Disclaimer: Sadly, I continue to not hold legal rights to Naruto. That honor belongs to Kishimoto.

Author's Notes: I hope you all enjoy the chapter, and a big thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far!

oOo

Parva scintilla saepi magnam flamem excitat. - A small spark often ignites a large flame.

oOo

The chords of Beethoven's Fifth pounding against her ears were what woke her. Sitting straight up in bed, hair a nest, eyes grainy, brain foggy, she fumbled blindly for her phone. When she finally got it to her ear she barely managed a grumbling of: "Hello?"

"Um," someone said from the other end. "I think I have the wrong number…"

"Sorry," Hinata croaked. Her voice was always cranky when she first woke, but now it just sounded like a dying bullfrog.

"Yeah… Is this Hinata Hyuuga…?"

"Yes," Hinata groaned, and grabbed her alarm clock to check the time. "I'm sorry, there must be a time difference. It's only five in the morning here…"

"No, there's no time difference. Sorry for waking you."

Hinata yawned. "That's alright, Sir. I'm sorry, who is this?"

"Oops. My bad. I'm Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki. I think we actually met in the subway the other day… yesterday? Yeah. Yesterday."

Hinata was suddenly, thoroughly awake.

"Oh!"

"Yeah, so, I'll just call back later…"

"No, it's fine!" Hinata assured him, sitting up in bed and turning on her lamp. She tried to smooth her bangs down with one hand and cleared her throat discreetly. "Really. What can I do for you?"

"Well," Naruto said, voice a warm tenor even through the phone. "You dropped your card, I happened to pick it up. I'm looking for someone who does that whole… paint thing. And coordination thing, and napkin thing, and… yeah, that stuff. Oh! How's your butt?"

"…I'm sorry?" Hinata asked, relatively sure she had heard wrong.

"That came out wrong," Naruto said quickly. "I mean, you fell, so I was just asking if you were okay. Which would probably have been better than 'How's your butt', but I… Yeah."

"I'm fine," Hinata assured him, smiling. "Thank you for your concern."

"Right. So, napkins and stuff?"

"I definitely do all of that," Hinata assured him, grabbing a pen and paper. "And I would love to meet with you to discuss some specifics if you would like. Or we can do most of it over the phone."

She didn't like that option. Just because he was taken, gay, and guarded by a jealous lover did not equate to any reason in existence to not simply look.

"That'd be great!" Naruto said. "The in-person I mean. What do you have tomorr—today. What do you have today?"

Hinata didn't even have to check her schedule. "I'm free just about anytime. I'm just sketching a product for another client."

"Okay, then seven-ish? For breakfast? Unless you want to back to sleep of course. Which I totally get, because I would have killed anybody that woke me up early. I guess I just wasn't thinking, you know?"

His impressively quick vernacular left Hinata's sleep-addled senses floundering a moment, but she found herself agreeing. "Seven it is. Where would you like to meet?"

"I know a good little place on the corner of East and Seventh. It's called Good Morning. Good food and stuff."

"Sounds perfect," Hinata said, writing it all down. "Can I get your number in case we need to rearrange?"

"Sure… You know, you're really poised for just being woke up."

"Thank you," Hinata said pinching her wrists, and trying to rub her eyes at the same time. It wound up in some kind of strange uncoordinated movement that ended with her stabbing herself with her pen. She barely resisted the impulse to screech. "Your number?"

"Oh, right. 212-867-5309."

"Alright, thank you so much for your time Mister Uzumaki."

"Yeah, sure, no problem. So I guess I'll see you soon?"

"See you then."

Hinata's poise lasted just long enough for her to lay her phone on the nightstand, and then she was up and tearing through her daily routine. She had to make a good impression. She had to be professional, poised, and confident. She couldn't afford to lose a client because of her clumsiness!

Hinata was plenty early to the meeting, arriving by her watch at 6:40. Good Morning was a hole-in-the-wall—cozy, bright, and cheerful—and Hinata could smell how good the food was going to be as soon as she stepped in. Eggs, ham, biscuits, pastries—she could just imagine every flaky morsel of a biscuit melting in her mouth, and every perfectly salted bite of egg sliding down along with it. Her mouth watered.

"You're here early."

Hinata whirled to see Naruto just coming in behind her, snow in his hair and his nose red with cold. He was grinning, hands shoved deep in his pockets, and looked as if he hadn't a care in the world.

She smiled for him. "Hello, Mister Uzumaki. Would you like to-"

"Wait!" He cried. "Mister Uzumaki is my grandpa. And occasionally my mom when she's really scary. Call me Naruto."

"Alright, Naruto," Hinata said. "Then please call me Hinata. Would you like to start with breakfast?"

"Yes," he said firmly. "I'm starving to death as we stand here. If I don't eat soon, I'll just waste away into absolute nothingness and-"

"Liar!" Someone yelled from the high counter along the back wall, a stout woman in a hair net and a scowl. "You were in here no less than three hours ago eating me out of house and home, Uzumaki!"

"Oh now, Mrs. Blanchard," Naruto said, tugging Hinata with him to the counter and leaning on it with a charming smile. "Do you have to embarrass me in front of the lady?"

"Do you have to embarrass yourself?" Blanchard snorted. "Whippersnapper. What'll it be?"

"You're not quite that old, Blanchard! You don't have to call me whippersnapper yet…"

"I'm old enough to call you what I like."

"Even whippersnapper?"

"Even that."

Now there's an interesting relationship, Hinata thought, not bothering to hide her smile. Old friends, almost, with just a little bit of mothering thrown in.

"And what would you like?" Blanchard asked, turning to Hinata, pencil and pad in hand.

"What would you recommend?"

"The eggs," Blanchard and Naruto said at once, and laughed.

"The eggs it is," Hinata said agreeably, pulling out her wallet. Naruto stalled her.

"I got this," he said with a wink. "Blanchard…."

Blanchard turned, eyes snapping. "You are not skimming another free meal."

"Please."

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please with cherries."

"Shut up and sit down."

"Thank you!"

Hinata took her seat, a little bemused by the exchange. "You two sure have an interesting relationship."

"She was my grandma's cook," Naruto explained. "Mom was always getting under her feet and stuff, and then I started getting under her feet as soon as I was old enough to not just get squished into jelly."

"Sounds about right," Hinata said, remembering her own straight-laced nanny. She had loved Panako like a mother, but the woman had always presented a very gruff front, and loved comparing herself to either Oscar or The Cookie Monster. 'Because of my big belly!' she would always roar, and Hinata would just sit in her ample lap and giggle. "Now, what was it you had in mind?"

"Okay," Naruto said, hands lacing on the table and face settling into a serious expression. It looked strange on him, like a clown frowning when their face was already painted into a smile. "So I'm opening this restaurant, and it's going to be swanky so I can pump people for more than a couple dimes, and I need someone to do the decorating… stuff."

"Alright," Hinata said. "What exactly are the dimensions?"

Naruto scratched his head. "…Big? I would need you to do like the whole thing too. You know, the bathrooms and kitchen and everything."

"Ah," Hinata said faintly. Big job. Very big job. "So are you a cook, Mister—sorry, Naruto?"

"No!" Naruto laughed. "But I have a friend who is and I thought, hey, why not take a stab at the fancy restaurant business?"

"Why not indeed," Hinata agreed, but inside she was beginning to realize that the shoes he was wearing probably cost more than an entire month's electric bill for her apartment. They were just tennis shoes sure, but she knew some of those could run upwards of a thousand dollars. "Now I hate to bring this up so soon, but the cost for this…"

They talked shop until their eggs came, and Naruto had to take a break to flatter Blanchard endlessly about how nice she looked that morning and, hey, was that a new hairnet?

It was.

Hinata took a bite of her eggs distractedly while she added figures, and stopped as soon as the flavors exploded in her mouth. It was like nothing she had ever tasted before. The eggs were gooey with cheese and crunchy with bacon, melting into her mouth and sliding down her throat with happy ease. It was like the flavors had a sudden party in her mouth, and Hinata was shoveling more egg into her mouth before she could even think.

Naruto laughed. "Good, huh?"

"These are the most incredible eggs I have ever had," Hinata groaned. "What did she do to them?"

"I have no idea, but I am at least fifty percent sure she made a deal with the devil for the recipe."

"And the other fifty percent?" Hinata asked, taking a long sip of milk. She blinked. Even the milk tasted better here.

"A deal with God. Either way, it was a deal with a higher power."

"You forgot to count Will Smith."

"Ah, yes, my bad."

The rest of the meal passed companionably in playful banter and the occasional desperate insertion (only by Hinata) about work. Naruto hadn't been prepared, and had no idea what to expect, but Hinata had been able to walk him through it pretty well. In the end, it turned out to be the best business meeting she had ever had. Naruto was over-the-top charming, and blatantly honest about his opinions.

"Well," Hinata said, once they had finished their meal and were re-bundling to face the icy bite outside. "Then I will come by tomorrow to see your restaurant, and we can decide on a price."

"Sounds good," Naruto said, shaking her hand, and holding on longer than he should have. He grinned when she blushed. "I'll see you then."

"Yeah," Hinata agreed, quickly pulling on her gloves. Her hands were very warm, and she was having tingles. Tingles. Over a client! "See you then."

oOo

Author's Notes: Please review! It would make me simply ecstatic.