Title: Patience and Curses
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: Hyuuga Neji / Tenten
Rating: T
Theme: #24 - Goodnight
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

The doorframe wasn’t quite wide enough as the three of them struggled to fit through. Tenten pushed the door to her apartment open as far it could go, stumbling slightly from the added weight of her drunken teammate leaning on her right shoulder.

“Lee can you take his shoes off, I’m not having bar vomit all over my house,” she ordered as she groped for the light switch. The night was supposed to be a quiet celebration for her becoming Jounin; how it went from that to a drink-off to protect her chastity she had no idea.

“His shoes are off, where shall we put him?” asked Lee, taking hold of Neji’s right arm and shouldering most of his weight, allowing her some relief.

She sighed, her apartment wasn’t exactly spacey but it was enough for someone like her, living alone, but it couldn’t have been helped since she lived the closest. Even in his heavily inebriated state, Neji still possessed the ability to threaten them with his Juken if anyone of his relatives saw him stinking drunk in the compound. The killer intent radiating off him at the time would have been a lot more effective if his eyes were more focused and his speech not slurred – and maybe if he was threatening his teammates instead of the lamppost outside the bar.

“We’ll put him in my room,” she replied, before gripping Neji’s waist tightly to stop him from swaying anymore than he already was. One glance at his alcohol induced blush and half-lidded eyes told her that he would be a lot more comfortable on a bed rather then the small couch she owned.

The journey from the door to her room was short and easy despite having to the haul a barely conscious Hyuuga with them. Her room held a single bed pushed against one wall, a small desk with scrolls and the odd shuriken scattered across it, and unlike other girls her room harboured more metal then fabric. But even as a kunoichi she was different, choosing instead to specialise in weaponry and arms and not medicine like many others.

Drawing the covers of her bed back, Lee lowered his teammate into it, before telling her that he would go and make some tea for them while she sorted Neji out. She gave a sigh as Lee left the room, how did a celebratory drink turn into this? Oh right, just because you were a Hyuuga did not mean you were exempt from idiocy, which included Hyuuga Neji, so called ‘genius’.

She watched with tired brown eyes, the rise and fall of his chest, the flushed red hue of his cheeks which never coloured, not even in the most embarrassing situations. In all the years she had known him, he never looked so… unguarded, with his eyes closed, jaw relaxed, and no frown to mar his features. She hadn’t seen him look so untroubled.

Gently she lifted his head to untie his hitai-ate, revealing the bandage that he kept on always to hide the curse he so hated. In all their years as a team, she had only ever seen the mark once, and that was at their first chuunin exam.

She lightly brushed her fingers across where the tattoo was hidden; curious to know what it would be like if she could caress it without the material between them.

Would he feel pain? Or something entirely different?

Not that he would ever allow her.

She only knew of the story from the view of a detached audience, on the other side of a window and through the ears of an unwanted, eavesdropper as she watched and listened to him explain the hurt he endured and the loathing he felt towards the Main Family to Naruto.

Six years on, and he had still yet to tell her in person, to show her the brand that he once and probably still secretly regarded as a depiction of his life.

His Fate in the form of a symbol, engraved into his skin.

But she would wait as long as it took for the day he decided that she deserved to know, for that would be the day that Tenten knew that he truly and completely trusted her to the point that he could lay bare his vulnerabilities to her.

And until then she would continue to wait patiently as a teammate, a friend, a woman who unknowingly gave her heart to him.

Hearing the clatter of pots and pans and a quiet shushing given to her kitchenware, she gave an amused smile, thinking it was the time to stop Lee in his attempt to make Gai-sensei’s Super Youthful Hangover Cure and from destroying her kitchen.

Standing from her crouch, she hesitated before leaning down and placing a soft kiss on the bandaged forehead of her teammate.

“Goodnight Neji,” she uttered quietly as she straightened up, a light pink tingeing her cheeks, while her shy eyes focused on a particularly interesting dent on the boring white wall. Without another glance, she walked briskly out of her room, closing the door behind her.

Tired eyes fluttered open blearily, slow panic creeping up in him at the sight of the unknown ceiling, but calm overwhelmed him at the soothing smell of her that wrapped around him like a pair of warm arms, lulling him back to unconsciousness almost as if she was there with her sweet sounding voice whispering into his ear.

He wondered briefly as sleep clouded his mind again, why his forehead tingled pleasantly yet it had nothing to do with his cursed mark.

A/N: Thanks for reading, reviewing, alerting and faving, and i hope you all enjoy theme no.24. Don't hesitate to point out mistakes, and cc always appreciated. It's 5:56 here, ridiculously late/early and i feel just like zombie (:
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