Hinata fell asleep on the couch. Sasuke covered her up and took the dishes. He paused, remembering when they got this set. She had seen it in a shop that sold second-hand junk. The set was missing most of its cups and the little cream pitcher, but his new wife took one look at it and deemed it perfect for them. Three cups, a teapot, and a sugar bowl. Would she ever look at it the same? Would they find new things and make new memories? Would she find he wasn't worth it at some point in the story?
He didn't have answers. He never had answers. She was the one with answers.
He watched her curled tighter on the couch, burying herself in the cushions more, and he found he didn't care too much right now. She was still here.
Hinata felt sick. She looked around the room, spinning and gagged. She felt her hair move back, and her body tipped. She threw up in the bucket that was brought to her face.
"Sorry." She managed out.
"You can't help it." Sasuke rubbed her back as she continued to gag into a bucket.
She set the bucket down and laid her head back to breathe carefully. "Can we go outside?"
"Yeah." He scooped her up, tucking the blanket under her, and took her out to the back porch.
She quickly took a breath in of the clean air and pushed it out a few times before she could feel the uncomfortable blood that ran to her face clearly.
A light pass of his hand splayed over the back of her head flattened her hair. She sighed and fully leaned on him, closing her eyes to keep the nausea at bay.
"Did I have lunch with Sakura-chan?" She asked, thinking about anything but how dizzy she was.
"Yeah," Sasuke answered, curling his arm around her to support her, setting his other hand flat on the porch beside her.
"How did it go?"
Sasuke wasn't expecting to see Hinata again so soon after she had made dinner for him in his house. Which had been rather uneventful. He had sulked at the counter while she tried to find the proper utensils to cook with which he found mildly amusing, and then they ate in an odd silence that wasn't uncomfortable but wasn't at all that familiar.
So the next day, he was once again at his door, ready to tell whoever was at it to jump off the Hokage mountain when he saw the little woman with her head down staring at a box as hard as she could.
"Hinata?" He asked with a frown.
"I made seasoned tomatoes." She said quietly, not looking up. She held up the container out to him, offering it.
He stared at her with utter confusion. She looked like she had been drowned. It was raining. She was drenched, her hair stuck to everything it could cling to. Her coat looked like it was weighing her down, or was she slumping her shoulders. Her face was pale, and her cheeks were red from the cold. He honestly didn't understand what compelled her to walk here in the rain without an umbrella or at all. It had been raining all day.
He opened his mouth to ask, but instead, he just sighed. "Go dry off." He opened the door and stepped aside.
Once she was suitably dry, she returned, looking a little less drowned, but she still wasn't looking him in the eye.
"Do I ask for the occasion?" He asked, lifting the container he had dried off. It was filled to the brim with what looked like diced tomatoes in olive oil and spices.
She sighed. "I think you are being treated unfairly because of what people remember you as and what people perceive as your situation."
"So you brought me food?" He tried to make a joke, but tears filled her eyes. He was making it worse, wasn't he?
She bowed her head. "I'm sorry, but by trying to be impartial, I have only seemed to make it worse."
Okay, now he was lost. "What?"
"Sakura-chan took me to lunch." She meant dragged. "She made it clear that she did not like my decision to spend any amount of time on you no matter the reason." She huffed lightly. "I refused to tell her why I was shopping with you because it's not important." She frowned, flicking her eyes up, showing her true reason. She didn't want to let on. He was letting go of his health. She had more interest in his pride than he did anymore. Though by not telling her she was worried about his weight might have opened a nasty door on her. He didn't care what people thought anymore, but she had a reputation still, right? Or did she not care about that either? "She has a strong opinion about you that I do not care to repeat, and I think it is from a deep place of pain and the past." She was dancing around fowl things Sakura had said about him. He was sure, choice swears that would make Kakashi tut her, and the words monster or murder was likely sprinkled into the conversation. "I left with the thought that you were being judged unfairly by your past and desire to not patch burnt bridges." She pouted, and her cheeks turned red. "So yes, I made you food."
Sasuke stared in silence for a moment and snorted. She was ridiculous. She had been told off by her friend, and all she could think about was making up for something she hadn't said. Was she a real person?
Hinata stared at her lap in a mixture of offended, depressed, and embarrassed. He looked at her damp form once more before looking down at the dish opening it. It smelled amazing. "You know if you're going to make me something every time the world deals me shit, you'll make me a different kind of worrying weight."
She looked up, processing his joke as he began to eat from the box, and her face lightened entirely as she laughed.
"So we simply disagreed?" Hinata asked, scanning the small garden.
"When you calmed down, you insisted she meant no harm by it and simply didn't want you to get hurt as well." Sasuke sighed. "I will spare you of my choice words on the subject. We will say she disagreed."
She nodded.
"That was just the first major incident."
"Not today," Sasuke grumbled, trying to pass the moron who was trying to pick another fight.
"Come on, do something! Anything! You haven't done anything since you came back." He whined.
"Well then, maybe I should just leave." He grumbled.
"Please do." They both turned to Sakura's frown and hand on her hip. If she was trying to be her teacher, she was missing the intimidating part. "And leave Hinata alone. She's too kind to see what you have become."
"She hangs around me. I don't encourage it." He shrugged.
"You're using her, and so are you." She pointed at Naruto. "You get injuries in dumb fights. You deserve to suffer through them. Stop going to Hinata simply because she won't tell you no."
"She doesn't mind!" The dobe countered.
He kept his mouth shut and kept walking.
"Hey, Sasuke, where are you going?" Naruto wailed, moving to follow him, but he was quickly caught by Sakura by the back of the collar.
"No, you don't. Leave him to mope." Sakura drug in the other direction.
Sasuke could almost thank her.
"Did I keep causing you trouble?" Hinata asked.
Sasuke frowned at her. "Don't look at it like that. You didn't know about that part of what else they said to me unless you never mentioned."
Hinata came by more, usually to cook him a meal for the day, longer when she wasn't busy, and he knew she would keep coming until he threw her out. That was why he never said a word. She was arguably the least irritating person in town, and as long as he would eat, she would cook. His mind nagged at him that he was some charity case, but at this point, he didn't care he was going insane with only hostile human interaction. Sue him for wanting someone who didn't hate him around that wasn't also trying to have his children.
Sasuke did notice. Her coming by more didn't seem to be solely for him. He noticed the longer and longer stays when she would ask if she was bothering him to the frequency the asking was doing more harm than her presence.
Hinata was avoiding something. Sasuke waited three whole weeks before it was blatant enough and nagging enough to ask the question. "You are always here." He noted to her.
She frowned, setting down her spoon. "Sorry, I can leave and just leave the meals once a week." She said too quickly. Couldn't she just come out and say it?
He groaned, laying his head in his arm at the table. "Don't do that." He motioned at her sudden panic.
"Sorry." Hinata fiddled with the oven mitt.
"Why?" Sasuke asked firmly.
She took a deep breath. "I much prefer it here to my home with the change in heir. I'm sorry if my presence is imposing, but when I am in town, my friends have very choice topics that I am not interested in visiting again. I have tried my best not to be rude, and I was hoping to stay away from both. They would pass with time."
"So you're hiding here?" She shrank, he snorted. "You could have just hidden in one of the other houses. You think I would kick you out if I found you hiding? You don't have to cook all day for an excuse."
She frowned at him, looking up. "I like cooking." She didn't look offended. There was something else she was trying to say.
He gave her an annoyed frown.
She frowned more. "I like spending time here."
"You can't honestly tell me you are here because you like being around me?" He asked with a roll of his eyes.
"Yes, I can." She looked away with a pout.
"Tch." He puffed. "Well, don't blame me when you get sick of me."