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“You’re fraternizing with the enemy, Lee!” Tenten exclaimed, cleaning her weapons with the sort of frantic, energetic fury that made Lee wince. “How could you betray our friendship like this!”
Lee resisted the urge to sigh through long acquaintance with Tenten and her quirks. “Tenten,” he said, keeping a smile on his face and not face palming as he wished, “just because someone opens a shop on this street doesn’t mean that they’re the enemy. This is literally Main Street, it’s the street that makes the most sense for shops to open.”
Tenten merely squinted at him suspiciously before testing the edge of her blade on some paper with a dangerous look in her eyes. “He’s hoodwinking you,” she declared before a pleased smile crossed her face as the blade slid through the paper without even a hint of hesitation. “You can’t trust the enemy, Lee.”
“He’s not even a rival shop, Tenten,” Lee said with a deep sigh. “He opened a bookstore and you own a weapon shop. I own a gym. None of these things are in competition with each other. I actually think you’ll really like him once the two of you meet and talk! Just come to one our Springtime session at the gym. He’s been attending some of the free sparring sessions.”
“I’m not attending anything that you call a springtime session, Lee,” Tenten said briefly distracted from her conviction that every shop on this street that opened up was actively working against her and Lee. “It just doesn’t sound quite right.”
“See! Neji said the same thing!” Lee said happily, clapping in delight. Tenten, squinting at her long time best friend suspiciously, began polishing her sword with a vaguely threatening air. “I’ll let you think on it,” Lee said, slowly backing away from the scowl on Tenten’s face. “Remember! My Springtime sessions!”
Grumbling to herself, Tenten continued to shine her sword. She probably should attend the session to get an understanding of the enemy. After all, she couldn’t leave Lee’s back unguarded.
-x-
Having securely wrapped her knuckles and changed into athletic clothing, Tenten sneaked out of the locker room to peer into the gym. She didn’t quite remember what the adversary looked like other than that he had long hair and was wearing a suit but she wasn’t going to give Lee the satisfaction of knowing that she had actually come to one of the free sparring sessions that Lee, unfortunately, had dubbed “Springtime of Youth sessions.” She wasn’t suspicious, she was just going to scope out what was happening and make sure she had some sort of response when it came to a physical fight.
“Tenten! I’m so pleased you could join us!” Lee exclaimed, looping an arm around her tightly and half dragging her to the matted corner of the gym where various familiar and unfamiliar people were warming up and stretching. “Let me introduce you to Neji!”
“I don’t want to meet the enemy!” Tenten hissed, trying futilely to claw herself out of Lee’s grip without causing him bodily harm. Unfortunately, Lee was determined and also impervious to most levels of pain and continued to cheerfully drag her to someone wearing loose work out clothing and a french braid. “Neji! This is my friend I wanted you to meet!” Lee said cheerfully, waving one arm.
Tenten, fighting herself out of the grip of Lee, finally looked up to meet very pale eyes. “That’s a fucking Hyuuga,” she blurted out before she could help herself. She whipped around to Lee with a glare, “Lee, we don’t like Hyuugas!” she snapped trying to message with her eyes the need for Hinata-solidarity even if Hinata also had a rival shop but god the brownies she baked had crack in them or something so she was okay.
“Then I’m happy to become friends with you as well,” the apparent Hyuuga said with an incredibly dry tone of voice. Tenten turned back to him suspiciously and found he had a faint smile on his face and a wrapped hand extended. “I finally managed to pay back the debt I owed my uncle and also left the household. Now I’ve opened up the bookstore two doors down from you, I believe,” he added.
After a long pause, Tenten reached out and shook his head. She was pleasantly surprised when he didn’t attempt to do any nonsense of flexing his hand or trying to break her grip but simply gave her a firm shake. “If by uncle you mean—” Tenten paused and remembered with a faint sense of embarrassment that she actually didn’t know what the guy’s name was because she had been calling him ‘that asshole’ in her head for so long “—uh, Hinata’s father.”
From the raise of his eyebrows, Tenten got the feeling he had understood why she paused. “Hiashi, yes. We’re cousins.”
Tenten squinted at him suspiciously for another moment and caught sight of Lee’s pleading expression from the corner of her eye and sighed. “Congratulations on getting out from his clutches,” she finally said, unfortunately unable to disappoint the shiny expectant eyes that Lee had and reluctantly willing to be friends with anyone that also hated Hi-whatever asshole dad.
The smile he gave her was very faint but she was surprised at the amount of mischief hidden in its corners. “Thank you,” he replied. Tenten watched as he also snuck a glance at Lee, sighed faintly, then offered her more of a grimace than a smile. “Perhaps you would like to warm up together?” he offered, resolutely ignoring Lee.
Tenten, who knew that the faint sniffs coming from her side meant that Lee was about to start crying and wailing about youth nodded tightly. “Yes, great, please,” she said, hastily grabbing his arm, dodging Lee’s grabby fingers and dragging them to another empty corner of the mats. “How long have you known him and you already can’t disappoint him?” she hissed as they slowly moved through shadow boxing sequences.
Neji, shrugged, dodged a blow, and redirected her momentum with the sort of balance taking that made the brawling corner of Tenten’s brain sit up eagerly. “The last time I did something that disappointed him was two days into our acquaintance and he cried,” Neji said with the reluctant long-suffering air of someone that definitely didn’t know what to do with tears. “At least this way there’s less snot on me.”
Tenten hummed thoughtfully as she also redirected a punch with a slight change in stance, noting with approval how quickly Neji recentered himself. “But Lee’s great,” she added with possibly a little too much defensiveness and a tightening of her fists.
The way he blinked at her before he swayed away from one of her punches was intriguing. “He’s kind,” he said, noncommittal and shrugging. “The only other people that really speak to me are customers and my cousin.”
Tenten froze for a split second before barely managing to dodge the rather sneaky sweep that Neji attempted. She almost sighed aloud but barely held it in. Damn Lee, now she felt bad about hating on him. “We can be friends,” she said decisively, nodding firmly before attempting to sucker punch him in the gut. She managed some contact and grinned victoriously at the shallow breath he let out.
“Do you often punch your friends?” he mumbled, it seemed, mostly to himself. Tenten merely gestured to everywhere in the gym. Clearly, considering her friend group and this current situation, she did.
-x-
“Don’t you have to keep your own shop open?” Neji asked with a surprisingly and annoyingly deep sigh. He looked up from where he was shelving books to fix Tenten with a rather judgemental stare. Tenten, who was currently juggling knives to the horror of a customer with a child, shrugged easily before flipping the knives around her back with a quick wink to the child. “Tenten, please stop juggling the knives.”
“I’m advertising,” Tenten said cheerfully, continuing to juggle the knives but now juggling four. Neji wasn’t even sure where the knives were coming from. At this point, despite knowing her for only a month, he had given up on every understanding where Tenten got her multitude of weapons from. “It’s my lunch break?” she added when Neji continued to stare at her flatly. She didn’t understand what the big deal was. Lee never got this dramatic when she lingered in his gym during the workday.
“It’s three,” Neji pointed out, gesturing at his clock before giving up. “Is anyone even watching your shop?”
Tenten stared at him strangely. Sometimes Neji said things that made it all too obvious that he wasn’t from around here. “Everyone in the street is watching my shop,” she pointed out flatly. “Besides, no one is stupid enough to steal from me,” she added with a suspiciously sweet smile. Neji, who didn’t know the lore of Main Street quite so well yet, frowned. The customer, who was rapidly figuring out who Tenten was from the amount of clues and this conversation, quickly slapped down her money, did not collect the change, and marched her child out of the shop. “You’ll learn, city boy” she added cheerfully, as Neji continued to stare at her suspiciously.
“You keep making it sound like I don’t understand because I grew up in the city,” Neji said, his voice long-suffering, “but technically Hinata also grew up in the city and you don’t pull this shit with her.”
“But Hinata doesn’t give off so many big city vibes,” Tenten pointed out, gesturing to all of Neji.
Neji scowled, “I don’t give off big city vibes.”
Tenten scanned Neji with a raised eyebrow. He was wearing a bloody tie and oxfords. She had never seen his hair out of place, including when they were sparring. She once saw him use a knife and fork on pizza. Hinata also did little things that made her background obvious but she also handed out cookies that were the tastiest things Tenten had ever tasted in her entire life and therefore could be forgiven for anything up to murder. Neji, on the other hand, was a grandpa that liked to wear glasses when making his budgeting spreadsheets and also sold books. “Sure honey,” she agreed with a saccharine smile.
Neji fixed Tenten, who was rapidly and unfortunately becoming his closest not blood-related friend in this town, with a dark scowl. She hadn’t said anything, but he was certain she was thinking something judgemental. She frequently did.
-x-
“Neji, what are you doing still here?” Tenten demanded, sticking her head into his shop.
Neji looked up from his book to stare blankly at Tenten. “What?” he asked, absurdly tired. He had no idea why he wasn’t supposed to be in his shop when it was only two pm. Additionally, he was pretty sure he was still hungover from drinking with Hinata last night. Surprisingly, his cousin held her liquor incredibly, incredibly well.
“Are you hungover?” she demanded suspiciously, creeping closer to sniff him. While he didn't smell of anything, his eyes were slightly bloodshot and Tenten gave him an extremely judgemental look. “It’s two pm,” she stated flatly.
Neji shrugged weakly. There wasn’t much of a defense available. He was hungover at two pm. His only defense would be to state that Hinata had truly prodigious capabilities involving her liver because he knew for a fact that she had opened her bakery at six am and been in the shop from five to start prep and baking. “Hinata,” he mumbled instead of explaining everything. Moving his jaw seemed to connect directly to his temple and the pain kept throbbing.
Shaking her head, Tenten gingerly patted him on the back before sweeping by him to continue into the storeroom without asking. “Yeah don’t drink with your cousin. She can drink everyone but Sakura under the table and all of us are pretty sure there’s something fundamentally wrong with Sakura’s metabolism.” She returned with a glass of water and a bottle of painkillers, although he had no idea how she had managed to find them considering he had never shown her. When he let out a vague questioning noise as he accepted her offerings, Tenten shrugged. “You’re a very reasonable person,” she answered, “it’s pretty easy to guess where you would keep things.”
With a grunt of thanks, he downed a painkiller and the entire glass of water then gently dropped his head back down. He heard other shuffling noise in the darkness, but didn’t bother to lift his head. Tenten would do whatever she wanted always but she didn’t tend to cause a bunch of trouble usually.
“Neji, come on,” Tenten said, voice surprisingly gentle but hand insistent as she tugged him away from the table and up onto his feet. Neji let out a noise he refused to call a whimper. “I gave you the painkillers because we have to all help set up the street for the holidays. “Come on,” she added when he continued dragging his feet. “You’ll get a bad reputation if you continue to avoid community events and there’s only so much that Hinata and I can do.”
“Lee doesn’t speak up for me?” he asked, a little bit offended. He managed to drag on the coat Tenten held on for him and blinked in surprise when she also handed him his sunglasses. That was surprisingly thoughtful of her.
“No one trusts Lee in these situations. He likes everyone. He used to be able to say nice things about this one pharmacist that we had on the street even though he was literally the worst. And he manages to say nice things about Sasuke even though he almost sold his shop to some stupid corporate chain.” He found himself braced on one side as Tenten began strictly marching him in the direction of town hall.
“And people trust you?” he asked a little doubtfully. From what he knew of Tenten in the past few months, there were customers of hers that, while devout fans, also refused to stand too close to her in public.
“When I say positive things,” Tenten replied cheerfully, tugging him up the steps of town hall and yanking open the door and washing the two of them in blissful heat.
“Tenten, you made it!” Hinata exclaimed, annoyingly loud and cheerful. Neji grunted quietly and a little resentfully; she didn’t even look bloated or tired. How did she get such a strong constitution for alcohol? “Cousin, you’re late,” she added, a mischievous smile crossing her face.
“I’m barely alive,” he replied before carefully rolling his shoulders back and taking off his sunglasses to squint around. “How are you okay? I think you drank more bottles than I did,” he added.
For a split second, Hinata’s smile was viper soft. “You’d be surprised at how quickly you manage to build up an alcohol tolerance when you have to work with Father as a woman.” Her smile became a little smoother and less vicious after a short pause but Neji felt the tense flex of Tenten’s arm at his side. “Are you ready to help with holiday decorations?”
“I’ve never done this before,” he admitted, even as he resigned himself to the headache and started to roll up his sleeves.
“Of course you haven’t, we used to pay people to decorate the house,” Hinata said with an uncharacteristic roll of her eyes. “But there isn’t any sort of skill requirement for you to be allowed to decorate. Just follow directions!” He shrugged in vague agreement but noticed that Tenten had finally relaxed with the sort of gleeful excitement on her face that spoke of ominous events.
“You guys used to—”
“Yes, Tenten,” he interrupted, knowing that he was in for buckets of teasing if he let her continue. He ignored her and turned to Hinata with a sigh, “where do you want me?” he asked.
He scanned her warily when Hinata’s smile looked uncomfortably like Hiashi’s smug victory face. “Why don’t you and Tenten help out Temari and Shikamaru on organizing the lights and flyers for people to run out?” she asked, too sweetly.
“Sure!” Tenten said cheerfully, latching onto his arm to begin dragging him to that corner of the room. Turning, Neji fixed Hinata with a warning, flat stare and was only met with a suspiciously beatific smile. Suspicious. Incredibly suspicious. Had he given something away while drinking yesterday?
-x-
“Why have you been smiling like that all day?” Neji demanded in as quiet a voice as would get him heard in the rather chaotic town hall. At this point they were assembling gift bags or some sort of other small town nonsense that he would never understand. When Hinata merely turned the smug smile on him, he scowled, “it makes you look like Uncle.”
Hinata’s smile slipped away into a small frown, “does not,” she disagreed, the slightest hint of a petulant scowl. When she only received an unimpressed eyebrow, she turned her stare down at her gift bag with a little too much intensity. “You’re prone to confessions when you’re drunk,” she finally said, a consistent small wrinkle between her brows.
Neji barely managed to not stiffen in an all too telling tell. “What?”
Hinata’s frown disappeared as she raised her eyebrow, her expression rather reminiscent of the stories they told of the original heiress all those years ago. It really was a shame that Hinata hated the business so much considering how well she did. On the other hand, the same thing could be said of him and he had also ditched as soon as he finished paying off all the debts. “Apparently you haven’t only made friends in your time so far,” Hinata said, vague and unhelpful.
Neji frowned minutely as he turned his attention down on the gift bag. Mindless activity could be satisfactorily distracting. “I said that?” he asked a little too flatly.
Hinata hummed quietly as she neatly sealed the gift bag and tied a symmetrical bow. “Like I said,” she said, the slight shift of air against his arm telling him she had shrugged, “you’re prone to confessions when you’re drunk.”
Neji barely managed to stop the scowl that he wanted to show. “How detailed a confession?” he asked, already a little resigned.
The smile she gave him, with the sly little tilt of the head was extremely familiar. “Enough.” Neji let himself actually scowl this time. Hinata gently nudged his side and he turned his scowl from his hands to her. “I’m on your side,” she said quietly and her expression was softer and entirely unfamiliar. He couldn’t remember having ever seen such an expression in all the years they had lived together. Admittedly, all those years that they had lived together, they had been pitted against each other in some bullshit competition for attention and affection which would only be given in exchange of success. All those years that they had wrapped themselves in impenetrable and flawless masks, he had never seen such an expression on Hinata’s face. They had, after all, never been on the same side. “We’re family,” she added, and he knew what it cost her to say such words.
“We’re family,” he agreed, carefully nudging her back. He didn’t actually really know how to be family with someone; it had always only been competitor or debtor or enemy. But living in this small town and owning his own bookstore and surrounded by these people, he could see himself learning.
-x-
“You’re absolutely forbidden from being grinch-like within Lee’s studio, okay?” Tenten said suddenly, whipping around with a rather fierce glare on her face. Neji blinked at her in surprise, freezing in his spot. He didn’t really know where this fierceness was coming from. He got along rather well with Lee—he, after all, didn’t believe in punching as a valid form of friendship making—and they had simply been heading to the gym silently. “Okay?” Tenten repeated, the words snarled out between clenched teeth.
Neji, still confused, turned to Hinata for guidance. The quirk of Hinata’s eyebrow told him that agreement was really his best bet. “Sure,” he agreed as they approached the doors. His cousin most likely wouldn’t lead him wrong. Especially now that they actually got along. Right?
“You’ll see why,” Hinata whispered to him as Tenten nodded firmly, reached out, and opened the doors.
“Oh.” Neji stared blankly at the gym, too shocked to even step fully into the building and let the door close behind him. He had thought Lee’s gym was inordinately green the first time he had entered through the doors. Considering Lee’s outfits, he had simply believed that was how he was. However, no matter how green the gym had been that first day, nothing would have prepared him for the sheer amount of visual holiday spirit currently stuffed into the gym. “Ah,” he said, spying the fierce glare on Tenten’s face as he continued to slowly scan the entire room. The entire room seemed to be festooned with every single holiday season-esque decoration he had ever seen. There were Christmas trees, snowflakes, menorahs, mistletoe, Yule logs, candles, and enough fairy lights to drive one’s electricity bill to ruin. He darted a glance at Hinata and found her smiling. “It’s very...” he trailed off as he stared at the flashing lights and the tinsel and the sheer amount of joy contained in simple decorations, “festive.” Their home had been decorated in the past but it had never been like this. It had always been the tasteful minimum for the holidays and far too deliberately vague in meaning. There was a lot more heart, even if it wasn’t what their uncle would consider tasteful, in the mix of homemade and shop decorations throughout the room. He paused, “is that a cactus with a Santa hat?” he demanded, turning to Tenten.
Clearly relaxing the more Neji didn’t say something, as she put it, “grinch-like,” Tenten offered him a grin. “Lee gets really into the spirit and he wants to make sure that Gaara feels included,” she said cheerfully, wandering further into the shop.
“Gaara?” he whispered, leaning in to Hinata.
“Lee’s boyfriend and Temari’s brother. He’s the one that owns the greenhouses a little further down Main Street. Ino nearly threw a fit when he started the business but they’ve since worked out their differences,” Hinata whispered back as they followed Tenten further into the building.
Neji silently shook his head. He still wasn’t completely sure who everyone was, seeing as he still only spoke with Lee, Tenten, and Hinata. He was pretty sure of the existence of someone named Sasuke who apparently was on constant thin ice with Tenten and several other shopowners and there was a Naruto that Hinata refused to speak about but turned brighter red than he had ever seen her turn. “Sure,” he agreed because trying to actually figure it all out would give him a headache.
“Neji! Tenten!” Lee exclaimed, sprinting over to squeeze Tenten in a huge hug before turning to Neji with intent. Neji immediately took a step back and held up his hands defensively. He was fond of Lee, truly, but his hugs were enough to suffocate a man and he really didn’t need that. With a cheerful shrug and a too hard back slap, Lee turned to Hinata. “Hinata!” he exclaimed, dragging her into a hug. “It’s been a while since you visited my gym!”
“I’m not exactly a fan of fistfighting, Lee,” Hinata said with a laugh, hugging him back. “Besides, the last time I came to your gym I got punched in the throat.”
“It was an accident!” Tenten exclaimed, causing the incredulous stare Neji had fixed Hinata with to whip to Tenten. “Your movements were really good so I thought you would dodge!” she added, tad defensively.
“That’s not technically an accident,” Neji said dryly, shaking his head. He really was learning all sorts of things about his cousin and new friends.
“Well I didn’t mean to then,” Tenten replied, sticking out her tongue. He rolled his eyes in response, just as childishly, as Hinata giggled. “She really did have good movements,” Tenten grumbled, crossing her arms.
Hinata finally managed to get her giggles under control. “The bigger issue tends to be your very flexible understanding of what is permitted and what isn’t.”
“I change my standards based on what I think they would survive,” Tenten complained like that made for a perfectly acceptable explanation to the situation. It was, Neji acknowledged, sort of reasonable. If you squinted. And tilted your head completely to the side. And had a strange Tenten-esque vicious logic. “Anyway I apologized and Hinata forgave me so stop making those judgemental eyebrows at me.”
“There are no judgemental eyebrows,” Neji said with a frown. Tenten squinted at him suspiciously but let the topic go. “Did you stop practicing?” he added, turning to Hinata. Hinata pursed her lips but didn’t respond, “you stopped practicing?” he repeated, a little surprised. It had taken Hinata a very long time to develop her fighting skills and he couldn’t really see her giving it up so easily. On the other hand, he had been quickly discovering that he had never really known his cousin, only Uncle’s reflection of her. “Huh.”
Hinata shrugged, an uncomfortable twitch of her shoulder. “Well it wasn’t as necessary,” she said dismissively. The smile she gave them was a little too bright and Neji couldn’t help but feel a bit bad about her discomfort. “Shall we practice then?”
Tenten, after a long searching stare, grabbed Hinata’s hand with a shrug and dragged her off to the changing rooms. “Meet you at the mats,” she called over her shoulder.
Taking it for the dismissal that it was, Neji also stepped away from Lee with a respectful nod and went to the changing rooms. After shedding his various winter layers and changing into athletic clothing and wrapping his knuckles, he wandered over to the mats and an enthusiastically waving Lee. “Would you like to warm up?” Lee offered with one of his bright smiles and a thumbs up.
Nodding warily, Neji carefully rolled his shoulders. It wasn’t like he was out of shape, but Lee and Tenten both had strange understandings of what was considered warming up and what was considered fighting for one’s life. Lee was definitely better at gauging the spectrum than Tenten (which was good considering his job) but unpredictable once he got too enthusiastic. When Lee flashed forward with a barely visible jab, Neji hastily blocked and created a bit more space between them. Apparently Lee was plenty warm compared to him. As he braced himself for another blow, the two of them both froze when Tenten inserted herself between the two of them, Lee’s fist halting an inch from her nose.
“Tenten!” Lee exclaimed, a deeply disapproving frown on his face. “You can’t just step forward into a blow like that! It’s against my safety regulations to attempt to step in the middle of a fight unless you’re a recognized referee or space regulator at the gym!” His muscles moved smoothly as he drew back his fist.
“I’m technically both,” Tenten pointed out with a shrug. “And let’s spar,” she added, tugging on his arm. “Let the cousins warm up together. I haven’t fought with you in ages!”
“It’s only been two days, Tenten,” Lee said with a laugh, letting himself get dragged away.
“Yeah, ages,” Tenten shot back.
Neji shook his head at their antics and turned to Hinata. “How long has it been since we sparred?” he asked with a half shrug and already knowing the answer.
Hinata’s smile was a little bitter, “a lifetime ago,” she agreed. There was a quiet pause and Neji wondered if Hinata was remembering the same fluttering, stutter pulse of Hinata’s heart against his palm as he felt the wet warmth of her blood against his forearm. Or the hot burst of pain against his jaw and the flicker vicious rage hidden in the shadows of Hinata’s gritted teeth. “But it’s different now.”
It was different now, he supposed. He certainly wouldn’t have been able to stand in front of her and have a normal discussion and share friends without things getting competitive and tense even seven months ago. “Shall we?” he offered easily instead but he could see that Hinata understood.
“Let’s,” she agreed and he immediately dodged the flicker movement of her strike to his jaw. It had been a while since their last spar but Neji noted, while dodging another vicious almost dirty swipe for his ankle, that Hinata had many of the same tells that she had before. “Are we actually going to fight or are you daydreaming?” Hinata teased, the sly smile running counterpoint to the vicious hook she aimed for his floating rib.
“What would I even daydream of?” he asked wryly while punching out with an uppercut for her solar plexus. When she opened her mouth with mischief shining up from her eyes as she deftly blocked his uppercut, he moved sideways and shot back with a little too much seriousness, “can’t be more than you daydream of that blonde what’s his face.” Even as he spoke, he winced slightly at the level of defensiveness in his voice. Not only was it telling, it was too much for a friendly spar.
There was a brief wash of something hard and cruel in the tilt of Hinata’s chin before it softened with the unfamiliar easy forgiveness that he saw from her now. “Judging by your drunken rambles, probably Tenten,” Hinata shot back, forgiving but always willing to have the last word.
Crucially, Neji faltered for a split second, then hissed out a low breath as Hianta’s wrapped knuckles slammed into his arm which he had only dropped just in time to block a shot to his kidney. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said as flatly as he could, jabbing out at her throat and trying to convince himself that the rush of warmth on his cheeks were from the spar. (It was unlikely; they had only been sparring for a minute or two and he went running far too often to already be out of breath or tired or anything else leading to heat.)
“Don’t mock me about Naruto unless you’re willing to speak up yourself,” she added with a hard roundhouse to the head which Neji hastily ducked. “Besides, look,” she added dropping her hands and jerking her chin past his shoulder.
Giving her a wary look (he had memories of Hinata distracting him then dropping him in chokeholds. She frequently had fought dirty back in the day, an innocent smile on her face) he turned around and stared mutely as Tenten and Lee danced back and forth. “Ah fuck,” he whispered as Tenten executed an absolutely beautiful throw that Lee somehow managed to roll out of to spring back to his feet. Tenten’s laugh echoed through the gym as she dropped into a backbend then flipped away from Lee for a split second before they clashed again. “Fuck,” he added as he felt Hinata wrap her arm around his shoulder.
Thankfully she only leaned against him. “I don’t blame you,” she added dryly, jerking her chin to the two fighters, “even I can see how light on her feet she is and we Hyuugas are frightfully fond of competency.”
Neji worked his jaw but had nothing. Tenten whipped around with a spin kick before turning on the balls of her feet to switch to a vicious sweep. Her every movement was smooth and graceful and he remembered the way his brain had gone white static in their very first fight, the flexibility and speed with which she had moved. “ Fuck ,” he said with a little bit more feeling and a lot of defeat.
Hinata, almost kind, patted him on the back.
-x-
“Cousin,” Hinata greeted when he ducked into her shop with a furtive glance out the window. She stared at him suspiciously for a long moment, ignoring the customer that was awkwardly holding his hand for his change. “ Cousin ,” she said with a lot more disapproval when she spied Tenten through the window.
“Stop judging me,” Neji said flatly instead of the defensive justifications or obfuscation that wanted to escape. “I’m not doing anything wrong.”
With a deep sigh, Hinata turned back to the customer. “Please inform my cousin that he’s an emotionally deficient idiot and if he doesn’t get his shit together I will flirt with his crush for him and he doesn’t want to see that.”
The customer looked from the stern set of Hinata’s lips to the threatening glower on Neji’s face and slowly shook his head. “I don’t need 58 cents of change that bad, ma’am,” the clearly-a-student said slowly. “He looks like he could kill me,” he added, eyeing the flex of Neji’s jaw as he continued glaring at Hinata.
“Yes, but I provide your vices,” Hinata said sweetly, holding aloft (and clearly hostage) the box of pastries that the boy had bought.
The customer stood there silently for a long moment, staring at the countertop before sighing and turning to Neji “Er,” he started already hesitating even if he really wanted those pastries.
“It’s unnecessary now,” Hinata said cheerfully, grasping his shoulder to spin him around, place the box of pastries in his slack hands then shoo him towards the door.
“What?” he asked, vague and a little terrified before freezing at who he saw at the door. An honest to god whimper escaped him as he carefully edged around Tenten and fled out of the store, leaving behind a far too gleeful Hinata, a frozen Neji, and a dangerously cheerful Tenten.
“Neji,” Tenten said, almost pleasant if it wasn’t for the careful flex of her hands and the clench of her jaw. Neji dropped his gaze from her face to hands briefly, trying to double check that she wasn’t actively wielding a weapon at this very moment. “Are you avoiding me?”
“Why would I be avoiding you?” Neji blurted and he silently cursed himself, raising his gaze to the overhead lights. He had depositions where he hadn’t folded or lost control of his tongue but a single question from Tenten and he was panicking.
“Wow, you are avoiding me?” Tenten demanded, frown deepening. “I thought you were just busy until I saw you make eye contact with me and then duck into Hinata’s shop even though you hate sweets.”
Neji turned his gaze to Hinata, feeling a little trapped and unable to meet the vaguely hurt mostly angry stare of Tenten’s. Hinata turned her gaze to the ceiling and briefly sent up a prayer for patience and filial piety and turned to Tenten with a smile, “I made him some bittersweet chocolate bites that I wanted him to try for me,” she lied easily before turning a pleasant smile on Neji which assured him that he very much owed her.
Tenten raised an unimpressed eyebrow, “Neji hates chocolate,” she pointed out, incredibly dry.
Hinata’s smile looked more like a grimace now, “that’s why I asked him. If he likes it then anyone should like it.” The lie came easily but the cheer in her voice was a touch too high pitched. Neji wondered what it was about this town and marketplace that made people like them (Hyuugas, bloodthirsty vicious manipulators as they had been frequently called) fold like a wet paper bag.
When Tenten opened her mouth, the furrow between her brows deepening and confusion clouding her eyes, Neji stepped forward, resigned to taking this bullet for Hinata since she had taken his panic bullet first. “I have been avoiding you,” Neji said slowly, “half on accident at first because it really was busy enough that I had a good excuse and then the past week has been deliberately.”
Tenten pursed her lips until they went pale, “I see,” she said and her jaw worked silently like she was chewing over accusations or demands or questions. Instead she shook her head, “I see.”
“You really don’t,” Hinata mumbled under her breath, unhelpful in the way that only family could be.
“What?” Tenten asked, her previous, unknown expression melting into confusion. Hinata made eyebrows at Neji which strongly warned him of the dire actions that she would be taking if he did not take action himself. Tenten looked between them and raised her eyebrows again, “is something going on here?” she asked.
Gritting his teeth, Neji silently cursed the day that Hinata and he decided to put the past behind them and be real family. He would feel bad about that later but at this moment, he suddenly sympathized with all the times Hanabi had complained about having a sibling. When he saw the far too cordial expression on Hinata’s face, he, once again, folded. “Do you date?” he blurted like he was in grade school meeting the eyes of his crush for the first time.
“What?” Tenten asked slowly, giving him a suspicious stare. Hinata, still behind the counter, buried her face in her hands and despaired.
“Will you go on a date?” Neji managed instead of the trainwreck he had said a second ago. “With me, I mean.”
“What?” Tenten repeated, mouth going slack. There was a frozen second where Neji stared at Tenten, trying to read her expression, and Tenten glanced between Hinata and Neji, slow building panic in her eyes. When Neji took a small step toward her, actually concerned, she let out a very un-Tenten-like squeak and bolted out of the bakery.
“What?” Neji asked, staring blankly at the gently ringing bell that was the only evidence of Tenten having been here a second ago. He turned to Hinata, rather lost. “What was that?” he asked, frowning. He didn’t think asking Tenten to go on a date with him would make her flee. He’d watched her face down actively drunk and aggressive customers with a dagger-like smile and clenched fists, chin tilted in challenge.
Hinata opened her mouth to reply then paused as her phone chimed. Holding up her finger, she fished out her phone then began laughing. Her laughter continued for so long that it turned into wheezing as Neji glared at her. When he took several threatening steps toward her, scowling, she unlocked and passed him her phone, still giggling.
Neji gave her a strong, disapproving frown before dropping his gaze to the phone.
Tenten: [sent 2:48] tell neji yes and i promise to be less of a disaster at the actual date i totally panic ran and its not my fault because your cousin is super hot okay send he has beautiful blocks whenever we spar and honestly who wouldnt swoon at good offense defense game and fuck what the fuck phone stop typing dont send
Tenten: [sent 2:49] hinata if yuo actually show neji the whole text im going to punch you in the throat next time i see you and that is a promise
Tenten: [sent 2:49] ah fuck you already gave him the phone didnt you you asshole
Neji, staring down at the texts, felt his lips pull into a smile.
Tenten: [sent 2:50] meet you in front of your store after closing for dinner on friday?
Tenten, two blocks away because she was a very fast runner when she panicked, felt her lips tug into a smile as she watched the last message change to read.
Hinata: [sent 2:50] I’ll even close early.
Of course that nerd used proper punctuation in texts. Of course.