Please see first chapter for disclaimer, etc.

Prompt: Touch

Pairing(s): Neji/Tenten

Special Thanks: goes out to SeiraXD, DarkAnonymous324, Muggle Minx, PhoenixWytch, Franoncrack, and Toph43 for your lovely reviews! You all keep me smiling and inspired, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Author's Note: I … am not really sure what to say about this chapter. There's absolutely no dialogue, which wasn't quite how I planned, but I think this worked better without it. I had very specific emotions and images in my mind when I wrote this, so I really hope everything translated out well to the page. Thanks again to everyone who has read, reviewed, favorited, and alerted my story, and I hope you enjoy!

*~Touch~*

When Tenten first met Neji, she didn't much care for him. He had seemed so cold, so unfeeling. His high-and-mighty attitude had rubbed her the wrong way, making her go to great lengths to keep from interacting him in any way other than business. It usually wasn't that hard, since he seemed to want to avoid team get-togethers.

Then, about a year after they got put on the same team, their hands brushed as they reached for a kunai at the same time. Tenten had jolted back immediately, as had Neji, but she had to wonder if it was for the same reason. For her, the touch had felt a bit like an electric shock striking her hand - but she had a feeling he'd jerked back just because he was the type of person who avoided touch if at all possible.

A long time passed until they touched again. It wasn't until after the chunin exams, after Neji came back more than half-dead from trying to find Sasuke with the team Shikamaru assembled. Their team had been allowed to visit him in the intensive care unit, one at a time, and during her turn, she had taken his hand, kissed his brow, and whispered that she was glad he had come home safely. She meant it. Though Neji still wasn't her favorite person in the world, she couldn't imagine Team Gai without him. When Neji rejoined the team after he recovered, he gave her a long, thoughtful look, then hesitantly smiled.

Tenten didn't realize until much later that they'd started touching during missions after that day. A brushing of fingers here or a squeeze of a hand there, reassurances that backup was there if it was needed; Neji steadied her when her energy levels lagged; they never hesitated when a wound required attention. It surprised her to realize that she'd come to depend on those moments of brief contact with the Hyuuga, and she had even started to look forward to them.

Seven years after they first met, Neji reached out to brush a stray strand of her hair off her face following the particularly energetic sparring match they'd just finished. He froze then, pale eyes wide, palm still pressed against her cheek. Tenten had paused, afraid to move or breathe, as he studied her with the most unfathomable expression on his face.

Almost two weeks later, he kissed her for the first time. It was nothing like those she had read about, or seen in movies - fireworks didn't go off overhead, she didn't feel like she was going to explode inside, but warmth simmered in her chest nonetheless. She knew then that what she and Neji had now, and had been developing over the past seven years, was something more permanent and lasting than anything she had imagined, inspired by books and movies.

The day Tenten became a Hyuuga was, as clichéd as it seemed, the best of her life. She shook hands and received hugs from more people on that day than she had in her entire life, but the whole time the sensations of Neji's hand in hers, his arm around her waist, his lips against hers when he stole a kiss when he thought people weren't looking, were the best by far.

Their touches had always been subtle, at least in public. Even in private, their contact was never the kind of fiery, passionate explosions that pop culture seemed to favor. But for each other, the warmth, sincerity, and lasting effects of their love was more than enough.

*~The End~*

Author's Ending Notes: Eh, this isn't my favorite piece that I've done so far. I just had these feelings and images in my head, and it was much harder putting them into words than I thought, which frustrates me to no end. And I know it's really short, I'm sorry. I'll try really hard to make the next one longer to make up for it, I promise! But I'm still hoping this was good enough to be at least a little enjoyable for you all, and thanks for reading! (And for those of you waiting for the sequel to Warmth - I promise I'm working on it!)