Vayd: Well I'm happy that you're happy! And thanks, I'm always trying to make sure not to rush things, no matter how much I want to go straight into the good stuff. :)

k: Well it's all right here! And thank you. ^^

Cat Beats: You're going to have to stick around to see that, so I hope you enjoy it. And thank you, I really want to have the story have more than just the main story going on, I want there to be a bunch of other stuff going around to keep things interesting~. :3

Sasuke clicked his tongue when he realized they'd run out of tomatoes already. He'd finally come down stairs to get a snack to eat for a break. 'Haru probably ate the last ones again.' He thought to himself bitterly. 'Just because we're twins doesn't mean we have to have the same taste in food.' He closed the fridge and tried to think of something else to eat.

Just when he was about to turn he heard his phone ring from his hoodie pocket. He pulled it out and his eyes immediately widened when he saw the caller ID flash "Hinata." His eyes strained a little down in a combination of nervousness and concentration. He paced a little in the small space in front of the fridge as his free hand ran through his hair as he tried to get his thoughts together on the matter.

Finally, he just sighed quickly pushed the answer button. "Hello." He managed to even his voice out, but he felt a strain in his throat and chest.

"Hello, Sasuke-kun. Um… Is Haru-san home yet?"

Just hearing her soft voice that closely to his ear made his heart leap for a moment. He tried to hold back a sigh and just answered carefully. "No, she's still not home yet, but I can check in with her if you want." That's when it hit Sasuke. 'If she wanted to know, why did she call me?'

"That'd be great actually. I was just worried. I wanted to go with her, but…"

"She knows you have a curfew, so she won't hold it against you."

"I-I know it's just…"

"...Hinata, why did you call?" Right now he could picture the look on her face that says, 'Am I really that easy to read?'

"...It's nothing really. It's just… When I got home I told Neji-nii about the shopping trip. I told him who went, and when I mentioned Haru-chan…"

Sasuke never had much fun thinking back on his sister's love life, but her chapter with Neji especially just because of how painful it seemed to have been for them both. "Did he say anything?"

"No, he was just quiet about it, but I know it's still too much for him to talk about her… I'm sorry, it's a little silly to call for something like this."

"It's fine, you don't need to apologize."

"Thank you… I'm just worried about them. Haru especially… I still don't really get why they broke up-Neji-nii still won't tell me-but it must have been something bad for them to still not be able to be in the same room together."

Sasuke knew how true it was. Before Haru dated Neji, it was normal for him to tag along with Hinata whenever they went out together. He remembered when they first started dating the two were together most of the time, and there was a part of him that hoped he could help Haru get over Itachi. He didn't think Shikamaru would, and he wasn't too hopeful in Menma-he'd spend more time helping other people than being with her.

Neji and Haru both were just clicking great in a way that was different from the other two, that it almost looked like they were really falling for eachother. However, almost out of nowhere, Haru came home late and just went to her room without a word. Sasuke didn't learn that they broke up until the next day. To this day, all Haru told him about it was that she just couldn't get over Itachi.

"...Neji-nii seems to be getting out there again with dating-in his own way-so I'm happy for that. But, Haru-chan…"

"I know what you mean." 'She doesn't want to try dating again, since she's already concluded that she can't get over her feelings.'

"...I just want her to find someone… I-It's not to say that I think Haru-chan needs someone, but it's just…"

"What?"

"Haru-chan… Does she ever seem to hide her feelings sometimes?"

This question took Sasuke completely off guard for a seconded, and his eyes widened to only relax after a moment. 'You're not as unreadable as you think you are Haru.' "...Yeah, sometimes."

"I try to talk to her, but I can tell she just really doesn't want to… I just wish Haru had someone she could talk to. Someone she could feel comfortable to tell anything to… She always seems like there's a lot weighing on her…"

As much as Sasuke wanted to say-to both Hinata and himself-that Haru told him everything, he knew it wasn't true. She told him more than she did anyone else, but he knew that she still had a habit of keeping things to herself. However, to the point Hinata was making… He knew Itachi, and he knew that he would be someone Haru could tell everything to, and she used to, but there's no way she'd be able to with that barrier she feels she always has to put up-or else he'd find out about her feelings…

Which was such a waste. He knew that Itachi was a good person to be in Haru's life. He was patient with her, would listen to her, and-according to her-there's no one else that makes her feel safe. When Haru broke up with Menma, Shikamaru, and Neji, there was always a part of Sasuke that secretly wished that she could just be with their brother. Out of all the boys in her life, none have been a better pair for her than the very one she was always running away from.

"...I think so too."

"...Thank you, Sasuke-kun. I just felt like ranting a little bit I guess. I should be going to bed now. Bye."

"Bye." With that the call ended, and Sasuke stared down at the words that said 'Call Ended.'

. . . . . . . . . . . .

It's already been nearly ten minutes since Haruka got into the car, but it felt as though time was just standing still. No words were said in the car ride, she just got in, put on her seat belt, and no words were said as he pulled out of the driveway and she stared intently out her window. She was thankful to the fact that he wasn't trying to start conversation, but it was still very hard to just ignore the elephant in the room.

Even if he didn't know how she felt, he was still aware of the fact that she didn't like being around him. There was also the fact that, for a week already, he's been holding her while she slept in order to keep her from having those nightmares-that already felt like years behind her. This was the real problem.

It was just like that time she was in the shower. She was now just painfully aware of what it felt like to have his arms wrapped around her, to feel his warmth around her, for his breath to right at her ear, to have his scent burning her- 'Haruka, control yourself!' She yelled at herself in her head as she felt her face begin to burn-and she was thankful to the darkness of the night. These thoughts have been echoing over and over and over again for the past week, and every time she had to think of it while she was actually around him, it only made remembering all the more painful.

She felt her defenses crumbling, and she didn't know how she was supposed to get herself back into her control. It didn't help that she was made even more aware of it all when the very center of all the anxiety was sitting right next to her in a car that had a heavy silence in it. She even felt herself holding her breath to not risk her breathing abnormally.

"...Do you want to play music?"

Haruka flinched at the voice that broke the silence. She didn't look at him, but she felt her hand grip down on her sweater sleeve. She tried to swallow down a lump in her throat to try evening herself. "I don't care." Was all she could force out, and she quickly regretted saying that because any other sound would help this whole situation.

...There was just another silence that hung in the air, and through the moment, Haruka just continued to repeat "IDIOT!" over and over to herself in her head. Until, she noticed a hand reach other to her side, and her first reaction was to quickly flich up right from it, and she was just about ready to shout something until she noticed it only opened the glove compartment right in front of her. His hand went back to the steering wheel, and she just peeked through her hair to look at him confused, but found his eyes were just glued to the road. "There's some CDs in there if you want to pick. Most of them are pretty old though."

'Well no one really uses CDs anymore.' Was Haruka's first thought, but she just bit down on her tongue, and curiously looked into the glove compartment. She knew he wasn't really into music, so she was curious to see what he had in there. It was mostly old CDs that looked like they were Oka-san's or Shisui's from way back when.

However, Haruka's eyes slightly widened when she noticed one that she actually remembered. She pulled it out of the compartment to get a better look at it, and she was just slightly confused. "You want to listen to that one?"

She tried not to flinch, but she couldn't help it to the sound of his voice. She just focused all her attention to the CD to try calming her nerves. Without another word, she just popped out the CD and quickly-almost breaking the disk-into the CD jack of the car. Once she was done setting it all up she just shoved the empty container into the glove compartment, closed it, and put her attention back to the window as music-thankfully-flooded inside the car.

There was no more talking for a while, and the sound that overlapped everything else inside the car was the familiar music. Haruka's mind was swarming with confusion. It didn't make sense to her as to why he still had that CD. It was a soundtrack CD for the movie Totoro, and he'd bought it for her when she was seven. She loved it of course, but she kept it in his room because she'd used to spend most her time in there. She'd forgotten all about it after the incident when she was eight, and realized how wrong her feelings were. 'But… Why does he still have it?' Was all she could wonder.

He didn't get his first car until he was eighteen-five years after she stopped using it-so, even if he just mindlessly moved all the CDs from his old car to the one he had now, he still would of had to move the CD to the first car.

'He never really listened to it though. Sasuke and Shisui didn't care much about it either. The only one that actually listened to the CD was...me.' That thought sent a sudden rush of heat to her face, a rush that she immediately began to resent as she held back an urge to slap some sense into herself. 'Don't think too far into it! Don't you dare think to far into it! It's just a coincidence! Maybe he has his own reasons! Don't try to read something that isn't there!'

Never, never, had she ever thought something that she did now. It was only a quiet thought in the back of her mind, but that's more than there ever was. That thought she never even considered, never allowed herself to consider, never hopeful enough to consider. She just tried to push away and destroy any thought of what that CD secretly made her wonder. Wonder whether or not there was a shred of feelings returned…

'No… No that can never be right… He probably just has it because of circumstances. Even if that's not the case… He's just always been a good brother…' In her memories, before the realization, before the self loathing, she remembered a time when he'd hold her and play with her as much as she asked for. Always caring and giving to her. Never was there a moment that she didn't feel safe when she was with him. It was that very nature of his, to simple abide to all demands of his younger kin with all he had, that made her fall for him so tragically. But that's all it was. All his affections and patience, it was all just because she was his sister… 'Even if there was just the smallest bit of him that returned her feelings, what would that do?'

If it turned out that in some way, at all, he shared her feelings, she knew… she knew that even then he wouldn't allow them to be together. Shew knew what kind of person he was. He'd put her well being first, and he'd decide what that meant. He'd know there wasn't anyway to live in society properly with the kind of relationship that they would have… If he, miraculously, shared her feelings, it would only be another restrained heart… Haruka knew that she would only hate that more than she already hated now. It's one thing to suffer alone, it's another to drag someone down with her.

Her trail of thoughts slowly cam to a halt as she began to notice how long the car was just sitting there. Haruka realized they were stuck in traffic, and she could only feel calm if she felt the car moving. If she felt the car sitting still she would then begin to realize just how tight the car is, and just how little air was really in it. So, as soon as she realized they'd be sitting there for a while, Haruka reached over to roll the window down.

However, right as she was about to press the button, she felt a light weight on her shoulder and back. She flinched at the touch and quickly looked to see it was a sweater-one that was too big for her. She looked to the only other person in the car and saw he was opening both his window and her's through the driver control panel. For a moment, Haruka was confused until she noticed water droplets falling from the window into the car. It's raining outside.

Haruka shyly looked at him with questioning eyes. He kept his eyes on the traffic filled road as he spoke. "I know you need the windows open at a time like this, but I don't want you to get sick. So zip up the sweater." He said calmly, as though expecting her to lash out if he didn't.

Normally, Haruka would have just shaken off the sweater and turn away from him for the rest of the ride. But, her hands gripped onto the sweater as she realized his familiar scent was buried into it, and he had opened his own window. It would have been fine if it was just her window, but if it's his too… "... Y-You don't have to have your window up too." She looked down at her lap as she spoke without thinking. She didn't know why she was talking, and she knew she'd just regret it later, but she couldn't stop herself. "I have a stronger immune system than you, so I don't need you sweater as much as you do." Before she knew it, she just let what this was really about fly out of her mouth. "So stop babying me just because I'm you sister."

...In that moment, Haruka had just decided she needed to get her tongue surgically removed. She didn't know what's been getting into her lately, she just knew every other emotion was pouling in and out of her to the point that she couldn't get herself together anymore. For one, she was talking without thinking straight, and second, she, for even a moment, was considering whether or not he had the same feelings as her. There was a limit to how much the mind wanders!

As she was promising herself to just never talk again, she noticed his eyes fall on her again. "I'm not doing this because you're my sister. I'm doing it because I don't want you to get sick. You, Haruka."

That line hit something Haruka never thought she'd feel coming from him. She only remembered feeling this from Menma a few times and even more with Neji, but neither felt to this degree. Her face blew up in heat, and she felt her heart squeeze tightly-until it was hard to breath. She quickly looked out the window-rain drops dripping onto her face-and tried to not think about the smile he just gave her, to not think about the words he just told her. She felt her pulse quicken and she tried to calm it down-worried he might hear it. Her hands tightened on the sweater around her shoulders-unconscious to the fact that the smell of rain and sun were enveloping her. She prayed and prayed and prayed that the sound of the music could drown out everything else.

However. "Haruka, your red. Are you getting sic-?"

He was reaching over to touch her cheek, and she couldn't think of what else to do other than to slap away his hand. However, with her slap she turned her head to face him in the spur of it all. She didn't know what expression she had, she only knew that her face was most likely bright red. For the life of her, she couldn't figure out why she looked at him, but she couldn't stop her eyes from locking onto his. She also couldn't figure out why his went wide when he looked at her… She was only aware that his eyes were the same as they've always been, and her heart couldn't calm down...

…

…

…

"…Haruk-"

HONK!

They both jumped at the sound of the car behind them.

Haruka just fumbled with the hoodie of the sweater as she forced it over her head and she looked out the open window-that blew cold air in her face that she desperately needed. "K-Keep your eyes on the road!" Was all she could muster as she tried to calm down her racing heart and burning face…

Eventually she did calm herself down, not completely but enough. She forced herself quiet, and it helped that he didn't try talking to her afterwards… In fact, he didn't try talking to her the rest of the drive home.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Haruka stared up at the ceiling of her bedroom, but found no silence in her head. Frustrated she rolled onto her side, but still she couldn't escape the fresh memories of the car ride. After that the entire ride was silent, and there wasn't even a word between them as she jumped out of the car and quickly went to shower. She didn't even stop to say hello to Sasuke, she just wanted to escape into her dreams as soon as possible. However, sleep was having a hard time getting to her.

She groaned as she tried forcing the pillow over her face, but, surprisingly, it didn't help anything.

'You, Haruka'

...She just sighed as she felt her body go limp. 'How do you always manage to say the worse things?'

Haruka tried to just forget about it, like she did most things involving him. She tried to forget about the sweater that smelled like him, the CD in his car, and about the way his eyes would look at her with care… However, as she tried to forget the words he said to her, she couldn't stop her subconscious from storing them somewhere lost in her head…

. . . . . . . . . . . .

'It's locked.' Itachi thought to himself as tried opening Haruka's door. It had been a week already, and he noticed that she was sleeping more soundly at night, but he still came to check on her anyways. But…

He didn't know what to do. He could just go to bed and take the hint that she didn't want to be bothered, but he didn't know if she was completely fine from the dreams. He wanted to check on her, but she's now made it a bit difficult. There's also that matter…

Itachi has watched over Haruka since the day she was born. He's known all kinds of things about her. Her reading habits, her taste in movies, her friends, and even who she has a crush on… but…

In the car, he saw her ears and cheeks turning bright red, and so the first thing he thought-thanks to the rain-was that she was getting sick. However, to no real surprise, she slapped his hand away. What took him off guard was her expression when she met his eyes. Her hair was in a disarray with strands all across her face, and one strand stuck to her lips. Her face was indead bright red, and it trailed from ear to ear. Her mouth lightly agapped as she gasped sharply, and her eyes… those purple orbs of hers were widened as they stared at him with something he couldn't figure out… He'd never noticed out hectic her hair could get, he never noticed how her her blush touched at the bridge of her nose, he never even noticed how her eyes looked like two shades of purple were swirled into her eyes…

He'd never seen that expression on her face before, and he didn't know what to think about it. Thinking about it… Thinking about it brought an unfamiliar feeling in his chest...