I'm giving you all permission to hate me, just so you know.

I know that it's been SO long, and I'm SO sorry!

But now that my schedule is back on track, I'm going to update every week (mostly every weekend), and I will keep that promise! Cross my heart and hope to die! And if I DON'T, then you can all send me hate mail and I'll take all of the punches : P

So as a pitiful attempt to make you all forgive me, this one will be LONG! And I didn't read through it a second time because I wanted to get it out sooner, so here you go!

I'm really sorry if there are typos!

Enjoy!

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Hinata waited for the three boys to answer her question. When none of them made any attempt to answer, she said it once more, more forcefully this time. "What's wrong with you three?"

***

Sasuke sat there and felt horrible. The three of them were making her upset, but it was just in their nature to fight. They all hated each other so much that it was almost impossible to be in the same room with each other and not battle.

It's still not my fault. It's those other two.

He dared to look up at Hinata and caught a look at her eyes. They were tie-dyed with different emotions. There was exhaustion, anger, sadness, and just a shred of hope. If the situation wasn't so somber, he would have smirked at Hinata's child-like innocence. After all of the fighting and confrontations, she still believed that it was all going to be ok.

He glanced over at the other two, and noticed that they were both sitting the same as him: like a small schoolboy sitting in the middle of a crowded classroom, getting yelled at and chided by the teacher for something wrong that he did. It felt horrible.

***

Hinata sighed and closed her eyes softly. "Ok. Since n-none of you are going to talk, I will." She leaned forward and looked at each of them intently, attempting to make eye contact, but only succeeding for a split second with Sasuke. She saw a quick look of something in his eyes, but it was too quick to make anything of it.

"I don't know what's g-going on between you three, but it's getting r-really . . . well, frankly, it's annoying. All three of you are a large part of my life, and with all three of you fighting all of the time, m-my life feels separated into three completely different parts." She looked at each of them in turn and felt sorry for them, but this needed to be said to them. "A-and if you three don't start getting along . . . well . . . I'll have to cut ties with you all."

***

Sasuke's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.

What did she say!?

Before Hinata could continue, however, a maid poked her head into the room. "Ummm . . . i-is everything ok?"

Hinata smiled at her and nodded. "Yes, thank you. I actually think that I need some rest. Would y-you three mind leaving?" She looked pained and worried, but her intent was clear. She wanted the three of them to talk it over.

They got up one by one, not wanting to be the first one to exit the room. Fleeting looks were tossed back to Hinata as they all were ushered out by the maid. Once they were out in the hallway, they all exchanged looks. Needless to say, the looks were far less than the usual hate that they shared between them.

Minutes later the three boys were sitting in a room with a warm atmosphere made up of wooden bookcases filled with leather-bound books, large chairs the color of red velvet cake, and soft lighting that came from hand-made stained-glass lamps. However, as warm and comforting the room was, the mood set by the boys was so cold that the warm was overpowered.

Neji cleared his throat and decided to be the one to start. "Well, we all heard what Hinata said."

"Yes."

"Hn."

"So what are we going to do about it?"

Sasuke's brow furrowed as he looked at the other two. "Well it's plain to see that we need to start getting along, at least while Hinata is in the vicinity."

"Yes, but that's easier said than done." Gaara mumbled out his sentence through gritted teeth.

"Hey, none of us are happy about this, but we all care about Hinata, right?" Neji and Gaara both nodded sadly. How could one quiet, shy girl have so much power over three of the biggest hot-shots and best ninjas around? "So just as long as Hinata is around, we need to at least not rip each other's throats out."

"I can agree to that."

"So can I."

"So it's an agreement then."

The trio looked at each other, each of them so different, yet so similar. All of them were brought to this spot by the same lavender-eyed girl, and none of them wanted to lose her.

It's surprising how the feeling of love can extinguish even the most roaring fires.

***

The next morning, Sasuke was at work again. Going over the things that have happened to him lately, it feels like a year has gone by instead of simply a couple of days. There has just been so much commotion that it feels impossible that the hours have just crawled past him. But it was the truth, and Sasuke was back in The Coffee Shop, making the coffee, dealing with the rabid customers, and always having the majority of his mind on Hinata and whether she was well or not. He had already burned his hand more than once on scalding coffee because he was so deep in thought.

Dealing with the customers wasn't easy, as per usual. In addition to him being really out of it, it turns out that pretty much every girl in Konoha was dropping in. He was making yet another cup of coffee that had a name that he could hardly pronounce when he noticed the crowd parting slightly, and through the part came his worst nightmares.

Sakura and Ino.

Sure, for a while they backed off of him, but for some reason they just came back, and now it was getting impossible to shake them. They were almost always in the little groups hanging outside his gate in the mornings, and they always came in for coffee. However, Hinata wasn't there, so he had absolutely no buffer. And to make it worse, Kakashi bailed to go and get "groceries". Sasuke put 10 dollars on him coming back with a new Come Come Paradise book in his greedy, perverted fingers.

Sakura and Ino were coming ever closer, and he could see that they were trying to saunter over really smoothly. Ino could have pulled it off, but Sakura just looked constipated. They finally both made it over, and rested their elbows on the counter and batted their eyelashes at him. Sasuke made a disgusted sound as if he were looking at a big fat roach, but the two girls never seemed to get the picture. They always were just blissfully unaware about how much Sasuke wanted to kill them.

"Hello there Sasuke-kun! Fancy meeting you here."

"I work here."

"Pft, yeah Ino. He works here!"

Sasuke repressed the urge to ask if Sakura wanted a cracker. "What do you want?"

"I'll have . . . hmmmm . . ."

"Jeez, you're slow! Let's see Sasuke, I'll have the . . . umm . . ."

Sasuke massaged his eyes with the heels of his hands. He couldn't take much more of this! "Look, either you get something, or get out." Even before he had finished saying that, though, he realized that it was all just white noise to them. They were too busy letting their minds wander to actually listen to what he said.

Hinata always listens to what I say.

"Ok, I got it! I'll have the . . . no, wait . . ."

Sakura tapped her chin, and if Sasuke wasn't on the job, he would have tapped that chin REALLY hard for her. As the two girls still stood there and Sasuke wondered whether the job was worth it, he heard the door open and two people walked in, followed by a third. The three walked up to the counter, and the two men in front tapped Sakura and Ino on the shoulders.

"Hey, hurry up."

"Back off! We'll take our time, you got that?" Ino turned around and choked on her words as she came face to face with an angry looking Neji. Sakura followed in the same way, except she was looking into the face of Gaara, who on a usual occasion would look angry, but now he looked just plain murderous.

The two girls spattered and stumbled to get out of the way of the duo. Sasuke's eyebrows rose to the ceiling as the two boys came up to the counter and even game him small smiles of relief. Sasuke's eyes looked past the two and saw the third person hiding in the back. Only when Neji reached back and pulled her forward did he see the whole of Hinata, ready to work again, smiling at him and blushing madly.

She was back.

"Hello S-Sasuke-kun."

"Welcome back Hinata."

***

Hinata was relieved to be back at work after her accident. It had felt like she was recovering for months and months, when in reality it was only a couple days. She wondered if anyone else felt like that.

It felt good to be back behind the counter. However, she didn't really like how Neji and Gaara had bullied Sakura and Ino into moving out of the way. As distant and sometimes rude as they have been to her, no one deserved those two in their faces. They could stop the ocean from moving with one glare if they wanted to.

She tied her apron around her waist and started to pull out all of the ingredients for a new coffee that she came up with the day before. This one was going to be a blend of vanilla and paprika. She began to mix all of the ingredients together, and soon she was holding yet another cup of coffee out to Sasuke to taste.

Sasuke sniffed the hot drink and sipped a small bit of it. "Well Hinata, you made another masterpiece."

Hinata, of course, blushed as she smiled. "T-thank you Sasuke-kun." Grabbing the chalk, she started to write the new coffee up on the chalkboard.

It was about at that moment that Sasuke noticed that Neji and Gaara were still standing near the counter. They were of course facing away from each other, but they were still there none the less. "Hey, why don't you two either buy something or move it? You're hurting busi-" Sasuke stopped and glanced over at Hinata, who had slowed down her writing and looked over her shoulder. Sasuke let out a heavy sigh and rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean . . . ergh . . . would you two please move out of the way so we can service our other customers?" Sasuke could tell that he had done well, because he soon heard the chalk scraping against the chalkboard once again.

Gaara and Neji both smoothly moved out of the way and sat over at one of the other tables, again not sitting next to each other, but at completely different sides of the table. Sasuke sighed again and got back to work.

Later on that day, when Hinata passed Sasuke, she touched his back softly and said "thank you Sasuke-kun" and flashed him an angelic smile. He couldn't help but smile back and think that maybe there would be something in it for him if he was nice to those guys.

***

It had been basically the same routine every day for about 4 days straight. Sasuke would get in early and open up shop, Hinata would arrive a couple minutes later, being led in by Neji and/or Gaara(whichever ones were free that day), and they would go and sit at a table while Sasuke and Hinata worked. He was irked that he never had any alone time with Hinata, but there was something good about them coming over every day. You see, now Sasuke wasn't the only good-looking guy in the shop. Now, Gaara and Neji were both attracting girls too, so more business was pouring in than ever. Also, with the help of Hinata's coffee, they were getting many adults and boys in there too.

There was, however, one thing that still was poking at the back of Sasuke's mind. And that was: how did Gaara feel about Hinata? He knew for a fact that she simply viewed him as a friend, but was it the same the other way around? Sasuke had seen the way that Gaara looked at Hinata. It looked like, to him at least, that friendship was not the only thing in his mind.

Sasuke popped the question to him one day while on his break. Gaara had been the only one to accompany Hinata that day. Neji had to do some training with his father, and Gaara took the day off of his duties to sit at one of the tables in the shop. Sasuke slipped off his apron and set it down on the back counter and cautiously approached Gaara. He wasn't scared of him by any means, but he was worried that they wouldn't be able to refrain from ripping each other apart.

He sank into the chair that sat across from Gaara and stared at him in the eyes. "I'm not here to make chit-chat. I'm here with one question and one question only." Gaara just simply looked at him with cold eyes, and Sasuke continued. "I know that Hinata sees you as a best friend, but I'm not sure that it's the same way around. So my question is: how do you feel about Hinata?"

Gaara sat silently for a couple minutes, until he finally asked back "what do you mean, Uchiha?"

"You know what I mean." Sasuke's anger was rising. "I've seen the way that you look at her."

"You mean the same way that you look at her?"

Sasuke's face flushed and he inhaled deeply. "Don't change the subject. Just answer my question."

Gaara leaned forward and said in a low voice filled with malice, "And if I don't?"

"Then I can make sure that you never set foot in this shop again."

Gaara glared daggers at Sasuke, and he returned the favor. They only stopped when they saw Hinata out of the corner of their eyes looking at them. They both leaned back in their chairs, and Sasuke waited for Gaara's answer.

It took a couple minutes, but Gaara finally grunted and started his answer. "When I first met Hinata, there was no one in my life that showed me any sort of love, whether it be romantic or friendship. My siblings were scared stiff of me, as were my subjects and my servants, and no one would come close to me in any way. But when Hinata showed up and showed me kindness, I felt the feeling at I believed to be love. I loved her."

Gaara closed his eyes and continued. "I never wanted her to leave my side. She was the only person that I loved, and I never wanted to let her go. My plan was to marry her, and never again would I have to be lonely. However, that's not how it ended up being. It soon became very clear that Hinata didn't want to be lovers. She saw me as a very good friend, but I could tell after a while that the line between friends and lovers would be impossible to cross. She would confide in me, as I did her, and she would tell me of the people in Konoha and how there was one special boy that she always liked, but never was able to get close enough too." When Gaara opened his eyes, there was a tinge of sadness in them. "She would never love me."

There was a silent moment, and Gaara's eyes stoned up again, making them once again impossible to read. "Soon, it was time for her to leave. Her mission came to an end, and she left for Konoha."

:Flashback:

"Goodbye G-Gaara-kun. I'll miss you." Hinata gave him a smile, and he smiled back, which was very rare.

"I'll miss you too Hinata. I hope . . . that boy back in Konoha notices you."

"Thank you Gaara-kun." Hinata gave him a quick hug, which he returned for a short second, and she was off.

:End Flashback:

"After she left, I felt the absence of her as if I had lost some of my body. Nothing was the same. But Hinata had given me the strength to be more open to some people. Soon I was talking more with my siblings and my full-time workers, and although no one would ever get the same treatment as Hinata, I tried my best to make some friendships."

Gaara looked over at Hinata quickly, and then closed his eyes once more. "So to answer your question, I used to love her. But, after she left, I realized that I only really loved her because she was the only person TO love. At this time she is my closest friend, but I am no longer in love with her in a romantic way." Gaara opened his eyes and leaned forward once again, looking Sasuke square in the eyes, not breaking contact once. "Hear me Uchiha, and listen well. I may not be in love with her anymore, but I would still kill an entire village for her. She is the most important person in my life. If I find out that you or Neji have hurt her in any way or so much as made her frown, I will put you both through so much agony that you will beg for death."

Sasuke leaned forward, almost touching noses with the red-haired Kazekage. His voice was chilling, but Sasuke knew that that would not phase Gaara in the slightest. "The same goes for me."

Gaara's nose wrinkled as if he smelled something horrible. "I bet."

"Sasuke-kun, would you mind helping me?" Sasuke looked up at Hinata, whose arms were full of coffee cups, and quickly got up out of the chair, reaching for his apron. With one last look back at Gaara, sitting in the chair staring at the table, he got back to work.

***

At closing time, it was only Sasuke and Hinata left. Gaara had to go to visit the Hokage and discuss some issues, and all the customers were gone. They were both just cleaning up, waiting for Kakashi to get back with the supplies that they had sent him out to get . . . 12 hours ago.

"D-do you think he'll be back soon, Sasuke-kun?"

"He better." Sasuke was wiping down the counter, and Hinata was clearing the last of the tables and putting up the chairs. Hinata quickly finished and placed the plates and cups in the dish washer so that they would be clean the next morning.

"Ummmm . . .S-Sasuke-kun?" Sasuke turned around and saw Hinata standing there, fiddling with the hem of her shirt. "I n-never got to properly t-thank you for helping me."

"Oh." Sasuke was taken by surprise for a moment, but soon gained back his laid-back attitude. "It was no problem Hinata." He went back to cleaning the counter, but stopped when he felt arms wrapping around him from the back. He felt a hot face being buried into his back, and his face soon became the same temperature.

"T-thank you, S-Sasuke-kun." Sasuke's heart was racing, and he put his hands softly on hers. He loosened her arms and turned around to face her. She looked up at him in worry, as if she thought that he was angry that she hugged him, but soon his arms were around her, his face buried in her hair. He loved the smell of her hair, the softness of her arms, and how it felt like her body was almost made to have his arms around it.

"Hinata . . ." She looked up at him with innocent eyes; those eyes that looked so blind yet saw everything. Her face was still crimson, as was his he was sure, and she looked beautiful in the dim lighting. Slowly they both started to lean forward. Their hearts were about to burst out of their chests, but they didn't care. They were in their own little bubble.

Soon they were only about an inch away from each other. They both slowly closed their eyes, and Sasuke leaned forward to try and close the space.

But, of course, at that moment when their lips were only a breath away from touching, a booming voice rumbled through the shop.

"Sasuke! Hinata! I'm back!"

Sasuke and Hinata let go of each other and flew to opposite sides of the area. Hinata ended up near the coffee brewers, and Sasuke ended up leaned against the counter with the edge making a bruise in his side.

Kakashi looked at both of the teenagers. Both of their faces were red, they were breathing heavily, and they seemed somewhat flustered. A perverted grin spread across his face. "So Sasuke." He walked to the counter and leaned over it, sticking his face in Sasuke's. "What were you two up to while I was gone?"

"Oh, you know, just running your coffee shop without you. Same as always." Sasuke tried to make his voice seem steady and solid, but Kakashi picked up a slight falter in his voice.

"Really? Because you guys seem really tired. Were you doing extreme cleaning? Or perhaps you were up to something else." The perverted grin widened and Kakashi's eyebrows rose up and down suggestively. Sasuke's face got even redder and he turned around to the sink to "wash his hands".

"You're crazy Kakashi. Nothing was going on."

Kakashi smiled innocently and turned to Hinata. "Hinata, how are you?"

"I-I'm f-fine Kakashi-s-senei! H-how are y-you?"

"I'm well, thank you."

Hinata fumbled with her apron and threw it off, hurrying around Sasuke and heading for the door. "I-I'll s-see you b-both t-tomorrow then!" And with that she ran off into the night. Sasuke sighed once again and ran his hands under some ice cold water to try and cool off. He cupped some water in his hands and splashed it on his face, splattering some of the water on the floor in the process.

"Sasuke."

Sasuke turned around with a death glare on his face, but it soon dissipated when he saw the serious look on Kakashi's face. He looked down as he grabbed a towel and dired off his face. "What is it Kakashi?"

"I know what's going on. I can tell by how you act around her. Just be careful, alright?"

Sasuke stared at Kakashi for a moment. Why was everyone telling him that same thing? "What's it to you?"

Kakashi's mouth spread into a somber smile. "You may not think so Sasuke, but you're like a son to me . . . well, in a way. I care about you. I just want to make sure that you're not going to be hurt."

"She would never hurt me."

"No, but Neji would. And what about her father? And also Gaara. In a fight between you and those three, you'll always lose." Sasuke stared at the ground once again. "Just be careful, ok?"

Kakashi pushed off of the counter and headed for the door, but very slowly this time. Sasuke's mind raced and his mind was swimming with thoughts, but only one slipped out before Kakashi left the shop.

"Hey Kakashi." Kakashi's hand paused while on the door handle. "How can you tell how I feel?"

When Kakashi turned around, Sasuke could see a melancholy smile on his face. "That's because I felt that way once too." He waved his hand in goodbye, and he was finally gone. Sasuke dropped the towel on the counter near the sink and grabbed his keys to he could lock up.

His mind was still buzzing as he finished closing up shop and started walking home. How could everyone see how he felt about Hinata? He himself wasn't even completely sure how he felt about her. Yes, it felt like love, but was it love or lust that he was feeling? He wasn't sure about the difference.

But it couldn't be lust, because he cared about her. When he thought about her, the first thing that came to mind was not her body or her face, but her personality and how she made him feel a thousand feet tall. It was her innocence, but at the same time it was her power and energy. It was her ability to fight like a pro, but also her ability to touch him softly in passing. It was her stuttering, soft voice, and also it was her voice that could break down a stone wall.

Her intellect and ignorance.

Her blindness and her sight that saw no boundaries.

Everything about her drew him to her in its own way. Her beauty did also, but that wasn't the first thing on his list, or even the second. She had a complete hold on his heart, and he was just realizing it. It was him who was the ignorant one.

He loved her. He stopped and stared forward. He was at his house by this time, and he was face to face with his family's symbol. His family and the Hyuugas were never on very friendly terms. Even now with him being the only one left of his clan, he was only on good terms with one of them. But that one, small, frail, big, strong girl was enough.

". . . I love her." No, that wasn't powerful enough, even when said out loud. Who did he love?

"I love Hinata. I love Hinata Hyuuga." The feeling in his heart told him that he was right. He was in love with her. He imagined himself for a moment being like one of the characters in the movies where they ran around after they realized that they loved the other person and would run up to people on the street and shake their hands and yell at the tops of their lungs "I LOVE HER!"

"Hn. That's not my style." Sasuke smiled to himself and headed inside. Maybe he wasn't as dramatic as most people were, but he was happy with how he was acting. After all, even though he just realized that he loved her, there were still many, many hurdles to cross.

The biggest one being: how to get on the good side of Hinata's family and Gaara.

But, there was no use trying to rush that. Sasuke didn't think that he would be able to do that very easily OR quickly, as hard as he tried. So, he would just work on it little by little. He headed upstairs and started changing to go to bed. With good luck, his dreams would be filled with Hinata so that he wouldn't have to be away from her for one more second.