A/N: A small story that I was playing with. I figured I would post it up. Mind you I was purely playing with this concept, so be gentle to it...just like a lot of the ideas I play around with, this is still just a basic idea. Call it a test of both infographics and just the all-around interest this pairing might make. As you can see here, there is a yaoi pairing and a yuri pairing, but I'm warning you now, the yuri pairing is more dominant at this point.

The Ramen Girl
Chapter 1

"I don't know what you want me to say…"

"That you don't hate me."

"I could never hate you."

"Do you really mean that?"

"Naruto, I don't hate you. I care about you too much to hate you. I want you to be happy, and if Sasuke makes you happy, then that's just how it is."

At least she had been honest with him. She could never really hate him, no matter what he did. Honestly, she was just happy that Naruto found someone to make him happy. She was a little depressed that the person wasn't her, but, given the circumstance, there wasn't much she could do.

At least she knew that some other woman wasn't the cause of it.

"Are you okay, Hinata?" Ayame asked as she watched the girl slowly pick away at her third bowl of ramen. Honestly, it was a surprise to see Hinata eat that much. She wasn't a compulsive eater, and she wasn't a large eater either, not like several other costumers. "You've been moping around for weeks."

"I'm fine." She sighed, as she rested her cheek in her palm. "It just never occurred to me that he would want to be with a man." Hinata murmured offhandedly. "Though, with Sasuke, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised."

"Does it bother you?" Ayame asked, leaning over the counter to grab the empty bowls.

Hinata made a soft sound, indicating that it really didn't. "Not in the way you're thinking anyway. I don't mind, and I know it wasn't anything I did." Hinata shrugged. "You can't change the way you feel."

"But you still love him."

"Yes, I do."

"It must be hard."

"Not as hard as I think it should be." Hinata paused, putting down her chopsticks. "You know, it's funny. My whole life, I've only wanted to be with Naruto. I've always thought that if I was with him, then nothing else mattered." She couldn't even cry over this. She just didn't feel the urge to. "I'm not even sad about it, not like I thought I would be."

"Love is funny, especially once it gets resolved like that." Ayame said distantly, her eyes on the suds and the dishes. She couldn't face Hinata and say it easily. "If you know you don't stand a chance, at least you won't cling onto false hope, right?"

"That's exactly it."

"I'm glad you were able to accept them though."

"Why wouldn't I?"

Ayame dried her hands, frowning a little. "Because the truth can be hard to swallow, and you've admired Naruto for years."

Hinata offered a little agreeance to that, sipping her tea. Everything tasted so bland now, so, offbeat and not like normal. Maybe it was just a minor depression, but it was enough to make her consider Ayame's words. "It never crossed my mind to hate him…"

"What about Sasuke?" Ayame voiced.

"No, I don't hate him, either. Actually, I'm not jealous of Sasuke either." If Hinata were being honest, maybe she was just a little lonely. "It's so strange." The only problem was, she didn't know what to do now. "I never really made other plans for my future. I always thought he was going to be the one, and that's my fault."

"What, for dreaming big?" Ayame asked.

Hinata sighed again, pulling out some coins and putting them onto the counter. "People shouldn't put all their hopes and dreams into one basket like that."

"People dream big, that's just what they do." Ayame scolded lightly. "Your money isn't any good here, Hinata."

"I keep coming here for lunch, at least let me pay." Hinata told her, but Ayame refused.

"You want to pay me back?" Ayame asked her. "Then become happy. You do that, it'll be enough of a payment for me."

There was an edge in Ayame's tone. The same edge that had been there for a few years now, but Hinata had never thought much of it before. Now that she was paying attention though, something stood out more clearly. "It isn't as if I'm entirely dissatisfied of my lot in life. I'm not entirely unhappy."

"But you aren't happy either." The woman from behind the counter said knowingly. Those soft brown eyes of hers avoiding Hinata's searching gaze. "I'll let you in on a little secret. We might put all of our eggs into one basket, but if the person we love is happy, then that'll always be enough." She flashed her eyes to Hinata then, wondering what kind of expression she might see. "You're a beautiful woman, Hinata Hyuga, and you deserve happiness too…so please, just become happy."

Hinata nodded, hands in her pockets. She began to walk down the dirt road, but something stopped her, and she looked back over her shoulder.

That was a purely platonic compliment, wasn't it? Hinata asked herself, but she had already known that it wasn't. She had been called beautiful by her friends before, but never in a way that was so heartfelt. Hinata was a master of shyness, and inconspicuousness. She knew what both of those things sounded like. She also knew what both of those things sounded like when vailed behind strictly friendship.

She couldn't just ignore that statement, it wasn't the right thing to do.

"Ayame, how long?" Hinata asked, her mouth suddenly dry.

The woman in question forced a fake smile, looking up from the gigantic pan of broth she was tending. "Does that really matter?" That was the same question she had asked herself over and over again. It had been years now. Ever since she realized she had an interest in women. She fully realized her interests didn't include any of the nice quiet civilian girls. No, she was fawning after a woman who was so far out of her league. She didn't stand a chance in the first place.

"To me it does." Hinata murmured a bit embarrassed.

"Three or four years ago." Ayame finally said. It was a leap of faith at this point. She prayed Hinata wouldn't completely hate her after this. "Around the time you became more tenacious and outgoing. The village was destroyed, and that still didn't stop you from fighting. Everyone saw you flying through the air, hitting the ground…" Ayame shook her head, it was stupid to bring that up. "I thought you might have been killed. There were so many bodies, but, seeing yours motionless on the ground…nothing hurt me more than that."

Hinata was quiet for several long moments. She remembered that day very well, concussion and all. It was the first time she had truly told Naruto that she loved him. The first time she said it. At the time, she assumed she was signing her own death warrant. "That long...too long..." Not only was Ayame five years older than her, she had been coming to this ramen shop ever since she was a little girl. They had a friendship that lasted too long for this kind of secret. "I wish you would have told me."

"I knew I didn't stand a chance." Ayame said honestly. "I know I still don't."

"I never said that." Hinata told her.

"I don't want anything to change between us." The woman behind the counter shrugged.

"That's an outright lie."

Ayame looked up, swallowing hard. She never expected Hinata to call her out like that. Not so bluntly, and never while keeping that gaze of hers direct and steadfast. Ayame felt cornered. "I don't know what you want me to say…" the apron covered woman said, trailing off. "I never thought you'd actually want to talk about this."

Honestly, Hinata didn't. Particularly in the middle of the shop, where anyone could come waltzing in...

"We have to at some point." Hinata finally managed to say. "If not, it's going to eat away at both of us..."

She knew that from experience. From one too many conversations left to fester until it was too late. She'd lost people in her life she would never be able get closure from because they were dead, or gone, or just wouldn't talk…wouldn't try to mend the old scars. Hinata did not want to be that person for Ayame. Didn't want to leave her questioning, wondering, all by herself.

"I don't want closure, Hinata. I never wanted that from you." What she wanted was Hinata in her arms, in her bed, but failing that, she at least wanted things to stay the way they were. "I don't even know why you're looking for a confrontation."

That was absolutely the last straw, and Hinata grabbed the metal doors and dragged them down one by one until all of them were closed. Then she leapt across the counter. The divide had been driving her crazy in the first place, but Ayame's distrust actually hurt. Hurt more than she cared to admit, given the current tense atmosphere between them.

Rubbing her face, she paced a little bit. From one end of the kitchen to the other.

"That is the most…" She didn't even have a word for it. She rubbed at her eyes, and then her palms ran through her hair. With a hard breath, she tried again. "You're right. I don't like to fight, verbal or otherwise." Hinata said, her voice keeping a soft but sharp edge. "But you had better believe that when it comes down to it, I'll be one of the first ones to accept a fight that's worth it." She leaned heavily on the counter, head hung low, shoulders tense. "If nothing else, you're my friend, Ayame. That makes this worth it to me. Do you understand?"

"I don't want to gross you out." Ayame admitted, seeing she wasn't going to get out of this so easily. Hinata was beginning to look upset, and Ayame knew she was the cause of it. She regretted saying it at all now, seeing Hinata so torn up. That had never been her intention at all.

"There are many things on this planet that completely sicken me, but discussions of this nature have never been one of them." She was hurt, and even a little angry, but she wasn't grossed out. "I'm not in the habit of labeling myself, so I don't."

Ayame was floored by that admission. "Have you even kissed another girl before?"

Hinata nodded. "I'm training for the jonin exams, those include missions I'm not proud of…"

"I wish I could believe you…" Ayame said weakly. "But even if you are telling me the truth, I don't think I could take it if someone I cared about was ashamed of me."

"It's different." Hinata's voice cracked. "You don't understand. I can't even...there's no way for me to explain it to you."

It was different when it was a mission target. Ayame would never understand that though. There was a fine line between kissing a friend, and even making love to them, verses a target that you were meant to deceive. Hinata hated lying, she hated deception. She hated forcing herself onto people, or objectifying them. She hated intimidation, and she hated the idea of using sexual advance as a means to get what she needed.

Sometimes for a mission, it was unavoidable. She absolutely felt guilty, and always abhorred it. A civilian would never understand the reality that a ninja faced, and Hinata had no way of explaining that…

Or explaining the way she felt after one partially difficult mission had her crying in Ino's bedroom for the better half of one awful night. Confessing sins that Ino kept telling her wasn't her fault. Only another ninja would ever understand that. Only Ino had heard just what went on during a few missions that included close encounters of the sexual kind.

"Can you at least try?" Ayame asked.

Hinata shook her head. "They're classified." She murmured tightly. She wished she could. "Missions like that, they're always classified." That's why she told Ino. She was the only woman Hinata's age with the same security clearance. The only one who might understand.

"If you were allowed to tell me?" Ayame wondered, expecting that Hinata would deny it even then.

She was wrong.

"In a heartbeat." Hinata said. "But I can't so..."

She looked over at her friend, and ever so slowly approached her. There was only one way to make things clear. Hinata knew that if she actually went along with it, it would drastically change the way their friendship worked. It might even take a sharp lurch in a different direction well away from friendship entirely. They might even become lovers, or maybe even enemies. The ramifications went far beyond what Hinata could guess at.

At this point, the stakes were all or nothing. Ayame had her back against the edge of the counter, and there was no escape for her once Hinata placed one hand on either side of the flat surface, blocking off any mode of escape.

"I don't make a habit of forcing myself onto others." Hinata explained as she leaned in close. "I need you to be entirely….completely…honest with me. Do you want me?"

Ayame was quiet for a few moments. Hinata was so close, too close. "Yes."

Now they were getting somewhere, and Hinata leaned in, pressing her lips chastely to Ayame's own. "Okay." She said as she pulled away, arms wrapping around the woman of brown tresses. "Okay..."