Hey, I was doing just fine before I met you

I drink too much and that's an issue but I'm okay

Hey, you tell your friends it was nice to meet them

But I hope I never see them again

Bottles upon bottles littered the fluorescent lit floor. Drunken boys and girls dancing- grabbing at each other desperately. He steadily reminded himself that him and his friends were bachelors and this was an important part of the "life experience" as so many had told him.

Neji couldn't help but wonder, was this the youth his coach had long babbled on about? It truly didn't seem as great or appealing as others had made it out to be.

"Oy, Neji!"

Suddenly, a boisterous blonde wrapped his arms comfortably (or uncomfortably for Neji) around the stoic boy's neck.

"There's a group of really cute girls talking to Sasuke and Kiba right now. Don't be a killjoy and mope around alone over here!"

Before Neji could respond, Naruto dragged him with full force across the room towards. Of course, Naruto being Naruto (and a drunk one at that), gave no warnings and pushed Neji full force into their friends and their company. As a rather obvious result, Neji found himself completely collapsed on top a member of said company.

"I'm so sorry."

He promptly pushed himself off of the female figure, and extended his hand to help.

"No,no! Don't worry, I'm okay!"

A sun-kissed hand struck his beautiful elegant one out of the way.

"I-I can get up on my own."

She stumbled and struggled, but managed to haphazardly lift herself off of the ground. Giggling, she grabbed his suit sleeve rather than his hand tugging it up and down, "I'm Tenten by the way. It's nice to meet you."

It was then he saw her face for the first time, bronze skin tinted red, flushed lips, and brown doe eyes stared back at him. In that moment Neji was sure of two things, one she was indeed beautiful, and two, she was also absolutely shit faced drunk.

"Neji."

He was utterly unsure of what to say to her, other than a curt sound of his name. In reality, he wanted to tell he she's had too much to drink. She was too intoxicated, he actually wanted to start with a please, have a seat and I'll get you some water.

While the rest of his friends resumed to socializing, he found himself fixated on the girl before him, silently observing her take another swig of alcohol.

"Dude, you're like serial killer levels of staring right now."

"Yeah man, seriously not cool to stare like that."

The very people he deemed to be his friends decided to comment on his behavior. Namely, Naruto Uzumaki, loud mouth of the century. The entire party shot their eyes to him-her included. This was also in the exact moment he decided to give Naruto a well deserved death glare.

Well, Fuck. Now he had to defend himself before the everyone deemed him some kind of perverted sociopath.

"No, I'm just concerned for her."

Hearing this, the corners of her mouth lifted in amusement. She batted her dark lashes and shot him a devious glance.

"About me?" She had a hint of play in her voice-a feigned disbelief, inched ever so slightly closer to him and rolled her doll head his way, "Is there something you'd like to tell me?"

"Yes, I'm actually very concerned with-"

"How he's going to get into your pants tonight, because he clearly has a thing for you."

A statement started by him with golden intentions turned south and straight to hell by Naruto. Neji snapped his head and grabbed the blonde by the collar, about to beat him into a bloody pulp for proposing such a crude idea.

"Is that so?" He stopped short to the sound of her voice, and the rest of the statement was lost in the sound of her laughter.

In the split moment he turned to look at her, her eyes locked onto his and she gave him a wicked smirk, and by all means made the boldest statement he's ever heard.

"I'm glad the feeling is mutual then."

God be damned. He never thought he'd see the day Naruto would do him a favor.

He had been right to worry about her state of intoxication during the club. After she had made her bold statement, she hooked herself onto his arm about to promise a series of vulgarities.

But as fate would have it,she slipped and fell to the floor once again in her inebriated state. Her knee was now scraped, and her phone lied on the dance floor in a million pieces. At this point, it was painfully clear to him that he had to get her away from the crowd.

Being the gentleman he was, of course he saw it fit that he carried the lady to his home. Of course, He would soon learn to regret this decision.

"Ne, Ne-Neji?"

"Yeah?"

Underneath the stars, and the cold air, the girl in his arm groaned.

"I don't feel so good."

"Do you want me to find-"

Fucking Christ.

That's exactly how it felt to be that close to the sound of hurling.

"-a trashcan."

She gracefully struggled free of his arms, and vice gripped the closest trash can to vomit the life out of herself. Of course, this was not before she had already spilled her insides out on herself, and our dear hero.

By the time Neji helped her up again and into his arms, she was sobbing into his shoulder. To say that Tenten was a beautiful rambling mess, would be a more than gentle way of putting it.

"Oh God, I ruined your night didn't I?"

"Not at all."

He tried to reassure her, but his answer never really seemed to make it to her. She held her head tighter against his arm and continued.

"And-and I've been such an inconvenience to you. I swear, I can normally handle my alcohol really well. I just-I-I don't know what happened"

She weld tears in her earth toned eyes, and looked at him with glittering droplets through her lashes.

"It's not your fault."

"But it totally is! I mean who vomits all over their future husband? What kind of shitty story does that make for our future kids?"

"I think that it makes for a pretty great one."

As he felt her in his arms at ease, he couldn't help but smile knowing that he was right.

Where the fuck was she?

Ino Yamanaka, captain of the Konoha cheer squad angrily furrowed her eyes at her phone. Their team was set to compete at nationals in a month's time, and their star cheerleader was still MIA from morning practice.

What could have possibly happened? It was totally unlike her to not show up to practice, and even more so to ignore Ino's phone calls, texts, pms, dms, emails, snapchats, and well you get the point.

The only time Tenten had ever missed practice was because of a 110 degree fever. Even then, Tenten still showed up, and was forcibly sent home because she was vomiting on everyone and everything.

Ugh, Ino shuddered at the memory and quickly returned her attention to her phone skimming through her other contacts. If Tenten wouldn't respond, then surely someone who knows her would.

If there was anything aside from being a kickass cheer captain she was good at, it was knowing all of Konoha. After all, Ino could practically read minds with all that she knew.

"I'm so sorry!"

She must of apologized to him for the umpth time that morning.
Her head was bowed low, and her cheeks completely flustered. She couldn't look at him-especially not after all that happened.

"No, don't be. These things happen. I'm just glad that you aren't hurt and that you're okay."

And here they were, the dreaded morning after.

His eyes and thoughts torn, as much as he tried to comfort her, he found himself in an uncomfortable state of arousal. How do you even comfort a person, when you're trying to get them out of your peripheral vision out of courtesy?

Tenten had opted to stay in her borrowed clothes. An oversized tee-shirt, which didn't quite fully cover her bottom half. As she shamefully tried to hide her face by bending slightly over, another part of her body was in Neji's full view.

He really felt kind of awful. Here she was having a full on panic attack, and his biggest struggle was to not ogle her ass while she talked to him.

"...But about last night"

"Nothing happened. If that's what you're worried about. We made it back, and you fell asleep as soon as you showered and changed, and I slept on the couch."

She began to pace back and forth uncomfortably through his room.

"But I threw up all over you!"

"It really wasn't as terribl-"

"I get such a confidence kick out of drinking, and, and-Oh my god. Did I call you my future husband?!"

Her eyes suddenly widened in horror as she turned to face him, and she threw herself, full body into his bed- straight diving her face for the pillow. Maybe if she was lucky enough, she'd suffocate in the pillow and die before the embarrassment kills her.

Neji himself was even more unsure as to what to do at this point. Because as Tenten jumped onto his bed, he found his shirt had fatefully chosen to be riled up against her body, exposing more of her olive skin. She was crouched over in an attempt to hide her face with the pillow, but that left for an even more precarious position.

He decided to sit down cross legged next to her on the bed, but back facing her so he wouldn't have to look at her (or namely her distracting body). And with ease, he finally gave her an answer.

"I found it charming."

She cracked open an eye in disbelief, lifted her face from the pillow, and gave an incredulous stare straight onto his back.

"...You can't mean that?"

"But I do."

He turned his head back slightly and offered her a soft smile as a token of his sincerity.

"Most people aren't at ease when they first meet me, and your reactions and umm actions towards me, were refreshing."

She rolled over towards him and snaked her arms around his pillow.

"Thank the whiskey sours and moscow mules. If not for that, I would have spent the whole night staring at you, the same way you stared at my ass this morning."

"...You noticed."

"Difficult not to," She giggled into his pillow- her face snugly tucked between her arms, "I don't mind. Given the way I treated you last night, it's the least I could do to compensate."

Neji leaned in to pull the pillow away from her arms, and decided to take its place, with his face facing hers.

"If you say so."

He leaned in and cutely kissed her button nose to confirm his answer.

Their newfound intimacy was short-lived. About two minutes into their light kisses, a beautiful full figured blonde burst through the bedroom door. She forcefully grabbed Tenten by the arm, gave Neji a quick excuse us, and dragged Tenten into the hallway.

Tenten found herself cornered by Ino very much like prey, whilst Neji remained in his room (clearly uninvited to the little private meeting). Tenten winced at the sound of Ino's voice.

"Honestly Tenten. I like would expect this out of Sakura, or Karin, but you?! What the fuck?"

"Ino, it's not what you think."

"It isn't!?"

It was difficult enough trying to explain the events of last night, but with Ino's finger pointed accusingly at her, Tenten found herself at a complete loss of words. The blonde gave no notion of easing up on the accusations and continued.

"I mean, seriously! You skipped practice because you were too busy fucking the star quarterback from Hokage University!?"

"Wait? He's the quarterback from Hokage University?" Tenten raised her eyebrow in thought, no wonder he had seemed so familiar. She must have seen him on some flyers when she was at cheer practice.

"My god, you didn't even know? Ten, don't you do your research? Do you just hop on the first dick that you see?"

"Ino! No! That's not what happened. We didn't have sex-"

"What!? You spent the night and you didn't even get sex out of it? God, I don't even want to hear your excuses now. Like at least skipping practice for sex is understandable-FROWNED UPON, but understandable, I mean look at him."

If there was a hell, Tenten was pretty sure she was living in it. Tenten was sure that she had actually died of embarrassment, and her body was not just a giant floating fluster fest. There was no bouncing back from this. Poor Neji, first he had to deal with her vomiting all over him, and now he has to deal with her overly caring (and straight up psychotic) friend bursting uninvited into his apartment.

She gave it one last try, "Ino, please." Please, please, please leave. Her internal dialogue was on a repeat wheel. She gave Ino the most desperate look she could think of.

And by some stroke of magic, it worked. Thankfully, In Ino's ice cold heart there was some compassion and human understanding. Her eyes softened, and she reached out to brush Tenten's arm in reassurance.

"Okay, fine. You can tell me later." Ino readied herself to leave, brushing the imaginary dust off of herself. "Just don't miss practice again, okay?"

"Okay. I promise."

Smoothly as Ino was about to leave, she decided she could afford to make one last smartass remark, "But, Ten?"

"Yeah?"

"Know that the only reason I'm leaving is because I want to talk to your new boytoy's cute roommate."

"...Ino leave faster."

Inside, Tenten made sure to gently close the door before bracing herself to face Neji.
There he was in his bed, right where she last saw him. He seemed so at peace, while ten million thoughts ran through her. She timidly approached him and sat herself down cross legged across from him.

"..So umm. How much of that did you hear?"

"I can pretend I didn't hear any of it if you'd prefer."

Tenten gave one sigh, and another.

"Ino is like that. She's a bit much. But I think she means well?" Tenten paused in her statement as if questioning the sincerity of what she was saying, "I mean none of us are really sure. She's constantly nagging us about practice practice practice, and what we're doing, what we're eating, who we're dating..."

The way her voice faded out into an internal musing of mumbles and soft rambling, only made Neji all the more aware of how animated and adorable she was. Her explanations on Ino made him think about how Naruto and all of the mishaps he's caused.

"I think my blonde friend you met the other night is similar."

"Oh?"

"Naruto Uzumaki. He's a friend and teammate. He's also loud, excessive, and a total pain in the ass."

"Hummm, do you think it's a blonde thing?"

"Must be."

The corners of her mouth turned up and her eyes softened. She snuggled up towards him and found herself craving his intimacy. It wasn't necessarily one of desire, but rather one of comfort and warmth. There seemed to be something about him that kept her mind at ease. It made her foolishly happy. She let herself lay against him and enjoy the silence that was lost from Ino's appearance.

Neji began to speak but quietly, not in any means that would disrupt their comfort. "In a way, I appreciate friends like Ino and Naruto. They always manage to push people into situations, good or bad."

Tenten stirred- nodding her head against his chest, and added, "As in, it's always nice to meet them, but you hope you never see them again?"

"Exactly."

They had been dating for 6 months now, from the end of the last school year to the midpoint of the current one. Long gone were the summer days they would spend outside exploring the city. The weather was brisk. It was perfect for being indoors, making hot chocolate, and staying cozy in bed.

In this time, Neji and Tenten had grown much more acquainted with each other. He discovered that she was on scholarship attending Konoha University, and came from a humble family. Her weekends were kept busy through waitressing at a local college town cafe. Of course, she was also a star cheerleader responsible for the most magnificent flips and victories. Neji on the other hand, was recruited into Hokage University's football team well before graduation. All his life, he was always top of his year in academics; he even graduated as valedictorian. His family was prestigious in name (in fact, they owned a pretty good portion of the city's infrastructure), and thus provided for him in any way they saw fit. Despite all of their differences, they found each other madly in love.

It was the end of Tenten's evening shift. Everyday, without fail Neji would meet her outside of the cafe as the winter sun set. Neji draped his scarf over Tenten, and adjusted it to fit snugly over her neck.

"You don't always have to walk me home from work, Neji."

"I want to."

She huffed her cheeks and blew a piece of fly away hair out from over her eyes.

"Are you sure there isn't another reason?"

"No."

Neji may be able to pass on the nonchalant facade in front of others, but she caught the slight furrow in his brow. That was all the confirmation that she needed.

"So there is another reason."

He gave her no response and only quickened his pace.

She smiled through the snugness of his scarf and tackled her arms around his.

"It wouldn't be because of my favourite customer would it?" There was the same mischievous glimmer in her eyes from the night he had met her.

"Don't call him that." Neji personally felt it was distasteful and disgusting to describe him of all people as her favourite (after all, wasn't he her favorite? Isn't that what dating signified?).

"It is what it is. He's the only one who will for sure without fail be there to greet me every morning at seven."

"He's a brat."

"No, he's a sweetheart who always tips extra," She defended her favourite customer without skipping a beat, "And unlike you mister, I actually need the cash." Her jabbed his rib cage through his winter coat most accusingly.

"I know," He learned very early on in the relationship how hard Tenten worked to sustain herself. It was something he deeply admired about her. She worked nonstop to make sure she could be financially independent of her parents. In everything Tenten did, there was such a freedom in her actions (always doing whatever she saw fit). He would never admit it, but that alone made him jealous of her. Although he knew she wouldn't be swayed by his words, he would still try to assure her that he had reason to worry.

"He's asked you out more than once."

"All in good fun. He's only in high school."

She paid her dearest boyfriend no mind, and triwled on ahead of him. In her true nature, she waved off his comment easily and quickly. Spotting a bench-the perfect distance away, she was far more excited by the opportunity to try a new cheer move. She gave a short sprint, jumped, and landed perfectly on her feet.

"If it makes you feel better," She locked eyes with him to emphasize her point, "I think he has a crush on your younger cousin Hanabi."

Neji frowned (yes, it made things very slightly better), "Must he go after all the women in my life?"

"Well, I can't help it if he has good taste." She made her way towards the end of the bench and held out her arm for him. He grabbed a hold of her petite waist, and lifted her off instead.

"I promise I won't leave you for him."

Neji scoffed at the idea, almost dropping her in the process, "We both know you'd never leave me. Especially not for him."

"No promises then."

He couldn't help but stare at the street light illuminating her, and notice how blissfully happy she was with herself. She reached her hand up to his cheeks, tip toed herself onto his lips before he had the chance to think of anything else.

Today, he wakes up and checks his phone once more for the messages that he knows are not there. He looks back in time and wonders if this should have been the first clue that he should have held onto her tightly and never let her go.

A/N: That ended up waaaayyyyyyyy longer than I expected. I've been super super obessessed with this song all summer, and I kept getting Nejiten ideas while listening to it. #trashtasteinmusic
Originally meant to be a oneshot, but it got a bit out of hand. Expect the story to be about three or four parts, the story should should wrap up in the next week or so. : )

Thank you for reading! Reviews are always welcome