Chapter Six–The Impromptu Date-

Hinata couldn't help biting her nails when she took a glance at her old Mickey Mouse watch. It was already ten past one, and based on her schedule, she was supposed to be in English class, not in this unfamiliar car, going to nowhere.

She glanced at the driving man beside her and felt her stomach twist strangely. Sasuke wasn't in a good mood, she knew. His face was creased and his breaths were fast, and there were a few veins jutting on his backhands. And if only he hadn't set the music volume in the highest level, she'd hear him cursing violently.

Mustering her courage, Hinata leaned over and lowered the volume a little. She wanted to cheer him up, maybe a compliment or two would do it.

"Uchiha?" she called him as she lowered the radio volume. Her action got rewarded by a throbbing glare from the albino.

"What?" he snapped.

His words brought her a sudden apathy, but she hadn't give up. "W-wouldn't we g-get in trouble… s-s-skipping classes…?"

Sasuke's voice was cold as he asked back. "You don't trust me?"

She gasped as a tremor ran through her spine. Pressing her fingers together, she cautiously replied. "N-no…"

"Then be quiet."

"Y-yes, sir!" she covered her mouth as soon as she noticed how she addressed him. "I-I mean.. Sasu- oh no.." she shook her head. "- Uchiha..!"

Realizing that she just said his name a little bit too loud for her approval, she fidgeted. Not having enough courage to look straight at the man, Hinata bowed her head down deeply as she prepared her ears to take in any words the raven haired guy would say. But even after a few moments waiting, he hadn't responded.

When she dared herself to look at him; she saw Sasuke had turned his back to her. His shoulders shook a little and she could hear a few nasal sounds of snorts.

Was he laughing at her?

At least it was a better thought than Sasuke planning to disembowel her.

"Uchiha..Uchiha?"

"First beautiful and now you call me 'sir'." He said, still didn't look at her, then a short, very short chuckle came from his mouth as he glanced at her. "Your stuttering results really are unpredictable."

Hinata blushed. Here came the regurgitated conversations that made her feel uncomfortable.

"I..I think Neji w-would be mad if w-we left him like that…" she said, trying to change the topic.

If anything, Sasuke tensed. "Oh, I left him a letter."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

She couldn't hide her curiousness. She had seen that Neji and Sasuke had been fighting, and she did see that it was mainly because of her. Seeing Neji in his livid stage wasn't Hinata's favorite hobby, thus, she didn't really like it if Sasuke used her to tease Neji. "W-what did you s-say to him?"

He didn't answer; only drew a deep breath, and when he spoke again, his voice hinted his annoyance for her prying. "You're pretty talkative, huh?"

She just realized that he was irritated by her and quickly came to her usual fidgeting pose. Her eyes cautiously went up to meet his while she muttered. "I'm sorry.. I just.."

". . .Feel safer if he's around." He guessed.

Hinata felt it strange to find that he was right.

"No, no, it-it's not that.." she lied. She had been a bad liar, but she'd done it so much until her lies became more and more convincing as time passed. Most people would instantly believe her white lies, with Neji and Hanabi as exceptions. Of course, that's because they'd known her for so long.

But how surprised she was when Sasuke only smirked and shook his head as he pointed out. "You're lying."

Hinata had never thought that Sasuke had known her that well.

"You.. you always a-act sweet to me i-if he's around…" she decided to come clean.

He shrugged. "I'm always sweet."

She felt her cheek burn after she heard that. Sasuke's high self-esteem often brought her apathy. "I-it's in a differ-different caliber.." a few moment nibbled on her lower lip before she continued. "Y-you actually acted nice."

Sasuke ran a hand through his hair. "Shouldn't I act nice to my girlfriend?" he muttered, then suddenly stopped as he had taken in her meaning. A moment later, he was found suppressing a growing smirk as amusement flickered in his eyes.

His tone was teasing. "You want me to act like a real boyfriend even when there's only the two of us?"

She hadn't replied –as if she could reply with her jaw dropped, but Sasuke had spoke again. "Seeing that it'd be me as the beneficiary.." he pretended to look at her full lips and licked his own perfect lips. "I wouldn't mind, really."

Hinata tried to work on her mouth a several times, but ended up only opening and shutting it up wordlessly. She felt her whole body was burning; it was either she was blushing deep crimson or she was turning green due the embarrassment.

"Y-you're.." she tried to laugh, but failed miserably by looking like a nauseated pig. "You h-have a weird s-sense.. of humor.."

Although he didn't smile, his voice was cordial. "I've been told that."

Just like that, the tension seemed to leave him. That time Hinata realized how it was easy to alleviate the Uchiha. He may seem unapproachable and intimidating, but he was surprisingly easy to please. Hinata wondered if he just smiled more and talked more, maybe she would dare to call him perfection itself.

They reached the restaurant shortly afterwards. Only by giving a quick glance at the sign, Hinata had knew that it was an extremely expensive steakhouse that had claimed popularity among the world. Her father had brought the whole family to eat in there a few times, on special occasions of course. And that was all for dinner. She glanced at her watch again, and suddenly felt awkward to have lunch in such heavenly place.

"Y-You sure.. want to eat here?" she asked him when he opened the door for her.

"You don't like steak?"

"N-no…" she saw he winced, and quickly explained her answer. "I mean.. I-I like steak. B-but it's just.. awkward.. I usually eat steak a-at dinner."

To her surprise, a vague smile appeared on his lips. "Well, break the habit sometimes. It's pretty healthy."

He didn't touch her when he walked her to the restaurant. And by the time they entered the place, he instantly picked the farthest table, the one near the corner, ignoring the hostess' recommendation. Hinata saw the hostess's nostrils flared as she muttered 'snob, snob' or something in same implication with that, and smiled apologetically to her.

A waitress came over their table only to be surprised at the fact that they were only kids. But she hid the shock quickly and gave them the menu. Hinata noticed that the woman was only speaking and looking at Sasuke whenever she talked or recommended some foods, and quietly agreed with her. Sasuke was beautiful, indeed. They way he talked or acted was graceful, and he had one of the most gorgeous faces she had ever seen. If he wanted to, he could be a model in any agency.

"Hinata!" his voice snapped her back to reality.

"Eh..?"

"What you'd like to get?" he asked.

She frantically turned over the menu book, and with Sasuke's guide, ordered one chicken steak. The waitress nodded, smiled too widely, and walked away. Hinata noticed that her hips were swaying unusually and she was amazingly endowed. And just in instant, almost every male species in the building was leering on her.

Sasuke wasn't included, though. He only glanced a little.

"She knows how to flaunt very well." He commented.

Not knowing if he wanted her to agree or to object, Hinata chose the safe way by nodding silently.

Then he made an abrupt action by leaning into her and hovered on her face. "If only you can do that, you'd do it better."

She gaped at him.

"You've got a better bod than her, in case you didn't know." He said that so matter-of-factly that Hinata couldn't really decide if he was joking or not. But after she saw the seriousness in his face, she finally concluded that he didn't.

"Y-you always... com-compli-compliment me." she stammered. It was kind of hard to talk if there was a guy a few inches before you, and he had a breathtakingly stunning face, and you were practically gagging because of his words.

He straightened his back then relaxed on his chair. "People like to be complimented."

"Oh." She saw his points. So in short, he wanted her to be happy.

"And not many people compliment you." he added.

That didn't really make her happy.

"S-so..." she cleared her throat, trying to dash away from the subject. "Why did you... b-bring me here…?"

'To be away from your cousin, of course!' he wanted to say. But then he decided not to be so crude and gave her the secondary reason.

"We need to know each other."

He saw her blush again and strangely felt amused. This girl was so easy got embarrassed. Usually he didn't like teasing people, especially a semi-stranger like this Hyuuga girl, but her blushing wsd so amusing that he couldn't help it.

"People know us as a couple." He said.

"Y-yeah..." she still seemed confused.

Did he need to explain all to her? Gee, he'd never thought that the girl was this stupid.

"Don't you think we should have a kind of love history or such?" he said a little bit too roughly. She stiffened in her seat.

"I-I guess… Neji-nii had b-been asking me how w-we get attracted t-to each other."

He knew it, that freaky white-eyed guy wouldn't let his plan go smoothly!

"So?"

Her white-purplish eyes blinked a few times as she repeated what he had said.

If only he didn't have respect for her, he'd likely shout at her. "Had you thought of any love story for us?" he elucidated rather impatiently.

She only timidly shook her head.

He clicked his tongue to show his irritation.

The waitress came not so long after, and still had that distinctive walk. He was flattered to see that she did that for him –that redhead shamelessly winked at him, for God's sake-, but sadly, she was kind of spring-fling type for him. It wasn't interesting to have girls who were openly into him. He didn't feel the challenge. Then again, most girls were like that, some of them even willing to offer a one-night-stand with him. Had she not been interested in him, she'd be either a dyke or a girl who already had both a crush and an extremely classical mind that includes fantasies about knight in shining armor.

Very much like the girl who was intertwining her hands in front of him.

Aka, not his type.

"Please enjoy." The red-head said, then tossed him a flirtatious smile before she went away.

Hinata still glowered and he felt guilt creep into him. "Forget about it, then. Let's just say I suddenly fell in love with you at the first sight." He gave another alternate. It was the easiest, although not making sense. But then again, whoever said love was sensible? He had seen his mother and his father, and he knew very well that his ma was deeply hurt by Fugaku's inappropriate actions towards her, but still, she loved him with all her heart.

He better stop thinking about it before it got into his nerves.

"Well?"

"O-Okay.." she nodded again.

It amazed him to see that her crimson blush could go up to the skin above her chest.

"Okay." And with that, he dropped the topic and they started eating.

Hinata discovered that it was hard, extremely hard to concentrate eating that time. That albino guy, who she'd been scared of, just said that he fell in love with her at first sight. She knew it was kind of absurd, since he said that because of their little play, but still, nobody ever said that to her and it made her nervous whenever she thought about it.

On her last bite, her hold loosened and the fork somersaulted in the air, but when it fell again, it made a fleet contact with her backhand. It made a slight nick that spilled blood.

"Ow!" she screeched in reflex and gazed at her own blood.

It was red.

Very red.

And it was scary.

Suddenly, Hinata went hysterical, she'd never liked blood, especially fresh blood. The way it made a trail on her backhand was utterly frightening, and when it dripped to the floor, she couldn't help but scream.

She would have screamed if only Sasuke's hand wasn't covering her mouth from her back. His other hand supported her weight so she didn't fall. She felt everyone's eyes were on them, but that wasn't thing that mattered now.

"It's only a small cut." He shushed in a surprisingly gentle voice. "It's alright.."

Hinata, now had tears in her eyes, only could nodded silently in his arms

He kept shushing her, and finally when her trembling had lessened he meticulously asked. "Are you fine now?"

Her heart was still pounding, and she felt really weak, but she forced to take some deep breathes, and after rested her head on his broad shoulder, she nodded. Then, cautiously he released her mouth and shoved his hand onto his pocket, his other hand still wrapped around her.

He held out a handkerchief, it had some blood prints in it, and he was about to rub it onto her skin! She wanted to protest, but she wasn't in place where she could protest, so she only shut her eyes and waited. Her hand smarting as he softly rubbed his handkerchief against it, and after he was done he told her.

Hinata sighed in relief when she couldn't see anymore blood.

"T-Thank you.." she bowed to him a little.

"You're more fragile than I'd expected." He said as he got back to his seat, then his hand reached out to stroke the little cut. "Even a mere fork could hurt you."

Hinata didn't know what to say, so she only tilted her head down in shame.

"Maybe we should add more details for our story." He scratched his nape as he thought about it. "Tell people that you rejected me but I was persistent on chasing you. . . Do you agree with that?"

She felt another familiar sensation of blushing again, but she nodded anyway.

"Good." He exhaled.

The silence started to fall again and she felt really uncomfortable with it.

"U-Uchiha.."

"Mm-hmm?"

"Why.. w-why did you add that t-to the story..?"

He only grimaced.

Hinata mentally kicked herself. Why did she become that curious? She almost forgot that the guy never liked it when she started to pry, and yet she did it again. But when she was about to apologize, he gestured her to stop and averted her gaze.

"You're so fragile." He said. "I'm afraid the girls would molest you, and you won't be able to handle it. But they couldn't do anything to you if it's me who is deeply in love with you, could they?"

That time, Hinata truly believed that Sasuke was a sweet guy.

And if only she'd studied him closer, she would have noticed that he was blushing when he admitted it.

Chapter six ended