-three-
Pretty soon the place was a battlefield. Pillows of all different sizes and colors flew through the air, hitting intended targets, unintended targets, friends, foes, the wall, the couch, and the ceiling each in its turn. Tenten and Hinata tried their best not to get killed in the crossfire, but the inevitable happened…inevitably. Tenten was hit right in the chest with a pillow going at full tilt. She squealed in surprise, toppling backward onto the floor behind the couch as she got knocked from where she was sitting. Her back took the full force of the impact.
Hinata had gasped and was carefully lowering herself from the back of the couch to go to her friend. "Tenten, are you okay?" she asked worriedly.
"Ow," Tenten remarked, sitting up and rubbing her now aching back. Then a sudden horrible thought hit her like another pillow flying at full speed. Neji had been standing behind her against the wall. And she was pretty sure he hadn't moved. So if he were still there, he would have seen her…
She turned her head slowly as a pillow went careening over her head. It hit the wall next to a certain figure that she had so hoped would not be there. And he was smiling down at her with the first big smile she'd ever seen him sport.
"It wasn't funny," she whined, trying to appeal to his better nature and trying to cover up her immense embarrassment.
"I would beg to differ," Neji stated as another pillow slammed into the wall on his other side. He didn't even flinch.
"But I'm not letting you beg to differ, so it wasn't funny," Tenten countered cleverly. Suddenly, she drew back against the back of the couch to prevent herself from getting flattened by a blur of orange that yelled, "Come with me, Hinata!" as it sped past. Hinata gave a high-pitched scream as she was dragged off, a hostage of Naruto's.
"Well, she's about to die," Tenten muttered under her breath with a smile.
"What did you say?" Neji asked her. Tenten looked back up at the unflinching one and her smile involuntarily widened.
"Nothing."
"No, I'm pretty sure you said something."
"I didn't say anything. I promise."
Tenten was losing her mind. He looked so nice when he smiled. The world disappeared slowly as she focused all her energy on absorbing his sweet smile, on remembering it for later. Because it was such a rare treat. She just had to save some for after the party when she was alone in her room.
Neji said something that Tenten didn't quite hear. He was still smiling at her. Afraid that he would stop smiling if she said anything slightly disagreeable, she nodded. Besides, it had sounded harmless enough. Until he put on a face of all-knowing wisdom and regarded her with a mischievous smile.
"Oh, so you were talking about how you were going to hit me with a pillow? I see."
"What? No, I didn't!"
"But you just nodded your head in agreement."
"I…I didn't quite hear you over the noise."
"Sure you didn't." Sarcasm.
"No, honest!" Desperate pleading.
Tenten was being backed into a corner. Actually, she was being backed into the back of the couch that had been her barricade from the real mayhem behind it. Way to backfire on her. She composed her face in a look of fear as Neji started to walk toward her slowly. A pillow went sailing toward him, but he just caught it with ease. And now he was armed.
"Neji, put the pillow down," Tenten tried to negotiate in a calm voice. "I did not say—"
"You're dead," he whispered in a voice loud enough for her to hear. His eyes narrowed in purpose. Squealing in terror, Tenten lobbed herself over the back of the couch and crashed into the coffee table that was also being pummeled with stray pillows. Her shins throbbing, she ran for her life.
The party had literally exploded all over the house. People were running everywhere, chasing or being chased or just running around screaming for the hell of it, as Choji was apparently doing when Tenten ran past him. As Tenten rounded a corner, she nearly crashed into Kiba as Akamaru yapped in crazy excitement. Tenten slowed and looked over her shoulder once she cleared Kiba. Neji was right behind her and gaining.
Hyuuga Neji didn't really care who saw him now. He had decided that for just this one night, he'd let go. He'd partake in activities done by the group and he would actually let himself have fun, for once. He would smile, just to shake things up. And he'd willingly engage in a pillow fight with Tenten.
Hey, at least it was one kind of fighting. Right?
And the fact that he was about to duke it out with Tenten made it all the better. Except she wasn't making it too easy at the moment.
Screeching, Tenten slid around the next corner, barely controlling herself enough to avoid crashing into the far wooden wall. It was a good thing Sakura's house was pretty decent sized, or else Neji would have caught her long ago. As she tried to shift her momentum from sideways to forward, Sakura came barreling down the hallway, squealing in playful fear and full delight. As she whooshed past, Tenten looked in surprise at who was chasing her.
So Uchiha Sasuke had decided to ditch his cool dude demeanor after all. Just for a little while, at least.
But wait, she had a Hyuuga to run from.
It felt like hours, but at last Tenten had found a place to hide and catch her breath. The pillow fight had not decreased in intensity one bit, but she had been a smart girl and run upstairs, a place hardly anyone thought of going to. Tenten was panting like a dog and had a killer stitch in her side. She was sitting on the floor just inside Sakura's open bedroom doorway, hiding her from whoever might decide to come up here. She leaned against the wall and forced herself to breath slowly. In, out, in, out.
She couldn't stop smiling.
And she couldn't have been anymore sure that she had a major, major crush on Hyuuga Neji. In fact, she didn't even try to deny it. It was just there. And she knew it was true.
"Come out. Come out. Wherever you are…"
Speak of the devil. Tenten jumped in surprise and quickly stifled her gasping mouth with a hand. A little bit too late. She tried to breathe calmly through her nose as she crept slowly toward the opening, intent on getting a little peek at the prodigy.
"I can see you with the byakugan, you know."
"Crap!" Tenten accidentally exclaimed and then gave a little gasp of disbelief when she did. She was so dead.
She heard the creaking of floorboards and stood up slowly. Might as well face her death by pillow with a firm resolve. And then the pillow was suddenly thrown into her face, almost knocking her back over.
"Aww, Neji!" she yelled, clawing the pillow away from her face. "You threw it too hard!"
"Did I? I guess I'm just not good at pillow fighting."
"Not as good as me!" Tenten agreed, and charged.
Tenten got to pummel Neji nice and thoroughly for ten seconds before he grabbed the pillow in mid swing and somehow got a hold of her wrists as well. Tenten and Neji then wrestled for the weapon and for, in Tenten's case, freedom of movement. That went on for about ten more seconds. Then they both just stood still, panting and smiling.
"It's nice," Tenten found herself saying without thinking.
Neji straightened up completely and gazed at her calmly, although he was still grinning. "What's nice?"
"Your smile," she said. And smiled.
Hyuuga Neji was stunned. This had to be just about the nicest thing anyone had ever said to him. His smile? His smile was nice?
Tenten was amazed to detect a faint trace of pink that was forming on Neji's cheeks. She realized what a fragile, awkward, and beautiful moment they were having, and she reveled in it. She suddenly had the overwhelming urge to reach up with her fingers to touch his slightly pink cheeks. And she was about to.
But she never did.
"Shikamaru, you turd. Stay away from—oh my god, Tenten. A-A-And Neji."
The moment was now definitely over. Tenten's heart sank as Neji instinctively stepped away from her, creating a tangible distance. Their heads had both turned toward the stairs at the same time to be greeted by an obnoxious girl with a long blonde ponytail. Her wide eyes stared at them for a second, not even moving when a certain Shikamaru bumped into her from behind. Then she started squinting in a naughty smile.
"Looks like you owe me ten bucks, Tenten," she stated in victory.
"What?" Tenten asked, completely confused.
"Look up," Ino said with a grin.
Tenten and Neji looked up at the same time above their heads to find the worst possible thing. Taped to the ceiling was a fresh sprig of mistletoe.
They could only stare at it for a moment. Ino laughed loudly and started back down the stairs, calling over her shoulder, "I want those ten bucks, Tenten!" as she went. Tenten's eyes slid reluctantly down to Neji's face, and she found him looking at her. With no smile. And cold, cold, pale eyes.
Uh-oh.
Tenten started to explain quickly, her words not seeming to come out fast enough. Tenten was suddenly breathless and she didn't know why. "Look, Neji, it's really not what you think it is. Ino—"
"And you don't think at all," he cut in sullenly. Tenten was taken aback at how cold he was all of a sudden. She lost track of all thought as he walked away from her.
(love)
"You are an idiot, idiot, IDIOT," Tenten cursed herself as she plunged through the cold and nearly empty streets of her beloved village. The sky was already black in night and the stars were twinkling merrily at her, matching the winking Christmas lights of the shops and houses she passed. But she was feeling anything but jolly.
The path she was following she knew well. At just the right moment, she cut into the forest and followed the familiar footpath she traveled quite often, just usually not alone. The physical path was almost completely gone underneath fresh white snow, but the mental path was clear and straightforward. Hands already frozen in her jacket pockets, she plunged into the snowy clearing and looked around, her breath coming in visible puffs in front of her mouth and nose.
And there he was.
Thank god.
Hyuuga Neji did what he always did when he wanted to let off steam by himself. He massacred trees. There were many with neat little slot marks, all the same size and shape and all down in a perfectly straight line. He didn't gain any technical skills, really. Somehow it had just become his venting mechanism.
At the moment, he was throwing kunai faster than he ever usually did when he came to the forest to massacre trees. He didn't know why the fiasco at the party had him this riled up. Maybe he had let himself think there was something between him and Tenten. Something he was afraid to uncover but something he loved the feeling of. He had, for the first time in his memory, felt light and warm. It had been so nice.
But it had all been a bet, right? A bet to get him under the fucking mistletoe.
"Neji?"
Her voice was soft and quiet. Weak, Tenten thought and cringed. Neji had stopped flinging kunai with enflamed passion. He just stood still, his back to her, his bare arms limp at his sides. She had always marveled at his apparent immunity to the cold. It was crazy, but she had never seen him shiver. Not even once.
Neji's heart nearly melted. Voice of an angel was calling to him and he was still too worried about reputation and image and ego to turn around. "What?" he answered her. His voice was icy to match the slight breeze.
"The bet was a joke," Tenten began, not wasting any time on an introduction. "Ino thought I liked you and was making fun of me for it. She said that she bet you and I would be under the mistletoe before Sakura and Sasuke were." Funny how it was almost easier to explain if she pretended she didn't care. "It was a stupid…thing. Ino likes to—"
"Do you?"
Tenten was startled. She looked up from the mound of snow she had been staring at to look at Neji's back. "Do I what?"
There was a long pause. A pause full of expectation and suffocation. Tenten was holding her breath.
"Do you like me?"
Tenten let her breath out with a whoosh. She averted her eyes again as she felt a blush creeping over her face.
"I-I…" Tenten stuttered, wondering frantically whether she should tell or not. "I don't know."
Neji's feet made crunching sounds in the snow. Tenten looked back at him and found that he had turned back around to face her. "I-I like you as a friend, obviously," she amended stupidly.
"But that's not the kind that Ino meant, was it?"
Tenten shook her head slowly. "No, it wasn't."
"So you don't know?" Neji had started walking toward her, step by step by step. She watched his feet as they came closer and closer and closer and finally stopped. They were as close as they were before, when they had been under the mistletoe and Ino hadn't come yet.
Slowly, Tenten's eyes drifted up to Neji's. His gaze was comforting and steady. She could feel her tightened muscles starting to relax.
"If you do, I do," he said softly.
Tenten just stared at him.
She must have heard him wrong.
She must have.
Must have.
"What? Sorry, I don't think I quite heard…"
"If you do, I do," he repeated. A small smile was starting to grow on his lips. "Tenten, do you like me?"
A blush was raging all over her face like a rash, but she didn't care. At all. "Neji, I think I love you."
"I owe you a kiss, don't I? From standing under the mistletoe?" Neji asked her, a sly smile on his lips.
"You know, I think you do," Tenten said, looking up at him straight in the face, smiling as well. They were so close together. So close.
He leaned forward and she closed her eyes.
Their first kiss was short and sweet. But when they pulled away and looked at each other again, they knew it was pure magic.
Maybe even pure Christmas magic.
"Wanna head back to the party?"
"Sure. How much you wanna bet that Hinata's fainted by now?"
"Oh, I don't know. But I'm sure Ino and Shikamaru have gotten under the mistletoe. They've been flirting all day, for goodness sakes."
"I'll bet you ten bucks that Sakura will be screaming when we walk in."
"Deal."
A/N: -theme music plays- TA DA! There's your Christmas feel-warm-and-fuzzy story. I'm so happy that so many people liked it. I know it's a week before Christmas still, but you can always read it again. c:
I would write out all the names of my reviewers, but I'm afraid I might get in trouble for that. So...um, just a big THANK YOU to all of you. I send my love and sparkly Christmas confetti to you all.
There is a very small possibility that I'll extend this for another chapter or two focusing on other characters, but I really just wanted it to be a NejixTen fic. If anyone has a very eager and inspired idea, you can always send it to me and I'll think about it. Tee hee.
So, I guess just look out for my stories in the future and check them out. And that's all!
Until NEXT TIME...
(I wish you a very happy holidays!)