Time sure flies quick.. we're already on chapter 7 of this?! two more to go. :)
Naruto and its characters do not belong to me.
Eyes Like Pale Thistle
Chapter 7: Dinner in Green
xiv.
Three weeks later, Neji was seated at the dining table in Tenten's too-green apartment. Hinata was next to him, unfazed by the sheer amount of verdant grass tones that assaulted his eyes.
"Tenten has told me a lot about you, Neji-sensei, Hinata-sensei!" Gai, Tenten's adoptive father, shouted.
Neji cringed inwardly, his eardrums still vibrating long after Gai had ended his sentence.
He hadn't quite believed Tenten when she told him that her entire house was green. Who would create such an atrocity, after all?
Then Friday arrived, and Neji was faced with the largest surface area of painted green that he'd ever seen in his entire life. The walls, the ceiling, the floors, the tables, and even the chairs and doors and windowsills were painted green. It wasn't a soothing forest green - the green in the apartment had a horrid tint of yellow, that was almost offensive to his delicate eyes.
Right now, he was certain that he would live fine without seeing another ugly patch of green ever again.
He was also certain that everything would look magenta when he stepped out of this place. How on Earth did Tenten live through this every single day?
The girl in question was currently busy in the kitchen, and Neji sat awkwardly at the small dining table, across from Tenten's father and brother, with Hinata next to him. True to Tenten's descriptions, Lee and Gai looked almost identical, with their gleaming hair and teeth and bushy black eyebrows. It was as if Lee was an illegitimate child of Gai's, instead of just some random adopted stranger.
"I'm so glad the two of you could visit our humble home," Gai was saying. "Has our little flower been giving you any problems?"
Neji raised an eyebrow. Little flower?
"For the last time, Gai-tousan, I am not a flower!" Tenten shouted from the kitchen. Loud metallic clangs accompanied her protest - probably not a coincidence.
The corners of Neji's mouth quirked. Trust Tenten to refuse words of endearment like that.
"Gai-san, have you always addressed Tenten as a flower?" Neji asked in curiosity, looking back at the man across the table.
"Yes, I have!" Gai beamed. "Don't you agree that she is the most youthful blossom in all of Nihon?"
Neji marveled at how the older man's pride was such that he thought Tenten to be the most charming in the entire country, considering that she wasn't his own flesh and blood to begin with. But then again, she was becoming more important to him, and he wasn't even part of Tenten's family.
He caught himself at that thought and shoved it to the back of his mind - he wasn't, in any way, in love with Tenten.
"Yes, she is," Neji agreed mildly, to Gai's delight and Hinata's amused glance. Lee cheered. Neji lifted a shoulder, to give Hinata the impression that he was merely trying to make peace with their hosts.
"Again, I'm so glad that both of you can join us for dinner," Gai rambled, waving expressively, "I hope Tenten hasn't been causing trouble at school!"
"No, she hasn't," Hinata rushed to say, "Tenten is doing very well in her art classes!"
"Ah, yes, you teach her art," Gai recalled.
Next to him, Lee nodded enthusiastically. He wasn't in Neji's classes - he was a year younger, and chose to spend his time with the martial arts club instead of improving on his grades. "And Neji-sensei teaches math," Lee added. To Neji, he said, "Tenten talks a lot about you."
Neji froze; there was dead silence coming from the direction of the kitchen.
"Really?" he asked, glancing between Lee, Gai and Hinata. How much did each of them know?
"Well, she told me that you're very patient with teaching her," Lee said, surveying Neji with inky, observant eyes. "She also said that you aren't the prize catch that her friends think you are."
Neji stared at Lee. Hinata and Gai were looking between them, and the sheer awkwardness of the situation settled over the dining table.
A loud groan sounded from the kitchen. "Lee!" Tenten yelled, "Get over here!"
Lee excused himself and disappeared into the kitchen, only to yelp in pain, and emerge a moment later. "Um, well, sorry about that."
Gai frowned, turning to Lee. "What happened?"
Lee shot Neji an apologetic look. "Well, Tenten said I wasn't supposed to tell anyone else that."
A strangled sound emerged from the kitchen, and Neji winced. It had to be hard for Tenten, who was probably making dinner for all of them, for Lee to be spilling her secrets. The sound of loud chopping came next, possibly an attempt to drown out words. Was Tenten trying to distract herself?
This dinner was starting to seem like a very bad idea.
"I don't think Tenten really meant anything by that," Neji decided to explain. "Personally, I wouldn't think of a math teacher as a prize catch, either."
Gai's thick eyebrows crawled up on his forehead, and Lee goggled at Neji. Hinata tipped her head to a side.
Neji shrugged. "I don't suppose Tenten had any bad tidbits to share about me."
At that, Gai gave a forced laugh, and redirected the conversation. "Well, we all know how Tenten likes speaking her mind in every situation - it's such a youthful trait, isn't it..."
Neji felt his attention wandering back into the kitchen. Just what was Tenten cooking? Already, he could smell a variety of savory herbs, and his mouth was starting to water.
"Hinata-sensei," he began, "Would you mind telling Gai-san what Tenten has done in art class? I would like to see how she's doing with the cooking."
He excused himself politely from the table, ignoring the three sets of eyes that followed him into the kitchen.
Tenten was muttering to herself; he couldn't help but smile as he watched her grab a handful of leafy vegetables and tossed them into her wok, so they sizzled and released a puff of steam that rose above her head.
It had been a while since she'd stayed over at his apartment - he had not requested another free weekend from Hinata, and he and Tenten had decided that they shouldn't be meeting for dinner too often. All they'd done between the day she left his apartment and now was exchange phone calls.
At first, she'd called twice a week. Two nights a week had turned into four, which had turned into seven nights a week, and many, many shared moments of stolen pleasure as they cradled their phones against their cheeks and whispered and gasped.
It was yet another secret, that teased from the edges of his memory as he watched her cook in front of him.
Neji moved his feet, coming to stand next to her by the stove.
She turned to look at his movement; her lips parted in surprise.
"I thought I'd supervise your cooking," he explained, a tiny smile twitching on his mouth.
Her features relaxed into a contented smile, and she stepped closer, leaning her shoulder into his arm.
"I was so frustrated," she muttered. "I love my family, but they make me so mad sometimes."
"So I figured," he told her dryly. "What're you cooking?"
"Some shrimp with vegetables, braised fish, and fried noodles." Tenten waved towards the three pans in front of her. The fish was hidden away beneath a metal lid, and only the vegetables and noodles were visible.
"Smells good," he said honestly. She turned a delighted smile on him.
"I wouldn't want to disappoint you, Neji-sensei," she returned, lacing her fingers through his.
"I doubt you'd disappoint me," he answered in a low tone. He sent her a sidelong gaze, watching the way she licked her lips subconsciously, and thought about kissing her.
Their relatives were just a room away, though, and he figured that they should probably wait until the coast was clear. He wanted to see her in her room, and press her down into her bed...
"What're you thinking about?" she whispered suddenly, a cheeky grin pulling at her lips.
Neji sent her a dark stare, eyelids hooded. "What do you think?"
Tenten merely grinned. "Where?"
"Your room," he answered beneath his breath.
"Mm, I've thought about it too," she admitted, and for a moment, her eyes focused on something faraway.
Her fingers tightened around his, and her gaze snapped back to the present.
Tenten was easing him to face her; she was tiptoeing and leaning in before he could protest-
-And her lips were soft and moist against his.
He groaned softly, tilted his face for better access into her mouth, and savored the way her tongue slid against his. Tenten whimpered; her other hand touched his waist lightly. Neji thought briefly about the people in the dining room, thought to pull away-
"Tenten, I just-" Lee's voice stopped abruptly, and they broke apart, breathing unevenly, turning to stare wide-eyed at Lee, who was standing in the doorway and gaping at them.
Tenten's lips moved but no sound emerged.
Neji winced. He was the adult here; he should be the first to react. "That wasn't-" he began, "That is-"
Tenten remembered herself and strode forward, pulling Lee further into the kitchen. Her cheeks were a deep red; she looked between Lee and Neji.
"Tenten, I didn't know-" Lee sputtered, glancing at Neji from the corner of his eye.
"It's a secret - please don't tell Gai-tousan about this," she pleaded quietly, tightening her fingers around Lee's forearm.
He stared at her, mouth falling open. "But-"
"Yet. I'll tell him at my own time," Tenten hissed. "Please."
"But is Neji-sensei-" Lee whispered back.
"He is honorable," Tenten told him firmly, giving Neji a look that said, Follow my lead on this.
Neji nodded. "I swear by it."
"Promise not to tell," Tenten threatened, staring hard at her adopted brother.
Lee looked between Neji and her again, shifting his weight to his other foot. "I promise," he swore, "My lips are sealed."
At length, after Lee stared at him for an agonizingly long time and Tenten turned back to tend to her food, Neji relaxed enough to return to the dining room, though not before grabbing Tenten's hand and pressing a kiss to her knuckles.
That much, Lee understood. Tenten glanced at Neji in surprise and blushed, and he nodded at them both, before taking his leave of the kitchen.
The dining table was quieter than when he left it. Neji slid into his seat next to Hinata, returning the stares that Gai and his cousin sent him.
"It got quiet in the kitchen suddenly," Hinata explained, "So we wondered what happened."
Neji swore inwardly. He had forgotten about those outside the kitchen in the aftermath of Lee's interruption. "Tenten was... having me guess what food she was making," he lied, "I wasn't very good at it."
Hinata smiled, and Gai guffawed. Their amusement broke the tension at the table; Neji sank into the backrest of his seat in relief. All he really needed now was for Lee to not spill details about the situation to his father, and everything would be fine.
Over the past three weeks, he had thought more about Tenten's words. Would the clan allow him to marry anyone? Would Tenten be sucked into a life of servitude if she were to be bonded to him?
Would he marry her, if he could?
Neji blinked himself out of his thoughts when Lee returned to the dining table.
"Dinner will be ready in five minutes," Lee announced. "Tenten wants us all to appreciate her hard work."
"We always appreciate our flower!" Gai boomed.
Neji nodded in agreement. "I'm sure Tenten cooks very well."
"So, Neji-sensei, you are Tenten's math teacher," Gai began next, fixing Neji with his jet-black eyes. "How is she doing at school?"
He tried not to wince. "Well... Math is not Tenten's strongest subject," he began. Both Gai and Lee nodded. "I have been giving her remedial lessons every Thursday."
(And orgasms every night, during their phone conversations.)
Lee sent him a questioning look (Neji didn't want to read too much into it) and Gai dipped his chin. "Have the additional lessons been helping?"
(Now that they'd had sex, the remedial lessons only served to remind him of the distance they needed to pretend was between them, even when it was just him and her in the otherwise-empty classroom.)
"With the lessons, she has been able to keep up with the class to some extent," Neji recounted guiltily, "But the exams are coming up, and she will need to work especially hard if she would like to attain decent grades."
Lee frowned, eyeing him suspiciously. "What do you do during the remedial classes? Can't you do more to help her?"
Neji breathed out slowly. He glanced between Lee and Gai, knowing that he would have to tread carefully, or risk having Lee expose the secret he shared with Tenten.
(It wasn't as if they spent the remedial lessons kissing, or anything like that.)
"You may not be aware of this, Gai-san," he explained, "Tenten is a few weeks behind her classmates, and I spend the remedial lessons going through the concepts that I have already taught. She takes longer to process the math formulae and the nuances of calculus that are in the syllabus."
Gai's bushy eyebrows knit together. "But the exams are in a few weeks, you said."
Neji gave an answering nod. He had discussed this with Tenten, and stayed as late as he could at school to help her. She drew the line at him explaining math equations during their nightly calls.
"Surely there is a way to increase her learning speed!" Gai continued, "What about remedial lessons twice a week?"
"I have... other commitments as well," Neji deflected, glancing at Hinata.
It wasn't as if he wasn't interested in seeing Tenten in private more than once a week, though he had some classes in the afternoons, weekly meetings with the staff, and lessons to plan for the next week. And wherever Hinata went, he had to be close behind, including when she visited the doctor for her routine check-ups every so often.
"Dinner is served!" Tenten called suddenly, walking into the dining room with a steaming plate in her hands. She set the braised fish down in the middle of the table, complete with a serving spoon, and returned to the kitchen for the other dishes.
"I'll help you!" Lee volunteered, scrambling out of his seat in his excitement.
"I'm concerned about Tenten, however," Gai said, drawing their attention back to the conversation. "I would not like to see her studies affected just because of one subject."
Neji frowned. He didn't want to see Tenten having to repeat her year, either, even if it meant that he'd likely have her in his classes again. And he was telling the truth - he hadn't another weekday to spare for remedial lessons. "I am aware of that, Gai-san."
There was something to be said about Gai's concern for his adoptive children - it was subtle, but Neji thought he understood what Tenten had meant about the warmth her family had, when they discussed love weeks ago. Gai was warm where his uncle was cool, and that had possibly been the sunshine that Tenten needed after her parents passed away.
Would he have turned out different, if he had grown up in Tenten's family?
Tenten made her way back with a large plate of shrimp and greens, and Lee brought up the rear with a full pot of rice.
"If it were possible - that is, if it doesn't inconvenience you too much, would it be fine if you were to give Tenten remedial lessons sometime over the weekend as well, Neji-sensei?" Gai asked, almost pleadingly.
Tenten flicked a quick look at Neji as she set the vegetables on the table. Neji glanced at Hinata in turn; he answered to her, after all.
Hinata nodded. "I think an hour or two would be reasonable," she yielded.
Neji caught the way she looked meaningfully at him, and glanced at Tenten. He was certain that Hinata didn't know what was really going on between him and his student, though, and merely nodded at Gai.
"I wouldn't want to make it a permanent arrangement, though additional lessons during the weekends before the exams may help Tenten," he conceded. "I will arrange these with her after I've consulted my schedule."
Gai beamed, and so did Tenten.
Tenten took her seat on the shorter end of the table, between Gai and Neji, and he tried not to look too much at her, even when she slid her bare foot over his ankle.
"I will forever be indebted to you, Neji-sensei!" Gai exclaimed smilingly. "Go on, Tenten, say your thanks!"
Neji looked towards Tenten - she was grinning wide, almost too gleefully for anyone who had just been assigned remedial classes on a weekend.
Lee noticed, and so did Hinata.
"Thank you, Neji-sensei," Tenten chirped. "I look forward to improving my grades!"
Neji nodded stiffly, glancing at Gai. Would the man be as agreeable to this if he knew that sex would almost certainly be involved at some point during these remedial lessons?
xv.
As it was, Hinata agreed to free Neji from her schedule for three hours on Saturday. She had different activities planned for her days off, so the hours that Tenten could visit weren't fixed from weekend to weekend. Tenten didn't mind, though, and neither did Neji.
She showed up at his apartment door fifteen minutes early - which was just as well, because he had started to prepare for her visit an additional five minutes prior to that.
"Good morning, Neji," she whispered breathlessly when he swung the door open.
He swallowed, looked her over. She was dressed in casual clothes - a simple blouse and long socks - and he knew that she'd chosen a shorter skirt on purpose. "Good morning, Tenten."
She was on him even before the door had fully clicked shut, and Neji found himself wrapping his arms around her waist, meeting her fevered kisses at the same time she backed him into the wall.
He vaguely registered Tenten dropping her bag and kicking her shoes off. They had both been waiting for this; their phone conversations had revolved around this remedial lesson over the past few nights - not about what he would be teaching her, but about how he would be spreading her open and tasting her, and how she would be around him, hot and wet.
It had been agonizing enough sitting through the remedial lesson on Thursday, with the damnable desk between them. Tenten would look up at him every so often, her pink lips quirking in a mischievous smile.
At this moment, however, Neji slipped both his hands beneath her skirt, finding lace clinging to the swells of her bottom, and hauled her against himself, needing to feel her softness next to him.
He wasn't sure if he wanted her clothes on or off, or whether he wanted to taste her or be inside first; they'd talked about so much they could do, and now that she was in front of him, reaching into his clothes, he couldn't decide.
He dipped his fingers past her panties, pushed into her, hissing at the moisture that slicked his fingers.
"I've been so excited about our remedial lesson," she whispered in his ear, when he was suckling on her neck, dipping fingers into her welcoming heat. "Neji-sensei."
Her throaty suggestion dug beneath his skin. He curled his fingers in her, turned them both around, and pressed her to the wall. "You aren't excited about math, Tenten."
"Oh yes, I am," she moaned, her searching fingers wrapping themselves around him. He grunted, pushed her shirt up to caress her breasts. "I wanted to know - ah! - what we'd get if you added us together, Neji-"
She paused when he ground a finger into her swollen, sensitive flesh, trembling hard.
"Shouldn't we be differentiating?" he growled, hunger hot and heavy in his veins. He sunk another finger into her. Tenten arched against him and gasped, stroking him harder. "For the area under a... curve."
"What- What curve?" she moaned, her voice quavering when he rubbed his thumb against her swollen nub. Neji decided that he very much liked when she lost control over her voice, and pressed his fingers deeper into her, so she panted and gasped, leaning her cheek against his shoulder. "N-Neji-"
Liquid heat oozed around his fingers when she came, a high, wavering cry slipping from her lips, and Neji struggled to slow his breathing. Tenten fumbled with his clothing when she recovered, and he lifted her leg to open her to himself.
A groan rumbled from his throat when he finally sunk into her, pinning her between the wall and his body. He stopped thinking then, was only aware of the pleasure that thrummed in his flesh, of Tenten's silky heat. She writhed and clawed at his back, whimpering, and he thrust harder into her, deeper, until he felt the wave of his climax cresting over him.
He slipped out of her with a groan and spilled onto her front, pushing his sensitive flesh against her belly so he smeared white, dribbling ink on her bare skin.
Tenten was grinning at him by the time he gathered his wits.
"We were... differentiating something to obtain the area under a curve," she reminded him, grabbing a tissue from a box nearby to wipe herself off.
He stared at her. It took a while to remember what she was talking about. "And?"
A giggle burst from her lips. "Which curve are we talking about?"
"Is this from a conversation we never finished?" he asked in confusion.
Tenten smiled. "No. What would you get if you differentiated the area under the sexual response curve? You know, how it climbs and then plateaus until you reach orgasm."
Neji stared blankly at her for lack of an answer.
It didn't seem to faze her. "I figured that the area under the curve corresponds to how much you do during a sexual activity," she hypothesized, "And so, knowing what you need for an orgasm would help where that's concerned."
He remained staring. "But that varies between circumstances."
Tenten shrugged, nonplussed. "Well, if my father asks, I can say we did some differentiation, at least."
Neji narrowed his eyes at her. "We're having remedial lessons today, Tenten."
She laughed. "I know, I know. Relax, Neji."
"So you say, when you were suggesting otherwise," he grumbled.
"I was joking!" Tenten straightened her clothes. He watched as she fetched her bag from next to the door, bringing it over to his dining table. "Are you ready for a remedial lesson?"
"I am," he groused. A short trip into his study later, he was armed with lesson notes, just in case Tenten forgot to bring her copies along. "Have you been preparing for your exams?"
"I have!" she said in defense, when she sat herself down at the table, kicking her legs out in front of her. "And I'm on schedule with my revisions... except for math."
Neji sighed. "But you have been familiarizing yourself with what you do know."
Tenten nodded, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
"That's good," he told her.
"It would be so much easier if you just gave me a passing grade," she suggested with a wink.
He shot her a dirty stare. "I'm a professional, Tenten."
"I know," she sang, pushing her papers between them. "You're way too honorable."
Neji pressed his lips together. "I'm honorable? We've been sleeping together-"
"It's not like I'm sleeping with you in exchange for good grades," she pointed out. "When we fuck, Neji, that's between a man and a woman."
He blushed to hear her phrase that in such basal terms. "I'd prefer if you minded your manners."
She grinned at him. "And yet you've been whispering dirty things to me at night."
Neji looked sullenly at her, and tried focusing on the assignment she had placed between them. (He hadn't anything to refute her statement with, not when she'd been speaking the truth.) "The lesson, Tenten."
"Face it, you're a dirty old man," she giggled, propping her chin in her palm. "You like dirty things."
He glowered. "It isn't like you aren't dirty yourself."
"But I'm proud of it," Tenten pointed out. "And I'm not trying to pretend I'm not."
With no adequate response to that, Neji grit his teeth and stared at the question sheet. "We don't have all day - let's get started on this."
It was to his relief that she dropped the teasing and got serious - there was a very grown-up woman beneath her impish surface, one that he greatly appreciated.
A/N: LOL oh Tenten ;)
As always, I'm glad there are those of you who are enjoying this series.. I'm not as fond of it myself - oh well, I guess? :P Thank you for taking the time to drop a review!
