Nineteenth Sunshine [Accidental Voice Post]

[hyuugahime]

[For a long moment, it sounds like the PCD isn't broadcasting anything, but if you strain your ear, you might be able to make out someone crying softly and snifling.]

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[heavenly-earth.livejournal.com]

[A quiet knock on her door a few hesitating minutes later- the room she had up until recently shared with Tenten]

Hinata-sama, are you alright?

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[hyuugahime]

[She somehow smiles behind her tears as she hears the knock and the words. If she needed anyone right now, it might just be Neji.

She goes to open the door after attemptingto wipe her tears away (not very successfully). As she does, neji can see she is holding one of those shirts she took great pains in gathering for Akira a few weeks ago.]

N-Neji-niisan ... I ...

[She blinks, trying to hold tears back furiously as they start coming out again, and holds onto the shirt tighter.]

He's gone.

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[heavenly-earth.livejournal.com]

[Brows knit together, taking in her white-gripped hold on the shirt in her hands and the tears falling from wet lashes. Her soft words register in a pang of remembered heart break and although he hadn't been very fond of Akira, his sympathies for her position outweigh anything else and his expression softens to a regretful frown.

He doesn't need to ask if she's sure because people like them know; he'd known when Lee left because he spent hours searching for him, heart dropping every minute he didn't catch sight of the familiar flare of chakra. But he also couldn't give her false assurances.

A tentative hand rests on her shoulder because despite everything he doesn't really know what to do and he can't help]

I'm sorry.

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[hyuugahime]

[If only ... If only the years of bitterness weren't so recent yet ... If only she didn't feel the desperate need to be strong and stand on her own two feet ...

But she can appreciate even that small gesture for what it is, and she is grateful for the small step he just took in her direction. And she takes one, too. One actual, timid step, and she puts her own hand on his.]