Hinata slid her finger over another page of her date book, she hadn't been paying attention, and the date snuck up on her. She should have remembered. It was getting cold later in the year. Seasonal shops had long since reminded her about the holiday season, but without someone to remind her, she forgot.
"Will you let us get you something for Christmas this year?" Shino leaned on the counter beside her.
Hinata flattened her hand over the page. "I don't really celebrate Christmas."
"Even if I already made you something?" Shino was backing her into a corner, knowing that she wasn't going to say no to something like that.
Hinata pressed her lips together. "I can't stop you, but I didn't get you anything."
"I wasn't expecting anything." Shino pushed off the counter. "You don't celebrate Christmas." Hinata frowned as he disappeared into the back room. He was making a point. She just wasn't sure what it was. She slid her hand back off the date book and gave it a last look before she closed it.
"Couples usually like Christmas. Gift-giving is an excuse to confess." Itachi tilted his head into the back room.
"Shino-kun doesn't like me." Hinata hissed at him.
Itachi didn't respond to deny her, but she knew she didn't convince him. His black coat back in place made it easier to know when he popped up because it came with the soft smell of ash she was used to.
Hinata looked out the window and caught blue. "Kisame-san."
"Hmm?" Itachi looked out the window and disappeared a moment later. Did they do that to each other as well? Just leave without saying goodbye?
Itachi hesitated before crossing the street with him, and Hinata covered her giggle. He was too used to crossing the street with her.
Hinata didn't go out on Christmas day, much to the disappointment of her colleagues, who tried to have her come out with them, but two days later, she got dressed up and ready to head out. Itachi followed after her as she found a bakery, bought a small cake, and ducked into a convince store to buy some candles. She sat with the cake on her lap as she took the long commute back to the graveyard, where Itachi found them back in front of her sister's grave.
Hinata put the cake on the stone ledge, crouched, and tried to light the candles, but the wind wouldn't let her. She sighed. "Well, I wasn't going to make a wish. At least we got the cake."
"It's not her birthday." Itachi noticed the dates on the grave.
"No. It's mine," Hinata's hair blew in the wind as she looked at the unlit candles. "But Hanabi-chan always wanted me to spend it with her. She always wanted the first slice of cake and tried to blow out my candles…" She trailed as her head tilted to the side with blank eyes as she got lost in her memories.
Itachi crouched down beside her and waved his hand over the candle to light them all, they went out just as quickly, but they were all lit for that moment. Hinata laid her head on his arm as she watched the smoke dance off the wicks.
Hinata stayed there in the cold for longer than she needed to before she sucked in a breath and stood up. "Who is it you visit?" Itachi pointed to the next grave. Hinata stepped down to it. The grave was older by a few years, but the life span was just as short. "Who was he?"
"I don't know. My earliest memories are of him saying my name. He left food and burned this coat at the altar. When no spirit claimed it, I assumed it was for me." Itachi explained. "It was possible he was like you and knew I was there."
"Sasuke Uchiha." Hinata hummed, reading the name. "My family is old rivals with the Uchiha. Going back a few centuries, I doubt we are closely related."
"Why are they both here?" Itachi wondered.
"The shrine at the entrance dates back that far." Hinata waved her hand at the other Uchiha graves. "We share the…" Her hand stopped as she looked over at the next grave.
Itachi tilted his head as her eyes widened and came back to him. "What?"
Hinata moved in front of the next grave. "I thought you said you weren't dead."
Itachi didn't understand what she meant until he looked more closely at the grave. Itachi Uchiha, etched into the stone. How many times had he come here and not seen that? Itachi flinched as a sharp pain came across his temple. Was he not supposed to know?
"Are you okay?" Hinata reached out for him.
Itachi stepped back, holding a hand to the side of his face. "I don't know." Hinata retracted her hand and held it to her chest. Did this change things? What did this even mean? Why didn't he remember being alive?
It did answer so many questions about why he was so attached to the boy.
"I need to find Kisame." Itachi disappeared, leaving Hinata to stare at the empty space he left in the graveyard in front of his own grave.
Kisame sat idly on the edge of the bridge. Ice-cold water rushed below, filling the silence while Itachi waited for his answer. "You didn't want to remember."
"What?"
"You asked me to take away the memories of your life because it was too painful." Kisame leaned back to look at him. "It happens. New reapers can't accept the realities in front of them and want to go back to their lives." He waved his hand at him. "But somehow, even after that, you still followed the kid around until he died."
"Could I have saved him?" Itachi saved Hinata, but she wasn't scheduled to die. She would have survived getting hit by that car.
Kisame shrugged, but Itachi felt like he knew the real answer. "You didn't, you followed him around for years, but you knew you shouldn't when his day came."
Itachi leaned on the railing. "Do you think I would have if I knew?"
"You might have tried." Kisame looked out at the water, threatening them from below. "But that never works out. Nature finds a way."
Itachi followed his eyes. "Why didn't you tell me? After he was gone."
"You were happy not knowing. Though it didn't stop you from finding another human to latch on to." Kisame side-eyed him. "I assume she is how you found out."
"My grave is next to his." Itachi countered.
"But you never noticed before." Was that part of this? Did Kisame make that happen too? Did it matter now? "But she did."
"She did." Itachi agreed.
"You know this can't end well." Kisame prodded. "You're going to torture yourself with both of their gravestones before long."
Itachi got the answers he wanted and stepped away, disappearing from the bridge.
Hinata sighed as she dropped her bag back into her empty apartment. Itachi wasn't back, and she wasn't sure he was going to be after being shaken by the discovery of his own grave, but that made sense. It only made her wonder how much he thought about reapers was wrong.
If Itachi was a reaper, so shortly after he died… what made someone become a reaper?
Hinata collapsed on the couch and looked up at her sister's shrine. "Did you turn into something?" The picture didn't answer her, but Hinata didn't want to know the answer. Hinata could only hope that Hanabi had some peace in death that she didn't have in life.
A shift in the air that smelled like smoke made her sit up to turn the light on to find Itachi standing nearby with a downturn to his eyebrows. "You were right."
"Are you okay?" Hinata sat up entirely as he moved to sit beside her.
"I don't know," Itachi's face was stuck in a neutral state of confusion as he questioned himself. Hinata slid her hand over his shoulder, and he turned his face into her neck to take the comfort she offered. She wrapped her arms around him more fully and held him there. There was nothing that she could say to make him feel better. She wasn't even sure what he was feeling. He didn't even seem to know.
But even if they were both a certain type of miserable today. At least this year, she didn't spend her birthday alone.