"OH!" Gaara heard a squeak in the hallway.
"Sorry, Hinata-sama." He heard along with his wife's voice.
"No, it's fine. It was my fault." She continued to out with the sound of ruffling papers before she quickly slipped into his office, red in the face.
"Did you fall?" He asked as she set the folder on his desk.
"No, just a run-in." She whispered bashfully.
"What are these." He asked as she rearranged the papers in the right order.
"These are the profiles of those who will be coming once the compound is finished, all clean of Hyuga secrets. I thought you would like to have a look at them if you found the time." She explained. "I haven't found any issues though I have only had time to skim. I know some of them."
He frowned as he looked over her. She looked tired. Shukaku growled at the note.
'Then make her rest. Humans are fragile.' Shukaku
'She can take care of herself.' He reminded him.
Though she was worrying him, she had scolded him for his ridiculous work schedule, but now hers was getting nearly as bad.
She still got up and made him breakfast every morning, trained by herself, then with his sister, then paperwork, then had lunch with him, meeting as more office work, then went to check on the compound, then spent time at the orphanage, then would come back to have dinner with him. Usually, at that point, she would have sat in his office and read or did light paperwork, but as of late, she would have an extra meeting, heavier paperwork, or Matsuri would come by with small issues with her new child.
The paperwork increase was mainly due to her being the only one in the village currently that could work with any Hyuga files. Medical records, nin reports, and anything that came through about them had to be seen by her first and could be handled by someone else only if it had nothing to do with clan secrets. The council was being bitter and marking every single thing top priority and top secret.
He had also noticed that she had still not told him what it was that was bothering her, yet it was still something that would bother her.
She sat and crossed her ankles under the chair and briefed him on minor developments before standing back and suddenly squeaked.
"Shukaku-san, please let go. You almost tripped me." She sat back down and scolded.
At this point, he realized that Shukaku had used his distraction to wrap around her ankles. He fought against the beast with heavy annoyance to pull the sand away from her as gently as possible.
"What's going on with him." She asked with a frown watching the struggle.
Gaara knew his face darkened as the beast fought harder in irritation when his wife frowned at him with worried eyes.
She patted her lap, and he tensed as the beast obeyed to form curling up in her lap. "What is going on with you two. You're fighting." She asked, petting his head and frowning at him.
The beast taunted him about winning the battle then growled things for him to sit, and Gaara ignored him. "It's nothing important when I think it is. I will bother you with it."
She flinched and looked up at him, blinking her wide white eye wider than usual before her face twisted down into a pained frown. "I… okay." She whispered. "Excuse me then."
Gaara was confused. He had repeated when she had said to him the night before.
Shukaku quickly tried to keep her in the seat by applying pressure to her legs.
She merely whispered out. "Let me up, please." And his sand face frowned and disintegrated. She left the room quickly, leaving the paperwork she came in with.
'You are an idiot.' Shukaku growled. 'If she starts crying, you're not sleeping for a week.'
'I haven't done anything.' He defended.
He didn't think he had. She had said the same thing not 24 hours ago when she thought something wasn't in need of being addressed. He didn't know what he had done differently that made her react so violently.
Did she think he was angry with her when he was angry with Shukaku? Was it because he was glaring? She was used to the arguing with Shukaku with her there. It has never been something she couldn't discern before.
He had no clue what he had done wrong.
She tried not to let tears escape as she closed her office door and leaned against it. She closed her eyes tightly, trying to calm the rush of hurt that had washed over her.
Surely he hadn't meant it the way she had taken it. He was never usually so brutal with her. Blunt, yes, but never meaningfully hurtful. He didn't seem to mind when she had told him that she hadn't wanted to talk to him about yesterday, so there was no reason to maliciously throw her words back at her.
What had hurt the most, blocking her out of the relationship between the two. Gaara almost always mindlessly told her what Shukaku was telling him, good, bad, and terrifying. Unless he deemed what he was saying to be inappropriate for the setting. When she asked, he said. He had never shut her out when Shukaku wanted her to know something.
Hinata crossed her office and plopped down in her chair and held back a hiccupped sob. She had to stop. It was his right to keep what was being said in his head. Maybe she had been spending too much time with the children and was miss reading him.
Her head was starting to hurt.
Gaara pondered on it all day. She didn't look at all like herself, she didn't want to talk to anyone, of course, she wasn't rude, just gave short answers in a lower voice than usual. It was… painful to watch? He didn't understand the emotional response he was having to her acting ... upset? He wasn't sure he knew any of what was going on.
Gaara had seen many of her emotions since the day they met, and she still surprised him with new ones that were only mild, similar to others. Was she sad and nervous? Was this a new kind of embarrassment?
Shukaku was no help. He only would re-inform him that he had made a mistake but refused to tell him what that mistake was.
During their last meeting, he watched her and made sure he caught her before she stood up and left. "Will you be staying here for the evening?" He asked directly.
Hinata tensed visibly and didn't look up, just picked at her outer robe. "I will have to check what it is I have left." She half-whispered.
Temari stopped before she had fully left the room and gave a glance between the two of them. She gave him a questioning look, he replied with as much confusion.
Temari frowned and nodded. "Hinata, one more thing. I'll meet you in your office."
His wife looked directly up to her and nodded.
He hoped he could trust his sister in this.
"Are you and Gaara fighting?" Temari asked her directly as soon as she shut the door.
She flinched. It wasn't something she wanted to talk about right now. She was already stressed out about it enough without getting anyone else involved. "I don't think you could quite call it that."
"You didn't look at him once that whole meeting even when he deliberately tried talking to you." Temari pressed.
"It's not a fight, I promise. It won't affect work." She assured, fiddling with her fingers.
"No. What is going on? I don't care about work. I care that Gaara looks worried he's done something wrong." She pressed.
Hinata shrank into her chair and pulled up her knees, baring her nose there. "It's my fault."
"I'm listening." She flopped down into a chair across from her.
"It's really not a share and tell type of thing." She squeaked. "It's a husband, wife thing…."
"Is my little brother that bad at sex?" She prompted with a raised eyebrow.
Hinata turned red and squeaked out aloud. "It's not that! We didn't..." She buried her face further into her knees. She couldn't talk about this. She just couldn't. She was already mortified with everyone insisting she would be a good parent. She didn't want to talk about how you become one.
Temari blinked at her a couple of times, and her eyes widened, her mouth following. "Oh my… you haven't!" She realized.
"I promise that isn't the problem!" She squeaked. "He wasn't ready. It's okay, I'm not concerned with that!"
"Wait." She waved her hands. "He wasn't ready. It was him?" She wished she could die! Why did she say that!? At this rate, she might faint. "I kinda believe that. I don't think I even saw him look at women as anything more than civilians or nin before you. I can't imagine him being at all experienced." She pondered. Hinata silently begged for her to stop. "So, you're not 'sleeping together' and that's fine, but if that's not the issue, what is."
"It's just that recently everyone had been talking about children." Temari's eyes filled with understanding. "I know it's expected of us, and I know what would have to happen for us to get to that, but we haven't talked about either. I've just been too concerned with other things and want to push it off, and he doesn't need to be bothered with things like that until it needs to be brought up." She took a breath. "He mentioned that he thought something was on my mind, and I told him I didn't want to bother him with it, and he seemed fine with that, and … and..." She felt like she was completely rambling at this point. "Today, he and Shukaku were fighting, and it was something about me, but when I asked, he threw back what I had said and… I just..." She whimpered. It all sounded so stupid.
Temari blinked at her and smiled. "You, too, are so ridiculously adorable."
"What?" She squeaked.
"I think you just need to go talk to him and tell him what you just told me. I think you're going to be fine." Temari's amusement wasn't helping her nerves.
Temari peaked her head in her brother's office, and he looked up at her expectantly. "Give her a hug." She told him promptly.
"What?" He asked in confusion.
"A hug. That's it. She's got a lot on her mind. Just give her a hug." She gave a wave before leaving the room.
"What?" He asked again to a closed door.