"Ms. Hyuuga?" The teacher sighed and called upon her raised hand. "What is it?"
Wanting nothing more than to crawl under her desk and hide as she heard the cackling laughter of the girls several desks behind her, Hinata meekly asked, "May I go to the washroom?"
With a dismissive wave, he turned his back to her and continued with his writing of notes on the front board. "Be quick about it."
"Yes, sir." She murmured and bolted out of the room. She didn't actually have any desire to visit or use the bathroom's facilities, however, hearing the catty and not so quiet whispers of the back row girls had done little to Hinata's focus on the lesson. She clutched the sleeve of her sweater and bit her lip. She wished everything was back to normal.
Back to when nobody even knew her name.
Back to when Kiba and Shino were her best friends in the entire world.
Back to when her father came home regularly and even occasionally cracked a smile.
Back to when she didn't hear Hanabi cry through the walls of their rooms at night.
Back to when Sasuke was just that kid at school who she never made any form of interaction with.
Feeling tears rise up in the back of her throat uncomfortably, she jerked open the first door to her right and stumbled in, hiding her loud hiccups behind her palms and squeezing her eyes shut in order to avoid the inevitable running of what little makeup she wore. Crouching down next to a broom, she barely even registered that this was the janitor's closet she was in, only that she was alone and it would stay that way.
Apparently she had spoke too soon because as soon as her sobs had hit their loudest peak, the door opened quietly with a smooth jerk. Lo an behold standing in the light of the entrance of her sanctuary stood her knight in hoodie armour.
Sasuke.
"Hinata?" He asked quietly and took an uncertain step forwards into the dimly lit closet before closing the door behind him with a muted click. "What're you doing in here?"
"Wh-what are you doing here?" She floundered after several gaping attempts of voicing actual words.
"I saw you dive into here…I was going to my locker." He raised an eyebrow at her in an expectant way.
Scrambling up quickly onto her feet quickly, after finally snapping to the realization that she was hiding in the janitor's closet with Sasuke, she rubbed at her eyes and babbled as she flailed her arms, "I--I g-gotta, I mean, y-you--and--c-closet, g-gotta go--"
"You've been avoiding me." He deadpanned and lightly grasped her arm as it was about to smack him square across the chest. "And I want reasons."
"I…I haven't…"
"Yes. You have." He glared down at her continued to hold onto her arm. "It's ridiculously obvious and it's really quite shameless trying to deny it." When she merely shifted her glance down to her feet and whimpered in response, he sighed and leaned back against the door. "…I'm sorry."
"S-sorry?" She shot her head up with a confused expression. "For what?"
"For taking advantage of you!" He yelled back and threw one of his hands into the air. "I took advantage of you while you were really drunk, and I sure as hell shouldn't have, I know. Really I do. The fact that you're mad at me is understandable. The fact that you're furious, I can accept. But don't fucking dare to wimp out and avoid me like this!"
"I…I…" She looked around as if for an escape before snatching her arm back to hide her face in her hands and give a muffled shriek of pent up frustration. "Why'd y-you have to do this?"
Wiping away the last of her tears with the back of her arm viciously she glared up at him. "D-do you know what you've done to me? N-not only is everyone t-talking about me behind m-my back because they think we've h-had sex and now people th-think I'm a whore who doesn't deserve you, b-but now my little sister th-thinks I'm a drunk!" Finally, she just collapsed into herself and drooped. "…Y-you've made this all so c-complicated…"
"…What?"
"You heard m-me." She stared up at him steadily. It felt too good to finally scream at someone. To blame someone and to get angry for once in what felt like forever.
"Okay…so you haven't once accused me of taking advantage of you…but you're fucking accusing me of things that aren't even my fault?" He loomed over her, the anger and tension created between the two of them almost palpable. "I told you not to drink too much, and I had to drag you upstairs to the bedroom because you were complaining about the noise. Tell me. Where does this become at all my fault? When did I complicate things?"
"You--you--!" She drew herself up to her full height and bit her lip as she drew her eyebrows together. "You kissed me!"
"So now you're mad about that?" Sasuke snarled and gripped his opened palms into fists. "What do you want from me?"
"Why did you kiss m-me?" Her angry expression developed quickly into one of despair and loss. "I…I d-don't understand…" She withdrew into herself and wrung her hands together. "I mean…y-you're Sasuke Uchiha…and I'm…I'm no one."
He sighed and also deflated as he took a small step towards her. "We had this conversation already. Hinata, you're not no one. You're…you're…" With a pained grunt he scratched the back of his neck awkwardly and looked up at the dim light bulb hanging from the low ceiling. "Hinata, I kissed you because…because I like you. Not just "I don't hate you" like you…but I like you like you." He finally let his gaze hesitantly fall onto her and said. "That's why I kissed you."
"Wh-what?" Hinata asked quietly, dumbfounded. Her pale eyes turned wide and she could her heart slow from the angry canter previous seconds ago to a slow, agonizing crawl. This…this type of stuff didn't happen. This wasn't happening.
"Don't make me say it again." He looked back up at the light bulb in attempt to distract himself from the awkwardness of the moment. "I mean…I will. If you actually need me to. But right now your response isn't all that reassuring, and I don't know how much my pride can actually take."
"But…but you can't! You're Sasuke Uchiha!" She blurted out and by now felt the blood in her face return back with a vengeance.
"Yeah. So it's been established." His voice had taken on an agitated and irritated tone, though he remained close to her, not moving a muscle from his spot.
"You were drunk! Y-you had to be at least a l-little tipsy from the vodka shot! You d-don't actually like me!" She looked at him pleadingly and felt beyond flustered. "I'm n-not even a good kisser!"
"Fuck it, Hinata!" He growled and grasped her face between his large hands, forcing her to stare up into his blazing dark eyes. "This is me sober, alright? I have consumed no drugs or alcohol, and I still stand by what I say! The only part about kissing you I found remotely repulsive was the fact that you had thrown up at least five times earlier before kissing me, and I, Sasuke Uchiha like you, Hinata Hyuuga, a lot!"
"No, no, y-you're confused a-and--" She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head profusely.
With a frustrated sigh, Sasuke tightened his grip on her face and pressed his lips against her roughly. Caught by surprise, Hinata had opened her mouth in an indignant gasp and in the process left it free to be ravished. She wasn't sure what to do. Really, she sorta of knew what one could do with what she remembered of Saturday night…
But she was kissing Sasuke Uchiha in the janitor's closet.
Should she kiss him back like she so desperately wanted, or like the proper girl she was raised as, should she push him away indignantly and perhaps place in a good slap or two before running away with what little maidenly pride she had left?
Luckily, such a predicament would not have to be answered by her and the door to the closet swung open slowly to reveal a lethargically positioned body leaning against the door jamb.
"Well. If it isn't you again, Ms. Hyuuga."
Ripping herself away Sasuke's hold, Hinata stared horrified at Kakashi's amused face as he chuckled slightly. "M-Mr. Hatake!"
"Corrupting my nephew yet again, are we?" Before she could even spit out any sort of appalled denial, he continued on with a shrug. "As much fun as it was listening to this little soap play out, I'm afraid I'm obligated to stop this in its tracks before I end up a grand-uncle."
Horrified and furiously red faced, Hinata glanced up at Sasuke who was glaring dangerously at Kakashi's friendly appearance. Oh, this had gone so, so bad…
Before she was forced to embarrass herself further, Hinata pushed past Kakashi and bolted back down the hall to go hide in the bathroom stall to calm herself down for the next ten minutes. However, the washroom stall was never very sound proof and Hinata wished she could flush herself down the toilet or disappear somewhere very, very far away as she heard the entering of two of her senior class's biggest gossips and largest contribution to the spreading of the rumours that started of her at the party.
"…And can you believe it?"
"Not even a little bit. I mean, it doesn't even make a little bit of sense."
"It's not even fair." One of them whined and placed her purse on the counter to dig out her mascara. "Sasuke Uchiha, making out in the janitor's closet with Hinata Hyuuga."
"How do you even know they were making out?"
"I heard Mr. Hatake telling them off for it when I was heading over to my locker."
"Wait, isn't that girl, like, Neji Hyuuga's cousin? He graduated last year I think…"
"God, I don't know, they're so different. He was a total babe, and she's…she's well, I mean, sure she's nice enough, but she's hardly deserving of Sasuke. He could do so much better."
The other girl sighed and through the crack in the stall, Hinata watched her take out her sleek phone and begin madly texting away. "I know. I don't know how she managed to hook him, but she better be thanking her lucky stars, because I really doubt it will last long. She's probably using him anyways. I hear that she works for him at The Fan."
"What? Where'd you hear that?"
"Sakura. Hinata was working or something while she went there."
"Sakura hangs out with him, right? Why doesn't he just go out with her…I mean, she's practically a devoted slave to him and at least Sakura's actually pretty."
"Wish I knew." The other girl shrugged and adjusted the purse on her shoulder. "Anyways. I should head back. Asuma's going to bite my head off if I take too long again." With a wiggle of her fingers in goodbye, she exited the bathroom, followed soon by the other one.
Letting her head fall into her open palms, Hinata willed herself not to cry again.
--
"Hinata!" Hanabi ran down the hallway and launched herself at full speed for a hug at her unprepared sister who stumbled back a few steps and confusedly wrapped her arms in return around the younger Hyuuga.
"H-hey, Hanabi." She greeted uncertainly and patted her head awkwardly. Hanabi hadn't greeted her like this since she was five.
"How was your day?" Hanabi grinned widely up at her sister and finally let of her.
"Um…I'm g-guessing it wasn't as good as yours was…" Hinata smiled weakly and hung her coat up on the coat rack next to her before kicking off her boots. "What happened?"
"Guess who's here?" Hanabi grinned slyly and led her sister down the hall by her hand.
"I don't know. Who?" Hinata sighed and rubbed her eyes. As much as she loved seeing Hanabi so happy for once, she was just too emotionally drained to deal with this right now. All she wanted to do was to go upstairs, crawl under her covers and sleep until this entire thing just blew over.
"Ah, Hinata, you're home now." Neji greeted with a grin once they reached the kitchen. A…a grin? Neji never grinned. What was---
"Father." Hinata breathed out as she saw her sitting at the kitchen table, a faint smile on his usually stern face.
"Hinata." He greeted with a brief incline of his head. "How was school?"
"S-school? What? Wh-what are you doing here?" Hinata asked and dazedly sat down across from him at the table. Her father never came home, let alone right after school when she did.
"Father got a job!" Hanabi squealed and clapped her hands together. "He got a job!"
"Where?" Hinata asked and snapped her attention back to her father who was quietly watching their interactions. "When?"
"The new manager of the construction site over past the church." Her father answered and took a sip of his coffee. "I begin Thursday."
"Th-that's great!" Hinata felt a smile break onto her face too as she watched all these former sullen and cheerless members of her family light up…happily for once.
"We're all going out to dinner together too!" Hanabi cheered and chanced a hug towards her father to which he surprisingly returned with hesitance and uncertainty. Hinata couldn't even remember when the four of them had all eaten together as one big family…perhaps when her mother was still alive.
"That sounds…th-that sounds great." Hinata grinned and felt happiness bubble inside her for the first time in days.
--
Dinner had been a relatively quiet affair at the new Italian restaurant that opened over by Hanabi's school and almost awkward at times due to the Hyuuga family's lack of social capabilities. However, Hinata couldn't have been any more pleased as she watched her father awkwardly ask how university was going with Neji and choke on his fettuccini as he heard the word 'girlfriend' come out of his mouth or how he gave a proud smile as Hanabi informed him of the highest mark she was receiving in algebra.
By the time they returned home, all of them had uncomfortably said good evening and returned to their respective bedrooms. It was strange to watch Hanabi receive a goodnight kiss from her father and Hinata felt elated as he gave her too a hug goodnight, even Neji received a pat on the shoulder. Tonight had been the first time in a very long time since she had felt like a family.
Her mood was not to last though as she entered her room and saw Sasuke's jacket lying on top of the chair in front of her vanity mirror haphazardly. Glaring at it, she picked it up and for no reason she could think of, put it on and stared at herself in the mirror.
"…she's hardly deserving of Sasuke…"
Her face was far too plain, she commented to herself inwardly as she lightly touched the pale skin of her cheek. Other girls applied makeup to at least hide their plainness, however she had never really seen much point in putting on lots…why avoid the inevitable?
"…He could do so much better."
Sitting down in front of her mirror, she opened a drawer and began rummaging around until she found a tube of old mascara, a single black eyeliner pencil that had never been uncapped or used, an eyelash curler, and what looked to be a grey-ish eyeshadow. Taking the eyeliner, she rested her elbow on the desk and leaned forwards to slowly begin applying it with steady and precise strokes.
"…at least Sakura's actually pretty."
We'll see.
