A slam down the hall shook the wall, making Hinata jump and lose her pen. What was that? Hinata set her papers aside to peek down the hall, only to have her door slammed open by a stern-looking Baki. Was she in trouble?
"Time to test your skills." Baki pointed down the hall to Gaara's office.
"What happened?" Hinata followed him down the hall.
"I believe it's a mixture of his normal load, the wedding coming, the council pushing more work to keep him busy and away from them with the negotiations going on. On top of that, a team going missing." Baki explained. "He's ordered me out and will set himself back further like this."
Hinata chewed her lip. "Wait one moment." She returned to her office and gathered papers in her arms and her discarded pen. "Okay, I'm ready."
Baki eyed her skeptically. What the hell was she planning?
Hinata knocked, receiving a vicious. "What!?" Baki expected her to flinch as she made no such move.
Hinata opened it only enough, so he could see her face. "May I work here?"
That was her idea? More work? Hinata was going to get herself killed like that. Baki peered through the crack to see a confused, blank look on Gaara's face. Gaara puffed out a deliberate breath, releasing the creases on his forehead.
The angry, dancing sand collected itself and tucked itself away. Gaara didn't ask her why or accuse her, though Baki knew Gaara knew he was there.
Hinata slipped in, closing the door behind her, giving Baki a final glance and a hopeful smile.
What just happened?
They worked in silence for hours. Gaara stared at her while he thought. If she noticed, she didn't let on.
Hinata chewed on her lip when she read, abusing it while she worked, explaining the swollen look they always had, years of abuse from her focus. When she was trying to think of how to write a word, her eyebrows would knit together, and she would set her pencil down to use her finger to write it on the surface nearest to her. She scrunched her nose when she knew she was wrong and crossed out the invisible word with her finger.
Cute.
Hinata sat much more properly when she was working. Instead of having her legs curled up like usual, she tucked her crossed ankles under the couch. She sat up straight, her back hovering away from the couch while peering down at her work in her lap. She would hurt her neck like that, he noted.
Hinata glanced up at him. "Am I distracting you?"
"No," Gaara wouldn't be working right now. He would bristle at his paperwork rather than doing it. He wasn't sure if he wanted to punish or thank Baki for his fiancé's presence.
Hinata smiled at him and went back to work.
Hinata left for her other arrangements, but she enjoyed working together. It was nice to have someone else there, though sitting there put a kink in her neck. It was worth it for his comfort.
What did they use to do when he got like that? Would they leave him alone? Did they try to calm him down and fail? Was it just her? It couldn't just be her.
Now showered and in her nightgown and heavy night robe, she returned to the office and plopped back down in her spot. "How are you feeling?" Hinata curled her legs under her comfortably.
"Better, thank you, though I do not appreciate Baki's meddling," Gaara noted honestly.
"He meant well," Hinata promised. "I don't think he likes seeing you stressed any more than I would. He was trying to help."
"I'm aware. However, I preferred when he used to just leave." Gaara sighed.
Hinata frowned. "Would you prefer I not come next time, just leave you be?"
"No, your presence is calming. I much prefer it to sit in my irrigation and Shukaku's prodding." Gaara admitted.
Hinata rolled her head to the side. "It would be easier for everyone involved if you two got along better."
The noise that came from Gaara surprised her. Did he just snort? He was laughing at her.
"You don't think so?" Hinata asked with a visible pout.
"You don't know him. He's not one to do things for others' comfort. He takes great joy in causing me discomfort when he's bored." Hinata pressed her lips into a line. "He's known for his foul temper, dark humor, and bloodlust."
Her heart wept for him. "The way he's been treated for centuries, I'm not surprised. It sounds like a cold, lonely life of imprisonment, moved from body to body of people who were told that he was a curse. I think anyone would be openly hostile after something like that."
Now Hinata had Shukaku's attention. Was there no end to her purity? "Are you pitying him?"
"No, I guess I am sympathetic. It's always upset me how the beasts are handled. Instead of finding some way of coexisting with them, we trap them in our children out of fear. Then treat those children like they did something wrong." Hinata ranted with glitter of fire in her eyes. "It's disgusting, and if I were trapped in child after child, then watched adults treat them horribly for something they did to him, I would dislike humans as well. Shukaku-san is justified in his anger, though I do not agree with the lengths he goes to express it."
Somehow she kept making a deeper and deeper silence in his head. Had anyone ever treated the demon so fairly? Thought about its comfort openly and cared that he was trapped?
Hinata squeaked, bringing him out of his thoughts before he realized what was happening. His sand, without his command, started curling around her shoulders.
Gaara jerked his arm, willing it to pull back, but his command merely stopped its movement. 'Let her go!' Gaara growled at the demon.
'I'm not hurting your woman.' Shukaku growled in his defense.
'You will, and you're scaring her.' Gaara pressed angrily.
'I'm simply thanking the tart, she knows.' Shukaku replied smugly. 'She is speaking to you.' He added as Gaara was pulled out of his thoughts by the light stutter of her laugh.
Gaara's panic told her it wasn't his doing. The layer of sand that covered her collarbones only surprised her. Her shoulders down to her ribs were covered in a one-inch layer of frozen sand, though it wasn't uncomfortable. She raised her arm to place her hand flat on the sand, feeling it move like it was alive underhand. "I'm fine. It doesn't hurt."
Gaara didn't relax. Glaring past her, arguing in his head. While he was distracted, she could feel the sand releasing and moving. She giggled as it slid over her ribs.
Gaara snapped out of his head. She tried to hide the fact that the moving sand was tickling her. "I don't think he means to hurt me." Hinata managed as the sand slipped in circles around her rib cage snugly. "I think this is a hug?"
Gaara paid careful attention to the sand, ensuring it didn't constrict her painfully. She laid her hands on it comfortably, rubbing her dainty fingers over it. It reacted by running between her fingers. He felt his face heat familiarly. She was so gentle with such a deadly substance. She gave him a bright smile as he didn't tell her she was wrong, and the sand continued to curl gently around her. It started to tuck under the fold of her robe, and she jumped. "No." She puffed firmly, pulling the robe closer.
Gaara could hear Shukaku laughing. He didn't know what was weirder, his lightness of the new non-bloodthirsty laughing or the fact he was openly being gentle.
"I appreciate the affection, Shukaku-san," Hinata spoke directly to the sand. "However, I prefer you to stay simply affectionate." Her cheeks flushed darkly.
"He thinks it's funny." Gaara voiced.
"He can think it's funny and stay appropriate," Hinata said firmly.
Gaara couldn't trust the demon enough to release his focus on the sand. That meant he had to focus on how it curved around her chest and ribs and how she looked down fondly at the sand as it swirled around her shoulders again before releasing her and retreating.
"Thank you." Hinata smiled with a tilt of her head to the large guard.
Hinata continued to surprise him at every turn. He sighed at the smug amusement and now annoying purring in his head and crossed the room to her as he felt the wave of exhaustion after deafening panic like that.
Hinata opened her arms to him before he could decide to sit down. "Your turn." Her understanding eyes knew how he was feeling. If she wasn't going to be his wife, her deep understanding of him would make her a dangerous potential enemy.
Gaara happily kneeled in front of her knees to let her engulf him. She curled around him comfortably, as the sand had done. He had to be more careful. He allowed himself to relax too far. Far enough that Shukaku was able to control the sand without his notice. Did he not notice because there was no malicious intent? Had he lost control? Was it because the demon started to calm? He curled his arms warmly around her hips, sliding her closer on the couch, burying his forehead in her collarbone, and carefully keeping his breathing down and away from her neck.
Hinata hummed a warm sigh into his hair, playing with the strands at the base of his neck. Gaara stiffened. Maybe he needed to be more careful with more than just her neck now that he was aware of the feeling.