Hinata's excited because today, Shino is back.

She's driving through traffic to get to the airport to pick him up. She absolutely loathes traffic and being around people, but for Shino, she'll suffer through it, especially if she gets to be the person who picks him up. He's always been there for her for all her needs in the past, she feels especially excited today to be the one to drive him home. She's almost thinking about asking him to come to her place and spend the night before settling into his own home, but she's telling herself not to do that.

There are a few things she's excited to tell him about. One is that her flower bloomed. Another being that she got a good grade on her latest exam. Lastly, she got a very good deal on her insurance, and she did it all without him. She knows he won't clap and cheer like Ino would, but he'd give her that little smile from behind his collar and she'll be able to tell he's proud of her and her progress.

Despite all her anxiety about being in a crowded place with lots of people, Hinata's determined to make the most of it and get that smile out of Shino. She bought big poster card and a nice, big sharpie, then spent an hour writing out his name on it so she could hold it up for him to see when he gets to baggage claim. She's actually kind of excited about it because she'll be greeted by the one person that can ease all of her worries.

Hinata gets to the parking lot and tries not to panic right away. She did her research, she made sure she knew exactly where to park that was free and closest to the entrance of the gate Shino would be let out in. She finds a spot almost immediately and lets herself feel that little win. She grabs her poster card and bag, makes sure she has her keys, phone, and wallet, and gets to the entrance. She finds a nice little corner that isn't too packed with people and pulls out her phone, sends a text to Shino for when his plane lands.

By the main exit, near the restrooms. Excited to see you! ?

And she settles in. She brought her water and a bag of walnuts to keep her occupied while she scrolls through funny cat videos her cousin sends her. Neji's a stoic, thoughtful man, but when it comes to her and her sister, he's soft. And he cannot resist showing off the funny cat videos he comes across to her.

Every few minutes, she checks the time. His plane is set to land at 16:15, but she knows sometimes it's earlier or later, so when it hits 16:00, she clicks off her phone and tucks it away, waiting patiently for people to start exiting to the bagging area.

Five minutes pass, and she checks the time. Still, no one emerges. That's alright. She mentally prepared for this. But the ball of nerves in her stomach still starts to form anyway, and she starts picking at the cuff of her sweater. Breathes in through her mouth, out through her nose like Ino taught her. Tries not to envision the worst possible scenario, like maybe Shino's flight never even took off, or even worse, it's lost. Like Flight 370 that just mysteriously went missing – what if that happens to Shino's airplane?

No.

"It's fine," she whispers to herself even as the time inches towards 16:30. Fifteen minutes late isn't completely out of the ordinary.

Still, she pulls out her phone and pulls up the email Shino sent her with his entire itinerary. She told him it would make her feel better if she knew his whole schedule, just in case something happened. He obliged without argument; he stopped giving her funny looks a long time ago. She goes through all the details of his flight back: depart at 11:00, due to land on this exact date 16:15. She checks her phone just to be extra sure it's the right date, and it is. Checks the terminal number on the phone, then the signage above her. Looks at the display for his flight number, which reads that it is still set to land on time.

Liars!

It must be a mistake. But what if it isn't? What if Shino did get off the flight earlier than expected and she missed him because of the funny cat videos? What if he walked right past her without her even realizing and he's waiting outside? What if he's been waiting in the cold this whole time, too polite to text her to let her know he's waiting on her?

Oh no.

She pulls up her text message with Shino.

You haven't landed yet, have you?

Clicks her phone off and rests it on her knee, which is bouncing erratically now.

Once the time hits 16:40, she begins full-on panicking. It would be so simple to just go up to one of the people at the desk and ask about the flight. But instead, she decides to go outside, which causes more anxiety to bubble because she's worried she'll miss him by being outside. Quickly, she jogs around the perimeter of the terminal both ways. When she doesn't see him, she hurries inside and scans the terminal again. Still no one.

Well, this is terrible.

Again, she looks at her phone, desperate to see Shino's name pop up. Her lock screen stares back at her, a selfie of her, Ino, and Shino and she deflates. She's coming to the realization that she may in fact need to go to the desk to ask for help.

Just as she gets close, she feels her phone vibrate.

"Oh, please!" she gasps out, stopping in her tracks to fish out her phone.

Just landed. See you soon.

"Thank god," she breathes out, staring intently at the simple words that immediately start to slow her beating heart.

Then she realizes she left her postcard with his name on it in the spot she was waiting for him. She speed-walks back to the area and her face falls when she realizes it's not there.

"Okay…" she says to herself, feeling hot tears well up in her eyes. She knows it's ridiculous to cry about, but she's just so over it at this point. If she could have gone home a half hour ago, she would have. Everything feels hot and tight and she's pretty sure this is a panic attack. She's never been formally diagnosed but Ino says the tunnel vision and hyperventilating are clear indications of some sort of meltdown from anxiety.

She really tried this time.

A tap on her shoulder and she jerks her body around to come face to face with sunglasses.

"Shino…" she whispers, desperately, reaching up to wipe at the bottoms of her eyes.

He wraps her up in a hug and she starts crying. She feels completely and utterly ridiculous for it but she can't help it. He keeps her close to his chest and doesn't let go.

"I'm home."

She inhales shakily as she tries to control her breathing and just – her emotions. All of it. It's so much harder than she thought it would be.

"What kind of person has a meltdown in an airport picking someone up?" she asks, sniffling, breathing heavily, all the bad things inside of her crunching up her guts. His hold on her doesn't tighten or loosen, just holds steady.

"You drove here?"

"Y…yeah," she manages to get it out, pulling away. When she pulls away, he lets her go almost on instinct. "I even got…a poster and wrote your name and I lost it, because I was worried where you were, and-and Shino, the screen said your flight was on time, so-so I had to search and-and I was worried—"

"It's raining."

Hinata stops and looks outside.

"Give me your keys. I am happy to drive."

She feels her breath catch in her throat as she sucks in a shaky breath. It makes her feel pathetic and weak. Shino lets her go and holds out an indolent hand. Hinata obliges, fishing out the key to hand to him.

"I appreciate your effort, Hinata." His voice is neutral and even as always, but she hears the hint of sympathy in it. "Thank you for taking me home."

"But I'm not—"

"Thank you, Hinata."

With that, he nudges his head and begins trekking away. She catches up, wishing she wasn't like this. Get's in the car, the passenger seat, and just breathes.

Why is everything so, so difficult?

Shino spends the night at her house. He doesn't insist, he just offers, and she immediately snatches him up. Makes the guest bedroom up for him all nice and pretty, offers him her shampoo and body lotion, makes him his favorite tea, because she's had a day. Shino's the one that just went through the stress of a whole onboarding and offboarding of a flight, but she's the one with anxiety through the roof. Shino knows and never questions it, just makes himself comfy and makes her feel better by asking for an extra pillow when she asks if she can get him anything. He doesn't need it, just asks for it because he knows it'll make her feel better to feel useful.

The next day, Shino exits her apartment with her after a night of some limited details of his trip. She offered to take him home but he made it clear rideshare was fine, so she sees him off before getting into her car to go to work.

It's a normal workday with Tsunade gruffly giving instruction, Karin rambling about her friend's sister's ex-girlfriend, customers with their usual complaints about wait times and uncomfortable seating.

BRRRRRRRRRRR—

Hinata feels her pulse heighten and her heart right in her throat, threatening to escape when an alarm goes off. Alarms scare the shit out of her and she'll never understand people who can remain calm when sirens go off.

"You gotta be fucking with me," Tsunade yells out, irritated and compounding on the mild panic that sweeps over the room.

The front desk ladies get up and immediately get to work evacuating the office. They're much better at this than Hinata. Tsunade immediately finds Hinata and grabs her by the elbow. She guides her to the exit and leads her out and Hinata can barely make out the words she says. She thinks it's something to the effect of "go to the parking lot" but the letter identifier is lost on Hinata and suddenly, all the procedures for a fire alarm are lost on her.

Hinata, feeling tears well up in her eyes because she really isn't sure what she should do, is tempted to just run in a random direction and hope for the best. But, there are people heading for the stairwell, so she tries her best to show a calm demeanor and follows the crowd. Her hands ring together as she makes careful steps down the stairs, staring straight down to make sure she never misses a step.

"Hey."

She hears many people talking and doesn't pay attention. A fire alarm is an easy moment for socialization between people, but for Hinata it's dreadful. Routine is important to her, and this is out of routine. She's trying so, so hard.

"You okay?"

The voice in her ear makes her jerk her head up and she meets black eyes. The same eyes that have helped her through some tough moments in these last couple of weeks. Sasuke.

"O-oh—" she tries not to stutter, but her mouth feels dry and nothing about her voice feels right.

"Stay with me," he says, calmly. It's a mild demand, one that immediately coats her in comfort. She nods and follows his movements.

"Sorry," she says, quietly, unsure if he'll pick it up.

"For?"

She hesitates as they get to the last step of the stairwell. They're heading towards the main exit and she swallows, trying to get her words out. "I-I dunno. Just, sorry."

"Don't worry about it," he responds, and she sees him wave his hand. She relaxes, just a little. Lets her hands untangle from one another and hang at her sides. Even though it's crowded, he's not close enough to touch her, but their proximity is enough to comfort her to some degree. She feels the shakiness of her body lessen and her throat relax. It's one of the worst parts of feeling panicked, is the way her throat gets really tight and makes anything she says out loud shaky and whiny.

They finally get out of the building, and she feels okay to finally relax. Sasuke is kind (maybe?) in the way he doesn't acknowledge how utterly frazzled she seems and just walks by her. Her hands dangle at her side, swinging a little more aggressively than normal and she takes deep breaths. In, then out.

It's then she feels her knuckles crack into his. They both recoil immediately, cradling the offended knuckles, and look at each other. Hinata's eyes are wide with fear. "Oh no! I'm sorry!"

"That—" There's laughter in his voice as his shocked expression turns into a smile as he relaxes his hands. "That was not cute."

Hinata blinks, trying to make sense of what he just said.

"You know? 'Cause in the movies, when the hands touch…it's supposed to be cute. But we smacked hands."

Hinata feels an instant smile pull the corners of her lips up and she lets out a laugh. "OH! Oh! Oh!"

"Yeah," there's a chuckle in his voice as he holds out his hand in front of him, flexing his fingers. "We just hit hands and it wasn't cute."

"It wasn't!" Hinata says, louder than she means to but starting to burst into laughter. She looks up at him and see's him succumbing to the laughter, too. His stoic face crinkles with all the happy feelings that scrunch a face up and he looks down, shaking his head.

"We just punched each other."

"I didn't mean to!" An involuntary giggle starts to make its way up Hinata's throat.

"Me neither!" She can hear his voice breaking.

"B-but we did!" It comes out stuttered as she holds back the laughter.

"You hit me!" The way he exaggerates it comes with a seemingly unwilling chuckle.

"I didn't mean to!" Hinata exclaims, again.

In a louder-than-normal voice, Sasuke responds, "I know!"

At this point, they've broken into uncontrollable laughter. Hinata is covering her face and Sasuke is covering his mouth with his fist.

"Look," Sasuke says in a quieter voice, and she pulls her head up. She looks where he's gesturing and sees a young girl looking back at them, disapproving. She's holding her mother's hand and looking over her shoulder with her eyebrows drawn together and lowered. Her expression tells them that she is not impressed and they should be better behaved during such a serious event. It only makes Hinata laugh harder and she covers her mouth, looking back at Sasuke. His hand is covering his mouth, too, suppressing the laugh. The other hand is yanking at his tie as if it'll make him quiet and they both slow down.

"Come get drinks with me."

"Wh-what?!"

She stops in her tracks, her hand dropping to her side. He stops ahead of her and he's got this look on his face like he can't believe he just blurted that out. To be fair, she can't either. She's still processing it.

"Uh-yeah—" he coughs into his fist, then scrunches his nose briefly. He nods. "Yep, just – my coworker is taking us out for drinks, later. Tonight. And I don't really like them that much, but it is free booze, so…"

"You don't like them?" That's what she focuses on.

"I mean, they're not terrible. I just…thought it'd be like…" Sasuke pauses for a breath and Hinata leans in, curious. "Thought it'd be nice to have someone not lame there? To invite? I guess? Oh god."

"Yes."

It slips from her lips before she intends for it to because she doesn't even mean to say it aloud. A public setting, having drinks with strangers with someone who invited her, who might as well be a stranger sounds like a goddamn nightmare. But something compels her to agree.

"Can I bring a friend?"

There's a pointed pause as they settle in the group, Sasuke seemingly turning those words over in his mind. He nods, slightly. "Yeah. Yeah, sure. I was—uh, I was planning on inviting my friend, too."

"Okay," she says it all shaky because she's so very out of her element. All of this is heightening her anxiety and she almost wishes they were still walking so she could feel less self-conscious. Instead, she bounces on the balls of her feet.

"Hey!"

Hinata watches as a man approaches Sasuke with no regard for her. She doesn't expect anything, so she's unsurprised when he gets dragged away and—oh no. She realizes…she never had a chance to give him her number.

She has his from the business card he gave her a few days ago, but, ideally, she would have given him her number now so he would have the expectation of contacting her first.

Hinata watches Sasuke give her a tiny uptick for a smile as he's dragged away by someone else and then feels someone next to her.

"Was that Sasuke Uchiha?"

She shoots her gaze up to meet the eyes of Karin, who is far too excited for something like this. Reluctantly, she nods. Karin lights up.

"What's going on here, then?!"

Hinata pales. She cannot escape Karin's probing questions, and if she's honest, she's not sure she wants to.

"You know him, Karin?" Hinata asks in an effort to divert the line of questioning.

"He's my idiot cousin's best friend," Karin clarifies, smirking down at her with her hands on her hips. "And the owner of my very own heart."

Hinata swallows, eyes going a little wider. She just nods because she doesn't know what else to say to that.

"What were you doing with him?"

Hinata's jaw flexes as her teeth clench. It's hard for her to decipher what Karin says sometimes, but she's pretty sure Karin just told her she's in love with Sasuke? So she just says what comes to mind. "I stumbled into him and he just helped me figure out where to go. You know me—I'm a mess."

Karin blinks for a moment before breaking into a grin, hooking her arm around Hinata's neck to bring her in. "Yeah, that's true! Sorry I wasn't there to help you out, I had the bitchiest patient." With that, Hinata lets Karin drag her away to complain about said patient.

Hinata really hopes she put Sasuke's card back in her wallet.