Hanabi smelled like the smoke from fireworks over the heady scent of wild flowers on a hot summer night. Beneath his hands her hips were brittle as a baby bird and although her mouth yielded easily against his own the softness he anticipated was not there.
Hesitation reigned, for both of them. Pink cheeked and confused she stared as he pulled away, and although they did not speak it, both felt the wrongness in their bones for it was obvious they had made a mistake.
There was no stopping the tsunami of expectations now placed upon their joint shoulders. The wedding celebration being a minor note in a lifelong list of goals. Round baby filled bellies being the one in both their minds that they now dreaded. There had been nothing wrong in technicality with the press of Sasuke's mouth to Hanabi's own, and yet the crawling itch of disquiet lingered.
It promised long years of malaise and discomfort.
Sasuke's hands squeezed at her waist, a pulse of agreement that told her he too did not want to discuss it and softly he whispered his goodbye before making his way out the door and towards home.
It did not faze him that Hanabi let him go, that her back remained turned away from him and had he known she pressed a hand to her mouth with the intention of rubbing his touch away he would have only felt relief and panic at once.
Instead he took a slow walk back to the Uchiha grounds where the rubble of half finished homes still hunkered in shadowy corners among the whispering trees. The moon was a giant orb of light in the heavens, not yet full and perfect. That would be saved for the next night, when the fireworks Hanabi had so carefully picked would dance with it in the dark sky to mark the celebration of two ancient shinobi houses, joining together as one.
Entering the house afforded him a moment to pause the frantic thoughts that had begun spinning through his mind. The light was on in the hallway upstairs but his bedroom door was closed. Hina, who he had left on the couch downstairs had disappeared and the open window in the living room rustled with the curtain as the late evening breeze blew casually through.
One blink had his gaze shifting to the demon red glow of his killer ancestry. Kunai fit from his sleeves into his palms cold where his skin felt hot. Silent as the shadow that trailed him he climbed the stairs, listening intently all the while for the children's voices and although he heard none there certainly was a commotion happening within the room that made his blood sprint through his veins.
A quick glance in the hall bathroom made him start to find both children fast asleep in a nest of towels within the curving arms of the bathtub. Puzzled and increasingly apprehensive Sasuke turned back to his bedroom, opening the door to find it empty but for a disaster.
The pillows were strewn about the floor, the high backed chair tucked into a corner by his desk had been knocked clean onto it's head. The nightstand was on its face, and the lamp upon it although lit sat spread eagle on the floor casting light and shadows in strange strips across the ground.
From his bathroom a voice called out, more feeble than angry though it still had the sting of irritation within it.
"Sasuke. Open this door."
Startled, Sasuke moved forward, stepping over the mess to fling the bathroom door wide and not a second later a raven shot through, all ruffled feathers and unimpressed corvid squawks.
"What-?" Sasuke began, and pressed a hand to his face. "They locked you in here?"
"Those...those children," Itachi's voice retorted from the raven's beak, beady crimson eyes shining as he shifted on the windowsill with a twitchy sort of displeasure that was hard to miss. "Unbelievable the way they just..."
Sasuke's hand rising up to stop him was all he could manage, choking down a tired laugh and feeling at once like it might not be well received. "Don't be upset with them. You should have said nothing. How did you think children would react to a speaking crow?"
"Raven." Itachi corrected, then with a shrug of his feathery shoulders he popped, exploding into a handful of ebony feathers before materializing into his usual foggy shape. "They called me creepy."
"Accurate." Sasuke retorted with no malice, waving a hand at him now. "You being see through does not help your defense."
"I'm not saying they were wrong." Itachi tried to sound like his feelings were not wounded but failed only a little. "Just that it was rude to say out loud."
"What happened?" Finally hearing the note of seriousness to his brother's voice Sasuke let the amusement which had tickled at his side fade away. "Did that damned Susa do this to you?"
"Could have just as easily been Ama, if she knew what we had been up to. But it benefits Lord Susa that she not know." Itachi examined his hands which he had loathed only a few days before with their transparent easily yielding skin, only to now realize there were much worse things. Being a bird did not suit a human soul, it chaffed endlessly.
A cold fist tightened in Sasuke's stomach at his words. He and Neji had been risking much, and he knew now from the quiet silence on Itachi's face that they had been caught. It did not escape him that this strange punishment had darker sides he did not fully grasp.
"You need to stop. It's all over tomorrow regardless." If Sasuke had been able to shake him he would have. "Stop now. What will they do to you if you continue to disobey their orders?"
Itachi's eyes slid slow from the glowing moon bright in the heavens to Sasuke's equally dark eyes, bright despite everything. Ignoring his question he replied with a teasing tone.
"I suppose congratulations are in order."
His brother's face twisted into confusion for only a brief moment before catching on to Itachi's sarcasm. Turning away impatiently he began to gather pillows from the floor, making the bed the same way he would go about shredding through a field of enemies.
"Congratulations are in order, are they not?" Itachi continued, shifting through the steady stripe of moonlight that flooded through the parted curtain as he followed his brother through the room.
"You mean because of my still uncanceled wedding?" Sasuke finally bit the obvious bait, turning to look at him at the same time that he slammed his chair back into its rightful place. Absently his parental brain thought he might have just woken the children, that too was suddenly Itachi's fault. It was easier if he was angry at him.
"Yes. If that... is still happening?" Itachi let the question hang, waiting expectantly for a thing which Sasuke could not deliver. His attempt to be playful was not welcome. There was still Hanabi's smell in Sasuke's nose, a mix of summer sun, perfume and firework smoke, reminding him of the endless days that were to come. And although Itachi's motives were as always for Sasuke's own good...
"You have to stop." Softly said the demand had all the force of a scream and Itachi let his face slip to the more honest quiet of growing dismay.
"You are going to suffer through the rest of your life for this mistake. How can I?"
"It is not a mistake if I know the consequences." It would hardly help to be insulted that his older brother still considered him incapable of making choices for himself, unable to weigh all the options before committing himself to the one that upheld his priorities. To him, he was still clearly just a child.
"If only you would allow Hinata to also make that choice, by at least offering her-"
"She will not choose me. Even when I- if I do such a thing." Sasuke spun, throwing the broken lamp at the wall just to hear something shatter. The pitter patter of feet told him the children had indeed woken but their self preservation instincts had kicked in and instead of coming into the room the sound of them heading downstairs assured him he had a few more minutes.
Itachi gazed back with his unsteady misty shape. Usually bright and faintly glowing Sasuke could see the ink blots that now ebbed and flowed, twisting like the feelings he no doubt had inspired inside his brother's spirit.
Before he could cut the conversation now threadbare from overuse short Itachi shifted forward, rustling the feathers he had left behind with his movement as he searched out Sasuke's unwilling gaze. "I chose you. I choose you, even now. Why do you think I am shoved into that corvid, threatened with that permanent ill fitting cage even now? Because I choose you, I owe you happiness, not-"
"I did not want you to choose me." Shoulders slumped and suddenly overwhelmed with exhaustion Sasuke shook his head gently. "I never did."
Frozen in place he was a piece of art work, made of light and shadow and spotting ink that swirled and twisted within his soft casing. Still, the soul which the gods had allowed passage into Sasuke's life did not need real eyes to show the sudden pain that flickered there, too all encompassing to hide.
"Y...you-" Itachi started, stopping when Sasuke shook his head once more.
"You made your choices." His little brother lifted his chin, finally gazing at him from a height Itachi realized was taller than him. "I was robbed of mine. Do not become thief of my future again. I beg you."
"No...no, I... of course." Already the edges of his being were coming apart, flickering bits of dust through the moonlight. "I...I am so sorry, Sasuke. I-"
Nodding, Sasuke shrugged. "Take care of yourself now. I don't want a raven following me for the rest of my life. Leave the gods to do their business, whatever it is that gods do when they aren't ruining people's lives."
It was only a moment, half a second before Itachi split into a million glittering sparkles on the breeze that his face changed from soul crippling pain to realization.
For, what did gods do when they weren't ruining lives?
He thought he might have a guess.
She felt dumb. Dumb from the tip of her nose to the ends of her hair, all the day down to her toes. Standing in front of Sasuke's house in the middle of the night long past a reasonable hour to visit with a packed bag on her shoulder and no explanation.
Above the moon looked at her with a sad sort of expression Hinata thought might be pity, and although the stars twinkling looked like they laughed Hinata felt they at least were attempting to muffle it. Still, despite the lack of humanoid audience the embarrassment crawled up her spine, flooding her cheeks with heat, burning her ears to cinders beneath the length of her hair.
"What was I thinking?"
She had not been. Sleeping alone on her futon had simply seemed impossible. There was an itch all over her that demanded attention the longer she held still. Her skin felt full to bursting with feelings too big to name, and of all the things that came to mind Sasuke alone soothed.
So there she stood, naked in her idiocy, eaten up with more shame.
Entering the house without his knowledge would be difficult. She cocked her head at the structure. Two levels, all rooms had windows and she was fairly sure he never bothered with locking the door. Unlocked doors however were not as simple as one would think when it came to Uchihas. His was an invitation and a threat at once. Hinata would go so far as to say both were the same thing to him.
It was what made touching him zap her with electricity that had nothing to do with chidori. The uncertainty of his reaction followed by the confirmation of his welcome. It was an expression she had catalogued through the weeks, purposefully trying not to think about when it made her breath leave her and neck burn. The half smile he offered at her hello, the rapt attention he focused on her when she spoke, all unwavering with that signature Uchiha steadiness that in turn made her sway.
In the end Hinata faced the choice like the shinobi she was, stepping through the doorway with her senses wound tight and her Byakugan just a blink away should her entrance startle the Uchiha into slicing her through by accident.
The thought of ending this entire month long mess with her death seemed so irrationally funny that for a moment she stood at the door with her hand clapped over her mouth and her eyes screwed shut to wrangle the ill timed giggle trying to wiggle up her throat.
What would the gods do, she wondered? How that would ruin their fun.
Cautiously, lest the thoughts of her possible death make her laugh again Hinata examined the silent house, catching the silence punctuated with the sleepy breaths of two children she found curled like kittens in a basket on the couch.
Puzzled she stared for a moment, taking note of their still sticky cheeks, the crusts of dirt that lined their fingernails, and on Sasu's lashes the dried salt of tears.
It had not occurred to her to worry about them while she and Sasuke maneuvered the landmine field that was her family. They had been safe so often in his house on evenings left in the company of ghosts that to think something might have happened shot her through with panic and dampened any amusement that might have rubbed away at her impending sadness.
For the first time it occurred to her that perhaps Sasuke was not home at all. She had seen him dragged away by his fiance after moving to defend her. It did not take much imagination to consider what kind of thank you Hanabi might offer her soon to be husband for such a show of affection, considering the lack of attention he had been giving her of late.
It was Hinata herself who had encouraged Hanabi to give him a chance, after all.
The thought of them, close enough to touch was mind numbing. Chilled by the possibility, goosebumps slid across her body and she shuddered, ignoring to the best of her abilities the ever crumbling divide of her heart within her.
Finding the blanket Sasuke often used when crashing on the couch she tucked the children in as if her sudden chill had more to do with the weather than with heartbreak before turning to the staircase in determination.
Of course he was with Hanabi still. Tomorrow was the eve of their wedding, or should be if he didn't already think they were going to disappear. Perhaps he was attempting a last ditch effort to save them all, to open up to her sister as she had once hoped so desperately he would.
It was such a clear thought, such an obvious thing in her mind that peering into his room to find his bed empty did not surprise her. The bed, made haphazardly loomed flat in the white hue of moonlight, and when Hinata's hand reached out to turn on the lamp on the nightstand she startled to find nothing but air.
This was just unexpected enough to have her focused on the piece of furniture, examining the room for more changes when the click of the bathroom door startled her to turn. Her hands filled with shuriken and Byakugan darkened her face just in time to feel the force of the last Uchiha slamming her hard enough against the wall to crack the plaster at her back.
Rotating red sharingan stared for the length of a breath, his hands on her throat likely able to feel the galloping thing that was her pulse and then Sasuke gasped. "Oh!" Then more sternly, "I could have killed you!"
This was true, although it took him a moment to feel the tickle of the kunai she had pressed between his third and fourth rib and although Hinata didn't say it the innocent blink of her pale eyes transmitted the smugness before her mouth quirked up in what he might have called a smirk.
"You-" Sasuke tried, and stunned to find himself stuttering stepped back abruptly. "What are you doing sneaking around? Just walk like a normal person!"
"I was!" Hinata began, and she had been- for a normal shinobi person. Opening her mouth to point this out did not work because it was at this particular moment that she realized he was not only shirtless, but also in nothing but a towel.
Spinning around sharply had her nearly smacking her head into the wall and with hands over her eyes despite the kunai still in her left she gasped. "I'm so sorry! I- I didn't think you were here- I'll just-"
"Oh. Oh!" Sasuke looked down, rolling his eyes although his own face was heating up to a raging fire. "Stop. Just... just wait a second."
"I... I should have knocked, I don't know what I was-"
"Knocked?" Sasuke scoffed, insulted but unable to articulate to her why. "Since when do you knock?"
"Since I show up in the middle of the night! I'm so sorry-"
"Stop it. Why did you think I wasn't home? Where the hell else would I be?"
Where indeed. Hinata shook her head, face buried in her palms as she tried to shove all the thoughts that had been so concrete in her mind right before she entered his bedroom into the garbage bin of her brain.
"There. Clothed. Stop melting."
"I'm-I'm-" Hinata tried, and all at once she was ten years old, in the presence of the one person she wanted, unable to use words for they were too complex with her mind so full of him.
"You're ridiculous." Sasuke scolded, though affectionately as he turned her around by the shoulders. It was difficult not to say everything gently to her when she peeked at him from between her fingers, face hot enough that he could almost feel it. Shaking his head to try not to focus too much on that he waited a breath before asking. "What's wrong? Why aren't you sleeping?"
Gathering herself up took a moment and a very deep breath that hurt her lungs before releasing it with a sigh. "I...I can't. Tomorrow is...tomorrow I-" she blinked, thinking about what she would have to say to him, the words he would have to give back, the agony that would slice through her.
She had thought that one heart break in a lifetime was hard enough to bear, yet here she was, heading for number two knowingly. She had always thought hearing Naruto turn her down would have been easier if she had known it was going to happen, but now she was starting to think that had been naive.
"Right." Sasuke whispered, letting go of her finally to run a tired hand over his face and through his shower damp hair. "I wasn't counting on sleep tonight either, honestly."
"I...I still have to fold all those cranes, for Hanabi." Hinata offered, thinking of her bag and the bundles of Uchiha and Hyuuga stamped origami paper within. "I've been telling everyone that's what I did all day."
Sasuke watched her as she shifted nervously before him, eyes landing on anything that was not his face. With her distracted he allowed himself a small smile, nodding his head in agreement. "I can help. Do you want tea?"
She should not have been surprised and yet could not help it as she looked back at him wide eyed, scrambling to remember the words required for a reply.
"Oh- I... yes...please."
They ended up on the roof. Inside, the children continued to snore on the couch and although they were shinobi quiet there were not a lot of ways to boil a kettle without some noise. There were more reasons to be on the roof than just keeping quiet for the children however. Up there was the clear unending view of the heavens, star dotted and lit to shining by the unobstructed moon. It allowed for gazing out without having to make eye contact and though both of them felt this was a particularly important selling point neither said so out loud.
"What happened with Sasu and Hina?" Hinata asked finally. The warm cup of tea in her hands soothed the last of the embarrassment of earlier away and sitting side by side it was easier to try talking to him than when his gaze so unshakingly pierced into her.
Sasuke's sigh was heavy, the shake of his head morose. "Hina fell asleep, so I don't know exactly what happened with her, but Sasu..."
The hesitation was not what Hinata expected. A tantrum, perhaps was all she had had in mind. The set of Sasuke's jaw telegraphed it had not been so simple and so she stilled, quieting herself to give him room to voice it.
"He's too clever by half." The smirk that graced his mouth was pained as he watched the stars reflected in his tea cup. "I was always being told that growing up. Now I understand."
With her eyes tracing his features Sasuke had no doubt Hinata was listening and so he took a breath before continuing. "He knows what is going on exactly. I guess... I guess I am a disappointment for his future."
"What? Did... did he say that? I can't imagine why he would-"
"There's plenty of reasons." Sasuke retorted sternly. "Don't pretend otherwise-"
"Look at me." Hinata frowned, motioning to herself. "I'm disinherited, outranked...a...alone." turning sharply back to the heavens and her tea as she breathed out a sigh of her own. "If anyone is going to be disappointed I figured it would be Hina."
"You are not alone." Sasuke frowned back, interested in that particular word on her list of failures. "You have your sister, your father, your family-"
"No, you're right. I don't... I don't mean that kind of alone." Slowly Hinata slid a finger around and around the rim of her tea cup. "I mean that Sasu understands a lot, and he is quite clever. But... that's what that phrase means, yes?" Daring a glance in his direction confirmed his unfaltering stare, brightening her cheeks to shining.
"What are you trying to say?"
"I..I mean that, that's what people were saying when they told you, you were too clever. It meant you understood so much but perhaps not everything. How could you, how could Sasu? He is a child. He doesn't know all the reasons you had to become you."
Sasuke smirked, "You excuse my behavior too much."
"No." Quick as a slap Hinata turned to him, brow furrowed. "No I don't. You made mistakes. Horrible ones, but Sasuke that's... that's what they were. Mistakes. Sasu can't...he won't understand that. We can hardly fathom the mistakes we have watched ourselves make, how could a child understand himself being anything other than perfect as he grows up? He doesn't see all the other things he has to be proud of or how so many people admire you- him."
Holding perfectly still Sasuke watched as she fumbled with her tea, nearly spilling the thing before putting it down at her side, rubbing her hands along her knees for a moment before tucking her hair behind her ears, revealing the superheated pink tips to accompany the growing haze of crimson along her neck and cheeks.
Is she...? Sasuke's brain froze as a thought slid miraculously into his mind. Why is she blushing?
"I am rambling." Hinata stated as though it were a discovery. "S-sorry. Did... did he do okay? Is that why they're asleep on the couch? Did he lose his temper?"
Uncertain now, Sasuke bit his cheek and examined his tea as though it were very interesting again. "Yes, although eventually he calmed down. They will likely need baths in the morning."
Choosing not to mention the raven and the subsequent chaos that ensued was a mode of self preservation. There was no way he would be capable of sharing what he and Itachi had discussed.
"That's all right. It will wake them up before breakfast." Hinata tugged one of the origami sheets loose, studying the Uchiha fan and the Byakugan flame that dotted it before beginning the folding of a new crane. "Shall I make miso in the morning? There's still some rice left, and cherry tomatoes."
Careful not to show his surprise Sasuke took a sheet of paper himself, following her folds out of the corner of his eye for a moment before allowing himself to speak. "...you're going to be here in the morning?" He had not expected this small gift, had anticipated that perhaps the only time he would see her in the next day would be when he sought her out on purpose, like one would search for the edge of a cliff when suicidal.
"I...I had hoped..." Hinata froze, with her legs stretched before her she tapped her shoes together rhythmically. "I...I just want to pretend it's another day."
Just one more day. Just one.
"What about-" Sasuke almost began, there was a list as long as he was tall of people that he couldn't understand her choosing to ignore on what she thought was her last day. Her sister, her father, Gaara of the Sands, Kiba and Shino, all the endless parade of people who would be arriving at her house for the party to celebrate her sister's wedding, including Tenten, Lee and Ino, her old teacher Kurenai.
And yet she waited, looking at him as though expecting a reprimand although all he managed in the end was, "I can pretend."
It had been what he had been wishing for anyway.
"Where have you stashed him?"
The thunder cloud that manifested ripped and tattered with the lightning and thunder within it's domain. To the naked it eye it expanded like a gray blue bruise and from it, melting like a droplet of water from an icicle Lord Susa appeared, shimmering with the electric heat of his fury.
Lady Ama, Goddess of the Sun continued her serene sitting. Her skin so often mottled with lava and the cracks of molten stone now shone as bright and smooth as the sun at midday. From her hair the roan red and crimson tones of anger had subdued themselves to an otherworldly strawberry blonde more akin to threaded gold, the same thread which she now used to sew the stars into the tapestry of the heavens.
"What's this?" She inquired, glancing over her elegant shoulder faintly smiling. "Brother. I did not expect your visit."
"You counted on it." Susa hissed, pupils expanding until of his eyes so perfect in their almond shape turned a horrible black blue with no white. They were as the heart of the ocean, unforgiving and merciless. "Where have you put my Hyuuga sparrow?"
Ama smiled some more, showing tiny perfect pearls for teeth as she glowed. "Ah, the sparrow. Yes, I do believe my fox may have caught such a thing." A wave of her hand cracked like timber in a roaring fire and a cage gilded in gold and hanging by a silver thread into the endlessness of space swung slowly like a hypnotic charm. Inside it a lump of feathers breathed in and out in feeble little gasps.
Susa's teeth so long and jagged hid behind his full kissable lips as he examined the cage, holding back the trembling ferocity inside himself just barely beneath his skin. It flickered however, visible like veins on pale flesh, the thump of his power blooming and fading in purple, yellow and green bruises over his exposed limbs..
"I cannot imagine that Tsuku will be pleased to hear that you have hounded his creature right past death and into the afterlife. What made you shove him into such a tight box?" Lady Ama turned to him expectantly with sewing needle raised above her head where a star was beginning to be born from the threaded knot of her hair.
Lord Susa opened his mouth, words nearly escaped in hissing bites but at the last second he smiled, wide as a shark on a crippled thing and all of a sudden the thundering rain, the roaring strikes of lightning and his tempestuous cloud faded away.
"You know how I am, Sister." Susa drawled easily. "I like breaking things."
"Not Tsuku's things, usually." Ama turned to him, the needle in her hand looking more like a weapon every second despite the tiny point at the tip of the metal. "What are you up to, Susa?"
"So suspicious always." Susa replied easily, stepping towards the cage to examine the Neji sparrow more closely. "Why must I be up to something?"
"You did not even come to gloat when the girl's heart cracked loud enough to echo through the realms." Ama continued, as if thinking to herself and not conversing with him. Gently she tapped her bottom lip with the threaded needle.
"That is because I am an elegant winner, darling Sister."
"Oh please." Lady Ama's laugh echoed through the heavens in the ripples of soon to be morning sunlight. "Don't you understand? Her heart is breaking because she loves him. His heart is breaking because he loves her. All that needs to happen now...is a confession."
Lord Susa pursed his mouth, and though his eyes remained focused on the sparrow caged before him they were not calm. The tempest he had entered with now raged within him, chaotic as the swirling pull of a hurricane.
"And," Lady Ama continued, "With your sparrow unable to convince her to say no...What an elegant loser I hope you are as well."
"You are always so hasty." Susa whispered, turning away from the little bird. "Always celebrating before the finish line. Keep the bird, I'm sure Tsuku will be interested to know why you have him once this is all over."
This perked Ama's attention in a way that nothing else had. Turning to him the needle in her hand so sharp pressed to her lip hard enough to draw a single round crimson pearl of blood.
"You would not dare break the agreement and call him. We signed a contract. It is binding."
"Certainly, I won't." Lord Susa clasped his hands behind his back, wandering back the way he came. "Don't worry, Sister. Clearly you have the advantage. Too bad for me."
No sooner had the lightning struck to whisk him away than Lady Ama's skin thinned to rice paper, the flooding lava pulsing beneath it turning her eyes to black embers, the threaded needle in her hand forgotten as she clenched her long fingers tighter and tighter. With her lip smeared red with her blood and the crimson stain starting between her needle pierced fingers she terrified, enough that even her fox cowered at the sight of her.
"You did well to gather that sparrow. He feigned carelessness badly."
"My... my pleasure is to serve you, Lady Ama." The fox kept his head lowered and nose pointed low even if his eyes strained to keep her in his sights at all times.
"We cannot lose this bet." Lady Ama turned to the sparrow, studying the pale eye that opened to look upon her in silence and contemplation too human for it's avian face. "Tsuku hardly speaks to me as it is, since I used one of his favorites for my cause. If Susa wins... it will all have been for nothing."
The fox did not make the mistake of thinking she expected a reply. Watching silently he winced as her hand slid through the cage bars, and although the bird did not have the strength to raise its head let alone move from her the feeble twitch of his wings gave the appearance of terror nonetheless.
"I will do everything that must be done to preserve this peace." Lady Ama breathed out softly, and the heat of her breath scorched at the edges of the sparrows tail feathers so that he chirped out softly.
Inside the bird Neji did not bother trying to convince himself he saw goodness in the Lady Ama's face. No, there was no room for goodness. There was simply, and terrifyingly only space for determination.
"How many is that?"
Sasuke leaned back, and the smell of his freshly washed hair floated towards her on the breeze, making her breath catch and her hands fumble with the last fold on the crane she held.
"With the one you're finishing..." He muttered, rummaging at her back where the basket he had brought up from the living room now sat, propped against her so as to not roll down the inclined roof. "...eight hundred and-"
"Only eight hundred?" Hinata sighed, dismay weighing heavy on her shoulders. The moon had risen to shine gloriously in the heavens, so bright it was difficult to look it straight on without wincing. The quiet had gone from early evening murmurs that the village in the distance still shouted across the expanse of the woodland to the rustling silence of deep night.
She had not thought she would grow tired. And yet her limbs ached with the thought of continuing, her eyelids heavy. Rubbing the gritty discomfort from her eye she tried to sigh again and only succeeded in yawning. Beside her Sasuke watched, cataloguing each movement with an unhealthy attention he could not help. Smiling faintly he fiddled with the crane in his hands and shrugged against the cool night breeze. "I could finish, you should sleep."
"No." Hinata shook her head, slapping gently at her cheeks to snap herself back to wakefulness. "I need to take these back to the house..." Sadly she hugged her knees, using her arms as a pillow as she gazed back at him. "Do you know what they're for?"
It was too difficult resisting the urge to touch her when she looked at him with her eyes soft, framed only by her hair and the tender shape of her mouth pursed with words. A small shake of his head was all he could manage, although he thought there was something to do with a wish granted at a thousand cranes.
"I don't remember who told me the story first. Perhaps my mother." Hinata lifted her chin on a palm and studied the moon, so close to being full it looked barely chipped. "But, the story goes that when the Lord of the Moon the God Tsuku saw the power of our Byakunga he was so taken with us that he promised one wish every time a Hyuuga married to make certain that the eyes he favoured never died out. The other gods were upset by this. Wishes were things granted after much peril. One had to fight dragons, cross labyrinths and the like in the service of a god to be granted a wish, and yet here was Tsuku handing them out as wedding gifts."
With the moon itself shining so brightly, turning her skin to glowing luminessence and her eyes lanterns there was no doubt in Sasuke's mind why the Lord Tsuku had been taken with the Hyuuga. Holding still was all he could do to keep the pain in his chest from showing on his face, and still his breath hitched as he tried and failed to not ache to touch her.
"So, from what I remember... the Lord Tsuku told his siblings that he would give the Hyuuga a task to accomplish for every wish, and to the Hyuuga he requested one thousand paper cranes at every wedding." Hinata smiled then, examining the crane in her hand with its Uchiha fan studded face and Hyuuga flame spotted wings. "A tedious task, but not difficult as far as god chores go."
"He almost sounds...tolerable." Sasuke muttered, drawing her gaze back to him. Hinata's laugh was tired and sad as she rested her head on her knees again.
"Lord Tsuku, you mean?"
"Hn."
"He does, doesn't he..." She mused, closing her eyes despite her best intentions. "I suppose that's why it's just a fairy tale."
"Yet your family still folds the cranes every time?" Sasuke pressed his hands hard against the shingles beneath him to keep from tucking the wild splash of dark hair slicing across her cheek behind her ear.
"It's tradition." Hinata mumbled, face relaxing as her breathing slowed. "Just tradition."
In the quiet Sasuke studied her with her eyes closed, the rise and fall of her side as she breathed, the little sound of discomfort that escaped her as she nestled deeper into her arms tugging faintly at something knife sharp anchored in his navel.
"Enough of this." He grumbled, shoving himself to his feet and startling her to attention. "You need to sleep."
"But-" Hinata began, voice catching in an "eep!" of shock as he grabbed her hands and instead of pulling her to her feet heaved her right onto his shoulder like a sack.
"S-s-Sasuke! What are you-?!"
"Doesn't matter how polite you are, the stubborn Hyuuga just comes with the genetics. You're falling asleep on the roof." Sasuke muttered, aware that her wriggling had more to do with her shock than an attempt to dislodge herself from his shoulder carry down the roof to his bedroom window. He had no doubt if she truly wanted to be released he would be in a world of pain rather quickly.
"I.. I wasn't going to- I can get down my- AH!"
The leap from the roof was startling when one did not have view of the coming edge and although Sasuke made the jump from roof into the open window look easy it still made her leave her stomach somewhere on the gutters for a moment longer than was comfortable.
"Now," He continued sternly, throwing her as gently as he could into the empty bed. "Sleep."
Hinata stayed flopped where he left her. Hands pressed to her red face she breathed in punched out little gasps before squeaking her protest.
"If those were words..." Sasuke began, standing on the window sill to grab at the things they had left behind on his roof. "...they weren't any I understood."
"I need to take the cranes we finished home, I can-" Hinata tried instead, stopping abruptly as he settled beside her with the crane filled basket between them.
"I'll take them." Studying one particularly floppy origami crane in his hands that he thought might have been Hina's doing was easier than looking at her to see confusion flicker on her face. "You can go to sleep."
Slowly Hinata straightened, hope flickering in her eyes in what she prayed wasn't as loud a broadcast as her heart hammering away in her ears. "H...here?"
"I will be out-" Sasuke started, stunned by the implication he had not thought he was making and scrambling to correct it he stood, heading for the closet where a sweater and shoes would give him the right to jump out the window and out of the vicinity as soon as possible.
"Ah...are... are you sure you don't mind me-?" Hinata never finished. The shake of his head was firm and with the sweater ripped over his head he was already halfway out the window before he paused to look back at her for one more second.
"This way... you can be here in the morning. Sasu would like that."
"A..all right." Hinata acquiesced softly, watching as he dropped from the window with a nod, the bag he had tossed the cranes into in hand before letting her shoulders slump. This was what she had hoped for, and yet even when he said what she had expected it still stung to not hear it was Sasuke himself who would be glad to have her there to wake to.
Her disappointment was not unlike his own when he returned. Finding her asleep upon climbing through his own window made him feel more alone that walking through the village with no one beside him.
Curled around his pillows, with her hair a wild spray of shadow on the covers she rooted his feet to the ground at his bedside, slowing his breath down to near silence.
How am I supposed to say no to you?
Uncertain, yet sure that he could not do anything else Sasuke lowered himself onto the bed on the other side. With her eyes closed he could trace the way her lashes fell against her cheek, the pouting relaxation of her mouth mid sleep.
Inside his heart groaned, the catastrophic wound that would slay it ticking away at the last bit of his time, like a battle scarred warrior on his last legs. Pressing a hand to his chest only helped to remind him he was not bleeding out. And with his eyes closed to soothe the pain he missed the flicker of her lashes as they looked at him, a similar agony etched on her face.
How am I supposed to not want you?
Neither had the answer, but then they had been trained since young to do what seemed impossible. It was in their blood.
This story is very long.
There. I said it.
I'm trying pretty hard to just...finish. Forgive me if my editing is literally nonexistent. I am not particularly pleased with a lot of things in this chapter, I usually would spend some time rewriting several scenes. But I kind of just want to get to the end now, so I am letting a few things slide for the sake of actually finishing.
Thank you so much for everyone reading, for reviewing for all the lovely support thrown my way through this very very long process. We're nearing the end. Much love, inky