Hunted or Busted: A Side Story
Dusted 19: The Fox and The Hood: Settling Things
Hey there! Remember this! I know the last time this was updated it was just to give NKTS a quick preview before the new volume started, but we're back with the story! And by story, I mean whatever weird elseworld or vignette I wanted to give some time to.
When we last left off, Ruby had taken the dive and locked lips with Naruto. And now she'll come to regret that decision.
((((((((Hunted))))))))
In the movies and shows, after a beautiful display of affection and adoration like a passionate kiss under fireworks, things are just perfect and quaint. Everything is settled and worked out and wonderful in every way. But there was something all of those shows and movies skipped that was a very essential part of life...
The moments after the spontaneous kiss that two people had to figure out what the hell they were doing.
Ruby sat on the couch, the trained and experienced Huntress now a nervous wreck of anticipation and anxiousness as her partner walked in front of her. She was flanked on either side of the couch with the plushie she had gotten from Naruto and the plushie she had won for him in return.
She felt like the overwhelming size of the plushie she had won was baring down on her, judging her silently after she had stolen a kiss against its fluffy exterior. S-She was sorry okay! It was a spur of the moment thing! She regretted it immediately! C-Could she go back in time?! Decide to keep her mouth shut and never say anything about her budding feelings?! Anything! Anything to get out of this awkward, unbearable silence!
Naruto was just silently walking back and forth in front of the couch as he tried to make sense of what had happened. They had traveled back home in complete silence after the festival was finished and she had kissed him. And when they returned to the apartment Ruby had just sat down and waited for him to say something. And watched him walk around over and over with his face in his hands and running through his hair and mumbling to himself and-
AH! THE ANTICIPATION WAS KILLING HER!
Naruto mercifully came to stop and looked over at her. And it was in that moment she realized that she hadn't actually been preparing anything to say or answer if he asked her something. G-Go back to walking around! Give her a little more time to think!
He turned to her, his ears flinching in his hair as he muttered, "So...you like me?"
The first instinct of hers was to immediately deny it and say it was a joke! That she was only playing a prank and she didn't actually mean it and that they should both just forget about it! But after a moment of intense silence she shuffled around and murmured, "Y-Yeah."
"So...when did you start...l-liking me?"
"S-Stop saying it." Ruby whined and groaned into her hands. She dragged them down her face before looking up at Naruto with an almost pleading expression, "Can we just - y'know - not talk about this?"
"Of course we need to talk about this! You kissed me! Under the night sky! With fireworks! And told me you like me! That's - like - super romantic and important!"
"Oh god I want to die!" Ruby's face was as red as her hood as tears had started to gather around her eyes from the intensity of the situation, "Can we just move past that part? It was really just a spur of the moment kind of decision!"
"Well the moment's past and I'm still thinking about it!" Naruto exclaimed, flustered and bothered as well by how this situation was playing out. The whiskers boy grabbed his hair and pulled, "I mean I can still taste your lips on my..."
They stared at each other in silence as their faces started to flush with blood. Ruby shook her head rapidly, "T-That doesn't mean anything! I-It was only a kiss! Some cultures kiss each other all the time as a greeting!"
"Which ones?"
"I don't know! Some! I'm trying to make this easy! I kiss Yang and my dad and Uncle Qrow all the time!"
"Oh you know that's not the same thing!"
"Yeah, okay, fair enough! But I mean it was only a kiss! I gave my first kiss away to a kid on the playground when I was just 10 on a dare! They don't mean anything! L-Like when was the first time you kissed someone?"
...
Ruby blinked with anticipation and waited as she got no answer. She quickly noticed Naruto was looking away as his cheeks started to burn a little hotter. Realization slowly dawned on Ruby as her mouth opened and closed wordlessly a couple of times. Was she...had she been his...
Wow...on the plus side she just made a big impression on his life.
"L-Let's move past it. Please." Naruto begged, covering his face for a moment before looking more serious with a light hue still dusting his cheeks, "You like me, right?"
Ruby meekly nodded, "Uh-huh."
"Why?" He shrugged, "I mean have you always liked me or-"
"W-Well yeah, but not like this. You've always been my friend. Since our first day at Beacon you've been an irreplaceable part of my life." Ruby fondly whispered, "And after we graduated and you offered to help pay for an apartment we could both work out of I was just so happy. I really thought things were ruined when we had that awkward phase between us but then we went out on a mission around the world. And I think that's when it happened."
She looked up at him with a beautiful smile and Naruto found himself floored by how she looked at him, "Running around the world helping people was just so much fun. Even when it got hard and scary, fighting alongside you made it seem all the more easy. And so as we traveled from place to place and did all those awesome things I just started to realize how happy seeing you happy made me. You were going out fulfilling a dream and I was honored to get the chance to join with you on your journey. I worried about you. I was relieved when I knew we were both okay. And during that final mission in Vacuo when we were surrounded by Grimm and my eyes did that thing..." Ruby gently touched the edge of her eye, "It was the thought of losing you and how much I didn't want that to happen. And when I realized how much I enjoyed my time with you, and how I wouldn't have liked it nearly as much if you weren't there beside me, I knew that I felt something for you."
"So...is that why you've been acting a little different?" Naruto asked, moving the small plushie aside to sit with her on the couch, "I mean for the last few months I noticed sometimes that you act a little panicked when I'm around. And when I came back from that mission-"
"Yeah," Ruby sighed, "It's a bit of a shock to hear the guy you like got a proposition to commit adultery with consent from both parties. I was so unsettled by that I didn't know what to do."
"Man...all this time?" Naruto leaned back against the couch and exhaled as he stared up at the ceiling. Ruby lowered her head and nodded. They two partners sat together without saying a word before Naruto sat up and shuffled uncomfortably. He looked at his shorter friend, "So...what now?"
"Well, nothing if we don't want. I-I just wanted to get it off my chest finally." Ruby admitted, avoiding eye contact with him, "I mean I like you but there's no guarantee that you'd like me back. Plus I mean you probably still think I'm a kid compared to you-"
"Ruby, I haven't seen you as a kid in years."
"Huh?"
"Granted when we first met I definitely did but even then you still were an amazing kid that wanted to be a Huntress more than anything. And as time passed I saw you grow and mature but that desire never faltered at all." Naruto looked at her fondly as she felt breathless under his gaze, "You have become probably the clearest ideal of what a true Huntress looks like in my eyes."
Ruby gulped and turned her eyes to her lap. Be still her beating heart! Hearing him say all that about her was…it really…oh god she couldn't think straight. At least she knew the way she acted had left a good enough impression on him to-
"Plus I haven't really been able to see you as a kid since the incident when you-"
Naruto clapped his hand over his mouth to stop himself from speaking any further. Ruby looked up at him in befuddlement as his eyes started darting around and away from her. He saw her as a woman? Since the incident?
Since she walked into the shower with him naked?
Ruby's eyes widened before she looked up at her whiskered partner and caught his eyes. She stuttered, "N-Naruto, have you…" She paused and hesitated, realizing she was too embarrassed to say the word on the tip of her tongue. So instead, in her infinite wisdom, her hand automatically raised up and started going back and forth in a jerking motion, "To me?"
His blush spread out from behind his hand and covered his entire face, mortified by Ruby's deduction. The silver-eyed girl blushed as well, floored by the fact that apparently Naruto had – um – 'tired himself out' by thinking about their incident and seeing her in the shower. She guessed she should feel – uh – flattered? No. Embarrassed? Definitely but that wasn't quite it. She wasn't sure how she felt about hearing that Naruto saw her like that. Well, whatever she felt, she defeintly knew she couldn't let him know that-
"I've thought about you like that too."
"Huh?"
"What?"
"What'd you say?"
"Did I say something?"
"You said you thought about me like that too."
"OH GOD I SAID THAT OUT LOUD?!" Ruby screeched, causing Naruto to cover the ears on his head as she screamed into her hands, "OH GOD I HATE TODAY! THIS IS THE WORST! IT'S SO EMBARASSING! IT JUST WON'T STOP! MAKE IT STOP!"
It took about ten minutes of screaming, weeping, panicking, and yelling at each other and themselves before things started to quiet down. Naruto was on the ground leaning back against the couch in exhaustion while Ruby was laid out on the floor, her face still hidden behind her hands as she curled up into a ball. The two numbskulls caught their breath before they ended up not making any sounds or movement at all.
Naruto stretched his leg out and gently poked Ruby's side with his toe. A silver eye peeked out between her fingers to look at him, "What do we do now?"
"Hide in our rooms until either the embarrassment fades away or we starve to death?"
"So, we resign to starving to death?"
"Pretty much." The two shared a weak chuckle before it died again.
Naruto stared at her, "So what do we really do now?"
"I-I don't know." Ruby whispered, sitting up and facing Naruto with a fretful air around her, scared at where this conversation may go because of the choice she made to ease her selfish desire, "I-I mean I don't want us to stop living together or stop being friends-"
"Of course not." Naruto shook his head, "That was never an option."
"O-Okay, good." She nodded, "So then we could just forget I said any of this…"
"Or we could try it out?"
Ruby blinked in shock and looked over at the blond Faunus in disbelief, "What did you say?"
"I mean if you want we could...you know..." Naruto scratched his head nervously and looked aside, "I-I'm up to-"
"Naruto," Ruby showed a serious expression and shook her head, "Don't say that you'd do this out of pity."
"No no no, it's not pity! Nothing like that! It's just - your - Ruby," He sighed and sat up against the couch a little higher, "Ruby, you are probably the person I am closest to in the whole world right now. I care about you - more than I care about most others. I get that you saved us from all those Grimm because you were scared for me, but I pushed on after that because I wanted to make sure you were safe too."
Ruby flushed but still frowned, "I get that, but you don't have to force yourself to like me."
"I'm not forcing myself! Why would you think I would have to force myself to-"
Ruby shook her head, "This was a mistake. I shouldn't have said anything-"
"Wait!" Naruto lurched forward and grabbed Ruby's shoulders before she could run to her room. Stopping her from escaping, Naruto looked directly into Ruby's silver eyes and spoke, "Look, we're not handling this well. I think we can both agree we should have addressed this with clear heads and talked about it a little better." Ruby blushed but quietly nodded, "But even so...would it be bad if we tried going out?"
"It would." Ruby nodded, "If you're just doing it to protect my feelings."
"Alright, fair enough." Naruto relented, "Then...would you go on a date with me?"
"Seriously?"
"You asked me out tonight, didn't you?" Naruto asked and Ruby slowly nodded her head, "Then this time let me be the one to prepare and plan a night out. Just...let me take the chance to develop how I feel and see what it is like. Not out of pity or a misguided attempt to protect your feelings...but because I want to share this feeling with one of the best people in my life."
Ruby quietly looked down but nodded her head slightly. Naruto released her shoulders and slumped back into the couch, exhausted by the series of events that had followed their night at the festival.
He opened his eyes and looked down when he noticed Ruby and slid up next to him and rested her head on his shoulder. She had done this a lot during their trip around the world; using his shoulder as a pillow when she was sleepy or a method of support when she was tired. He was always happy to provide her some support during their trying travels, but the revelations tonight painted these moments in a whole different light.
Although even though he knew her secret and even though she was obviously embarrassed by everything that happened...she still came over and rested on his shoulder for support.
That was just how badly she needed it.
He rested his head on her hair and the two partners sat in silence as the nebulous state of their relationship hung in the air.
((((((((Hunted))))))))
Done
Been awhile but I thought I'd give this a quick update. I was struggling to write another story and realized I could detox and focus again if I just wrote something else real quick. So I decided to continue Naruto and Ruby's path through life.
And then I decided to torture them with sheer, unrelenting awkwardness. If you cringed so hard your underwear shifted then I'll know I've won.
And with the little reminder that I don't have to go from one giant ass chapter to another and could just have fun fooling around with these stories, I think I'll come back and give this a little more attention. And if you're worried that I'm sacrificing time writing the bigger things for this, I wrote this in less than a day.
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Thank You and Bye
