Note from the Author: I was going to submit chapter nine before I typed chapter ten up … but Fan Fiction dot net SUCKS AT LIFE.
Oh, and how completely fucked-up is this. I always knew what an "AU" was but I just figured out today why it's called an AU. I'm such a retard.
I noticed the fact that I write poetry more than fiction is slowly becoming noticeable in this story. I've stopped writing in complete sentences.
… that's always out of focus in my mind.
Wrestling to see who could turn the page first had become a little more difficult, seeing that they were competing one-handed, as their other hands were glued secretly together under the table and didn't want to leave each other's warmth for something so trivial.
Neji's first day back, he found everyone was dying to talk to him, and he found the entire idea of the lunch table a little repulsive. All the people around him seemed useless and stupid. He did however greatly enjoy being pressed against Hinata.
Over the next few days, they found themselves living for lunch time, to be close to each other.
Shino, of all people, was the first to notice. He had dropped his pen – or Kiba had taken it and thrown it at him – and, bending down to pick it up, found Neji's hand holding tightly to Hinata's. He didn't know what to make of it. They couldn't really be together, could they? Then, he figured it probably had something to do with why she'd been gone so long, and he shrugged inwardly, finding the pen and sitting back up.
TenTen was the second to see it and it was only because she was always looking at Neji. He was absolutely flawless and she watched his every move, soaking in his perfection – and one day, he leaned close to Hinata to say something in her ear, and TenTen would have sworn that he nuzzled his nose in her hair. But it never happened again, and she soon forgot about it.
Shikamaru picked up on the "Neji-nii-san" as soon as he heard Hinata address him. Hinata had been calling him "Neji-san" since she'd introduced him to them but suddenly the name was different – more intimate, personal. And the complete adoration she had for him was obvious when she looked up at him.
Neji's affection was harder to pick up on because he was quiet and closed by nature. But soon Shikamaru noticed the way he let their fingers brush together when her turned the page of the book, the way, when he spoke to someone down the table, he pressed himself against her. And Shikamaru wasn't as clueless as the rest of them – their hands that never appeared he knew he would find clasped between them beneath the table.
He didn't forget, but he had more important things to think about – like Temari's fingers sneaking up his shirt to march a suggestive trail of shivers along his skin.