Yes, I still breathe. :D
It's summer, so now I have time to write!!! \o/
I haven't opened FF since forever. -)
Enjoy this oneshot and acknowledge my existence once more. - bows - Don't forget to remember to comment! :D :))
He fell in love with her through pictures.
It all started while he was organizing his grandparents' 50th anniversary photos for printing. He was sitting on the large blue leather couch, leaning on a bright yellow cushion with his laptop on his lap.
His cousin walked in, with a girl whose presence he often felt in their house, but never recognized.
"Yo, Naruto." Sakura called out to him, smashing another yellow pillow in his face. "Done with the folders yet? I was planning on stopping by the developers tomorrow after class."
He rubbed his head, cussing under his breath. "If you hadn't attacked me, I would've started the burn sequence."
Sakura sighed. "Alright." She said. "Oh, by the way, Hinata's gonna be here for the night."
"Hinata?" He asked. "Who's that?"
The pink-haired teen smacked her cousin's head once more, then jerked a thumb towards the other girl. "Hinata? My friend? Neji's cousin? Our batch mate? Kinda standing right next to me?! Anything ring a bell?"
Naruto's lips made an "O" shape. "Hehe, sorry Sakura-chan." In a show of chivalry, he stood up and shook Hinata's pale hand. "Hi! I'm Naruto! Oh, and sorry about forgetting you."
She smiled. "That's fine."
In the moment of awkward silence, Naruto returned to his position and started burning the pictures.
Hinata, on the way to the staircase going to Sakura's room, caught a glimpse of Naruto's laptop screen.
"Those are beautiful photos," She remarked. "Who took them?"
Naruto spun his head around to see her standing behind him. "Well, I took most of them. The ones that are too zoomed in or blurred are Sakura's. Like that one!" He said, pointing to the picture of someone's chin.
"Hey! I heard that!" Sakura yelled from the top of the staircase.
"So you're a photographer?" Hinata asked.
"Well, yeah, I dabble." Naruto shrugged.
"That's pretty cool. I dabble too." She said with a smile. "Maybe you can show me more of your shots sometime? Sakura-chan is waiting for me upstairs."
"Sure, that would be great!" Naruto beamed. "Hey, why don't you check out my tumblr account? It's .com. No spaces, all in one word. Got it?"
She nodded, smiled, and walked away.
That was the first time he felt the need to remember the name Hyuuga Hinata.
~O~
He opened his tumblr and saw 97 followers instead of 96 followers. He clicked the link, and searched for a new name on his followers list. Lavendereyes stood out. He clicked it. The latest blog was a picture of his cousin kneeling by a mannequin, sewing her prom dress (which was obviously hers, because it was green, like her eyes).
The next picture was of Sakura and Hinata in their PJ's holding stuffed animals. The caption was "who's cuter? :3"
He chuckled to himself, realizing he had gone to the right page. He went through the other pictures, mostly of her and his cousin, others of their other friends. The picture that struck him the most though was taken at that all-girl trip Sakura talked about to the beach. It was Hinata standing alone in a light blue summer dress on a cliff. She posed with an umbrella against the sunrise, eyes staring piercingly at the viewer.
"Thank goodness for tripods and timer sequences. "
He wanted to shoot with her.
~O~
He got his chance on Sakura's 17th birthday celebration at the park. It was a gathering of her 15 closest friends in a picnic. Sakura wore a pink and white printed dress, which he had helped her buy the cloth for.
Hinata wore a nice yellow bolero over a flowing white dress. She had a matching sun hat with dried daisies twisted around it.
He thought she was stunning.
Armed with his Nikon D40x, he stole away from his vain aunts and went over to Hinata who held a D60 in her hands.
"A fan of Nikon too?" He asked, appearing by her side.
In a moment of shock, he saw her jump slightly. After composing herself, she replied, "Yes, ever since."
He pulled his camera to his eye level and took a picture of her gazing out into the distance. It was beautiful.
She realized what he was doing, and simply smiled. He beamed back at her, and stepped backwards a bit to take the large cherry blossom tree behind her. They took pictures of each other for more than an hour until his aunt realized he wasn't doing a good job of documenting her daughter's 17th birthday.
~O~
He lay on his bed with his laptop and his camera's USB cord plugged in. He was loading the pictures from a while ago, in the park. His favorite was the picture under the oak tree. He loaded in onto his tumblr account and typed under:
"The girl I might have fallen for."
That same moment, he saw a post on her blog. It was a picture of him smiling over his camera.
"The boy I might love."
It was the start of a beautiful relationship.
