It had been a week from hell. Though Sasuke had thawed as little of his frosty demeanor as Hinata would let him get away with, her friends had noticed in a big way.
Just that morning, Sasuke had passed Ino in the hall on the way to class. He was hoping she would ignore him, because then he could justifiably ignore her- but of course she didn't.
"Good morning, Sasuke-kun!" Ino squealed, falling into step with Sasuke.
He grunted and quirked the corners of his mouth, looking at her dangling earrings instead of her face.
Ino beamed and stepped in front of him, bowing. "Would you please eat lunch with me? I made a lunch especially for you!"
Sasuke stopped just short of running into the girl; he would never get used to this bowing thing. "I, uh-," he glanced over his shoulder at Hinata, who was chatting cheerfully with her cousin. "Uh, sure. I guess." The words tasted like vomit coming out of his mouth- the last thing he wanted to do was eat the lunch this girl had made him- but he couldn't risk turning Ino down while Hinata was in the same hallway.
Ino's hand flew to her mouth as she gasped in amazement, "Thank you, Sasuke-kun!" Thankfully, Ino ran off, presumably to gossip with the impossibly pink Sakura. Aw, man, was he going to have to eat lunch with Sakura now, too?
It seemed like everywhere Sasuke went, he could turn around and see Hyuuga Hinata squinting at him with her absurdly large, weirdly pale eyes. It was, to put it mildly, fucking creepy. At least in class Sasuke got a break, if only because he sat behind her.
All through class, Sasuke's head was spinning, trying to come up with a solution to his problem- the problem of eating lunch alone with Ino. It wasn't until he saw Naruto chatting up Sakura as the lunch bell rang that he got an idea.
"Hey, dumbass," Sasuke said, knocking Naruto on the back of the head as Sakura tried to suppress a giggle. "Do you and Sakura want to eat with me and Ino today?"
"Yes!" Sakura exclaimed as soon as the question had left Sasuke's mouth. "Yes, Naruto-kun and I would love to eat lunch with you and Ino-chan, Sasuke-kun!" She grabbed on to Naruto's arm, clutching it to her chest; Naruto's expression was one of lovestruck glee.
Naruto laughed, scratching at the back of his head, "Thanks, Sasu-chan, that'd be great."
"Awesome," Sasuke drawled. "Meet us under the big tree in the courtyard." He turned to leave, but looked back over his shoulder at the pair. "Oh, and if you see anyone else cool, feel free to invite them."
"Thanks, man, I will," Naruto smiled brightly at his housemate. Sasuke could hear Naruto as he walked away, "What's gotten into him?"
"I don't know," Sakura replied, "but I like it."
Sasuke could see Naruto had made good on his word to invite "anyone cool" as most of class 2-B and even some third years gathered under the largest tree in the courtyard.
"Nice work, dumbass," Sasuke slapped the blond on the back as he passed, making his was to Ino, who looked to be on the verge of tears. Fuck.
"Hey, Ino," Sasuke greeted casually, leaning against the trunk of the tree and setting his school bag on the ground. "Is something wrong?"
Ino sniffed, blinking her large blue eyes up at Sasuke, "I-I was hoping that the two of us could eat lunch together," she paused to wipe her eyes, "alone."
Sasuke feigned shock, "Oh, Ino, I'm sorry! I didn't know." He turned to point at Naruto. "I invited Sakura and Naruto to eat with us, but that dumbass must have invited everyone else." It wasn't technically a lie, so Sasuke's conscience was unblemished.
Glaring at Naruto, Ino said, "Maybe we could sneak off?"
Sasuke shook his head, "I don't think so, look how excited everyone is to eat together. I mean, look, some of our sempais came." The Japanese term felt strange in his mouth, but Sasuke figured it would make him sound more sincere.
"And here I was thinking you didn't care about us, Uchiha," a deep voice sounded from behind Sasuke. He turned to find Hyuuga Neji smiling leisurely, backed up by two of his fellow third-years, a girl with two buns on the top of her head and a black haired boy with a tragic bowl cut. Neji examined the ends of his hair, saying, "Maybe Hinata was wrong about you, and you aren't a self-centered bastard. My words, not hers." Neji punctuated the statement with a charming smile.
Sasuke looked suspiciously at Neji; did Hinata tell her cousin about their... arrangement? "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Neji-sempai," Sasuke said, smiling smugly at Neji's look of distaste. He looked between Ino and the Hyuuga. "Don't you think we should all eat together today, Neji? It would be a shame to break up all this camaraderie."
"Indeed it would, Uchiha," Neji agreed, much to Sasuke's surprise. Neji looked past Sasuke to Ino and gave her a winning smile. "Perhaps your luncheon could be made up at a later date."
Ino beamed.
That bastard.
After what was, surprisingly, a fairly enjoyable lunch, Sasuke caught up with Hinata in the hall outside the classroom.
"Real classy, Hyuuga," Sasuke spat, leveling her with a hateful glare.
"W-what did I d-do?" Hinata stuttered, taking a step back from the Uchiha before blushing. "B-besides, I mean, besides-."
"Besides blackmailing me?" Sasuke offered helpfully. "You sicced your cousin on me to force me to eat lunch with Ino!"
Hinata glanced up at Sasuke, confused, "W-what are you talking about? Neji-nii-san doesn't know."
"Yeah? Well tell that to Nii-san," Sasuke snorted derisively. "And you told him I'm a selfish bastard!" He didn't like the thought of Hinata saying unkind things about him; Hinata was way too nice, if she was saying mean things about you, then you probably deserved it. Sasuke didn't think he deserved it.
"Th-those are Nii-san's words, not m-mine!" Hinata held her hands up defensively, a barrier between herself and Sasuke. She looked at him sternly, "M-maybe the next t-time you make a commitment to s-somebody, you sh-should just... honor it, instead of w-weaseling away from it. Then you won't f-feel threatened when s-somebody challenges you."
"Alright, look, Sunshine," Sasuke knocked Hinata's hands away and stepped into her personal space, "I don't need advice about honor from some stuck-up little bitch." The look on Hinata's face almost made him feel guilty for calling her a bitch. "I am trying my best to be nicer to your little friends, but it can be really, really trying when they're as obnoxious as hell. So pardon me for looking for an easier way out." Sasuke leaned to put his face close to hers, gesturing at her eyes with his hands, "And maybe it would be easier for me to be nice if you weren't peering at me with those freaky eyes all the time."
"Well, doesn't this look cozy?"
Sasuke snapped his head up to see Kakashi-sensei standing besides Hinata.
"Uchiha-kun came all the way from Japan to find a girlfriend," Kakashi laughed, "and he picked a good one. Good for you, Uchiha-kun. But you two should get to class, you're going to be late."
The bell rang.
"Correction, you are late, and so am I. Get into class before Iruka-sensei finds all three of us," Kakashi warned.
The door to class 2-B slid open, and an irate Iruka glared at the trio. "You two," he pointed at Sasuke and Hinata, "could have been on time if you had decided to chat inside the classroom!" Iruka turned to face Kakashi, "And you are a teacher, go and teach! Why are you just standing out here?"
"You're absolutely right, Iruka, so I'll just be on my way," Kakashi said cheerfully, even having the nerve to whistle as he walked off.
Iruka sighed heavily, then said, "Just get in the classroom. I don't feel like making anybody hold water buckets today."
When Sasuke stepped back from Hinata, he could see her body shaking minutely; she looked so tense that if he were to touch her, Sasuke thought, Hinata would fly apart.
He took his seat in the classroom and only halfway paid attention to the History lesson. Hinata's shoulders remained tight throughout the class. Was she seriously still upset? No one had ever reacted this intensely to Sasuke's in-your-face confrontations before.
Maybe he did deserve it, a little bit.