Hinata was spending more time in the art room after school, which Kisame wasn't all that interested in, but now he was actively not allowed to join, which of course, made him want to know why Sasori and Deidara were keeping him out. Kisame knew he was big and cumbersome, and that made him basically a bull in a china shop when it came to endless little jars with paintbrushes of all sticking out at the perfect angle for him to get caught on, but his girlfriend was in there, working on something, and he wanted to see the little face she made when she was focused scrunching her nose up and chewing on her lip.
Kisame grumbled, laying his head back in the courtyard, tuning out Hidan's… whatever he was talking about, he flinched as he felt the sun on his face change to shade and peaked to find a halo around a curtain of dark hair leaning over his spot. "Did you take a nap?" Hinata giggled.
Kisame rubbed his face as he sat up. "When is this 'secret project' going to be done?"
"We're getting there." Hinata held her hand out to him.
Kisame raised an eyebrow at her. Did she think she was going to pull him up? He took her hand she pulled, and he snorted as he didn't budge. He wasn't even sure he helped her if he would be able to make it up without falling on her. Instead, he pulled, and she lost her footing and tumbled forward into him.
Hinata lost her umbrella but caught herself on his shoulders to keep her face from smacking him just barely. What he found funny suddenly became not a joke anymore as she was hairs from his face with her wide blinking eyes as she recovered from her surprise. Kisame hesitated to pull back to keep her from falling the rest of the way.
Hinata's expression finally broke into a smile. She moved forward to kiss his nose before letting herself fall to her knees and away from his face.
Kisame could feel the heat go up to his ears.
Hidan fake gagged. Hinata rolled her eyes at him. "Keep doing that, and I won't help you with your next math assignment." Calculation flickered across Hidan's face briefly as he weighed his options. He tilted his head irritably and went back to his own bull shit.
Kisame eyebrows shot up. "Wow, I never thought his self-preservation would ever come before being a dick."
"We have the section that uses the unit circle coming up," Hinata explained.
"Ah." Kisame nodded.
"You're late." Neji's eyes flicked up from his phone on the couch as she came in, acting like he was doing more than staring at the clock the moment he suspected she would be close to his curfew.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better. I wasn't even with my boyfriend." Hinata went to the kitchen. "Kisame-san was working tonight."
"At the degenerate bar," Neji commented.
"Not sure what makes the one he works at any more degenerate than any other place that sells alcohol." Hinata set her umbrella on the corner of the counter and washed her hands.
"Do you that funny?" Neji came around to sit at the counter.
"You trying to lecture me, again, about a friend I have had all school year and have been dating for over a month, with the exact same material, when it didn't work the first time. Yes, it's hilarious." Hinata gave him a flat face as she gathered ingredients out of the fridge. She was tired. Tomorrow's bentos weren't going to be elaborate. "Besides, your girlfriend collects knives and got caught in a fight that almost got her kicked out of her sports."
"She was protecting someone getting ganged up on." Neji started, then he back peddled. "And she's not my girlfriend."
Poor Tenten. "What do you think Kisame-san does?"
"Uses his job as an excuse to get into fights," Neji answered.
Hinata heard that one too many times. She didn't particularly care if he did use it as an excuse. She was scared he was going to end up in a fight with someone who played dirty. "At least he's working out his aggression." She shrugged for effect.
Neji huffed.
That's how Hinata felt, sick of the circle of conversation. At what point was Neji going to accept that she wasn't going to dump Kisame because of his opinion? How long did they have to date?
Was Hinata going to be sitting in a wedding dress before he quit?
Sasori swatted her fingers away. Hinata pouted at him. "I'm doing it correctly."
"But slowly. It's painful to watch." Sasori corrected.
Hinata tried to snatch it back out of his hands. "I'm not going to get better at it if you won't let me do it."
"I would like to be done with this century. You can learn on the next project." Sasori leaned back to keep it out of her hands.
Deidara chuckled. "This is why we don't work together, yeah."
"Yeah, that's why." Sasori shot back sarcastically.
Deidara didn't even respond. "Are we doing anything for the winter festival this year, un?"
"Winter festival?" Hinata perked up.
"School has the classes do booths for the festival," Sasori explained. "Last year, our class did a haunted house."
"That was fun, yeah." Deidara nodded.
"Where do the themes come from?" Hinata folded her hands since Sasori wasn't letting her help.
"Each class picks," Sasori explained. "But it has to be approved by the school board, so no maid cafés." Hinata made a face. "Someone tries every year." He shrugged.
"We should do fairy tale themed, uh." Deidara prodded the sharp tool in his hand at them.
Hinata frowned at him. "You're not going to get Kisame-san in a Beast costume."
Deidara whined. "We can if you ask him to wear it. You could even wear your dress from the dance, yeah."
Sasori shook his head. "No, I would make a new dress."
"Do any of them serve food?" Hinata wondered.
"Ugh, there was this booth that had squid one year. It was amazing, yeah." Deidara's face twisted to devastated as he became suddenly very upset he didn't have squid.
"You're a vegetarian." Hinata titled her head.
"He eats fish," Sasori said without looking up.
Hinata wasn't sure if she understood that, but it wasn't her diet.
Itachi covered his burning nose as he laughed harder and coughed. Hinata handed him a napkin to tuck under his nose to catch his drink that was coming out. Itachi couldn't remember the last time he laughed and coughed up his drink.
"It wasn't that funny," Kisame was the only one the wasn't laughing.
"I think he's just got caught off guard." Hinata rubbed Itachi's back as he caught his breath and cleared his nose.
"Your uncle wasn't worried about the massive blue teenage boy with shark teeth, covered in bruises that smells like smoke, but he took one look at Hidan and put a pocket taser in your backpack?" Itachi clarified as he recovered, hazarding another drink to wash down the awful feeling of phlegm.
"I think it was more what Hidan-san… said." Hinata tried, but it really didn't sound better.
"Never let him walk you home again." Kisame rubbed his face. "I don't want him ruining your uncle being okay with me."
"I wouldn't have, but it was dark, and I knew if I walked home alone, Neji-san would have had a fit, and we weren't far from where we were studying…" Hinata knew this wasn't sounding better. "Next time, I will just call Neji-san to come pick me up."
Kisame crossed his arms. "How long do you think until someone does tase him?"
Hinata gapped at him, but Itachi answered before she could scold him. "Tell him about it. I guarantee he will take it as a personal challenge."
"If we tell him she has one, he will just ask for it and tase himself." Kisame waved his hand toward her.
"He did stick his tongue on a nine-volt battery when Kakazu told him it would shock him." Itachi agreed.
Hinata sighed. "Please, don't tell him."
"Now I want to see the dumbass shock himself." Kisame shrugged.
"Almost done," Hinata promised Kisame as he pouted the art room door. "Wait one more week."
Kisame grumbled. "You're lucky you're cute."
Hinata giggled. "It will be worth waiting. I hope."
"You hope? That's not very confident." Kisame countered.
"She's not very confident," Sasori called from inside.
"Hey!" Kisame barked back.
"He's grumpy because you're holding me up." Hinata tugged on his jacket.
Kisame made a face but lowered his head to her height so that she could reach his cheek. Something Hinata was making a point of doing more when she left, but it didn't make his ears less purple any time she did it. With that, Hinata disappeared into the void of the art room he was still banished from.