Please see first chapter for disclaimer, etc.

Prompt: Laughter

Warnings: a little OOC-ness, some violence…

Special Thanks: goes out to kenzinator, maddie4president, DarkAnonymous324, Kaori Takaguchi, rao hyuga 18, Franoncrack, SeiraXD, Innoiji, and naash for all the reviews! It completely amazed me when I saw how many I'd gotten for the last chapter. Thank you all so, so, so much!

Author's Note: I am terribly, terribly late updating, I know. I'm so sorry. My only excuse is that real life got in the way - first a line of severe storms moved through my area, then my power died, and then I had to prep myself to start my new job… Scary stuff. Anyway, I got about four hours of sleep last night, so I'm just a bit loopy right now, which I choose to blame the strangeness of this chapter on. It's definitely a bit crack-ish… I've never written anything like this before, and I debated whether or not to post this. But my twin sister talked me into it, even though I don't like it much, so … I really hope that you all enjoy it, and don't hate me too much…? Thank you again for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and alerting my story, I appreciate you all so much!

*~Laughter~*

He was going to be late.

In Neji's defense, it wasn't his fault. Several things had conspired over the course of the morning to delay his departure of Hyuuga House, ranging from mildly irritating to downright infuriating. While his family was no longer the bane of his existence, as they had been in his youth, they still presented themselves as a roadblock every now and then.

But why today, of all days? Neji resisted the urge to look up at the sky again, knowing the sun hadn't moved that much from when he'd looked two minutes ago. Usually he prided himself on being patient, or at least presenting a patient front even when he felt far from it inside. But today, something in his expression must have warned those between him and his goal that the "ice-cold" Hyuuga prodigy was in a less than normal mood, and they all quickly moved out of his way.

Even Naruto, who wasn't the most observant on his best of days, froze mid-wave, mouth open to shout some sort of greeting that would undoubtedly delay Neji further. He moved aside in a bright orange blur, confused expression visible for only a moment before the elder shinobi moved past.

Unfortunately for Neji, the Hyuuga estate was in what was considered a "classier" part of Konoha, where families of the Hokage, the eldest clans in the village, and other well-to-do people lived. His family's location had never really bothered Neji in the past; that changed when he started making his way halfway across the village to the less reputable part of town, where Tenten lived, almost every day of the week.

He could feel eyes watching him as he marched down the street. That was nothing new; every time he went to visit Tenten, her neighbors would hide behind their drapery-covered windows and watch warily. Especially those few that had been on the receiving end of first Tenten's wrath, and then his, for one reason or another. Tenten lived in the disreputable part of town, not by choice but by circumstance, but she'd always been more than capable of taking care of herself. It had not taken long for the worst of the worst to figure that out.

As he approached her small apartment, Neji found it a little easier to breathe when he realized she wasn't standing outside her front door, murderous intent on her face, her arsenal ready to be released at him for being late. However, he felt a prickle of unease at the back of his neck as he got closer to the front door, bursting into full-fledged alarm when he heard the sound of blood-curdling screams he recognized as Tenten's coming from inside the building.

It took all of five seconds for him to consider and reject the idea of activating his Byakugan. No matter what, he'd promised himself - and her - that he would never invade her privacy in that way. He wasn't going to break his promise now. He was not, however, totally scrupulous. Building up a reserve of chakra in his hand, he slammed his palm hard against her front door, blowing it off the hinges. It landed on the ground with a loud bang, though it was barely audible over the continued sounds of Tenten's screams.

The main room of the apartment was empty, but he saw a rather unsettling number of shuriken and kunai lodged in the walls, floors, and various pieces of furniture. He felt his blood run cold - whatever was happening, Tenten was putting up quite the fight. In a matter of seconds, his mind ran through several scenarios, none of them good. "Tenten!" Finally breaking himself out of his shamefully frozen state, Neji ran for her bedroom, the originating point of the alarming sounds.

Neji's hand grasped the doorframe with bruising force as he swung himself around it and into the room, eyes immediately scanning for the danger to his teammate. It took almost three seconds for as many things to register in his mind.

One: Tenten was standing on her bed, dressed in nothing but a bathrobe, her hair hanging in wet strings around her face. She was moving too fast for him to identify the exact locations from where she was producing her weapons.

Two: She was alone in the room, except for him now. There was no murderer, no enemy shinobi, no rapist.

Three: Her bedroom looked even worse than the main room, if that was even possible.

"Ha!" Tenten's battle stance relaxed, and she planted her hands on her hips triumphantly. Neji was surprised to realize that she didn't even realize he was in her apartment yet, let alone her bedroom. "And that is what you get for invading my home, and my privacy, you evil little vermin!"

Letting out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, Neji forced himself to relax as his racing heartbeat slowed. "Tenten?" he said, exerting great control to make his voice remain even. "What is going on here?"

She spun to face him, hand immediately flying out to release the kunai in it. Shinobi reflexes and years of training with her were the only two things that kept Neji from earning a literal knife in the throat. Instead of him, it embedded itself into the doorframe behind where he'd just been standing. When she saw it was him, she clapped her hand over her mouth and looked sheepish. "I'm sorry, Neji," she whispered, eyes wide.

Neji flexed his hands once, twice. "What is going on here?" he asked again, as calmly as he could. Was the entire world conspiring against him today? First the nonsense at Hyuuga House, and now this confusing mess in Tenten's apartment - it was enough to make him think that someone, or something, somewhere, was out to get him.

Tenten slowly lowered her hand, a faint blush evident on her delicate cheekbones. "I - well…" She glanced away from him, pale rose blooming into bright red on her face. "I hate spiders, okay?"

Neji blinked. He knew he should be forming a coherent thought - he always had in the past, after all - but this shocking revelation from the woman he'd thought he knew so well had left him quite literally speechless.

"Don't look at me like that!" Tenten burst out. She took a step forward, sure-footed even though her mattress looked less than steady beneath her. "At least I don't run away from them like some people!"

Finally he was able to shake away the shocked fog in his mind and unlock his frozen voice. "Tenten, I thought someone was in here trying to kill you. And, all this time, you were … trying to kill a spider?"

This time the color on her cheeks was that of anger instead of embarrassment as a dark expression settled over her features, in her expressive honey eyes. "They're creepy!" she exclaimed defensively. "They've got those long, spindly legs, those horrible multiple eyes that watch you everywhere you go, and they move so fast!" She took another step forward in her anger, but she must have misjudged how close she was to the edge of the bed. Her foot hovered in midair for a split second, then her body pitched forward, other foot slipping on the messy blankets on her unmade bed.

Neji reacted instantly. Leaping forward, he braced himself for her slight weight and caught her in his arms, grasping her tightly around the waist. Her bare feet dangled above the ground, hands grasping his upper arms desperately, cheek pressed tightly against his.

"Ahh," Tenten breathed uneasily into his ear. "I - umm. Put me down." The last part came out in the barest thread of an embarrassed whisper.

Until that moment, Neji had forgotten that she was in her bathrobe. He could feel every inch of her pressed up against him, the warm solidness of her and how she fit so perfectly against him as he held her. Heat suffused him from head to foot, and he eased his grip on her, allowing her to slide to the floor.

"Umm…" Tenten avoided his eyes, hand nervously holding the front of her bathrobe shut, even though it was as secure as it had been when he'd first entered the room. "I'm - ah, excuse me." She turned to go, but Neji spotted something on the wall just behind her. Reacting instinctively, he leaped forward and slammed his hand against it, unintentionally trapping Tenten between him and the wall.

She reacted as instinctively as he had, throwing up her free hand to press against his chest. For a long moment Tenten stayed plastered against her wall, eyes wide and confused, mouth parted as she stared at him. "N-Neji?"

Perhaps if he went back home, got into his bed, and got up on the other side, his day would stop being so utterly strange. Clearing his throat, he looked away and forced himself to withdraw, tucking his hands behind his back before he did something else impulsive and, undoubtedly, foolish. "Your spider," he said. "It was on the wall behind you."

Tenten stared at him for another long moment. Then she silently turned on her heel, walked with slightly unsteady steps across her bedroom, and quietly clicked the door to her bathroom shut behind her.

Neji decided it would be safer for both of them if he went to wait outside. Or, better yet, at the training grounds, because he was sure she would have a few weapons to spare for him when she saw the state of her front door.

He could only hope that things wouldn't be quite so strange when he returned to fix her door for her, he mused wryly as he stepped over its wreckage and onto her front stoop.

A moment later, he heard the sound of Tenten laughing (a slightly hysterical but still musical sound) in her bathroom. He couldn't resist the smile that turned up the corners of his own lips in response, or the chuckle that rumbled in his chest.

Perhaps the day could only look up from there.

*~The End~*

Author's Ending Notes:I really, really hope this isn't terrible, even though I have an awful feeling that it is… I choose to blame it on my lack of sleep, and my twin sister for convincing me to shove back my fears and post this. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it and don't hate me too much, and thank you all for taking the time to read!