Chapter 27 – Chapter Seven


Chapter Seven

She giggled when he fumbled with the apartement keys. The alcohol had gone straigth to her head, making her world spin. She had to lean onto the wall next to the door just to remain in a standing position.

Finally the door opened, and Hikaru stumbled in. Yuki followed him quickly, knowing she would fall down soon – and she did, on top of the black-haired boy whom she had known for only a couple of hours.

And already she was in his apartement.

As if finally realizing that this was the first time he had had a girl in his home, Hikaru sobered up a bit when he fell down on the floor with her.

"Maybe we should just go to sleep - "

"No!" Yuki declared and hugged him tight. She wanted to be close to someone. She had completely forgotten Nana, who was, most likely, looking for her. Or still laughing at Miku's jokes..

Yuki frowned. She was supposed to not think about her!

"No?"

Waking up from her thoughts, she shook her head. She didn't want to sleep, not yet. Besides, she was perfectly comfortable where she was, jacket, shoes and all.

Now that she was deep in her thoughts, Hikaru had time to try to clear his head.

They were alone. In his apartement.

Somehow, Maaya's face didn't pop up into his mind. All he could think about was Yuki, her soft, pale skin and those wide, light blue eyes looking up at him.. Without knowing it himself, he had pressed his lips against hers.

To his surprise – and joy – she didn't push him away.

"Hikaru.." she whispered, and closed her eyes, trying to keep tears at bay, "onegai.. make me happy."

His alcohol-infected mind didn't understand her plea, neither did hers. She just wanted to say something, to ask for something, to become happy again. Lately everything had been piling up on her.

The bullying. Nana's grades that had been dropping drastically. Her mother's clear dislike of everything she did. Nana ignoring her whenever they were outside the dormitory. Her sister's taunts and brother's overprotectiveness.

She wanted release.

Anything.

She slowly opened her eyes and met his.

Cerulean blue.

Their lips met again, this time in frustration. What was it that made them want each other so badly? Why did she feel like melting every time she looked into his eyes? Why couldn't he keep his hands off of her enticingly pale skin? Why did the kisses burn them alive, leaving them only thirsty for more?

The next thing Hikaru knew were her cold hands on his back, pulling him close. She felt his lips on her neck, whispering sweet nothings to her. A moan left her already dry throat. Cold air hit her stomach, legs.. She was cold anywhere he wasn't touching her. Guided by pure instincts their clothes were stripped off, one item at a time. Her heart raced, her breathing became laboured; he was so close..

Black.

She could still feel his lips, so strange but somehow so right on hers, his touch on her skin, filling her with emotions familiar but still new to her, and the only thing she could think of was him, the lust, the passion..

Him filling her.


November 12th, Friday

Everything had changed.

Now that she had almost the same homework Ino had, they could do them together. After the comment Sasuke had made, no-one had thrown one insult their way. Neji hadn't been seen for a while, but Hinata had gotten used to it. It had been hard, at first, to know that the cousin she once knew was no more. Or never was, actually.

She really didn't know what to think of him, so she dismissed the topic altogether.

She had finished the book. She hadn't spoken to Naruto, though: it would feel like cheating on Ino again. She had decided that chapter seven was enough for her: a memory of losing her virginity. She needed nothing more from Naruto, not while she had Ino.

Temari and Ino were still wary of each other, but got along for her sake. Hinata was glad they weren't as antagonistic towards each other as they used to be.

Ino's friends, the popular group, had taken her under their wing. Sakura was polite, Shikamaru treated her as he'd treat any other girl – excluding Temari, of course – and Chouji had become a dear friend to her. Sasuke was kind of distant still, but the others said he was like that with everyone so Hinata tried not to be bothered by it too much.

Naruto was wary of her, though. Probably because Ino had, at one point, had a private chat with him – most likely about what had happened a year before – but it still made the Hyuga uneasy. He had become more silent, and it worried them all – Sakura the most. She was always fussing about his eating, if he had done his homework – he never had – and had even tried to break into his room to find out if he had a diary once.

As usual, Shikamaru and Sasuke weren't surprised one bit when this was found out.

"Finally", the gloomy Uchiha had commented.

"Might be too late though", Shikamaru had muttered, then declined to say anything more.


"So, are you going?" Ino asked, sitting on the carefully made bed in room 571. Her eyes followed the younger girl who was still writing her English essay that Ino had finished ten minutes earlier. To keep her hair out of her face as she wrote, Hinata had borrowed Ino's purple scrunchy.

"I don't know.. I still have to write this for Monday, and then we have the – "

"Come on, Hina-chan, you know those are just excuses! Let's go, just this once, okay?" The blonde asked, almost bouncing on the bed from excitement. It had been weeks, if not months, that she could go drinking without anything bothering her. Besides, no matter how hard she had been on Naruto – the threat to cut his private parts if he got too close to Hinata might have been a bit too much – Ino didn't want to see him as depressed as he had been since that talk.

Hinata's eyes met hers.

"Well, this is almost finished and – "

"Yay!" Ino screamed – Hinata hoped their neighbours weren't sleeping, it was ten o'clock after all – and jumped up from the younger girl's bed. She then ran to the wardrobe and began digging.

"Ino-chan, I hope you're not doing what I think you're doing.." having said that and not getting a response, Hinata took few wary steps towards the other girl.

"Ta-dah! Remember this? You wore this on Valentine's last year. It looked so gorgeous on you! No-one's going to be able to get their eyes off of you!" The blonde had pulled a deep blue dress from the wardrobe and was swinging it around in front of Hinata, as if daring her to oppose her.

"After that you told me to never wear it again, Ino-sempai" Hinata said, a teasing smile on her lips.

"Well.. I want to see you in it again", Ino ignored the suffix and held the dress out for the younger girl to take. Seeing the Hyuga's hesistation the blonde thrust it, the hanger included, at Hinata's arms.

"Don't you think it'd.. gather unwanted attention to us? We've been allowed to be ourselves up till now, but –"

"Jeez! Hina-chan, that's why we have friends, don't we? Shika could always make another speech – scratch that, it wouldn't work – or Sasuke could make another comment", seeing almost imperceptible frown appear on Hinata's face – most likely due to what had happened between the blonde and the Uchiha on more than one occasion -, Ino went to correct, "or we could keep him out of this, of course."

"What are you going to wear, then?"

Happy that the Hyuga hadn't needed much persuation, Ino winked impishly, "You'll see then".

Muttering something about troublesome blondes, Hinata went to the bathroom to change while Ino went to her own room to choose her outfit for the night.


The group was ready almost two hours later.

Sakura had had trouble finding just the right outfit and had dragged Naruto, out of all the people, to help her. When he wasn't brooding, he actually had a really good taste on clothes – when he wasn't choosing his own clothes, at least. The pinkette was skipping all the way to the meeting place, half-dragging the blond boy by his hand.

Sasuke had appeared almost right after the two arrived, not really surprised when Sakura didn't cling to his arm right away. When she finally did, one look from him was enough for her to let him go.

Shikamaru got there fifteen minutes later with a deep-in-though Temari in tow. She had seen Hinata's dress and was worried that it might draw too much attention – not that it'd be a big problem, with her, Shikamaru and Sasuke on her side. The blonde herself was wearing jeans – it was November, after all – with a long-sleeved, blue pullover. On top of that she had her winter jacket and black boots. Her hair was up in her usual, four-ponytail style.

Sakura wore a forest-green dress with pink high heels. The small bag hanging from her shoulder was a shade of green that matched her eyes perfectly. On her wrists she had different coloured bracelets. Her jacket was black and so long it reached her knees and thus hiding the dress completely.

"Sorry we're late!" Ino yelled her apologies already 20 meters away from them, running hand-in-hand with Hinata. Her long, blonde hair was braded, as was Hinata's.

Temari almost commented on the unsuitability of Hinata's dress with the weather, but held her silence. The girl was absolutely radiating, and it wasn't a mystery to the group exactly why the two were late.

"A-ano", Hinata said, out of breath from the long run, "where's Akimichi-kun?"

"Said he had homework to do", Shikamaru said, kicking the ground – he really didn't want to be there, but Temari had dragged him out of his bed where he had been happily dreaming away about spring and summer when he'd be able to watch clouds peacefully drift by..

"A-ah, alright.."

"Then, let's go!" Ino chirped, taking the lead and walking out of the school gates.


His head was hurting like hell.

*

His heart was hurting like hell.

There she was, happily smiling at the other girl. They had been all over each other ever since they opened the first cider. Actually, even before that. They had forgotten everyone else, didn't bother even acknowledging the whispers their actions caused.

To think that he had had a chance with her, long time ago.. And he had missed it. He hadn't even realized, back then, what he had meant to her. And now, when he really started noticing her, it was too late.

Darn life. Darn hormones.

Darn emotions.

*

Her cerulean eyes looked up at him.


"Naruto-kun, are you alright?"

Hinata had become worried about the blond: his brooding was identical to Sasuke's, which was quite an accomplishment for the hyperactive boy. Ino was off talking with Sakura – probably about their friendship and their new approahes to Sasuke. Shikamaru and Temari were nowhere to be found – most likely they had gone straight to the dorms after the dinner at Ichiraku's.

"Huh?"

The Hyuga bit her lower lip, not knowing what to say. She had avoided talking with him for a long time, and now it just felt weird. Especially with Ino standing not too far away.

"Are you alright? You were.. brooding."

"Yeah.. hey, Hinata?" Naruto asked suddenly. The girl noticed he had left the suffix out and wondered what it meant. She hoped it wouldn't change their realtionship too much. Though, right now she wasn't sure if they even had one.

"Do you ever think about.. that night?" His voice was steady, his eyes looking straight into hers. Hinata hesistated for a second before closing her eyes.

"I.. did read the book, Naruto-kun." It didn't need explaining. He knew what she meant.

"Then.. why haven't you said anything?" There was a hint of sadness in his voice. It made Hinata feel quilty – as she should. She had no right to ignore him just because she was afraif of talking to him.

"Even just reading the book I felt like.. like I was cheating on Ino again. And I feared that talking to you would only make things worse. That night – evening", Hinata corrected herself, for she had no real memory of what happened during the night, "was something I don't regret, but wish would have happened some other time. I'm sorry."

His eyes had a faraway look, but he nodded slightly when she finished.

"Yea, me too.."

And suddenly he was gone. Hinata blinked once, twice, then looked around. 'What part did he refer to?' She wondered, but was woken up from her musings when a hand landed on her shoulder.

"Hina-chan, Sakura and I are heading to the club just around the corner. Do you want to come with us?"

"No thanks, you know I'm not the clubbing type.. besides, we're still minors", she answered, looking pointedly at her girlfriend.

"They've always let me in", Ino grinned and walked to Sakura who was already waiting for her impatiently. Apparently this was the part of the night the pinkette had been waiting for the whole time.

"Don't wait up!" the blonde yelled over her shoulder just before rounding the corner. Hinata waved, signaling she had heard her.

Not many Konoha students were out on the streets anymore, and the Hyuga sighed in relief. She just might be able to get to her room without any major difficulties.


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