Hinata was gingerly helped out of the hospital doors and into a car by a disheveled director. He stayed the whole night. He made a fuss when the nurses wanted to discharge her while she was still dizzy on standing. Had them do a whole work up to make sure she didn't have any other injuries then insisted on checking her out himself.
"Uchiha Manor." He told the driver.
"I should go home..." Fugaku waved his hand, effectively silencing her. He did not want to be argued with. He was mad, mad at himself, and there wasn't anything she could say right not to make him think otherwise.
"Oh." He got the driver's attention again. "Stop somewhere to pick up breakfast."
"There's a cafe on the way that serves low sodium pastries," Hinata said automatically.
"Do you have everyone in the city memorized?" He asked.
Hinata held up her now dead phone. "I had them all marked."
Fugaku sighed with a slight smile, resting back into the car seat. "I want you to move into the manor."
"Sir, I can't..." Hinata started weakly. She wasn't sounding very convincing with her weak voice and slung arm.
"I want you to have access to my full staff, no more cooking in the late hours, no more rushing from your apartment to deliver papers, or coming in early to use the printer," Fugaku told her to start ahead blankly. "You run my life. I need you in top shape. No more running yourself ragged."
"I do fine from my apartment, sir," Hinata answered.
Fugaku closed his eyes briefly. "This is an order." And with that, he was asleep.
When they got to the cafe, she got the driver to retrieve their order and asked him to continue. She had thought about asking him to detour to her apartment to get her a change of clothes, but she knew better than to start trying her luck now.
Hinata woke up the director as he pulled into the manor's driveway. Someone cropped up out of the door and helped them in. She never thought she would be walking into her boss's house holding her heels in her hand.
The director and she quietly drank their coffees and ate their breakfast. She shivered as the warmth of the beverage started to thaw the cold the hospital left.
The director finished and started talking to the staff. She wasn't paying full attention, so she didn't catch what he said.
She was led up the stairs and let into a room. She was shown the shower and given a change of clothes. She wasn't going to ask where they got them.
Fugaku knocked on the door to the guest room. When he got no reply, he cautiously opened it. Hinata was laid on top of the covers of the made bed, asleep. She must have lied to herself that she would only rest her eyes for a moment.
He pulled a blanket over her and let her sleep. There was nothing he could do for her now than let her rest. He, on the other hand, had work to do.
"What?" Itachi asked his brother. Surely he was joking.
"She's fine. Dad brought her home. She's upstairs." Sasuke told him while sipping his coffee sitting at the end of his bed. "He wanted me to wait until morning to tell you."
Itachi rubbed his face and leaned back onto his pillows. "I'm going to kill him."
"You should have seen him last night. I have never seen him so upset since maybe grandma's funeral." Sasuke lamented.
"He had better be," Itachi grumbled, tossing his blankets off and getting up.
"What exactly is going on?" Sasuke asked.
"The short version is dad hired Hinata because she is the daughter of someone who crossed him in the past. He thought she was a plant and thought he could get revenge through her. Her father didn't know she was working here, and we all found out when he came to the office and assaulted her in the lobby. Father seemed to realize his mistake but apparently not early enough if she ended up in the hospital." Itachi groaned as he stretched, tossing clothes out of his bed.
"I doubt she would have ended up in the hospital if she hadn't fainted near a flight of stairs." Sasuke countered.
"And what if she had fainted in the bathroom or the hall, hit her head? How long would she have laid there until someone found her?" Itachi snapped back at him.
Sasuke put a hand up and surrendered. "You like this girl?"
"She's a breath of fresh air in the office." Itachi sighed, ruffling his hair.
"Uh-huh," Sasuke said, leaving the room so his father could change.
Itachi grumbled as he went for the shower.
Hinata jolted awake as the knock on the door woke her up.
"Hinata?" She heard Itachi from the other side.
She looked around. Someone had placed a blanket on her. She shouldn't have fallen asleep. What time was it?
She tossed herself up, feeling a wave of dizziness, too quick. She straightened herself in the mirror before she opened the door.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Itachi asked. His eyes snapped to her stitches and the bruising across her forehead.
She touched in insecurely, but his eyes then latched on to her splint on her dominant hand. She tucked it behind her. "I'm fine."
Itachi pressed his lips together.
"Where is the director?" She asked, casting her eyes down and away from his worried stare.
"He left. I think he went to the office." Itachi explained, looking down the hall.
Hinata's eyes snapped up. "I should go then." She stumbled back into the room to find her phone had been plugged in by the bed.
"I don't think he wants you anywhere near the office right now," Itachi told her, leaning on the door frame with his eyebrows knitted together.
Hinata opened her phone to see a message from the director. 'Stay put.' She let out a long breath and frowned.
'I am up. Do you need anything?' She sent back.
Hinata had the sense to know he was going to be upset with her for apologizing for resting after he expressly told her to.
She didn't even have to wait a minute. 'I need you to eat. I will be back in a few hours.'
Hinata sat down on the bed and rubbed her face, only to wince.
Itachi waited for her.
"I guess I'll just have lunch." Hinata finally said.
"More like supper at this point, but I am not going to complain." He opened the door for her, and she followed him out.
Sasuke would have to say he had actually had weirder morning-afters before, which is why he stopped drinking. All it took was one semester of binging in a foreign college to realize he didn't like waking up to surprises.
Hinata had her hair tied back and was dressed in what looked to be some of the luxury loungewear his cousin left at the house when she decided that green wasn't 'her color.' Hinata ate quietly while she thumbed through her phone.
"If dad comes home and finds out you were working, he's going to be pissed," Itachi warned her.
"Then you shouldn't tell him." Hinata countered in a mumble.
"You usually follow all the rules." Itachi pestered.
"Rule number one is to defuse a problem before it gets to the director." Hinata relayed.
"I think you failed that already," Sasuke commented.
Hinata only pressed her lips together as a response as she typed on her phone.
He was starting to think this girl's workaholic nature wasn't his father's fault.
"Do you know how long dad is making you stay? Do you need me to pick you up a bag from your apartment?" Itachi wondered.
"He's having me move in. He's already booked a moving truck." Hinata opened an email and slid her phone toward him.
Sasuke glanced at the email as well. It was for tomorrow. He wasn't wasting any time. He was taking this very seriously, not that his father was ever known to take things lightly.
Itachi raised an eyebrow as she slid her phone back. "Yeah, he's pissed."
Hinata shrank down in her chair.
"He's not mad at you." Itachi tried.
"I know he's not." Hinata sighed, closing her phone screen.