Warnings and disclaimer in first chapter.

Chapter 02

Neji winced as he pulled the kunai out of his leg. It hadn't penetrated his leg that deep so luckily he didn't bleed all that much. It did sting a bit though.

He glared at Ten-Ten who shuffled her feet and bit her lip as she felt her team-mate's gaze resting upon her.

"I'm sorry." She muttered softly and with a guilty expression walked towards Neji. She took a look at the small gash on Neji's leg and knelt down. "Should I attempt to bandage it?" She asked her friend with a frown.

Neji looked down at the girl sitting in front of him. "If you've got something to do it with, sure. But otherwise don't bother."

"I think I have a handkerchief, a large one my mom made, I can use. But you have to have someone else look at it if I don't." Ten-Ten told him as she stood up and walked towards her bag which stood against a tree.

"I will," Neji muttered. He didn't really think it was that big a gash so he didn't worry that much about getting it looked at.

"You should!" Ten-Ten called as she was now going through her stuff in search of her large handkerchief. "I know that tone, you don't agree with me that it's important. But if it infects it will hurt, a lot."

Neji sighed and shook his head. He had really worked together with Ten-Ten too long to think she didn't know him inside-out. "I'll have Hiashi look at it," he replied and Ten-Ten smiled in satisfaction.

"That's good," she said and smiled triumphant as she found the handkerchief she was looking for. She walked back to Neji and knelt down again.

"Won't the fabric be ruined by the blood?" Neji asked with a frown before Ten-Ten bound the handkerchief around his leg.

"Probably. But it's somewhat of an old rag anyway. At least now I have an excuse to get rid of it," Ten-Ten snickered. "So it's all right." She said and tied the handkerchief around Neji's leg. "So, any plans for tonight?" she asked Neji.

"Shikamaru's coming by," Neji answered, sounding a bit doubtful. He hadn't intended to, but it was how he felt. He just hoped Shikamaru wouldn't act out of character because of what happened yesterday.

"And you just sound so enthusiastic. Are you sure this relationship is going to work?" Ten-Ten asked. But when she saw the annoyed look on Neji's face she frowned. She was only joking but Neji looked very serious. "Did something happen?"

Neji looked at Ten-Ten with a wry smile. Many people didn't know, but Neji was very good friends with both Ten-Ten and Lee. When he needed to confide in someone, most of the time he would go to either of his two friends. Why, one could wonder? Because they knew not only the Neji everyone else saw, but also the Neji that went on missions and was vulnerable sometimes.

Neji sighed as he told Ten-Ten about what had happened yesterday.

Ten-Ten frowned for a few moments as she thought of an appropriate reply to Neji's story. She then shrugged and said: "It doesn't sound as if he's interested in that girl."

"I know, Hinata said so too." Neji said.

"But…?" Ten-Ten asked with a frown. She knew from Neji's tone that something was up.

Neji sighed and shrugged as he looked up at the sky. "I don't really know." He said quietly but then after a few moments of silence asked with a frown: "Do you think this could be a portent about our relationship?"

Ten-Ten frowned. "I need some sort of information to understand what you are thinking, you know."

"It's just that… we aren't even in an official relationship yet. And now this is happening already. Could this be how the rest of our relationship is going to be?"

"What, filled with hurdles? Of course it is, I don't know what you think a relationship is but I've never seen one that was easy." Ten-Ten answered, sounding quite stern.

"I don't want an easy relationship." Neji muttered.

Ten-Ten laughed at Neji's slightly childish look. "You've just never been in one and don't know what to do now that, even before the official relationship, another person has confessed her love to him?"

Neji looked at Ten-Ten, smiling gratefully. The girl was always so wonderfully quick in understanding what was troubling Neji.

"You could pretend nothing happened. But since that's so not your style, you should just ask him about it," Ten-Ten said, and as an afterthought added: "Don't attack him or drown him in questions. Just casually ask him, make it sound like a genuine inquiry instead of an interrogation."

"Of course it will be a genuine inquiry, why else would I ask him something like that?" Neji muttered as he defensively crosses his arms.

"Right, what was I thinking?" Ten-Ten muttered and rolled her eyes.

"Don't get sarcastic."

Ten-Ten looked at her team-mate with a smirk. "Look who's talking."

"Heh," Neji smiled slightly. Then, after frowning for a second, he softly asked: "So I just ask him?"

Ten-Ten smiled at the nervous gesture. "Yes. But before you do that, have someone look at your leg." She said and pointed towards the part of Neji's leg that was currently wrapped with a handkerchief.

Neji smirked and sarcastically said: "Yes mother."

"Hi there," Neji smiled as he saw Shikamaru standing in the doorway of his room. He still found it peculiar that whenever he caught sight of the other he couldn't help but smile.

Shikamaru, with a smile of his own, closed the door and with a teasing grin sat down onto the bed.

Neji raised an eyebrow at this. Was the other doing this on purpose? He hadn't even greeted him! What was he supposed to do? Walking up to the other and asking if something was wrong didn't seem right.

Suddenly Neji smirked and stood up. With the smirk still on his lips, he slowly made his way to Shikamaru.

With an amused smile and a raised eyebrow Shikamaru asked: "And the meaning of this is?"

"If you decide not to greet me, I will just have to come and get my greeting myself," Neji replied and stood still when his knees came in contact with Shikamaru's.

He leaned forward, his hair falling over his shoulder almost like a curtain, and pecked Shikamaru's lips quickly with a slight blush.

"That's it?" Shikamaru asked, looking a bit surprised when Neji stepped back.

"I said greeting. What else did you expect?" Neji asked, amused.

"Stop right there." Shikamaru called out as Neji was about to walk towards his bedroom door. He stood up in a hurry and walked towards Neji.

"I'll show you." He explained on a husky tone. With a gentle sweep he brushed some strands of Neji's hair behind his ear.

He then leaned forward and kissed the brown-haired young man he loved.

Neji, for the first time not tensing at the feeling of the other's lips, closed his eyes in bliss. How he loved kissing Shikamaru!

The other's lips were surprisingly soft and he always knew exactly where to touch Neji to make him shiver. Even now, with one arm around Neji's waist, successfully pulling him as close as possible, and a hand combing gently through Neji's hair.

Feeling a bit daring, Neji lay both his arms on Shikamaru's shoulders and playfully licked the other's lips.

"Neji…" Shikamaru murmured softly against Neji's lips before deepening the kiss.

Neji moaned and kissed back fiercely. Shikamaru was kissing him so wonderfully, almost as if trying to remember every stroke that caused Neji to make a sound.

When all of a sudden Shikamaru's lips left his Neji whimpered softly, feeling slightly embarrassed because of it. But his whimper quickly turned into a moan as Shikamaru tenderly kissed a sensitive spot on his neck.

"Shikamaru," Neji whispered. While he enjoyed this immensely he didn't know how far Shikamaru wanted to go and how far he was willing to go himself.

"Don't worry." The other whispered against Neji's neck, trying to reassure Neji that he understood that there were certain limits to how far they were going to take things tonight.

Not that he had been planning to do anything more than make out and perhaps snuggle a bit.

After having been alone the entire day with his thoughts, Shikamaru was in need of some reassurance and intimacy just like any other person would once in a while.

A polite couch coming from the doorway made the two boys fly away from each other like lightening.

Neji flushed pink and he felt his cheeks burn from embarrassment.

Shikamaru on the other hand did look slightly shocked, but regained his lazy composure. He looked at Neji's uncle who stood in the doorway, seizing the reaction of the older man.

Hiashi stood in the doorway, calmly watching his nephew and his boyfriend, mostly his nephew, as they struggled to regain their composures.

"Are you all right, Neji? You look quite flushed." Hiashi asked his nephew teasingly, a amused look in his eyes.

Neji looked at his uncle with a surprised look, his cheeks still flushed. "I… I'm sorry, uncle." He stuttered softly and bowed his head a little.

Hiashi, with a raised eyebrow, looked at Shikamaru who just shrugged, showing he didn't know either what Neji was thinking. Hiashi looked at Neji with a frown. "What are you apologizing for?"

"Ah, well… I," Neji stuttered, looking at Shikamaru with a pleading look, willing him to help out. To his relief, it was Hiashi that helped him out.

"Kissing your boyfriend is not something which you should apologize for," Hiashi told his nephew with a smirk.

Boyfriend. Neji shot Shikamaru an uncertain glance. The two of them had been going out for dates, had kissed and yet they and hadn't established their exact relationship.

And of course it wasn't necessary to name a relationship; Neji just thought it would be kind of nice. Certainly if more situations like the one with Ino occurred again.

Neji resisted the urge to sigh. Ino, what to call their relationship, Shikamaru and he had a lot to talk about. Or rather, there were a lot of things Neji wanted to talk about, whether Shikamaru was willing to discuss those things with him or not, he did not know.

Neji looked at his uncle with a small smile. His blush, and with that the embarrassment, had disappeared.

"Not to sound rude, but was there something I can help you with?" Neji asked.

Hiashi nodded and looked to Neji's right, where Shikamaru stood slightly nervous at the attention he now received. "I wanted to ask if Shikamaru would like to stay for dinner."

Neji, feeling happy that his uncle was ready to except Shikamaru as a potential love of Neji's, looked at Shikamaru hopefully.

"That's up to Shikamaru." He said. He didn't want the other to stay if he didn't want to. Because for most people, having a dinner with the parents, or uncle and cousins in Neji's case, was a pretty big occasion.

Shikamaru seemed to think for a few seconds before nodding. "Sure. Your food is bound to be better than my mother's," he answered with a smirk.

Hiashi laughed. "Good. I will have an extra plate laid on the table for you." He said and with a nod towards Neji left the room again.

Neji lay on his bed, watching as Shikamaru went through his bookcase.

It was true that the Hiashi had many books in his study, but Neji liked to keep a private collection of his favorites too. He was proud of his collection and couldn't help a smirk from coming to his face as he watched Shikamaru picking out books, sometimes snickering, sometimes frowning.

"You know," Neji murmured, rolling onto his back, stretching his hands above his head and studying them with a smile. "You realize you are screwed."
"Screwed, how so?" Shikamaru questioned, sounding surprised at Neji's word-choice but not turning away from the bookcase.

Neji rolled his eyes, dropped his hands onto the bed again and turned his head to look at Shikamaru. "Because Hanabi is going to have a field day over this."

"How thoughtful of me of giving your little cousin a little something to do." Shikamaru said and Neji was certain he was smirking.

"How thoughtful indeed." He muttered.

"Hey Shika?" He called out softly, sounding a bit hesitant. Ever since his uncle had left Neji had been wanting to know what exactly he should call this thing they had going on.

Normally Neji wasn't the kind of person to question such things, such emotions. But he found that now that he was falling for the brown-haired boy, he was becoming a bit insecure. To Neji, that was a very strange and annoying feeling.

And Neji being Neji would do anything in his power to get rid of such feelings. Thus he needed to ask the other what it was they had and could only hope that the answer he got would satisfy him.

Shikamaru, at hearing Neji's hesitant voice, turned around with a curious frown. "Yes?"

It wasn't often that Neji sounded insecure and he was slightly afraid something could be wrong. Because even though he and Neji were now going out, he was still afraid that one day Neji would realize that he wasn't that much into Shikamaru. That he wasn't and never would be in love with him. That thought terrified Shikamaru and made him shiver slightly as he looked at Neji as he lay on the bed.

"Well, you know my uncle called you my boyfriend." Neji mumbled, suddenly feeling embarrassed now that he realized that Shikamaru was watching him.

"Yes, I heard. Why?" Shikamaru asked as he slowly walked towards Neji, not knowing if he should feel anxious or happy that Neji was talking about things like this.

"Well," Neji started, and when he saw Shikamaru walk towards him he turned his head away to gaze at the ceiling with a flush on his cheeks. "Are we?" He whispered.

TBC.