The sunset through the library window was not helping her eyes stay open. Sasuke was late, and she still had homework and studying to do tonight.

A loud thump made her jump as she realized her eyes must close for too long, and she fell asleep. Her heart raced as she glared down at the backpack Sasuke dropped in front of her. He raised his eyebrows at her, challenging her to complain about it or how late he was.

Hinata rubbed her eyes, forcing the irritation down. She slid him the research materials he asked for.

Sasuke flipped them open to her marked pages, tossing some of them aside in what she assumed was a reject pile. This was a high school research paper, not a dissertation. What was he expecting to find?

Hinata waited for him to choose and returned the books he rejected to the return cart. When she came back, he was already writing. At least he was taking this seriously. She checked her phone. She didn't have much time. Hopefully, they could make some progress before she had to leave.

"Hinata." Shikamaru appeared from behind a bookshelf, his bleary eyes indicating that he found a quiet place to nap. "Here." He held up a book. She accepted it before she could see the cover. "Shouldn't you be heading home soon? Don't you have a curfew?" He really never forgot anything.

"Uh, yes, Sasuke-san and I are working on our paper." Hinata pointed to where Sasuke had caught his attention on the two of them, looking annoyed with her delay.

Shikamaru didn't even look at him. "You had student council and fencing. Have you had a break?"

No. "Yes. I had some time between." Shikamaru nodded, but the way his head rolled to the side felt like he knew she was lying. "I should get back before he gets angrier." She bowed her head, holding her book out to say thank you.

"Don't let him bully you," Shikamaru added, making her pause. "Higher marks doesn't mean he's better than you."

Hinata watch Shikamaru leave. Why was he encouraging her? If he wanted to, he could beat both her and Sasuke in class marking, but he just never showed work or finished essays.

Hinata sat back down across from Sasuke and set the book down, finally looking at the cover. She thought he handed her a reference book for the subject, but maybe that wouldn't have made sense. He didn't know what topic they were doing. Hinata flipped the book over. It wasn't for their project.

She smiled at the book on the next section in their math class. Was this Shikamaru's way of helping her get back at Sasuke? Getting ahead in the subject?

Sasuke tapped her book to get her attention back, and her smile dropped.

Sasuke sat in the uncomfortable hospital chair, rolling his neck as he waited for the nurses to be done. They reminded him of visiting hours as they left like he didn't know. He was here every night.

"You don't have to stay so late. Don't you have schoolwork?" Itachi asked from his hospital bed.

"I finished it already." Sasuke lied. He would get it done before it was due.

Itachi rested his hands on his chest. "What's going on at school?"

"Nothing much. I have to work with the Hyuga girl on a group project. Naruto got a friendship bracelet stuck around his ankle, and Sakura won't let him cut it. Sakura keeps trying to drop hints about what she wants for her birthday even though it's not until the end of the school year." Sasuke rattled off.

"What are you getting for Sakura's birthday?" Itachi wondered.

"Nothing," Sasuke answered flatly. "I never get her anything, and yet she still makes a point to tell me what she wants."

"Wouldn't it be nice if you did get her something this year?" Itachi rolled his head to the side.

Sasuke shook his head. "It would give her the wrong idea. She still thinks we are going to be high school sweethearts and have three kids before she's twenty-five."

Itachi made a face. He knew what it was like to have fangirls. "Don't tell me she's named them?" Sasuke frowned. "Maybe it is better that you didn't." He relented. "Which Hyuga are you working with?"

"Hinata." Sasuke wasn't finding anything interesting. "She's the only one my age, remember?"

"Hinata? How is she?" Itachi perked up.

Sasuke shrugged. "How should I know?"

"She is very plain with her emotions." Itachi always had a much more positive outlook on the Hyuga heir than he did. Probably because Itachi saw her as he saw him: young and in need of protection, he always made a point to seek her out in a room. As a child, it drove him up a wall.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "She's not as innocent as you think she is."

"I am sure she thinks the same thing about you." Itachi raised an eyebrow. "You two aren't that different."

"It's all an act. You are just falling for it." Sasuke countered by putting the phone down.

"I am sure if you spend some time not antagonizing her, you will see she is quite a nice young girl." Itachi smiled.

Sasuke hated that smile, the smile Itachi got when he knew he was right. But Itachi only saw Hinata at events. He didn't have to deal with her. "Whatever."

"Here." Kiba put the drink she asked for down in front of her. "Since when have you liked coffee?" Hinata pressed her lips together, taking another bite of her lunch.

Shino leaned on the table. "How is Sasuke as a partner?"

"Rude." Hinata started. "But at least he was interested enough in his grade not to sabotage us. He can't pull me down without hurting himself. But he argues every single point to no end. I think he is just doing it to argue at this point. We have excluded points from the paper just because we could not agree on what they meant in the great picture."

"You would think he would at least try to make it less painful." Kiba made a face.

"I have just started gathering information and letting him make the connections and conclusions. It stopped some of the arguing." Hinata picked at her food.

Shino leaned toward her. "Do you think your dad would let you out this weekend?"

"I'm not sure. He's not happy about second place on the exams, but I haven't done anything else this week to upset him." Hinata paused. "Yet."

Kiba leaned back. "I think you two will be on your own. My sister is making me help her paint her nursery this weekend."

Shino scrunched his nose, alone again.

Hinata flipped through her notes as she sat at the radio station. She had no interest in the school's radio station, another one of the clubs her father thought would 'make up for her lack of skill,' but it gave her uninterrupted time to study and had no competition like fencing did, so she couldn't complain.

Sometimes, her friends came to study with her, but Kiba was spending more time at his sister's vet clinic, and Shino's dad wanted him to spend more time with his brother before he went abroad, so they skipped out.

Hinata felt her chair jerk. She looked up to see the flat, bored look on Sasuke's face. She pulled the headphones down with a frown.

"Do you ever leave school?" Sasuke dropped his bag and sat down.

"You have my schedule," Hinata set the headphones down. That's how he knew she was here, wasn't it? Sasuke leaned back, looking at his phone. After a minute, it was clear he wasn't here to work with her. "Why are you here?"

"Hiding from Sakura," Sasuke told her simply.

"Why here?" Sure, it was unlikely for him to be here, but it wasn't the best after-school hiding spot.

"Because if she does find me, I can just say I am working on our project and that she is distracting me," Sasuke explained, glancing up from his phone.

"And why can't you just go home?" Sasuke didn't answer her. Hinata resigned to put her headphones back on. She felt him kick her chair again. Hinata turned to glare at him as she jerked the headphones down. "What?"

"What do you even do here?" Sasuke asked.

Hinata beat down the frustration. "I just make sure the music keeps going and that any requests that come in get played."

"Doesn't seem like you do much." Sasuke leaned back.

"It's mostly automated." Hinata looked back at her notebook. "It's not meant to be intensive."

"What kind of music do you teach?" Sasuke asked as she reached for her headphones again.

Hinata wondered if she should just put on the headphones and ignore him. "Piano and violin."

"To who?" Sasuke tilted his head. He was pushing his luck with a raised eyebrow and a flat look.

"Underprivileged kids," Hinata answered. Making a point to look back at her notes.

"Underprivileged? Seems rude to call them that." Sasuke prodded.

"It's what they are called on the paperwork. I didn't make the program up." Hinata leaned her head toward the headphones so she could at least hear the music.

"How old?" Sasuke asked.

"Why do you care?" Hinata snapped.

Sasuke shrugged. "My phone's dying."

Hinata set her jaw. "Then study."

"I don't study." Sasuke rolled his head back.

"You're the top student in our class." He couldn't be serious.

Sasuke smirked. "And you study all the time, and you still can't beat me."

Hinata's face hardened. Maybe he really was just that good, and she was working so hard for nothing. "Yeah." She looked back at her notes.

"When did you start piano and violin?" Sasuke continued to prod. Hinata didn't answer. "They started me off at six on the piano."

Hinata put the headphones back on.

Sasuke kicked her chair. When Hinata didn't react, he kicked it again. She set her jaw and locked eyes on her notes.

After a few minutes of no kicking, Hinata glanced down, but she didn't see his shoes. She looked up at the chair, and he was gone. She took down her headphones and looked around. It looked like he left.

Hinata closed her notes. What was the point anyway?

**Lavender Long Stories**

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