"Come on, you haven't had lunch with me for weeks," Naruto whined.
"I've been eating something more than restaurant ramen," Sasuke replied, trying to get past him.
Naruto noticed the bag of drinks. "Corner store food is better than ramen?"
Sasuke held the bag up idly so you could vaguely see the labels through the bag. "They're drinks."
Naruto pointed to one. "That's caramel coffee."
"Your point?" At this point, Sasuke was ready to just shove him out of the way.
"You hate caramel and coffee of those." Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"That one isn't for me." Sasuke pushed past him. "Go eat. I'll have dinner with you Friday."
Naruto pouted behind him as he made his way to Hinata's office.
Sasuke knocked on the door frame, but Hinata didn't lookup. She glared at her paperwork.
He stepped in, and she still didn't seem to notice. He dropped the bag of drinks on her desk, and she jumped.
She stared up at him, surprised, and then when she realized who it was, she frowned at him.
"That bad?" He asked, waving his now free hand at the paperwork. "You didn't even hear me knock."
She pushed to paperwork aside. "No, I was thinking about something else."
"Dare I ask?" He pulled the drinks out of the bag as she leaned over for their lunch.
"I'm not sure I should speak ill of your friends to you." She opened their drinks.
"No one hates my friends more than me." He reminded her, sitting down in front of his bento.
She looked at him for a moment, still seemingly fighting her polite nature for the willingness to complain. "Sakura..."
He snorted. "How'd I guess."
She rolled her eyes. "She thinks I need to be entered into the assistance program."
He made a face. "Isn't that for the elderly and the disabled who can't work?"
"Yes, it is." She agreed with an annoyed tone. "That was my first question."
"Does she have a reason?" He wondered, sipping his can of tea.
"Because I have no one to help me with daily tasks that may be 'too difficult' for me to do on my own." She made a sour face.
"Did she think you couldn't ask for help?" He asked, making a face.
She shrugged. "I was offered the program when I moved out on my own. I am sure my daniel of it was on my record."
"She never offered me this." He realized.
"I don't imagine she did." She grumbled.
She glared down at her food. Sasuke could understand the irritation. She had been on her own for quite a while without assistance with full capability to ask for help if she needs it and people who were willing to help. The idea that she would need to be added to the government assistance program she could have signed herself up for was insulting. Every nin knew about it. Most of your first missions were for the program.
"The worst part is I'm not even sure I should be this upset. She is only trying to help. It's part of her job. I just… hate it when people assume that I need to be looked after." Hinata huffed.
"If she asks again. Tell her you have help." He offered.
She shook her head. "I was avoiding telling her about you."
He thought for a moment. "Understandable, but you don't have to tell her who."
"She's going to think I'm lying if I don't." She sighed. "She seems to think that I just lied to her at check-ups. I lost a few pounds, once, nothing major, nothing unhealthy. I gained it back before the next visit. It was nothing but normal weight fluctuation. She hasn't stopped asking about it. She takes blood every time now to make sure I'm not malnourished." She pushed her finished bento away. "I forgot to lock my wheels when getting into bed once and got some nasty bruises. Now she always checks me for them."
Sasuke's face scrunched. Yeah, he could see how that could be annoying.
"We used to be friends, but it's hard to have a friend that can't look past your disability. I know it's her job, but even outside of check-up, she seems to find a way to make it about it." Sakura was overcaring. She cared far too hard, in his opinion, and it came back to bite her. She had liked him too much, she took work too seriously, she was pushing away other friends now too.
"She's been getting on my nerves too, for different reasons, of course, but the same vein of her personality." He agreed.
Hinata tilted her head, though she didn't ask.
He might as well. "She had got it in her head that she could make things the way they were, that we could all be friends like before I left. Then, I'm sure she was hoping that I'll turn around to see her how she had always seen me."
Hinata looked sympathetic. "I guess I know what having a doomed crush is like. It's hard to let go. Of course, he sort of did that for me."
He raised an eyebrow at her. Maybe he would finally get the rest of the story.
Hinata pressed her lips together. "He was never going to get around this." She placed her hand on her chair. "He is still an amazing man, and I want to see him go as far as I know he can, but there is no future with him if he can't see past my accident. This can't be fixed."
He nodded. He was right, Naruto being Naruto, always wanting to believe in a chance that things could be fixed.
"I know that feeling." He agreed,
She smiled at him. "He didn't follow me across the world, of course."
"Lucky," Sasuke mumbled.
Hinata laughed.
Sasuke tried to keep a straight face as she once more climbed her little step ladder and plopped her hips on the table to dig something out of the higher cabinets. He stood a step from her waiting to be handed things he could have reached in the first place.
As she got back down, the step stool shifted, and she caught herself as he dropped the bottle she handed him to catch the stool to keep it from moving further.
She sighed, annoyed.
"I think you need a new one."
"I need an apartment with more low storage." She slammed herself back in her chair with more force than was needed. She didn't look up at him. She rolled herself back and over to wash her hands and grab the thing she needed from the fridge.
Sasuke frowned, looking at the stool. She was embarrassed that there was a flaw in her independence. He was sure not only because it was in front of someone but because she could have actually hurt herself. He would be scared his only arm failed him in a way that would cause serious injury. He leaned over to pick up the dropped bottle and noticed the feet on the stool were worn away, likely from her dragging it behind her chair to where she needed it.
He would file that for later.
Hinata heard a knock on the door, and she frowned. A knock on the door was never a good thing. She looked at the time, she had just gotten home from work, and she wanted to start on lunch for her and Sasuke tomorrow. She was going to try a sweet curry to see if she could trick him into anything with the slightest sugar. He didn't know that the curry he got from the store was loaded with it.
"Hinata? It's me." She heard a familiar voice call from the door.
She rolled over to open the door and gave Sasuke a confused look.
He held out a shopping bag. "Put these on your stool before you hit your head." He told her flatly, dropping them in her lap.
She looked at the bag and then at him and then back at the bag.
She opened it. Inside was a set of rubber feet to slip onto ladders and furniture. She didn't know what to say. It felt wrong accepting it, but at the same time, she had worried him, she was sure.
"Don't be stubborn. I can't have good food if you can't make it." He said in a low voice.
She made a face up at him. He was trying to make this selfish, so she didn't feel bad.
He rolled his eyes, giving up the act. "I mean it. Getting things down is one thing. Doing it an unsafe way is stupid."
She nodded.
"If those get bad, I'll get you new ones." He pointed. "They're less than our lunch drinks cost."
She looked down at the bag flattening in her lap. "Do you want some tea?"
He looked down at her, studying the look like he wasn't sure if she was just asking to be polite. "Sure, I'll put those on." He plucked it back out of her lap and stepped in to kick his shoes off.