~!X!~ Begin ~!X!~

I didn't speak to Neji at all on Friday, but on Saturday I received a curious invitation in the mail, return labeled with the Hyuga logo, which I felt the need to call him to verify that it was indeed meant for me. He answered the phone on the fourth ring with his usual almost a little annoyed sounding tone.

"Hi Neji," I started, "I was just wondering if you could explain to me what the Serenity Winter Dinner Party is, and why I've received an elaborate VIP invitation to it." I said, holding up a thick blue and white invitation, tastefully decorated and scribed with fancy cursive writing.

I could perfectly visualize him rolling his eyes and leaning back in his chair through the phone as he began speaking. "Every year the city of Konoha puts on a dinner party attended by all of the supposed big contributors to our society, including the heads of various large companies, city council members, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera-"

"Ah, so in other words, it's a gathering of all the people I'd usually be considered too lowly to ever associate with?" I asked.

"That's not exactly the wording I was going for, but I suppose that sounds about right. Were you at all interested in the details of the event, or did you just want to clarify that one fact?"

"I think that's enough about the party. Why was I invited, exactly?"

"Because when the mayor's office called mine to get a head count for the invitations, Ayame assumed you'd be interested, and I didn't suggest otherwise, and thus, your name got put on the list with mine. Is this a problem?"

"Not really. Just wasn't sure you'd trust me at such an event is all."

I heard the smallest chuckle over the line, "Tenten, you've managed to put up a passable façade thus far, so why would I doubt you in a month's time?"

"Passable?" I questioned, managing to sound just slightly insulted.

"Oh very well, you've done a perfectly acceptable job with the task at hand, Miss. Hisagia. Now, if you'll excuse me, my other phone is ringing."

"Are you in the office? It's Saturday!" I cut off his attempt at pleasant goodbyes.

"Well maybe if I wasn't indulging so many other personal visits and phone calls every other day of the week, I'd spend less time here on weekends. I really have to go now." He said a quick goodbye and hung up before I could slide in a jibe about needing a personal life in order to get personal phone calls and visits.

~!X!~

The next two days were uneventful as ever. I worked a double shift on Sunday, and spent all day Monday at school attending classes and studying for the upcoming finals week.

At 6:40 on Tuesday evening Ino and Sakura picked me up in the parking lot of my apartment for the dinner, which despite Shikamaru's efforts to call off, was still scheduled as planned. When we came through the doors to the reception area, we were greeted first by Hinata, who seemed to have been waiting by the door for us. Looking past her into the room, the only other people there that I knew were Neji, looking thoroughly bored leaning against the wall, and Shikamaru, as bored as Neji and seemingly annoyed to match. I recognized the profiles of Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Choji Akimichi seated on the chairs lining the hall, but as this was the first time I'd really seen any of them in person, I was sort of at a loss for what I could possibly have to say to any of them.

After a moment of recognition, Naruto rose to offer Sakura a greeting and a hug, and I didn't miss the genuine smile the two shared at seeing each other again. I noticed Sasuke seemed awfully stiff in his chair, but recognized that it was hardly my place to point that out. I followed Ino to Shikamaru to wish happy birthday, which he brushed off anyway, saying that he really didn't care about celebrating another year, he was just here for the food. On that cue, we were lead to sit around a large circular table in the far end of the dining room and immediately served with glasses of champagne.

I found myself sandwiched between the familiar forms of Sakura and Neji on my right and left, looking at what seemed like the first menu I could actually understand in a while. To be honest, I'd almost forgotten the joy of ordering in a restaurant and knowing exactly what I was asking for. Neji chuckled at me when I mentioned this, and I told him he'd just forgotten how to enjoy the little things in life, which he ignored, in favor of discussing something with Sasuke, who was seated on his other side, while Sakura directed my attention back to the menu and started asking which of several dinner options I thought sounded more appealing.

We'd almost finished dinner and a third bottle of champagne over the course of several amusing topics, when Naruto's voice broke from whatever conversation he was having with Choji .

"Oi, Neji!" he started, and Neji looked across the table at him curiously. "When were you planning on letting the rest of us in on your latest scandal, huh?"

"Actually, the thought of doing anything of the sort never crossed my mind." Neji stated in a pretty deadpanned voice, and in the midst of trying to subtly distance myself from him, even I had to admire his poker face.

"Aw don't be like that! I was practically the one to introduce you guys by making you go to that party, I have the right to know the aftermath!" he insisted.

"Well, at least now I 'practically' know who to blame for ruining my life." I muttered into my champagne glass. Beside me, Sakura giggled into her own.

"Tenten, you're life wasn't ruined, it was made significantly more interesting, if you'd only learn to sit back and enjoy it." Ino said.

"Fine, next time you can pretend to date one of the most difficult men on the planet, and then let me know how interesting it is." I told her.

"No thank you," she said heavily, "I've already served my time, remember?" she rolled her eyes in Shikamaru's direction, who looked affronted.

"I don't know what you're complaining about." Neji told me, "I think this whole thing has been rather easy on you, all things considered."

"Nah," Naruto interjected, "I get where she comes from. You rich guys are exhausting to keep up with."

"Exactly!" I exclaimed, "Someone who understands me!" I raised my hand for a high-five over the table, which Naruto enthusiastically returned.

"Well Naruto can hardly complain, as he routinely chooses to go out of his way to force his company on those of us with other priorities." Sasuke stated, looking bored.

"Shut up, Teme, you wouldn't know what to do without me." Naruto glared and stuck his tongue out.

"Ha, Sasuke has shown before how willing he is to leave friends behind in life…" She spoke softly, but all eyes turned to look at Sakura, who was gazing distantly around the room around the rim of her empty champagne glass, apparently unaware that she'd even spoke aloud. All at once, she seemed to become aware of all of us, and a small blush spread across her cheeks, "Oops, I've obviously had more than enough of this…" she said lamely, placing her glass carefully on the table.

"No, Sweety, that was a good start. Here, have mine, too." Ino said, a little in disbelief, reaching over Shikamaru to place her own glass in front of Sakura.

"Something you wanted to say, Sakura?" Sasuke asked quietly. The rest of us remained silent, eyes bouncing between the two of them in an uncomfortable mix of anticipation and apprehension.

"Not particularly. You didn't have any inclination to listen to me the last time I was honest with you, so why would now be much different?" She was idling playing with the glass Ino had set in front of her, and I knew she was contemplating just how worth it it would have been to down its contents and speak her mind.

"Okay!" Naruto interrupted, clapping his hands together nervously, "Dinner was great, now who's up for catching the game tonight? I hear Shikamaru's got a pretty fancy new TV set up at his place, right?" he looked expectantly at Shikamaru, who appeared to scramble for words.

"Uh, yeah. It's a sixty inch screen, but I'm still working on setting up the surround sou-"

"Huh. I thought we were all able to overlook such childish dramatics." Sasuke interrupted him, cool black eyes staring directly at Sakura in a way that even made my hair stand on end, and I wasn't even in its direct path.

A cross look came over her features, and with a huff of indignation, she grasped Ino's champagne and took a swig before I could take it away from her, "I was thirteen and heartbroken, asshole!"

"Sakura, that's enough…" I tried in vain, Hinata making similar gestures across the table.

"I don't see how your adolescent emotional attachments are any fault of mine."

"No, but it's your fault for being an insensitive jerk about it. That really hurt, you know? And who the hell did you think you were to just waltz back into the picture years later like nothing had ever happened?"

As Sasuke opened his mouth to fire a retort back at her, I felt Neji's foot slide in between our chairs, and seconds later the entire tabled shuttered and shifted suddenly, toppling several of our glasses and the water jug that'd been placed in the middle of the table. Water mixed with champagne and cascaded over our side of the table, reaching the end and dripping heavily in little streams onto the floor. Thankfully, most of us were able to jump away quickly enough to avoid a direct hit, with the exception of Sakura, whose half full glass was on the edge of the table and tipped directly into her lap. This served as a good enough distraction from the conversation at hand, and she immediately fumbled for some napkins to wipe the moisture from her clothes. I was just crouching down to press napkins into the wet carpet when Ino ushered Sakura away to the bathroom, and I was vaguely aware of Sasuke storming away from the table towards the doors, with Naruto trailing quickly behind him.

Amidst the stares of other diners, we did our best to clean up our mess, with Choji assuring us that all was well, and his parents had a top notch cleaning company employed to make the place like new again come closing time. We'd just about finished up when Ino came back to urge me up, saying that Sakura was waiting down in the car, and it would probably be best if we took our leave now. We said our good-byes and apologized profusely to both Shikamaru for ruining his birthday dinner, and to Choji for causing a scene in his parent's restaurant, and when they'd both dismissed our concerns, we quickly joined Sakura and drove away.

Understandably, Sakura wasn't feeling very well on the drive home, and we pretty much just let her vent about how stupid she felt for saying anything, but she was just so annoyed to see Sasuke again like that, and the words just started to slip out, and she couldn't find the will to stop them. I asked if she wanted me to stay the night with them and we'd make it a girls night, to which she replied that no, she was tired and miserable and just wanted to go home and sleep for the next eternity, so I let Ino drop me off at home for the night.

~!X!~

I decided to skip class on Wednesday morning, since I knew that the only thing I was missing was a couple dull lectures on the last few chapters of various subjects and a couple reminders about finals week fast approaching. I spent the morning on the couch, alternating my attention between the tv and computer, and I even managed to chat with Sakura a little bit online before she had to leave for class. Only a few hours into my self-appointed mini-vacation, around eleven o'clock, a knock at my door brought me off of my couch and I was rather surprised to find Neji standing in the hall way outside my door.

"Neji, what brings you out of your official domain so early on a weekday?" I asked him as I opened the door.

He gave me a slightly pointed look. "Believe it or not, I don't live there every waking moment of the day. I had a meeting that wrapped up much more quickly than I expected, and thought I'd come deliver this." He reached into his pocket, and to my even greater surprise, withdrew my own cell phone and held it out to me.

"Hey, I thought I left that in Ino's car last night! When did you get it?" I asked him.

"You dropped it at the restaurant. Must have fallen out of your pocket while you were on the floor."

"Ah. Well thanks for that. You want to come in?"

He peered over my shoulder into the living room, which I admit, was sort of a mess. I'd been sitting on the couch in my pajamas for most of the morning, and hadn't yet gotten around to cleaning up my morning coffee mug or breakfast plate, or any of the other clutter around the room for that matter. "Actually," He said, "It looks like you're a little too comfortable in there. Why don't you come out instead? We'll get coffee."

I lifted my eyebrow at him, "But I'm not dressed to go out." I said, gesturing to my disheveled appearance clad in baggy sweat pants and a wrinkled tank top.

"I'll be waiting in the car." He insisted, and turned to leave. Rolling my eyes, I closed the door and retreated to my bedroom to find some clean clothes.

~!X!~

"So have you heard anything about the aftermath of last night?" I asked Neji a while later in a small coffee and snack shop about two blocks further from my apartment than work.

He shook his head, "No, but Naruto gives the heavy implication that Sasuke is still sulking."

"Oh." I said, "Sakura is pretty mortified by her little outburst, but she seems to be doing much better this morning, from what little I talked to her online this morning."

He didn't reply, just sipped his coffee in a contemplative sort of way, so I continued, fiddling with my napkin to help bridge the silence.

"Is Shikamaru angry that we caused a scene at his birthday celebration?" I asked.

"Not in the least. Typical Shikamaru, didn't want to be there in the first place, so though he found the whole evening to be exhausting, he's not at all personally offended. Besides, he's not one to get caught up in dramatics like this one."

"I figured as much. He's too damn smart to be offended like a normal person. Someone needs to talk with that man about toning down the IQ." I grumbled.

"That IQ has saved me a lot of trouble."

Focused more on folding my napkin into perfectly sized squares, I spoke without thinking, "Are you including the lame advice of ignoring a one night stand? Cause that was sort of lame…" As the last words left my mouth, I wanted to kick myself. There it was: the forbidden subject we'd had the unspoken agreement not to touch. I hastily submerged myself in my coffee, silently hoping he missed the comment, even though that familiar contemplating raised eyebrow of his left no doubt that I wasn't so lucky. It occurred to me all at once that now not only had I brought up the unspeakable, I'd also admitted to the crime of eaves dropping on him and Shikamaru all that time ago. Suddenly the idea of disappearing into the ground didn't seem like such a horrible idea.

Though obviously taken back, he answered with the same smooth tone as ever: "Oh, so was that you throwing a tantrum it the back room that day?" Trust a Hyuga to bypass anything self-incriminating and pinpoint someone else's daily embarrassment.

"It was not a tantrum." I defended sulkily, "It was a loud show of disapproval…" I knew how lame that sounded, but 'tantrum' sounded worse in my book.

"Oh? You disapprove so strongly?" I couldn't tell if he was teasing me or making me squirm on purpose. Either way, I decided I didn't like it and tried to force my blush down to a more natural level and think of a witty remark.

"Maybe I'd have a more specific answer if I could remember the events of the night, as it is, I'm forced to conclude you didn't quite rock my world, love." This remark was supposed to serve as both slightly insulting and embarrassing. I'd hoped that by making him think about what had happened, he'd be uncomfortable enough to change the subject.

"Oh I see…" he watched me with the same kind of contemplating look, now clouded with amusement and traces of a smirk he was willing himself to hold back. Asshole.

"Any way, since you brought it up," I might have imagined the emphasis on pointing out that this conversation was my doing, "I wanted to talk to you." He said, his features sliding gracefully back into a more passive façade.

"Really?" full of surprise and apprehension, I tried to ignore the higher pitch my voice took on.

"My jacket." He'd spoken just two words, but I understood everything behind them. There was no denying it now. Last time he'd mentioned the jacket in my apartment I'd gotten out of answering because neither of us wanted to think about or admit what had transpired, so his jacket, the one irrefutable piece of evidence that it had happened, couldn't be dwelled on, but we both knew where he'd left it, and I was out of excuses to play dumb.

So how exactly does one fess up to selling a six thousand dollar leather jacket without the owner's consent? Maybe if I cried on bended knee and spouted apologies until next Tuesday he'd forgive me… Or maybe I should take the angry, defiant approach, and say I wasn't sorry because he was the dumbass that left it in the first place… As I dwelled, I slowly made my way through a few more mouthfuls of coffee, and Neji was gracious enough to allow me time to think of the best excuse I could.

"Um, about that, Neji… just for curiosity's sake, um, how fond were you of this particular jacket?" I fidgeted as I spoke, focusing on anything, from the coffee cup circles on the table to the dumpy car parked outside, so as to not meet his penetrating gaze.

"This particular jacket," (he regurgitated my own words with an extra emphasis just to mess with me, I knew it), "is my favorite, and I'd like to have it back before winter really hits."

"Ah… Winter's only like a month away…" I said feebly.

"Indeed." His almost patient silence made the confession a bit more intimidating than it should have been. For the love of god, why couldn't I be like Ino and have the ability to grow a pair at will?

"Okay, okay, okay," I said quickly, "so first of all, you have to know what an emotional wreck I was for a few days there about the whole thing, okay? So at first I really wasn't sure what to do with this jacket that wasn't mine, so I put it away in various places of my apartment, but they all just felt wrong, so, in a fit of crazy, unnecessary annoyance and frustration, I may have possibly, unintentionally, but with full knowledge of the situation…. Sold it on ebay?" I recoiled as I finished, peaking through one open eye to watch his reaction. Most of me expected anger, but aside from a slight narrowing of his eyes, he seemed relatively unaffected by my deed…. That is, until he spoke…

"You sold my favorite jacket?" His voice had gone significantly colder than usual, and I could practically see the air around him darken in a frightening way.

"I'm sorry?" I tried meekly. He didn't respond.

"In my defense, at the time I didn't know whose it was, and I definitely never thought we'd meet again, let alone have any sort of long-term interaction, so…" I realized it was a lame defense, meant mainly to fill the silence, and all at once ran out of things to say. All the while, Neji just watched me, eyes narrowed and air heavy.

"The money you got for it?" his voice sounded just a few notches away from dangerous, so I almost lied to save my own ass, but decided honesty might be the best policy here.

"Most of it was split between repaying a loan, a doctor co-pay, and this month's rent." I admitted quickly.

"'Most of it?'"

"And the rest went into a shopping trip with Ino and Sakura." I mumbled, feeling the world around me slow to an all together intolerable rate.

"Ah." We fell back into that awful silence that made me squirm, and for the longest three minutes of my life Neji just sat there, still as a statue, apparently thinking of all the things to say to me.

Finally, he broke the silence, in a voice much closer to his usual tone. "So this is on you, right?" he gestured subtly to the table between us.

"Absolutely." I confirmed quickly.

"Good." He returned to sipping his coffee, and the heavy air around our table dissipated significantly, leaving behind one just a bit awkward on my part.

~!X!~ end ~!X!~