One last oneshot before the new year.
It's even fluff. Shocking, I know.
"You're in public!" Neji glowered at Naruto, but he still pressed Hinata's hand to his lips.
She flushed prettily, glowing with happiness. The barista called for their names, and only then did Naruto let go of Hinata's hand to get their order. Beaming, he brought back hot chocolate and cake to their table.
Neji clenched his jaw.
To his greatest embarrassment, Neji's role as a chaperone for his cousin and her buffoon of a boyfriend did not yield the same satisfying results as in the first week of their dating. No more was there a hurried separation following a tangled embrace. No more was there tantalizing terror when Neji so much as glanced at them. No more was there any hesitation when Hinata and Naruto reached for each other.
No, now they had the indecency of ignoring him.
No matter how much Neji scowled, glared, cleared his throat or gritted his teeth, they ignored him. Naruto would still take Hinata's hand. He would still grin at her and hug her, and she would let him and smile back, her cheeks flushed.
It was aggravating, insulting and completely unacceptable, how his standing had sunk in the recent weeks.
Tenten nudged him and grunted, without looking over her book. Neji quickly glanced at her, before glaring one last time at Naruto.
"Hyuuga, the food," she said in a sing-song voice, but there was an edge to her voice.
"I know," Neji mumbled darkly, before rising to his feet.
Once at the counter, he almost growled when he reviewed their order. He had let Tenten do the ordering, and she had ordered two cold drinks and cookies with too much icing. Briefly, he closed his eyes, resting there for a moment. Maybe he was losing face on all accounts.
"Is anything the matter, sir?" the barista meekly asked.
Mutely, Neji thanked him and returned to his table. He placed the tray between Tenten and him.
Of course, when he resumed his chaperoning duties, Hinata and her boyfriend were still making absolute fools of themselves.
"How dare he…" Neji hissed between his teeth, and Tenten merely hummed, flipping through her book.
Without breaking eye-contact with her book, Tenten shifted in her seat, dropping her chin on her hand. Impatiently, she gestured for Neji, and he slid her drink toward her.
Naruto and Hinata shared a piece of cake, giggling and resuming their inappropriate flirtations. They had the audacity of not only sharing a plate, but also their drink.
"It's not hygienic," Neji snapped at them, but the love birds ignored him.
Scandalized, he turned his attention back to Tenten. She drank her iced coffee with a straw, her red lips leaving dark imprints around it. Neji blinked. When had she started wearing make-up?
Absent-mindedly, Tenten turned another page from her book and scanned the text, her index tapping over interesting parts of the ancient weapons' descriptions.
"Tenten," Neji said stiffly. "Look at this."
She let go of her straw, her gaze lazily shifting upward to meet his.
"Hyuuga…" Tenten said with a sigh and reached for the plate he hadn't touched.
Humming to herself, she broke a piece from the cookie she ordered from him. Neji didn't stop her, too preoccupied by the way Naruto and Hinata were now scandalously embracing.
"That is it," Neji started, but before he could fully stand up and explain to Hinata and Naruto how indecent they were behaving, Tenten grabbed his wrist in an iron grip and yanked him back in his seat.
Munching on his cookie, Tenten's dark stare bore through his.
The back of his neck prickled. Was she wearing mascara?
"Hyuuga, you're jealous," Tenten said flatly with her usual assurance, and let him go.
His ears flushed scarlet, his mouth agape, as she resumed eating his cookie, her attention back to her book. He didn't think of arguing. Tenten knew him too well; she was always right about him.
Her hair fell over her face, as she read on, and soon, he silently pushed toward her the second cookie and her second coffee.
He stilled. Tenten broke the cookie in small pieces, crumbling its totality before looking up at him.
"Thank you, love."
His breath seized in his chest, building up pressure, building up helplessness. He focused on the smear her lipstick had left behind on the straw.
Maybe he was jealous that Naruto and Hinata were effortlessly better at love than them.
Sullen, Neji glared at the back of Naruto's head.
He had repeatedly mentioned how long their walk had stretched, but they had both ignored him.
On their fifth turn of the park, Hinata leaned forward shyly and whispered something in his ear. Naruto nodded quickly, his eyes sparkling. Before Neji could snap that they were already standing close enough, Hinata retrieved a hand-knitted scarf from her bag. To his utter horror, she rolled the scarf across both their necks.
They resumed their walk, hand-in-hand, giggling, still sharing a scarf.
"Oh my god," Tenten laughed. "I didn't expect that."
"I'm not jealous of that," Neji said icily, and hesitantly glanced at her.
"No, you aren't," she said with a grin and stretched her arms above her head.
Neji looked at her, lips pinched, struggling with how much change he was now noticing in her physical appearance. She now wore make-up and earrings. Inconveniently long ones. The small fans she wore swayed in each movement of her head, half-caught in the wool of her scarf and her hair.
Tenten thrusted her chin forward at the receding pair in front of them.
"Is this going to last for a while still, you think? I've got stuff to do."
For the first time, Neji ignored his cousin and her annoying boyfriend.
"What stuff?" he asked uneasily.
"You know..." Tenten smiled sweetly and shrugged. "Anything else than watching your cousin and her boyfriend grope each other."
Neji hummed and stared at Tenten's hands. Rings. She now wore rings on almost all her fingers.
"Don't even think about it."
"About what?"
"Taking my hand."
Neji's gaze darted back to her face, searching it. Her expression was calm, her nose and cheeks flushed from the cold, but she looked sharper and colder he had ever seen her. Her smile didn't neatly quirk up her lips. It didn't crinkle the corner of her eyes. It didn't dig dimples. It rest, flat, floating over her lips like an after-thought.
Neji gulped, finally realizing what he had missed; Tenten was furious.
He opened his mouth, racking his brain for anything to say, but she walked lightly on her feet past him, the snow squeaking under her boots.
"God, I always knew you were a cuddler," she added with a sigh and a bubbly laugh that rose goosebumps down Neji's back. "You're not touching me."
Neji didn't argue.
He followed her.
He believed her.
He always did.
"Your cousin be damned, I'm running away in 30 minutes," Tenten said behind her drink.
Her lips quirked up without humour, as for the same song played for the third time in a row. She nudged Neji, and he bent forward selecting a few hors-d'oeuvres from the tray on the coffee table.
"Thank you, love."
Without ceremony, Tenten engulfed three pieces of smoked salmon crackers and rice cakes.
Neji said nothing, too aware of the weight of her, her side pressed against his. Around them, couples were laughing with other couples. They were touchingconstantly.
Neji glanced quickly at Tenten. She looked bored and uncomfortable, her legs folded under her.
Sakura and Lee's New Year party was crowded and already too loud. Green and pink balloons had fallen off the wall, not gathering at an alarming rate on the floor. The Christmas tree was still up, slightly crooked, half-hidden behind gifts and too large ornaments.
"Oh God. Incoming," Tenten groaned under her breath.
Neji crossed his arms over his chest, staring up at Ino and Kiba. They wore matching outfits to his greatest annoyance. Tenten half-rose from the couch, greeting them both loudly.
Farther away, Hinata and Naruto slipped upstairs, and Neji tugged at Tenten's arm so she would sit back next to him.
But she already knew. She already waved off Kiba and Ino and folded her body next to his.
"You're sad," Tenten said, her mouth close to his ear.
Instinctively, he turned his head toward her, craving the heat of her skin. She tugged at her earring, her head cocked to the side, looking past him at Naruto and Hinata.
"Hn."
Neji watched her dark mouth, wondering how she would react if he kissed her now. In public. In the middle of a party, they both found uncomfortable. He wondered if she would tell him then why she was so furious, and why he was so sad.
Tenten craned her neck, still following the couple with her gaze. She tapped her palm to his chest.
"Naruto and Hinata slipped away."
Neji nodded gravely, staring at her hand on his chest. She pulled away, unfolding herself slowly.
"Let's go," Neji said stiffly, his mind made up.
He stood up and buttoned his blazer before making his way through the crowd. Tenten sighed, irritated and miserable, and slipped back under the high heels she had disregarded earlier under the coffee table. She smoothed her black dress and rearranged its tight skirt, before searching for Neji.
She kicked at balloons and nodded at people, sweet and sharp.
Carelessly, she left her empty drink on the dining room table before rounding the corner.
To her surprise, Neji wasn't near the staircase to the mezzanine. She retraced her steps, and finally spotted him in the hallway. He held both their coats.
"Neji?" Tenten whispered and looked over her shoulder to spot Lee or Sakura.
Wordlessly, Neji helped her in coat and opened the door before either host could shout after them.
Tenten giggled, fastening her coat as they walked through the snow. She walked, wobbled, her heels digging unevenly in the snow. She looked back at Neji, curious. They had left their boots behind.
"Neji!" she gasped at the cold, but her voice was full of laughter.
He unlocked his car, his expression unreadable. Tenten ran past him, squealing. She quickly opened and slammed the passenger's door.
Neji slid behind the wheel a short moment later.
"What's with you?"
"You're angry at me," Neji said and wrapped his hands around the steering wheel. Its coldness bit. His hands fell back on his laps.
Tenten shook the snow out of her hair, still panting from her sprint.
"You think I don't pay attention to you," Neji continued softly.
"Your attention comes and goes..." Tenten replied in merry voice.
"I'm not good at noticing the... earrings, make-up and..." he cleared his throat.
She stared at him, her face hardening. Her sugary-sweet voice boiled and thickened: "Why did you say, "Let's go on a date" if it was their date?"
Neji blinked.
"We're always together."
"Yes, we are," Tenten said flatly, reached forward to put her address in the GPS.
Neji winced, gripping back the steering wheel.
"I'm better at noticing what you read, how you read it. How you like prefer cold drinks, even in the winter."
"Did you notice our 'dates' are about watching your cousin get kissed by her boyfriend?"
Neji winced again.
"I apologize."
"I know we've known each other for a long time..." Tenten paused, her voice growing smaller. "Do you take me for granted? Or are you thinking we should go back to being just friends?"
"We were never just friends," Neji said, alarmed.
"Then?" Tenten bit her lip. "You say, let's date... but we're just chaperoning your cousin."
Neji cocked his head to the side.
"I wasn't aware we were dating. I just like buying you meals."
Tenten glared at him, her lips disappearing in a rigid line.
"That's not funny," she snapped.
His chest heaved with quiet laughter.
"Hyuuga, I'll break your face."
Still laughing quietly, Neji grabbed her fists and pulled them to him. He dipped his head and kissed them, hurriedly, gauging her reaction. Tenten watched him, her breath caught in her throat. He did it again, his thumbs caressing her knuckles to ease her fists open.
He kissed the centre of her palms, pulling her closer and closer.
"I apologize," he repeated, pressing her hands to his cheek.
"And?" Tenten asked and boldly looked up at him.
Impulsively, she kissed the tip of his nose. His eyes flickered to her dark mouth.
"I'll pay more attention," he said huskily.
Tenten reached up and held his face. They pressed their forehead together, quietly breathing in each other.
"And?" she added thickly.
Neji pulled slightly away, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
"I'll cuddle you in public," he whispered against her ear with a smile. "I'll be indecent."
"Neji Hyuuga," Tenten laughed and sighed contentedly when he kissed her ear.
Before he could draw her earlobe in his mouth, Tenten grabbed his coat and forced him to look back at her. Neji grunted low in his throat; she always balanced sweetness and strength, soft curves and sharp wits.
"No chaperone," Tenten said ruefully, mischief burning in her eyes.
Neji smiled slow, touching her cheek. His hand slid easily down to her neck to hold the back of her head. He sharply pulled her back to him.
"No chaperone," he agreed against her lips.
They kissed slow, pausing between strokes to press themselves closer together. Neji's fingers sank in her locks, freeing curls from bobby pins.
And they were no longer afraid.
Happy new year, y'all!