After

Thirty-one

She bypassed the table they were previously, eating. Sasuke took a glimpse as he followed her, a nice set of teapots was left at it. Her sister was standing between doors, nervous and unresting.
"Hin.." She tried to call her.
"We will talk tomorrow Hanabi." She only said and her tone didn't leave any room for further exchange.
She walked between the guards, they bowed hurrily, yet she never gave them a second stare. They tried to open the big gate for her, but she was faster, already pulling it aside. She took his hand when her feet took the first step outside.
She was almost dragging him along, he walked fast to match her pace.
"Hey." He said when the stony wall that covered the compound came to an end.
She stopped and he approached.
"I'm sorry." Her voice was strict.
He was beside her now, the side of her face visible to him. Her cheek had a slight shade of pink.
"For what?" He asked.
"For all this." She replied braking their contact. "I thought Hana wanted to meet you. Just her, a casual visit to my sister. Not a formal dinner with all these questions."
She turned and looked at him.
"What did my father tell you?"
He smiled with her anger, with her embarrassment.
"Nothing." He responded.
"It's pointless to keep it a secret. I will learn tomorrow when I visit them." She sighed. "I am truly sorry."
"I was the first to suggest it. And I am not sorry." He tried to brush the hair of her face but she did it herself. She was upset. He had learn by now, that when her anger raised, her face appeared calm, yet the words came quicker, it seemed as if she was trembling when she actually did not.
"You don't have any obligation. Do you understand that, right? This was.. Dismiss it, like it never happened."
"Hinata?"
She turned her gaze at him.
"Let's walk somewhere else." He said and before she could question their destination, the first drop was hitting her coat.
She looked around and then in the sky, Sasuke was only looking at her, to see her expression and how it would change. To see if his call was right and her mood would lift.
"Where are we?" She asked.
"Have ever been to hidden rain?" He offered a smile at her surprise.
"Why are we here?" She spoke again.
"It fits to your weird wanders."
She stayed silent for a bit.
"I haven't been here before." She said.
"It rains constantly. Even you would be bored at some point."
He looked at her. She was truly unique, her habits, her views, she in general. Even her eyes that she shared with her family were different.
There was no measure, no compete.
As she stood on the roof of the building they had landed, in trapped in the middle of the light rain, he had the same feeling as before, like the first time he had realised that he wanted her. She seemed like a being from somewhere else, from a world he hadn't explored yet.
Lost in thoughts, he didn't realise that she had turned, looking at him directly.
"You hate the rain." She said.
"Not always." He answered lightly. "Watching you makes it.."
He didn't finish his sentence, because Hinata walked up to him and kissed him.
"I love you." She whispered and it made all the tension at the dinner and the rain that invaded his clothes, worth it.
"Do you want to walk around?" Sasuke asked and she nodded in denial.
"What do you want?" He said then.
"You." She answered.
"Don't say things like that." He told her between a sigh and a smile.
"Why?" She asked seriously.
"Because I might forget that we are in public."
She smiled.
"Oh." She said and looked at the town above them. "I already have."
He looked too, even if he wasn't really concetrating to the lights that seemed to dance in the quietness of the night. There were more than the last time he was here, evidence of the progress her sister was making.
"Let's walk." She said then and tried to take a step away from him.
"Come here." He grabbed her hand. "You are really something." He added when she stayed.
"Am I?" She asked almost innocently, almost as if she was the girl from his youth.
"There is a place I want to show you." He said and the roof and the town above dissapeared.
The next moment the sky was not as visible as before.
He looked around and the place seemed to be abandoned like the last time he was here. It was a natural opening that he had found at the outskirts of the rain country when he searched for a shelter for the night. The hole above still let the weather invade this place, a lake was formed in the middle. At the other end there were pipes from a time the people of this town exploited the water that gathered here.
They had abandoned it before he found it. He knew because he had searched for any danger and disturbance that might had come his way. The pipes were old, some didn't even lead anywhere.
He wasn't sure she would like it. He didn't possess the ability to understand such things.
She walked away from the stones that the wall consisted to the centre of the place. The drops from above disturbed the calmness of the surface.
She bent to look at the water, her hand touched it and for a moment she stayed still.
Then she turned to him again and he tried to unravel the emotion in her face.
"I don't deserve you." She said calmly. "You show me all these and I have nothing to offer. I'm...boring in comparison." She let a little laugh.
"Do you know what I thought the first time I was here?" He asked. "If I stay close to the wall, I will sleep for the night." He said. "That's it."
She titled her head to the side.
"I only remembered this place, I gave it a second thought because of you."
"I'm not.." She smiled again.
"You are." He said seriously. "Everything holds a beauty in your eyes. And you do it effortless. I envy that."
She stared at him.
"Yet I can't look anything else right now, except you." She said and walked towards him.
He met her in half, leaving behind the small part that was covered.
"And you know.." She spoke lowly. "I haven't seen anything more beautiful."
"What did I tell you?" He matched her tone. "Don't say things like that in public."
"I forgot." She said to taunt him.
He kissed her on the lips at first, because it worked. Then on her cheek to compliment her. Not anyone could bring him in such state.
"Hinata." He said to her ear and then he kissed her again.
"Do you want to go home?" He almost whispered.
She moved her head in denial, before she removed her coat.
For a second he panicked. What if anyone came, what if he saw her. He would have to remove her image from the mind of any stranger that dared to lay his eyes on her. He could, that was not a problem, he would do it one way or the other. He looked around, the place seemed abandoned as before, any exit was blocked, yet...
"Sasuke?" She spoke and his stare turned on her. He hoped he didn't look as mad as he felt.
She had walked just a bit, her feet were on the surface of the small lake, her clothes left out of the water. They were already wet, a sane man would have said, the rain was becoming heavier by the minute.
"Would you join me?" She asked and removed the chakra of her feet, the water swallowed her whole.
If he had ever been a sane man, he wasn't now. He could not be.
He followed her, because the peculiarity of her being needed to be explored.
She hugged him and he felt whole. As if his arm was intact still, as if it didn't matter that it wasn't.
She kissed him and he felt loved, as if the world accepted him, as if he was never an outcast.
She looked him in the eyes and he felt wanted. As if the purple in hers existed only for him to look.
He couldn't resist, couldn't hold himself now, her voice when she spoke told him that she felt the same.
"Sasuke." She whispered.
Yes, if he wasn't mad, he would have been now.
"I.." He smiled when she couldn't finish her sentence.
"I love you." She said in the next breath.
He breathed too, or he didn't, it was her air that filled his lungs.
"Everytime you are out in the rain, I want you to think of me." He said to claim everything that she was, to occupy her thoughts even if he wasn't there.
Her response showed him that it worked.