Fugaku offered Hinata his arm when they arrived. They were met with flashing cameras at the door, he introduced her to the press, then again to people of interest inside as they walked around the room.
It felt more like she was a guest than a member of staff. It was nice to be thought of, but she hoped it didn't come with consequences.
Hinata glanced around the room before tucking her head behind his arm to whisper. "Sir, your ex-wife is heading this way."
The smile physically fell from his face. "Sharpen your tongue."
Hinata hoped he was just joking.
Mikoto smiled widely, prospering her wine glass up. "Oh, Fugaku, you still have the Hyuga charity case on staff."
"Mikoto, looking old as ever." Fugaku fired back.
Mikoto's smile tightened. "I doubt it." Her eyes flickered up to the side as she postured her face. "I could get you, my surgeon, dear."
Hinata felt like the insult would have been better placed if she wasn't the same age as one of her sons.
"I doubt she'll need it. Hyuga women age gracefully." Fugaku fired back.
"Or die young." Mikoto sipped her wine.
Hinata could feel the waves of annoyance come from the director, but he was going to make an express effort not to start another scene with her. After all, this was Sasuke's first big work event.
Hinata glanced around the room, catching a direct look from Lee from over the crowd. Her eyebrows knitted together as he looked down. She got a message on her phone and glanced at it. "I have to handle something, sir."
Fugaku nodded, but as she walked away, she didn't miss his ex-wife's comment. "Keep an eye on her. You don't want her handling the wrong investor's son."
Sasuke was a little more than annoyed. He was trying to keep his cool for the event, but it was getting on his nerves to watch his father parade his assistant around like it was her event.
"Why don't you ask her to dance?" Itachi leaned down to ask.
Sasuke's eyes darted over to his brother. "What are you talking about?"
"You've been staring at her all night." Itachi nudged him. "She looks great, doesn't she?"
Sasuke clenched his teeth together. "She looks fine."
"Look, you have a chance." Itachi pointed as Hinata walked away from his father.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed on her as Lee opened the back curtain for her. Sasuke rounded the ballroom with another word to his brother and headed behind the curtain, finding her crouching over the audio equipment. Hinata picked up a microphone. "What do you think you are doing?"
Hinata stared at him, bewildered. "There is a problem with the main mic." A man came round the corner holding a box. She hesitantly handed him the mic. "I was having it replaced before you went on stage. I had Lee-san check before you went on to ensure it went smoothly."
Sasuke stared at her for another moment. His nose twitched, but with nothing to say to her, he just turned to leave, rubbing his temples on the way out. The stress was getting to him. He headed back to his brother and his lopsided grin. "What did she say?"
"What?" Sasuke tugged down on his suit jacket.
"What did she say when you asked her to dance?" Itachi waved his hand in the direction Hinata came out of it. She glanced at the two of them before she went back to his father.
Sasuke looked at him ludicrously. "I didn't ask." Itachi pouted. Sasuke hoped he didn't get any bright ideas.
Hinata clapped with the crowd. With the correction of the new microphone, the presentation went wonderfully. Fugaku gushed to her about it for the next hour. She only hoped he would be able to tell his son how much he enjoyed it.
She felt a hand slide across her back to settle at her waist. "You smell like a wine cellar."
Itachi was a lot friendlier after a bottle of wine, and she wasn't sure that was all he had so far. He had been drinking since he came in, and she was early.
"Mother found me." Itachi nudged his head toward his mother. The woman's eyes were cold as ice, staring directly at Itachi's hand on her waist.
"Are you trying to make her worse?" Hinata whispered.
"I don't know what you mean, but this should make her pretty mad." Itachi tugged her away. Hinata snapped her fingers to get Lee's attention, pointing to the director. Lee gave her a thumbs up.
Itachi pulled her to him on the dance floor. "Aren't you glad I sent him your away?"
"Lee-san's help is invaluable." Hinata agreed.
"What did Sasuke catch you for earlier," Itachi asked with a grin.
Hinata wasn't sure why he was smiling about it, but she was also not going to tell him about her confrontation with the younger heir. "Uhm, he didn't say much." Hinata pressed her lips together. Itachi's grin got wider. She felt her face get red. She didn't like being under this pressure and wasn't good at lying. What did he think happened?
At this point, he danced her across the room. "Can you step in for me?" Itachi spun her right into someone. She hit their chest coming face to face with a man her height in heels.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at his brother.
Itachi had enough to drink.
Itachi held her hand out to him. Sasuke took it only not to be outwardly rude. Hinata hesitantly replaced the hand she braced herself with on his shoulder where it had been on Itachi's. Itachi disappeared, leaving the two of them in awkward and tense silence.
Sasuke did his best not to look at her, but he wasn't going to be rude.
It was uncomfortable for both of them, his hand was too high on her back, but she wasn't going to mention it. Her hand was too low on his shoulder, but she wasn't going to move it. They were too close from the position Itachi had forced them into, but neither wanted to budge and let on to the other that they were aware of the incorrect position.
Hinata looked anywhere but his flat but disgruntled expression, scanning the crowd to distract herself, but all she received was another dirty look from Mikoto and a glare from Sasuke's assistant. When the song ended, he disappeared before she could speak. Leaving her in the middle of the dance floor as silently as they had danced. Hinata took a moment to glance around, twirling the diamond necklace the director gave her between her fingers. She crossed the room to settle back at his side when she found him.
Fugaku gave her a nod, acknowledging her reappearance with a smile. "My boys giving you a hard time?"
Hinata forced a smile, wishing just one of these events would be less eventful.
"Sasuke, she really can't be that bad." Naruto rolled his eyes.
"Look at her hands on him," Sasuke growled at Hinata's hand in the crook of his father's arm. She gave a false smile to the conversation and a polite nod.
Naruto made a face of disbelief. "Sasuke, you really need to let it go. If I spent this much time on every woman my father brought home, I wouldn't have time to breathe."
"You had three step-moms before grade school." Sasuke snapped back.
"You get used to it." Naruto shrugged. "But I honestly don't think she wants to be your new stepmother."
"I didn't think she did." Sasuke huffed. "She wants to be daddy's little girl or something. I don't know her angle, but she has one."
Naruto shrugged, shoving a piece of food in his mouth. What help did he think Naruto was going to be? Naruto's father was known for his string of divorces after his first wife passed away. "Look, let's just go see. Maybe if you see it up close."
Sasuke struggled as Naruto pulled him across the room toward both their fathers. There was only so much struggling he could do without making a scene.
"There's our boys." Uzumaki waved his hand, signaling their arrival.
Fugaku raised his hand. "Naruto, I don't think you have met Hinata yet."
Hinata bowed her head.
"She has a thing for sweets." Naruto's father added with a large grin.
Hinata's face turned red. It worsened when Naruto held out his plate piled with deserts. She held her hand up to politely declined. Hinata met Sasuke's eyes. She glanced off to the side, signaling to him something. His eyebrows twitched, not understanding.
Hinata leaned forward to tell him directly, but before she could, Hinata screeched in surprise, followed by the sound of glass shattering. They all stepped back, and it was clear what happened. Sasuke's own assistant had a not-so-sorry, sorry look on her face until she saw who got the brunt of her stunt.
Sasuke was covered in red wine. He wiped his face, flicked his hands, and let out a cough. It was in his nose.
"I'm so sorry!" His assistant squeaked. At least now, she sounded genuine.
"Get her out of here," Fugaku growled.
Hinata set into action, grabbing a napkin from a nearby table and holding it up to his face. "Lee-san, have someone clean this up." Hinata ushered him toward a bathroom.
Sasuke ducked his face into the sink and splashed his face clean. He felt her dabbing at his shirt. "I'm fine. Get out."
"You're not the only one that got hit," Hinata told him.
Sasuke scrolled down her. Her white dress was clean. Hinata wet a towel, kneeling down to her feet, where she had a cut across the top of her foot. "I just finished healing from the last incident."
"We should have insurance on you," Sasuke pulled off his tie.
Hinata made a noise, but he couldn't tell if it was amused or annoyed. She dabbed her cut, but it wasn't doing her much good. It was too deep to blot away.
Sasuke sighed outwardly, pulling her up, and lifted her to sit on the bathroom counter. He lifted her foot into the light. "This isn't a paper cut. You aren't going to be able just to hope it stops bleeding."
Sasuke unlatched her shoe, tossed it on the counter next to her, and held the towel to the cut. "Have you always been this accident-prone?"
"I wouldn't call myself particularly graceful, but I don't think my accident caused this." Hinata frowned at him as he held pressure over the cut.
"This wasn't an accident. She threw it." Sasuke clarified. "And she's fired Monday morning."
"I tried to warn you she was coming," Hinata told him as he turned her foot, looking for other cuts on her leg. "But I don't understand why she would do this."
"Because Itachi thought it was a bright idea to make us dance together." Sasuke leaned out the door catching a staff member to grab a first aid kit. "And it's bad enough you danced with one of the Uchiha bachelors. You danced with two. You were asking to be doused."
Sasuke started digging inside the kit when it arrived. "I didn't think high-class women would be so low."
"They would. Don't think they won't do worse." Sasuke pulled out a few supplies and set to work. Hinata winced. "Be happy I am not picking you up from the bottom of another flight of stairs."
"I guess it's good that you're covered in wine and not blood this time." Hinata sighed.
"Hm," Sasuke finished with a tap of a bandage.
"Don't think I could just hide it with makeup, do you?" Hinata pouted.
"You need to stop trying so hard for perfection." Sasuke tossed away the trash and closed the kit.
"I'm not. The director just doesn't like imperfections." Hinata's wasn't a very good case for herself. "I avoid them when possible." Hinata took her shoe and tried to put it back on, but was trying to without raising her leg and skirt too high.
Sasuke snatched the shoe out of her hand, stretching her leg back out. "And you make sure even his sons are perfect?" He put her shoe back on, tucking in the edges of the bandages.
Hinata looked at him for a moment of surprise and then forced her face to change. "Is that a thank you for handling problems for you?"
Sasuke's face twitched in anger. "I don't need your meddling."
"Clearly." Hinata pulled herself off the counter, grabbed his tie, and run it under the tap.
Itachi was watching for them as they came out, and he started crossing the room as soon as they did.
Hinata stumbled. Sasuke caught her arm and sat her down, where she signaled to Lee.
Itachi joined him as he moved back toward Naruto. "Is she okay?"
"I'm fine, thanks," Sasuke grumbled.
"I mean it. Is she okay?" Itachi narrowed his eyes at him.
"She's fine, wine in her shoes," Sasuke told him.
