Sometimes, time ran out on you. The things that you had planned, every step brilliantly thought out, went to hell when time accelerated. Like how he had wanted to ask her out for a quiet dinner after training one day, or hold her hand as they walked her back to her apartment some time, or tell her about how he felt, had always felt about her next time. Time had never been on his mind, not consciously anyway, believing as all of them do in the protection that youth provided against reality, against bad things that were incomprehensible in the face of endless possibilities. And yet…
He sat beside the hospital bed, unable to stand the sight of her, so small and fragile beneath the white sheets, breaths noted only by the respiration in the breathing mask. Shifting his eyes to stare blindly at the moon shining through the bedside window, a silent prayer was sent out to any God, oh God, to let her live, to let her be safe and sound, to wake up so that he could tell her how much he loved her.
"Neji…" A fluttering of eyelids, a weak attempt to move her hand, and Neji immediately looked down at her, holding her hand in his. That his hands trembled as he did so went unnoticed as she opened her eyes and smiled softly at him. "I knew you would be the first one I'd see when I woke up." She curled her hand around his fingers, as though to reassure him, even though she was the patient.
"Ten…ten. Finally…" The usually stoic Hyuuga could not suppress the sigh that escaped with the last word as he brought her hand to his lips and kissed the inside of her wrist gently. His prayer had been answered… Silent gratitude filled his mind as he gazed into her eyes, which had been closed for too long. Before he could stop himself, Neji had left the chair to sit on the side of the bed and, as gently as he could, brought her up into his arms, head resting against his chest. He was way past caring about Hyuuga propriety, about rules and restraints. She was alive, and he would be damned before he wasted more time convincing himself that he did not care about her. His arms tightened instinctively around her when she gave a little shiver. "Are you cold?"
Tenten could hardly believe it when Neji had rose gracefully from the chair and instead of moving away, had sat right next to her on the bed itself, and she had had to stifle a gasp of surprise when he had wordlessly brought her into his arms and embraced her as though he wanted to keep her there forever. Trembling with the effort of keeping sudden tears in, Tenten could only shake her head mutely when he asked in that tender voice if she was cold. How could she be when she was in the arms of the one she had always loved? She forgot about the aches and pain in her body as she settled in more comfortably against his warm chest, feeling every breath that he took as they savoured this moment of confession together. For it was clear to both of them that it was time to come clean about the emotions that had steadily built between the two since they had started being sparring partners so many springs ago. It was time to stop wasting time on regrets and what-ifs. It was time to say—
"I love you."