revenge is sweet

Posted Sunday 25 December 2016.

This WIP exists thanks to my incredibly heavy bias for jaded Neji with tattoos and an undercut and stubborn Tenten taking on everything the world throws at her because no one else will, and was heavily inspired by ninjaellis's Nejiten punk AU, which I am actually absolutely in love with. I'd like to ideally write something for this AU in full one day, but unfortunately that day is not today.

It's a cold and rainy Tuesday early in November when she first comes to the shop, angry and bitter and hurt, and more than eager to do something just a little bit reckless. He doesn't know her well, apart from the fact that she's a friend of Sai's girlfriend whom he's met only once or twice before, but the steely defiance that burns in her eyes when she admits she's not entirely sure what she wants beyond it being something "badass and fucking awesome" is one he recognizes well, and the sight of it sends a vaguely painful sense of understanding and empathy clenching heavily around his heart.

It is for this reason he lets his eyes travel over her face, to the bars and studs adorning her ears, the glint of metal above her left eyebrow, the hoop curving through the right side of her nose, until it finally comes to rest on the curve of her lips, before flickering back up to meet her ochre-gray gaze. The corner of his mouth quirks up in a half-smile, and Neji asks, "Have you ever though about getting snake bites?"

The resolve in Tenten's eyes grows, and she grins at him conspiratorially. "Let's do this."

—

Almost a month passes before he sees her again, the next time she comes by the shop, and this time, Tenten isn't alone.

She's accompanying Ino today, who in turn is there to get the bush clover trailing down the back of her neck and across her shoulder blades colored in and completed. Sai is still busy with his current customer when they arrive, but when Neji offers to work on her instead, Ino declines with a flippant wave of her hand.

"Thanks," she tells him, flopping down into one of the armchairs lined up by the large window in the foyer, "but, no. I don't let anyone with a tattoo gun within two feet of me unless I'm sleeping with them."

"Fair enough."

So Neji respects her decision, even if it does hurt his ego and pride as an artist somewhat — between the two of them, Sai has always had more of an eye for color, anyway, and he has no shame in admitting it. But it does not change the fact that they've got nothing to do but wait for Sai to finish up, however — it's been a slow day all around, and Neji doesn't have any other customers clamoring for his attention at the moment — so when Tenten asks if he can see how well her lip is healing, he agrees without a second thought.

Neji hardly thinks anything of it, either, when Tenten's sitting on the counter in front of him, knees pushed out so that he can stand between them as he inspects the skin around her mouth, the area beneath her lower lip, until he catches Ino observing them intently, and with poorly-concealed interest. It grates on his nerves for some reason (though he assumes it's simply because it's Ino) and it's all he can do to not snap at her while he's still so close to Tenten's lip: he is a professional, after all, and a damned good one, at that.

"What?" Neji finally asks after he's determined that the healing process has met his satisfaction, when he catches the blonde very obviously pretending she hadn't just been staring at them as he's stepping away from Tenten. His tone is flat and decidedly unamused, and he decides that he does not like the sly expression he sees on her face before she looks away from them to peer intently out the large window overlooking the streets below.

"Oh, nothing," comes Ino's reply, voice light and airy in an obvious attempt at playing innocent.

He lets out an undignified snort, at that. "Right," Neji tells her, unconvinced, and leans back to rest his hip against the counter. He doesn't know what Ino's plotting this time — because there is absolutely no doubt in his mind that's exactly what she's doing — but he decides he doesn't like that, either. "You'll forgive me if I don't believe you."

Eyebrows drawn together and a frown pulling at the corners of her mouth, Tenten merely looks curiously between the two of them from her perch on the counter as an awkward silence follows, permeating the foyer of the shop. For one long moment, she remains silent, and Neji is content to leave it at that, until she clears her throat, and he looks at her out of the corner of his eye.

"So, I can't tell if you guys actually hate each other," she begins, folding her arms over her chest, "or if there's just some backstory here that's completely going over my head right now. Anyone care to fill me in?"

"We hate each other," Neji deadpans.

"I went to school with his cousin," Ino tells her at the same time, before shooting him a venomous look and sticking her tongue out at him. "We basically grew up together."

There's a hint of a smirk around Tenten's mouth, now, even as understanding washes over her features, and she looks at Ino thoughtfully. "So when you were telling me about the emotionally constipated jerk with the stick permanently wedged up his ass who introduced you to Sai — "

" — I was talking about Neji, yeah." Ino grins, and Neji rolls his eyes when her gaze shifts to him, one perfectly groomed eyebrow arched as if in challenge. "Isn't that right?"

"I hate you," he repeats, just as unenthusiastically as before, and Ino flips him off with an exasperated groan.

—

When Sai asks if he'd like to get drinks as they're closing up the shop for the night, Neji accepts the offer without a second thought.

That should have been his first warning.

His second is the way Sai had seemed almost uncharacteristically nervous while waiting for Neji to shrug his coat on, checking his phone every few seconds and drumming his fingers against his thigh, considering how shitty he was at expressing his emotions in the first place, while his third is the moment Sai tells him, as they're walking to the bar down the street, that Ino had told him that she and some of her friends would meet them there.

It's why Neji is rather taken aback when they reach the familiar warmth of the bar and he finds Tenten squashed into the booth among Ino's loudmouth friends. She looks like she's torn between being amused by their antics and bored out of her mind, he thinks, so when he sees that her glass is empty and asks if she'd like to accompany him to the bar for another drink, her expression brightens almost immediately, and she's wriggling out of the booth as fast as she possibly can.

"Thank you," she tells him once she's successfully left the booth, and he shrugs noncommittally in response as he hands his coat over to Ino to add to the pile on the windowsill behind them.

"Don't mention it."

It is as Neji is turning away from the booth that he catches the conspiratorial look Ino shares with Sai and something in his mind clicks into place, but he says nothing until he and Tenten have made their way to the bar. They place their orders, and it's as they're waiting for their drinks that he leans down and tells her, away from prying eyes and curious ears, "Ino's trying to set us up."

Leaning her weight against the bar, Tenten turns to face him, and he finds himself somewhat surprised at the lack of shock he sees in her expression. "Well, duh," she replies with a roll of her eyes. "I thought it was obvious."

Her reaction is intriguing, to say the least, and Neji finds himself unsure how to react to it. "Then how do you suggest we proceed?" he ventures as the bartender returns with their drinks: a glass of beer for him, and something violently purple and laced with vodka for her.

She takes her drink from the counter and slowly stirs its contents with the straw before taking a thoughtful sip. "Well," she begins, "for starters, I guess it's worth knowing where we both stand on relationships. Are you looking for one right now?"

"Not particularly," he admits, reaching for his own beer.

"Good — neither am I." Tenten takes another sip of her drink, and Neji finds himself relieved that she hasn't pressed him as to why he's chosen to remain single; then again, he supposes, he hadn't inquired that of her, either. "Now that that is taken care of, I can see this going down one of two ways."

He arches a questioning eyebrow at her, then, and brings his own beer to his lips. "Oh?"

"Scenario number one: we go back to the table, confront Ino about her meddling, listen to her bitch us out for a while about still being single, and then continue on with our lives."

"And scenario number two?"

Tenten smirks. "We don't let Ino know that this conversation ever happened and pretend that her plan is a success, until we get bored and let everyone in on the joke after a terrible and highly public breakup — to Ino's utter humiliation, of course. 'Revenge is sweet', and all."

Neji nods, and allows himself to return her expression with a half-smile of his own.