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Sasuke closed his locker and tossed his bag over his shoulder, distracted by twenty messages that Naruto sent him during class. How the idiot didn’t get his phone taken away more often was beyond him. He swiped all the useless notifications away, but he got snagged on someone as he walked down the hall.
Hinata stopped as their bags connected, and he was just going to duck his head as a half-assed apology, but something clattered to the floor, making them both look down. Her face fell as she crouched down and picked up the charm. “Oh, it broke.” Her bottom lip pouted out slightly.
“Sorry,” Sasuke told her.
“It's fine, it’s not that important,” Hinata said, but the look on her face betrayed her.
Sasuke offered his hand out for it. “Can you just replace the chain?”
Hinata tilted it before handing it to him. “I don’t think so.”
She was right. The cheap acrylic charm of a caterpillar that had clearly been on her bag for a long time with how scratched up it was, had a built-in whole where the chain attached, and that was broken off. “It kinda looks like junk.”
“Yeah. Like I said, it wasn’t really that important.” She whispered, holding her hand back out for it.
Sasuke put it back in her hand and she looked at it like it was her broken heart lying in her hand. She closed it in her fist and wished him goodbye with a nod.
He rubbed the back of his head as watching her go. He wished she would have yelled at him, then he probably wouldn’t feel guilty about it.
Hinata thumbed over the piece of plastic in her pocket. Maybe she should just throw it away. It was silly to hold on to it now that it was broken, right? She should leave it in the past and move on. Maybe it was a sign that she had held on too long, or maybe that she should be more careful to care for things she held close to her heart.
The plastic had been scratched and bumped against everything, leaving a cloudy hue over the image. The sun had slowly faded the colors away of the cartoon caterpillar, and she had replaced the chain a few times already because she got it snagged on everything and everyone.
She couldn’t fix it this time. The plastic was cheap. It was going to happen one day. Maybe it held on for longer than it should have with the abuse she put it through.
She hissed, pulled her hand out of her pocket, and revealed a thin slice on her thumb from the sharp edge where the plastic broke.
Alright. It was time.
It was still nagging at him.
It was just a stupid keychain. Why did she look so upset?
“Stupid,” Sasuke grumbled.
“Huh?” Naruto wondered, distracted from his chattering at Sakura at the lunch table.
“Nothing.” Sasuke waved him off, but then he thought about it. “Have you ever seen the caterpillar keychain Hinata has?”
Naruto tilled his head. “No.”
Sakura rolled her eyes. “She’s had the same one for years. She has had it on every bag she’s owned as long as I can remember.” Not really helping his guilt. “Why?”
Sasuke shook his head, passing it off. “Nothing, it broke off. I was wondering where it came from.”
“Aw.” Sakura pouted. “That’s sad. She was so attached to it. She’s been fidgeting with it on her walk home for years.”
“I wonder if she got it from Neji.” Naruto set his head in his hand and his elbow on the table as he thought.
Ugh. And with Neji away at boarding school for the last year…
Damn it. Okay. He officially felt like a piece of shit. He would get her a new one.
Hinata put her books into her bag and pulled the zipper. It was harder to grip onto now that her caterpillar was gone. Maybe she should add a ribbon or something to give her something to pull better now. That would be cute, right?
Her bandaged thumb ran over the zipper pull. She would get over it.
She closed her locker and revealed Sasuke waiting behind it, leaning on the next locker. His lip was twisted up like a little kid who was told to go to apologize but didn’t want to.
“Here.” Sasuke held out a small, simple card stock box.
Hinata accepted it with confusion. “What is it?”
“A replacement.” Sasuke looked away, avoiding her eyes.
Hinata pulled the lid off the box and found a butterfly charm. She picked it out and held it up. The wings were slightly transparent and cast rainbows in the light. It was pretty.
“I couldn’t find any caterpillars. I couldn’t find any butterflies even. I found that on a necklace and attached the smaller chain.”
Hinata twisted it into her hand, holding it to her chest. “Thank you, but you didn’t have to.” But it was really sweet that he did.
Sasuke waved his hand. “You looked really upset about it.” His face twisted up as he still didn’t really want to look at her.
Hinata smiled. Did it bother him that much, just being nice?
“Where did you get it?” Sasuke eyes finally slid to her.
“Uh…” Hinata winced. “Well, that is kind of embarrassing.” She rolled the new charm around in her hand. “Naruto-kun won it in a gumball machine and gave it to me.”
Sasuke face flattened.
“Yeah.” Hinata hummed. Maybe he thought she was as stupid as she felt like she was for holding onto it for so long. It was the only thing that he ever gave her, and it was years ago. He barely gave it to her. He discarded it by letting her have it once he got something he actually wanted on his second try. “A bit pathetic, right?”
Sasuke cleared his throat. “I mean…”
“If it was important to me, I shouldn’t have left it on my bag to get damaged, right?” Hinata pushed a smile back up on her face and held up the charm. “Thank you. I appreciate it.” She left him with that so he didn’t have to say anything else to her about it. She was sure neither of them needed what he was going to say.
Sasuke’s eyes slid over to Hinata’s backpack as she set it up on the library table. On the zipper pull was a short light purple ribbon looped through the hole.
No charm.
Maybe she didn’t like it.
At least he tried right.
Hinata stood over the small trash can by the library return cart and peeled off the bandage. She looked at the healing break in her skin. She reached back into her bag and dug in the pocket for another bandage. She didn’t want to catch it on anything while she was still healing. She really should sit down and take it off, but she wanted to stay by the trash to throw away the wrapper.
Her bag suddenly stopped flopping away from her as it was held still and closer to her front. She blinked at Sasuke as he held it up and waited. She got her bandage out a bowed her head slightly. “Thank you.”
Sasuke dropped her bag back into place and watched her fingers as she pulled the bandage apart. “You break it all ready?”
“It's just a cut…” Hinata held up her thumb. Wait. “Oh.” She flushed. He meant the keychain he gave her. “No, I didn’t.” She wrapped her finger and let the trash fall into the bin. “I thought it was too special to just hang on my bag and get broken.” She explained. “I need to start taking better care of things I care about.”
Sasuke stared at her in silence for a moment too long for her comfort. Did she hurt his feelings?
Hinata took her bag off to properly open it, pulling out her pencil case and shaking the clear box to show the charm inside. “I can’t break it if it stays in here, but it keeps my hands busy in class.”
‘I thought it was too special to just hang on my bag and get broken.’
Why did that make his face heat up?
Sasuke forced his head to nod nonchalantly. Maybe he should have left it on the necklace. Would she have worn it? … Why was that making his face hotter?
Hinata slipped her pencil case back into her bag and zipped it back up before she pointed toward the exit to tell him she was going to leave the library and this awkward conversation.
Sasuke watched her go, with the simple ribbon bouncing on her bag.
… It was special to her. The stupid little charm he barely made.