It wasn't kisses she was afraid of- she'd had enough of those to know that they were normally quite nice-just the thought that he'd want to make good on the promise hidden within that wolfish leer he'd been giving her all day. But then he sat down, and she'd let out a sigh of relief.

They'd talked. It was strange to just chat with him, no antagonizing, no unnecessary arguments, just pleasant small-talk. Mostly, it seemed like he wanted to get away from the TAGS girls, who had been batting their eyes at him from the moment they walked in (those hussies), and Kakashi, who kept prattling on about how quickly Hozuki's face was healing and shaking his head disparagingly at the now green-brown bruise across Sasuke's cheek.

"Why're you all the way over there?" Sasuke suddenly said, unprovoked, in the middle of a mundane sentence about Naruto's ghastly eating habits. The question broke Hinata out of her pleasant reverie; blinking, she'd realized that she'd stopped listening and had been focusing on the smooth timbre of his voice. She looked up apologetically, and then frowned. Those eyes were back, the ones that made her feel like an tasty morsel. Who knew eyes as black as Sasuke's could smolder?

She blinked. She was still standing, leaning against the wall, barely three feet away from him. "What do you mean?"

And then he pounced, pinning her between him and the wall behind her. Which she normally would have protested, but, goddamn the boy was learning some nice tricks and the moment his lips brushed her jaw she was gone.

And so here they were, snogging in a fairly public dressing room like the couples she'd always despised. Though she couldn't quite blame them anymore. It was really quite fun, and a the prospect of getting caught was, admittedly, a little exciting-

In the distance, Hinata heard Ino's name being called and automatically stiffened.

"Really," she said, turning her head away and bringing her hands to his chest. "We have to stop."

He sighed, his fingers digging into her waist and dragging her closer in a way that wasn't entirely unpleasant.

"Why?" It was weird how his whining could sound like seduction. She grit her teeth, deciding that no amount of touchy-feely time was worth the wrath the other actors would shower upon their heads should they be caught, and pulled his hands away.

"Ino's been called," she said, "Which means I have to meet her in a couple of minutes."

"Then wait a couple of minutes."

She sighed, and reached up to flick his forehead. He flinched, and she used that split second to slither out of his embrace like an eel.

"I-I'll see you," she said, semi-apologetically, as she stumbled out from behind the curtain.

The girls were already filing in with their costumes and actors, and a few tossed her amused, questioning looks- after all, people didn't just chill out in dressing rooms. She wondered how their expressions would change when Sasuke came out too. Smoothing out her hair, she walked into the open area where the other actors were waiting. Deidara shot her a sly look; she stuck her tongue out at him, still annoyed by the trick he'd pulled the week before. He'd done nothing in the way of apologizing, except to leer at her suggestively and once even suggest that she thank him for getting the ball rolling between she and Sasuke. He winked back, as though pleased that she'd remembered at all, and slid off of his stool. Hinata settled next to Juugo, who was twiddling his thumbs nervously and looking from somewhere on the stage to the floor intermittently. She followed his gaze and smiled when it landed on a girl with a forest-green bandana, which had slipped to settle just below her upper lip. She was pretty, in a soft, unexaggerated way that could easily be construed as plain. She was also incredibly tall, almost Kakashi-sensei's height. The six foot tall drama teacher, who only occasionally had competition in the height department, kept trying to surreptiously boost himself onto his tip-toes. The girl seemed to notice, because she was turning steadily more and more pink, though she seemed to be otherwise controlled.

'She must be a nice person,' Hinata thought with a smile. 'If Juugo likes h-'

Suddenly a hot pink paisley print darted into view, and a moment later the wind was being bludgeoned out of her chest.

"H-Hello, Ino," she said shyly, patting the head of the enthusiastic blonde who was trying desperately to squeeze the life out of her. She looked up at the plastic-wrapped costume, which Ino had somehow managed to hold over her head while hugging her with one arm.

"Hey, sugar. How've you been?" she said, releasing her just as quickly as she'd grabbed her. Her eyes flashed knowingly to Hinata's, and she winked suggestively. "Or, should I say, how's Sasuke?"

Hinata blushed deeply, and reflexively glanced over her shoulder at Juugo, who was thankfully still salivating over the only woman in the room who had a hope of ever kissing him without having to stand on a stool. Of course, she couldn't say as much for Deidara, but who cared about him? (She didn't. That boy was more headache than anything. She could hardly believe he was a t.a. They must have been running low on applicants or something.)

"C'mon, I want to see the costume. I can tell you all about how I'm doing inside the dressing room."

Before the blonde could protest, Hinata had wound an arm around her waist (which tore Juugo's eyes away from green-bandana girl for just a moment) and dragged Ino into the closest open room.

The moment the curtain had snapped shut, Ino rounded on her. She hung the still wrapped costume on a small rack, and then sat down in the chair, crossing her legs and leaning forward.

"You kissed him, didn't you," she said matter-of-factly.

Kissed him? Oh, she'd most definitely done that.

"Maybe," Hinata murmured. "Can I see the dress?"

"Details?" Ino pleaded excitedly.

Hinata took off her shirt and tossed it at her. It landed square in Ino's face and then slid down to her lap. Ino picked it up, murmuring distastefully about how horrendous the color was, and set it aside.

"Dress first," she conceded, making a face. "But right after you wear it, you have to spill."

Hinata shrugged. Ino would squeeze it out of her eventually anyway. "I want to see," she said truthfully, gesturing toward the bag.

Grinning, Ino wrestled the plastic wrap over the hanger, revealing a sheath of blue satin. It wavered gently as though the wind were blowing. Ino turned and with her so did the dress, and Hinata couldn't stop grinning.

Really, Ino had gone to town. She'd expected Victorian clothes, because every single rendition of AMND that she'd seen had chosen them. It seemed that the TAGS girls had gone for a combination of Victorian and ancient Grecian. A ring of golden embroidery went around the neck of the dress, interrupting a flow of deep blue, a thick braid of gold cinched the waist. The fabric billowed and pillowed above the waist, probably to give her breasts a bit of breathing room, and the hem of the skirt was detailed with careful white and gold.

"Wow," she said, "Ino, it's beautiful."

Ino scoffed, obviously flattered. "I know it's beautiful, what I don't know is if it fits."

"You took my measurements last time. How could it not fit?"

Ino rolled her eyes. "I would stick to those measurements if I wanted to make you look like a real girl. The point is to be as close as possible to androgynous here. The audience should be trying to guess who's a guy and who's not. With your hips, I think it'd be a dead giveaway if I wasn't careful."
She wriggled the dress from it's hanger. "Here. Try."

Hinata took it gingerly. The fabric felt like it could slip right through her fingers.

"It feels expensive," she observed.

"That's because it is," Ino said off-handedly. "Kakashi's banking on making a killing with sales on this one, so he's allocated a lot of his budget to this. We got a pretty hefty chunk." she waved away the information easily. "On."

Hinata obliged, wrestling the dress over her head and slipping her arms through the holes. It flowed easily down her legs. The fabric was cool and light.

"Perfect," Ino said, satisfied.

She turned to herself in the mirror and frowned. It did look nice, she supposed, although it made her shoulders look impossibly wide. Still, she could see the outline of her hips, and she knew that when she moved the shapes of her legs would stick out like a sore thumb. "I definitely still look like a girl."

Ino shrugged. "You're supposed to, technically. As a designer, I'm supposed to be turning you from a boy to a girl. You just already happen to be one, which makes things a little easier. But see," she adjusted the dress so that the neckline lined up properly. "The audience needs to be constantly guessing, you know? So I had to make it seem like I'm hiding stuff." She smiled, ruffling Hinata's hair affectionately. "Wait. I'll get a wig, and we'll be done."

True to her word, Ino fished out a black, wavy wig from her bag. It looked eerily like the hair she'd lost, that she'd chopped off almost six months ago. The sight of it made her throat clench. She hoped Konohomaru was doing okay, that the older girls at the Home were helping the Matron with the chores like she had. She barely noticed as Ino flitted about behind her, securing the wig cap and then carefully pinning the wig itself in place.

"Done," she said triumphantly, stepping back.

When she looked up, she almost saw herself again. Hinata, the shy high school girl who barely lifted her nose out of her books and couldn't talk to anyone for fear of being ridiculed, who hardly spoke to boys and was certainly several eons away from kissing one.

"It looks beautiful," Ino said proudly, securing the wig with a final Bobby pin.

"But-"

"Trust me."

Sighing heavily, Hinata parted the curtains and shook her head doubtfully. Ordinarily, she would agree instantly, smile and tell Ino that there was no issue, of course, but a strange feeling had suddenly swirled into her gut and introduced a paralyzingly doubt.

Hinata gaped stupidly at the rest of the cast, who had been utterly transformed from a motley crew of pretty boys into mysterious, beautiful faerie folk- some of whom were in dresses. They'd gathered in the open area between the rooms while waiting for the tech crew to set up the set, which gave her plenty of time to ogle openly. Her heart dropped in jealousy at the sight of the Yoshino, the upperclassman who played Queen Titania. They'd never spoken- they were rarely even on the stage at the same time, and she'd never particularly felt the urge to try to get to know him- and, perhaps because she was always around guys like Sasuke and Deidara, she'd thought him rather average. But right now, at the sight of the lithe, long haired, full-lipped beauty, she was sent into a state of shock.

Until he spoke, in a low baritone that nearly sent her tripping over herself. Suddenly, she could see through his otherwise perfect guise, the squareness of his jaw, the protruding Adam's apple half-concealed by the translucent white chiffon scarf thrown over his neck, all dead giveaways. Still, at first glance, he was as tall, regal, and beautiful as his character suggested.

"Fu's excellent, isn't she?" Ino said wistfully, gesturing at the petite green-haired girl in a black bandana that Yoshino was talking to. "There's really no challenge she can't face." She sighed, and then spotted Hozuki and scowled. "Wow, now there's a miracle if I've ever seen one."

Hozuki bared his teeth in response as he ambled over, temporarily breaking his charm. His hair had been pulled back in a low ponytail, and he was wearing a wine red, high collared jacket with silver buttons down the side, dark trousers and boots that stopped mid-calf. His costume, like hers, was far less complicated than the faeries', minimal and colorful rather than detailed and otherworldly. Still, the style suited him.

"Well, Hinata," he said with a wag of his head. "I'll have no problem pretending when we get to that scene, it seems." When she colored and looked like she was either going to faint or punch him, he added, warmly, "Naw, just kidding. You do look nice. Really, sometimes I think it's such a pity you're a dude..."

It took Hinata a full minute and a light nudge from Ino to realize that she wasn't supposed to be flattered, by which time Hozuki had already meandered off to flirt with a group of TAGS girls, who'd been staring at him expectantly from above their bandanas.

"Hey," a breathy, familiar voice interrupted her thoughts, and she wheeled around excitedly. And then nearly fell over.

Okay, so she'd read somewhere that Puck was supposed to be kind of weird looking and all, but wasn't this a bit much? She could barely recognize Sasuke under this guise. They'd given him a long, slightly scruffy blue-black wig, and painted him an odd, even steel grey. His lips were painted as well, a dark blue-black. But the most terrifying part were his eyes. His contacts painted the whites of his eyes into a chilling, oily black, his irises a nearly glowing red. This wasn't a faerie, she thought in horror. This was a demon.

Interpreting her aghast expression, Sasuke grinned, which only made her eyes widen further. Fangs, too? Really? "I take it you don't like it?"

"You look like...like...you just came out of a horror movie," she whispered truthfully. He blinked slowly, exaggeratedly, as if just to see her tiny jolt as his black eyes came back into view.

"Kakashi wanted something... A little different for me," he explained coolly.

"Puck isn't supposed to be scary," she muttered, "He's supposed to be sneaky and mischievous and, well, silly-looking, but not s-scary."

A hand crept surreptitiously around her waist, and she stiffened. The lights were dimmer backstage, but they were still far from alone. One glance from any of the thirty or so people gathered nearby from the wrong angle could cause a scene. "Sasuke," she muttered warningly.

"Hm?" he said innocently, rubbing slow circles on her lower back.

He was hopeless. If he keeps this up, she thought, flushing, I'm going to die of high blood pressure when I'm twenty. "Not here. And not while you're like this. I-Ino'll be mad if you get any of that body paint on this costume. She said the material was e-expensive."

"Why not?" he asked. Then, with a smile that would have sent her to pieces had he not been dressed like something likely to steal her soul, he added, "You look nice."

She changed the subject, trying to ignore the way her cheeks were burning. "S-S-Someone will see."

"Maybe I want them to."

Hinata looked up at him imploringly. "Well, I don't."

A strange look flickered over his face- disappointment? Maybe if he wasn't grey she could tell- and then his arm fell limply and he meandered away, moving to talk to Kakashi. There was something stiff in his gait. She bit her lip- was he mad at her? He was one of the only people she could find the courage to stand up to, to tell off when the occasion seemed to call for it. But maybe she'd taken it too far?

Distantly, she heard Kakashi announce that the crew had finished the set and give a few wise words of encouragement for their last rehearsal, ending with a tender, loving, "Don't fuck this up." Just as she was about to drag herself miserably onstage, Sasuke turned to her again.

And winked. A strange current passed under her skin- that simple gesture held so, so many little promises of things to come.

Three hours later, after they'd undressed and cleaned off their stage makeup, Sasuke found her again, his skin still smudged with grey as though he'd hastened to wipe it away. The TAGS girls were filtering slowly out of the auditorium, and behind them and onstage a few of the actors lingered, speaking excitedly.

"You did good," he said, nudging her gently. She blushed lightly and pushed her bangs out of her eyes.

"D-Did I?" It was a wonder he hadn't commented on the kiss scene. Hozuki had been a real gentleman, feigning passion rather than forcing it, and she'd done the same, focusing on the fact that she couldn't feel his teeth at all. Four TAGS girls had to be ferried away to staunch unending nosebleeds. It had not been a scene to forget or ignore-which meant that he was planning to take vengeance.

"Yeah, you did," he said simply.

"You too," she offered, "Well, you always do, so I-I guess..." Why was she still getting nervous around him? She wanted to kick herself. She'd always been easy to read- like a picture book, Konohomaru had once said- and the entire cast had probably seen the way she turned into a total girl around him. It was only a matter of time before someone figured it out. After all, Hozuki had voiced his suspicions just the other day.

"Hinata," he interrupted suddenly. "You know I don't care, right?"

She looked up in surprise. "What?"

He sighed as though her confusion were unfounded. "I mean, I don't care what anyone thinks. I bet half of the school's been assuming I'm gay for months now anyway."

Hinata blinked up at him owlishly, slowly digesting the information. "You...want us to tell people?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Not necessarily," he said, and then his smile turned wicked and she knew that his revenge would be served immediately and that it would be super spicy hot. "I just want to be able to do this."

Before she could take a breath, he'd taken her face in both of his hands, leaned over and planted a firm but gentle peck on her lips.

The auditorium went silent. The TAGS girls who remained had frozen mid-sentence and were now gaping up at them in ravenous delight. Kakashi had turned dispassionately and shrugged; next to him, Hozuki was gesturing wildly and noiselessly, as though all of his taunting had been pure tripe. Hinata turned ten different shades of red in rapid, shutter-screen succession as Sasuke extended a hand in invitation.

"Time to go home," he said, seeming not to notice the small crowd staring up at him.

She took it, and, hand-in-hand, they walked out.

"Well," Kakashi drawled, patting a now hysterical Hozuki's shoulder, "Ten points for Sasuke?"

How they'd managed to kill two hours just making out went beyond her. Neither of them was very experienced in these things, and as opposed to that painful, rough kiss he'd given her so long ago, the ones he gave her now were cautious, hesitant things. It'd taken a little while for either of them to try anything really daring, but once they'd crossed that threshold... Well, Sasuke hated to admit defeat.

Also, she was fairly certain that years of remaining sexually comatose had turned Sasuke into a raging beast of eternal randiness. Kissing Sasuke was nice, something she realized that she'd wanted to do for a long time, but occasionally those hands got frisky, and she found herself grabbing them and moving them and once even disabling all movement from his elbow down, which, bizarrely enough, he found to be more a turn-on than a hindrance. Perhaps it wasn't safe for them to sleep in the same room anymore-oh!

"I'm pretty sure there's a rule somewhere that says that you can't do that until the third date," Hinata sighed breathlessly, pushing them apart and grabbing the vigilante hand that had settled itself at her hip.

Sasuke grinned, nuzzling her neck when she refused him her mouth. "Like you haven't been asking for it this whole time."

"Ah! What are you-oh. Ahhah- Sasuke, that tickles, stop it..."

"Then let me see."

"No way."

"Oh, c'mon. I've seen you in girl's clothes. How come you're so flat right now?"

"I-It's... It's a secret...eep! Sasuke, I'm certain there's a rule against THAT."

"Oh, c'mon, just a peek..."

"I swear if you try that again I'll cut off your-"

A knock on the door interrupted their naughty reverie. Sasuke growled, irritated, and locked her in place with an arm around her waist when she began to wiggle free to answer.

"It's probably the dobe," he murmured, rolling half on top of her. She protested feebly, but then he kissed the corner of her mouth and she turned to butter, allowing herself to relax against him...

"Open up!" A voice called. It wasn't Naruto's, not Kiba's- it took her moment to realize that it was Sai, which was odd, because Sai never ventured to the freshmen dorms and he most certainly never yelled. She stiffened, and then firmly but gently pushed Sasuke off of her. Perhaps he'd felt the way she'd suddenly gone rigid in his arms, or seen the concerned look in her eyes, because he didn't struggle this time.

"I'm coming!" she called, kicking aside the first-aid baggie that still lay on the floor and shaking out her hair so that it wouldn't look too mussed. She opened up, chest tight.

Sai looked down at her, his mouth drawn into a tight line. He cocked an eyebrow, looking from her bright pink face to Sasuke's irritated but oddly satisfied one briefly, and then shouldered his way inside.

"What's up?" she said. There was a hint of desperation in her voice, and she realized that her hands were shaking. Sai was behaving strangely. It worried her. He glanced at her as though searching for something in her eyes, but then shook his head and sighed.

"Hinata," he said slowly, "You need to call Neji. And you need to tell him everything."

She paled. Now? She'd been planning to get to know him better, to visit a few times at least, before revealing her little secret. The last thing she wanted was for her cousin, her nii-san, to be disappointed in her. Ashamed. The thought made her stomach sink. Behind her, Sasuke sat up, brow furrowed and interest piqued.

"Why?" Hinata whispered.

Sai's eyes flickered up to hers, heated for once and nearly scornful. It was the look an older brother would give his younger sibling, annoyed but loving, and she gulped, because she'd never seem him look this serious.

Gravely, he opened up his messenger bag and withdrew a glossy magazine-Pearl, the most popular art and pop culture print of the year. Her cousin was on the cover, and she felt a wonderful surge of pride, because god the shot was great, white clothes and white skin against a white background, the only color in the blue-black of his hair and pale pink of his mouth. But then she read one of the headlines, in bold black letters-'Inside the Prodigy's Exhibition, Exclusive Content,' and her heart froze.

"There's no way," she mouthed, but of course there was. Neji was famous. It was perfectly sensible for his exhibition to be covered by the press, and even more so by Pearl. She'd sat with him on the pedestal, on a place of honor. Highly visible, not even thinking to hide herself. Lost in the realization of her dreams, she'd gotten careless.

"What's going on?" Sasuke said, finally rolling out of bed and walking over. Sai flipped the magazine open, and she gasped, because this was awful, this was all of her worst fears realized. The spread spanned across both pages, an enlarged picture of she and Neji at the table. In any other situation it would be heartwarming, because in the picture they looked happy, like a family. Except underneath it, in large white letters, it read, "A storybook reunion! After years of fruitless searche, artistic prodigy Neji Hyuuga happens upon long-lost cousin Hinata Hyuuga."

She couldn't move. Couldn't. Her body rebelled, denying her even the relief of tears. Her name, for anyone to read. Her face, for all to see. If Sai had already seen this, she had literally hours- mere hours, she thought despairingly, before the shit really hit the fan.

"Oh, god," Sasuke said. If she looked up, she would see the pain that split open his face, would see the shock that broke down his wall entirely. But she couldn't turn. The picture grew blurred, became a mass of black and peach-white, and then, when she couldn't see it anymore, her hand moved mechanically into her pocket. She pulled out her cell phone. And then dialed.

He picked up on the third ring. "Hinata?"

Her voice stuck to her throat. She coughed feebly, though the blockage was far from physical.

"Neji-niisan?" she said timorously.

He sounded tired, likely exhausted after the strain of the exhibition and the numerous conferences and interviews following. "Yes?"

Hinata swallowed and turned to Sai, finding little comfort in his fixed mouth and downcast eyes. Next to her, Sasuke was squeezing her hand gently, but she couldn't look at him, not now, not when everything they'd finally managed to build together- everything they'd become- was about to come falling down in pieces.

"I have...something to tell you."

A/N: I haven't looked over this even once, so I apologize in advance for anything that might seem sloppy, etc. This chapter was iffy, since the first half is kind of filler-y. Also, cliffie! YAY! Please don't kill me! –hides from arrows-