In the spirit of Halloween...

an: for all intents and purposes, Tenten is on birth control.

There's an old station wagon parked outside of her bedroom window exactly twenty minutes after Tenten hangs up the phone. She groans. It's the twenty-first century, for Kami's sake. There's no need for Shikamaru to parade around in old man's car when they have other, more acceptable, less socially-suicidal options lying around – like Neji's Porsche, for instance.

He blares the horn the moment she grabs the house keys from her parents' beside table, silently thankful that they're away for the weekend because in no way would she ever be able to sneak out of the house with that noise.

"Try not to move so quickly," he drawls when she reaches the car, "I can't take super-speed."

"Shut up," Tenten laughs, opening the back door. Temari immediately throws her a greeting from the front seat as Lee and… Neji hurriedly move to make room for her. "Well, you don't see this every day."

Neji tilts his head upwards. "Hi."

"How much did you bribe him with?"

Shikamaru starts the engine with a smug grin. "Nothing. He came on his own volition."

"What?" Tenten stares at her best friend, stunned. "Lies."

Lee shakes his shiny bowl of hair back and forth zealously, arms forming a well-defined cross over his chest. "It was a most honourable action! Neji only emerged from the Mansion because he heard that y-"

"Hinata needed a chaperone." Neji interjects irritably, jabbing an elbow into Lee's side. "Naruto just ran out of space in his car."

"Figures," Tenten leans back into her seat comfortably, "In any case, I'm glad you could make it. Halloween would've been boring without you."

And it would have been. Neji hasn't been around lately, namely because his (now, ex) girlfriend Kin's been dictating his schedule from first light to twilight and strapping him to her hip during school hours. The exact details of their break-up are still unclear to Tenten, but from what she's heard on the grapevine, it was messy.

Needless to say, she's glad that her best friend is back in her life because Lee, sweet and wholesome as he is, gets a little overbearing at times. It doesn't hurt that she's been nursing the tiniest crush on Neji ever since he transferred to Konoha High a few years ago.

Tenten sees Temari shift her face ever so slightly to the left and shoots her a knowing look. "Ah, they're back."

Shikamaru nods, responding with a hint of fondness in his voice. "It's been a while."

Okay, yep. Tenten has it bad.


They reach the doorstep of Kiba's house some time later. The party's already in full blast, even though it's only eight o'clock and the drinks haven't been distributed from Shikamaru's boot yet. All five of them are resting packs of beer on their hips, practically bouncing on the balls of their feet while they're waiting for someone to answer the door.

Which, given the amount of noise emanating from the other side of the threshold, seems like it'll take some time.

"You look nice." Neji says suddenly.

Tenten holds down the blush that threatens to colour her painted cheeks. She's dressed as a mime, because Temari shotgunned witch last week and Ino stressed the importance of her Cruella DeVil costume a few months ago. Her breasts aren't popping out as is wont for Halloween parties, but the short skirt and fishnet leggings hugging her lower half didn't really scream conservative either. Whatever, it's Halloween, the one time of the year everyone can dress in clothes that defy the laws of gravity and still get away with it.

"Thanks," she eyes Neji's suited Vendetta costume, "So do you."

Understatement of the year. He looks like a walking sex symbol, and the fact that she admits this while sober scares her.

Her knees are saved from quaking under the look he gives her when Ino answers the door with a flourish of her fake-fur robes and a saucy grin. "Welcome to the party, darlings, it's high time you joined in on the fun." She eyes the booze eagerly, then directs them into the living room with her fake-cigarette.

"And," Ino grabs her by the elbow when everyone makes their way inside, waggling her eyebrows at Neji's retreating figure, "He looks yummy tonight. Grab him before someone else does."

Tenten rolls her eyes in jest. "We're just friends."

"Right," Ino helps her carry the beer into Kiba's pantry, "Whatever you say."


It takes less than an hour for Tenten to realise it's so packed that she's elbowing people out of her way instead of walking through the living room freely.

She's surrounded by bodies of scantily-clad girls and shirtless boys with Kiba's fluorescent paint streaked down their chests and over their costumes. They're all writhing against each other, hips sensually gyrating to the beat of the music.

She's pretty sure the party started getting rowdier when a (literally) foxy Naruto showed up with Hinata in his arms. Then again, she can't really tell because Neji hasn't stopped dancing with her since they arrived.

And it's really distracting.

His mask is gone, probably trampled over by hundreds of stilettos by now, and is hair is loose and free-flowing from its typically-low ponytail. Tenten doesn't know if it's the alcohol that she drank a few minutes ago or if it's the hormones coursing through her system, but she's achingly aware of his toned abdomen pressing against her back and his arms moving up the length of her waist and his hot breath fanning out against her neck and his hips thrusting up at her arse and all of a sudden she's realising that she really, really, really wants Neji.

A lot. In an incredibly non-platonic way.

That thought alone makes her break away from his warmth and stumble away from the enthused crowd with her heart rapidly thumping in her chest. She tries not to look back, because she knows that Neji will be staring at her with that same intensity from outside Kiba's house and she doesn't know if she can take that in her current state of panic.

Before Tenten can process what's going on, before she can realise that she just humped her long-time best friend (and crush) while inebriated, someone's slapping her across the face furiously and screaming bloody murder. The sharp sting sobers her up immediately. Her eyes narrow at the perpetrator. It's Kin, unsurprisingly, and her face is flushed a deep, crimson red.

"You-You little-"

"Little what?" Tenten fires back, hearing the music end abruptly, feeling a hundred pairs of eyes falling on her palm-imprinted cheek and Kin's glowering expression.

"You little harlot." Kin's cheeks are puffing now that she realises that the crowd is staring at them too. Tenten grins triumphantly. If Kin hates anything, it's attention when she doesn't want it.

"Harlot? That's so old. Weren't you telling Shika how much you despised his old tastes a few days ago?"

Her sullen reaction, coupled with Shikamaru's "Here, here!", is golden. Kin storms off, clique of Kin-wannabees in tow, eliciting a brief cheer from the partygoers before the music comes back on. No doubt the school will be abuzz with gossip theories for the next week or so. Tenten can't bring herself to care, and neither can she be bothered to stay behind anymore.

Her cheek is throbbing from the pain, so she grabs an ice-pack from the freezer and makes a beeline for the doorway. The sooner she escapes and nestles herself in her blankets again, the better, but the Universe clearly isn't having any of that because Neji's the one who catches up to her at the door.

"Hey," he says, eyes flickering to her cheek, "I-"

"It's okay," Tenten smiles briefly, not quite meeting his gaze, "I'm okay. But you should talk to Kin, sort things out. She seems like she needs some closure."

She pulls her hand out of his wrist wryly. His jaw tightens. "I need some air." It's not a lie, and Neji seems to acknowledge that because he nods and rigidly pulls his hands back to his sides.

"Okay."


She's dropped off at her house by Shikamaru and Temari. It's all a little anticlimactic, her rushing away from Neji for "air" and hitching a ride as soon as she gets out, but Tenten's not going to complain anymore because her feet are hurting like crazy.

They make sure she's pushing the key into her lock before driving off, which makes her heart warm up a bit, until she sees the figure of a running man turning around the corner with his hair flying behind him. Neji.

Still dapper in a suit, even if he's probably drenched in sweat from running across half the town.

Neji runs up to her gate and opens it. Something leaps in her throat.

"Hey."

"Hey," he breathes. "I just wanted to say-" Neji cuts himself off and leans against the wall, "Sorry, out of breath."

She stands there for a moment, watching him inhale and exhale heavily, then giggles. Neji glances up, confused.

"Kami, you're hopeless," Tenten grins and unlocks the door, "Come inside before you collapse on my porch."

Neji returns her grin with a smile and limps through the door towards the kitchen. She fumbles around at the lock for a bit, excruciatingly aware that Neji is inside her house for the first time in months. Not her best friend Neji, her newly-realised dance partner Neji. She tosses her keys back into the master bedroom and cringes when that train of thought hits home.

They crossed a line at Kiba's house, and she has no idea how they're going to repair it.

"So," Neji, fresh out of the shower and changed into the clean pile of clothes he leaves behind at her place every now and then, speaks up from his cup of hot chocolate.

"You never told me what happened with Kin," she says carefully.

He sighs. "She broke it off."

"Why?"

"Said I didn't care enough about her."

"…And?"

"I didn't," his eyes flicker towards her, "It was always you."

Tenten wipes off the last of her mime-mask and tries not to let any emotions show on her face. She feels inexplicably vulnerable without it, which is sort of ridiculous because she's only had it on for a few hours. But Neji, with his annoyingly magnetic smoulder and his relaxed posture against her bedroom wall and his cool demeanour, like everything's totally okay and nothing's changed, is getting to her.

"Neji," her voice cracks, "What have we done?"

He remains silent as he lowers the cup onto her desk.

Tenten elaborates, "I feel like everything's collapsing around me, even though it shouldn't be because we just danced and nothing else happened and I just," she pauses to breathe, and immediately regrets looking at Neji because now he's looking at her in that way again. "Stop that."

"Stop what?" he asks, amused.

"Your eyes," she looks away, flustered, "They're doing that thing." Neji steps closer.

"I have no idea what you mean."

And deep down, she wants to agree with him, but she can't, because his eyes are so tender and now it's her turn to stay silent.

He edges closer until she's backed up against the wall and breathing down his white, cotton t-shirt. He traces a finger down the curve of her cheek and leans in.

"That dance didn't mean 'nothing' to me, Tenten."

She inhales the scent of pinewood and cinnamon and flushes. "Then what was it?"

"This."

He cradles her face, letting their breaths mix in before dipping his head down and sliding his lips over hers hesitantly. She moans when the contact sends bolts of electricity trickling down her spine, then wraps her arms around his waist and presses them together desperately, imploringly. Neji grunts, runs a tongue over her upper lip and combs his fingers through her soft, brown hair like he's threading silk. He kisses her, once, twice, thrice, each time less hesitant than the first, and smiles against her lips.

Tenten chuckles softly. "You have no idea how long I've been wanting to do this."

He grins wolfishly and pulls her legs around his hips, grinding his protruding sex into her slowly. "I think I can challenge that notion."

She tilts her head to the side and drapes her arms over his shoulders. "We'll see." Their lips crash together again, tongues meeting halfway and fervently sliding over each other. He continues to gyrate his hips into hers while tugging her striped shirt upwards and licking along her collarbones. Tenten pulls it off, barely noticing Neji's eyes widen a fraction until he groans and thrusts up at her roughly.

"I love black."

She exhales and brings his lips closer to the mounds of her chest, relishing in the way he instantly pulls down the lacy, black bra and runs his tongue over her nipples, sucking and biting and twisting. The pain of his movements are insanely hot, and Tenten can't help but squirm from the tingling feeling that's starting to flood in her nether regions.

"I want you," she whispers in his ear huskily. He groans, sliding a hand across the surface of her fishnetted legs and underneath her skirt.

"Kami, Tenten," his fingers brush against her panties and feel the moisture already pooling at the lace, "You're so wet."

Neji lifts them off the wall, lips seizing hers in a searing kiss as he readjusts their position and slides her up and down his hardened cock. She hisses, bites at his lower lip, and thrusts her pussy against him adamantly.

"Now, Neji."

He grunts, dumping her onto her bed and covering her body with his own. Tenten wraps her legs around his waist and pulls his head down to her breasts, arching her body towards his and pleasuring in the strangled moans emanating from his mouth. She feels his warm hands slide up the length of her torso and cup around her swelling breasts before kneading them, groaning as she thrusts her hips up into his cock and grinds against it.

Her hips don't stop gyrating, not even when he reaches behind her back and undoes her bra clasp, not even when he tosses her bra to the other end of the room, not even when he rips open her skirt and leggings and throws the mangled fabric away, and not even when he groans loudly and pushes his cock into her covered pussy like it's his oxygen.

Tenten grins, tugging his t-shirt off with one hand and stroking the tent in his sweatpants with the other. "Someone's wearing too much tonight."

"Don't I regret it." She leans her head to the right when his tongue descends onto her neck and moans. Her hands are pushed away as soon as they try to reach into his boxers, and before she can even open her mouth in retaliation, Neji's angling his fingers past her panties and shallowly dipping his middle finger into her sex.

"Oh," she throws her head back into the mattress and pushes her hips upwards to meet him. He takes the hint and thrusts more digits forth in a swift motion that makes her scream in euphoria. The noise prompts him to move faster, rougher, harder, brings her over the edge and sets her body on fire.

Tenten pulls his head down to meet hers and plants several kisses on his lips, then moves past his jawline with butterfly kisses before shimmying her entire body down until she's face to face with a distinct outline of his member. It isn't the first time she's been sexually involved with someone, but she's suddenly conscious of the fact that it's their first time. Her's and Neji's first time, being with each other like this. The thought simultaneously frightens and elates her.

Then she hears his breath hitch and she pulls down his pants and boxers and releases his cock from its restraints. It's long, which immediately has her licking her lips in anticipation, and it's stiff and slightly curved towards his muscular abdomen. She breathes on it, giggling when Neji's legs start to tremble from the sensations, then licks the head lightly.

"Tenten," his voice is starting to shake, so she encloses her lips around the tip of his cock and sucks. "Fuck." Her mouth is bombarded by the taste of salt and something peculiar to Neji. She grabs his arse and lowers him further into her mouth, teeth lightly scraping across the surface of his skin as her tongue traces down his throbbing vein. He practically screams, pushing himself in until her mouth makes contact with his balls. Tenten takes it, eyelids fluttering as her gag-reflex holds itself back. She sucks it again, massages his balls with her hands and moans.

The vibrations set him off; Neji withdraws his hips and thrust back into her violently, over and over again until he's falling onto her mattress and relying on the muscles of his hips to give him the pleasure he's desperately seeking. Tenten can't help but choke a little, to which he immediately pulls out and crawls down to stroke her face tenderly.

"Are you ready?"

She grins, cheeks flushed red from their intercourse, and nods. "Fuck yeah."

He shakily slides her soaked underwear off her legs, which she lifts up to help ease the process. He catches her eye when she lowers her legs and smiles. Tenten watches him reposition himself over her pussy and groans when she feels his stiff head press in between her folds. His hands find themselves around her breasts again, and she can't help the keening noise that escapes her lips because she needs Neji like she needs air right now and stalling isn't doing any wonders to her patience.

He wraps her slender legs around his waist and lifts her up so that the only parts of her body touching the mattress are her head and shoulders. She feels her eyes shut tight when he slowly pushes his head inside, gently sawing it back and forth before roughly thrusting the entire cock inside and groaning. She feels her walls clamp down on him like a vice. "Fuck, you feel so good." She grunts, gyrating her hips into his as he stays still and breathes down on her shakily.

It's not until Tenten opens her eyes again that she sees Neji staring at her with his light eyes darkened with desire. He smirks, then pulls back and slams himself back into her. She feels her eyes roll into the back of her head when he repeats the motions again and again.

"Wanna see you come with me," he says huskily, "Wanna see you cover my cock with your hot little pussy and fuck me." Tenten lets him fuck her with a single-minded intensity, lets him push her to the brink of insanity, and then tries to withhold a whimper when she draws back and kneels before him.

"Down, Neji." He doesn't move, doesn't budge from his sitting position. She realises that as much as she's enjoying the view of his throbbing dick sticking out before her, he's drinking in the sight of her naked flesh just as eagerly. Tenten feels her body prickly under the intensity of his gaze, when his eyes move down to her heaving breasts, and even lower to the sleek pussy that's dripping for him. She waits patiently for him to finish lying down on her bed and then positions her lips over his cock while bracing herself on his pectorals.

Neji sighs when she lowers herself onto him. "Yeah – fuck, Tenten. Just like that." She savours the feel of his member massaging her walls and stretching her out from the inside. Every downwards movement makes her feel like he's splitting her core in half, penetrating through her body like a lightning bolt. He spikes his hips upwards in rough, unhindered movements, thrusting up and down furiously. Tenten screams.

"More." He flips her over, pushes their conjoined bodies forwards with his hips, until she's reaching for the walls of her bedroom and holding on to the smooth surface for something, anything to support her when his cock is pounding into her like a jackhammer and his hands are slapping her arse furiously.

"Yeah, yeah, Tenten," he cries out her name when her hips slam down and her walls clench around his thick cock. "Oh, fuck yes. So tight."

She can feel him growing bigger, each thrust stretching her out even further; the size makes her shudder in delight. His hands are moving away from her waist, one massaging her clit in harsh circles, the other squeezing her breasts and pinching her nipples and rolling them between his fingers.

Tenten releases her grip on the wall and leans into him, circling her arms around his neck and feeling his breath shadow over like when they were dancing at Kiba's house. Neji seems to remember this position too, because he's biting down on her neck and sucking on her flesh, no doubt leaving a red mark in the process, and grinding his hips up and up.

She goes numb when he picks up his speed and pushes into her with strangled moans and animalistic grunts. She forgets how to breathe when the numbness ebbs away for a millisecond, when his dick makes contact with her g-spot and sends her sailing over the edge, juices squirting out of her as she screams his name.

His voice is husky in her ear when she finishes. "I'm done with you, yet."

He turns her around and pulls her legs over his shoulder, grunting when he sinks deeper into her pussy. She lies back with her hands gripping onto the sheets as he angles his hips and rolls into her, pumping back and forth while scrunching up his features in concentration.

She feels herself arching towards him again, pressing her breasts up against his chest and her hips twanging back and forth with his thrusts. Orgasm tears through her with a vengeance, evoking a sharp cry from her lips before Neji captures them in his embrace, pulls out and enters her again. He moans when his orgasm shoots into her like thick, white ropes, then massages into her and brings them both down from their frantic high.

Finally, Neji comes to rest inside her and releases her legs from his grasp. He doesn't move out, only hugs her tighter and presses more kisses to her lips.

She smiles up at him when their rapid breathing slows down to a normal speed. "Hey."

He grins back. "Hey." His head drops down to her breasts like an anvil. "That was…"

"Fun?" His eyelashes flutter against her skin as he laughs.

"Yeah."

Tenten lets herself run her fingers through Neji's hair and relish in its softness.

"Happy Halloween."

Neji pulls himself out and rolls them onto their sides before wrapping his arms around her waist and bringing the blankets over their naked bodies.

"I love you."

"I love you, too."