A/N: It's been centuries, but I'm here to publish the unshared goods. Long live SasuHina!
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Lady Hyuuga
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"No."
Opel eyes closed. "Uchiha-dono–"
He stopped her with a mere glance her way, and the female clan Head had to hold in a long breath.
"Not that again. It's only you and I here, Hinata," he reminded her pointedly.
He was, of course, right.
"Sasuke," Lady Hyuuga corrected herself, getting rid of the honorific tradition that he refused to partake.
He nodded his approval. That's better.
Hinata continued, "I've made up my mind."
"...And I've told you what I think of it."
"I won't be swayed. Not this time."
Sasuke sat back against the wall, his cup of tea dangling from his fingers carelessly. Onyx eyes observed her from under his lashes, and it was he who finally sighed. "They need you, you know that," he told her for what felt like the thousandth time, his gaze now lost at the bottom of the porcelain cup.
Her shoulders dropped ever so slightly. "Sasuke," she repeated, her voice soft. "Hanabi can do a better job than I can. She was raised for it for longer than I."
"You mean the smug squirt?" he scoffed, and Hinata could picture a glowering Hanabi mumbling incoherently at the insult.
"Make sure she doesn't hear you," she warned as she shifted her weight off her legs and to the side. "Wiping your blood off my wooden floors won't be a pleasant task."
"As if," the Uchiha retorted, though a small lift of his lips said the thought of Hanabi attempting any sort of bodily harm amused him to no end.
"She'll have Father, and Neji-niisan. Ko-san and Natsu-san will also be at her disposition," Hinata proceeded, choosing to disregard his growing tight expression. "Hanabi is strong and capable. She'll be a fine leader."
"You mean she's hot-headed and too proud. Those are unwise attributes in a Head."
Despite the serious topic, she almost laughed. "Are you speaking from experience, Uchiha-dono?" she couldn't resist but tease, her smile hidden behind the long sleeve of her white kimono.
His wandering eyes that had been studying the china set on the low table between them snapped to her seemingly innocent face.
"You know," he began calmly after a moment, "impertinence is also a rather poor virtue."
Her white orbs glanced up and met his smoldering ones. "Again, I assume you speak from past experience." She tilted her head. "Am I right?"
This time he didn't try to subdue his smirk. He licked his lower lip. "You're being awfully forward today, Hyuuga."
She shrugged casually, lowering her sleeve so he could witness the mirth across her lips. "Oh? Would that be a problem?"
"...I'm trying to discern whether or not it suits you," he disclosed thoughtfully.
"Any verdicts yet?" she asked unfazed, fixing one of the upper layers of her attire.
"Hmm." He pretended to think. "I may...like this attitude of yours a bit too much," he murmured and her cheeks instantly dusted with red.
"Is this something you should be telling me? What would Lady Uchiha say if she heard you?"
His smirk widened and he sat his teacup down. "She wouldn't be able to say a thing," he answered knowingly.
Hinata's eyes narrowed. "And why would that be?"
Sasuke chuckled and she tried to suppress the heat his laugh aroused. "She'd be too busy kissing me, of course. These days it seems she can't take her hands off me." He shook his head and his mop of ebony followed the action. "So needy," he complained. "I can't blame her though; I do look good every day."
The nerve of this man.
How they had started with the issue of her stepping down as a Head to play with innuendos was something she still could not understand.
"How long have you been married now?" she asked conversationally with fake bravado.
He hummed, leaning forward. "You should know that answer better than I do. After all," he huffed and she felt his breath hit her cheek, "your father and cousin forced you to hold the ceremony here and in secret."
"Sasuke," she chided.
"Five years," he relented promptly.
"And in those five years I've accomplished what I wanted for this clan," Hinata brought their conversation full circle.
Sasuke almost groaned. He'd been close to luring her into her private rooms in order to take off that damn kimono that was two layers too thick.
"I know we can still improve many things, and I will but–"
"Why do you want to step down so badly?" he cut her off, honestly puzzled. "Isn't this what you wanted? To lead the Hyuuga into the correct path? To unite your houses and ban the seal?"
Hinata frowned. "I did. I do. But I also want your clan to prosper."
"...My clan is dead, Hinata," he admitted to it so tiredly she wanted to stop.
But she couldn't. Not when there was something he was wrong about.
"You wouldn't be a true Matriarch, because there are no people you could be a leader for with the Uchiha," he continued.
"Sasuke," she started deliberately, "my spot in the social chain matters little, if at all. When we married, I asked you about our future, and children."
"And I said not having any was fine with me."
Biting down hard on her trembling lip, she inhaled deeply. Come on, she could do this, she could tell him...
"You have your duties as Head, duties to your clan and people. I will not get in the way by making you choose. I told you that."
And he had.
But.
"You forget I'm your wife, and that I have duties to you, the same way you have duties to me. I didn't marry you only to become the official Head. I also married you because I wanted you, b-because I'd grown fond of you. I chose you a long time ago Sasuke."
It was unfair, Sasuke thought, his hand cupping his mouth and essentially covering his blush. It was unfair how she could render him speechless like this. He'd married such a sly woman. Who would've thought that underneath her gentle surface laid a clever spirit?
"You won't let me convince you otherwise this time, will you." When had that question become a statement?
She gave a firm negative.
He exhaled. "Very well. If that's what you desire," he paused, and added, "Lady Uchiha."
"I do," replied the now former Lady Hyuuga as her dimples made an appearance.
She stood, a warm, pleasant spot on her chest filled and glad that they had finally resolved this. She outstretched her hand down to him, and though he didn't need assistance, he took the offer and interwove his fingers with hers.
"You're so stubborn," he mumbled and pulled her close, lowering himself so his forehead brushed hers. She smiled, lips lightly brushing his.
Sasuke's chest tightened and his breath caught at the back of his throat. Damn. For being a marriage of convenience, it had turned better than he'd anticipated.
"Would you," she was momentarily interrupted when his mouth covered hers. "Wo-would you rather have our children carry...the Hyuuga surname?"
"Not really," he replied without thinking and then froze mid-kiss. He opened his eyes to see Hinata's face filled with hidden meaning.
Children?
"...What children?"
"My father wouldn't mind giving his grandchildren the Hyuuga name, and neither would I, I assure you. I knew, though, that you wouldn't be too happy about it."
Damn right he wouldn't. Over his dead body would he allow his descendants to share the same last name as the stuck-up Hyuuga Neji.
For the second time that day, he felt the air leave his lungs. This woman...why did she have to let him know she was expecting like this? He hadn't been ready!
He touched her lower stomach, wonder and curiosity steadily growing in his eyes when he untied the obi under her breasts, a habit she'd began when in private with her husband. Although hearing him struggle when undressing her from behind was entertaining, having the obi at the front made things...faster.
"How long?" he asked quietly, parting her robes.
"U-um, three months."
It was true she was more affectionate, but it was also a fact she slept with a double yukata or with her bulky sweaters she'd favor during her childhood and adolescence. He'd suspected she'd gained weight, but never did the idea of pregnancy reach his mind. Having slept together for four and a half years had made him forget that his wife was very much fertile.
"What took you so long to tell me?"
She pouted, her cheekbones pink. "I wasn't sure in the beginning, and it took me a month to realize my cycle was absent. Plus, y-you never made it easy!" Her voice reached a pitch by the end and her next protest died in her throat at the feeling of his ascending fingers on the smooth of her skin.
He traced the slightly round underside of her belly, the thought of someone developing just behind coats of skin and muscle foreign and strange.
Was this really happening?
"The first ultrasound is in a week. You...will come, right?"
"Is that even a question?" he smirked faintly. Ah, his head was feeling a bit too light. Quickly fixing her clothes, he took her by the wrist. A doubtful Hinata followed him.
"Sasuke, where are we going?" she asked him warily.
"To our room." He needed to process this in a more private place. A compound full of Byakugan wielders was safe, but more often than not, not very private.
He swallowed, blinking away the dark spots in his vision. He tried to recall the last time he felt this dizzy and failed.
Concern began to etch on Hinata's features as they exited the compound. "O-our room is on the east wing..." she trailed off, uncertain.
He stopped suddenly, before turning around to scoop her in his arms. "Not that room. I meant our room, in our house."
XXX
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Later, as they laid on Sasuke's old bed in a house away from the village, Hinata had a doubt.
"Ne, Sasuke?"
"Hm?" he murmured with heavy-lidded eyes, the fingers that were tracing his palm over and over relaxing him.
"...How do we tell everyone we've been married for years?"
Sasuke made a face and shrugged. "We don't," was the simple answer.
Hinata paused her massage, then laughed, turning to face him just to mess with his hair. "You're telling me to just show up pregnant and let people draw their own interpretations?"
Sasuke scoffed. "If they have that much free time to gossip, I say let them."
"Oh? That's a wonderful way to ruin my reputation. Thank you," she said, poking his cheek aggressively.
Sasuke squirmed under the assault. "Your family married us. They know very well who you've slept with."
She pouted but didn't relent on her attack. "D-Don't say it like that. My family may know, and Kiba-kun and Shino-kun already think you're around a bit too much..."
"Isn't that plenty of people already?"
"But..," her movements ceased and that expression (gods, not that expression, thought Sasuke) made him sigh.
"But what?"
In a very soft voice, she concluded her sentence, "...I want your clan to be remembered, you know?"
His heart skipped a beat. He closed his eyes, and pulled her against his chest, holding her tightly. "If you were the only person to remember it, it'd be enough."
She shook her head. "Then what about our child? He...or she should remember it as well. They will have stories of their uncle, of their grandmother, of their father's ancestors and might. Your clan and your family...they shouldn't be forgotten."
"...We'll teach our child their history," he agreed. "However, explaining to everyone which clan you married into is a pain."
Hinata chuckled. Typical Sasuke.
But her husband wasn't done. With a mischievous smirk, he added, "Instead, we're showing them."
That evening, when the people of Konoha saw Lady Hyuuga dining in town with the former Avenger was the day conspiracy theories were sputtered and fangirls cried.
When two months later a very pregnant Hyuuga Head dressed in unusual robes of blue and red walked through the market with Uchiha Sasuke by her side, the population of Konoha, especially the Konoha 12 (sans Neji), was in a confused daze (Team 7) and outrage (Team 8).
The title 'Lady Uchiha' quickly became the most discussed one that year and the next. The chaos and controversy it created was nothing compared to Hyuuga Neji coldly stating that the Hyuuga-Uchiha union had been going on under people's noses for more than 5 years.
Uchiha Sasuke's fangirl club had members fainting in the middle of the street for months after the news hit the village.
Lady Uchiha's noble goal of Konoah never forgetting the Uchiha clan was accomplished far earlier than she thought but in a wholly different manner from which she planned.
"Look what you've done," Sasuke would say in the evenings, his ear against her protruding belly as she sat in their living room. "I can't go out without people demanding answers."
Hinata's bell-like laugh resounded. "You're blaming me? I distinctly remember telling you we ought to explain. If we had done that at the beginning and not merely 'shown them', this wouldn't be happening."
A dark eye peered up at her reproachingly. Hinata brushed Sasuke's bangs away happily, her I-told-you-so demeanor unaffected.
When, on December 31st, a pair of monochrome-eyed twins were born, the new Uchiha clan was born as well.
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A/N: And there it is. I'm not sure why I like these prompts, but I do lol.
P.S: Hinata knew she was pregnant in the beginning, but not that she was carrying twins haha.
4.14.19