From his position in the kitchen where he was slowly adding tealeaves to boiling water, Itachi could hear the front door open and close with a quiet click, signalling the entry of his housemate. He frowned slightly and placed down the teapot on the counter lightly.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Hinata did not thump as she walked. Hinata, although no longer heiress to the Hyuuga clan, still held that royal air around her as she walked with the grace only the daintiest of princesses envied. There was no thumping involved. Ever.

Predictably as ever, she entered the kitchen and walked over to him and lightly brushed her lips against his jaw. "Tadaima." She murmured and moved sluggishly over to the table where she sat with a slump on the chair.

"Okaeri." He welcomed and nodded his head slowly in recognition. "There is tea…it will soothe your nerves, I promise."

She looked up through her bangs, surprise showing faintly behind those bright eyes before fading into a small barely detectable smile. She shouldn't be surprised. He knew her better than perhaps even she herself did. "Tea sounds…it sounds g-good."

He brought over a freshly poured cup and placed it before her before sitting silently next to her, slowly sipping his tea. Together they sat there, neither saying a word as they consumed the tea in slow and steady sips before Hinata placed down her cup carefully and blurted out, "Do we h-have spark?"

To this, Itachi blinked and repeated slowly, "…Spark."

"Y-yes, spark." She mumbled and hid her blush behind her raised fingers. "Like…you know…that extra…something? The fireworks? The ch-chemistry?" She added quietly, "Y-you know…in our r-relationship?"

Alarm sirens sounded in the back of Itachi's mind as he finally placed down his cup too. He knew what Hinata was talking about; he was not a stupid man. Nor was he an especially romantic one.

"Are you unhappy with where we stand?" He asked, his voice low and rough.

"No!" She cried and bit her lip. "N-not even a little bit…"

"Then what is the problem?" He asked, the sirens dying down to ignorable bells. Tea. Tea was soothing. He took his cup again and sipped deep, feeling his mind calm as the smooth liquid scorched its way down his throat.

"Today…today at work Ino and Sakura were talking." She mumbled and fiddled with her fingers.

His eyebrows narrowed marginally. Ah. Haruno and Yamanaka. Nothing good came of those two's discussion with his fiancé.

"And...and they were talking about it...they were talking a-about the spark in their relationships." Her voice had by now deteriorated into a whisper. "...And then they asked where the spark in our relationship was."

That was it. He needed to remind Inuzuka and Uzumaki to reign in their wives.

However, he kept his face purposefully calm, knowing that his soon-to-be-wife would not approve any violent acts committed against her friends and asked, "And what did you reply?"

"I told th-them that we have plenty of spark!" She frowned and narrowed her eyebrows. She really was marvellously cute with a pout like that. "But...but when they asked for an example...I couldn't think of one." She breathed out and looked up fearfully.

"And where, pray tell may be the spark in their silly relationships?" He asked, his usual monotone developing a scathing edge.

"Don't...don't put their relationships down, please," Hinata murmured tiredly. "It's not silly to them."

"Explain." He demanded with further narrowed eyes. Too kind. That was what he first thought when he met her, and though at that moment in time he had considered it a weakness, it was now what made him ask her to be his wife.

"Like...Sakura and Naruto. H-he proposed to her the other day...during the festival." Her eyes glazed over in a dreamy quality as she formed the scene in her brain. "He took her o-on top of the Hokage monument...and when the fireworks went off...he got down on one knee and proposed to her in front of the entire village." She quickly amended with flustered arm movements and a dark flush across her pale cheeks, "Not that...that I didn't love your proposal!" She whimpered quietly and sunk into her seat deeper.

"I...see. And Yamanaka?"

"Oh..." At this Hinata turned an even darker shade of brick red and murmured, "Well...she w-was telling me about how wh-whenever Kiba gets h-home from missions...their...their...l-lovemaking is so loud and passionate th-that the neighbours th-thought that they w-were getting attacked and ANBU had to be sent over s-several times..." She hid her face behind her hands and peered up at him through the small cracks between her fingers.

He knew that already. He was after all the captain of the ANBU squad who had been sent over there. Three times. After several seconds of trying to block out the images he had witnessed those three times, he slowly asked, "Why do you require...spark? If you are happy with what we have already, then why ask?"

Unless she wasn't happy. Kakashi did say that women were very deceptive about these sorts of things.

"Because...b-because I heard that spark is what makes a relationship lasts." She replied quietly. "...And I want us t-to last. For a very long time."

He shifted in his seat and tugged on her hand to pull her up so she was standing over him, her long hair curtaining them as she stared down at him. "Personally," He grasped her hip in one hand and pulled her down again to straddle him snugly on his lap. "I don't want to be pushed off the Hokage monument in your excitement to say yes as Uzumaki almost was, nor do I particularly wish to have the ANBU burst in on us during our...lovemaking."

She laughed at this. That quiet, breathless laugh of hers that reminded him of a child and made him want to kiss her senseless. "Yes, I s-suppose."

He brought his lips to her collarbone, lightly kissing and nipping along the protruding bone as he breathed, "...But that doesn't mean we don't have...spark." He felt her hands curl reflexively in his hair as she sighed and clung to him. She could feel the tilt of his lips against her skin, indicating that oh-so-wonderful smirk of his.

"Oh...I f-feel it..." She gasped as he tightened his grip on her waist and made his way up the slender column of her throat. "The sparks."

"Hm, where?" He placed a rough kiss against the corner of her mouth and wrapped his arm around her tighter as she tilted her head to catch his lips just so and return the opened mouth kiss with equal fervour.

She brushed her fingers against his lower abdomen and breathed, "Right...here."

He directed her legs to wrap firmly around his waist and stood up, blindly guiding them out of the kitchen as Hinata distracted him with the hot kisses she was peppering along his jaw and ear. "I told you...we have plenty of spark." He hissed and leaned against the wall momentarily to assist his fiancé in the removal of his shirt.

"Hm, yes. S-so much. Almost makes me want to pity Ino and Sakura." She whispered into the shell of his ear and mewled as his tongue and teeth just did something to her earlobe.

At this, Itachi laughed lowly and finished the almost entirely too long journey into the bedroom.

I don't even know.

My attempt at something a little more...hot.