Gaara kissed her before she went. He tucked a hand behind her back and tugged her in. It was sudden, and she hadn't expected it, and he missed it. He was red in the face at his mistake, and she giggled, holding his face to give him a more proper light kiss. He was trying to be some form of romantic, and that's what mattered.
Temari laughed and noted later she thought he might have gotten the idea from how Shikamaru tried to get her to shut up. Hinata only found it all the sweeter.
"Welcome back." The caregiver smiled, answering the door with a child on her hip and to more circling her legs.
"I don't think I caught your name." Hinata felt bad she hadn't asked.
"Just call me Baba. Everyone else does." Grandmother? She wasn't that old. The plump woman had a few gray hairs and lines, but they were probably from the stressful job. She wasn't quite old enough to be a grandmother.
If she insisted. "Okay." Hinata nodded, then was immediately bombarded with small children. She smiled. "Let me in, please." She picked up Etsu, who gladly hugged her neck. "I had an idea." She told them as she walked back into the sitting room. "Every time I visit, I'm going to teach you something, and I want you all to teach it to the other children. If that's okay with Baba-san, of course." She looked up at the older woman, and she nodded, waving her hand to go on.
"What are we going to learn?" One asked.
"Little things that you should know." She tried to describe it.
"Things parents would teach?" Another asked.
Her heart broke again. "Yeah, that's a good way to put it."
Etsu settled into her lap, and the group got bigger with interest.
"Do we all know our basic manners?" She asked. "When to say please and thank you?"
The children nodded, but she heard a snort from Baba. "When they feel like it." She looked over them with joking disapproval.
"We can start there." She tucked her around Etsu. "Okay, who can tell me when we use please and thank you." She asked the younger children.
She got a lot of answers at once. "Okay, one at a time, how about we raise our hands, when we want to speak, raise your hand, and I'll pick someone, like in school." She knew some hadn't had general education yet, so they wouldn't have learned. She was glad to see some of the older children showing their younger friends. "Okay, who has an answer?" Hand went up eagerly, and she pointed.
"Please, when we want something, thank you when it's given." Was the answer.
She nodded. "Yes, but also say thank you whenever someone has done something nice and please even when it's something small." She added. "Being polite not only helps when you want something, but it shows people that you appreciate what they do for you." She explained.
"But what if you don't want it?"
"That doesn't matter. You still want to thank them, even if you don't accept what is being given." She answered.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if you say no thank you, it's much more polite than no. You thank them for the offer or thought, but aren't rude for refusing."
Questions came and went, and she did what she could to answer. The kids made it into a game before long.
"Can I please go play too?" Etsu asked.
"Yes," Hinata giggled, releasing her. "Thank you for sitting with me." Hinata stretched her legs a little before joining Baba in the kitchen.
"You made manners fun. How did you do that?" She asked with a hand on her hip.
"I just gave them a reason to use it, motivation. If they are nice, someone else will be more likely to be nice back." The older kids that had some attitude under their belts didn't catch on too quickly, but if they wanted to play, and the younger kids insisted on it.
"Nicer kids get adopted more often?" Baba asked her reasoning.
"Oh, I hadn't meant it like that. I just thought that if they enjoyed me sitting with that much, I could at least make it something they could learn from." She had thought it must be hard handling dozens of children adding the fact they didn't listen well because there weren't enough staff to tell them when they were rude other than scolding. She had their attention. Why not use it. She liked the proactive rather than a reactive approach when it came to teaching.
"I see, so you will be coming by more often?" She asked, handing a dried dish to one of the older children who put it away.
"I think so." Hinata agreed. She turned to the older children helping in the kitchen and wondered if she could do the same for them in some way. "Is there anything the older children need, things that wouldn't bother the younger ones?"
She sighed. "Their own beds." Hinata frowned, taking note. "Most of the beds are just mats, and that's fine, but we never seem to have enough, whether just ware or more children. The younger ones think it's fun to share, but once you get older, it's not so fun."
"You want space." The children nodded. "I'll see what I can do."
Kankuro raised an eyebrow. "Sewing?"
"Can you teach me, please?" She asked, holding up the small supplies she had for practice.
"I guess. What's this for?" He wondered, sitting down and picking up what she had.
"I want to learn to make futons for the children in the orphanage." She explained. "Then when I have gotten decent at it, I want to teach the older children so they have the skill too and they can make their own."
"Good skill for life. You don't know how?" He asked, starting to demonstrate.
"Hyuga isn't interested in these kinds of skills. I only learned enough to patch clothing in the academy." And she had barely done that.
"Don't mind if I don't want to go right." He asked, hopefully.
She giggled. "I wasn't going to ask. I know you don't like kids."
"Ugh, thank you."
They had sat together on the couch for a good hour before he picked up her hand. "Your finger?" Gaara asked as he turned her hands over to look at the poorly placed bandage.
"I'm learning to sew, and I am not very good at it yet." She explained, taking the bandage off. "It's only a few little pinpricks."
"Sewing?" He asked. She explained her newest project. At which time she tucked herself under his arm, glancing at his mess of paperwork he spread across their laps.
"You never stop finding ways to stay interesting." He noted.
She blinked at him. "What?"
"Instead of finding someone else, someone who was already skilled at textiles to make your mat and teach the children, you took it on yourself to learn." He explained
Her face flattened thoughtfully. "I hadn't thought to get anyone else to do it."
"That was my point." He mumbled, tightening his hold around her.