A/N: There we go, the last little chapter. I'm sorry for the long wait and that the updates came slower and slower. I hope that it doesn't seem rushed, but honestly I'm a tad bit to tired of this story to care.
Thank yous and a million hugs to all reviewers: Morning's Child, AngeChen, Chibimomoko, SomeRandomThing, Nightshadow Dweller, Nerd4eva, Shikyo no Amatsu Shinsei, ninjafrogofHNM, missy4eva, MaryJane Weasley, Snuz, Cloud Envy Shikamaru, and of course all of you other guys which reviewed before chap 9. You made me very happy! :D
Enjoy.
Neji sighs deeply. He just had to put himself in this situation again. How stupid. In the early, silent morning he can easily pick out the low whispers and muffled giggles coming from the place where Uzumaki and Hinata-sama lies that woke him up. Every now and then a heat wave would hit him along with a louder whisper saying, "Hinata-chan? Are you okay?". Incredible how his cousin could manage to become so intensely embarrassed by the smallest things when it comes to the Uzumaki.
His attention is drawn by a small, almost inaudible moan comes from the small form in his arms as it shifts a little to come closer to him, and he feels his arms turn rigid. Very, very stupid of him. Tilting his head he looks down on the top of brown hair lying very close to his chest. The girl in his arms is sleeping peacefully, too peacefully. It hadn't even been two minutes after they had said goodnight when her breathing started to even out. That had not been what he had planned.
He moves one hand from the small of her back to caress her hair. This girl... He lets out another deep, frustrated sigh. How could she fall asleep in the arms of a teenage boy, who clearly has intentions that aren't quite... honourable? Even though he had said that he wouldn't do anything inappropriate, it all depends on what you view as 'inappropriate' in the first place. Enjoying an amusing situation is not what Neji would sort under inappropriate, and he had just been about to begin when she had done that, fallen asleep.
It bugs him. She shouldn't have done that, she shouldn't trust him, for that meant that if he now did anything to her while she wasn't aware of it it would be a betrayal of that trust. Of course that hadn't stopped him before when he had been in bed with an attractive girl, but on the other hand said attractive girl was never so reluctant to participate in the activities he initiated as she is. Which is strange. It is obvious she feels something for him, and yet every time he tries to make advances on her she becomes flushed and mad. Even though her reactions are interesting - and amusing-, her reasons are beyond him.
Tenten moans again and nuzzles her head into the crook of his neck. Neji balls his fists and suppresses the violent urge to flip her over and do certain... things. He will not succumb to his urges, he is Hyuuga Neji and a small girl can not beat his invincible self control. A hand starts moving up his chest, stopping at the dip right before his throat begins. Neji catches his breath, his renewed self control almost crumbling away completely. How can she tempt him like this without even trying? A thought crosses his mind.
Why bother? Why go to these lengths only because she wouldn't have wanted him to if she was awake? Why satisfy her wishes instead of his own? Neji allows himself to groan, though not loud enough to wake her up. All these dilemmas, all the restraints he puts on himself, for what? He searches his head. Their encounters has not been many, but they are... memorable to say the least. Was he doomed from the first fatal hit? Did he even have a choice after he had looked into her wild, raging eyes?
Probably not. No matter which, he now realizes that she has taken up a space in his head that has never been occupied before, and he isn't entirely sure he dislikes it. Testing himself himself he moves his right hand and tilts her face upwards so that he can look at it, having no troubles to see her features in the dim light of dawn. Tanned skin, a nose tilting slightly upwards, a brown fringe hanging over her forehead, thin, elegantly shaped eyebrows, a mouth with lips so soft, and so utterly kissable...
Neji quickly closes his eyes. Bad idea. His imagination has no trouble visualizing a very possible scenario that could have ensued now, if there weren't for the facts that one, Tenten has put her trust in him, and he doesn't want to loose it, and two, he needs to see her reaction, and since she is now sound asleep nothing will happen.
Or will it? If she is asleep that means that she wouldn't push him away because of whatever her reasons are for tensing up whenever he comes close to her, and any reaction he got would come from her unconscious, the part of her that know what she really feels.
Neji shakes his head, careful not to move any other part of his body and disturb the relaxed form in his arms. He shouldn't be thinking this. It is too tempting. She is too tempting for him. Whatever she does is unexpected, not how any other girl would have reacted in her position. One moment she is fiery, the next she clings to him for protection. Her hazel coloured eyes a shade darker than her hair has a fascinating depth to them, and the hair itself is always up in that unusual panda-style. How long would it reach if she let it out? Would it be smooth to run his fingers through? Would it be as luring for him as the soft, pink, slightly parted lips through which she is breathing lightly...
Neji freezes. He has opened his eyes without realizing, and moved dangerously close to her face. All he can do is to remain in place, his body practically screaming to him to close the minimal distance between them, yet it seems to be the longest inch he has ever seen.
She would never know.
She trusts him.
But the way she moved with him when they danced, that had felt... incredible.
He made a promise.
But seconds before that she had been moaning from his touch.
If she doesn't have the same feelings he will never get a chance like this again.
Neji feels his head starting to spin. She is so intoxicating close, it would only take the slightest... Suddenly Tenten shifts and her head moves upwards, allowing her lips to brush against Neji's.
That is all that it takes to make his resolve crumble away into nothing but an unpleasant memory. He closes his eyes and pushes her firmly into the kiss with a hand at the back of her head. Her lips are even softer than they looked, and much, much more welcoming. Nothing has ever felt this right, the world has stopped moving, the only thing that matters is now, she in his arms, forever. A rush surges through his body, sending a shiver down his spine and makes him move his face closer to hers, their noses brushing.
Then she kisses him back.
Hyuuga Neji has kissed girls before. In fact he has done a lot more than just kissing. He has also not only kissed girls, but many girls. He counts himself as fairly experienced, more than the average teenage boy in any case. But Hyuuga Neji has never, ever lost himself so completely from the first response. Even though both their mouths are closed Neji feels absolutely no desire to deepen the kiss, only wishing to savour this moment forever. In fact, he has a faint idea that if this goes deeper things will get out of control. Badly.
Keeping one hand supporting Tenten at the back of her head, he lets the other trace her outline slowly, from the slit in her dress up over her delicate wrist, brushing over silky fabric and smooth tanned skin. As he reaches her cheekbone he stops. He feels something fluttering against his hand and he opens his eyes.
Tenten is staring straight into his eyes with a mixed expression of shock, horror and... enjoyment?
In the dream, a fair prince is gliding towards me, elegantly making his way between the dancing couples and stopping before us. He bows graciously and asks, "My dear fellow, do you mind if I steal this sparkling young lady from you?"
The beast in the green attire releases my hand and bows back eagerly.
"Not at all good sir, I would do anything to please this blooming lotus of youth," he says and backs away while bowing to his right and left. I am torn between letting my eyebrow twitch from being referred to as a 'blooming lotus of youth' and falling over, clutching my stomach with laughter as he bumps but first into a dignified lady with piercing gold eyes and a large bust filling out her dark green dress.
A glacial, flawless voice distracts me from my dilemma. "Alone at last, my lady."
I look up into the pale eyes in the centre of the perfect face. My breath almost catches from the intensity in his gaze.
"Dance with me." He holds out a steady hand towards me, and I put my own shaking in it.
"Yes," I manage to breath out through my tight throat before he smoothly pulls me into his arms and sweeps onto the dance floor. The distance between us shrinks with every step to the music until we are mere centimetres apart, never once does our eye contact break. His skin feels pleasantly cool against my hand and I feel his strength in his firm lead throughout the twists and turns. The perfect gentle man.
Our faces start to draw closer, the music is heard fainter, my eyes close and I can feel his hot breath on my lips, and then everything is just... perfect. I close my eyes. It's almost too realistic to be a dream, the way he carefully, slowly moves his lips against mine, how one of his hands supports me at the back of my head – which is a good thing since I don't think I can concentrate on both holding it up and staying in the kiss-, and how the other caresses my skin, from my thigh up over my arm brushing lightly over my chin, and I decide to open my eyes to see if it's only me or the music really has stopped completely and the ballroom now is in an eerie silence.
...
Oh
my
God.
I start blinking rapidly. This is not happening. It's all a dream, I just need to close my eyes again and go back to sleep- ah! You can't be dreaming without sleeping, and you can't be sleeping with your eyes open, and you can definitely not close your eyes when the most gorgeous creature you have ever seen is right, and I mean right before your eyes!
What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? Eh... scream. Yes, a good old scream. I take a deep breath to fill my lungs with oxygen, except I can't. Something is blocking my mouth, I can't breath. He's suffocating me! Help- or what? He's not suffocating me, he's... he's.. he's KISSING me!
Somebody kill me now. The shock is too great. This is nota time when my body should unite with my brain and go on a strike. Somebody needs to do something, anything! I think I'm seeing black spots, am I going to faint? Great. Awesome. Fantabulous. Wonderf-
"Tenten."
What? Did somebody say something? Am I hearing things?
"Tenten, look at me." Something grips my chin and tugs it firmly upwards. The first thing I see is his mouth. The mouth. With the godlike lips that can kiss any girl into oblivion, and at the moment which looks slightly swollen, if I'm not seeing things as well. The second thing is his eyes, so white and violent that they resemble two snow storms. The third thing I think of is why the hell I can even see the first two things since it's supposed to be in the middle of the night and all. The third thing earns me a pat on the back from myself for actually coming to a logic conclusion in the middle of this chaos.
"Why... what... ngh?" Oh look, I can talk as well! That should get me a gold medal, even though it might not have been perfectly comprehensible. I decide to close my mouth which has been doing the goldfish routine and stare at the face in front of me until it starts doing some explaining.
"Tenten look , I..." the gorgeous person in front of me trails off and furrows his eyebrows, and suddenly a name comes to me. Neji. Hyuuga Neji. The person who just k... ki... kiss... put his lips on mine in a pleasurable way, and I responded. That I am sure of. Now the question is, was that a good or a bad thing? To give myself some space to think I start to move backwards.
Within the blink of an eye his arms snakes around me and stays there, neither pulling me to him nor pushing me away. I look up into his face hesitatingly and see his features set in a stern expression. Well excuse me sir for feeling slightly troubled here, I am just a little teenage girl, never mind me.
"Don't do that." Neji says. I blink. What in the world is going on tonight? I mean tomorrow, or, whatever. Logically, since it's kind of bright outside it should be morning, but that doesn't make much sense since it feels like I'v only slept for two minutes.
"Do what?"
"Pull away. Why do you always pull away whenever something like this happens?" he asks, sounding genuinely confused. I start thinking. It's a good question. There's always the instinctive urge to melt into his arms, but then I don't. Is it because I'm scared? No. Tenten fears naught and no one. Except maybe Nami when she's in a bad mood, but that is completely irrelevant.
I remember Hinata's words, "It's not that he's a playboy or anything," and a possible reason comes to me. Should I say it, or will it ruin everything? I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Sometimes a woman's gotta do what a woman's gotta do.
"I will admit that I... feel an attraction towards you," There, I said it. Oh God, this was probably a huge mistake. "but I don't want to seem like all other girls that throws themselves over the guy they want. I'd rather stand out from the crowd." Now will someone kill me, please? Was that the corniest confession, or what?
Neji chuckles. "'Stand out from the crowd', huh? Well you certainly do that." He stops chuckling, then he looks at my face and starts laughing. Argh, i just freaking confessed, and what does he do? He laughs. Brilliant. That's what happens when you get serious with guys, I knew I shouldn't have done it. I put on a sour face and cross my arms.
Suddenly he stops and gets a completely serious expression.
"So you want me?" he asks. My jaw drops. Say WHAT?
His facial expression stays serious, part from the almost invisibly twitching eyebrow, as he continues, "You said something about how other girls behave to get 'the guy they want'. Correct me if I'm wrong here, panda, but doesn't that strongly imply that you want me?
"Eh... yes?" No, no, NO brain! Wrong answer goddamnit! I admitted an attraction, not that I secretly lust after him in my dreams.
Although I do.
"Good," Neji answers and gets up before I can react. I sit up and watch him walk over to a heap of blankets on the floor.
"Uzumaki, Hinata-sama, out. Now," He says and glares at the now stirring heap. Oh God. How could I forget? Hinata. The blueberry stalker that got to sleep next to her stalking object, Naruto. How did she survive the night?
"Mind giving us some privacy here, Hyuuga?" Naruto's orange-radiating head appears in the air, looking annoyedly at Neji.
"May I remind you that this is my room, Uzumaki. Your and Hinata-sama's cuddling time is over. Go make yourself useful and make some breakfast." Hinata makes an 'eep' sound at the word 'cudling-time' and jumps up. She looks over at the bed and her eyes lock with mine, and when I raise one eyebrow and look between her and Naruto she blushes beet red. Then she regains her self control and starts giving me a calculating look. Her eyes linger at my legs and she raises one of her own eyebrows at me.
I look down and realize that all the sheets are on one side of the bed, meaning that the two occupants of it must have slept close, very close. Damn that Hyuuga perceptiveness. I guess we both have some explaining to do.
Grunting Naruto walks over to the door and opens it, Hinata follows quietly while giving Neji the same look she gave me, but he doesn't even blink.
"Call us when breakfast is ready," he says, and she nods. As the door closes Neji turns towards the bed with an almost... predatory look. He starts advancing. I do not like this. He already got a kiss, what more can he want.
...
No way. I feel my face drain of all blood.
"Oh no," I say in a slightly panicked voice. "No, no, no. Don't you dare." It comes out more high-pitched than I would have liked. I start backing away on the bed when he doesn't stop or slow down. When I finally reach the end of the bed and start calculating how to get to the door, he stops. I freeze and eye him suspiciously. He looks at me and smirks.
"Don't worry Tenten. We have a long time before Uzumaki even finds the fridge. I am sure we could stay in here all day." In less than a millisecond he throws himself over the bed and grabs me, lunging both of us onto the matress. I gasp as the air gets knocked out of my lungs. Immediately I make an attempt to get away, only to be flipped onto my back and have Neji holding my wrists in a grip above my head. I close my eyes and start praying furiously. When nothing happens I open my eyes again slowly.
Neji's head is hovering above mine with a thoughtful expression. I barely resist the urge to grip a couple of loose strands of hair with my mouth. I doubt it would do much to help me either.
"What are you going to do? What do you want?" I ask and stare into his captivating silver eyes.
"To answer your first question, I think I'm going to take it slow and do this," Neji says and leans forward an places a light kiss on my nose, almost making me blush. Out of all the things he could do with me under him. He must have an immense control over his hormones. If the positions were reversed I could think of a number... Bad brain, don't go there!
"Secondly," he whispers and moves his mouth to my ear, " I want you."
Oh. Why didn't he says so from the beginning? I turn my head and smile at him, meeting his mouth half way. I hope Hinata doesn't rush Naruto too much, after all, this isn't a bad way to spend the morning. I put my hands around Neji's neck to pull him closer to me and snuggle deeper into the soft sheets. Not bad at all.
There. It's over and done with. Finally. I hope I didn't disappoint anyone and that you at least got some satisfaction sticking with this story until the end. In some time there will be a NejiTen one-shot coming up, and now that I have some experience in fanfiction I think that I will like it better.
Please review and tell me what you thougt, if you are happy or if you just are glad that it's over. Reviews make my life.
EDIT: 1. Just to avoid confusion, they are not going to have sex. I don't really see their relationship progressing that fast. Only some good old honest cuddling.
2. Oh my God, a C2! Thank you so much, Morning's Child! -bounces madly up and down-