A/N: updated chap!My advisor professor and her minion are psychotic bitches. Planning to move school soon.
Hinata sighed in contentment as she felt her daughter's plump cheek smushed against her bare shoulder. That means Sayu has finally fell asleep, after some back-patting, butt-patting, and pacing around. She couldn't believe how tiny her daughter was, even leaner and softer than Fugaku when he was her age. She used to think that Fugaku was a lean baby, but it was as if Sayu hardly had strong bones. She was so soft to the touch.
She surveyed the nursery room that she decorated with Fugaku's help. The walls were warm ivory and there were tiny shelves hung on the top corners of the room, where stuffed bunnies perched with some little alphabet books. There was a tall bookshelf next to the crib that were filled with books Fugaku read as a toddler, like "Crane Bride" or the "Grandma who went to the underground world." A string of soft pastel colored fluff balls hung on the warm pale beige wall behind the crib. On the other wall, Hinata hung a square quilt of pastel toned patch work.
Sayu was so fragile in Hinata's arms. Holding her tiny baby, she paced around in the nursery. She patted her baby's back softly, lulling her to deeper sleep.
Sayu's sweet eyes were closed, and her feathery brown lashes cast over her plump mochi cheeks. Her shiny red lips were pressed firmly together as she slept.
When she decided to lay Sayu down in her crib, she gently balanced her baby in her arms as she leaned over the baby's bed. She placed Sayu's butt on the mattress first and then softly laid her head down. Hinata made it look so easy, but the truth was she always felt her abs quivering as she hovered over the crib with her baby in her arms over the crib's bar rail. And she was nervous that Sayu would wake up and she will have to start all over again.
Thankfully, she succeeded in laying down her daughter. But that was when Sayu's thinly pressed red lips curved upward and the little baby started to frown.
Sayu protested the sudden loss of her mother's warmth and scent of milk.
"Ooh, weh...hek.." Sayu's lips turned upside down but she had her eyes closed. Her long and thick light brown eyelashes looked almost silvery underneath the night light.
Knowing that was her last chance before she opens her eyes,Hinata shushed her baby,
"Shhh..." and patted her butt in a slow rhythm. Calmed by her patting, Sayu relaxed slowly, ceased her whimpering,and fell into deep sleep.
When Hinata gazed at her sleeping baby girl's face, she felt giddy with happiness.
The gentle light cast by the rotating mood lamp colored Sayu's cute sleeping face. Her little red lips were shiny with saliva. Her lips looked like cherries, and her cheeks, though a little too red and slightly scaly from the dry climate, had just the right amount of roundness. Hinata gazed at her daughter as she turned on the humidifier.
She looked like an angel, she thought. Smiling, Hinata stood up and stretched her stiff back and arms. Then she turned off the rotating mood lamp, casting the room in comfortable darkness. Then she quietly, quietly closed the door.
She has just came out from Sayu's nursery, and she smiled as soon as she heard Sasuke's footsteps padding up the wooden stairs.
She looked up to him and was about to ask him if he had dinner. The spring evening was nice and calm and she wanted to know if he wanted tea.
Then her smile turned to a look of surprise when she saw the downcast, desperate look on his face and he started stroking her cheeks and long hair. Usually, if he shows a sudden strong urge to touch her, that meant he was feeling stressed for some reason. She pulled herself to him closer so he could feel her heartbeat and warmth. When she touched his wrist, she felt as if she just grabbed his madly beating heart. She must have touched a frantic nerve.
"Sasuke," she tilted her head to the side in confusion, "is something wrong?"
He quickly said, "No, no, no" as in fear and denial. Sasuke shook his head and hugged her tightly, making her gasp by the suddenness of his embrace. Her nose and rest fo her face were buried into his firm, hard chest. She could feel his erratic heart beat. He hoarsely said, "nothing's wrong. Nothing." His large hand gripped the back of her head as he hugged her. He let out a throaty gnarl as she squirmed in response to his territorial embrace.
Hinata looked at him and tried to ask the same question but decided against it. She carefully raised her arms around him and held him. She inconspicuously sniffed his clothes and murmured with a frown, "you are sweating and shaking...Sasuke, what happened?"
He looked at Hinata and his hands traced all over her clothes as if figuring whether she was real or not. His large hands grabbed both sides of her hips and moved up and down her curves. Her long lashed eyes fluttered, casting shadow over her pale cheeks, as she looked at him. She kept murmuring softly, "Sasuke, did meeting Naruto cause you pain?" But she was already feeling angered even though she tried to not show it. Did her past master try to hurt her husband and ruin their relationship? If he did, then she will confront him with everything she had. She wasn't the past Waker's Pearl. She was Uchiha Sasuke's one and only wife with two darling children who need her protection and the only surviving matriarch who could carry on the Uchiha bloodline. She has responsibilities to take care of her two beautiful children whose well being was inseparable from Sasuke's. Waker or not, hokage or not, he had absolutely no right to take that away from her.
She immediately felt his body stiffen at her words. Suddenly, she was scared of seeing her husband's face. Maybe it wasn't Naruto she had to worry about, but her husband. After a moment of pause, Sasuke let out a deep sigh and further buried her in his arms. His warm breath fumed over her neck.
That was when he said,
"This...is not my place."
Before she could get over the shock of his words, he continued in his low, melancholy voice,
"I do not belong here."
His words were like ice cold torrent slapping her face from above the sky. She knew that someday he might feel tired and suffocated by the small villagetown life, but her concerns lessened after seeing how much he cared for Fugaku and Sayu. Se believed that Sasuke wouldn't ever leave their children just to pursue being a shinobi again. But his words shattered her belief. He didn't want to be here. He grew tired of their normal life.
Hinata trembled, feeling hot rage surge within her,
"How-how could you say that?" She trembled in anger and hurt.
She fought the tightness of his wrapped arms, but he refused to let her go. When she looked up to him, he looked surprised and shocked by her sudden outburst. Exasperated, she started to beat his wide chest with her fists.
She started tearing up, as she beat him. Now sadness overtook anger.
"How could you say that..? How dare you." She started violently shaking, not knowing what to do with her broken heart, "Fugaku needs you. Our little Sayu needs you—I—"
He said firmly "Hinata" as he arrested her wrists in his iron grip and tried to make her look at him.
But she bowed her head and refused to look at him.
She said bitterly,
"I'm going to pretend that I never heard this—"
That was when he shouted her name with pent up emotions,
"Hinata!"
She raised her voice too, "if you want to be famous again, then I can't support you-"
This was their first quarrel as a married couple.
Then they both heard a light whimper.
"Uuh..."
They both snapped their heads towards the closed door to Sayu's room. Hinata felt her heart fell to pieces.
"Wahhh!"
She wiped off her tears with the back of her hand as she turned the door knob to Sayu's room.
After a few minutes of shushing and cuddling, luckily, Sayu was comforted and her mama got to lay her down on bed. Sayu's little pudgy hand reached for her mama as she was laid on bed, but went limp as she fell asleep. She resisted falling sleep and tried to hold onto the dimming sight of her mama's lovely face but she lost to the sleep that overcame her.
Hinata rested her hands over the bed rail and looked down at her sleeping daughter. She was fast asleep, her flat chest rising up and down beneath her dimpled chin. She felt Sasuke's presence behind her, but she refused to look at him. She was hurt by his words. After everything they fought for, how could he say that this wasn't his place? She loved him. Fugaku loved him. Sayu needs her father.
"Sasuke,"
Sasuke just looked at her, waiting for her to continue.
"Do you want to be a shinobi?" She felt her throat closing in and nose flaring in heat, "did seeing Naruto make you remember your times of glory?"
Sasuke scowled, his eyes looking almost crimson in his temporary loss of control of his emotions,
"I don't have any attachment to those times. You know that better than anyone."
"Do I? Do I know you?" Her voice quivered as she gripped on the bed rail.
Sasuke looked at her. Even if he couldn't see her face, he knew she was angry. He was offended that she would judge him to be such a vain, trivial lightweight. But he couldn't help but realize how beautiful she looked by gentle glow of the baby's unicorn night light. Her long indigo hair cascading down her back and her arms. As she stood in front of their little, delicate baby.
When they both left Sayu's nursery, Hinata tried to storm down to the kitchen but Sasuke clasped her hand and led her to their bedroom.
He sighed, 'she has quite the temper. Nobody knows it but when she's angered, she could be even more emotional than me.'
Hinata dragged her feet along but she nonetheless relented after Sasuke's simple but breathless "please." He squeezed her hand as a silent communication of his love for her.
When they both entered, Sasuke closed the door. Hinata crossed her arms and stood in the middle of the room, staring down on their queen sized bed. She was still angry and very hurt.
Sasuke regretted not giving her the context, but it was too late now. Now, he had to fix it. He has to bare his soul to her. That was the only thing she'll accept now. He loathed doing it, but marriage meant doing a lot of things he didn't want to do. The chief being swallowing his pride.
He went up to her and wrapped his arms around her from behind and started to speak.
"Hinata, what I meant was,"he bit his bottom lip as his face showed his inner turmoil, "what I meant was I am not worthy of all this."
He felt her recoil, but he tightened his arms around her and breathed down her neck. Hinata started as she felt his hot breath cause her minute hair rise on her arms and neck.
She murmured in a low voice, "you're lying." When he tried to interrupt her, she spoke quickly, "If you're not worthy of all this, Fugaku and Sayu, then nobody is. You fought for this."
He perfectly arched brow squinted as he closed his eyes shut and squeezed her further into his embrace. He breathed in the deep lavender scent of her hair. His hot breath fanned the shell of her ear.
"I'm not worthy to be your partner. You're too good of a woman to have children with me. I am definitely not worthy to be father to Fugaku and Sayu."
She couldn't help but turn her face and look up to him, "Why...why?" He was a lot taller so she had to look up.
His onyx eyes gazed down at her worried face for a while and then looked into the distance,
"When I saw Naruto, it came to me..."
Hinata haven't seen Sasuke show so much sadness. Anger and concern, she has seen before, but not such heart breaking sadness. It was as if the weight of his past cast a sinister gloom over his present.
"He should've been the one who has a son and a little daughter with you.
I should've been the one wandering the world alone, not him."
His sculpted profile showed deep self loathing.
"That is what's supposed to happen. That is what makes sense."
Then he bowed his head, and his black hair fell by the side of his face like dark silk.
"But… I took that away from him. I took that life away and claimed it from the beginning."
Then he suddenly tilted his head and kissed her. He kissed as if she was a delicate, fragile being, so different from his usual rough and brash ways of dominating her. "I wanted you, Hinata. You must understand that."
Hinata couldn't bear seeing him in such self torment so she momentarily forgot her anger and turned so she could face him. Sasuke loosened his grip and locked her small form into his embrace and continued his loving, affectionate kisses.
'If things fell into its right place and Fugaku and Sayu never existed,' his fist clenched as if the imagination itself just tore his heart out, 'and I wander the world…'
They hugged each other in silence. Hinata bit her lip. While she was asleep in the pearl, he was all alone. She couldn't fathom his past loneliness. She regretted accusing him of wanting to chase for fame and fortune as a lone shinobi. She let her insecurities get a hold of her.
Sasuke continued speaking more about his sense of guilt at seeing Naruto,
"You would be his good wife. He might've been a better husband,"
He took a slight step back and tucked a stray strand of her dark hair behind her ear. He spoke as in introspection,
"and I would still be in love with you."
Hinata's eyes turned wide, reminding him of twin moons,
"Why-why are you saying such things."
He answered,
"You would always be the sunny place, the light of life to me, even if we were strangers. Married or not, that's not important to me."
Hinata felt her heart thumping like crazy. It was like a confession she never heard him say.
"But to you… If tables turned, Naruto would be the one and only for you."
She put her hands over his chest and struggled for words. She was overwhelmed and she felt her face turning red as fire.
Sasuke held her in his arms again,
"I would still do everything in my power to just have an excuse to see you. If seeing you was impossible, I would've tried to have a second hand relationship with you."
Then he closed his eyes and smiled in self mockery,
"I might even volunteer to be Naruto's son's teacher just to feel close to you."
Hinata didn't understand. She didn't understand Sasuke's words. To her, love and duty were inseparable. That value is inseparable from her background and heritage. Loving in duty is ingrained in her every cell. If she didn't marry Sasuke and instead wed someone else, of course, she can't love him. But Sasuke was saying that he would've still loved her and wanted her even if he was not her husband. Even if she was someone else's wife. On top of that, even if she was his best friend's wife. This didn't make any sense. This was madness.
"Sasuke," she wrapped her arms around him tightly , "why-why are you speaking in-in the hypothetical? Why are you so worried bout this?"
When he fell silent, she felt the unusual urge to shake him. But Sasuke refused to tell her. He refused to talk about Naruto's illusion jutsu where he was married to Sakura. He knew Hinata would be much too shocked. Saying that he met Sakura was out of the question, and telling her that her past master created such jutsu to corner him? That he faced a reality with no Fugaku or Sayu? She would be painfully hurt on his behalf. So he refused to tell her. It was his own way if protecting her. It is enough if he suffers alone about all this until she calms down. At least, he shouldn't tell her now, when she was already hurt by his words.
Hinata hugged him tightly, "Please, we're married, Sasuke. I have nobody but you, because you're my—"
"Husband." he said drily. "And if that idiot was your husband, I would be a nobody. But we're different, Hinata. Even if you were Naruto's wife, I would still want you. But to someone like you..."
Then he suddenly seized her, grabbing her by her shoulders and making her face him with no escape,
"Hinata, tell me...if we weren't married, you would still—"
His usually calm and clouded onyx eyes were focused and heated, but also spooked her by looking like a lost soul's.
Hinata looked up to him, stunned by the anguish in his face. He looked as if he was giving the matter of life or death in her hands.
He snarled as he saw her tear up and unable to answer, feeling the returning sense of predator like possessiveness, "That you would've thought of me and wanted me just the same. Say it, Hinata. Say it."
Hinata trembled,
"I-I love you, Sasuke..."
Tears filled her eyes. Just thinking about a reality where they were not together broke her heart. But why was he forcing her to imagine such reality?
"I love Sasuke my husband. But I..."
She shook her head,
"I can't imagine feeling such thing like 'love' out of wedlock. That is unnatural. It is also a betrayal. I couldn't do it. Especially if I am married."
He gently pulled away from her. Her frail form was shaking. He gradually grew calmer at her words.
He traced her wet cheek with his finger idly, "so if you were someone else's wife... you wouldn't care about me."
Hinata clung to the hem of his shirt sleeve. She said" let's just think about 'now.' Right now, we just have each other."
Then she gently raised her hands and cupped his face,
"Right now, I couldn't bear not loving you, Sasuke."
When he saw the desperate hunger in her teary eyes, he was quieted for a second in stunned silence. Then he growled her name,
"Hinata,"
Then he started tearing down her clothes and kissed her as if he wanted ravage her, not make love to her. He pulled down her cotten sleeve and bared her shoulders and bra clasped breasts. He frowned, 'why does she have to wear a bra at home?' It must be a hassle to feed Sayu milk and wear her bra every time. He preferred her not wearing anything underneath.
She also unbuttoned his shirt from top to bottom, albeit with difficulty, because he was gnawing on her ear with his teeth like a big hunting dog chewing on his favorite toy pressed between its long paws.
As they panted and rolled on the bed sheets, he kept closing his eyes, casting long shadows beneath his dark eyelashes, as he grunted and moved with her.
He rasped, "put your arms around my neck. Now."
Hinata held tight to him by crossing her arms around his neck as he instructed. Her eyes widened when he suddenly grabbed her supple butt and lifted her on his thighs.
As he moved into her, he couldn't help thinking about her. And she couldn't help looking at his half drunk face, his long lashes cast over his pale face in a way that made him look oddly peaceful.
He always knew deep inside Hinata's views of love, duty, and relationships, she could be quite cold and unimaginative. He didn't understand where it came from, but he guessed it must be because she has always thought it was best to love and serve him as a Waker's Pearl, instead as a woman for so long. She always learned and disciplined herself to hide her romantic feelings and desire if it was for the person she loved. In the past, she struggled to hide her feelings for Naruto because she thought he wasn't interested in her and was afraid of being abandoned. That was just how fear and altruism wired her, Sasuke supposed. In fact, in a mysterious way, he was relieved to hear it from herself. It was like dropping a heavy weight from his shoulders.
Meanwhile, Hinata was frustrated, because Sasuke refused to completely take off his pants. When he fell on his back on the mattress, she felt desirous as she stared at his chiseled body. She then crawled on top of him, pressed herself, eliciting a long groan and swear word. As she bobbed up and down, without letting him enter her, she felt his pulsing balls make wet sounds against her clit and slit. But the fly of his pants was scraping against her inner thighs. It wasn't uncomfortable, but she saw how Sasuke was battling to not lose his control over himself. He turned his perfect face away from her and closed his eyes and bit his bottom lip.
Staring from above, her light lavender eyes feasted on his cock that assailed her so mercilessly and thoroughly all those days and nights.
He felt his heart thudding wildly as he looked at her lustful gaze,
"Hinata..." he let out a throaty growl.
When she further pulled down his fly and tried taking off his pants with great effort due to his uncooperative stubbornness, to her great surprise, there was a bright red flush on his aristocratic cheekbones. This wasn't the first time she initiated sex, but the tall, dark, brooding ex-nin looked intensely nervous like a school boy.
He quickly licked his upper lip and rubbed his mouth roughly with his rough, chapped hand in embarrassment,
He stuttered uncharacteristically,
"You-you don't have to do this..."
But when she started cleaning up their secretions by rubbing her supple breasts against his cock, he grunted and looked away as in pain and arousal,
He then turned his face away her, saying in a waning voice, "I'm still...mad at you." Then he grabbed bith of her shoulders and tossed her to the side like a rag doll and turned his back to her in a huff. He crossed his arms to make his point further across.
"Sasuke..!"
But he still kept his back to her like a pouting boy. He reminded her of times Fugaku would fume in rage over something, so similar the father and son looked. From their spiky black hair, pale, strong neck, well developed shoulders that hunched in anger, and the way they sulked.
Sasuke..." she called out to him amorously and touched his shoulder that jumped as if in shock. But he still kept his back resolutely to her.
Hinata frowned. Then an epiphany hit her.
"Sasuke..."
He didn't even grunt in acknowledgement.
Somehow, Sasuke, turning his back to her in a huff, curled in his covers looked cute. And his wide shoulders and perfectly curved spine, fair marble skin, and perfectly toned rock buttom... He was beautiful. Just seeing him made her heart flutter and mouth dry. She wondered if this was how men feel when they see a naked woman.
"Are you...mad at me?"
"..."
She sighed, "You're mad at me...because I said I would never emotionally cheat on Uzumaki san if I chose him?"
He was so quiet that she swore he has ceased breathing.
She spoke gently, "The day we got married...we had nothing but a china bowl of water to sanctify our vow..."
"It was dark in the forest and we put the bowl of clean water on a rock and prayed to the moon's reflection in the little bowl...And we left. That was how we got married."
She stroked his bare back full of scars. She spoke as if she was half asleep.
"But that night...when I saw you standing across me. I remember how you stared down at the water and then start to pray...I never saw you pray before, Sasuke. But when I saw you... bowing your head, eyes closed, your hands together in front of your face... I knew you were going to be my everything."
She approached him carefully and laid her left cheek on his shoulder, "I could never leave you even if I tried." She pressed her lips on the back of his neck, the sensitive spot on his spinal cord.
She closed her eyes as she heard the linen bed sheet crumple under their weight, "do you know that I still look at your dark hakima?"
Suddenly she felt the weight lying next to her on the bed lift and before she could say anything, he seized her in his arms like a beast's jaws swallowing its prey. She couldn't see his blazing onyx eyes staring down at her spine but she felt almost scorched by the heat and tightness of his embrace.
She felt his hand touch her back and his index dragging across her spine. His chin pressed on her shoulder and she was almost cocooned in his embrace. She whispered, "Sasuke-" but he just silently tossed her so she was lying down, stomach flat and cheek pressed to the mattress. Sasuke was really into throwing her around that night. But she also felt how he was doing it so that he could move her around the way he wanted her, position and all, but not roughly as to hurt her or cause her any pain. Even when she fell flat on the mattress suddenly, she could feel the softness and gentleness with which he handled her.
Hinata spoke gently but there was firm strength in her eyes, "please treat me gently as a wife,"
He flattened himself on her, silencing her. She felt the thunderous pulse of his chest drumming on her bare back and his hot cock oozing with pre cum pressing eagerly against her bottom. Sasuke whispered darkly into her ear, "I am treating you as my wife. I think you should start acting like one."
Hinata gasped and tried to glare at him sharply for his impudence, but Sasuke grabbed her hips and lifted her so she has no choice but to stick her ass to him. She blushed. No matter how many times he has taken her in that position, she felt humiliated and excited at the same time. And after his rude and snide comment about Hinata being his property to do with as he pleased, she felt even more embarrassed of her response. As if she was begging on her knees for his thick cock to enter her behind, arms stretched and fingers wide spread on the rumpled sheets. Right after that, he entered her, crying out her name underneath his breath, grunting as he buried his lips into her hair coiling on her shoulders.
When Hinata almost fell to the side as she fought to stay in pace, Sasuke grabbed the side of her hip and helped her keep in balance. Her heart warmed at his care even if he was treating her roughly.
When he amped the speed and pressure of his thrusts, Hinata mewled, "no, please..." she buried her burning face between her hands that gripped onto the sheets.
Thinking how unbearably cute his wife was, Sasuke smirked, "but you are flooding down there, Hina." She blushed as she heard the slapping noise of wet flesh, the wet, sticky friction between her ass and back of her thighs and his cock and strong legs.
"Please tr-treat me as your wife...please," she begged as he pushed up on her.
"You'll make a fine one, if you choose to obey," he looked at her smugly between his cascading dark hair. Suddenly, he felt his hips thrusting against her in his own accord and he felt the rush of heat and bliss overtake him. Hinata moaned as she felt his sweaty palms grip her hips and him discharge warmth inside her. He continued looking down at her shivering form with appraisal, and he slowly slipped from her.
He snickered mischievously when Hinata mewled , "Sasuke..." and collapsed onto the bed. He followed suit and flattened his larger toned body on her, earning an indignant squeak.
"Anata, you're too heavy..." Hinata protested.
"Hnn," he buried his nose into her hair that smelt like sex and white tea, "this is what you get for upsetting me."
"You could be as much as a baby as Fugaku," she laughed. "He tries to act grown up, but he has his way of asking for attention. Just like you."
"..."
"Sasuke?"
"..."
"Sasuke, are you asleep?"
She heard his gentle snoring. She panicked but was hesitant to wake him. 'But he's so heavy!'
"Ooh..." Feeling her husband's weight like a two ton boulder, Hinata sighed.
XxX
As morning came, Sasuke loathed getting up. Hinata was already awake and not in their bedroom. Probably downstairs in the living room or kitchen with Fugaku or in Sayu's nursery.
He wrapped himself in his bed covers and contemplated with a frown,
'I hate mornings.'
When he heard the door opening, he shut his eyes and pretended to still be asleep as he cocooned himself. He felt bad because Hinata was waking up for breakfast, but he really didn't want to wake up and work.
Then he felt Hinata approach him and he felt the slight dip of his mattress in front of his face. It was as if she placed something in front of him on the mattress.
Hinata spoke in a playful melodic voice, the kinda voice heard in children's TV shows,
"Otou-san~ please wa-ake up~~ It's Sayu chan alarm~"
His heart leapt at his daughter's name.
'Sayu?'
He dark eyes snapped open, and the sight before him was enough to disarm him. He felt like melted butter at the sight of Sayu's face close to his, almost contacting his nose.
Hinata had laid their daughter down so that her little cute face could see her father sideways.
Sayu's big light colored eyes blinked and she opened her little cherry lips in a little O shape as she looked at her father. Her plump cheeks made her look like a baby chipmunk.
Hinata smiled as she saw the stunned look on Sasuke's face, which echoed his daughter's wide eyed stunned and curious face.
"Sayu is saying 'daddy daddy please wake up~"
Sasuke couldn't help but break into a short laugh and he rose from his bed to join his family for breakfast. He held Sayu in his arms, father and daughter, and walked towards the kitchen. Then Hinata called Fugaku who answered "Yes!"
The Uchiha family spent their weekend traveling to a big city in the Land of Waterfall. Fugaku was disappointed to part from his friends and his weekend hobby—hunting, but Sasuke and Hinata promised to take him on hunting for a whole day they get home. They spent the night at a hotel, ate donburi for lunch and shellfish hot pot for dinner, and were heading back home.
Sasuke peered at his daughter's face—Sayu was now two weeks old. She is very inquisitive, and she likes to turn her head side to side and watch her surroundings. She also had big pearl eyes to match.
Her cheeks were round and so soft and touchable, and she was a gentle baby who liked to coo at those she liked.
In the subway, a young man grinned widely at the littlest Uchiha and widened his eyes into a funny look. He squinted his eyes shut and opened them again, his dark pupils staring into opposite directions.
Huddled to her father's chest in her baby wrap, Sayu stared at the man with wide eyes. She was wearing a headband with long bunny ears that swayed by her tiny shoulders. Her wide eyes were the color of lavender tinted glass. She wasn't smiling, but she was unable to take her eyes off fron the weird man. Her long lashed, huge glassy eyes beckoned him to continue his funny show with their intensity. The slight flush of baby pink on her pale cheeks reminded people of peach rice cakes, tempting them to poke her cheek to see it bounce back to its roundness like a mochi. Her round, pale face lacked a smile, but somehow the child's cuteness illuminated her face like a moon.
Hinata smiled shyly at the stranger's antics and patted her baby's plump rear, "do you like ni-chan, Sayu?"
Sayu kept staring at the stranger who blushed at seeing Hinata's smile. Somehow, the man felt as if he got caught doing something bad.
Suddenly, Sasuke felt irritated by the silent communication between his wife and the stranger. He understood that his baby was too cute for her own good, but his wife shouldn't call every young man Sayu's older brother. Plus, the stranger's ears were turning red, and he knew it wasn't because it was hot. The train was cooled consistently.
Sasuke grunted and was more than happy to get off the train with his family and head home.
XxX
"Ah, I kinda wish we stayed longer."
Fugaku made a little whimsical sigh and slumped on the sofa. Hinata smiled as she looked at her son comfortably slumped on the sofa after their family weekend getaway. Sasuke slipped off the wraps of his baby wrap from his shoulders and laid Sayu on the baby mat in the living room. Sayu pursed her lips and flexed her tiny arms and legs and cooed at her father.
"Ehh-" she made light gurgling noises, just like her brother did when he was a baby. But hers was lighter and she liked to smile more than her serious, mischievous brother.
Sasuke couldn't help but smile down at his daughter who pursed her lips and cooed sweetly.", "ooh, ooh."
Her big bright pearly eyes looked even more serious and alert due to her delicate Asiatic crease and baby eyebags. Sasuke tentatively touched her little pink feet as in endearing acts of worship, and Sayu kicked her feet and flexed her little arms.
Hinata asked her son, "did you wash your hands, Fugaku?"
"Yes, mom," Fugaku scratched the back of his neck and smiled—a smile that had a certain boyish charm.
Satisfied, Hinata changed into more confortable clothes, a cotton t shirt and some dark slacks, and got a small light green rectangular plastic tub from a spare room. Her bare feet padded on the wooden floor. Then she headed to the second floor bathroom and turned on the faucet of the bath tub. She felt the water's temperature with her hand.
"It was fun though." Fugaku said to himself, as he remembered playing in the beach. Sayu was way too little to play with him, so he had to mostly swim by himself. But his father soon joined and he loved it even though he pretended to not enjoy it too much. He liked feeling the cold icy water splashed across his face, but he loved splashing water against his dad's face even more. It was just a little annoying when his dad would casually attack him by splashing when he is just floating.
Hinata smiled when she filled the baby's portable plastic bath tub with the ideal temperature and called him from the bathroom, "Fugaku, Sayu is about to take a bath. Do you want to help?"
The dark haired boy leapt from the sofa,
"Sayu...could take a bath? Mom, she'll drown!" He turned aghast as she imagined his little baby sister submerging to the depths, her eyes still wide and bright as she spat bubbles from her pouty lips, "waoo, waoo, wao~" And she'll probably just turn around and wade away into the dark depths by paddling with her little arms and feet. Good bye~ it was nice knowing you all. Nothing personal~
When he got that image in his head, he ran up to the bathroom and started panicking.
"Sayu couldn't even sit on her own. How is she going to take a bath?'"
Sasuke secretly smiled but chose to not say anything and held Sayu to his chest as he took off the socks from his feet. He tossed his socks into a nearby laundry bin and walked up upstairs.
Then he took off his daughter's bunny cap. When he saw his son's look of surprise, he smirked.
Right when Fugaku saw his sister's head, he exclaimed, "Sayu is so bald!" Of course he saw his sister without her darling pink suncap or flower patterned headbands before, but she looked even balder because the bright light cascading from the bathroom light bulbs illuminating her faint brown dusting of hair on her head.
"Fugaku!" Hinata tried to admonish her son but she couldn't hide her laughter.
Fugaku retorted with innocent certainty,
"But mother, she has no hair!" He didn't mean to insult his little sister but he never saw old pictures of him where he was bald!
Then he crossed his arms and declared,
"She looks like an alien."
Hinata tried to be the voice of reason to her still young son who pretended to be grown up,
"Stop teasing your sister, Fugaku. All babies start off looking a little...squished."
Hinata started the process of giving Sayu her first bath by accepting Sayu's naked body in her arms. Sayu flexed her little arms and pudgy legs, as she was laud gently into the warm water. Her pale skin turned a rosy shade of pink at the heat and steam.
Sasuke murmured a joke,
"There should be a neck here somewhere."
Fugaku looked at how Sayu's little round head seemed connected to her chest and shoulders and laughed, "A bulldog alien." His statement caught Sasuke completely off guard as he turned his head away to muffle his laughter. Her slightly alert, big shiny eyes did make her look a little like a vigilant pitbull pup. And her little but broad shaped nose looked like a lion cub's nose. And her eyebrows were nearly invisible except for the few sparce hair on the browbrone.
Fugaku exclaimed, "She has no eyebrows!"
Hinata placed a big smooch on her baby's temple, "all aliens can't be this cute." Sayu's glassy eyes widened to an almost impossible degree on her little round face. Fugaku laughed, thinking how funny Sayu's stunned expression was.
"She looks even more like an alien!"
"If aliens are all this cute, Fugaku," his mother smiled, "I wouldn't mind them taking over the world."
XxX
That night, dozens of baby aliens in astronaut suits who looked just like Sayu flew the space ship and came to invade the earth.
Fugaku cried, "what is happening? No! Nooo!"
"Waboo, waboo, ooo" was their language and they started destroying all the tomatoes on earth with their laser guns.
In his bed, Fugaku sweated and moaned, "no...stop...I'm sorry... I'll...never...tease you..."
He was very relieved that it was just a dream.
XxX
Sasuke looked at his baby and carefully approached her. Then he nuzzled the end of his nose against Sayu's. He closed his eyes and inhaled softly.
She smelt like warm soap and Hinata's milk.
She was the most precious little thing. Hinata said and he had to agree. He thought as he kept his eyes closed.
Then he felt a ghost of a touch and he slowly opened his eyes. Her tiny fingers slightly touched his face and moved in the air. She still had her eys closed but her lips gathered into a little protruding pout as if she was a baby bird. His dark eyes looked at her with a kind of softened intensity. Then he gently tapped on her protruding lips with his finger, and she grinned as in sleep before quickly shutting her lips.
"Sayu," he murmured, "your grandmother would have loved you...Your grandmother used to always complain about not having a girl."
That night he kept holding her and fell asleep on the rocking chair.