Christmas Chaos
Chapter 11: The Maitos
December 24th - 2:30 PM
Sitting at the Maitos' kitchen counter, Neji blinked, looking curiously at Mikoto Maito, the woman he would have never thought to be Tenten's mother.
And with reason, now in the very bright, very everything-white-with-gold-accent influencer's kitchen, it felt very odd how unalike they looked. The coppery-haired, green-eyed mother hugging the chocolate-haired, hazelnut-eyed daughter made little sense in terms of genetics.
If Neji looked closely, he could see the resemblance. It was their expression, a mix of seductive playfulness, it was in the upturned nose they shared and the big eyes they both sported, but mostly in their smiles. If Tenten's lips were a bit more luscious, a bit more sultry and pouty, whereas her mother's were a bit thinner and stretched with a curvier upward trend that always made it feel like she smiled at your expense.
Tenten was not kidding when she said her mother was Suna's Martha Stewart. On the way to their home, Neji did a quick google search, and Tenten's mom had quite the homemaker business. Mikoto Maito had developed a trendy brand for young parents and homeowners, from cookbooks to linens and scented candles. She even had a fitness wear collaboration. She was selling a lifestyle.
He wondered why she hadn't mentioned it before.
Or why she didn't mention she lived in one of Suna's most prized neighbourhoods on the seashore where celebrities had planted villas upon villas on the driveway known as Suna's Green Valley. Now, Neji didn't know much about Suna except that it was a hub of artistic endeavours and probably half the movies he had seen in his life came from here. But he also knew that houses on this side of town did not come for cheap, and for all the teasing Tenten gave him about his royal ass and upbringing, she sure hid well she also came from money.
Both women were laughing at something before he snapped out of his daze.
"Would you like some juice, honey?" Mikoto asked him. "I have cold-pressed them myself this morning. Kiwi-Kale or Carrot-Cantaloup?"
Neji blinked again, fascinated by this antithesis that was Mikoto compared to her daughter, who he had seen drink Redbull too many times to count.
"No need, mom," Tenten answered in his stead. "We'll be hitting some waves before… everyone arrives."
Ms. Maito crossed her arms over her chest, reproachfully frowning at her daughter. "Tenten now is not the time for surfing."
"I know, mom." She groaned. "But it's just going to be one hour, and I'll be back and ready by five. Promise."
Neji had to stifle a laugh. Tenten looked like such a child with her mother, and he could immediately see the kind of relationship they must have had. The love uniting them and how her mother must have hovered over her, for better or for worse.
Mikoto rolled her eyes before her face split in a smile. "Fine, then. Go have fun, kiddos." She turned towards him. "And sorry again, Neji." She gave him a guilty smile. "I had no idea this was a sort of understanding you two had." She threw a reproachful look at her daughter before throwing the kitchen towel over her shoulder. "This one," She poked her daughter's shoulder. "Never tells me anything."
Tenten smiled sheepishly. "Sorry about that."
Her mother waved it off, returning her gaze. "Anyway," She redirected her appreciative gaze on Neji. Much to Tenten's annoyance, her mother hasn't stopped gawking at her fake boyfriend since their arrival. "Everybody will soon forget all about it when a kitten fighting a dog will start trending again." She laughed. "You know how social networks are."
Neji nodded, carefully avoiding telling her he barely used his.
"We'll talk later," Mikoto gave her daughter leave.
"Let's go," Tenten grabbed Neji's arms and dragged him upstairs.
"Thank you for receiving me, Ms. Maito." Neji waved at the older woman.
The mother laughed, blushing, to which Tenten had to roll her eyes. "Please call me, Mikoto."
He didn't have time to answer anything because Tenten was already dragging him upstairs to find him a bathing suit.
December 24th - 3:25 PM
Neji was not a big fan of heat. No, actually, he hated it. Maybe it was his upbringing in cold mountainous Haepo, or perhaps it's just that genetically his ancestors were more made to fight the cold than stand the heat, but Neji just didn't like the climate south of Konoha.
He went one time on vacation to Suna during his preclinical years during spring break with some friends, and it had cemented his hate of anything tropical-related.
Not only did Neji catch sunburns faster than one can say sunscreen, but he didn't understand the appeal of the beach or wearing shorts or sandals. In fact, nothing irked him more than the idea of sandals on his feet or having to see other people's feet all day long because they couldn't bother to cover them with shoes.
Really, there was no redeeming quality to the notion of eternal summer Suna was reputed for. Not a single little thing could make this even bearable. He hated it with a passion, and nothing could make him change his mind-
"You're ready?" Tenten came down the stairs.
Well, maybe nothing except Tenten wearing only a red bikini top and denim shorts cut just under her bottom.
Damn, she was hot, hot. And Neji had to mentally shake his head and mindfully remind himself to keep his gaze up.
Up, up, up.
Nope, up.
A bit more up.
Still too low.
"Neji?" She raised her eyebrows until noticing where his gaze was travelling. "Enjoying the show, Hyuga?" She teased him back the exact same way he teased her hours earlier while driving them to Konoha's airport.
Neji merely grunted, a bit annoyed at being caught and a bit satisfied too. She might as well know now he found her to his liking, shouldn't she?
Yes, because he didn't know when he had decided he'd move forward with Tenten freaking Maito, but it was happening.
For God's sake, it has been happening for quite some days now if they both stopped kidding themselves and Neji was not the kind of man to joke around.
He just needed to have her, even if for a single other night. Her lips, her voice, her little mimics, they all had intoxicated him. At night when trying to fall asleep next to her, he could still see her little winks when she teased him, the way she shifted her weight from one foot to another when she was stressed or the slight jump in her steps when she got excited about doing something, namely something that involved his downfall. In the shower, he could still smell her lingering scent on him even when she wasn't near, which drove him mad, if truth be told.
Not mad about the smell, mind you. Mad that she had slipped away long enough for him to notice.
"Let's go," Neji finally said, ignoring her gloating expression.
"Wait," She frowned. "You're not going to wear a swimsuit?"
Neji gave her an odd look.
"Absolutely not." He was categoric.
There was a reason Neji did not pack a bathing suit; it was because he didn't have one.
Tenten frowned at him, and he glared back.
If she thought he would just relent because she was trying to intimidate him, he thought wrong.
"Fine," Tenten shrugged.
And Neji knew nothing was fine. He sighed, frustrated. Her emotional manipulation wouldn't work on him.
"It's not like I wore a kimono to impress all your relatives or that-"
"That's not going to work, Tenten." He gave an unimpressed look at her obvious tactic.
She glared at him. "Good," She grunted. "Stay inside. I'll go alone." She turned on her heels, acutely aware of how childish she looked like with her tantrum. "I'll just go to the beach alone, and maybe I'll find some random dude there to keep me company." She grunted, stomping her way towards the garden doors giving way to the beach.
Neji snorted. Jealousy? Is that what she was resorting to? Because someone will have to break the sad news to Tenten, Neji Hyuga simply did not get jealous. He had never ever been jealous of anyone before. That was merely a fact. His strong confidence in himself had always prevented him from feeling that nasty feeling.
Well, maybe that was before he had something to lose he might care about more than he'd like to admit.
Neji realized with horror he was shifting on his feet with uncertainty.
No. Impossible.
To hell with Tenten and all the guys she would find on the beach… dressed like she was. No. Neji absolutely did not care.
All the guys that'd be ogling her…
No. Neji didn't give a single flying shit.
No, sir. No.
There was absolutely no way, no way in hell that-
December 24th - 3:45 PM
A green speedo.
That's all her brother and her father wore, and thus it was the only bathing suit he could borrow.
Fuck.
He had fallen right into the trap Tenten didn't even realize she had laid out for him. Even now, she had no idea he came only out of apprehension other men might start hitting on her. In her head, he only succumbed out of uneasiness of staying with her family and her too-much-of-a-hugger for a dad she had.
She was, in fact, absolutely convinced he would glare at her and tell her to fuck off when she realized her brother and father only wore green speedos.
She brought her brother's newly bought green speedo just to tease him, in fact. Never in a million would she think that Neji would end up taking it, grunting in frustration and closing the door of their room for the next three nights to go change.
Now, after a few years spent working with Neji Hyuga. Tenten knew he was not the kind of man to go unnoticed. But he in a speedo really took the cake of everything she had ever seen before.
One woman literally dropped her kid's ice cream on the sand when he passed in front of them, utterly oblivious to her child's wails until her husband came and started shaking her.
The usual group of influencers on the beach stopped their new viral Tik Tok dance to ask him if he wanted to collaborate, giving him their Instagram contact. And one man got slapped on the chest by his boyfriend for staring for too long.
If Neji seemed unbothered, used to the attention, Tenten was starting to hasten to the wetsuits stand they could rent with surfboards. The number of winks and even a couple catcalls were becoming highly indecent even though Neji didn't show a trace of him noticing them.
If anything, Neji was actually more focused on the looks Tenten seemed to receive, one being actually so highly engrossed by her body, the young doctor actually had to use his well-honed Hyuga glare to call the young fella back to order.
Maybe a bit of covering up could be used on his greek god body cause dear Lord would Tenten need it because even all of Suna's ocean wouldn't quench Tenten's thirst when his muscles screamed at her all the things they did a few nights ago.
"We close early for Christmas Eve." The lifeguard told them. "You still have about two hours."
Tenten started drilling Neji on some basic surfing notions as soon as he departed.
Once they finally hit the sea, well, let's just say the sea hit him more than anything else.
Deep down, he would think all the water he drank and the waves that overthrew him were well worth seeing Tenten relax again and regain her booming laughter. She had been in a stressed-out, sadder mood since they arrived in Suna. Mainly with the live debacle that she had to explain to her parents. She still let them believe that they were going out together since, well, it was the whole purpose of Neji coming with her - her mother giving her a break from her failed relationship with Deidara, his upcoming wedding and the fact she still had no one in her life.
"Don't worry, Little Tenten," Her father had assured her, driving them home from the airport. "Everybody will forget about it real soon." He shrugged. "It's Suna. Some superstar will marry someone tomorrow, or another one will say something racist tonight, and that video of you won't be trending anymore."
And even if Tenten wanted to give her father reason because she knew he was right, she couldn't help but feel dread in her stomach. She had read somewhere that coming back to your parents was coming back to your younger self that you left with them. Being surrounded by her old stuff, in her old room, it was like she was that twenty-something-year-old girl again, still heartbroken and dumb and hopelessly in love. She had grown so much since, yet every time she came back to Suna, she couldn't help but feel small in her shoes again.
Tenten took a deep breath. They were sitting on their surfboard, catching their breath now that the ocean had calmed. With the salty water on her lips and the sweet sun caressing her warmed skin, Tenten let the gentle sway of the sea soothe her anxious heart.
Neji may not be a fan of summer, but he could see why Tenten wanted to come surfing so bad. Now that the sun was gently starting to set and the sky toon on peachy hues, he could understand what it meant to her. As he gazed at the horizon, feeling the push and pull of the sea lulling him to inner peace, he couldn't help but compare how he felt oddly similar gazing at the hills on top of Haepo Mountain.
He turned around to gaze at the girl whose eyes were still close. There was something heart-wrenchingly beautiful at the minor sunburns dusting her upper cheeks, the little stray strand of auburn hair dancing in the wind around her heart-shaped face. The setting sun coloured her peachy skin in warm coral undertones and reflected on the salty droplets beading her skin like some natural jewels.
Neji wished he could stop time, but the moment was fleeting, and soon he found himself staring in questioning cocoa eyes.
He coughed and looked away. "We should head back soon."
Tenten groaned.
Neji smirked. "You almost looked more at ease with my uncle quizzing you than here."
Tenten shrugged. "I love my family, but sometimes it's easier dealing with someone else's overbearing family than your own."
He chuckled. "You have your own Aunt Mei?"
The brunette laughed, shaking her head, droplets of water freed by the movement of her bangs. "No, all my aunts and uncles, they are the most loving family ever." She looked uncertainly at him. "It's more, my mom." She shrugged again. "I know she means well, but it's hard seeing her disappointed time and time again."
"Disappointed?" Neji raised a brow. He couldn't see a single disappointing thing in Tenten.
"Yeah," She sighed. "We don't always see eye to eye. She was always family-oriented, and I was more career-oriented. She has always supported me in my dreams, but I know deep down, she'd have liked it if I had been married with kids already. I think she is losing hope." She forced out a laugh.
Neji used his hand to him himself closer to her surfboard. He put a reassuring hand on her elbow. "I don't think you could ever disappoint her, Tenten." His eyes bore into hers, and he decided to squash the hopeful feeling that arose in him when he saw his simple touch lit goosebumps on her skin like infinite constellations.
Tenten laughed disbelievingly at him. "Oh, you should have seen her the months after my break-up with Deidara. She was practically begging me, crying to take him back."
Neji frowned. "Even after he cheated on you?"
Tenten chewed her lip. "She doesn't know about the cheating." She admitted. "His mother is a close friend of my mom. I didn't want to trouble their friendship with our drama."
He scoffed. "You should have told her. Your mother is old enough to handle her relationships. If I were her, I'd hate to be unaware of how someone I loved had been mistreated. Mostly since she seems under the impression you ruined a perfect relationship without any reason. Not telling her is only hurting you both."
"I know," She whispered, stubbornly looking ahead of her instead of the man searching for her eyes. She couldn't let him see the faint tears filling her under eyelids. "It's the shame, really." She swallowed. "I'm ashamed to have been put in this position. It made me feel dumb. I preferred that family thought I broke up with a good than that I got played by a bad one."
Neji let his hand rest on her lower back. "None of what happened to you was your fault." He said pragmatically, softening his tone. "If anyone was dumb, it was your ex for not realizing what he had lost." He let his eyes linger on her lips, longing for their touch. "I'm sure," He swallowed hard. "I'm sure there is nothing more he regrets than losing you."
Now, it was Tenten's turn to scoff. "I'd doubt that." She rubbed her nose that threatened to start running with the tears she was holding in. "He's ever so happy with that girl he cheated on me. Do you know what that bastard said to me after I caught him cheating?"
Neji frowned.
"He said," Tenten told him. "That I would never find anyone better than him." She shook her head in disbelief.
Now she was almost offended by how loud Neji's laughter was.
"Obviously, he's narcissistic." He finally settled his laughter in a playful smile that Tenten couldn't help but reciprocate. "So I'm not only your date solution to not showing up alone at your ex's wedding." He gave her a knowing smirk. "I'm your revenge plan."
Tenten rolled her eyes. "Yes, Neji. You're my revenge."
Neji's eyes gleamed with something she couldn't entirely replace, a look she had often seen at the hospital, like when he got excited about a challenging case.
"So," Neji changed the subject. "You have two aunts and, what? Five uncles?"
Tenten nodded, suddenly back to their task at hand. Tonight's supper would reunite all the family who, per their family traditions, all gathered in their house and spent the night so they could open Christmas gifts in the morning. Then the day after tomorrow, they would, as always, go to the charity ball organized by the Sand family. And finally, Deidara's wedding would happen on the 27th, their last day in Suna before catching the earliest flight on the 28th to be back in Konoha just in time to take a quick nap before their evening shift.
"Your two aunts are Suki, the eldest, the cougar businesswoman, and Yara, the youngest, the one with six kids?" He recapitulated.
Tenten laughed at his summarized descriptions. "Yes, aunt Yara is having her seventh and last kid. My uncle got a vasectomy this time around."
Neji's eyes widened but shook it off. "And your five uncles? Darui, the stuntman?"
"Yes," She agreed. "The oldest is uncle A."
Neji frowned. "A?" He repeated. "A as the letter? What's this, an abbreviation for his real name?"
Tenten gave him a horrified look. "Don't say that to him!" She warned him. "It's a sensitive topic for him."
"O-kay…" Neji answered unsurely and shrugged it off. "So he's the one with a construction company?"
"Yeah," She trailed, her pout set reflexively. "He's a bit rough on the edges, but deep down, uncle A is really sweet."
"He's my godfather, so he can be a bit overprotective sometimes" She gave him a sheepish smile. "Don't get on his bad side." She cautioned.
"Ok," He gave her a crazed look. "And I don't remember the others."
"Uncle B," She started but was stopped by Neji quickly.
"Uncle B?" He gave her a disbelieving stare. "What now, I'm supposed to believe your uncles are named A and B?" He raised a brow.
Tenten shook her head. "At this rate, you'll get your ass handed before Christmas. Just call them Uncle A and Killer B, ok?" She gave him a pointed look.
"Killer B?" He raised his eyebrows, thinking for sure she was messing him.
Tenten raised her eyes to the ceiling. "Oh my God, Neji. I didn't judge your three aunts with similar-sounding names. Killer B is my uncle's stage name. He's a rapper."
"A rapper?" Neji was trying to contain his amusement because he could see Tenten's patience dwindling quickly.
"Yes," Tenten gritted. "He's a rapper and a pretty successful one at that. Well, not the rap part." She scrunched her nose in disgust. "He actually sucks at rapping, but he is an excellent producer for other rappers and singers. Owns a record label down Sunset Avenue, and he's been producing some big names too."
Neji nodded, sincerely impressed. "Here, you tried to make me believe you were a simple country girl." He smirked at her. "But your mother is one of Suna's top-rated influencers, one of your uncles has a major record label and the other one has a stunt company for big busters." He gave her a sly look. "Where's the country in that?"
Tenten rolled her eyes, annoyed at being caught at her own game. "Fine," She allowed. "Well, you weren't exactly straightforward with your own legacy either."
"Touché." He admitted.
"So, uncle Darui the stuntman, uncle A the construction CEO-maybe mafia guy and uncle B the rapper." Neji whistled at his summary. "Am I forgetting anyone else?"
Tenten coughed. "Uncle Yamato he is the CEO of a subgroup of uncle's A company that handles the export and import of wood."
"Interesting," Neji supplied.
"It's actually because of uncle Yamato that my father and my mother met." Tenten shrugged. "My dad, uncle Yamato and…my father's best friend," Tenten hesitated at telling Neji her father's best friend was none other than his superior Dr. Hatake Kakashi, which had helped her get settled in Konoha and was probably the only reason why her father had accepted her moving to another city.
"Well," Tenten continued. "They were all part of the same battalion back in the fourth war. My dad is actually from Konoha. He moved in Suna after meeting my mother through Uncle Yamato."
Tenten laughed a little. "He might tell you to call him captain Yamato because that was his rank in the army."
Neji raised an eyebrow. "So you have quite the military family?"
Tenten shrugged. "I guess so. Now my dad mostly works as a private trainer for celebrities. But he did have quite the military career. That's also how I got to be best friends with Temari. She's my childhood friend." She further explained. "My dad and her dad had worked together on joint Suna-Konoha missions back in the day. Now Temari's dad has been Suna's mayor for the last twenty years. His son, Gaara, is actually my brother's boyfriend. ANd I even dated his other son, Kankuro…" Tenten stopped herself from her blabbering.
Neji laughed. "Quite the tight-knitted families, I see."
"Yeah," She smiled embarrassedly. "So," She took a deep breath. "Uncle Yamato is lowkey my favourite. And finally, my mother's last mother's sibling Haku, well…." Tenten seemed to hesitate. "Well, we don't talk about Haku."
Neji seemed at a loss. "Why?"
"If I told you, then we'd be talking about Haku…" She trailed. "And we don't talk about Haku."
"O-kay…" Neji repeated himself. If his family had drama, hers was a mess.
"That's a lot, I know." Tenten smiled. "But they're all really nice, and I'm sparing you the names of my dozen of little cousins."
"That's all on your mother's side, right?" Neji decided to continue on.
"Yeah, my dad only had his mother." She smiled. "Meemaw is very sweet. She'll be there too. She makes the spiciest curry on earth." She laughed at Neji's horrified expression, having learned quickly Neji hated anything spicy. "My mother and her siblings were adopted by my grandmother, who passed away a few years ago. Only uncle A and uncle Bee are actually related."
Neji nodded and absentmindedly reached out to tuck a strand of her hair stuck on her lips. His fingers stopped mid-track where they grazed her jugular and caught her dumbstruck stare.
Suna's sun awoke the faint freckles on her cheeks and the bridge of her nose like the milky way in the sky. He leaned a bit closer, letting his hand fall on her back. She was a breath away.
Tenten nested herself closer to him and tilted her head a bit upwards. His warmth made Suna's crushing warmth feel chilly. His lips were a hair away, and held the promise of that raging fire in her belly she had ached to feel again.
But suddenly, Neji jerked back up, losing his balance off his surfboard when the lifeguard whistled aggressively, yelling at them to get back.
The wind was picking up, and the sun was setting down.
Neji swam back up to a laughing Tenten.
"Let's go back. My mother will be less gentle if we're late." She winked at him.
December 24th - 6:02 PM
Tenten hadn't seen Neji since her mother ushered Neji in the guest bathroom in the renovated basement in a dojo where her father trained with her brother every day.
Now, showered, in her favourite velvet red dress she hadn't worn in years and with her signature buns - she even put hair jewelry on them. Tenten walked down the stairs. She stopped at the entrance mirror to check on her make-up. She didn't often wear red lipstick, but Christmas was as good an occasion as any other, right?
She felt silly. She felt like she had prepared herself for a date. She would lie if she said she hadn't taken great care in each step of her changeover, deep down wanting to stun him.
She wanted his eyes to light up like they did last night when she put Fu's dress on. This a-line velvety dress was soberer and only showed her back, plus she wore it with black thighs, but she still felt pretty in it. It hugged all her curves in the right place, and the bright red crushed velvet married perfectly her honey skin that glowed a bit more now it had its share of Suna sun.
Tenten stopped midtrack, hearing a loud thud from downstairs and shrugged it off. Probably her father and brother baking on some training before supper. Or some of her uncles sparring each other.
She curled her bangs again, making sure her mascara and eyeliner were not smudged. If her mascara gave her the impression she had false lashes on, her eyeliner pleased her a bit less. Her right wing was definitely better than her left one, but who cared, right? It's not like men noticed that kind of thing.
Though, Neji was not like other men.
Tenten shook her head. What was wrong with her?
She had even put on her favourite perfume.
She finally tore her eyes apart from the mirror, just after making sure her pearl earrings were placed on properly.
She could see the pilling coats at the entrance a dozen shoes of all sizes scattered at the front door. By the looks of it, half her family was there.
"He's one fine chunk of meat, I'll tell you that."
Down the hall, in the kitchen, Tenten could hear her aunt Suki, and she rolled her eyes.
"Suki!"
Tenten smiled at her aunt Yara who must have chastised her big sister.
"I'm just so happy Tenten found someone, finally."
Ugh, that was her mother.
"Well, if she breaks up with this one, I'll be taking a swing at his-"
Tenten cleared her throat to announce she was here. The three older women jumped in surprise.
"Oh, Little Tenten." Suki grinned maliciously at her niece.
Yara was always more nervous and started laughing immediately like she had been the one sputtering lascivious things about her boyfriend, well, fake boyfriend.
On the other hand, Suki wasn't in the slightest bit embarrassed.
"So," Said woman gave her a sly smile. "Is he as stunning without clothes than with?" She popped one of the cherry tomatoes that Mikoto was using to decorate her charcuterie board in her mouth.
Tenten choked on her saliva.
"Suki!" Mikoto shrieked, throwing her the towel she had just wiped her hands with. "And stop eating the cherry tomatoes. I still need them for my "Rudolph-the-reindeer" crudités starters."
Tenten took a look around, and her eyes widened at all the food her mom had prepared. Granted, her mother always cooked for a whole village. Granted, they were a big family, and her uncles ate like ogres. Granted, it was part of her job as an influencer to capitalize on this sort of event to create content.
But this, all of this, was too much, even per Mikoto Maito's standard.
"Mom!" She exclaimed. "You really have outdone yourself!"
"She's trying to impress that boyfriend of yours." Her Auntie Suki grinned like a wolf.
"He seems so charming!" Her Aunt Yara said softly, rubbing her protruding belly.
"Well," Mikoto was still busy arranging her charcuterie board to perfection. "Someone," She said in her accusatory tone. "Failed to mention she was dating Neji Hyuga."
Tenten blinked, taken aback. "You know him?"
Her mother huffed, still not satisfied with her cheese placement.
Suki gave her a magazine around which the three women had excitedly gossiped before Tenten made her way in.
Tenten took the magazine, ignoring another loud noise coming from downstairs. Decidedly, her father or brother were going at it hard, judging from the shouting she heard.
"The ten most coveted bachelors of Fire Country?" Tenten read the article's title the magazine was opened on, incredulously raising her eyebrows almost at her hairline.
Yara nodded excitedly, telling her to turn the page.
Tenten violently coughed, almost suffocating on her own saliva yet again, at a black and white image of Neji in his most well-tailored suit, broodingly looking at the camera.
"Single and ready to share an empire: Neji Hyuga, the surgeon with a heart of gold." Tenten read the cheesy title aloud dumbly, glossing over his biography, the details about his charity work, mostly with children.
Could that bastard be more perfect?
"Good," Mikoto sighed in relief, finally satisfied with the presentation of her deli meat. She turned around to put the last used dishes in her dishwasher. "Good thing my followers pointed out who Neji Hyuga was to me. I knew I heard the name somewhere but couldn't quite place it. Hyugas are renowned pretty much everywhere, mind you." Her mother continued busying herself around the kitchen, not looking up.
"But they are a bit more discreet here in Suna. Mingling with the starlets isn't much of a Hyuga scene. Can you believe it," Her mother shook her head. "I almost gave grocery wine to a Hyuga?" She threw an appalling look at her sisters. "Thank God the wine ceiling is well furnished, I asked Gai to bring those bottles of-"
Mikoto stopped dead in her tracks, finally seeing her daughter for the first time.
Suki and Yara looked confused over Tenten and her mother until realization hit them and they looked back astounded to their niece in the same moved expression her mother had.
Tenten looked back at the three women, entirely at a loss for their sudden reaction.
"Well," Suki was the first to break the tense silence. "You sure cleaned up nice." She breathed out.
"You look wonderful, Little Tenten." Aunt Yara seemed on the verge of crying. Then again, she always was, even when her pregnancy hormones didn't trouble her so.
"That dress," Mikoto managed, fighting back her own tears. "You haven't worn it since…"
Tenten's mouth fell. When she had rummaged through her closet to find something to wear that Neji hadn't already seen, she had welcomed that dress like an old friend, having completely forgotten about it or the bad memories that have weaved themselves in the fabric. She kept wondering why she had never worn it in the last few years. Now it was all coming back. It was the dress she wore when she discovered Deidara had been seeing another woman.
She had had no recollection on how it had happened, when it happened. She had pushed it at the back of her mind, simply grasping the truth that he had betrayed her trust with another one. The other circumstantial details seemed so futile in comparison she had given them no mind in the aftermaths.
But now it was all coming back, how seven years ago, she wore her favourite dress she frequently wore during the holidays. She waited all evening for him to show up at her family supper like he always did. Finally, around the end of supper, she was so worried about him she drove to his estate, where his parents told her he went to see some friends for a Christmas party. It didn't take long for Tenten to figure out his parents meant The Akatsuki, a club he was always at with his other trust-fund college friends. She drove there right away, anger overpowering her earlier worry.
She couldn't imagine he'd miss a planned supper with her family to go hang out with his friends on Christmas Eve of all nights. But she couldn't imagine either she'd walk in on him kissing another girl. Or that when his eyes would lock with hers, he'd run his hand up the other woman's dress to squeeze her ass as if to prove Tenten a point.
He had even mocked her. Not apologizing once. He shifted the blame on her, on how she was too young to understand, too inexperienced to satisfy him, too average to keep up with his taste. He had manipulated the whole scenario so she'd feel more negligible, so she'd feel like she had it coming.
And the worst in all that is that it had worked. Tenten had believed it, in some way. After she had broken up with him that night, it took her months to tell the news to her best friend, Temari. She was scared the sandy blonde would see what he saw. That her friend would pity her and not be surprised. That she could read in her topaz eyes 'well, it was predictable.'
He had succeeded in making her feel like she had deserved it. He was so successful, in fact, that if Tenten was sincere, the real reason why she had never told her mother was because she was afraid she'd side with Deidara. That she too would think Tenten could have done more to keep him, been more. So she let her mother believe she had broken up with him because he had missed their Christmas supper, and like she had suspected, even for such a silly matter, her mother had sided with Deidara.
"It's such a silly reason to break up years spent building a relationship. What you two have is precious, don't throw it all away like that."
Her mother couldn't understand. The worst was that because they were part of such a close circle, she kept running in Deidara everywhere she went. That's what fueled her decision to continue her residency in Konoha instead of Suna.
Gai being a Konoha native and having legally adopted her after marrying her mother, granted her dual citizenship of both Wind and Fire Countries. She was still licking her wounds in Konoha, but at least she had the space to heal.
And it's funny how she hadn't thought about Deidara since that night a cold-blooded resident stormed in her ED, calling her incompetent over a forgotten echo.
Tenten smiled, remembering how all her feelings, all the space in her mind, for better or for worse, had since then solely been occupied with Neji Hyuga.
Even with other men she had met after knowing Neji. She remembered one very cringe date where she came storming into the restaurant for her blind date and had ranted about Neji and his infuriating ways for half her date until the man in front of her asked her to stop talking about her ex.
"God forbids," She almost spat her white wine. "He's just a coworker. I would never date the guy."
The dubious look he gave her, and the radio silence that had followed the days after, were hint enough that he had not believed her.
Could it be true? Could it be that she had moved on from Deidara without realizing it because her heart had settled on another man without her realizing?
Tenten shook off all the memories just in time to notice her mother and aunts running to trap her in a group hug.
"Oh," Yara's voice broke from her emotional crying. "She even put on her favourite perfume, I just, I can't-"
"Oh Yara, for God's sake." Suki rolled her eyes.
Tenten laughed at her aunts, trying to slip off the stronghold of her mother when she heard the loudest thud yet followed by a crash coming from the basement just before the unmistakable loud raucous caused by her uncles' cheers erupted.
Her eyes immediately widened.
Fuck, why didn't I think of it before! She yelled at herself.
"You let them play Slap The Rhino with Neji?" Tenten hissed, rushing out the kitchen, her aunts and mother on her heels.
"I swear I had no idea." Mikoto rushed to her defence. "You know how your uncles get whenever you have a new boyfriend."
Tenten wanted to yell out in frustration. She had forgotten their silly tradition. All men in her family were obsessed with martial arts and unnecessary show of strength. So whenever she brought a boyfriend home, either Kankuro or Deidara, they took him downstairs in the dojo to play a round of their favourite game they had nicknamed "slap the rhino."
The principle was simple: you had to wrestle your opponent to the ground for five seconds. If the opponent managed to free themselves from your grasp and slap you within that time, you had to start the fight over until someone succeeded in holding the other down for five seconds, which granted them the right to 'slap the rhino' and seal their victory.
Tenten ran down just in time to see a flushed out shirtless Neji, breathless, dishevelled, muscles bulging, holding her brother down while her father and uncles were towering over them yelling :
"…FOOUR …THREE…TWOOO….OOOOONNEEEE- SLAAAAAAAAP THE RHINOOOO!"
Neji slapped her brother with the loudest hand-to-cheek sound she had heard in her lifetime of playing the rhino combined with the booming cheers of the crazy men of her family erupted in. Her uncles A and Bee were lifting Neji on their shoulders
"MY YOUTHFUL SECOND SON!" Her father was on the verge of crying, pulling Neji from her uncles' shoulder to hug him tightly.
"He beat his new brother! Found himself another father!" Uncle B rapped. "Fool! Ya Fool!"
Uncle A slapped his forehead with his free hand. "We talked about this, B." He glared at his little brother.
Tenten looked at the spectacle in front of her, bewildered. When it had been Kankuro or Deidara, they both had not only lost in a matter of seconds, but they had also sulked for almost a month, refusing to come back to her place.
And here, Neji was so readily accepted by the brute men that composed all her father figures, cheering and hugging him as if he was one of their own.
Tenten quickly turned her worried stare to her brother Lee, still on the ground, looking at Neji.
Oh, no.
She could recognize that expression on her brother's face anytime. The trembling lip, the exaggerated grimace, the eyebrows knitting in.
He was about to cry.
And with reason, Tenten would think. Lee rarely lost except to their father, Gai. It must be quite the shock, and even Tenten pained to understand how this could have happened. Lee was an olympian in martial arts before he finished his medical studies, specializing in physiatry and sports medicine. But she remembered the hall of fame in the Hyugas Manor and all the martial arts competitions Neji had won.
Maybe she shouldn't have underestimated her fake boyfriend.
As his older sister -by six months, mind you-, she rushed to his side, but before she got there, Neji held out a hand for her brother.
Lee looked up, tears swelling in his jet-black eyes.
"Lee," Tenten murmured, worried for her brother.
But it was too late. Lee bawled like he usually did. But this time, it wasn't about a youtube video on an erring dog or global warming like he generally did. It was because he had lost.
Or so Tenten thought, because next thing she knew, Lee took Neji's hand and pulled him down in a bone-crushing hug only a Maito knew how to give.
"I HAVE FINALLY FOUND MY YOUTHFUL RIVAL, DAD." Lee sobbed with joy, and soon, his father joined in.
"YES, LEE!" Their father bawled with the same intensity his son did. "YOU HAVE NOW ENTERED THE TRUE SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH!"
"NOT ONLY DID I FIND MY ETERNAL RIVAL, BUT I ALSO FOUND A BROTHER!" Lee cries doubled as he sandwiched Neji between him and his dad.
Tenten wanted to intervene. She truly did. Mostly that Neji was glaring at her, trying to find his breath, his eyebrows twitching in annoyance, mouthing her to do something.
But the reality was, no one could do anything to intercede in Neji's favour now that her father and brother had decided Neji worthy of being included in their springtime of youth delirium.
She watched amused as the stoic Hyuga finally understood all resistance was futile with those two and let his undershirt be soaked by the emotional tears of joy -and snot? No, this, he tried to ignore- of the two most important men in Tenten's life.
The young woman didn't know what exactly she could do with the scene in front of her. In her three years of dating Kankuro and five dating Deidara, her father had never been this affectionate. Gai was always friendly and bubbly with everyone and a hugger no matter who you were, but there was always some sort of distance between her sibling and father and her old boyfriends. They would respect them, but they wouldn't feel this connection.
Now, when Neji had exited the shower in the basement and was met with Gai Maito, Rock Lee, and three of the four uncles Tenten had mentioned, he did not expect he would end up on a dojo mat being explained some silly rules about a silly game of slapping someone.
He had crossed his arms over his torso, convinced he would not succumb to such a childish game.
He gulped when uncle A bore his eyes into him. That man was built like a mountain, no shit Tenten told him to stay put and avoid annoying him much.
"It's a rite of passage." Uncle A grunted at him.
"Fight the fight, don't be light! Fool, ya fool!" Killer B had rapped.
Ok, fine, his family was a bit deranged, but Neji highly doubted Tenten's family faired better on the mental health spectrum.
"It's ok, Neji-san." Lee had bowed on that mat. "I'll go easy on you."
Neji glared back at the man. Fine, Neji was not childish per se. He was just highly competitive. And it didn't take more for Neji to unbutton his shirt and position himself in front of Lee. Now, if the black-haired man had gone easy on him at the beginning, he quickly switched gears when Neji had almost won five minutes in their first spar.
"Oh my God, Neji." Tenten came to put her hand on his bruised cheek. "How much time have you been playing Slap the Rhino?" She looked worried at the man her father and brother had finally released after her mother had called the lot of them to the table.
"Too much time," Neji mumbled, annoyed that it took him almost half an hour to beat his opponent.
"I'm so sorry," Tenten began to blurt her prepared speech.
Neji gave her a weird look. "Why?" He raised a brow. "I quite liked it. I'm just annoyed it took me that much time to win. Your brother is powerful." His eyebrows knitted in that frustrated crease Tenten knew all too because it was the expression she loved most on him when she made sure to infuriate him during their work hours.
"That's the spirit boy," Uncle Darui came and slapped his back. "Good catch Tenten, better than that blond artist." He passed them to go sit with his other brothers.
Tenten looked bewildered at her uncles and father, who were animatedly chatting, piling food on their plates, recounting the highlights of the spar they had witnessed.
"So what's this talk about eternal rivals?" Neji asked her, massaging his jaw.
Tenten chuckled. "My father's best friend they have this 'eternal rival' thing going on for years where they'll challenge each other on silly things, may it be a war of thumbs or running a marathon faster than the other. My father says finding your eternal rival is like finding your soulmate. It's someone that pushes you to be better than you were yesterday, to strive to achieve greatness, and never let yourself be complacent or lazy. And that kind of mindset is what my father calls the 'springtime of youth.'"
Neji nodded slowly. "I guess that's kind of poetic."
Tenten looked fondly at her father and brother. "They're the most inspiring people I know."
Her uncle A's grave voice erupted across the large dining table, overpowering the shrieks and giggling from the kids' table in the living room. "He's got some fight in him, alright." He pointed a knife towards Neji's direction, and Tenten could swear to her that the man that posed as her boyfriend had shivered. "Not just a bag of bones and royal airs that pretty boy." A nodded approvingly, his rocky laugh almost shaking the chandelier above.
"So, what did I miss?"
"Uncle Yamato!" Tenten grinned, turning around to run to her favourite uncle.
A shook his head in deception, crossing his gigantic forearms over his chest. "Little tenten, my favourite niece, yet she still prefers that scrawny wood-obsessed fella."
Yamato winked at his adopted brother. "What can I say, Little Tenten got tastes." He gave his niece a quick hug before sitting next to his sister. "And is that your fiancé?" He teased Neji, winking at him sitting down.
Mikoto chuckled. "Please, stop teasing them."
Yamato's eyes suddenly widened at his niece's dress. "Oh," He simply said. "You're wearing the dress again."
Everybody at the table suddenly turned silent and scrutinized the brunette's dress again.
"There is no 'dress.'" Tenten said, trying to hide her embarrassment.
"Oh, you're right." Darui agreed with his brother, astonished at seeing the clothing again. "Good for you, Little Tenten."
A blinked at his niece, frowning, annoyed of not understanding what everybody seemed to understand. "What dress?" He hit the table with his fist. "That's the first time I see this dress."
Yara smiled sweetly. "A, Little Tenten used to wear that dress every Christmas before…" She stopped immediately when Mikoto gave her sibling a sign to zip it.
"Before what?" A was growing exponentially annoyed at his family's conspiring silence.
"It's the heartbreak dress! The one where he left her in a mess! Since that blond asshole! Tenten has never been whole! Fool, ya fool!" Killer Bee moved frantically to the flow of his sentences, wiggling in his seat.
A's eyes widened in recognition, and Tenten grew a thousandfold embarrassed.
"I think you look lovely, Tenten." Neji finally supplied, his voice soft, his heart pained by the hurt that flashed in her eyes.
Tenten raised her eyes to meet his, and she was starstruck by the sincere affection they held. As if under a spell she could only blabber some unintelligible words back which was highly frustrating given all her overbearing family was avidly drinking in her reaction that resembled very much a schoolgirl finally talking to her crush.
From the corner of her eyes, she saw Darui grinning conspiringly with Yamato, nudging the poor wood expert in the ribs, almost making him choke on the bite of asparagus he had just taken.
Tenten finally shook herself out of her trance and rolled her eyes. "Can we change the subject to something else?" She raised a brow. "Like the fact Aunt Suki didn't bring any twenty-something guy this time around? Doesn't that deserve a round of applause?"
"Look at that," Darui grinned at his older sister. "Suki, are you finally going to settle with someone your age?"
Suki gave him a sad smile that surprised Tenten because her aunt seldom sported anything other than a sly grin. Thus she decided to quickly change the subject.
"Or uncle A's third divorce?" She threw a rueful look at her uncle, who glared at her.
"About that," He took a big gulp of his wine to steel his nerves, and the whole family stopped in anxiety, waiting for A's announcement. "Mabui and I decided to give it another try."
Loud cheers erupted but were quickly stopped once A raised his hand. "She'll be coming later this evening, don't embarrass me."
"Well, good for you, brother." Suki smiled at her brother. "Though she is definitely too good for you."
Suki didn't have much time to laugh at her own joke because her brother planted her face right in her mashed potatoes.
"A!" Suki bellowed, rubbing her potato-stained cheeks against her brother's suit in retaliation.
"No playing with the food at the table!" Mikoto chastised them.
Tenten rolled her eyes and turned to make sure Neji was comfortable, but he was agreeably talking with Lee, who had seated himself next to him.
"Two peas in a pod, aren't they?" Gai laughed, giving her his brilliant smile.
"I guess so," Tenten pondered about the improbable match Lee and Neji made, but somehow it made sense, and they oddly made her think of her dad and Kakashi.
Saying Neji was treated like the star of the evening was the understatement of the century. Everyone in her family wanted a bite of him, her aunt Suki a bit more aggressively than the others, but that was Suki for you.
Even her little cousins had surrounded him in the living room, where they had settled in to eat the Christmas log. Neji was not a fan of chocolate, but he had to admit that one was delicious.
"Thank you, Neji." Mikoto had smiled at the warm compliments he had given her cooking and baking all evening long.
"He sure knows how to butter up someone." A erupted in his bear laugh, slapping Neji's back so hard he had almost choked out the entire slice of Christmas log he had just eaten.
While Tenten was helping her mother and father clean up, she took a little break, resting against the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. Her gaze travelled back to Neji.
He was sitting on their carpet, assailed by four of her cousins, braiding his hair and putting in his hair the fake flowers her mother used as decorations.
"You look just like a princess, uncle Neji." The oldest of the lot said.
"I do?" He replied, smiling softly at her.
Tenten was amazed at how good he was with kids. She never would have pegged him patient enough to support their amped-up Christmas-fuelled energy. He was not only kind and patient, but he let them sit on his lap and told them stories.
Granted, the stories were boring and seemed taken from literature work she wouldn't read herself. But it seemed to work with the kids well enough to calm them down.
"There's just something about a man that's good with kids that kicks you in the uterus, doesn't it?" Her aunt Suki came behind her, grinning maniacally.
Tenten gave her aunt a disapproving look.
"Here," Neji said to Mikoto. "Let me take those." He took the plates she was carrying and passed by Tenten to put them on the kitchen counter before coming back to her.
He gave her that kind of worried look that made her feel like her body couldn't stand on its own.
"Are you ok?" He looked at her. She seemed rather thoughtful since they had eaten dessert.
She nodded, smiling. "Yes, just didn't realize you were so…"
"Good with kids?" He smirked.
"You arrogant piece of…" Tenten started, and Neji stopped her right away, towering over her leaning form on the wall.
"Keep it G-rated, Tenten," His side-smile grew, tilting his head towards the kids attentively listening to them.
Before Tenten could retort, her youngest cousin, the one with a missing tooth, pointed at them and exclaimed.
"Look, everyone!" She yelled, gathering everyone's attention. "Auntie Tenten and uncle Neji are under the mistletoe."
"Ah," Suki smiled mischievously at them. "You know the rules."
Mikoto giddily went for her phone. Her followers had been avidly asking for a follow-up on the whole engagement situation.
Tenten took her arm in her other hand, looking shyly at her gathered family, expectantly looking at the two of them.
Now, this was awkward. She didn't want to force intimacy on Neji this way.
"Go on," Yamato urged them, his piercing gaze almost challenging them.
"You don't have to…" Tenten whispered at Neji, but it was already too late.
He took her cheek in his hand and brought her ever so gently closer to him in the softest kiss Tenten had ever been given.
It was the way you kissed someone precious, someone dear, someone you'd fear losing every day of your life. It was done with intent, with the most precious thing, with time. His lips brushed against hers, bracing himself to finally taste her sweetness, not in a raging hungry way like they had done a few days ago.
No, this, he wanted to imprint her lips forever in his mind. He wanted the memory of her warmth to last a century because Neji was convinced he would never kiss anyone this way again. It almost pained him how tenderly she kissed him back, her lips moving like a promise against his own, ever so slightly sucking his in sweet possessivity.
Her hand sneaked her way around his neck, and he shivered for the sudden touch, lighting all his nerves ending like a Christmas tree. He brought her closer in, resting his hand on the lower part of her back.
He knew how incredibly cliché it was to wish for a moment to last forever, but that was nonetheless how he truly felt. His heart broke with bittersweet surrender to reality when he heard uncle A cough behind him.
Aunt Yara blinked at the two before shaking herself out of her trance. "Well," She blinked again. "Time to go to bed, kids." She told the protesting children, who quickly obeyed when A grunted the same order.
Neji and Tenten slowly departed from their enlace, still dizzied by the amount of feelings crushing their uncertain mind.
Tenten wished she could have been alone with Neji, to kiss him again, and talk, and kiss him again, but she had to quickly regain composure in front of her family's flabbergasted stares.
"Well, that kiss is every father's nightmare." Yamato calmly stated.
"You bet," Darui played with the toothpick in his mouth. "That's the kind of kiss that ends up in teenage pregnancy."
Mikoto gave her brother an outraged look.
"Yeah," A grunted in Neji's direction. "You're definitely sleeping with me tonight, pretty boy."
"NEJI!" Gai sprang from his seat, his eyes moist with emotions. "MY SON'S ETERNAL RIVAL…" He wiped his snot with his sleeve, running to a fearful Neji. "AND NOW MY DAUGHTER'S SOULMATE." He hugged tightly for the umpteenth time the horrified man. "YOU REALLY HAVE BLESSED THIS FAMILY WITH THE SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH." He yelled in his ears.
"Why don't you kiss me like that anymore?" Aunt Yara slapped her sleepy husband's shoulder.
Aunt Suki snorted. "I think he kissed you a bit too much like that." She poked her sister's protruding belly.
December 24th - 0:30
Tenten breathed out in the darkness of the kitchen.
"What are you doing up?"
She jumped, startled at the sudden apparition of Neji.
"You scared me," She breathed out. "I needed some air. I thought a walk on the beach would do me some good."
"At this hour?" He raised a brow.
"We're in Green Valley," She deadpanned. "Worst that could happen is that I'm attacked by a seagull." She gave him a quizzical look. "What about you?"
His dead eyes said it all. "I can't sleep well next to your uncle A. He snores like a dragon."
Tenten chuckled. "Try sleeping next to aunt Suki. She's worse."
"I'll join you on your walk." Neji offered.
Tenten was taken aback, but she quickly nodded. "Great."
Walking on the beach with Neji had been soothing for her nerves. She still had difficulty grasping how quickly she became so at ease with him, laughing with him, sharing silly stories like how Temari had dragged her in that debutante ball when they were seventeen.
His hand had bumped into hers one too many times. It almost felt like he had tried holding hers but decided otherwise every time.
"Well, that was pleasant," Tenten whispered once they reached their back door again. "I-"
"Please, listen to me." They heard a far-off voice.
Tenten's eyebrows rose, and Neji immediately brought her in closer in a protective fashion.
"There's someone at the front of the house," Tenten whispered, strolling towards the side of the house, Neji still holding her forearm and closely following her.
Here, in front of Tenten's shocked eyes stood a very drunk Kankuro, holding an almost empty bottle of vodka and throwing rocks at her bedroom window.
"Please," He begged at the closed window. "I don't want to lose you. Just answer me."
Tenten was bewildered. She hadn't had a meaningful conversation with Kankuro in years.
"Is that your high school boyfriend?" Neji voiced her thoughts.
Tenten nodded.
"Looks like he hasn't got over you," He remarked with the faint trace of bitterness in his voice.
"I…" Tenten was dumbfounded. "I had no idea…"
"Shut up."
Tenten's window had opened on her aunt Suki in her bedrobe.
"Suki!" Kankuro exclaimed. "Moon of my heart." He spoke sluggishly.
Tenten had to elbow Neji in the stomach to impede him from laughing too loud.
"Are you drunk?" Her aunt shook her head in astonishment. "Don't move." She closed the window.
"Oh wow," Neji breathed out, and Tenten wanted to rip his foolish smirk out. "Your ex is actually here for your aunt."
"Shut up," Tenten gritted and directed her gaze back to the front door of the house where her aunt had just appeared.
"So he has gotten over you." Neji's tone of voice was too amused for Tenten's liking. "Just not your aunt." He hammered in the last nail in Tenten's total humiliation. How could she explain to her fake boyfriend she started developing feelings for that her ex-boyfriend was actually pinning on her aunt?
Hidden in the bushes on the side of her house, Tenten and Neji intently watched the scene unfolding in front of them as aunt Suki walked out the front door to meet the inebriated man.
"What are you doing here?" Suki hissed at the young man.
"Suki," He took her hands. "What we have is real."
"You're drunk, Kankuro, go home," Suki said, but without much force to it.
"Please," He begged again. "I don't want to lose you. I know you love me too."
Suki shook her head. "It does not matter what we have." She cupped both his cheeks. "You're too young."
"It's only twelve years." He argued back, unstable on his two feet.
"You're Tenten's ex." She reasoned again.
"She doesn't care." He stated, bored by her arguments.
"True," Tenten mumbled.
"And what will my brothers think? What will your family think? You think people will just accept us like that?" Suki seemed defeated and heartbroken.
"B-but," Kankuro stammered, his sadness impeding his speech skills. "I love you, Suki." He said earnestly.
From where she was, she could see the tears glistening on her aunt's cheeks. "I do too." She found it hard to speak. "But it's just impossible." She gave him a last farewell kiss and went back home.
Tenten watched, heartbroken, the pair split up. Kankuro, shoulders slumped, walked down the road to his house that was down the road.
She quietly stumbled back into the kitchen with Neji.
"Wow," She breathed. "That's some turns of events right there."
Neji shrugged. "Honestly, nothing surprises me anymore during these holidays."
Tenten assessed him. "I think we're like a cosmic nuclear duo." She chuckled. "Wherever we both are, things just become…"
"Out of this world?" He smirked.
"Yeah.." She bit her lip, only now realizing how close they were. "You know," She started. "About that kiss…"
"Did I make you uncomfortable?" He looked at her, concerned.
"No!" She rushed to say. "Not at all. I just didn't want you to feel forced."
"I wanted to." He replied instantly.
Her eyes dig in his, quickly darting over his face. "Good," She whispered. "I wanted you… to want it."
His eyes searched her own for a sort of answer to questions he didn't even know he was asking himself.
"Why does everyone keep calling you Little Tenten?" He asked instead.
The brunette looked away, blushing slightly. "It's a silly nickname from my childhood. My grandmother, the one who passed away, I was named after her. So everybody called her Tenten-baa-chan, and they called me Little Tenten."
Neji smirked. "Little Tenten, huh?" He smirked at her the way she knew he would with that piece of information.
"Don't push it too much, Nejiko." She smirked back.
Neji rolled his eyes. "I thought you wanted to call me My Lord?" He smiled at her, talking about when she first heard of his title when Kyo drove them to his estate. This felt like a thousand years ago.
Tenten was about to say something back, but her uncle suddenly appeared in the doorway.
"There you are, Neji." A glowered and took the young man by the neck. "Until that ring I saw on Mikoto's live is safely on Tenten's finger, I'm not letting you out of my sight." He dragged the poor Hyuga out the window like a little kitten in his clutch.
Neji turned around to look at Tenten as if telling her they weren't done yet.
She shivered and breathed out in relief when she was alone again in the room, trying to calm down the fluffy happiness that wouldn't leave her alone since Neji had stopped simply being a coworker.
I'm so screwed. She groaned internally.
A/N : Finally, I updated this story. January has been one hell of a month and I only have one week left to apply to programs, so right now I'm rushing a bit. But writing has been some good self-care in the past few days. I'll continue updating but more slowly.
There are about three-four chapters left here. And hopefully in February I can start update When they first met again!
I hope you like the little cameos of the lightning country. I was thinking of making OCs for Tenten family then thought he'd be funnier with real Naruto characters, tell me what you think! Can't wait to start writing in Temari and Shikamaru in the next chapter.
Take care until then and I'll appreciate any review that'll brighten up this upcoming stressful week!