Hinata stretched and squinted at the light in the window. It was too bright. She curled her head back under the covers.

"Hmm?" Sasuke mumbled groggily, clearly not awake. Turning, he curled his arm around her back, tucking her into his chest.

Hinata sighed.

Sasuke had done so without thinking about it. This answered her comfort zone question. She snuggled her nose into her husband's shoulder and went back to sleep. She would ask for more stories in the morning.

"I'll be away on missions for a while. Please eat and try not to be so reckless." Hinata told him, stocking his kitchen.

"I'll just hide in here," Sasuke called from his seat. "And eat." He added when she glanced at him.

She gave a slight smile.

"But that's when it got worse," Sasuke told her as he frowned. Her hair was tucked up in a bun to keep it out of the bathwater. "I stayed in and didn't take care of myself. I ate when I got too hungry, but not enough. When I did go out, it was just to remind me what was thought of me. I didn't care what people thought of me, but without the idle distraction of someone who wasn't completely hostile, I got... mentally unstable."

Hinata frowned. Her eyes searched his rigid body. This wasn't easy to talk about. "I started back up with the fights just to have something to do. I ignored my degrading body and stared at the ceiling until I started to go insane." He sighed. "And I started to ask why I still tried and..."

She covered her mouth and tore as he continued his story.

Hinata tucked herself in the door when he didn't answer, setting the pot on the counter. She caught sight of him on the couch as he half looked at her before rolling over.

"Sasuke-san? Are you okay?" She asked. He could hear her quiet steps approach him. She lightly placed her hand on his forehead. He swatted at her hand. She didn't flinch, just hovered back, looking him over.

"Go away." He buried his face in the couch cushion.

He could feel her frown. He didn't have the energy to care. The air shifted as she fidgeted before finally covering him up and leaving.

Hinata didn't stop coming back, though. She seemed to know that he was falling apart. She made him eat at least one bowl in front of her before going back on her way. He knew if she was around, she would drag him back up and eat more but with her missions, she was not there to force him to live. So what was he living for? The only thing keeping him alive was a woman that was simply too kind to let him die.

He knew he was killing himself. It was going to be slow and agonizing, but what better did he have to do.

"Sasuke-san?" She pulled him to sit. "Please, you're getting sick. You need to get up and move around." She tried as she handed him his bowl. He stared at it.

"Why do you keep coming. You don't benefit from this." He mumbled lazily, eating what he could stomach.

"I'm only bringing food." She pointed out.

His wife let tears pour down her face, silently listening intently, watching him with a broken heart. The same look she looked at him back then. He felt sick retelling this part of his life she needed to hear.

Then there was the time Hinata was gone for nearly three weeks. Maybe it was three weeks. The days were running together. Sasuke didn't hear her come in. He didn't even wake up until she shook him.

He was confused about why she was crying. How many shakes did it take to wake him up? "Sasuke-san?! I am taking you to the hospital." Hinata told him.

Sasuke tried to fight her, but he barely pushed her shoulder, and she picked him up. Had he lost that much weight?

"No." He grumbled, fighting to get loose.

"You're sick. You're going to die at the rate." She gave in, putting him back on the couch, holding his head up so he would look at her.

"Let me." His eye barely slid up to see her tear-streaked face. "Why do you care."

"You can't throw your life so easily." Hinata whimpered.

"Easily? You think this is easy!" Sasuke sounded weak. He could hear it.

"Giving up!? Yeah. It's easy. You're tossing what you have left out because you were wronged. You have lived through a war, you could rival the next Hokage, and you finished your goal. Don't give up because there is nothing else to do. Make a new one. You can't just give up." She whimpered with an odd firmness at him, trying to keep him in focus.

"Watch me." He closed his eyes, and she slapped the side of his face lightly to keep him awake.

"Eat, take a bath, then tell me you are ready to give up."

Sasuke curled an arm around his weeping wife wrapped in a towel, and she dug her face into his shoulder. "We're almost done."

"If you keep feeding me, I am going to pop," Sasuke grumbled as she handed him another bowl. Hinata said nothing. She had forced him into the shower and made sure he didn't drown, made him shave. She sat him down, cut his hair for him, and ruffled it into place. Shorter than he had ever had it, but it was practical. He was looking far more healthy already. "Why the hell are you so pushy today anyway."

Hinata turned, giving him the stern yet still oddly soft look she had turned his way, but said nothing.

"You're losing your position," Sasuke remembered leaning back.

"I have been fighting for my birthright for years, only to be told I was never going to keep my position. I have to step down or lose my vision entirely." She looked down at her hands.

"How can they do that?" He asked, confused and enraged. Would the crazy clan blind their heir, not just seal, but blind?

"I'm not strong enough to fight them or run if I wanted to. I will take the seal either way. If they have to force it, they will take my blood limit and my sight." Her eyes brimmed with tears. "I was threatened before I went on my mission."

"What the hell kind of bastards..." He growled.

"They are sick of waiting for their strong heir." She whispered. "I'm just in the way." She sniffed then her tone got harsher. "But I'm not going to give up!" She told him pointedly. "I will take the seal, and I will help my sister form a better next generation, and maybe she can make a better future for the clan."

Sasuke's bowl was half empty and forgotten. He was beyond full anyway. He glanced at her tear-streaked face. He sighed, rubbing his face. She was dumbly selfless. She couldn't give up, and she couldn't let him either.

She would be the only one to miss him.

Hinata fidgeted with her hands. Sasuke noticed the callouses again, had a fleeting memory of a little girl his age striking a tree till her hands were bloody, and she couldn't see through tears. He hadn't even given her thought at the time. He leaned forward, taking one of them, flipping it palm up, and glaring at the self-inflicted scars on her overworked hands.

Hinata was right. He wasn't the only one who was miserable, but he was the only one who had given up. It may just be the sugar coursing back through him from his first meal in a week, but he was sick with himself.

She said nothing, just watched him stare at her battered fingers.

"Not going to give up on me, are you?" He asked.

She paused, chewing her lip before looking him in the eyes. "I will if you tell me to leave right now."

He looked back at the annoying purity she had in her pale eyes. She would give up if he asked, giving him the one option his 'best friend' wouldn't.

He could die in peace.

"Stay."