Title: Still I Rise -- #9: connection
Characters/Pairings: Hinata, Neji
Rating: K
Notes: Same universe as "murmur", "2 am", "metaphor" and "tragedy" and "door" and "color". Jeez, this list is just gonna get longer and longer, isn't it? Dang it, whatever is written in this series will always be in the universe unless stated otherwise, okay?
Neji and Hinata are unused to each other. They live together like astronauts, breathing from their own air supplies, afraid to bump shoulders or leave dirty dishes in the sink. They ask each other meaningless questions, like "Would you mind if I opened a window?" or "Does my typing bother you?" or "Can I sit here?"
There is a profound sense of disjointedness, a lack of the playful synergy they had shared as children. Now they are adults, and they do not know each other anymore.
Over the next few days, the silences between them grow from distinctly uncomfortable to merely hesitant.
She is not afraid to curl up on the couch next to him and read while he types away on his laptop. He opens the window when the radiator overheats the apartment without asking her. She washes his coffee mug when he forgets it on his desk.
Two weeks later, she is not afraid to talk to him about the books she is reading and he readily tells her about his research and his colleagues who might have become his friends when he wasn't paying attention. She brings him coffee nightly when he is busy scribbling chemical formulas and grading lab reports.
Three weeks after that, she shows him her manuscripts for the children's books she has been working on for years now. He raises an eyebrow, reads them, and asks her why she saw fit to make him a panda; she is comfortable enough to laugh at his confusion. He makes her breakfast everyday even though he prefers only coffee in the morning because he knows she likes her eggs scrambled and no one scrambles eggs like he can and because he enjoys watching the simple pleasure steal across her face when she eats them more than he would ever admit.
A month after that, she shops for them because Neji thinks grocery shopping is an inefficient waste of time. He gets her a CTA card and instructs her in the ways of riding public transportation and takes her to the Art Institute and walks around Hyde Park with her until he is sure she knows her way around. She is not afraid to take long showers in the evening and to ignore him when he knocks on the door and uses up all of his shampoo because she knows that when he complains he doesn't mean it.