Day 3 Prompt: "A glance that reveals everything"
Sasuke sometimes wonders why the words that come out of his mouth do so, so very unprompted.
He spent the entire night wondering why he had insisted on the Hyūga coming in to see him in his office.
The events replay in his head. She catches him off guard by paying for him, that's clever. Even subtly asks to sit together and he has to wonder what her motives are. Makes conversation about his work and suddenly he's gone, stuck in his usual rant about suckers paying too much for insurance. Before he knows it, he's extended her an invite – no, a demand – to come in and see him personally.
Once he gets to his desk, he is acutely aware of the troubled look Jūgo gives him, but he ignores it. He drops his backpack, shoves it under his desk a little more forcefully than normal, and buries his head in his hands.
Vibration from his pocket forces him to drag his head up. In the back of his mind, he hopes it's Sishui with a funny cat video. That little feel-good dopamine hits his brain when it's Sishui's name, then frowns when he swipes and all he sees is that it's from the group chat and it's a screenshot from some dating app. The face of some poor girl smiling with her details listed underneath fills his screen.
Y/N?
Sasuke sighs defeatedly and clicks the power button.
Then an idea hits his brain.
He can prepare better for her better if he knows at least a little something about her. Briefly, he thinks about the extensive searching Naruto does when he has a date. You gotta know what they wanna talk about! Or else they just leave!
At the time, Sasuke asked him if he was relying on crutches because of his mediocre personality. But this is different. It's not creepy if it's in the interest of helping her. That's what he reasoned, anyway.
He clicks his phone back on and sends a text he never thought he'd send.
Hinata Hyūga.
Can you find anything about her?
He sighs and pushes away the phone, already immediately regretting his choices. And not just this choice, but all of his choices up to this very point in life. His dad asked him a few weeks ago if he had any plans for the future, which he knew was a poorly veiled attempt at asking him if he was going to find a nice girl and knock her up. Sasuke thinks that 25 is too young for kids. In fact, he thinks no matter what age you are, you're too young for kids. 25 is too young to find a life partner, it's too young to buy a house, it's too young to raise other little humans. Hell, it's probably too young to have a big dog.
If he hadn't done the typical rebellious younger sibling thing and broke off from his dad's business, maybe he wouldn't be so miserable right now. He certainly wouldn't be sitting here, stressing out about a Hyūga coming in a few hours to talk about car insurance.
Sasuke glares at his phone. It's been five minutes and the idiot hasn't texted him back. He doesn't like feeling needy, but he'd rather have answers sooner rather than later. So he grabs it and taps out another message.
Today, Naruto.
More glaring, as if it's going to –
Patience dude! Im lookin into it
Fine. He can wait a little bit longer.
His eyes flit to the clock just as it turns to 8:00 and the entrance opens almost immediately with the first client. He sighs agitatedly when he sees large, white hair, knowing he's going to have to wait to see Naruto's findings. And of course, his phone lights up right when the man begins moseying over, looking smug and ready to ruin Sasuke's day with idle chatter. Sasuke snatches the phone up and unlocks it (with his pin, not his thumbprint, he doesn't trust biometrics). He's met with the briefest of glimpses of a screenshot from Instagram, picturing the Hyūga he just met and another man.
Now why is that stirring something in him? The man is quite a bit taller than her, wearing sunglasses and a high-collared jacket, not looking at the camera. The Hyūga is right next to him, looking caught off guard, and for once not in those scrubs, just this big, oversized sweater that leaves everything to the imagination and –
"Hey there, Sasuke."
Goddamnit. Didn't even have time to read the caption.
"Here to bother me again?" Sasuke asks dryly, flipping his phone over so it's facing down on his desk. The man pinches his mask shut around his nose after he flops down into his seat.
"You know I like to make sure my insurance is as up-to-date as possible every 6 months."
Sasuke sighs, rubbing at his chin as he prepares himself for the inevitable. "Kakashi, if you want to chat, you can always—"
"Stop by your place? So you can pretend you're not home? And try to discretely shut the blinds and turn off the lights as if I don't have eyes?" Kakashi leans forward onto crossed arms, resting his cheek in his palm.
Sasuke's eye twitches.
"Have you thought about what I said last time we spoke?"
"Isn't there some moral thing that should be preventing you from essentially trapping me while I'm at work to question me about this?"
"If you want to continue to hide in your hole for the rest of your life, that's fine," Kakashi says it calm and even, no hint of anger in his tone. "But I'm not going to stop bugging you until you get to better days. It's the least I can do."
"You know, a text would have sufficed."
He sees Kakashi's eyes crinkle up with his smile and he purposefully frowns further. "What won't suffice is paying the rate I'm currently at when SandSure is offering something quite a bit cheaper."
The funny thing about Sasuke giving exaggerated sighs and rolling his eyes too many times is that this is exactly what he's planning on doing for the Hyūga later. All in the name of ensuring big corporations don't make as much profit as they could have. That's all it is, anyway.
Once Kakashi gets up and gives him one last mini-lecture about keeping things inside and being a ghost, he takes his leave. Sasuke snatches his phone back up, completely disregarding the heartfeltness of Kakashi's sentiment, and unlocks it to get to Naruto's texts.
He's met with a few more screenshots, and at the end:
Cant find a profile for her. Seems like shes on the downlow. Its all from her sisters I think.
He scrolls back up to the original photo and squints as he reads the caption, from an account called "HanabiBanabi".
Caught in 4k with the bestie!
Sasuke wrinkles his nose, then swipes left to the next screenshot. Another photo, this one seemingly planned, of her smiling at the camera with chopsticks in one hand, and a lone noodle hanging out of her mouth over a bowl of some sort of stirfry.
Lunch with the cutest sister in the world!
One more screenshot, this time another candid photo. She looks caught off guard again, a half smile, in her scrubs like he's always seen her. She's adjusting a lamp in what looks like a doctor's office, he assumes the optometrist's office she works in. Her eyes look like they've just noticed the camera and she's perhaps bashful.
Eye exam from the best up-and-coming optometrist in Konoha!
A man. A sister. Her job. This is all…interesting information, he supposes. He's unsure of what to make of it. He scrolls back to the bottom of the text messages and thinks about whether to respond. Decidedly, he clicks his phone off and leans back in his chair.
Hinata Hyūga is putting him in some weird space of mind he's unfamiliar with and he's not even sure why.
Once it hits noon, Sasuke is clicking his pen over and over again, to the point that even Lee gives him a look. Every time the front door opens, his eyes snap to it, and it's never that dark-haired woman he's waiting on. It's an old woman, or a businessman, or a teenager with their parent. Then Jūgo puts out the sign to indicate the office is on lunch, and Sasuke breathes a sigh. Now, if someone walks through that door, it should be…
That teenager from his commute. He frowns at him when he comes in. Why is there some random kid waltzing in during lunch hours?
But then it happens, the dumb teenager stops suddenly and grabs the door, allowing someone else to walk in. And now he's greeted with pearly eyes and dark hair. The teenager beams a smile down at her and something churns in Sasuke's gut. He's not sure why that, in particular, bothers him, but he brushes it off.
Then it happens. She looks at him and suddenly he feels tingles in his fingertips. Odd.
The kid leaves (thank god), and he sees Jūgo about to politely inform her that they're on lunch, and Sasuke springs up. Rushes over to shush Jūgo, who gives him a look. He looks at Hinata, who looks a little confused and is taking a step back and he inwardly curses himself. He waves her in and Jūgo blinks, then shrugs.
"Sorry," he mutters, reaching out to pull her seat out for her, a habit ingrained in him from childhood but if asked he'd say it's just what they're expected to do.
"What are you sorry for?" Hinata asks, and something about hearing her voice makes him feel a little more at ease. He waves the question away.
Deciding it's time to get into his comfort zone, he immediately brings up her file without her providing her card or any other information. He starts picking through it line by line, scrutinizing every little detail. Her deductible amount, how long she's been driving, type of coverage. By the time he gets to the end of it, he's knocked off quite a bit, and he leans back in his chair. He's got this smug look on his face that he knows he should be ashamed of instead of proud of, but so be it. Her wide eyes and thoughtful expression boost his ego and he likes that.
Then he runs through the typical list of questions, ending with, "and I don't suppose you're a student?"
"I am, actually."
He wasn't expecting that one. He leans up from his chair, then over the desk, resting his elbows on it. "You are? Do you have a 3.0 or above?"
"I do." She nods and he can see her cheeks change color in real time. The corner of his lips ticks up, slightly.
"Do you realize you're paying this much?" He turns the monitor towards her so he can point at her bill. She leans forward, looking a little puzzled.
"Is that a lot?" It takes everything for Sasuke not to ask her if she's being serious. He knows she's being serious. This girl hasn't the slightest clue. Just another sucker in the capitalist regime.
"Well," he drawls, spinning back to the computer and making a few hard, exaggerated taps on his keyboard, then an extra hard tap on the enter key. "Hinata Hyūga, I've cut $400 off your bi-annual bill."
"That's very generous of you."
"Me? Not me. You can thank good old capitalism."
She blinks at him and he suddenly realizes how strange he sounds. Wonders why he's letting it slip out so easily. Then she lets out a very soft giggle and nods. A bunch of thoughts run through his mind: is she pretending to know what she's talking about? She's in school right now? Is she wearing that same strawberry scent from before?
"Well, that's all, then." Sasuke taps his knuckles against the wood of the desk, awkwardly averting his eyes from hers that seem so easy to fixate on.
"Oh, right." Hinata seems a little caught off guard by this abrupt end to their interaction and Sasuke is reminded of how terrible he is with social interaction. He stands awkwardly at the same time as her, something he wouldn't normally do when saying goodbye to a client. He briefly reaches out his hand, slightly, as if he's trying to offer a handshake, and she glances at the hand, hers untucking from her sleeve to reach out too. But then he pulls it back like he's doing one of those 'too slow' moves and he's inwardly cursing himself for how painfully awkward he's making things. Her hand also drops and she gives him an awkward nod, thanking him again before turning around.
"Yep…" he sighs out as she moves to walk away, immediately bumping into Shikamaru. She apologizes, looks flustered, stumbles back. He tilts his head as he watches her brush nonexistent dust from her shirt, bows slightly, and continues walking, but it's the wrong way now. She stops and her head looks left, right, left again, and she spins around, clearly searching for exit signs. She covers her mouth with her fists, her eyes growing, and Sasuke recognizes the sense of panic on her face.
He waves his arm at her to catch her attention, and she jerks her head over with this pleading look. Her face is rosy, her hair already frazzled from the effort, and he can't help the smile that pulls at his cheeks. He thumbs the opposite way, then points outwards to indicate left and she lets out a sigh of relief, speed walking past his desk with an exasperated thanks.
"She alright?" Shikamaru asks from the side, a perked eyebrow.
"Do you care?" Sasuke asks, falling backward into his seat again.
"Good point," Shikamaru concedes, tapping his head with his index finger before turning on his heel to walk away.
Sasuke picks his phone back up and goes back to his text message with Naruto.
Someone you hookin up with?
Rolling his eyes, he pulls the message down to look at the screenshots again. He stops it on the last one, where she's wearing what she was wearing today, and fiddling with optometry equipment. For a little too long, he stares at it, chews his bottom lip while he does. He's fixated on those eyes. Similar expression as just now. He wonders if she still smells like strawberries up close.
For the rest of the day, he forces himself not to pick up his phone again.
But she's on his mind for the rest of the day, and he's not even entirely sure why. It's not like she's remarkable in any way. Maybe it's because of the way she doesn't try to flirt with him. Women aren't necessarily dropping at his feet, especially not at this age, but it's something Sasuke's dealt with for a long time. Ever since he hit his growth spurt in middle school and unknowingly fell into that emo boy style, he's had a hard time finding someone he can relate with. Someone that isn't starry-eyed and trying to get his number and show him off.
He's in his mid-twenties now and since he moved into his own apartment, he's become a hermit because of things like that. He can barely escape it at the job he has now, whenever he has a female client, he has to be wary of their overt friendliness. Sasuke's not one to try to put his own struggles on the same pedestal as women having to constantly fend off the male gaze, but he can honestly say he thinks he relates at least a little.
Since that day he let her into the building, all of their interactions have been pleasantly tame. Sure, she offered to buy him lunch as thanks for helping her out, but nothing about it came off as predatory. He's beginning to think that there's a possibility for friendship here. It's what Kakashi's always pushing him toward, anyway. To get out there, make friends. Maybe if he can just get a selfie with her, he can send it to Kakashi with the demand to leave him alone.
Yeah, that's it. The Hyūga could be his friend. She'd be the ideal friend, too. Quiet, not imposing, seems to take cues well.
So that's what Sasuke decides. She'll be his friend. He's confident in that.
When the day comes to an end, he gathers his things quickly and rushes out the door, ignoring all farewells, hoping maybe he'll catch her before she can definitively leave. He knows what kind of car she drives, so he immediately scans the parking lot for it. When his eyes land on it, he debates internally. It would be too creepy to just wait by it, it has to look natural for him to bump into her. So he parks himself next to the corner of the building and waits, staring intently at the building, ensuring he won't miss her—
"Sasuke!"
"Goddamnit."
"You left before it was announced!" Lee's voice is far louder than necessary, and no amount of telling him so can control him. "I've been promoted! I'm organizing a night out to celebrate this Friday!"
"Cool," Sasuke mutters turning his eyes back to the entrance, then flitting towards the car. Still no one in it.
"You are free to invite anyone you like." Lee steps in front of Sasuke to obscure his vision and Sasuke glares at him. "All food and drink will be on me!"
"Okay, fine!" Sasuke grunts out, stepping to the side. Of course, now she's approaching the car, and it's too late.
"Fantastic!" Lee roughly pats Sasuke on the shoulder, and he winces. With that, Lee strolls away and Sasuke stares at Hinata as she digs through her purse.
It's too late to 'bump' into her, so he just watches helplessly. He'll try tomorrow, maybe. In fact…now that Sasuke thinks about it, he did just inadvertently agree to go to this stupid celebration. And now that he really thinks about it, he had no plan in the first place. What was he going to do, just stomp up to her and demand her friendship? No, now he has a reason to talk to her – to bring someone less lame to something that is sure to be lame. Yeah, this will work.
Caught up in thought, he almost misses her little wave. She's tilting her head to the side, body halfway in the car, one hand resting on the door and the other raised in a reluctant wave. She's looking at him and something inside of him panics. He raises his hand in this sloppy half-wave, like he's just flopping his hand up and down. He makes out a small smile on her lips and his throat feels a little tight. He swallows as she puts down her hand and slides into that all too nice car and he wonders.
Maybe this is what he needs.