title: Sweet
rating: K+
word count: 2,224
headnote: i wanted to post this on valentine's day as a gift to my wonderful readers, but it got delayed as i had a test to study for :-(
but it's here now! enjoy the fluffiness. i had a marathon of tamako market before writing this, so i imagined everyone as chibi versions of themselves, especially hinata, haha!
warning: OOCness.
disclaimed.
Sweet
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"Good party, right?" the blonde boy asked his best friend, nudging his shoulder with his own.
"Hn," was the only response he received. Naruto frowned at the lack of enthusiasm in Sasuke. He hoped that maybe the ever brooding Uchiha would loosen up a little at parties, but it seemed impossible to him now. Sasuke never loses his cool.
Then he remembered the plastic cup filled with punch clutched in his hand. He offered it to Sasuke, and he took it without even bothering to thank him. Sipping punch from the cup, Sasuke observed the scenery.
It was a normal teenage party – why he even bothered to come was beyond him – only it had a 'Valentine's Day' theme to it. He personally found the holiday disgusting and pointless, especially because his fangirls were extra unbearable on the so-called 'day of love'. It was like they had an unspoken agreement to tackle him at every corner, at any minute, if he walked somewhere alone. That's why, to his humiliation, he was forced to hang out with Naruto for the most of the day.
He made sure to walk so that Naruto was covering him enough for his fangirls not to notice. Whenever he felt the shiver down his spine and the sensation of being watched, he pulled Naruto by the arm and demanded they go somewhere else. He had thought that by now everyone would be convinced he and Naruto were gay, but he had no such luck. Maybe the girls thought they could 'change' him. He snorted at the thought. None of them were special enough for him to change…
His gaze fell on the blushing Hyuuga, who was currently trying to retrieve a reddish heart-shaped box from Ino's prying hands. She was visibly shorter than the blonde-haired girl, and so she had to jump in order to even come close to the item secured in Ino's death grip above her head.
"I-Ino-chan! G-give it b-back!" she pleaded with a pathetic whine in her voice. Sasuke's mouth curved into a small smirk. He didn't know much about the Hyuuga girl, except that she had a horrible crush on Naruto, who seemed to be the only one oblivious to the very obvious fact. She always seemed to be around and they shared a few classes, but he never bothered to talk to her much. Only the standard, "What's for homework?", "What time is it?", "I-I want to have y-your babies U-Uchiha-san.", etcetera.
Well, the last one never happened, but Sasuke was the last to admit that he had thought about it. The girl may be shy to the point where he wanted to rip his hair out and scream profanities at her until she started yelling back, but she had a certain appeal to her – like her chest, an inner-Sasuke chuckled - and since Sasuke wasn't the type who only cared about what's on the outside -he secretly was - he never bothered to do anything about his small fantasies that sometimes occupied his brain while bored in class.
Besides – and it was something he had to admit with a bitter feeling in his gut – she only ever had her eyes set on Naruto. Unlike any of his other fangirls, she kept her distance, smiled at him and greeted him politely, and that was it. But, he thought with a satisfying smirk, she never confessed to Naruto, nor she gave him chocolates as was the custom on Valentine's Day. Naruto wasn't deserving of her anyway.
With a cough, he stopped his train of thought, as he wasn't quite ready to contemplate what the hell he meant with that last sentence. Instead, he continued to watch the scene unfold, sipping from his cup here and there.
"A-ah Hinata-chan," Ino said, waving her finger at the shorter girl. "Not until you tell me what you plan to do with them."
Hinata's face went beet red and she looked down at her feet, her forefingers pressing together. "A-ano…" she muttered something under her breath. Ino leaned in, but couldn't catch what she said. Unconsciously, Sasuke leaned in too.
"What was that? Please repeat it." Ino said with a sly smile stretching her lips.
"I-it's a part of a p-present…" Hinata said finally, blinking up at Ino with the cutest expression she could muster. Ino's smile faltered a bit, entranced with the look on Hinata's face. Sasuke refused to snicker, but he had to give Hinata some credit – the girl played the game well. "I-I made c-chocolates for e-everyone… t-that box is f-for you…"
Sasuke realized that Ino was putting all her efforts to stop herself from squealing at the adorable picture Hinata presented. She dropped her hand to her side, and clutched the box to her chest. "Ohmygosh Hinata! You're the cutest!" she grabbed the girl and pulled her into a tight hug, kicking air out of the Hyuuga's lungs. "Thank you so much!"
"I-Ino! Y-you're… choking… m-me…" Hinata yelped and Ino let her go immediately, apologizing continuously. But she couldn't wipe the smile off her face. Sasuke felt himself frown.
She made chocolates for everyone? Did everyone include him too? He mentally slapped himself for feeling a little worried. What did it matter anyway? It's not like they were friends. She wasn't obliged to make anything for him. She didn't even like him!
As if wondering the same thing as Sasuke, Ino asked. "So, who else did you make chocolates for? You said everyone."
Hinata lifted a finger and disappeared for a second in the dancing crowd. When she reemerged, she was holding a pink bag with a fluffy bow on the front. "I wasn't p-planning on handing them out yet, b-but since you i-insisted on yours… I c-can't keep the others w-waiting, ne?" she blushed prettily, staring at the bag.
Ino tried to take a peek of the boxes inside, and noticed that all the boxes were red with cute golden bows except for one. "Hey, who's the blue box for?"
"O-oh." Hinata immediately closed the bag and hid it from Ino's view. "I-I probably won't g-give that one…"
Ino wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Oh? Is it for who I think it is?"
Yeah, it probably is. Sasuke answered for her in his head. His frown deepened. So she made special chocolates for Naruto? And he won't get them? A part of him celebrated. A part of him wanted to set himself on fire for celebrating.
"A-actually…" Hinata said, her voice barely hearable over the loud noise and music. "N-never mind!" and before either Ino or Sasuke could blink, Hinata was gone.
What the hell was that?, Sasuke thought, a little worried. He was pretty sure she knew everyone was aware of who she was crushing on, except the 'crush'. Why did she refuse to answer Ino's question?"
"Hey, teme," Naruto's loud voice in his ear startled him back into reality. "if you lean in any more than that, you're going to fall and hurt that lady-magnet face."
"Whatever." Sasuke tch-ed at his best friend, handing him the empty cup. Before Naruto could say anything to him, he left. Not to find Hinata, he told himself, just to check out who's at the party. Just that.
Yeah right. Soon enough, he was hiding behind a table with snacks and – as ridiculous as that sounded – spying on Hinata. She stood in front of Kiba and Shino, her best childhood friends, and took out two boxes, same as Ino's, handing them to each of the two boys respectively.
Kiba opened his right away and licked his lips at the sight of delicious dark chocolate pralines. He popped two in his mouth and chewed, while Shino kept his cool and, hiding a small blush behind the high collar of his jacket, thanked the girl politely. She giggled at his shyness and kissed both of them on the cheek – which made Sasuke clench his hands into fists – before continuing off on her mission.
Sasuke, of course, immediately followed after. It's not like he was curious who she was giving chocolates to, far from that. He was just bored, and what she was doing seemed interesting enough to occupy him. Yeah. That was all.
Except he couldn't deny the disturbing feeling in his stomach when Hinata approached her cousin Neji and his two best friends, Tenten and Lee, giving them their boxes. Lee pulled her in a tight, bone-crushing hug, spurting some nonsense about youthful lotuses and love, while Neji tried to detach him off of her. Eventually, Lee had to let go, as Hinata's face turned a worrying shade of blue from lack of oxygen. Lee burst into a series of apologies, Neji chased him around threatening to kill him in various painful ways and Tenten gently rubbed Hinata's back while the girl tried to regain control over her breathing.
Sasuke watched the scene unfold with wide eyes, wondering for the umpteenth time why he even bothered to be friends with all these ridiculous people. From the corner of his eye he caught Hinata on the move again, and, tired of following her around like some pathetic creep, decided to make his presence known. Which was probably a bad idea.
He jumped in front of her, feigning nonchalance. "Oh," he said, looking down at her with a raised eyebrow, acting casual. "didn't see you there, Hyuuga."
The girl almost toppled over and dropped her bag, but managed to steady herself on time. Her face went completely red and she seemed unable to form coherent sentences, her mouth open like a fish on dry land. Sasuke smirked, his confidence boosting with the realization that he caught her completely unaware.
"U-U-Uchiha-san." She managed to stutter, the bag pressed closely against her chest. His smirk fell a bit and he wondered why she was so fidgety around him.
He decided to ignore it, and tried to take a peek in her bag. "What do you have in there?" he asked, now genuinely curious as her reaction was to abruptly turn around, refusing to look him in the eye.
"N-n-nothing!" she squeaked. Sasuke allowed a sigh to escape his lips, running a hand through his raven hair. She was so… so…
Cute?
…troublesome.
Suddenly, he heard high pitched screams from somewhere behind him. Used to those, he immediately recognized them as his fangirls spotting him. I knew this was a bad idea.
He didn't know why he did what he did – it was stupid, reckless and completely unnecessary – but he grabbed Hinata's wrist and pulled her with him, running forward and observing the room for a place to hide in. The pack of fangirls were catching up with them quickly, all too eager to give their chocolates to Sasuke. Hinata was squealing in surprise, her small feet unable to keep up with the rough pace of running Sasuke set. Finally, when they entered the kitchen, his eyes fell on the counter… well, the cupboard under the counter…
He made a small turn to trick their trackers and ducked, pulling Hinata down with him. He opened the cupboard and threw her inside, him following quickly after.
The space was large enough for two of them to fit in, but it didn't leave much space between them. In order to fit in completely, Sasuke had to practically glue himself against Hinata. Their faces were inches from touching. Both fell completely silent and listened for the footsteps outside. There was a large commotion, and a round of disappointed sighs, before they seemed to scatter.
Sasuke relaxed and let out a breath he wasn't aware he was holding. Only then did he realize the close proximity between him and Hinata. She seemed all ready to faint any second now, her breath uneven and heavy.
"You okay?" he asked, his voice gruff, cringing a little at how suggestive it sounded.
She could only nod in response. Awkward silence fell over them, sometimes broken with loud gasps for air.
Getting tired of it, Sasuke fidgeted around until he was able to open the cupboard, careful for any sounds of his fangirls still looming nearby. When he was completely certain there was no one out there, he kicked the door open and scrambled out as gracefully as he could.
He helped her up, dusting himself off as he did. Again, they fell silent, both afraid of mentioning what happened earlier. Sasuke mentally sighed – this was going nowhere – so he turned to leave. "Yeah, I guess we should-"
But she stopped him. He stared in bewilderment at her hand wrapped around his wrist that stopped him from moving. She refused to meet his gaze, focusing on the bag instead, but it made Sasuke's lips twitch, if only a little.
"U-Uchiha-san," she began, her voice shaky and nervous, "th-thank you. F-for being a good friend to N-Naruto-kun."
And she handed him a blue box with a cute baby pink bow on top.
Sasuke was at a loss of words. He accepted the box, wondering if it would disappear if he looked long enough. He opened his mouth to thank her, but…
…the girl had long since escaped. He was now alone.
He chuckled lightly, ignoring the heat in his cheeks. He put the box in his pocket, and went to find Naruto.
It wasn't much, but it was a start.
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fin
footnote: thank you for reading! leave a review if you want. (: