Dreamcatcher

By Airyo

House of Glass - 3

Hinata forced herself to walk away, even though her first instinct was to simply collapse against the gate door. The Hyuuga estate was a house of glass, fragile and exposed and everything forcibly disassembled, and her late return would already beg questions.

But she couldn't believe she'd said that to Uchiha Itachi. And he'd laughed.

The deviance from the routine was horrid, but that wasn't what scared her the most.

It was the scene of a wonderful novel, two people interacting without all the weight and clutter of the Hyuuga and the Uchiha and the strong and the weak. It wasn't her life. It was dream disguised as a nightmare. Hinata could feel her skittering pulse against her skin as she walked back to her room.

She slowed to a stop.

Hanabi was at her door. Again.

"Hanabi-sama, good evening," Hinata murmured. The younger sister stood up as she rolled her eyes at the name. She crossed her arms in what she thought to be an intimidating way.

"He took you to a ramen stand?!" she hissed.

Hinata's eyes widened. How did she know?

"Please lower your voice, Hanabi-sama. Please."

If anything, that only made the other girl raise her voice.

"A ramen stand?!" she reiterated, shaking her fists in indignation. Somehow, that was the only gesture that came off as elegant rather than childish.

At a loss at what to do, Hinata (politely) ushered Hanabi into her room and shut the door. The rooms themselves were thankfully impervious to the Byakugan.

"I saw you and Itachi when I was on my way back from training," Hanabi said, with all the righteous anger of a wounded pride. Was it really so shameful for Itachi to be seen in public with her?

"There nothing to warrant worry," Hinata soothed awkwardly. "It was just coincidence, and nothing like what you're imagining, Hanabi-sama."

The younger Hyuuga pinned her with a narrow-eyed glare. "So he didn't subject a member of the illustrious Hyuuga clan to a fast food stand that serves meals with the nutritional value of a dish towel after making her miss a perfectly viable and healthy dinner that she planned that happened to include her favorite dessert?" she hissed.

"Oh, um," Hinata said eloquently. Not only did she find herself impressed that Hanabi managed to spit out the entire phrase in one breath, the source of her sister's ire wasn't that she was caught with Itachi but because Itachi had the gall to take her to partake in "commoner's fare". Hinata could understand that. The Hyuuga cultivated their image with the fervor of a master gardener.

Hanabi raised an expectant eyebrow.

"I-I will be sure to convey this travesty to Itachi-san..." Hinata declared/asked. The Main family member waited. "...and make sure it will not happen again...?"

"Good," Hanabi nodded sagely. "Please try again, this time with more indignation. You're shorter than him, but you can still angle your head a little so you're looking down your nose at him. Just make sure you don't lean back so far he's getting a full view of your nostrils."

Hinata blinked at this strange turn of events. Hanabi, prodigy of the Hyuuga Main Family, heir to to the most powerful clan of Konoha, rising star and jounin candidate...was coaching her on how to act more...snobby?

This wasn't something she could evade behind a veil of servile etiquette, as Hanabi had every right to protect the reputation of the Hyuuga name. Jerkily, she obeyed, because while she didn't fear Hanabi, she was wary of that stubborn glint in her little sister's eyes.

But why now?

Through the fog of bewildered confusion, Hinata couldn't help but feel that it was all Itachi's fault.