"What exactly…are they?" Neji asked, staring at the articles of clothing sitting on display in the department store.
"They're mittens! Aren't they adorable?" Tenten pressed her hands up against the glass, cursing the barrier that sat between her and her gloves…
"But…they have faces on them…and ears…?" He couldn't quite believe what he was seeing, nor could he understand how any self-respecting person could wear mittens in the form of animal critters on their hands, essentially wearing sock puppets to keep warm. He sighed. "Do you really need THOSE particular gloves, Tenten? What about those purple ones over there?" he asked, gesturing to a pair of fuzzy fuchsia mittens that were part of a matching set with a hat and scarf.
Tenten shook her head. "Nope…these ones are perfect, I've had my eye on them for awhile now…" she answered, not taking her eyes off of them.
"Well….alright I suppose…" he said, giving in. He knew that once his girlfriend had her mind set on something it would become nigh impossible to deter her.
Tenten squealed and leapt at Neji, nearly knocking him off of his feet on the icy sidewalk. "Thank you , thank you, thank you Neji! Okay, you go buy them, I'll go find a place to sit and have a hot drink." She quickly pecked him on the check and then ran off down the boulevard away from him.
"Wait, why do I….!" Neji protested, calling after her, but Tenten had already turned around a corner. He stood there dumfounded for a few seconds. She couldn't really expect him, a male, to go in and buy animal mittens for her…could she?
She could.
Neji took a deep breath to steady himself, and then opened the door to the store.
A small bell chimed as he walked in. People were everywhere, hurrying to get their Christmas shopping done. He had hoped that it would be fairly empty and that not many people would see him walk lividly over to display of mittens and grab the ones that resembled a panda. He picked them up, turning them over in his hand. It seemed to him as if these so called gloves were laughing at him, their eyes constantly staring at him as he walked over to the cashier.
"Ahem…I would like to purchase these, please," he said to the very bored looking lady at the till. She stared at him and the mittens for half a second and then smirked, before ringing them in.
"Would you like these in a bag or would you like to wear them…?" she asked, her eyes twinkling as she accepted his payment. Neji's ears turned red.
"In a bag please…" he said under his breath. He quickly grabbed the bag off the counter and hurried out of the store, praying that no one he knew had seen him. His prayers went unanswered.
"Hey, Hyuga, nice mittens!" called an all too familiar voice from the department store door beside him. Neji turned to see the fang haired boy and his cousin coming out of the store, their hands full of bags. Neji's ears turned red, both from embarrassment and from anger at the fact that out of all people it would be Kiba who saw him in the store. He knew he would never let him live this one down.
Just then Tenten came running up to him and snatched the bag out of his hands, donning her brand new mittens. After inviting the couple to join them for hot chocolate, she excitedly showed them to the Hinata and to Kiba, who still insisted on saying how nice it was that Neji was letting her borrow his precious purchase.
Neji made a mental note to kill Tenten about this later.
