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Ino was late.
Naruto grumbled to himself, shifting in his booth to glance back at the door. His head whipped back toward the window. Again and again.
His leg jiggled.
Recently, he felt like he was always seeking her, searching the crowd for long blond hair, straining his ear for her loud voice.
Naruto gulped and scratched his chest. The retro music screeched softly to a halt and another tune began again. The coffee shop was modelled after a 80s dinner, with gleaming red booths, grey mirroring table edges and checkerboard floor. On the counter in the middle of the coffee shop, home-made pies were lined up under glass cloches.
Naruto looked back again and sighed.
A waiter passed by his table with a coffee pot whistling the tune playing, his hair combed back with gel. The service was slow, chatty and groovy, and no one complained.
"Same as usual?" A waitress asked with a teasing smile, and she tapped her pencil on her pad. Her apron had her name stitched on it: "Ayame".
Naruto grinned and nodded quickly, embarrassed.
"And some coffee, please. Two cups."
"Sure!"
Ayame spun on her heels, her high ponytail bobbing as she walked away.
Naruto drummed his fingers on his thighs, then on the table. His left leg jiggled more rapidly now.
The parking lot was almost empty, his beat-up car parked in front of the window overlooking their booth. Soft rain patted against the window, water filling in crevasses in the pavement. Mist curled, blurring the horizon.
"Here you go," Ayame said to his right and he shifted his gaze back to her grinning.
"Thanks!"
She winked and slid the plate of cherry pie and two cups of coffee in the centre of the table.
Naruto took a quick sip before arching his back, tilting his head back again to have a clear view of outside.
Coming to the coffee shop was always Ino's idea. Naruto let her drag him back, because years after they had discovered the coffee shop, it still amused her; the red booths, the cheesy puns on the menu, the aprons and hairstyles of the waiters. It was their place. They had opened their college acceptance letters here. Ino had grieved for her father here.
Here, they had argued.
Here, they had made up.
The bell clank briefly, and Naruto glanced back at the entrance, all of his body taut, half-risen from his seat.
Ino shook the rain off her coat and flipped her hair back, neatly folding her umbrella before setting it down by the door. He stared at her, gulping. Spinning on the tip of her toes, Ino searched the crowd, a grin on her face, her eyes sparkling with amusement.
"You're late!" Naruto shouted louder than he had intended to, and the old man in the booth in front of his, looked above his newspaper with a disapproval.
Naruto smiled at him sheepishly.
Ino quickly approached the table, her rain boots screeching as she did.
"You won't believe what happened," she squealed before dropping her duffle bag on the booth. "I saw Neji kiss Tenten."
Naruto gapped.
"What?"
Ino slid in the booth and unzipped her coat.
"When? Are you sure? I mean... it's Neji."
With excitement, Ino waved dismissively at his questions. She reached across the table to pull some napkins out of the holder.
Naruto slid his share of cherry pie toward her.
"I saw them just now! They were in front of the men's lockers by the old gym where you guys train," she continued and her pale eyes sparkled, widened. "Talking homework and whatnot." Ino shrugged and waved again and cut a piece of pie with her fork. "I could feel tension. No one leans in like that on someone except when they want to bone." she rambled and Naruto opened his mouth to ask how she knew that.
She couldn't know that.
"So," Ino continued, her voice now high-pitched, and she gestured with her fork. "I pretended to leave and waited by the corner of the hallway. Sure enough, 12 seconds later, he kissed her."
She propped her fork in her mouth, humming to herself.
"God, this is good," she mumbled, her mouth full, and her shoulders sagged with relief.
Naruto watched her, oddly still. She stopped, slowed him, the side of him that was always moving. Her blue eyes widened, twinkling, and he gulped.
"Heavy petting too!" Ino added and cut another piece of the pie with the side of her fork. "God, it feels like I just ran a marathon. Did you wait long?"
"Yes!" Naruto's voice rose again and he shook his head. "And I'm usually the one who brings you gossip from the judo team!" He pouted and slid the second cup of coffee toward her.
With a nod, Ino thanked him.
"Which means you should pay more attention."
She took a sip, grimaced, and gestured to Naruto. He sighed, mumbling to himself. He uncrossed his arms to hand her another creamer.
"Thank you!"
Naruto ate another piece of his slice, brows furrowed. He scratched his cheek with the end of his fork.
"He's not distracted though," he mused, munching slowly, "or even slacking off as captain. OH!" His fork clank on the plate as he punctuated his words: "But he drinks so much coffee! Tenten works at a coffee shop down Main, right?"
Ino smirked and reached with her fork to take another piece of the pie, but Naruto pulled his plate back toward himself. He wolfed down a big piece. He hummed loudly, the cherries exploding in his mouth, collecting at the corners of his mouth.
Ino gaped, outraged.
"Ah god, Naruto! Could you be careful? This so disgusting!"
She threw a napkin at him, her nose wrinkled in disgust.
Naruto cackled, his mouth still full.
Ino stood from her seat and pressed a napkin against his mouth.
Naruto laughed, struggling to breathe. He took the napkin from her, wiping at his mouth and grinning up at her.
"I don't have to be careful," Naruto said before he gulped down his mouthful. Still grinning, he leaned back against the booth, tapping his stomach. "You're always there to keep me in line."
Ino's mouth twitched with annoyance.
"You mean, I wipe it off," she grunted and pulled the plate back toward her.
Naruto grinned, wicked, and nodded.
"Yep, always," he leaned in on his elbows, watching her with feigned inquisitiveness – narrowed eyes, his lips in an unwavering line.
Ino blushed, self-conscious, and touched her lips with the tip of her fingers.
"And I'm always looking at your lips for the faintest crumb," Naruto said cheerfully. "I'm a good friend like that."
They felt in terse silence, staring steadily at one another, hungry. Now, they were always hungry, always confused by the lengths of these silences that built and crumbled senselessly.
Still blushing, Ino cleared her throat and glanced out the window. Her head, her heart throbbed. She ran her fingers through her cold hair, feeling his stare still on her. She forced herself to shrug, careless and cold.
"Maybe one day, I won't be here to wipe it off."
Naruto's face dropped. HIs face twitched, it darkened.
"What?" Naruto asked.
Ino's heart raced. She didn't why she did it. What she feared from their proximity, their friendship, and the shift that overtook them always suddenly. He would brush his hand against hers holding a door open or she would bring him food when he trained or studied late.
And she would turn cold and spun on her heels.
"Well, you know..."
Ino shrugged again, and she pushed back her long hair with a calculated movement of her hand. She slowly and carefully cut a piece of the remaining slice of pie. Naruto's gaze was hot and insistent on her, flickering between the movement of her hand to her carefully guarded face.
"No, I don't know anything, you know that!"
"Naruto," Ino tutted softly, her gaze finally meeting his.
She looked bored, a hint of exasperation quirking up her lips. Naruto's stomach sank. He leaned in.
"Are you leaving?" Naruto whispered and his mouth moved uncontrollably, tics and worry, bubbling up.
Her stomach sank. 'Stop it!' her mind yelled, and she was angry and lost, because he never stopped her. He buried the things they refused to say to each other, the way she brushed them off; desperately, hastily, clawing protectively at scraps of their friendship.
'He's as guilty as me,' she thought, but she didn't feel better.
"I just meant... One day, I'll be married with my own kids."
Ino stuck out her tongue at him.
"What?" Naruto coughed,t urning bright red. He shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. His thoughts still swirled. "No, you can't get married!
"Why not?" Ino smirked.
There was a challenge in her voice, a cold sadness in her chest. He didn't pause. He fumbled with words, and she knew he would never say what she hoped, what she dreaded.
"What kind of best-friend mom abandons her first born?" Naruto stammered loudly and gestured wildly at the coffee shop and the pie between them. "Who's going to come with me here, huh?"
Again, Ino sighed, her fingers carefully brushing against a strand of her hair.
"I'm sorry, honey, but mommy is ambitious."
"Hey! I forbid it," Naruto shook a finger under her nose.
Coyly, Ino cocked her head to the side. His finger was already gone, his face contracted as he blinked and glanced away. His leg jiggled more rapidly under the table.
"Wow, is someone being fussy?" Ino said with a carelessness that chilled her.
"Of course, I am!" Naruto slammed his fist on the table and the dish clattered, coffee swaying dangerously close to the rim. Ino didn't glance away.
Someone cleared their throat.
They ignored them.
"You'll get married and have this huge ring and I'll be stuck babysitting for you. And you'll just nag me about the way I handle your kids. I don't know how to handle kids, Ino! It'll be an endless circle of you nagging me!"
She slowly stirred her coffee, raising a brow.
"Doesn't sound that much different from what we're doing now." Ino smirked above her mug before drinking.
She lowered her mug back down and pushed back the plate to the centre of the table. She dabbed her mouth with a napkin.
Naruto spread his fingers on the table, leaning in.
"Oi! I've just described you the end of our friendship. Be sorrowful!
Grumbling to himself, Naruto roughly cut a small piece of the pie.
"Now eat this!"
He fed her the pie.
"Naruto!" Ino cried out her mouth full of pie.
She held her hand over her mouth, half-laughing, half-outraged. Closed-mouth, she cried out insults.
"I can't believe you..." Naruto grunted, shaking his head violently. "Getting married like that. Geez. As if anyone will ever be good enough for you."
She opened her mouth to argue, but he fed her again.
Ino munched slowly, and Naruto inspected her, leaning in close. Her heart pounded. 'Just say it!' a voice inside her cried. She wished she didn't still hope.
She swallowed.
He was still so close.
"Fuck... how can your lips be this perfect all the time?" Naruto asked, then dropped his voice to a whisper: "Is it witchcraft?"
Ino licked the corner of her lips and his gaze flickered there before meeting her gaze again.
They held on.
"Yes."
Two days later, his left eye throbbed.
It hurt to smile, but Naruto still did because she didn't. Ino watched him ashen, and pale, and fading. In and out, she faded. He breathed loudly, tasting blood at the back of his tongue, and she faded in and out, again, flickering in soft light. Same rhythm, different hurt. He felt like his bones and his teeth screeching, strung out. The fight had loosened and tightened his body despite his protective gear.
And Naruto still talked, rambling on, ordering pie for the two of them. Ino didn't stop him as she normally did when he ordered two slices.
"You're the worst thing that could happen to my diet, Naruto!"
Naruto even told her about Shino and his bugs, but she didn't flinch and cry out, hastily hushing him.
"I FEEL THOSE BUGS ON MY SKIN NOW!"
Naruto kept trying. His face kept hurting. If he dared to stop filling the silence between them, he would count his teeth with his tongue and tentatively feel the bruise purpling around his left eye.
Her face was distorted, sullen, her mouth shrunk to a small line. Immobile, she faded further back, both pale and luminous, in the vibrant red booth.
"Here you go: cherry pie and coffee," Ayame slid their orders on the table and smiled at them. "Enjoy!"
"Thanks! Ohhh, I really needed this," Naruto chirped happily and dug in. He glanced up at Ino. "Aren't you eating?"
Ino didn't move.
"I'm on a diet," she whispered, and even her voice was brittle.
"What?" Naruto laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. Pain shoot up his arm, but he didn't flinch. For her benefit. Earlier, it was for the benefit of the crowd, but now it was only for her. The dinner. The pie. Her.
'I won!' Naruto had chanted after the fight, holding up his gloves, but Ino hadn't looked up from her place in the bleachers. She had been hunched forward, her face hidden in her hands, her hair spilled around her.
"There are rules, woman," Naruto frowned, his stare hardening, and his jaw locked. There were also rules in the bleachers. His heart locked. All of him throbbed, stretched, mistreated. For her benefit.
"We eat pie and we gossip."
'You should have applauded and congratulated me,' a voice added childishly in his mind. 'You should acknowledge me when I win.'
"Naruto, I can't."
'But I won!' his mind screamed. His body screamed. Then, there was her, pulling at her sleeves, whispering.
"How do you mean you can't?" Naruto grew louder and Ayame shot them a look. He reached across the table for her. "Is it your jaw? Is it sore? Let me see!"
Ino avoided his hands.
Naruto panted, his mouth dry, nailed in the posture, half-reaching for her. His left side was ablaze. Her widened stare met his in a start. Her ragged breathing filled the uncomfortable silence between them. He lowered back his hands.
"I'm fine," Ino said weakly, and she looked down at the fork.
Naruto followed her gaze and his fingers tightened on the edge of the table. 'Pick it up,' he urged her inwardly. 'Pick it up!'
He ground his teeth.
She didn't move.
"Ino," he said soberly.
"Just eat the two slices," she hissed and glanced away, rubbing her arms as if to warm herself up.
Naruto crossed his arms over his chest. His face contorted, the muscle of his neck corded. He shook his head, fighting, swallowing the words that were trying to pierce through his lips.
"Just eat." He narrowed his eyes at her. "I'm on hunger strike until you stop your dieting. Believe it..."
"Fine."
"Fine."
They stared at each other.
His stomach cried out.
"Oi, Ino, just eat, please!" Naruto whined and clasped her hands in his.
Ino stared at their joined hands.
He stared at her face, weighing in her hands in his. His knuckles tingled.
"I didn't have dinner," he complained. "Don't do this to me! I could get light-headed, remember that time? When we were hiking with the bastard and Sakura? I feel like I did then, but right now. Com'onnnn!"
Naruto knocked their hands together. Her arms bounced like a puppet's. He almost brought her hands to his face. They were cool, folded in his. Tentatively, he brushed her knuckles with his thumbs, drawing small circles.
Ino inhaled sharply, ashen, her pale eyes glazed.
"I told you, I can't."
Slowly, she pulled her hands out of his hands.
"Fine, you tell me who told you you were fat and I'll beat them up? Is it your stupid magazines again? Or is it Sakura? I'll lift my ban on beating up girls if it's her, I swear."
"I can't!" Ino said and her eyes came into focus.
'You know what is it, why can you even admit this much?' her mind yelled. Her anger flashed across her face.
He pretended not to see.
He pretended he didn't see her in the bleachers.
He pretended watching his matches didn't hurt.
"Why not?" Naruto asked, and rubbed the back of his head as if deep in thought.
'You hurt me,' he thought, but couldn't say it. He buried it, angrily, distantly. 'You didn't applaud. You're the one person I always look for in the bleachers. It only matters if you applaud.'
"Because..."
She grew red, her mouth stretching, and he steeled himself like he would during one of his judo match. Like she was an opponent and they were fighting, hurting each other.
Because they were friends and more. The best of friends. The worst of friends.
"Because it makes me sick looking at you!"
Naruto blanched.
"W-what?"
"Why did you allow him to beat you up, huh? Your face looks like that pie!"
She shoved the plate forward and it clanked against the other plate.
Her face in her hands, Ino started crying, noisily.
"Ino..."
"I thought you were going to die! You wouldn't give up! What didn't you give up, huh? You're hurt!"
"Ino..."
"You're hurt," she started, then shrilled: "You hurt me!"
Naruto slid in her side of the booth. He hesitated, just sitting next to her. Gently, he said her name again. He didn't know what else to say. He would do it again. This was why they omitted and buried, because they hurt each other.
They were the best of friends and the worst of friends, they knew.
Naruto sighed, glancing at her from the corner of his eyes. His fingers itched to move, brush off her strands. Shakily, he raised his hand toward her.
Ino threw her arms around him before he could touch her first. She shook against his chest. He held her, tight, lowering his head to her ear.
"I'm sorry, I hurt you."
"Give up if you're hurt!"
"I can't."
Ino screeched with frustration, pushing him away. She punched his chest with her fists.
"Oi, oi!" Naruto protested and tried to squirm away from her. "Bony fists! Bony fists! Ino!"
She stopped, her breathing ragged. Her hair, her eyes were wild, her mouth red and parted.
He held up his arms in defence, stiffening, trying not to laugh.
She punched him again, once, and her fist opened to grip his shirt. He put his hand over hers, immobilizing her. Her head low, her pants heavy and loud. She shook her head. Then, her hand still gripping his shirt, she pulled him back to her.
His arms folded naturally around her, his palm over the back of her head, holding her to him.
"You're so stubborn," Ino whispered angrily.
Naruto slowly retreated his arm from around her, brushing some strand of hair out of her face in the process. His hands fell to her shoulders, nudging her a little, so she would look up at him.
"I can't give up, because we eat pie when I win."
Ino stilled and lifted her head, pale. She blinked, her tears heavy, entrapped in her pale eyelashes.
Naruto wiped her tears with his thumbs, grinning.
"And that's just ours, you know? I need this insane coffee shop you like so much to be ours."
She grinned back and shoved him back.
"I'll still pester you," she said with a huff and turned her face away.
She wiped her tears careful not to smudge her make-up.
He watched her, leaning back against the booth.
And it shifted, inside his chest, tingling at his fingertips, what he wanted from her. What he craved from her. A sense of belonging.
He was terrified.
Ino didn't stare back, leaning in on the window, squinting, muttering about her make-up.
It was reassuring that she moved and talked as much as he did. It was reassuring how her eyes, her mouth widened and she didn't mind being loud. She didn't mind him. Him, and his tics and his annoying habits of speaking too quickly, restlessly.
Somehow, she was the same. Except, she was perfect.
"Do you want to hear about Shino?" Naruto grinned and nudged her.
Ino grumbled, slapping his hand away.
"Just give me my purse. I need to do some damage control."
A week later, Naruto parked his car in front of the window overlooking their table. Grinning, he waggled his eyebrows at Ino.
He needed them to be back in sync.
He had been distracted during the fight, his focus continually slipping from the fight to Ino in the bleachers. It had never happened before.
"What do you say?"
Ino ignored him. She flipped the sun visor and roughly slid open the mirror. She leaned in, angling her face. She slid the mirror back close and flipped back the sun visor.
She finally turned her gaze toward him.
He grinned.
"Drive me home."
Naruto reddened. His smile dropped.
"HEY!"
"You didn't even win. Why are we here?" Ino sniffed and crossed her arms over her chest.
Naruto turned off the ignition, his fingers playing with his car keys.
"I'm hungry. Are you buying me food?"
"Absolutely not," Ino snapped.
"Come onnnn," he pouted and nudged her knee.
"No, we get pie when you win."
"No, we get cherry pie when I win," Naruto tilted his head toward her and bumped his shoulder against hers. "Huh huh, see what I did there? Loophole," he drawled out in a sing-song tone. "Let's get something else!"
Ino rolled her eyes and finally, unfastened her seat belt.
"Gosh, you're killing me!" she sighed. "You're buying."
"But I lost," Naruto whined. "You should make me feel better!"
"I'll pat your head," Ino countered with a smirk.
"I need a hug."
The word dropped between them. Neither of them moved.
The semi-darkness muddled her features in softening hues, her gaze more liquid than ice. And he could still feel the weight of her head on his shoulder, the smell of her hair, tears sliding down his shirt. They shifted again, holding their breath, stiff and hurting and uncomfortable.
They had hurt each other too much, he with his fists, and her with her words.
Ino whipped her head toward the window, with a delayed huff.
"Tell me whether Forehead girl failed that psych class you're both taking, and I'll consider it. She's got that troubled look."
"I didn't catch a glimpse of her exam," Naruto said a drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, humming to himself.
"Yes, you did."
Naruto flinched.
"I did," he corrected slowly, "I don't remember the exact number, but she didn't fail… She was crying about something else."
Ino glanced back at him with curiosity and surprise.
"What?" she asked.
Naruto shrugged.
"She wouldn't say what, she knows I can't keep a secret!"
"God…" Ino said softly. "I just wanted to cheer her up. Her big-brain is about to explode about getting into med school."
"Sometimes, it can't be helped. People get hurt."
Naruto stared at her profile, his jaw working. His past injuries had faded to a greenish bruise around his left eye.
He meant them.
He meant him.
Recently, it was even more tangled, knots over knots, their relationship, his judo and the cherry pie they shared. There were two juxtaposed timelines for them; best friends and more. One timeline certain, the other, unstable, covered in cracks and swallowing crevices.
So, they didn't move.
"He was strong," Ino said softly and her eyes mirrored him, upside-down.
She also looked away when he lost.
In the bleachers, she always looked away, terrified for him, but she stayed until the end regardless.
"I need pie, believe it!" Naruto whined and hit the steering wheel.
"Ok."
Ino reached for him abruptly, like she did for everyone. Tightly, holding on, she hugged him, her arms around his neck. His hands hesitated over her back, then they gripped her and he closed his eyes, holding her there. He felt her breath against his neck and cheek, her warmth pressed against him. He wanted to turn his head and...
Naruto froze and opened his eyes.
He held his breath, waiting for her to pull away. Her warmth now burnt him.
"Ok, time's up," Ino clapped his back, "and you're buying."
"You're merciless," Naruto choked out, parts of him relief, parts of him already missing her.
She remained still, looking up at him, her eyes almost grey in the obscurity.
"You need to get some protein," Ino smirked and pinched his belly. "Build some muscle mass."
He shivered, but still leaned him. His heart twisted, his insides knotted so tightly, he could barely breathe, barely think. Her hand was on his bicep now.
"I'll mess your hair up," Naruto said huskily in her ear. "This is a hostage situation."
Ino elbowed him in the stomach, and Naruto gasped in pain. They shifted back, friends. In defeat, he lowered his head to the steering wheel, watching her with widened eyes.
"You're so mean," he gasped, holding onto the wheel.
Ino flipped her hair back and straightened her back, her nose pointing up.
"I don't negotiate with terrorists," she said coolly.
She opened the passenger door with a huff.
Next Friday, Ino slid in the booth and immediately pulled his plate towards her.
"Gosh, it's freezing outside," she turned toward the counter. "Hey, Ayame, could we get some coffee, please?"
"Coming right up!" Ayame called back.
Ino glanced back at Naruto, pointing at the pie with her fork.
"Is that sour cherries? It smells heavenly, damn."
Naruto didn't answer. He stared at her jacket, his leg normally jolting, silent, immobile. The jacket was too big for her, the logo of their college embroidered on the gleaming leather on the right sleeve.
Naruto lowered his fork to the table and looked at her expectedly. He didn't need to see whose name was on the right sleeve to know who it belonged to.
"What?" Ino asked, her munching slowing. "You don't like sour cherries?"
"What are you wearing?" Naruto asked, low.
Ino narrowed her eyes and reddened, her mouth round.
"Excuse me?"
"Is that Sasuke's jacket?" Naruto snarled back.
It shifted again, how they viewed each other, how they came together under the harshest light to eat and talk. Naruto saw for the first time, that there was no going back.
Things had changed between them.
Things changed every time they met, in the little ways, in the big ways, in every way.
'Then why are we still hurting each other?' he clenched his jaw.
"I was cold," Ino protested through clenched teeth. "I don't see why this is any of your concern! I don't owe you an explanation."
"I'd have given you my jacket if you had asked."
Rolling her eyes, Ino slid the plate back toward him, her fork clanking against the table. She withdrew, leaning back against the booth behind her, her hands gripping the edge of the table.
"Well, you didn't give me a lift here," she said coldly.
"I'm calling him right now!"
"What?"
Ino's mouth snapped shut, her eyes darkening, as Naruto pulled his cellphone from his pocket.
"What are people going to think, huh?" he asked and his leg bounced again, his mouth moved involuntarily over half-formed words. The dialling tone seemed to slow in comparison. Ino's reaction, and his bursting heart, they all slowed and paled and died in comparison.
The music in the dinner was a loud old rock song that spoke of disillusioned love.
"I'll tell you what people will do! They'll do what we do and gossip! You can't go around wearing his jacket!"
"Well, I can't go around wearing yours!" Ino shot back.
"I'm okay with that if you're not wearing his! What the hell is wrong with you? Do you like him again? Is he flirting with you?"
"You're crossing the line, Naruto."
They glared at each other, halted. They wondered if it was what they wanted to cross the line, cross the table, change booth and never go back.
His phone clicked.
"What do you want?" Sasuke's voice cut in the tension.
Naruto held her gaze.
Her jaw tensed.
Her eyes dared him to say something.
"Oi, bastard," Naruto shouted in the phone. "You drive back right now to get that stupid jacket of yours. Ino isn't cold anymore!"
Ino stood up and reached across the table to grip his wrist. Her fingers tightened, vicious, around his wrist. Her eyes loomed almost black. Her face was cold, closed, framed in her loose hair.
"That's enough," she said darkly from above him.
Still staring at her, Naruto relaxed his wrist, the phone dropping from his ear. His heart wobbled in his chest, piercing loud. His ears buzzed with his loud pants.
Her face contorted, silent, dark.
"You can't get married, and you can't like Sasuke again," he said with numbing anger, and he ripped his hand from her grip.
She blinked.
"What's wrong with you?" Ino whispered.
Naruto clenched his jaw.
"I know I'm not smart and brave like you. I'm only as stubborn and as pretty as you, but you can't abandon me!" he shouted and immediately stilled.
'Was that what I had been afraid of, all along?' he wondered, and his insides tightened, frozen, reeling with the possibility of them. Belonging with her. Being with someone permanently. His hands shook.
"Abandon you?" she said blankly.
Naruto grimaced and his mouth faltered once more, words jumbled, pressed so tightly together, he didn't even know what he meant. He didn't know what to say. He shook his head, his mouth ticking, clicking.
"You're the only one, I could never bear... I can't bear it."
Ino looked at him strangely, pale, and Naruto glanced away. She still towered over him, unreadable.
"What are we, Naruto? What are we to each other?"
The muscle of his jaw spasming, he squinted at his car in the parking lot, aware of the weight of her stare. His car became a dark dot.
"I don't know," he admitted, numb.
"Then, you can bear it just fine," Ino spat, her shoulders shaking with cold laughter.
She grabbed her purse and left.
"Ino..." Naruto said after her, but he couldn't persuade himself to run after her.
He was lost, cemented into place, counting back and forward the shifts. Them, laughing. Them, gossiping. Them, touching.
He lowered his head on the table, his phone spinning away from his hand. The surface of the table was cool and sticky against his forehead. He closed his eyes.
"That was... something," Sasuke began after a moment of hesitation.
Naruto turned his head to glance at his phone. He had never hung up.
Carefully, Ayame slid the coffee Ino ordered on the table and left without saying a word.
"Still there, dobe?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto ended the call with his index.
Every day, for the past week, Naruto sat alone at the coffee shop at their usual table.
Countless times, they had shifted, finding new balance in their friendship, here, and a part of him hoped it would happen again. Here. She would come and they would be together again. Here. She would come and they would make up.
He wanted to tell her too many things.
He wanted to ramble about the first time they walked in the coffee shop with Sakura and Sasuke.
He wanted to tell how it still confused him how he had first noticed her laugh under the uneven lighting at the second booth. He wanted to explain it to her: how she rolled her head back, carelessly, and her nostrils pinched before she laughed.
He wanted to tell her he still wondered when he started noticing all of those things about her.
He wanted to admit with stammering words how she never made him feel like The Boy without Parents. And he would buy her a thousand pie if it meant she never became the Girl Without a Father.
She never showed up, and he didn't seek her out.
He didn't feel he deserved to.
On Friday, Naruto won his match. He never stared at the bleachers, he hit and defended with cold dedication.
There was no thought of her watching infiltrating his thought as he kicked his opponent. His mind was disturbingly still. And he hit and hit.
He didn't feel better.
He drove to the dinner, his knuckles tingling.
He slid in the booth of their regular table, feeling empty.
Ayame brought him coffee and pie, and he barely reacted.
Naruto caressed the handle of his mug, squinting at the two plates in front of him. He had ordered two slices of cherry pie. Out of habit. Out of habit, he still waited for her.
He pinched the bridge of his nose.
From his pocket, he pulled out crumbled bills and put them on the table. He grabbed his jacket and slid off the booth.
He froze.
She was there.
Her mouth was hard, her lips disappearing and trembling. They stared at each other, breathless. Ino moved first. She unzipped her jacket with a rough flick of her wrist.
Ino brushed past him, her hair whipping him in the process. She sat down.
Naruto blinked.
His legs heavy, he sat down again.
Without looking at him, Ino shrugged off her jacket and pulled one of the plates toward her.
"You came," Naruto said shakily, and he didn't know if he wanted to laugh or cry.
Ino scoffed.
He waited, but she didn't add anything. She simply ate with extravagant slowness.
"Ino… I'm sorry. I was the biggest jerk and my macho brain... Well, there's no excuse for that." Naruto grimaced and awkwardly crossed his arms over his chest.
Blinking, he glanced down at the jacket he still held, half-pressed to his chest, half dangling. He lowered it back on the booth, folding it carefully.
"I'm still mad at you," Ino said primly. "I just wanted pie."
Naruto hesitated, then slid on the seat next to her.
Ino whirled around, stiffening, darkening.
"What are you doing?" she hissed and her fork screeched against the plate.
"Blocking your escape route. I wanna talk."
"That's charming," Ino said coldly and pointed her fork to the other booth. "Get your ass back over there."
Naruto slid back in his own seat.
"It sounded better in my head," he laughed nervously.
"It often does," Ino snorted.
He flinched, then laughed, low. He rubbed the back of his neck, uncomfortable.
"Fair enough."
Ino flipped her hair over her shoulder, her pale eyes holding his, intently.
"I'm leaving after I'm done with this slice."
"I treat you to pies because you're my lucky charm," Naruto said softly, watching her eat. She flinched, and held her face lower to hide her expression. Until it was gone.
Naruto smiled sadly.
"When I see you there in the bleachers, I know I can't lose. I know I can't lose you. The thought of waking up and finding you gone terrifies me so much."
Ino dabbed her mouth.
"Almost done," she said, but there was an edge to her voice, a shadow in her face.
Naruto rubbed the back his neck, sighing. He briefly stared at the ceiling, before his gaze met hers. She looked away almost immediately, focusing back on her plate.
"Yeah... I guess, that's fair. I tell everyone you're my girlfriend, but I can't even tell you."
Ino tried twice to lower her fork, her movements halted, before forcing it down with shaking fingers. She dropped her head, her fingers running through her hair.
"The line is scary," she muttered. "I know it's unfair, but I was always waiting for you to let me know... if we could... you know."
Naruto nodded quickly.
"It's so scary. I don't know how to cross it. I can't move. I can't think, even less than usual, because I could lose you either way."
"So what do we do?"
"We eat pie."
Ino cleared her throat and nodded, stiff, her mouth hardening.
"Ok," she replied low, and reached for her fork again.
"As girlfriend and boyfriend."
Ino's mouth rounded and reddened, and Naruto grinned uneasily. They shifted again.
"I swear to god… Why did you pause like that?" Ino shouted and began eating again. "I can't believe you did that!"
They shifted and shifted, back in sync.
"I'm sorry," Naruto pressed his hands to his lips to hide his grin. "I thought I was building the drama."
"Oh, you built it alright," she huffed.
'So, what now?' She bit her lip.
Naruto swiftly grabbed her hand. She startled, glancing down at their joined hands. She held her breath. She withheld her smile. He squeezed her hand, his eyes boring through her.
"I'll fight for you, for us, believe it."
He brought her hand to his lips, then pressed it against his cheek.
Ino flustered.
"I do," she mumbled, and her smile brightened her face. "I do believe in you."