Itachi waited as the hospital staff rushed pasted him as the machines blared to alert them. Humans tried so hard to hold on to what they could for a few extra moments, days, or weeks even if it kept the person suffering and those around them miserable as they watched them degrade.
But was he really so different?
Hinata's lifespan would haunt him before long, and he would watch her degrade and disappear. Then he would be left alone again with just the memories. So he had better make enough to last him a while.
Because when once she was gone, so was the warmth that he was getting used to.
"Hinata!" Hinata flinched to blink at Kiba, laughing at her over the sound of the machine. She turned off the sewing machine to hear him. "You have a visitor."
Hinata sat up to see past her corner. Her face dropped to see her cousin waiting for her. She set her sewing aside and straightened the look on her face out as Kiba realized this was not a happy reunion. "I'll be back in a bit, okay?" Hinata grabbed her coat and nodded her head out the door for Neji to follow her.
Neji lead her to a café, where she sat down while he ordered coffee. Hinata's stomach gnawed at her when he put a familiar drink and treat in front of her. She didn't reach out to take it, even if it would calm her nerves.
"I like the shop." Neji tried, but they both knew that the was no way to make this not awkward, so he moved on to why he came. He slid a letter she sent across the table. "Your father declined to answer."
Hinata pressed her lips together. "I didn't think he would send you…"
"He didn't. He didn't even open it," Neji answered. "I saw it. I wanted to know what you said."
Neji must have been disappointed. "It wasn't important."
"I don't know anything about your mother's family." Neji folded his hands on the table. "Is there a reason you are looking for a living relative?"
"It's not important…" Hinata expected her father to just send her a flat analytical reply if he replied at all.
"Are you sick?" Did he think she was looking for donors?
Hinata waved her hands. "No… I just… have something of mother's. I wanted to know the history of it."
Neji's face released its tension. "I can look into some documents for you, but I am not sure your mother had much family."
Hinata felt bad that he came the whole way out here because he thought she was sick. "No. No, don't worry about it. It was a silly reason to reach out."
"I heard you came to the wedding." Neji looked into his cup.
Hinata couldn't be sure if he were upset he didn't see her there or that she came at all. "It was wonderful."
Neji's eyebrows knit together as he looked for what to say. He sighed when he found nothing. "How… are you doing?"
"I'm… fine." Seeing ghosts, got attacked by one, kind of dating a grim reaper. Speaking of which. It was getting hard to ignore Itachi sitting at the table behind Neji.
"Are you eating well?" Neji asked.
"No," Itachi answered.
Hinata kept instant irritation off her face. "I eat fine."
Neji made a face. "Have you learned to cook?"
"No." The corners of Itachi's mouth turned up.
Could you kill a reaper? "I think so."
Itachi's smile got wider as glanced at him. "He agrees that you should eat better." Hinata pressed her lips into a line to keep her irritation off her face as she sent a warning flick of her eyes at him.
Neji looked down at his hand, and a sad smile spread across his face. "I remember one year when you and Hanabi-chan tried to make dumplings… and they all came out horrible." Hinata's heart dropped into her stomach, and that did show on her face because Neji's smile dropped entirely. "Sorry."
Hinata tried to say it was fine, but she couldn't because it wasn't, and she couldn't pretend it was. "I… should go."
"I'm sorry…" Neji said again, reaching a hand out to her.
Hinata tightened her hands into fists, keeping them close to her. Neji faltered back. "Thank you… for coming."
Itachi watched as Hinata fled the café past him. His attempt to distract her from her self-loathing only worked for a moment. Her cousin sat with the untouched food for a moment before he turned back and flinched. Itachi tilted his head and looked back, but Hinata was gone. Did he think she would still be there?
Itachi stood up to disappear and reappear next to her in the next alley, where she had flattened herself against the stone wall to breathe.
"Don't lecture me." Hinata's lip quivered as she looked away from him.
"You did well." Itachi's praise did nothing to help as her face scrunched up miserably, trying not to cry. He offered his hand, and she took it, holding on tightly, showing all her insecurities too plainly.
Itachi's suspicions were correct. It wasn't that her family hated her. She couldn't handle being forgiven. She couldn't handle speaking about better times when she felt responsible. She couldn't live with people who wanted her to move on. They were not going to be able to tell her otherwise, and neither was he.
Cars and pedestrians went by the alley, oblivious of them as they went by. Passing conversations and the screeching of bad breaks filled the silence as Hinata's breathing evened out, and she was able to collect herself. She turned to him and loosened her hand, repositioning it more comfortable for her, shifting the warmth reminding him that it was cold for her. "I'm sorry."
Itachi wasn't going to tell her to go back and apologize. "You can be upset with me for interrupting."
Hinata's sad face twisted to let out a single laugh. She covered her mouth to hide the miserable smile that spread there. "Thank you for staying with me."
Keep her talking. "What was the letter?"
"It was a stupid attempt to find someone in my mother's family that might know about this ghost mess," Hinata admitted. "I thought my father would either toss it out or send me the information I wanted to keep me from sending another letter. I didn't expect…"
Steer her away before it gets worse. "You didn't have your cake."
Hinata blinked at him. "No, I really didn't think I could eat."
"You didn't before, either." The cake from the night it snowed was still sitting in her fridge, untouched.
Hinata looked down at their hands, and her face turned a tinge of red. The cold was getting to her cheeks already? "Sugar makes me feel better."
"And you don't always want to feel better." Hinata shook her head. Self-destructive. Itachi slid his thumb over the back of her hand to get her attention. "Then you should have it on a good day."
Hinata leaned her face into his coat and sighed. He put his hand on the back of her head. On the good days, she didn't think about having a piece of cake to celebrate simply not feeling bad, or maybe she didn't have a good enough day.
Hinata came back to the shop and tried to finish what she was doing, but she was too distracted and made one too many mistakes that she had to take back out before she realized that she should just call it a day and go home. Kiba gave her a solemn look that told her that he wanted to ask, he wanted to comfort her, but he knew better, and she silently thanked him for not prodding.
Hinata collapsed on her bed and huff out a whimper as she realized she should get up and at least eat. Guilt ate at her insides for lying to Neji. She didn't eat well, and she knew it, but cooking wasn't something she ever learned, and it wasn't something she wanted to do when she came home.
A shallow noise of something being set down beside her head made her turn to find a cup with steam coming out and Itachi's hand coming back from placing it there before sitting on the edge of her bed. "I have to go," Itachi told her. "I will be back." He leaned down, and a cold kiss was pressed to her temple before he disappeared.
Hinata looked at the cup of tea and pushed herself up to sip it. The cup scalded her finger, but it took the edge of the cold out of her with a few sips. She should get up. She didn't want him to come back to see her in the same place he left her.
