Yes, I did change my summary, but just because I suddenly felt that the one I had didn't match with the comedic aesthetic that I had built this off of.

So here we go again! So this one is… semi-climactic. It's one of those spots in every story where it's a peak, but not THE peak.

Yeah, now you're all anticipating something good, ne?

Well, I don't know about that but here I go. I just noticed that this is almost leading up to leading up to the end. Eek. I'm not sure how many more chapters, and I don't want to say unless I totally do something different. Also, I got a new idea from this one for maybe a new fic.

No more information now, I have to go map it out, anime-style!

You see, for every story I think about writing, I make detailed and complicated maps featuring chibi drawings of my characters and arrows and lines and dots leading to different people with different explanations. And that's JUST to start one. I really don't need to do that, I just like to because it's fun I suppose.

Enough rambling, lets get this show on the road, with a lovely disclaimer to Kishimoto as well.

Hinata awoke to the feeling of Sasuke's breath blowing on her forehead rhythmically, normally… healthily. An implication as good as any that he was sleeping for the first time in a while.

The storm had blown itself out over the course of the night. He had been muttering heartening and calming things to her the whole time she… snuggled with him. Putting that confusing circumstance into a box in her head that she promptly locked for future scrutiny, Hinata instead tried to focus on something that was slightly less embarrassing.

Like perhaps the interesting thing that her… their hands were doing. By that I, of course, am referring to the linking of their fingers, their handholding.

They were in the same positions that they had fallen asleep in, with both of them curled and facing each other, hence his breath on her forehead.

Why do I love this so much? It feels really perfect, as if nothing else could ever fit like this, with him…

Who was he? This cute little hunk of love was most certainly not Naruto, a fact that Hinata failed to care so much about. Ever since she became mature enough to attract the attention of men, she had always shrugged them off, biased in comparing them to that stupid, blonde love of hers.

He doesn't have that infectious smile… He isn't optimistic… He has no drive… Things of that sort had always popped up in her mind upon being appraised by the male eye. Hell, even back a few weeks ago, at her first time working lifeguard, she condemned that creep Simon of having abs of nowhere near the same caliber of Naruto's.

So why on earth did Uchiha Sasuke change all that? She hadn't once, this whole summer, compared him to her crush… former crush? If anything, she had compared Naruto to Sasuke on a few occasions, one being paintball skills.

Hinata didn't understand any of her bizarre feelings. One thing she did know was that he seemed to be the second person in the history of ever that had caught her loving eye like this. But did she like him?

'Naruto: former crush?' equaled 'Do I like Sasuke?' in Hinata's confuse-o-meter. Aggravatingly and terrifyingly enough, they both were weighted the same on her list of questions to solve.

She slowly pried her fingers out of his, her heart falling slightly when she felt his warmth leave her from the lack of contact. Oh my… I've got to get a drink…

The sky was dark as night peeked through the large window. She heard the rain without seeing it. At least the storm was gone. She vaguely realized how well she was getting to know his apartment when she opened the correct cupboard for a cup of water. It unnerved her slightly, though at the same time emboldening her with an odd, un-Hinataish smugness.

Her random train of thought drifted to her phone, which she probably should check. As she picked it up from where it was on the arm of the couch, she stared blankly at her notifications. One call from Hanabi, one from Kiba, one from Sakura, with only the last one leaving a voicemail.

For the first time since looking at her phone, she checked the time and gasped when it read 1:48 am. It was that early in the morning? She felt like she had slept forever. Well, I was out for twelve hours I guess…

Instead of listening to whatever Sakura had to say, she pocketed her phone in the pouch on the stomach of the hoodie. After leaving her hand inside of the bunny-esque softness of the inside for a few moments, she heard him coughing.

Ok, one, he was awake. Two, she needed to get him water. The glass she had gotten out for herself was sitting abandoned on the counter, for Hinata had ADDed herself into checking her phone instead of getting water.

As she filled it under the tap, a brightly colored box caught her eye from somewhere in the cupboard that was still swung open. Curiosity got the better of her when she set the full glass to the side and reached in for the mystery box.

The mystery box ended up being a transparent box of differently colored bendy straws. Yes, bendy straws.

Uchiha Sasuke had bendy straws.

When she tiptoed back into his room, she carried with her a glass of water, complete with a pink straw for easy drinkage and for her to see the very manly Sasuke drink from a pink straw. He had not changed his position at all, but she saw his eyes completely open, looking at her.

His nose and mouth were hidden in the blanket, but for some crazy reason she though he was frowning. The intensity in his orbs was enough to clue her in, as was the tightness of his brow. Hinata smiled at him and held up her glass when she was right next to the bed, even though his coughing had more-or-less subsided.

'Here… drink this slowly." She whispered, hopping on the bed to sit by his side. He stared at her out of his cove and slowly inched his head out of it.

If she didn't know any better, she'd say that he was totally faking.

The hardness of his eyes was gone, she realized with relief. It was as if he had been pondering something but now had it all sorted out. That was good for him, whatever it was. Little did she know it was about to be good for her as well, but shush, you didn't hear it from me… (A/N: Ahahahahah, I feel like Gossip Girl. 'Xoxo… Gossip Girl…')

Hinata placed the glass of water on the bedspread and began to push it towards him. Her other hand angled the straw so he could get it without raising his head. Sasuke's coughing was gone for the most part, but he was still wheezing.

She actually let out a little "Aww…" when he stuck out his tongue and wiggled it around to direct the straw where he wanted before inching a little closer to finally claim it with his lips.

Dropping the straw out of his mouth as she said that, he tried his best to glare. (A/N: Something about men and their displeasure at feeling cute or weak… I personally don't understand it…)

"You're just cute when you're helpless…" She giggled, starting to feel lightheaded again.

What is happening to me? I never ever call people cute, and here I am, saying it to a guy! It's like I forget myself when I'm with him.

And that's a bad thing? Inner Hinata, who had been laying dormant ever since getting drunk for the first time, spoke up, her tone an appraising one.

Sasuke's pride took a serious blow from that. He just had to prove her wrong. "Helpless, you say?"

I don't have to tell her do I? Can't I show her? I'm more of a physical being anyway.

Cutely, she failed to notice the deviousness that claimed his face as he was saying that so she just laughed lightly again. "Yes…"

In a flicker of movement that she neither saw nor anticipated, Sasuke did something that involved not spilling the water and him completely getting on top of and straddling a very bewildered Hinata. It seemed like he held on to the glass with one hand and with the other reached for her wrist and pulled her towards him. When her legs were up (which took a millisecond in the grand scheme of things) Sasuke rolled, both successfully protecting her from contact with the bed and positioning him on top of her.

Of course, his hand remained on her wrist while the other raised the cup to his lips and drank without bothering with the straw when he finished his move. Hinata was completely baffled that he had done that in about one second.

He drank his victory water smugly, thank you very much. "Who's helpless again?"

It's really hot all of the sudden. Sasuke noticed, smirking as he found out another perfect variable for his plan of attack. He handed his half full glass to her free hand while he took off the hoodie that was almost deathly hot.

Hinata loved that he was taking it off (A/N: Take it off, woooo!) because it meant that he was either completely cured of his fever or was at least getting there. But then she realized, Oh, he is now without a shirt… Gah!

Her blush sidled onto her cheeks but she did not betray the nervousness onto her expression. She was not a stupid person; she was actually really smart. She understood exactly how compromising her position was. Funnily enough, she wanted to see exactly where he was going with this.

An overwhelming part of her wanted him to keep… uh… well... to keep continuing this odd sort of lap dance.

Sasuke, stupid stupid Sasuke, just assumed that she was blushing solely because he was shirtless. In a sudden bout of thirst, he lightly snatched the glass from her hand and brought it to his lips.

The glass completely drained, Sasuke lightly placed it on his bedside table, having to lean slightly on Hinata to do so. She bit her lip when he was no longer looking at her face, suddenly anxious. It was anxious in a good way though, if it was possible for that to happen.

It took her a few moments to gather a proper response to his question.

"Y-you are." She giggled, reaching out with her free hand and attempting to tickle him in his side.

She tried for a few moments in increasing desperation before realizing that her brilliant plan had completely gone up in flames. He remained in exactly the same position as before with the only change being in his now-amused face.

"Sorry, but I'm not ticklish there…" Sasuke chuckled. "Care to try to find out where?"

The sexual implication to that was as obvious as if he had shouted, "Let's have sex!" And yet, he felt as if it didn't quite register in Hinata's pure mind. Would he have to spell it out for her?

Honestly, no. But he didn't know that. It was as if he was blind when he was around her.

Maybe he would have to just say it after all. He hoped that it wouldn't come to that, but… what else could he do?

Oh wait! He could easily chicken out of confessing his feelings for her! What on earth was he thinking? That was the easiest path to take, of course. There we go, he shouldn't tell her, it would be too bothersome if she rejected him.

And yet… he was straddling her, pinning her, practically shoving his godlike chest into her face. He couldn't ask for a better set up.

She was lying there, as innocent looking as a doe, apparently thinking about something that required her face to screw up into a deathly cute expression. It was at about that time when he actually got a grip on the situation that Sasuke himself initiated. He was shirtless, sexually pinning her down onto his bed.

Cue blush… now!

Hinata was suddenly met with an explosion of realization. It was like she had suddenly become fluent in a language she didn't know. His blush just spelled it all out. He liked her!

You see Hinata was in a sticky position with her newfound knowledge. She admitted to herself that she cared so much for Sasuke that she may just have gone to the ends of the earth to help him. Naruto had dropped in her book and Sasuke had risen (drastically fast).

Sadly, all possibility for critical thinking had just imploded on itself what with the current physical situation. To be perfectly honest she didn't know exactly what she felt about the Uchiha that had so rudely (and sexily) intruded into her personal bubble.

Also, to add a wonderful layer of confusion to the whole thing, Hinata had never been in a sexual position like this in her life before. Never. This was all new.

"Care to find out where?" She thought about what he said. Uchiha Sasuke liked her. She knew from the blush and, upon further reminiscing from some other things he had ever said or did. After that she thought about other things, things that she had felt when he had done those things. Oh my, I like him. I like him! No!

Sasuke was fighting with his blush, as if he could actually stop his own blood from rushing to his cheeks.

No… this can't be happening. I can't be falling for him. Hinata thought quickly, almost hysterically. The things he had said and did were bouncing and replaying over and over in her head as her dawning realization rose into a fully-fledged fact.

He seemed to be fighting an internal battle, the chance at which Hinata took to try to hastily figure out what was going on. He likes me… I like him… FUCK!

Uh oh. Apocalypse has officially come. Fire raining from the sky, zombies right outside the door, spontaneous earthquakes, cats and dogs living together… mass hysteria! Hyuga Hinata swore.

I can't be falling for someone again. I just fucking got over Naruto just in time for college! No, nonono, I can't fall for Sasuke… he's just going to leave in like, a month! It'll take me more time to get over him than that! He's not stupid; he knows that everything will change when everybody goes off to fucking college. This can't be happening… How can he do this to me? To ANYONE?

This'll be a long apocalypse. Hinata didn't particularly seem to be in the mood to stop her dirty mouth anytime soon.

The longer Sasuke stayed on her, the more she started to panic. This is different from Naruto because in this case my love isn't unrequited! I need to do something now before… FUCK!!

Sasuke finally noticed her inner anguish, meaning that by now it had shown up on her face. Her heavily blushing face.

She knows what I'm trying to say. Hinata knows what I feel now. It wasn't a question in his mind; it was verifiable fact. "Hinata… what--?"

As he said that, she found his chest with her free hand and pushed with all her might, successfully incapacitating him from the shock of her sudden move. His hand left her wrist as he struggled instinctually to keep his center of gravity.

When he was off, Hinata scurried out of the bed with him still on it. She reached inside her pocket to find her phone gone and after scanning the area found it badly hidden within the folds of the sheets near Sasuke's knee.

The knee-owner in question just stared at her with his mouth slightly open.

"Um… y-you're obviously h-healthy now so… so I need to be getting uh, back…" Hinata's blush reached down to her neck, covering most of the skin he could see on the upper-half of her body. She snatched her phone precisely from the sheets and pocketed it, walking quickly around the bed to try to get past it… past him. She was deliberately avoiding his eye.

Her anxiety was bordering on hysterics. She needed to get out now before something happened that she would regret when it came time for them to part for college and Hinata's brutal home schooling.

She was out of the door in a flurry of movement before Sasuke came back to himself. "Huh?"

With an epic leap he jumped off his bed and was out of the door within a second, finding Hinata still freaking out, wringing her hands as she looked for the backpack she had brought. She dove for it when she saw a strap peaking out from behind the couch, gasping as she did.

"Hinata… what?" Sasuke asked blandly, the confusion in his question was almost deadly.

"T-there's f-food in the o-oven from that Chinese place we went t-to after paintball…" She muttered quickly, trying to stop the tears that were forming at the worst possible time: her escape. The backpack was slung over one shoulder in a blur as she straightened up and half-ran past him to get to the door. It was when she reached the doorknob when she met his first resistance, a hand on her shaking shoulder.

"Stop." It was an order.

He turned her around slowly, and it was when she was facing him that she realize how much taller he was than her. It was intimidating.

His face, however, was not. As soon as he saw her tears, his expression seemed to just die and in its place spawned sheer worry. One look into his eyes seemed to give Hinata's wavering feelings new heart. Sadly, her love for him came out as a tremendous sob.

"I… I have to go!" Her tone would have been called shrieking, had it not been so low decibel.

Sasuke was at a loss. What had happened to her in those brief moments where he contemplated kissing her? She was completely submissive, almost waiting for half of it and then in the next moment she was flinging him off! But far from being offended, Sasuke just wanted to find out what happened to put her into hysterics like this.

Her breathing was short and quick, as if she had been running. The tears ran over her red cheeks in two streams that led to under her chin. She was shaking, she was crying, she was talking about odd things too…

Sasuke wanted—no, needed to know. "No, you don't have to go." His voice was laced with so much odd emotion that should have gotten to her. 'Should have' being the operative words.

"Yes I do! Sasuke… y-you don't understand!!" She shook her head over and over again slowly, as if trying to get her own thoughts out of her mind. Thoughts of her and Sasuke having a lovely relationship that outlasted even time itself that she couldn't possibly think right now.

"There's nothing I don't understand."

His voice sounded so understanding that it brought on a fresh wave of tears. Well, it did once you got past the fake pride.

"I… can't. I'm so s-sorry Sasuke."

"What can't you do?"

Whatever force seemed to be holding her up at this point seemed to just break. Was she overreacting? Maybe. It was quite possible, considering that this was completely unprecedented in Hinata-land.

As was her sudden lashing out. "D-don't stand there acting like there is some way this can work!"

That caught him off-guard. Was she talking about what he thought she was? Did she have feelings for him like he did for her? She stared into his eyes for one more second before violently turning around and opening his door without even pausing to grab her shoes.

"Goodbye, Sasuke." With that small but obviously devastating farewell she fled barefoot out into the hall, stifling her sobs as she reached the elevator that had just dinged, sounding it's presence at their level.

POV CHANGE! Sakura and Kiba time!

Sakura's phone rang loudly, causing her to wake with a start. Normally she turned it to silent at night so as not to be awakened by anybody messing with her beauty sleep, but she must have forgotten tonight.

That being said, whoever was unlucky enough to be on the other end of the call was going to get an earful.

It was completely dark in her room, so she knocked over her alarm clock in reaching for the phone. Once it was safely in her grasp, she just brought it to her ear without looking at who it was.

"Who the fuck is it?"

"Uh, Kiba. Hellooooo, caller ID?"

She could not take this right now; he was always awake into the early hours of the morning and was so damn chipper at said time. Yes, they had had their midnight phone conversations that she would always start when she couldn't sleep. Even though they bit into whatever thing he was doing so early, she knew he loved it.

What she didn't know was that Kiba stayed up sometimes solely for those conversations.

"I should have known…" She groaned, rolling over in bed to take a look off the bed at her downed clock. It read 1:56 am.

Kiba laughed, but it was short, almost fake. "Yeah, well it's an emergency."

Even that slightly foreboding news didn't shake her from her drowsiness. She also failed to wonder why Kiba would call her if Hinata were with him, as the girl said she would be. "Uh huh. Shoot."

"Did you know that Hinata is at Sasuke's house? That she left my house after we did and hasn't been home ever since?"

"What?!" Sakura cried, not caring about the early hour. She sat up in bed, her covers flung off her. That was exactly the gossip that she liked to hear, but something was off. Hinata spent the night? "Wait, she actually got in?"

"Oh, by the way we totally forgot to call her like we said we would. But yeah, that's what it seems like. I know about Operation: Doghouse considering I'm the dog, so was that what she declared?"

"Yeah, she did. Her dad thinks she's sleeping over here. You sure she's not with you?"

Even to the ends of the earth she could count on his odd humor. "Wait a second while I look for her. Nope, not behind the fridge…"

"Right, I got it."

"So what're we going to do?"

"Come again?"

Kiba sighed on his end of the phone. "You were the one who wanted to talk to him! If Hinata's there, at least she'll let us in, don't you think? You know her, she's always up late like this doing something, I'm sure this is no different just because her location is."

"Us?" Sakura inquired lightly, beginning to tease him like she always did. Any outside spectator would declare her head-over-heels if they ever saw her talk like this to anyone. This seemed more real than Sasuke ever had.

Sakura was better at reading herself than Hinata was, so she actually knew when she was falling for someone, and not after he physically confessed his feelings.

"Well, yeah."

Sakura was also a little braver up front. "What is 'Us', anyway?"

At his pause, she wondered if he might have been blushing. She was smiling when he stuttered his next sentence.

"Putting grammar aside, 'Us' is about to go see what's up." Good save, doggie, good save.

"After that, do you want to go out for breakfast? Wait, let's please plan this later…"

"I'll take you up on that, later though. Stay focused Sa-ku-ra…"

Ah, the mocking never ends.

Ten minutes later, the Jeep was parked right outside in the handicapped spot (just because nobody was around to ticket him for it) and Sakura and Kiba were in the elevator that just started rising to the top level.

"So, what's the plan?" Kiba asked coolly from where he was, leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets.

This angered Sakura to the point of her punching him in the arm. "This was your idea!"

"Yeah, but…" Kiba trailed off, rubbing his bruised arm. So beautiful, the punches of love…

"How about we knock and if nobody comes within a minute, we call her? If we fail then, you're taking me out to a real-ly early breakfast." Sakura brainstormed out loud, biting her lip when she was finished.

"Sounds goo—hey!"

"You're saying you don't want to take me out?"

Well, someone wore the pants in this budding relationship, that's for damn sure.

"No I'm not, I just forgot to bring money…"

They both heard the ding of the elevator as it reached the highest floor, their destination.

"Well, I'll cover your ass this time I suppose, but—Hinata!" Sakura was startled for when the metal doors slid open she was greeted with their friend.

Their blubbering, tear-stricken friend.

Their plan didn't even make it to the runway. If anything it exploded in the hangar.

"What is going on?" Kiba asked, jumping out of the box to her side immediately. Sakura still had her foot in the doorway when she touched her shoulder lightly.

Hinata tried to get away, but Kiba held her shoulders securely with anxious comments of, "Hina! Hinata what happened?"

Turning her head towards the only answer to this mystery, Sakura took one long glance down the hall to where Sasuke was standing, halfway out of door, looking as bewildered as she had ever seen him.

They needed to figure out what was going on. Detective Team: Harunuzkua is on the job and ready for action.

Wow, I just figured out that, of all the things I have found that I am at least vaguely competent at writing, romantic realization is not one of them. I do hope I made it seem like Hinata and Sasuke would get together even though they didn't, because that was my motive in writing it like I did.

Sorry if it sucks, in rereading it, it seemed like the only part that I wrote was the beginning and the Sakura/Kiba part… the middle, I just died. I think that was the point where I was stricken with a short writers block for a bit.

Eek.

Scenes From the Next Episode:

Sakura decided then and there that both his and Hinata's lives were just big fucking messes. Seems that had been one of the things that had drawn them together, and then Hinata had to just ruin it by freaking out. This was all just a big fucking mess!