Early in their relationship Hinata learned that Naruto loved with his whole being.
She envies that unabashed exposure...that vulnerability that he was willing to give her.
She vows to herself that if they manage to find their way back together, she won't hide behind her walls.
She'll love him with everything she is and stop worrying if that's enough...
Hinata's schedule had finally resumed some semblance of normal, and although she was busier than usual, it wasn't quite as chaotic as it had been mid contract-crisis. She found herself falling into a rhythm: wake, work, home with Argus, parks, Eight Gates, time with Naruto...which was actually...nice.
All in all things were going smoothly.
Good, even.
Which, as of late, had not bode well for her, so, in true Charlie Brown fashion, she was wondering when the bad thing would appear. When Naruto called her just before her morning commute she had practically had a panic attack thinking that something was wrong before his amused voice had asked if she wanted some coffee.
Coffee and Naruto?
Sounded perfect.
She shook her head, trying to dislodge the anxious cloud from her mind. You're being ridiculous, she told herself. Even still, she couldn't quite shake the feeling of something ominous in the air. Like the lull before a storm.
Before she can work herself up into a tizzy, she spots Shino heading her way. Then, behind him at a more sedate pace, Naruto. Shino enters her office first, asking her about some contract files, which was complete pretense. They had already met over them that very morning, but she appreciates his thoughtfulness, so she pretends right along with him.
"And, uh, Naruto's here," Shino murmurs, eying her carefully.
Hinata smiles, glancing past Shino to take in Naruto's appearance. He looks good and much more awake than she would have anticipated considering the hour and the fact that he worked last night. "So he is."
Shino nods, giving her a quick, subtle wink, before making his way out of her office and towards his own.
Alone with Naruto, Hinata clears her throat, smoothing a hand over her pencil skirt. "That's a big bag," she says, in lieu of anything more articulate.
Naruto smiles and hands her the to-go coffee cup first, over her desk.
"Thank you," she murmurs, setting it down on her desk.
"No problem. I also got you this." He pulls out a silver thermos. The white looped letters spell out: Dog Mom and Hinata's heart melts. He sets it on the desk near her coffee and she immediately picks it up, finger tracing the swirling letters.
She can't help but smile even more. "Aww, thank you."
"One more thing." He pulls out a little cardboard to-go box.
Hinata arches a brow, curious. It almost looks like a pastry box from her favorite shop. "What is it?"
He smirks at her but shakes his head, unwilling to reveal the surprise. "Just open it."
Turning the offering towards her, Hinata breaks the seal, identifying that it is a pastry box from her favorite coffee shop. She opens it and finds an oversized cinnamon roll with extra frosting. She can practically feel the saliva pooling in her mouth.
Coffee and gifts? Early in the morning? It's so unexpected… She feels a little spark of unease skip along her spine.
"What's this all about?" She finally looks up at him, still smiling, but a little tighter.
Naruto shrugs and looks away which does nothing to quell the unease.
When he looks back at her, his gaze is unexpectedly solemn. "I… I wanted to say sorry."
This is it. This is the bad thing. Oh, God.
She can feel the blood leave her face. She feels lightheaded. "For what?" she asks, quickly.
Giving a soft sigh, he finally takes the seat across from her. He fidgets for just a moment before meeting her worried eyes again. "For pressuring you to come to the party with me. I'm sorry."
Wait… Now she feels bad. She hadn't made it easy on him. She hadn't accepted immediately the first time for a couple of reasons...she didn't know her schedule, for one. Not with the contract up in the air as it was. Plus she had still been coming to terms with the death of her father and the revelations about her mother. That wasn't an excuse to leave him hanging though, and that was unfair of her. Even so, for him to be here apologizing to her and not the other way round tells her that something must have happened.
"What happened?"
"Nothing!" He promises hastily-abruptly. Which has her eyebrows lowering. "I'm just… I met with Sakura, this morning."
Oh.
Oh!
It's so much worse than she was imagining. Sakura? Sakura?!
As in Sakura Haruno who nearly single handedly destroyed him emotionally and drained him of the will to even live?
The woman that Naruto had loved enough to die over?!
The only woman that Hinata has fantasized about delivering bodily harm to...and she could now.
That Sakura?
Oh, no.
This was when he was going to tell her that he was still in love with Sakura…
"She's having some bullshit with Sasuke," Naruto continues hurriedly. "She's just the same. So is he. And I realized, so am I."
She managed to lift a brow at that, because hell no, he was not the same as them. He had fought and grown and struggled, long before she came along, and then even after. He may have been knocked down, same as them, but it was Naruto that pulled himself back on and stood again. Sasuke was a petulant, sullen, dangerous maniac and Sakura was blinded by obsession. Neither one of them knew how to handle defeat, as was obvious by their continuous spirals.
She wasn't about to open that can of worms at the moment, however.
Naruto rubs his hair, his gaze skirting away from hers. "I don't take other people's feelings into consideration. I'm selfish. And I don't want to be that way, with you. So - I wanted to tell you, I'm sorry."
"For what?" She asks softly, not trusting her voice, but wanting him to know that even if she didn't like what he said, she was going to be there.
"For not listening to you. Not respecting you. Not taking what you wanted into consideration. I'm sorry about a lot of stuff. But, right now, I'm sorry, about the party." He takes a deep breath. "I'm sorry that I kept pressing when you didn't want it. I know, I do that a lot. So, long story short. I'm sorry. I'm gonna try and do better. I know I've probably said that a lot too. I mean it this time. For reals, Hina. I'm just gonna do my best to be your friend, okay?"
Her friend.
Which is what she wanted.
What he was.
But she wanted more now...
What if he didn't anymore? She took a breath. She would accept it. Like she had expected him to do. She wouldn't be a hypocrite. If he wanted just to be friends, then that's what they'd be. Still, she wanted to make sure before assuming. They'd assumed far too many wrong things about one another.
"So… you don't want me to come?" She asks, quietly, her hands drawing a ring around the top of the coffee cup.
"What?" He looks genuinely shocked at that notion. "No. I don't want you to come."
Oh. Okay. She'll accept that. If that's what he wants. Even if it means she'll cry in the bathroom the moment he leaves.
"Fuck - no! I do. I definitely want you to come!" he corrects.
Uhm...Okay? She's lost.
"I just mean that - ugh, I mean I don't want to guilt you into coming So you don't have to come." He pauses like he's mentally tallying and he hates math before looking at her again. "Look, I know you don't want to so I'm just trying to let you off the hook, okay? That doesn't mean I don't want you to go. I'm just trying to say that it's okay, if you don't want to go."
Oh.
She feels relief and a smile building.
He presses his hands to his face, muttering, "I'm too dumb to talk."
He wasn't confessing his love for Sakura.
He wasn't trying to tell her that he didn't want her.
He was trying to respect her boundaries.
She didn't think she could love him any more than she had, but he keeps proving her wrong.
"It's okay," she tells him with a light giggle-the relief making her bubbly. "I get it."
He finally looks up, breathing a sigh of relief. "Thank god." After a moment he starts working on his own breakfast sandwich/burrito thing. "Okay, I know that coffee shop is your favorite, but they never give me enough sauce packets. What is up with that? I always ask for extra, and they give you, just like, one more. It's so stupid. They have them all there in that huge basket, why-"
As he's talking Ino's words ring through her mind. "You do know that boy is kind of oblivious when it comes to you. So, you may want to be a little more obvious than staring adoringly from afar. You're going to have to be the assertive one, this time."
The assertive one.
Okay.
"I might've, already, got a dress." Hinata interrupts his burrito rant.
He is still trying to squeeze out as much sauce from the packet as humanly possible. "A dress? What are you talking about. I was talking about my burrito-oh shit!" He sits up straight abruptly and she's surprised his breakfast isn't on the floor.
"You want to come to my thing?" He looks expectantly at her.
She's blushing, but she nods.
"For reals? Like, for real for real?"
She nods again. Be assertive. She takes a little bit of a breath. "It's strapless," she blurts out.
There's a pause while Naruto's throat works a few times. When he speaks his voice is an octave higher than normal and thin. "Is it?"
"Mmhmm." She lowers her lashes, glancing at him in what she hopes is a sexy come-hither expression and not like she has a lazy eye and no focal point. "Is it okay if I still come?"
Oh my God. Good thing she turned Atheist on their arcade date or she'd have to go immediately to church after this...
"Mmhmm." Naruto half nods at her.
Hinata picks up her coffee to enjoy a victory drink (and to hide her blazing red cheeks) when she catches his handwriting on the cardboard. She almost laughs out loud. "Just, a little question," she murmurs, catching his gaze.
"Hm?"
"You know your big apology about being pushy? Did you formulate that before or after you wrote 'I love you a latte' on my cup?"
She's enamored by the little flush that creeps into his tatooed cheeks. "Hinata, it was a coffee pun. It's hilarious. I can't just not write it."
"I see." She nods, sagely. "That's okay. You mocha me happy, too."
Naruto's laughter causes a couple of interns to peek in her window but she's too delighted to care. She sips her coffee and enjoys the company.
Things were still good.