"Ten-ten, will you marry me?" Neji whispered, cupping her cheek with one hand. "Please."
He locked eyes with Ten-ten. Her lover silently begged her to ignore their run-down boardinghouse room and the pale blue shadows under his eyes. Sleeping on a threadbare mattress amid the groan of the building's splintering wood frame wasn't either lover's choice. But fleeing the village on the night before Neji's arranged wedding left them little room for indulgence.
"Yeah...uh, I guess."
Ten-ten gasped before a nervous laugh seized her core. Running for days on no more than four hours of sleep left her nerves too frayed to properly respond. Once she regained her breath and asked after his true intentions, a somewhat indignant Neji insistedhe meant every word. He proposed a wedding – only for them, to confirm that their love was real and lifelong.
She then questioned him – why now? And why insist on a wedding when they were married in all but name? Besides, Neji otherwise turned his nose at formal ceremonies.
Neji didn't answer her. He only flinched and reiterated that he didn't ask lightly. Swayed by the pleading in his wide eyes, she nodded then kissed the corner of his lips. Okay, we'll have a wedding – she promised. As soon as we can. The next morning – when the sun emerged for the first time in three days, Neji asked whether Ten-ten wanted to get "married" that afternoon.
Of course, she said yes, a quivering grin plastered on her face. All of it was for Neji, she reminded herself.
They had little that would accompany a standard wedding in either the Hyuga tradition or the tradition of Ten-ten's family. The lovers packed light, and brought precious few luxuries. Ten-ten had the red high-collared silk dress her parents saved for her wedding, which they now would never witness. In the minutes before she fled, she had stowed the dress in her pack, intending to pawn it at some point.
After a light lunch of rice porridge, Ten-ten stepped into her wedding dress and combed her hair into two buns with a braid down her back. The dress – embroidered with flowers and dragons in gilded thread – was easily her most valuable remaining posession. Neji wore his usual white shirt and pants. The lovers transformed before finding the forested clearing Neji discovered a few days ago while scouting the region.
Ten-ten could appreciate Neji's choice, not that the village where they stayed had better wedding venues available. The people of the village appeared to live modest lives where marriage was sanctified at home, with family.
Upon their arrival, Ten-ten picked wildflowers growing among the grass to adorn her hair and make a bouquet. Brides held flowers while they processed down the aisles and said their vows, she recalled. As she gathered flowers of different colors and sizes, Ten-ten grasped for any tips from kunoichi class lessons on flower arrangement. Large, brightly colored flowers surrounded by small, lighter ones – or had Suzume taught the reverse?
At last, she threw an assortment of flowers together in a random order and straightened her dress. Orange flowers with crinkled petals were threaded through each of the ties on her twin buns. Keeping Neji waiting in awkward silence wasn't the mark of a proper bride.
Neji stood far too still, paralyzed by indecision now that their "wedding" approached. Ten-ten gripped the wilting stems of her bouquet and tried to smile. Instead, she dissolved into laughter at the absurdity of their entire setup. Here they were, barely adults and playing at marriage. They probably should have focused on finding work, a permanent place to live and new identities for themselves.
"I don't know how to do this," she stammered.
"Me neither. I've never been married previously."
Neji's thin lips curved into a knowing smile. He watched her with his head tilted, blinking more slowly than usual.
"Obviously, neither have I."
Neji closed the gap between them and held both of her shoulders. He touched puckered lips to her forehead, calling her beautiful. Yet Ten-ten didn't feel beautiful. No, her skin crawled because she felt like an imposter.
She curled her bottom lip inward and bit down. The slick silk of her dress felt wrong on her skin, so different in texture from her standard plain cotton clothes. A beetle crawled onto her hand from one of the flowers in her bouquet. Holding her breath, Ten-ten squeezed her eyes closed to avoid dropping the flowers as its tiny legs tickled her skin.
"What I do know about such ceremonies comes from my clan's arranged weddings."
"Huh. Sounds like lots of fun. Not."
The beetle alighted with a soft buzz, and Ten-ten met Neji's gaze again.
Ten-ten wouldn't remind him that he narrowly avoided a forced marriage of his own. From what Neji recounted, Hiashi Hyuga tried involving him in the wedding planning. The clan head invited Neji to select the wedding's food, flower arrangements and color scheme – to no avail. The sheer wastefulness of it all had made Neji sick. Out of some twisted pity, Hiashi seemed intent on giving Neji some ownership over his sham of a wedding.
"They were depressing occasions. All the expense in the world couldn't convince me the husband and wife were happy. No wonder every clan wedding involved so much sake."
Imagining a banquet hall full of uptight Hyugas drinking to oblivion elicited Ten-ten's soft snicker. Knowing Neji, he had refused every sake-bearing server and insisted on enduring every hollow formality 100% sober.
"No sake out here. Obviously," Ten-ten said, shrugging at her lover.
"We don't need it."
"Right. I'm so glad...you got away from all that."
"Yes. I couldn't bear losing you forever."
Neji's face contorted as he probably thought of their near-separation.
The night before his wedding, he heard his future wife sobbing to her mother while they made last-minute adjustments to her white wedding kimono. His poor cousin's tears wrenched his heart, though they only knew one another from a few stilted conversations. Listening outside her bedroom, he envisioned his future without love. Neji made the split-second decision to spare both of them. After packing travel essentials and a few valuables, he knocked on Ten-ten's window and invited her to run away. She agreed and packed even faster than he had.
"Never leave me, Ten-ten."
In one abrupt motion, he clutched Ten-ten – insect-ridden flowers and all – to his chest. She laid her head on his shoulder, running her hands down his back. Her lover pressed his lips to the part in her hair and toyed with her braid.
"Hey, I spent a while doing my hair, don't mess it up –"
"Hm."
"You didn't lose me. I'm here, whatever that's worth," she whispered, kissing the corner of his jaw.
Ten-ten dropped the flowers at her feet to wrap her arms around Neji's neck.
"Thank you."
The emotion-laden words sent uncomfortable heat to Ten-ten's face. While Neji was overwhelmed by love, all she could see was two idiots playing house – even now.
"Uh, you're welcome. I mean, I feel like we should have waited to get 'married.' Just until we got a little more settled down. If we had a bit of extra money, we could make it proper, you know?"
"Nonsense."
"I thought these things were supposed to be nice. You'd know. The clan's stacked, right?"
Shit. Now really was not the occasion to mention the Hyuga clan, Ten-ten panicked. I'm ruining this whole thing. Neji's shoulders tensed, then he released a long breath.
"How should I say this? To use your wording, the clan might be 'stacked,' but the most important piece is free. And you have it."
"What's that?"
His frame shook with laughter. A quick kiss to Ten-ten's lips, and Neji told her she could figure out for herself. It was in her heart, after all.
"I do have something for you," he added.
Ten-ten stepped back with a sharp gasp. Without the flowers to hold, she clasped her hands over her navel and twisted her fingers. She hadn't brought a gift for him, hadn't thought about wedding gifts in her minutes of frantic packing.
"You really didn't have to –"
"I went back and forth on whether to keep it. Apologies if it doesn't fit you."
Neji pulled a gold band from a fold in his shirt. The glimmer caught Ten-ten's eyes and made her flinch, fingertips flying to her lips.
"Shit – is that...?"
Is that your engagement ring?
Sometime after they left the village, the ring disappeared from Neji's finger – presumably thrown away or bartered.
"It is," Neji said. "I-Part of me hates it. It's a reminder of the marriage I never wanted."
"I get that."
Ten-ten caressed his cheek with the back of her hand, still processing the shock of seeing the ring again. After all, Neji had cast off all other trappings of his Hyuga name and the engagement.
"But I kept it in the event we might need money. Yesterday, I realized it should be yours. Why don't you give me your hand?"
Ten-ten extended her left hand to meet Neji's open palm, heart pounding against her breastbone. Her lover ran his thumb over the back of her hand before slipping the ring on her fourth finger. The cool metal sat heavy around her finger as she closed her hand around it.
"I don't know what to say," she breathed out. "I've never...oh, it's perfect."
"I believe we're married now, Ten-ten."
She nodded twice, fast. Her stomach fluttered with tentative joy. Constricting his arms around her, Neji crushed the breath from her lungs and released a racking sob into her shoulder.
"Yeah. Yeah, I guess we are. Um, maybe we should say some vows, too? I don't know what they sound like, though."
"Only if you want to. You don't need to say anything. You made your vow the day we looked at those walls for the last time."
Her lover kept his head down, rocking her back and forth until the gentle motion lulled her into a soothing haze. Ten-ten clutched a handful of Neji's long black hair and held him against her. A passing breeze cooled the hot tears gathered at the lower rims of her eyes. She sucked in a deep, rattling breath and cleared her throat.
"I want to say them anyways," Ten-ten sniffed. "Even if...they come out totally dumb...and I don't know what I'm saying...it's all good."
"I'm listening."
His voice warmed her like the sunlight on her back.
"I promise to stay with you forever, because I've been through enough shit for you already. So why not more, right? I fucking love you, Neji. But you know that."
They laughed together and Neji replied that he couldn't have said anything better. He jolted Ten-ten against a tree at the clearing's edge, rough bark digging into fine silk. If her mother saw how she'd ruined her wedding dress, she would have wept. But when Neji brought his lips down on hers, Ten-ten lost herself in the bliss of the moment.
"I told you we didn't need anything expensive or extravagant."
"Hey, I guess you were right," Ten-ten said. "I'm glad we could do this."
"Remember what I said? The most important thing is here, and it's free."
Ten-ten's face lit up with a grin.
"I get it now. My love is free, and so is yours."