2.

From Wednesday through Friday, she was painfully aware of his presence.

He was mostly cold, iceberg cold. No smile, no beaming, no acknowledging his friends or classmates… if it weren't for Naruto who basically hang on his neck (while he kept his hands in his pockets), he'd definitely be a loner.

Despite his less than social manners, he still garnered positive attention. The girls flocked toward him for his looks as she supposed, while the guys were split in two: some wanted to share the females' attention while others wanted him in their teams during sport activities, as he was obviously a good athlete. The worse was that their table at lunch was overcrowded now.

There were also the rumors circulating about him that she couldn't ignore in her attempting to pin down an imagine of him. She reflected back on some of those stories, comparing them to the boy who beyond the icy personality was nothing but a calm guy who couldn't care less about people around him, expect may be Naruto with whom he exchanged more than two words. Her mind could hardly wrap around those telltales though: according to the student body, Sasuke was a playboy who has had plenty of girlfriends at once and thus had quite experience and a huge appetite for sex, especially... kinky sex; he was always partying, getting drugged and fighting on week-ends, and worse of all belonged to a gang; during one of those fights he's apparently killed a man with a Swiss army knife… there were even more rumors and while they rivaled in being ingenious and trash, Hinata singled out those who could show her if she was exposing herself to any danger by hanging out with him.

These are only rumors, but there isn't usually smoke without a fire nearby. The girlfriends' part might be over the top but what about the violent part?

She remembered how he's got expelled at only thirteen for degrading the school property by starting a fire. In her mind, such rash behavior so early could only worsen as she knew his parents couldn't be there to right his wrong doings… However, she couldn't ignore who his closest friend was: Naruto was a good person, a nice guy who was always there to defend people needing help. He also got along with most people. He was popular too after all, but that came from his personality.

If Naruto trusted him, then he was probably trustworthy in her opinion... To a certain degree so to speak.

"Hey" Hinata said as she answered the phone after the third ring.

"Are you free tomorrow?" Sasuke directly asked.

Trying to keep up with his pace she quickly answered "I-I'm not sure. I'm s-supposed to b-be h-home to welcome my dad" Hinata inwardly cussed at herself for talking about this to an orphan "I-"

"If you change your mind, let's meet at Naruto's" Sasuke said, his voice detached, then hung up.

Her mouth fell open. The fact that Sasuke chose Naruto's House baffled her. There were so many options: the library, the central park or their respective homes. Even if she dreaded the last option, at least it was more natural. Soon enough, her bewilderment was replaced with giddiness. She used to imagine hanging out with Naruto at his home when she daydreamed about going out with him. As it subdued after him getting a girlfriend, it never crossed her mind again. The giddiness didn't get the memo and spread warmly in her chest. Visiting someone meant getting close to them! She could see their friendship only grow from there, and the prospect of Saturday wasn't frightening anymore.

She was exited enough to skip Neji's advice as she knew her father always came home late when travelling back home. Her excitement even made her skip her karate practice… however, the joy of seeing Naruto on a day off school wasn't the only reason she escaped karate –she wished to let Tenten cool down, then discuss with her before going back again. Next Saturday would be best.

Shifting through her clothes, she slowed her movements to chastise herself. She wasn't going there to get Naruto's attention –he had a girlfriend, they were friends now and it'd be a reviewing session. Her fingers lingered on blue jeans she finally chose along a beige sweater and a white shirt to go underneath. Checking her appearance one last time from her white flat heels to her mid high bun, she nodded at her reflection in the mirror.

"friendly enough"

Her best efforts only helped to block out her thoughts. They didn't do much to fight off the quiet force of the feelings lingering in her belly at the thought of hanging out with Naruto. A part of her was afraid that her love for him was still there, another couldn't deny how much happiness she experienced by being in his vicinity. It wasn't like him being considerate was helpful in her effort to cross him from her heart.

Deepening their bond didn't appear to be such a good idea anymore.

During the drive to Naruto's, question about whether they should still be friends or not bounced in her mind. She was less and less convinced about everything, and certainly about crashing to his place. Her greatest fear was to still be in love with him –that certainly wasn't such a good thing neither for her, nor for Naruto or for Amaru. If things got awkward, Sasuke would've to pick up another place.

"We're there, miss"

The quiet voice of her chauffeur shook her out of her worried state. She mumbled a 'thank you' before going to the house.

Hinata found herself in front of a two-story building, large enough to fit up to eight flats on each level. The opaque balcony allowed to see only half the entrance door, two windows on either side and a fluorescent lamp on top of it and individual electricity meters. The façade was okay to her, but what was more enjoyable was the silence… and the boy living inside.

Her heart went down to her stomach.

She shook her head, making her way to the flat. Along the way she noted that the walls were half top grey, half down a light brown color as the electricity meter. She counted down the doors, reached the fourth one from the left and knocked.

Bright blue eyes met hers.

"Hina-chan! Hey, come in"

Warm air caressed her cheeks as she fled from the morning's coldness to be pulled in a bear hug. His embrace made her brain halt for a second. It has always been like this since she confessed to him. Although he rejected her feelings, they somehow ended being close. While before he didn't know she existed, they suddenly became like old friends. Ever since it had more or less being a success: a success because he brought a lot to her since they got to know each other a bit better, but a problem since it had felt now and then as if she still held feelings. The problem was subdued since their friendship has been limited to high school, but now…

Amaru rounded the corner with a smile and came to hug Hinata too. The guilt didn't wait to settle inside her, nevertheless Hinata returned the embrace. They chatted about the famous party that'd take place that evening, which she had to decline once more. Hinata babbled some excuse, forgetting it as soon as it left her mouth, which only resulted in a twisted face on Naruto's part.

"how can you not come... You two are no fun" Naruto whined

"Agree" Amaru echoed as she nodded

"what?" Hinata asked, confusion written all over her face.

Since Naruto and Amaru were on the same page, her eyes instantly drifted to the other occupant of the room. She almost forgot the reason she was there. Sasuke didn't do much to get noticed though. He was watching some baseball game. He wore a navy blue sweater with a pale blue collar shirt peeking from under and dark jeans. As much as he appeared thoroughly cut from the small group that had formed in the living room, he looked like he was about to go to a shooting. The somewhat bored eyes, the disheveled dark hair, the hand supporting his head gave him a particular air Hinata knew natural as he couldn't apparently be bothered enough to try and catch people attention, an attention with which he was showered nevertheless.

For a partygoer he sure wasn't living up to his reputation.

By the time they were on their third topic of conversation, Hinata was starting to feel bad. Kiba and Ino umpteenth breakup wasn't surprising but still held enough interest for her as both were her friends. However, two hours has gone by and she still hadn't started studying with Sasuke. Her heart almost jumped out of her mouth when he went pass them to go to the balcony; she couldn't keep her eyes from going the door time and again, or to him when he roamed around the house. The roaming turned out to be him setting the table to study, which completely crushed Hinata who couldn't find it in her to stop the conversation going on.

"Hinata?"

She jumped at her name be called out, only to breathe when she saw it was just Amaru.

"sorry, I was… thinking"

"Save up some thinking energy for the study session 'cause, it won't be pretty"

Once they reached the table, Sasuke didn't stop what he was doing. He didn't look up or acknowledged their presence, which only made Hinata feel bad. Amaru is the one who started the session by asking what he was doing. Later Naruto joined them.

As the hours progressed, they ended up being divided in two: Sasuke working with Amaru, and her with Naruto. Inwardly, she thanked heavens that they landed at Naruto's. if it weren't for him, she'd being sitting at the table worrying about how she offended Sasuke instead of even studying. Not once has the guy looked her way. With Naruto at her side, at least half her mind was occupied in helping him, and boy did the guy needed help with math… and with his attention span. After thirty minutes of trying Naruto was out, on his phone.

Amaru would look her way from time to time; not once did Hinata noticed though. Worry was written on her face as she stared at her notebook, wondering why Sasuke wanted her help in the first place and ending feeling bad for letting him down. Her first thought at that conclusion was that, she didn't have to feel so bad about letting him down as they weren't that close... only to backtrack on her thought. She had accepted to help, thus she felt responsible but she didn't know how to bounce back.

As if reading her thoughts, Amaru asked her help on an equation Hinata knew all too well… only to babble and choke on her words when explaining. Why? Simply because the red haired girl's action attracted Sasuke's attention and eyes on her too. Red crept into her pale cheeks at the end of her babbled explanation.

"I-I'm going to drink some water"

She half ran to the kitchen. No matter how much she counted down or breathed deeply, remembering she had to go back to that table made anxiety creep back on her. Hinata imagined hundred ways to be transported outside of the cozy flat, until something moved in her peripheral vision.

When she looked up, she was met by two dark eyes. Sasuke leaned against the wall opposite to her left side to her, hands in pockets. His stance was nonchalant, and his gaze was neutral, but their effect on her was contrasting to his picture.

Maybe I should've stayed back there.

"Do you have a problem with me?" he asked, his tone flat as if her answer didn't matter that much.

"U-uh…" Hinata searched thoroughly her mind for an answer but found none "no? no, I- I j-"

"I noticed Friday how reticent you seemed to be despite accepting this. That's why I chose Naruto's house"

"oh…"

"If you can't do this, just say it" Sasuke said without a harsh or menacing tone; yet again, he might as well have slapped her.

She remembered Friday, how she had reacted and how she must've looked like. She felt ashamed, the kind of shame that instead of making her blush, drained the color in her face. She recognized one of her many flaws her father had picked upon: she was weak. She didn't initially want to work with him as she felt unease around him, yet she still said yes. Sasuke mentioning that made her feel even worse, then it exposed her true colors, her flaws to someone else.

She toughened up.

"It's n-not t… that… that's not the problem"

She also didn't want to back down on her promise, or let Naruto down. Silence met her answer. When she looked up, she noticed that Sasuke was giving her one of his soul probing look. She gulped; he sighed.

"what then?"

"I'm… like that with people I-I'm not used to" she said without looking at him

Silence again.

"…ok, I'm going to go now"

"a-ah w-wait I I d-didn't-"

"first, calm down; I've got something planned… second, you need to think about it throughout this time. Give me your answer tonight"

"about what?"

"if we're still working together"

When he left, a sensation of being released from a tight grip washed over her.