Final part... Not my favorite work, but oh well? :P

Naruto and its characters do not belong to me.

Eyes Like Pale Thistle

Chapter 9: Love Me

xviii.

Tenten watched him warily; she seemed to remember where she was then, and got to her feet in a hurry, brushing her skirt off.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that, Neji... Neji-sensei?" she muttered.

He made sure that Hinata's door was shut, and fished out the key to his own apartment, momentarily pushing Tenten's close proximity out of his mind while he unlocked his door. "Get in."

Tenten parted her lips, as if to object, but a look from him had her closing her mouth. She stepped into his living area and slipped her shoes off, shifting her weight between her feet while he locked the door and stepped out of his own footwear.

"I didn't think you were waiting," he said, glancing at her face. He found that he couldn't stare at her for too long - Tenten was beautiful and he wanted to kiss her.

He shouldn't, he shouldn't, he shouldn't.

Instead, Neji made his way to the kitchen, pulling a mug and a bottle of junmai sake from a cabinet. He didn't have to look to know that Tenten was following close behind.

He kept his back to her, uncapped the bottle of sake, and poured roughly three servings into the mug. Typically, he would heat it with a saucepan in a water bath, but he was running low on patience at the moment.

The mug went into the microwave, and he began the heating process, before returning to the same cabinet for a sake cup.

"I'd like one too," Tenten said behind him.

He turned to stare at her. "You aren't of age yet."

She rolled her eyes. "I've been having sex since I was fifteen."

"This is not sex," he told her, vaguely wondering if she'd had liquor before.

"The supposedly legal age for sex is eighteen, and you didn't object to that," she pointed out, lifting her chin in that subtle gesture of stubbornness. "I'm your student, and you didn't object to us sleeping together, either."

Neji sighed. Drew a sake cup out for her. "I will be the one dispensing the sake."

She shrugged.

The microwave beeped, and he turned towards it, thankful for something to focus on other than Tenten. Carefully, he withdrew the mug from it, swirling the liquid within a few times. Little bubbles slowly rose to the surface - the drink was just relatively warm.

He couldn't think of anywhere else in the apartment he'd rather be, so he poured sake into the cups over the sink, slid one towards her, and rested his weight on the polished wood of the kitchen counter.

"I only get half a cup?" Tenten asked, peering into the little ceramic cup.

Neji raised an eyebrow. "I didn't want you getting drunk."

"I've had alcohol before - it takes more than this to make me drunk," she protested with a pout. "And besides, if we're having sex, I don't want to be so drunk that I don't remember it."

He narrowed his eyes. "Who said we're having sex?"

Tenten lifted her shoulders briefly. "That tends to happen whenever you and me are alone in your apartment, Neji, in case you haven't noticed."

He glanced at her; she'd dropped the -sensei suffix again. It still didn't sit well with him that he didn't know where they stood with each other, so he took a large gulp of sake, welcoming the way its bitterness burned down his throat. Unlike the other varieties of sake, junmai sake wasn't fragrant, wasn't delicate, and he liked it because it reminded him of himself.

She mimicked his actions and pulled a face. "I never liked junmai sake."

Neji slanted a glance at her, faintly amused. "You demanded to have some."

Tenten shrugged. "But it helps."

She drained the rest of her cup, though he noted that she didn't ask for more.

He watched as she leaned on the counter next to him. "I prefer the sweeter ones. Ginjo-shu, or honjozo-shu."

Even now, she was still surprising him.

"Doesn't your father disallow you from drinking?" he asked.

Tenten laughed, a low, throaty rumble that was somehow very adult, and very sexy. It crept into his ears and lingered beneath his skin. "Lee is intolerant of alcohol - just a drop is enough to make him have some really bad reactions. As a result, we never have alcohol at home."

"Yet you drink," he mused, nursing his own cup of sake.

"You're not the only one with problems." She raised a brow at him in challenge; he stared back.

"Drinking doesn't solve anything," he returned.

"Yet here we are, drinking." Tenten laughed again (that same intoxicating sound). "Were you planning on getting drunk?"

"No." Neji supposed he should be more concerned about how she was in his home all over again, and how he still had no inclination to see her go. If he were honest with himself, he could get drunk on her easily - just the scent of her skin, the texture of her body beneath his... "Speaking of Lee, he cornered me in school earlier this week."

"He told me," she revealed. "He didn't like that you were trying to end what we have."

"Really?" This took Neji by surprise. Hadn't Lee been insistent on him not leading her on?

"Lee was convinced of your good intentions," Tenten explained, a wry smile flickering across her lips. "All that talk about being honorable."

He exhaled heavily, disgusted with himself. "I'm not honorable in the least. None of this is honorable."

"But it feels good, doesn't it?" At that, Tenten smiled, tipping her head up to face the ceiling. "After all's said and done, sex is sex. If you don't have a guilty conscience, it feels good."

"And you don't have a guilty conscience," he concluded.

"No. Do you?" She glanced at him, grinning.

"No." Neji looked away. "I thought you were angry with me."

She sighed. "I was."

"What changed?" He stared at her profile, studied the way the tip of her nose curved, and the way her lips were glistening.

"I can't stay angry with you, Neji." Tenten raised her eyes to meet his then, and he was caught in those deep brown depths. He wanted to touch her face, but held himself back.

"You were crying," he said, chagrined.

She shrugged. "I'm over it."

"Over me?" he suggested, almost-hopefully.

"Over my dead body." Tenten glanced towards the ceiling. "I'm over that argument we had."

"But you're giving up on me," he insisted, downing the rest of the sake in his cup.

It felt stupid telling her to leave him, when he still very much wanted her around. But there wasn't any point to this relationship, aside from the companionship and sex.

"Maybe you should pick things up with that Sasuke person again," Neji said, more to himself. He stared at his empty sake cup and poured himself another dose of liquor, draining half of it immediately after.

The alcohol didn't burn as much after the first time; it sat in his stomach, radiating heat.

Tenten was quiet for a while. "You really want me to return to Sasuke?"

She didn't use any honorific with her ex-lover's name, either. Neji didn't answer right away. Instead, he thought back to the conversation they'd had during dinner. "What did you decide on?"

"What do you mean?" She had her head cocked to the side when he turned to face her again, and her fingers were knotted in her shirt.

"At dinner," he reminded her, "You said you knew what to do."

"Oh, that." She glanced at the floor, where her bare toes pressed against cool tile. "I thought, maybe, I had a vague idea."

"Which is?" He was curious - was that a bad thing?

Tenten smiled then, but there was a touch of sadness to her eyes. "I could leave you, you know, if that makes you happy."

Neji didn't know if there was a reality in which she could string those words together, make them happen, and expect him to be happy. But he couldn't ask her to stay, either. So he changed the subject. "Why did you like Sasuke?"

She shrugged. "He was cute."

"Just that?" He looked disbelievingly at her. "Why else?"

Tenten lifted her shoulders again. "I guess you could say he was every girl's dream. You know, the dark prince and all that. In the end, though, he only cared about himself."

That meant that she wouldn't be happy with her ex, anyway. "But surely there's someone out there," he suggested, "Someone worthy of you."

Her lips curved in a bittersweet sort of way. "Will you be okay with knowing that this is the last time I'm seeing you here?"

His breath caught, and he couldn't look away from her.

He would be very lonely, he realized, not for the first time. But those late-night conversations had grown on him, and he liked hearing her talk about her dreams and the new art projects she was working on.

Tenten cared for him in a way he hadn't allowed many other people to, and he didn't know what he'd do without her cheerful conversation, and the way she turned mischievous smiles on him.

And despite the way he resented his family, he was too much of a coward to dare to rebel against their rules.

At what cost?

"Will you be fine," Tenten asked softly, "Knowing that I'm no longer yours?"

No, he wouldn't.

"No," he said, taking an uncertain step towards her. "Love me."

On hindsight, he acknowledged that he had been pleading. Right then, however, all he was concerned about was setting his sake cup down and pulling her close.

She stepped forward the same time he did, relief in her eyes and her lips twitching into a tiny, true smile.

Tenten was warm and firm in his arms - not an illusion - and he pressed her into the kitchen counter, holding her to himself. Her hair smelled faintly of dried sweat; her waist was soft beneath her thin shirt.

They were kissing before he fully registered the fact, lips and teeth and quiet little whimpers when his tongue slid over hers. Her hands splayed across his back

"I don't want you to go," he admitted in her ear after they'd broken the kiss, so quietly that he could barely hear himself.

Had there ever been something he could call his own?

"Really?" she whispered back, pressing a kiss to his jaw. "Or are you going to change your mind later, Neji?"

He stilled in the middle of skimming his lips along her neck, pulled her tighter against himself. "No. I'm not changing my mind."

Tenten laughed then, low and throaty, and he was intoxicated.

"You should remember, you know," she murmured, "There's no way I'm giving up on you."

He kissed her again, slow and deep, and took his time undressing her.

Somehow, they made it all the way to his bed, and she was spread beneath him, naked and inviting and his.

He pleasured her slowly, with his fingers first, then his tongue. The smile never fully fell from Tenten's face, and it only grew wider the more he aroused her, until her thighs were parted and his lips were on her fuzzed, drenched ones.

She came around his fingers, and again and again, until she was almost exhausted, and he was painfully hard and damn near bursting.

When they had sex this time, he made sure to look her in the eye as he pressed into her silky heat. Tenten smiled at him, wrapped her legs around his hips, and pulled him closer yet.

Sensation throbbed in his flesh when he was sheathed fully in her, when he couldn't push any deeper in, and Tenten moaned, throwing her head back. She liked this best, when he filled her completely like they were pieces of a puzzle. He began thrusting in her, slowly at first. She gasped and moaned, trembling, and as he leaned forward and ground against her swollen flesh, she cried out, clenched around him.

He swallowed her moan in a kiss, continued to slide in her, until he could barely hold his climax back.

Tenten grinned when he withdrew and spilled onto her front, moaning softly.

Neji rolled onto his back, breathing unevenly. She grabbed a few sheets of tissue and gave him a couple; he wiped himself off with it.

"Changed your mind yet?" she teased, looking over as she cleaned the stickiness off her chest.

"No." He left his used tissue on the bedside table and turned on his side, draping his arm over her waist.

Tenten squealed. "You're smearing that all over my skin!"

He couldn't help but smirk. "I've heard that it's good for the skin - haven't you?"

She blushed this time, and his smirk widened. "You're such a pervert," she muttered, "Neji-sensei."

Neji narrowed his eyes. "I thought you were done addressing me as your sensei."

Her lips spread in a smile; she kissed him. "But it's not every day that I can call my sensei a pervert."

"I'm not a pervert," he protested, pulling his arm away from her chest. It was easier to think now that his mind had cleared, and he hoped that he'd done the right thing by not rejecting her.

"Oh?" she raised an eyebrow, challenging him. "No more sex for a week."

He frowned. "That isn't fair."

"Yes, it is." Tenten winked at him. "Admit that you're a pervert, and we can have sex all you want."

The crinkle on his forehead grew deeper. "You're pressing your advantages, Tenten."

She blinked innocently up at him. "What advantages?"

Neji stared sullenly at her. "You're impossible."

Tenten merely laughed. "And you just want sex."

"I didn't say that, either," he protested. She resumed wiping off the fluids he'd left on her; he watched while she turned and deposited the soiled tissues on the other bedside table. Not for the first time, he admired the way her waist curved out into her hips, and the way her bottom looked so very soft-

She lay back down and caught his stare. "You really are a pervert, Neji. You can't deny it."

He jerked his gaze away, rested his back against the mattress. "I'm not saying anything to incriminate myself."

There was a moment of silence, before Tenten turned and clambered onto him, straddling his hips. Her teeth flashed in a smile. "In any case, we're going out on a date."

"We are?" What if someone saw them? Was he ready for this?

She nodded emphatically. And with a wink, "Not right now, but we'll be getting to know each other better."

He glanced down at where their hips joined. "We know each other pretty well already."

Tenten flushed then, and smacked him lightly on the arm. "You are definitely a complete pervert, Neji-sensei."

He narrowed his eyes.

"But I love you anyway," she continued with a grin.

"Aren't you concerned that I can't say the same to you?" he asked. It would be lying to claim that he loved Tenten at this point, since he wasn't sure what exactly he felt towards her.

"I'll wait," she grinned, leaning in to snuggle with him.

Neji wished he had her confidence and her cheer. He supposed she had enough for them both, though.

The road ahead of them wouldn't be easy - their relationship didn't fall under the societal norms, and he still had to deal with his family (and hers) somehow. At some point, perhaps Tenten would grow up and fall out of love with him as she grew older.

For now, though, Neji was content to remain this way - he had heaven in his arms, after all.

end

A/N: Yes, I'm aware that more could have happened - Gai could have found out, Hinata could've got sick and needed assistance, etc (I was actually setting up for that but veered off-course)... but the main driving force was the loveme!Neji, and that was the point I wanted to get to. :P So... I sincerely apologize if you were expecting more and it didn't happen. (Because I would totally be disappointed in a story like that)

Currently, I'm 30k words into the TRC fandom, though I do still have my Team Gai/Metal Lee project on the side (currently at 2k words), so :P

Thank you, as always, for taking the time to review!