Beautiful
By Avalon Estel
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Naruto, or anything in his show. Kthxbye.
A/N: There is not enough HayaYu on this site, or anywhere else. Here's a little love just for them.
They stand outside the Hokage's headquarters as the sun goes down, silent. They don't have to say anything, because sometimes they don't need words. Yugao pushes her hair from her face and looks at him. He smiles at her, then turns abruptly to cough.
"Are you all right, Hayate?" she asks, laying a gentle hand on his back, even though she knows he isn't. Something's wrong with him, but he refuses to see the doctor.
He waves a hand at her and smiles again. "I'm fine, really."
She nods, trying to force herself to keep the tears back and away. She stores his smile in the back of her memory so that she can pull it out again later. He only smiles for her. Some think he's grouchy or mean, some think he's just plain cold, simply because he doesn't smile enough. But perhaps he would, Yugao thinks, if they would just give him a reason to.
She studies him sometimes, to see if there are signs of him getting worse. He sometimes comes to the Hokage's office looking as if he were about to drop. The circles beneath his eyes seem to become darker every day. The cough seems harsher. Maybe it's just her imagination, but she can't be sure. Some nights the idea of losing him keeps her up, crying until her eyes are bloodshot and she has to lie and say she just couldn't rest.
And then he smiles at her, and she forgets it all…for a little while.
They are shinobi, born into a world of shadows and secrets, where they dwell in silence. But the ones in the shadows can love one another, and despite the shadows in his heart and on his face, she thinks he's beautiful.
It doesn't matter what the others say about him, or if they see the part of him that matters, because she knows he's beautiful, and that's all that matters.