my one in million

chapter 13

He smelled the mandarin before he heard the soft hum of a tune he didn't recognize, and then light pierced into his eyes like tiny needles. His heart stopped beating for an instance when his blurry eyes caught sight of his mother's back.

Her hair was slightly longer than he remembered, but she was the same height and weight. When she turned to look at him he noticed she'd gotten a different cut to her bangs… And her black eyes were shut or… Maybe her eyes were not black anymore…

Wait…

His mother was dead.

Uchiha Sasuke shifted in his bed and rubbed his eyes vigorously to clear away the fog. One of his eyes was covered so he left it alone, but the other simply refused to clear up.

"G- Good morning." Hinata said softly, as if afraid to wake someone up. "How do you feel?"

"How do I look like I feel?" He huffed and flung the covers off his legs to head to the bathroom, wash his face and mouth, and then stub his toe on the doorframe while walking out. The light disappeared and he found himself in darkness again, but this time he didn't feel completely hopeless because he knew the layout of the room, and because he was sure of his slow but eventual recovery.

His ears tingled at the realization that he had been childish last night; that he'd shown this girl something embarrassing, something she'll never let him live down.

If Naruto came to the village today and asked her what he'd missed, the blonde will never let him live it down.

Hell, she didn't need to tell anyone, just knowing that she'd seen him at such a pathetic state was humiliating in itself…

How hard is it to alter someone's memories, really?

Sasuke hopped onto the bed and leaned back against the pillows –they were startlingly fluffy- and accepted the touch of a cold hand that pressed a warm cup of tea into his palm. The first sip went down with a bitter aftertaste, but the more he drank the better his stomach felt.

It didn't help with the sudden outbreak of cold sweat…

After a quiet moment, it became too much for the anxious one, so he casually asked: "How's your sister?" It was the better alternative to: let's casually not acknowledge that I bawled like a baby yesterday.

The smell or mandarin tickled his nose again, the sound of a peel landing in the waste bin was confirmation that the woman was undisturbed by the question and maybe, perhaps, she wasn't thinking about his breakdown yesterday. "She's great." Hinata sounded genuinely happy. "She ate some rice today, that's progress, right?"

"Mm…" He remembered the first time he ate rice after waking up; he had to throw up three times. "You're here early."

"It's the weekend."

"Hn…" He really needed to get back on track with training and stuff… Strangely, he didn't feel like it was that important to be the strongest, not anymore. His shoulders slacked when the conversation drifted to silence and she didn't ask him about last night, or even emit any curious chakra.

"I'm- I'm sorry."

His throat constricted, here it comes.

She sighed quietly. "I- I just… I was thinking um about something, it's about work, I d- didn't mean to stop talking."

Oh… Her over-politeness was to the point of confusion. "What about work?"

For some reason it was a relief to know that she wasn't going to remind him about last night, even if a part of him wanted her to, just so that he can find out what she really thought of him.