Song: 'You Kissed me First'. I don't know who it belongs to; it's an old song, but a good one.

Challenge: To never use the two main character's names

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I don't own 'You Kissed me First'. I don't own the cute Christmas mug filled with tea beside me either. I do, however, own the tea inside it. Back off.

You Kissed Me First

He wasn't blind.

He saw the furtive glances his teammate had taken to shooting at him, her renewed interest in his precious cloud-watching and shougi, the way she'd started to wear more makeup, even if they were outside training in the rain.

He figured most of the male population of Konoha would give an arm and a leg to be in his position, but he was much too lazy to address the subject of whether or not he returned the feelings of his beautiful blonde friend.

He supposed he got used to it after a while, even starting to enjoy 'accidentally' catching her staring, teasing her about the makeup which never failed to pour off her face after a good, hard training session. Her attempts to win attention from his were interesting, if slightly sad, to observe. He knew it mostly due to her extremely over-the-top, girly mother, and that it was a marvel she had turned out as normally as she had. But he still wanted to tell her she was way prettier without all that makeup. He didn't, though. Too troublesome.

But, to return to the original topic, he wasn't blind. He was fully aware- and perhaps, in some distant corner of his mind, appreciative- of the attention that the gorgeous girl who was way out of his league showered him with.

Which was why he was so shocked when she stopped.

Suddenly he was no longer the recipient of those smiles and glances and giggles. Now Sai got flirted with at every opportunity.

What had he done wrong? She still treated him normally, but that was the problem. No pretty pink blushes, no staring- even the fact she came to training completely makeup-free angered him. As for talking to her- well, it was a complete nightmare.

"Sai was telling the funniest story the other day…" she was chattering away merrily as the three teammates walked back from a quick lunch of barbeque. He was thoroughly sick of hearing about Sai this and Sai that. It wasn't jealousy- no, it couldn't be jealousy- but just hearing about somebody all day can get wearing. Yes. He was just worn out because of hearing about Sai.

After all, he was a genius! And you'd think he'd know whether or not he was in love.

… And he wasn't.

Really.

"Can you excuse me?" Chouji looked about as bored as Tsunade in a meeting. "I just have to go get... chips."

Darn Chouji, he thought, for managing to escape from the even-more-talkative-than-usual girl for a sweet five minutes or so. He was fast reaching his own limit as she chattered more and more about her beloved Sai-kun.

He took the opportunity to observe his oblivious teammate. Her big blue eyes sparkled as she told her story, and she swung around her long sheath of pale hair for emphasis. He had to admit she was beautiful.

And smart, too. Idiots had no chance of performing the jutsus she could pull off with nary a hair moving out of place. She just hit behind a ditzy, Barbie-doll mask, he reflected regretfully. It was, in a way, her equivalent of his laziness; they both knew that if not much was expected, not much responsibility was required.

He was startled from his reverie by the feeling of a tiny body pressed up against his own. With an odd, quivering feeling in his stomach, he realized she was cuddled up very close to him.

"Are you cold?"

He awkwardly put his arms around the smaller girl, trying to warm her up. He froze as she started tipping her head back, rising on her toes.

Her lips met his. He found himself moving his own mouth against hers and jerked away, breathing harshly. What were they doing?

"What," he croaked, trying to push back feelings he'd repressed for years, "What about Sai? What was that?"

Emotions really were troublesome.

She was blushing now, too, looking everywhere but him. "I thought you liked Temari," she said nervously, "But I- anyway, I thought if I pretended to like Sai, you might notice me, but you didn't, and I've just-" she looked at the ground, blushing even more deeply. "-I've wanted to do that for a while now."

He stood there, willing his normally agile mind to comprehend what had been said.

She looked about ready to run away, and he said the only thing he could think of. "I don't like Temari. Well, I do, but as a friend, not as a- gah, this is troublesome," he finished weakly, as an expression of pure joy slowly blossomed on her face.

"How about me?" Her voice, very unusually, was quietly trembling with an energy rare in the loud, outgoing girl. Hers was now an energy both excited and scared, reverent and cheeky; an energy of paradoxes.

He decided to save his breath and show her.

This time, the kiss was much more eager. As his hands combed through her hair and settled around her waist, she draped her arms around his neck, letting a small noise of contentment escape her throat as he crushed her against him, years of self-proclaimed indifference and careful tucking away of certain awkward feelings melting away.

And that's how Chouji found them, when the chubby man decided he could listen to her again without killing her. "Hey!" he yelled in great surprise. "You can't do that! She likes Sai!"

Without letting go of the ecstatic girl in his arms, he turned to smirk at his friend.

"She kissed me first."