Chouji had always considered her physically beautiful. How could he not when she had practically beaten the idea into his head everyday since they had become a team? It wasn't something he dwelt on though. It was merely a fact, like 'the sky is blue' or 'Shikamaru is lazy', so he had filed it away in the part of his mind sectioned off for conditioned responses. And so when she asked, the affirmative response was automatic, no more thinking involved than when asked if he wanted a second helping of barbeque.
But lately, the responses came less quickly than before, accompanied by pink cheeks and nervous twitching. And while Chouji couldn't pinpoint the why exactly, he knew the when. It started the night he'd walked her home and she'd kissed his cheek, out of gratitude (of course) and nothing more. But his mind had taken to wandering off, analyzing every detail of that night. There was a fragility about her then that he had never seen before and for the first time he realized that there was more to the girl than she let people see.
Actually, that was wrong.
He had always seen it, but only now was he letting the facts filter through the whole of his mind, ruminating on past memories to find what he was missing.
After a couple weeks, his musings left the past and moved towards the future. It hadn't been done purposefully. On the contrary, the train of thought only began after he awoke with a start after a particularly titillating dream involving golden hair and azure eyes and soft, soft skin. The vision would not leave him, so he allowed himself to get lost in the what ifs. And though some of them were sexual in nature, that wasn't what it was about, not for him. Rather, it was a cerebral exercise, a process by which he was trying to learn the why behind this change in the way he perceived her.
It wasn't until they were out on a mission and she was in his arms, trusting him implicitly to protect her during her jutsu, that everything clicked into place.
He only protected those he loved.
