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Sitting on the couch as far apart as she could from him, she fumed. She knew he'd look over at her every now and then, and it only made her feel violated again. Of all the people, of all the people that could've seen her half naked why did it have to be him? She trusted him, and he wrecked that. It was almost unbearable to feel that way again, feel dirty and exposed. The insecurity had come flooding back, and she hated it. It was like a storm raging inside her mind, the tense feeling of something heavy squeezing the breath out of her and it made her angry. Hinata was rarely angry. She used to accept what came, let silent tears slide out when it was all over, but what made this time so different?

She heard him stand up, walking to the open kitchen.

"Hinata, I'm sorry ok? I'll make dinner."

She ignored him as best she could. It was difficult, even with the scarce words he'd uttered to explain or apologize, it just wasn't as easy to block him out like she always used to her father, but why was it so different?

He mulled again, letting the bacon fry on the pan. He hadn't felt this weird since... Since that time he and Naruto 'bumped' in class. It was bad enough with the stunts she'd pulled at the mall, because now that he thought about it, he really wanted that mug. Going back to buy it for himself wouldn't be the same though, and now she gave him the silent treatment. So was this what it was like being an infatuated girl trying to talk to him? He scowled at the bacon, now smelling a little burnt and considerably darker than before, he scooped it up and slid it onto a plate. Getting another and flinging it on the Teflon pan.

He apologised the best he could, without mentioning Sakura, but she hardly even spared him a glance. It frustrated him to no end, because if he had done something wrong, couldn't she at least tell him what? Just in case he did it again... Why were girls always so difficult?

He hissed, he'd burnt the bacon again. He put it on the plate with the other piece anyway. He paused for a moment, glaring at the result of his hopeless cooking skills. Screw this. He'd get take out.

"H-Hinata? I'm going out to get some Take out, kay'?"

She didn't respond. Not even a good bye when he wheeled him and his bike out the door.

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Watching him riding his bike down the street, her frown dissipated and she began to miss him already. She sighed, getting up off the couch and lazily walking down the hall, aimlessly wondering what she could do to ease her conscious that was as of now quite badly marred. She caught her reflection in the hall mirror, taking note of the twinkle that never used to be there.

She wondered where Sasuke was. Riding down a slope maybe? His jacket flapping in the wind behind him, the wind ruffling its fingers through his messy hair, she sighed again.

The house felt... Lonely without him there. Stuffing some notes and spare change into her pocket, she slipped on his brother's jacket, the one she'd grown fond of and decided, she would at least buy that mug she returned. So walking out the door, she headed to the mall, feeling a whole lot more vulnerable without Sasuke by her side.

She sat on a bench, legs crossed and surrounded with bags of 'necessities', her blonde friend sitting to the right of her. Scowling, she picked at her nails, clean, manicured and polished. She'd been having a good day, bought a cute top, new designer jeans, drank bubble tea and then she sees Sasuke, the day becomes a whole lot better, and then some dweeby little freak ruins it.

She wondered what absurd reason there could be for Sasuke chasing after a girl. Maybe she touched his ass and he went to bash her. Yeah, that was probably it. I mean who wouldn't want to feel up that tight ass, neh? She smiled, like a carnivore eyeing fresh meat. Her day was looking up again, just running different situations that the dweeb would get herself into.

Still grinning, she barely noticed the pale girl walk past her, flicking her up eyes to Sakura than looking away just as briefly. When Sakura had noticed, the grin was wiped from her face. Scowling as she wondered what the freak could be doing here again, alone this time. Hissing at Ino to stay and take care of the stuff they bought, she stood to follow, kicking one of her bags in irritation, not caring that all her cute tops scattered on the floor.

Hinata tapped her fingers on the counter top impatiently, watching the check out boy repeatedly scan the thin strip of red light over the barcode without success. Finally the darned thing beeped and she handed him some money. He took it, and painstakingly slow, he searched for the button that would open the cash register. He found it, eventually, and with a ka-ching! He began sorting her change, then recounting it.

She couldn't help but squirm, she really wanted to go home, there was something bad in the air, malevolence of some sort that she couldn't explain. There was defiantly bad karma. The check out boy grinned awkwardly, handing her a plastic bag with a longing in his eyes to be approved. It must have been his first job.

"T-thank you, you did well." She said softly, and he grinned, blue eyes gleaming with pride. She smiled at him, almost forgetting that dead feeling that grew in her gut. It came back though, as soon as a rude girl behind her nudged her to keep moving.

She bit her lower lip, controlling the urge to sprint back home, at least until she was out the automatic doors.

"You. Dweeb. Whoever you are."

Hinata kept walking, oblivious that someone was trying to talk to her. She yelped when something roughly grabbed her shoulder and turned her around.

"You. Dweeb."

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Sasuke kicked open the door, flinging the keys into a dish of change that sat on the hall mantelpiece. Heaving two heavy bags of MacDonald's inside, the door closed with a click and he wished maybe that Hinata had come to greet him, but no, she was still sitting on the couch, the indigo bob of her hair shivering. Frowning, he figured it out fast enough and dumping the food on the kitchen table, he jumped over the couch, to be by her side, ready to aid her with whatever the reason that her cheeks were stained with tears.

He peered at her concerned, she returned his gaze with a weak smile, she hiccupped softly, then tried to laugh it off.

"H-here, I-I g-got this m-mug for y-you," she held it out to him, and he wondered what the hell was going on. Taking the cup, her hiccups turned into sighs.

"Um, Thank You." She looked up again, smiling through her tears.

"I m-met your g-girlfriend, w-was she the r-reason you w-were scared?" His confusion only deepened.

"Girlfriend? What girlfriend?" She giggled, hugging a cushion tighter and snuggling the side of her face into it.

"T-the l-loud one... pink haired... big forehead..."

She sighed softly, the smell and sight of Sasuke just being there made the whole world feel like a better place. She leaned to the side, letting he body fall onto his lap, just watching the various faces that he made as he deciphered the conversation.

"Y-You mean Sakura? Ahh... Fff.. fruitcake."

He leaned back, running a hand through his glossy hair.

"She's not my girlfriend. I don't have one, and if I did it would be you." She squealed, pulling the cushion over her head to hide. He smirked, she was happy now, that's all he needed to know. He jiggled his knee, making her whine in annoyance as her head got knocked around.

"Come on. The food will get cold."

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Later that night, Sasuke sipped warm cocoa from his new mug, a ridiculous cartoon printed onto it reading: Coffee tastes best when you're naked with family. Sure, he didn't get it but it made him chuckle. He sipped thoughtfully, eyeing the calendar on his wall, marked with red scribbles and little cartoons that Hinata had doodled all over it on one rainy afternoon... School would start in two weeks. He sighed, complications that only drew closer and closer to drive him crazy. He shrugged, taking another sip of warm cocoa from his new and most favourite mug, and he swore that the cocoa tasted the best it had ever tasted that night. He heard his door squeak, soft foot steps on his carpet and then the bed sink with weight beside him.

"Sasuke, I can't sleep."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Have you tried counting sheep?"

"I don't like sheep, one bit me once at a fair."

"Count fish."

"You like fish?" She stretched out on his bed, wearing new pyjamas printed with Leunig illustrations.

"Yes, I do." He growled, "They're sexy."

She laughed at him, rolling around to lie on her stomach.

"Do you have any bedtime books?"

He thought for a moment, his shelves used to be stacked with them, but where were they now?

"Used to."

She sighed, stealing his pillow to snuggle into it.

"We should find them then." She sighed, a brilliant idea came to her.

Abruptly so, that the cocoa in his mug nearly spilled over the edge, she's bounced off his bed, grabbing him by the elbow to lead him out of the room. Setting his cocoa down on his desk, he realized that by the time he went back to drink it, it would have probably have long gone cold.

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The attic was a strange place, it always had been, like a treasure room of old forgotten chapters of a century old book, and like most old forgotten books, they get dusty, and when you touch them they dust floats around and gets up your nose to make you sneeze. So that's why Sasuke sported a dust mask when he climbed up that rickety ladder, Hinata climbing a few ladder rungs behind him, often head butting him softly on the behind and telling him how ridiculous he looked, Sasuke muffled out a playful grumble, telling her that she'd regret it later.

Bringing with them a flourish of fresh air, the dust rose and began to dance in swirls, visible in the streaks of moonlight that lay in broken patches on the musty floor. Hinata began to sneeze the moment she stepped in, and she knew well enough that he was smirking under the dust mask that as of now, envied.

"Well, this is it, my whole childhood in this one place." He spread his arms out, a 'let's go explore' gesture, that to her despair made the dust swirl more energetically. She sneezed.

"You know," … He waited for it. She sneezed. "You're lucky you have a whole room,"…. He waited again, walking slowly and warily over the creaking floorboards to some sealed boxes. She sneezed. "Some people can pack their whole life into a candy box." She held her nose, stifling another squeaky sounding rush of air. He decided that it would be kind to steal some boxes down stairs and then come again perhaps when she also had a dust mask.

"Come on, we'll take these boxes." She nodded, eyes glistening in the moonlight, watery and sparkling, and slightly red. He sighed, pulling off his mask and offering it to her, she held it to her face, muttering a thank you and he slipped the elastic over her head, letting it rest on the back of her neck.

"Let's go." He said, picking up a box labelled books and then sneezed.

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Using a Stanley knife to slit open the duct tape, he sighed, finding the noise quite enjoyable to hear. The box almost popped open, and Hinata was on it almost immediately, pulling out everything that Sasuke had long forgotten. Bedtime books, Picture books, Fairytales, even some of those books you write when you're tiny and in prep.

Sasuke guffawed at them, they were so badly illustrated, and he wondered how on earth you were meant to read his 5 year old scribble, but Hinata thought they were cute, insisting that he read her one of his pre-school works, called fishy is gold, gold fishy swims, along with a thick collection of fairytales. Sasuke eyed the fairytale book with contempt and Hinata promised him that he'd only have to read a few.

He sighed and agreed, and that's how Hinata ended up snuggled deep in his bed sheets, eye's bright with excitement like a child in a candy store, him sitting on the bed where her feet ended, leaning his back against the wall. He started with the fairytales first, embarrassed at his own attempt at a book a long time ago.

She picked a fairy tale, and he read with the emotion of the scene, and accents for the characters included, which made her both laugh and cry, and soon Hinata's eyes had drooped, she snuggled deeper into the comfort of his bed and her words were few, often soft and tired. Sasuke was convinced that they were done, and shut the thick book with a soft snap. Hinata stirred, eyes still closed, voice barely there.

"Sasuke… read your book…" He sighed, leaning his head to the side to watch the softly sighing lump of person. Funny, three weeks and day ago I hardly knew you… and now I can't imagine life without you.

"Read.." She mumbled, the tiny ball that was her head shifting in the sheets, her dark hair falling in different places, where ever gravity thought that it should've been. He sighed, grabbing the book that had 'accidently' fallen somewhere into the crevice where the bed met the wall.

"Fishy is gold. Gold fishy swims." Sasuke could imagine the content smile that danced lightly on her sleepy face.

"Written and Illustrated by Sasuke Uchiha." He flipped the page, his own eyes feeling heavier than usual.

"Once upon a time," Ha, Classic.

"There was fish, he had gold scales." Sasuke chuckled at the yellow coloured blob, wearing a stupid happy expression on its.. er face.

"He had a mum, a dad, and a big brother, he could swim the faster than any fish in the whole pond, except his big brother." Some more different coloured blobs.

"One day, he swam so fast, that he swam into another pond. He was sad because he didn't know where his mum and dad and big brother went." The yellow blob had a big blue splodge hanging from it's eye, which he guessed was a tear.

"He saw a fish with silver scales." This time there was a grey blob, red on its cheeks with three eye lashes attached to two dots that were the eyes. A girl fish… Oh dear…

"They became friends…" He looked back at Hinata, her breathing deep and even, her dark eye lashes resting softly against her rosy cheeks. She was already asleep, and he was tired too. Closing his book, he set it down by his cold cocoa, prying her from the bed sheets, she curled tight against him as he carried her back to her own room, mumbling into his sleep skivvy.

"Let's do this… every night…"

Leaning down to whisper a yes in her ear, his lips touched the skin of her cheek instead and she smiled softly before drifting deep into the soothing dark where she'd dream of dusty rooms, fish with gold scales and most of all, a boy with ebony eyes and glossy black hair.

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A/N The confrontation with Sakura (definitely a villain), you'll find out what happens later, k? You just gotta be patient with me. Now, this one's a longer than usual chapter, I thought I'd spoil you a bit, since it's the holidays and this one really needed an update. Do I hear people smiling for my fluff? 00 Hmm. Anyway thank you for reviews :) they make me happy. Enjoy Easter everyone!