Hinata stirred in her spot. She rubbed her eyes to look at the time but didn't find her clock or her bedroom. She was too comfortable to panic. She looked around. She was in Gaara's office, on Gaara's couch, on Gaara. She was curled up on Gaara's side, tucked against him and the couch back as he laid out on his back. A chill came to her fingers. Looking in front of her, she noticed his loose hand lying palm up open on his chest. She curled her fingers back into it. He held her hand all night, hadn't he?
She knew there was no getting up without waking him. She wanted to curl down back into the blanket, but she glanced at the time on the wall. She had to get up. They both had things to do. She sighed, resting her head back down on his chest that rose and fell evenly. He had fallen asleep without her help. She hoped for most of the night and not only an hour ago.
She reluctantly released his fingers once more and nudged his chest to wake him. He jumped. Maybe she should have been more gentle. His loose hand quickly grabbed her shoulder protectively, his piercing eyes quickly took in the room. She could feel the sand swirl defensively. She also became aware of his hand on her ribcage as he pulled her tightly to him.
"Gaara." She whispered. "It's time to get up." She yawned as an unintentional additive.
The defenses dropped as he looked at her.
She smiled up at him. "Good morning."
He rubbed his face as he moved to release her, letting the chilly morning desert air replace where he had been.
"Morning" He mumbled gruffly.
"This is a really helpful idea," Temari mumbled, looking over the papers. "The council must have been annoyed that they were getting a good enough deal that they couldn't realistically reject it."
"She came up with that." Kankuro inserted.
"No, I just saw the problem as a good exchange for the compound placement." She waved her hand with a pen in it. Temari had given her her office now officially. Hinata now sat at the desk she usually spoke to Temari at, however now she was on the other side of it.
"I can't tell if you are an evil mastermind trying to break our government from the inside or not," Temari mumbled.
"What?" She looked up at the blonde in surprise to find a joking smile.
Temari laughed. "You make offers they can't refuse and arguments they can't snuff. It's like you planned it."
"I think they just aren't on the level of councils she used to," Kankuro explained. "If we would have met earlier and seen how she was living before, we would have had a rescue mission. They are unnecessarily brutal." Kankuro wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Honestly, I think even your self-esteem would crumble under that pressure. Just the feeling of disapproval of your absolute everything is like someone slowly crushing you."
"He's exaggerating." She mumbled, looking back down at her paperwork.
"It's abusive." He countered firmly.
"I wasn't good enough to hold the position as heiress of the Hyuga. They saw that, and I have accepted that." She took a deep breath. "I will work my hardest to make sure my position here will not disappoint you like I have my family."
When she looked up Kankuro's and Temari's expressions had changed.
Temari stared at her, almost looking like she might throw a punch, and Kankuro looked like he had just been hit by one. Had she missed something?
"Don't think like that!" Temari barked at her. She flinched back and shrunk. "Do not even dare to start to think that you aren't a great addition to the village and the best thing that has happened to Gaara!"
Hinata opened her mouth to counter, but Temari stood and slammed her hands down on the desk.
"Naruto may have gotten him to see himself, but you have gotten him to recover more in just the few months you have been here than the YEARS we have been trying!" She pointed roughly at the wall in the direction of Gaara's office. "You have walked into a room with what people have been calling the most terrifying Gaara has been in 2 years and had him back to normal in a night! You have run out in a storm to save citizens that were not yet yours to protect. You have worked to revert horrible policies we haven't even questioned for the last decade! You have looked in the face of your own family and thought of benefiting our city! So don't you dare think for a moment that you are not worth this position!" She yelled, progressively getting louder. Hinata shrank into her chair more and felt tears.
Kankuro pulled back on his sister from his seat. "I think you're scaring her."
Hinata waved her hands to negate him as she covered her mouth to keep the sobs from coming out. Temari looked at her with a new feeling, guilt.
Hinata couldn't have that. She got up, stumbling out of her chair and around it burying herself into the taller woman. Temari went rigid. They hadn't hugged before, they openly touched each other, but they had never had a situation where a hug was needed.
Temari quickly went soft and rubbed her back. Hinata had suddenly realized she had an older sister. She wasn't the eldest anymore. It may not have been official yet, but these were her older siblings. She didn't have to be the strongest anymore. She didn't have to take all the blame, all the pressure, and all the world anymore.
It was all too real at once, and she cried harder than she should. As if to prove her thoughts correct, Temari stood firm being the wall in the storm she had been for Hanabi. When she could speak without trembling, she would have to ask their permission to call them what she saw them as.
Gaara stared at his paperwork in irritation and looked up at the time. Hinata was late. It wasn't that she had a set time she came in. It was just that she usually came in at a specific time. A window of a few minutes was always when she came in, but today she was nearly an hour late, and it was bothering him. Something was wrong. She had been in some distress earlier. He could tell by the fidgeting she did with her ring but seeing as she was taking on more of Temari's work, that made sense.
He got up, finally distracted enough. He headed toward the door and down the hall to her office.
He knocked and listened. He heard Temari stop talking, Hinata exclaimed at the time, then her stumbled footsteps head to the door to open for her, bowing her head in apology. "I'm so sorry, Gaara. I didn't mean to be late."
"We kept her." Kankuro waved. "Our fault." He explained, getting up.
Temari followed him to the door. "We'll go. We have an appointment in the morning, Hina-chan." Gaara blinked.
Kankuro patted her shoulder. "And the piece for your 'secret' is coming tomorrow too. Lots of work tomorrow, so try to sleep in your own bed."
Hinata's face turned red, but she smiled and nodded.
As they retreated, he couldn't break the thought Temari had planted. "Did… she just called you a shortened version of your name?" He watched his sister's back, was it his sister?
"Yeah. It's okay." She confirmed. He was still confused. Temari didn't use nicknames unless they were insults. He tried to shake the idea and look back at his fiancee, he noticed something else.
"You've been crying." The rims around her eyes were still puffy and irritated by the falling and wiping of tears.
"Oh!" She lightly touched her cheek. "It's nothing to be worried about a moment I had with onee-chan."
Now it was off. Gaara stared at her blankly before she realized what she said, covering her lips with the tips of her fingers. "I didn't ask you if it bothered you that I call her that!" She exclaimed. "I'm sorry, I only asked them! I didn't think of how it would make you feel."
Her face filled with sudden worry.
How did he feel about it? He had no clue. They didn't use formalities, so it wasn't something they had all encountered before. He openly accepted them as his siblings now, which he hadn't in worse parts of his life.
Was she seeing them as part of her family? She was accepting her siblings-in-law better than he had, and they were blood to him. She proved once more to be a better person than he could hope to be.
"I can stop." She offered.
"No." He expressed. "No, it's fine. I just didn't expect it." He mumbled.
"Okay." She said, unsure of his answer.
She quickly moved back to her desk to fix her papers and put things away. "I'll be right over."
She stumbled in and to her spot quickly and silently. She felt bad for bothering his schedule so much he noticed and was interrupted. She liked to make sure she was in her spot at a certain time to not make him wonder where she was.
She failed that today.
She opened her book to the page she was on and curled her legs under her.
"How long until our wedding?" He asked in thought. He didn't look up from his papers. It looked like he asked because of what was on the paper.
"Couple of weeks." She thought for a minute. "Did we not add it to your calendar?
"I'm getting notes from people from Konoha saying they are coming to the wedding." He explained.
"Oh, those are RSVPs. They are probably from the people I gave invitations to. It is polite to respond with whether or not you are coming when you receive an invitation." She explained.
"I'm aware. It's just not usual for a wedding." He noted.
She smiled at the cultural differences.