“So what is it about her?” Sakura kicked her legs from where she lay on the floor half draped over Naruto’s lap. Like siblings the two were inseparable, and yet always at odds. It confused Sasuke still, despite having witnessed their continued friendship through the years that they could be so close and argue so much.

It was hypocrisy at it’s finest. Only earlier in the day he had smacked Naruto in the face hard enough to get his nose bleeding when he had dubbed his crush “The Oreo Girl.”

“Nothing. There’s nothing about her.” Sasuke snapped, lying through his teeth. The light of the television screen danced over Sakura’s face in the dim living room. On the screen a video game involving some sort of ninja academy peppered their silence with cries of battle and artificial sounds of blades clashing.

She smiled in the wicked pink and red hues of tv light at him from her comfortable place on Naruto’s lap. “You sound…” she paused, thinking.

“Pubescent.” Naruto offered. “I almost expected his voice to crack.” Laughing together the two ignored Sasuke’s lethal glare while Naruto demonstrated his voice slipping and sliding all over the place like a puppy with big paws. “Nothing! There’s nothing about her!”

Sakura, copying his adolescent tones continued. “Hey Oreo Girl, would you go to the dance with me?”

Sasuke stood. “All right. I’m going out.”

“Aw, come on! We have literally never teased you about a crush before! Don’t leave!” Sakura flung herself to her feet, ignoring Naruto’s curses as he tried to both play his game and also keep one eye on them. “Don’t be mad!”

Sasuke ignored them, shoving his feet into his shoes as he went. “It’s been over a month since I last saw her, I think we can all assume nothing will come of it.” He flung open the closet door with a bang that made Sakura take a delicate step back. “And who cares, anyway? She was just some girl. I don’t even know her name. And judging by her eating habits she is undisciplined, some weirdo vegan hippie probably.”

“A hippie?” Naruto paused his game abruptly, silencing the chaos of the battle as he flung himself awkwardly to his feet. “You have a crush on a hippie? You never told me that!”

“I don’t. It was just a…” Sasuke stopped, unsure of what to call whatever it was that had possessed him to buy every kind of oreo he could ever find in the hopes of one day offering a replacement for the pack he had so rudely stepped on. What would one say to describe such actions?

Gloomily he thought perhaps insanity was the word he was looking for.

“What makes you think she’s a hippie?” Sakura smiled, taking a sip of the beer Naruto had offered her earlier. “To you anyone that wore more than one color besides black and white might be a hippie.”

As if to prove her right Sasuke put on a black jacket over his white shirt and a scarf in shades of dark gray and black stripes. Naruto snorted as he watched him putting on his outdoor ensemble.

“Maybe she even smiled at him. Hippies are said to be very happy.”

“Will you two stop? She was all… patched clothes, and beanies, and…” He breathed out as he thought, picturing her face focused on the book at hand, her legs crossed at the ankles where she sat on the floor, the white skirt on her hips spread like spilled paint around her.

“Freckles.” He murmured, remembering the smattering across her nose.

Sakura drew in a long breath. “This is so weird.”

“I know.” Naruto shuddered. “It’s almost like he’s human.”

“Fuck you.” Sasuke replied politely, stepping out into the corridor and slamming the door on their grinning faces.

Despite all his claims that the thing was over Sasuke still found himself following his feet on the familiar walk through crowded sidewalks and busy intersections, until he was standing in front of the public library, shoulders drooping in defeat.

***

Hinata Hyuuga was not easily scared, per say. There had been terrifying things she had faced with a tight set of her jaw and only the slightest tremble of a hand. Things like telling her little sister their mother had died, and scolding her father for mistreating her cousin.

Scary things.

But there were things that had a way of jus rubbing her the wrong way. Like nails on a chalkboard, like that moment when you grabbed a basketball flying through the air and bent your finger the wrong direction.

He was one of those things.

“You’re back early.” Hanabi’s teasing tone made her sister sigh, tossing her shoulder bag onto the floor as she kicked off her boots and meandered into the living room of their apartment.

Hanabi was splayed on the white couch, legs hooked on the backrest and hair a cascade down by the floor. Upside down she was as pink cheeked as Hinata herself, a thing which happened rarely and when it did had more do to with Hanabi being furious than embarrassed.

Her older sister’s lack of reply had the recent highschool graduate hoisting herself up after a quick wiggle of her eyebrows.

“So?” She smirked as she righted herself. “He was there again, huh?”

Hinata opened the fridge, covered in pictures of her friends and family, clamped onto the metal surface with a hodgepodge of different magnets she had made and collected through the years. They smiled their frozen faces in reply to her downcast lips. Only her father looked sternly on at her from every single photo.

She tried to ignore him as she pulled out a bottle of wine and one of the glasses Kiba had given her for Christmas. He had dubbed it : The Fishbowl.

“I wish there was another library I could go to.” She mused when Hanabi sat quietly vibrating and withholding all further teasing. She deserved the little bone she threw out, Hinata could see the steam coming out of her ears from the pressure building.

“Uh… campus library?” Her sibling cocked her head, smiling wickedly. “But then you wouldn’t get to see his pretty face again.”

Hinata let the bottle of wine keep glug-glugging into her glass, mouth still downturned sadly.

“The picture Neji took of him on his phone does not lie.” Hanabi continued when Hinata simply recorked the bottle and took a long sip. “He has A Face.” And with her hands spread wide and her eyes shining Hanabi made it sound like a sort of title. Like saying he had a Dukedom or something likewise prestigious.

Tapping her finger on the counter Hinata waited for her sister to come out of her admiring reverie of the stranger before sighing once more.

“He does indeed…have a face.”

It was hard not to notice that he had a face, a beautiful face, a really painfully handsome face. One which he had turned to her in the library while crushing her favorite cookies and staring at her with a sort of silent loathing that had made her uncomfortable for several days after.

Even now, with the wine starting to seep into her stomach lining and therefore her bloodstream she felt the itch of shame tingling in her spine.

He made her uncomfortable, to a degree that was rather impressive considering their single interaction. It was however, more than just that one instance which made her so panicked at the sight of him sitting in the library with laptop open and work piled around him.

It was the fact that his face continued to lance through her thoughts at strange times. The dark eyes that had looked at her face so coldly shifting away more important matters and setting up camp centre stage. Beauty was something that fascinated Hinata, she studied it in all it’s forms through the lens of her camera. It should not have been strange that a beautiful thing like that young man would capture her attention, the same way that flower fields and sunsets did.

What was truly strange was that there was something polished about him that contrasted every single one of her previous fixations. His shirt had been a blazing white, the blazer on his shoulders a pristine black. Jeans that looked as expensive as they did casual had hugged his hips and despite the simplicity of the ensemble she had known he was someone as unlike her as she could possibly meet. By contrast almost everything she had been wearing that day had been slightly frayed.

“Why does he have to have A Face?” Hinata lamented, rubbing a frown between her brows. He was a magazine cover, and she was the patchwork quilt a grandmother made generations ago. He should not have ensnared her so.

Ignoring Hanabi’s wide appreciative grin she took another, longer sip. A sudden drooping of Hanabi’s shoulders dampened the mood minutely as she remembered a vital piece of information.

“Too bad Neji thinks he’s a stalker.”

***
It was a rare thing indeed when Sasuke allowed Naruto to accompany him anywhere let alone to the library. Since the Oreo Girl had come to light he had been insufferable at even the slightest mention of books or dessert, so to bring him with must have been a necessity.

Working together on projects for their professor sometimes lightened the load. Kakashi was a strange teacher, more interested in his smutty romance novels than his actual teaching but if there was one thing he was determined they all learn it was that teamwork made most challenges achievable. Sasuke was prone to thinking this was not true, after all he could manage most things alone but to get the grade he had to do the work as directed.

Which was why he was sitting across from Naruto, ignoring him clearing his throat like he had lodged a football there.

“You are disgusting.” He reprimanded absently, eyes focused on the work on the library table.

Naruto replied by clearing his throat some more, trying to dislodge his esophagus by the sound of it.

“Are you dying? Is this a sudden bout of lung cancer you’re struggling with because if that’s the case then perhaps you should go to the hospital, people that care might be there.” He paused, assessing the blonde’s equally annoyed expression. Stubbornly the Uchiha continued, “Maybe.”

“Ha. Ha.” Naruto pronounced in a whisper. “I was trying to get you to look up because that dude that took a picture of you is… ah-shit, speak of the devil and-”

“Good evening.”

Sasuke turned, studying the stranger with a carefully placid expression despite his hackles rising in his mind. It was not the first time someone had taken a cell phone out to snap a picture of him while he was out in public. Usually it was a teenage girl, however. Blushing and giggling in pairs they tried to be subtle and scampered away when his dark eyes flashed in their direction.

“Hi… Hey.” Naruto saluted him awkwardly before looking down at his work weakly.

“You appeared to be in some distress, are you needing medical assistance?” It would have been a caring query were it not for the complete lack of emotion on the young man’s face. He studied them with crossed arms and brows carefully smooth across his forehead. Absently he shrugged his brown ponytail back and waited while Naruto fumbled for a response.

“The only thing in distress is his IQ level.” Sasuke retorted, throwing a glare at his friend that was more exasperated than annoyed. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I won’t then.” The stranger continued, turning his gray eyes to Sasuke sharply. The dim light of the library lamps flashed across the badge pinned to his shirt and Sasuke let his eyes flicker there, reading the name distractedly.

“You are?” Neji inquired then, not uncrossing his arms, nor introducing himself. Sasuke leaned back in his chair, eyeing him with growing puzzlement. This was unlike most interactions he had with those that snatched pictures of him while out and about. If he was honest he had been anticipating an uncomfortable conversation where he would be turning down a request for his number.

“Why do you ask?” Mincing words was not his forte and before him Naruto shifted, clearly growing more uncomfortable by the second.

“Well, no matter. I do not need to know your name to give you a warning.” Neji sidestepped his question easily, waving it away with a flick of his wrist. “I have seen you here before-”

“It is a public library, and I am a student.” Sasuke interrupted. “Is there a problem?”

“Yes. As a public domain I must stress that any sort of harassment will not be tolerated and the library is ready to deny entry to anyone who violates the rights of others to attend this institution without undue distress.”

Sasuke and Naruto both blinked rapidly at him for a moment, their faces sliding around on several different emotions like feet on slippery ice, never finding a proper foothold.

Finally, together and in complete unison they asked the pertinent question, “ What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’m just saying. We do not tolerate stalking in this establishment. Consider this a fair warning.” And without further ado he turned, walking away as though he had simply wished them a good afternoon without any subtle threats attached.

“What… the…” Naruto began.

“Fuck.” Sasuke slammed his laptop closed and hurried to get out of the library.

***

“You did what?” Hanabi was in full blown tantrum mode, chucking couch cushions and stomping around and around the living room coffee table.

At the island separating the living room from the kitchen Hinata watched with growing dismay as Neji and Hanabi faced off. Her tall immaculately dressed cousin sat with back straight and face placid as he watched his youngest cousin rush in endless circles around the table.

“It is for the best. He might have been some sort of pervert.”

“Ah-” Hinata began, her voice sounding small compared to Hanabi’s furious growl.

“He didn’t do anything!”

Neji frowned finally. “Exactly, I was trying to make sure that did not change.”

“You are such a weirdo!”

This statement was clearly enough to offend him, making him flinch back as though struck. “I am no such thing.”

“Perhaps-” Hinata attempted again.

“He did not do anything- maybe he was looking for her to apologize? Ever think about that?”

“Apologize for what?” Neji was sitting up straight again, looking like a hunting dog on a scent. “What did he do?”

Hinata raised her hands up to placate his worried tone. “No… no-thing. Nothing. He didn’t do-”

“He stepped on your Oreos.” Hanabi cut in, waving the offense away. “Maybe he feels bad?”

“Oreos?” Neji turned sharply to Hinata once more. “Were you eating at the library?”

His cousin flinched just as Hanabi let her mouth fall open in realization of what she had done. “Uh. Oh.”

“I… just… had a snack.” Hinata began uncertainly, feeling as her face superheated so that the vegetables she was chopping might have cooked just perfectly on her cheeks. “I was careful.”

“Until he stepped on them.” Neji pointed out.

“Oh, Neji.” Hanabi flopped onto the couch. “You drive me crazy. He is the hottest thing I’ve seen on two legs in awhile and he might have been looking for Hinata and you drove him away!”

“I am not sorry.” Neji sniffed, pushing himself to his feet. “If that Oreo Boy is trying to reach you it’s best he does so knowing you are not to be messed with.”

“Oreo Boy.” Hinata breathed, unable to suppress the giggle that escaped her at that.

“Oreo Boy.” Hanabi agreed, chuckling. “Well. He is definitely yummy enough to-”

Shuddering, Neji cut in. “Ugh. Enough of this. What’s done is done. Hinata what are you making for dinner, can I help?”

“Don’t worry about dessert though!” Hanabi sang as she flipped open a book from her place on the couch, smile smug. “I’ve got some Oreos to share.”

***

“Let me…summarize, just to be certain I am understanding fully.” Sakura waved her coffee around, sloshing some onto her wrist and the carpet.

Sasuke, who would have usually snapped at her to be less of a pig did not even look up, splayed as he was on the couch with his face buried beneath his sweater.

On the armrest, grinning like a child on Christmas Naruto waved her onward.

“You went to the library.” Sakura continued at Naruto’s encouragement.

“Like he does nearly every day.” Naruto piped in, only to be forcefully removed from his perch by a swift Uchiha kick to the leg.

“And you saw the Oreo Girl.” Sakura continued, as though Naruto were not cursing up a storm from the floor.

“Do not call her that.” Sasuke snarled, his voice muffled beneath the pillow.

“He had Oreos for the Oreo Girl.” Naruto cut in, dusting his pants off as he stood.

“And you went to give them to her.” Sakura tried and mostly succeeded in keeping a smile from her face as she retold the story and took another swig from her coffee. “But she saw you coming and-”

“Ran away.” Naruto enunciated this clearly, howling with laughter even as Sasuke took his sweater and threw it forcefully at his head, muffling his guffaws.

“So she ran away.” Sakura smiled, she was getting carried off in the current of Naruto’s amusement, much to Sasuke’s growing vexation. “And you have not seen her since.”

“But today…” Sasuke rubbed at his face, feeling creases on his forehead that made him think he was getting old.

“One of the librarians told you that they do not tolerate stalking.”

“Jesus.” Sasuke buried his face into his hands then, hanging his head before sliding his tense fingers into his hair. It was worse when someone else said it.

Naruto could no longer breathe, his wheezing hiccupy laugh drawing some chuckles from the usually no nonsense Sakura.

“He’s a stalker.” The blonde choked between bouts of overwhelming hilarity. “Sasuke Uchiha is a stalker!”

“All right enough.” Sasuke snarled, shoving himself to his feet to get something to drink. “Why do I keep you two around? Aren’t you supposed to help? Isn’t that what friends are supposed to do?”

“Oh, now we’re friends?” Naruto managed, his laugh leaving him depleted and content on the couch where Sasuke had been splayed. “Usually you just call us irritations.”

“Or leeches.” Sakura added.

“Burdens.”

“Punishments from God.”

“That one was poetic.” Naruto admitted. “He had had a lot to drink that night.”

“You are the ones who called yourselves my friends, so…” Sasuke waved a hand wildly over his head as he pulled out the tequila from the cupboard above the fridge. “Earn the title! Help me! Do something useful, for once.”

“Help you?” Sakura crossed her arms, looking unconvinced. “Help you how? We can’t convince her you’re not a stalker. She won’t even talk to you. What are you going to do? Leave Oreos all over the library like breadcrumbs in Hansel and Gretel?”

Sasuke paused with the tequila shot pressed to his lips.

From across the room Naruto and Sakura stared at him, faces tensing with dismay. “Aw, no.” Naruto sighed.

Agreeing wholeheartedly Sakura smacked a hand to her face. “Shit.”

***

To Hinata, staying away from the library for a handful of days seemed like a good idea. Neji was vexed with her. Eating at the library was a big no-no in his no nonsense stance and she had violated his rules with her snacking.

It did seem unfair to not let her munch sometimes, however. Library trips were long ones in her life. She could easily spend four hours at one, meandering through shelves and searching for new subjects to photograph, paint or otherwise capture in some way. Among all her topics of research for her studies and work there was also her own insatiable curiosity.

Questions, she found were more numerous the more she knew. Finding out about the altitude of a mountain always led to the people who lived there. Finding out how they lived was necessary, for how could one not be interested in such a foreign and new concept. Answers always led to more questions and Hinata was glad of it. There was something soothing about knowing she would never exhaust all there was to learn.

So she only lasted two days in the end, away from the library. Two days in which Neji barely replied to her texts, making her wonder if he was indeed more upset with her about her Oreos than she had first thought.

Bag on her shoulder and bundled thickly she skipped a handful of steps up to the entrance and paused in surprise to see a crowd standing at the door, her cousin flanked by two other librarians barring entry into the inner workings of the library.

Puzzled, Hinata stepped into the chaos. There were many different kinds of people. Some were vaguely familiar from campus, others were younger children looking morose and upset. They complained and buzzed like a swarm of bees ever shifting and with continued confusion Hinata fixed her eyes on her cousin as he stepped onto a stool to get a better view of the crowd.

“It is due to the possible damage of many of our works that we are required to close the library down early today. We understand that among all of those who are not here for the sake of knowledge there are those who wish simply to access the library as they usually would but until this…issue, is resolved we are forced to shut down. We apologize and hope that you will all understand.”

“But what are you going to do with them all?” One of the children standing around called out. “Can’t we have them?”

“We will dispose of them. There is no guarantee that they are even safe to consume. We do not know who placed them in the library or why-”

The crowd grumbled and began to disperse with a lot of annoyed mutterings. Clearly flustered Neji attempted and failed to placate those nearest to him, although the moment his eyes landed on Hinata he jumped off the stool and rushed forward, a little out of breath and face shiny with sweat. “Hina, what are you doing here?”

“I… was going to use the library.” She cocked her head. “Whatever is the matter?”

“You won’t believe this. I have half a mind to call Hanabi, I’m almost certain it was her.” Neji grumbled, guiding her by the elbow to the library entrance guarded by two librarians like sentries barring access. With her in tow he passed through into the echoing silence of the shelves and books, away from the crowd towards the abandoned service desk where other members of staff were coming by to drop handfuls of something crinkly into cardboard boxes.

Hinata frowned, trying to understand what she was seeing.

“Hanabi? What do you-?”

“Oreos.” Neji scowled, grabbing a box to show her the contents. Within, shiny wrappers hugged two oreos per package. There were no labels on the plastic and it was see through so she could see a piece of paper behind each pair of cookies, folded neatly.

“They are everywhere, tucked in every shelf, in corners, in the flower pots!” He chucked the box down with distaste. “Word got out and there was chaos. Kids running around hunting for them, wrappers all over the place. Garbage and crumbs.” He shuddered. “What if they stain the books? What if they get their sticky fingers all over them?”

Nervously Hinata pressed her bag to her side, clearing her throat when the oreo box inside crinkled gently.

“That’s terrible.”

“I know.” Neji shook his head, letting out a deep breath. “Anyway, you shouldn’t stay long. I can let you take out some books if you like, but you should hurry. I don’t want anyone out there saying I have favorites.”

Hinata smiled then, pecking his cheek lightly with a kiss. “But you do.”

“I do.” He shrugged mildly, turning away to order his staff into a different area in search of more unwanted sugar.

Left alone Hinata puckered her mouth as she thought. What a strange thing to do, leaving cookies everywhere. It did sound an awful lot like Hanabi, especially considering the last time she and Neji had fought about the Oreo Boy.

She smiled then, sheepishly amused by her sister’s supposed antics although as was her nature she was unlikely to believe her sister was guilty until proven otherwise.

Humming to herself she turned instead, heading in no particular direction only to pause at the feel of the hairs at the back of her neck rising on end. The subtle indescribable touch of someone’s gaze on her making her pause, turning to look over her shoulder just in time to catch his face among the dispersing crowd.

Mouth falling open she startled, unsure of what to do with her limbs or her features although before she could come up with a decision he was gone, swallowed by the other bodies heading away from the building.

From the side of the library across from the service desk Neji and his staff talked, his voice grumbling although the others were having a good enough laugh at the strange predicament.

Hinata listened to them from where she stood, rooted to the carpet by a sinking feeling.

“Who would do this though?” The laugh that  echoed through the shelves reached her, making her breath catch in her throat. “Why would they do this? It would have been so expensive to buy so many Oreos.”

“And they’re all different kinds too. These ones looks like…mint? Green tea?”

Hinata took a step back towards the shelves, feeling increasingly less tethered to the planet beneath her feet.

“Have you seen what it says on the notes inside?”

“This one says….Sorry about before, I’m paying back with interest.”

Frantic now, Hinata ripped down the aisle, pale eyes searching through the books for a shine of plastic wrap. It took her hardly two steps to find a pair of cookies tucked between books, and her fumbling fingers pulled the package out, cracking open the plastic to reach the note inside.

In a slanted neat script, lacking in nonsense and purposeful was a short sentence.

My friends call you Oreo Girl. I’m sorry that they do, but more than that I’m sorry that I’ve started doing so in my head too.

The breath left her in a woosh that made her chest feel hollow, although it could not have been actually hollow considering the rapid thumping of a drum in her ribcage.

Face flushed scarlet she spun around, picking through more books until her fingers found another little parcel and dumping the cookies wherever they landed on the floor she flipped open the note.

I keep trying to figure out what it is you study, but I’m starting to think it’s everything. Is that true?

“Oh god, oh god.” The chant was coming unbidden to her lips and Hinata fluttered further down the shelf, dumping her bag onto the ground to better find the little bits of treats hidden among the texts.

The next package dropped another note into her hand, small as the rest, in the same careful script.

I really hope you don’t actually think I’m stalking you. I promise I just need the library a lot for my courses.

More searching, more ripping of packages, more dumping of cookies on the floor.

It took me a couple of weeks to get green tea oreos delivered. I had to order them online.

Why are there so many oreo types anyway? I’m kind of confused by it.

If this doesn’t work, I will never hear the end of it, but at least I hope you get some cookies out of the deal, even if you are decidedly not interested in talking to me.

And the last she found before Neji came to look for her did not require she open it. Visible through the plastic the writing was hesitant and small.

I should probably admit that I think you’re extremely pretty, Oreo Girl. So much so, I didn’t say anything the one time you spoke to me. Probably you have already figured this out but I may be kind of an idiot.

“Hinata.” Neji’s voice cut through her stunned silence, drawing her back from within her mind where her inner voice was squeaking incoherently.

“Is this you?” He waved the oreo package he held in his hand around, the little note in his other hand a copy of the one she held herself. “Oreo Girl?”

Hinata blinked very hard at him for a moment, feeling as the world swayed and shifted dangerously before her mouth broke out into a full out grin.

“Yes! I’m…. I think I may be the Oreo Girl!”

***

Naruto had to scope out the library for him before he could go in. There were signs everywhere, warnings that a certain sweet snack was not permitted on the premises. Sakura and Naruto both thought it was a fantastic turn of events.

“I think it’s clear. I didn’t see stuck up Mr. Librarian anywhere.” Naruto offered as he came out the library doors. “But guess who I did in fact see?”

Sasuke tried to keep his face from twitching or otherwise moving but that didn’t stop the flood of blood that drained out of his face as he realized what his friend meant.

Smirking wide Naruto clapped him hard enough on the back to send him forward several steps towards the door. “She’s in the science fiction section, Romeo. Good luck.”

Usually this sort of jibe would have been followed by a lot of cursing from Sasuke but there was no vocal chords in his throat, as far as he was aware and so instead he inched towards the library entrance in silence.

With his hands shoved deep into his pockets he scanned the aisles, knowing exactly where to go and yet dreading it.

There had been a chaotic response to the Oreo Incident. Online as well as on campus people told each other the story of the Oreo Boy and Oreo Girl. Girl’s swooned, guys admitted Oreo Boy had game and Sasuke dove out of earshot with his heart in his throat and his stomach in knots.

It had been over a week since the library shut down and finally Naruto had dragged him there, threatening to out him as the culprit of the Oreo barrage if he didn’t. Sasuke had sulked despite the fact he was glad to finally have this thing over with. He couldn’t stand another night wondering if she-

He froze, once more caught like a deer in the headlights at the sight of her scanning titles with her head cocked sideways, moving in slow increments down the long aisle.

Her patchwork bag hung on her shoulder, and with her arms looped behind her back she did not seem like the instigator of a mild misdemeanor at the library and yet he could not help it, the nickname he both loathed and privately adored lingered in his mind at the sight of her.

Oreo Girl.

She turned, sensing his presence perhaps, or the touch of his gaze much too heavy to be casual. At the sight of him her face flushed, blood washing away freckles on her face and stunned by his actions he drew in a breath and hid back around the corner.

Praying that Naruto had not just seen him hide he pressed his back to the shelf end, surprised to feel a rabbit or some other frantic creature trying to get out of his chest.

“H…hello?”

She peeked around the corner then, much closer than he had ever seen her before and every muscle in his body tightened. There was the possibility that he would snap and shatter at any moment, but to move away from her was also not an option. Holding still he blinked at her, trying to think.

Still pink cheeked she blinked at him, a smile threatening at the corner of her lips. “Hi.”

Sasuke drew a breath. There was an appropriate response but he was wholly unable to bring it to mind. Instead, he nodded.

“This…this is really weird, and I’m…sorry…” she began, knifing through his stomach with her words. An alarm was going off in his head telling him to abort. This was not going to go the way he had hoped, clearly. She was already apologizing.

In front of him she rummaged around in her bag, lifting her head to glance around as though looking for watching eyes and when the coast was clear she drew out a package he recognized as the ones he, Sakura and Naruto had spent a whole night making up out of the endless boxes of oreos that had been flooding his house.

“A…are you the one who… I mean…” She swallowed, studying the unopened cookies for a moment before drawing a long breath. Steeled by the pause she looked up, searching his face for something. “Did you leave these here for me?”

There was hesitation on her face, but he saw something else. The slight suggestion of a smile, her plump mouth still threatening to end his life with a grin.

Somehow his brain supplied words, and though a little creaky his voice complied to say them.

“I hope those are not the only ones you managed to get. I was trying to pay you back the ones I…stepped on.”

“With interest.” She finished, face erupting with the deadly grin he had been hoping to see.

“Right.” He swallowed and waited, watching as she rubbed her hand nervously on her side before reaching towards him tentatively.

“I’m Sasuke Uchiha.” He offered, taking her small hand in his. At the touch of her skin his ears threatened to whistle like a kettle on high and her smile spread wider, despite her own growing blush.

“Hinata Hyuuga. Or…I mean, I guess you call me Oreo Girl.”

It took a lot of effort for Sasuke Uchiha to not kiss her, right there and then.

The End
-Inky