- At night, when people should be sleeping -
It's twilight, when the horses sleep and the stable boys are in their dorms, tucked under their quilts to rest for another day's work. The barn is dark and cold and still and quiet, as it had been for any other night since Sasuke's arrival. He and Aoda sleep, and they stay sleeping until the crunch of grass outside stirs them awake. It is not uncommon for elk and deer to wander along the grounds at night, but when Sasuke blinks his eyes open, he sees the steady orange glow of a lantern underneath the stable doors.
The doors creak, but stay shut due to the latch securing them together. A few horses lift their heads and turn to have a curious gander, and Aoda shifts to smell the air.
"Hinata," he hisses.
Hinata?
Why has she come at this hour?
A light knock taps against the store, and Sasuke uncurls from his spot against Aoda, pulling his cloak on before unlatching the doors and pushing one open. Hinata is, indeed, outside with a lantern in hand, a lavender robe hiding the silk of her nightgown. Her hair is down, long and unkept, reaching her hips. She looks more a ghost than an empress, and Sasuke studies her as she squirms from one foot to the other. Her slippers give her no protection from the gravel that digs into the soles of her feet, and she shoots him a desperate look.
He doesn't give in quite yet.
"What?" he asks.
He hands lean against her cheek in a gesture of sleep, and his brows raise.
"Of course, I was asleep." After a small moment of hesitation he drops his right hand on her shoulder. "That's what you should be doing."
Hinata points past him. 'Inside.'
"No. Go back to your chambers." She shakes her head, and he pinches his nose. "You're a nuisance."
"Let her in," Aoda muses from behind. "She's dripping with fear."
Fear? What has an Empress to fear? She's much too old to believe in shadowy monsters under her bed, and if she had any kind of nightmare, the guards and her faithful lady-in-waiting are a mere call away. It is not normal for a fearful person to run to the Snake Mage; usually, it's the other way around.
But, if Sasuke has learned anything about the Empress, it's that he should expect nothing but surprises from her.
Opening the door a little more, he lets her in, and she ducks under his arm and beelines for Aoda, curling against his scales like a child would to her mother's chest. And Aoda, pleased (of course he is), slithers his tail so that it lays over her lap, securing her against him.
"Were you attacked?" Sasuke asks. "Is someone after you?"
Her eyes are blank, unable to recognize the words his mouth shapes. Caduceus lies with its sling on the old rocking chair, and he reaches over and releases the blade from its tip, pointing it her way.
"Attacked?" he repeats. Realizing, she shakes her head, then wobbles as her daisies bounce around. "Hurt?"
"I smell no blood," Aoda says. "She does not look in pain."
Sighing, Sasuke takes the lantern from her, resting it on the ground.
"Why are you here?" He gestures to the stables. "Here."
Slowly, her hands reach up, not touching her flowers, but motioning around them. Her pointer and middle finger make a cutting gesture, and then she pretends to pull one of the flowers out of her ears, holding it up in the air for all to see. Right. The removal of her flowers is tomorrow. A long, painful process, from how Sakura described it.
"It hurts you," he confirms. She nods gently, twisting her hands together. "Are you hiding?" This time, she shakes her head. "Then why are you here?"
Hinata must think for a while. She traces circles around her eyes, which he knows signifies Karin. Then, she scribbles with an imaginary pen, which he can only assume means Kō. Boxes around her shoulders represent the plated armour the guards of the palace wear. A make-believe syringe means the royal doctor. She motions at least five other types of people, and it all sinks into Sasuke's skin. If she were to make a fuss, her entire chamber would be full to the brim with people; people who care, people whose main job is to keep her safe and healthy — but a crowd of people, nonetheless, who will turn that big room into a claustrophobic cell.
Sasuke understands how dangerous it can be to mix fear with a large crowd.
"Alright." He releases his cloak from his shoulders and flaps it through the air a couple times to get any straw out, and then he lays it over her body. "You'll sleep here."
Her fingers feel the soft fabric, and then she looks at him, quietly asking, 'What about you?'
Instead of answering, he blows out the lantern, bathing them in darkness once more. The horses turn back into their slumber, and Sasuke settles against the rocking chair, overlooking her through the dark, watching her slowly fall asleep.
...
It's some time in the early morning, but before dawn, when Sasuke is stirred from slumber again. He wakes to his head slouched to the side and a dull burn of pain running up his neck. It hadn't been his plan to sleep. The chair wasn't all that comfortable, and he's used to getting little to no sleep. Some nights in those dark forests were spent scaring off wolves and beasts who were brave enough or hungry enough to go after the Snake Mage and his giant serpent.
But it must have been the lull of wind against the barn, or maybe it was the distant song of crickets — or maybe, maybe, it was those gentle and even breaths of a slumbering empress that made Sasuke's eyes heavy. Rarely does he ever get the chance to sleep with other people around. It's not that it's Hinata, per se, but rather it's because she's a person — a human — with a pulse and a breath. It reminds him of his mother, of Itachi, and Sasuke fell asleep with that in his head.
But he wakes to a cry that only a human can make.
In the instant, he stirs, touches the painful muscles in his neck, then jolts forward to make sure no harm has come to Hinata. She is where he remembers her being, with nothing attacking her. Aoda hovers close, keeping her secured against him as she twists and turns, head flying this way and that; her flowers fold and bend, she cries in pain, and then she stirs and twists some more.
"She's hurting," Aoda hisses, worried.
Sasuke leaps off the chair to hold her shoulders down, stilling her as best he can without hurting her.
She is crying, and she is trembling — and this — this is not the playful, cheerful Empress he has been seeing for the past several days.
Her voice picks up, and the cry shapes into a word. A name. A name Sasuke knows well, but did not think he'd ever hear come from her mouth again.
"Na—ruto."
"It's a nightmare," Sasuke tells Aoda. "Release her. You'll make her feel trapped."
The snake does as he's told, swiping his tail to the back of the barn so that she slumps against him without any restraint. Sasuke lets go of her shoulders, but when she falls back into twisting around, he holds her head between his two hands, thumbs against the outer corners of her eyes. Unlike Sakura, he does not possess magic that heals or calms. He has nothing that can morph her nightmares into something pleasant.
When —
When he used to have nightmares, what did his family do?
His mother would sing to him. He can't do that; and even if he could, Hinata cannot hear him.
His brother would read to him — but he has nothing to read!
And his father — he —
Desperate, Sasuke grabs one of her hands, uncurls her fingers out of a fist, and bites her.
...
She wakes with a gasp.
Sasuke keeps her head steady as she jolts awake, and her glassy eyes stare through the dark, searching, confused. She cannot see anything, and she is scared. She raises her hands to fight her way out of his hold, but he snaps his fingers, creating a small flame to dance on the ends of his fingertips, providing just enough light for her to see him.
Relief hits first, followed by a crumbling pain, and she shrieks and groans and sobs as her bent flowers pop into place. In a rush, Sasuke rolls up the end of his cloak, putting it in her mouth so she has something to bite down on. Hinata shakes violently. Aoda watches, unsure if he should curl against her. He looks to his master for answers, but even Sasuke does not know what to do.
Holding her chin up with his unlit hand, he asks, "Doctor?"
She shakes her head, then pushes into him, leaning her forehead against his shoulder as her hands squeeze into the loose fabric of his tunic's sleeves. Her tears are wet, but warm, and her nose sinks into his clavicle. Now Sasuke is the one feeling claustrophobic, but he lets her hold onto him.
When she calms, he turns them both around so that his back lies against Aoda, and the giant snake curls his entire body around them in a secure, protected halo.
Her breath puffs against his neck.
He tries to ignore it, and he rests a hand on the back of her skull, giving her permission to relax. The fire on his fingertips fade, but the air around them is still hot,
This is how she sleeps.
This is how he doesn't.
...
Glowing, red rafts seep down into Sasuke's eyes. He squints through the dawn shine as the stable boys come in, yawning and dreaming of fresh eggs and seasoned pork and gallons of apple juice. Kiba Inuzuka greets the horses by names like they're family. When he gets to the end of the line, he comes into the back, where there slumbers Aoda, the giant snake, and Hinata Hyuuga, the Empress.
"Third time."
Sasuke does not move. It feels like the entire palace is on his chest, with Karin running around in a mess of hair and slippers and gown, frantically searching for her lady. It feels like a stone castle is on him, but it's just Hinata. One person. One girl, small, with her hands warm in the wrap of his cloak. He takes light breathes, and he moves only his head to look through the red light to see Kiba hovering next to them.
"Third time," Kiba repeats. "The past three months, she's been coming here the night before the removal. We come to work in the mornin', and she's sleepin' in the hay. Scared Hana shitless first time she found her. Heh." His forced laugh wheezes, and then his mouth dips into a pursed line. "We think it brings her closer to Naruto. Y'know, the horse that killed him is still here."
He shrugs to the stables, not pointing out any horse in particular. Good thing, too. If Sasuke knew, he'd probably gut the beast in seconds.
"Why?" he whispers, and not in a very gentle way, though it's quiet enough to not wake Hinata.
"She commanded it," Kiba says. When Hinata rustles, he leans down and brushes hair out of her face. "Naruto loved that horse. Probably still does, up there in heaven with his head caved in. Crazy bastard."
When they were kids, Naruto was on his horses more than he was on his two feet. If he'd been a magic-wielder, Sasuke believes he'd be some sort of animal whisperer. He had conversations with those horses. He understood them. He cared for them like he would his own body and soul.
When Sasuke had heard it was a horse that killed Naruto, he hadn't believed it. Still, in some ways, he doesn't. A horse killing Naruto is like Aoda killing him.
"It hurts her like hell," Kiba continues. "She gets scared. Sometimes, she cries for him. That's why we think she comes here. That horse was the only one with Naruto in his final breaths."
He says that, but when he looks down at them, he sees her and a Snake Mage.
With a huff, Kiba gently pulls her from Sasuke. Hinata stirs awake, blinks up at him, and smiles.
"Mornin'," he says, lifting her to her feet. "Come help me feed the horses. They're getting carrots today."
Her daisies wobble and sink, heavy and painful. Still, she comes with him, and she smiles, and she waves at every stable boy who bows and greets her.
When she looks back at Sasuke, her eyes are wide, consuming, and he doesn't know what to think or what to feel.