#technically*

It was four episodes in when Hinata decided that maybe picking one of the more… paranoia-inducing shows that the streaming service offered maybe wasn’t the best idea. Especially since she was trying to have a relaxing night.

Pausing the show, Hinata was scrolling through the seemingly endless list of shows and movies when she felt her phone buzz. Unlocking her phone she found a text waiting for her.

Ino: hey girl!!!! i know you said you could wait until saturday for your present Ino: BUT Ino: i have a lil something comin your way right now lol Ino: you can thank me later LOVE YOU LOTS

Hinata frowned. She loved Ino but sometimes she didn’t quite trust her when it came to certain things.

Surprises being one of them.

And when Sakura texted the group chat a couple minutes later…

Sakura: for the record this is all Ino’s idea Sakura: I told her not to. be nice to him though

… she really began to worry.

What?! Sitting up abruptly in bed she opened up her messages and the panic set in.

Hinata: What do you mean ‘him’? Hinata: What are you guys talking about? What gift? Hinata: Ino I told you you could give me your gift on Saturday Hinata: Are you guys stopping by?

She desperately hoped that if she was getting a gift tonight, it would be those two stopping by to deliver it.

And as the minutes passed, even despite the fact that neither of them replied to her panicked texts, she decided that maybe Sakura’s text had been a typo. ‘Him’ could have easily meant to be ‘her’, which would have clearly been referring to Ino and not some random guy.

Even as she went back to watching Netflix—some random animated show she could hardly even pay attention to—she forced herself to push down her fears. It was probably Ino coming over to drop off her present. She’d see Hinata sick, she’d maybe drop the present off, blow her a kiss, and go. No harm, no foul.

Minutes later when the doorbell rang she pulled herself up out of bed, grabbing her robe as she exited her room, she halfway hoped she looked sicker than she felt. The last thing she needed was for her friend to chew her out for playing hooky (which she hadn’t technically done, since she was a little sick.)

But when she opened the door, it wasn’t Ino standing there or Sakura. Or anyone she knew for that matter.

A man, perhaps not much older than she was, stood in front of her, a pizza box in his arms.

He was tall, at least an entire foot taller than she was. He had a head of spiky blonde hair and big blue eyes so bright she couldn’t help but stare at them. But what stood out more than anything was that he was altogether entirely gorgeous. And when he smiled at her, she could’ve turned into a puddle right then and there.

Instead she simply slammed the door in his face.

And immediately opened up her messaging app.

Hinata: WHAT IS GOING ON Hinata: THIS BETTER NOT BE MY PRESENT! Hinata: INO! THIS ISN’T FUNNY!

Her face was blood red as her fingers flew across the touch-screen, embarrassment causing every coherent thought to fly from her mind.

She knew Ino was a bit… lewd… sometimes. But she never in a million years thought they’d call a stripper to her house for her birthday! Although now that she thought about it, they had joked about going to a strip club for Sakura’s birthday in March…

When her phone began buzzing she jumped, answering the call before she could think the action through.

“Ino! This isn’t funny! Call him off!”

There was a bit off silence on the other end before a confused male voice spoke up.

“Um? Is this Hinata?”

Oh shit.

“I, uh, have a delivery for you.” He certainly didn’t sound as confident as he looked a few seconds ago, and stripper or not, the thought that she’d insulted him made her feel immediately guilty. “This is Hinata right? This is the number that was left on the order form.”

“I—I’m sorry!” She squeaked, “Just—uh—give me a m—minute!”

Ending the call Hinata sent a couple more semi-threatening messages before approaching her door once more.

Swallowing thickly, she placed her hand on the doorknob and thought to herself for a few seconds, making up her mind about what she was going to do about the situation before her.

Swinging the door open, she met his confused gaze with her own firm look, and holding her breath she opened the door wider and stepped aside, inviting him in.

He seemed hesitant about coming inside but walked across the threshold nonetheless, still awkwardly holding the pizza box. Idly, Hinata wondered if there was even a pizza inside it. That’s when she noticed the plastic bag looped through his arm. Her stomach twisted itself up into anxious knots imagining what on earth he could be toting around inside of it.

But before he could say anything, she knew she had to get her words out before she was too flustered to speak any further. (Or before he could start… removing… garments…)

“Listen I—I’m really sorry you had to come all the way out here. My friends must have ordered… this…” she gestured vaguely to his figure and immediately felt her embarrassment increase tenfold, “but I don’t know why they would—I mean I’m not like that! Not that you’re like that! I mean!” She shook her head and in that moment hoped the floor would give way and swallow her into the apartment beneath her. “What I mean to say is! That I’m sure all of this would be great—I’m sure you’re great!—but I’m just… not interested in your services…”

When she finally managed to look up at him again, she realized that he was looking at her with a very peculiar expression, mouth hanging open slightly and eyes narrowed in confusion.

“Um… okay… it is already paid for though so…”

And with slow movements, he carefully moved toward her kitchen table, not breaking eye contact…

“Well, uh—is there a way that my friends could get a refund? Or even not, I mean they don’t really deserve a refund for doing this so you can just keep the money it’s alright I’ll even tip you if they didn’t pay for a tip yet—you people get tips right? Oh god, I don’t mean ‘you people’ I don’t know why I said that. I’m just I’m so sorry that we inconvenienced you so much.”

As she spoke Hinata shuffled over to her purse, grabbing her wallet and pulling out a couple of bills.

“Again, I’m so sorry. This is so awkward. I hope you have a good night though!” She forced some false cheeriness into her words as she smiled up at him, holding out the money for him to take.

With a raised eyebrow and mouth still open, the gorgeous man simply placed the pizza box on her kitchen table, placing the plastic bag over top of it and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. Hinata couldn’t help but watch as his shirt rose up ever-so-slightly to show off a very toned stomach…

“I’ve never met someone who hates pizza so much.”

Wait.

“Pizza?”

He blinked at her a few times, looking from her and her outstretched hand to the box he’d just placed on her table. “Yes? At least…” he opened the box, as if double-checking, before turning it toward her, “yeah. Pizza.”

Her mind seemed to short-circuit at this information and by the time she came back to her senses she was certain she was tomato-red.

“Wait… so you’re… just a delivery guy…”

“Uh,” he looked down at his appearance, “yes? What else would I be?”

Embarrassment pulsing through her body she couldn’t help it when she squeaked out, “A stripper?”

It took three seconds before the man was absolutely in stitches; his laughter starting out as an almost-concealed giggle and quickly turning into full-blown belly rumbling chuckles.

“You,” he shook his head, bracing his arms against her table, as if trying to keep himself from falling to the floor in hysterics, “thought that I was a stripper?”

Not for the first time, Hinata found herself wishing the Universe would come up with a quick way to kill her right there. But instead of simply standing silently in humiliation, she couldn’t help but try to defend herself.

“I—it’s almost 1AM!”

“We’re open until two.”

“You don’t have a coat on! It’s below freezing out!”

He shrugged, still laughing through his words, “I don’t get cold very easily.”

“Yeah but, short sleeves?!”

“I run warm.”

“You’re—you’re—“ but Hinata snapped her mouth shut before she could say ‘absolutely gorgeous’.

“I’m a pizza delivery guy,” he confirmed for her with another laugh, “well, part-time.”

“Wait, so pizza is what Ino was talking about when she said I was getting a gift?”

“Oh, wait—hold on a second.” He spoke as if he’d just remembered something. Then he quickly pulled his phone back out of his pocket and spent a few seconds swiping across the screen before looking back up at her. “Ready?”

Hinata couldn’t say anything, only stare back at him blankly as he straightened his posture and locked eyes with her.

“Want to hear a joke about pizza?”

She blinked at him, not saying anything. What was he doing now?

He grinned in reply to her silence, before reading off of his phone. “Never mind, it’s too cheesy.”

All Hinata did was stare back at him. Had that been… a pizza joke…?

“All right. Bad one. I got it. Here’s a better one,” he cleared his throat before reading, “Our romance would be a pizza history.”

Hinata couldn’t help but snort at the dumb joke. When the sound escaped her, she slapped a hand over her mouth, not wanting to embarrass herself further.

“Have you eaten dinner? Because I’d like a pizza tha—“ He cut himself off, frowning. He then promptly cleared his throat, “Maybe not that one.”

Hinata couldn’t help herself when she started laughing. Seemingly pleased with himself at the sound of her laughter, he put his phone and began to explain himself.

“I’m sorry if you were embarrassed by this whole thing,” he grinned sheepishly, “your friends Ino and Sakura called me to deliver you some food so I did them a favor. I was specifically told to do some dumb pickup lines and then give you the food. That’s it.”

“And I just made it a thousand times worse,” she mumbled, tugging at the ends of her hair. “I’m so sorry about that by the way, I didn’t mean to—I mean I thought—“

“You know, if I were a stripper, I’d probably be super offended right now,” he grinned as if he were struggling to keep himself from starting his laughter up again. “You really tried to send me away.”

“I’m just—wait. A favor?”

He scratched the back of his neck again. “I do work part time as a delivery guy, but I kind of owed Sakura a favor and uh, Ino can be very threatening. Like, even over the phone.”

“Wait—“ she pointed at him, as if finally putting the pieces together, “so Ino threatened you so you’d come here and flirt with me on the job.”

“Essentially,” he shrugged, like it was no big deal; as if it were something he did all the time. “I mean I wasn’t even supposed to work today, I was actually supposed to go out with you all tonight. But,” he shrugged, starting to get all awkward.

“What?” Hinata asked, genuinely curious as to how the hell she ended up in this situation.

“Well they started telling me about how they had this friend whose birthday was today and they felt so bad so they wanted to order her food. But they wanted me to do it ‘cause I’m ‘funny’.” He scoffed, and then upon her persistent confusion, he elaborated. “When they say stuff like that I know is when they’re trying to con me into doing something because like, I know I’m funny, but they’d never call me that. But they told me that you were stuck at home sick and that I could, I don’t know, cheer you up I guess?”

He finished his statement by shrugging and breaking eye contact, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Wow,” Hinata eventually muttered, still partially unbelieving at the fact that this attractive human being took time to come and give her pizza instead of go out with her friends. Granted, he’d apparently been threatened into doing it, but he’d done it nonetheless out of the kindness of his heart.

“How do you know Ino and Sakura?” He eventually asked after a few long seconds of silence.

“We were all roommates freshman year. You?”

“I knew Sakura back in high school—we’re from the same hometown. But we also used to work together.”

“At the hospital?”

“Nah, I don’t work directly with the hospital. I work for a private EMT company. Part-time.”

Hinata found herself impressed, “How many jobs do you have?”

“Three, technically,” he said like it was nothing, “I student teach on campus though, but I don’t count that since I don’t get paid for it.”

“Wow, that’s… busy.”

“Eh, I like busy! Which is why I didn’t care about clocking in to do a 1AM delivery too much.”

“Well I hate that you had to run into work late at night just for me,” Hinata muttered, feeling a misplaced sense of guilt for inconveniencing such a nice person. And for a moment, she paused, considering her next move. “If you want… I definitely won’t be able to finish this pizza by myself.”

Biting her lip she didn’t look up until she heard the rustling of the plastic bag.

“Before I eat any of your pizza,” he spoke, forcing her to look up at him, “here.”

And in his hands was a tiny plastic container he was holding out to her. Tentatively she took it from his hands, opening it to find a small piece of cake.

“It’s a little smashed, and I forgot to grab a candle, but I figured since it was your birthday and all, you deserved some sort of treat.”

“Your pizzeria sells cake?”

“Ah,” he rubbed his neck again, “not exactly. I uh, bought this myself. I just went to the 24 hour grocery store across town and begged them to open the bakery and give me a slice. Ino didn’t make me do it, so don’t yell at her for it. It was just me.”

Hinata then looked at him—really looked at him—as he stood in front of her, practically a stranger who decided to go back and forth across town to deliver her pizza and a slice of cake.

And when she felt a tugging in her chest that she couldn’t quite describe, all she could do was smile brightly at him, blinking back tears that she didn’t understand, as she went to fetch plates for their pizza.