A/N: Okay, I know I should probably be working on the next chapter of "Just an Inch" but this OneShot popped into my mind the other day and I had to write it down. I really hope you enjoy this as much as I did when I was writing it::g: Reviews make me happy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto ..
Warning: My apologies, it might be a little ooc... hopefully, you don't think so. And it contains some fluff! xD Don't like don't read! Annnnd I hope my English is okay xD
Hinata was preparing some medicine when she heard a loud arguement. "Let go of me! I can walk by myself" said an angry male voice in the entrance hall of the hospital of konoha. "You are so brave, my Sasuke-kun!" another - female - voice squealed. "Be quiet, both of you! This is a hospital! I do not tolerate such a reckless noise here" yelled a third voice, clearly the voice of Tsunade-sama, ending the little quarrel. "Hinata-chan, I need you here for a sec" she called out then, a lot friendlier.
Hinata put the medicine down carefully and hurried to the entrance hall. She stopped abruptly when she saw the trio in front of her and clapped her hand over her mouth. In the middle stood a black-haired boy - his leg was soaked in red. Judging by his enraged scowl it must be painful but he tried to shake off the pink-haired girl who seemed to be glued to his side, obviously taking advantage of the attempt to support the boy. To his other side stood an all too familiar blonde-haired boy who was smiling sheepishly and rubbing the back of his head, probably embarrassed by the behaviour of his team comrades.
Hinata felt her face blushing violently and had to force herself to direct her gaze at the injured boy. Blood was still dripping from the wound. The cut must be quite deep and had to be taken care of quickly. "F-follow me, please" Hinata said and lead them to the nearest doctor's room. "Y-you can lie down here, uhm...?" she said motioning to the examination couch and gave the boy a questioning look, since she wasn't sure about his name. "Uchiha Sasuke" the pink-haired girl answered eagerly instead of him which earned her yet another angry scowl. Hinata wrote the name down in the record and quickly added the other required notes.
"I-I-I have to ask you t-to l-leave and wait o-outside" Hinata requested shyly. The other girl was about to protest but Naruto smiled and grabbed her arm to pull her out of the room. Hinata closed the door and let out a sigh. The she cleaned the wound calmly and competently. She could feel her patient wince slightly. "Uhm, do you w-want some analgesic, Sasuke-san?" "No" he growled through his clenched teeth. Hinata nodded and applied pressure bandages to his leg.
"Ne, Sakura-chan, are you allright? I'll treat you to a cup of ramen - " The blonde was cut off by the shrill voice of the girl: "How can you think of food now! I have to stay here with my Sasuke-kun, he might be dying!" She stared in horror and threw her arms into the air dramatically. Then she went to the waiting room and sat down on a chair. She looked very determined to stay until Sasuke would be back from the doctor's room. Naruto looked downcast for a brief moment but then his usual smile spread over his face and he sat down next to Sakura.
"O-okay, that's it" the shy dark-haired girl said in her soft voice "C-can you stand?" Sasuke shifted his weight from one foot to the other and grimaced but nodded grimly.
"Is there another way out than through the entrance hall?" Sasuke asked. The shy, dark girl lifted her pale eyes to give him another questioning look and replied hesitantly: "...Y-Yes." "Show me the way!" he demanded. For a second, the girl seemed to ponder why he didn't want to go back to his friends but then she nodded. "I-If you want."
Sasuke appreciated the fact that she spared him the annoying questions everybody else would have bombarded him with by now. Instead, she lead him quietly to a small back entrance used only for medicine deliveries. When they had to climb down a stairway on their way, he felt that it was safe to accept her wordlessly offered helping hand since she obviously was no obsessive fangirl. In fact, he was even disappointed when she withdrew her small, soft hand as soon as they reached the bottom of the stairs. Oddly enough, his palm seemed to tickle a little.
Hinata held the heavy door open for him and, before he went out, reminded him to come again tomorow to refresh the bandages. After she had closed the door, she leaned her head against the cool metal for a moment. Then she was about to return to the medicine cart but suddenly the door opened again, making her jump. "Can I have some pain killer?" the black-haired boy growled.
.oOo.
"Hyuuga Hinata, could you please focus!" Tsunade reprimanded Hinata so that her pen slipped through her fingers and left an ugly ink stain on the form she was supposed to fill in but had actually doodled on absentmindedly. Hinata sighed and realized she had to start anew. After a few seconds she caught herself tapping the pen on the desktop impatiently. Another nurse came in - her cheeks were slightly pink - and said: "Hinata-san, there's a patient waiting for you -" "Thanks!" Hinata muttered and literally shot out of the room, glad to escape the boring paperwork.
She hoped that the Uchiha boy was accompanied by his team again and blushed. She stopped short when she saw a huge chattering and squealing crowd of girls in the entrance hall. An almost inaudible sigh escaped Hinata's lips and she tried to find a way through the girls while she said: "Uhm, excuse me, p-please let me through. S-sorry." Only when they saw her white, sterile clothes and realized she was a nurse they let her pass reluctantly.
She could feel their death glares when she man maneuvered Sasuke out of the crowd and into a doctor's room. Some of the more persistent followed him even there so that Hinata eventually locked the door. The boy looked, to put it mildly, mad. But Hinata misinterpreted his glowering and offered him analgesic again. "No, I'd rather have some sedative this time. Girls are so annoying!" he snarled "You can't put me in, like, intensive care? No visitors and stuff?" "S-sorry, I d-don't think so." "Che." He folded his arms over his chest and sulked while Hinata exchanged the bandages, her soft fingers brushing his skin now and then which amazingly calmed him down.
"Hey, you're a girl, too. Why are you not annoying?" he addressed her and she cringed a little at his words. He noticed and added: "You're different... In a positive way. No! I mean - well, yes, but-" A low chuckle made him stop and he looked up to see Hinata hide a gentle smile behind her small hand. Onyx eyes locked with pale moonstone ones and silence spread between them as the seconds seemed to lenghten. Hinata's left hand was still at her mouth, the right one hovered above Sasuke's leg, shaking a little.
Suddenly, Sasuke ruffled through her dark indigo hair and stood up. The shy girl gasped - she had forgotten to breathe - and blushed. She shook her head in confusion, remembered something, took a tube of ointment and a set of clean bandages and gave them to her patient. "E-Exchange them every day. Come again i-in three days. It should b-be okay by then, the-the medicine is p-p-pretty good. C-Come earlier if it hurts." The black-haired boy just nodded. Hinata already had her hand on the doorknob when she turned around again and added: " Y-you can l-leave through the back entrance if you w-want." Sasuke gave her one of his rare smiles because he suddenly felt the urge to encourage this caring, shy girl.
.oOo.
The next day, Hinata was cleaning some medical tools and humming a cheerful tune when a nurse called her: "Hinata-chan? There's a patient in the waiting room. He refuses being assigned to another nurse, even though they are practically fighting over him. He's really handsome..." She shrugged as if she didn't care but her pink cheeks gave her away. Hinata hurried to the waiting room and worried about Sasuke's wound. It had looked pretty good yesterday, he couldn't possibly have developed some kind of gangrene! But her worries proved unnecessary. The cut healed exemplary. "W-Why did you come? D-Did it hurt? she inquired. "Hn, I just thought I'd let you check."
Her fingers traced over his skin again to exchange the bandages. They felt warm and soothing like a summer breeze... "O-Okay, I'm done." "Mmm" was all he responded. Even Hinata who barely knew him noticed the difference from his usual grumpy "Hn" and looked up to give him an inquiring look.
He was gazing out of the window, an absentminded expressin on his face. Could it be...? Did he, Uchiha Sasuke, the cold and distant boy, have some kind of... dreamy moment? Hinata fell quiet and hardly dared to breathe because she didn't want to disturb him. Who knows how he might react? The minutes ticked away slowly. Hinata thought about what she had left to do today but it wasn't much. Plus, they weren't very busy at the hospital today, either, so she could afford to wait.
After a while, her head fell to her chest and her pallid eyes closed. Sasuke's head turned around when he heard soft, regular breathing, almost snoring. Because of the serenity of her idle afternoon, Hyuuga Hinata had fallen asleep. Sasuke's dark eyes scanned the little, relaxed figure and a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. This quiet girl seemed to radiate peacefulness, he noticed, not only when she was asleep but also when she was awake. Not annoying at all! She made him feel all warm inside. And... whole. When he was around her, he didn't feel torn into scorching pieces of hatred and bitterness. Maybe he could visit her more often? He started inventing reasons to come to the hospital after his leg would have healed and felt quite foolish.
A sigh from Hinata brought him out of his reverie. He saw her shifting her position in the chair but her eyes stayed closed. She sighed again, a little bit louder this time, almost a groan. Her eyebrows pulled together as her eyes squeezed shut tighter and her head moved to the side. She was dreaming. Sasuke watched her curiously. Her breathing became faster and then she let out a moan and mumbled something inaudible. Was she talking in her sleep? Sasuke chuckled, cocked one eyebrow and leaned closer so he wouldn't miss a thing. "S-Sasuke... Aah..." The boy's eyes widened as an idea entered his head. A very... intriguing idea. Could it be...? Did she, Hyuuga Hinata, the shy and innocent girl, have some kind of... naughty dreams? No! He shook his head wildly and tried (in vain) to get this image out of his head. She was probably just having a nightmare! he reasoned with himself and decided to wake her up. He squatted himself in front of her, his face the same level as hers and touched her knee so she wouldn't startle.
Her eyes opened and, as soon as she saw his face - so close! - she blushed a deep shade of red. She looked around in the room frantically like a trapped mouse in front of a snake and stuttered worse than ever: "I-I-I-I-I have t-t-to t-tidy up this room!" He stood up releasing her and leaned against the wall nonchalantly. "Go ahead. I won't be in your way." She gave him one of her questioning looks but didn't say anything. Feeling a little awkward, she started rummaging around the room. After a while, though, she relaxed to her former calm self - only her face stayed flushed all the time - and even began to think of his presence as soothing. When he was around her, she didn't feel lonely and insignificant.
.oOo.
He stayed until nightfall, waiting for her patiently when she had to look after another patient or help Tsunade-sama, and walked her home. He came to the hospital, to Hinata to be precise, again the next day on the pretext to have her check his wound. He came again the day after the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that... Sometimes they would talk, sometimes he would just sit there watching her, each enjoying the other one's easeful company.
After several days, Sasuke noticed a change in her behaviour, in the way she looked at him. She seemed to be in a constant tension, as if waiting for something inevitable that she wanted to struggle against but knew she would lose. Nobody who didn't knew her as well as Sasuke (or cared as much as he did, for that matter) would have noticed. Sasuke sometimes wondered if she even noticed herself. The bittersweet edge to her smile. When he couldn't take it any longer he grabbed her wrist and caught her pale eyes with his dark ones. "What's wrong with you?" he demanded.
Her eyes shifted uncomfortably, trying to escape his gaze. Her cheeks turned pink as she struggled for evasive words. "I-I a-appreciate your visits. V-very much." Her cheeks turned a deeper shade of pink. The cut on his leg had almost healed. In a few more days there wouldn't even be a scar left due to Hinatas affectionate care. Today it had already been unnecessary to come to the hospital. She wanted to tell him that she wanted him to keep visiting all the same. She didn't want to feel lonely and insignificant anymore. And in his presence she didn't. But how could she possibly explain that? And why would he even care, why should he bother to visit her? She felt his eyes urging her to speak but she just lowered her gaze to the floor and added almost whispering: "Thank you."
.oOo.
"Hinata-chan? There's a patient for you..." Hinata's pen dropped out of her hand leaving an ink stain and she stood up with a feeling of deja-vu. Could it really be him...? Only yesterday she had confirmed to him that the wound had perfectly healed. She went to the waiting room with a pounding heart. And there he was, leaning casually against the wall as usual. Hinata felt a wave of relief wash through her, followed almost immediately by her worries about what might have brought him here. "A-are you hurt?" she asked on the way to a doctor's room. Grimacing, he lifted his wrist. It was red and swollen. Hinata examined it and found out that it was sprained but not severely. She attached a brace with cooling ointment.
He came every day, even if he had just a bruise. He knew he was acting foolish and what he was doing was so below him but he couldn't care less. He liked to watch Hinata doing her work and to hear her voice. He even liked to wait for her when she was caring for another patient. But most of all, he liked the touch of her small, soft fingers on his skin.
"W-why are you injured s-so often?" Hinata asked shyly one day while she was putting a band-aid over a tiny scratch in Sasuke's index finger. "I guess I'm just being careless" On purpose, he added in his thoughts and gave her a crooked smile.
Because of his daily visits, the nurses at the hospital of konoha weren't surprised at all when the black-haired Uchiha boy came rushing in the next day. "Hinata-chan is at home. She is having a day off" the nurse at the reception told him before he could even ask. Her cheeks pink and giggling like a school girl, she watched him turn around and leave immediately and she sighed, a little envious at Hinata.
.oOo.
"Hinata-sama? Here is a visitor for you." Hinata slid the door of her room open and saw Sasuke, accompanied by a branch member who bowed after delivering the message and left. Hinata felt her heart skip a beat and blushed. "Please c-come in" she said and stepped aside. The determined way Sasuke closed the door and approached her made her gulp. But she wouldn't have expected what he said then: "I need your prognosis. I want you to auscultate me. Do you have your medical equipment here?" Hinata shook her head and started to worry. The corners of his lips twitched as he surpressed a sly smile.
He pulled his shirt over his head and let it fall to the floor. "Listen!" "Uhm..." she hesitated shyly, not knowing what to do.With his right hand, he grabbed her hand and pulled her closer, putting his left hand around her neck, pressing her head gently to his bare chest. "Can you hear it?" he wispered into her ear. He felt her cheek heating up against his chest as she blushed. "Y-Your heart is b-beating v-very fast" she suttered. "I wonder why" he mused. Hinata lifted her pale eyes in confusion as she heared the chuckle in his voice and felt it in his chest. He answered his question himself. "Because I love you." And he kissed her on her forehead.