Love is Not Manly

Author's note: WELL. This only took me forever to come up with; it's only five pages too. I am so sorry, but hey—I've already started the next chapter, and I wanted to leave this off at a good place.

I hope you guys like it! We're like halfway through! Yay! And so close to the lemony fresh chapter that I intend to write. Heheh... enjoy, my dearies, and PLEASE REVIEW! It makes me happy, kay?

Chapter Four: High Voltage

Since Lee was such a generous, nice guy, he had deemed it quite necessary to throw a party, simultaneously celebrating Sakura's entrance to medical school as well as Tenten's start at the office in the new med student's stead. This was all fine and dandy...except that Neji had been so kindly invited by Lee to supply the hors d oeuvres. Already people were anticipating the party, whispering about how 'something big' was going to happen. Neji didn't understand the excitement but understood it to be a sign that their lives were really that mundane.

"Don't worry about it. I'll go with you to the super market." Tenten said, sipping a cappucino and lounging on Neji's desk, as she had taken to doing in the three days that she had been working here. Neji scowled at the abominable email from Lee, and deleted it with a fierce click of the mouse. Tenten eyed him. "You do know what hors d'oeuvres are...right?" She quirked a penciled eyebrow. Neji wrinkled his nose and leaned back in his chair, meeting her eyes. A spark flew, but Neji had gotten good at ignoring when that happened with Tenten, as it seemed it happened every few seconds.

"That's what google was made for. Anyway, I don't even want to go." Neji said irritably. He was more than positive that Lee had only assigned him the task of carting the food to the party so that he would have to go. "I'm thrilled that Sakura is leaving, but I don't see why I have to spend my money to show it."

"You know, you really are Scrooge, you know that? Come on. It's almost Christmas." Tenten coaxed, shifting on the desk to look him in the eyes, although what that mainly accomplished, unbeknownst to Tenten, was an eyeful of what was down that pale pink blouse. Or maybe she knew exactly what she was doing. The thought that she might caused a warm sensation to flood Neji's body. Nevertheless, he averted his eyes with great velocity.

"I don't care." He said petulantly. Continuing to scroll through his new emails, he landed on a most displeasing email. He swore."I have to go for a drink with the guys tonight. Excellent. I just love spending my entire weekend with people I have to endure all week as well." Neji sighed, reading the email from Naruto. It was in difficult-to-read orange font and was missing the novel and fine concept of punctuation, so Neji hardly had to read the name of the sender to identify it. How bothersome.

"Stop whining! That is an order, Mr. Hyuuga." Tenten said, winking as she slid off his desk. "Now, lunch is over, so I'll be going back to sitting at the desk and reading trashy magazines and debating on what I should wear tomorrow night. See ya!" She sashayed out of Neji's office, and Neji, for it seemed the billionth time, considered the many wonderful things high heels and a tight skirt did for a woman.

Then again, all he ever thought about was Tenten-related things. What jokes he could tell to her, what movies she'd want to see, how he could make her feel more welcome here. It was absurd, because he, Hyuuga Neji, didn't, by his very definition of his existence, do things like that.

On second thought...maybe a few drinks tonight would do him good.

--

"So...You're pretty cozy with the new secretary!" Chouji hiccoughed, taking another generous swig of his beer and elbowing Neji in the ribs. Neji bristled and rolled his eyes as Naruto and Shikamaru joined in on teasing him. Thankfully, Lee, Sasuke, and Kiba weren't here, or he might have shot himself at this point.

"Tenten's hot." Naruto slurred, giggling inanely and slinging an arm around Neji's shoulders. "You guys gonna get it on any day now?"

Neji couldn't take any more of this. He glanced down at his thus untouched beer.

"Yeah, I know I would have moved in on that the minute I saw it!" Chouji said, and Shikamaru nodded enthusiastically, his eyes crossing in his drunkenness.

The problem was, he knew they were merely egging him on. Any fool could see the high-voltage tension between him and Tenten that had been developing. Her job in the same office had seemed to cause a sonic boom of new tension already, and of course, just as fast, people were talking. Tenten had reddened, telling him to ignore it, but it was difficult when everyone seemed to be voicing his thoughts.

Worst of all...he wouldn;t exactly mind dating her now. Scratch that, the thought of her with any other guy seemed wrong and obscene. But they had that agreement, and breaching it at this point seemed unmanly. He would not go back on his word.

"Dude...you guys like each other so much...why aren't you dating?" Shikamaru asked, his voice holding the air of philosophical pondering that only someone quite so drunk could manage with a straight face.

As the night wore on, it was a question that was firmly placed in the forefront of his mind, refusing to leave. Yes, the answer was that they'd decided to not date. But Neji felt...silly, for holding out like this. He didn't want to go back on his word, but that was an issue of pride. What he really wanted was to date Tenten...He wanted Tenten. And no, not in the stupid, sexual tension and short tight skirts sort of way, although he wanted her that way too. No, he liked her. He wanted to sit around watching television with her. He wanted to make her laugh. He wanted to go and see stupid movies, and pay for her addiction to sweets. So...what was he going to do?

For now, the only viable option seemed to be to drink himself into oblivion, and Neji did just that.

--

"The party starts at eight thirty, so we should get there early to help him set these up." Tenten said, snatching several boxes of fancy crackers off of the shelf and dropping them into the shopping cart. Neji sighed. He was slightly hung over and stressed out about his latest epiphany, and these two things made it even more difficult to accept the fact that he would, indeed, have to see his coworkers outside of work.

"Does this mean I can leave early?" Neji asked with false hope in his voice as he pushed the cart, with Tenten trotting along the shelves and grabbing various needed items. She shot him a glare that was just as false.

"No, Scrooge. You're staying until the very end! It won't be so bad, though...I'll be there, remember?" She grinned and Neji flicked her nose absently. Really, she was the only thing stopping him from sending Lee a lovely little email telling him to, in so many words, fuck himself up the ass with his fucking hors d'oeuvres.

Neji almost cried when the cashier announced the total, but Tenten reminded him that he had to do it either way.

"I suppose. I just resent spending my money on someone that wears green three piece suits." Neji sighed as they walked back to his car, plastic bags in tow. Tenten laughed.

"So...who do you think will hook up at the party?" She asked, a strange glint evident in her chocolate eyes. Neji rolled his eyes, but inwardly, wondered if this question was loaded. Nervousness began to plague him.

"Not this bullshit. ...Although if you really want my opinion, Chouji's been eying that loudmouth from advertising for months now."

"Ino-chan? Hm. Maybe... Are you going to go for anyone?" She winked, although it was a forced action. At once, it felt like he had been slapped across the face.

So this was how it really was. The question hadn't been loaded after all; she expected him to be with someone else. Had he been imagining the tension between them these past weeks? He must have. He had been a fool. His thoughts from the night before now seemed absurd and girlish; he had been wrong all along, and it stung.

They both stood still, looking at each other, their breaths clouding in the cold night air, the wind rustling the plastic bags slightly. Neither had meant for it to be awkward, and neither had meant to pause. Each felt the blood rushing to their face. Neji swallowed, and they broke the eye contact. To his horror, he felt like he might actually cry. His hands trembled, and he fisted them to hide it.

"Maybe that hot blond from human resources. I always did like blonds best. Plus, she's got a real job, so we're on the same page, really." He said coldly, staring straight ahead as he stuffed the bags into the back seat. Tenten climbed into the passenger seat, and for the entire ride to Lee's house, they didn't speak a single word.

--

"Tenten...you okay? You're being quiet. That's unlike you." Sakura commented as she watched her brunette friend stand sullenly to the side. She followed her brown eyed gaze to across the living room where a certain coffee-haired man was jeering at Naruto's attempts at playing pool. Tenten heaved a sigh, and grabbed another handful of the crackers she'd picked out only two hours ago, and stuffed them clumsily into her mouth.

"Um foin." She said as she chewed a large moutful of boursin and cracker. Sakura grimaced and glanced worriedly at Sasuke, who shrugged. Ino narrowed her eyes knowingly, and cast a look across the room.

--

"Damn, Neji's meaner than usual." Chouji whispered loudly to Shikamaru. They were standing by the pool table as Naruto and Lee attempted, drunkenly, to play pool. Naruto had scratched the table several times and Lee looked close to emptying the contents of his stomach onto the table, but no one halted either of them, merely for the sake of amusement. Neji was currently standing to the side, drinking and making comments that had long ago passed rude and were now pushing cruel. He had always been unpleasant, but this was just too much. Thank god Naruto and Lee were so involved in their game that they couldn't hear his cutting remarks.

Shikamaru would have pinned it down on the fact that Neji didn't drink often, so being hungover was a novel and especially unpleasant business for him, but the accountant hadn't had that much to drink the night before that the hangover could make him act like this. He glanced at the new secretary, who was rabidly stuffing her face with cheese and crackers and staring after Neji despondently. Neji was obviously not looking at that particular half of the room.

"What we have here is a failure to communicate." Shikamaru joked, although he wasn't really kidding.

Lee stood up from ruining his pool table and announced that it was time for cake. Of course, it was low in calorie and high in antioxidants, as he gleefully pointed out, so it was bound to taste terrible. With a collective sigh, everyone shuffled to the table, awaiting the cake. Ino and Sakura removed the cake from the refrigerator and placed it on the dining room table.

"I just...would like...to make a toast." Naruto drunkenly began, but Sasuke hit him, much to the relief of everyone else in the room. Naruto's toasts were famously unbearable.

"Actually...I would." Tenten spoke up. "I mean, I know I'm half of the reason for all of this, but...I would just like to say that I'm so happy I'm being welcomed into this community...I really feel like I'm moving on with my life." She said, forcing a smile. The speech was obviously painfully rehearsed and everyone fought back a wince as they half-heartedly clapped. The worst part was that she looked suspiciously close to tears. Once again, Neji was doing a stellar job of avoiding looking anywhere near her. "Um...thank you all so much...I don't feel too well all of a sudden." She laughed awkwardly. "I'm going to go home now."

The silence as she gave another high pitched laugh and jogged out of the room was deafening. They watched her leave, and then, everyone looked at Neji.

"What?" He asked finally. Lee glared at him; a most off-putting experience indeed. Ino and Sakura moved in on him, glowering at him like vultures.

"What did you do?" Sakura asked suspiciously. "It's obviously your fault. What did you do?"

All eyes were on him. He glared.

"I don't know what you're talking about. The hell with this; I'm going home."

--

It hurt. Neji lay awake in bed, staring at the ceiling, replaying the scene in the parking lot over and over again, like a video clip. But no matter how many times he relived it, the pain still didn't dissipate.

It was official. His heart was broken. His blood pounded in his ears and he trembled, because it really hurt that much. Fine, maybe he'd hurt her feelings, but she'd get over it. But this? She was the first woman to have ever caught his eye. He would have enumerated the reasons for why falling in love was stupid and pointless, because usually that made him feel better, but tonight he found that the reasons themselves were even more stupid and pointless. He'd liked her. The worst part was, he still liked her. And now she hated him.

--