A/N: Sorry to be posting this chapter so late in the day, but I really wanted to get it out as I'm a couple days behind with the SH Month Prompt. It's a bit shorter than the previous two and not as well edited, but I hope you all enjoy nonetheless.

(Day 5 Prompt)

Duende

Profound awe at the beauty of stirring art, music, or performance.

He smelled of wood polish and pine.

Her eyes closed, and she could just picture him in the music shop, carefully working polish into a precious instrument with small, deliberate movements. Bringing life and shine back into something old; revealing what was there all along that just needed a little care to coax to the surface.

He was solid, and warm, and gripped her with a desperation that filled up some place deep within her that she didn't even realize was empty. When was the last time she had felt so needed?

Just as she began to settle into his embrace and release the tension from her surprise, Sasuke abruptly broke off the embrace. Stepping back as though he was physically hurt, he swore softly under his breath and rubbed the back of his neck as though he could somehow make the blunt movement more natural.

Unsure what to say or do, Hinata stood there stupidly, her cheeks flushing bright red. "Uhm…"

"You should probably come in," Sasuke blurted out. "If… you want," he added lamely.

She paused.

She had braved cold weather, an exceptionally bumpy bus ride, and even an unfriendly man walking an equally unfriendly dog to get to where she was currently standing, but for some reason the idea of actually walking into their home made her weak at the knees.

She just knew somewhere deep within that stepping into their home would be the start of something. Something new and altogether unknown.

And that scared her.

"So we can tell Souta," he continued to explain awkwardly, and she realized he was still waiting for her to answer, or to follow him, or to even blink back at him in response.

She swallowed thickly and nodded, gathering the remnants of her tattered courage before following him in.

The first thing they witnessed upon walking in was Souta, positioned over a now half empty box of cookies with crumbs on his lips and a guilty look on his face. The look shifted to complete surprise and joy at seeing Hinata step out from behind Sasuke.

"Oh hey, Hinata! Your cookies are awesome! You should teach Uncle Sasuke how to make 'em sometime. Last time he tried baking cookies, he forgot to add the eggs and he burnt them."

"I am happy you like them," she said, waving off his praise and trying unsuccessfully to fight off a giggle at the image of the serious man baking cookies. Sasuke stared darkly at his nephew, muttering something under his breath about revenge and eggs.

Meanwhile, Hinata attempted to look around their place as inconspicuously as possible. While she hadn't been sure what to expect upon entering the home of someone native to this country, she could easily admit that she liked what she saw. It was just so unlike her apartment in nearly every way. The first things she noticed were the warm wood furnishings, a comfortably worn couch, and a beautiful upright piano. And then, upon closer inspection, were the details that really made a place into a home. From the squeak of the old wooden floorboards, to the permanent marker 'artwork' on the fridge likely drawn by a young Souta that never fully came off, to the piano missing its bottom two keys.

It was all beautiful to her.

For a man who came across as cold and unapproachable, Sasuke's home was infused with warmth and light and life.

Still smarting from their laughter at his expense and slumping in a way that gave off the impression of pouting without actually doing so, Sasuke put his hands in his pockets and tilted his head towards Hinata.

"There's something she has to tell you, Souta."

She gaped at him, noting his poorly suppressed smirk at foisting the responsibility onto her shoulders.

Souta, with cheeks still full of cookies, looked to her with big, wondering eyes.

Hinata stood there for a moment, taking a breath before coming right out with it.

"How would you like if I teach you the koto?"

Souta swallowed the bite in his mouth, coughing a little as they went down dry. "Are you… are you serious?" he asked, cookies completely forgotten and black eyes boring into Hinata in an uncanny impression of his uncle.

"Yes," she responded, nodding as seriously as she could. "Though I am, as they say… 'rusty'."

For some reason she felt it necessary to almost apologize in advance. It had been so long that she would practically be relearning how to play as they went along. She really couldn't promise to teach him much or well at all.

She soon understood that it didn't matter at all because for the second time in the last 30 minutes, Hinata was pulled into an embrace: this one of epic proportions, nearly toppling her over with its intensity.

She slowly raised her arms to gently place them around Souta, who was nearly crushing the breath out of her. With his face muffled into her shirt, she almost didn't hear his small voice say the following.

"This is the best birthday. Ever."

Her face broke out into a wide smile, and for some reason her eyes searched until they met Sasuke's. The look on his face was complex - filled with heat and something akin to pain - but it shuttered close quickly.

The hug continued for a long minute, Souta unwilling to let go until Sasuke practically had to peel him off. Hinata felt quite bereft after he broke away, realizing that in the span of less than an hour, she had gotten more physical contact than she had received for years. She had forgotten what it was like to be hugged. And in the case of Sasuke's brief embrace, to be held.

"This isn't a dream, right?" Souta pondered out loud, causing Hinata to cover her mouth as she laughed sweetly.

"No, I don't believe it is." Sasuke spoke with amusement, but sounded like he half wondered the same thing.

Hinata blushed. Quiet though it was, the admiration and gratitude coming from the both of them was noticeable… and humbling. She only hoped that she wouldn't let them down.

After making a rough plan about lessons moving forward, Hinata figured it was time to leave, not wanting to overstay her welcome. After making her excuses and kindly refusing Souta's begging that she stay for lunch, she quietly slipped out of the apartment and out into the cool fall air.

As her bus traced its way back to her apartment building, she stared out of the window, feeling - for the first time in ages - like the future held something good. Something to look forward to.

Sasuke shut the door behind Hinata after a stilted goodbye and the agreement that she would return to the shop later in the week for Souta's first lesson.

The boy in question had already run off to his room, likely to study the handful of koto workbooks he had swiped from the shop months ago. Sasuke chose to look the other way at the time, deciding it wasn't a battle worth fighting.

With the place quiet, he could finally begin to register the weight of all that had happened in the last hour. And it wasn't even eleven in the morning. He collapsed into the closest dining chair, heaving a sigh before grabbing a cookie and taking a hefty bite.

Damn. That was a great cookie.

Devouring it in two more bites and grabbing a second, he attempted to order his thoughts.

First on the list: figuring out what in the actual hell compelled him to make a complete buffoon out of himself by hugging a woman he had only met twice and barely said a handful of words to?

Sasuke didn't hug people. In fact, he was not one for touch in general. He honestly couldn't even recall the last time he initiated physical contact with someone apart from Souta.

Of course, objectively, he understood the cascade of factors that had led up to that moment. Literal months stressing out over finding Souta a teacher. The pressure of his promise. The fight in the restaurant and the fallout afterwards.

But what truly baffled him was how powerless he felt to stop his body from moving towards her. His relief and gratitude were so raw and his need to draw her into an embrace so visceral that it was a full 10 seconds into it before he could draw the strength to force his body away from hers.

He came to the conclusion that, though fairly embarrassing, the hug was an anomaly that likely wouldn't be happening again anytime soon.

Second on the list was: basically everything else that happened after he invited Hinata into their home.

If physical contact with others was infrequent, inviting people into his home was an even rarer occurrence for Sasuke. To be honest, he hadn't had anyone visit his place since before Itachi died. And even before that point, it wasn't all that common. His home was his sanctuary and only remained that way by knowing that visitors wouldn't stop by unannounced.

Just another thing that she had somehow circumvented in just under an hour. It was easy to rationalize allowing her to come in, of course, what with the importance of her miraculous offer. She simply had to be there to tell Souta, of course, and to work out the details. And speaking of Souta… his reaction to Hinata's offer wasn't exactly surprising, but it still had to make the list of Sasuke's top moments of the last year.

And then…

Then there were the things that he hesitated to even add to the list. Things that he couldn't quite categorize yet. Things he wasn't sure he was ready to analyze at all. Like how fun it was to get back at her for giggling at him - the look on her face was priceless. Or the way her face shifted from surprise to sheer joy as she returned Souta's bear hug. And then lastly, how damn good she felt in his arms for those handful of seconds.

The following week on Thursday, found Uchiha Music Co. empty except for three dark haired individuals.

Souta sat across from Hinata, his posture mirroring hers: legs tucked beneath him and his palms placed upon each knee.

Hinata met the boy's gaze, her face serious, but eyes kind.

"Sasuke says you already read some workbooks?"

He sent a guilty look over to his uncle before nodding.

"Tell me what you remember."

Souta's face twisted in concentration.

"First you must sit in the correct position: seiza style with your back straight. You get to wear special picks on these fingers," he continued, wiggling the thumb, index and middle fingers on his right hand. "There are 13 strings - but some kotos have 17. And these make each string sound different," he explained, pointing to the triangular bridges angled across the body. "But you can move them to change the pitch. Oh, and the lowest string is actually at the top right here!"

She smiled back at him. "You have good beginning knowledge."

Souta practically glowed beneath her simple praise.

"Today I will show you basics of sitting and where to place your hands. We also will fit your fingers with tsume. Then I will have you practice plucking and pressing the strings."

"Wow, already?" Souta asked in wonder. "I thought I would have to learn all the notes and parts first."

Hinata nodded thoughtfully. "There are many details to come. Ways to perfect the sound. How to read music. Various techniques. But first, we become comfortable with the koto."

An hour later, Souta had successfully managed to make a variety of sounds on the koto - not all of them beautiful, or even pleasant, really. But Hinata was patient with him, adjusting his knees when they moved from position, fixing his hands when they inched too close to the bridges, angling his fingers so they plucked the string just so. As they wrapped up, she provided him with genuine encouragement, reminding him of the importance of practice, and giving him a few things to work on before their next lesson.

She was about to stand up from her place across Souta before he asked the question he had been dying to ask since before their lesson even began.

"Will you play it now, Hinata? I mean, more than just to show me scales and plucking techniques. Really play it?"

She flushed and stammered out, "I… I-I don't…"

"Please?" he begged, with those dangerously persuasive eyes. "If it's not good I probably won't even know any better!"

His attempt to comfort her instead made her laugh until she almost couldn't breathe.

"Okay… I will try."

She switched positions with Souta, though he seemed to understand her need for a little space and moved off to the side a bit.

Settling into seiza, she took a deep breath as she looked over the instrument that she had stared at behind glass so many months ago, in minor disbelief that she not only was seeing it this close, but was actually getting to handle it. Her hands trembled ever so slightly as they hovered mere centimeters above the strings. It had been four years since she had last played the koto.

Would it feel foreign to her now? Did she build it up in her head so greatly only to have the real experience let her down? Perhaps she had gone through too much to feel the same about playing it as she did when she was a young girl without a care in the world.

Before she could overthink herself out of playing altogether, she lowered her hands down.

With her left hand gently pressing down, she plucked softly with her right. The sound flitted through the air, the twang sending vibrations up through her fingers all the way to her elbows. She smoothed her left hand across the next string, pressing to adjust the tone as she plucked another string, this time with a little more strength.

She didn't have any kind of song in mind at first, as her hands began to wander fondly over the koto, reacquainting themselves with their old friend. She pulled at some of her favorite chords and fiddled with a few particularly fun progressions. Her movements were slow at first, the tsume making solid contact with each string, recalling the weight and force required to make a certain sound here, a different tone there. It wasn't long before she found herself picking up speed, working the strings faster as she grew more comfortable.

As she played, her thoughts naturally drifted back to her home. Back to her old life. There was a song her mother used to sing ages ago, when she was a small child. Hinata would ask her to sing it whenever she felt sad or lonely, and it never ceased to bring her comfort. Years later, when she began to study the koto, it had been the first song she learned. A memorial, of sorts, to her long gone mother who died when her sister was born.

As the song fell from her fingertips, each line drew her back further and more inward until she was once again a child laying her head in her mother's lap, breathing in her subtle bergamot scent and feeling the cool silk of her robes against her cheek.

It wasn't until she finished the song that she sensed the wetness on her face. The shop was silent and solemn, neither Souta nor Sasuke uttering a single word as she wiped the tears from her cheeks. Feeling quite exposed and vulnerable, Hinata busied herself with removing her tsume and putting the koto away in the back corner of the shop. By the time she returned, she found Souta eager to gush over her playing and ask loads of questions.

But his sweet excitement just couldn't quite free her from the wistful place she found herself in. Quietly promising to see him next week and answer his question then, she softly excused herself and gave them both a restrained farewell.

Sasuke watched Hinata go, glad for once that Souta's incessant chatter could fill the space so he would have another moment or two to fully recover from what he had just witnessed.

When it came to music, Sasuke was knowledgeable and proficient, but he wasn't exactly… passionate. Passion was for Itachi. And likewise, Souta. It was like it was part of their DNA; a way they were wired. And he realized a long time ago that he just simply wasn't wired that way.

He enjoyed music, sure. A good song or special performance was easily appreciated. But generally, he was more interested in the instruments themselves and how to care for them, fix them, and make them shine. What people did with them afterwards never really mattered very much to him, if he was totally honest.

But seeing Hinata just then... it was something else altogether. Something he didn't think he'd ever experienced before. Like she had been missing a piece of herself until the moment her hands made contact with those strings. Like she was dancing, despite the fact that her legs were folded underneath herself the whole time. Like she was both lost and found at once, hovering beautifully and painfully between each sensation.

When it came down to it, there really wasn't another word he could think of besides… worship. Playing that koto was an act of worship for her and he couldn't help but be ushered in to share the awe.

There were two things he discovered as he watched Hinata play the koto for the first time in four years. The first was that it was possible for him to feel passionate about music. But apparently, he realized with quickly growing panic, it had to be Hinata's music.

The second thing he discovered was something that he wouldn't tell her until many months later, when he found himself doing yet another thing that he rarely ever did: apologize.