I saw a video about ducklings last week and sure enough, this happened. I doubt it will be more than two maybe three parts. Not my best work but it is after all just for fun. 🙂 Sasuke and ducklings? Yes please.
It was a ridiculous situation.
He stared at the rain pouring down and the puddles growing on the side of the leaf strewn sidewalk. A river had formed, small but powerful at the curb and sitting in a huddle together were what appeared to be dirty little balls of lint. Except for when they moved, and occasionally a small duck bill fluttered weakly in the half light of evening.
God damn it.
Cars drove by, unaware of how dangerously close they passed to the fluffy ducklings. Unaware that a few feet over they could have crushed tiny beating hearts, cracked small hollow bones, stilled a dozen flickering lives.
One truck swerved and as he watched he held his breath, feeling a sharp pain shoot through his chest. Close, but instead of destroying the ducklings the truck splashed a tsunami sized wave of dirty road water onto the small squeaking creatures and as the water overcame them they slid down the current, panic overtaking their small voices.
The grate kept them from falling into the sewer, but only just. Little flat feet and tiny skinny legs flailed before becoming stuck between the metal bars. The dozen dirty tiny creatures careened into each other. It would have been comical if it weren’t so incredibly sad.
They were going to die.
Sasuke swallowed. Hands in the pockets of his pea-coat, with the collar turned up against the blast of the rain and the howl of the wind he squinted at them from the other side of the road, debating.
On the one hand, this was most definitely not his problem. The fact that his sharp eyes had even detected them at all was a sort of miracle. No one else seemed to notice the flailing ducklings. They blended into the muddy mess of the sidewalk and street, so filthy and wet and small they were.
On the other hand….
He shifted in his coat, shrugging off the growing anxiety in his gut.
If he left them there he would have to consciously make an effort not to mention it to her. And if he did that it would feel like lying and if he lied he would feel sick for weeks and when it finally came out (because it would eventually, he could only handle lying to her for so long) then he would have to endure her expression.
He could see it now. Wide eyes, soft mouth open in an O of disbelief, cheeks flushing with either horror or anger or both.
Swearing under his breath he flung open his car door, a long string of profanities and some rather scathing grumblings escaping his lips as he tossed the clean laundry in the basket sitting in the back of his car. With a towel thrown haphazardly on the bottom he growled in his chest and moved towards the ducklings.
She would take care of them. In fact they would probably adopt her as their mother and she would be ecstatic for weeks and it would all work out but for now.
For now he had to deal with… them.
Like facing off with a cobra he approached, standing cautiously on the side of the road with the towel lined basket at his hip under his arm and his dark eyes unimpressed.
“Where is your real mother?” His voice was no nonsense and the ducklings peeped and chirped nervously at his presence, falling over each other and getting more muddy by the second.
None of them seemed to have an answer and so after looking around for a moment longer in hopes of avoiding this entire disaster Sasuke sighed and bent down.
They were gritty. And a little slimy. Gritting his teeth he grabbed hold of one at a time, tossing them not exactly gently into the basket despite their panicked protests and with the chaotic mess of wet feathers and squeaking in his possession he hurried back to his car, already soaking wet and in a worse mood than he had been in a very long time.
“She had better be happy about this.”
With the ducklings all watching him rather intently from the passenger seat, he began to drive.
None of it was going according to plan.
They had not stopped watching him through the holes in the laundry basket the entire drive. It was rather unnerving having over a dozen little beady eyes staring at him and although he would be loathe to admit it, he was rather nervous. Basket on his hip and trying not to rush to avoid spilling the living contents within he parked and skipped up the steps to the front door. Shaking out his rain soaked hair he rang the bell and glanced at the ducklings as he waited.
Peeping quietly they stared back.
“…Ugh.” he grumbled at them, just as the door opened and Hinata blinked at him wrapped in a sweater half a dozen sizes too big, her hair in a mess of a bun on her head and hands covered in splashes of various colors. She smelled of paint thinner and her flowery soap and the warmth of something sweet baking.
A knot worked into his throat as he stared at her and she stared back, her surprise evident.
“Sasuke! I… I didn’t know you were coming-” she stopped at the sound of a duck signalling it’s presence and her eyes turned to the basket under his arm.
“…what is-?” she stopped again as he tipped it slightly, revealing the contents. Eyes trained on her face he watched as her mouth opened, not with horror but growing uncontainable delight. “Oh my goodness!"
"Please.” He let out a sigh, wiping the rain from his face absently. “Help me.”
The door flung open wide and she was ushering them all inside, questions half formed spilling from her mouth only to be side tracked by her exclamations over the tiny messy feather balls.
“Here, give me your jacket. Oh wow, you’re soaked.” She was giggling despite it, gathering his wet things and hanging them to drip on the tile of her entrance.
Inside the house pulsed with soft light, the smell of something having just been baked filtering through the crackle of her fireplace and the underlying sharpness of the paint thinner.
Sasuke glanced down the hall, lined with frames featuring her sister, her cousin, her mother, her friends Kiba and Shino, her favorite teacher Kurenai. The people dearest to her grinned at him from the frames as she led him down the hall and he paused at the end, absently letting her take the basket from his grip chattering softly as she walked to the kitchen.
“…where did you even find them? There are so many!” she did not wait for an answer, and he was not prepared to give her one. Eyes fixed on the last frame he let out a slow shaky breath.
Beside Sakura and Naruto and Sai flashing peace signs at him was a new frame. Black and silver, plain compared to the others.
And there he was with her sprawled in the snow of a few months ago, wincing at the light of the sun past her phone where she had raised it to take a selfie.
He could remember the bite of the cold on his back, the snow seeping into the neck of his jacket. Hinata had tripped on the ice, her flailing arms grabbing at him and although he should have been able to straighten them both out they had ended up on their butts in the snow.
She had laughed, so hard and so long he had ended up joining her and laying in the snow she had pulled out her phone, removing her mittens with her teeth.
“This is a picture moment.” Breathless from her laughter she had grinned.“Yes?"
He wasn’t one for pictures, but it had only taken her a handful of months to worm her way under his skin. There was little she could ask of him that he would say no to.
"Sasuke?”
Snapping out of his thoughts he turned to look at her as she came into the living room. Her sweater sleeves were rolled up to her elbows and her hands were covered in suds. She blinked at him a moment and he stared back, resisting the urge to wipe the smear of soapy bubbles on her brow away with his thumb.
“Sorry, what did you say?” He stepped past her into the kitchen then to find the ducklings all chorusing their displeasure loudly only to quiet at the sight of him.
“I was just asking where you found them, they are so dirty.” she began again, walking back to the sink where they floated like toys, their shining black eyes blinking up at them both.
Sasuke sighed, running a hand through his soaked hair and shivering in his still damp clothing. “I was just at the laundromat. They were practically on the road.” He crossed his arms and tried to rub the goosepimples from his skin. “If I left them they would have probably been run over."
"Oh no.” Shaking her head Hinata rubbed at a ducklings head gently with her thumb, removing gritty sand and oily car residue from his face delicately.
"I’m so glad you got them!“ She turned to smile at him over her shoulder then. "You must have looked like quite a sight walking around with a basket of ducklings under one arm.” Her giggles made him smirk, if only a little despite his shivering.
“Well, if I left them you would not let me live it down so-”
“You would not have left them.” Hinata’s firm tone left no room for disagreement and he raised an eyebrow slightly at her back as she worked.
“You should have a shower though, you’re all wet. I have some of Neji’s old clothes in my closet from when he last came to visit. If you stay in that you’re going to end up catching a cold."
Sasuke straightened slightly, surprised. "No… it’s fine. I can just go home and-”
Hinata turned again, peering at him past her shoulder, eyes wide. “You’re leaving me with them?"
He blinked slowly, taking in the very subtle hurt tone, the disbelief.
"I…I actually have some clothes in my car.” He began slowly. “I’ll….go get them."
A smile, wide and relieved washed over her face then and she nodded. "I’ll start the shower.”
Standing out in the rain again Sasuke blinked the wetness from his lashes, pausing for a moment to catch his breath as he rummaged through his clean clothes in the back of his car.
There was nothing about Hinata that was complicated. She loved openly, cared deeply, disagreed politely.
So then, if he was right. Then what did that picture frame…?
Before he could finish his train of thought the door to the house opened and a peal of laughter made him look up through the rain. Hinata stood at the door, a hand over her mouth to stifle her giggles and one look at her feet told him what was happening.
The ducklings, all soapy and disgruntled stood at the threshold and one look at him had them stumbling and rolling down the front steps.
A soft gasp escaped his lips and tucking his clothes under his arm he began scooping up the smattering of ducks, wincing at the tiny fragility of bones beneath the feathers.
“Why are you letting them out?"
"They-” Hinata struggled, her soft laugh making her face pink and her eyes water. “They jumped out of the sink when you left!"
He started, arms full of clean laundry and soaped ducklings and a whole lot of bewilderment. "What?”
“They’re-” Hinata tried again, grabbing a handful of ducklings before they tumbled off the stairs to join him at his feet. “They’ve… they’ve imprinted on you.”
Imprinted.
Face blank he stared at her until she was pulling him into the house, still laughing and smiling and overall more amused than he had seen her before as she carefully closed the door.
At their feet ducklings fell and slid on the tile, walking over his toes and making the soft incessant noises of children.
“They must have-” she began and he shook his head slowly. “No, no- Hinata- no.”
“They must have imprinted on you- they’re very young.” she began to laugh again at the sight of his horrified face and shoulders shaking pressed her cheek to his shoulder, listening to the now happy peeping of his ducklings in his arms and at his feet.
“I… I can’t have ducklings.” Sasuke’s tone was incredulous and it just got her off laughing again, her eyes searching his face with amusement and a compassion that bordered on tenderness. “Let’s just get you all clean and fed okay?”
“But I-”
“The shower is running… you should take your ducklings with you. I’ll make some tea, and I made banana bread.”
“Take them with me?” Sasuke stared after her but she had already disappeared into the kitchen and he was standing there holding an armful of ducks with more tripping over his feet.
Sighing loudly he walked carefully towards the bathroom, aware that right behind him, eyes always intent were the ducklings.
One look over his shoulder told him that taking them into the shower with him was not really a choice, and with an expression of supreme annoyance he waited until they all waddled into the bathroom before quietly closing the door.
It was a sight to behold.
He had tried to sit on the couch, but then they had wandered all over it, jumping off the back rest into his lap, nearly into his tea. In the end he sat on the floor, legs crossed, face in his hands with ducklings wandering over his arms and shoulders, under his knees, taking flying leaps off his body to the carpet.
On the other side of the coffee table by the fire Hinata watched, sipping at her tea and unable to take the ever widening smile from her face.
“I can’t have ducklings."
"You…kind of do now.”
“Hinata.” He looked up at her through black bangs, and she smiled bigger, seeing the panic and desperation there where usually his gaze was a fortress.
"What am I going to do with a dozen ducklings?”
“There’s actually fifteen.” She motioned to the fluffy things, now clean and partly yellow. They had come out of the shower shiny and smelling fantastic.
Almost as great as he smelled, but that was something Hinata had pushed aside rather forcefully.
“Fifteen?” He looked around and found that trying to count them was impossible as they meandered through her living room, getting tangled in her yarn basket beneath an end table and hopping on and off the furniture.
Smiling still Hinata nodded. “I counted as they tried to dive out of the sink after you.”
“Ugh.” Softly, Sasuke picked up the delicate fluff on his shoulder and placed it on the ground, watching the little bird waddle away only to come hurrying back to him a moment later.
“I’ll get them some peas. I happen to have some in the fridge.” Hinata pushed herself up and carrying her tea carefully entered the kitchen, leaving Sasuke to the affectionate nibbles of his duck babies.
“I don’t think they allow ducks in my apartment.”
A laugh, delicate and joyful responded from within the fridge. “I dare say they don’t, no.”
One particularly adventurous baby nibbled on Sasuke’s earlobe and he hissed slightly, grabbing it and plopping it on the carpet.
Feeling whiny he closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands, leaning his head back against the couch.
“Hinata.”
She paused at the edge of the living room, staring at the long smooth stretch of his neck, the curve of his Adam’s apple in the light of the fireplace and the elegant pale fingers of his hands against his face. Her name was a long tangled sigh from his mouth and she licked her lips nervously at the feel of a sharp, not exactly painful tug in her belly at the sound of his voice.
“I guess… they could stay here.” she began slowly, lowering herself to the carpet with the bowl full of peas. In a few moments half the ducklings were shoving and pushing at the bowl, bills working on the round green peas carefully.
The others were content to flip and flop on their human daddy.
Sasuke dared to open one eye, peering at her through his fingers. “Oh?”
“Well, the thing is…” she shifted, watching her tea carefully lest it spill. “I have a feeling they might not be very happy without you.”
Heat rushed to her face, starting at her cheeks and moving to her ears. Clearing her throat she sipped at her tea, eyes averted. “I…I do have a spare room, you could stay and..” she drifted off looking up in time to see him straighten and cock his head at her.
“You know… until they’re… older."
Sasuke smirked. "You want me and my ducklings to move in.”
Hinata blanched and then at his chuckle let out a nervous half laugh. “Uh… not.. I mean..”
“Well.” He sighed, picking up another fluff ball. “I guess they do need a mother.”
Still blushing furiously Hinata buried her nose between her raised knees, peering at him over her jeans.
“I…I could be a duck mom."
He smirked, eyes trained on his duck babies. "I guess I could be a duck dad.”
There was very little reluctance in his voice and her heart beat faster at his easy tone. “I do hear parenting is easier with a person you like."
Her tea was not as warm as her neck and cheeks.
"W-well, good thing it’s Friday, we can… um… go to the pet store tomorrow and ask them what to do with…them…” she floundered, picking one of the wandering feathery things in her hands as it walked by. The bird flailed half halfheartedly in her gentle grip and settled in the end on her palm, his rapid heart beat competing with her own.
“Okay.” Sasuke mused, suddenly very pleased with himself.
So sure, he had considered leaving them to fend for themselves on the street and had not been pleased with saving them.
But somehow they had now provided an excuse to spend a whole weekend straight through with Hinata and he was not about to complain about that.
In fact, he was starting to become rather fond of the little pests.
Of course, no one needed to know that.
Hinata pretended not to see when he picked one up and gently kissed it on the head.
Ink Child Writing 