Authors Note:
Hello, again my lovelies! I'm back with another chapter of this cute series and I'm really starting to enjoy writing this one! I can't wait to see what this chapter has in store!

Our favorite couple has finally met which means the FLUFF can now commence!

So, everyone gets comfortable!

Put on your favorite reading music, wear those fuzzy socks!
Wrap yourself in your favorite blanket

And enjoy some hot tea!

Let's get to it, shall we?

Hot Tea during Winter

Chapter Recap

The hand that he gave Hinata, the barista from today whilst introducing himself. She sure was a mystery to him. How was she able to get him to release so much information about himself with only a cup of tea?

"Hinata Hyuga, huh?" He says in a low mumble as he takes one last glance at the picture frame before setting it back to its original spot. He then looks at the ceiling as his eyes slowly start drifting to a close.

"Thank you for stopping by, come again!" Hinata says with a smile as she hands the cash with the receipt to the customer as he walks out of the shop.
"Thanks again!" he says as he closes the door behind him.

Business resumed as normal in Kuma Cafe, due to Hinata's 'minor' injury she decided to be a cashier/tea prepper. Although she's upset that she's not able to make tips today she enjoys time from the floor where she would have to speak nonstop.

"Hinata, have you been icing that hand of yours at all?" Ino asks to question as Hinata's face goes red in embarrassment.

"Well, the thing is…" she starts to say. Ino leans toward her waiting impatiently.
"Yes?" she says.

"W-well, Tama ate the ice pack I had so I haven't had time to buy one, hehe" she adds with a nervous giggle as Ino glares at her.

"Seriously Hinata, you're so hard-headed.." Ino explains with a sigh as she faces palms her face. "I promise that I'll buy one after work today Ino," Hinata says with reassurance in hopes to get her friend to stop nagging her.

"You better…" Ino adds as they continue about their day.

Amid the customers coming in and out Hinata couldn't help but think about one particular customer who made her day interesting yesterday. The blonde-haired man with sunkissed skin came into their cafe after just being dumped: Naruto Uzumaki.

He seemed to have looked better when he left but she knows that the pain of the heart isn't something that leaves after a day or two. It may take him a while to get over it just like it did with her.
She was curious to know more about their relationship.

How did they meet? How long were they together? Why did it end?

She knows that it isn't her business to ask those personal questions since they literally just met but there was something about their encounter that wasn't 'normal' or so to say.

'Stop it Hinata, that was just a one-time moment.' she shakes away her thoughts knowing that there was a slim chance of ever running into Naruto again.
I mean, he must've felt embarrassed in breaking down like that.

Normally men don't cry in front of women since it hurts their 'pride'. She would understand if that were to be the reason. 'Well as long as he left the cafe with a smile, I did my part.' the said girl concludes in her head.

"Hey Hinata!" her thoughts coming to an end as she hears Sakura yell out two orders of their regular bland-tasting diet tea.

"On the way now!" Hinata heads to the back and starts preparing the tea.

It's been a bit difficult in performing her daily tasks with only one functional hand, such as chopping up the fresh fruit for the crepes, and counting cash in the register, and even sometimes pouring the tea into the tea mugs.
However, on the bright side, Hinata feels like she's developed a new talent.

"At least I can say I know how to do certain things with only one hand," she says to herself with a giggle as she takes the tray up to the front counter and rings the bell.

"Sakura! Order's are ready to go!" Sakura comes up and with a thank, you take the tray of teas to two women at a table.

Looking around the cafe to make sure everything is running smoothly and there aren't any customers waiting to be served Hinata heads back to the back counter to sit down for a few minutes.

Sighing in relaxation and relief she takes a look outside as she watches people come and go. Some were carrying gift bags which meant that Christmas shopping was drawing a lot closer than she anticipated.

She's not sure if she'll have enough money to buy gifts for people this year, even though she has a tiny circle of friends which consists of only Sakura and Ino, and her father. She wasn't to definitely get her father a gift this year.

The question is what would he want?

Money sounds like the best solution, as a way of saying 'Thank you for him helping her in her studies and maybe she'll buy him that new brand of cigars that just came out. Even though he swears that he doesn't smoke she's positive that he does.

Call it a daughter's intuition.

"Ohhhh Hinata" with her thoughts interrupted once more Hinata turns to see Sakura smiling at her; her smile was of a child who knows a big secret and is trying super hard not to spill the beans.

Was there something she was hiding?

"What's wrong, Sakura?" she asks with a bit of worry.

"Come out here, you have a visitor!" Ino's loud voice empowers Sakura as Hinata is left with even more confusion.

A visitor…?

Who could be asking for her?

'It could be another customer trying to ask me out on a date again, I hate having to say no.' she thinks as she goes mentally prepared to break the poor old saps heart.

Now this 'old sap' was more different than the rest. Why? You may ask?

His blonde hair was a lot more cleaner today than it was on the first encounter, his skin was more cleaner and clearer.
Cerulean eyes glistened under the light of the cafe. He was wearing some black sweats with red sneakers and had a black tank top with what looked like nine red tails forming a spiral in the center and lastly he had a black sweatshirt with orange on the sides.

"Hey Hinata, I'm glad that I was able to catch you here again!" his voice was more upbeat and she took notice of how he has a deep voice but is kinda raspy in a way.
It sounded cute, Hinata felt her cheeks go a tad pink as she's confused as to how he remembered her so quickly.

"Naruto was it?" she asks hesitantly. She couldn't believe that Naruto was back again and this time asking for her!

"Yep! It's sweet of you to remember my name!" he replies with a cheeky grin.

Okay so maybe this is real.

"Of course, I would! What brings you back to our lovely cafe!" Feeling more comfortable again Hinata asks him as she sees him scratch the back of his head and his cheeks flush.
Was he not feeling well again?

Behind the duo, Sakura and Ino watched from the counter as their smirks sent mental daggers to Hinata's head.

'He's gonna ask you out!' Ino starts.

'No way! He just got dumped remember!' Hinata reminds her.

'Well, he should get over her. Clearly, he's interested in you since he's back here.' Ino adds in.

'Ino, you're feeding way into this, he could just be thanking Hinata.' Sakura chips in.

'Yes, I agree with Sakura.'

'You two are such buzz-kills…' Ino adds with a sigh.

This causes Hinata to giggle out loud at her friend's silliness, she doesn't realize Naruto trying to get her attention.

"-nata, do you not want it?"

Blinking back into reality as she sees a bag being handed to her; she looks up at Naruto to see that his face looks a bit nervous. Was he giving her something?

"I-Is this for me?" she asks as she looks at the bag, Naruto nods with a nervous smile "Yea, I mean if ya want it of course!"

Smiling thankfully Hinata goes to grab the bag, for a brief minute their hands brush against each other. A bolt of electricity enters Hinata's body as she feels it travel everywhere. It surprised her that she quickly jerks her hand away with the bag.

'That was odd, it felt like a spark entered my body all of a sudden.' she thinks as she takes a small glance back at Naruto.
He's scratching the back of his head again and looking around the cafe. Did he feel the same thing as her just now?

She decides that she could just be tired and brushed it off.

"Let's see what's inside, shall we?" she says trying to revert the brief awkward atmosphere to its original pleasantness. Opening the bag she pulls out a medium-sized box along with a hand band, her lavender eyes widen as she's somewhat lost for words.

"T-this is…" she looks at Naruto in assistance. Taking the hint Naruto chuckles as he looks at the ground more seriously this time.

"Well, I was still feeling pretty bad about your hand so I went to the pharmacy and I have a great friend who works there and he recommended me to buy those things for burns," he says softly.

Looking at the box which contained in ointment in where Hinata in apply to the burnt area twice a day and wrap the band around it. She smiles as she feels her heartbeat speed a bit, no one's ever really done something so thoughtful before.

"Naruto, I don't know what to say.." she says softly as she looks back at him.

"Thank you so much, that was very sweet of you!" she smiles at him warmly.

Naruto's cheeks go red at reminding himself again of this girl's beauty, her name really does suit her perfectly. 'Her smiles tend to be so warm.' he thinks suddenly as he quickly shakes that thought away!
Quickly regaining back his composure Naruto coughs a bit and grins back at her.

"Yea! He also gave me a discount for it too!" he adds in.

'Hopefully, he doesn't get a discount on the first date, if so then you dip outta there!' Ino's comment enters Hinata's mind once more as she telepathically glares playfully at her.

'Ino!'

"You didn't have to go through the trouble though, Naruto. I feel kinda bad in a way." Hinata confesses with a nervous smile, shaking his head Naruto looks at the bag then back at her.

"And like I said yesterday, you've done more than enough. This is the least I can do!" he replies with a grin.
"So, accept my good deed will ya?!"

Caught a bit off guard at the sudden outburst Hinata giggles at his persistence and bows politely.
"If you say so, then I accept this gift. Thank you so much Naruto" she says.

"Hehe, no problem! I'm glad you like it!" he replies with a cheeky grin.

For whatever reason Hinata wasn't sure why she found herself smiling so much, if her cheeks could fall off with how sore they are then she's pretty positive that it will happen.

Just a while ago, she was saying that their meet was a one-time moment in her life and he actually went out of his way to get her some ointment for her hand. Knowing that he took the time out of his day to get that made her feel pretty good inside.

She wanted to ask him about how he was feeling since yesterday's events but maybe that isn't the best place to talk about such personal and private things. As of now, it appears that he's doing a bit better since he's smiling as well!

"So, were you wanting to order something today Naruto? Or maybe some time to eat?" she asks after a bit. Shaking his head Naruto scratches his cheek in a form of embarrassment maybe?

"I'd like to but I have to get going! I need to be somewhere but I wanted to give you this today for sure!" he explains. So, that was his main goal even before continuing his day?

That made Hinata feel embarrassed to know that he was thinking about her so much that he was gonna make sure he gave her the products.

'Hinata, calm down. It's not even that big of a deal…' she tries to get her color back to her cheeks before Naruto or her friends notice anything.

"That's alright Naruto, I'd like to thank you again! Be sure to stop by more often!" now she's not sure why she added that last part in the sentence.
It just came out, okay!

"You bet! Believe it!" he says as he turns to head out of the cafe, turning around one last time he waves goodbye at Hinata and the two nosy girls at the counter before walking out.
Hinata remains in place as a swarm of emotions enters her body.

One of them being, happiness.

Pure Happiness…

"Whew! That was sure close!" Naruto, the mysterious man who just left Kuma Cafe walked the streets of Konoha thinking about the events that led to that moment.

When he woke up this morning he still felt like major crap and the topic is a bit sensitive to him. He's checking his phone in hopes of Kanako texting him and so far, nothing.

But with that aside, he kept thinking about how someone could be so concerned for him like Hinata was. He's never had anyone worry about him so much, much less a stranger. He felt awful at how she ended up getting hurt because of him.

So, he set out to get her something she could use to help ensure a fast recovery, he knows that ice helps but he had overheard Ino nag at her for noticing it properly, and also ice is messy! She could wet her clothes and all that junk!
That's when he went to the pharmacy and decided to ask his friend for advice.

At the pharmacy:

"Hey Naruto, how're you holding up?" his friend asks him once he approached the counter.

"Okay, I guess…" he says with a shrug and not wanting to talk about it.

"That's good, what can I do for you?" he's asked.

"Yea! What's something that can heal tea burns!" he asks him; his friend looks at him questionably as he looks at the blonde very carefully.

"You're not burnt Naruto."

"Come on! Shikamaru! It's not even for me!" he replies peeking the interest of his friend.

"Oh? Then who is it for?" he asks. Naruto hates it when his friends question him, it's not like he's a kid who needs to be on a damn leash! He's 21 years old for crying out loud!

"A friend okay! Now can you help me or not!?" Naruto argues as he's getting impatient. He's not even sure if Hinata is working today so he doesn't want to risk missing her if she's about to be off.

"Troublesome, I got ya, follow me." Shikamaru sighs as he walks to an aisle. Grinning happily Naruto makes his way to the aisle.

"Thanks, Shikamaru, you're the best!"

"...troublesome"

Hinata's smile kept playing on his head. She surely was very pretty and she seemed to be like a genuinely honest person. He chuckled at remembering how embarrassed she looked when she saw him show up.
It must've been a shocker to her.

Suddenly he felt himself remembering something similar to that event and his smile went lower and lower.

"Kanako, why can't you be like that…" he whispers as he makes his way back to his destination.

That night Hinata laid in bed as she petted Tama who was spread across her chest. She stared at her bandaged hand as she found herself smiling suddenly.

"Naruto, you're such an interesting person. What else is there about you I wonder…" she says to herself as she wonders when the next encounter will be.

Their meeting wasn't just a one-time thing anymore is what both adults concluded.

And that's it for chapter 4!

Also…

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I'm really enjoying this story thus far! Sometimes I fear that I may be rushing certain things and being used to only writing one-shots that I forgot how nice it feels to break out the theme in the chapters of stories.

As far as this one, I'm not sure how long I want it to be, we'll just go with the flow for now!

Anyway please leave me your thoughts and opinions!
Take care, everyone!