Sasuke rolled the hospital wheelchair into his brother's room. "You look like shit."

Itachi rolled his eyes. "Get out."

"Nah, you're stuck with me now." Sasuke stopped the rickety chair next to Itachi's bed. "You're going to live a while longer, whether you like it or not."

"You're just delaying the inevitable." Itachi sighed.

"Fuck off." Sasuke waved his hand. "I could get hit by a bus tomorrow. I gave you my kidney, not my heart. I have two."

"Hinata still avoiding me?" Itachi changed the subject.

"She went into the office." Sasuke waved his hand toward the door. "She said she would be back for lunch, but she is still fighting with some contract. I probably won't see her until tonight."

"Still?" Itachi's face scrunched.

"You expect anything different?" If there were work to be done, she would disappear. Sasuke wasn't surprised. If he needed her, she would be here in a minute, but if she knew he was fine, she would be back to work, and he wasn't so clingy that he needed to have full attention on him. In fact, he would rather just sleep off the worst part of the recovery.

"She's turning into dad," Itachi grumbled.

"Dad's still here. I think she might be worse." Sasuke chuckled.


Hinata rubbed her face. "Tired?" Sasuke asked from his hospital bed.

Yes, she was tired. She spent the whole day having meaningless arguments over little clauses in contracts that meant nothing after she spent the morning at the hospital, and now she was here again. She wanted to be here, but she also just wanted a nap and maybe a cake.

Sasuke shifted to the side. "Come here."

"I can't." Hinata shook her head.

"It'll be fine." Sasuke opened his arms, and it was so tempting that she slipped off her blazer and heels and tucked herself into the edge of the hospital bed beside him. Sasuke wrapped the non-IVed around her back and rubbed his thumb over her shoulder.

Her head felt like it was going to explode, and the humming and beeping of machines were not helping, but despite spending several days in the hospital and smelling vaguely of sterile products here at his neck was familiar. And even though the hospital room was cold, she was still in her high fashion clothes, and she was more than half a day into wearing this makeup, here, in this spot. She was warm and comfortable.


A smile grazed Fugaku's face as he check on his youngest son. Hinata was curled into Sasuke's side, dead asleep, and Sasuke was watching her like she was the world to him at that moment. Sasuke eyes only flicked up to acknowledge him in the door frame before he went back to her.

Well, after all, that happened, at least one mess ended with these two kids being happy.

Fugaku filtered down to the other hospital room where his elder son was still being a whiny brat for being alive. Would he have done the same thing Hinata did, given the opportunity? He may have given his own kidney if he could, but would he have given his other son's? Would he have disrespected his son like that? Yes. Would he have been able to force one son to help another? He had less of an answer for that.

It was why keeping all of it from Sasuke was easier. Having both boys in the hospital was straining his already high blood pressure.

Itachi looked up from his phone as Fugaku walked back in. "Was he asleep?"

"Hinata is." Fugaku sat down.

Itachi face shifted. He was still trying to decide if he was irreparably angry with her. "She needs to stop pushing so hard, or she is going to burn out." He gave him a look. "Or fall down another flight of stairs."

Well, there was no better time than the present. "There is something I wanted to talk to you about since you nearly forced my hand."

Itachi raised an eyebrow in interest.


Lee bounced up and down as Hinata got into the office and assaulted her with a bouquet of flowers. Hinata blinked as she struggled to hold the arrangement. It was silly how large it was. "What is this for?"

"It's from the director's ex-wife!" Lee cheered. "For you." He clarified.

Hinata blinked at him. "Why?"

"No, clue. There is a card." Lee pulled it out and held it up. All it said was 'from Mikoto, kisses.'

Hinata set the flowers down on a table. Did they even make vases this big, were you mean to break them up and put them everywhere? "I can't tell if she is trying to lull me into a false sense of security so she can eat my liver…"

Lee tilted his head. "She would make a very pretty bird."

Sometimes she envied how Lee's brain worked. "You could take this home."

"Neji's allergic to roses." Lee pointed and brushed himself off to make sure he didn't have any on him.

Hinata's mouth fell open. "You're right. I shouldn't bring these home in the car then." Then a thought popped into her head that made her giggle. "We should send them to Kisame-san without the note."

Lee's eyes lit up. "I'll call someone from the front desk."


"The office is getting weird." Kisame looked huge in the small chairs the hospital provided. "I got this massive bouquet, and I thought for a moment that no one told me you died and they were giving me a bereavement gift." Itachi tried not to laugh because he knew it was going to hurt. "I had to put them in a bucket of water. Who thought it was a good idea to send me flowers?"

"If you had an assistant…" Itachi nagged.

"I'm getting there." Kisame snapped.

A knock made them both turn their heads to Hinata at the door holding a covered dish. "Sorry, am I interrupting?"

"Nah, I have to get home and figure out what I am going to do with a bushel of flowers," Kisame grumbled.

Hinata pressed her lips together to hide a smile as he left, which made Itachi's eyes narrow. "Did you send them?"

"I… regifted the flowers your mother sent me." Hinata reworded. "I think she was thanking me… or threatening me. It's hard to tell with her."

"Which are you expecting I will do?" Itachi wondered.

Hinata set down her covered dish by his bedside and sat down. "I think you will ignore it for now, wait to seek revenge, and use it against me later." Itachi had to admit. It did sound like him. "Honestly, I think you should be blaming yourself though. You gave me the power to do it."

Did she just… "How long have you been holding that in?"

"I'm still mad at you." Hinata countered. Well, whatever Itachi thought this conversation was going to be like, this was not it. "I don't think it was appropriate to put me into the position, and I don't regret abusing it."

Itachi blinked at her. "You've really grown up."

Hinata's face melted into her usual insecurity. "Don't praise me. I am not happy that I did it either."

"Then why did you?" Itachi wondered.

"You think I wanted to watch you die? To watch your family mourn you? To watch Sasuke-san mourn when he 'knew' he was able to help." Hinata huffed, frustrated with him. "Like it or not, rejecting help hurts everyone more than it helps."

"And if Sasuke died on the table?" Itachi raised his eyebrow. "How would I live with that?"

"The same way he would live if I called him to tell him his brother died, and I wasn't allowed to call him until you were." Hinata snapped back. "Stop arguing about it. I did it. You're alive. If you want to be mad at me, fine, stay mad, but I am not apologizing for saving your life. All I did was give Sasuke-san the decision you refused to."

Itachi pressed his lips into a line. The problem was he wasn't mad at her about this. She did what any of them would have done in the same situation. He was upset that he put her in a situation that he knew was going to eat at her.

Itachi opened his arms. Hinata blinked for a moment before her face scrunched miserably, and she launched herself to hug him. He held her there as she whimpered. Yeah, he was a bastard, but she shouldn't expect anything different at this point.