Please see first chapter for disclaimer, rating, warnings, pairings, etc.

Part: 12/12

Special Thanks: goes out to narujordanna, Ookami Tsubasawa, Renoa Heartilly, farahb, Kia-B, Fher34, Rose101226, rao hyuga 18, NarutoLoveHinata, suicune4ever, BekotaTheMonsterHuntress, Starcakes, Erde Attentater, MeghanLeggyLeaf, Narutoimagine01, iiILurvePancakesii, Dani Stark, Shahar Mystral, and Faded Pink for all your wonderful reviews! Also thanks to everyone who's read, favorited, and followed this story and me! I love and appreciate you all so very much!

Author's Note: I can't believe this story is over! I had so much fun writing Coffee Connections, not to mention the fact I really feel like I grew as a writer during this process. It was so different from what I'd written before, I was scared at first, but now I'm glad I did it, because it turned out to be such fun. I really hope you all enjoy this final chapter, and thank you so much for everything!

*~Chapter XII~*

~Wedding~

The Big Day finally arrived.

For Sasuke, it couldn't have come soon enough.

Itachi had been a wreck the last week solid before the wedding, constantly enlisting Sasuke's help to take care of what felt like a million last-minute things. Unlike the elder brother, however, the younger didn't take time off work in the week before the wedding. That left Sasuke juggling time with his patients alongside various things like picking up the wedding party's tuxedos, calling the airport (three times) to check on Itachi and Temari's flight, checking (twice) to make sure everything was ready to go for the wedding and reception...

By the wedding day, all Sasuke wanted to do was curl up in bed and sleep the whole weekend. But, being the best man and thus the one with the most responsibility (save, naturally, for the matron of honor, plus the bride and groom themselves), he dragged himself out of bed at six-thirty to make sure the entire day would go off without a hitch.

Sasuke hustled Itachi out the door of their flat with six hours to go until the wedding ceremony, each of them carrying a garment bag with their respective tuxedo, the latter also pulling a suitcase. For Itachi, it would be his last time in the flat until he came home from his honeymoon; while his brother was gone, Sasuke would move the last of his things out into his new place. He still had a few more days to reconcile himself with leaving his familiar childhood home.

They took the train again, an entirely normal event on an anything but normal day. "I'm getting married today," Itachi said to those who gave him strange looks at the ebullience radiating from him.

"And it's my job to get him there safely and on time," Sasuke said several times, with a strained grin.

Even though he had a thousand other things with which he should be occupying his mind, Sasuke's thoughts inevitably kept wandering back to Hinata. He hadn't seen her since The Kiss (he couldn't help himself, he just kept thinking of it that way). Though she'd looked a little dazed after he pulled back, she hadn't screamed, slapped him silly, or slammed the door in his face, so he thought the odds were in favor of her showing up at the wedding.

They'd talked on the phone a few times over the course of the week. While Hinata had soundedly mostly natural, Sasuke wished he could have seen her face, read her subtle body language. He didn't seem to have scared her off. But gentle soul that she was, she would probably want to let him down easy. The irrational fear she would probably break things off after the wedding and never want to see him again haunted the back of his mind. He was, after all, not accustomed to anticipating a whole lot of joy in his life.

By the time Itachi and Sasuke reached the Hotel New Otani, the location they'd booked for the wedding and following reception, the latter was in a right foul mood. The former, floating on the happy cloud all grooms seemed to share, didn't notice as he spoke with the staff assigned to the Uchiha/Sabaku wedding party.

A portion of the Japanese Garden on the grounds was closed to the public for the day, since the wedding itself was to take place there. Itachi, Temari, their attendants, and the man officiating would stand on a little bridge arcing over a lovely little pond, which had a waterfall down to another, larger, pool beneath. With the spring flowers in full bloom, the skies blue and clear, and the temperature warm and comfortable, Sasuke had to admit it was indeed a good day for a wedding.

My brother's.

As they were escorted to Orizuru Yu, the banquet room in which the reception would take place, Sasuke blinked in shock at the streak of jealousy which shot hotly through his chest at the thought. Though he was incredibly happy for his brother, Sasuke found he wanted to be the one looking at all these preparations with the knowledge they existed for him and Hinata as the wedding couple; not as the best man looking at the perfect preparations for his brother and his bride.

Though Sasuke made every effort to act like he was listening, standing there looking attentive and nodding in the appropriate places, his mind persisted in wandering. It was so easy to see himself in Itachi's place, doing a last-minute check to make sure everything was in order. Then he and Itachi would proceed to the hotel room Itachi had booked, and change into their tuxedos, vacating the room before Hinata and her attendants arrived.

Hinata would be a truly beautiful bride...

"Sasuke, are you coming?"

Snapping out of his reverie, Sasuke found his brother and the head of the staff had moved across Orizuru Yu and were standing next to the door, looking back with puzzlement.

"Yes. Sorry, nii-san. My mind wandered." Sasuke hurried to catch up.

Itachi grinned, looking nervous. "I'm supposed to be the one with the wandering thoughts," he said as the trio exited the attractively decorated room. "You're here to keep me on track, not the other way around," he added in a teasing tone.

"Hn," Sasuke agreed. But he couldn't help himself. He wished with a desperation surprising even to himself that it was, indeed, the other way around.

Perhaps, even though it seemed like everything in his old familiar life was changing at once, he really was ready to meet, and even embrace, the coming changes.

Over some he had no control. But one in particular, he did - and Sasuke planned to take full advantage of it.

Hinata arrived at the Hotel New Otani with Neji and Tenten early, since the latter was serving as the matron of honor for the bride. Once Tenten bustled off to help Temari get ready for the ceremony, as well as herself, Neji stayed with Hinata, touring as much of the ten-acre Japanese Garden as they could before the wedding began.

Not until the start of the wedding ceremony did Hinata finally see Sasuke. He cut an extremely fine figure in his tuxedo, the crisp pants, jacket, and tie as dark as his eyes and hair, and the shirt as pale as his skin. The lavender rosebud tucked in the buttonhole of his jacket provided, Hinata thought, a very nice hint of color to highlight the drastic contrast between dark and light.

Once the ceremony ended, she ruefully realized she hadn't paid much attention to it. Instead of seeing Itachi and Temari, she visualized herself and Sasuke having the perfect spring wedding in a gorgeous garden under breathtaking clear blue skies.

Though Neji had clearly noticed his cousin's preoccupation, he hadn't said anything, for which Hinata was grateful. She'd talked to Tenten quite a bit about Sasuke, but she felt nervous about telling Neji the depth of her feelings for the younger Uchiha brother. Since Neji was every bit as protective of her as an actual older brother, she really didn't want him cornering Sasuke and giving him a talking-to as he would if Hinata let on about her feelings. She just knew he would.

The knowledge did nothing to help her control her wayward imaginings.

As the meal part of the reception wrapped up, the newlywed couple drifted from table to table talking briefly with each one's occupants. Through all the familiar trappings of a traditional Japanese wedding reception, Hinata saw Western influences here and there. It made her smile, seeing the two interwoven so smoothly.

"Hinata-chan, I'm glad you came. I'm sorry I haven't been able to come to you sooner. Best man responsibilites, and all that."

Blinking out of her reverie, Hinata tilted her head up to look into Sasuke's dark gaze. "Oh, Sasuke-kun. You sneaked up on me." She motioned to the chair next to hers at her otherwise empty table, since Neji had left to be with his wife as soon as she was released from the head table. Gratification warmed her when Sasuke sat down.

"You seemed deep in thought." Sasuke took a sip out of the cup he'd brought with him, and the scent of coffee wafted in Hinata's direction.

Smothering a smile at the familiar smell, Hinata tilted her head in acknowledgement. "Everything has gone so smoothly. And this is a truly beautiful location to have the wedding and reception. Neji nii-san and I were able to wander through a good bit of the gardens before the wedding started, and it's so peaceful. I'd like to come back sometime and stay a few days, just so I can explore those gardens to the full extent."

Sasuke's dark eyes stared at her intently over the rim of his cup, an unfathomable expression on the part of his face she could see. For a moment he held her gaze steadily, then he finally blinked and looked away. "Hn. I went on the tour of the gardens with Itachi and Temari when they were looking for a good place for the wedding, and I agree with your assessment. It is a very peaceful place. It seems like a good place to escape the hustle-and-bustle of life for a while, or to think about some life-changing thing which needs attention."

Hinata felt her heart stutter a little, and wondered if Sasuke could hear it. The soft murmur of conversation flowed around them from the other tables, but there seemed to be a little bubble directly over their table, placing them in a world all their own.

It had only been a few short weeks since Hinata met Sasuke, but she already knew for sure she was in love with him. She couldn't imagine herself growing closer to, marrying, and spending the rest of her life with anyone else - and didn't want to picture herself doing so with anyone but Sasuke.

"Oh!" The small exclamation escaped her as suddenly as the preceding thought exploded like a firecracker in her mind. Reaching into the little clutch purse she carried with her, she secured a familiar wad of bills and produced them. "Here," she said, holding them out to him under cover of the table.

Sasuke stared at them, a flurry of emotions darting through his eyes. Finally he reached out, but not to take the money as Hinata had figured. His long, strong, pale fingers folded around hers, warm and gentle, and guided her hand back toward herself. "No," he said slowly, deliberately. "You keep that."

She blinked. "But you said if I came to the wedding with you, you'd take it back. I've been keeping it all this time, looking forward to the time I could restore it to you." She felt confused, somehow lost. Was he reneging on his promise?

He tilted his head slightly, staring at her from beneath heavily-lidded eyes. "Is that the only reason you came to the wedding, then?" he asked. "So I'd take the money back?"

Her eyes widened as denial slashed through her, immediately and powerfully. "No!" she gasped, trying to keep her voice moderated so she wouldn't disturb the reception. "That's not it at all!"

Inexplicably, Sasuke smiled. "I was hoping you'd say that, Hinata-chan."

Hinata dropped her hands into her lap, one of which still held the money, to keep Sasuke from seeing the way they trembled unsteadily. "Wh-why is that?" she ventured.

One corner of his mouth tipped up a little higher than the other, and his dark eyes gleamed with some unidentifiable emotion. "Why do you think?" he asked, quite deliberately.

The shy part of her, the remnant of the wilting violet she'd been in her younger years, suddenly sprang back to life. But Hinata firmly pushed it aside, refusing to let it rule her any longer. "Did you - perhaps - really want me to come?" She asked the question in a whisper which hardly reached her own ears. "As - as your date?"

The other corner of his mouth curled upwards to join the first. "Got it in one." Sasuke leaned back in his chair, posture casual to anyone who might glance over. But Hinata saw the joy in his smile, the smoldering intensity in his eyes. She saw beyond the mask he showed others to the man she was beginning to realize only a few people other than herself had seen.

Hinata swallowed, her mouth suddenly feeling very dry. "Oh," she said faintly. And then, a little louder, "Oh."

Sasuke's eyes flickered very briefly down to her hand, then back up to her eyes. "Keep the money," he said. "Consider it a downpayment on-" he hesitated, as if suddenly uncertain, then drew in a deep breath and finished confidently, "forever."

Forever. The word sounded so sweet, so beautiful, especially in that room, in the company of two people who had just made that very same commitment to each other.

It wasn't a proposal, Hinata sensed. Though they were both, she could tell, very much in love already (as impossible as it seemed, in so short a time), neither of them were quite ready for such a leap forward. But the words were a promise, a confirmation of something they'd both felt but hadn't dared to voice even to themselves before just that moment.

The warmth in Sasuke's eyes shifted, turning suddenly hotter. The high neck and clinging fabric of the Mandarin-style dress Hinata had borrowed from Tenten just as abruptly felt hot and constricting in a way she hadn't considered before.

They weren't ready for forever just yet, Hinata thought with deepening certainty, but she had a feeling it wouldn't be too long at all before they were.

Uchiha Sasuke and Hyuuga Hinata were married at the Hotel New Otani in early April of the following year, in a traditional Japanese ceremony attended only by their families and closest friends. Their Western-style reception happened in the Orizuru Yu banquet room, and comfortably included friends, family, and close co-workers.

Tea, water, saké, and wine were the drinks of choice for the reception. However - upon the insistance of the bride, who gave the order with a little secret smile on her face - coffee was also served to those who wanted it.

Both the bride and groom drank a cup. Those of the reception attendees familiar with the origin of Sasuke and Hinata's rather strange courtship noted with obvious relief neither spilled a single drop.

*~The End~*

Author's Ending Notes: Ah, I can't believe it's over! I had so much fun writing this story and sharing it with all of you. Though I was kind of scared of this idea at first, since I'd never written anything like it before, I appreciate all of you for the support you offered me. I learned a lot from writing this story, which I look forward to putting into future works. Speaking of future works, while I've been posting Coffee Connections, I've been hard at work on my next project, another SasuHina fic entitled Blind Faith. It's a little darker in tone than this one, but I'm really excited about and hope to see you all for it. I'll post up the first chapter next Friday - so different story, but same update schedule. Until then, thank you all so much for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following Coffee Connections - I had so much fun on this ride, and hope you all did, too!

Additional Author's Note: The Hotel New Otani really does exist, and you really can get married and have your wedding reception there. I've never been there, but I encourage you all to look up the website and see pictures. It's incredible!