Hinata heard a loud slam down the hall that shook the wall making her jump and lose her pen. She looked up at the door that separated her office from the hall. What was that?
She set her papers aside and got up to peek down the hall only to have the door slammed open. In front of her stood a stern-looking Baki. She shrank under his stern gaze. Was she in trouble?
"Time to test your skills." He pointed down the hall to Gaara's office.
"What happened?" She asked, quickly following him down the hall.
"I believe it's a mixture of his normal load, the wedding coming, the council trying to push more work to keep him busy and away from them with the negotiations going on. On top of that, a team going missing." He explained. "He's ordered me out, and he will set himself back further like this."
Hinata chewed her lip, looking at the door between her and her fiance. "Wait one moment!" She bolted back to her office and gathered papers in her arms and her discard pen. "Okay, I'm ready."
Baki eyed her with skepticism. She gave him a small awkward smile. What the hell was she planning?
Hinata knocked lightly, receiving a vicious blow. "What!" He expected her to flinch as she made no such move.
She frowned deeply, giving the door a sad look before straightening her face to open it only enough so he could see her face. "May I work here, please?" She asked.
That was her idea? More work? She was going to get herself killed like that. He peered slightly through the crack to see a confused blank look from his former student staring directly at her. Gaara glanced down at his paper and puffed about a deliberate breath releasing the creases in his forehead.
The angry dancing sand that was swirling in the room collected itself and tucked itself away. Gaara didn't ask her why or accuse her of coming because Baki asked her to, though he knew Gaara knew he was there. He just nodded.
Hinata slipped in, closing the door behind her giving Baki a final glance and a small hopeful smile.
He stared at the closed door in utter confusion. What had just happened?
They worked in silence for hours. Gaara stared at her while he thought. If she noticed, she didn't let on.
Hinata chewed on her lip when she read. He knew that. It would seem she abused it while she worked. It explained the slightly swollen look they always had, years of abuse from her focus. When she was trying to think of how to write a word, her thin eyebrows would knit together, and she would set her pencil down to use her finger to write it on the surface nearest to her. She would scrunch her nose when she knew she was wrong and cross out the invisible word with her finger.
Cute.
Hinata sat much more properly when she was working. She still kept to her usual place on the couch. Instead of having her legs curled up like usual, she had out with her ankles crossed and tucked under the couch. Her back never touched the back of the couch. She sat up straight and peered down at her work in her lap. She would hurt her neck like that, he noted.
She glanced up at him and finally noticed his gaze. "Am I distracting you?" She asked.
"No." He answered he wouldn't be working right now if she wasn't here. He would bristle at his paperwork rather than doing it. He wasn't sure if he wanted to punish or thank Baki for his fiance's presence.
Hinata blinked only one more moment then went back to work.
Hinata had to leave for her other arrangements, but she dearly enjoyed their time working together. It was nice to have someone else there, though sitting there had put a kink in her neck. She accepted that. It was worth it for his comfort.
Hinata wondered what they used to do when he got like that. Would they leave him alone? Did they try to calm him down and fail? Was it just her? It couldn't just be her.
Now showered and in her nightgown and heavy Suna night robe returned to the office and plopped back down in her spot. She felt him eye her with mild interest.
"How are you feeling?" Hinata asked, curling her legs under her comfortably. She pulled her loose, damp hair up and away with a couple of twists of her and a tie.
"Better thank you, though I do not appreciate Baki's meddling." He noted honestly.
Hinata smiled at his slight annoyance at his teacher. "He meant well." She promised. "I don't think he likes seeing you stressed any more than I would. He was trying to help."
"I'm aware. However, I preferred when he used to just leave." She frowned.
"Would you prefer I not come next time, just leave you be?" He looked up with a slow blink.
"No, your presence is calming. I much prefer it to sit in my irrigation and Shukaku's prodding." He admitted.
She sighed, closing her eyes, rolling her head to the side. "It would be easier for everyone involved if you two got along better."
The noise that came from Gaara surprised her. Did he just snort? She looked at him with confusion at his ironically amused face. He was laughing at her.
"You don't think so?" She asked with a visible pout.
"You don't quite know him. He's not one to do things for others' comfort. He takes great joy in causing me discomfort when he's bored." She frowned at him as she explained. "He's known for his foul temper, dark humor, and blood lust."
Her heart wept for him. "The way he's been treated for centuries, I'm not surprised. It sounds like a cold lonely life of imprisonment, moved from body to body of people who were told that he was a curse. I think anyone would be openly hostile after something like that."
Shukaku's attention was now entirely on her. Gaara blinked at her blankly. Was there no end to her purity? When he went silent, she eventually looked up and blinked in confusion at his blatant staring.
"What?" She asked him, looking concerned.
"Are you pitying him?" He asked with a furrowed brow.
"No, pity is horrible. I guess I am sympathetic. It always upset me how the beasts are handled. Instead of finding some way of coexisting with them, we trap them in our children out of fear. Then we treat those children like they are monsters." She ranted with a fire in her eyes that made them glitter with frustration. "It's disgusting, and if I was trapped in a human child after child, then watch adults treat that child horrible for something they did to him, I would dislike humans as well." She glared at her fingers. "I think Shukaku-san is justified in his anger, though I do not agree with the lengths he goes to express it."
Somehow she kept making a deeper and deeper silence in his head. Had anyone ever treated the demon so fairly? Thought about its comfort openly and cared that he was trapped?
Hinata squeaked, bringing him out of his thoughts and silent questions before he realized what was happening. His sand, without his command, started curling around her shoulders.
Gaara stood quickly, jerking his arm, willing it to pull back, but his command merely stopped its movement. 'Let her go!' He growled at the demon.
'I'm not hurting your woman.' The demon growled in his defense.
'You will, and you're scaring her.' He pressed angrily.
'I'm simply thanking the tart, she knows.' The beast mumbled smugly. 'She is speaking to you.' He added as Gaara was pulled out of his thoughts by the light stutter of her laugh.
Gaara's panic told her it wasn't his doing. The layer of sand that covered her collarbones merely surprised her. She looked down, her shoulders down to her ribs covered in a one-inch layer of sand frozen though it wasn't uncomfortable. She raised her arm to place her hand flat on the sand, feeling it move like it was alive underhand.
"I'm fine." She voiced. "It doesn't hurt." She assured him.
He didn't relax or even seem to hear her. He was staring angrily at her, but not really at her. He was arguing in his head. While he was distracted, she could feel the sand releasing and moving slowly. She giggled as it slid over her ribs.
Gaara snapped out of his head and looked at her. She tried to hide the fact that the moving sand was tickling her. "I don't think he means to hurt me." She managed as the sand slipped in circles around her rib cage snuggly. "I think this is a hug?" She wondered openly.
Gaara paid careful attention to the sand, making sure it didn't constrict to her painfully. She laid her hands on it comfortably, rubbing her dainty fingers over it. It reacted by running between her fingers. He felt his face heat familiarly. She was so gentle with such a deadly substance. She gave him a bright smile as he didn't tell her she was wrong, and the sand continued to curl gently around her. It started to tuck under the fold of her robe, and she jumped. "No." She puffed firmly, pulling the robe closer.
He could hear Shukaku laughing. He didn't know what was weirder, his lightness of the new non-bloodthirsty laughing or the fact he was openly being gentle.
"I appreciate the affection, Shukaku-san." She spoke directly to the sand. "However, I prefer you to stay simply affectionate." Her cheeks flushed darkly.
"He thinks it's funny." Gaara voiced.
"He can think it's funny and stay appropriate." She said firmly though her voice cracked in embarrassment.
Gaara couldn't trust the demon enough to release his focus on the sand. That meant he had to focus on the way it curved around her chest and ribs and the way she looked down fondly at the sand as it swirled around her shoulders again before releasing her and retreating.
"Thank you." She smiled with a tilted of her head to the large guard.
She was continuing to surprise him at every turn. He sighed at the smug amusement and now slightly annoying purring in his head and crossed the room to her as he felt the wave of exhaustion that came after deafening panic like that.
Hinata opened her arms to him before he could decide to sit down. "Your turn." She told him softly. Her understanding eyes knew how he was feeling. If she wasn't going to be his wife, her deep understanding of him would make her a dangerous potential enemy.
He happily kneeled in front of her knees to let her engulf him. She curled around him comfortably as the sand had done. He had to be more careful. He had allowed himself to relax too far, far enough the Shukaku had been able to control the sand without his notice. Did he not notice because there was no malicious intent? Had he truly lost control? Was it because the demon had started to calm? He sighed in irritation at his lack of answers. He curled his arms warmly around her hips, sliding her closer on the couch, burying his forehead in her collarbone, being careful to keep his breathing down and away from her neck.
She hummed a warm sigh into his hair, playing with the strands at the base of his neck. He stiffened. Maybe he needed to be more careful with more than just her neck now that he was aware of the feeling.