Title: Special Delivery
Claimer/Author: This story is written by and belongs to Emmy Kay.
Pairing: Hinata/Naruto
Summary: The new girl in the mailroom receives something unexpected. NaruHina. AU. Crack-lite. One-shot.
Disclaimer: Naruto and all affiliated characters belong to Kishimoto Masashi. This story is written without permission and for personal/fan/nonprofit entertainment purposes only.
A young brunette was trundling her cart of mail around the third floor of the Konoha Heavy Industries building when she noticed a gaggle of well-dressed women, young and old, clustered around one of the large plate glass windows at the back of the building. Hinata Hyuuga had only been working here for a couple of months, and didn't know much about what happened in this enclave of high executive privilege. When she saw a particular platinum ponytail, she knew exactly who she'd ask; the girl who had introduced herself as knowing everything about everyone. "Ino – what's going on?"
The blonde turned. "Oh, Hinata! You've got to check this out." She giggled in anticipation, waving a well-manicured hand towards the window.
"What?"
"You'll see." Ino created a small opening into which Hinata slipped.
"I don't think –" Hinata began, looking at the skyline, which was the same as any other day.
A pink-polished fingernail entered Hinata's line of sight and pointed downward to a large delivery truck parked next to the curb right near the loading dock. A pair of fit-looking men clad in the distinctive black and orange uniform of shorts and short-sleeved shirt of the parcel delivery service stood next to the truck; the yellow-haired man was gesturing and laughing, the dark-haired man listened for a moment, and then nodded. They moved as a unit, taut arm and leg muscles bunching and flexing as a couple of large boxes were shifted onto hand trucks.
"Yummy," declared Ino, a hint of drool in the corner of her mouth. "Simply scrumptious."
"I wouldn't kick him out of bed," said a redhead dreamily, clutching her hands to her chest.
"Jump-tastic," uttered Sakura with some finality. As an assistant to Shizune, the personnel officer, she knew every male on every floor in the entire building. Her words definitely carried some weight.
Hinata's breath hitched somewhere between her lungs and her voicebox. After a moment, she could merely sigh. "Oh."
The women stared for a moment longer. "That's an amazing smile he's got – " Hinata began.
"Smile?" Ino looked puzzled.
The pink-haired woman frowned. "He wasn't smiling."
"He never smiles," confirmed the redhead.
"Oh?" Hinata retreated. "Maybe not." But she was certain he had smiled. She was. Because it was a beautiful, wide smile. A smile that made her want to smile back.
Without knowing quite how it became a routine, Hinata just happened to find herself in the area of the back window every day at about the same time.
Every day, the group of women there made a little room for her. Every day she saw the blond man and the black-haired man deliver goods and boxes to the back of the building. Every day, there was a collective sigh. If the load was particularly heavy, there was great anticipation and maybe even some controlled dribbling.
The one day it was hot enough for the pair to emerge from the trucks with their shirts largely unbuttoned was enough to send several women running for tissues to staunch the sudden gush of blood out of their noses.
After a few weeks of this behavior, Hinata resolved to stop visiting the window. The last thing she wanted was to get caught ogling the delivery guys. She didn't know for certain, but she felt at the very least it bordered on some kind of harassment. Maybe it was grounds for dismissal. She didn't know, but she didn't want to find out. She knew her concern was a little late, but she felt it was better late than never. But at the end of the second week of her new resolution, Ino grabbed her. "Hinata, look out the window!"
"I've really got to finish delivering the mail– "
Ino didn't take prisoners, and this was no exception. Hinata was marched to the window, and Sakura moved over to make room. "Look down."
Hinata looked. There was that blond guy in black and orange moving boxes around. Hinata lingered a moment – did he seem a little less jaunty than previously? "Yes?"
"He's missing!" Ino exclaimed.
"Who's missing?" Hinata was confused.
"The black-haired guy!" burst out the redhead.
"You've got to find out what happened!" Sakura implored.
"How am I supposed to do that?" Hinata asked, surprised.
"You work in the mailroom, you can ask the guy what happened," Ino elucidated.
The mere thought of actually speaking to the man she'd been eyeing in a less-than-pure manner rendered Hinata nearly incoherent. "I – I – c-c-c-an't!" She gathered herself, trying to think of a way to get out of this task. "Maybe – maybe – maybe he's just on vacation."
"He's been gone too long," interjected someone.
"Yes, you can!" Sakura urged. She gripped Hinata's arm in a powerful fist. "You've got to!"
"Why don't you do it?" Hinata asked reasonably. "You're the ones who want to know."
While Sakura had the grace to look ashamed, Ino just seemed irate as she explained. "Kurenai caught us a couple of times waiting for him and said she'd tell Shizune – and we'd be in big trouble."
Looking at the small group of eager-faced women in front of her, Hinata found herself reluctantly agreeing.
On the first day of her mission, Hinata hung out in the mailroom a little longer than she normally did, slowly sorting packages into their appropriate bins. The delivery man came in, right on time. She watched while he exchanged hearty pleasantries with the mailroom supervisor, Kurenai, dropped off his delivery, and had the packages signed for. He gave a brief salute, flashed a smile, and departed.
Ino was at the elevator door when Hinata arrived with her load of mail that afternoon. "What did he say?"
Hinata was genuinely apologetic. "I'm sorry – "
"You didn't ask?"
"No – I just couldn't! I don't even know him!" Hinata defended, weakly. How in the world did she get stuck in this situation? She was too shy to be involved in this crazy business.
"Get to know him, already! And don't forget to ask how I can get in touch with the black-haired guy!"
Sakura came hustling around the corner, high heels clicking furiously, suit jacket flying out behind. "You're not going to get the jump on me, Ino! When Hinata finds out anything about the delivery guy – we all find out. Right, Hinata?"
Hinata gave the pair a sickly smile. The thing was, she had found out something, even though she knew the others wouldn't be interested. The delivery man had blue eyes. A cloudless summer sky kind of blue. And he had looked at her for just a moment or two longer than necessary with those amazing eyes.
The next day proved to be the same as the first in terms of Hinata's success. Meaning, a total failure. But she had found out something new, something the other girls wouldn't care about. His name was Naruto. It said so right on the label stitched to his brightly colored shirt.
The third day, she noticed two things. Firstly, he wasn't wearing a wedding ring. Secondly, he specifically seemed to be trying to catch her attention as she was trying to fix the ancient, temperamental postage meter.
The fourth day was quite eventful. When Naruto arrived with his packages, Kurenai raised her eyebrows significantly at Hinata, who tried very hard not to notice. It was the day that Hinata and Naruto actually managed to look at each other in the eye before Naruto finished with his delivery. That was also the day Sakura cornered Hinata and demanded a status report. To which, Hinata responded sadly, there was nothing to report.
Kurenai was out on the fifth day. Hinata found herself a bit overwhelmed with the actual volume of letters and packages that arrived and had to be sorted, never mind what needed to be franked and sent out. Some of them required extra handling and special barcoding and recording – and that all took time she didn't feel she had.
However organized Kurenai was – and her mailroom was a model of organization – with stacks of padded envelopes sitting next to boxes of bubble wrap and packing popcorn against one wall, cups of pens sorted by color and width, piles of different types of tape and tape dispensers, and incoming and outgoing mail all in their own places – it was not enough. There simply needed to be more people for the work present. Hinata was alone and struggling to keep up. She didn't even think there would be enough time to do her usual trip upstairs. Kiba or Shino would have to do it, even though they were on the second shift and wouldn't be in for a couple of hours yet.
She forgot about her mission. It was only when she heard the buzzer at the door that she remembered. Oh, no, she thought, panicked. Not now. She wasn't ready. The buzzer went off again. Yes, it seemed to say, right now.
She heaved up the double-sized garage door, only to be blinded by the sudden influx of sunlight. She blinked, trying to focus. She squinted, seeing the dark figure of a man backlit by bright light as he maneuvered a hand truck into the mailroom.
"Hey," he said. "I've got some packages here for Konoha Heavy Industries."
"H-hello," she replied, weakly.
He paused. "Where do you want me to put these?"
"Oh – over there," she pointed to a bare spot on the concrete pad that served as the main floor of the room.
He handed her a rectangular box with a large screen and a stylus. "Sign here."
Silently, she wrote her name.
"Hinata Hyuuga," he read out loud in his slightly raspy voice, then looked at her for confirmation. At her nod, he punched a number of buttons. "So, you new here, Hinata?" he asked.
"Yes," she returned, flustered at the sound of her name on his lips, sitting there like half a kiss.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," he said, offering his hand, eyes twinkling.
"Hi." She shook the large, warm palm; willing her own not to be like a limp fish. Summoning a lifetime's worth of social training at some of the very finest educational institutions in the country, she blurted, "Kurenai's out sick today."
"That's too bad," he replied easily. "I hope she doesn't have that flu thing that's going around." He paused.
Hinata wondered what he was waiting for, as the silence between the two of them stretched on. "I hope not," she said, a shade too late, a hair too emphatically.
"Have you got anything for me?" he finally asked.
"What?" Her head jerked up. "O-over there –" she gestured to a spot by the door.
He inspected the boxes, scanned them, punched in some more buttons on his data recorder, and loaded them up on the hand truck. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."
"Bye," she said with some relief. She would be glad when this exchange was over – even though he seemed very nice and – well, she'd admit it, incredibly hot. Then she thought of Sakura and Ino. She had to ask. Otherwise, they'd kill her. "Oh – um, can I ask you something?"
Naruto winked. "What can orange do for you?"
Quickly, before she had time to rethink it, Hinata said, "I thought you're usually paired with - I mean, partnered with - uh, teamed with a guy? A dark-haired guy?"
The question seemed to make him a little dejected. "Oh, him. Sasuke." Naruto made an indecipherable noise at the back of his throat. "He went to another company – the one with the flying snake."
Hinata nodded. "Okay." Then she felt embarrassed and needed to explain, "I'm asking for some of the girls at the office – not for me, you understand."
"Right," he said. He drew himself up. "As a team member of Orange Worldwide, we're the best delivery firm for you. For your company."
"I believe it," Hinata was definite.
"I just wanted to say that – because there's been a bit of a - I wouldn't say war, but definitely a competition - and we'll do anything to keep you. I mean, your business."
"I'm glad to know that." Then she smiled, a full beam of delight.
A little bemused, Naruto reached for the handle of the hand truck. Sadly, he missed. Lurching forward, trying to make his recovery, he tripped over the protruding corner of a particularly large box, pirouetted in a drunken twirl, arms windmilling wildly, and fell noisily in a graceless sprawl against a series of shelves. The bottom shelves collapsed, tipping over several large bins filled with packing peanuts and popcorn, which spewed their contents into the air, all over the concrete floor and most especially on top of the hapless delivery man.
Concerned, Hinata flew over to Naruto. "Are you all right?"
"I'm okay, I'm okay," he answered, sheepish. "Just clumsy."
She knelt down next to him, and tried to brush some of the packing material off Naruto, batting ineffectually at the flying bits of fluff. It was hopeless - the static-y, weightless, slippery stuff just seemed to stick to him, and then transferred to her. "That fall looked really hard," she worried.
"I'm okay. I've got a really thick scull." As if to prove it, Naruto shook his head, and more popcorn fell out of the spiky yellow mane.
"Here, let me help you up," she offered, extending a hand.
"Sure – I – " he grasped her hand, and as she pulled, she found he was a lot bigger and heavier than she had thought he was, and she wasn't quite prepared to lever up all his weight. As a result, he ended up pulling her down and she banged her forehead against his. With a barely uttered "ow," she raised her face up involuntarily, and found he had done the same, his face very close to hers. She barely had time to register exactly how close when her lips brushed against his in possibly the clumsiest, most personally awful and awkward, barely-there, most innocent and helpless kiss she could have never imagined. Not even in her wildest dreams.
"Oh, oh," she gasped, and off-balance, teetered and then out-right landed in a little heap against his chest.
Hinata hurridly jumped up, narrowly missing kicking Naruto in the crotch. She skittered to the opposite side of the room, gulping in shock. She was redder than a beet, shaking like a rabbit, and desperately wanting to get away. She pressed icy hands against her burning face. Oh – why, why, why did Kurenai have to be out sick today?
Hesitantly, she looked down at the man on the floor. Naruto, too, was blushing. There wasn't much more adorable than a big handsome man blushing. And deep inside, Hinata found that she was just a teensy-tiny bit glad that Kurenai was out sick today. Too bad it all had to happen on the floor of her workplace, surrounded by an awful wreck of mailing supplies. God, what was she going to do?!
Naruto's voice, tentatively, came to her from across the room. "So, hey, you'll keep shipping with me, right?"
A/N
1. shipping = in fandom, generally deemed to be short for "relationshipping" (refer to tvtropes, Shipping), also related to Shipping Wars or Ship to Ship Combat from the same website. Consider also the definition of "fluff." (Pardon my appropriation of the genre's terminology. My only excuse is that it made me laugh.)
2. 30 kisses challenge #2. "news; letter"
3. Doesn't everyone have a moment when a delivery person makes you do a double-take? Maybe that's just me. Inspired by a review/exchange between Shawny Wong/Wandering Wonderer/TENDERVanilla about AU's and men in uniform.