A/N: Hello! I'm pretty new at all this. It's safe to say I'm pretty nervous, lol. The plot of this story is based on a '80s (or is it '70s?) movie called Making Love—a really good one by the way. Go see it.
Summary: A secret can destroy us. Keeping something hidden can hurt others. Neji knows this better than any one. AU.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Nor do I own Making Love.
For Neji Hyuuga, looking into the mirror was always like looking at a stranger's face. There was the reflection he felt was really his, and then there was the reflection he was decreed to be, by so many things and so many expectations he couldn't disappoint.
Two Halves. One Neji. A duality that shouldn't exist; two persons forcing themselves in one skin.
He glanced into the mirror again. Translucent white-lavender eyes, evidence of the Hyuuga legacy, looked back. In fact, evidence of this legacy could be found in the aristocratic slant of his nose and long curtain of black hair, and even in the luxury car he drove, the clothes he wore, the house he lived in.
He told himself that it was enough, that it should be enough. But it wasn't.
Sometimes he felt like he was drowning. Going under in the most slowly way possible. Sinking so minutely that sometimes he hardly noticed—except when he had to breathe.
But this feeling was ungrateful in the worst way, because what he had should have been enough. There were people out there who had less and were content.
Something eluded him. Something he couldn't buy. Something he didn't know how to find. Something that he either didn't know the name for, or was too afraid to name it.
Wanting that slippery something….
"Neji?" His wife's voice startled Neji out of his musings. Tenten stepped into the bathroom, her face half amused, half exasperated.
"What are you doing? If you stay in the bathroom any longer, you'll be late to work. "
Neji shook himself. Broke to the surface. Took that breath he had gone too long without. It was like waking from a restless dream and being introduced to reality again.
But putting things back into focus was expected. Normal. Necessary. Reality was safe.
"Neji! Are you paying attention? You are going to be late!"
Turning away from his reflection and looking in his wife's face, he allowed himself a small smile. "I know. I'm almost done getting ready."
Tenten's face clouded for a moment, then smoothed. Everything was back in its place, as it should be.
But something made Neji's life hang precariously on the edge, threatening to tip over and spin out of control in any moment.
That something. That hidden thing, that he couldn't, wouldn't acknowledge, always coming back and leaving him unsatisfied.