My Big Fat Hyuuga Wedding
Chapter Three – The Maid of Honor

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“Hinata-chan, just take a deep breathe, okay?” Sakura soothed.

As Hinata did the action, Sakura repeated it for her own body as well (damning Sasuke-kun to hell, because crap, it was his fault she needed to take all those stupid deep, calming breaths). The Hyuuga sisters were sitting in her office, anxiously waiting for news about their father’s condition.

“Hiashi-dono is going to be perfectly fine. I just checked up on him. He is resting at the moment.”

“Thank you so much for taking care of him Uchiha-san,” Hanabi said with genuine gratitude before Hinata could reply. “May I go see him?”

Sakura nodded and Hanabi walked past her to get into the Hyuuga clan leader’s room.

The pink-haired woman let out a pained grunt and shifted her weight on one foot to lift the other and roll her ankle, and then repeating the action for the other foot as well. She smiled at Hinata and sat down beside her.

“I’m guessing you’re not coming over for dinner as planned,” Sakura said to Hinata.

“Nope…”

“And this might not be the best time to say it, but congratulations.”

Hinata smiled gratefully. “Thank you, Sakura-chan…”

She looked down at her lap nervously.

Sakura frowned at the sight of Hinata’s frightened face.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

The soon-to-be Uzumaki gave Sakura a dry glance.

“I told my Otousama I was going to get married and he had a heart attack.”

The medic cringed.

“If it makes you feel better, when I told my parents I was going to marry Sasuke-kun, my Otousan threw a chair at him,” Sakura said slowly, recalling the incident nostalgically. “And can you give me a massage while I play therapist for you. My fatness is killing my back.”

Hinata chuckled and put her hands on Sakura’s neck as they sat together on the couch in the office (that was only meant for Satoshi so he wouldn’t wander around the hospital but when women wanted to sit, they got to sit).

“What did you do after your Otousan threw the chair?”

“Well, we were twenty and Sasuke-kun just finished his probation a year prior but my parents—or well my Otousan didn’t like him. So then I told them that we had to run because we had a mission to be going on but Sasuke-kun made me stay and he gave them this speech about how he loves me and he would take good care of me and how he would never hurt me again,” Sakura explained thoughtfully. “Really, it was all because I made him watch a chick flick marathon with me the night before.”

“That sounds… pretty sweet,” Hinata said.

Hinata let out a breathy sigh and Sakura let out an awkward moan (god why didn’t her husband ever give her massages?).

“But Sakura-chan, Naruto-kun is not good with words…”

Sakura let out an unladylike snort to show her agreement.

“To my family, the relationship he and I share is a rather… delicate subject…”

“Delicate?”

“Delicate.”

Sakura laughed. “Well I would offer to have Sasuke-kun write a speech out for Naruto to memorize but he would probably just forget it halfway and then make the rest up, ergo, ruining everything… Mm…”

“I know…” Hinata sighed. “But I like that about him. He doesn’t need to just memorize things. He’ll make stuff up on the spot because in the end, those words… they all come from the heart…”

There was a short silence.

“You were watching that romance movie marathon last night, also, weren’t you?”

“I couldn’t sleep. I got proposed to!”

They laughed together.

“Well Naruto is coming here with Sasuke-kun and Satoshi-chan really soon. Maybe you can bring him by to see your father,” Sakura suggested, leaning into her precious massage.

Hinata shook her head. “I think I’ll meet him before they come in, actually.”

“Oh?”

“I want to um, warn Naruto about my Otousama… and Hanabi… and Neji-niisan… and clan…”

The doctor laughed some more. “Why don’t you warn him here?”

Hinata stopped massaging and shook her head rapidly.

“Oh, no! The moment my father senses Naruto here, same with Neji-niisan, they will be watching us like hawks through the walls…”

“That’s kind of creepy…”

“I know.”

Hinata took her hands off of her pregnant friend’s neck and turned Sakura slightly so that they could be facing each other.

“Um, Sakura-chan, there is something I would like to ask you…”

“What’s up?” Sakura inquired, turning her body fully so that she would be in a more comfortable position.

“Um, well you have always been someone I could talk to and you help me out a lot, plus you’re even one of Naruto-kun’s best friends, so I wanted to ask you if well, you would be my Maid of Honor for the wedding…”

Sakura blinked.

And suddenly burst into tears.

“I—I’m sorry!” she sobbed loudly into Hinata’s shirt. “This is just my pregnancy talking! I—I don’t usually cry this much…”

Hinata patted her on the back awkwardly.

Sakura sighed loudly and wiped off some tears.

“Hinata-chan, I would really love to be your Maid of Honor, but you do know I won’t be able to walk by the time of your wedding, and we all know Sasuke-kun is not going to let me be on my feet…”

“So you can’t?” Hinata concluded in disappointment.

“I can’t.”

The pink-haired woman smiled reassuringly. “What about your sister?”

“My sister…?”

“Your sister.”

Hinata flinched but grinned at Sakura nonetheless. “I guess I can try…”

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TBC