Chapter two.

--

"Neji, do you love someone?"

Neji was caught off guard by the question and paused before responding.

"No."

"90 of hesitations are followed by lies."

"Honestly, who would I love, Lee?"

"I dunno." Lee answered before they fell into silence again.

"You really love Sakura?" Neji broke the silence this time.

"Mm. Yeah. I think so."

"What's it like?"

Lee shifted and moved closer to Neji. They sat cross-legged facing each other, knees nearly touching. Lee leaned forward and rested his chin in his two upturned hands. Their eyes were locked, Neji thought Lee's face looked tired, like being awake was a struggle he was more than happy to bear. Then he spoke.

"When you love someone, first just being near them makes your heart pound and your stomach clench. Then soon just thinking about them makes that happen. Next thing you know, all your thoughts and feelings are driven by this person. Then their feelings and emotions directly affect yours. Then thinking about them makes you want to... touch them and be close to them." Lee paused, smiling in some sort of fond recollection.

"And that's all?" Neji responded.

"Well, that's as far as I've gotten." Lee said with a brilliant smile. "Something tells me the next step is doubt, though."

"Doubt? Doubt of what?"

"Doubt of everything." Lee said, matter-of-factly. "I doubt what I feel for her is sincere. I doubt that she even reciprocates my feelings even after all this time. I doubt that she's being completely faithful. I even doubt sometimes that what little we have in common will keep us together."

"I see."

"Can't sympathize, eh?"

"I didn't even realize your relationship was that... meaningful." Neji expressed in all honesty. "Does she love you back?"

"I dunno." Lee smiled almost sadly. "She hasn't said so yet. Ever heard of unrequited love?"

"Of which you are the definition?" Neji joked.

Lee laughed a little. "Right. Definitely. Well, unrequited or not, love is love."

"If it remains unrequited, don't you wish it would just go away?"

"Maybe... maybe some day I'll get fed up, huh? I don't know. There's something about unrequited love that feels just good enough that you don't want it to go away."

"It's cruel, isn't it?" Neji said quietly, in a low, even tone and an equally vague smile.

"I knew it. You DO love someone." Lee said, his face quickly brightening.

"Not so much a person as an idea."

"Which would be?"

"You."

Lee's eyes doubled in size immediately. He looked suspiciously at his friend. "Neji, I'm most definitely a person."

"I know. And I don't love you per se... It's just that sitting here talking with you... well, I feel that thing with my stomach. Like someone's pressing on it right here." Neji gestured to a region between his solar plexus and belly button. "That's the clenching you were talking about, right?" Neji asked, completely unwavering and calm.

"...Why do you feel that?"

"You don't think it's love?"

"Could be indigestion. I don't think you're capable of that kind of love. Towards me, anyway." Lee joked, secretly mindlessly scared that his friend might have feelings for him.

"That may be true. But... I've never been this close to you before. Do you realize that this is the first time you've been to my home? And the first time you've told me about Sakura." Neji explained in total calm. His face was, unsurprisingly, unreadable. "This is the most intimately we've ever spoken and we're revealing all about our love lives. Don't you think that's enough to shock a little emotion out of me?"

Lee studied his companion with a worried furrow on his brow. "At this point, I'd rather complain that you're too cold."

Neji laughed a little. "That's not fair. You've done something to me to make me feel different and now you want me to remain the same."

"I have...?"

"Well too bad." Neji interrupted. "I'm keeping this." He rose from his seat on the floor. "Wanna go out? I know someone who will sell me alcohol."

Lee looked up at his friend, mouth agape. This was about to be the beginning of something very strange. And very new.

--

Uhh. Cliché ending, I know. Sorry. Anyway, a lot of this unrequited love talk comes from experience. Also, I have this belief that if you are in the proper proximity with someone, feelings for them can just come from nowhere. So I applied it with these two and there ya go. I like how Neji reacts to his revelation. Soo... bye.