Fake Dating – InoTen

Things hadn't been going well, she'd finally managed to come out to her family, but unfortunately her parents were having a hard time believing it. Not that they disapproved, exactly, they'd been reasonably supportive and had assured Ino that they'd love her no matter what, but the longer she went without talking about a girl, the more they seemed to think she was just using it as an excuse for being single.

They hadn't actually said anything, but she could feel it in the pitying looks they shot her when they thought she wasn't looking, the way they pointedly avoided bring up the topic of relationships when she was around.

So, it was an entirely impulsive and almost-certainly terrible idea to ask Tenten to come to a family dinner as her fake girlfriend, an invitation that she was honestly quite shocked she'd accepted.

It wasn't until the night of the 'presentation' that she'd realised exactly how deep the hole she'd unthinkingly dug for herself was.

The older girl had actually been quite excited about it – her prankster nature was never much of a secret and she seemed to revel in flaunting her sexuality to traditional, older types – enough that she'd gone all out, turning up at her door with a bouquet of hand-picked wildflowers, wearing a rather fetching pinstripe suit, though the jacket was quickly abandoned, leaving just a crisp shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a few buttons left undone, to 'keep it casual' she'd said, but Ino had to wonder if the way her eyes kept wandering to that tantalising sliver of skin wasn't planned; it certainly must've reinforced her… inclinations, to her parents.

But that was something she could deal with, finding excuses to stare at her many gorgeous friends wasn't exactly a new development for her. The constant touching was a little less bearable, the brush of warm skin sending distracting thrills through her entire body, but she decided to just run with it as best she could, giving nervous giggles at every playful prod to her midsection, or casual brush of a thumb against her face.

No, the problem was that her parents absolutely adored Tenten.

And who wouldn't? She was a funny, charming, smart girl, who knew how to play people like a fiddle and – even though tonight was mostly about her putting on a show – she was genuinely nice enough that any doubts her parents might've had about the match were quickly melted away in the face of her all-too-convincing act of a smitten lover.

It was such a good act, that Ino herself almost forgot that they had not, in fact, been dating for 'three months now, but it feels like we've been together our whole lives, right babe?' and that, no, Tenten hadn't asked her out on a windy day, after they'd been over-exuberant with a spar and ended up collapsed next to each other, staring up at the windswept clouds high above, before having to run and huddle close together beneath a tree when the rain had started to fall.

But the way she described it, Ino had found herself nodding along dreamily, a smile on her face that had had to be quickly wiped away the second her mother made a teasing comment about how dopey she looked.

By the time Tenten was seen off by the whole family, her parents waving far too excitedly and urging her to visit again soon, she knew she'd fucked up.

She'd fucked up hard.

The first few days had been awful, her parents were both so happy about her 'girlfriend' who they kept telling her was definitely a keeper and when was she going to bring her over again, they wanted to bust out some of the old family albums already.

Ino knew they were kidding – probably – but the thought alone made her shudder.

Mostly, because she actually kind of wanted that herself.

So, after almost a week of avoiding the stunning brunette with the killer grin and the perfect abs; she finally caved and tracked her down to her favoured training field.

"Ino! Where've you been, I've been wanting to ask how the dinner went, the 'rents off your back yet?" she called, as soon as Ino had emerged from the trees. She almost looking like an excited puppy as she jogged over, her buns falling apart from her intense exercise and her sweat-doused t-shirt clinging to her body hungrily and really now it just wasn't fair that Ino was feeling jealous of a piece of fabric!

She just about managed to clear her throat by the time Tenten reached her, still bouncing a little with that relentless vigour she had – much as she liked to pretend her teammates had never affected her energy levels.

"Well, kind of," she finally said, after realising that she'd been staring too long.

Tenten raised a fine brow, questioningly.

She groaned and flopped gracelessly to the ground, leaning back against the nearest tree. "The dinner went great, too great, they won't stop asking me when I'm going to marry you."

The booming laugh made her stomach twist something awful.

"Well, at least they believe you like girls now, right?" she managed to ask through her snorts, collapsing next to her and wrapping a sweaty arm around her shoulders. "So, my mission was a complete success!"

She couldn't help the snicker, or the way her body automatically leaned into the one next to her. "Yeah, but now I'm going to have to tell them that we've broken up, and they're going to be heartbroken, they'll probably disown me and try to adopt you instead, find you a nice girl who'll treat you right."

Tenten's arm tightened its grip slightly. "Better than you? No way, no such thing," she said, and something about the tone of her voice had Ino's head snapping round to face her, "but, just in case… we could always start planning that fake wedding."

Even though she was clearly joking, there was a more serious question behind her words, one that left Ino's head spinning.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'd like that."