A.N
Last Chapter Kiddies, and then the very short not plot related Epilogue. This has been a rollercoaster.
About ten years ago I started Stronger, and then went right into Softer and Paint with Words like it was no biggie, no marathon, nothing. And then, feeling overly confident I signed up for the Three Day Writing Contest and pumped out an original novel of 200 pages in those three days. I didn't sleep, I barely ate, mostly I just behaved like an ink pen.
And then I think I must have broken my writing bone or something because following that craziness my writing died. And I tried, don't get me wrong, it's what brings me joy so I was rather upset by it's disappearance. I don't know what did it this last year that woke me back up, but now we're looking at a finished work in less than a month. Thank goodness.
I really want to thank everyone who reviewed. Even my darling flamers who I have to admit taught me something about myself ;) Everything that was suggested to me is taken very seriously and is still in consideration for my editing.
Many of you are asking me to inform you if I ever publish something- I may have blushed when I read that. I don't believe I have that kind of skill, unfortunately lol, but thank you so much, I was very flattered.
Much love,
Inky
Neji arrived sometime after the call. She wasn't sure when, she had not really been looking at anything. She had sat with the phone in her hand, staring at the picture on the screen of her blonde holding Haku on his shoulders and Sora in his hands. His grin had been sunshine, his blue eyes sparkling in the light. It had been a beautiful shot and she had had to lay down on the grass at the park to get it perfectly.
His words were soft, his tone still gentle, like on the phone. A part of her still functioning on some rational level noted the paleness of his lips, usually a light hardly visible pink had turned gray. His hair was damp, in tangles and his clothes dirty.
Hanabi was there too, her tears were confusing and as Hinata stared at her face and then that of her cousin she felt something inside her slowly shrivel up and die.
What was he saying?
The sound was coming in echoes, warping as it reached her ears.
"...so..sorry...Hinata...Hinata, are you okay...I can't tell you...I...so fast..."
So sorry. That's what he was saying, like when someone bumps into you on the sidewalk...like when you're just bruised.
"I'm so sorry, please forgive me."
It happened in an instant.
Hanabi was struggling to hold her back, arms wrapped tightly around her waist, hauling her away with all her strength, screaming at her to stop. Hinata's nails felt painful and tight, sticky. She was screaming, sobbing and wailing all at once, thrashing and fighting in her sister's arms.
On the floor sat Neji, his hand to his face where blood poured, her nails having left gashes along the white pallor of his cheek. He stared, pale eyes wide and for the first time in her life she saw fear there and pain, swimming in those impassive orbs.
She was screaming, her shrieks so animal they made her sound wild, and Hanabi's voice broke forcefully through the thunder. "Neji! Neji go! Go!"
He had dragged himself to his feet, still staring. The blood was leaving a smear of red against his skin that had the audacity to look like lipstick, as though a kiss could have been so painful.
"Go, please!" Hanabi was sobbing now too, fighting against her sister's thrashing body with everything she had.
Slowly he had stepped back, fading into the shadows of Hinata's house, where pictures of her children, and the blue brilliant eyes she loved so much were pinned, frames picked carefully, arranged with thought and affection.
He turned, he ran, back out into the rainstorm and as he did she screamed, words she had never said to anyone, words that left marks.
"I don't ever want to see you! Get out! Get out!"
The sound of the door slamming closed had made her stop, gasping in her sister's grip until her knees gave out and together they crumbled to the floor, Hinata's hands gripping it for dear life as the world shifted, threatening to tumble her into the void of space where she would have to suffocate without his embrace.
Sasuke stared at the phone, complete confusion on his face. "Your sister?"
Hinata was packing, in earnest. At first he had been worried, but watching he could see the shake of nerves and the frantic twitch of her fingers as she tried to fold things and found it impossible. She wasn't going to go anywhere, it was just the need to do something.
"I have to go."
"Where?" He asked just for the sake of asking, knowing there would be no real answer.
"Um... I don't know, but I can't be here."
Carefully Sasuke pulled a clean shirt on after shaking off the water from his shower, watching as she shoved herself into a pair of jeans instead of the skirt she had been wearing, her little hop as she zipped up the front making his breath stagger a bit.
"It's going to be okay."
"I don't know. I... I don't know exactly what to do, I don't want to see them- oh...oh God, I..." Burying her hands into her hair she gasped. "What if my dad is with her?"
Suddenly things were not calm, and Sasuke wasn't as distracted by the top two undone buttons on her shirt.
"Your father?"
Her eyes traveled to his for a second, and the usually impassive expression on his face couldn't hide the little bit of panic now making it's way into his eyes. Startled by it she stared back, trying not to say how much she hoped it was her father and not her cousin who accompanied her sister.
"They're going to want me to go home."
Frowning Sasuke sat on her bed, taking a deep breath but waiting. "How did they find you?"
Slowly Hinata walked over, and trembling despite herself she placed a hand on his dark hair, feeling the silk through her fingers, watching the blues shimmer through the locks.
"...Haku was in the news." she whispered, pressing a hand to her face again. "Ugh."
"I don't think this could get any better," Sasuke murmured against the fabric of her shirt, and suddenly a knock on the front door echoed.
"Is it Uncle Kiba?" Haku called and Hinata jumped from her frozen place in Sasuke's arms, eyes wide. "Haku! Haku wait!"
But his little feet were pattering down the hall, and as Hinata stepped out of the room he flung open the door. Pale gray eyes raced past the jumping little face to the startled twin gaze on the threshold of her apartment.
"Uncle Neji!"
Haku's delight could not be louder, and behind her still sitting on her disheveled bed Sasuke leaned back, smirking at karma without humor. "And it just got better."
She had changed.
Standing in the hall of the tiny apartment he could see the changes like the scars that traced down the curve of his own cheek. She was standing tall, her hands balled at her fists. And she had lost a lot of weight, too much in fact, he felt.
Her hair was longer, and as she stared at him her jaw tightened in a way he thought was uncharacteristic except for that, the last time they had seen each other nothing about their interaction had been true to Hinata's character. His little cousin, his hime.
"Hinata..." he breathed and he watched as she dragged in a slow breath, her eyes lighting on the scars that traced down the line of his face, and worriedly he clenched his jaw, watching tears fill her gaze.
What had she said to him that night?
I don't ever want to see you!
Abruptly she moved forward, three long steps towards him and to his shame he felt himself tense, unsure of what was coming until her arms wrapped around him and he felt the impact of her body against his, her chest heaving.
"...Neji-nii..."
Beside him Hanabi leaned against the door frame, smirking. "Told you she'd want to see you."
Burying his face into her hair he breathed, stupefied by the fact that he had a fistful of tears clogging his throat as he squeezed her to him.
"I'm sorry." She was whispering it over and over. "I'm sorry."
Hanabi grinned, rubbing at the unlikely tears at the corners of her eyes before bending down to Haku. "I missed you, hun." she whispered and Haku smiled shyly at her, his blue eyes curious as he studied the exchange.
"How did you... how did you know where I lived?" Hinata finally sniffed, pulling back to look at her cousin, her hand reaching up to trace the pale lines on his cheek, face crumbling. "I'm so sorry, Neji-nii..."
"Stop." He shook his head, taking her hand and gripping it tightly. "Stop."
"We heard he had an adventure." Hanabi murmured from below, placing a hand gently on Haku's head before standing and looking at her sister. "I just happened to see it online, I was looking for your name in cities in the States. Didn't take long to contact the news network that published the article-" she stopped abruptly, her eyes flickering down the hall where Sasuke stepped out of a doorway, dark eyes pensive as he studied the three Hyuuga in the entryway.
Neji tensed beside Hinata, gray eyes wide. "...Uchiha?"
"What?" Hanabi started, mouth opening to a wide O of surprise.
"Um..." Hinata began slowly, looking back at them and then at Sasuke. "...there's some...things I should probably tell you..."
"Please." Hanabi agreed, her gray eyes lingering on the Uchiha for a half a second longer turning to her sister with a wide envious smirk.
It was not going well.
What should have been a reunion with tears, and forgiveness and joy there was something else in the air. Hanabi couldn't put her finger on it. She wanted to call it tension from a lack of a better word but in reality she probably had to admit it was more like testosterone.
Lots of it.
"Since when?" Neji's voice on the outside sounded calm, too calm. It was smooth and the resonance was just right for a collected adult conversation. Except for that the enunciation was entirely too precise, his jaw clenching at the end.
Sasuke seemed unperturbed by the subtle threat, leaning against the kitchen counter with Sora on his hip like she had grown there all along.
"Does it matter?" Hinata intervened abruptly, her fingers fiddling with a napkin from the tea she had served on the table. "Neji-nii-san..."
"You do know what he's done, correct?" Neji's gaze dragged itself off of Sasuke's slightly smug expression to Hinata. Her pale eyes blinked at him from her place on the floor, knees tucked under her neatly, her fingers twitching a little as they folded the paper napkin for the fourth time.
"You mean that time he punched you?" she sounded genuinely confused, and Neji's flinch was matched by Sasuke's twitching lips.
"Punching bad." Sora gasped. "No punching!" Her mouth pouted pink and plump as she looked at her Uncle Neji.
For a second Hanabi laughed, and Neji's eyes softened on his niece, her usual cuteness making the whole world lose it's hard edges and become bubbly and delicate.
If only for a second.
"I mean the way he liquidated the fortune his family had taken generations to accumulate and disappeared without so much as assigning a caregiver to the Uchiha properties in Konoha. Plots of the town are going to waste because no one has been able to get a hold of him for years. And before that he was-"
"I think we get the picture." Hanabi intervened, watching curiously as Hinata's face began to redden, and not she thought, in humiliation.
"The point of this conversation?" Sasuke inquired lazily, cocking his head a little at the Hyuuga.
Neji clenched his jaw rhythmically for a moment, turning away from him and towards his cousin. "Hinata." His voice grew soft, and quiet. "You should be home. The family, your father has been anxious since you disappeared- and then hearing about Haku on the news..." His eyes searched her face. "Uncle Hiashi is not as young as he used to be. He misses his grandchildren."
Sasuke was putting Sora down, and Hanabi watched with growing alarm as he slowly straightened her floppy bow on her hair before standing and turning to Neji, jaw growing as tight as her cousins. "Let me get this straight..." he began slowly.
Moving to stand as the two men faced off Hanabi froze, surprised when Hinata put her tea cup on the table with alarming force, making it clatter on the saucer.
"I need cinnamon rolls." She blinked as everyone turned to look at her. Slowly she pressed one long pale finger to her mouth. "I really do. I need at least two for me, and then we're..." she glanced around. "One, two, three, four... and Haku will want one and Sora will too even though she won't finish so we need at least eight, in case I want three instead of just two." She looked at her cousin and then at Sasuke. "P-please."
Sasuke's dark eyes seemed to be looking at her with impassiveness but as Hanabi stared she blinked in amusement as his lips pulled to a smirk and the corners of his eyes crinkled, if only a little.
"Eight?" Sasuke inquired, sliding his wallet from the counter and into his pocket.
"Yes, please. Unless you want two as well."
"No." He shook his head, moving down the hall.
Neji blinked rapidly back and forth between his cousin and the Uchiha, confusion lighting his face like a flame. "What-?" He began.
"Go." Hinata waved him towards the door. "I need cinnamon rolls."
Flabbergasted he stared at her for a long minute, until Sasuke's soft. "Hyuuga." Came from down the hall. Glancing at Hanabi who was watching it all with steadily wider eyes he marched down the hall and disappeared out the door with the one guy in all of Japan he wanted to beat with a bat.
As the door closed Hinata let out a sigh and rubbed her face. "I should have said 12 cinnamon rolls." She whispered, and Hanabi finally burst out laughing.
"What was that?" Neji finally snapped after a long awkward silence extended between himself and the Uchiha.
Outside the sky was already a blackening purple blue and despite the heavy traffic the quiet was starting to descend on the city, a soft muted hum that it never seemed to be able to get rid of.
"She wanted us out of the house." Sasuke explained, a little irritated. "I thought you two could communicate telepathically, weren't you attached at the hip in school?"
Flinching at the comment Neji tried to keep his walk from turning into an angry stalk beside him, hands bunched in the pockets of his coat as he followed down the sharp incline towards the train station at the bottom of the hill.
"Why would she not just say that?"
Sasuke's blank expression made him wince again.
Irritated, Neji turned away. "...right." She's Hinata. That's why.
"Why her? I don't understand how you even come into the picture. You had been gone for years." Neji continued, and Sasuke let out a long breath. "If I knew I'd tell you."
"How did you even know she was here?" Neji's tongue was loosened. Seeing his cousin and niece and nephew again after worrying about them every day for the last year was the most relieving thing he had had happen in the last 12 months, and now he was having the most anxiety causing thing happen instantly after. He was dizzy, if not a little sick.
"I didn't. They just showed up." Sasuke almost shrugged. "I was here first, had been for a while."
"It's... a coincidence?" There was such a heavy lack of belief in that sentence that Sasuke bothered to glance at him disdainfully. Neji's expression wasn't much kinder. "You actually expect me to believe that?"
As they approached the station the influx of people began to grow, and together they wove through the bodies. Thankful for the interruption Sasuke meandered down the street where he knew the bakery Hinata loved was situated. The tiny shop was about the size of a large walk in closet, and it made only 5 things. One of them was cinnamon rolls, and out of the 5 things they made nothing was less than delicious. The rolls were the perfect size, and Sasuke had seen Hinata's eyes light up when offered one before. If only for that he would always walk down the hill to get them, just for that one moment.
While he asked for the treats Neji waited behind him, watching with confusion as the Uchiha he had wanted to strangle on more than one occasion growing up handled a request by the one person in his life Neji felt he owed the most.
As he paid Sasuke glanced at him again, as if remembering he was there. "You actually think I waited until Naruto was dead to make a move on his widow?" His eyes didn't seem to have that calm, collected "I don't give a fuck" expression for a second, and Neji felt himself tense.
"I do wonder what happened there."
Standing in front of the bakery Sasuke stared at him, black eyes becoming less amused by the second.
"Are you wondering if I made the flats flood that day too?" His body language screamed relaxation but his voice was razor sharp and Neji refused, despite a moment of trepidation to lower his gaze. "Were you in contact with her before he died?"
One slow small shake of his head and Sasuke took a step towards him. "Whether I was, or wasn't... the point is, she's mine. Willingly, happily mine, and nothing about that boggles anyone's mind more than my own."
Nose flaring Neji glared back, unimpressed. "At least you know you're not good enough for her, one less thing for me to drive home."
Irritated and looking to offend Sasuke scoffed. "That's not what she says at night."
The punch was not unexpected, although Sasuke really should have at least tried to move. The impact was solid and with a grunt he stepped back, liftinig his arm to his lip where he felt blood was already pooling.
Neji cracked his knuckles experimentally, gaze lowering to Sasuke's own with determination. "Say anything like that again and I'll-"
"That's the one blow I'm letting you have free." Sasuke interuptted, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the sidewalk with distaste. His eyes flickered briefly over the wide eyed passersby. "I wouldn't want her with me either, if I were you."
Surprise derailed the murderous expression on Neji's face and Sasuke almost scoffed again with distaste. "I'm not an idiot, Hyuuga. I may be a -"
"Teme." Neji sighed, remembering. "You're a teme but you're not an idiot."
Blinking rapidly at him Sasuke felt his shoulders lower and relax. "...he talked to you about me."
"All the time. Wouldn't shut up." Neji frowned. "Made me wonder sometimes."
Something about the seriousness on his face when he said that made Sasuke actually smirk. "I care about her." He paused, realizing he had not said this to anyone but her before. "I love her. I didn't mean to...do that... but I do."
Thoroughly dumbfounded Neji frowned at him and the blood that was staining his chin. "Sora's going to kill me."
"I hope so." Sasuke grunted as they turned back to walk home.
"How? And tell me quickly, before they come back." Hanabi grabbed Sora around the waist and made her giggle with a tickle to her belly briefly.
Hinata sighed, studying her sister carefully. She was a young woman now for sure, impatient and ruthless as always but older.
"I'm not really sure how it happened..." she breathed, moving to clear up the tea things. Hanabi watched her, frowning. "You were drunk then? How would you not know how it happened?"
"It's a really long story... I don't know when it started, honestly." Hinata tried to think back, puzzlement tingeing her voice as she went through her memories slowly, stopping at the moment when wrapped in a purple kimono with tears running down her face and fireworks were exploding above, she had looked at him and felt his hand on her cheek.
What had he said?
"I envy him too."
"Oh." She whispered, eyes widening.
Hanabi leaned forward. "Oh?"
"I-i-it's a really long story."
"Summarize then!"
Frowning at her Hinata began to slowly wash the dishes, recalling again one of the many reasons that she had left the safety and familiarity of Konoha and her family.
"Hanabi. I'm...this is pretty new for me, I haven't had a lot of time to process it..."
Her sister stared at her, watching the long smooth movements of her arms as she handled the delicate china, her eyes flickering through the apartment again, noting touches of her sister that had been missing from her life for a year.
The note she had left in her house the day of her disappearance had been brief. It had detailed what she wanted done to the house (sell it, liquidate anything inside, donate the rest), that she did not want to be contacted by anyone, that they were safe and that if something were to happen to them they would be informed.
That had obviously not gone well with their family- especially Hiashi.
"You took off, without so much as a call." Hanabi finally threw out there, glancing at the kids who were busily bouncing around in their bedroom. "I think, the least you could do is answer some of my questions."
Hinata's hands slowed and then stopped moving among the soapy bubbles in the sink, her eyes lowered.
"What do you want to know? I left, I came here, I found him..." she pulled her hands out of the liquid, drying them on the towel by the stove. "Without him I don't think I would have survived."
"What about us?" Hanabi's voice was wounded, her eyes searching for a way to understand.
"I couldn't..." Hinata breathed softly, turning her pale eyes to her sister for the first time in a few minutes, watching the angry hurt tears pooling in her gaze. "Hanabi... everyone knew what happened, they all asked, everyone treated us like we were made of glass. You can't live in a place like Konoha and belong to the family we belong to and-"
"But we were all there- we were all grieving with you!"
A scoff, a sound that she had never heard her sister use before made her stop. "I did what I did because I had to." Her eyes didn't lower, there was no stutter. "And I do not regret it."
"...you're not going back." Hanabi's whisper was hard to read and Hinata wondered if there was actual sadness there or just plain disbelief.
"No."
The sound of the door opening made them jump and turn back to the hall.
"It's all over your shirt." Neji's voice was mumbling. Hanabi and Hinata's eyes met for only a second and then sighing HInata nodded to the closet behind her. "There's towels there, can you pass it to him please?"
"Which one of you is bleeding?" Hanabi growled, ripping open the closet and moving to the hall where Sasuke was promptly ripping off his shirt.
"Oh my, big sister." Hanabi sighed a little wistfully, her eyes lingering over her new brother in law. "I think I get it."
"Hanabi." Hinata's voice was surprisingly flat, and smirking, her little sister tossed a towel at the slightly ruffled looking Uchiha. "Did you get the cinnamon rolls?"
"Yes." Neji muttered, giving her a look that was less than impressed.
From the kitchen Hinata's voice called. "How many?"
Sasuke's smirk made Hanabi pause, a funny smile lighting her face. "Twelve."
The mission had been a failure. The Hyuuga's lingered in Japan for nearly a week, Neji continually trying to convince Hinata that it was time to come home, to see family, to return to her normal way of life.
But Hinata just frowned at him, her expression unmoved by his supplications. Her delight at his appearance, her affection and apology were steadfast, like her resolve to stay here.
"You have ties to Konoha." Neji finally gave in, trying to persuade not Hinata, but Sasuke. The Uchiha looked at him as the family walked along to the airport, Sora and Haku clinging to their Aunt's hands tightly.
"Don't you think it's best for her to raise her kids near her family?"
"You must be pretty desperate if you're trying to convince me." Sasuke muttered, watching as Hanabi and Hinata approached the boarding counter, Hinata's eyes bright with tears.
"She needs to go home- even if just... to say goodbey properly." Neji's pale gaze didn't deviate from the Uchiha's face. "You must know by now... how important that is, surely."
A sigh escaped Sasuke as he stared back at him, an ache he had not felt in some time rolling in his chest, as familiar as it was disliked. What would he give now, to have a chance to say good bye to that stupid blonde?
"I will try." He muttered, glancing over at the only thing that made him ache worse than the thought of his friend. "Maybe Christmas."
"Thank you." Neji had no qualms in that moment with showing his gratitude, his hand pressed hard to Sasuke's arm. "Thank you, Uchiha."
Surprised by the expression Sasuke blinked at him momentarily, watching as he moved to his cousin, wrapping her in a hug that was hard enough to draw a gasp from her lips.
Together Sasuke and Hinata watched them go, her hand tight on his, and he watched as tears trickled down her face, worry nagging at his mind.
"...wouldn't you be happier...with them?" The question escaped him before he had really formulated it in his mind and Hinata didn't seem surprised, her eyes never leaving her cousin and sister as they stepped through the exit, glancing back once more to wave before disappearing.
"If I wanted to go, I would." She whispered, turning her gaze to him finally, smiling through her tears with ease. "I know what I want."
Sasuke's dark eyes searched her intently, looking for that never present lie.
Kiba was right.
Two and a Half Months Later
The house was full.
They had originally planned to go to the cemetery, to go together with all of Naruto's friends and bring flowers, but Haku had said something that had brought both Hinata and Sasuke to a stand still, listening to his little voice with interest, and tears.
"I think Daddy probably misses having ramen with us the most." He had thought out loud, drawing pictures in the fog that covered the glass in the living room. "I think that's what he would like, to have ramen with us."
So the house was full, despite Hinata's trepidation at being back in the home that she had shared with the blonde. He was everywhere. There were sticky notes with happy faces and his crazy mess of handwriting stuck to the fridge, to the mirrors, messages for his wife, his beloved, his everything.
Sasuke had thought he wouldn't be able to handle it but the curiosity was overwhelming more so than the pain. And Hinata's worry, her hands on his, her eyes searching his face, her lips kissing his tears had been surprisingly effective. What had Kiba said?
She's good at fixing things.
So the house was full, Naruto's house. Outside the darkness ate away at the ice, and only the light from the windows pouring out allowed there to be anything but shadows.
The kitchen was a steamy mess of boiling noodles and fried pork and chopped scallions, Hinata's little voice calling out "Order up!" Whenever a bowl of ramen was finished. Neji, Hanabi, and many of the people he had grown up with and attempted to not think about crowded the house, littering the living room, the halls, the dining room, the bar stools at the kitchen island.
He stood back, watching, looking through the crowd and feeling a strange deja vu of expecting to see him, blue eyes grinning as much as his lips at the sight of him.
"Teme! Where the fuck have you been!? Come here!"
He would have hugged him hard, would have smacked him harder. An ache throbbed for a second in Sasuke's chest and he breathed in deep to dispel it. They couldn't stay here, he could see the same pain flash through Hinata's face whenever her eyes lingered on a picture on the walls, or when she first entered the house with their suitcases in hand, her knees wobbly as her voice. They couldn't stay here, but it was good, to come and say good bye.
Distracting him suddenly from studying the shifting crowd of people gathered to remember the blonde Sasuke turned, watching as Hanabi put a hand to HInata's back, studying her face intently. Hinata was breathing slowly, her fingers pressed to her mouth and her skin a little green.
She had been throwing up so much lately. He had begged her to see a doctor but with moving into a new house, selling his apartment, preparing for the trip back home to visit her family, and the fear of facing everything that came with it he had not really been surprised she had been puking. He had been feeling a little nauseaus on several occasions himself.
"Are you okay?" He leaned against the fridge, watching her gather herself and slow her breathing down to a reasonable pace, her gray eyes lifting to him and brightening. It never failed to surprise him how much she smiled at the sight of him. A gift she didn't know she gave with a simple flutter of her lashes.
"Yes... I think so."
Hanabi smirked and patted her back gently, nodding towards little Sora sitting on the island stool with Uncle Neji behind her to keep her from tumbling off. "Last time you were throwing up like that you were..." and she drifted off, turning her gaze to her new brother in law with a knowing smug glint in her eye.
Sasuke stared at her, unsure of what she meant, looking back and forth between Hinata and Hanabi, watching as Hinata's face went from green, to deathly white, her eyes widening, her back straightening as she looked at him.
"...What?" He was scared. "What's wrong?"
Hanabi's hands pressed to her face, as if containing a scream.
"What the hell is happening?" Sasuke snapped, grabbing Hinata's arm to steady her. "Hinata?"
"I'm..." she began, and felt as all the eyes in the room turned to look at her, her whisper seeming to quiet the chatter, or perhaps Sasuke's panicky demands did, who knew.
"You're what?" Searching her face nervously Sasuke squeezed her arm. "Hina, what's the matter?"
"I'm pregnant."
A silence descended on the house for a moment as everyone digested this, and Sasuke's mind flat lined, a thousand memories of her begging him for cinnamon buns, and yet unable to keep food down for months fluttered through his mind. The way she had complained that her simple white knee length wedding dress didn't fit her because she had lost another five pounds just a month ago, and yet her shirts wouldn't button at the front, her confusion marred only by his appreciative smirk that she needed new bigger bras.
"You're..." he stuttered, and jumped as Sora scrambled onto the counter in her little pink dress, her chopsticks raised high. "New baby!?"
The scream made laughter explode, and despite Neji's queasy look he smiled at his cousin who was staring at her husband in wide eyed wonder. "I didn't think to check! I was... I was so busy!"
"You're... you're sure?"
"I... I think so, I didn't even-" she paused, startled by his mouth over hers, his kiss hard and breathtaking, accompanied by whoops and whistles from Shikamaru and Temari, Hanabi's excited giggles sprinkled through the chaos.
"More babies." Haku sighed from the counter, looking dreamily at his mom and dad, swinging his feet happily. "I like babies."
"You're happy." Hinata's voice whispered into his ear and he kept his eyes closed, so that in the darkness he could focus on the feel of her, soft and small in his arms, her heart beating and feeding the new beautiful thing inside her.
It wasn't a question she was asking, and for that he was thankful, because yes. He was happy.
Terrified, but happy.
Just like Naruto had said it would be.
The letter was tucked away in the office that Naruto had used for work, and Hinata had taken it, passed it to Sasuke as they boarded the plane to go home, the kids skipping with delight that they would be returned to their daycare, to their new house, to their Uncle Kiba and Aunty Tamaki.
He had read it on the flight, and she had pressed her lips to his tear stained cheek, pushing his hands to the almost curve of her belly where soon someone new would be fluttering and moving with delight at being loved.
I've decided to stop writing to you because I'm going to find you. Out there somewhere, that's where you are. Out there. And I'll be damned if I go the rest of my life wondering if maybe you need me. Maybe you're not okay.
I haven't spoken to Hinata about it, but eventually she will understand. One day she will get it. She's too good not to. I worry about you, about your drinking and the fact that you could be wasting away, the shame of that just eats me up, Sasuke. It has for years and I just can't. I can't keep ignoring it. I don't give up on people. I just don't. So whether you like it or not I am going to find you. We'll bleed a little and then somehow or other we'll figure this shit out.
I can't live the rest of my life wondering if you need me and wondering if you're okay. I want to make sure.
I know shit happened. I know you've things to run from but fuck it. I'm not one of those things.
I want joy for you, like I want it for Hinata, and for my kids.
You're my brother, you may not think so but you are. You have family.
My family.
I don't give up on or stop loving family so you're screwed. You're stuck with me. I'll find you. And even if I can't drag you back at least you'll know you're loved. Despite the bloody nose I'll give you. Maybe a broken nose would help you look less pretty. I may be doing you a favor.
Your brother always,
Naruto
P.S
I hope you feel a little guilty about all the shit storm of worry that you've caused me. Seriously. Because if you do feel guilty that can only mean one thing, and that's that despite all your crap you do care, just like I always thought, and you're in fact worth chasing after all. Teme.
I'll see you soon.
A.N
So this is over.
It didn't want to go on. Something about stories and me... I guess they give up near the end, they sigh in defeat, they lay down, they die.
I spent about a week looking at this chapter, rewriting it, editing it, reading it again.
I know it's not right. There is too much jumping around, there is nothing about Tamaki and Kiba, there is no mention of the kids and their changes...
But I think it needed to be done so I could let it go, and maybe when I am going through the editing something about the start will come back to the end.
Sorry guys. That was a lot of build up for a lousy ending.
Thank you everyone for the support during this story. It has been a lot of fun, but I'm sad. I hate it when stories die... :(
Much love,
Inky