Um, hi, Kyo." Hinata smiled politely and took out her security card, "The elevator won't admit me, I was wondering if this card was void and I need a new one."
He glanced at her and took the card, flipping it through his fingers while smiling forlornly, "I'm sorry, Hinata, but I'm afraid this isn't a valid card."
"What do you mean?" Hinata asked, puzzled.
"It means you no longer work here. I'm sorry if you hadn't gotten any notice, but being gone so long can only do you so much good, especially with a new boss in town." He gave back the key card and crookedly smiled, "It was really nice knowing you, Hinata."
Hinata took card and clutched it to her chest dazedly, what had just happened? She was fired? Meaning, without employment? Let go? She vaguely remembered thanking Kyo as she exited through the revolving glass doors. Where would she go now? She wandered the streets in a haze, sure, she could mooch off Sasuke if she won (which she was actually fairly confident may happen), but she didn't want to seem like a gold digger, because it certainly wasn't true.
She finally realized what was happening when she was being gripped by the wrists in the middle of the sidewalk being shook not to gently. Shaking her head she quickly shot her head up to meet familiar cerulean eyes.
"Oh. H-hello, Gaara." Hinata carefully removed her hands and rubbed her eyes that were beginning to get much too leaky for her liking.
"What's wrong?" He tilted his head to the left slightly, "I don't usually see you this…out of it." He shifted the paper bag in one arm and brushed away bangs that were dangling in his eyes.
"I-I'm…" She looked up at him and gulped, breathing as deeply as she could, "…I'm fired, Gaara." She began hyperventilating, "I don't know what to do, I-I can't find a job so soon, I'm going to be broke!" Her knees began to wobble as hysterical words began spitting out of her mouth erratically and tears poured out of her eyes.
His eyebrows tucked together in an apologetic manner, "I'm so sorry Hinata, I didn't know if they would fire you or not. I didn't have a choice." He tucked the bag under one arm and held her up by his firm grip on her forearms, "Come with me to my café, I'll treat you to some biscotti and coffee, alright? Now wipe up your tears and follow me, alright?"
Gulping for air several times, she nodded and complied, gripping the back of his shirt like a child to let Gaara part the heavy traffic of people with his imposingly giant body. His affect on other people was at times amusing, cold blue eyes that were capable of out staring anyone, usually thinly drawn lips, broad shoulders, and large muscular build. It was handy when she was being harassed by fellow-ex-co workers, one look from him and they would go scampering back to work with their tails between their legs.
"Right here," He walked through a small waist high gate that surrounded a small shop that was on a corner of a less-than-busy street and a lesser-than busy street and took out a key to open the glass door to the cafe. Small round tables that littered both inside and outside of store were surrounded by two to three antique looking metal chairs; each table outside were sheltered by crisp looking white umbrellas while each one inside had a single white or red rose in a glass vase in the centre.
She turned around several times to get a better view of the entire shop, eyes widening with admiration, "Gaara…this is really something." She twirled once more and faced him, "Congratulations, I'm really impressed." She gave him a smile and sat on a bouncy navy blue couch in the corner nestled snugly between the corner windows.
"Good. I spent the whole time you were gone in here renovating, setting up, readjusting, finding the right furniture and a shit load of other stuff." He collapsed in an ungraceful heap in the identical loveseat across from her, "I…I didn't really get much help with this either, what with Hanabi touring the world, Kankuro off in Whistler screwing around with co-workers, and Temari being god knows where."
