Episode 9

"What about that?" Sasuke asked, pointing to the quite possibly the dumbest saying he had ever seen on a onesie.

Hinata covered her mouth to suppress the giggle. "I don't know why they have these."

"What you don't want your kid to be 'grandma's partner in crime' or a 'chick magnet' or how about," He pulled one out of the back of the others. "'The snuggle is real.'"

Hinata laughed. "Oh, these are awful." She said things like that more, what she disliked rather than making a polite, neutral comment. "You know, when we talked about kids, Naruto wanted these silly things." Sasuke felt a jab to the stomach as her face turned melancholy. "He wanted to have all these daddy sayings on them."

"Well, now your baby won't be a walking bad joke." He mumbled. Maybe that was harsher than he meant it.

"Honestly, they are cute at first, but they're… tacky?" She mused, showing him one that said, 'what happens a grandma's stays at grandma's' and making a face.

He shrugged. "You're probably going to be more the parent that has their kid all clean and proper all the time."

Hinata smiled. "I think kids should have the chance to get dirty and scrape their knees. I know what it's like to constantly have to be perfect at that age." He nodded. He did, too, though his mother wasn't nearly as strict as her father. "But if you plan, you can let them get dirty and have a spare set of clothes and wet wipes." She smiled up at him.

"See, you're ready for this." Sasuke patted her head. "What on earth is that?" He looked at the strap-on shelf.

"I think it's a breastfeeding pillow." She leaned the box to look at the details.

He made a face that made her giggle.

"I won't breastfeed in front of you." She told him.

"Nothing wrong with it. That's how it's meant to work. It's just kinda weird to think about." Sasuke continued scrunching his nose.

"I'm not exactly looking forward to it." She admitted blushing. "They don't tell you, but it can hurt, and it can be difficult."

Okay, now he was grossly interested. "Really? I thought it was supposed to be easy and bonding."

Hinata blushed, tucking her hair behind her ear. "It's not really like a bottle, it has to be at a certain angle, and some babies can't 'latch,' and sometimes the duct can be clogged." She made her face.

"Yeah, we can stop talking about it." He told her sharing her discomfort.

"Sorry," Hinata mumbled. "It's not exactly something they teach in school."

"To be fair, I think they should have scared more of the girls in school with horror factors like that." He picked up a set of pacifiers with characters on them and flipped it over idly.

"I agree. There were too many girls who got pregnant and struggled. Children should be planned, wanted, and sometimes that doesn't even work." She sighed. He frowned.

"You're depressing," Sasuke mumbled. He nudged her. "Let's get out of the cringy baby section. You wanted a cooking thing." He turned her with the tips of his finger to her shoulders, pushing her forward out of the section.

She dragged her feet but smiled. "My peeler broke." She reminded him.

"What was the other thing you had wanted? Something to do with a steam basket?" He started her toward the kitchen section.

"I did not, you asked for dumplings, and I said if I was going to make them, I would need a steam basket." She hummed at him.

"I think that means pick one out." He told her.

"I think you should ask nicely instead of simply hoping that I will get what you mention." She prodded him. That was a huge step. She was pushing back and arguing, only if it hadn't been overshadowed by...

"Sasuke, hi!" They heard from behind them. Sasuke cringed at the high-pitched voice.

"Sakura-chan?" Hinata asked as she ran up, latching on to Sasuke's arm.

"Oh, Hinata, I didn't see you." She smiled. "Wow, you're getting big."

Hinata looked down, resting a hand over her belly. She was starting to get rounder noticeably. Enough you could tell she was pregnant even if you didn't know. Though he didn't understand why people thought that was the best first thing to say. Didn't girls dislike people mentioning their weight? "She's growing quick."

"Oh, it's a girl?" Sakura frowned unsurely, and his face darkened. How did she know...

Hinata smiled proudly. "Yup!"

He could tell by Hinata's forced smile, she noticed too.

Sakura promptly took her attention away from Hinata and looked up at him. "Sasuke, you haven't been at the bar much." She started.

"Haven't been thirsty." He said bluntly, trying to shut her down quickly.

"We've missed you there. You should come around Friday. Ino got engaged." She told him cheerfully.

Sasuke pressed his lips together as he felt Hinata retract from the conversation. She turned to the shelves looking for her items. "I don't care." He told her. "We do marathons on Fridays anyway." He nudged a hand at Hinata, more than a little annoyed that Sakura was talking so directly to him, not both of them.

Sakura glanced at her, and her face tightened. "Marathons?"

"We're halfway through X Files," Hinata remembered.

Sakura's face tightened more. "Oh, you guys do tv night?"

He regretted saying something. He remembered Sakura had tried to get him to watch her dramas when they were in high school, and she was trying to get his attention. She would try to sit close and snuggle but got upset when he pushed her away or critiqued her show. He didn't go back.

Hinata caught the look on his face and luckily didn't mention the movies most other nights because that would have made her go off the handle because he refused to watch 'The Notebook' with her.

"How cute," Sakura said through her teeth. "You know Hinata, I would invite you, but you can't drink."

A look passed over Hinata's face. "They have wings."

Sasuke snorted and got a look from both girls.

"I would like to see you try to eat wings because if you eat them like you eat pastries." He laughed when she turned red.

"What's wrong with how I eat pasties?" Hinata whined.

"You shred them." Sasuke made a gesture with his fingers, like how she tore them apart.

She puffed out her cheeks, annoyed with him. "There is nothing wrong with that."

"Hinata eats pizza with a fork but eats pastries with her fingers?" Sakura wondered, breaking the amusing moment.

Hinata turned white as he realized she had never done that at his place. She had always torn everything with her fingers. He had thought it was cute, but he had a feeling this was again something she hadn't done in front of Naruto.

Hinata's quick look to the floor told him he was right.

"Is that a steam basket?" He asked, pointing behind her noticing she had already had a peeler in hand.

"Yeah..." She picked it up.

"Then we have what we came for. Let's go." He told her, pointing toward the door.

"Bye Sakura-chan," Hinata mumbled as she passed her, heading toward him as they left Sakura confused and awkward.