AN: I remembered that I wrote this a while ago. Finally took the time to complete this. Enjoy.

One

Hinata walked at a leisurely pace down the city street. It was a crisp autumn evening and the rusty maple leaves seemed to waltz into the sunset. All around her, people were rushing about to make it home before supper was set. Among the rush of pedestrians and honking cars, her slow gait made her seem almost frozen in time. She was in no hurry. She had spent the afternoon at the campus library and wouldn't be back until nighttime anyways. Besides, there was nobody waiting for her in her flat anyways. She maneuvered her foot a tiny step to the right and the satisfying crunch of a maple leaf could be heard underneath her boots.

She was headed for the coffeehouse just around the corner to meet her project partner. The assignment was simple, just a report on current economic theories and it was due on Monday. Over the course of the week she and her partner, Sasuke Uchiha, had merely exchanged emails on the project, dividing up the work and whatnot. The class itself was rather large, with over two hundred people in the lecture. The professor had simply emailed everyone with a list outlining everybody's project partners and their respected emails for the academic quarter. Each partner was expected to complete a report for each week of the academic quarter. Up to her third year of college was she blessed to have avoided classes that required group work. Only through emails was Hinata able to draw some assumptions about Sasuke Uchiha and she wasn't able to assume much. His emails were very curt and to-the-point, which didn't leave much clues for Hinata to judge. But he seemed to know what he was talking about, and he seemed competent enough.

Hinata Hyuuga was uncomfortable with group projects, to say the least. All too many times throughout junior and high school had she faced incompetent project partners. All too many times she had to do all the work herself while knowing her partners would receive equal credit. And then there were those partners that just could not contribute significantly no matter the effort. Hinata would end up doing more than her fair share merely to avoid the poor marks they were sure to receive had they used the material her partners didn't give a rat's ass to conjure up. At that point, Hinata didn't even mind doing the entire project anymore. It would have been much less work than to fix everybody else's mistakes. Hinata breathed in a refreshing breath of air. She had always wanted to speak up for herself, but she was just too nice. Nice. Everybody had used that word to describe her. She had always wanted to speak up for herself, to tell the teacher that she did more than necessarily. It's not that she wanted for her group mates to receive a lower score, oh heavens no! She simply wanted some recognition for her work. Hinata sighed. Maybe everyone was right. Maybe she was too nice.

She stopped walking as she had noticed that she had arrived at the coffeehouse. Very often was she absorbed in her own thoughts that time and space seemed to warp altogether in a dream. Hinata checked her phone for the time. 4:49 PM. She was early. Their meeting wasn't until another eleven minutes. Hinata decided to grab a table first and wait inside. They had decided to meet, but how was she able to recognize him? They had only exchanged emails. What if he never showed up and she was left with all the work—

"Excuse me."

Hinata turned around and nearly bumped into the young man behind her. Standing what seemed like an entire head above her own, his coal eyes gazed down at her small frame. His entire demeanor seemed, well…dark. His sharp black hair framed his chiseled face rather delicately and the black eyes that were staring at her seemed to pierce into her very own. His features contrasted sharply with his ivory skin.

"Are you Hinata Hyuuga?" His voice was cool and calm, like summer rain, but with an absence of warmth.

"W-what?" Hinata blinked back into the present moment.

"Are you Hinata Hyuuga?"

He must be Sasuke?!

"I'm her—she's me. Are you Sasuke Uchiha?"

"Hn. Let's go inside."

Hinata noted his curt demeanor—just like in the emails. The duo walked into the warm coffeehouse. The small coffeehouse was less crowded than usual due to the upcoming weekend. A humble fireplace was situated on one side of the room. Plush armchairs surrounded the fireplace and a few were scattered among the small table and chair sets in the room. The dim lights blanketed the coffeehouse in a beautiful rustic gold that seemed to have originated from the autumn sunset itself. The two settled for a table for two in the corner.

"Ah, Sasuke, I am going to get something to drink. Would you like anything?" Hinata set her belongings down and removed her jacket.

"Coffee. Black."

"Ah, okay. I will be right back."

Hinata maneuvered through the familiar arrangement of the coffeehouse to the cashier and bar at the back of the room. The coffeehouse was like a second home to her as she usually graced it with her presence almost every day of the week.

"Hinata! How are you today?" The bright red-eyed woman behind the counter greeted her with a bright smile.

"Hello, Kurenai. I'm good, thank you for asking. How's the baby?"

Kurenai rubbed the promising bump beneath her brown apron and laughed. She and her husband ran the coffeehouse for years now. Hinata had frequented the coffeehouse enough to witness some of its big changes. Kurenai had bought the small space for a heavily discounted price some years back in the hopes of turning it into a newly blossoming business. During one of the construction phases, she had met Asuma, a construction worker from the small company she hired. And well, the rest was history.

"She's definitely a kicker. So what can I get our favorite customer?"

"One jasmine green tea and one black coffee please."

"Oh, a black coffee? Is this for that handsome young man you're with?" Kurenai gave a sly wink to the now blushing girl.

"O-oh it's nothing like that. We're just working on a school project!"

Kurenai gave a hearty laugh before going to fetch the drinks as Hinata pulled out her wallet.

"Don't worry about it, dear. This one's on us."

Hinata smiled in gratitude and headed back to the table, two drinks in hand.

Sasuke had set up his laptop and laid out the paperwork while Hinata had been gone. Hinata set the coffee down for him.

"Hn. Thank you." He said, pulling out his wallet and taking out a five dollar bill.

"Oh, don't worry about it. It's on house."

He looked up and raised an inquisitive eyebrow before returning his gaze to the paperwork in front of him.

"Alright, let's get this started. I want to finish everything by the time the shop closes. I'll look over the articles and go through some databases for more supporting research. You can open the word document and write the abstract, or at least the beginning of one."

"E-excuse me?" Hinata stared at the boy who had already began shifting through the piles of paper.

"What is it? Do you need help? I can write the abstract if that's too much for you. Maybe you can come up with a clever title—"

"O-Oh. I can finish the abstract just fine, but that seems like very little work. I have some free time on my hands and I really don't mind doing more."

Sasuke sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Look, if you want to give the impression that you'll contribute, don't worry about it. Hyuuga, I can handle this and you honestly don't have to feel guilty or anything. I've dealt with this too many times and I will guarantee us a good grade."

Hinata scrunched her eyebrows at his use of her surname.

"Sasuke, with all due respect, this is as much of my project as it is yours. I will write the abstract, but I will also help you with the research."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. None of his previous project partners had even offered to help out after his short spiel.

"Fine, Hyuuga."

The two worked in near silence for the remainder of the coffee shop's opening hours.

-x-

"…and that will be it for today's lecture. Next week, we will cover…"

Sasuke tapped his pen impatiently. This was the last class of the week and all he wanted to do was go home and take a nap. He went over the things he needed to do that day. Nap, read the next textbook chapter, cook dinner—speaking of which, his fridge was near empty and he probably needed to go grocery shopping soon—

Sasuke's train of thought was broken off as he heard his name from the front of the classroom.

"…Uchiha and Hinata Hyuuga, please see me after class. Thank you all and have a wonderful afternoon."

What could the professor possibly want to see them for? Sasuke sighed and began packing his notes away. He probably should have double-checked her work. It seemed alright last week when he went over it, but then he had just pulled an all-nighter the previous night. Sasuke internally groaned as he made his way to the front, recognizing a familiar shade of deep violet hair. Hinata seemed visibly more worried than he. Her eyebrows were scrunched in confusion and she clutched her notebook protectively in front of her.

"Oh hello, you two. Thank you for coming to speak with me. This won't take long, I assure you. I just wanted to commend you both on your group project. Spectacularly researched and beautifully written. I will look forward to more of your work in the future. If you two are interested in further research opportunities, don't hesitate to give me a call. The comparison to the previous century's economic theory was particularly well written. A job well done to the both of you."

Sasuke looked over at the petite girl next to him and found her eyes to match his in surprise.

"T-Thank you, professor Tsunade!" The girl squeaked.

"Hn. Thank you."

Sasuke's eyes were focused on dark violet as he made his way out of the lecture hall. Perhaps the Hyuuga wasn't as bad as he had thought. The comparison to past economic theories was her idea, in fact. Sasuke was never the one to admit defeat in anything, and he wasn't about to admit that perhaps he had found someone up to par with himself.

"Hyuuga."

"Yes, Uchiha?"

Sasuke found himself involuntarily smirking at hearing her use his last name.

"See you next week."