Distant Echoes

42 - It's just a crown

Hinata had finished lunch. How many days had she been closed? She was beginning to lose track of time. Sitting at her table, she decided to relax, since no one told her anything about what had happened. She would have gone crazy without doing anything. Then grabbing a sheet, he took the pencil and pointed the graphite on the paper, tracing the contours of a face, the jaw had to be square, the eyes sharp, the nose straight and the lips sinuous. She closed her eyelids and inhaled deeply.

His face was marked in his memory. Sasuke had never had form in her idealizations, she had never needed to invent what she was and be attracted to the idea. He began to trace his hair, thick, flowing. Long black locks had to cover his face a little. The first time she gave herself to him, she reached out at night while he slept by his side, to touch his face again, feeling his skin soft as a peach under her fingers. It emanated heat, many times smelled of moss, others of scorched earth, rain, pungent pine. He only seemed innocent when he slept. The pronounced cheekbones that framed an equally perfect face, that being menacing and then tender, while he approached even just to touch her hair, that nocturnal anxiety when he dreamed of his tragic past.

When she could see him, she realized how much he had penetrated inside her, digging holes in her heart, piercing her soul and sucking her. In their travels he had seen that dawn had a magical effect on Sasuke's face. The sun seemed to paint his hair with sporadic silvery shades, the dawn on his fleshy lips gave him an unusually vermilion tint, long eyelashes casting subtle dark shadows on his full cheeks. She remembered the softness of her lips, the slow and constant breath, the heartbeat that always made her calm. Sasuke was his wish. She laughed on his lips as she kissed him and invaded him as a conqueror of a lost land.

- Lady Hinata - broke a guard. - You can go out. -

Disconcerted by the liberation, Hinata followed the guards while still holding that drawing in her hands. She saw her sister Hanabi come up to join her. It all worked, how?

- This time you did a lot Hinata - said Hanabi. - Our father is furious, he does not want to see you. He said you can go back to work in a week if you have to, and with two guards following you. -

- Two guards? - repeated Hinata in disbelief.

- She's afraid you'll run away from Konoha, sister - said Hanabi as if it were obvious.

- Why should I leave? - Hinata asked.

- You don't know what happened, then? - Hanabi told her, staring at the lost eyes of her older sister.

Hinata stared at the waiting sister. Nothing had leaked into the prison, she was no longer connected to the world. Hanabi noticed the color of Hinata's face, now pale as a rag. Biting his lips, he took his hand and reached the courtyard.

- You'd better sit here - said Hanabi, inviting her to sit on the bench near the pond.

- What happened these days? - Hinata asked him, looking up. - Why does Dad want to put two guards on me? -

- See Hinata - said Hanabi calmly. - Sasuke Uchiha was here the day after our father locked you up. He insisted they let you out, he also admitted that you're his girlfriend. -

Hinata brought a hand to his face. He had come there, exposed himself to all the judgments of his clan? How had they treated him? The jokes were getting hectic. One bad feeling felt like her intestines were tightening.

- But our father told him that you, sister would stay locked up until Uchiha was to Konoha - Hinata felt a dry throat. - And then Uchiha said he was leaving the next night rather than knowing you were in prison. It's been four days since then. -