soft touch
for jade — it takes a soft touch. "What does the snow taste like?" "Flaky." "That doesn't help..." neji/tenten ;;christmas request o5
(a/n) yeah, okay, it's been over a month since Christmas. Sue me.
(disclaimer) whatever.
Tenten had never seen so much snow before.
"Well, it is called the Land of Snow for a reason," Neji said when she mentioned as much to him. Predictably, Gai-sensei and Rock Lee immediately started a snowball fight.
"Well, yeah, but...you never really realize how beautiful it can be when you see a lot of it in one place," Tenten said, sticking out her tongue to catch a falling flake.
Neji shrugged, perhaps a bit irritably. "It's cold, it's wet, it makes everything look white and stifles normal depth perception, muffles far-off sound, slows movement and restricts blood flow..."
"Yeah, yeah, okay, sure," Tenten said, rolling her eyes. "You'd criticize the air because we absolutely have to breathe it."
"I'm just saying," he said.
Tenten opened her mouth and snapped at another flake, missing it.
"You look completely ridiculous."
"Try it!"
"Why?"
"It's fun? It'll be good training for if you have to catch an important document in your mouth during a mission?" Tenten grinned playfully. "It's your destiny to catch a snowflake in your mouth?"
Neji snorted. "What does it even taste like?"
A shrug, almost invisible through the layers of thick clothing piled on Tenten's shoulders. "Flaky?"
"That doesn't help," Neji said.
"You know, I noticed the snow is the same color as your eyes," Tenten said, completely out of the blue. "Maybe if you were buried in a snowdrift with nothing but your eyes exposed, you could spy on everything and no one would notice you were there. Not even heat-sensing jutsu! Since you're so cold anyway. You'd match the temperature of the snow."
"You are rather unusually giddy today," Neji informed her, crossing his arms. Tenten smiled. He only ever crossed his arms when he was on his last legs of protest.
"Just try to catch a snowflake on your tongue. You don't even have to see to do it. Close your eyes and wait."
After a few moments, Neji uncrossed his arms. "If I do this, will you promise to stop going on about the snow?"
Tenten grinned. "I promise. Now do it."
Neji hesitantly opened his mouth—apparently, sticking out his tongue only was a little too undignified—as his eyes fluttered shut. A few moments passed.
Suddenly, Tenten pegged him square in the face with a snowball and ran for it, laughing aloud. Neji, after the initial painful shock, scooped up some snow and ran right in to retaliate.
"I told you Tenten-san could make him do it, Gai-sensei!" Rock Lee asserted some dozen feet away, eyes sparkling even in the cold, while Neji and Tenten proceeded to have an Epic Snowball Deathmatch, Ranged Weapon Specialist versus Byakugan Master style.
"The warmth of her Youth has driven the cold from Neji-kun's heart and limbs! Good job, Lee!" Master Gai said, clapping him on the back and grinning.
(a/n) Completely unlike the original concept. ...Meh.