The golden sunlight streamed through the windows, the sweet smell of dew in the air. It was the beginning of a beautiful day.
For Hinata, however, her day began with a running start to the toilet bowl and having her two best friends hold her hair back while her stomach decided to go through a rebellious stage.
"You really can't hold your liquor, can you, Hinata? Oh, well. I guess that's expected since you don't really drink much 'cause a certain someone didn't like it," Ino said as her dear friend retched again. She didn't know whether it was from the alcohol or the mention of that dickhead. The name of Hinata's dictator of an ex-boyfriend had long been taboo since the unfortunate breakup 3 years ago.
"Oh, please, Ino. Speak louder, my head doesn't hurt enough," Sakura scowled.
"I think there's some aspirin in the kitchen," Hinata said, lifting her head from the bowl for the first time. Her head felt like it was ready to split open any second now. Every time she moved her head even the slightest bit, she could feel the back of her neck and her brain explode. Last night was the first time she got drunk in a long time and it was great, but dear God, if it meant getting hangover like this every time, she never wanted to drink again.
"Here, drink this," Sakura instructed her as she handed a glass of water and two small, white pills. Hinata wiped her face and then popped the pills into her mouth, downing it with the water. There was an aftertaste throwing up left in her mouth from and the water only amplified it. She felt like she needed to eat something, anything, but was pretty sure that if she did, it would come right out anyway,
"You feeling any better, honey?" Sakura asked rubbing her back.
"A little, thanks," she managed to reply. Her throat felt hoarse and dry. Thank God they were on vacation.
"The first hangover is always the worse. After that, it's not that bad," Ino said.
"You know very well that this isn't my first one," Hinata growled, her voice echoing inside the toilet bowl as she hung her head over it, mostly out of necessity but partly out of shame. "But it certainly is the worst."
"Well, it certainly won't be the last," Sakura sighed albeit with a small grin.
"Yep, we'll make sure of that," Ino smiled.
"But we'll always be here to hold your hair back the next morning," Sakura smiled softly, brushing Hinata's hair a bit.
"I'm counting on it," Hinata laughed softly, causing her head to start pounding but she didn't care. They all laughed and shared a brief hug.
"Uh, guys. I think you better let go of me now," Hinata said, her up-chuck reflex starting to work its magic. The two let go of her quickly and re-assumed their previous positions, holding her hair away from the bowl and soothingly rubbing her back. The apartment was filled with the sounds of retching once again as the birds sang outside on that beautiful, glorious day.
"I'm never drinking again."
"Whoa, man. I have one of the worst hangovers ever," Sasuke moaned, rolling over on the couch trying to block the sunlight getting into his eyes. Damn it, the sun was annoying.
"You need to get out more," Naruto said, sitting on the coffee table beside the couch.
"I do go out, and it's usually with you. It's just that I'm always the driver so I don't drink as much. We had Shikamaru this time, so I indulged myself a little too much," he growled. He didn't care if every word he said made his head pound even more. He was defending his dignity, God damn it.
"True. Here, buddy, have some aspirin," Naruto told him, handing him a glass of water and a pill bottle. Sasuke looked at the label closely. His eyes burned, but he had learned to always double check whatever Naruto gave him, especially when concerning food. Just thinking about the countless times he had consumed out-of-date food was making his stomach churn. Naruto, thinking quickly, grabbed a trash can near them and offered to his best friend who emptied his stomach's contents.
"Thanks," he mumbled, wiping his mouth. He inspected the label of the pill bottle in his hand again.
Laxative, it said, Extra strong.
"Naruto, these are laxatives. What's more, they're expired," Sasuke sighed. "Are you trying to kill me or something?" How did he survive living with this idiot for the past two years?
"Oh, man, I'm so sorry! I'll go to the pharmacy and get some aspirin," Naruto said. "Sit tight, okay? I'll be back as fast as I can."
Naruto left his friend's side and managed to catch the sound of retching just before he shut the door.
"So…what's the verdict?" Sakura asked. Hinata shifted in her seat, unsure of what to answer. "Well? What did you think about last night?"
"It was okay…" she replied after a moment of thought.
"Okay? Okay? Hinata, a spending the weekend at your grandmother's house is okay," Ino rolled her eyes.
"It was…fun," she replied earning her another skeptic look from her friends. She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Okay! It was really fun! I enjoyed myself immensely and to my heart's content, happy? And for your information, I always have a great time at my grandmother's house, thank you very much," she snapped.
"Ha! We so knew it! What did you think of Naruto? You guys were so into each other, it was completely obvious," Ino proclaimed.
"Well, okay, yeah, he's great. He's funny, charming, sweet, and handsome, has a hypnotizing smile, and has eyes as deep as the sea…" Hinata sighed in a daze, but quickly forced a stern expression on, "but he's a playboy. Sasuke said that he practically sleeps with a different girl each week and he himself agreed."
"Alright, so he likes to play around a little bit-"
"Sakura, that boy has been with more girls than I've been with guys. The boy's a man-whore-" Ino drawled, rolling her eyes when Sakura cut her off.
"Not helping, Ino. Anyways, Hinata, playing around is part of his nature, but that doesn't mean that he can't take things seriously. Besides, he likes you."
"How would you know?"
"Trust me. I've known him since we were kids and he is definitely into you," Sakura smirked.
"Oh, really? Enlighten me," Hinata challenged.
"He always started the conversation, he was very clear about it when he was complimenting you and he never took his eyes off of you!"
"As opposed to his normal behavior which is…?"
"Always waiting for the girl to make the next move, and being extremely vague when it comes to talking about himself."
Hinata could feel the conflict of her emotions and logic battle in her head. This guy obviously really had an effect on her but she didn't know if he even remembered her name and not to mention the fact that she barely knew him. He could be just another dirt bag with a fake smile trying to get into her pants. Could he really, though? The one thing that jumped out at her was that he seemed to... genuine.
"I need some air. I'm gonna take a walk to clear my head," she announced as she stood up from the table.
"Oh, then could you go grab some stuff from the pharmacy than? The list's been on the refrigerator for ages now," Ino asked.
"Yeah, sure," she replied, grabbing her coat.
Naruto browsed through the shelves of the small store, just in case he found something else they needed. There was loads of cool stuff at the pharmacy anyways. Oh, he better buy some condoms since he was almost out. Safe sex was not something he joked about.
After having a good laugh at the different varieties on the shelves, he picked up a box and put in his hand basket and proceeded to continue roaming. Arriving upon the food section, he loaded some instant ramen, bananas, and a can of whipped cream into his basket, as well.
'Man, I love whipped cream', he thought, grinning to himself.
Suddenly, he caught a flash of deep purple at the corner of his eye. He turned but it was simply a purple banner promoting shampoo. He shook his head and walked away, inwardly scolding himself.
As he walked past another aisle, another flash of purple jumped at him. Quickly turning, it was yet again another false alarm.
What the hell, man? It's just a stupid poster. What are you doing? He scolded himself.
Naruto sighed. For some reason unbeknownst him, his mind was a swirl of indigo locks and lavender eyes. That girl from last night just wouldn't let his mind rest. Naruto was always pretty a corny guy, but even this at the moment was too cheesy; he felt like he was in some lame rom-com chick flick. Not that Naruto knew what rom-com meant because he certainly did not watch romantic comedies on his laptop when Sasuke was out of the apartment.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and took his basket to the pretty girl at the counter.
"Hey, there," he greeted her, putting his basket on the counter.
"Hi," she replied with a smile as she checked his items in it.
"Oh, hey, don't panic," he told her seriously while slowly moving reaching his hand towards her, the concentration of his oceanic eyes of the girl making her blush. Of course, Naruto was too focused on the offending insect in her hair to notice. "There's a spider on your hair. Don't freak out, I got it."
He quickly brushed the small arachnid off of her head and tried to lightly smooth the hair again for good measure.
"There we go. It's gone now," he beamed.
"Th-thank you," she gushed, the blush on her cheeks intensifying. Naruto briefly wondered why most of the girls he met always stuttered. Maybe it was a girl thing.
Hinata walked through the aisles, taking her time. This was good for her; distraction. She quickly went through the shopping list in her hand, mentally checking off the items she'd already collected.
Yep, she got everything. She walked towards the counter but decided to go on a little detour to the magazine shelves just before the counter. She browsed through some of the magazines but stopped short after hearing a familiar voice. It was a masculine sort of voice that reverberated right through her; so cheerful and somehow, soothing, at the same time.
Turning to glance at the source, her jaw nearly dropped to the floor. She saw a certain blonde at the counter right in front of her, the very source of the raging war in her head.
He couldn't see her because his back was facing towards her, thank God. She watched in shock as he brushed the counter girl's hair. The counter girl, frozen by the intimacy of the action, comically held a few items in her hands in mid-air.
'Whipped cream and condoms? What the hell is he buying?!' she thought in complete shock. 'Oh great, now they're giggling and laughing. Wonderful.' Hinata inwardly cursed the pair as she watched as the blonde ask the counter girl for something who then fetched a pill bottle, pausing to scribble something on it.
Oh, crap. He's paying now. Gotta hide, she thought. She walked quickly down the aisle, away from the counter and towards the fruit section.
It was official, Hinata had decided. Naruto is now the bane of her existence, a wolf in sheep's clothing. Thought he could fool her with his handsome smile? Hah! Whatever was there or whatever happened between them, as small and meager and it was, was completely over.
"Honey, I'm home!" Naruto happily exclaimed as he slammed the door open. He belatedly remembered his poor friend's predicament and quickly added a softer,"Oh, sorry, man."
He quickly set the paper bag in his arms down onto the coffee table and fished for the pain medication he had recently purchased (with Sasuke's money, of course) and tossed it to Sasuke who, by the looks of it was trying to calm the miniature earthquake that had erupted in his head with the loud blonde's boisterous entrance. Naruto gave him an apologetic look before leaving to fetch a glass of water for him.
"Oh come on, is that really necessary?" he groaned as he returned to find Sasuke inspecting the label of the orange bottle.
"Yes. It prevented me from taking expired laxatives, as I'm sure you could recall," Sasuke growled, tearing off the white bottle cap and then bringing the bottle to his mouth, shaking it's contents until two pills fell into his mouth. He grabbed the glass from Naruto, gulping down the water and aspirin quickly and wiped his mouth with hand.
"Naruto, why does 'Miku' want you to call her? With nearly ten hearts, if I may add," Sasuke offhandedly commented, tossing the pill bottle back to him.
"Oh, that must be the pharmacy chick's name," Naruto absentmindedly replied, inspecting the scribble on the label, himself.
"Was she cute?"
"She was okay," Naruto replied. He couldn't even really remember what she looked like. Shamefully, he had other thoughts crowding his thoughts to really take notice of the counter-girl. Thoughts of girls with weird purple hair that somehow looked natural. Was it dyed? Or maybe she was just born with it, like how he was born with weird whisker birth marks on his face. He should ask her. Actually, he should call her. But did he get her number? Maybe he could bug Sakura to give him her number.
"You gonna call her?"
Naruto quickly snapped out of his daze. "What?" he spluttered dumbly.
"The pharmacy chick - you gonna call her?" Sasuke repeated slowly, giving his friend a scrutinizing look. Naruto was out more than usual. 'Something's up with him,' the raven-haired man thought.
"I don't know, man… Should I?" Naruto asked.
"Hell, I don't know. What about Sakura's friend from last night?"
Naruto visibly flinched and quickly tried to brush it off with a loud laugh. "Oh, man, I'm quite the popular guy, huh?"
"Hmm?" Sasuke drawled, sensing the blonde's evasion. "If I recall correctly, you were 'in love'," he smirked.
"That was drunk talk!" Naruto roared indignantly, shoving an accusing finger at his sneaky bastard's face. Sasuke could still feel his head pounding from the blonde's shouting but he ignored it, a sadistic grin growing on his face with the accomplishment of successfully striking a nerve.
"Hmm, I didn't even get the chance to say who you were in love with. So defensive, I didn't even have to say her name," Sasuke clucked his tongue, thoroughly enjoying himself.
"Shut up!" Naruto exclaimed, standing up to leave,"I'm gonna go call the pharmacy chick!"
"Woah, are you blushing?" Sasuke yelled at his retreating figure, unable to resist another jab.
"Fuck you, you stupid albino!"
A/N:
Hooray for rom-coms and blushed! Naruto's shaping up to be quite the feminine character.
I know it's much but I hope this makes up for the previous, crappy chapter I posted.
Leave a review! Comments, suggestions, flames and violent reactions are welcome!
