Work Text:
When Hinata started working at the Antique Shop her father owned, she thought that every single day would be dull and boring. Sure, there have been days where the only thing she wanted was for someone to come in and just take a look, someone she could talk to. Well, she talked to the dolls, sometimes, but one-sided conversations weren’t really that gratifying. There were days upon days that no one would come inside, and then there were other days where she had five to ten costumers. Those were her happiest days. She really enjoyed working at the Antique Shop, most of the time she could just, tune out the rest of the world until the door bell rang, daydream or do homework, or just forget the outside world existed for a bit.
When she was little, her mom would take her through the shelves, would let her play with the dolls, would let her pick vinyl after vinyl and they would enjoy the music, and dance, and sing, and laugh. Hinata always felt like the Antique Shop was a completely different world. It was hard going back, after her mother died, but her dad made it through and he brought Hanabi and her every single day, and he would let them play with the dolls, and would let them play music, and laugh, and have fun. But he never walked through the shelves with them. Always staying behind and letting them play however they wanted. Hinata remembers hearing sobbing, the sound echoing through the walls. She never said anything.
As she grew up, she found the Antique Shop to be quite boring, some other things taking up her time and she just… stopped enjoying it. She would come to visit her father to bring him lunch, or just to talk, but she wouldn’t go through the shelves, or play music, or check the dolls. After she started college, though, her father got sick and she decided, along with her cousin, Neji, that they would man the front desk while he got better. And one month became two, and two became three, and three became four. After working at the Shop for four and a half months, and her father not getting better, Hinata decided that maybe, just maybe, she would stay longer.
*
There were lots of things she enjoyed about working at the Antique Shop, one of them were when her friends came to visit. Kiba and Shino enjoyed checking the new stuff, organizing it with her, joke around and asking for payment, make her laugh when they used the dolls to reenact some shitty movie they saw. Another thing she enjoyed was making small talk with the regular customers. There were five of them: Kaho, Kurenai, Sarutobi, Tsunade and a boy around her age, that she still doesn’t know the name of.
He’s tall, dark and broody, doesn’t say much and always looks like he’s ready to murder someone. The first three times he came in, she didn’t say anything to him, mostly because he had this look on his face where he pretty much told her that if she came to talk to him, he would kill her. Hinata has had her fair share of difficult customers, she’s learned that if they need help, they’ll come to look for her. Also, he was way too attractive for her to turn into her work persona. So, when he does come to ask her for something, she is decidedly not surprised (and a lot more collected). After that, she starts to keep tabs on his interests. She does that with all her regulars, just so she knows where to put the new stuff when it comes.
Kaho loves doll houses, so when a new one comes in through the back door, she makes note to call her when everything is settled. It takes her two to three days to come, and most of the time she takes them with her. Kurenai loves custom jewelry and comic books. She comes regularly to check them out and maybe buy them, if she doesn’t, she just stays for longer chatting with Hinata. Sarutobi loves first edition books. They have three whole shelves full of them and he comes once a week to check them out, he probably knows all the tittles by now. Tsunade, on the other hand, she loves postcards. She says they remind her of a time when she would send them to her lover. Hinata wonders a lot how old she really is.
The brooding man, though? Yeah, no, he doesn’t stick to one thing.
He’s bought books, guitars, jewelry, porcelain, videogame consoles, comic books. He once bought a doll house. Though Hinata is pretty sure it was for his girlfriend or something like that. He came to return it after a few weeks though, which made Kaho very happy. Hinata thinks that maybe he’s just buying gifts for his loved ones, and she wonders how he manages to get that much money every single time he comes, which is pretty much once a month.
One day, she learns his name. He comes in with a blond boy. He has the loudest laugh she’s ever heard – and she’s friends with Kiba – and the bluest eyes she’s ever seen. He is, decidedly, the most attractive guy she’s ever seen. Well, aside from Tall, Dark and Broody, of course. Tall, Dark and Broody’s name is Sasuke. And he seems just so relaxed around the other boy that she just can’t help but stare for a few seconds.
“Welcome to Hyuga Antiquing,” she says, automatically. “Please tell me if you need any help.”
“Thank you!” Blond boy says.
“Actually-.” Sasuke says. “Naruto, can you go check the shelves?”
“Why?”
“Just go.”
Sasuke walks to her, and she gets out of the front desk to meet him, he seems… nervous, and that’s something she never quite thought she would say about TDB.
“Yes?”
“My mother’s birthday is coming up, and the last time I was here, I saw you had some lockets on display?”
“Oh, yeah!” Hinata says and motions him to follow her. “We moved them beside the dolls, it was uh… a last-minute decision.”
Kaho and Kurenai met, and that’s all Hinata’s going to say. She’s a romantic, sue her.
Sasuke follows her in silence and when they arrive to the jewelry section of the store, she grabs one of the displays and turns around.
“These are all the lockets that are in the shop, please tell me if you need any help?”
“Uh, sure.”
She goes back to the front desk and passes Blond Boy, Naruto, who’s looking at the guitars like they came from another world. Most people get that look when they check out the prices.
“Can I help you?” she asks him, offering a smile.
“Uh, no, I’m just… Sasuke gave me a guitar for my birthday this year, he’s a big gesture guy like that, I just… I didn’t know they were so expensive.”
“He must really appreciate you, then.”
“Sure, he does! I’m basically his brother from another mother.”
“Stop telling her nonsense.”
Hinata jumps at the voice behind her. She didn’t hear his footsteps and that’s something. Everything echoes inside the shop. It’s creepy sometimes.
“You’re a ghost, dude.” Naruto says, clutching his heart. “And what do you mean ‘nonsense’!? It’s true!” Naruto says fake hurt.
“Uh huh.” Sasuke rolls his eyes and denies with his head. Hinata wants to laugh at the theatrics Naruto is pulling.
“Did you find the one you wanted?” she asks, instead. This is her job, after all.
“Yeah.” He says, showing her a silver locket.
“Ooohhh, that’s pretty!” Naruto says, trying to grab it. Sasuke snatches it away. “Hey! I just want to see it!”
“See it, not touch it.” Sasuke shows it again and Hinata gets a proper look.
It’s the locket that was far, far back in the display. Silver, round, a flower of eight petals engraved and an overlapping branch of a cherry blossom tree. It’s, by far, one of the most beautiful lockets she’s ever seen, and she wonders if Kurenai ever saw it.
“Mikoto’s going to love it.”
“Stop calling my mom by her first name.”
“You call my mom by hers!”
“I use her tittle first.” Sasuke says, turning around, and she goes to follow him to the front desk
“I use her tittle first.”, Naruto repeats, mocking, and Hinata fakes a cough to cover up her laugh. The look Naruto gives her tells her that she failed at that.
*
Sasuke comes back alone, five days later, and he looks just as relaxed as he looked when he came in with Naruto. She wonders if good things are happening to him.
“Hey, how can I help you today?” Hinata says as he comes closer to the front desk, and he asks her about porcelain.
“My mom loved the locket, and she was saying that she wanted new porcelain this morning. Can you show me?”
“Sure!”
He buys a set of four teacups, their plates, a tea pot, and teaspoons.
*
It… kind of becomes a regular thing after that? Hinata doesn’t change most of the stuff in the store, but Sasuke keeps coming to ask for her help to find something, without even looking for it himself. She’s pretty sure he has the entire shop memorized and it’s not like the thing is too big. But he just… he just keeps asking for her help, and then he asks how her day is going, and then he just continues to talk to her; and soon enough, Hinata leaves behind her work persona once he enters the shop and she’s not just talking to the dolls but to Sasuke. And yes, sometimes it becomes a one-sided conversation, along with some stuttering and sometimes with too much emotion, but Sasuke keeps humming and nodding and saying just the right thing at the right time and it makes her feel… different.
They exchange numbers one afternoon after Sasuke hasn’t been able to come to visit for almost a week. He has dark circles around his eyes and seems stressed out. He tells her that his brother is sick and that he needs surgery, that he’s been staying with him at the hospital, and that when he came, there was another man at the front desk. Hinata explains that that’s her cousin Neji, as she offers him a cup of tea and he tells her about his childhood, when Itachi would come home tired and still go out with him to play. Hinata tells him about her mother, and how she would carry her on her shoulders, and they would walk around the shelves and check the highest books and speculate together about what they were about.
Sasuke kisses her after that, after she finishes telling him one of the things she invented about the books, after she tells him how embarrassed she was with herself when she finally read the book, after she laughs and blushes and stutters as she asks him to say something.
*
When Hinata started working at the Antique Shop her father owned, she thought that every single day would be dull and boring. As she takes Sasuke’s hand and laces their fingers together after closing the shop for the day, she thinks, I couldn’t be more wrong.