Sasuke was the first to speak in the tense air. "Yes."

Neji pointed his finger at him. "You?"

"Yes," Hinata answered that time.

Hanabi jumped up and down in her chair, launching her hands forward. "Finally, let me see the ring." Hinata frowned at her but offered her hand anyway. "Wow." Hanabi turned her hand in the light.

"It's the family ring," Sasuke sipped his drink to distance himself from Neji's intense stare. It was an unnecessary comment, but Hinata was glad he made it. She didn't want either of them to think that she thought that Sasuke would purchase a ring like this for her taste.

"You're supposed to ask the family for permission." Hanabi pouted. "You never asked me."

"We aren't really doing anything conventional here." Sasuke countered.

Hinata tugged her hand back. "The director has kind of jumped the gun. Our relationship is rather new."

Sasuke played along with her line of thinking. "Dad insisted."

"How new?" Hanabi asked.

"Uh…?" A week, but this had been spiraling to this for… months, or at least Sasuke had.

"New," Sasuke answered. "But you can't fight with my dad. You won't win."

"Wanna bet?" Hanabi countered.

Neji finally had enough. "You're engaged to someone you just recently met?"

"No, no… we've known each other for a while," Hinata assured him. "Our relationship has only changed recently."

Hinata knew the face that crossed Neji's face. "We need to talk."

"Neji-san, I am an adult. Please don't." Hinata immediately regretted her tone as Neji's face flinched into a guarded frown.

Sasuke tried to defuse. "We have all the time in the world to talk about it. We aren't rushing."

"You're already engaged." Neji countered.

"And that means everything and nothing to in my world. I have an aunt who was engaged for three years." Sasuke wasn't mentioning that she wasn't engaged to the same man for all three years. "It's a status thing."

Neji rubbed his forehead. "Is this your apartment?"

"No, it's Hinata's," Hanabi nudged him.

"Uchiha heirs live in the manor until they marry." Did Sasuke have to add that last part?

Neji opened his mouth, but after already being scolded, he had no nice way to say: how do you afford this place?

"I am the director's assistant. He wanted me closer. He owns the building." Hinata found that out, reviewing their taxes. She was relieved he hadn't strong-armed some poor building manager for the rent she paid.

"And his brother decorated," Hanabi pointed at Sasuke.

Neji's face twisted further. "You work for his father." This was exactly what Hinata was afraid of with all this. This is why the executive assistant shouldn't date the director's son. It didn't look good on paper.

"That's how we met. Hinata put together my homecoming party." Hinata hadn't thought about it, but that is exactly how they met. "Then we spent half the night in the hospital." Sasuke should have left that out.

"Don't tell them that." Hinata grimaced. "I fell."

"Down a flight of stairs." Sasuke countered.

Hinata shook her head. "Don't make it worse."

"It happened." Sasuke shrugged, enjoying teasing her. "You bleed all over me, and dad stayed up the whole night."

"Were you okay?" Neji asked. Somehow, Sasuke successfully defused the engagement talk with the fell down the stairs comments.

"Uh." Hinata didn't want to lie to him.

"No." Sasuke interrupted. "Stitches and a cast."

"It was a splint." Hinata corrected.

"When did this happen?" Hanabi was confused.

"Oh, that was just after dad came into the office," Hinata explained.

"She still had the bruise on her face," Sasuke added.

Hanabi sat back and frowned, looking at her plate. "Oh, I'm glad someone was there then." The realization in Hanabi's eyes broke Hinata's heart. It wasn't her fault. Hinata never called to tell them. She didn't want to give them ammunition to criticize her and convince her to quit.

Hinata waved her hands. "Don't worry about it."

"Thank you." Hanabi bowers her head to Sasuke quickly. "For taking care of my sister when I didn't."

Hinata gave a scolding face to Sasuke. He got them out of one awful conversation only to put them into an uncomfortable one.


Hinata cleared the table and put out dessert, taking a moment in the kitchen to release the tension from her shoulders. Sasuke managed to raise the mood again by starting a good-spirited, she hoped, argument with Hanabi. Neji dropped his outrage for the moment.

They got past the worst part, explaining the engagement. Hinata would tell them more if it came down to it, but she didn't need more opinions than surface-level ones. She didn't think all this was a good idea. She didn't need convincing.

"You've changed a lot." Neji slid into the kitchen.

Hinata turned her head as she continued to put dessert on plates. "I don't think so."

"You look happier," Neji added.

Hinata paused to look at him more directly. If anything, Neji was the one who changed. He changed the day he decided to leave for the military. Neji never talked back to her father like that before. Then, when they did hear from, it was brief. It was like he made an effort to disappear. They weren't sure if he would contact him when he came back. "Do I?"

"There's a lot you're not telling me, but you look happier." Neji clarified. "I was worried that your father would crush you when I left."

"He tried." Hinata gave him a sad smile. "The director has some choice words about that."

Neji's face winced as he tried to understand. "You sound oddly close with the director of your company."

"I think he feels guilty that he didn't know me growing up. The director was very close with mother, and I think he regrets letting father between them. After the incident in the lobby, he's taken me in, to a fault. I try to remind him I am his assistant, not his daughter." Hinata admitted.

"That's why he's eager to marry you to his son." Neji filled.

"I certainly think it helps." Hinata agreed.

Neji's eyes dropped, "Is he a good man?"

Hinata tucked her hair behind her ear. "I think so." Neji nodded, but hesitation swam in his eyes. "He wants to meet you."

Neji's eyebrows knit together. "You told him about me?"

"Of course." Hinata picked up the plates. "He wants me to schedule lunch next week, assuming you didn't walk out after finding out I'm engaged."

"You thought I would be upset…" Neji tilted his head, ashamed.

"I thought you would be concerned, and you were." Neji's face twitched, caught. Hinata turned to take the dessert to the table. "But you can't blame me. You gave Kiba a black eye for asking me to a dance I wasn't even allowed to go to."

Hanabi pointed at Neji joining the conversation. "I remember that. It backfired because Hinata spent the week babying him."

"I didn't baby him." Hinata frowned at her sister.

"Sure." Hanabi rolled her eyes.

"Who's Kiba?" Sasuke looked to the side to think, but he wasn't going to find anything in his memory. Hinata never mentioned him before.

"We went to school together," Hinata explained.

"He went abroad for university. When he returned, his sister started having kids, so he worked more at the vet clinic. I see him from time to time. He always asks about you." Hanabi turned her head to Hinata.

"Now you have something to tell him." Sasuke grinned.

"Yeah, he'll be yelling objection at the wedding." Hanabi countered. Hinata hoped the crush didn't run that deep.