22

"Thank you very much, Hama-san," Ino smiled brightly as she finished wrapping a dozen pink magnolias into tissue paper. YAMANAKA FLOWERS was printed in cursive purple ink across the wrapping paper, and Ino finished the bouquet off with a blue ribbon. "Tell your daughter congratulations on her engagement for me."

Hama-san smiled cheerily as she received flowers, gushing as she said, "these are just so beautiful, I'm sure she will love them! Tell me, pretty girl like you, surely you've got a boyfriend hiding in the back spoiling you like this, too?"

Ino was about to grumble out a salty response when her father appeared next to her, tying his apron around his neck. "Pft, Hama-san, Ino is much too young for boys! She's focusing on her studies, right Ino?"

"Yeah, dad," Ino croaked, sullenly. She gave Hama-san her change and tried not to stew in her anger.

This morning, she had covered up all her mirrors again. She was tired of looking at her body. Then, when she opened her phone for the first time in hours, she found that she had been cast for a fashion shoot the next week. She felt like she had just been punched in the stomach.

All Ino had ever wanted was to be seen, and modeling had seemed like the right avenue at the moment. But now, she was tired of eyes on her body. She was tired of being consumed. She hated to look at herself these days. She hated how other people affected how she saw herself. When she brushed her teeth this morning, she noticed a purple bruise blooming in the place between her neck and collarbone and she remembered a mouth and a pair of hands running all over her body.

A phone call and a boy. They were all the same, weren't they?

"Speaking of school, don't you have to be running off soon?" Her father asked. "You know Ino goes to Moriyama-prep, Hama-san?" he prattled along.

"Oh what a wonderful school," Hama squealed into her magnolias. "And expensive too! No wonder you're always open, Yamanaka-san."

Ino rolled her eyes at this exchange, and went back to her magazine. "Late start today," she lied. The truth was, she just didn't feel like going. She hated that school and everything it stood for. She hated the bitchy girls who went there, with their perfect legs and their new cars. She hated their parents. She hated her professors. She hated being modeled into a professional "young woman" who would one day "hold the world in her ready palms"-or whatever the brochure said.

Not that those girls were that much different than her current friends. Hinata and Sakura with their social circles and beautiful things. Hinata and Sakura with their love and care. Sakura had stayed up with Ino all night, not once sleeping until Ino pretended to close her eyes and doze off. The second the Haruno girl left that morning, Ino had taken away all the mirrors in the house and painted glitter onto her eyelids using her front facing camera. She called it "keeping up with appearances." Glitter made everything better.

Her dad bought it. It was going well until the overhead bell jingled, alerting them of a new customer's presence. When Ino caught sight of a lazy brown ponytail, she almost ripped off the page of the magazine she had been reading. Fuck.

Besides it being generally insane that he would show up here after all that happened, her dad was present! Ino gave a hasty goodbye to Hama, mumbled something to her father about watering the pothos outside, and stormed to the front of the store.

Before she knew what she was doing, she was grabbing Shikamaru's arm by his prep-school blazer sleeve, and dragging him right back out of the store. She half-dragged him almost a full city block until they were standing under the shade of an oak tree in a small dog park. She was breathing heavily by this point of the encounter, and Shikamaru stared at her the way he always did: a cross of bewildered and amused.

"Quit looking at me like that," Ino demanded. She crossed her arms over her bright red crop tank top. The straps felt particularly thin when he looked down at her.

He raised an eyebrow at her, "Like what?"

"Like that." Ino hissed at him. "What the fuck do you want?"

If possible, Shikamaru's eyebrow rose even further up his face. He rubbed the back of his neck, "I like your eyeshadow," he offered.

Ino said nothing. Her heart was beating rapidly in her chest, so fast, it felt like a tiny bird. Just what was going on here? Why did she feel like this?

Shikamaru stared at her a moment, up and down like he was assessing every single part of her. The crown of her head, (where her hair had been thrown into a bun), her neck, (where she had patched concealer over the hickie), her chest (which she had folded her arms across stubbornly), her legs (looked like she was posed to run), until finally, her feet (tapping incessantly). He looked back up and into her eyes and was surprised by how distrustful they were. He took a step back.

"I can see I'm not wanted here," He muttered awkwardly, not really understanding why. "I just wanted to give you this after...you know, yesterday."

Ino flinched, and he didn't miss the heavy shouldered movement. He slipped off his backpack, and rumbled through it for a bit. After about a minute or so of terse silence, he pulled out a small box and awkwardly handed it to the Yamanaka girl.

Ino stared at the box of Plan B he had just handed to her in shocked silence. In that moment, she had never hated anyone else more in the world. In that moment she had never wanted to disappear more; not even when he had left her naked, blissful, in the back of his friend's car. Something ugly roared in her head. There was a sound like ocean waves. There was a full-body tremor from head to toe. There was an all-consuming calm. She wanted to laugh. She wanted to cry. Mostly, she was just angry at herself, because she knew that this is what it would be.

"Are you okay?" Shikamaru broke the silence awkwardly, looking at her with slight concern. Her hands were shaking. "We didn't use a condom, so I just wanted to be sure..." he trailed off.

Ino swallowed, "I'm on birth control, you know."

"I figured, but just to be sure." Shikamaru rubbed his neck, "It was..we...it was kind of intense."

"I have to go," Ino forced out. She didn't even look at him as she turned abruptly, walking one step after the other, head held up high, clutching the Plan B, between her reddened fingers. When she got inside the shop, she shoved it into her back pocket and rushed past her father, who was somehow still engaged in conversation with Hama.

"I don't feel good, I'm not going to school today," she yelled as she marched past, a silent soldier, to the back stairs that led to their apartment. She didn't wait for a reply as she unlocked the door and went straight into the kitchen. She grabbed the bottle of white wine her father had been saving for some french dish, poured a tall glass, and downed it.

Then she poured another. She ripped into the Plan B, using her nails as claws. When she took the tiny pill, she didn't even feel it going down her throat.

Ino left out the back kitchen door, which led to a fire escape. She jogged down it, barely noticing the tears escaping the corner of her eyes. With shaking hands, she held her cellphone to her ear. When the ringing ceased for a moment, she croaked out a tight-voiced, but hopeful: "Mom?"

It was silent, and then You have reached the voicemail mailbox of Yuna Sashimoto. Please leave a message after the-

Ino threw her phone off the fire escape. It went through the glass of their greenhouse in the backyard.

Fuck.

-:-

"Thanks for letting me borrow this," Hinata muttered sheepishly. She was trying to show appreciation while also tugging the damned piece of fabric further down her thighs. Sakura had leant her one of her school skirts, and Hinata was surprised to find that it had been cut quite a few inches past what was considered educationally appropriate.

Sakura shrugged. She was eating a Mcdonalds chicken sandwich as she drove the two of them to school. "No worries, Hina. Sorry it's so short. Ino cut all my skirts ages ago and I thought it'd be a waste to buy new ones. Plus," Sakura poked Hinata's knee teasingly, "You look kinda cute."

"It's-it's inappropriate!" Hinata exclaimed reddening, and Sakura burst out in laughter beside her. "Neji's not gonna l-like it."

"Fuck him," Sakura lamenting jovially. "I've said it before and I'll say it again. He-or anyone else in your family-is not your keeper. Plus, it's all I had."

That was true. Sakura was wearing a jumper today, but it was equally as short. She'd paired it with long baseball socks, and a pair of sneakers; at least she could make it look good.

Yesterday was a mess. Neji never came back to the hospital that morning, and Hinata was simply too anxious to return home to their father without him. Everyone had seemed to forget that it was her first night back.

Sakura was at Ino's the entire rest of the day, but encouraged Hinata to sleep at her place as long as she needed. Sakura had done everything for her; she had called Hinata a car and made sure that the maid was there to open the door and prepare the guest room for her. When Hinata arrived, there was a large dinner of fish and vegetables laid out for her in the dining room, along with two cupcakes that had the words "welcome" and "home" on them. Hinata gaped open mouth at it all.

When Sakura returned early early that morning, Hinata cried. Sakura simply said, "When I was a child, I always imagined someone would do this for me. When I met Tsunade, she did exactly that. I made a promise to extend the same kindness to everyone I care about," and then "you deserve to be loved, Hinata."

Hinata had been inconsolable. Sakura shrugged like it was a minor thing. She hopped into the shower like nothing had happened, and when they got in the car later, she talked incessantly about her Mcdonalds craving until they had pulled into the drive thru. They were going to be late, but it was okay, because Sakura was always late.

"How's Ino?" Hinata asked, dutifully eating her own Mcdonalds breakfast of hashbrowns and coffee. "I-I wish I coulda been there."

"It's okay," Sakura shrugged. "Probably better that you weren't. Ino gets in these moods-I barely did anything helpful."

Hinata nodded silently, still wishing that she had been of some help, somehow.

"You know you can stay at my place as long as you need, right?" Sakura offered as she pulled into her parking spot. Her eyes were focused on something in the far distance. Hyuga Neji with his severe gaze and not a hair out of place. But oh, were those bags under his eyes?

Hinata sighed, wishing that sentence were true. "Thank you so much, Sakura."

-:-

"So where are your parents?" Ayame crawled around the unbruised parts of Naruto like a house cat in heat. She looked about ready to lick all his wounds. "And uh...why is he here?"

"I miss my friend, you weirdo!" Kiba exclaimed from his seat in front of the TV. The three of them were in Naruto's room, watching movies and smoking weed. "The real question is, why are you here, Amy?"

"It's Ayame," she hissed. To Naruto she said sweetly, "Baby, do you need anything?"

Naruto had a raging headache. Kiba was there less to keep him company than he was to avoid going to school and gossip, and Ayame just happened to be on fall break. He had been too tired and too lonely to avoid them. And...he was too scared to be alone.

He could ruin something.

When he closed his eyes, he dreamt of being pulled from his car, or the bottom of shoes coming down to crush his body. He heard his parents arguing over his head. He heard Hinata, a chorus of I am not nothing, anymore. Was that what she thought he thought of her? Was that how he treated her? He made a pact with himself to do better-after all, they were to be married.

As much as that scared him, that was the fact of it. It was just hard to remember with Ayame's fingers twisting the hairs at the nape of his neck. Her shorts-clad legs rubbed against his body sensually, and when she bent her head, her mouth brushed his neck. He felt his heartbeat speed up. If Kiba weren't there...

"And what does Hyuga think of all this?" Kiba pointed at the two of them with the lit end of his blunt and Naruto was knocked from his thoughts. Not that they had been productive in the first place.

"Which one?" He muttered, at the same time Ayame said, "Who? And why should we care?"

Kiba rose an eyebrow. Naruto shook his head in the most nondescript way possible, and Kiba snorted loud enough to wake Akamaru, who had been sleeping at his feet.

"Nevermind then," Kiba said. He hit his blunt to mind his business.

"Who's Hyuga?" Ayame demanded. She sat up too fast and Naruto let out a small gasp of pain. She immediately began to apologize.

"You don't know who the Hyugas are?" Kiba said in disbelief, no longer interested in minding his business.

"I know who they are, asshole," Ayame snapped as she rested back into place beside Naruto. She gently stroked his arm, "I just don't know who they are in relation to Naruto. Why would they care about us?"

Naruto, who was just now realizing that there was an "us" in the first place, swallowed hard and did what he does best: he lied.

-:-

Sasuke hated to admit that it felt strange without Kiba and Naruto in school. At lunch, Shikamaru and Neji brooded in their separate, silent ways, and Sasuke was left to try to get details out of what happened. Generally.

There was too much going on for his friends to be stuck inside their own stupid thoughts. Shikamaru had his head down. When he got to the lunch table he had muttered something about "Ino" and "being confused" and had ceased speaking altogether when all the Uchiha did was look at him inquisitively. Or maybe it was judgmentally. Sasuke wasn't a fucking therapist.

Neji, on the other hand, looked exhausted. Sasuke had inquired about his night with the impoverished bun-haired girl and an apparent drug-pin, but Neji had not muttered a word besides, "we need to discuss this later, and together."

That left Sasuke to his glasses of water and shrimp and rice lunch, which he was eating, although in relative silence. He hated that he was actually craving a conversation with his friends. He would even have a conversation with Sakura, at this point, but for some reason she's decided she hates Shikamaru and has ventured to sit at another table, far away from them.

Bored out of his fucking mind, Sasuke looked for the pink-haired girl, and wa ssurprised at what he found. She was getting up from her seat next to Hyuga Hinata, and going to the salad bar. Hinata was wearing one of her skirts-he could tell because it was a few inches too short-so he surmised that she had not been home yet. That explained some of Neji's stocky silence.

Her hair was pulled into a ponytail with a glittering scrunchie, no do doubt implemented by the Haruno girl. She had her head lowered over a book, so he couldn't quite see her face.

But he wanted to. Sasuke left the table without so much of a word to either of his brooding friends. He slid into Sakura's vacant seat with ease, and was surprised that when he looked up, the Hyuga girl was smiling at him.

He was momentarily taken aback by this, but he recovered swiftly by stealing a baby carrot off her place and swallowing it whole. "I see you didn't go home this weekend," he said conversationally in a way completely unlike him.

Hinata turned pink at his attention, "How'd you know?"

"Neji's being weird," Sasuke lied a little about his reasoning. It had nothing to do with the length of her skirt, the mere sight of how long and curvy her legs were. Under the table, their knees touched, and she jumped a little. Sasuke tried to hide his smirk. "So I figured you two hadn't had the chance to talk yet. You know, he's kind of like a puppy dog?"

Hinata released a surprised laugh that made her eyes light up, "A p-puppy dog?"

"Yeah," Sasuke said in a deadpan. "He's lost when he doesn't have anyone to follow around. He keeps his nose in other people's business, especially yours. You mean to tell me you haven't noticed?"

Hinata shook her head shyly, unsure about how she felt about the Uchiha's judgements about her twin. "I d-don't think so."

"What have you noticed, Hinata?"

She looked up, surprised by the question. Their knees bumped again. Hinata closed her book, gently and placed her hands on top of it. Her eyes held the same resolve they had when they talked in the greenhouse, "I think I'm n-noticing...t-that you keep t-talking to me for s-some reason."

Sasuke hid his surprise with a perfect smirk. "Hm," he hummed. "And why might that be?"

Then, she was silent. Completely pink, and silent. Sasuke thought he might've pushed her too far when she shrugged in the most honest way possible. "I r-really d-don't know, Sasuke," she said. "I c-can't be that interesting to-"

He cut her off, knowing where she was going and not interested in hearing it. "What are you doing tomorrow night? I want you to see something."

She jumped, "H-huh?" Now she was red all over, Sasuke was trying not to laugh-he didn't want to scare her away.

"Tomorrow night," Sasuke repeated. "Remember when we were talking about my mom's gallery? She's having an opening, and I thought you might like to see it."

Hinata, bright pink and smiling, looked like she was struggling trying to find the right words to say, so she simply said, "yes."

Their knees bumped again.

AN. Bit of a filler, bit of a light transition. Mostly just regularly scheduled teen drama lol. I love when we finish an arc!