I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.

They go bowling.

She hates it, but Choji is funny and sweet and she enjoys herself anyway.

Later in the week, they take in an afternoon movie and have dinner at his family restaurant.

They have lunch together on an off Sunday, before her knitting group and take a drive out of the city the following day.

It's fun. It's nice.

It's...normal.

She likes it.

She feels guilty for liking it.

She declines his next invitation. She needs a little space. To sort herself out.

Inoichi calls that being "proactive" in setting her boundaries; in establishing and maintaining her own needs.

She calls it being a mess.

Still.

Choji doesn't seem to mind. She thinks if anyone kind of "gets it" it's him.

When she calls him a few days later to see if he wants to see the new play the Community Center is putting on, he accepts.

Ino asks her about it during their next coffee meet-up. Well, as much as Ino asks about anything. "You and Choji have been seeing one another pretty regularly."

They have. So Hinata simply shrugs.

"And?" Ino prods her. She has that look in her eye. The "I want answers" look.

"And?" Hinata avoids.

Ino rolls her eyes, but it's affectionate. If there's one thing Hinata has always been able to count on it was Ino. Ino had been protective of Hinata since Hinata's mother passed when she was five. To some it may seem like an unlikely friendship-Ino with her supermodel looks, sharp tongue, and brilliant mind paired with Hinata's mousy shyness and self-esteem issues-but it was probably Hinata's deepest relationship outside of Naruto.

Ino was the kind of woman that Hinata never thought that she could be. Self-assured and poised under pressure. It's one of the reasons that Ino excelled in her position as a Strategic Corporate Liaison. Whatever that meant. All Hinata knew was that companies paid out the nose to hire Ino for consultations.

"What's he like to date?" Ino asks, pulling Hinata out of her thoughts. "I've always kind of wondered."

Hinata sputters a bit, her eyes blinking so fast that she can't see Ino for a full five seconds. "We-we're not dating." She breathes the word in a low whisper, her eyes darting about furtively towards the other patrons that couldn't care less about the conversation.

Ino cocks her head, a smug little smile playing with her lips. "Movies-check. Dinner-check. Evenings out-check." Ino ticks each one off on her fingers. "Dating." She confirms.

Hinata is still shaking her head. It wasn't like that. "We don't...There's nothing romantic happening." She's still in love with Naruto.

Ino snorts an amused laugh. "Of course not. You're two are like the snails of the dating world. But, it's still dating. Some weird sort of 'friend' dating, but dating. I'm proud of you both."

Friend-dating.

Hinata decides that's a pretty accurate way to describe it.

She tells Choji about it and he's amused. He also tells her that he's been asked out on a date. A date date. He accepted. He takes a breath and stares out at the skyline. They're in a small park, near her office. "I'm nervous as hell," he confesses.

"You're going to be great," she insists. She says it sincerely.

The timing was off, but she knows herself a bit more now, and she knows that in another time, at a different point in her life, she and Choji would have worked out.

He casts his kind eyes on her and his smile is gentle, if not a little sad. He knows it too.

He reaches for her hand. "Thanks, Hinata. For everything."

She gets unexpectedly misty eyed, her throat clenching up, so she smiles and nods. It's not a goodbye, but it kind of feels like one.

Up until now it felt like they were sort of in "heartbreak" together, but Choji was moving on. Moving forward.

She's a little envious.

He pulls her into his side, wrapping one thick arm around her shoulders and places a kiss to the top of her head. "Don't think this means you're getting out of mini-golf next weekend," he teases her quietly.

Her routine becomes even more routine after that, but that suits her just fine.

Naruto's calls have been coming a bit more frequently as well and she finds herself looking forward to them. Just hearing his voice makes her happy in a way that nothing else does.

That's probably counterproductive to her "moving on" wish, but she's never been that great at taking her own advice so she thinks nothing of answering every time his number flashes on her screen.

"It sucks, being the oldest person, and not knowing jackshit about what they're talking about." Naruto laments on his end of the phone line.

"You'll figure it out," she promises. She's sure he will. Naruto has always been adaptive.

"And everyone else is like, still in school. So they're like, interning? I don't remember internships making fifteen an hour, do you?"

Hinata chuckles. He's so enthused. She can almost see him. The way his blue eyes are probably alight, the smile that's surely on his face. She wants to see him. She pushes that down and says, "I worked in the library for eight." Which she actually liked, so it wasn't a terrible hardship.

"Oh! While I was redoing their maps-"

There's a knock on her apartment door that catches her attention. She glances at the clock and realizes that she completely lost track of the time. "Hold on." She tucks the phone to her shoulder before opening the door.

Choji's on the other side.

"Hey, are you ready?"

Mini-golf.

He remembered.

Hinata's mouth spreads into a wide grin. "Naruto, can I call you back-"

"Who is that?" He cuts her off. She can hear the anger in his voice. The tightness of his jaw. Just as she could clearly see his animated happiness, she knows this look too.

She exhales slowly. "I promise I'll call you-"

"Who is it?" It's a demand.

"Naruto." She doesn't want to fight, but she doesn't know exactly how to explain who Choji is and what he means to her without igniting a heated argument, so she decides to avoid it. For now. "Look, it's not a big deal-"

"If it's not a big deal then just tell me." He always was persistent.

"I'll talk to you later.

"Hinata-"

She turns off the cell.

"Was that…?" He gestures vaguely.

"Naruto?" Hinata bites her lip. "Yeah."

Choji is looking at her with concern. "You okay? Do you need to call him back? I don't want to cause any issue-"

She cuts him off with a sharp shake of her head. Choji wasn't the issue. He may be what Naruto wanted to argue about now, but he wasn't their issue. And Hinata wasn't about to make him one. "It's okay. Besides, I want to hear about your date."

Choji steps back to make room for her to exit her apartment, giving a deep laugh. "Oh, it tanked. Spectacularly."

Hinata snaps wide eyes up at him. "No! Really?" She's so surprised. Choji is amazing.

He nods, but his smile is firmly in place. "Yeah, but I got the waitress's number. After my date dumped ice water on my head. So that's something."

Hinata can't wait to hear this story. "Why on earth would your date dump water on you?"

"Because I was checking out the waitress."

Hinata laughs all the way to the car.