Butterflies

"Me? I'm nobody. I'm not skilled like Uchiha-san. I am not passionate like Haruno-san. I am not smart like Nara-san. I'm not as strong as Chouji-san. I'm not as collected as Aburame-san. Or as pretty as Yamanaka-san. I'm not as confident as Inuzuka-san. If anything, I'm like Hyuuga-san, socially awkward. Oh wait, no, she's just shy. The socially awkward one is me." OC! Team 7 remix!

Chapter 17 – Chouji: Miss me

8-8

"It's weird." I say, looking at an empty patch of grass. "Too weird." I grab another bag of chips; my third in the last hour. Ino and Shika are both here. This used to be everything I ever needed to be happy. My best friend and my… distraction?

I… don't know what to make of this. But, it's just not the same. "You miss her, huh?" Ino asks. I know she means Aya-chan. And if I'm really honest… she's probably right. I mean, she's usually so quiet. And she's usually just making me nervous or making feel like I ate too much.

Now though…

We've been back for just over an hour. There was no discussion what we'd end up doing, we always just hang out in Shika's back yard. It's just…

I sigh. A long, drawn out, weighed down by the world sigh.

"It's weird… being here without her. You know?"

"So why don't you tell her? She's dying for you to tell her how you feel." Ino says, but really? I mean, me? I know Aya-chan likes me, but I've been pretty much waiting for her to snap out of it. What is there to like about a… chubby kid like me?

Nah. She'd probably just fall for Naruto while they're out on a mission or something. Or Sasuke. I mean everyone keeps saying how cute and whatnot Sasuke is. Other than Hinata, I've never really met a girl that didn't have a crush on him. And Naruto? I mean, yeah, he's not exactly Sasuke, but they're close. I… I don't really stand a chance against them.

And that's not even thinking about every other guy in the village that would kill to be with Aya-chan. I mean, she's pretty, she's smart, she's strong, she's motivated… she sings like an angel, she plays the flute… I've even heard about her drawings, though she's never shown me one. She can cook. She can fight. She's… also so gentle, so soft…

I really like how she seems to just fit into my arms too. I'm not exactly the broad-shouldered buff that girls tend to fall for, but the one time I had her in my arms; it felt… it felt right.

"I'm gonna go get something to snack on."

8-8

Team training's been weird. Ino's been worried about me. Shika's been worried about me. Asuma-sensei has been worried about everything. Asami-san hasn't shown up once either. Sensei says she's out on a mission. I kinda understand how he feels.

So even though we're here in Yakino Q, even though sensei's paying for us to eat whatever we want, I'm just not hungry.

"Maybe you should stop snacking so much between meals." Sensei suggests, but even I know that isn't it.

"It's not that, sensei. Aya-chan's out on a mission too." Ino announces. I sigh. "Sorry…"

"It's alright." I say, but it doesn't feel alright. At all. It feels weird. Konoha feels weird. Even team meetings feel weird.

I've gotten used to spotting her here and there whenever we're out. I've gotten used to her being at auntie's for dinner. I haven't even bothered going over since getting back. Not that auntie's cooking is bad! Not at all! It's just…

"I see." Sensei says, patting me on the back.

I sigh again. You know what. I can't keep doing this to myself. I need to eat. Mom'll get mad if I don't.

Wow… even the taste of food isn't the same without her… I sigh, shovelling in my meal.

8-8

"Chouji, are you alright?" Mom asks. I look up at her, wondering what she means. "You've barely touched your dinner."

I shake off my train of thought. "I'm sorry. It's delicious, but I'm just…"

"You're not yourself these days. Did something happen on your mission? I'm a kunoichi, you can talk to me about it, you know." She offers.

"It's not that. The mission was pretty boring really. I mean, we basically just had to deliver a scroll to some businessman in the Land of Grass." I tell her. "Nothing special happened on the way, nothing on the way back. It was mostly just a lot of running."

"Did something else happen then?" She asks. I can see that she's worried, her eyes have always said more than the words she uses. I shrug, going back to moving food around in my plate. "Or does this have to do with a certain young lady that's away on a mission?"

I freeze.

"I thought so. Yoshino-chan told me to expect something like this. And she'd know, you're usually at her house more than you're home. But these days, it's almost as if you're avoiding that place."

I look away from her. Away from the delicious-smelling food she cooked for me. She was in the kitchen well over an hour making it, and now…"I'm sorry…"

"Don't be sorry, honey. Talk to me. Tell me what's going on."

"I.. dunno." I shrug, trying to get this stupid feeling to go away. "I just feel weird going there."

"Without her?" She asks. I nod. "How do you feel about her?"

"I dunno." I answer honestly. "I mean, she scares the crap out of me! She's always so quiet. And she's so quick to hit people for the weirdest thing. I used to think that she was bottled violence just waiting to strike."

"…" Mom clearly doesn't know what to think about that. I sigh.

"… but lately… she's been so different." I think about her. About the days we've spent together. About the times I walked her home. "She's been so calm, so peaceful. She's been smiling a lot more too. And she likes hanging out with us. She even likes pointing out clouds that remind her of food."

"She doesn't make fun of me either. Actually, I think she understands why I eat so much, why I'm so hungry. She even cooked for us when we went to her apartment. She cooks good too. And she didn't mind me eating chips right after, she just didn't want me to eat chips before."

"And she plays the flute. The shinobue, I think. And she likes to sing too. I can tell just from the look on her face how much she loves music. She looked so… calm, so peaceful. And she even cast a genjutsu while she was playing her flute! She said they were scenes from a book she liked, but I can't remember the name of it."

"She sings so pretty. But when we told her that she waved us off like she didn't believe us. I mean, I've never heard someone sing like that before. It sounded like… waking up to the sound of bacon frying, you know?"

The sound of a low whistle meets my ears. "Sounds to me like you really like her." Dad says. I honestly didn't even remember he was here.

Yeah, I know I like her… and I know she likes me. But what do I do with that? "N-nn."

"Have you told her that?" Mom asks. I shake my head, no. "Why not?"

Because pretty girls don't fall for guys like me, but if I tell mom that, she'll just give me that speech about how 'a girl like her should be so lucky to have you'. I shrug instead. Moms are supposed to believe their son's the most handsome guy in the world; not a reliable source of information.

"Just give it time, Chou-chan." Mom tells me. I kind of feel like she knows more than she lets on, but that's always the case with her. "And whatever you do, just keep being my amazing little gentleman. If she's the one for you, she won't care about the things you think she will."

8-8

End Chapter 17

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A/N: Almost a mini-chapter, or simply an interlude. But, this is what I needed to show. Dragging it out would just make it seem weird, and pathetic. I don't want Chouji to be cast in that light. I want him to seem human, approachable, you know?