Sasuke turned off the car in front of her apartment building. There was a heavy air of distress between them, even though they had both calmed down. Maybe he shouldn't have exploded like that.

The thought of her getting into a car with that guy made his skin crawl. Then he found out that she was drunk? What was she thinking, going home with a guy she barely knew, intoxicated?

Did Hinata know him better than he thought?

Sasuke's hand tightened on the steering wheel. He glanced at her in the rearview mirror. She turned away, looking out the window at the dark, empty street. "Are you still cold?"

Hinata pulled his jacket closer around her.

Sasuke got out of the car, opened the door for her, and held out his hand.

Hinata looked at it blankly. She was being stubborn. She didn't want his help, but they both knew she would not be able to get out of the car without it.

Sasuke looked away and waited there with his hand out. Hinata eventually gave in, taking his hand and letting her pull her and her dress out of the car. She took a few steps up onto the street as he closed the door and turned to follow her, but she stopped a few paces away from him.

"You should go home," Hinata's eyes were angry and hurt.

Sasuke felt a sharp pain in his chest. "I want to make sure you get up there safely."

"I'll be fine," Hinata told him firmly.

"Can you even get out of that dress without help?" Sasuke waved his hand at it. It laced up in the back and had a knot in the middle of her back. How was she getting out of it on her own?

"I would rather cut myself out of it," Hinata told him coldly.

Sasuke's lips pressed into a line. "I get that you're not happy with me right now."

"Please leave," Hinata stated.

"Hinata." Sasuke started again.

Hinata shook her head. "Don't come to my apartment to hide from your mother anymore. Don't show up out of the blue when you're upset. Don't pick me up for the next event." Hinata's eyes started to become red as they welled up with tears. "I won't be going with you."

"Hinata, I was not going to let some random guy take you home." Sasuke waved his arms out.

"Go home," Hinata's voice was weak. Clearly, she was beyond upset, but that made him want to stay to ensure she was okay.

"Hinata, let me just get you upstairs." Sasuke offered. "You're drunk."

Hinata shook her head but closed her eyes like she was fighting herself. "Go home!" She barked at him before turning and stocking into the building.

Sasuke watched her try to hold her face together. As weakly pressed the elevator button multiple times and her face scrunched up as she fought her tears. When the elevator came and she disappeared inside, she was crying.

Sasuke leaned against his car. He closed his eyes and counted. After a minute, he looked up and ensured the light to her apartment came on before moving off his car and getting back in.

His hands tightened on the steering wheel, and he felt a sudden violent burst and urge to slam his hand into it and let out his rage on the leather, but he just let his head fall to it.

Hinata fell into a heap on the floor after she kicked off her shoes. Her dress made a pile around her. She curled her hand into her chest as she cried, gasping as her stomach turned.

Why did she only lose her composure with him? How did he bring out her temper like this?

Why did it hurt so much?

Hinata stared blankly at the elevator door as it ticked up floors. When it finally rang to tell her she had arrived at her floor, she put on a more pleasant face as it opened and nodded her head at Lee, already at his desk. He jumped up to greet her as he always did.

"Can you make me a coffee? I am running a little behind today."

"Yes, ma'am!" Lee saluted and headed off to the coffee station.

Hinata sat down. She hadn't gotten much sleep the last few nights. Whenever she was alone with her thoughts, she found worse and worse things to worry about.

She felt abysmal for losing her temper with Sasuke. He didn't know what was going on. She shouldn't have snapped. She shouldn't have transferred all her stress from her interaction with his mother on to him, but she also wasn't sure how to apologize.

She still hadn't told the director about what Mikoto had done and threatened. She didn't know how to tell him. How did she say, 'your ex-wife assaulted me and threatened me because I was protecting Itachi's secret' and not make him go into a rage?

Hinata knew it wasn't her fault, but the more she thought about it, the more guilt she felt. She had gotten too close to Itachi and Sasuke. Close enough that maybe it wasn't such a leap to make when people would see her dragging Itachi off to a back room or spending half the night out on the balcony alone with Sasuke.

Sasuke thought the worst when Gaara was just going to take her home.

And poor Gaara to get twisted up in all this. Hinata felt so bad that Sasuke blew up on him and accused him like that. She scheduled lunch to apologize, but he was booked until the end of the week, and every day went by, and she just hoped he wasn't thinking about the night every day as she had been.

She had let it slip to less and less professional. She let them get to her heart. She needed to fix that. She was their father's assistant, nothing more. She wasn't family. She wasn't their friend.

Hinata closed her eyes for a moment, only to hear a cup placed in front of her. Hinata looked up at Lee with a gracious smile. "Thank you." She whispered as she sipped the coffee, and Lee bounded back to his desk.

Hinata took a few minutes to drink the coffee to wake her brain up before she started her tasks. She opened her desk and paused, looking at the contract staring back at her. Gaara's job offer.

Hinata closed the drawer and pressed her fingers to her temples. Just another thing to swim in her brain at night.

Sasuke watched Hinata walk past his department, trailing after his father, and he fought the urge to get up. Not well, because before he knew it, he was around his desk and had his head out of his office door. "Hinata."

Both of them stopped, but Hinata avoided his eyes.

"Can I borrow you for a moment?" Sasuke asked.

"We have things to do," Hinata excused, her eyes flickering away.

"It's alright if you can catch up with me," Fugaku told her with a smile.

Hinata looked unhappy as his father turned down the hall.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "You're still mad at me?"

"Sasuke-sama, I'm not mad at you. I'm just…" Hinata's looked upset.

"You're not avoiding me?" Sasuke challenged her.

Hinata frowned at him. "I just don't think now is the time to talk. I really should go."

Sasuke panicked and snagged her upper arm to stop her, he barely caught her arm in his fingertips, but she yelped in pain. Sasuke felt a rush of panic wash over him as he remembered he grabbed her in the same place the night of the Gala.

"I'm fine," Hinata said too quickly, protectively covering the spot.

"Let me see." Sasuke insisted.

"I'm fine." Hinata pulled away.

"Let me see!" Sasuke tugged on the blazer. It fell off her shoulder, and he saw the edges of a healing bruise in the form of fingers before she managed to pull it back up.

Sasuke flinched back. He didn't think he grabbed her that hard that night. He was mad, but not mad enough to… She had yelped then, too. He thought she was just surprised.

"I did that," Sasuke took another step back. "Why didn't you tell me I hurt you?"

Hinata's demeanor instantly changed. "No. No Sasuke-sama, you didn't." Hinata waved her hands.

"Don't lie to me! I grabbed you right there." Sasuke jabbed a finger toward her arm. "I grabbed you so hard I left marks?"

"No. You didn't." Hinata tried to hush him.

Sasuke's panic rose. Why was she denying it? "Hinata, I hurt you. You can't act like this isn't a problem."

Hinata hushed him and stepped forward to cover his mouth. "No, you didn't see." Hinata pulled her blazer off her other arm to show another bruise. "You didn't even touch this arm."

Sasuke stared at the bruise. It was healing, but she was right. He hadn't grabbed that arm, and he didn't grab her from that angle. Sasuke picked up her wrist and gently turned her arms to see crescent-shaped cuts on the underside of her arms. Someone grabbed her so hard that their nails dug into her skin, and she rarely exposed her arms, so it had to have happened at the Gala before she left. Was that why she was so upset?

When did this even happen?

"Who did this?" Sasuke asked as his rage came back.

Hinata pulled her blazer back up. "Don't worry about it."

"Hinata." Sasuke snapped.

"I have to go," Hinata told him. She pointed at him. "Not a word about this. Especially not the director."

"Only if you promise to tell me how it happened." Sasuke countered.

Hinata pressed her lips together before making her way back down the hall toward her meeting.

Sasuke watched her go and ruffled his hair, trying to think of when she would have gotten those marks had it been Gaara? Would she go home with someone who grabbed her like that? Surely she wouldn't have been so upset with him if he had pulled her away from a situation like that.

Was Gaara saving her? Had he seen what happened?

Sasuke rubbed his face. It was going to be hard to get back to work after that.