Thank you all for the compliments on the lemon! I hope you all had as much fun reading it as I had writing it.

Unfortunately for our wonderful couple, however, there are still a lot of unresolved issues to overcome and things must get worse before they can get better. Forward we march!

"Good morning, beautiful."

Neji was awoken by these words and the kiss of the morning sun through his window on his temple, followed soon after by an actual kiss from the lips of the ghost he was snuggled up against. With a contented him, he relaxed into the contact as he blinked his eyes open.

The first thing he saw when his vision relaxed into wakefulness was the chessboard and pieces scattered about his bedroom floor, along with the suitcase he'd never unpacked, and Neji pushed himself into a sitting position with a groan. "My room is a mess. I need to clean it up before Hinata stops by for her next lesson."

The arms around him tightened a little at the mention of Hinata, though Shikamaru kept his tone light. "'Well, good morning to you too, Shikamaru. How are you doing today, you handsome devil, you?'"

Neji gave him a baleful look from underneath his lashes. "I would never utter those words in my life."

Tapping on Neji's bottom lip with a long index finger, Shikamaru gave a fake pout. "So I don't get a good morning?"

The mock severity in Neji's glare was only able to last for a few more seconds before he dissolved into quiet giggles and pressed his lips against the ghost's for a quick kiss. "I'm sorry, Shikamaru. It's such a beautiful morning when I have such a wonderful face to wake up to. There, is that better?"

"Much, thank you."

Shikamaru kissed Neji again, longer and slower this time, and Neji felt like his insides were melted by the time he pulled away regretfully.

"As nice as this is, I do have things I need to accomplish today. You're welcome to stick around, though."

"Oh, don't worry; I was planning on it."

And stick around he did. The ghost was absolutely no help in cleaning up the destroyed game of chess on the floor, despite the fact that he could literally just snap his fingers and be done with it, and no, Neji was not salty about that, not at all, though he did quiet graciously bring Neji some Aspirin when he had first tried to take a step and ended up on his already sore ass on the ground. He also seemed to think that Neji getting dressed was a bad idea, and for every button Neji managed to get done when he was doing up his shirt two more would mysteriously pop open until he had to ban Shikamaru from the bathroom so he could make himself presentable for the day.

When Neji finally got around to unpacking his suitcase, after multiple distractions from his spectral companion including several instances of groping ranging from light to extremely heavy and one long, very satisfying make-out session, he had to sigh as again, he found a pair of almost-insubstantial arm wrapped around his waist.

"Shikamaru, you do know that I have to get this done, right?"

"And I preventing you from doing that?" Came the muffled reply near his ear.

"Not yet, but the last time this happened - which was about fifteen minutes ago, don't forget - I ended up half undressed again, and I am trying to do things besides you."

Shikamaru let out a hearty chuckle. "Was than an innuendo? From you?"

Feeling his cheeks warm, Neji redoubled his efforts at folding his semi-clean laundry and packing it away in the drawers that were already full. "Maybe. What of it?"

"Oh, nothing." Shikamaru pressed his mouth against the side of Neji's neck. "Just that you're too adorable for your own good. You do know that you just put your dressshirt in your underwear drawer, right?"

With a silent swear, Neji pulled the shirt from the drawer and move to hang it up in his closet where it belonged. Throughout his journey, Shikamaru tugged on his collar plaintively.

"Come on, can't I get just a little kiss?"

"The problem is it won't be 'just a little kiss' if you're involved."

Neji turned around to make his way back to his suitcase, but suddenly found himself face to face with a pouting smile. "Not even if I promise to be good?"

In the face of Shikamaru's pouting insistence, Neji felt his resistance melting away. "Okay, fine. As long as it's just a little one."

Humming in pleased approval, Shikamaru leaned forward and carefully reached his hand between Neji's neck and his hair, then pressed their mouths together. The kiss started off chaste, then quickly deepened as Shikamaru coaxed Neji's mouth open and their tongues collided in a sensual dance. Neji found himself pressed backwards until his back hit the wall, then Shikamaru's body pressed into his own from shoulder to thigh, and he could feel the ghost's reaction to anything he did through his entire body.

This was a little more than "just a little kiss" now, but Neji couldn't bring himself to care. Hell, if Shikamaru asked, he'd probably pull his pants down right now, bend over against the wall, and let the ghost fuck him senseless again. As if sensing the direction of Neji's thoughts, Shikamaru thumbed against the edge of his waistband, and Neji shivered in response.

Okay, so that was probably what was going to happen now.

Neji was so absorbed in the ghost in front of him that he almost didn't hear his front door open and close. He only realized that something was truly wrong when Shikamaru pulled away quickly.

"There's someone coming towards us."

"Wha- what?!"

For a moment, the words didn't register in Neji's brain, then his eyes widened and he tried to create some distance between himself and Shikamaru, but by then it was too late and his bedroom door creaked open to reveal the one person he'd hoped to never see him like this.

Hinata had gone to Neji's apartment that morning with the two-fold intention of inquiring how his trip had been and asking him about something that had been bothering her lately. Most of the elders on the council usually avoided speaking or even looking at her whenever they passed her in the hallways of the Hyuuga compound, but now they had taken to greeting her by name and smiling in a way she couldn't help feeling was slightly predatory. If anyone would know what was going on, it would be her big brother Neji, because Neji was smart and knew everything.

He didn't answer when she knocked on the door, but Hinata had a key, so it was easy enough to get in. The door opened silently on well-maintained hinges, and Hinata suddenly got the idea to surprise her cousin. She'd never been able to do it before - minus the time she'd accidentally done it the day Neji had slept in - so she figured this time would be no different, but perhaps she could get close. She snuck through first the kitchen and then the living room on her tiptoes, being careful to avoid any excess noise as she approached the only closed door that she could see: his bedroom door.

Hinata only got the feeling that this might be a bad idea, to break into someone's bedroom while they were perhaps standing unsuspecting inside it when she was almost to his room, but by then she could hear the voices inside the room, making out Neji's unique voice in a panicked timbre mixed with the calmer tones of a deeper voice. The sound instantly sent shivers down her spine and set her already strung nerves on edge; why was Neji panicking? And who else was in there with him?

She placed a shaking hand on the doorknob, wondering if she had the confidence to follow through with opening it. If she turned around right now, she could walk out the door, lock it behind her, and then text Neji to let him know that she was coming, giving him time to sort out whatever this situation was before seeing her. Then again, if the situation was reversed, Neji would have barged into her room without pause. Hinata's hand tightened on the doorknob, the action causing the shaking of her arm to ease somewhat. When was she going to stop relying on Neji for everything and start relying on herself?

After taking a deep breath to steady herself, Hinata turned the knob and opened the door.

And then immediately wished she hadn't as she beheld one of the most terrifying scenes she had ever seen, and one that she would never be able to forget as long as she lived.

Neji, her beloved big brother, was in the arms of somebody else. And, to add insult to injury, it was a man- no, a ghost, and one with an air of familiarity around him once she looked closer. A jolt of fear racked her body and stole its basic functions away, making it impossible for her to either fight or flee.

Neji was in the process of disentangling himself from the ghost's embrace when Hinata opened the door, but that didn't make it any less obvious what they had been doing. His cheeks were flushed, but they paled when he locked eyes with her. Desperately, he tried to push the ghost away from him, but he wouldn't let go, his fingers gripping Neji's arm tight enough to bruise as he fixed Hinata with a glare that would have sent her running if she could convince her legs to move, a glare that was tinged with… jealousy?

"Wait! Hinata! I can explain-!" Neji tried to cry, reaching for her, but before he could get the rest if his sentence out, the ghost grabbed him and kissed him right in front of Hinata, his cold gaze locked with hers as if to say, See this? He's mine now.

It was then, with his dark, soulless eyes locked on hers, that Hinata finally recognized him: it was Shikamaru, one of the phantoms they had met while working in Konoha. But since he was now in Seattle, that immediately changed his classification. Phantoms, because they were a subspecies of specter, couldn't move from the place they haunted, let alone travel across the country as they pleased. The only ghost that could was a wraith.

Neji shoved the ghost with an angry shout, though it didn't make him loosen his grip on Neji's arm, then turned to Hinata. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Shikamaru? Hinata, please listen to me-!"

But Hinata didn't react; she was too shocked by her recognition of the ghost for anything else. Then, all of a sudden, a shiver of pure, abject terror it hit her, and she screamed, loud and piercing into the low hum of panic in the room. Neji reared back and punched the ghost right in the jaw to make him let go, then stumbled across the room to Hinata, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her.

"Hinata! This isn't-! I mean-!"

Hinata instinctively slapped his hands away before she knew what she was doing. She almost immediately wished she hadn't after seeing his hurt expression, then just as immediately was glad that she had again. Curling on herself and away from him, she spat a few hurt words at him, a little surprised that her stutter was calm enough to let her speak.

"H-how could you, M-Neji?! Can't you t-tell? He's a wraith!"

"I know!" Neji cried suddenly, then his shoulders slumped, his gaze dropping to the floor as if he was unable to meet her eyes, and he continued in a softer tone. "How could I not know?"

"You knew? For how long?"

The words came from the ghost hovering in the center of the room, his face suddenly twisted into a strange expression.

"Since you first showed up in Seattle," Neji admitted, his gaze still on the floor in front of him. "I always said that I was smarter than you gave me credit for, Shikamaru."

Hinata flinched at the name. "I c-can't do this," she whispered, starting to shake as Neji finally looked up at her. "I c-c-c-c-can't-t s-s-s-see y-you with-th h-h-him-m-m-"

"Hinata!" Neji grabbed her shoulders again, panic starting to seep into his voice as he realized she was having another attack. "Calm down; I know you can do it! Just breathe-!"

But again, Hinata pushed his hands away. "DON'T TOUCH ME!" She screamed, and this time it was Neji's turn to flinch back. He stared at her, openmouthed, for a few seconds, and then Hinata couldn't take it anymore; she had to get out of there. She turned and fled without checking to see if Neji was following her, terrified that he would, terrified that he wouldn't, and unsure which she was more scared of.

It was quiet in the room after Hinata stormed out, the calm before the inevitable typhoon. Neji stared out the door behind her, unable to look at the phantom - no, the wraith - behind him.

"Why did you do that?" He asked in a deceptively quiet tone that hid the exact amount of anger currently swirling inside him.

"Do what?"

Neji's teeth came together with an audible snap. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. You chased her away. Marked what you saw as your territory like filthy animal. Why did you do that?!"

His voice rose in volume until Shikamaru spun him around so they were face to face.

"You fucking know, Neji, don't pretend like you don't! Come on, you tell me why I kissed you in front of your cousin!"

"Jealousy is not a good enough reason!" Neji exploded. "She's a child, Shikamaru!"

"Yeah, a child you care about more than you care for me! It's not that easy! How am I supposed to feel, huh? You tell me!"

"I don't-!" Neji stopped, then shook his head and took a step back, away from Shikamaru. "I always told you that Hinata was important to me, Shikamaru, and that if you ever made me choose between the two of you, I would choose her in a heartbeat. Well, that time has come. You've made your mistake. I'm going after her, and you better be gone by the time I get back. I don't want to see you ever again."

Then Neji turned on his heel and stalked out the door, leaving behind him a shell-shocked tactician who was wondering where he had miscalculated.

Neji ran down the stairs leading up to his door in his apartment complex after his cousin, but by the time he got to the bottom, Hinata was nowhere to be seen.

"Hinata! HINATA!"

There was no response, not that he'd expected much of one. Neji swivelled his head back and forth as he gazed down both parts of his street, unsure which route he should take. The left was the way she had probably come, as it led back to the Hyuuga compound, and the other direction was, to her, an unknown path. Knowing her dislike of uncertainty, under normal circumstances Neji would have guessed that she would have headed back the way she had came, but these were clearly anything but normal circumstances.

Neji turned to the right and ran down the road, searching desperately for any sign of his cousin.

"Hinata! Please, where are you?"

He found her on a bench a few minutes away, having run until her untrained legs couldn't take any more and collapsed with her face in her hands. Neji was out of breath by the time he reached her, and he had to double over and rasp for air in front of her.

"Hi… Hina… ta…"

Her face was streaked with tears when she looked up at the sound of his voice, and Neji felt like the sight ripped a hole in his chest large enough to yank his heart out and hold it triumphantly aloft.

"G-go away," she hiccuped, curling up on the bench and hiding her face in arms again.

But Neji kneeled down in front of her and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. She flinched away from it at first, but eventually allowed him to rub soothing circles on her back.

"Hinata, you know that I love you," he said after a few minutes of tremulous silence broken only by the sound of Hinata's sniffling. "More than anything else in this world, I love you, and nothing will ever change that. Alright?"

Hinata said something, but it was muffled by her arms.

"Hinata, sweetheart, I can't understand you when you do that."

Pulling her face out of her arms, Hinata sobbed, "B-b-but you were w-with hi-him!"

"Oh, sweetheart." Neji reached forward to enfold Hinata in his arms, and this time she came willingly, clutching at his shoulders and sobbing into his shirt. His collar soon turned to a wet mess, but he just kept rubbing those soothing circles against her back. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

Hinata made a kind of choking sound, then threw her arms around his neck. The rest of her body fell off the bench and followed into Neji's lap, and he held her as she cried herself out in his arms.

When the tears finally slowed, Neji gave her a gentle pat on the back. "Do you feel better now?"

"N-no." She clutched him a little tighter. "How c-could you d-do that? He- he's a w-wr-wraith, N-Neji!"

"I know." Neji pressed his face into her hair. It smelled faintly of the shampoo she had always used, clean and comforting. "I know. I didn't mean for this to happen, Hinata; it just did. Sometimes we break the rules without knowing what they are." He took a deep breath; the next words hurt him to say, now that his initial anger had worn off. "And if it makes you feel better, I'm not going to see him again."

"It d-doesn't make m-me f-feel b-better! That-t doesn't m-make any sense! S-stop talking in rid-dles as if that w-would solve th-things!"

There was no way to make Hinata understand why Neji had done what he'd done, because he didn't understand it himself. The brief affair he'd had with the ghost had been illogical, taxing, and painful at times. And yet, it had also shown Neji the warmest passion he'd ever felt in his life. His heart clenched just think about it, but he forced himself to push aside his feelings with a shake of his head. He'd already said goodbye to Shikamaru; with everything that he knew was coming for him, it was an inevitability, and it was probably for the better that it had come now and the break had been clean.

Luckily, Neji was spared from having to explain all this to Hinata by an obnoxious ringing that interrupted their silence. It took a few moments for Neji to recognize it as his ringtone because he'd forgotten that his phone was already in his pocket when he'd stormed out of his apartment. When he did, he pulled it out and answered it without looking at the caller ID, still cradling Hinata against his chest with his other arm.

"Seattle File Operator Neji Hyuuga speaking. How can I help you?"

"Ah, Neji." The voice on the other end of the phone was clipped, professional. Neji didn't recognize him. "I'm calling on the behalf of the Council of Elders. They'd like to schedule an appointment with you."

"Certainly." Neji shifted so he could get a better angle to hear. He'd rather do anything but meet with the Elders right now, but it wasn't like he was in any position to refuse the not with the his recent transgressions leaving a huge stain on his otherwise perfect record. "How soon would they like it? I'm rather busy the next few days catching up on work that I missed while traveling, but I'm sure I could squeeze something in-"

"Now."

"Ex… excuse me?"

"Now," the voice clarified. "They want to see you now."

The tone said that they weren't planning on taking no for an answer. Neji had to swallow down an unnecessary retort. "I'll be there as soon as I can. I'm with Hinata right now, so as soon as I get her settled, I'll head right over."

"You're with her? Excellent. She was next on my list to call. The Elders want to see you two together."

Neji blanched. They wanted to meet with both of them together? That could only mean one thing: the time to tell Hinata the truth had finally come.

It was probably a good thing that he'd already said goodbye to Shikamaru, then.

"Understood. Both of us will be there as soon as possible."