Disclaimer: ….Let me check. …Huh. Nope. I don't think so.

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Our Song by Taylor Swift -- NejiTen

I've heard every album, listened to the radio

Waiting for something to come along

That was as good our song

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BAM!

"Oh, shit. I am so dead." The porch light flickered on, and the figure of a woman in a robe appeared on the doorway.

"Tenten?" Tenten turned around, one eye closed as if waiting for a beating of some sort. Or perhaps a screech.

"Yes, mother?" Tenten asked, silently hoping that her mother would go easy on her.

"Where are you going?" her mother asked calmly, an arm raised to lean on the doorframe, and a delicate eyebrow rising. She also had a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Well, you see… I… Need… Fresh air?" Tenten tried, knowing full well her mother would see beyond her excuse.

"Oh, well then, why don't you open your window? It's a pretty breezy night, after all."

"…We have... Training?" Tenten tried again, hoping this time, it would be good enough.

"At…" Tenten's mother leaned back, looking at the clock in their living room. "…Midnight? I don't think even Gai-san would do that. Besides, he would tell us so, wouldn't he?"

"Hahaha, yes, right. Ano…" Tenten tried, desperately, to look for a way to get out of this. She clutched her sweatshirt closer to her body, and shuffled her feet. She was itching to run across the village ad tap on someone's window, but once again, the screen door on their humble home failed her. "We really ought to change that into a silent one. The kind that gently shuts even if you leave it alone." (1)

"…Tenten, you really need to learn to make good excuses. Be a good liar. It comes in handy as a kunoichi, after all!"

"Okaa-san!"

"…Very well. I won't tell your father. But you better be back before sunrise, or he'll make the Black Ops go after that boy's blood. And then your blood. After that, he'll ground you again," her mother warned, a hint of a smile starting to show on her lips.

"Thanks, okaa-san! I owe you!"

"Oh, big time, honey. This will cost you a week's worth of chores, darling. Do you know how hard it is to convince your father that that was just the wind, and for him to let me check it out? If he found you tonight, Tenten, I swear…." Tenten's mother trailed off, shaking her head. She then looked up to see her daughter still standing there. With an urgent motion of her hand to 'go!', Tenten took off to her destination.

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Tap, tap, tap.

Tenten looked up from the scroll she was poring over, and glanced at the window on the other side of her bed. After a while, she poised her hand again, ready to write more characters to complete her summoning scroll.

Tap, tap, tap.

"There it is again. What is it, a branch or something? A bird? I don't believe any of us sent any homing pigeons out recently. Huh." Tenten returned to looking over her scroll, making sure she put as many weapons as she can into this one. Hey, you can never have enough weapons!

Tap, tap, TAP.

"The hell?! Is this bird trying to shatter my window?!" Tenten sealed her scroll, and jumped over her bed. She angrily stalked over to her window, where she forcefully opened the clamp and slid one of the glass panels over. "Listen, you! Whatever you are, stop tapping on my fricking window! Do you know how much it fucking costs to replace a window?!"

"…I believe I do, since three days ago, you broke mine."

"Neji! What are you doing here?!" Tenten exclaimed, stepping aside to let the Hyuuga boy in. "And that's not fair, you were pretending to be asleep and wouldn't unlatch the lock, so I had to break in."

"And you couldn't use a lock pick?"

"Not a chance, mon chéri." (2)

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Crash!

"Tori!" Tenten hissed, rushing over to her window to open it and let her own homing dove in. When the pigeon cooed and hopped inside, Tenten gave it a small handful of birdseeds, where the bird happily pecked at it from his perch.

"Are you okay?" Tenten whispered, making the loyal bird coo loudly. In turn, Tenten hastily hissed a hushed "Shh!"

Tenten, you owe me a sack of birdseed.

Tenten laughed. She knew just what Neji was talking about. Because of their letter passing, they tend to feed the pigeon more frequently, which is when it delivers the other's note and they receive it. And since this has been going on for hours on end, given that they were both grounded for sneaking out when they were grounded, their greedy pigeon is very much bloated, and both of their newly-bought one-pound bags of birdseed were almost at its halfway point.

Tenten quickly scribbled on the piece of parchment, tied it on the dove's foot, and gave it a quick kiss on the head. "Give the kiss to Neji, ne?"

The bird cooed yet again, and hopped onto her awaiting finger. She then walked over to her window, opened it just a smidge, enough to fit her hand and the pigeon on it through. The weapons mistress watched their homing pigeon go, until it was out of sight. Only one sentence was uttered out of her mouth before she closed her window again, and she settled back on her bed, her lights turned off. "Let's hope he doesn't crash into Neji's window and wake everyone up. Or worse, break it."

He's yours now too, you know. Next time, give him water. (3)

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"Hey, Tenten…?"

"Hmm?"

"I want you to keep laughing and smiling, okay?" (4)

"Are you dying?"

"…No."

"Oh. Good. I thought you're becoming all mushy and all that stuff because your days were counted or whatever."

"But seriously, keep smiling and laughing, alright? I like it when you laugh. Makes the world a better place."

"You're turning mushy, Neji."

"Tenten."

"Alright, alright. But are you saying that because you really like my smile, or because you're hoping for a reward for that statement?"

"Initially, just the first reason. But now that you mention it…"

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"Tenten, do you remember our first date?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't I?"

"Thinking about it, that was the biggest regret of my life."

"W-what?! Why?!"

"…Because I only got to kiss you on the second date." (5)

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Oh, Kami-sama. I hope this lasts forever. (6)

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A/N: Okay! Here's the latest chapter. I actually like how this one turned out. It's a bit longer than most of the recent chapters, so I'm pretty happy about that too. Anyway, here's the index:

(1) - Our song is the slam of screen doors, sneaking out late… (By the way, you know which door I'm talking about right? The one with a triangle thingy on top so that even if you leave it wide open, it closes by itself quietly?)

(2) - Tapping on your window… (If you haven't realized it yet, it was Neji's turn to sneak out. Three days before that scene happened, Tenten sneaked out, which is shown before the tap-tap-tap scene. The one where she was caught by here loving mom. Tenten wasn't able to come back before sunrise, so they were found out again, hence the grounding. I have no idea what the hell they were grounded for initially. Use your imagination. It's good for your prefrontal cortex. I think. Ask Ryuta Kawashima. He's the one who invented Brain Age.)

(3) - When we're on the phone and you talk reaaal slow, 'coz it's late and your momma don't know (Okay, I used homing pigeons. I think it's sweeter, in a way. And funnier. Neji and Tenten's homing dove kinda likes to… Crash into windows. And poles. And people. And eats a lot of birdseed. Anyhow, did you know pigeons and doves are the same thing?!)

(4) - Our song is the way you laugh

(5) - The first date, man, I didn't kiss her and I should have (I was totally in the dark here. If Neji told Tenten that their first date was the biggest regret of his life, meaning he didn't really like Tenten, I have no idea how Tenten would react. I totally guessed.)

(6) - And when I got home, before I said 'Amen', asking God if he could play it again (I think it's Tenten saying this, because if it was Neji, I imagine him talking to his dad in his head more. Did that make sense?)

…Reviews?

P.S. I just realized that most of the scenes start with an onomatopoeia. Wow.