If I could read the lines that find your smile to hide behind …

Something smelled nice.

Hinata made her was down the stairs to the kitchen, following the scent.

It was Monday morning. She'd been out of the hospital for three days, and today was her first day back in school. Her stomach fluttered with nervous excitement.

She paused in the doorway, blinking. "Neji-nii-san? What're you doing here?"

He gave her a beaming smile, and her eyes were still tired enough that it was a little blinding. "Morning. I brought you breakfast." He shook a white bag at her.

She stifled a yawn behind her hand, mumbling an "excuse me," and trudged over to the island counter, plopping onto a stool. Taking the bag from her cousin's outstretched hand, she opened it and sniffed at it, realized that this was where the smell that had drawn her from bed had originated.

"What is this?" she asked, pushing into the cushioning of napkins in the bag.

"Your first doughnut." Neji grinned as he watched her study the round pastry. "Try it."

After sniffing it again, she took a tentative bite. Warm sweet liquid exploded in her mouth and she almost choked in surprise.

Neji laughed, handing her a napkin. "It's a jelly-filled doughnut. Probably should've warned you." He stood and stretched, arching his graceful back, and Hinata couldn't help watching him – he was so beautiful. Catching her gaze, he gave her a slow easy smile and grabbed her hand. "Let's eat and walk, huh? We'll be late."

She stood, letting him lead her out of the house while slowly eating her doughnut. "But don't you have a car?"

"Yeah, but you walk to school everyday, and I want to walk with you."

She popped the last piece of the pastry into her mouth, hurrying to catch up, and matched his pace, her hold on his hand tight.

"Nervous?" Neji let his fingers, still entwined with hers, brush against her thigh.

She blushed slightly at the contact, but edged closer to him, smiling. "A little." She said quietly. "I miss everyone, but wh-what if they start asking abou-?"

"Don't worry. I told them that if anyone said anything, I'd – hey, what's wrong?"

Hinata had jerked to a halt, staring wide-eyed ahead of her. With a little sound that resembled a whimper, she ducked behind Neji, clinging to him. "That's him." She whispered hoarsely against his shirt.

Neji stiffened, easily picking out the silver-haired boy her fear was directed at. He vaguely recognized him as one of the delinquents from the nearby disciplinary school who hung around outside the public high school tormenting the students until teachers threatened to call the police.

"Hinata-sama?" At her small squeak of acknowledgement, he said, "Do you see Sakura and Kiba over there?" Another squeak. "I want you to go over to them."

She hurried to do as he said, and he approached Hinata's violator.

0

You broke his nose?"

Neji willfully resisted the urge to yell back. His father was usually pretty cool-tempered, but today he looked like his vein my pop in his forehead.

"What, Neji, could he have done, that could have been so bad?"

"Your sister coming back for more? I told her she'd like it."

Neji growled. "He raped Hinata-sama"

Fist meets face – cartilage ripping, glass lenses shattering.

Hizashi pinched the bridge of his nose, stopping himself in his pacing. "How can you be sure of that?"

For the briefest instant, Neji felt like breaking his father's nose. "Hinata-sama told me! And he bragged about it to me. And what kind of sick freak brags about raping a girl to the girl's brother?"

"You're not her brother."

"I know that. But he thought I was." He huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and sulking back against the couch. He knew he was currently acting about as mature as a two-year-old, but it seemed appropriate.

Hizashi sank into an armchair, rubbing his temples. He looked frazzled, and Neji would have laughed if he wasn't in such deep shit. "You know," – His father's voice was softer now – "if I had been in your position, I probably would have done the same thing" – Neji grinned – "but you got suspended for a week, so I'm going to have to punish you." – The grin died – "Grounded. Two weeks."

Neji blinked. "Just two weeks?"

Hizashi glared. "I'm not punishing you for hitting the guy – he's an asshole." Neji didn't think he'd ever heard him curse before. "I'm punishing you for doing it where you could get in trouble for it. Honestly. Do you know how long it's going to take you to make up all the work you're going to miss?"

Neji shrugged. "Eh. I'm at the top of my class."

Hizashi sighed, dropping his head. "Fine. Room. Now."

Neji hauled himself to his feet, trying to keep from smiling. No school for a week. Sweet.

0

Neji hadn't been lying when he'd promised no one would ask why she'd been gone. In fact, the first thing anybody said to Hinata when she sat down at the lunch table the next day was, "What happened yesterday?" from the very energetic, gossip-whore Ino.

Hinata just blinked around confusedly at the thirteen familiar faces, before managing out a "Huh?"

"Did Neji really kick Kabuto's ass?" Chouji asked, leaning across the table, slightly crushing his potato chips against him.

"Oh!" Hinata's face tinged pink. "Yes."

Lee's eyebrow shot up. "What had he done to deserve that?"

Hinata fiddled with a dog-eared corner of her book. "H-he was giving me a hard time, a-and Neji-nii-san di-didn't like it." She wasn't finding the book nearly distracting enough to keep their inquiring faces from her mind. "My father came to get me from the office, th-thought being at school w-would be too stressful." She wanted to run into the book and stay there. If Neji had felt half as alone without her as she did now, she owed him an apology for being out so long.

"What about Neji?" Shikamaru swirled his spoon around in the cafeteria pudding, eyeing it as if he wasn't quite sure he trusted it.

"He's suspended for a week." She said as nonchalantly as she could manage, though saying the words out loud sounded like a death sentence for them both. "Although the principal did say he'd 'done a public service bringing that kid's ego down a notch.'" She giggled slightly at the way everyone was gawking at her and pride for her cousin surged through her.

"Fuckin' bastard had it comin'." Naruto said from the other end of the table, his arm draped across Sasuke, who was leaning against his boyfriend.

"Yeah, can't tell you how many times that perv tried to grope me." Sakura put in.

That's when Hinata noticed the table's new seating arrangements. Kiba was beside her again, and Sakura was on Lee's left, beside TenTen. She blinked at the two for a second. "Sakura-chan? Why are you over there?"

Sakura turned a shade of pink that rivaled her hair. "Well Lee-san and I – we're dating." She said it in such a way that made it seem like she was on the edge of mocking it.

Hinata's mouth must have hit the floor – or at least the table. "Since when?"

"Well," Sakura distracted herself from looking at anyone by tracing the lines in the palm of Lee's left hand, "he asked me to a movie the second or third day you'd been gone, a-and I said yes." She threw a quick beaming smile in Hinata's direction before turning a fond one on Lee. "And it ended up being a lot of fun. So … yeah." She shrugged in this embarrassed, happy way that made Hinata envy her.

Temari and Shikamaru, Sasuke and Naruto – now Lee and Sakura? Hinata sighed inwardly, watching the three couples that were composed of her best friends interact affectionately with each other, and she vaguely wished she could do that with Neji. Her face heated a little from the thought and she buried her nose into her book before anyone noticed. She knew she could never do those things with him. They were family. It wasn't normal. She glanced over at Naruto who was nuzzling against a blushing Sasuke's neck, murmuring in his ear, and let a small smile play on her lips.

Then again, she really wouldn't call anyone here particularly ordinary. They were all … original characters.