Title: A Date in Less than Ideal Circumstances
Author: vendettadays
Fandom: Naruto
Characters: Gaara, Hinata Hyūga, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha
Rating: T
Length: 2164
Summary: Gaara thought that coffee from his favourite cafe would help him digest the sixty-page report that marketing had given him. It didn't. Now, a woman he had never seen before in his life was pretending to be his date, all to stop her stalker from following her home.

A/N: Not entirely sure where this came from, but I hope you all enjoy!
tw: Stalking

Gaara downed the last of his coffee as he read the final sentence of a sixty-page report that marketing had given him on Friday. He sighed and turned back to the front to start from the beginning. Even coffee from his favourite café was unable to make the process easier on him. The change of scenery hadn't helped much either, but there were worse places to be than sitting inside a café on a Sunday evening in spring. He thought about ordering another coffee when the scrape of chair legs against the slate tiles distracted him.

'I'm so sorry that I'm late,' said the woman who had plopped herself into the seat across from him. She slung her bag onto the back of the chair and grabbed the tiny specials menu from the display stand.

'Excuse me, I believe you have –'

'I'm Hinata! It's very nice to meet you.' She stuck her hand out where it trembled in front of him.

He frowned and took in the woman's flushed cheeks, the wisps of long hair stuck to her face, and her scared, wide eyes. She breathed in short, sharp gasps like she had been running and mouthed something to him.

Please play along.

She turned her head to the right slightly. Sat at a table near the door was a man with a brown goatee and an eye patch that covered his right eye. His leg bounced on the spot and he kept glancing over at them, but quickly looked out the window when he saw Gaara staring at him.

'Um, yes, I apologise.' Gaara grasped for words to say and shook her hand belatedly. 'I-I've been working and completely forgot that it was time for our… date.'

Meeting. He winced at his word choice. Meeting was what he had meant to say, but date had been the first thing that had come to him in his moment of panic. Improvisation outside of his work had never come easy to him.

'Please don't apologise. I am the one that is an hour late,' replied Hinata. Her shoulders relaxed and she mouthed a silent thank you. 'I thought I had the wrong person or place since Hanabi didn't tell me your name. The only thing she gave me was: he's got red hair and a tattoo.'

'My name's Gaara,' he said as he signalled Kotetsu, the waiter, for another coffee. 'Well, Temari was a bit more helpful when she told me about you. At least I know you're a doctor.'

He nodded at the blue scrubs Hinata wore. Her receding blush returned in full force as Kotetsu came over with Gaara's coffee and asked her if she wanted anything to drink. He sipped his hot coffee carefully, as Hinata gave her order to the waiter. No one would sit at a stranger's table and pretend that they knew each other unless there was something very wrong. He put down his cup and leaned in closer to her.

'You know him?' he asked quietly, so that only Hinata could hear him. He jerked his head to where the man with the eye patch was.

'I don't,' replied Hinata in a whisper. Her shoulders curled inwards and she wrapped her arms around herself. 'He's been following me on the way to work for a while, but today is the first time he's followed me after. I don't want him to know where I live.'

Anger simmered inside Gaara as he listened to how Hinata hadn't known she was being followed home. It was not until she had stopped to cross the road that she had seen the man from the corner of her eye. Afterwards, she had walked as quickly as she dared, but the man only followed closer. That was when she had ducked into the closest shop that was still open at eight o'clock on a Sunday.

Kotetsu returned with Hinata's coffee; she thanked him and held the cup between her hands. 'If it's alright, may I stay with you for a little longer?'

'Sure.' Gaara was unprepared for the smile that Hinata gave him in return. It emboldened him to add that they were on a "date" after all.

They talked about anything that came to mind and avoided thinking about the man sitting five tables away. He learnt that Hinata loved zenzai and cinnamon rolls, but hated shellfish. She enjoyed pressing flowers and gardening, even though she lived in an apartment that only had enough space on the windowsills for a potted herb garden. In return, he told her that he enjoyed cultivating cacti in his free time and that every surface in his apartment was covered with these prickly plants. He had once cultivated so many that he had to give them away to his friends and family.

It was surprisingly easy to talk to Hinata about everything and anything, which didn't happen often with Gaara. He was a bad conversationalist outside of work and he couldn't remember the last time he spoke to someone about something other than joint ventures and profit potential. Talking with Hinata was so easy that he had forgotten the time and only remembered when Kotetsu came over to tell him that the café was going to close in five minutes. He checked his watch and saw that it was ten. Silence descended when Hinata's situation came rushing back to the forefront of their minds.

'Is there someone you can call?'

'I would call my cousin, but I forgot my phone this morning.' Hinata shrugged and worried her bottom lip with her teeth.

Gaara looked at the man and then back at Hinata. The Hinata he saw now was a completely different person from the Hinata who, only minutes ago, was smiling as she told him how in medical school she had been so tired that she had slept in someone else's bed for a week, before realising that she was in the entirely wrong dorm. She had been shaking when she had first sat down, and now, she was doing her best to pretend that there wasn't someone who would follow her home the moment she left this café. He closed his report and finished his cold coffee.

'I'll walk you home.'

Hinata's eyes were hopeful, but she hesitated and she shook her head. 'I couldn't ask you to do that.'

'You're not asking, Hinata, I'm offering.' He held her gaze until she relented with a nod. 'I just need to call someone.'

He took his phone out of his trouser's pocket and scrolled through his contacts for the number he needed. His call was picked up after the second ring. 'You on patrol?'

'Yeah, what's up, man?'

'There's something I need you to take care of. I'll text you the details now.' Gaara hung up and quickly sent off the text. When he was done he stood up and tucked the report under his arm.

'I'll go pay,' said Hinata, grabbing her bag off her chair.

'Don't worry about it. The waiter would have placed it on my tab.'

Hinata's eyebrows scrunched together in an incredulous expression and she bit her bottom lip like she was trying to stop herself from laughing. 'You opened a tab in a cafe?'

'I like their house roast,' replied Gaara with a quirk of his mouth, which turned into a small smile when Hinata laughed. He nodded goodbye to Kotetsu and followed Hinata to the door.

'As a doctor, I recommend that you lessen your intake of coffee, especially if you drink enough to justify opening a tab.'

He opened the door for Hinata and with his body, shielded her from the man who had got up from his chair when they had walked past. Hinata stepped closer to him when they were outside, arm pressed against his side and he rested a comforting hand on her shoulder as they walked away from the café.

'I live about ten minutes from here.'

Gaara nodded and hoped that ten minutes was enough time.

They walked in silence with only the sound of their shared footsteps to fill the tense air. At the sight of a towering apartment complex, that must have been Hinata's, the footsteps behind them got faster and louder. The muscles in Gaara's arms tensed and he turned just as someone shouted and tackled the man to the ground. Something clanged against the pavement and slid into an alley, away from the two men struggling on the ground. Gaara sighed in relief and relaxed when the man was subdued with a pair of handcuffs.

'Better late than never,' said Gaara to the uniformed officer with outrageously bright, yellow hair.

'Hey! We were halfway across town when you texted me, so the fact that I got here in record time is thanks to my excellent driving skills.'

'You mean my excellent driving skills,' said his partner from the mouth of the alley.

'Yeah, yeah, same difference, I gave you the direct—'

'Naruto?'

'Hinata?' Naruto was momentarily distracted with surprise. The man made to run, but Naruto gripped his shoulder tightly and forced him onto his knees. 'So you're the bastard that's been stalking Hinata!'

'Yeah, well where's your proof? I was just walking when you jumped me for no damn reason!'

'The victim's right in front of you with a witness, that proof enough?' said Naruto, brow furrowed in disgust.

'If it isn't enough, then I'm sure you have nothing to hide when we interview you about the knife you had on you,' said Naruto's partner, Sasuke, as he crouched down in front of the man to show him the knife he had found in the alley.

Hinata stiffened beside Gaara at the sight of the hunting knife. The clatter he had heard before the scuffle must have been the knife. He sighed again and thanked Naruto, in his head, for getting here in time.

'Not mine, never seen it before,' sneered the man.

'Fine.' Sasuke got up from his crouch and took a plastic bag from his belt to put the knife in. 'Naruto, is it me or does he seem familiar to you?'

'You know what, I was thinking that he's exactly like the guy on the CCTV we pulled from the kidnappings uptown.' Naruto smirked at the man who paled at the mention of the kidnappings. 'Must be the eye patch and beard. Shoulda got a disguise to hide that ugly face of yours, Gashira!'

'You're taking a ride to the station with us,' said Sasuke. He hauled the man to his feet and dragged him to the police car parked up the road.

'Thanks for the tip off, managed to kill two birds with one stone.' Naruto gave Gaara a thumbs-up and a jaunty grin, but he lost the playfulness in his tone when he told Hinata to come by the station in the morning to give a statement. 'Gaara, make sure she gets home safe, 'cause if she doesn't, her cousin's going to come for you if he hasn't got to me first.'

Gaara promised that he would and watched the police car drive away with flashing blue and red lights before asking Hinata if she was okay. She nodded and led the way; she didn't step away from him and he didn't let go of her until they were outside her apartment door on the tenth floor.

'Thank you so much for tonight,' said Hinata, sincerity in her voice as she looked up at him.

'You're welcome.'

Without the threat of a stalker, awkwardness hung in the air for the first time that night and Gaara was not sure what to say to break it. Despite the less than ideal circumstances that brought them together, he had enjoyed the time he'd spent with Hinata and didn't want it to end yet.

'I had a good time on our "date".' Hinata smiled and a faint blush coloured her cheeks. 'Would you like to come with me to give a statement to the police tomorrow?'

Gaara blinked at Hinata, mouth slightly open as he tried to process her question. It was when her smile faltered that he realised what she was doing, and he patted his pockets for his phone that was in his hand. He dropped his report when he fumbled with the lock screen and handed the phone to her. She giggled at his clumsiness, typed her number into his contacts and put his phone back into his hand.

'I'll see you tomorrow, Gaara.' Hinata waved and closed her apartment door hurriedly.

Gaara stared at the new name and number she had saved in his phone blankly. He shook his head and bent down to pick up the most boring and longwinded, sixty-page report that marketing had spent four months and a lot of his company's resources to compile, and thought that the men and women down in marketing were in line for a bonus at the end of the year.