Neji hated dances.
He'd hated them all through school, whenever the teachers had gotten it into their heads that it would be a great way for the boys to get used to the girls, because it was entirely possible they would have a female teammate. Neji had always scorned these dances, standing off to the side and glaring at anyone who came near.
His family held them too, very formal ones in the wide gardens of the Main House, and they always made him feel out of place. It didn't help that for all the pretty perfumed wrists and the painted lips, his thoughts strayed to someone who smelled of man and faintly of blood, with lips that needed no paint to be that perfect shade.
Shaking his head to clear it, Neji shifted against the beam he was leaning on, watching Hinata dance with some grandfather of the clan. She had the clan leadership to look forward to, and a husband, and many children. He would have none.
But, he realized as Itachi finally returned from wandering off to find the bathroom, he really didn't mind.