Sasuke made a loud grunt as he made his way into the apartment, setting down his load with a satisfied sigh.
Hinata looked up from what she was doing and peeked around the corner. "Are you okay?"
"I got you something." He pointed to the tall chair on wheels, sliding it toward her. She stopped it before it could run into her.
"...Why?" She asked.
"It's a standing chair." He explained. "I mentioned your back to a secretary who has a few kids. She mentioned she had it from when she was pregnant. I asked if she still had it. It helps you slide around the kitchen, taking the weight off your back."
"You didn't have to do that." She mumbled, looking at it with a smile.
"She just brought it in. I took it to my car." He waved his hand, telling her not to worry about it.
She adjusted it to her height and rested herself on it, sliding herself over. "I guess it is nice to get off my feet. Thank you."
"No problem." He said with a smile.
Sasuke smelled burning when he came in the door. It was followed by the sound of crying. Both coming from the kitchen. He quickly peaked his head in, thinking the worst.
Hinata sat in front of a pot that wasn't even on a burner anymore, sitting in her new chair and crying into a dishtowel. He took another step to see that it looked like she had put rice on the stove and forgot to add water, leaving chard rice and an upset pregnant woman.
He crossed his arms and sighed. "Why don't we head out for dinner?" He asked, picking up the pot and dumping the contents in the trash.
"I look terrible." She whined into her cloth.
"Hinata, you're a pretty girl with a major pregnancy glow. No one is going to see puffy eyes and a red nose on you and think you look terrible. They are going to see a big pregnant belly and think you had a bad day." He reassured her.
"If I'm so pretty, then why did he leave me?" She whimpered.
He realized that this might not be one of her usual hormonal tantrums. He looked over at her misery. She had largely stopped crying and was now holding the towel tightly in her lap, staring at it in despair.
Hinata looked tired. He concluded this wasn't the only thing to go wrong today. He spun her chair to make her face him, but she didn't look up. She was still in her clothes from work. There was a stain on her skirt and another on her temporary cast in the same color. Another sign that she was having a clumsy day.
He gently shook the chair from side to side until she reluctantly looked up to half pout half glare at him. "Go change into some sweats. I'll order something. What do you want?"
She whined in response.
"I'll make you tea while we wait. Come on." He patted the side of her leg and let go of the chair.
She plopped down out of it and headed to her room, dragging her feet.
Hinata felt like a burden. It wasn't all the time as he assured her that he liked having her in the house and that she did more than she needed to. Maybe it was hormones. Maybe it was her being left alone to think about her failed marriage, but there were some days where she didn't feel like she was doing enough. Still, she also didn't know what more she could do, or even if she had any more to give. She had once accepted that she would never be enough for anyone as that's all her father ever taught her. She had started to believe that if she just made her husband happy, it was enough and that had proven to be false.
How could she raise a child if she wasn't enough for anyone? Her child would grow up without a proper parent, let alone two. What would that child say to her when it was old enough to realize she wasn't fit to be a mother.
Sasuke slipped his beer while they sat down to watch their latest movie and had a thought. "Do you drink?"
Hinata looked at him ludicrously. "I'm pregnant."
"No, not now, like normally?" He asked. "I don't think I have ever seen you hold more than a glass of champagne, and I don't think I saw you drink it."
She pressed her lips. "I'm usually the designated driver. I don't have any desire to drink. I have. I've never had more than maybe two an hour."
"You're that light?" He wondered. "Do you get drunk on two drinks?"
"I've never been drunk, and I don't plan to." She mumbled.
He realized he might have asked a little too much by her downturned eyes. He thought that's where the conversation should end, but to his surprise, she kept talking.
"My father never really drank. I have only ever seen him drunk once in my entire life." She rolled her hand over her brace, comforting herself. "I never wanted to see that again, and… I was afraid I would be the same. It was one of the only things I wouldn't give in to if Naruto asked."
"Angry drunk?" He mumbled, hoping to keep her from saying anything she didn't want to.
"Oh no. That would have been something normal." She glanced up and then straight back down. "He… broke down. He's never once done that to me ever knowing him. He was always poised, proper, controlled. He cried, and he was dreadfully truthful, and I never want someone to see in me what I saw in him."
Sasuke looked down at her hands as she rang them. What truth was she afraid of? Something she might say to Naruto or something older. He knew he didn't have the right to wonder what was so raw that it would make her fear like that.
Hinata slammed her bag down when she came in. He flinched. That was in no way normal and wasn't a good sign.
Sasuke lifted his head above the couch where he had been lounging and looking at her just as she violently took her coat off. "Lamaze, that fun?" He asked cautiously.
"It's that catty," Hinata grumbled. He only wondered for a moment before she started a full tirade. "You would think other expecting women would be more delicate with situations, but I think all the hormones in one room make more unneeded fruitless drama."
Oh, he got it. Hinata said cattily. She meant gossiping bitches.
"I happen to be so lucky to be the only one without a partner present, so I more than stick out when the class goes into instruction for them. Oh, and yes, I am still working. No, I won't be quitting. No, I am not making the father pay alimony. No, there is no chance of him coming to classes. I do not NEED a birthing coach to have a baby, and they should meet Naruto because he would be by far the worst birthing coach as he can't take anything important seriously. He would panic when I would need him most." She ranted. "And you know what, if he hadn't left me already, I think that would be the moment he got scared enough to run."
Sasuke puffed. "That is a lot of emotion from a class that is supposed to make you feel zen."
She went from furious to puppy instantly. "Don't make fun of me." She whined.
He chuckled. "You know I could come to your classes if you need me to. I'll be the one to take you to the hospital, and I have no clue what I'm doing. How do you even keep it from just falling out? Do you cross your legs?"
She burst out laughing. "Cross my legs?"
"What?" He asked, feeling slightly embarrassed now that she was flat out laughing, but at least her mood had changed.
"I don't think you need to come. I can tell you everything you need to know." She smiled, putting her shoes in their place and heading into the kitchen.
"You know, I am good-looking." He prodded as she got into the fridge.
She turned back to him. "Modest. What is that supposed to accomplish?"
"Well, all those housewives are poking fun, finally get what they want, you have a helping hand. And we can watch their faces turn green." He leaned on the counter next to her, pulling some of the ingredients out of the container she opened.
"I feel like this is a tactic you used too much in high school." She narrowed her eyes, pulling the dish away from him.
"It's a tactic Sakura always wanted me to use, but I never wanted to." He corrected her.
"Then why do it for me?" She asked, pulling something else out of the fridge.
"I want to help, first of all. Second, I think this is a far better cause than Sakura's pissing contests with Ino." He explained. "But really, how do you keep it from falling out?"
She laughed at him and swatted at him as he stole more food.
Sasuke helped her get her coat off and hung it with the others. He looked around and then leaned to her ear. "I haven't seen so many women quietly judging each other since high school." He whispered.
Hinata giggled. "It gets worse. Wait until recommendation time. They try to one-up each other. It's dreadful. It's all the hormones."
"I think you've got the prize this time." He mumbled with a smirk.
"Please behave." She begged.
"Best behavior," Sasuke assured. She frowned at him, knowing better. "I'm going to find a bathroom. I'll be right back."
"Alright, I'm going to go sit down." Hinata waddled over to her pillow, sitting down, looking through her phone until she was approached.
"Mrs. Uzumaki, oops, Ms. Hyuga, sorry I always forget." The pregnant woman who sat next to her with her husband leaned over. Hinata was beyond being annoyed with her at this point. She did it on purpose. "Alone again?" She gave her a fake look of sympathy.
"No, actually," Hinata mumbled, looking back down.
"Oh, did the father return home?" Sasuke had never wanted to punch a pregnant woman before.
He set a hand down on Hinata's shoulder. "Hey, I'm back. How do I sit?" He asked abruptly, cutting off the conversation.
Sasuke smiled over at the woman like he hadn't just heard her being a bitch. She looked at him in disbelief.
"Just behind me with your legs out." She pointed to the other partners in the room, and he sat behind her as she said.
"Oh, who is this?" The woman gave her a tight smile.
"This is Sasuke. He's..." She paused, giving him a look of uncertainty.
He sort of agreed it was hard to explain their relationship. There wasn't a word for 'best friend of my ex-husband who thinks he was an asshole for abandoning me once I got pregnant.' "A good friend." He put on his best 'get the secretary to bend the rules for me' smile on for good measure.
The woman smiled back tightly. He could see that she was annoyed she couldn't prod Hinata for more.
"Have you gone on leave yet?" She asked.
"No, I won't go on leave until closer to my due date," Hinata said curtly. He had the feeling she'd answered that before.
"Poor thing working all day. How will you manage when you have to go back." The woman poured with a condescending tone. "You won't have them raised by some stranger sitter, will you." Sasuke's temper peaked. What the hell was wrong with a babysitter?
"We'll figure something out," Sasuke said. "My job's got a daycare. I'm sure I can arrange for them to take an extra."
The woman turned on him. "We?"
"I've been staying with Sasuke since my separation," Hinata explained before he could.
The woman's evil smile came back. "Seems you came to the rescue." She told him. He knew what she was implying.
"Just had an extra room." He said flatly, not raising to the bait.
Class started and stopped the pissing contest the woman was having with herself.
The class was interesting in an odd way. There was a lot he didn't know about childbirth simply from not being exposed. He didn't have any younger siblings or been to a cousin's birth or anything. They did breathing, what to expect in the next few weeks, and then the lady brought out a baby doll with rubber necks to show how you were meant to hold a baby's head and wrap it. He believed that that one might have been for him since he was a new 'partner' in the group.
He made jokes about the different parts of the class in Hinata's ear. He got held back, smiled, and punishing taps to his knee. Most of it was about how overly cheery the teacher was. He would describe her as a rich hippy, with peace and love but more soap and higher-end yoga pants. He was just making it less awkward. They weren't usually pressed up against each other like this, and he had to touch her belly and legs as part of the movements. Luckily both his jokes and willingness to go through the motions did accomplish the secondary task of pissing the woman from before off.
Toward the end, they went around the circle and did 'recommendations,' things they had found that had helped them or made their lives easier, mainly products for stretch marks or indigestion. These women gushed creams, products, and fruit. It was surreal.
"Hinata, I know you don't usually, but do you have any recommendations for the day?" The teacher asked.
Hinata thought for a moment. "Oh, Sasuke brought home a swivel chair high enough that I can cook without any strain on my back." She looked back at him. "Where did you get that?"
He thought back. "I didn't buy it, I asked around the office about your back pain, and one of the ladies said she had a chair that she used, and since she was done having kids, she said I could have it."
There was a round of awe. Sasuke felt a little accomplished with the small blush she grew from the positive attention.
Hinata was only a little annoyed with him playing up the charm and cute factor. As they said goodbye, he helped her with her coat again and placed a hand on her back as they headed out the door.
When they got to the car, she sighed. "That was stressful."
"You know, with all of the 'loving energy' that woman kept going on about, how I would think that you shouldn't be coming out more stressed than when you went in." He chuckled, starting the car.
"A room full of judgmental pregnant women all eyeing you because you are the only divorced woman doesn't help, then you went and drew more attention." She accused him.
"Yeah, but you were at least entertained." He defended. "But seriously, who knew that hearing someone say 'positive energy' many times could fill you with so much negativity."
Hinata gagged. "I think they are all like that. I like that she is trying, but I don't think any amount of positive thinking is going to help when you go into labor."
"But we can eat our feelings." He suggested. "How about we pick up some food and finish our series?"
Hinata laid her head back and nodded.
