By the time Hinata had woken up, the music was no longer being played and her alarm clock was showing bright red digits as 1:30 a.m. She turned over in her bed and squeezed her eyes shut hoping that sleep may come back to her easier. No such luck.
Rubbing her eyes, Hinata threw off the covers and stood up. Her room was almost eerie in the dark with the blinds still thrown back to show a garden lurking with shadows and branches of trees curling like fingers into the inky dark sky. She considered walking over to it and shutting them, but instead opened her door and walked out into the hall.
She let her feet lightly carry themselves around the hallways with no direction or goal. It was dark, almost too dark to see, and it had a dream like quality to her walk, especially with the lack of noise that usually seemed to follow her. She drifted past doors and turned down different hallways until she found herself relatively close to her room yet again. Frowning, she stepped into the closest room near her and closed the door behind her.
For some reason, tears swam in her eyes as she turned around and saw a piano sitting in the centre of the otherwise empty room. With each step she took towards the piano the more sobs wracked her body, the more the tears stung as they fell down her cheeks, the more the knot in her stomach tightened, and the more she hated herself.
Hated.
She skimmed her fingers over the keys and she could feel herself drawing a blank when it came to every single song she had played. How could she have forgotten her songs? How had she forgotten her piano? The straw that was the breaking point on that proverbial camel in hers and Naruto's marriage. The sole thing that kept her company throughout high school while her father had no time for her and her sister was trying to avoid being seen with a loser to build up her social status. Her passion.
This…this contest was the cause for forgetting. With a frustrated scream, Hinata slammed her fists down onto the piano's smooth keys as if that would help bring back the familiar notes that she knew were there. Choked sobs leaked from her eyes and made tears roll down her cheeks, dropping into pools around her fingers around the black and white keys. For a while, she merely let herself cry and scream to the piano, desperately wishing that it would open up to her again.
Looking up, she finally noticed in the dim light being shone from the moon through the window a single sheet of paper sitting on the edge of the piano. It seemed to whisper gleefully as she reached over to pluck it up and place it in front of her, its old and curled edges rustling with satisfaction.
It was a sheet of music. After a quick scan she realized that it was handwritten and created hastily with messy scrawling. Hesitantly, she placed her fingers across the keys and began to slowly play out the notes with calculated precision that rung around the room almost painfully in their robotic rhythm.
It wasn't coming back, she realized with utter horror. Her songs were still locked away, unable for her to reach. The piano was foreign to her. Taking a deep breath, she began to play again, trying to let the notes play themselves instead of her trying to control them. There was no way that the piano would ever be forever lost to her, regardless of the circumstances, you just didn't forget things that leave such a deep impact on your life.
Soon, the notes began to flow together and make sense to her, not enough to make her feel that she was yet again fluent in it though. It was enough to make her hopeful nonetheless.
"I didn't know that you played piano."
Hinata turned around to face the soft voice that had addressed her. His eyes were gaunt and his steps held less confidence than they had a few days ago. He pushed back the strands of hair that were falling in his face as he made his way over to share the piano bench she was sitting on.