"Who are you, girl?"
Tenten sat up abruptly, glad that she had gone to bed still wearing her shirt. It occurred to her that wearing a shirt or not was a strange thing to worry about in this situation, and she almost burst out laughing.
"I'm Tenten," she said instead, looking around nervously.
He stepped closer, looking at her with mild interest. "And why are you in my room?"
"Hinata said I could stay here. She said you were never here anyway."
He chuckled. "That's right. I never am. Not that she knows, at least."
Tenten was about to jump out of bed and offer it to him, but he held up a hand in a dismissive gesture. "I'm not going to sleep," he said. "Vampires don't sleep."
She fell back into the pillow. "Right. So…what's your name?"
In the weak light of the moon, she could barely make out his face – he was smirking slightly. "My name is Hyuga Neji," he said.
Tenten nodded weakly, not above noticing how weird the scene was. She giggled nervously. "This is awkward," she said. "Here you come, expecting to find your room empty and just as you left it, but no. I'm here."
She heard his low laughter. "That's okay," he said quietly, sitting down by the dresser. "I told Hinata she could rent out this room if necessary."
"It was very necessary," Tenten said. Neji didn't reply. Even in the low light she could tell he was looking at her. As Tenten's eyes adjusted to the low light, she could barely make out his features. His face was hard and unwelcoming, the corners of his mouth drooping down ad he looked at her. He had strong cheekbones, a somewhat flat nose, and tilted eyes. His eyes were silvery white like Hinata's, but a grayer shade than her lavender. She found him quite handsome, actually, even though she was not the type of girl to go throwing that word around.
Somehow, the room felt safer when he was there. She found herself drifting to sleep in his presence, comforted by it.
He was still there when she woke up. Rolling over to her side she let her gaze rest on him. His eyes were closed as though he was sleeping, but she knew he wasn't. She smiled as he opened his left eye slightly, looking at her.
"Morning," she said.
"Good morning," he replied.
Tenten managed to get out of bed and downstairs without drawing too much attention to herself. The inn was quiet that morning. She slumped down in a chair in the lobby, looking around. Hinata wasn't there. Neji, however, emerged from the doorway few seconds after Tenten. He walked to the counter and disappeared into a room behind it. Tenten didn't move an inch, slouching in her chair. When he returned, she motioned for him to come closer.
"Sit," she ordered, pointing at one of the free chairs. "It's lonely here."
He smirked slightly before sitting down. "Hn."
She noticed his fangs. They were much bigger than Hinata's. In the daylight she could see that her description of him had been correct: he was reasonably handsome, if she could say so about a near stranger.
Tenten closed her eyes briefly, noticing how safe she felt again. It seemed that whenever he was around, she felt this way; safe and protected.
She was perfectly content with her life at that point. She had somewhat of a home, though it wasn't even her room. She had work. A new friend. She had food every day and a bed to sleep in every night. After her weeks in the woods, just having roof over her head was a blessing. The days passed at their own pace, some fast, some slow. She found that Neji wasn't home often, but when he was, he stayed in his room. The room she borrowed. Some nights she would stay awake for a long time, just talking to him, and other nights she would stay awake just watching him in silence. Her life was just great.
One day, when she returned from running an errand for the Hyugas, she found that the inn door had been torn off its hinges. She grabbed the doorframe with shivering fingers, suddenly too dizzy to stand straight.
He was there. She just knew it. The red eyed vampire. Somehow, he had found her.
She entered the inn. What had happened there? Her stomach turned as she walked through the lobby. It looked a mess. Chairs were overturned, broken glasses on the floor. She carefully stepped around the shards, breathing heavily. Was there nobody there? Had no one been hurt?
Tenten let her fingers trail along the heavy wooden countertop. Were there not claw marks on it? And over there, in the corner, wasn't that a body, covered in blood..? She shook her head, willing the nightmarish visions out of her brain. "Don't be morbid," she hissed to herself. "It's gonna be okay."
Somehow, she knew where he was. Tenten walked up the stairs as calmly as she could. She had to see if he had hurt any of the Hyugas. The house was dead quiet. Not even her door made a sound when she opened it.
"There you are, little bird."