- In the small patch of land between stables and the large grounds that lead out into the forest -
Aoda returns from his meal in a mess. Mud cakes his belly, and twigs and burweed are stuck between his scales. He smells like the earth, something more comfortable and tame than the smelling solutions provided in the castle to the Empress; still, Sasuke understands the ways of the palace, and he knows a dirty snake that has just come back from eating adult bears for a quick snack will leave everyone in a panic. Aoda will have to be washed. Not that Sasuke minds. Keeping busy will cool his frustration.
Bringing out Caduceus, he summons magic through it until the eyes of the twin snakes glow, and they lift their heads to look upon their master.
"Bring beeswax," Sasuke tells them, "and anything proper-smelling. Nothing to ruin the senses."
They slither down the septre and land on the dusty pathway, slipping through the grass as they make their way to the palace. Sasuke retrieves one of the giant brooms the stable boys use to sweep the stable corridors. He asks for the soap they use on the horses, and one of the boys (looking awfully like Kiba, only without the stupid face) cautiously hands him a few jars full of the clear solution. Grabbing a bucket often used to hold apples for the horses, Sasuke returns to Aoda, cranks the lever by one of the wells, and leads the hose into the bucket to fill it. He dumps the soap in, mixing it up until the bucket overflows with bubbles.
"I need to hose you down," he tells his companion. "Can you crank it with your tail?"
While the snake is wide and massive, he manages to rest the very end of his tail along the lever, cranking it so that a constant stream of water spews out. Aoda basks in the sunshine as Sasuke sprays him down. Horses trot to the fence to have a gander, curious.
Soon, the twin snakes return. One has a basket of beeswax balanced on her head, the other holds a small bottle of rose perfume in her mouth. He thanks them both, and they coil around the septre once more, resting from a job well done. Sasuke pinches his nose as he pours the perfume into the bubbly water, then dips his broom in before starting the long process of scrubbing Aoda down.
...
The stable boys look upon the great snake who is obviously enjoying his treatment. Kiba is among them, not having a very happy face, but unable to do much about it.
Sasuke is nearly halfway done when a cry bellows through the bird songs and the slow breaths of a great snake.
"HINATA! Ohhh, come back here!"
Only Karin can scream like a banshee.
Great. And just when he was starting to cool down.
Sasuke looks over, wondering what the Empress could have possibly gotten herself into to get Karin to yell like that. Perhaps she is dancing the tango on the palace roof. Maybe she's gotten herself stuck in one of the many fountains about the yards. What he sees isn't strange, at first: she's just coming down the way, passing the royal stables and pushing past a fence gate so that she can be in the same spot as him. If Sasuke had to take a guess, she probably saw him and Aoda from one of the windows and decided to pay a visit.
An unnecessary thing to do, as he'd been there just earlier that morning, where he was plainly deemed useless for the rest of the day.
Nothing else sparks his focus until he sees movement in the corner of his eye. Kiba is bright-faced, turning some of the younger stable boys away, telling them to not stare. One of them coos that he can see Empress Hinata's legs, and Sasuke takes another look and realizes, yes, he absolutely can.
She's . . . wearing pants.
Are Empresses even allowed to wear pants?
When Karin rushes to her side, red hair a mess and face flushed and wired spectacles lopsided on her chicken nose, it becomes all the more obvious. Sasuke never thought he'd see the day where Karin Uzumaki would be more lady-like than the Empress, dressed in a simple, summer's gown with a white ribbon holding her hair back in a half-updo. Her lips are pink, and her eyelids are dabbed with something shiny, and she makes a great effort to avoid any spots of mud to keep her shoes and the skirt of her dress clean.
Hinata, in pants that resemble the kind Sasuke's father would wear, with nothing spectacular done to her hair aside from it being combed into a simple bun, looks almost like she's off to the army. A red coat and a hat, and she could be off to war.
"Lady Hinata!" Karin pants, catching her shoulder so that the Empress may look at her face. Beyond her is Kiba, and she makes a flippant motion with her hand, wordlessly ordering him to get everyone back to work. He does, after a lasting look at Hinata, scratching the stubble on his chin as if he's surprised to find that women, like men, have legs. "We are going back. You have a meeting with Lord Nara about — oh, and you can't be seen like this! You look a mess!"
Hinata, smiling like she's a giant snake getting a nice scrub after a hearty meal, points at Sasuke. He frowns — Don't bring me into this — as she rounds her distressed lady-in-waiting and grabs one of the mops left behind by the distracted stable boys.
"Oh, Heavens," Karin sighs. "You don't have time to play around and — my lady, stop ignoring me."
Dunking the mop into the perfumed water, Hinata grins at Sasuke before going at Aoda's side, scrubbing him back and forth with all the strength in her arms. She can hardly reach his back, having to get on the tips of her toes to reach some spots, and it's all so strange that Sasuke's following scoff is almost a laugh.
Having given up, Karin calls over one of the stable boys, dropping a few coins in his hand and leaving him a message to give whatever important people Hinata should be seeing at the moment. Then, she hoists herself on the fence, taking a small book from the front of her dress to read in the bright sunlight. Hinata, happy to see she's free to do as she pleases for now, gets busy with cleaning Aoda. Upon Sasuke's unsure look, she holds up two fingers to his face, and he understands almost instantly.
Two is better than one.
Tch. Madwoman. Just like Karin.
...
When he's fully washed, they hose Aoda down again, and all the suds slide down to soak into the grass. Hinata's feet are muddy, and the knees of her pants are damp. Some of her hair has fallen loose, which she doesn't care to fix. The daisies reaching out from the depths of her ears happily take in the sunshine.
As they wait for Aoda to dry, she bends over to grab the hem of his cloak to tug at it like a child. Sasuke wonders if he will forever see the Empress as a kid — that faraway princess he met years ago. Sometimes, it's hard to remember this is the same, beautiful woman that married his best friend and made him emperor.
She tugs, then she points at the castle.
"Palace?" he asks. "What is it?"
He must be misunderstanding, for she thinks for a moment. Eyes brightening, she traces four walls into the air with her pointer finger, then shapes a large, long box with both hands. Her knees pick up as she seemingly steps into the box, and then she leans back slightly and pulls up something invisible to her neck — like sheets, or something.
Bed sheets.
Oh.
Her room.
Hinata grabs his cloak again like she had that morning, and then she gives him an expectant look.
'Angry?" she mouths.
Sasuke stares, not sure what to say. When she taps her chest, he shakes his head. No. Not at you.
Her shoulders rise, and for whatever reason, the Empress is happy.
Then, she points at Karin, nose stuck in her book. 'Angry?'
"Frustrated," he says out loud, and he's not sure if he meant to or not. Hinata stares at his mouth, not catching what he said, so he repeats the word. "Frustrated."
Her head lifts to gander at the far off forest, and he wonders how much she knows about him. Does she know where he's been all these years? What he's been doing? Who he's been looking for? Does she know he postponed his decade-long mission to help break her curse?
Sasuke checks to make sure Karin is still not paying attention, and then he takes Hinata's wrist and taps her hand. She's got dark, long lashes that hang over her eyes like willow tree branches. It makes the silver in her iris look gray — or maybe that's her concentration.
'I don't understand,' her frown tells him.
He shrugs his shoulder towards Karin. Wait. I'll explain later.
...
When Aoda is dry, they take the bars of beeswax from the basket and wax his scales until he sparkles. Sasuke makes sure to be careful around his eyes and mouth and nose, and Hinata climbs on his back to reach the hard parts.
"She is good to me," Aoda hisses softly. "Like you."
They have met many people who fear a giant snake. Fear makes a man a monster. Aoda has been shot at, and he's been chased out of villages with fire, and he's had rocks and knives thrown at him. No one cleans him aside from Sasuke. No one touches his scales like they're delicate pearls. No one rides him, and no one trusts him — not like Sasuke does.
And that is because they are one.
Because when Sasuke found Aoda, something awoke inside him.
You could cut them, and they would bleed the same blood. They are connected. One.
When Hinata runs her hands along the shapes of every scale, it is not just Aoda she touches.
He and his companion do not share a body, but when Sasuke watches her for too long, he can almost feel her hands gliding down his back.
"She is a child," Sasuke tells him. "She sees something different and wants to ride it."
Aoda's chin rests against the warm soil, and he smells Sasuke's exaggeration in the air. "Why does she not speak?"
That is what Sasuke would like to know.
Aoda's face is finished, shining nicely. Before Sasuke can move on, he looks up and sees Hinata holding her head, swaying to the side. She loses balance, falling. Aoda twists, as if to catch her, but Karin manages to get a hold of her and safely bring her to the ground.
"You know you shouldn't be climbing." Sighing, she takes her shoulders and tries to lead her away, then stops when she gets a good look at the Empress. "You're soaked. Tsk. Should have listened to me."
Hinata, who cannot hear her, must feel the judgment coming from her lady-in-waiting, for she laughs something light and guilty.
"Watch her." Again, suddenly, Sasuke is pulled into the mix. Karin gently settles Hinata against Aoda's side as the snake curls around protectively. "I'll return with towels and a robe to hide her appearance. Stay with her — and please, Rat, don't let her wander around and get hurt."
Sasuke sucks back any sarcastic words, instead murmuring, "You have my word."
Karin gives a grateful flash of a smile, and then she's off to the palace in a bustle of fabrics and red hair. In Aoda's halo, Sasuke looks over Hinata, wondering (for a moment) if she had faked the whole thing to get Karin to leave. But he sees clearly her complexion is green, and she sways and snaps straight with no control over her own body. Recent research has hypothesized that the body's balancing system is in the ears. If that's so, then it's a wonder the Empress can even walk straight.
And, for some reason, she smiles like she doesn't want him to worry.
"I'm not," he tells her. "But I can't help you if you're dead."
She probably didn't pick up on what he said. Not that it matters to her. She pats the dirt next to her, and after a moment, Sasuke sits with her. Hinata taps her palm like he had, and Sasuke understands this is his only opening for the day.
How do I explain this?
Maybe it's not too much that Hinata is a child (though she does, admittedly, act like one sometimes), but rather that to communicate with her is very child-like, with big gestures and simple, slow words.
Sasuke has never been a fan of charades.
But it looks like he'll be shouldering many things he's not a fan of for the sake of breaking this curse.
He brings out Caduceus, tries to ignore how Hinata's eyes shine like Aoda's scales when she recognizes it, and brings out the blade. Bringing her hand close, he almost just slices the skin to get it over with — it had worked perfectly with Konohamaru.
But that kid was being annoying.
Hinata . . . is just Hinata, Sasuke supposes.
So he pretends to slide it down her palm, and then pretends to wipe some of the imaginary blood from his blade to taste it. Hinata's eyes are wide, shocked, as he does this. Somehow, she looks a few shades greener.
Hell, Sasuke curses to himself. Now she thinks I'm a vampire.
So he does it all again, and after tasting her blood, he opens a figmented book and pretends to read. Confused, Hinata pats his cloak, searching for a book.
"I don't have one," he drones. "I read your blood. Your blood."
He taps her hand, and she looks at it, then back at him.
'Book,' she motions. 'Hand?'
Close enough. Now, she probably thinks him to be a palm reader — but that's at least better than some satanic creature that drinks blood.
He rests the blade of his septre on her palm and waits a moment for her to pull away. Hinata doesn't, so he cuts deep enough to draw blood without causing too much pain, and then he brings it to his mouth and lets it lay against his tongue, every flavor soaking into his tenses.
And —
And there are many, many flavors.
Almost to a disgusting degree, and Sasuke has to bite down on the back of his hand to keep from gagging.
Gods.
Aoda hums, smelling the tinge of blood, getting a good idea as to what is flooding his master's mouth. Hinata sits still, worried, as if her blood may have poisoned him.
Eventually, Sasuke gets his bearings, and he slowly combs through the barrage of tastes.
...
Again, it is difficult because he needs to find a way to share what he's gotten from tasting her blood with a woman who cannot hear him — who probably wouldn't understand even if she did hear him.
So Sasuke does what his brother used to do and takes the end of his septre to draw into the mud.
Moss. Damp and old. It means a lost love. It's fresh, and it's overwhelming when compared to the other flavors, so it's not hard to understand what this signifies.
Sasuke, above his sketch, writes Death of a Loved One. And above that: Naruto.
Hinata's hands tremble, and she tries to hide them.
Next, he draws lavender, and writes Warm Childhood. Catching on, Hinata uses her finger to scrawl Mother above that.
They go down the list together.
Onion - Fear of the Unknown - The Curse.
Leather - High Expectations — it doesn't take a genius to know what this relates to.
Salt water - A Strange Family Dynamic. Sasuke watches Hinata write down all the names of her living family and tries to fight off a smile. There are a few familiar names that make sense to be on the list. Most Hyuugas are strange, from what he understands.
Sunlig— He stops himself from writing the rest of the word out. That taste is her name. Sunlight — Hinata. He doesn't know how to explain what sunlight tastes like if she asks, so he moves on.
There is nothing of large importance that comes from tasting her blood. It doesn't give him any clues about the curse or who might have cast it or why. The most he can gather is that maybe something stirred from her family.
The last thing he draws into the earth is watermelon. Blooming Happiness.
"Something good happens?" he wonders. "You've got flowers growing out of your ears that prevent you from hearing. Can't imagine what's got you feeling happy."
When he looks at her, he's reminded of the barn rafts at dawn — that glow that most people overlook, but he's known it all his life. When things glow that aren't supposed to, Sasuke cannot help but notice. It reminds him of his lonely years in the forest, where he sometimes wakes up expecting his mother to be there, alive. That dash of hope, of happiness — that's what the glow reminds him of.
Hinata sort of, kind of, glows.
Or, maybe, she sort of, kind of, sparkles.
Whatever it is, it spells it out to Sasuke, and she needn't say anything.
Karin returns with Kō and three towels. Hinata stands, wobbles, and hugs Aoda's snout before she leaves.
When it's just them, Sasuke studies his drawings and the words above them. Over Blooming Happiness he almost writes his own name, but he stops himself, and he finishes waxing Aoda's scales.
"She smells like me," Aoda says. "Like roses."
The forgotten perfume bottle sits next to the bucket of cold water.
Sasuke tries, and fails, to ignore the scent wafting softly through the air.