Kisame flinched awake from a noise in the next room. Hinata's place. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and got up from the couch he didn't remember lying down on to get closer to the door as he heard more movement. There was someone walking about in there.

Kisame twisted the knob and shot the door open, ready to find an intruder on the other side, but all he found was a spooked Hinata in her pajamas in the kitchen.

Hinata put her hand over her heart as she realized it was just him. "I'm sorry. Did I wake you?" She bent down to what was probably what startled him, a box of pasta that she knocked out of the way.

"Sorry." Kisame looked at his hand on the doorknob. He broke rule number one: always knock.

"Honestly, I am surprised it hasn't happened before." Hinata leaned up on her toes in the cabinet. He left the door behind to help her. Once she realized why he was coming, she jumped on her toes and pointed. "That one."

Kisame grabbed the box of cocoa, set it on the counter, and rounded the other side to watch Hinata filter around to finish what she was making. Before too long, she set two mugs of hot chocolate on the counter, sliding one to him. "Are you up late a lot?"

Hinata leaned on the counter, holding her cup and its steam up to her face. "I've always had trouble sleeping, but since…" She chewed on her lip. "It's brought back some old memories, and even when I get to sleep, sometimes the nightmares wake me up. When I get sick of it, I get up and make something."

Kisame wrapped his hand around his mug. He wasn't really fully awake, or maybe he wouldn't have asked the question on his mind. "What old memories?"

"That night wasn't the first time someone tried to kidnap me," Hinata admitted, thumbing over the lip of her cup. "When I was little, I was taken from my bed in the middle of the night by someone on staff I trusted, and I was handed over and held for a few hours before I was recused by my uncle when he realized I was missing. I tell Neji-san that I don't remember it, so he doesn't worry, but I do. I remember being confused and scared. They didn't hurt me, but I knew something was wrong. Sometimes, I have these nightmares where I am scared and alone in a room, and I call for help, but no one comes to get me. Then I wake up… scared and alone in my room." She looked into her cup with her lip twisted irritably.

Kisame wouldn't have guessed. With that in the back of her mind, he would think that she would be shaking like a leaf after she was attacked, not barking orders and taking over his care. The blank look in her eyes made it clear that it was old scars, ones that were keeping her up at night, but she was determined not to let it take more from her.

"I'm fine." Hinata wiped the look off her face. "It's just hard to sleep." She took a sip of her hot chocolate.

Kisame looked into his cup. This is something he would make for a scared little kid who had just woke up from a nightmare. He didn't know what to say. She didn't want sympathy or a solution. She was just telling him her reality. "It wasn't the first time I've been stabbed."

Hinata blinked before her mouth dropped open. "Really?"

"Technically, I was stabbed with a fork in school." Kisame turned his arm to show the pronged scar amongst the others. "Years ago. I call it my discount trident scar." It probably would have hurt less if it wasn't some packed lunch prick. A plastic fork wouldn't have gone so deep.

The tips of Hinata's fingers ghosted over it in disbelief. Her fingers left that scar to another one nearby, leaving an odd feeling to trail up his arm. "What is this one from?"

Kisame turned his arm further to see. "I got tossed back into a counter." A brief moment of horror came over her face. "In a fight." Did that make it better?

Hinata's fingers slid off his arm, suddenly a little more hesitant in her curiosity. She didn't want to ask questions that could bring up bad answers.

Kisame turned his hand over to show her his fist. "Put my hand through a mirror. Another fight."

"You get hurt a lot." Hinata frowned at him. "Fighting."

"I am good at it." Kisame excused.

"Fighting or getting hurt?" Hinata countered.

Kisame tilted his head guilty. Yeah, he won most of his fights, but he did tend to push past injury or limits to ensure he won.

Hinata pulled herself off the counter and pointed toward the couch as she went to sit.

Kisame looked at the open door between the rooms. He wasn't going back to bed now with her up. He followed her, drinking from his cup and making a face. "Does this have cinnamon in it?"

"Oh yes, sorry, do you not like cinnamon?" Hinata started to get up as he sat down.

Kisame waved his hand and took another sip. "I just wasn't expecting it."

Hinata settled back down, pulling a blanket over her shoulders. "Did you get into fights because you had to or because you wanted to?"

Kisame had an answer for that, not one that he wanted to give her. "I think that if someone picks a fight with me, I am going to make them remember the lesson."

"You just like winning?" Hinata held her cup up to her lips to hide her smile.

Kisame face flattened. Okay, maybe she saw right through him. "Yeah."

Hinata giggled. "Sorry. I shouldn't laugh."

"But, to be fair, I didn't start all those fights." Kisame shrugged. "I don't know what about looking at someone twice their size that makes dumb little shits want to prove that they 'could totally take me.'"

"But you started more than a few in your time?" Hinata wondered.

"Maybe." Kisame didn't need her to know that.

Hinata sat her cup down. "Am I making you uncomfortable?"

"I… guess I don't want you to think less of me because I am just that thug who was just in the right place at the right time," Kisame admitted, setting his cup with hers.

"Neji-san insisted on having your background checked, or he wouldn't let me visit you in the hospital." Hinata curled her arms and blanket around her legs, making a cocoon. "All your arrests are for crimes related to fighting. Misdemeanor assaults. Property damage. Disorderly conduct. All dropped after a night in jail or minor fines."

So she always knew? So when her face twisted hearing about the scars, she wasn't worried about the fights… just that they got him hurt in them? "Then why would you hire me?"

"What does your arrest record have to do with the reason I gave you a job?" Hinata tilted her head curiously.

Kisame blinked at her. He didn't even know how to answer that other than 'because you don't hire criminals.' Clearly, that wasn't a problem for her.

Hinata settled down further in her blanket. "I just wanted your good deed to be rewarded the way it should be."

Kisame shook his head. "I think I have to disagree with her action-to-reaction ratio."

Hinata giggled. "Call it repayment for all the scars." She reached over and pointed to his shoulder. "What is that one from?"

Hinata woke up to hear the echo of her alarm, alerting her it was morning from the other room. She rubbed her face and realized she had fallen asleep on the couch. Kisame was still asleep with his head tipped back and off to the side and his arms crossed in front of his chest.

Hinata broke into a smile. How could a man his size look so adorable passed out? She got up to gently drape her blanket over him before she went to turn off her alarm. She ran her hand through her hair as she looked out the window at the still-dark city, then down to the cold, empty bed that she couldn't sleep in. She slept fine on the couch.

She gasped, covering her mouth with her hand as she realized why. She turned her head toward the living room and felt her face flush. Well, Kisame was her bodyguard. He was making her feel safe. That was the whole point. The only problem was how did she make an excuse to do it again?

Hinata went to the bathroom to hope that her shower would wash away the thought of him as a giant cross-armed shark plush sitting on a chair in the corner of her bedroom like the bunny her uncle gave her when she was little.

But it was a cute idea.

**Lavender Long Stories**

Hey, with how many issues has been having I would like everyone to know I cross post to AO3 under Lavender_Long_Stories and I have an active tumblr lavender-long-stories