A/N: Chapter Two of Stars and Boulevards! I hope you like and enjoy; much thanks goes out to Hinata6, Nitinha56, Sepsis, Echo Uchiha, ppeach2, fairheartstrife and blackraven615 for reviewing!

"STARS AND BOULEVARDS"
A SasuHina story
FRIGHTYMARE

Disclaimer: Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto
Song Inspirations: Jar of Hearts – Christina Perri
Haunted – Taylor Swift
Stars and Boulevards - Augustana

. . . . .

Do Not Disturb

Her fingers were hesitant on the cold of the doorknob, palm chilled and twisting uncertainly around the metal as she turned it. Hinata restrained from cringing slightly as she swung the door away from her, revealing a man. No longer a child, or an angst-ridden teenager with a troubled past – a man, with his own problems and honest mistakes, sitting upright in his hospital bed with the lower two-thirds of body unmoving as he slowly turned his head to face the distraction.

Uchiha Sasuke, a man.

Truly, the maturity that had inevitably caught up with him in his absence from her occasional sight had not discouraged his appearance in the least. Dark hair had lengthened substantially, hanging over his forehead and between his eyes where once, his Konoha forehead protector might have been. The haunting hatred was ever-present in the depths of his unchanged onyx eyes. Although he was still as skinny as he had been before, he was now muscular, tall and lean.

"H-Hello, Uchiha-san. I-I'm your caretaker for your term in the h-hospital, so – so I hope we can … get along." Hinata exhaled with an air of self-displeasure; she figured she hadn't made the best impression she could have. But then again, it wasn't as though he even gave a damn – it was quite clear he wasn't in the hospital of his ex-village to 'get along' with anyone. She was sure he'd be leaving again, almost immediately after he healed completely. After checking his medical file, she'd discovered that he barely possessed the essential energy crucial to meagre feats such as walking, maintaining a stance and feeding himself.

A low scoff caught her amidst her own revelations.

Biting her lip, Hinata chose to ignore the contemptuous sound and instead willed her feet to cross the room, over to where the medicinal cabinet was. She successfully managed to avoid flinching from beneath his glare by attempting to run over Sasuke's medical file with her photographic memory as she approached the cabinet.

Once the open door of the cabinet was between the two of them and his gaze no longer bore into the side of her head, Hinata's consciousness relaxed considerably, but her shoulders remained tense from his mere presence. She scanned the contents of the cabinet before correctly selecting the prescribed medicine and organizing it on the counter below.

She kept the cabinet door open just to impede his stare, which she no longer knew whether or not was there.

"What happened to the blonde?"

His voice, lower and thicker and more guarded than any she had ever heard, startled her so that she jerked the bottle in her hands as a light rain of surplus pills cascaded from the trembling capsule to litter by the ground at her feet. Sighing to herself, she shakily pushed the capsule away from her.

Uchiha Sasuke, apparently, wasn't one to remember names – not even of the ninjas he'd been classmates with at one point at his life. She wondered if there was any possibility at all that he knew even remotely who she was.

"I-Ino-chan?" She dropped quickly to her knees as she felt the intense bitterness behind his eyes again, busying herself with scooping the scattered pills – now soiled – into the palm of her quivering hand.

"I know her name," Sasuke said lethargically; Hinata noticed the movement from her peripheral vision as he leaned back against the mountain of pillows. "I asked what happened to her, Hinata."

Hinata could hardly refrain herself from uttering a small exclamation of surprise at the mention of her own name. So he did recall … and he clearly recalled Ino, as well. She was inexplicably slightly happier that she was valuable enough to be remembered by anyone at all. She thought herself to be rather invisible a person.

"Ino-chan is r-really busy with the w-war patients, Uchiha-san. She asked me to l-look after you instead." A mild lie in itself: Ino had only really wanted Sasuke off of her list, and had used the onslaught of war patients as her excuse. Hinata resisted from revealing this information.

"Didn't know you were a medic," Sasuke said simply, though his tone implied that he really didn't care.

Hinata, however, chose to ignore that. He had responded and that was all that mattered: perhaps a conversation could actually get off the ground now. So, she said, "Shizune-sempai and Anko-sempai a-asked me to help out h-here since I can't fight in the war…"

Her voice trailed off at the close of her sentence until it was little more than a hoarse whisper. She saw Sasuke's ebony eyebrow lift in mental question and was quite relieved when he decided not to ask her, outright and aloud.

He merely gave another of his scoffs, a simple "Hn," before leaning his head back staring at the intersection of the ceiling and wall opposite the room. Hinata imagined that would feel nice – almost like arching your back. It pained so much in the reciprocal of the angle you were most accustomed to that it felt nice – in a fashion similar to cracking your neck both ways.

As she lifted herself to her feet and slid the pills she'd picked up from the ground into the trash bin, Hinata glanced at Sasuke from the corner of her eye. He didn't seem to be very interested in getting to know who she was in the least, and nor was he expressing any sort of attention to anything else in the room, apart from an empty wall, either.

Licking her lips with indecision, Hinata hastily closed the medicinal cabinet door and dispensed three new pills from the capsule into her palm. Closing her fist with a slight frown, Hinata crept as quietly as she could to the very edge of his bed and looked at him.

He noticed. She knew he noticed, for he clenched his jaw as he continued to ignore her very existence.

After a disgruntled silence in which she could do little else but stand like a doll, his lips parted in exasperation, and although the gesture was quite soundless, the movement drew her attention.

"I'm not taking those," Sasuke told her finally, the indifference layering his words insinuating that he was serious. His eyes remained locked on the pills in her closed hand.

Slightly stunned and unsure of how best to proceed, Hinata remained still, hoping that he might elaborate. Her mind, in the meantime, began to try to conceive the procedures someone like Ino, Shizune or Anko might have taken in this situation.

For Ino, she might quite possibly have been absolutely outraged, or pushed to a nerve-wracking ultimatum that she would break down – either or. For Shizune, Hinata was sure she would be somewhat more professional, and coax Sasuke into the medication, or perhaps plead a little. Anko would initiate the desperate measures, insisting that he take the medication with threats of violence or warnings that she would send for the Hokage.

After a short session of deliberation on the no-brainer, Hinata settled on Shizune's approach.

"Um, Uchiha-san … if you don't take your m-medication, your chakra won't be able t-to regenerate."

Sasuke scoffed. "It's chakra. It'll regenerate on its own."

"Y-Your medical report says your c-circulatory system was severely damaged, Uchiha-s-san. You don't have any k-kinetic chakra left."

"That's why I can't walk," Sasuke added harshly, as though it were obvious.

"Yes," Hinata replied, choosing to play as the naïve, kind-hearted fool oblivious to his condescending tone of voice. "Um, the – without any trace of kinetic chakra left in your system, it can't regenerate. It may take a c-couple – years – to wholly develop again on its own…"

"On its own," Sasuke repeated slowly, his voice as flat as ever. "So this medication…"

"-Will help it-!"

"No," Sasuke cut her off.

Hinata took a shuddering breath before realizing her fingernails had dug impressive crevices in the palm of her hand. Loosening her closed fist in the slightest, she tilted her head to the side and leaned forward, apprehensive. "P-Pardon me?"

"I said, no." In the same demeaning, patronizing manner, onyx eyes shifted to glare at her from his marginal vision. Hinata had to force herself not to flinch from the intensity of his glower. There was something so remotely frosty in his gaze that she couldn't help but feel shivers course down the length of her spine in the tentative anticipation of what other ruthless words he might direct towards her.

"U-Uchiha-san, I-"

"No, I'm not taking the damn medication," Sasuke said, raising his voice only to add a warning edge. The mood wrapped around his words was coarse and rough, reminiscent to Hinata of the way he'd once always admonished Haruno Sakura for being too close or annoying.

"I'm sorry, Uchiha-san, b-but you have to-!" Hinata tried to say, but again, she was rudely interrupted.

"I'll take it when I want to."

Hinata paused, trying to decide whether or not this was a good omen – it was seemingly acceptance of the fact that his medication was necessary. Yet, her mind drifted instantly to the medication itself. He was prescribed one thing, and here he was, proposing another. Nope: that would not do at all.

"But Uchiha-san, you must take the medication as soon as you wake up. I-It has to work a twenty-four hour cycle under-"

"I don't wake up at the same time every day," Sasuke snapped. "There's no such thing as a twenty-four hour cycle."

"- Under the assumption that you wake up at t-the same time every day," Hinata finished lamely, her voice small and quiet beneath his biting one. She felt quite stupid by now.

"Well, it's already been three hours since I did wake up, and I just said I don't wake up at the same time every-"

"Please, just take the medication!" Hinata implored, surprising even herself as she softly cut Sasuke off mid-sentence. "Please, Uchiha-san!" Now, she had gone around full-circle, from professional Shizune to breaking-point Ino. She could feel hot shame rising in her throat; she had known it all along, though. She would not be able to do this. Who was she to delude herself that she could handle Uchiha Sasuke?

But why was he being so damn difficult?

"I won't do something just because I see you cry over it," Sasuke warned her sharply. "Your friend Ino learned that her own way."

"Haven't you t-taken this medication before? I-I mean, before today?"

"Yeah, that's why I'm not taking it again."

Hinata sighed slowly, her shoulders trembling as they fell into a tense position. They were almost hunched, even. Biting her lip, she murmured, "S-Sorry, Uchiha-san, but you must understand, you need to t-take your medicine."

She was met with yet another low scoff. Closing her eyes, Hinata tightened her fist, inhaled and tried once again.

"Otherwise, Uchiha-san, you know you'll … you'll d-d-d-d-die … without it …" She trailed off into silence, gingerly glancing up at him from beneath her lashes.

There followed, in the silence that ensued, the thickest tension of waiting Hinata had ever experienced. She lingered over his bed in her arched, uptight state, hoping he'd even heard her, for her voice had nearly failed her on the word 'die'.

And at last, his answer came, and it was inevitably the last answer she expected, or wished to find a response to.

"What do you care if I die … Konoha kunoichi?"

Hinata came to the conclusion that she was not fit to handle Uchiha Sasuke. As skin-deep and shallowly bitter as he could be, there was also a hidden side of him, in which he resented things for perfectly understandable reasons, but at the same time, he took these reasons far beyond their intentional purposes and made life all the more difficult for her.

How was she to reply to him now? There would be nothing good to come out of denying that she was from or loyal to Konoha; that would be outright dishonest and low, even before a traitor. And she could not say that she genuinely cared about him, because truthfully, before now, he had only been connected to her thoughts through Naruto.

To help her clear the air slightly before she conceived her answer, Hinata hugged herself and took a cautious step forward, closer to the edge of his bed, and said, "You won't die without it … Um, can we please just f-forget about – about Konoha, Uchiha-san?"

Sasuke said, with a scowl, "This is your home."

"This is your home too, no matter what you say it is! It will always be your home; you grew up here, Uchiha-san!" Hinata exclaimed hoarsely, tilting her head forwards ever so slightly that her hair obscured her eyes.

"Shut up," Sasuke commanded in a low growl, his stare fixated straight ahead as though she were not by his bedside but was in fact an invisible substance hovering in the air before him.

"Pretend, just for a moment," Hinata pleaded, "t-that nothing is happening and that n-nothing has happened … can we please just talk with each other as two people and n-not like a Konoha kunoichi and a … a –"

"Traitor," Sasuke finished bitingly.

"Please."

"I'm done talking to you."

"Regardless," Hinata cried out, "that I am from Konoha and you are a t-traitor, Uchiha-san, I don't wish to see you die! N-No one should d-d-die …"

"There are people," Sasuke said coldly, "who deserve to."

"But you are not one of them," Hinata said, glass tears wetting the skin around her eyes. Her voice had gone nearly completely mute, barely on the edge of huskiness as her throat constricted with the begging that reflected in her gaze. "Your life is not so misled as y-you seem to think, Uchiha-san, and-"

"-I've killed people."

"Y-You said it yourself … some p-people do deserve to die," Hinata croaked. "A-And others don't."

"You don't know a thing about my life," Sasuke said, even more coldly than before.

"All I know," Hinata admitted with a sigh, "is that it s-shouldn't be over … just y-yet."

"What more is there to my life?" Sasuke asked languidly, hands forming fists in his lap. "You don't know my life, Hinata."

"Please, Uchiha-san, take your m-medication, because I know you w-will do so much more … alive …" Now she simply sounded downright stupid, but she was only using all she had left.

"You think I'd regret dying?" Sasuke asked, bitter voice laced with disbelief. "I'm not trying to die and I know I won't without it. I just don't want to take that fucked up medication."

"Please just trust me," Hinata implored. "I-I promise you that you'll recover quickly and t-then you can leave Konoha and then find whatever else is left-"

"You haven't even answered that question yet. What is left for me?"

"M-Maybe," Hinata ventured, knowing that she was possibly taking the biggest risk of her life – but hopefully, his question was enough excuse to warrant this bold response from her, "Maybe you have it wrong, Uchiha-san … m-m-maybe what's left for you is not out t-there … but h-h-h-here…"

Something flashed in emotionless eyes, but he did not move. Instead, he remained eerily silent as he turned his head to face her full-on, onyx gaze betraying little of his thoughts. After a moment of heavy apprehension, he repeated, "I have it wrong."

The way he spoke was almost identical to the way someone else might utter a phrase they had only just heard, that had shattered their previous beliefs or overall confidence. Although Sasuke didn't seem to appear as though he was inwardly reforming in the least; on the contrary, he seemed more amused than he was affected.

"U-Um…" Fearing she had made a mistake in her arguments, Hinata dropped her hands to her sides and stared dumbly at him.

"I'll take your word for it, then," Sasuke said, the edge lifting from his voice only slightly. "I'll recover quickly and then decide what's left for me and where it is." The scoff that followed his words only assured Hinata that only a fraction of Sasuke's speech had been absolutely serious.

And for a moment, she considered the possibility that he was mocking her. Because they both knew absolutely well that he would never stay in Konoha, not even for a potential well-to-do future. He was Uchiha Sasuke, a missing-nin, an Avenger, an Uchiha. He didn't belong in this village of his past.

But Hinata's self-control was ever-present, and she chose not to blow the situation out of safe proportions by accusing him of mocking her. Instead, she once again settled into her naïve, oblivious façade and gave a small smile of fake triumph as she extended an open palm bearing three pills.

"Thank you."

Sasuke eyed her as he leaned back his head and forced the three pills down his throat. She dashed to hand him a glass of water, which he downed in a single gulp, and, having swallowed, said to her, "Whatever. Just stay out of my way."

Hinata half-wanted to point out that he had no way, seeing as he wouldn't be able to move from the bed for at least a month, but, having always been somewhat gullible and superstitious, she had no intention of risking a jinx. "Um, a-alright, but you still have to d-do what I say…?" she ventured, detesting the way her voice thinned into a deformed question.

Sasuke only repeated, "Just stay out of my way."

Nodding, Hinata left the room in silence, quite taken aback by his overall coldness. She had heard of his inability to make friends – and his desire to avoid it – but she hadn't believed it to be so … so ridiculously true. All of it. He was unbelievably cold, harsh, indifferent, apathetic, uncaring and dark. She wasn't so sure she understood how Naruto could tolerate such a guy; she knew that even she never could.

Having attended to Sasuke, Hinata headed down to the cafeteria to help out with the lunch rush. She was presented with a neat white outfit, a pristine little cap and a cute apron. With a giggle, Hinata tied her forehead protector around her neck in the fashion of a chef's red tie.

Working as a line cook was relatively easy, and she had only to follow recipes and serve the food as was requested. It was not long before she had formed sturdily good bonds with the other lunch ladies, all in the course of her first day. They welcomed her with kindness and optimism, telling her that she had potential as a cook when Hinata continued to doubt herself.

The day wore on, but Hinata soon found that being a hospital volunteer was not as bad as it seemed. Truly, the other members of the staff were compassionate and good-hearted towards her, and she had a nagging feeling that beneath it all, their true intentions were to sympathize with her for being made to take care of the Uchiha.

And no matter how many times Hinata repeated to herself that Sasuke was another human being, another former comrade, another of her childhood acquaintances and a fellow Konoha-born ninja, she could not bring herself to like him very much. He was as stubborn and difficult like no other she had ever met, not even Hanabi. She knew even her younger, hard-headed sister would have listened to her and taken the medicine almost straightaway.

. . . . .

The morning of the morrow brought with it utter confusion on Hinata's behalf.

Sasuke was being unusually less responsive than what was considered normal for the stoic teenager. He spoke all but one word to her – "leave" – when she asked if there was anything she could do for him after having given Sasuke his medication and tidied up the room.

Uchiha Sasuke – a mystery in itself, but Hinata believed that there were legitimate, comprehensible reasons behind everything he did so cryptically. However, she could not be bothered to linger on it now, for she had other duties to return to.

And so, she gently closed the door behind her as she pulled her cook's cap from her back pocket and donned it, turning on her heel and heading for the elevator. The lunch rush passed without much commotion – Hinata met several of the soldier ninjas who had only just come back from their missions on account of injured teammates. They waited on their recuperating comrades in the cafeteria and made for friendly conversation.

She learned quite a few from them, too. She learned that the war was strong, and had hit Konoha harder than had been expected. With Kirigakure on the other side of the war, backed by many other of the smaller but forceful villages, Konoha and Suna held shaky chances.

Hinata could not help but worry for Naruto and Shino and Kiba as she envisioned them in her imagination, risking their lives whilst she ladled soup into bowls and clamped bread on either side of sandwiches for patients and visitors in the hospital. And it was all thanks to her stupid, failing heart.

After she was excused from lunch duty, having helped the ladies clean up the areas behind the counter, Hinata dashed off to the fourth floor once again, sandwich in hand, feeling quite overwhelmed by this back-and-forth schedule of destinations. She entered Sasuke's room with a light knock, which he chose not to heed, and began to fulfill her routine: feeding him his sandwich lunch; assisting him to the bathroom, where he was thankfully capable of cleaning himself; drying and brushing his hair, which she knew he could also do by himself but she volunteered to nevertheless; and then hurrying off back to meet the dinner schedule in the cafeteria.

Hinata returned the next morning with a tray of breakfast for Sasuke. When she entered, he was already awake, but he seemingly hadn't been hungry enough to bother ringing the bell to summon her. Neither did he mention or complain about how long he had been awake, a silent and small gesture Hinata greatly appreciated.

Seriously, the last thing she needed was a whiny Uchiha.

But perhaps a whiny Uchiha would be an improvement from an anti-social, introverted, angst-ridden Uchiha. There was not much she could do or like from being his caretaker, and nothing to look forward to when she woke up and found herself in the hospital and realized she would need to head down the hall to Sasuke's room.

So, that day and the next that ensued were fairly neutral ones for the both of them. As the days passed by, they fell into quite the autonomous routine.

Hinata would wake up and walk down the hall on the fourth corridor to Sasuke's room. She would knock, and he would never respond, but she would enter anyway. She'd cross to the medicine cabinet and retrieve his three pills, hand them to him in silence, and he would accept without a word of thanks or acknowledgment.

After he finished taking his medication, Hinata would softly inquire as to whether or not there was anything more he needed, the answer always a mute jerk of the head accompanied by a scowl. They had yet to carry a conversation as lengthy or as significant as the one they had pointlessly stretched on her first day of the job.

She would head down to the cafeteria once again, and then afterwards, return to check on him once more. Again, she asked if there was anything he needed, and again he would reply with a shake of his head. She wondered if there was something actually bothering Sasuke, for lately he seemed even more withdrawn than usual, not bothering to even use his voice for responses.

He would point at a glass of water. He would shrug if she asked an indirect question. He would sink down into the covers and ignore her if he wanted to be left alone to sleep. He would glare at her if he wanted her away.

She had come to understand his strange mannerisms and read his gestures well – better than anyone, she supposed – over the past two or three days, but she still didn't deem it normal. She figured something might be troubling her patient.

Hoping to ask him, Hinata dusted off her hands and removed the small cap off of her head as she turned to face one of the plumper lunch ladies. "C-Can I be excused for a m-moment? I just need to take care of something…"

"Of course, Hinata-chan! Go right ahead, but hurry back!"

"Thank you, obaa-san!" Hinata hurried for the door, narrowly dodging a passing nurse that nearly collided with her. Lately, the entire hospital staff had been scurrying willy-nilly about the hospital in every ward and hallway, due to the large increase in the number of patients.

In the past couple of days, more than a few ninja platoons had been rushed back from their missions due to serious injuries. Hinata had begun to selfishly thank the gods that she had been able to escape the ferocity of the war.

"Hinata-chan!"

She whirled sharply on her heel at the sound of her name, recognizing the voice instantly. It belonged to her medic friend who had also managed to evade the clutches of misfortune and war. "Ino-chan?"

"Hinata-chan! Wait up!" Ino scurried to her friend's side as they both slowed to a walking pace. "Where are you rushing to in such a hurry? Someplace to be?"

"A-Actually," Hinata admitted conversationally, "I'm supposed to be on l-lunch duty, so … no."

"Where are you going?" Ino asked again, absent-mindedly as she checked her clipboard. "I'm off to see a new patient on the fifth floor … can you believe it? Already there have been so many war shinobi brought back that the entire fourth floor and half the fifth is full …"

Hinata took advantage of Ino's rambling to avoid mentioning that her destination was Sasuke's room, but she soon discovered that Ino was far sharper than she gave her credit for.

"Wait – you're off to see Sasuke, aren't you? Why?"

"I-I think something's been bothering him, Ino-chan. He hasn't been v-very-"

"Don't say what I think you're going to say," Ino warned. "I had the exact same inkling, Hinata-chan! That he's got a problem, right? Autism?"

"N-No!" Hinata exclaimed, appalled by the suggestion. "I'm sure he doesn't have autism, Ino-chan. B-But he hasn't spoken a word since my first day. Not one."

"Not at all?" Ino's forehead wrinkled with concern. "That's curious, Hinata-chan … he was always snapping at me when I was his nurse. Maybe it's just because you don't annoy him."

But Hinata was also quite confident that that was not the problem. There was something more to it, she knew.

"W-Well, I'm going to confront him anyway, Ino-chan." Hinata swerved as a medic passed by, pushing an empty gurney. "I'll see you later, then?"

"I'll find you in your room after dinner!" Ino called out, as she pressed the elevator button and waved to Hinata, who was approaching Sasuke's door.

Hinata nodded mutely in response. Her thoughts quickly left Ino behind as she neared Sasuke's door. Something doesn't feel quite the same.

No, something wasn't right. Something was out of place, and she didn't need to glance at the Do Not Disturb sign dangling from the knob to realize it. Sasuke had never before donned a DND sign. The hospital presented each room with a complimentary set, but Hinata had hardly seen any patients use them, because others knew better than to enter closed doors without knocking.

Regardless, Hinata knocked as she always did, and again received no answer. In any other circumstances of the previous half-week, Hinata would have merely swung open the door and expected to be greeted with the unchanged sight of an upright Sasuke, glaring out the window, up at the ceiling or at the opposite wall.

But she hesitated this time, for she could literally feel the waves of a disturbing lack of balance. Something was definitely going on. Hinata's fingers tightened around the knob, suddenly cold, and she twisted it without a second thought, desperate enough to disregard the sign.

As soon as she did, however, Hinata was unsure whether or not to be relieved she'd interfered or regretful of being made to see the horrific scene. Uchiha Sasuke crouched on the edge of the open windowsill, head leaned down to gaze at the streets below. Both hands clutched the edges of the window, as though he were hanging on by an unsteady whim.

The realization struck her instantaneously. He had no kinetic chakra to sustain his life if he fell the distance. She hoped desperately, as she ran across the room, that he would be worth saving after all.

. . . . . .

A/N: Of course it's TBC. But if you can, leave me a review! They always motivate me to update whenever I read them. And I do read all of them…! :)
(Echo Uchiha: No, I don't think so ... yet. Right now it's just on Hiatus. Thanks for taking the interest!)