The car ride on the way to the restaurant was full of tense silence. Hinata wasn't sure what Sasuke's father had said over the phone, but it rendered him closed-faced and even more agitated than before.
When they got into the car, Hinata eyed him before leaning forward to tell the driver the address. Then, she sat straight against the seat, holding her notebook neatly in her lap. She hadn't been so close to the Uchiha before, and his negative energy was making her uncomfortable.
They pulled off, and Hinata rolled down the windows to break up the silence with outside noise. It reminded her of her studio apartment, which she thought of with a pang of sadness. At night, she'd sit by the windows, listening to the music from cars, the odd sentences thrown out as people passed below, the songs of children playing in the early afternoons. It helped her clear her mind-–with those noises, she could be anyone, anywhere.
Now, in the car, she was two people at once. Dove rested inside of her, quiet, hungry, waiting. Hinata ignored her, opening her phone to check new emails that had come in for Sasuke. She spent the bulk of the car ride diligently sorting them into the appropriate folders while Sasuke angrily typed long messages on his phone.
It occurred to Hinata that she should be interested in what was angering him so. A call from his father didn't sound good. She pretended to look out the window at a passing cathedral as she looked down at his glowing phone––she had quite strong peripheral vision; the Hyugas were known for "having eyes at the back of their heads."
She deflated with disappointment; he was texting Sakura, and she was sending rapid-fire responses. Hinata squinted. They were talking about…a baby shower? Sakura was begging him to go to dinner and gift shopping with him that evening, and Sasuke was saying that he could not do any of that because he was called to something called the Boroughs after work. What were the Boroughs? Sakura didn't like that response very much and said––
"See something you like?"
Hinata immediately turned red, thinking she had just gotten caught. Instead, Sasuke was looking out of the window with her, trying to catch what he thought she was looking at.
"Oh," Hinata leaned back in her seat, embarrassed. "That Cathedral over there, I remembered it from my childhood. My mother used to take us sometimes. I always loved the stained glass."
It was true, her mother had been quite the spiritualist, but she could never commit to just one practice. She was erratic in that way––paranoid. One week she would bow to the shrines, the next she'd be shouting the holy trinity, and the next she would be covering her hair. Hinata blinked away the memories of her mother in the kitchen, washing her hands until they were beet red. "Something has to work," Hitomi would mutter. "Something's got to save us."
She'd come back from assignments with a new bag of tricks: ornaments, incense, special types of salt. She'd leave offerings everywhere––piles of pomegranate, red wine, fine dark chocolate. The corners of their white home were filled with red homages. Gnats loved it there, her father routinely had it all thrown out.
"You can't just take, Hinata," she would say to her young daughter, though she wouldn't say that she was talking about human life. "You have to give. Otherwise the world will fall out of balance."
"––I thought you were from Osaka," Sasuke said, tilting his head. He had closed his phone and sat back to look at her.
"I am," Hinata lied, smiling, blinking away the memories of her mother's frenzied hands. "But my mom was from here. We'd go to church w-with my grandparents sometimes. That church has a wonderful window of the Virgin Mary in a field of vibrant, red, pomegranate seeds. They say…um, they say that t-the seeds represent righteousness, but really I just liked how red they looked and how the sun would imprint the color on our bodies when it shined through the windows."
Sasuke squinted at the church as the car moved forward in traffic, "My family isn't very religious," he said, shrugging, "but I find that there's a bit of irresistible beauty in the story telling. Maybe I'll visit it someday."
Hinata found herself nodding affirmatively, taken aback by the way Sasuke uttered the words irresistible beauty with a sort of dulled reverence in his voice, before he turned back to his phone and went back to his tense conversation with his fiancée as if nothing had happened. Hinata swallowed and pulled her eyes away from the window, her memories, his phone, his typing fingers and sat in her seat.
A few minutes later, they were pulling up to the restaurant. They were in a hip part of the city, full of young families out with their dogs and children, the air full of the smell of something sweet coming from the open shops. The driver opened the door for her, and when she stepped out, she was overwhelmed by a feeling of complete dread.
Something was wrong. Dove was scratching at her skin inside of her. The sweetness in the air began to nauseate her. She pretended otherwise, watching Sasuke get out of the car and step onto the curb beside her, his hands fisted inside of his pockets. He looked casual and unbothered, but still––something screamed inside of her.
She tried to look casual as she turned and took in the people around them. More young families with strollers. A couple, holding hands. An ice-cream truck. A dog, running away from its owner. She took note of the sounds: cars honking, a set of twins talking about the movie they'd just seen, a click of sharp metal.
"What are you doing, Hyuga?" Sasuke questioned, as he turned to go up the stairs of the restaurant. "We're already running late."
"Yes sir," Hinata said tersely, turning to follow him up the stairs. Her tone must've been sharp and strange, because Sasuke didn't even bother correcting her, he merely looked down at her curiously.
"Are you alright?"
More sounds: Laughter from the park across the street. A small click. A smell, suddenly: gunpowder. A sight: trees, a stream of robins, a metal glint against the sun. Without thinking about it, Hinata lunged forward, grabbing Sasuke around the waist and taking him to the ground. She felt their bodies hit cement before he could even understand what had happened. She was on his chest when she watched his dark eyes widen in anger, his mouth opening to scold or to curse when, not a millisecond later, gunshots erupted over their heads in a stream of metal bullets.
Sasuke swore, his eyes hardening. He grabbed her without thinking, placing her body in front of his as they rushed up the rest of the stairs. He shouldered his way into the restaurant, lurching Hinata to the side, his hand firm on her waist as they both went down behind the host's stand. The glass of the doors and adjacent windows shattered as more bullets paraded down on them.
Everyone was screaming. From her perch, Hinata watched the loose dog get hit by a stray bullet and looked away, tears pooling in the corner of her eyes despite her profession. Beside her, Sasuke was sending a one word message to someone with the letter "O" as a contact. She couldn't read what he'd typed.
"C'mon," Sasuke said in her ear, his voice swollen with urgency. He grabbed her hand, leading her through the restaurant like he'd been there before as the assault of bullets rallied outside its doors. The screaming was starting to get to her. Hinata preferred silent deaths when it came to professional matters. Sasuke continued to pull her––practically carrying her––as Hinata saw flashes of carnage: red, bruised flesh and bowls of pomegranate seeds, juices leaking on hardwood floor as gnats swarmed the rot.
She was not herself. Where the hell was Dove?
They were in the kitchen, at the back doors, and Hinata felt a shock go through her as Sasuke removed his warm hand. He looked at her, eyes so dark they almost looked red with a fierce danger that Hinata had never seen from him before. "Stay right here," he commanded.
Hinata didn't have the words to give an affirmation, so she merely nodded, kneeling near a box of onions as he disappeared through a back door with a confidence that suggested he'd been there before, though she knew he hadn't. As she sat, she realized she was bleeding. It was a long, but surface level cut across the top of her knee. She'd probably gotten it when the glass door shattered behind her.
Blood pooled, but she ignored it, listening to the silence that followed the gun shots. Had the assailant finished? She doubted it. Seconds later, the street filled with the sounds of police sirens.
"You're hurt," Sasuke said, reappearing. He was unscathed as he bent down to check on her. When he saw that she was fine besides the knee, he took her hand again to guide her like she was a paper doll about to be swept away. Hinata guessed that's how he perceived her, and she couldn't even be annoyed. "Can you walk?"
"Y-yes," Hinata said, surprised when her voice even came out shakily. "I'm fine. We…we need to get out of here, I think––"
Sasuke gave her a look, and she pressed her lips together. "Let's go."
She followed him through the back door and into an alley behind the restaurant. It was dark and smelled like rotten meat––she thought of the offerings and cringed. Sasuke noticed and thought it was fear.
"I won't let anything happen to you," he said as he guided her to a sleek black SUV with tinted windows that was sitting right outside the door. She was his employee and he had a duty to her. Hinata got in, wincing when she bent her knee. Sasuke followed in after her, shutting the door with a slam.
"Cousin," there was a man in the driver's seat, grinning. "Surprised you made it."
"That's what I should be saying," Sasuke grunted, taking off his suit jacket and discarding it onto the floor of the SUV. "How the hell did you get here so fast, Obito?"
"I was in the neighborhood," the man shrugged, pulling out of the alley. He made a left down another darkened alley when he saw the flashing police lights at the corner. Hinata felt eyes on her and she saw the man staring at her from the rear-view mirror. "Who's this cute little thing?"
She immediately turned red, and the man chuckled. He had the dark look of an Uchiha that both Sasuke and Itachi shared––cousin, Sasuke had called him. Though, he was older with more lines on his face and small patches of graying hairs at his hairline, he was just as attractive.
"Leave her alone," Sasuke grunted. He undid his tie and unbuttoned the first four buttons of his dress shirt, exposing a slither of tanned skin and a gold chain. Next, he undid the buttons of his sleeves and yanked them up over his elbows. Hinata watched all of this, her eyes wide. "I think she's in shock. She's my new assistant."
"I–I'm not in––" Hinata blinked rapidly as Sasuke reached under the seat and pulled out a first-aid kit. He gestured to her knee as the car bumped along the pot-hole ridden alley. Shyly, she moved closer so that Sasuke could tend to it, putting her leg up on the seat between them. "I'm not in shock. I–I can fix my own wound."
"That's great to hear," Sasuke deadpanned, ignoring her. He didn't believe her. "Please give Obito your address so we can get you home in one piece."
After she relayed her address to the other Uchiha man, she began to protest as Sasuke ripped open an alcohol wipe. Her wound was a mess down her leg, the bleeding only now stopping now that they were in the car. Sasuke sanitized his hand with the wipe before opening another one. Then, he looked at her, asking for permission.
Hinata nodded, feeling heat rise to her face. He slipped his hand under her knee which sent a pulse of electricity through her so severe that she almost jumped out her seat. Sasuke just looked at her blankly.
"S-sorry…"
He grabbed her shin instead the next time, holding her there as he rubbed the alcohol over the wound. It burned slightly, but it wasn't even close to the worst thing she'd ever experienced in life––but he was looking expectantly, like he was waiting for her to cry so she winced theatrically. He threw away the first alcohol pad and opened another one.
"What happened back there?" She asked as Obito got back to the main road. She watched him pick up a soda from the cup-holder and take a sip––he must've been at one of the 7/11s nearby when the shooting happened. She sniffed his car but only got a whiff of spicy cologne. "Obito-san, you said you were close, did y-you see anything?"
Sasuke looked surprised that she was asking questions, and she understood that it seemed out of character for her, but anyone should want to know why they had almost been shot down on the street. If she were anyone else, she would've thrown up by now. Alas, her heart was calm as she silently calculated her next move; besides, it was easier to appear distressed than to actually feel that way.
"I was going to my car when I heard gunshots," Obito said. "Obviously, I booked it out of there. I was actually just at the expressway when Sasuke texted me."
Sasuke wrapped her cut with gauze, gently placing her knee down when he was done. He tapped it off with some medical tape, looking woeful. She told him thank you in a low voice and turned her body so that she was sitting properly again, and tried not to think about how his hands felt.
"B-but why?" Hinata questioned. "The shooting…?"
Sasuke and Obito were silent. Hinata thought about the sequence of events…the crowds of people, the gun fire, the rally. The threat given to Sasuke only a week or so ago. Hm.
"People are crazy, Hinata," Sasuke said finally. "I'm just glad the cut you have is the worst of our injuries."
Hinata watched him lean back against the seat. He looked somewhat sweaty, but other than that, he was just as refined as usual. There was a sheen across the exposed part of his bare chest, and his hair moved playfully in the wind. He looked thoughtful as he rested his arm against the window, and he peered at Hinata, a question in his gaze.
"Cousin Itachi is going to change gun laws," Obito said confidently. "In a few months, you won't have to worry about a thing,"
Sasuke continued to watch her, even when she said nothing to that remark. She opened her phone to pretend to be busy. Already she was getting notifications about the active shooter threat. She looked through her phone as headlines popped up. There was a picture of her and Sasuke scrambling up the stairs, his hand grippings hers as they ran. The headline said: Random Act or Assassination Attempt? Authorities on Scene Investigate the Heinous Shooting at North District.
"You should see this," Hinata whispered, showing her boss the phone. He took it for a moment, looked disinterested, and shook his head. She watched his lips flatten in agitation.
"My PR woman will likely be calling and emailing tonight––ignore them," he ordered, not looking at her. "Do you understand?"
Hinata sat up straighter at his abrupt switch back to business. "Of-of course, Uchiha-san."
Obito pulled into the drive-way of her apartment building smoothly, and Hinata was quick to unbutton her seatbelt and attempt to scramble out, despite the throb of her leg. Sasuke caught her arm before she could even open the door.
She stiffened once more; Sasuke was making an intense sort of eye contact, his dark gaze enough to almost swallow her whole. She wavered, blinking modestly, "Um, anything else I can do for you, sir?"
He let her go at the word sir, shaking his head as if she were a lost cause. "Get some rest tonight, Hyuga, and take care of your leg. Use the company card to order dinner."
"I don't have a––"
Sasuke silenced her with a look. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a black card, all but shoving it into her palm.
"I will be checking on you this evening, so expect a phone call. Don't worry about rescheduling with the Kaguya Group until you're back in office. Have a good night."
"R-right," Hinata nodded. Sasuke looked dead serious, by the set of his face. She would have to make sure she kept her phone charged. Hinata clutched the company card and slipped out of the car, stumbling a little when her leg remembered its cut. "Have a good night, Uchiha-san, Obito-san. I hope y-you both can rest and recover from today!"
"You too," Obito said sweetly, out the window. Hinata swore she saw Sasuke roll his eyes.
-:-
"Are you going to sit in the back like I'm a goddamn Uber driver?" Obito complained until Sasuke––grudgingly––went to the passenger seat and sat down.
Sasuke felt his body sink into the plush seat of the SUV. He felt fucking horrible. He had almost gotten Hinata killed. If another assistant died on him, he didn't know how he would live with himself. More than that–––it seemed that Hinata had somehow saved his life. She crashed into his body just as a bullet had grazed the top of his head. When he went to stand to get them both to safety, he saw the tuft of his own obsidian hair floating down in the wind.
"You sweet on her?" Obito asked as Sasuke pulled a cigarette from the glove compartment.
"No," Sasuke sighed, closing his eyes. Besides, Sakura would murder him in his sleep if he even so much as looked at another woman.
"'I will be checking on you this evening,'" Obito mimicked in a high pitched voice. He should be embarrassed for his age. "Sounds pretty sweet to me."
"She almost fucking died, Obito." Sasuke sneered, remembering how she froze behind the host stand, her eyes full of terror. "It's a polite thing to do. Besides, I don't have time to hire another fucking assistant."
Obito shrugged, turning the car onto the expressway, "If I were you I woulda shot that motherfucker in the neck."
"I can't just shoot into an open street," Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"Oh right, you're a public figure now," Obito teased. "You and Itachi leave all the dirty work to guys like me."
Sasuke grunted and lit the cigarette. He didn't have time to address Obito's many insecurities surrounding his place in the Syndicate––he had far too much to think about on his own. For one thing, Suigetsu had almost been successful at getting his "revenge." He needed to be dealt with as soon as possible. Not to mention the news that Motoi was now dead. Had that bastard Suigestu done that, too? Or was it those assassins his father was trying to find?
He pressed his eyes shut, feeling his phone buzzing excessively in his pocket. The news Hinata had shown him hadn't been great either, especially not for business. Who would want to work with a man who had a target on his back?
"Yo," Sasuke said when he looked up and noticed the route Obito was taking. "Turn around, I need to go home first. Sakura's probably losing her goddamn mind right now.
"No can do, cousin," Obito said. "Fugaku-sama's orders. He wants you at the Boroughs."
"Great," Sasuke said, crushing the nub of the cigarette between his fingers. Annoyed, he threw it out the window. Did nobody care that he had almost died? The least he could do was get to take a nap.
"It's hard being on top," Obito said sardonically. If Sasuke had the energy, he would've taken the wheel and crashed the car into the leg of a bridge.
Instead, they drove peacefully on.