A/N: Written as a collab with my sister as a practice in setting. Beware, WAFF ahead!

Disclaimer: The concept of the characters belong to Kishimoto, and I can make no claim to their world nor their origins. However, both of these characters are heavily influenced by pasts and circumstances I have created for them. Those I lay claim to, and if you use them I ask only for credit to that. The Forget-me-not legend is a real one I found on Wikipedia, mostly. I just made it prettier.

Threads
Setting

Wasurenagusa

It was ironic, TenTen thought, that she had a blood limit dealing with water, but she loved mountains best.

Nothing, in her mind, was more fantastic than the view around her now, as she and Neji made their way through some small country back to Konoha; returning from a simple escort mission by a different route for security reasons.

They walked side by side through the meadow as they made their way slowly down the gentle slope. The calf high sap green grass around them would have seemed tall if it hadn't been dwarfed by the dusty pines and pale aspens that were almost painful to look at in the noon sun.

Even those were tiny in comparison to the towering stone cliffs that shot like spires from the ground, reaching for the cloudless sky with ice tipped fingers. The behemoths of grey rock made TenTen feel almost insubstantial as she stared up at them, the testaments to the incomprehensible power that created them.

It wasn't the majesty of the scenery that TenTen liked best, though. Most breathtaking of all was the sea of tiny blue flowers they were walking though. Each created with five perfect blue petals, twisting and curling in the late spring breeze.

She grinned as she picked a handful and held them out to the young man beside here. "Aren't they beautiful, Neji?"

Neji looked over at the girl to see what she was trying to show him. He had been enjoying the feel of the somewhat chilly breeze that was trying to tug his hair and clothing loose, but that would have to wait. He eyed the flowers in his teammate's hand and quirked an eyebrow. "Are those forget-me-nots?"

"Yes," her smile softened as she started weaving the tiny stems together to form a wreath. "They're my favorite flowers. Ino told me the legend of how they got their name." She bent down and picked another handful to add to her creation as they walked through the grass without bending a blade of it. She probably shouldn't pick them, as it would no doubt leave a trail, but it was too tempting and the scenery to isolated for her to resist. "There once was a lord and lady going for a walk along the river. The lord loved the lady, and she him, but as she was promised to another she could never tell him. During their walk he asked if she could ever love him."

The Hyuuga listened carefully, his brow furrowed in concentration. What an odd story; one he probably would have understood better if he weren't so involved watching her fingers delicately twist the flowers together, and he half-smiled when he realized what she was doing. Eternal…a circle of forget-me-nots. How symbolic. "And what did she say?"

TenTen smiled over at him, not needing to see the flowers to continue her activity. "She pointed across the swift flowing water and told him only when he could bring her the blue flowers on the other side. To her horror, the man immediately leapt onto the rocks to make his way across." She removed one of the flowers from her hand and held it out to her companion. "He made it there safely," she pressed it into his hand, "and was on his way back with the prize when he slipped and fell in the water. He could not swim, and as he was drowning he threw the flowers at his beloved's feet with a yell of 'forget me not, true love'."

That was horrible. Neji looked at the flower in his hand. Images of wet flowers being held to a woman's face, tears dripping of sky blue petals and intermingling with the river floated in his mind. He frowned before looking back at TenTen. "And then she went off and got married to her intended?"

"She did, but she always carried the flowers in a locket next to her heart as a sign of where her love truly was." Bright brown eyes closed as she grinned broadly. "Isn't that tragic?"

He nodded before he noted that TenTen wouldn't have been able to see it with her eyes closed. Neji moved closer to her and gently moved her bangs just enough for him to place the tiny blue flower behind her ear. "Yes. It is very tragic," he said quietly, trying not to stare at just how beautiful she looked like that. So serene, with a small piece of sky getting gently tossed along with her hair.

Fingers ran gently along the petals of the tiny flower as another cold breeze blew down the mountain while they stepped over a small icy stream, and she reached up to make sure it stayed where Neji had placed it. "That's how these flowers came to mean true love and memories. According to Ino, anyway." TenTen looked down at the now completed wreath in her hands. Would he understand what she was trying to say? Maybe it didn't matter anyway.

She held out the crown with a half-smile. "Here. We'll match."

Neji blinked at her before bowing slightly so she could place the flowers on top of his head. He felt more than a little ridiculous, to be perfectly honest, but found he couldn't refuse her when he looked in her eyes and saw there how much such a silly thing meant to her. He never could. It was too much to refuse to do something so simple that didn't really hurt him.

The Hyuuga rewarded her with a slightly amused but mostly exasperated smile as they stepped round a tree that had managed to grow somehow in the middle of the meadow. "Thank you, TenTen."

"Now you're the king of the mountains," TenTen laughed in delight, and then again at the way it echoed off the stillness around them, glad there was no one but more flowers and the wind to witness her ridiculous display. "You're the king, with your jeweled crown, and I am your faithful hand maiden."

Neji stopped, shaking his head slightly to rid it of some hair that had managed to come loose. Always playing, his TenTen. He chuckled before bending down and picking up more flowers. He moved slowly behind the girl, who had kept walking, before lacing the flowers into her buns. "How can a king rule without a Queen?" His voice came out very low and quiet, much more than he had intended. That did not matter though, really. TenTen never told his secrets.

Breathe catching in her throat, TenTen felt her hands reflexively clutch at nothing while her heart tried to escape from her rib cage; not seeming to understand that was where it needed to be. Sometimes…sometimes Neji would play along. Those times, she could almost let herself hope he knew all the words she didn't even know how to think. "Very well, if he please to. But, if he wants to raise a lowly handmaid to his side, it will be as milord wishes." And she tried, somewhat awkwardly, to perform a curtsey with an imaginary skirt.

Lowly? Well that was a word Neji would never use to describe TenTen. Ever. "A shame. I do not see any hand maids here." He cupped her chin in his hand and turned her head so she would look directly into his eyes. His throat felt dry and his head pounded so fast it almost hurt. "I only see a princess."

Was that a bad thing to say? Too late to wonder that now.

A most undignified princess, if that were true, as TenTen knew her mouth was hanging open in shock. If only the flush on her face was from the wind alone. "Neji," she began, but didn't know what she meant to say, so she let her voice fade off into nothing.

Now he'd done it. He was at a loss for words and all he could find himself doing was looking at her. He felt himself lean closer so their noses were touching and still no words came to him. He just continued to look into her brown eyes. Their hair blew about their faces in the wind, and Neji knew that TenTen would be able to feel his breath on her face, if he were managing to do so, but right about now he couldn't even begin to think about moving away from her. Not when she was so close.

It was so perfectly romantic she didn't know whether to pull away and laugh at how absurd it was or just run with it. The teenage girl part of her won out with the argument that cavity inducing cliché or not, she might never get another chance like this. Neji hated physical contact, and to have him initiate something like this took complete solitude that only these mountains could give. Maybe he didn't want this—maybe there was something on her face he was inspecting—but she could claim altitude sickness, or something.

Excuse firmly in mind, and shoving the laughter of the nearby brook at the ridiculous situation out of her mind, TenTen allowed her eyes to shut and closed the distance between their lips into nothing.

Her lips were warm in spite of the chilly air, and soft in a way that sent Neji's heart pounding into his ears. His mind was screaming at him. It was telling him how illogical a move this was, how, once they got back to the village, they would have to go back to the way they were.

And yet, he wasn't listening. Because right now, right here, he didn't care. He was with TenTen, and that was all that mattered. He felt his arms move and his hands rested on the curve of her hips as he continued to kiss her. It went against everything he was comfortable with. Yet it was right and he found he couldn't stop. He didn't want to.

Too much, too perfect, too…everything. TenTen didn't know whether to laugh at the movie-like quality of their first kiss or cry from how much it hurt to know that this could not be real. Life didn't work for her like that. It never gave her what she wanted. Reluctantly, she pulled back, calling on her willpower to keep the tears out of her eyes. "What are we doing?"

It was a good question, but it took Neji off guard none-the-less. He blinked at her for a couple of seconds before any words could form in his usually quick mind. What were they doing? They were kissing, enjoying each other the only chance they could and they had stopped. Why? He needed to start thinking straight if they were going to make it through this.

"Well," Neji paused; trying to decide if making this into a joke would be good or bad. He leaned more towards bad, especially since his jokes were never that funny anyway. He looked TenTen in the eyes again, and was startled to see tears threatening to build there. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Failed, flawed excuse that no one ever believed, but unfortunately all she had. "I just…I'm not made for things like this. For mountains with breezes and kisses from kings."

Neji frowned, not sure he had heard her correctly. Either way, he knew he didn't understand. "TenTen…I'm not really a king." It sounded weak, even to him, but he didn't understand. Was this not what she wanted? What they wanted? She was talking in riddles and his brain couldn't keep up with her. Only she could elude and confuse him this way.

"This is perfection," she gestured around at the mountains, then the flowers, then at him. "YOU are perfection. And I still have so far to go to reach even close. Perfect doesn't happen to me. I'm not…not a princess, Neji. I can't be, even close. I'm not made for fairy tales and happy endings. Only those who deserve it can have those."

"How could you not deserve a happy ending?" His brows were furrowed and he was bending slightly so he could try and look at her face as she stared at the sliver of ground between their feet. "I don't think I know anyone else who could deserve one more than you. You are always so kind, brave, and happy. You are strong. If not for yourself, then for those around you. You pull them to their feet, and lead them safely away from harm. If that kind of selfless behavior doesn't deserve happiness, then I don't know what does. He said it all in a rush, but this was new and strange to him. So used to checking his behavior, to hiding and fitting in so no one could find fault in him and decide it was enough to end his life. There was no threat of that here, though.

And how could she say she was imperfect? That was just silly. If being perfect meant she had to act like him, then he would fight against it. No one should ever strive to be like him. They'd better chose a new goal, if he was perfection, because it was not worth it.

What did you say to that, TenTen wondered. She could argue that her short temper caused harm to her treasured people more often than she helped them. That life was a test, and it was not in her's to ever have such happiness handed to her.

Could, but didn't. Not when she knew how hard it was for Neji to say those things dearest to his heart. Only when they were so completely alone could he be himself. The man she knew hid inside the cold sullen boy everyone saw. Only here…"When we return to Konoha, this will never have happened."

He bit his lip, finally breaking the gaze he had fought so hard to keep. Would it have to end? Only if he wanted her safe. The Hyuuga Elders would never see what he did, and would not approve of his choice, and they might even go as far as to hurt her, or make him leave her—which may hurt her worse.

Why did it all have to be so complicated?

"I…I don't want to forget." Neji mumbled, looking down. He felt childish saying it, but he knew it was true. He didn't want this to go away. He was safe here, with her. His TenTen.

Maybe she had been hanging around Guy-sensei and Lee too much. Maybe it was just what she needed to say, or she was hoping it would be the last bit of too perfect this moment could handle. Maybe it was much more difficult to say than that. Whatever the reason, she unwound the flower from behind her ear and, using some grass as well, quickly fashioned a make shift ring. Taking one of Neji's hands in both her smaller ones, she slid it on his finger, pleased it fit so well. "Then don't forget. These flowers…they're blue. Blue is the sky and ocean. It is endless. And they're our flowers. When you see them, you can think of my love for you, and remember today."

Neji stared in wonder down at the ring on his finger. He turned his hand this way and that before looking back up at TenTen and meeting her eyes once more. No…he would not forget. He couldn't. He reached up and took the crown of flowers off his head. Gently, Neji placed the flowers that had fit so perfectly on the top of his head around her neck. He stooped down and picked one last flower and held it to his lips. He then took her hand and placed the flower in it. Once again, his throat was dry and he felt his face go hot as he thought of what he wanted to say.

"True love and memories. That is what a forget-me-not means," he muttered, but kept his white eyes locked on hers. "I love you. Do not forget. I will always come for you."