Midnight

Chapter Twenty

As the time flew by and they seemed to be the only ones left in the village without a mission, they gathered early in the morning and parted late at night. She was improving in a newfound speed, making their meetings an all around training. She was strong and clever, he already knew that. At first she was hesitant as to hurt him but he showed her how unnecessary that was. He stopped holding back more with each passing day. She struggled more but at the end he could trace a smile on her face. He hoped that was enough. That he was enough until the blonde came back. He was secretly improving as well. He learnt to think more about his strategy and value his opponent more, instead of discarded them as weaker than him. He would never admit it to her but he had a feeling she knew. She smiled when he hold back, thinking for a second how to proceed. She seemed contempted.
She formed a habit of coming to pick him up. He told her that it wasn't necessary and she could wait him on the field. The woman answered that she preferred it this way, if it wasn't a problem. She didn't like to wait for him to come. He never mentioned it again. Each morning she knocked on his door and waited outside on the stairs. Sometimes he overslept and she waited longer but she never complained. He couldn't understand the difference of her staying here instead of their meeting place but he let her and her weird ways be.
The familiar sound of the wooden door came to his ears. He was almost ready when he heard her calling. She never spoke, that alarmed him to open the door. She was standing on her feet holding what appeared to be a basket.
Her arms was visible and in an instinct he searched for any new wounds, but found none. Then he realised she wasn't wearing her uniform. A blue sleeveless dress in the length of her knees was unfitted for training. He looked at her waiting for an answer in a question he didn't make.
"I was thinking, maybe today we wouldn't train." She grabbed the box she was holding tighter.
"Do you have somewhere to be?"
She looked back and her big eyes widen.
"Oh no,no."
They stayed there in silence until she decided to speak again.
"I though..." She seemed more reluctant than a moment ago. "I brought ingredients." She said and she moved the basket from her hands in his direction.
He had seen her behave like that before. He had hated it. He couldn't understand why he didn't feel the same now. He tried to trace the lie in her behaviour but couldn't find any. He smirked.
"Did you came here to make me cook for you?"
He leaned in her direction, touching her basket.
"No, no. I though maybe we should take the day off. Father says it's important for progress. And we could make breakfast. I didn't know what ingredients you had and I brought some on my own." She was panicking. Sasuke laughed before he realised it and took her basket out of her hands.
"I will cook little Hyuga. Be grateful when you taste it this time."

____

He left her on the table begging to help him. Her face was so red from embarrassment, he thought she would expode. She almost apologised but cut her words midway. Sasuke pretended he didn't hear it. When he finished and brought back their plates she had moved from the chair to stand in front of the large window that faced the backyard. She looked serene and he almost felt sorry he distarbed her calmness with his presence. She didn't seem to bother as she walked back in her previous seat across him.
"Thank you for the meal." She bowed her head slightly and took a spoon on her hands. Sasuke observed as she was reluctant to reach for the food.
"Don't be scared. If you don't like it I will not kill you." He took a portion of food in his mouth.
She smiled awakerdly as she mimicked him.
He didn't want to stare but he did anyway. He watched as her eyes widen and a true smile formed on her lips. She lifted her eyes on him.
"It's delicious."
He never understood what was that palse he felt hearing the excitement in her voice.
After they finished, she help him clean despite his argument.
"You could make a really nice garden in the back of your house." She said unexpectedly.
"You have the space to do so and since you like tomatoes so much you could grow your own."
She wiped her hands on the towel before she continued. "We can go to the market if you like. I will help you take the proper seeds."
"Not interested." Sasuke said as he placed the last plate on his proper place.
"Oh. It just... It seems so alone without anything in it. And it's a beautiful space." She turned to him. "Maybe you can grow something else."
"Yeah. Maybe mint." He told her to make her stop. He watched as she lost her words for a moment.
"Sasuke-kun wh.."
"What will do in the rest of the day? You are all dressed up."
She looked at her clothes and blowed up the invisible dirt.
"Kiba had bought it for me on my birthday." Her voice soft. "I never wore it before."
"It's better than the hideous clothes you always wear." He pour himself some coffee and walked in the living room. He heard her moving with him.
"You should go somewhere. Call Inuzuka. I'm sure he would be thrilled to see you."
He heard the irritation in the voice that belonged to him.
"Oh. Do you have other plans?"
She said a little disappointed.
"What's this Hyuga? We don't have to spend everyday together. Even if dope is gone, I enjoy my peace." He felt as she pity him. He kept her close to watch over her but she had no motive to spend her days with him other than training. She seemed better after that day she cried for hours on his chest. He could let her spent a day on her own. He would stay to relax and wait for tomorrow. Not wait for her to come. She was just a routine, a cause to keep him on track before their mission was over and he would leave for another. He didn't need the pity of a creature more drowned than him.
"Am I disturbing you?"
The sadness was there for anyone who cared to listen. Sasuke took a sip of his coffee.
"I will leave now." He heard her steps closing the distance on the door.
"What do you want to do?"

____

When she told him where she wanted to go, he questioned the progress he thought she was making. He hesitated at first to guide her. It was an invasion of something sacred for him. Yet he stood on her side when she bent her knees on the wooden platform to sit and sink her feet into the water. This was the  first place he met her and thought something was wrong. The lake reflected the blue of the sky on its calm surface. It was a beautiful place and almost untouchable since it was at the end of what used to be his compound. Even if the district was no longer there, the fear of his people and the blood that was shed kept people away. Maybe in the future when he would be gone and the people would forget the Uchiha's ever existed, the plac would be filled with people.
He looked at her watching her feet on the water.
"Why did you want to come here?"
She turned her head to meet his.
"It's a beautiful place, isn't it?"
He thought of much but said nothing.
"I wanted to appreciate its beauty." She continued.
"Am I really bothering you Sasuke-kun? You can tell me if I do."
She spoke more these days. It was a progress.
"Why didn't you come with your friends?" He had guessed she avoided them. When he saw her before, she always seemed in a hurry, in a need to escape.
"I didn't want to come with anyone else."
She said so truthfully, so surely that it startled him.
"Do you come here often?" She turned and removed her feet from the water.
"Not anymore." His voice betraying no emotion.
"Why?"
He stayed silent and she didn't continue further. She bent her body to touch the water.
"There are many fish inside." She said almost like a child discovering the world.
They had been there for half an hour and only then he decided to sit on the grass he was standing. The weird Hyuga made him relax.
"Be careful." He said as she leaned closer.
She turned to talk but she lost her balance and fall on the light blue.
Sasuke got up in a hurry. This scene felt too familiar that caused him anxiety. He run to the deck only to see her head emerging on the surface. She was laughing with her drenched hair stacked on her face. The sun was hitting her eyes as her hands rubbed them. Sasuke thought in that moment that her name wasn't so unfitting after all.
He extended his hand and he pulled her up. Her arms was cold from the water and the dress she was so happy about wearing all wet but she didn't seem to mind. Instead she wiped the drops on his clothes.
"I ruined you shirt." She said as she did her best to dry him.
"You are all wet Hyuga."
The water making a pool where she stood.
She looked down at her bare feet and then in the sky.
"It's a nice day today. I will dry."
She suddenly turned to him and leaned closer. Unwillingly he took a step back but it didn't stopped her. Her expression was serious for a moment as her face was inches away from his chest. She straighten her body and looked at him.
"Yes. It's a nice day."
She turned only to run and jump again into the lake.

_____

He let her swim staying in the platform to watch over her. She prompted him to join her but it took only a glare for her to stop. When she was done he pulled her once again out. She laid her body on the grass to dry against the sun. As he watched the sky turning purple his mind fled to past afternoons where a woman with darker hair was sitting beside him. Mikoto didn't let him swim, afraid he might get hurt or that he be reckless enough to do it unsupervised. She always wanted to protect him. She knew as by instinct that unlike his elder brother, Sasuke enjoyed the company. He never liked to be alone, yet fate brought only solitude. He was so used to it by now that he didn't know what else was there. He turned around on the woman laying on the ground.
She watched the sky, not minding his presence, not disturbing him. She sensed his gaze and turned.
"Do you like this hour of the day Sasuke-kun?"
"I don't have a preference."
She thought for a moment.
"It used to be my favourite." She said even if he didn't ask.
"But not anymore. Now I prefer the quietness of the night. Do you?"
"No."
"Oh I would be sure you did."
"In total silence, it's easier to hear."
She got her back up to sit more properly.
"Hear of what?"
"Everything."
A summer breeze lifted slowly as the sun was leaving the world. His hair blowed in the air, making his face more visible. The woman never left his face as she got up to approach him. She stand above him and as if she decided her posture was too cold, too far, she bent her knees on his height.
"I want to see your nightmares too."