a/n: Well, let's do this thing, yeah
Warnings: slight smexiness. Nothing too detailed.
Disclaimer: disclaimed.
Chapter 2
Tenten was late. And the one thing that Neji could not abide was a second more spent alone in the company of Gai and Lee. Though their relationship had soured after his marriage, they no longer shared commiserating eye-rolls at the antics of their teammates, Tenten's presence usually meant that there was at least one other person around to pretend an interest in their ridiculous antics.
Of late, Team Gai rarely trained together the way they had in their adolescence. Nevermind the fact that Ami would make his life more of a living hell than it already was if she found out that he was spending time alone with Tenten each day, Neji had thought it best to abandon the practice when it became clear that Tenten would never forgive him. These days they all trained together only when Gai and Lee insisted upon it. And Tenten usually made a point of being on time and ready to skewer him any way she could.
Neji frowned as he absentmindedly watched Gai and Lee race around the perimeter of the training field while walking on their hands. The one thing that Tenten prized above all else was her status as a kunoichi – she would never be late for anything relating to work. No matter how she felt about him. The guilt gnawed at him as his traitorous mind sweetly supplied that the reason Tenten had changed even this aspect of her work ethic was because of the newspaper announcement yesterday. Truthfully, Neji would have preferred that she hear the news from him, but he hadn't seen any way of making that happen.
Still, the guilt gnawed.
Deep down he knew he had done wrong by Tenten. But it had been a series of very unfortunate events that had led him down the path he was currently treading. Many times he'd tried to explain that he hadn't known. When … whatever the thing with Tenten had been, had begun he had had no idea the clan was negotiating his marriage contract. And a part of him that he hated to acknowledge had been glad when Ami had been foisted upon him because it had given him a very good reason to end things with Tenten before they got in any deeper. It was cowardly, and not a day went by that Neji didn't regret the decisions he'd made, but the fact was, back then he'd been scared.
Terrified.
Because the second his lips had met Tenten's he'd known that she was the one person who had the power to break him.
So he'd acquiesced to the clan's demands.
He'd let Tenten go.
And he hated himself for it every waking moment.
The sigh was barely suppressed, the frown lines deepened, as Neji allowed himself to sink deeper into his thoughts. Ami wasn't all bad, he supposed. She could be good company, when she wasn't screeching jealously about Tenten or the way his friends treated her; she was intelligent and beautiful. She was rational and logical, reserved and precise – qualities Neji could appreciate. And though her occasional rants only resulted in a headache for him, Neji knew not to take it personally. It had nothing to do with him – she wasn't jealous of him – Ami was jealous that anyone would pick someone like Tenten over her. He rather suspected that the jealousy ran even deeper than surface wounding of pride – sometimes he thought that Ami envied Tenten her life; her strength and her freedom. All of that aside, Ami and Neji had managed to settle into a mostly harmonious existence. Until the business with children had started; that's when the real problems had begun.
For all her beauty, intelligence and emotional independence (things Neji counted himself lucky to have found in an arranged bride) she left him cold. The last few months had been hell; he'd lost count of the times he'd had to get drunk just to be able to go through with the act. He hated himself for imagining that it was Tenten in his arms when he finally did manage to force himself into Ami's bed.
And the worst part was that he had no one to share his misery with.
When Tenten had left him (because even though she was present she had cut herself out of his life as surely as if she'd left the village) he'd lost more than the promise of love; he'd lost his best friend.
For that, Neji hated himself most of all.
"Sensei, as punishment for having lost to you, I will run all the way to Tenten's apartment on my hands, fetch her and return in the same way!"
Lee's announcement broke through the melancholy thoughts and Neji winced at the thought of Lee running through town on his hands while everyone snickered behind their hands.
"No, I'll go," Neji broke in. The quickest way to get this training session over with was to fetch Tenten himself. His heart felt like it would burst out of his chest at any moment. The anticipation of seeing her, even if she was planning to try to kill him any way she could, upset his equilibrium. It was far better to get the whole thing over with in the shortest amount of time so that he could return to his real life; force himself to accept the realities all over again.
Before Lee or Gai could protest Neji was gone.
It was fairly awkward, waking up with someone after a one-night-stand, Tenten decided as she finally forced her eyes to open. Upon first waking she'd been totally disoriented; at a complete loss to explain the horrendous hangover, the delicious aches and pains that littered her body and the heavy arm curled possessively around her waist. Then memory had rushed back and Tenten had squeezed her eyes shut in mortification, hoping against hope that she was still dreaming.
But the part of her that wasn't socially conditioned to condemn her recent behaviour was purring like a contented cat. For the first time since Neji had married Ami, the heavy weight had lifted off her heart. For the first time she'd gone an entire night with no dreams or recriminations haunting her. The socially conditioned part of her could even feel hopeful that, despite the awkwardness, she'd finally begun to accept the state of affairs and move on.
It was just a pity that she'd had to get drunk and sleep with Uchiha Sasuke to accomplish it.
The thirst had finally begun to make itself known and Tenten shifted restlessly. Behind her Sasuke grunted in his sleep, the arm around her tightening and she froze. Despite the pounding headache she had no desire to be decapitated, but she couldn't see any way out of her current predicament without waking Sasuke. Slowly, carefully, she reached for his arm, lifting it over her body, hoping that Sasuke would simply turn over and go back to sleep; he must be just as hung-over as she was. The task was accomplished without bloodshed and Tenten breathed a sigh of relief as she quickly swung her legs over the side of the bed. She grabbed the first article of clothing she saw – and old shirt she often slept in – and turned cautiously to look at the man sleeping in her bed.
It was strange to see Sasuke sleeping surrounded by her white pillows and covered with her wine-red sheets. No man had ever slept in her bed before; not even Neji. For a moment the sheer ridiculousness of the situation nearly made Tenten laugh. She whirled quickly on her heel, wincing slightly at the soreness between her legs, and headed for the bathroom. She had no idea what to make of this; no idea why Sasuke would have allowed her so close. He didn't seem the type to go in for casual encounters. The bathroom door clicked softly as she closed it behind her and Tenten shook her head to dislodge the crazy thoughts.
They'd been drunk, both slightly desperate, though she couldn't fathom what could have driven Uchiha Sasuke to such lengths, and one thing had simply led to another. It was no good trying to read into it, because there was nothing there to read into. And she really couldn't deny that, whatever Sasuke's motivations, she had gotten what she wanted. The real source of her shame was the fact that she'd thrown herself at him; that she'd been desperate to feel that there was someone who would want her, even if Neji didn't.
The water was running cold but Tenten barely noticed as she laid her suddenly hot forehead against the cold tiles of the shower wall. Much as she hated to admit it, the shame was equalled by gratification; she liked the dark edges to Sasuke; she liked how he'd taken her hard and fast. The darkness inside him didn't frighten her because she'd had to come to terms with her own darkness; it excited her, made her feel alive.
She didn't even want to begin to contemplate what kind of a person that made her.
Neji had never placed much store in superstitious beliefs but some sixth sense warned him that he didn't want to be seen, and he quickly ducked behind the trunk of a large tree. The Byakugan activated almost on instinct and he quickly swept his gaze up and down the street where Tenten lived. Providentially, as it turned out, the sixth sense had been accurate. The door to Tenten's apartment building was just swinging shut.
Neji couldn't see the man's face because it was buried in the fabric of a shirt the man was pulling over his head. Of course, if he could have kept the Byakugan activated, he wouldn't have needed to see the man's face to know who it was, but a coldness had settled in his gut and his bloodline limit had shut down on its own before he'd had time to ascertain the chakra type. The man turned, presenting Neji with a clear view of his back for a second, before the shirt fell into place.
There were eight long scratches running down the man's back. And now that the spiky, dark hair had been revealed, Neji easily recognized Uchiha Sasuke.
Who was leaving Tenten's apartment building in what was clearly a walk of shame.
Neji wasn't stupid, despite his propensity for bad decisions. Tenten was the only kunoichi of their age group living in that building. Civilians were much too afraid of the Uchiha monster to let him near them, no matter how good-looking, and most shinobi still distrusted the Uchiha despite his rehabilitation and Naruto's vote of confidence. In fact, the only people who could really look at the Uchiha without wincing were the rest of the Konoha Eleven.
So, logic clearly dictated that the Uchiha could only have spent the night with Tenten.
It would explain her tardiness, and it certainly was in character if he took her flirtatious ways into account. He'd always thought that she was simply playing with him, that she didn't really hook up with the guys she chatted up whenever the group met, but clearly he'd been mistaken.
The jealousy hit him like a punch to the gut and Neji had to force himself to breathe evenly, to not gasp the way his suddenly empty lungs wanted him to.
For the first time in his life, Neji didn't stop to think each action through thoroughly; he simply waited until the Uchiha had disappeared around the corner before he strode purposefully towards the building. He had to confirm his suspicions, and he wasn't about to let Tenten get away with fucking Uchiha Sasuke after all the grief she had given him over a marriage he'd had no choice in.
It was typical, Tenten thought cynically when she emerged from the bathroom to find Sasuke gone. She didn't know what she had expected of the Uchiha, and a part of her was glad that she didn't have to face him after all, but another part of her was just pissed off that he couldn't have at least waited for her to open the door for him. Footsteps sounded in the hallway outside her front door and she simply reacted. She didn't care that she was still half-dressed; what did it matter when Sasuke had already seen it all anyway? Tenten yanked the front door open with a slight snarl.
"What? You don't get to sneak out and in like you own the place, Uchiha!"
Pearlescent eyes met hazel in accusation and Tenten crossed her arms defensively over her chest. She was suddenly inordinately aware of the amount of skin revealed by the plain white sports-bra; of the finger-shaped bruises that littered her hips and her waist, and the large purplish bite mark that adorned the top of one breast.
"Oh, it's you," she squeaked, hating the way her voice rose higher and the way shame welled up inside her as Neji's eyes roamed her body, lingering on the evidence of the night before.
"So it's true," he said tonelessly, after a long silence spent staring at each other.
And Tenten hated that all she really wanted to do was throw her arms around him, apologize profusely, and vow to make it all better again.
Instead she hardened her heart.
"I don't know what you mean," she placed a hand on the doorknob, "what can I do for you, Neji?"
He shook his head, something like sadness flitting across his face, before he carefully schooled his expression into blankness.
"You're late for training."
Shit.
Tenten closed her eyes; she'd completely forgotten about the session that had been scheduled for that day. To top it off, she was hung-over, sore and achy, and decidedly not in the mood to deal with Neji's judgement all day.
"Oh, I forgot. Um … I won't be able to make it today," Tenten muttered, carefully avoiding those all-seeing eyes. "I have kind of a last minute … thing … mission, that came up."
Neji sighed wearily and her eyes flew to his face to try and gauge what he was thinking.
"Don't lie to me, Tenten. You've never been very good at it. If you'd rather spend your day off with your new boyfriend, far be it from us to stand in the way."
Despite the words there was a snideness to Neji's tone that made her heart jump. Smugly Tenten couldn't help feeling vindicated – like she was finally getting to settle the score. It lasted for a mere second before she looked away.
This wasn't who she wanted to be.
She was tired of the back-and-forth game-playing with Neji; tired of trying to get back at him for something that belonged in the past. But the words fell from her lips as if they hadn't passed through her brain, and Tenten could only wonder, half-hysterically, what it was about Hyuuga Neji that brought out the absolute worst in her.
"I would have thought that you'd be the one wanting to spend the day with your … family. I hear congratulations are in order."
Neji's near imperceptible wince was a pyrrhic victory.
The silence fell awkwardly, like a thick blanket in the middle of the summer, and Tenten didn't know where to look. Never before had they addressed the issues between them so clearly; not since the first time Neji had tried to talk to her and she'd cut him off, not wanting to hear empty explanations.
"I'm not doing this, Tenten," he said finally, running a tired hand down his face, "don't try to guilt-trip me. I would have told you myself, but I didn't think you'd listen."
He was right and shame welled up inside her again, but, as always when confronted with Neji, Tenten couldn't seem to stop the poison from leaking into her words.
"Well, excuse me for not wanting to hear every detail of your sordid love-life."
The moment the words left her mouth, and Neji's eyes darkened to almost pure silver-grey, Tenten knew she'd finally gone too far.
Before she could say another word – try to apologize maybe? – Neji laid one hand flat on the door and pushed his way inside. Frustration mounted within her when she was utterly unable to maintain her grip on the doorknob, as his superior strength overwhelmed hers, and Tenten did the only thing she could. She backed up a few paces and allowed him to close the door behind him. His gaze was lancing, filled with pure rage, and Tenten wanted to run from the intensity in his eyes, even while excitement shivered down her spine.
Wildly she wondered if the Uchiha had broken her in some way. There was no reason for her to actually enjoy being on the receiving end of Neji's rage, after all.
"Fine. Have it your way. Let's talk, Tenten. Get it all out of your system. Because I am getting fucking sick and tired of being the bad guy."
The silky smooth tone of voice should have alerted her that this would be a good time to wave a white flag, but Tenten had spent most of her life going up against Hyuuga Neji and she wasn't about to back down from his challenge now.
"Who do you think you are, Hyuuga?" she snarled, "Get over yourself. I have."
"Clearly," Neji sneered, sweeping a pointed gaze across the bruises that marred her skin, "though this is your, what, tenth attempt in the last year?"
Tenten saw red. The dam broke, and all the rage and pain she'd been carrying around with her came pouring out. Distantly she was watching herself, begging herself to stop this before the humiliation could be complete, but she was utterly unable to prevent the words from tripping off her tongue.
"At least all my attempts knew exactly where we stood."
"How many times do I have to say it? I didn't know they were planning a wedding for me. You were there too, Tenten! Don't act like I was forcing you to do something you didn't want!"
"So now I'm the one at fault. Now you were just obliging me?!" Tenten crossed her arms, trying to still the trembling of her frame.
"I didn't say that," Neji forced the words through gritted teeth, "don't put words into my mouth. I'm simply saying that it takes two. You don't get to act the injured innocent."
"You can't either, Neji! Because from where I'm standing it looks a lot like you just wanted to have your cake and eat it too!"
Neji stared at her in incredulous silence for a minute, "You think I wanted Ami? Is that it? Well, let me put your mind at rest. I never wanted her. I'm trying to do my best with the hand I've been dealt, that's all."
The sarcasm fairly dripped off of the words and the anger had created a slight tinge of red high across Neji's cheeks. Inconsequentially, all Tenten could focus on was how beautiful he looked. This was always the way she'd preferred Neji: when he was being open and honest, allowing all the pent up passion to emerge. She'd always hated his Hyuuga façade and loved knowing that she was one of the very few people who ever got to see the real Neji.
Suddenly it was all just too much. Because the fact of the matter was, long before he'd become her lover, Neji had been her friend. She could finally acknowledge that maybe the thing that hurt the worst was the betrayal of that bond of trust and friendship.
And, goddamnit, she missed him.
Tears filmed her vision and Tenten blinked rapidly to try and stem the flow. Because she'd be damned if she'd let him see how much he could hurt her.
"I rather think your impending parenthood speaks for itself," she muttered snidely, hoping that Neji wouldn't pick up on the sudden shift in her mood.
"You …" Neji took a deep breath, closed his eyes briefly, "you have no idea. Despite our differences, I always thought you knew me better than that, Tenten. This isn't easy for me, either."
The mood had shifted onto dangerously emotional ground and Tenten frantically lashed out; tried to reach for the anger.
"Next you'll be telling me you had to get drunk to get your wife pregnant," Tenten injected as much sarcasm into the words as she was capable of, only to be struck completely speechless when Neji winced, a flash of pain crossing his features, before he looked studiously away.
"Oh … um … wow … I … sorry," Tenten whispered into the silence because even if Neji brought out the worst in her, she'd never had a propensity for cruelty, "that bad, huh," she finally finished lamely.
"That bad," Neji muttered grimly after a while.
The silence stretched and then Neji ran a weary hand through his hair, opened his mouth only to close it, before he took a deep breath and tried again.
"I know I hurt you, Tenten. But please believe that it wasn't intentional. I know that things can never be as they were, but I'd really like to stop playing these games. I've had to come to terms with the fact that my life went down a different path than I wanted it to. And with a child …"
His eyes were suddenly locked onto hers, filled with pleading, and Tenten found that she couldn't look away.
"I don't love Ami, Ten. I never will. But I don't want to live in a state of constant battle so I do my best to make it work. I'm tired of pretending that I don't care about you and I'm tired of rubbing my indifference in your face. When I saw Sasuke leaving … I didn't like it. So … you win."
Tenten stood frozen until she could no longer hear Neji's footsteps retreating down the hallway before she finally allowed the tears to run down her cheeks and she whispered sadly into the silence.
"Goodbye, Neji."
Ami ducked behind the tree-trunk and peeked cautiously around its circumference to watch as her husband exited the apartment building. She'd gone to the training grounds to deliver the breakfast he'd left without eating that morning but she'd found only Gai and Lee. Of all the people in Neji's life they were the only ones that ever treated her fairly, but she wasn't sure how much that meant when they'd guilelessly informed her that Neji had gone to fetch Tenten who had been running late that morning.
The anger had simmered restlessly as she'd begun to make her way back to the Hyuuga compound and finally she'd turned on her heel, stalking towards the … woman's … apartment building with a mounting sense of outrage. Here she was, sacrificing her youth and her waistline for a man who pretended she was someone else when he came to her bed emanating sake fumes. Here she was doing her utmost to make it work, to turn them into a real family, and Neji had taken up with that … woman … the second she'd announced she was pregnant. If she'd needed any confirmation that Neji would never wholeheartedly devote himself to their marriage, no matter what he promised, this was it. Clearly he thought he'd done his duty and could now go about living his life the way he wanted.
Well, she wasn't about to sit back and let Tenten steal him away after all the months of hard work. She was a Hyuuga too, even if she wasn't a trained ninja, and she could fight dirty with the best of them. If she had to sneak and spy so that she could find out what exactly about that damned … woman … attracted Neji so much, then she would.
She watched, holding her breath, until Neji had rounded the corner before she exhaled in a rush. Maybe she had been going about it the wrong way. Maybe instead of trying to highlight the differences between her and Tenten she should be emulating the other woman; hook Neji that way and then gradually wean him off until she could be herself and he realized that he actually liked that more than Tenten's unseemly ways.
The morning wasn't going at all as she had planned. She hadn't needed her mother's visit just after dawn, to remind her of all that was at stake. She hadn't needed to hear that if she couldn't make it work with Neji … if he went to his uncle and asked for a divorce … her family would be ruined. Her father's death the previous year had left them with nothing but a legacy of bad debts hidden by a good name. The only thing that was keeping her mother and younger sisters afloat was the stipend they received along with the preferential treatment of being related to the clan head; even if only by marriage.
Ami squared her shoulders. Distasteful as it might be, she had to do something because she'd come to know Neji quite well and she knew that the last few months had changed him. She knew he wasn't sexually attracted to her and she knew that it was simple duty that had forced him to try. But that wasn't good enough because for all his devotion to his family Neji was still just a man. And if Tenten played her cards right, she would reel him back in and he would choose her, and Ami, and her family, would be left out in the cold.
With another deep breath, she shook her dark hair back from her face and forced herself to march up the steps to the apartment building with more confidence than she felt.
Tenten groaned aloud when the knock sounded at her door. This was just ridiculous. She rarely had visitors and now she was forced to deal with three uninvited ones in one day? A lascivious little voice whispered in the back of her mind that Sasuke hadn't been uninvited and he was more than welcome to come again, but Tenten forced it away and plastered a smile onto her face as she pulled the door open. Distantly she hoped that the tear-tracks weren't too visible; she'd still been splashing cold water on her face when the knock had sounded.
The moment the door opened fully to reveal Hyuuga Ami Tenten regretted that she had forgotten to pull a shirt on; she regretted that her hair was hanging in a loose mess of waves down her back; she regretted opening the door at all. Compared with the Hyuuga's perfectly composed appearance Tenten felt about twelve years old; messy and unsophisticated.
Then Ami's eyes landed on the hickey, and the bruises, and Tenten couldn't help the astonishment that flitted across her features briefly, because, unless she was very much mistaken, the Hyuuga Ice Queen had looked at her with envy.
"I'll get straight to the point, Tenten," Ami said haughtily, before the other woman had a chance to speak.
"Please do, Ami," Tenten returned sweetly, smiling inwardly at the pointed lack of polite formality from the Hyuuga.
"I'll thank you to keep your hands to yourself where my husband is concerned," Ami's eyes lingered distastefully on the bruises, "as you are no doubt aware, we are expecting –"
"You think Neji did this?" Tenten interrupted incredulously, one hand hovering over the bite mark. "Then I don't see how you got pregnant because if you'd ever been with Neji you'd know that hard and fast is hardly his style."
The Hyuuga woman blushed and averted her gaze and Tenten found that she, perversely, enjoyed baiting the other woman like this. She may have buried the hatchet with Neji but that didn't mean that she would ever like his wife.
"How a man treats his wife and how he treats his mistress can be two very different things," Ami returned stiffly.
Tenten laughed, "God, you're really serious. Look, Ami, I'm going to tell you this only once. I respect myself far too much to ever be anyone's mistress so you can rest assured that your husband is safe from my predatory ways."
Ami's eyes flashed at Tenten's tone of mockery but she persevered nonetheless.
"I just saw him leaving your building. Forgive me for drawing the obvious conclusion."
"You're spying on him now?" Tenten sighed wearily, "Look, it really isn't like that with Neji, okay? You can relax. And if you don't mind a suggestion – trust will go a long way to solving the problems you two seem to be having."
Ami fairly bristled with indignation and Tenten reached up to massage her temple. The hangover headache had just gotten a lot worse.
"I can't make you believe me, but it's the truth," Tenten didn't know where the sudden gentleness in her tone had come from but Ami reared back in surprise.
"I don't know what game you're playing, Tenten. And I really can't fathom what my husband sees in you, but I will not go down without a fight, that much I can promise you."
For a long moment Tenten stared at the other woman, not really sure what she should say or do because she only seemed to make things worse when she opened her mouth. At long last Tenten shrugged.
"Do what you want. I'm not playing a game and I'm definitely not getting drawn into a catfight with you."
The other woman turned to go, but she'd barely gone a step before she turned back to face Tenten.
"You know what really gets to me? The fact that you can stand there and lie to my face without flinching. You really are shameless, aren't you."
Temper was finally beginning to make itself known and Tenten gritted her teeth; reminded herself that she couldn't slice pregnant civilians to ribbons because of something they said. The words hovered on the tip of her tongue; how she longed to lash out, to use her newfound knowledge of the intimate details of their marriage against the other woman. The taunts echoed through her mind. Tenten bit her lip, hard enough to draw blood and quickly shut the door in Ami's face.
Tenten's back connected with the back of the door hard enough to draw an involuntary gasp from her lungs. She didn't get a chance to catch her breath because Sasuke's mouth was on hers. His lips slanted hungrily over hers, his tongue slicking into her mouth to tangle sinuously with hers. A low moan rose in her throat. At the back of her mind she was aware that this was a very bad idea; that once had been bad enough and that this was decidedly not healthy. But Sasuke's hands were warm and everywhere. And he didn't mind her nails raking down his spine, or the way she bit into his shoulder when his tongue traced intricate whorls down her neck. He just growled into the curve of her throat and pressed her harder against the door.
She didn't know why she had gone back to the bar. She had even less of an idea how she'd wound up in Sasuke's apartment with her legs wrapped around his hips, his hands tracing deliciously over her stomach and his tongue on her skin. Again. All she really knew was that after Ami had left and the hangover had shown no signs of abating, it had increasingly seemed like a good idea to get drunk and forget all about the horrific start to her day.
The anger surged beneath her skin, momentarily drowning out the pleasure Sasuke was inflicting, and Tenten hated how much effort it took to force it to the back of her mind. Even then it refused to really recede.
So Tenten did the only thing that made any sense: she channelled all the rage and all the pain into Sasuke and the inexplicable need that surged between them.
a/n: So … hit me. How'd I do?
