A/N: My shiny new NejiTen~! This is loosely based off of a book that I read called Sunshine. Maybe you've heard of it? Well, it's really god. And the characters reminded me so much of Neji and Tenten that I had to write this. It all worked out, thouh, because I needed something to use this title on, lol. Please enjoy.

I wanted a moment alone, and I got the exact opposite. I wasn't even alone anymore in the break room at work. It was the size of a broom closet, barely big enough to stand in. I often took my coffee in there and just tried to relax, but then the door would open and someone would be looking for me. Sometimes they would knock my hands with the door and I would get coffee down my front.

For this reason I always have a spare shirt.

But I couldn't get a goddamn moment alone, not with my mother looking for me all the time (she was a bit overprotective, and by a bit, I mean ridiculously) and my boss looking for me because one of the customers wanted a special order, and then my boyfriend was sneaking a few minutes with me every once in a while as well. So I was constantly surrounded by people.

People I loved, but nonetheless people that I needed to get away from. I felt like I was suffocating.

So that night, after my shift, I grabbed my stuff, clocked out, turned down the many invitations to go out to dinner or another coffee (one was more than enough for the day) and headed out to my bike.

I pulled my jacket on over my flour-covered t-shirt and pulled my hair back into two tight buns, one on either side of my head. I shot one last look at the bakery that I'd worked at for almost four years now, and then kicked off and started pedaling.

-- -- -- -- -- -- --

I had a good life. Nothing much to complain about. I had a family, though I didn't know who my dad was or why he'd left. Or at least that's what my mother said. He could be dead and she might have been trying to spare my feelings.

And speaking of my mother, the woman is…I don't even know how to describe her. Insane. Eccentric. Loveable. Pure evil.

She's just very overprotective, and controlling. She's still trying to control my life, even though I moved out when I was fifteen. I've been living on my own for almost a year now and she's in and out of my house like she owns the damn place. And it's not that I don't love her, but that's probably the main contributor to my needing to be alone.

And she doesn't approve of my boyfriend. But I don't care what she thinks. I think Fudo is awesome, sweet, considerate… and he knows when to leave me the hell alone, which is more than I can say for my own blood relatives.

So, my mother married the owner of the bakery I worked at. That was the sole reason I worked there; I'd been able to get a job when I was twelve because it was family-owned. So my boss was also my step-father. His name was Dai. And he was cool.

He had a secret, knowing smile when my mother's back was turned, like we shared an inside joke, but I didn't know if we did. Maybe.

But anyway, my point is that he's a cool guy, and he also knows when to give me my space.

This entire train of thought led me to believe that not only was my mother the main contributor to my suffocation, but the only contributor.

But I'd never tell her that. Instead, I just planned a night to myself. On the ride home I was thinking about making myself a nice pan of brownies, and eating them hot after dinner with some ice cream and then watching a movie and maybe taking a bubble bath. I would unplug the phone, turn off the computer, cut myself off from the world and just relax.

And of course, I couldn't stick to my plan. Because I hadn't been paying attention to where I was steering, I was lost in a matter of minutes. I'd been in such a rush to get away from work, I had probably gone the wrong way. Now I was riding past a forest on my left, just past a little stretch of grass and a dirt path. It looked like the edge of a park bordering alone the woods.

And it was the dirt path that got me.

-- -- -- -- -- -- --

I didn't hear them coming…but then again, you don't when they're vampires.

Curiosity got the best of me—it usually did—and I braked and looked at the forest. The trees were dark, and strangely inviting. The path was straight, even, and I wanted so much to feel that under my tires as I coasted along.

I gripped the handlebars tightly and turned before pedaling again, gently. I slipped off the curb and onto the dirt. The occasional stone was the only thing that disrupted my perfect ride.

I don't remember when I started, but I always carried a knife with me. It had been a birthday gift from Dai one year and for a while it had kept its home in my underwear drawer, alongside the pepper spray my mother gave me when I started dating. I never thought I would ever have a reason to use either, so there they stayed. And then one day I took it out from under the lacey pink bra with the itchy straps that I hated and tucked it into my pocket. Maybe I had been feeling scared that day or something, but after that day, I never went anywhere without it.

Not that it did me any good right then.

I weaved between trees, enjoying the pine-scented air of the coniferous forest, and not watching where I was going. I hit a rock and I flipped up over the handlebars, landing square on my back. My bike tipped and rolled, landing on it's side a few feet away, the front wheel off the ground, still spinning.

Ow.

I got up immediately and checked for any blood or broken skin. I didn't find any, but one could never be too careful—something I'd learned from my mother—in a world where vampires were roaming free. She'd told me that the only reason we were the dominant species of the planet instead of them is because we don't have an aversion to sunlight. In fact, I love sunlight. Vitamin D. Yum.

So, I was just a little dirty and bruised, nothing serious, but my butt was starting to ache where I landed on it. The pain was travelling up my lower back. I went to assess the damage to my bike and found that the back wheel was bent beyond any repairs that I could do right then. I couldn't even wheel it home; it wouldn't go straight.

I leaned it up against a tree and tried to think of what to do, bitterly realizing that hey, I was getting my time alone. Just not how I wanted.

I decided to leave the bike there and have one of the guys help me bring it home later. If it was gone when I got back, then it was gone. Oh well. I needed a new one anyway.

I fixed my hair—it was falling in my eyes—straightened my clothes, not realizing right then that the sleeve of my jacket was almost ripped right off, and tried to figure out which way I'd come from. The fall had me all turned around.

And I was lost. "Fuck," I whispered. Normally I wasn't one to swear, but the situation almost called for it, so I allowed myself. "Fuck, fuck, fuck." I pushed my bangs off my forehead and tried to see the city lights through the trees. No such luck.

It was about time for me to go "eeny meeny miney mo." Instead, I closed my eyes, turned around three or four times, and pointed. When I opened my eyes, I went in the direction my finger was showing. I ignored the fact that that direction happened to be the one that looked the most dark and evil. I wouldn't let myself think about that. I just wanted to go home.

I started off. The ground here was damper than I was used to, and my sneakers were caked with mud after a few minutes of walking. My feet were heavy, as were my eyelids, and I was getting cold. My hands stung. I'd skinned them a little getting up from the fall—not enough to draw blood, but still enough to hurt.

I. Was. Tired.

So tired. I had no idea where this sudden fatigue had come from, since I'd been fine when I'd left the bakery. I pressed my fingers to my head. I was getting dizzy. I thought it would be okay to sit down for a minute and catch my breath, maybe stretch across the first flat, dry rock I could find and spend the night, try to find my way out in the daylight.

Part of it was because I was so out of it. The other part was that they were, after all, vampires. But I never heard them, nor saw them coming. I was already half asleep.