Close, but apart. It was how they sat no matter where they were. Sasuke's wife was a cuddler. Hinata liked to snuggle right up to him. That didn't change because she didn't remember him, but she certainly wasn't going to take that step, and he was going to give her some time to just get used to him. She hadn't curled up to him at night again but chose to sleep very close.
Hinata would curl into the arm of the couch and talk to him, and he would sit close as he could without touching her and would make no comment if she ended up leaning a knee on him or brushing him with her shoulder. He kept her within arm's reach when he sat her in the kitchen so she could cook.
A comfortable distance for both of them.
Sasuke was always nearby. It wasn't uncomfortable. Hinata felt herself reaching for him before she asked a question or for help. She always stopped her hand short. It was odd to feel so familiar so quickly. It wasn't that she remembered his presence, but his familiarity with her was comforting, and he felt like he knew everything about her, so she didn't have to be so held back. What held her back from fully relaxing was that she didn't know him.
All though he might just be staying near because he knew she liked that, the Sasuke she knew as a child hated to be touched, especially by women. So what was his comfort zone? What if she crossed it and he pushed her away? She didn't want him to feel like he needed to.
Maybe she should hear more of their story.
Sasuke heard Naruto's whining as he walked down the hall, and it made him want to turn around. What made him stop was the soft response. "I don't think he will ever like it here if you keep fighting him."
"Ow!" Naruto squeaked. "He belongs here with us."
"Naruto-kun, he's miserable and has made it clear he wants you to leave him alone to sort it out himself. If he wants to be friends again, he will come to you." Hinata told him and was answered with another yelp. "Why didn't you get Sakura-chan. I'm not a trained healer."
"She refused to heal anything I get from Sasuke now," Naruto grumbled. "I know you won't do that."
There was a dead silence. Sasuke couldn't even hear her coat ruffle for a moment. "Naruto-kun, just please leave him be. I know your heart is in the right place, but he doesn't want it."
"You're turning your back on him too?" Naruto asked, clearly offended.
The silence again. "I think you missed the point." Hinata hid the hurt from her voice, but it was clear what was going on, and the idiot didn't even know he was pushing her buttons.
Sasuke depended on her, but he didn't realize he was assuming a lot. He believed she would never oppose his opinion. She would always be there, telling him he was right. If he knew she had liked him, he was either an ass or just naive. Sasuke was leaning toward ass, but it was probably just naive. He didn't know he was assuming and using her kindness. He didn't know. Thinking she would never leave his side would hurt her. Typical of him. Then again, he was assuming all of this himself, but he was smarter than the idiot.
Another loud yelp broke the silence and his thoughts. "Please try to give him at the very least some time. You're only pushing him further away, and you are only hurting your relationship."
Being slipped down the hall as he heard Naruto thank her and runoff.
Sasuke fought himself. Go in, ask for help. His nose was broken, but he wasn't going to the main hospital. He wasn't going to Sakura. He hoped he could find a healer at this little wing of the clinic that would fix it and let him leave.
He sighed and knocked on the door. "Come in."
He stepped in and watched her go through a range of confusion, then to embarrassment and realization. "You're nose..." She whispered, not stating the obvious that he had heard what had been said or came at a ridiculously perfect time.
"That noticeable?" He asked.
"It's purple and sideways." She motioned for him to sit down. "This will hurt."
"I assumed… ah!" She gave him no time to prepare and just snapped it back into place. "The hell?" He growled.
"If I give you a warning, it would hurt more." She gave a pained sorry smile as she put her hands back over his nose. "I'm not the best at this." She warned as his nose heated with her chakra.
He winced in pain as she refused the bone, and the muscles around it started healing. It felt like he had dripped hot oil up his nose.
"I'm sorry." She whispered. Her brow furrowing as she worked. When she released him, he flinched back to hold his nose, and she grabbed his wrists. "Don't touch it." Just as quickly, she let him go.
That's when he noticed her hands, trying to focus on anything but the searing pain. They were dainty but heavily calloused and scarred. This piqued his interest. Gentle Fist wasn't forceful. It was about chakra control and precision, not physical force, so it struck him as odd her hands held such clear damage.
Hinata noticed his attention and promptly closed her hand with a tinge of red to her cheeks. Was she embarrassed by the scars? What kind of ninja was this woman?
"Try to be gentle with it for the next couple of days until the heat goes away. That's when the healing will be fully done." She did a discreet glance over him to make sure there was nothing else that needed her attention, then scuttled to turn her back and return to the paperwork she had been doing.
"What are you even doing in a clinic?" He asked.
"I'm just doing some organizational work for the clan's health records." She explained. Right, top-secret white eyes.
Sasuke nodded and got up, feeling the dizziness as he did. He sat promptly back down, noticing her frown and glance as his eyes focused. "You can rest there for a minute. I don't mind."
Sasuke decided not to growl something antisocial at her in mind of losing what little was in his stomach.
She went about her work until he felt fine to get up. She turned as he got up to leave. "I'm not very good or gentle, but if you want privacy and you ever need healing again, you can come to me." She didn't turn to face him, but he could imagine the shy, sad look on her face.
He grunted in response and left as quickly as he could.
"He broke your nose?" Hinata asked, playing with the edge of the blanket that was draped over her curled knees.
"You seem more surprised now than when you fixed it," Sasuke smirked at her, leaning toward her in amusement as she shrunk in her embarrassment.
"Did you come back to be healed again?" She asked.
"Yeah, actually, a few times, you never said much, just healed me, gave me a worried look, and sent me on my way. Then you noticed a few things, and that's when you and Naruto started disagreeing more." He noted, looking away from her eyes as he went back to his story.
Sasuke was down on energy, luck, and literally. He laid on the ground, the wind knocked out of him. He and Naruto had knocked each other around after another argument, and he didn't feel like getting up. He would when he found the motivation. Why though? What was the point? Maybe if he just laid here and rotted, he would be left with some peace?
"Sasuke-san!?" There it was. He coughed and sat up to look at worrying white eyes as they bolted over him, looking for injuries. She was covered in a thin layer of sweat and was in training clothes. She probably wasn't far and heard the last of the fight.
He ran his hands through his hair, ruffling the black mess. "One day, you're not going to be so willing to patch me up." She collapsed to her knees, and he groaned as she helped him pull his shirt off over his head.
"Hopefully, after you stop fighting so much." She muttered as she pulled her med-pack out that he had noticed she started carrying. It wasn't standard-issue, full of odd salves you couldn't buy and bandages that were more than you would keep on stock even for a student.
"Do you carry that everywhere now?" He winced as she started spreading the minty-smelling cream on, forming bruises.
"Yes." She answered without hesitation.
Sasuke sighed and closed his eyes. Hinata's fingers were always warm and left an odd feeling against his usually cold, pale skin. The human contact that wasn't meant to hurt him felt odd. He was always cold. It was early summer. Why was he cold? He had even opted out of his usual short sleeves or open shirts for an oversized black jacket, which was, he flicked his eyes around the grounds, over there.
She commented lightly on healing injuries from early in the week, and what she would try for them, like the stubborn cut on his shoulder he kept opening. She started spreading the salve over his sore ribs when she paused. He groaned in discomfort and looked up to see what was wrong and saw the rim of her eyes redden as she looked at his skin differently. He looked down to see what was wrong, nothing more than usually a few bruises and cuts, a scrape or two.
"What?" He growled at her.
She flinched and went back to work without a word. She bit her lip as it started to slightly tremble.
She could be so irritating. "You're not good at that. Just tell me." He didn't want to deal with a weepy woman.
"Are you eating?" She asked in a whisper.
Kinda, he ate… yesterday a little. He popped a soldier pill once a day. He wanted to stay away from the store, and other than his couple fights a week with Naruto, which Naruto now called 'sparing' despite all of them being provoked, he didn't do much more than wander around, lay in the shade where he couldn't be found. When he got back, he was too tired to eat. He just wanted to lay down all the time, though that could be due to the lack of eating. "Yeah."
She looked up at him with her worried eyes and frowned, but didn't call him on his lie, just continued to spread the goo on his somewhat noticeably protruding ribs.
"Hey, I wasn't done yet!" They both turned to look at Naruto. He had knocked back into the woods far enough it took this long to limp back. "Oh! Hinata-chan!"
Hinata's hands paused for a moment, and her face twitched to hide her worried tears and frown. He had noticed her tolerance for the hyper man getting less and less, but he hadn't seen them in the same room for a while. It might be something mildly interesting to watch.
"I'm done," Sasuke growled in annoyance. He was done three months ago. Find a new hobby.
He glanced at Hinata, whose face had turned flat, passive, blank, the least amount of emotion he had seen her have. No worry, no embarrassment, no pointed sadness. She was done too. Very interesting.
Naruto plopped down beside them and started to chatter. "So what have you been up to? I couldn't find you for the last two weeks, had to bribe the clinic workers to heal me since Sakura-chan has them on orders to leave me to fall to pieces." He gave a cheerful laugh and paid no attention to the lack of returned joy.
Hinata finished her minor healing and handed Sasuke back his shirt. She looked him in the eye and frowned as she got up and moved to a blissfully, unaware Naruto. He went to lift his arms to put his shirt back on and thought against it wincing.
"I have just been busy." She mumbled her excuse. Whether it was a lie or not was up to opinion. She had found the time to heal him, always dropped what she was doing, told him where to find her next. Too selfless, see what it got her. A shell of a man that only came to her because he had no other non-irritating option and a past crush who didn't realize he was getting on her last nerve.
"They work you too hard. Do I have to make an appointment to meet you for lunch?" He asked with a big dumb smile. Sasuke was getting back his will to punch him in the face again.
"My meals are all scheduled out for a while, sorry." She glanced over to him, and he frowned at her.
"Aww," Naruto whined, leaning over and continuing to chat mindlessly. Before turning to him. "What about you?"
"No," Sasuke answered promptly. He got up and picked up his discarded jacket.
"Why not? You're looking on the thin side anyway… OW! Hinata-chan?!" Naruto cried and flinched from her hand.
"Sorry." Hinata bowed her head and continued.
"No." He had given him enough unwarranted attention for the day.
"Come on." He whined.
"Naruto-kun, please," Hinata asked firmly. "Leave him be." She looked up at Naruto, and he flinched. Whatever look she gave him, it had wiped that dumb smile from his face. Maybe she could teach that to him.
She picked up her bag and headed toward him, helped him with his shirt and jacket before giving him a quiet goodbye, and headed off without another word.
"She was actually mad," Naruto said, confused, rubbing a sore spot.
"You weren't eating?" Hinata asked.
"No, I wasn't doing a lot to take care of myself. I stopped caring. I had no real will. I wasn't training, eating, or drinking enough water. Just walking around, sleeping, or fighting with Naruto." She curled around her knees and looked at him with the same worried eyes she gave him, then still, his ever concerned wife.
"You certainly weren't having that, but I'll get to that later. You're going to fall asleep on me." He was rewarded with a giggle and a little light to her pale eyes.