Title: Attraction
Disclaimer: Um...I buried the copyright information out back.
Rating: PG ( K+ ) – for...I dunno, creepy crawlies?
Spoilers: As far as I know, it's practically impossible to spoil AU.
Summary: OneShot. She could feel the heavy thrum of his voice within his chest as he said, "He's attracted to you, you know." Mild ShinoHinaSasu.
Yet another new pairing for me. I won't be back on familar-ish territory until August n.n; (see "May We Love" for details).
(Yet anther contest entry for DateMe. This month's theme - June Bugs, Pairing - ShinoHina.)
As Hinata rubbed the dying cabbage leaf between her fingers, she sighed. It seemed like her trap wasn't working properly...
Her lamenting gaze shifted slowly to the sagging plastic bag that hung suspended over the school's vegetable garden and she sighed again, a little heavier this time. Despite the assurances on it's packaging, the "Bag-a-Bug" trap had done little to protect the club's precious veggies and their crop was as full of nibble holes as ever. How depressing!
Hinata simply didn't understand what had gone wrong with her simple plan to rid the school gardens of the pesky Japanese beetles. Why, despite the copious amounts of chemical insecticide that she'd thrown into the bag, had there been such a weak effect on her prey? And why, oh why, did there actually seem to be more beetles around than before? It was a truly mind-boggling conundrum...
"Maybe I didn't use enough repellant...?" Hinata wondered to herself, tilting her head curiously at the bag. Inside, the June bugs buzzed cheerfully as they wriggled around in their multi-legged lump.
"It's an attractant."
"Eep!" Hinata squealed, falling from her squatting position onto her bottom as her body jerked in surprised response to the voice that had suddenly interjected itself into her muddled thoughts. Why were people at this school so adept at sneaking up on her?
"Are you alright, Hinata-san?" the voice asked gently, now much closer than before.
Turning to peek over her shoulder at the owner of the voice, Hinata stammered, "S-Shino-kun! Wh-What are you still doing here?"
Aburame Shino, one of her two biology lab partners and consistent attendee to the Konoha High School gardening club, was resting on his haunches only a few feet behind her, his expression as unreadable as ever. In the bright light of the sunny June afternoon, his dark sunglasses flashed, causing Hinata to squint at the glare they gave off. "I'm here for club," he said simply.
"There's n-no club today," Hinata informed him, rubbing the fuzzy dots out of her eyes with the back of one hand. "Lee-senpai had an emergency. I th-think he said something about having a run in his favorite jogging suit..."
"Oh," replied Shino, his listless expression unchanged. "Why are you here?"
"Oh, um...," Hinata looked back to the heavily burdened Bag-a-Bug sack and frowned a little. "I was j-just checking on my trap. I don't think it helped any..."
"You should have put it further away from the garden."
Hinata turned her attention back to Shino. "Wh-What?"
Shino pointed to the beetle trap with one extended index finger. "The chemicals used in these sorts of traps are attractants, not repellants. You need to put it far away from the garden or else you'll have more beetles than before."
"Oh...," the Hyuuga heiress replied, feeling a large drop of sweat trickle down the side of her face.
Hinata felt silly. No, silly was too nice of a word...she felt stupid. Surely, the package had said exactly what Shino had just revealed to her, yet she'd still mistaken the manufacturer-provided chemicals as repellant instead of attractant. It was all her fault that the garden was now ruined...
Hinata jumped again as a hand descended upon her shoulder. Shino's voice followed immediately after, as monotonous as ever, yet oddly soothing. "Don't feel bad, Hinata-san. It's a common mistake."
"But – "
"And thank you for using such a humane trap. Most gardeners prefer to kill their pests," he continued, a surprising edge of passion in his tone now (slight though it was).
Hinata blinked at him, bewildered. "Um...well, they seem pretty h-harmless to me, so I didn't want to k-kill them..."
"Very honorable, Hinata-san."
"Th-Thank you..."
An awkward span of silence followed in which Shino's hand remained fixed on Hinata's shoulder and Hinata's eyes stayed trained on the dark round orbs that covered Shino's eyes. They passed several moments like this, neither speaking or moving, until yet another voice interrupted their individual thoughts.
"What are you doing here, Aburame?"
Both teens swivelled their heads to face the newest addition to their little group. One of them flushed a bright shade of crimson while the other simply lifted a mildly surprised eyebrow. "Sasuke-san," the latter greeted.
Uchiha Sasuke, who had failed to show up to the gardening club meetings even once since April, was standing a few yards away on the school lawn, his backpack thrown over one shoulder in a deceptively easy-going fashion. His face, however, was tense and his eyes were somehow darker than usual.
Hinata lowered her gaze from the scowling Uchiha before saying anything to him herself. "G-Good afternoon, S-Sasuke-san..."
"Hyuuga," he replied. Hinata was too frightened to look back up at him, but she was almost positive that he was...leering at her again. He had been doing that ever since the...unpleasantness from a couple months prior. Hinata shivered just thinking about his cold eyes lingering on her.
"You didn't answer my question, Aburame," Sasuke accused from out of Hinata's eyeline.
The responding voice of Shino was mild and disinterested. "I'm helping Hinata-san empty her beetle trap."
"So do it, then."
"Very well."
Abruptly, Shino's hand removed itself from Hinata's shoulder and she felt her classmate rise up onto his feet behind her. As he did this, she turned to gaze up at him and realized that he was holding a helpful hand out to her, clearly anticipating that she'd take it. Fully willing to acquiesce, Hinata placed one dainty palm atop of his and allowed his strength to take over.
When he had pulled her fully upright, Hinata found herself only a few scant centimeters away from him. There was barely enough room between them for their hands to remain locked together and, were she to take a particularly deep breath, their chests would easily touch one another's. She hadn't been this close to a boy since...well, Sasuke.
Feeling the apples of her cheeks burning with embarrassment yet again, Hinata kept her face averted from Shino's, wondering secretly if he was as uncomfortable by their proximity as she was. Surely he would be considering the hot June sun that beat down on them from up above and the dark, standard-issue suit jacket that he was currently wearing. If that were the case, then why didn't they break apart?
Before Hinata could take the initiative to pull away from Shino herself, she felt him lean down towards her until their cheeks brushed one another's. She could feel the heavy thrum of his voice within his chest as he whispered discreetly into her ear, "He's attracted to you, you know."
Before Hinata even had the chance to step back – much less muster the words necessary to ask Shino whom he meant – she felt herself rudely jerked away from him by a pair of strong, firm hands on her upper arms.
"Come on, Hyuuga," Sasuke commanded, his tone harsh and impatient. "I'll walk you home. You can leave, too, Aburame."
Before Hinata could even fathom what was happening, Sasuke was leading her away from the school gardens, one arm looped firmly around her torso so that her own were pinned down to her sides. "B-But – " was the only word she could form fully in protest. It was obvious that she shouldn't have even bothered, though, as Sasuke seemed completely intent in whisking her away from the campus as fast as possible.
Just as they were rounding the corner of the main building, Hinata managed to cast one last fleeting glance over her shoulder at what she had been forced to leave behind. The figure that was Aburame Shino was already gone and so were the beetles she'd ensnared in her trap.
— — —
Author's Notes: I'm so...out of it right now. I'm not even sure if half of this makes sense or not...ugh.
Anyway, this is the last installment in my AU gardening series. I can't think of a way to continue it after this, so no more. In a way, it came full circle with the reintroduction of Sasuke, so I'm kind of happy about that. (Sorry to any diehard ShinoHina fans out there n.n; Sasuke wins this round.)
Now...I'm going to go call the fiancé and go to bed. Too bad I didn't get a chance to finish up my second SweetestIrony entry...oh, well.
. ( . Ms. Videl Son . ) .