It's Our Party (we can do what we want)
There was that definite point in every young girl's life when she realizes that she stayed up way too late - again.
"You need to go to sleep."
Her eyelids slid down, then rolled back up. "You're one to talk, Screwhead."
"It's Neji. As in, your teammate whom you should listen to." Despite his grumpiness he sat down on her windowsill, taking a look at her disheveled room. Scrolls were everywhere, strewn like the stars in the sky. Atop a nightstand were several cups of instant noodles, empty with the dirty chopsticks still sticking out. Up on the ceiling shuriken embedded themselves, all dangerously close to falling back down without warning, right above Tenten's head. Neji furrowed his brow at his teammate's carelessness.
She waved him off. "I haven't listened to a thing you've said in the entire two years I've known you."
Neji rolled his heavy eyes. "That's not true."
The other shrugged. Her buns were still in, bushels of weeds rather than the immaculate spheres she is known for. Her sleepwear is an over-sized shirt and her eyes are dark circles.
"I'm always true."
Her appearance only reminds Neji that neither of them have had any sleep in the past twenty-four hours.
Tenten exhales, her breathing slow and lazy. The only difference between her and being asleep is that her eyes are open. The room itself feels alive, the chamber of a heart as it pushes blood throughout the body. Neji isn't sure who's heart it is, just that he likes it.
"What's your deal?"
Neji retorts, "What's yours?"
Ever childish Tenten crosses her arms. "I asked you first."
"I'm not going to tell you until you tell me first."
She growls from the back of her throat. "You're so damn troublesome!" If she had a weapon nearby she would have thrown it at him.
"You sound like-"
"I know!" She nearly yells as she rises from the bed. Neji is prepared to flee, go home to lie awake on his own bed rather than get mauled by a sleep-deprived Tenten. Instead she goes to her dresser, unfolded clothes spilling out of its drawers, and pulls out a jacket from the mishmash. "Let's go swimming."
Her proposition would have frazzled a lesser man. Thankfully, Neji is just as out of it as she is, wordlessly jumping from of the window to follow her to the nearby lake in the forest. He was so tired and really didn't want to go home just yet, never mind that it was a dark night in the middle of winter.
They found the lake quickly, the run there doing nothing to ease the chill that now settled in their bones. This lake in particular was a favorite during the summer for it was large and relatively cleaner compared to the other ones. With the frozen moon still up in the sky they could clearly see chunks of ice floating along the crystal surface. Neji exhaled, finding that his breathe danced in the air.
Tenten set her jacket on the grass, undoing her buns, and canon balled into the water. The resulting splash hit Neji, who followed her in a more graceful fashion. Together they felt their insides turn to stone, limbs freezing around them as they floated motionlessly. The cold had turned their skin white, lips blue. They could be mistaken for corpses in that very moment.
Despite being unable to feel his fingers, Neji intertwined his hand with Tenten's, his hair swimming around him as when he jumped in his hair tie slipped off.
He couldn't move his neck anymore, the muscles in a coma, but his eyes found Tenten's. Crystals had formed over her eyelashes, the same probably happening to his; when she blinked it took a second to reopen them. Neji wouldn't mind if she never opened them ever again.
"So, what's your deal?"
Neji didn't answer immediately. He was transfixed on holding Tenten's hand, positive their skin was now partially fused together like a tongue to an icy street pole, whilst they both bobbed in the lake's depths aimlessly. When he did speak, he found it hard to move his lips, positive that they were chapped now.
"I might be disowned soon. Lord Hiashi finds me dangerous." His mind wandered back to what led him to this situation, his afternoon spent feeding the main branch's birds until suddenly he had one by the throat in his hands. Feeling the soft plumage underneath his fingertips, the squirming of the bird as it scratched his wrists with its clipped talons, just slightly squeezing tighter and tighter and tighter, wondering what would happen if he really did squeeze too much - until someone hit him on the arm with a cane before bodily hauling him before the clan leader.
He remembered how Hiashi described his 'unpleasant' behavior, sneering at his existence, and activating the curse seal. As Neji found his entire head aflame he felt exactly how the bird must have felt - an increasingly agonizing pressure that was tipping over the edge. Just as he felt himself fading away it stopped. His thoughts were so scattered he did not even know he had been carried back to his one-room sleeping quarters and set on his bed until the sun had dropped.
Tenten remained staring up at the moon. She knew he was bloodthirsty, his refined manner and serene fighting style covering up the sociopath that kills birds to feel like he wasn't somewhat dead inside. Despite his initial concerns, she put up with that.
"My turn, my turn," she cooed, voice a murmur unheard to anyone but the two of them. "On that mission yesterday, when you were gone, I killed a guy again." Her smile was dreamy, disconnected to reality. Neji tightened his hold on her as much as he could, knowing that if he wasn't weighing her down she would float away and never come back.
"Lee didn't see, but I'm sure Gai knows. We were escorting a client again, the boring stuff, but this time we got ambushed. They were just bandits, and Lee and Gai were having a competition to see who could knock out the most. It wasn't dangerous at all so I fooled a guy into thinking he was cornering me, then I stabbed him in the throat. I stabbed him again in the eye. Since his throat was sliced though, when he screamed more blood came out. I kept going until he stopped, but it got pretty bloody. I mean, he should have realized he was only going make his death faster that way but I guess I can understand that being stabbed kinda hurts."
Tenten hummed, tapping the water with her free hand. Beside her Neji remained quiet, not thinking and not talking so much as existing. She turned onto her side, wrapping her other arm over Neji's chest to pull on the strap of his headband. She played with it between her numb digits, still humming, as Neji let her.
"Hmmm," she muttered, "if you close your eyes it'll be like you're dead. We could probably die here since it's so cold."
"I don't want to die tonight," Neji replied casually. "Maybe some other time, but not tonight."
Her lips settled over his, no warmth at all as she exhaled snowflakes. "You say that every time." Her tone was somewhat pouty.
"I don't know," Neji found himself shrugging. "I don't want to die yet. I don't like being alive, but I don't feel like dying. You can go ahead and die right now. I can tell the Hokage that there was an enemy ninja."
Tenten slid her head down so that it rested underneath Neji's chin, her waterlogged hair sending shivers against his skin. "You're right, I don't feel like it. If it happened right now - I'd be okay, but I'm a little tired so I'd rather sleep."
Neji rolled his eyes again, smiling as he paddled them back to the shore. Tenten put her jacket over her soaked form before they leaped over the roofs back to her small house.
The room remained as it was, messy. Though both knew it was unhealthy they sank under the covers with their wet clothes still on, eyes finally falling shut. Neji spooned Tenten from behind, their legs mingling together as their breathing synchronized seamlessly. Though he said he didn't want to, if he died right there and then he wouldn't mind.
Before he drifted off, he felt Tenten's lips on his again. This time they were warmer as her blood was flowing again.
They had only slept for two hours before the mist coming in from the opened window woke them up.
Tenten rubbed her eyes, kicking Neji into the direction of the window. "Go close it, Screwhead."
"It's Neji." Still he went and closed it, making sure to pull the curtain over it as well. He retreated to the bed right away, getting under the covers as Tenten's arms snaked around his body.
"Ugh, I just wanna die!" she groaned.
Neji shrugged. "I'll die if it's with you."
"Yeah but you're too much of a chicken to die," she pointed out, swinging a leg over him so that she became his personal blanket.
Neji shrugged again. "I am."
Finally, as Tenten's breath was evening out again, she said, "I guess I'll stay alive then too. I'll live if it's with you."
Finding that satisfactory, Neji leaned his head back and fell asleep again.