Day 15
- Love Letters/Notes -
Sasuke decides he'd better make good use of this little key that Hinata has gifted him, so the next day, before he's off to another day of labor, he comes over. The key slips in, and when he turns it, the lock clicks, and he feels oddly satisfied with this fact.
Hinata has a broom and pan in her grasp, bent down as she sweeps the bristles along the white tile. She dressed like she'll be doing chores for the rest of the day, her t-shirt baggy and her sweatpants plain. Still, Sasuke can't help but stare a little, mystified.
"Good morning," she greets. "I was hoping you'd come today."
So she was waiting for him. Can the day start off any better? "I can't stay for long. Mission."
She nods, sweeping all the dust and crud she's gathered into a line before pushing it into her pan. "What are you doing?"
"Bridge repairs." Especially in the older parts of Konoha, some of the bridges needed to be closed down and fixed before anyone was allowed to pass over them, no matter if they were man, cart, or animal.
Her eyes find him across the way. "Have you done that before?"
Is she worried? He'd like it if she was. "A few times."
"You'll have others helping you, right?"
"Yes."
She hums, the worry not slipping from her face, but they both know it's nothing that can be changed. Lord Hokage needs a damn good reason to pull someone from a mission, and even if they had one, Sasuke would still want to do it. Backing out of missions isn't going to impress him at all. He's almost a year in. Soon, he'll be evaluated and determined if he should be allowed higher-ranked missions or not. He just has to push through for a few more months. That's all.
And Hinata seems to understand, for she doesn't say much more on it. Instead, she asks, "Did you pack lunch?"
Huh. Look at that. He mysteriously forgot to do that. "Whoops."
Her eyes try to be sharp and pointed, but they dance with mirth. "Sasuke."
"Guess I have a bad memory."
Shaking her head, she leans pan and broom against the wall before wiping her hands. "Come back after your mission," Hinata tells him. "I'll make something."
Isn't this something a lot of people want? Coming home to a freshly-cooked meal and someone who's expecting you. Sure, that's been Kakashi for him during the past ten months, but Hinata's different. Kakashi is 'You look exhausted' and 'Get any sleep last night?' and 'Is he overworking you again?'
Hinata is big eyes roaming his face and arms that she'll wrap around him, relaxing him, soothing the pains and exhaust from his labor. She'll kiss him better, and he will be.
"Alright," he says, voice level and not at all hinting at the yearn he has for her, the will to just stay and not leave this house for the rest of the day. "I'll come back."
She smiles, and he's off to the streets once more, ready to get this thing done.
...
Believe it or not, bridge-fixing is a daunting task that eats up time, and five hours are here and gone before Sasuke knows it. He feels gross and slimy with sweat, and his hair is all over the place, but he doesn't care. He treks to Hinata's home before stopping by the Hokage Tower, once again using his key to get entrance inside.
"Hinata," he calls, "I —"
The kitchen is empty; actually, the whole house is empty. Sasuke knows what a full house feels like, and this is not that feeling. Wandering over to the kitchen, he investigates, sees there's a few dishes in the sink, and checks and sees the the dishwasher is full and warm, recently used.
There's a book on the coffee table, and when he goes over to it, he also finds a piece of paper torn out of a notebook. The familiar, squished handwriting of Hinata makes him take the paper in hand to read it.
Sasuke,
Kurenai came over and asked me to help watch Mirai. I'm not sure when I'll be back.
Lunch is in the fridge. Please enjoy it.
Also, here's another book for you to borrow. You can bring it back to me when you're done.
Hinata
He gets distracted a bit, following the loops and curves of her written letters. It makes him hunger for lemon, and as if expecting this, Hinata had left him a bottle of lemon water along with lunch in the fridge. There's no pink packet accompanying it, but Sasuke's satisfied with the note. He eats slowly in the hope she'll come back while he's still here. He'd like to stay all day, waiting, but he's got a report to do and chores to help Kakashi with, so staying today isn't possible.
She doesn't show.
He rinses his dishes in the sink and puts away the clean ones from the dishwasher, and then he grabs a pen from her collection, clicks it, and writes under her note.
Thank you for the meal. I put the dishes away, though some may be in the spots.
That wasn't on purpose.
I'll make sure to read the book.
After that, he stays just a minute longer by the door, and when she's nowhere in sight, he leaves.
...
Like yesterday, he comes in the morning. He doesn't have a mission today, so he's been happily going along with the idea that he'd be able to stay longer with her without having to rush.
The house is empty again. It's not cold, because this is Hinata's home, and she makes everything light and warm. But it has a sense of isolation, and Sasuke hums, if only to bring noise to the quiet air.
There's another note on the coffee table. It's on the same page as yesterday, only flipped onto the back.
Sasuke,
You didn't have to put away the dishes, but thank you! You put most of them in the correct places, so I appreciate your efforts, even if I spent two hours searching for my spatulas! I'll have to give you a proper tour one day so you know where everything goes.
She writes like this will be a common thing for him — using her kitchen, putting dishes away. Really, he wouldn't mind if he had to do it for the rest of his life, as long as it was her kitchen.
I won't be home until this evening. I'm sorry I missed you. Let's try to have dinner together sometime soon!
I hope your mission went well. Were there any troubles? You mentioned nothing about it in your note yesterday, so I worried some. Please don't mind me. I'm just like this.
He probably reads that last part ten or eleven times. 'I worried some'. How is it that he can feel giddy and guilty at the same time?
I hope to see you soon so we can talk about the book I gave you. I'm almost done with the ones you gave me, so please remember to bring more the next time you come over (whenever that is).
Hinata
All he can think, for a while, is that he should have come sooner in the morning, if only to catch her before she left. Reading these makes him desperately want to see her.
This time, she left a pen for him by the paper, inviting him to write back. He does, explaining that he'd thoroughly enjoy a tour of her kitchen whenever they have the time, hoping she'd be some kind to give him tours of other spots in her home, as well. He's sure to confirm that his mission went without issues, though it was a tedious and tiring day that left his arms sore
I like that you worry, he writes. I don't mind.
Because he'd been able to read about half of the book she gave him last night, he wrote down some of his thoughts for her, explaining his overall feelings of the plot and the way the main character seems different from most of the ones he's read from her collection. It was a hard book to put down, but that's a detail he'll leave to himself until he sees her, if only so he can watch the joy blossom on her face.
When he's done, he clicks the pen again, stands, and . . . hovers.
Lounging around and waiting doesn't feel right. When he's here, he wants to be here with her, and while the home is not lonely, it feels different when she's not around.
She wrote she wouldn't be home until that evening.
Hopefully, he'll get lucky and pick the right time to show up.
...
It's approaching eight that night when he stops by again, pleased to find her shoes at the entrance.
She pads out of her bedroom when he slips into the guest slippers she left for him. "Good. I was waiting for you."
Waiting.
People do not often wait for Uchiha Sasuke — only the important ones. Most of the time, they pass by without him, living their lives freely, as if he's not there to be affected by their actions. He's an independent traitor, a recluse monster. He does not need people waiting on him, counting the minutes until he comes home, until his mission is up.
Hinata, however, waits.
She wanders around her home until he's there, and then she ties her hair back, fits on her apron, and cooks so that he'll be able to eat a fresh meal with her. The turn of her chin invites him to stand in the archway, watching her, and she excitedly dives into conversation about the book as she chops, cooks, and seasons.
And, maybe, she waited not only for his sake.
Maybe she waited because cooking alone was boring, and she liked it when she hear his voice over the sizzle of beef on the pan.
...
"I'll be training with Kiba and Shino for most of tomorrow," she tells him when they sit at the table together, sharing dinner together. "Since the mission's coming up, we're trying to make sure we're prepared."
He eats his rice, which sticks nicely together, and chews. She had worked like a madwoman to clean it, and it had been a thrill to see how much she put herself into preparing food.
"I understand."
Hinata eats, shifts, and adds, quietly, "You can come over, even if I'm not home."
He wonders if she feels him like he feels her. Even in an empty home, everything is full of Hinata, and he feels at ease. He's never lonely here because everything from the placement of the furniture to the magnets on the fridge to the low hum of electricity in the lights makes him think of her.
Does she feel the same?
When she comes home and sees he's written a note in response to her own, does she look around and think of him? Does she stand in the kitchen and imagine him searching through the cabinets, figuring out where to put the bowls and mugs and measuring cups?
Sasuke wants this home to be as much him as it is her, so he nods, agreeing that he'll stop by even if she's not around, and her smile makes him hungry.
...
As expected, when he shows up at ten the next morning, there's a note to greet him.
Sasuke,
Shino and Kiba came over for tea before we left for training. I told them that you helped with putting away the dishes, and they thought it was silly. Kiba tried to best you with the dishes I cleaned last night but hadn't put away. He got a good amount of dishes in the right spots, but he was totally wrong in where to put the pots. I told him he did well for the sake of his heart, but I secretly think you did better. Don't tell him I said that!
It's going to be a hot day today. Shino says the bugs don't like humidity. Please try to stay in when you can. I don't want you getting dehydrated and sick.
Do you have any missions today? If not, feel free to stay as long as you want. I don't mind.
I'm thinking about making onigiri soon. Let's make it together.
Strangely — without his knowing — Sasuke has found that he's starting to look forward to these notes as much as he's looking forward to seeing her.
...
For the next three days, things continue like this. He comes over, making good use of that gifted key, and if he happens to miss her, there's a note always waiting for her. They get longer and longer, detailing unimportant things that soon take over all of his thought-processes. Wind direction, the daisies growing around Hokage Tower, the difference between humidity in the sun and humidity in the shade; all these things are small things Hinata includes in her notes, and Sasuke realizes he's taking note of wind direction, of those pesky little daisies that even Shikamaru hadn't acknowledged until Sasuke brought it up to him, of that degree difference when he's resting in the shade of an oak tree.
Sometimes, he does chores around the house when he has nothing better to do and a whole lot of energy that he needs to get out of his system. It's small things, like wiping down the counters or cleaning the windows; but even if they are small, she always notices.
I'll kiss you the next time I see you, she writes.
The first time he read it, Sasuke was sure he'd never be able to breathe again, and he had to run around the tracks in Konoha and beg Sai to give him something to do, because standing and waiting was painful when she wrote things like that.
In the evening of that day, when she came home, he was the one waiting for her, and she grinned like she knew what her words did to him and kissed his cheek.
Needless to say, Sasuke always found something to do around the house after that, and she's always appreciative and gifting him pecks to to his face.
Sometimes, she leaves snacks for him. If you don't like them, don't force yourself, she'll write, and he always eats them.
When he has a mission, she's sure to mention something about it. Good luck, and work hard! I'll make something for you for lunch next time.
Again and again, over and over, it's sending him into the past, to those pink packets he looked forward to just as much as he looks forward to these notes. Maybe that's why he likes them so much — they remind him of what made him fall for her so hard in the first place.
The evening of the third day, he comes by and finds she's packing for her mission, stuffing her pack with supplies and double-checking the sharpness of her kunai.
"It will be a week long," she tells him, then hesitates. "Maybe. That's what we hope."
She doesn't tell him much about the sort of mission she'll be taking, only that they'll be tracking a group. Sasuke knows not to push for more information, so he doesn't. He just follows along as she shows him around the house he knows very well, telling him how to use the dishwasher he already knows how to use and bringing him to the storage closet which he already knows about, as well. She brings him to all the plants around the house. Every pot has a sticky note attached to it, informing him of how much water and sunlight it needs and any other bits of information he might need to know.
It's as if he's babysitting a child, not a house, and he can't help the grin on his face.
"I'll take good care of everything," he assured her. "It'll look better than how you left it."
She fixes food slowly, and they eat like they're snails. She has to leave early in the morning, so when he leaves, he won't see her for a week — maybe more. They both know this, so they say nothing of it when he sits on the couch as the deep hours of night approach, nothing but a lamp on and a book in hand. She sits next to him, head leaning against his shoulder to read; when she dozes off, he carries her into her room and tucks her in.
"Good luck on your mission," he says.
Her eyes crack open, and she takes his hand in hers. "Hurry up and prove yourself to the Hokage," she mumbles, "so that next time, you can come with me."
His presses his mouth to her palm in promise, then leaves.
Uchiha Sasuke, after all, does not break promises.
...
He stops by her home before he's off on a mission of his own.
This time, the house does feel empty and lonely — because before, he knew she'd come back sooner or later.
Now, he's not sure.
He takes his time to check the plants and to make sure everything is securely shut and locked.
There's a list on the coffee table, long and detailed, going over everything she told him yesterday in case he forgot. He laughs as he flips through the pages, then finds that there's a hidden note underneath, folded in half.
Taking it in hand, Sasuke sits, unfolds it, reads it —
Sasuke,
I love you.
— and (not for the first time, and certainly not for the last time) feels like he is about to fall over, dead.
...
Now he really, REALLY wants to see her.
First to shake some sense into her.
Then to kiss her until she can't think of cunning tricks like that again.