C6

"Ha. Pick up five."

"Hanabi, I told you. It's only the queen of spades where you pick up five."

Pouting, the youngest Hyuuga sister said, "Fine."

Chuckling lightly, Hinata turned her head to watch as Dick Van Dyck and Julie Andrews danced with penguins across their down sized fifteen inch screen. As much as Hanabi loathed to admit it, Mary Poppins was as much her favourite movie as it was Hinata's.

"Your turn." Hanabi's voice snapped her back to attention as Hinata blinked and stared down at her own cards, ready to put down her five of clubs until the startling ring of the phone sounded throughout their house.

"I'll get it." Hinata stretched back and snatched the phone from its cradle that sat on the coffee table next to them. Pressing the talk button, she greeted, "Hello?"

"Hinata?" The low and smooth timbre of the voice gave evidence of it belonging only to the eldest Uchiha, Itachi.

"Yes, this is her."

There was slight rustling on the other end of the phone. "We were wondering if you could work this Sunday from three until nine."

"Sunday?" Sunday was the day she had promised Hanabi they would go to the skating rink…but on the other hand, that was six hours worth of pay…

"No, I c--"

"Just do it." Hanabi had turned to face the TV. "It's fine."

Covering the phone quickly with her palm, Hinata hissed pleadingly, "It's okay, I-I can do it another day…really."

"Well, we can go skating another day too." She stood up after saying this and wandered down the hall to where her bedroom was, leaving Hinata behind to let the weight of her guilt drop onto her as she collapsed ungracefully onto the couch behind her.

Uncovering the phone, she answered, "Yes. I-I can do it."

"Good. See you then."

--

By the time Hinata managed to fit in a time to go over to the ice skating rink, it was a week later and the beginning of the winter holidays. Snow was threatening to fall, frost killed every flower in sight, and the pond was almost thick enough to skate on. Though the rink wasn't Hinata's first choice to go on a winter day (the café just a couple of blocks away that happened to double as a tiny second hand bookstore was her refuge on the disgustingly cold afternoons after school), her sister happened to adore it.

"Hey, watch this, Hinata!" Hanabi spun around backwards on her skates, zipping in and out of people in her way.

"Very n-nice." Hinata smiled weakly and pushed off from the edge of the arena, her ankles wobbling slightly. She was by no means a terrible skater, though she was no where near as beautiful a skater as her sister who had nine years of training, as opposed to her six months of it. She was mediocre at best.

"Yeah, I'm awesome!" Hanabi crowed and continued her backwards skating right up until the point she crashed into the very unyielding obstruction of a tall and rather opposing body.

"Hey!" She screeched and got herself up from the ice. "Asshole, you're going the wrong way!"

"Hanabi!" Hinata reprimanded in horror. "Say sorry!"

"Why? He was the one who wasn't following the flow of people!" Hanabi accused and stuck out a finger at the boy who was slowly getting up off of the ice.

"Hanabi--"

"Ha ha, no, it's fine." The boy laughed and brushed off his knees and backside. "I'm fine, no harm done here." He glanced up, a broad smile spreading across his face. "Hey, Hinata!"

Shooting her head up with a deer-in-headlights look plastered across her face, Hinata exclaimed back with both horror and surprise, "Naruto!"

"This is Naruto?" Hanabi puckered her face up in disbelief. "This is the guy that--"

"Hanabi your laces are coming undone!" Hinata squeaked and pointed at said shoes, almost stabbing her sister in the eye with her finger.

As Hanabi bent down to fix her laces (which clearly, were still tightly done up) with a withering stare at the both of them and a grumble, Naruto turned back to Hinata and grinned. "What brings you here?"

"We just…we just felt like coming." She shifted uneasily in her skates and glanced around in panic for an exit to escape to in case (in probability) that she totally said something completely awkward. Excellent. Just several feet from the exit. Meaning she could definitely skate fast enough in that distance to make it in thirty seconds flat and not fall completely on her face, though perhaps some scraped elbows and knees. But hey, who needs those anyways?

"Really? Well, I came here too with--"

"Naruto!"

Without warning a vibrant streak of red and pink smacked right against Naruto's open arms, a squeal and a giggle was emitted from the blur right before the light crash.

"Sakura," Hianta greeted, disheartened, and could almost feel herself shrinking into the background. Sakura always took up the spotlight, perhaps not on purpose, but it was as if that's just what she was born to do.

"Oh, hey, Hinata!" Sakura grinned and pushed away from Naruto who was going in for a full on hug. "How're you?"

"Fine…" She glanced over quickly at Hanabi who was tugging on her sleeve incessantly. "What?" She hissed quietly.

"Sakura? That's her?" Hanabi hissed back quietly into her ear. "She looks like a bitch. Jeez, I'd hate her too if I knew her."

"Hanabi!" She really did not want to know where her sister learned to be so foul mouthed. "She's not…and I-I don't."

"Right." Hanabi snorted and turned back to face the two brightly clothed teenagers in front of them. "Looks like another asshole friend of their's has come to join…" She murmured out of the corner of her mouth.

Before Hinata could even begin to waste her breath reprimanding her sister about her language, the quick flicker of a dark blur in the corner of her eye caught her attention. Turning quickly, she blurted out a surprised greeting. "Sasuke!"

The scowling boy turned to her, his displeasure melting slightly to an almost amiable frown. "Hinata." He nodded his head and greeted back.

"Sasuke!" Sakura squealed and clasped her hands with his together girlishly. "You promised me you'd teach me how to skate!"

He growled and shook his hands away to shove them into his jacket pockets. "I promised no such thing. Ever. And both you and I know full well that you can skate perfectly fine."

"Okay!" Hanabi clapped her gloved fingers together. "I'm gonna go and…keep skating." She shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes in the typical "Um, whatever, sure?" style ever so popular with the preteens nowadays. "You coming, Hinata?"

"Yeah," Hinata nodded and continued her wobbly skating after her sister, careful not to go to fast for fear of tripping on her own two feet and cracking her teeth on the ice. "Um, I'll talk to you guys later on…Monday?"

"Bye, Hinata!" Chirped both Sakura and Naruto in chorus.

"I'm gonna go too." Sasuke determined surprisingly quick as he jerked Sakura off the arm she managed to cling to.

"But, Sasuke--" Sakura began whining, only to be cut off by Naruto who slung an arm around her shoulders and gave Sasuke a wink while mouthing, "Thanks!"

"See ya, Sasuke, meet back later if you still want a ride home!" Naruto waved exuberantly and began skating towards the exit with talk about hot chocolate (and perhaps a movie?) to a pouting and not at all pleased Sakura.

So Hinata was left with a silent and moody boy as she watched her sister flit gracefully in and out of people with no difficulty at all.

"Keep your ankles straighter," Sasuke tapped her skate with his own. "You'll stop wobbling."

"I-I can't!" Not all of us were fantastic at everything we did.

Sighing, Sasuke snatched her elbow and proceeded to drag her towards the exit. "Your laces aren't tight enough then. You're going to injure yourself."

Giving a small shriek, Hinata clung tightly to his arm as he continued to bring her at a pace much too fast for her comfort over to the edge of the rink. "You're g-going too fast!"

With a slight scowl, he slowed their pace until Hinata was able to awkwardly step off of the rink and walk clunkily over to a seat to slowly begin unravelling the laces. Her fingers were numb and she mentally berated her stupidity for not bringing any form of gloves like her sister insisted.

"You're too slow." Stooping down onto one knee, Sasuke seized her ankle and placed it on his raised knee. His fingers were quick and nimble at their work of tugging them loose to retie them properly. Already, Hinata's face had heated up to a full on blush. His dark hair was messy from the skating and cheeks were flushed with colour from the exercise, which was a striking contrast in comparison to his usual pale pallor. And her foot was on his (very well muscled) lap.

Oh, she was being especially shameless today.

"You r-really don't have to do this for me…" Hinata insisted quietly and brushed a piece of her hair back behind her ear.

"You'd have taken at least twenty minutes more if I don't." Sasuke shot back and put her foot down gently before grabbing the next one to re-lace.

A sudden thought dawned upon Hinata as he said this. With wide eyes, she tugged on one of his hands. "You're…y-you're going to skate? With me? You're going to skate with me…" She released his hand before he could voice any complaints and used it as leverage as she leaned back against the bench. "Oh…"

Dropping her foot violently and suddenly, he glared up at her, his lips lifting in a snarl. "Remember what I said the first night you worked? We are not going to become best friends."

Slightly shocked, but not at all surprised, Hinata knit her eyebrows together. "I know…I-I'm just surprised is all." Her lips turned down in a slightly sad frown. Damn her runaway mouth, spitting out whatever came straight to mind. She bent over to continue fumbling with her laces awkwardly.

"Tch. I told you you'd take too long." Sasuke growled and swatted away her fingers, taking her foot again to continue his lacing.

Hinata figured the smile on her face at this point must've been blinding.


SO. School's started...like, last week. Ergh...

Updates. Do not expect lots of on time every two days updates.