When they met

Chapter 1: When Tenten met Neji

Tenten Maito could not remember the first time she met Neji Hyuga, or rather, she couldn't even remember a day of her life without him in it. Their fathers have been friends even before they were born and when Neji's mother passed away when he was young, her mother had become as good as his.

There were very few memories of hers that held no trace of him. And if she was quite honest, she couldn't even correctly remember those that did not contain him because, truthfully, they held no importance to her. He had always been there for everything that had ever mattered.

He was there looking at her back when she was learning to bike. And then when she learned ice skating. And rollerblade. And skiing. And skate. He was the one who rushed to her the first time she scraped her knee, wiping the tears away on her chubby little cheeks and smiling at her.

He was there in kindergarten when they played together every day. He taught her the alphabet when he learned it first. And taught her arithmetic when he understood it first. And taught her chemical elements when he memorized them first.

And taught her french when he mastered it first, just before their very first class trip abroad when they were sixteen. And taught her waltz steps at midnight when they snuck out the hotel room to dance on the deserted moonlit cobbled streets next to the Seine. She had laughed and giggled in his arms, dizzied by his twirling motions and he laughed when she couldn't walk straight anymore. Their laughter would still not subsidize when they were caught by the chaperones of the trip and were heavily scolded.

The one upside to their fathers being so close is that they did everything together. From vacations to sleepovers to taking up karate together. The only thing Neji had not done with her was her ballet lessons, which she grew to hate because it was a long and frustrating bi-weekly hour of not being with her best friend. Until she started receiving flowers from him when he came to every and each of her spectacles.

Fine, she was in the same ballet group as his cousin Hinata, so he didn't have much a say in the matter. The Hyugas were a close-knit and proud family. And she guessed, she should have been grateful for ballet as it helped her make her first female friendships with Hinata, Sakura and Ino.

But he was always there, from the very beginning when it was just the two of them sharing a bath when they were three years old after a day at the beach, to when they played around in the park with her twin, Lee; to when their circle grew in high school with Tenten's new girlfriends, Ino's childhood friend, Shikamaru, and this new kid that befriended Neji, Naruto. Who also brought in the group his own best friend to the mix, the brooding Uchiha.

But even as chatter rang loudly during lunches, amid the hectic energy of their group, among the bickering of Sakura and Ino, the snores of Shikamaru, the disputes of Naruto and Sasuke, Lee's loud speeches on which team won whatever match of whatever cup of the moment, the stuttering of Hinata when talking to Naruto: amidst all of that, there were always the whispers of Neji, solely meant for her. Her relaxed form as she leaned in comfortable against him and grinned at the last spat between her idiotic friends.

He was there, sitting and slurping ramen in front of their favourite Avengers' movie, when Lee asked the whole family - "Neji included, of course," Lee pointed out - to sit down in the living room because he had an important announcement to make. Just like her and both her parents, Gai and Sayuri Maito, he had sat on the couch and watched Lee walk back and forth in the living room, wringing his hands, opening and closing instantly his mouth for an agonizing fifteen minutes until he finally blurted out :

"I think I am gay." He then landed his gaze on each of his family members, assessing their reaction. "No," He corrected, more assured. "I don't think, I know." He eyed their lack of reaction suspiciously.

It was Tenten who thought to act surprised first, enjoining her parents to do the same while Neji remained completely emotionless because honestly everybody quite already knew and Hyugas were not great at playing pretend.

"I'm very happy you trust us enough to tell us this, Lee." Tenten smiled warmly at her brother before rushing to hug him. "It doesn't change the love we have for you, I hope you know that." She felt him hug her tighter.

"Lee," Sayuri's voice was soft as she cupped the cheek of her son, feeling his chin tremble under her hand. "We love you so much and we are so proud of you."

"LEE!" This was definitely their father yelling. Tenten, still pressed against her brother, rolled her eyes as she could feel and hear both Lee and her father crying and sobbing in unison. "I AM SO PROUD OF MY YOUTHFUL SON." He shouted, his voice heavy with emotion. "LIVING THE YOUTHFUL ADVENTURE OF LOVE." And then he scooped the whole family into a crushing hug before turning to Neji with an expectant look to join the collective embrace.

Neji coughed, he had always been close to Lee, almost as much as Tenten, but he was never one to be very talkative and even less demonstrative in affectionate moments such as these. This was simply not something Hyugas did very often. Tenten couldn't keep her giggles for herself.

"Err," Neji began. "I am very happy for you, Lee." He internally winced at his awkward statement. Was this something one said when someone came out? Out of the many etiquette classes his uncle had provided them with, this situation had never been mentioned. But he knew better than to argue with Gai Maito when it came to group hugs and decided to get just behind Tenten, wrapping his hands around her shoulder and Lee's.

He was there when Lee brought in his first boyfriend, the very quiet transfer student from Suna, Gaara. He had exchanged knowing looks and playful smiles all during supper with Tenten when Gaara kept his legendary calm expression at Gai's passionate speeches on youthful love and Sayuri's gushing at how cute he was.

They had miraculously escaped with a shared portion of pudding in Tenten's room just before Gai brought in the family in another group embrace. And they had tried to ignore, under the shooting sounds of their video game, the sound of Gaara and Lee making out in the room next door. Neji had ignored Tenten's flustered cheeks and she had ignored Neji's stolen glances at her. Suddenly the room seemed filled with something they couldn't quite explain when she turned around and caught him staring at her. Pale lilac orbs locked on mahogany ones. Neji stood up awkwardly mumbling something he forgot to do for his uncle. Tenten looked at him, blinking, not sure of what happened and, amusedly, watched him go down her window, wondering for the thousandth time why he never used the door.

And a year before that, he was there the first time she got her menstruations. He had walked up to her, wrapping his hands around her from behind, in a touch that almost seemed too intimate until she realized he was tying up his vest around her.

She heard him whisper "Don't worry, nobody noticed, but you should find a bathroom."

He came later that night and climbed her window with her favourite ice cream, scrunching his nose like he always did when he handed her the treat.

"Nobody likes Cherry Garcia but you." He disapproved.

She had laughed and he gave her his lopsided boyish grin and her insides melted. But, Tenten thought it was probably because of the hot pad on her stomach, trying to calm her menstruation cramps.

"So you're a woman now?" He teased her.

She shoved him down her bed, laughing. "I'm still going to kick your ass at Mario Bros."

But later when it was three in the morning, and he had stayed to sleep over like he always did Friday nights since they were five, she knew something had changed. And not just her womanhood. While she lay awake, incapable of sleep, hearing his breathing, Tenten came to the biggest realization in her fourteen years of life.

She was madly, hopelessly, unrequitedly in love with her best friend.

And this both terrified, saddened and exhilarated her. She was obviously scared of what kind of strain her feelings could have on their friendship, and in a way deeply sorrowful because she knew he would never return those. She had been there, every time he looked at another girl, more frequently now that their hormones seemed to play tricks on their minds. But in a way, she found it tale-telling that still, after so many years, she was the only girl he let close, emotionally and physically. This made a little part of her still hold on to a tiny itsy-bitsy-maybe hope.

And that's where the exhilaration came from. Because as much as her heart was breaking at the notion she knew he would never love her like she wished he would, he still did in a way. He still hugged her when she felt sad, brought her treats when she was anxious, brushed a strand of hair out of her face every now and then. And in those little mindless acts of caring, Tenten could play pretend.

But playing pretend was like gravity: everything that goes up must come down again.

And for Tenten, her world came crashing down on a warm spring day when they were seventeen and soon graduating.

"This is my girlfriend, Fu." Neji indicated the blue-haired, brightly smiling girl enthusiastically waving at her.

Tenten's expression must have only shown shock and incomprehension because Neji felt compelled to add quickly "We met last year in Suna and kept a long distance relationship. I didn't know how to tell you." His eyes were downcast.

Tenten's wide eyes narrowed, her raised eyebrows furrowed and her gaping mouth closed in a scowl so faint only Neji knew her enough to see it. But he couldn't have known, because he was not looking at her. He was not meeting her eyes. He was looking anywhere but at her.

Like a coward.

And Tenten had never thought she would use this adjective concerning Neji. Never. He was anything but a coward. He could be cold, arrogant, deflecting, irritable, a sore loser… all of the above. But never, ever had Neji been a coward.

And that's when Tenten knew. That's when she knew he knew. He had known all along, he must have. Because when his eyes finally met hers, all they told was "sorry".

Somehow, Tenten felt led on. And betrayed. And humiliated. Because her best friend had known all about the nature of her feelings and ambushed her in meeting his new girlfriend, selfishly thinking she would swallow all the hurt this would cause her, thinking he could go on pretending to ignore all that made her heart clench and break.

Tenten knew it was unfair to ask him to reciprocate her feelings. But it was also unfair of him to imagine she would endure seeing him love another. It was cruel to not tell her anything, and yet expect everything of her.

She never thought of Neji as a coward and she had never thought of him as a selfish asshole.

But by God, she loved this asshole and she still did. So after what seemed like an eternity silently communicating with him by their shared glances, she mustered her widest grin.

"It is so nice to meet you!" Tenten exclaimed.

Tenten didn't know smiling could hurt so much. Not just having a face cramp from smiling too much, but as if from the corner of her lips, threads were tied to a mechanism that compressed her heart every time she smiled a bit more. So whenever she smiled and it hurt, she smiled more to hide the pain, and it hurt even more.

But she held it in.

And as she looked at the blue-haired girl name Fu, snake her arm around his, rest her head on his shoulder and tell her all about how they first met; Tenten swallowed hard against the ball in her throat, calming her racing heart, plastered her happy expression on and reminded herself of the one single truth she had always known.

Neji had always been there for her. Just like she always did for him.

And always would.