A bet on Love

13 | Day Out

She was so close, like one centimetre and she would have some ramen deliciousness hanging on her chopsticks just for her to enjoy, but no, he had to be the sophisticated Hyuga he was and sense her uninvited presence just in time to grab her hands before she could steal his food. She groaned in annoyance and let her head drop onto the table as a sigh of her defeat and surrender. His grip on her hand slowly loosened and he lowered his hands back onto the table.

"You could have just asked for more you know." Tenten glared at him through the corner of her eyes, planning her murder. He didn't need to state the obvious that she obviously knew. She quickly sat up and grabbed her chopsticks once again. Neji sighed. He wasn't surprised. She was mentally unstable at times but he let it slide. He shifted his ramen bowl away from his reach and turned his back to her, paying no attention to her futile attempt to steal his food.

"C'mon just share! You're not gonna die if you give me just a little bit!" She demonstrated her amount of 'little' by drawing her index and thumb finger together, leaving a generous amount of space between them. Neji raised an eyebrow at her to show she was not serious before turning his body round again with his back facing her. Annoyed, Tenten latched for his figure forcing him to drop his bowl which fell very slowly and dramatically, in Tenten's point of view, towards the floor and scatter into millions of sharp pieces, ramen flowing out in an oozing manner she almost smiled.

All eyes in the peaceful restaurant travelled to them, with old grannies giving them critical glares and people their age snickering and whispering whatever gossip they would share to their friend who were probably halfway across the world. Neji quickly hid his face to avoid people seeing him and bringing poor reputation on his family name. He quickly apologised to the old man behind the counter, dropped their fee with extra tip then rushed out, dragging Tenten across the floor with him.

Once they were out of sight and earshot, he glared at the brunette who was licking her hands that were still covered in miso soup. He slapped his forehead in agitation which finally caught her attention. She stared at him, her hand still hanging loosely in front of her and her lips pursed as she licked it. She started ranting, "In my own defence, it wasn't my fault. If you had just been a generous Hyuga and shared your ramen with me then that mess would not have happened. You should be lucky I thought of all the possibilities of you exposing yourself beforehand hand and providing you with such beautiful brown contact lenses. Now we look like siblings and no one is ever gonna know it's you!"

She shrugged her shoulder, a satisfied sigh escaping her lips before she resumed her finger licking. Wasting perfectly good food was not a good thing to do. Neji blinked in shocked. Okay so he knew that his fiancée on paper was mentally unstable at times, but it didn't change that fact that sometime, he was overwhelmed by her stupidity, like right now. He forced himself to calm down and counted one to ten in his head to regain his posture.

"Go wash your hands, and we'll go back to yours. Outing is clearly not working for us right now." Tenten nodded her head and followed the Hyuga towards the bathroom. "I'll wait for you out here so don't be too long." And then she disappeared behind the female bathroom. As he waited, he couldn't shake the fact that unwanted eyes of women were checking him up and down it was disgusting and uncomfortable. Then one woman had the audacity to approach him.

"Hey handsome." He gagged, wrapping his fingers around his neck to show he'd rather die than go out with her, but of course her pea-sized brain was not following and she decided she'd insult his fiancée. "Y'know, instead of being stuck to that disgrace you were with earlier, you can come with me and we can hit it off somewhere, y'know?" She winked at him and Neji had the strong urge to throw up. He glared at her,

"Miss can you kindly take meter steps away? I have a girlfriend and it wouldn't look go as an unfaithful boyfriend would it?" He forced himself to smile at her, gripping her wrists that were wrapped around his back tightly and forcefully throwing her away from him. She stumbled back and fell into her friend's arms very ungracefully.

Just then, Tenten stepped out, wafting her hands in the air to dry them. She looked across from Neji's annoyed expression that was not so obvious to other people and the woman's hurt expression. She opened her mouth to speak when Neji wrapped his hands around her waist and dragged her out of the scene. "Going out is really not working for us.

"Hey, what's going on? Did something happen?" She turned her head to stare at the woman who only glared at her with evil intent in her eyes, then at the arm that was wrapped around her waist.

"Nothing asides from getting sexually assaulted by a woman." He opened the passenger door for her and let her enter before making his way round to the driver's seat. "If it weren't for you I might have committed murder." Tenten laughed, attempting to fasten her seatbelt.

"You are really funny." She giggled and turned to face her seatbelt trying to mate it with its better half. "For goodness sake, why won't this click? I'm trying to hook you up here!" She hissed at the seatbelt. Now it was Neji's turned to laugh as he leaned over to help. He gently placed his hands over hers and help her fix it in properly. "Oh!" She laughed then turned to face him with a closed eye smile, "Thanks that helped...a lot..." she trailed off when she opened her eyes.

They were inches apart from each other that in one accidental movement would result in them locking lips, so Tenten stayed put in her seat, not moving at all and instead stared deep into his eyes. Was it always this beautiful? All Hyūga's had the same type of eyes but his always seem to draw her in in a different kind of way. Her heart hammered against her rib cages due to their close proximity and her lips turned dry. She stuck out her tongue to lick them and Neji blinked slowly at her.

"I think I'm going crazy." He whispered to himself, slowly removing his hands from hers and placing it on her head, making her close her eyes on instinct. And quick enough, he retrieved it and covered his face, turning the opposite direction and refusing to look at her face.

"Neji?" He shook his head, clumsily placing his free hand on the stirring wheel. "Are you okay?" He nodded, his hand still over his mouth and nose. A sly smirk formed its way onto the brunette's lips, "Are you blushing?" His reaction made her laugh. "I'm blushing too." She grinned, her face bright red.

The sun had began to set by the time the duo made it back to the Suzuki mansion. Like always the lights were out and it looked glum and lonely. Tenten stepped out of the car and waited for Neji to accompany her. When he did, they both stared at each other for a quiet moment before Neji motioned for her to get inside. "You go in." Did she want to go in? It was so dark and lonely and she wasn't in the mood to sulk about not having anyone to comfort her at night, it wasn't like she could call Hinata over.

After her adoptive mother Tamao Suzuki died, she figured she was not as strong as she thought she was. "Um," he was about to leave when her voice stopped him half way. He turned around to sight her vulnerable figure nervously tugging at one of her twin braids, "Do you want to stay over?" How else could she convince him to stay with her without sounding desperate and weak? "It's a bit dangerous to be driving at this hour right?"

Neji turned back to look at the road. That did make sense. He shrugged his shoulder's, "Why not?" She was silently celebrating in her mind. One rare night and happiness and comfort with someone she had grown attached to.

"Great! I'll cook up something, so make yourself at home. Your spare clothes are in my wardrobe if you need them."