Please see first chapter for disclaimer, etc.

Prompt: Stars

Sequel to: Warning

Special Thanks: goes out to naash, Ariasujm-chan, SnowCharms, DarkAnonymous324, rao hyuga 18, and Franoncrack for your reviews! I appreciate each and every one of them - and you!

Author's Note: This piece is kind of a sequel to chapter 43's prompt, Warning, but since there's only a slight reference to it, it can be read as a standalone. Thanks again for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and alerting my story, and I hope you enjoy Stars!

*~Stars~*

Being friends with Shikamaru helped Tenten figure out that cloud-watching was one of the most relaxing things in the world. That had led her to the next, logical, discovery: watching stars was twice as relaxing.

She'd lost count of how many times she'd fallen asleep on the roof staring at the clouds, picking out familiar (and her favorite) constellations. Her apartment in town hadn't really been ideal for her new hobby, since light pollution usually hid most of the stars. But once she'd married Neji and moved onto the Hyuuga estate, she was offered the kind of view she was usually only allowed on missions. Once everyone went to bed, the compound was plunged into pitch darkness, letting her see far more stars than she ever could from her apartment.

Tenten shifted restlessly, tugging her blanket a little bit tighter around herself as she rolled a little to get a better look at a different portion of the sky. The movement of stars were a lot less pronounced then clouds - it took them much longer to progress across the skies, since they changed over a longer period of time, instead of by the minute. In this way, she found them more interesting than clouds, since as a weapons specialist she'd been forced to wait long amounts of time before she could execute her attack on missions. Because of that, she felt a connection to those stars.

In the buildings below and around her, the very soft sounds of conversations and movement eased away into eventual silence. The few lights that had been distracting her flickered out, and Tenten grinned as more stars appeared, lower than the ones high in the sky that she had been watching. Often, she wasn't sure which way to turn, since there were so many stars, and so many views. Sometimes the sky was so beautiful that she felt like she could just sit up, lift a hand, and sweep a few sparkling jewels out of the sky. Oh, to be able to have a few to string along a chain and wear, so she could take them wherever she went...

Ah well. Tenten sat up, reaching over to take a drink of the tea she'd brought up with her. It had gotten cooler with the onset of night, but she sipped it anyway. Cradling the cup in her hands, she tilted her head up again to stare at the moon. The night was perfect: clear and slightly cool, no clouds whatsoever. For now, the entire expanse of the sky was hers to admire, and she wished she could paint so she could try to capture even a hint of this beauty on canvas to admire during the day. Perhaps she would ask Hinata about it sometime, since Neji's cousin could sometimes be spotted with a paintbrush in her hand in some quiet corner of the Hyuuga gardens.

Movement out of the corner of her eye brought Tenten's attention in that direction. A streak of silver shot across the sky from horizon to horizon, blazing a brilliant path behind it.

A shooting star! In all the nights Tenten had spent watching the skies, she had only seen a handful of them. She always made sure to breathe a wish when she saw one. As she tracked the course of this one, her lips moved in her newest. Please let Neji come back home to me safely, and soon.

Neji's being inducted into ANBU meant that he was gone often, and on increasingly dangerous missions. His most recent had taken him to the Land of Grass, where he'd been for the past two months. Tenten knew he could be gone as long as three, but she'd been feeling more restless as of recent, hoping he'd wrap it up and come home before then. She'd been on a few S-Rank assassination missions herself, and she knew how dangerous and sometimes time-consuming they were.

The star shot out of sight over the horizon, and Tenten sighed as she gathered up her blanket and cup so she could go inside. It was getting too cool to sit outside any longer, even though she was wrapped up; besides, it would probably be a good idea for her to go to bed. She really wasn't much of a morning person, and staying up late at night only made that problem worse.

Tenten poured out her cold tea into the sink and rinsed her cup as she mourned not even having a dog to keep her company. If it were earlier, she'd go over to the main house and talk to Hinata, but by it being so late, the heiress was probably already in bed, asleep. Which was actually where she should be...

Out of habit, she walked through the house making sure all the doors and windows were secure. Even though they lived on the Hyuuga estate, one of the most secure in the village, Neji always told her to lock the door, because she was safer that way, especially when he wasn't home. She knew he didn't mean it as a slight to her weapons skills: he just found it a little easier to leave knowing she'd be safe in his absence.

It took her less than five minutes to brush her hair and teeth and crawl into her pajamas. Then she tucked herself under the blankets and sighed contentedly, feeling the chill left over from her time outside ease away from her bed's comforting heat.

Even though her bed was comfortable, she was just the right temperature, and she was tired, she just couldn't seem to fall asleep. She lay curled up on her side, hand resting on the empty pillow next to hers. Closing her eyes, Tenten inhaled, then sighed in disappointment and opened her eyes. Neji's smell was fading, which meant he'd been gone far too long.

Sighing, she allowed her gaze to drift from the pillow to the window across the room. She was at just the right angle to see a few stars, and most of all the moon, which made her think of Neji's eyes.

Everything reminds me of Neji right now. Four days ago she'd made herring soba without having to think about it, then depressed herself by going ahead and eating it anyway even though it was so lonely eating it by herself. Two days ago, she'd opened the windows in the house during a rainstorm just so she could breathe in the fresh scent the rain left behind - quite similar to how Neji smelled right after a shower. Now the moon reminded her of Neji's eyes...

Tenten rolled over. I need a mission before I go crazy. I'll talk to the Hokage tomorrow and see what's available. Hopefully there will be something to distract me from how lonely I'm getting without Neji...

Curling herself into a ball under the blankets, Tenten squeezed her eyes shut. Go to sleep, she told herself firmly.

Unfortunately, a long time passed before she was able to do so.

"Good morning." Tenten greeted her empty kitchen with the flat tone such a silly act deserved, grabbing the tea kettle on her way past the stove. The sun coming in the windows seemed far too cheery for her mood.

"T-Talking t-to thin air n-now, T-Tenten?"

"Hinata!" Dropping the kettle into the sink, Tenten went to hug her friend. She'd sent a message across the estate to the heiress as soon as she'd woken, inviting her over for breakfast. Hinata had let herself in, as Tenten had asked her to do (something it had taken a long time for the heiress to be comfortable with). "Thank you for coming." To be honest, she was tired of eating breakfast alone, but she didn't want to tell her friend that.

Smiling shyly, Hinata leaned against the counter as Tenten went back to preparing tea. "Th-Thank you f-for inviting me." She paused, and then asked the question that seemed to be nagging at her. "W-Why did you invite m-me?"

Turning on the stove, Tenten sighed heavily. "My excuse is that I wanted to ask if you need me for anything in the next few days. I was thinking about going on a mission. The real reason is ... I'm tired of eating by myself."

"Oh, T-Tenten." Hinata gazed at her with wide, sad eyes, her hands twitching together in the nervous tic from childhood of which she'd never quite rid herself. "Y-You c-could have asked me t-to c-come b-before."

"I know," she replied. Unable to look at her friend, Tenten ducked her head into the refridgerator to get some ingredients for breakfast. "And I thank you. It's just ... it didn't really hit me until last night how much I miss him. He hasn't been gone on a mission for this long since we've been married. I know he said it could be as long as three months, and it's only - ha, only - been two. But..." She nudged the door closed with her foot, her arms full of various things. I know it's childish, but I was hoping that shooting star last night would grant my wish for him to come home to me now.

Hinata gently nudged Tenten away and reached for the fruit, taking it over to the sink to wash. "N-Neji is the most p-powerful p-person in our c-clan," she said. "I-I know he'll b-be all right."

Tenten nodded. "I know this, logically. I still can't help but be ... concerned." She wasn't worried. She didn't worry. She was simply concerned.

A handful of strawberries tumbled into a clean bowl from Hinata's dripping hands. "You know," she said thoughtfully, "the l-last t-time you went on a m-mission, I-I hardly saw N-Neji. H-He even accepted C-rank m-missions j-just t-to keep himself occupied f-for the same reason as you now."

"I ... didn't know that," Tenten said. "He never told me."

"H-He t-told me not to t-tell you that." A tiny smile curled the corners of Hinata's lips. "B-But I-I thought it might make you f-feel better."

Surprisingly, Tenten found that it did. Neji had told her that he'd missed her so much while she was gone, and it wasn't that she didn't believe him. She'd just always thought that he'd handle their having to part for a while better than she, and that aggravated her, made her feel weak. But now...

Now, she didn't feel quite so badly. "Thank you, Hinata."

Her friend smiled again. "You're w-welcome, T-Tenten." Setting the bowl on the table, she planted her hands on her hips and nodded toward the stove. "Now then, l-let's eat b-breakfast s-so you can go to the Hokage's office a-and g-get that m-mission you w-want."

Tenten glared up at the stars, frustrated. Naruto had refused her request for a mission on the grounds that it had been less than a week than her last. Since they were in a time of relative peace, he said, he liked giving his shinobi longer down times to recover from their last before he sent them on another. Unable to argue with her superior, even as easygoing as he was, she had returned home in frustration.

Hinata had sent her on a few errands for the clan, but it wasn't the same. They were small, easy things to accomplish, things Tenten didn't have to concentrate on. That left her mind free to wander, which didn't help her at all. Even shopping to replenish her food supply didn't help distract her.

Ino had come to see her, and Tenten knew it was Hinata's doing. The two women had gone out for dinner, but Tenten knew she'd been horrible company. Throughout the meal the blonde had given her sympathetic looks that the brunette had tried very hard to ignore. She knew Ino's husband was out of the village on a mission, too, but at least the other woman's bubbly personality was helping her hide her loneliness better. That, and Shikamaru was only supposed to be gone a week, not three whole months like Neji.

Once she returned home, Tenten changed into a comfortable pair of meditation pants and one of Neji's shirts, then wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and climbed up to the roof. She'd had to wait a while for the sun to go down, but it was another cloudless night and the stars were beautiful.

Tucking her arm behind her head as a pillow, Tenten idly wondered if Neji was looking up at the sky, wherever he was, and thinking of her. The thought made her smile slightly, and she shook her head at herself. Being married had turned her into a sappy romantic, of all things.

Looking at the stars helped relax her, but Tenten really had an ulterior motive for watching them now. She planned to stay up on the roof all night, if she had to, in hopes of seeing another shooting star she could wish upon. She would continue to do so, every night if need be, hoping that if she flooded the sky with enough of her wishes, one of them would finally come true.

All around her, the Hyuuga estate went dark and quiet. Beyond the walls, the lights in the higher buildings started going out, until even the Hokage tower was dark. Tenten was left alone with her stars, just the way she wanted it. Now all she had to do was find another one soaring across the sky...

Hours passed. Occasionally Tenten would sit up and drink some tea to keep herself from getting stiff or too sleepy. She was chilly, but she didn't want to leave long enough to go inside and get another blanket. If she did, she might miss what she was waiting for, and that would never do. So she huddled a little tighter into her blanket and kept watching the sky, waiting and waiting and waiting...

...Until her eyes would stay open no longer, and she fell into an exhausted, defeated sleep.

Tenten snuggled a little deeper into the warmth surrounding her, humming contentedly as she rubbed the side of her face againt her soft, comfortable pillow. She had been so cold when she fell asleep last night, and it felt unbelievably good to be warm again...

Her eyes snapped open in surprise. She'd been on the roof last night, stargazing. She'd fallen asleep on the roof, wrapped in a blanket but still cold enough to shiver. And now she was in her bed, in her bedroom, nice and warm, with no memory of how she got there. I don't sleepwalk! Do I?

She sat up, allowing the blankets wrapped around her shoulders to fall against her waist as she ran her hand through her loose hair ... which had still been pulled up when she fell asleep. Confused, she tugged at the ends of it, wondering what she had done with her hairties when she'd been wandering around in her sleep.

The mattress shifted slightly beneath her. For the second time in as many minutes, she froze. No way. Is that...? Ever so slowly, she turned her her head to the left, eyes falling first on the long dark hair spilled across the usually empty pillow next to hers, then the face she'd missed waking up to every single morning, features relaxed in easy sleep.

"Neji!" Tenten couldn't help it. She let out a rather uncharacteristic squeal and threw herself at him, landing hard against his chest as she threw her arms around his shoulders. "Neji, Neji, Neji, you're home!"

"Oomph!" Her husband startled awake at her abrupt attack, breath grunting out of him as his arms quickly looped around her waist. "Ten," he coughed. "Can't - breathe..."

Scrambling up to her knees on the bed, Tenten grasped the front of his nightshirt and pulled him up into a sitting position so she could kiss him. Neji laughed against her lips as he steadied himself with one hand on the mattress, the other on her waist. When she finally tucked herself against his chest and rested her head against his neck, he smiled down at her and cradled the back of her head with one long, strong hand. "I missed you, too," he whispered. "I came home last night to find you nowhere in the house, so I went up to the roof. I think you fell asleep stargazing. You were so cold, and so deeply asleep, I just carried you inside and brought you to bed."

"It worked," she breathed against his skin. "I can't believe it worked."

Neji arched an inquiring eyebrow. "What?" His hand continued to smooth through her hair soothingly, sending little shivers of happiness up and down her spine.

Tenten shook her head. "You'd laugh at me," she said, voice muffled. She still hadn't managed to let go of her iron grip on fistfuls of his shirt. A part of her needed that to reassure her that she wasn't dreaming, that Neji was finally home.

Gently, he took her by the shoulders and pulled her away from him so he could see her face. "Try me."

"I ... made a wish on a shooting star." Biting her lip, Tenten looked away, feeling a blush rise into her cheeks.

Wide pearl eyes blinked in surprise, and then Neji started to laugh as he pulled her in for another kiss.

Tenten pushed him away gently but firmly. "I told you that you'd laugh at me," she muttered.

Hooking two fingers under her chin, Neji lifted Tenten's face to his. "I'm laughing, Tenten, because I did the same thing," he said. "Night before last, I saw a shooting star, and I made a wish that I would get to come home soon. And now ... here I am."

"You..." Tenten trailed off in amazement. At the exact same moment that she'd been making her wish, Neji had been making the same wish on the same star. It seemed improbable, impossible, and yet ... she couldn't deny it.

That's why Naruto refused my request for a mission yesterday, she realized suddenly. He knew Neji was coming home, and didn't want me to be gone when he got here. Smiling, Tenten decided she would have to thank the Hokage ... later. At the moment, she was far more interested in giving her husband a proper welcome home.

Everything else could just wait until later.

*~The End~*

Author's Ending Notes: Um ... that was super-sappy? Anyway, I haven't wished on a shooting star in years, but I liked the idea of Neji and Tenten doing it while they were apart, in hopes that they would get to be together again soon. The next prompt to be posted will be a return to angst, the last before the end of this story. I'm really excited about it, though, so I'm really hoping you all will like it. Thank you again for reading, and I hope you enjoyed Stars!