When the World Is Closing In

—DEDICATED TO WROATHE—

Neji had tried to bail them out when the news first came weeks before—that a calamity was to come, and that people would undoubtedly die unless they exited the country in a wave of ships and planes. Not that that would help, because the same sort of thing seemed to be happening all around the globe, and it was obvious the time had come for them to return to the sea.

Nevertheless, Neji was feeling especially lucky and defiant that day, so he picked up the phone and called a flight agency right away.

Unsurprisingly though, all flights were booked in.

He'd tried a couple more companies, but none of them had anything to offer. And it wasn't even a question of whether he could afford it or not. Neji had his overseas uncle to rely on, and Hiashi could surely handle that; he could handle that and Lee and Tenten. Heck for all he knew the man had his own private jet and the only thing that was keeping that fine piece of work behind was the fact that everything was covered in water. Fucking water.

Neji kept calling, calling, calling, only stopping once he had his carpet crisscrossed with yellow pages everywhere, with pages torn and every last name ruled out and his hair in a frizzled mess. That was when Neji finally slumped down in defeat and shut his eyes closed.

Apathy—that what he tried to feel as he shifted in his bed and opened his eyes to gaze at his blindingly white ceiling.

But he couldn't, because all that filled him was a terrible sadness, a creeping loneliness that gnawed away at him. And he couldn't understand why, because mediation had always worked for him before. Goddamned fate was at it again.

Before the mega-tsunami hit them there were riots—lots of them. Lee had gotten himself into one (the little youth bomb!) and had somehow convinced both Neji and Tenten to join him in his inane endeavour to hijack an actual plane.

They'd advanced on the clunk of metal, bats and batons in hand as the airline passengers rallied around against the angry mob that had been denied a passage to safety.

Neji remembered shaking his head in disbelief, asking the heavens above why the hell materialistic possessions like money still mattered in situations like those. When you were literally about to be swept away to the ends of earth, wouldn't it be every man for himself? Why for the love of Pete were those buffoon security guards still doing their jobs? Neji's mind jumped from one thought to the other as people begun to resort to violence, and Neji in turn dodged blows and started swinging around his blunt—but deadly—weapon.

He felt like an animal—going so far for a ticket to his own survival—and mighty regretful that Lee had ever talked him into it. After that, his train of thought blurred and twisted, with no end to that vertigo of club against metal and bone and skin. Until, until there was the sound of gunfire overhead, and Neji snapped out of his trance with that painful rip of sound. Neji touched his ear to discover it was wet, possibly with blood.

He headed towards the direction of the metal scream, wanting answers, and spotted a flash of green sprawled out lethargic on the ground. Beside it was a bun-donning silhouette on her knees.

Neji was out of air.

Oxygen. Oxygen!

"I am much too youthful to die! If I—if I cannot survive this, I'll run..." Lee had uttered before his eyes rolled back into his head.

Neji had dropped down on his knees too, and held Lee's other hand throughout the ordeal.

But before he was even ready to listen, Lee's sentence stopped short, and a trickle of blood frothed at the corner of his mouth.

There were no more riots after that.

Well, actually there were. There were plenty, but Neji refused to believe that. Because Lee's blood should have been enough warning for anyone else foolish enough to follow his prime example of idiocy, and their example of idiocy for going along with him instead of sitting him down and talking him out of it. Lee was dead, dead, dead, and they were doomed, doomed, doomed, because fate said so, and no matter how many times they'd been told to rise against it there really was no escaping this time.

Lee was the heart of their tender trio, Neji the spine and Tenten the glue that held it together. And when Lee was taken from them—a kick in the stomach, really—the only thing left for them to do was to try not to fall apart, accept that fate, and hope that in another life destiny would be kinder and bring the three back together again.

That, and call up Tenten. Call up Tenten, and possibly spend the night over to practise the art of holding one's breath. One vestige of optimism remained, after all—if they were fortunate and Lady Luck willed it, there was, of course, the slightest chance that they might be washed ashore alive and well some few weeks away. Training their lungs upped that chance, even if by the tiniest fraction of a decimal.

When they started her personal record clocked in a little over one minute, and they worked her way up from there. The sadist in Neji had delighted in watching her choke, red-faced, as she hit the forty-five second mark, and explode in a blast of air fifteen seconds later.

Every once in a while, Neji felt that his situation was somewhat parallel to one certain eccentric lifesaving instructor they'd met summers ago. It was after they enrolled in a program that was, again, at Lee's insistence. Neji recalled that man—peculiar, "youthful" and lean—his strong rapport with Lee, and the weekends they spent with their boogie boards, crude sandcastles, and sticky sweet ice-cream. And Tenten, "a lotus in the springtime of her youth", with her hair in braids and midriff unsheathed in a green bikini set.

Neji always had a soft spot for Tenten, and during the few weeks leading up to the end of the world he even thought of taking her out at least once before the seas pressed its very own self-destruct button. Boyfriendhood was just one more thing on his super secret apocalyptic to-do list, though Neji would never admit it, not even to himself.

So, Neji being Neji, he swept the thought aside and instead tried to concentrate on the monotonous patterns of cutlasses on her bed. Any possible romance that resulted from those very subconscious feelings would be locked away in a neat nadir of his mind, where it would hopefully stay to collect dust.

And it worked. The closest they ever came to becoming a couple was the time when he stayed up with her through the night with a game of Scrabble until her eyes began to droop and she tumbled over to his side. At a time such as that, Neji had no reason to brush her off, so he let her stay there with her cheek on his shoulder and his hand over her head.

But none of that mattered now. All that did matter was elongating the endurance of her respiratory system. With the time they had to spend throughout that night, Neji knew they would make something out of their last night alive. So Neji set his sights elsewhere, draining cans of Red Bull until he was giddy and managed to up Tenten's personal best to almost two minutes. It was a worthy feat in exchange for the night's sleep.

When morning came, it came with a distant rumbling that could only belong to the birth of a giant rolling wave. Neji and Tenten climbed to the rooftop to investigate, and things turned out as they feared when they looked on to watch a wall of brine advancing toward them.

Tenten was panting and scared by the time they reached the uppermost platform of the building, and if they'd not been so awkward with touching each other, Neji would have wound his arms right around her right then and there, without a second thought. But he didn't, and instead began, "If you can't keep up—"

"You're not much better than I am!" she defended herself, before he could even finish. Her shoulder quivered against his, and Neji felt absolutely shrilled by the fear that emanated from her touch. "Besides, b-besides—we can't outswim that thing."

"Then just hold your breath for as long as you can, like we practised." Neji tore his eyes away from the wave, and rested them on Tenten. "And remember that I'll be waiting for you on the other side. Lee will be too."

Tenten brushed her hand against Neji's. "O-okay, but there's one more favour I wanna ask."

"W-what is it?" Neji ignored his own stutter; it was too late to fuss over such things now.

Tenten smiled from under her lashes, as if his face was the only glimmer of hope left in the world. "May I hold you?"

Neji was pleasantly surprised (rather, enthralled) by the request, and gave a little nod so that she quickly pressed her nose close to his chest. He could breathe, then, knowing that he had someone to hold throughout the impending deluge. If they were to die anyway, Neji had at least Tenten there by him as he fell to sleep.

Well, that wasn't entirely true, because in fact, there was someone else with them, too. In the moment following Neji's lock around Tenten's shoulders, he felt a gentle, spring breeze whip past them, leafy and youthful—almost a laugh in the wind. Neji was well aware of what and who it was, but before he could even begin to thank him, it was too late.

That gust of air was the very last thing Neji could remember before he tasted salt on his tongue.

may I hold you
as you fall to sleep
when the world is closing in
and you can't breathe
#4: When the World Is Closing In
—FIN—

Author's notes: Dedicated to you, Wroathe! I'm sorry that I posted it so late (though in my defence, I did start it right after the request was made). I wasn't able to incorporate most of the things you've requested of me, including a certain pairing and a certain character (GAI-SENSEI, YOU'RE TOO YOUTHFUL TO INCORPORATE) I'd be willing to gift you with more fics though, as always!

Otherwise, I hope you people enjoyed the angst! I really enjoyed writing this once my mind was set on how to go about it, and I'm equally satisfied with the result. Though I think there's too much angst around this these days. Thusly, the next oneshot will be happy! Or, at least not utterly hopeless.

P.S. May I by Trading Yesterday is a gorgeous song.