Hinata huffed, looking up at the top shelf. Sasuke wasn't back yet, and Hinata was used to having someone who could reach things for her. Maybe she should get a stick with a hook or something. The aisle was empty. She would have to roll the whole way back to get back to the front to find help.
Sasuke had better appreciate the length she was going for this meal he requested.
Sasuke smiled at her bitter look at the groceries that she told him that she suffered to get for him. "Will this make it better?" He held up the bag he came in with.
"Depends," Hinata grumbled. Sasuke put the gift bag in front of her. Hinata gave him a suspicious look as she opened it.
Hinata pulled out a tissue-wrapped bundle and opened the folds to reveal a wool coat. At first, it was just lovely and soft, but when she fully pulled it out, she understood why he got it. It was cut shorter than a traditional coat and tighter to the hips. It wouldn't spill out the sides and get caught in the wheels. She touched the fabric. It was a lovely coat.
"I've watched your jackets hover dangerously close to your brakes and wheels too often." Sasuke flattened the gift bag with some difficulty.
"It's wonderful," Hinata mumbled.
"It's a coat, don't start crying over it." Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
Hinata would admit she hadn't received a single item like this that was a normal gift with her mobility in mind. But if she said it that way, she would be lying because Sasuke had gotten her feet for her stool and gone out of his way to deliver her chair and was building a home around her height. She thumbed over the stitching, and she started to tear.
"Hey, hey, I meant it, no crying," Sasuke said more frantically, kneeling down to her height.
"It's too much." Hinata sniffed, her lip quivering. "I haven't gotten you anything."
Sasuke put his hand on her knee, rocking it to try to stop her crying. "I am sure you'll get me back." Hinata dropped the coat and lurched forward to hug him. Sasuke caught her leaning forward, so she didn't tip her chair forward onto him. His hand slid up her back as she tightened her arms around his shoulders. "Hey. I dropped by the dojo. Did put up the cabinets by yourself?"
Hinata giggled into his shoulder.
"Shit." Sasuke cursed angrily, shaking his hand and taking a moment to glare at the end of his finger. "Splinter."
Hinata backed away from her work and offer her hands. "Here." Sasuke gave her his hand with a scowl on his face. Hinata shifted it in the light. "It's deep." She reached back behind her into her bag and pulled out a first aid kit, pulling out a scalpel.
"Woah." Sasuke yanked his hand back.
Hinata reached for his hand. "It's too deep to pull out with tweezers. It will hurt more to dig around. I'll heal it after." Sasuke hesitantly gave her his hand back. Hinata set to work pulling it out once he was free of the wood particle. Hinata covered his finger with a glowing hand. "I am not good at healing." She warned. "But this is small enough."
Sasuke waited patiently with a sour look on his face until the pain was gone.
"Wear gloves." Hinata reminded him.
"Glove." Sasuke corrected.
Hinata flinched as she heard yelling over the sound of the saw. She stopped using it and turned around to Sasuke, waving, trying to get her attention. Hinata took her safety glasses off and tilted her head.
Sasuke lowered his neck to her. "Hold on."
Hinata curiously put her arm over his shoulder. Sasuke scooped under her useless legs and shot up straight, making her more desperately hold on. He turned toward the bathroom and dumped her down into the empty tub that he finished putting in.
Hinata giggled. He was proud of it, and he should be. She had no idea how he got it in on his own, but he refused to wait for Neji's day off. Hinata manually pulled her legs up to her chest and curled her arms around them. "It's perfect." Hinata reached toward the sketched mark on the wall. "Maybe we should make the shelf a little lower."
"Scoot over." Sasuke kicked off his shoes and stepped into the dry tub, sitting into it, stretching his legs on either side of her, and laying his head back against the wall.
"Swoosh." Hinata mimed water overflowing from the tub. "I don't think it's made for two."
"One and a half." Sasuke countered.
Hinata lowered her chin onto her arms. "My legs are still here."
"How much do you feel?" Sasuke suddenly asked, rolling his head on the wall.
"Well, I can't move my legs at all, but all feeling stops half ways down my thighs." Hinata drew a line on her leg, then ran a line back down toward her hip. "It fades toward that point, but because I can't use the muscles at all, sometimes I can feel aching, and my hip joints don't like sitting in the same position all the time, and I can definitely feel that. That's why stretching and baths are really nice."
Sasuke considered it. "Sometimes my arm hurts."
"Phantom pain." Hinata nods. "I wake up with my feet hurting sometimes."
"Ghost arm." Sasuke flicked his empty sleeve.
Hinata giggled.
Hinata ran her fingers back through Neji's hair, braiding it gently. Neji would never admit it, but he had an incredibly tender scalp, and the slightest pulling made him wince like a big baby, and he certainly didn't want to reveal that to Sasuke, who was waiting his turn. Hinata wrapped a tie around the end. "There, that should stay out of your way."
Neji got up, and Sasuke took his place between her knees, so she could stroke back his bang and snap a clip. "You need a haircut."
"Have you seen him?" Sasuke waved his arm at Neji.
Hinata pressed her lips together to hide her laugh. "That's a choice."
Sasuke laid his head back in her lap when she was done. Hinata was sure that he was doing it more to piss off Neji than to make her heart race, but he was achieving both. She could end the unspoken dance by just leaning down and kissing him, but she was certainly not doing that in front of Neji. Hinata folded her hands over Sasuke's eyes to keep him from seeing her face turn redder at the thought. "Hey." Sasuke sat up.
"Let's get to work," Neji grumbled.
"I still like the idea of hanging a rope from the ceiling." Sasuke laid on his back with his arm folded across his chest on the spot where they decided one of their beds should go.
Hinata leaned forward in her chair with her arms crossed over her knees. "I think that is overkill."
Sasuke reached his arm out toward her. He wasn't sure how she was going to react to his offer, but she did what he hoped and locked her chair to slide out of her chair beside him. Hinata laid back, using his arm as a pillow as he laid it flat. "You're outside the bed." Sasuke pointed out that her back was in the middle of the tape.
Hinata rolled toward him, shifting close to press against his side. "How about now?"
Sasuke felt his face flush as she, not so innocently, looked up at him for an answer. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, holding her in there. "Yeah." He swallowed.
Hinata laid her head down with a knowing smile on her face. Well, she quietly answered the question he had been asking himself for weeks. Hinata hummed comfortably, closing her eyes. "Maybe we should just sleep here tonight."
Hinata picked up a pile of folders and tapped them on her desk to straighten them. Another stack was done. Sasuke knocked on the door frame and leaned against it. "You done?"
Hinata looked up at the clock. "You're impatient today."
"I'm hungry," Sasuke grumbled.
Hinata rolled her chair out from under her desk. "You wanted to skip lunch."
Sasuke scrunched his face, annoyed with his guilt. "I regret it."
Hinata rolled her eyes as she closed her office door and felt Sasuke kick one of her wheels. "I'm coming, be patient," Sasuke grumbled, more gently kicking her wheel again just to be petty.
Hinata rolled herself out of the building purposely a tad slow just to get him back and watch him make faces.
"Hey, you guys heading out?" Naruto caught them as he was heading back into the building.
"Dinner," Sasuke grumbled.
"Wanna go out?" Naruto asked, coming toward them.
Hinata eyed Sasuke. He was too grumpy to care what the food was as long as it was food. "How often do you eat out?"
Naruto shrugged. "Couple times a week."
"How about you join us? I'll make dinner." Hinata rolled toward home before Sasuke started kicking her again.
"Sounds good." Naruto fell instep on the other side of her chair.
