"Please tell me you didn't." Hinata squeaked.
"I did, but some things came first," Sasuke smirked.
Hinata shrank in worry.
Their training session didn't turn into much of a training session. Sasuke had pinned her firmly to a tree and grinned at her smugly. Suddenly it was no longer a fight of fists.
Their approaches to tongue battles were different. Neither were experienced, but it was clear Sasuke was much quicker at learning. Hinata was always so shy, to begin with, gentle and moldable, until she got frustrated with his teasing. After getting annoyed with his nips and pulling away to find new skin to kiss, she would bury her fingers in his hair and tie her legs around him, trying to keep him from finding new amusing ways to tease her. Little did she know that he found her aggressive behavior far more entertaining than her face turning flushing red.
When they broke for air, he hiked her up more comfortably, covering her tights with his hand and holding her in place.
Hinata looked at him through lid eyes, tying her arm comfortably around his neck. "Why do you keep me."
"Did they get to you again?" He closed his eyes, pressing his forehead to hers.
"I'm waiting for you to get sick of me for real." His forehead creased in pain, he put more pressure on her. He wished he had never told her he didn't need her. It wasn't true. Now, clearer of the head, he realized what he had been doing to his body. He was killing himself slowly, and if he would have realized it once he hit rock bottom. He would have had no more reason to even pop a soldier pill. He had the horrible image of this sweet woman coming back from a mission to find him on the couch, not moved in days and never to again.
"Then who would make sickeningly sweet pastries in my kitchen?" He wondered.
Hinata nudged him. "I'm serious."
"I know, but I won't. You are all I have. I will keep you until you send me away." He promised. "Just don't send me away." That's when he decided he would prove to her. He would prove it to the entire village. He would be keeping her. He would keep her as long as she would have him.
Hinata's blushing face turned pale as her lips parted, and she let tears fall. The promise he had made to her first day back in the kitchen solidified as even more heartbreaking than it was without the context.
Sasuke opened his arm, and she curled under it quickly. He laid his lips into her hair. "It, in a way, was my way of telling you how I felt and still is."
She hiccupped as he continued to talk.
Sasuke frowned over the village streets as he walked into a jewelry shop. His presence alone gave the shop owner an aneurysm. He anxiously floated around the counter.
"Do you need something?" He squeaked out, fidgeting more than Hinata ever had.
"Silence would be nice," Sasuke grumbled, looking over the case, and was not only increasingly annoyed by the shopkeeper and other people who were just as surprised to see him, but the selection. He rubbed the back of his head in frustration. "She doesn't like this kind of stuff." He mumbled to himself.
"Shopping for a ring?" A short brunette about his age asked him. He thought he knew her. He wasn't quite sure. Ninja definitely, her stocky, muscular build, made that clear, but he couldn't place what team and who with.
"Clearly," Sasuke growled. He had no piercings and was wearing no jewelry. He was not shopping for himself.
"Is she choosy?" She asked further with a raise of her eyebrow.
Sasuke sighed, giving in to the woman's interest. "More like she likes simplicity, she has the resources to wear expensive jewelry, but she's not a fan."
"Have you thought about making it?" No, he hadn't. The woman gave a smug grin as she crossed her arms, taking his frown as an answer. "Why don't you come with me to the shop over there? I have something to pick up there, and I can show you what you would need."
Against his better judgment, he followed her across the street away from the scared jeweler and the flashy jewelry.
Sasuke spent an hour with the woman as she explained how to make a basic ring shape that could hold a single placement. Seemingly she was good at working with metals and explained what would be okay on the skin and easier to bend, but not so easy you would misshape it with normal use. He frowned at the little jewels on the counter, still not Hinata at all. He gravitated more toward the odd color stones that were far too big for the simple ring design.
"What color are her eyes?" The woman asked, peering over her shoulder.
"Off white, like… purplish." He didn't have a name for the color. He grumbled. "Hyuga, their Hyuga colored."
She gave a quirk of her lip. "Like pearls?"
Sasuke nodded slightly. She held one up the exact color Hinata's eyes were, and he frowned. She knew exactly who he was shopping for, and now he was more annoyed with the questions.
They picked out a few tools and extra metal to practice with before sending him away with a short wave. He had no clue who the woman was, but she may be the only village besides Hinata that did not hate him.
Hinata's therapy sessions were going well. Her concussion was fading, her weight was good, but there was no sign that her memory was recoverable.
Hinata sighed and nodded.
"Hinata, you don't have to stay with him because you can't go back to the compound. You can come live with Naruto and me until you're back on your feet." Sakura set her hand on her knee, Hinata wanted to shove it off, but she didn't. Sakura didn't know what she was talking about, and she was only trying to help.
Hinata tried to remember that. "I like my home, but thank you." She frowned. It had come out colder than she had liked it to.
"You don't have to stay," Sakura repeated.
Hinata said what she was thinking quickly before she lost her nerve. "I know that you don't approve because you think he will turn on me, but have you ever wondered if he's more scared of me turning from him?" Sakura stared at her in disbelief. "Especially because he found it easy to turn for you."
Sakura's hands turned into fists, and Hinata flinched, waiting to be hit, but when it didn't come, she peaked at Sakura's tear-streaked face. Mascara and liner made a messy trail down her cheeks, she tried to swipe away, but it only made it worse.
Hinata reached for her to help her wipe her cheeks clean. "I don't want him to hurt you too." Sakura whimpered. "I might have deserved it, but you certainly don't."
"You didn't deserve it." Hinata frowned.
"I did." She demanded. "I was a stupid teen girl who had a lovesick crush. I took it too far and thought if I loved him enough, he would love me back." She hung her head into Hinata's hands. "You helped me through that time and never once told me I was insane when you should have, but you were too kind." Sakura fisted her hand into Hinata's skirt. "You were never even interested in him, I don't understand."
Hinata began to understand the tear between them. Maybe with her bad stitching, she could mend it.
"Should I ask how therapy was?" Sasuke asked as he watched nurses half leer, half glare at him.
"I think we should have her over for dinner." Hinata's chair jerked as he tripped.
"What?" Sasuke barked.
Hinata giggled.
Sasuke had angrily made practice rings that all looked liked like a dog had made them. He grumbled and angrily bent the metal until he was too angry to look at it.
Sasuke eventually found a technique that worked and was able to finagle a crappy ring together. He looked at the piece of junk he had made and decided to find the woman again, and he needed more practice metal.
He went back to the store, and irritatingly enough, the woman seemed to know he would have trouble and wasn't far from the shop. He swallowed what was left of his pride and asked for help. She grinned smugly at him and made him follow her home.
Sasuke spent hours with her, as she pointed at what he was supposed to do, scolded him harshly when he didn't listen, and smacked his fingers when he was getting too rough with it. She irritated him greatly, but he was in need of her help. At the end of a couple of days, he had a passable ring with a pearl in it.
"Now, I want you to buff it by hand and give it to her with your heart out." She told him with a hard pat on his shoulder as he left. "Come back when you're making your wedding rings. Hinata will love it."
"Who was she," Hinata asked with a slight tilt to her head. Trying to think of someone matching her description.
"Your cousin's teammate," Sasuke explained.
"Tenten!" Hinata squeaked.
"Her house was covered in the terrifying amount of weapons mounted everywhere. It looked like a brightly lit torture chamber." Yeah, that was Tenten.
"She makes jewelry?" Hinata wondered.
"No, she makes armored bracelets and body armor clips. Whoever taught her also had her learn the basics of jewelry as a stepping stone. You were surprised then too."
She turned to look at him over her shoulder, splashing him with her wet hair. He was stunned for a moment, and she covered her lips to giggle at her mistake. He shook his hair widely, spraying her with the dew that he was about to dry out. She squeaked.
"I'm sorry!" Hinata held up the towel she had been covering her front with higher to hide more of her.
Sasuke smirked as she slowly lowered the towel back in place. He sprayed her one more time.