Hinata smiled slightly as she brought the mug of hot cocoa to her lips, sipping the warm chocolaty liquid carefully so as not to burn her lips.
"Ouch!" yelled her boyfriend beside her, slamming his cup down on the small table that the four friends had occupied inside the small café on the main street of Konoha. "I burned my tongue!" Kiba said, not altogether quietly, and held his hand to his mouth.
Hinata snickered at the look on her cousin's face across the table. Neji's face was contorted into his signature scowl, and he was no doubt reveling in the fact that after all of Kiba's teasing about Tenten's mittens karma had finally caught up with him.
"You shouldn't have drunk it so quickly, Kiba!" scolded Tenten, blowing over the top of her own mug, hands still covered in her new panda mittens. "So do you guys have any plans for the rest of the day? It looks as though you two are about done with your Christmas shopping." She gestured to the various bags and parcels that Kiba and Hinata had at their feet.
Hinata smiled and nodded. "We both got the last of our presents today. It's a huge relief having that done," she answered. She looked over at Kiba who was trying to soothe his burnt tongue and smiled. "I don't think we had anything planned for later tonight?"
Kiba shook his head. "Nope, I was just going to take Hinata home and enjoy a nice evening of Christmas movies and snuggling." He took his arm that wasn't holding his hot chocolate and wrapped it around Hinata's shoulders, sending the other Hyuga a sly wink. He chuckled as Neji's hand tightened around his own cup and he shot the Inuzuka a death glare that clearly expressed his wish to leap across the table and throw Kiba halfway across the continent and away from his cousin. Hinata's face reddened at the abrupt, albeit rather minor, public display of affection before deciding to enjoy this and leaned into Kiba's gesture. She wasn't sure what it was but whenever she was around her team mate she found herself daring to do things she would never do otherwise, including risking the wrath of her cousin. Neji turned his warning glare towards her this time.
"Well that's okay, you can skip out on that tonight," Tenten said and added under her breath, "although I'm not sure either of you would live to see tomorrow if you did do that…" She cleared her throat. "Anyways, I thought it would be fun to go out ice skating tonight. I know of a nice little pond by the training grounds that no one goes to, so we can have the whole thing to ourselves. What do you guys think?"
"Sounds good to me!" exclaimed Kiba, downing the rest of his hot chocolate while Hinata silently nodded her head in agreement. "Why don't we meet at Team Eight's training grounds at 9 and go from there? Good? Okay, see you then!" And with that he gathered their packages in his arms and dragged a reluctant Hinata out of the restaurant and onto the busy streets outside.
The two of them walked in silence for awhile, but Hinata didn't mind. That was one thing about Kiba that she loved. While on the outside he was loud and according to some, obnoxious, he admitted to her that when it was just the two of them he was more than happy to sit in silence. She smiled as she thought at how complete the two of them were with each other. She quiet when he wasn't around, but with him she was loud and playful. And while Kiba was often rowdy around the other guys, when the two of them were alone together Kiba would simply hold her and say not a word.
"You know you really should be careful with how you act with me when Neji is around, Kiba…if he reports anything out of proportion to Father we're going to be in big trouble…" she scolded him, leaning against his arm as they walked down the boulevard.
"I don't think he would dare, not with him dating Tenten without the elders' approval. Anyways, if he did and they tried to separate us I'd come and rescue you and we'd run away and they'd never find us," he said, kissing her lightly on the top of her head. Hinata smiled and huddled closer to him, happy that for now the two of them were together.
"Besides, did you see the look on Neji's face when you leaned into it? Priceless!"