heartbeat: Hello, my wonderful readers, I bring gifts in the form of a new chapter! A chapter longer than the last!
Please enjoyy and don't forget to review!
~myheartscontent
disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
MY SWEET DEMISE
Act 2
~uncomfortable~
"I won't assume you're still a virgin"
Kakashi looked down at his white shirt, watching as the coffee stained the previously-pristine fabric.
"Oh, my God," Tenten breathed, suddenly frozen. "I am…I am so sorry." A knot in her stomach tightened as she envisioned all of the horrible things her boss could do to her and Neji. He could fire them both, of course. That was definitely in the realm of possibility.
She hoped he wouldn't yell. It would most likely draw the attention of the press and the last thing she needed was her picture ending up on some national newspaper, announcing to everyone that she was a stupid, clumsy, butterfingered idiot.
Tenten watched with bated breath as Kakashi studied the stain and she braced herself for the worst. As he opened his mouth to speak, it took every ounce of self-control not to run away.
"Well," Kakashi said thoughtfully, as if admiring a piece of art, "I was expecting the coffee to be scalding."
"Oh!" She silently chastised herself for being so meek and fought to keep and calm, respected veneer. "It must have cooled off. The assistant…she said she had it with her for a while before she gave it to me."
"And here I thought I had acquired a superhuman ability to withstand pain."
His eyes smiled and Tenten was skeptical, sure that he was mocking her. She prepared a tart response but stopped herself, remembering that he was her boss. "I'm afraid not, sir. Is there…anything I can get you? I really am sorry."
"Another shirt would be nice," Kakashi stated, "but I don't expect you to have one with you."
She thought of Neji's dressing room. He couldn't deny helping out his boss. "I…I have access to one."
"Do you really?" He sounded intrigued. Tenten couldn't tell whether it was sincere or just out of politeness.
"Yes, I'm Hyuuga Neji's manager," she explained, beginning to head off in the direction of his dressing room. "I think he may have an extra shirt lying around. The designers always prepare too much clothes."
Kakashi followed her down a few hallways. "Is it tough?"
Tenten reached for the doorknob. "What?"
"Being Hyuuga Neji's manager," he elaborated.
"No, he really isn't as bad as everyone thinks," she laughed lightly, flinging the door open to reveal that it was, indeed, empty.
"He seems like a difficult person to manage. I'm sure you have many ways to keep him satisfied," Kakashi said, unaware of his statement's double meaning.
Tenten bit her lip as she flipped through a clothing rack. "I do have a few but I love being his manager." She smiled triumphantly upon finding an almost identical white shirt, oblivious of Kakashi's frown, and presented it to him. "Found one."
"I see." He took it.
"And you know, I'll just step out for a-" Tenten's eyes widened as Kakashi unbuttoned his dirty shirt and tossed it onto the couch, revealing his toned chest. "Um…" She was at a loss for words.
He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes and smiled crookedly as he shook out Neji's shirt. "What?"
"Nothing," she snapped, telling herself to avert her eyes and turn around but finding herself unable – or maybe unwilling – to do so. "I'm just a tad bit uncomfortable."
"I am your boss so I won't assume it's something personal." He slipped on Neji's shirt and buttoned it, his broad shoulders a bit too broad for the confines of the shirt. "Nor will I assume that you are still a virgin."
"I'm not. I've had sex before," she said slowly, realizing the oddity of conversing about sex with her boss.
He smiled knowingly. "Of course. Now, I promise I'll take excellent care of Neji-san's shirt. I'll wear it, wash it, and return it as soon as possible." Kakashi bowed and headed for the door but stopped halfway out. "By the way, can I have your number?"
Tenten knew she couldn't refuse her boss and gave him her number.
"I'll call you when I'm free," he promised, giving her a casual wave.
"To drop off the shirt?"
He smirked. "And then some."
Barely a minute after Kakashi left, Neji stormed in, frowning. "Tenten."
She looked up. "What?"
"Who was in here?" he demanded, gesturing around the room.
Tenten pursed her lips. "Shouldn't you be at the press conference?"
Neji shook his head. "Don't change the subject. Who was in here? I saw some man leave as I rounded the corner…"
"It's a bad idea to be suspicious of your boss, Neji," she teased.
"Boss," he repeated, "my boss."
"And my boss, too. I'm not going to get involved with Kakashi-sama," Tenten insisted sincerely. "Too much drama and shit…"
He gave her an unreadable look before walking out the door. "Come on, I want you backstage during the press conference," Neji called over his shoulder.
Tenten ran after him. "I'll have coffee waiting for you."
"Mmhmm, damn stage crew never gave me my coffee when I asked for it."
Tenten remained hidden behind the large, red velvet curtain that shielded the backstage from the audience's eyes. On stage, Neji sat between the spokesperson and another model, smiling wearily and nodding every so often as people talked, people clapped and cameras flashed. Every now and then, he would look over at her and she would give him an encouraging smile.
"Hey, sorry you had to see that."
She jumped and whirled around to see Ino, smiling nervously and fiddling with a lock of her hair. "Oh, hey. Don't worry about it. It's fine."
"No, it's not," Ino went on, lowering her voice as people rushed past them backstage. "I promised I'd meet you here before the press conference but then Shikamaru showed up and said that Kakashi-sama wanted him to document the press conference – Shikamaru never tells me anything ahead of time – and then we went off by ourselves and, I don't know, things started heating up and-"
Tenten held up a hand to stop her friend, making a disgusted face. "Enough, I don't need to hear about your dirty, dirty sex life."
Ino rolled her eyes good-naturedly and patted Tenten on the shoulder. "I know you don't like him much…"
"Understatement," Tenten muttered.
"But I do," Ino continued as if she hadn't heard her friend. "Can't you at least try to get to know him? He means a lot to me."
"He doesn't like me either," Tenten pointed out.
"I know you two would be good friends if you would at least try," Ino insisted.
Tenten scoffed. "You're crazy. You're crazy because you're dating the help."
"I'm friends with the help, too," Ino reminded her. "You are the help. You and him are on the same level. You're both making me crazy."
Tenten sighed and massaged her temple. "Okay, fine, because you're my best friend, I'll get to know your lazy-ass boyfriend better."
"Great!" Ino clasped her hands together excitedly. "He's sitting in the first row, towards the right, next to that paunchy reporter," she whispered, pointing. They watched as Shikamaru paused, looked directly at Ino, and gave her a nod. Ino waved flirtatiously and nudged Tenten. "Wave," she commanded.
Shikamaru looked rather stunned at Tenten's wave – a listless, unenthusiastic wave – and he twitched his hand in response, a poor excuse for a wave.
"Ah, Ten-chan, I'm so proud of you," Ino declared. "Thank you. This means a lot to me. To know that you both can put your differences aside and come together as one happy family because of me and my amazing persuasion and faculty for being a people's person and compassion and because I'm a good friend…I'm a good friend, and you're a good friend. We're all good friends-"
"Ino, you're rambling again," Tenten said quietly.
"Right." Ino took a deep breath and beamed. "I should get going. The press conference is ending and I promised Shika-kun I'd meet him afterwards."
"Shika-kun, eh?" Tenten smirked. "I'm gonna use that one on him next time I see him."
"You wouldn't dare." Ino stuck out her tongue childishly and waved good-bye.
Tenten lingered backstage as the theatre slowly emptied out and reporters squeezed in a few final questions before being ushered out of the way by security. Ino had found her way by Shikamaru's side as he positioned the models, the CEO, and the spokesperson in front of the table to take their picture.
Noticing that the theatre had already emptied, Tenten walked over to the edge of the stage and crossed her arms, observing Neji's picture pose. His arms hung loosely at his side and his head was tilted slightly to the right. She noticed, however, that his shoulders were tensed and knew that he was uncomfortable.
As they finished up, Tenten heard someone call her name and she turned, expecting it to be Neji. But when she turned around and saw Kakashi, she took a step back in surprise, forgetting that she was standing at the edge of the stage. For a split second, her heart stopped when she couldn't feel the ground beneath her feet.
And then she dropped and hit the ground and everything went black.
The first thing she saw through her bleary eyes was whiteness, faded whiteness blotched with bits and pieces of grey, like a worn-and-weary white shirt or snow at the end of winter. From the corner of her eye she saw a flash of black silk and thought of raven wings.
When she came into focus, Tenten realized that the whiteness had been the bare walls of a hospital room and its furniture and its various bleeping machines. Her forehead was cold and when she moved her hand to touch whatever freezing object was sitting on her head, she found a tube protruding from her arm.
"Tenten!"
Ino's face suddenly appeared in her vision. "Oh, my god, you're awake!"
Tenten blinked a few times before realizing that Ino had been holding an ice pack to her head. "What happened?" Tenten mumbled.
"You fell and totally blacked out. Kakashi-sama called an ambulance but had to go take care of something so me, Shikamaru, and Neji came with the ambulance." Ino jerked her thumb over her shoulder to where Neji was sleeping on the couch. "He was worried. It was sweet."
"Really…"
Ino nodded vigorously. "He finally fell asleep early this morning."
"How long have I been out?"
"Well, you fell around two o'clock yesterday and it's about ten o'clock right now so about…" Ino frowned and tried to work out the math.
"Almost a day…twenty hours," Neji called from the couch, getting up.
"Where's Shikamaru?" Tenten asked, looking around.
"In the cafeteria getting food," Neji said before Ino could.
Ino handed the icepack to Neji. "You know what? I'll go join him. Do you want anything, Neji?" Neji shook his head and Ino left.
Tenten was quiet as Neji repositioned the icepack. "What's the ice for?"
"To keep the swelling down," he explained.
"Am I going to die?" she inquired bluntly.
He shook his head. "Shut up. Don't talk like that. It's ridiculous."
She laughed. "You were worried, weren't you?"
"Only because if you died, I wouldn't have a sexy agent anymore," Neji replied with a straight face but Tenten knew he was teasing her.
She sighed and looked at the ceiling. "What's with the icepack?"
"The doctor you said that you experienced very minor head trauma and that everything would be fine but that we should ice your head for a little while to inhibit any swelling. He gave you some acetaminophen to help with headaches but you'll be fine," Neji explained.
"I'm tough," Tenten declared happily.
"You are," he agreed.
And he kissed her.
Tenten lay awake that night, alert in such unfamiliar hospital surroundings. Neji was sleeping on the couch once again, refusing her insisting that he go home and sleep in a real bed. Ino and Shikamaru had left a few hours earlier, promising to return in the morning when she was discharged.
Sasuke had called her that afternoon to check on her and warned her not to have sex with Neji while in the hospital lest the nurses deny her medical treatment for inappropriate behavior. Tenten had laughed but ended the call quickly after when she caught Neji glaring.
She had been surprised, stunned, when Neji had admitted he had been worried about her. It wasn't like him to show emotion or confess his feelings but when he did, it made her feel warm inside, made her heart flutter delicately.
It was stupid, really, how she was acting, feeling.
Love is too strong of a word.
She could still hear the nurses outside of her room gossiping about some neurosurgeon and his affairs with one of the interns and the sudden appearance of his estranged wife. Tenten listened with interest. It reminded her of some television show, perhaps a soap opera.
The chattering outside the door quickly died as she heard a pair of loud footsteps stop outside her door.
"Sir, can I help you?" one of the nurses called.
"I'm here to see Tenten," responded a familiar voice.
And despite the protests of the nurses, the door swung open and light filtered into Tenten's dark room, giving Kakashi's face a strange glow.
"Did I wake you?" he asked, closing the door.
Tenten shook her head. "No, but be careful you don't wake him up." She pointed at Neji's sleeping form but knew she had nothing to worry about; he was a deep sleeper. "I don't think he'd be too-"
"Happy to see me visiting you?" Kakashi finished for her when she stopped talking, worried that what she was going to say next would offend him.
"No, of course not," she protested quickly. "He's just…really cranky when disturbed from his sleep." Well, that was true enough, although she did not mention that Neji was perpetually cranky.
Kakashi smiled amusedly and pulled a chair to her bedside. Tenten froze and narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "I'm sorry I didn't come to check on you sooner. I was busy."
"You didn't have to," she reminded him. "It's not like I was dying."
"I was feeling guilty, you know," he said suddenly. "I called out your name to tell you that Neji's car was here but I guess I must have startled you. You fell off the edge of the stage."
"And you called the ambulance." Tenten bit her lip. "Thank you. And I'm sorry about this. I'm sure you're very busy during the day and relish any extra minutes of sleep that you can manage to get."
"Actually, I won't be able to sleep tonight," Kakashi admitted. "Shizune has my…ah, book and won't give it back. I can't sleep without the book."
"Is your girlfriend named Shizune?" she asked innocently, wondering if her curiosity was a bad sign.
Kakashi winced and then laughed shortly. "Oh, god, no, she's my secretary, personal assistant, whatever you want to call it. We're good friends but she's brutal."
"What did you do to have her take your book?" Tenten looked at him suspiciously.
"It was a persuasive tactic on her part to convince me to attend the press conference," he explained.
"Needless to say, it worked rather well," she joked, stifling a yawn.
But Kakashi caught it and stood up. "I shouldn't keep you up. You're tired. I'll leave now. Goodbye, Tenten."
Before she could protest, he had smiled and closed the door on his way out. Tenten found herself pouting and disappointed and she waved at the door dejectedly.
"Goodbye, Kakashi-sama."
heartbeat: And there you have it. Chapter 2.
I still think Kakashi's OOC; I haven't quite mastered him just yet. Any tips or suggestions would be wonderful. :)
Oh! And if anyone can tell me which TV show I'm referring to ("neurosurgeon and his affairs...etc"), you get a cookie. XD
Don't forget to review and let me know what you thought!