Fugaku's blood pressure was too high. Of course, it was. Hinata sat quietly as his doctor explained his tests to him, giving him a prescription, diet, and a recommendation to reduce his stress.

Hinata wasn't at all surprised. Her father had a similar problem. Now she could do something about it. She could at least control his food during work hours and ensure he took his medication. What was her father doing now for food? She would have to ask Hanabi tonight. Hinata had done all the cooking. Hanabi knew how not to burn something, but she was far more likely to grab a convincing meal than cook. Was her father eating healthily?

Fugaku didn't say a word to her after the appointment, still upset about being made to go, but she was glad he did. They parted ways in different cars, and she looked out the window with a smile. She was glad she had gotten him to go for his check-up.


Itachi was surprised to see his father home so early. "This must be a record. You're home for dinner. I don't think I've seen that since Sasuke was in diapers."

Fugaku scowled at him. "I went. Are you happy?"

Itachi tilted his head. "Went to what?"

"Don't play stupid. I went to the damn doctor." Fugaku tossed the medical file down on the table.

"Oh, really? That's good." Itachi looked down at the papers. "Wait, why would I know you went to the doctor?"

"You told my assistant to make an appointment," Fugaku grumbled.

"No, I didn't." Itachi shook his head.

"Yes, you did outside my office yesterday." Fugaku pressed, annoyed.

"All I did was ask her if the headaches were becoming more common again," A grin spread across Itachi's face. Hinata must have made him an appointment, and Fugaku assumed that he was meddling again. Which means. Hinata made him an appointment, and he went without a fight.

Fugaku slowly realized this as well, huffing and looking down at the medical report. "Well, you got your wish." He snapped. "I'm looking after my health."

Itachi smiled. He got more than just that.


Hinata looked anxiously at her schedule. She was meant to have this stylist appointment, but Itachi wanted to take her. She looked out at Lee, who had on another loud suit. This one was bright yellow. Where did you even find a suit like that?

An idea popped into her head.

She wasn't going to cancel her stylist appointment.


Itachi picked Hinata up before noon. He insisted on having lunch first.

Itachi asked her what she thought she looked best in. She answered honestly that she hadn't even gone to a dance in school, so she didn't know. The only event attire she had was a summer kimono for the summer festival she took her sister to every year, and it was getting thread bear.

Itachi wasn't deterred.

They spent lunch scrolling through some formal attire images, so he could gauge what she was comfortable with and what she thought would look best on her. Hinata wasn't even going to ask what he thought was going to the price range because he already insisted on buying. He wasn't going to take no for an answer. What could she do anyway? She had already given up her chance out of this.

They had a pretty good idea of what they were going for. Black, so she didn't stand out. High neck, for her comfort. Long, for the event. Sleeves, because the event was open to the gardens.

Hinata talked him out of jewelry. She had simple silver earrings and a bracelet from her first fitting that would do fine, and if the dress was high-neck, a necklace would be too much.

With all that in mind, they headed to the shops. Itachi was having more fun teasing her by occasionally pointing out a dress that was the opposite of what they were looking for. Before long, she found herself doing it too. These were all dresses people bought, so they must look good on someone. She just didn't see all the effort worth it for her uses, but many of them were lovely.

It took hours and a few dressing rooms, but they had found what they were looking for. High neck, long sleeves, floor-length in heels.

Itachi was fun to shop with. She didn't do it often, but there were a few times she was pressured to go to a mall by girls who wanted her to 'step out of her comfort zone.' When you're 16, your chest and hips are twice the sizes of what you want, and you are uncomfortable with that. It's quite hard. She also knew that anything they wanted her in, she would never get out of the house with, knowing her father.

Hanabi respected her comfort zone, but never was interested in shopping for clothes.

Itachi made shopping comfortable, he would tease her, but it was more about the atrocity of the item than her comfort in it. She enjoyed the company.

Hinata just didn't understand why he wanted to spend so much time on her. He didn't do this with his father's previous assistants. Maybe it was simply because it made his father angry, and he enjoyed doing that, but if that was the case, he could have just demanded she try on thirty-some dresses and picked out the one he liked, but he focused on her comfort.

Maybe Itachi was just too nice to do that, even to achieve the goal of upsetting his father.

With the dress in the dressing bag, she realized how late it was. "I still need to go grocery shopping."

"We can go on the way," Itachi headed to his car.

Hinata waved her hands. "It's late. I'm sure you are hungry. You should go have dinner."

"How about this," Itachi put the dress in the back seat of his car. "We pick up groceries, and since I know you're unhappy about me paying for the dress, you can make me dinner. Your lunch always smells amazing."

Hinata opened her mouth to protest, but sadly, there was no talking him out of it. "Alright…"


Itachi followed her around as she did her shopping. Hinata found getting all she needed for the week and prepping it all ahead of time like she did in college was a much better approach when she could manage it. She would do all her shopping Saturday and then her prep Sunday. That was when there wasn't a report that she had to have on the director's desk on Monday, or like the week before, he decided that she had to come with him to a speaking event, which was just 6 hours of her following him around, taking the occasional side note, and denying alcoholic beverages.

With all her shopping, she let him into her apartment. She was glad she had cleaned recently. She was neat, but didn't want to be judged for dust in the space she barely used.

Itachi didn't say much, but he quickly gave up helping her put things away, as her tiny kitchen was not big enough for both of them. He was happy to sit on the pillow at her sitting table.

"You don't keep much, do you?" Itachi looked around at her futon and the freestanding rack where she kept all her office clothes, while her old clothes were folded along with any sentimental wherein the shelves of the closet that was built into the wall. The small room was bare besides the desk he was sitting at and a few things for the kitchen.

"I was living with my family before, and I'm not here much." Hinata excused. Itachi didn't press her for more information. She was sure this entire apartment was smaller than his room, but she was glad he didn't press much.


"Are you enjoying working with us?" Itachi leaned on the table, propping his head on his hand as he watched her chop vegetables.

"I do." Hinata started. "I always hoped that I would work at a large company. I just didn't think I would have gotten a high position so early."

"How did you get the job?" Itachi wondered.

Hinata blushed. "I have no clue. I applied for the wrong position. When I noticed, I thought at best they would toss the application to a lower position, and at worst I could go into an interview to get some experience getting rejected." Itachi raised an eyebrow at her. "When I was chosen for an interview, I was surprised. Then I was told that my clothes were unacceptable. But when I got home, I got the job." She set the vegetables in the hot pan with frustration. "I've no clue what would have made me the choice, even if they were in need of someone that quickly."

Itachi was sure of it now. After talking to his father's previous assistant, he found out that she was the only one that Fugaku interviewed, and he sat in on the interview. His father handpicked this girl to torture. Itachi just couldn't figure out why.

"What were you doing before?" Itachi asked.

"I was working at a temp company. My last assignment was project finishing, making sure there weren't typos and no one forgot to sign anything. The hours were miserable, though. I would start at five, and had to take the train and bus to get there, so I was up at three every morning." Hinata seemed to catch herself complaining and straightened. "But, it made the hours at this job easier."

"What made you go into business?" Itachi wondered.

Hinata looked down. "Uhm, well, my father was in business, so it seemed like the best choice." She wasn't a good liar.

"Your dad told you it was your only choice?" Itachi guessed.

Hinata turned red, being caught. "No, it was one of three choices.".

Itachi chuckled. "Didn't want to be a doctor?"

Hinata bit her lip. "Doctor wasn't one of the choices."

"Really? That's usually always the number one choice." Itachi mused.

Hinata put a lid on her cooking, washed her hands, and then lent on the counter, taking a moment to formulate her answer. "I wasn't quite good enough for the family doctor."

Itachi realized he had touched a wound.

Hinata fidgeted in the uncomfortable air. "But my sister is planning on going to medical school. She is about to graduate high school. She's top of her grade. She should get in easily."

"You must be proud of her." Hinata welcomed the change of subject.

Itachi prodded her with a few more questions as she finished cooking. Her father owned an office, they lived out a fair way from the city, she went to a nondescript college mostly on scholarship, she had no boyfriends, her mother passed away when she was a child, and she was putting money away for her sister's medical tuition.

Itachi couldn't figure out what it was that his father had against her.

Hinata put dinner in front of him, and he was happy to dig in. It smelled amazing. "What did you say your father's name was? If it's the same line of work, we may have worked with him at some point."

"Hiashi Hyuga." Hinata covered her mouth as it was full.

"Hmm." It didn't sound familiar.

"There are a lot of Hyugas, so I wouldn't expect you to know of him. I think my mother's side of the family has some kind of business in the city." Hinata waved her hands. "And I don't look anything like him."

"What was your mother's name?" Itachi asked.

"Hitomi." Hinata relayed between bites.

That did sound familiar. "A lot of H's." Itachi chuckled.

Hinata nodded with a smile. "My father had a twin brother, Hizashi." That also didn't sound familiar, but he had information that needed to be looked into now. "We've done a lot of talking about me." Hinata pointed out.

Itachi smiled. "Yes, we have. Do you have any questions for me?" He got what he wanted.


"What's your brother like?" Hinata wondered. "You talked about him before, but your father doesn't talk about him much."

"They don't get along all that well," Itachi explained. "Between Sasuke's rebellious streak and their sheer bullheadedness, it's sometimes hard to keep the peace for a whole dinner."

Hinata blanched. "Oh?" She was sure two Mr. Uchiha's would be a lot in one room.

"Yeah. Our father has always been like he is now, but after our mother left us, he had no more reason to stay away from the office." Hinata frowned, but Itachi seemed to have no emotional response to it. "Then, as I got older, I spent more and more time being groomed to take over as heir one day. My father isn't emotionally available as it is, and my mother took most of his remaining empathy with her in the divorce, so neither of us were there for Sasuke when we really should have been." He smiled. "He's a strong kid, though, and he found his revenge in refusing to go to his father's chosen college and deciding to go abroad." Itachi sounded proud of his brother. Despite what he said about his attitude, he had nothing but good things to say about him.

"Is he still in business?" Hinata wondered.

"He majored in marketing, so just a little rebellion there, still a business major. He decided he wanted his master's. That's why he's just getting back now. He'll probably become our international marketing director shortly after he has a project or two under his belt." Itachi relayed. "He comes back during the summer every year, but he refused to come to mother's Christmas party last year after a fight he had with her." Hinata gaped a little. "Yeah, you think that's big. It's her absolute favorite holiday. She was livid. She likes to think he's still her baby."

Their food was now gone. They talked over their empty bowls.

"Do you resent your mother?" Hinata asked hesitantly.

"Mother is… overbearing, opinionated…" Itachi explained. "But she's still my mother. I try to be civil with her, even if I think she can sometimes be too much." She nodded. "However, Sasuke blames her for the divorce. To be fair, it was her affair that started it." Hinata gaped at him again. She hadn't wondered why they were divorced. "You think that was bad? You should have seen the blow-up when she decided to marry him."

"I'm sorry…" Hinata hadn't meant to dig up such personal items.

Itachi waved his hands. "It's old news to me. I find it all good fun to watch."

"Does it bother you that she got married to her lover?" Hinata asked.

Itachi shook his head. "I don't think poor of her, her marriage to dad was arranged, and they never really liked each other much. Dad tried, but she was always at his heels, saying he wasn't trying enough, and that was ultimately what she blamed her affair on."

Hinata felt her heart bleed a little. Though they were rich children that probably had everything they wanted, if they didn't have attention and love when they needed it most, what did they have? It sounded like a miserable childhood. She hadn't even met this brother of his, and she had already felt bad for him.

"Well, let's not end the night on a low note." Itachi clapped his hands. "Let me help you with these." He picked up the dishes.

After fighting with him about the dishes, Hinata relented, letting him dry them.

After Itachi left, Hinata felt like her small apartment was more empty than usual. His calm presence was comforting and filled the room in a way she didn't notice until after he was gone.

Maybe she needed more furniture.