A/N: I do not own Naruto.
DITCHED
Tenten paced her apartment anxiously. Clothes cluttered the floors, strewn about in listless heaps while her makeup poured over every sink. She glared at her reflection every time she passed it, silently cursing herself for another failure. Of course he wouldn't show up—he was half an hour late. What did she do wrong, now? She threw her hands up in defeat before grabbing a tub of Ben & Jerry's and helping herself to it generously on the couch. He wouldn't come for her, so what's the point? Before she knew it, she was sobbing, and the makeup she worked so hard to perfect dribbled down her face in black rivulets.
In the midst of her bawling, she heard a faint knock on the door. She froze, spoon paused between her lips. Was that what she thought it was? It came again, bolder than last time. There was no mistaking it—he had come. He had actually come.
"Oh crap," she muttered around the spoon. She, as quickly and quietly and frantically as she could, hurled the ice cream back in the fridge, scrubbed her eyes and cheeks vigorously and changed her shirt, picking one from the piles on the floor randomly. Despite looking like a wet raccoon, she answered the door, and to her great astonishment she found Neji, whose hand was poised ready to knock again.
So he hadn't come after all.
"Are you… okay?" He asked hesitantly, obviously noticing her disheveled clothes and smeared mascara. She reluctantly stepped back and opened the door wider, inviting him in.
"I'm grand," she replied sarcastically. "Can't you tell?"
Neji's apparent efforts to contain his shock failed when he saw the state of her apartment. He looked around in wonder, and Tenten figured he'd never seen what a mess looked like, the perfectionist he was. Neji abruptly whirled on her, giving her those famous stern eyes that glinted like silver.
"What happened?"
"Sit down, Hyuuga," Tenten sighed dramatically, "and let me tell you my tale."
She recounted being asked out by Kiba Inouzuka—the first date she'd had in months. She had sifted tirelessly through her clothes and shoes (hence her apartment floor—or lack thereof) to find something that would complement her. She had dolled herself up, and was looking "slammin'-bammin'-hot" when he didn't show up at all. And so she went out with Ben and Jerry instead on her couch. She wiped a tear angrily away after she finished. She was pathetic, and he knew it.
"So he's an asshole, what's new?" Neji said. "Just because some scum doesn't recognize an amazing woman when he meets one doesn't mean your whole night needs to be ruined."
After Tenten overcame her shock at hearing Neji curse (he would never deign to use such foul language, as he puts it) and hearing him call her amazing, her heart stung at his words. They must have sounded nicer in his head—and he realized it, too, because after a moment he corrected himself (which he never does, either):
"Look, what I mean is that he isn't worth your tears."
When Tenten failed to feel inspired, Neji sighed and tried again.
"Why don't I take you out instead to help you get your mind off of things?"
"What?"
"You heard me. Let's go."
Tenten's elation far exceeded any despair she'd felt at Kiba's absence. Hastily, she agreed and sifted again through her clothes to find something that wasn't soaked in her tears. She quickly found and threw on a short skirt and her favorite worn tank-top that advertised "The Smiths" across the top. After hastily scrubbing off and touching up her makeup, she burst into her living room not five minutes after she left. Neji appraised her, stunned. She certainly lived up to her "bammin'-slammin' hot" description, and she knew it.
"See?" She urged. "What did I tell you? I'm a hot commodity over here—well, freaking Inouzuka is missing out. What a chode."
Neji nodded, too afraid of saying the wrong thing and making her upset again—her sudden confidence seemed fragile to him.
"Well," he said, after a moment of furtively admiring her body, "I'm starving, so… Tenten, would you care to join me for dinner?"
He offered her his arm, and she looped hers through it. "I would love to."
And so they stepped out, arm in arm, into the night that swallowed the stars.