Tenten retreated to her room, discarding the fruit in the trash. She tried for complete darkness but being almost ten, the sun was too strong behind the blinds so she took what she could get. For two hours she stared unblinking at the textured white ceiling painfully reminiscent of the room at the Inn. Sometime later a knock was at her door but she did nothing about it. A second and third trill of knocking had the same effect on her although her irritation was beginning to rise.
Before the fourth set of knocks was done, she let out a grunt and pushed at the air. They at least knew she was not interested. Or let them know she was there, the door creaked open, stopping slightly to survey the scene before it swung in with a rush of sunlit hallway. Tenten grunted again and turned towards the darkest corner. She had seen the perfectly straight chestnut hair swaying with the force of the air.
"Get up." The deep voice didn't hold the same malicious sneer but she wouldn't get up, "Get up."
Get bent. Her hand patted about the bed for a moment before feeling the downy plush of a pillow and pulled it over her head. The bed sank as he sat. A worried sensation ran up her spine, tensing her muscles in the moment of anticipation. Metaphoric ticking echoed in her ears as she waited.
"I'm taking you to lunch." She jumped slightly when he touched her calf.
Tenten shuffled away from him, "I don't want to go."
"Sitting around-" She interjected, "I'm lying! "Lying in a dim room, moping around won't do you any good."
She frowned into the cotton. But it was easy!
"I ate your apple. I'm stuffed." The pillow warbled.
There was another moment of stillness and the nerves came back.
"You mean the apple with three bites taken out in the trash, that apple?"
Damned him and his intrusive eyes! She glared at the embossed primrose on the pillow, "I won't go."
The pillow was stripped from her head and with an indignant squeak she turned with her brow set in a scowl. Then something white flew at her face.
"What is your deal!" she bellowed under her white veil.
"Change your shirt, we're going to lunch, no arguments. I'll be down stairs."
He left shortly after that or at least she assumed. When she pulled off her clean shirt he was gone. It took her five minutes to change and descend the stairs, deciding it wasn't worth holding out for more time should Neji decide to ascend said staircase and carry her to lunch.
He remained motionless against the door. Still bitter, she turned in a circle for complete inspection before begging to get the ordeal done with. He raised a brow but his eyes stayed the same unreadable steel.
"With a sigh she added, "Please?"
He moved and if he had been the type of man to smile it would have been bright and mocking, "Let us go."
Going against her grown sensibilities she flashed the pink of her tongue as she exited the front door.
Tenten tried to walk at a speed which Neji could not catch her but in a matter of a moments he was at her side easily matching her stride. She decided to forgo her current pace three quarters down the next street. It wasn't until after another two streets that she decided she was curious enough to know where they were going.
"Ichiraku."
One of the most crowded spots in town on the day she wanted to be left alone. She stopped. He didn't see the equation. Neji was three yards ahead before he realized she wasn't beside him. He motioned her forward but she didn't.
"What?" He sounded as agitated as she felt.
She tipped her head, watching him for a moment. She couldn't decide if he was being mean or just clueless.
"What?"
Tenten decided it wasn't worth it. She closed the gap between them, hooked her arm into his and began walking. Tenten realized it was a little sick but she loved his issue with intimacy. His arm tensed up before his arm locked and he seemed much more interested in Tenten. A ponytailed brunette who had recently become found of Neji nearly broke her tea cup as they passed. The poor thing looked crestfallen. For every three whorish harpies there is always one nice girl just love struck. She felt bad but obviously Neji didn't, he wasn't interested. She couldn't picture anyone in his arms in that romantic way in old movies or even holding hands. For all the sexiness girls claimed he exuded, he was surprisingly a-sexual.
Half way to their destination Tenten enjoyed their stroll which had now taken a leisurely pace. The bitterness had subsided and she wasn't so mad anymore for being made to leave the sanctity of her room. She enjoyed the warm sunshine and being out in the bustling center of the village made her feel lively. As a little old lady in a red kerchief passed, she greeted her with a big smile and a nod.
"Congratulations!" the elderly woman warbled out.
It had happened already with an elderly couple and she shirked the occurrences to senility. Halfway down the street another person congratulated the pair. She didn't know what to blame on middle aged father with a baby strapped to his chest. That time it was just odd.
She turned to her companion, "What have you done?"
He shrugged only half hearing her as he directing her across the street to the noodle bar, "I don't know; I am amazing."
She rolled her eyes as she hopped the curb. "But it's the third time today."
"Perhaps they heard you survived a second face off with your nemesis."" He smirked as he helped her up on the sidewalk.
She stopped and turned to him with a glare and a pointed finger, "Don't do it, pretty boy. Don't even test me."
"I wouldn't dream of it, Uncle."
Tenten bite her lip as he steered her towards the stand and up on a stool. She handed him a small plastic menu though the effort was just for show, she just liked something to read as they waited to place their order.
"Have you actually tried naruto? I don't think I have." She pointed out the ingredient but Neji didn't seem too partial on the discussion and just shrugged.
As if hearing the long anticipated cue, an orange flash jumped into the empty seat beside him, "I recommend it to anyone... Ladies I mean, just the ladies."
The senior pair stared blankly at the blond for an awkward moment. They both laughed at him and simultaneously felt pity, they were conflicted. Naruto played it off with a chuckle which did not aid the situation.
"Was that some kind of pick up line, Naruto." She tried to sound sweet as she kicked Neji under the table to keep silent as he placed their orders.
"And how many times have you used it?" Neji asked into his tea cup.
The blond recalculated his enthusiastic answer into a much more pathetic answer, "Twice."
"Explains..." The elder boy whispered into her ear.
She sipped her tea calmly before turning to the silver-eyed hunk, "Watch it, he said it to me. I'm already having a bad day."
"When your annulment-"
Again she calmly took a sip and cut him off, "Didn't we discuss you're terrible at puns?"
The prodigy frowned and resigned to sipping his tea. Tenten smiled victoriously over her own cup and turned to Naruto. His conversations weren't mind-bogglingly cosmic but they kept her mind off the problem on her hand. Naruto's thickness also kept questions at bay. He probably didn't notice the ring.
"...So that was why Kiba was missing part of his eyebrow when we were sixteen!" He erupted in laughter which Tenten felt she should reciprocate but would rather not.
"Scintillating conversation," Neji earned himself another kick under the counter.
Between the classic Neji remark and the heel to shin contact, a preteen girl juggling an overfed dog and a box of take-home noodles turned to the trio with a toothy grin and extended her congratulations before the fat canine dragged her off. All three replied in a confused, listless monotone, unsure who she was speaking to.
"Why do they keep doing that?" Tenten looked for the answer in the sky, on a menu, and on a shirt of a passerby.
"I'm starving!"
It was the unmistakable call of the youngest Inuzuka, followed by his stoic pal. Between them were three un-macho white shopping bags. The two boys, well, only Kiba really, looked as if they finally found salvation, climbing onto two empty stools and dropping the bags by their feet.
"What the hell are in the bags?" Naruto said what they wondered, albeit crasser.
"This is Hinata's gift." Shino explained.
Kiba lifted the nearest glossy bag, rustling the pastel tissue peaking out, shaking his head.
"Look at the bag, gold cursive lettering! I have never been so embarrassed; the walls were pink pin stripes!" Kiba cried, pausing to thank the lady on the other side of the counter for the tea she place in front of him.
She knew, oddly enough, where the stripes and the girly bags hailed from, a hoity-toity upscale shop with an extra P and E at end for extra flair. She had gone once with Neji to help find baby-shower gift for a pair of hardly seen relatives and her eyes almost fell out at the extravagance. He let her carry the bag to the Huuga compound and she swung it gleefully all the way to the front door and the waiting maid. Last time they had bought almost a hundred dollars worth of unisex onesies, she wondered what kind of gift a non-pregnant Huuga socialite might get. Tenten's finger pushed aside a pastel sheet of tissue for a look.
Kiba saw and reached over Shino, slapping her hand away, "Not now! Hinata said you'll just have to wait!"
"Wait for what?" Tenten looked up from the bag to the point blank with the irritation reserved for stating obvious facts.
She turned to Neji, still sipping his tea in a blasé fashion, "Am I'm invited to your cousin's birthday?"
"Her birthday isn't for another few months," and Neji shrugged, "And I don't think I'm going to attend."
"You are mistaken, it isn't for Hinata. It is from Hinata." Shino pushe dup his dark shades.
"Though I'm going to try to get my name on the card, it's a pretty sick gift!" Kiba interjected.
"Who is it for?" She stroked the glossy white bag fondly; she would kill for a gift from an upscale boutique.
Shino raised a brow and kept his dark half-lidded eyes on her, causing the brunette to feel a mixture of worry and awkwardness she generally tried to avoid.
"Your engagement party," Kiba said pointblank in a tone usually reserved for stating the obvious.
Her mind went numb as it all clicked. They were congratulating her because they thought was she getting married! She had been a wife for nearly nine hours (she roughly estimated) and now she was having an engagement party. It was a backward process. Tenten ran the equation through her head multiple times before she arrived at the answer: Temari. Of course! Tenten had to hand it to her, it was pretty shrewd. But how the hell did it spread around the village so quickly?
She noticed four pairs of eyes on her, waiting for her to move from her pensive pose. The flush of awkwardness crawled up her spine as she pulled her hands down from the counter slowly and turned to Kiba and Shino with a smile she forced.
"Oh yes, the engagement party, I wasn't aware it was so close. They had made me believe it wasn't going to be for another few weeks."
She was proud she sounded convincing but she sounded almost too calm. She had heard people in shock often respond in a calm unaffected manner. Tenten gave the boys another robotic smile.
"Wait, wait! You're getting married?" Naruto shouted with a wave of his arms, he sounded frantic enough for the both of them.
"Yes." Inwardly she was appalled by the sedated reply and the Stepford smile she gave the blonde as she lifted her left hand.
"When they got engaged, they decided to make it public…" Neji interjected, casting an odd glance at the still placid Tenten.
As her affluent friend spun a tale of hidden love and political pressures Tenten's mind began to throb. They knew. Everyone knew! This threw off her plan for a happy annulment out the window. From there on out anything she did and anything Kankuro did would be gossip in not one but two, count 'em, two villages! Her heart threw itself against her ribcage and the Stepford smile slowly began to chip off.
Naruto asked a follow up question to which Neji swiftly conjured up a reply. She gripped the counter's edge as her head began to ring with all the day's drama. She needed to see him. She would even take an audience with that devil-woman. Mechanically she spun out towards the street and jumped off into a jog.
Neji noticed her erratic dismount, "Ten, where are you going?"
"I have to go!"
He watched her bowl of noodles as it was placed in her empty place, "What about your lunch?"
"Give it to Naruto!"
The Huuga grumbled incoherent curses into his hand as Naruto descended merciless on Tenten's abandoned noodles.
I stand corrected... - Caz
