Over the course of a week, Tenten spent almost every waking moment at Neji's bedside. If it hadn't been her it would've been Hinata, or some other pitying passers-by, but Neji was glad it was Tenten. She would sit beside him on the bed (the nurses determined he wasn't contagious) and they would read together or play sudoku or do the crossword to pass the time. Eventually they'd both doze off, then Lee would come bounding in with some ridiculously large basket of fresh fruit or an unwanted vase of flowers.

"GASP! TENTEN! Would you be so unyouthful as to take advantage of our Neji while he is ill?" Lee's enormous eyes bulged out of his head.

"Bug off, Lee," Tenten moaned, sitting up. She had fallen asleep sitting down again; her head on the matress with Neji's arm curled around her. She sat up, irritated, and glared at Lee.

Cowering behind an enormous teddy bear, yet another gift for Neji, Lee gulped.

"What's going on?" Neji groaned, throwing an arm over his eyes. "Lee, if it's you again I swear when I'm better I'll-"

"Do not worry, my most youthful friend Neji!" Lee interrupted boisterously. "I will run five hundred laps around Konoha every day until you are well again!" He thrust his fist into the air with righteous determination.

"Make it fifteen hundred. That way I won't have to tolerate you in this room when I can't move," Neji suggested with a hint of malice.

"What a splendid idea! I will train until my skin can no longer contain my bulging youthful calf muscles! Then I will never be beaten by Gai sensei and Kakashi again!" Lee dutifully saluted his teammates before arranging the gift bear on an empty chair and excusing himself to run laps.

"Let's hope he doesn't get beaten by an illness either when his body can no longer tolerate that insane training," Tenten grumbled. She readjusted herself on Neji's too small hospital bed, pulling her feet onto the mattress and leaning against the large mound of pillows shoulder to shoulder with him.

"Mmm," Neji sighed. "I can't wait to get out of here."

"Well, your vitals are good and most of your flu symptoms have subsided, except for that cough, so Sakura says you should be released in another couple of days."

"The doctor thinks it will take another week."

"He's just not used to how robust we shinobi are," she grinned.

Neji smiled slightly, his eyes still closed. Tenten thought for the fiftieth time that week about how unnerving it was to see Neji in a hospital gown, lying helplessly against a stack of pillows. His cool hand, the one without the IV, brushed against her blindly, causing her to shiver. His long, slender fingers enveloped her small warm hand and pulled it to his lips. Tenten blushed at the display of affection and the intense expression that overtook his face when his lips brushed her hand. His expression said that he was feeling something very stongly.

Tenten shivered.


warm sunlight was only just peering through Tenten's eyelids when she was startled awake by a motion beside her. It was very early, but she opened her eyelids groggily and gasped, suddenly fully awake.

Neji started; his eyes shot open and he looked at her in slight surprise.

"I...I'm sorry...I...the nurse must have forgotten to check..." She was blushing furiously and hid her face in her hands. Neji, on the other hand, was oddly calm.

"My apologies. The nurses were upset but I didn't want to wake you, and the hour was already late when they returned...Since I'm a Hyuuga they...Tenten, please don't feel embarrassed. I didn't mean to...take advantage."

Neji's brow furrowed in concern as he questioned his judgment from the night before. He decided to place the blame for his unorthodox actions on the cocktail of fluids the hospital staff had been pumping into him.

"No, no. I thought...I thought you might be angry." Tenten was relieved. she noticed that indeed the blankets were pulled over her as well. At least Neji wouldn't think she was some kind of slut.

"Angry?" He asked, confused. "Did we not establish that I harbor feelings of affection generally directed towards your person?"

Tenten blushed again.

"Well you're just..." she looked around the room as if searching for an adjective when her still groggy mind found that the early morning light was giving her a migraine. Rhythmically she rubbed her temples, her eyes squeezed shut. Neji noticed this and thought a moment.

"Perhaps," He began, extracting a kunai from Tenten's pocket, "We should continue to rest from these troubling thoughts-" Here he threw the kunai with precision at a point just above the window, effectively releasing the thick, light-blocking curtains, "-and talk about what I am "just" at a later time."

Tenten ceased from rubbing her temples as the room went dark once more, and, surprising herself, she yielded to the gentle pressure of Neji's hands, usually so cold and calculating, as they drew her down into the warmth of the too-small bed in the circle of his arms. Troubled, but strangely at peace, Tenten shut her eyes for a few more hours.