A/N: To Therese Belivet1: Sure, you can go ahead and translate this piece. I am very honoured!

To the rest of the reviewers: Thank you for your kind reviews. I am glad to know this story is serving as good entertainment for the lot of you.

CHAPTER 13

Sasuke knew that he was getting ahead of himself. In his mind, the situationship that he had with Hinata had been resolved the moment she agreed to maintaining exclusivity between them. Yet, when he woke up again in the wee hours of the morning with Hinata snuggled up against him, he was struck by a single question: now what?

It was rather embarrassing for Sasuke to admit to himself that he did not know how to proceed. He never thought he would get this far! He groaned internally and shifted his position on the bed so that he could look at Hinata's countenance properly. Once again, the woman was blissfully ignorant of the tumultuous feelings that he was currently experiencing. Sasuke brought his hand up to her face and pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. Hinata did not stir.

I wonder what goes on in this head of yours.

It only just dawned on him that Hinata rarely talked about herself. Most of her interactions with others comprised polite conversation or some other talk about that person's life. He could not help but wonder if his own tight-lipped tendencies had ever caused Naruto and Sakura to feel the same things that he was feeling now.

An inordinate amount of time passed before Sasuke decided to wake Hinata up. It would do no good for anyone else to awake before them and find out that she had spent the night in his bed. It started with a gentle poke to her shoulder, but when the sleeping woman did not stir, he clasped his hand around her shoulder and began to shake her gently. Still, she did not awaken.

"Hinata," Sasuke whispered.

"Mm…" Finally, she showed signs of awakening. She uncurled herself from her fetus position to give her limbs a long, languid stretch.

"Good morning."

"Mm…"

Before Sasuke could tell her to go back to her own bed, she scooted closer to him and buried her face in his neck. What the heck? He could not help but squirm at the intimacy of the position that they were in. This was not part of the plan! Not yet, at least. For all that Kakashi had talked to him about in his ad hoc sex education car lecture, not once did he mention anything about etiquette in this regard. Where is Kakashi when I need him… he bemoaned.

Well, the silver-haired man was likely sleeping like a baby in his own bed by now, after having disappeared mysteriously in the middle of Sasuke's shoot and never reappearing. He would not put it past his manager to ditch him like this.

But it was no matter. Sasuke was capable of improvising. Summoning a bout of courage, he began to tickle her midriff with his fingers. To his utmost surprise, she remained dead asleep.

So she isn't ticklish… He sighed in resignation at this newfound knowledge. He had exhausted all known inconspicuous ways to wake up this troublesome woman.

In the end, Sasuke climbed over her sleeping form to get to his feet, and in one swift motion he lifted her into his arms. Now all she had to do was remain asleep so that he could smoothly transport her back to her own bed.

It turned out that Sasuke found it easier to deal with a sleeping Hinata than an awakened one. He could look at a sleeping Hinata all he wanted, and she would not stir; but when Hinata was awake and she caught him looking at her, she would give him the most heartfelt smile and it never failed to seize his heart every single time.

Yet, Sasuke remained vigilant. His years of experience in this industry taught him that he had to keep his personal life – especially any relationships that he had with females – a big secret. He was mostly successful, because it was a matter of fact that he did not involve himself with any women or behaved in ways that could be construed as potentially scandalous.

However, if he was going to take his relationship with Hinata seriously, he knew that there was going to be some huge obstacles in their way, namely in the form of toxic gossip and the paparazzi. Hinata was already having a hard time, and even though the lack of updates from Dispatch about their activities had caused their dating rumours to die down, he could only presume that the entire affair had left an indelible mark on her anyway. The last thing that he wanted was for her to feel unsafe with him.

After much pondering, Sasuke came to the inevitable conclusion that he had to keep his relationship with Hinata under wraps, even in front of the filming crew. He did not know every single person in this project well, which meant that it was possible for someone to leak information about them if it became obvious that they were hiding something from the cameras.

Therefore, much to Hinata's evident disappointment, he refused to stay close to her in public for extended periods of time. If there was any one thing that Sasuke was exceptionally good at, it was distancing himself from people. Yet, apparently his behaviour had caused Hinata enough sadness for Kiba to pick up on it.

"Are you avoiding Hinata or something?" he asked him after pulling him aside for a private "man-to-man" talk.

Sasuke raised a brow at the confrontation. "I am not," he replied flatly.

Kiba folded his arms in indignance and scrutinised Sasuke's expression, clearly disbelieving his words. "I feel like there's something going on, because you're being more distant than usual and Hinata seems a bit sad that you are. I don't know what's your deal but you should be more caring towards her. She is so nice to you."

That gave Sasuke something to think about, but he was not about to admit this to dog boy. In the end he settled for a nod and walked off without saying a word. His dismissive behaviour prompted a muttered curse from Kiba, but Sasuke pointedly ignored it. It was possible that Kiba did not like him – also possibly because he may be crushing on Hinata – but Sasuke could not be bothered about side characters like him. He simply stuck up his chin and moved to get ready for filming.

"Masuoka."

"Y-Yes?"

"You are going to lose against me."

A group of students stood barefoot in the sand, preparing to start a game of beach volleyball. It seemed perfunctory for every high school to organise a trip to the beach for sports day or some equivalent of it. Kaito was naturally competitive, and he easily roped a few of his tall and agile friends to join his team. Yet, as with every mixed gender sport, it was a requirement to have at least a certain proportion of females make up each team – and Kaito had deliberately avoided picking Yui to join his.

It was more fun to face off against her and her overprotective friend Asahi, and watch them lose to him. Kaito did not know why he enjoyed picking on this particular nerd. She was not even the first outcast that he had encountered.

Nevertheless, Kaito easily gave in to his desire to play against her and formed his team quickly. He watched as Yui blinked at him in astonishment, as if taken aback by his sudden proclamation. Her eyes were big and round like that of a deer's, except they were of the most unusual colour. It almost made her look pretty, and exotically so.

"Don't say that so early!" Asahi hollered back. Kaito's smirk only widened upon seeing the brunette react to his provocation. "We are going to beat your asses!"

Asahi turned around to Yui and put a hand on her shoulder, causing Kaito's eye to twitch for a millisecond, but he quickly masked his irritation at their physical contact. Yui turned around to look at Asahi with a small blush dusting her cheeks, but they shared a look of determination on their faces.

Yui turned back to look at Kaito with newfound confidence. She even had the audacity to smile at him in a manner that almost looked cocky. "I will do my best!" she whisper-shouted, but her voice was audible to the people standing on the other side of the net.

With that, both teams began to play. There was a slight hesitation to go all out at the beginning, but with the cheers of their classmates at the sidelines and the momentum that both teams were steadily building up, the players began to get more involved in the game.

Kaito had to admit that both Asahi and Yui surprised him. Yui in particular did not look like the sporty type, but it seemed that she was more competent at beach volleyball than he had expected. Asahi was clearly athletic, but the competitive side of him refused to acknowledge the brunette as an equal.

They were now down to the final showdown, with Kaito's team being three points in the lead. One more point and they would win the game! He grinned at the pair across the net who was panting heavily, and said, "Want to forfeit before we beat you?"

"N-Never." Yui surprised him by wiping sweat off her brow and regaining her poise. She bent her knees to get back into position even though it was clear from this distance that she was exhausted. Her legs were already trembling slightly.

The grin on Kaito's face was wiped off when he noticed this. Yui should be calling for a substitute at this point in time, but for some reason the stubborn girl was refusing to give up. She was not even the star player of her team, yet she was adamant on pushing herself to her limits. It boggled his mind, since it was so much easier for her to just give up. Who did she think she was, anyway? He could not decide if she was admirable or foolish.

Kaito was still caught in his musings when he heard a loud bellow from one of his teammates. He tore his eyes away from the petite girl to re-focus on the last game, only to feel the impact of a volleyball on the crown of his head. Needless to say, he lost his balance and fell back into the sand with a pained grunt.

Hinata did not even wait for the director to yell "cut!" before she dashed towards Sasuke in alarm. The raven-haired man felt his eyes roll back into their sockets before his eyelids slid shut.

This motherfucking dog boy is going to regret this, he thought to himself right before he caved into oblivion.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. Sasuke was evacuated from the filming site as quickly as possible after the accident, and he proceeded to get examined by more than one doctor for his head injury. Naruto and Sakura blew up his mobile phone with notifications, and they continued to bombard him with questions the moment he arrived back safely in their dormitory.

"Teme! Are you sure you're okay?"

The volume at which Naruto said this only served to exacerbate Sasuke's headache. He let out the hundredth sigh of the day and leaned back into his pillow to try and drown out Naruto's voice, which was still vibrating annoyingly in his head. "I told you I'll live," he muttered. "The doctor said the impact was not as great as it could have been, so the injury is not too serious. I should be up on my feet and dancing within 24 to 48 hours if there are no undiagnosed internal injuries."

"How did this even happen?" Sakura asked this time.

Sasuke cracked open an eye to look at her. "Kiba decided to send the ball flying my way when I was distracted," he deadpanned.

Sakura approached him to pull up the covers to his chin. She hovered around the side of his bed somewhat awkwardly, looking down at him with a mix of sadness and pity. Sasuke decided to avert his gaze. It only just dawned on him that things were going to get even more awkward between him and Sakura the moment she found out about Hinata.

Speaking of the bluenette, she surprised him by appearing at his doorway. She poked her head through to look at him with large, concerned eyes. She was so quiet that he did not realise when she appeared.

Naruto followed his gaze to Hinata and beamed when his eyes fell on her. "Hinata-chan, you're back!"

"What do you mean?" Sasuke could not help but interject.

Naruto swivelled around to face Sasuke again. "Hinata-chan left for a while when you were asleep, but now she's back. She's really worried about you, y'know?"

"I-I brought food for you…" she added timidly.

Sasuke looked at her again and had to suppress a smile at her kind gesture. Instead of breaking out into thanks, he simply snorted and feigned indifference, since that was the easiest thing for him to do whenever he was unsure of how to express himself.

For the first time since he woke up from his evening nap, the room was enveloped in a silence. He finally cut through the silence when he said gruffly, "Can you all please leave me alone?"

Sakura frowned at his dismissal. Sasuke was always so distant, even in his time of need. On the other hand, Naruto seemed to take his words at face value and moved to leave. Sakura lingered around his bedside for a moment longer before she accepted his request and trudged out of his room. Hinata was the last to turn away, but she stopped in her tracks when she heard Sasuke call out to her.

"Hinata. Come in," he said simply.

Naruto and Sakura had already sauntered off into the living room so they were too far to hear this, but Hinata was somehow shocked at the exclusive treatment that she seemed to be receiving. A blush made its way onto her face as she obeyed.

"Close the door behind you," he added as an afterthought. Hinata nodded and did as she was told. She approached him quietly, and Sasuke noticed then that she was holding a rectangular bag in her hands. It appeared to contain a lunchbox in it.

"Ano, are you feeling better?" she asked.

Sasuke let out an uncharacteristic smile which only caused Hinata to blush further. "A little," he replied vaguely.

"You don't have to pretend to be strong, Sasuke-kun," she replied in a manner that was almost chiding.

"Are you my mother or something?" he retorted harmlessly, although he realised after saying this that Hinata did bear some resemblance to his mother. Now that he noticed this, he could not unsee the resemblance. It stirred up some inexplicable feelings within him.

"You must be hurting a lot."

She was not exactly wrong. Sasuke's head was hurting like a bitch, possibly because it was nearing the time for his next dose of painkillers. There remained a dull throb in his head, but he did his best to ignore it by focusing on Hinata. He would count the number of eyelashes that she had if he really had to distract himself from the pain, but he suspected she would find the notion creepy so he refrained. It could not be helped that everything about this pretty woman seemed to be fascinating.

"Do your wrists hurt?" he asked, preferring to detract from the original topic.

"From the volleyball?"

"Yeah."

Hinata began to poke her fingers together. "A-Ano...it's not so bad today. It was much worse the first time I started practising for the scene. I was bruised very badly, and my wrists were swollen."

Sasuke furrowed his brows. "When did you start learning volleyball for this?"

"About two weeks ago."

Sasuke hummed contemplatively while he tried to recall their interactions from two weeks ago. He must have appeared to be pondering hard over this, as Hinata decided to explain, "I wore long sleeves for the whole week, so you probably did not see my bruises."

Ah, it all made sense now. Still, Sasuke mentally kicked himself for not being more perceptive. He could have done something if he had known about this.

While he got lost in his thoughts once again, Hinata walked towards his desk at the far end of his room and pulled his chair over to sit down next to his bed. After she settled down, she opened the lunchbox and presented its contents to him with both hands. In it was two onigiri and a salad that was packed with blueberries, cranberries and sliced tomatoes. The brown glaze over it appeared to be balsamic vinegar. It was overall a light meal, which Sasuke greatly appreciated.

"I hope you like it," she whispered. Her voice trembled, which made Sasuke believe that she was nervous for some reason.

"Did you make this yourself?" he asked pointedly. As he expected, Hinata nodded.

"Hn. I'm sure I will like it." The look on Hinata's face right after he said this was nothing short of heartwarming. She thanked him profusely and pulled out a fork from the bag.

"W-Would you like me to feed you?" she asked innocently.

Now it was Sasuke's turn to blush. He lowered his head, hoping that his bangs would conceal the red on his cheeks which he knew was visible by now. He opened his mouth to decline because he had some masculine pride left in him, but he swallowed his words the moment Hinata held out a piece of tomato to his mouth using the fork.

Well, this really made him feel emasculated, but somehow he could not bring himself to care. Was this what men felt like when they were in a relationship? Sasuke decided to give in to his urges in the end and he allowed her to feed him.

A comfortable silence fell over them, as Hinata focused on feeding Sasuke neatly, while Sasuke focused on avoiding Hinata's gaze while he allowed her to feed him. It should have been awkward, but somehow it was not.

Finally, Hinata broke the silence with, "Did Kiba-kun text you?"

With those few words, Sasuke's mood was instantly ruined. How dare she bring him up when she was spending time with him? He never hated another man more. "Yes," he replied coldly.

"He is really sorry… He got worried when you didn't reply him for hours, so he has been texting me to ask if you were okay."

Sasuke had to refrain from rolling his eyes in front of Hinata. To think that dog boy was under the impression that his reason for ignoring him was his injury. The truth was he was ignoring him simply because he wanted to. It turned out that Kiba could not even give him a full-on concussion - not with that weak ass serve of his! What a loser.

"I was resting," he replied tactfully. It was technically true after all. Hinata seemed to accept this as she nodded understandingly.

"I will let him know then."

"Later."

Hinata blinked in surprise at his sudden interjection. "L-Later?"

"Don't text him when you're with me."

Oh, so this is what it is about. Hinata had to hold back a laugh as she nodded once again. Sasuke seemed satisfied with this as he reached out to poke her forehead. However, Hinata remembered what happened the last time he did this so she dodged his fingers in reflex and let out an 'eep' sound.

Sasuke must have caught on to her train of thought as his fingers moved to cup her cheek instead. He could not help but let out a small contented smile when he felt her skin heat up under his fingers. Hinata closed her eyes to savour his gentle touch.

"Ne, Sasuke-kun."

"Hm?"

"I have been keeping a secret from you."

Sasuke raised a brow at this and retracted his hand. "What would that be?"

Hinata gave him a sheepish smile and said, "I have been talking to your mother…"

W. H. A. T ?

Sasuke's brain froze for a moment as he struggled to comprehend her words. Why on earth would Hinata be talking to his mother? What kind of things have they been talking about?! This was dangerous territory!

Hinata must have noticed his shell-shocked expression, for she began to explain herself hastily. "Y-Your mom asked for my number the last time we all had dinner together. You were in the toilet then. She said she wanted to teach me how to prepare your favourite onigiri..."

Sasuke's brows shot up even further. Why would she…unless…oh good lord. Sasuke could not help but facepalm at the realisation that his mother must have either noticed the feelings he had for her which he did not even recognise back then, or she was simply trying to matchmake them because she decided she liked Hinata enough. Either way, this information was thoroughly embarrassing. Sasuke struggled to take it all in.

"Was that all?" he asked in an unusually small voice.

"Mm… more or less."

Sasuke could not stop his lips from turning downwards into something that almost resembled a childish pout. Hinata found this endearing, since this face of his was never captured on camera. From her words, it sounded like there was more to the story than she was disclosing, but it was also rather obvious that Hinata was not going to reveal anything more.

"Do you talk to her often?" he could not help but ask.

There was a pause before Hinata replied, "M-Maybe...if you consider a few times a week often..."

Now this was starting to become concerning. What on earth could they talk about? He did not even text his own mother - or Itachi - a few times a week! And here was Hinata barging into his family life behind his back... He did not exactly mind it, but this whole situation was ludicrous.

In an attempt to distract himself from his thoughts, Sasuke chose to return his attention to the contents of the lunchbox. "Is this okaka onigiri?"

Hinata nodded in delight at his perception. "Y-Yes! I hope you will like it!" Her eyes sparkled with excitement as she said this.

She was so cute, Sasuke could gag. Forgetting his previous less-than-pleasant ruminations, he looked at her fondly, which caused Hinata to cower under the intensity of his gaze. It seemed that she was still nervous around him for some reason, and while her shyness was her charm, it was not sustainable. He then made a mental note to coax her out of her shell in time. Hopefully in the process of doing so, he would get to understand her better as a person.

"Hey."

"Yes?"

"This is good, but I'll eat the rest of it later."

"Okay." Hinata closed the lunchbox and began to put it aside along with the fork. She must have assumed that he wanted to be left alone, for she picked up her bag and phone before moving to take her leave until Sasuke called her back. Once again, she blinked at him in surprise and traced back her steps till she found herself standing next to his bed.

"Pass me your phone."

Hinata instinctively held her phone to her chest at this. "W-What do you want to do with my phone?"

"Nothing bad," he replied nonchalantly. Hinata hesitated for a brief moment, but eventually decided to trust Sasuke. She handed her phone to him obediently.

Sasuke clicked on the power button and felt his heart stutter when he saw that she had set the photograph of them at the beach as her lockscreen. She must have done it yesterday night or today – which would be after the events that transpired in his bed the previous night – and oh, now that made him feel all sorts of things in his gut. Again, she was so cute.

"What's your password?"

Hinata hesitated for a long moment before replying, "Kurama underscore 09."

This time Sasuke turned to fix her with a glare. Hinata yelped and bowed her head down in guilt. "That's the name of Naruto's favourite stuffed toy," he said rather than asked. Hinata nodded slowly in affirmation.

In no time at all, the jealousy in the pit of his stomach grew from a small flickering flame to a full-blown inferno. How dare she-

"I-I will change it right after this," she whispered.

To her surprise, Sasuke shook his head. "Keep it if you want." There was no bitterness in his monotonous voice, but for some reason Hinata could sense that he was not happy about this – and understandably so. Sasuke proceeded to key in the password to unlock her phone.

He clicked on a few things, but from where Hinata was standing, she could not see what he was doing. She could lean over to take a peek, but she was still reeling in shock from getting caught for her honest mistake, not to mention she was too guilt-ridden to move any closer to Sasuke. For all she knew, he could be fuming at her under that expressionless guise of his.

In the next moment, Sasuke raised the phone to his eye level and lifted his head to angle it in a certain way. It became obvious that he was taking a photo of himself. Hinata stared at him in confusion, but immediately avoided eye contact with him when he turned to look at her after taking the photo. He tapped on the screen a couple more times before clicking onto the power button to lock her phone. He handed it back to her smoothly.

"I will respect your privacy, so I'm not going to be the kind of boyfriend who would unlock your phone without your permission to snoop on you. But feel free to change your password anyway if it makes you more comfortable."

Hinata bowed at him as she thanked him for his kind words. She could not help but blush profusely when she heard him address himself as her boyfriend. On the other hand, Sasuke simply waved off the soft apologies that she began to murmur, perhaps out of some retrospective guilt. Once again, she turned to leave only to be stopped by a hand around her wrist. In the next moment, she felt herself getting tugged back till she lost her balance and collapsed onto the bed in one fell swoop. She pushed herself up only to find her face mere inches away from Sasuke's.

Before she could regain her bearings, he pulled her in for a kiss. It felt like the world had stopped turning the moment it happened, but in reality the kiss only lasted for a few seconds. Sasuke pulled away first and gave her another dismissive wave. Hinata scrambled to her feet and bowed to him once more before dashing out of the room comically. Her face was as red as a beetroot, which prompted Sasuke to wonder if she would ever get used to any acts of intimacy.

In the meantime, after Hinata bade farewell to Naruto who was lounging about on the couch, she unlocked her phone and began to search for traces of what Sasuke had done. She started with her gallery, since she figured that he had taken a photograph of himself, but strangely enough there were no new photos in it.

It took her a while, but when she finally realised what he had done, her jaw dropped. It turned out that Sasuke had replied to Kiba's text messages for her:

Hyuuga Hinata has sent you a photo.

H. Hinata: Hey I'm good.