Who Waits For Love

Chapter 24: Hurt

"That's it, Hinata."

She let out a huff, her legs shaking as she looked down at the mat below her that taunted her. She looked up to see her physiotherapist, his name was Mister Might, but he preferred to be called 'Gai'. The first time she had met him, she couldn't help but stare at his all green attire that frowned out the whites of his coats, that and his bowl cut and pearly white smile. Gai had an assistant, who was currently at her side in case of her falling, his name was 'Lee'.

"You're doing a really good job!" Lee grinned at her, his fingers hovering over her waist, but never touching her. "Just a few more steps."

"Can I stop?" She asked as she looked at him with pleading eyes. Her legs were hurting, and it felt as though a thousand pins were being inserted into her skin without plans of stopping. "I don't think—" She swallowed and stared at her weak legs and back at the small distance she still had to cover.

"Are you sure?" Gai looked up from his clipboard, a pen held firmly in his hand. "If you finish today, you won't have to worry about doing it again tomorrow. I know recovery is hard, it's never really easy, but you've come so far."

Lee nodded in agreement. "I used to be the same way after my accident!"

"You had an accident?" She took another step forward.

"Motorcycle. It was pretty bad, I crashed into a truck and was really lucky that I didn't break any major bones — besides snapping my femur and my arm — which I guess is bad now that I say it." He laughed and itched his forehead, giving her a wide smile, "it took me months before i was able to walk again, and I still had to use a crutch anyway."

"That's...amazing." Hinata finally let herself fall as she got to the end of the mat. A towel was thrusted in front of her face, which she took with a nod of gratitude as she began patting her face dry.

"Yeah, so don't feel too bad that you're now using just a walker instead of that stupid old wheelchair of yours." He grabbed her a water bottle. "You're not going to be staying here every day soon."

"How do you know that?" She stared at the swirling liquid in the bottle. It's been three months since she's been in the hospital, and there wasn't any sign that she would be discharged soon anyway.

Even if her injuries were healed, there was still a lot of work that needed to be done — mentally at least. She would just be moved to another department, that's all, and then her family would still be too busy to visit, and Sasuke...

Hinata hummed, looking at Lee with her owlish eyes; she had missed what he said, but did not ask him to repeat himself. Nodding along despite her cluelessness, she waved slightly at the nurse who arrived to take her back to her room and get her freshened up before it was time for dinner.

"How was it today?" They asked as Lee left the both of them alone to help Gai with their next patient.

She shrugged, "the same." She wiggled her feet into her slippers and grabbed the handles of her walker. The first few steps were hard, but that was only because she was tired, still, she did not complain as they walked to the elevator.

The entire ride back up to the twelfth floor was spent deep in her thoughts. It wandered back to the Uchiha who had caused her to tune out Lee's acute observation of her recovery; she frowned as the elevator doors opened. Again, it had been a few days since she last saw him, and she had an inkling why.

Perhaps he thought she didn't hear him, or knew that he visited, because he had not returned since then. She heard him, of course she did, and she didn't turn around to face him as he struggled to voice his words. His voice was just above a whisper that night, scared to wake her, and scared to hurt both her and himself.