Stares and Bunsen Burners
Chapter 2
./-

It was obvious Hinata Hyuuga was shy. The way she poked her fingers together and avoided eye contact from mostly everyone practically screamed it like an angry coach through a megaphone. The teachers had come to accept this fact, often giving the small Hyuuga a smile when she had come to apologize for her bad grades. She was embarrassed, clearly taught to be so by the more "brilliant" minds of the Hyuuga clan. The students of this school knew how to treat her, but sometimes it doesn't reach everyone.

The most oblivious, in particular: Naruto.

She'd taken to him immediately despite this, feeling comfortable in his presence. Everyone did, even Sasuke, though he'd never admit it out loud. But today something was off about the usual bubbly boy. He wasn't wearing his orange jacket, for one. The next was that his perpetual smile was replaced by a slight frown. He had been assigned detention for two weeks for not following the safety rules in yesterday's lab, removing half of his lunch period.

Serves him right, Sasuke thought. Sasuke wouldn't have to put up with Naruto's incessant talking now, since he barely had time to eat before having to leave and scrape gum off the bottoms of desks.

Sasuke spent the next half of lunch with the rest of his group, barely listening to them chatter. No, he had something else on his mind. Tomatoes.

It was already halfway into the day and Sasuke was wondering where his tomatoes were.

He watched Hinata eat happily two tables away, munching on her home cooked meal. He straightened his back a little, trying to get a peek inside of her lunchbox. No tomatoes.

He ducked his head a little and tried to see inside her bag, but there were no tomatoes there either. Maybe she'd misheard him. It was common knowledge that Sasuke Uchiha never asked for favors; everyone had to read between the lines. When he'd mentioned he liked tomatoes, he meant he wanted tomatoes.

He pouted a little, impaling a piece of chicken with his chopsticks.

Lunch had only confirmed his growing suspicion: Hinata was as oblivious as Naruto. It wasn't as obvious, but she concentrated hard on one task and blocked out the rest of the world. He watched her open her thermos, momentarily tuning out Kiba's talking so she could make sure she got it right. When she finished, she looked back to him, a small look of confusion reaching her face when she tried to figure out what he was rambling about. Sasuke noticed she didn't talk much, preferring to answer with polite facial expressions and simple nods. She was nice, probably too nice. Oblivious, too. Sasuke almost wanted to get up from his table, walk over there, and demand tomatoes. He watched her smile, laughing at a joke he couldn't hear, and decided against it.

If she didn't get it, she probably never would. Sasuke felt disappointed, almost pitying her as he watched her eat. Reasons like that were why she would probably be scammed one day. Her eyes widened a little as she listened to Kiba's story (which was mostly false anyway, he was sure). She seemed to accept everything as truth, just getting more into the story as he progressed.

Sasuke huffed, looking away. He was annoyed at himself for not remembering her, though it was understandable. She didn't speak unless spoken to-probably another one of the Hyuuga's politeness training ideas-shaking her head and nodding at all the right times.

He was sure that if he had asked her for tomatoes directly she would have brought them to him, probably giving them over before the first bell even rang.

She planned too much, always searching for the best way to do things even in simple tasks. Talking to Naruto would be considered easy but with Hinata's crushing shyness towards the boy, it was almost impossible unless she had every detail planned perfectly.

Hinata did have a plan for how she would ask Naruto for ramen. She'd worked hard, planning the time and place she would do it, including what exactly she would say to him. She waited until later in the school day before she approached him, knowing that the closer it was to the end of the school day, the happier Naruto was.

She watched him for a second, preparing herself for a moment before approaching him at his locker. She had her lab notebook in hand, gripping it probably a little too tightly as she gave herself the usual pep-talk. He'd accept her offer to go to Ichiraku's like Sasuke said he would, then they'd have a few more dates and he'd fall in love with her and they'd get married and move into the coziest house-

Hinata didn't want to get herself too worked up, but she knew she'd have a chance this time. Even if he didn't like her just yet, she would still get to go somewhere with him. For her, that was enough.

She smiled, walking up to Naruto and greeting him with a cheerful, "Hello!"

He looked at her for a short moment, barely enough time for her to politely smile at him. He didn't reply immediately, preferring to concentrate on stuffing his Economics book into his locker. She waited a few seconds, but he still didn't reply. As she looked closer, she noticed something was different with him. This confused her momentarily, but she continued with her careful planning. She held up her lab notebook between them, covering a small part of her face. "I-I have the lab report! If you need it," she said. It was easier to talk to Naruto when she had some sort of armor, even if it was made out of 70 sheets of cheap paper.

"No thanks." He said this quite distinctly, giving the textbook a push and pulling his face further into a frown.

She pulled the notebook down a little. "It's all correct. Chouji helped me-"

"I don't want it, no thanks," he said again, finally getting the textbook to fit amongst the others. Hinata bit her lip a little, not expecting that. Usually Naruto would actively search for people's homework to copy, and yet he was declining her offer?

She licked her lips, shifting a little. He wasn't acting like his usual self at all. The more she looked at him, the more she felt that his actions resembled the brooding Uchiha rather than the bubbly Naruto.

Scary, she thought.

Hinata figured that maybe ramen would cheer him up, so she decided to move on to the next step in her plan. She pulled the notebook down, momentarily forgetting about it as she concentrated on her next question.

"Would you like to go for ramen? W-with me? At Ichiraku's," she added in quickly, seeing he wasn't perking his ears at the word 'ramen.' When she noticed he still didn't react, she continued with, "I'll pay for it-"

"I'm not really in the mood for ramen," he admitted, not realizing how hard this was for her. "So, no," he started to zip his bag up, making Hinata's heart beat a little faster. She tried to think of something else to say to make him stay but he closed his locker and walked away, giving her a casual, "See you around, then."

The words hung in her throat when she watched him swing his bag over his shoulder and walk down the hallway. It took her a moment to realize the small pain in her fingers was coming from her tight squeeze on the notebook. She had to look at it to remember it was there, her heart beating a little.

Rejection. It echoed in her mind as she looked down at her shoes, trying to think of what went wrong. Was it her? The way she phrased the question? Maybe he was just having a bad day. Everyone had them, even Naruto. Hinata couldn't help but feel the conversation would have turned out the same even if he wasn't having a bad day.

She didn't blame Sasuke, instead blaming herself for thinking Sasuke's advice would have worked. Why would he help her, anyway? Sasuke Uchiha didn't help anyone with anything.

She heard somebody clear their throat, her head snapping back up and meeting the eyes of Sasuke himself. Standing there. Staring at her. She opened her mouth, wondering if she had the ability to speak. She closed it a moment later, not wanting to take the chance of making an even bigger fool out of herself if she couldn't.

He was standing rather close to her, she noticed, wondering if he was trying to tell her something. She thought about it for a moment, but couldn't figure it out. Was he angry? He appeared to get angrier with each passing moment, his stare morphing into his signature glare.

"You're in front of my locker," Sasuke finally blurted.

Oh, she thought. She moved back a little bit, watching him calm himself down and touch the lock. "S-sorry," she said, observing his eyes as they calculated each turn of the small wheel. "I-I didn't know it was yours."

"Uzumaki. Uchiha. They're close together. It's alphabetical."

Hinata agreed, nodding a little. It made sense; it was logical. Sasuke was good at that.

He opened it, revealing a clear contrast to Naruto's locker. Everything was organized, labeled, dusted, and clean, while Naruto practically had to play Tetris when he visited his. Sasuke caught her looking inside of it while her mind wandered. He didn't mind her company as long as she wasn't bothering him about something, though he was still a little annoyed that she didn't bring him any tomatoes when he'd asked for them yesterday (in his own way, of course).

"D-... Did you see that?" Hinata asked, referring to her conversation with Naruto. Sasuke picked up on it, replying with a simple, 'Yes.'

Things were quiet between the two, Sasuke hoping that she wouldn't bring up his semi-false advice. But of course, she did.

"He said no..."

"I'm aware," Sasuke said. He figured it was fair. She didn't bring him any tomatoes, so she wouldn't get her wish.

He straightened up the inside of his locker, wondering what she thought about him. She had to be angry at him, didn't she? After all, she'd just been rejected by going through with his advice.

He didn't care much in the end. She had the perfect opportunity to get into his good graces today and she didn't take the opportunity. Fair is fair.

Glancing to the side briefly, he saw he searching through her bag for something. He refused to make eye contact with her, concentrating on finishing the task at hand.

He barely saw her small hand reach past him and place a plain, covered box into his locker.

"Thank you anyway," he heard her say, just audibly. When he'd processed it and thought to turn and ask her what it was, she had already walked away.

He reached for the box and took the lid off quickly. Inside were four of the brightest tomatoes he'd ever seen, sitting in the spaces between a piece of shiny purple fabric. He picked one up, admiring it: smooth, perfect texture, bright color. They were perfect.

So she had gotten them. He felt his initial happiness fade away, being replaced by a sense of self-disappointment. He thought maybe he'd been too quick to judge her. Maybe she wasn't as oblivious as he'd thought, after all. Or maybe she was just being polite. He ran his finger across the surface, feeling a little annoyed at the thought of being proven wrong.

When he looked back inside at the others, he noticed there was a piece of paper peeking out from the edge of the fabric. Placing the juicy tomato back in place, he slid it out and scanned it.

Thank you for your advice. I will do my best!

Now he just felt like a jerk.

./-

(A/N: I wasn't expecting so many reviews! I was really surprised! I think I'll continue this, by the way. I have to get my thoughts together and everything, so updates might be a little slow. Also, Timeofknight pointed out that bunsen burners are gas and not fire, so they can't really burn you like that without starting a spark. Still though, you should follow those safety rules. I'm also sorry this chapter wasn't more lighthearted, but I hope you enjoyed reading it anyway!)