Sasuke laid his head back, tuning out the yelling his father was doing as he paced back and forth in his office. He would tune back in when he had an actual point that wasn't just how much he couldn't stand Hiashi Hyuga.

Not something Sasuke really thought about when making this plan. The two families had always been rivals. The history went so far back that no one was even sure what started it at this point. It might be before written records.

But Fugaku Uchiha and Hiashi Hyuga had some personal old bad blood, and it just made relations worse. His father wasn't upset that he announced a relationship without saying anything to him first. He wasn't even upset that it was someone from the Hyuga family. He was pissed that Sasuke had chosen Hiashi's daughter.

Sure, it caused problems bringing a partner in from a rival company, especially so high on the pecking order, but when the person was your worst enemy's kid? Maybe his father would disown him, and he could get out of the rest.

Did Fugaku ever think about putting a dart board with Hiashi's face on it in his office? Maybe Sasuke should get him one for Christmas. There was probably a company that did that. If there wasn't, he might pitch it.

"And Itachi is very concerned about what this is going to mean for your step-up as director." Fugaku finally huffed, rubbing his temple.

Well, they finally got to a different point. "I don't give a shit what he thinks."

"It's a valid concern." Fugaku snapped. "Though a little late now. It's a problem now whether or not you keep dating her."

"See, too late." Sasuke shrugged.

"Take this seriously." Fugaku barked at him. It was hard to do that when this felt a lot like the time he got caught sneaking back in after going to see an R-rated movie with Naruto in middle school, and his father was more upset about the slasher they went to see being a remake of a better movie than he was about them sneaking out.

"It's out there." Sasuke waved his arms out. "Hinata and I talked about it. We knew the risks of making it public."

Fugaku gave him a look that saw through his bull shit. "I somehow doubt it was her decision to announce it on a stage with the press in the wings."

Sasuke rolled his head to the side. "She liked that it got it over with. Hinata wants the press part to be over and done with."

"Do you know what you are going to do about her being Hiashi's heir?" Fugaku asked with a frustrated wave of his hand.

"Yup," Sasuke answered.

"Want to elaborate?" Fugaku was losing his patience.

"Nope." Sasuke could see the steam start to come off his father's head. "You want to put me in charge? You have to deal with what I come up with." He wasn't going to out Hinata being forced to step down even if it benefited Hiashi to have a bargaining chip. "I am dealing with it."

Fugaku pinched the bridge of his nose. "I think you get this bullheadedness from your mother."

"Really? She thinks I get it from you." Sasuke pulled himself up.

"Still?" Sasuke asked with his mouth full.

Hinata gave him a napkin. "He refuses to talk about it. He even snapped at Hanabi-chan for trying to incite him into talking about it. My father has never acted like this before. I don't understand. I think he is just hoping I won't be his problem soon, so it doesn't reflect on him."

"At least my dad was a little pissed." Sasuke finished his food, and sat back with his hand in the grass, noticing that Hinata still had barely touched hers. She was worried about the article that came out. "Stop looking at that."

"It's important to know what the major opinion is." Hinata defended.

Sasuke reached for her phone. "You know what the major opinion is."

Hinata held it closer to her chest. "One well-worded article and swayed all of public opinion."

"I know that you were not taught to obsess over online criticism." Sasuke snorted as Hinata held her phone over her head to keep it from him. She was going to regret that.

Hinata leaned back as Sasuke reached over her. "Companies have a public relations office for that. We are not a company."

Sasuke reached just far enough over her that Hinata toppled back. He caught his arm behind her as they both fell and smiled smugly at her red face. Hinata knew he did it intentionally, but she was still embarrassed by it.

Sasuke pushed the phone out of her hands, just out of her reach. "I don't care what public opinion is now."

Hinata reached in vain. She couldn't kick herself up high enough with him holding her there. She huffed and glared at him. "This is why you need someone to care."

Hinata's phone started ringing, and she made another effort to reach for it. She just reached the edge of it. "We're not done talking." Sasuke rolled them over away from her phone.

Hinata stared at him with a much redder face now that she was on top of him, then underneath, interesting information. It took a moment for her to fix her face to be upset with him, which meant they both knew she was losing to his flirting.

"Hinata-sama?"

Both of them froze, realizing she had answered the call. Maybe Sasuke should have noticed that the phone stopped ringing, but Hinata didn't either.

Hinata pushed herself to sit up over him and snatch her phone. Sasuke held on to her leg so she couldn't pull herself fully off. She smiled at the phone for a moment. "One moment, Neji-san." Before she held it to her chest and mouthed. 'It's a video call!'

'Better not let him know then.' Sasuke answered with a grin.

Hinata gave him a face he had never seen before. She was actually pissed. Maybe this joke was a little too much. She took a moment to shift her face back to happy. "Sorry. I wasn't expecting you to call today."

"Hinata-sama. Why are there articles about you and Sasuke Uchiha?" Neji asked on the other side of the line.

Hinata blanched. Okay. This wasn't funny anymore. Sasuke let her go. Hinata threw her leg off of him to focus on the call. She ran her hand back through her hair as she tried to think of a good response. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

"You're telling me this real!?" Neji barked on the other line.

'Does he always talk to you like that?' Sasuke mouthed.

Hinata flickered her eyes at him and waved at him to go away, so she could talk to him alone. Sasuke got up with a sigh and took a walk around the area, waiting for her to be done. Hinata curled around her knees, holding the phone out as she talked.

It was kinda annoying to watch her get yelled about by someone who wasn't even her parent.

Sasuke wanted to just show up behind her and really piss Neji off, but he knew Neji and Hinata were close, and he knew that she would want to handle this alone.

Hinata sighed sadly, staring up at the sky and watching planes going overhead. One by one. Like Neji hadn't left days ago.

"You know, I would think that you would be glad to see someone who tried to smash your face in leave." Sasuke opened a lollipop and handed it to her.

Hinata gave him a look as she took it. "You know why he did that."

Sasuke shrugged. "Was just trying to make it easier to not miss him. He's still kinda an ass to you."

"Neji-san is hard on me because he is the one person that believes in me more than anyone." Hinata put the lollipop in her mouth, making a clicking noise as it passed her teeth into her cheek.

Sasuke looked up at the sky with her. The school's rooftop hadn't changed over the years. It was going to feel weird not hiding up here with her when they felt their worst at the end of their last year. Maybe they would find another roof in university. "I'm surprised that your overprotective knight in shining armor would even think about going abroad without you."

"He didn't have a choice." Hinata rolled the candy in her mouth and rested her chin on her legs. "If I were more cynical, I would think my father did it just to separate us."

"I am more cynical. That's probably the logic." Sasuke agreed.

Hinata closed her eyes as another plane went overhead. "It's going to be weird without him."

Sasuke would say so. No one to follow her around like a bodyguard. No more fights with the occasional brave soul that tried to give her a valentine. No more glare that would follow him around when Neji knew that she had spent her lunch up here with him when she was upset.

Sasuke couldn't say he was upset about it.

Hinata hung up the phone and folded her arms over her head. That could have gone better. Sasuke sat down beside her. Hopefully, he knew better than to rile her up right now. Rustling made her peek under her arm at him to see him holding a lollipop up to her face.

Really?

Hinata opened her mouth to accept it and leaned on him.

"Did he threaten to take the first plane back to beat me up?" Sasuke didn't move an arm around her, just let her lean her head there for her comfort. At least he knew when to turn the flirting off.

"He did want to come back," Hinata admitted. "I convinced him to stay until the end of the semester. He thinks this wouldn't be happening if he hadn't taken the international master's program. Which makes me feel awful because he was so upset when he told me he wanted to stay for it."

"Well, just because he's a better brother than Itachi doesn't make he can't be a dick." Sasuke offered.

Hinata whimpered at him. "I don't want jokes right now."

Sasuke laid his head on hers. "Sorry."

"I should have told him before the articles came out. I don't know what I was thinking. I kept thinking about it every time he called, but he missed last week's call because he had a group project, and I thought if I texted him about it, he would ignore his school work to panic about it." Hinata rambled.

Sasuke sighed. Hinata was grateful he wasn't trying to convince her otherwise because there was nothing he could say that was going to, and Sasuke couldn't really say anything nice about Neji, even intentionally. "We won't send him our wedding invitations right before his exams." Hinata pulled back and pouted at him.

"Come on. It's a little funny." Sasuke prodded, tugging on the stick.

Hinata held it in her teeth. Okay. Maybe a little.