"Just a couple should be fine." Ino motioned to the vegetables on the far end of the stand, barely paying attention to what she was doing.

The past few days had slipped by at a trickling speed, a haze of color and sound. Ino had tried everything to keep herself occupied. She had taken on an extra shift at the flower shop for the previous two days, and this morning she had volunteered herself to go out to do the shopping, even though it wasn't their usual shopping day. Her mother hadn't offered much in the form of questions, just shoved her out the door with a list and some money, spouting something about having to get the house cleaned up.

Fortunately, Inoichi had been at work, or Ino probably would have had a lot more explaining to do.

From behind the stall, the dark-haired young man who was helping Ino flashed a warm smile at her as he packed away the last of the vegetables.

"Are you sure that's all, Yamanaka-san? The cucumbers that just came in are some of the best we've had in years." He motioned to the gleaming green plants at the end of the row, though it was obvious that his attention was not at all directed at the vegetables. His eyes danced over her face, hoping for one of the flirtatious remarks that usually showed up somewhere in their conversations.

But today, no such remark left her mouth. In fact, she barely looked at him as she gave her response.

"No, that's all." Ino shook her head without enthusiasm, putting the wrapped-up purchases into the bag on her shoulder. "Thanks, Minoru."

Ino walked away from the stall without even so much as a smile in his direction, and Minoru was left more than a little confused. Brushing his hands off and throwing his produce apron aside, he called to the back that he was going on break for a little while. Before he could even get a response, he dashed after the slowly receding figure of the blonde girl.

"Hey, Yamanaka-san, wait up!"

Ino stopped and turned, rummaging through her bag as Minoru approached. Had she forgotten to pay for something? Anymore, it seemed as though she was simply working on habitual memory, so it wouldn't surprise her to have done something so careless.

He slowed as he approached her, his face warming as he got closer. Any other day, Ino might have noticed what a nice smile he had or how he had run with such effortless grace that even some shinobi would be envious, but today she just waited for him to speak, her expression almost blank.

"Listen, I don't know what your schedule's like, being a kunoichi and all, but I was wondering if you might like to have dinner sometime." He stuck his hands in his pockets, his grin widening nervously. "I know you're probably busy, but you don't seem like yourself today, and I thought you might like to go out and have a good time.

"Besides," he added, "it's a real shame for someone so gorgeous to look so sad."

Regardless of her mood, Ino preened at the compliment. A small part of her, the one that normally provoked her to flirt with this very same boy when she went to the produce stand for her family, urged her ahead. After all, what could it really hurt?

The image of her angry teammate flitted across her memory, but she pushed it aside decidedly.

"Sure." She found herself saying. "How about tonight?"

The part of her that had been making her miserable for the past few days began to protest inwardly, but she bit her tongue to keep herself from retracting her question.

Minoru's smile broadened even further – he really did have a nice smile, Ino thought. He wasn't exactly her type; as evidenced by her years-long crush on Sasuke, she tended to go for the dark and brooding type. But maybe it was time for a change.

"Great! Is seven alright?"

Ino nodded. "Just come by the shop."

Feeling increasingly confident, she tilted her head and smiled at him, her green eyes sparkling almost dangerously. "I'll be looking forward to it."

With that, she turned on her heel and left, putting just a bit of extra sway into her step. The flirtatious part of her gleamed with triumph, knowing she was still on her A-game.

Still, the part of her that had so rapidly receded at the compliment gnawed at her insides, aching for someone who seemed to be far out of the reach of anything her flirtations could accomplish.

Ino finished the last of the floral arrangements that had to be done for the day, then headed into the back room to wash off her hands and fix her make-up. Minoru had said he would be there at seven, which gave her about ten minutes to fix herself up.

She ran her fingers under her eyes with dissatisfaction, noting the dark circles that had sprung up in the past few days. With a quick swipe of foundation, they were gotten rid of easily enough, but she could still feel them beneath a surface, like holes in a wall that had just been painted over and not really filled.

She played with a strand of hair for a moment as she looked in the mirror, only for a moment contemplating leaving it down. Somehow, it didn't seem right to do that. Even now, the memory of him placing a hand over her mouth and complimenting the way her hair looked hanging loose around her shoulders… it had somehow made that his.

So Ino pulled her hair back into a loose ponytail and smoothed down a few flyaway strands around her ears, her fingers just brushing over the earrings from Asuma-sensei.

She tried not to think about how disappointed he would be if he knew how fractured this team was at this very moment. About how she couldn't keep any of her promises. Sakura seemed to have won all the way around: she was about to be promoted to Head of the Hospital and was engaged to Konoha's savior.

So much for winning in love.

And as for keeping Choji and Shikamaru in line… well, she was doing one hell of a job with that.

"Hello?" The bell on the door rang, and Ino came out of the back, showcasing her best glowing smile, as if nothing in the world had ever been wrong.

"Let's go."

As they walked toward the restaurant, Minoru held something out to her hesitantly. Ino was surprised she hadn't noticed it before; in his hands was a prettily bound bouquet of flowers.

"I know it's kind of weird to get flowers for a girl whose family owns a flower shop," He began, laughing at himself a little. "But I thought you might like them."

Ino grinned, taking the beautiful blossoms from him. She lifted them to her nose, inhaling their scent with relish.

Then she stopped.

"Wait…" she slowly brought them away from her face, looking them over with sudden alarm.

Minoru stopped in his tracks, obviously confused. "What?"

"These… these are primroses, aren't they?" Ino tried to keep the alarm from creeping into her voice, but already she could feel her eyes watering and the skin around her nose began to itch.

"Yeah…" Minoru answered slowly, still not quite catching on. "What, do you not like them?"

Ino shoved them back into his hands, not even worried any longer about being rude. She clamped her hands over her face, trying to cover the place where the skin was already red and swollen.

"Sorry." She mumbled through her hands, hoping that her eyes at least were conveying her meaning. "I'm just really…"

She stopped, sneezing violently. Minoru jumped back, startled.

"… I'm really allergic. I've got to go."

Turning as quickly as she could, she ran back towards her house; under her hands, she could feel the swelling getting worse by the minute.

Minoru shook his head as he watched her go, staring down at the flowers in his hands in disbelief.

"If she didn't like me that much, she could have just told me." He muttered to himself, tossing the flowers over his shoulder as he began his dejected walk back toward his apartment. Pretty girls were all the same: perfectly willing to flirt with you, but it was always just leading you on.

By the time Ino burst through the door of her house, she could barely catch a breath between having to run so quickly and her rapidly swelling throat.

Inoichi watched with alarm as his daughter came skidding into the kitchen, motioning frantically to a swollen patch of skin that had, at one time, resembled a mouth and nose.

Fortunately for Ino, her father knew what to do in such situations.

Approximately ten minutes and quite a bit of medicine later, Ino sat at her kitchen table, looking considerable less puffy, but far more upset. Inoichi set a cup of tea down in front of her before he took a seat.

"Care to explain what happened?

Ino shrugged, taking a sip of the tea.

"There's not that much to explain, daddy. The boy from the produce shop asked me out, I agreed to go. He got me primroses, the only flower I'm allergic to, and—"

"Just a moment." Inoichi held up a hand, his expression suddenly growing exponentially more serious. Ino shrank before his gaze, knowing exactly which phrase he was caught on.

"Asked you out? On a date?" Inoichi's gruff voiced posed the questions evenly, but Ino could see what was brewing under the surface.

"It wasn't really a date." She muttered, staring into her tea so she didn't have to look her father in the eye. "I don't really even like him that way. I just needed to get out of the house for a little while."

"Ino…" Inoichi started slowly, his eyes narrowing as he examined her shrewdly. "Dear, is there something you need to tell me?"

Ino continued to look down at her tea, hoping against hope that he might just forget the question and move on. Even being interrogated about being asked on a date was better than that loaded silence, that expectant air that now permeated the room.

Ino shook her head slowly. Had it become so obvious to everyone? Even her father knew something was wrong.

She didn't want to admit it. Admitting it to Sakura had been bad enough, and even though it seemed like everyone knew regardless, that didn't make it any easier to handle.

But she knew that she had to fess up sometime.

"Dad…" She said slowly, hoping she wasn't just digging herself into a deeper hole.

"I think I'm in love."

A/N: Goodness, I'm tired. But I really, really wanted to get this update done today, because I feel like I've been neglecting my stories for the past few weeks. So here it is! Thank you once again for all the reviews, sorry for the shortness of the chapter, and I sincerely hope you're enjoying reading this little fic!

Bit of a cliffhanger though, huh? I wonder how Inoichi will react to his daughter's honesty... who knows? ^_^

- Senka Hitomi