[Flashfic] Habits [Naruto, PG]
mood |
silly
Title: Habits
Author: aperu_sama
Fandom: Naruto
Characters: Hyuuga Hinata
Rating: PG
A/N: Written for 31_days: 'On an ever spinning wheel.'
Hyuuga. A name. A curse.
Hinata feels it most in times of peace, when, having exhausted herself with domestic trivialities, her mind refuses to stay idle and casts a web of memory around the house. Little Hanabi practises seals in the main courtyard. Father watches her hands. Hinata looks away. They disappear.
Time. She never felt it slipping through her fingers, but there’s a pool of sand beneath her feet. No one else notices, or catches the way she stares at her reflection, as if wrinkles might sprout any moment.
And waking is a touch less bearable each morning, the reality of this wretched life - this everything - jolting her into awareness like a wet towel to the face. Because one does not be Hyuuga; one must live Hyuuga, breathe Hyuuga, die Hyuuga.
It shouldn’t be so bad. Everyone has a cross to bear, and this is hers. Pity is a half-formed thought from long ago, a distant twinge she might have felt when she was too young to understand disappointment and devastation and duty.
Neji certainly knew. Had always known, even. At the funeral, words of pride and glory hung from the corners of Father’s mouth while bodies piled up in the streets. Hyuugas always had time for custom and propriety. But there was no dignity in Neji’s ugly sacrifice. And nothing honourable about milky eyes blackening, laboured breath, and last words that weren’t an apology, a confession, but a whispered command. ‘Run.’
Nobody blamed her. Hinata’s guilt increased tenfold. Somewhere along the line, it stifled her heart.
“Hiroshi. Don’t run in the halls.”