Hinata had chosen to sleep curled up against him. Like she always had. She didn't know him, and yet she still trusted him so completely.
Maybe it would be okay.
Sasuke rolled the hair that had come loose from her braid between his fingers. He didn't usually wake up first. He was a heavy sleeper since he stopped running. He usually woke to light kisses on his face and the smell of food or the sound of her dropping something in the kitchen.
The doctors told him she would sleep more often until the concussion had passed, and she gained back her weight.
He would ignore the sun coming in the window like she liked to wake to and tucked his head under the covers to give them both more sleep until she woke naturally.
Which she did eventually. "Sasuke? What time..." She asked lightly in a groggy voice followed by a gag. "I'm going to be sick." She covered her mouth. He grabbed the bin he kept by the bed and handed it to her. She sicked into it, and he tucked the loose hair out of her face as she emptied her empty stomach.
"Are you sure I'm not pregnant?" She asked, panicked.
"It's just a symptom of the head injury." He confirmed taking the bin and getting out of bed to take her to the bathroom to rinse her mouth. At least she remembered where she was and who he was when she woke up.
She spit, leaving her mouth clean. "Sorry."
"You can't help it." He noted.
"What time is it?" She wondered.
"Afternoon." He took her to the kitchen and started tea.
"We slept in?" She asked, looking around the brightly lit room.
"You'll need more sleep for a while." He reminded her, setting his poorly made tea in front of her. "I don't mind having a few lazy days with you."
She played with the rim of her cup. "Do I get more of the story today?"
"I don't see why not." He settled in the stool beside her. "We had seen each other a few times in passing but never really had a reason to interact. I mainly just glared until you looked away. I never had the scarf on me when I saw you. It just hung by the door, but you never asked for it. Then..."
Sasuke was a breath away from punching the irritating man that was taking great care in trying to piss him off. Inches from his face were a civilian who decided to corner him with the sole purpose of telling him how much he hated him and how he should not be in the village. This was only the third damn person today to make their opinion known, but this was just the first to get in his face and spit rather than cower and whisper in hopes he would overhear.
He had given the man a bored glare at first. The prick didn't need a reaction, and he didn't have the energy to give him one anyway. That was until the man decided it was okay to touch him. He jammed his pointy fingers into his shoulder to make a point and spit at his feet, then he found himself against the wall with the Sharingan inches from his face.
"Sasuke-san?" Hinata asked softly from behind them. He barely turned his head to see the short woman staring at him.
The man started spouting about being attacked, and she frowned.
"Please put him down." She asked.
He glared at her and stepped back, letting the man drop to his feet. The coward scrambled over to her and continued to whine.
"You provoked him. He wouldn't have attacked you otherwise." She scolded in her soft but oddly firm voice. Like a mother scolding a child, there was no need to raise her voice. "He has done nothing to you directly, I am sure. Please leave him be."
The man looked at her in surprise and scrambled back into his shop's back door leaving the two heirs in the alley.
"You should keep your nose out of things." He growled.
"You don't have to fight the world alone, you know." She told him as her frown went from disappointment to concern.
"I'm not fighting anything, haven't you heard? I'm the neutered Uchiha avenger. Won't hurt a fly because I'll end up tossed out of the village again, because you know I 'like' being stuck back here." He rolled his eyes.
"If you want to leave, why don't you?" She asked, tucking her hands behind her. "You aren't under house arrest."
"Do you honestly think it would be that easy? You get sick of being chased after a while." He growled.
Her eyes morphed into absolute sadness as her mouth opened to say nothing.
His temper was triggered. She looked at him like a drowning puppy. He huffed and turned away back out the alley.
Hinata looked down into her cup. "You had nowhere to run to, so why run." She whispered in understanding.
"Yeah, I realized that you figured that out when I got home." He left out the fact it made him so angry he put a hole in the wall.
"Do people still do that to you?" She asked, looking up at him.
"Not so directly. I get the occasional whisper. I told you what the people we grew up with thought of me." She frowned. "I told you this is not a happy story."
"I still want to hear it." She told him.
"So be it." He re-filled her cup and made a toasted sandwich hoping it wouldn't make her sick. "Next time I interacted with you, you physically broke up a fight."
"Come on. You can't hide in that compound for the rest of your life. Take the job!" Naruto whined, chasing his heels.
"I don't want your pity baby missions. I don't need the money. I don't want the work." He growled back at him turning to stop into his former best friend's face. "I want to be left alone! Is that so hard to get through your thick head?"
The two males stood at full height as they yelled at each other. "Why can't you just accept you're back now. You are home!"
"Because I don't want to be here! This is no home to me!" This fight had happened a dozen times in the last week alone. It was nothing new. It was a routine part of his irritating week.
"You're just not used to it yet." The bastard insisted.
"I'm used to it. I don't like it." He barked.
"You're such a drama queen." Naruto rolled his eyes with a dumb smile that said, 'oh you.'
That did it.
Sasuke threw a punch, which led to a full-out fight in the middle of the street.
"Stop it!" Neither seemed to hear the plea from the soft voice until they both flew backward onto their backs. Sasuke felt the wind knocked out of him, and both his shoulders were numb down to his fingers.
He looked up to Hinata in full stance with a deep, mothering frown. "You are in the middle of the village. If you must fight, do it where you can't hurt anyone." She scolded, looking between the two.
She stepped out of stance and headed toward him first. He glared at her as hard as he could as she kneeled to his side and pressed her hand to his shoulders to release him. "Can't you leave me alone?"
"I'm sorry." Her face softened. "I don't mean to get involved. I just don't want anyone hurt." She whispered as she stood up.
He was thrown off by that. He was expecting a rebuttal or an 'it's your own fault.'
She gave Naruto back his feelings but seemed to make a point not to help him up. In fact, instead of apologizing to him as well, she frowned at him.
"Please fight somewhere else." She said to both of them before picking back up her shopping and heading on her way. He watched her hair sway gently in the wind and dust and wondered why she seemed more upset with Naruto than him.
"We didn't end up finishing that fight," Sasuke added. "I went home and locked myself there until I needed groceries."
"You two used to be good friends," Hinata said.
"You're right, but I changed, and he didn't understand that. He refused to let me be." He explained, taking her plate and closing the jar of jam. She ended up eating quite a lot. A good sign. She went over the calorie count she was set for breakfast.
"I remember something like that starting to happen between him and me as well." She furrowed her brow, trying to think.
"Yeah, you told me that's what was the breaking point for your admiration." Her face started to turn red. He felt a smirk come to his face. "Something about wanting something more serious and grounded." She shrank into her cup. "Looks like you were looking in the wrong direction when we were kids." He teased, and she pouted at him.
"I don't find that funny." She whimpered, trying not to smile at him. She was so cute when she was embarrassed.
"Yes, you do." He told her.