Day 8 Prompt: "Playing with hair"
Sasuke is kind of a sloppy drunk, Hinata realizes. It's about two hours into the reception, about that time everyone's getting fairly tipsy, knocking over their drinks and happily taking messy selfies, and the dancing looks more like flopping around than anything elegant. It's a bubbly vibe, but Sasuke sits slumped over his drink, rambling about expectations and that becoming an adult is the worst thing that can happen to a person.
Hinata can't possibly keep up with his pace in drinks, but she's feeling fairly buzzed herself, so she reaches out to rest a hand on his back. He either doesn't notice or doesn't care, his rant uninterrupted by it.
"And it's just, you know—" He jerks his head up suddenly and she snatches her hand back, tilting her head. "Who cares? It's not like when I was a kid I wanted to be an insurance agent – no kid forced to go with their dad to the insurance office looks at the guy behind the desk and thinks 'yeah, that's what I wanna do when I grow up'."
"I suppose not," Hinata says, twisting her lips and playing with the fabric of her dress as he turns to look at her.
"But kids don't wanna manage companies, either, right?" Sasuke asks a rhetorical question and Hinata shakes her head a bit. "An eye doctor, at least that's something kids might wanna do. Being a doctor!"
"I believe some do." She nods, wondering if she should contribute to this conversation. She suspects this is more of a one-sided conversation.
"But your whole family is doctors, right?" he asks, leaning in a little bit to where she can now smell the wine on his breath. She pushes a glass of water toward him before responding.
"Yes, it's been what our family does since we immigrated here," she confirms, pleased to see him take the water rather than more wine. Decides to take a few more sips of champagne herself (wine tastes bad and gives her a stomach ache).
"At least it's respectable," he sighs, running his fingers through his hair, doesn't catch the way she deflates a bit. She doesn't want to burden him any more than she normally does, so she decides not to comment on it.
It's respectable, sure, but never something Hinata was ever particularly excited to do. She always just supposed she should be grateful that she was born into a wealthier family that had a good foothold in the industry. Set her up for success, even if it's never something that she was ever particularly invested in. From the sounds of it, Sasuke bemoans a similar situation, one where his father runs a manufacturing warehouse that used to produce helmets for military operations, but now has a large stake in the augmented eyepiece industry. Itachi oversees most operations along with Shisui, but apparently, Sasuke had broken off from the expectation to help Itachi run it.
Hinata can describe in at least light detail most of Sasuke's life from 18 on: getting a degree in art design, trying and failing to find work in it, giving in to work at the company for a year before suddenly quitting and taking Shikamaru's offer to come work at the insurance office. Told her it'll never be as bad as managing people and the constant stress of worrying about work outside of work. Told her he'd rather look at customer's ugly faces than have his brother tell him what to do.
She does wonder if Itachi is really that bad, wonders if Sasuke isn't just a little resentful. Itachi has an incredibly soft and kind demeanor, and Hinata can understand feeling resentful of your sibling who is the clear favorite. It's a feeling she doesn't like admitting she experiences, but she's been told by Ino it's very normal and doesn't make her a bad person because she still loves her little sister. Perhaps there is some truth to that when it comes to Sasuke and Itachi.
"It was either work to make shit for the government, or work to convince people they need full coverage on their minivans." He rests his chin on his palm with a sigh, peeking at her out of the corner of his eye. She gives him a sad smile and he shrugs. "What about you? You want to be an eye doctor?"
"I mean…" Hinata runs her finger over the tabletop in a circle. "It's my goal."
"Not my question," he retorts. She bites her bottom lip. "If you could do anything, what would it be?"
Hinata actually feels her body lock up with the question. It's not something she ponders often, at all, because it's a waste of time. She reaches up to rub her nose, looking off to the side as some smaller, black-haired Uchiha children chase each other between the legs of adults. Looks back at Sasuke. "I enjoyed babysitting when I did it for a bit in high school. I like working with children, so maybe a teacher?"
"Teacher?" Sasuke tilts his head, hair falling over his nose, covering one eye. She wants to reach out to fix it, but it's kind of cute, so she leaves it. "Thought you had a hard time being around people."
"Not children." She shrugs, looking down at her nails to pick at one. "Being around adults is very different."
"Trying to say you're like a kid?" he teases and she gasps when she feels his hand rough up her hair. She actually laughs, ducking a bit to try to avoid the hand. He laughs, too, when she loops her fingers around his wrist to stop him. It doesn't take much effort and his hand goes limp in her grip, their laughter subsiding. He tugs his hand away before reaching for her hair again. "Your hair's really soft."
She feels a blush coming on, so she turns away, back to the table, feeling him gently twisting a lock of hair between his fingers. She clears her throat. "Th-thank you."
"How is it easier to be around kids?" he continues the conversation, now simply playing with her hair. It's actually kind of cute the way he's so mesmerized by her hair, so she just lets him.
"They say what they mean," she says without hesitation. She's had this conversation more than a few times with Hanabi, Ino, even Shino. "The only games they play are fun ones. They're ready to learn and grow. Most of them tend to be nicer than your average adult."
Sasuke blinks up at her, mouth held open as he processes those words. "You know, I've never thought about it like that…but you're right." Hinata smiles, pleased he actually agrees right away rather than make counterpoints about how they bite and have snotty noses like others do. Sasuke lets her hair unravel from his finger and rests the hand on the table near hers. "Kids don't speak in riddles."
"Yes, you understand!" she says, excitedly, nodding.
The way his smile stretches out his face is quite nice, she thinks. It's even nicer the way he asks her to keep talking about what it'd be like to be a teacher, what kinds of decorations she'd put in a classroom, what her favorite subject to teach would be, ideal grade level, all the little things she only thinks about when she's frustrated by school work or exams. A fantasy of what her life could be, but it brings her some level of comfort to talk about it with Sasuke.
The reception winds to an end, the happy couple had already made their exit long beforehand, and Sasuke suggests they follow suit because the crowd is lame and they're both getting tired. Hinata briefly thinks about inviting him to her room so they can keep the conversation going, but she sees the exhaustion on his face and decides to leave it. They join each other to the elevators, and when they get in, he gestures at her to hit the button.
"I'll walk you to your room," he says. The sentiment is nice and she's learned not to reject kind offers from Ino, so she just nods and with a smile, presses the 3 button. "Same floor anyway, apparently."
She comments that it's nice they're on the same floor, and it's actually kind of comforting. He walks alongside her as they travel down the hall until she stops in front of the number she recognizes as her room, gets out her keycard, and taps herself in.
She looks back curiously when he just stops, staring at the door handle. She was about to say goodbye but now, he's looking downright confused. Before she can ask, he's patting himself down until he finds his wallet and pulls out his own keycard. "There…has to be a mistake."
"What is it?"
He turns his envelope that they give you at the front desk for your room towards her, and her eyes grow. Same room number.
"Hey hey you two!"
Shisui is passing by with a girl's hand in his own, one that is giggly and blushy and hiding her face a bit. Sasuke scowls at him, a look she can't recall having seen from him for most of the night up until now, and he grabs Shisui's shoulder before he can get too far.
"Why are we in the same room?"
Shisui pauses, balances himself on the wall while looking confused, then mischievous. "Not obvious? All the couples share a room!"
"Couples—"
"Your plus one – kinda implies couplehood," he laughs, grabbing Sasuke's shoulders to spin him to face forward and push him inside. "Enjoy it!"
Hinata gasps when the door is pulled shut behind Sasuke, who looks frozen in place.
"Uhm—"
"Assholes," he hisses under his breath. She watches him pull out his phone in a panic, his free hand pulling at the back of his hair as he dials something into his phone. Hinata just sort of stands there because she's so very out of her element, processing the events unfolding.
She's sharing a room with Sasuke. Because it was assumed they were dating.
"Look," he sighs, wiping at his face as he gives up on whatever he was doing with his phone. Shoves it into his pocket as he approaches her, looking her right in the eye, more sober than before. "I'll go see if they have another room, this wasn't fair to you."
"Oh."
Hinata feels her throat catch as he pats himself down again as if to check that he has everything, then turns to go to the door. She forces her foot forward.
"Wait!"
Oh god…can I do this?
"You don't have to go."
A pause.
"I can take the couch…"
"No."
"Well…"
He thinks I'm insane.
"I'm not uncomfy."
"Uncomfy?" She hears the amusement in his tone as he repeats it back to her, looking over his shoulder with his hand resting on the handle.
"Yes…sharing a room. Maybe…maybe I can call room service and get another bed?"
A little more silence, then he responds, "I can take the couch."
"But—"
"If I'm staying here, I'll take the couch."
"Okay…"
Hinata moves to the side as Sasuke falls into a seated position on the couch, elbows on his knees, head in his hands. She swallows, looking at him with pity. He seems genuinely upset by what's happening. She's surprised she's not the one freaking out for once. She walks towards him and decides to plot herself on the ground, on her butt, legs crossed, looking right at him.
"I'm sorry you're so uncomfy."
A quiet chuckle can be heard behind his lips and it makes her relax, slightly. "I'm fine. I just wish they hadn't forced this on you."
"I'm fine!"
"I wish they hadn't forced this on me."
That's when Hinata does a full stop, letting the gravity of his words sit inside of her.
He's not just feeling sorry for her. He's the one who's…uncomfortable.
"Oh no," she breathes, covering her mouth. He looks away, eyes cast down. Hinata swallows, unsure of where to go from here.
"Sorry."
Immediately, she shakes her head, "no, I'm sorry. I should…I should go, I can get an Uber—"
"Stay," he says it firmly. "Let's stop doing this back-and-forth game. We'll both stay."
Hinata contemplates a moment, then gets up. Rummages around the bed a moment before returning with blankets and pillows in her arms.
"That's way too much bedding just for me."
"For both of us."
She drops the pillows and blankets on the floor, then gets on her knees, knowing her back will scream at her for this tomorrow, but the way his cheeks go a little higher with his smile makes it feel worth it. She pats the floor next to her.
"It'll be like a sleepover."
"Sleepover…" he comments back with amusement. Climbs off the couch, onto the ground and she feels herself relax, finally, seeing him becoming more comfortable. "No fort?"
"I don't think there's enough sheets." She giggles softly, tucking an arm under the pillow as she rests her hand on it.
"Sorry about all that…" he mumbles, turning on his side to face her. "You probably weren't looking to sign up for a mess when you forgot your keycard back then."
"A mess?"
"Yeah, me." He sighs, rolls onto his back to stare at the ceiling. "Dragging you to get drinks with my dumb friends. Getting drunk and rambling about my miserable life. Now this…it's messy. I'm messy."
"I am, too."
She hears him wheeze slightly.
"For some reason I expected you to try to convince me I'm not messy, not join me in it."
Hinata smiles when he turns his head to look at her, hands clasped over his stomach. "We're in our twenties. I think it's a legal requirement we be messy."
Now his laugh comes through bright and clear, a sound she's not sure she's heard before now, but one she thinks is earnest and lovely. "I think you're right, but even so, if I wake up with an aching body, I'm blaming it on you. I refuse to admit I can be hungover so easily."
"Okay." She nods easily, a yawn escaping her at the same time. "I can accept that."
Silence sweeps over them, and after a few minutes, she hears him snore slightly. It's not a bad sound, either.