Blossom

Chapter Twenty Two: A Cup of Tea

The autumn months were quickly approaching, and it was obvious by the coolness of the night as Sasuke sat on the porch scrolling on his phone absentmindedly. Two months since his birthday — since Sarada had said those words to him. He would be lying if he said he hadn't thought about it every single time he found himself in Hinata's presence.

Happiness. She was the embodiment of
something he wanted to be, what he wanted his family to be.

The way her laughter rang through his ears, the absolute joy in her voice whenever she spoke to or about Sarada and Haruna, and the little thing she did where she would pause occasionally to decipher how she was feeling. Something so small had sparked an unknown set of emotions in him.

Here he was, sitting on the porch doing absolutely nothing as his head was filled with all the moments he's shared with his children thanks to the pale eyed woman who he was beginning to appreciate more every passing day.

A sweater was placed on his shoulders suddenly, wrapping him in warmth that he wasn't prepared for. Her hand rested firmly on his shoulder as she looked at his phone in curiosity.

"I was beginning to think that you'd turn into a statue." She stood up straight and closed the front of her carefully knitted cardigan. "The children are asleep." She informed him, taking a deep breath of the cool fresh air.

"I was just thinking." He mumbled and made some space for her to sit beside him.

"About?" She sat down, albeit some ways away from him to provide him any extra space for his comfort.

"Nothing."

"That's a little counter productive." She leaned against the banister of the railings. "For as long as I've known you, you've never sat in one spot thinking about absolutely nothing. What's on your mind? Can I help?"

She couldn't, because he didn't understand it either. The pressure of having Sakura trying to set them up was long gone and he didn't have an excuse anymore for the way he acted.

At the very start, or the end of his long time relationship with Sakura, he had done things just to make sure that the kids would be happy, and that Sakura would stop worrying about them. But somewhere along, those lines between their happiness and his had been blurred and it was becoming extremely difficult for him to decipher whether or not what he was beginning to feel was due to his own actions or being influenced by the words of others.

"Just work stuff." He lied and turned his phone off.

"What about work?" She tucked her hair into a lazy attempt at a ponytail once the wind started whipping it around her face. "Is there an issue in the office?"

"There's this worker..." He recalled her previous words, using the same hypothetical situation to see what her answer would be. "She took up a new position at the office."

"Mhm." Hinata listened carefully.

"The shareholders think she's a great addition, and I had no choice at the very start but to go along with what they were saying or else I'd lose their support."

"Does she know the secrets of those shareholders? Otherwise, I don't think that's very ethical for them to be forcing you to accept her."

"That's what I thought as well..."

"But?"

"But she's a great person; she works hard, is painfully honest, makes sure that things are where they need to be and she's like a ball of sunshine whenever she steps into the office."

"So...the aspects that the shareholders saw are becoming increasingly clear to you. You're agreeing with their first decision. What part about this are you worrying about?"