[Action Thread]

[shade_mod]

Who: Everyone and anyone
What: The afternoon and night time carnival
When: All day
Where: Konoha square
Warnings: TBA

Comments

[dropofmetal]

As the day continued to progress, Tenten grew weary of the thoughts running through her mind. Neji had wander off not long ago, muttering an unsure 'goodbye' and left, leaving her to the unexplored carnival and the happy faces that swarmed around her. Now night blanketed upon the carnival, lanterns brightly lighting up the streets as the the noises of happiness voiced around her, indicating that the night festivities had begun

[silkcranes]

Neji's excursion on his own had proven to be nothing short of fruitless. He'd eyed some of the games, pausing only to watch the affects of the atmosphere on the children. Most of the time he'd spent on the roof of one of the nearby buildings, eyes cast toward the sky instead of the carnival. He had somewhere he wanted to be, but he couldn't figure out where that was. Maybe it was a presence he wanted--not the dull ache he felt for missing that which had long since departed, but something sharper

[winggate]

Even reporters are human need a little downtime.

Well no, that wasn't entirely right. A reporter's job was never done! If you triedhard enough, you could find a story in any situation, even at a Hanami festival. But it was nice to take the night off (once in a while) and relax.

Lee tapped his foot, more or less in time to the music of the night -- Could hardly believe it was that time of year again. Oh, spring. How'd he'd missed it; the sound of popcorn popping, the energetic shrieks of children as they ran past his legs. The ice cream --

"Sir."

"Oh thank you!" Lee said, and claimed his ice cream cone from the vendor. He turned, and spotted -- no, it couldn't be!

"Tenten is that you?"

[dropofmetal]

Tenten was broken out of her train of thought as Neji had appeared in front of her (did he go check out the fireworks?), a small smile in greeting as he said 'hello'. She faintly remembered him anxious about the fireworks being set off into the sky, including the little sparklers that people were playing with. He was curious and Tenten had let him go, even though she did want to get a better view of the fireworks.

Nonetheless, dango was calling and Tenten heeded its call.

"Hello," Tenten greeted back, swallowing the last dango on the skewer and twirling it inbetween her fingers. She eyed Neji, curiously scanning his face for signs of his mood before continuing, "Didn't you go see the--"

Tenten is that you?Well. That was a voice she hadn't heard in awhile. Of course, Tenten would never forget those time in highschool, where flashes of green spandex and yellings of 'YOSH!!!!!' violently entered her mind. Wow. Did she come all this way to escape that

[silkcranes]

What...was this? It looked like a mating ritual, but...did humans still do that? Have mating rituals?

Neji turned slightly and watched the scene impassively, his blank gaze studying the figure that Tenten was currently throwing her arms around. Well, she was much more receptive to him than she had been of the demon, which Neji supposed was a step in the right direction. Tenten's voice had gotten ridiculously high though, and that was kind of annoying.

Slipping his hands into the pockets of the yukata, Neji made a few silent notes and wondered if he should simply disappear again. The man was wearing an inordinate amount of green and it reminded him slightly of....

Anyway. He wasn't in Heaven anymore so he didn't have to worry about that.

[winggate]

Quiet, studious little Tenten, she HAD grown into a healthy young woman! Lee ran and caught her in a brief, yet altogether warm one-armed hug. Oh Tenten!

He wanted to hug her properly, but there was the matter of the rapidly melting ice cream cone. He gestured impatiently. Something had to be done with -- couldn't throw it on the ground and litter.

Then he saw Tenten's friend, a pretty blue robed girl -- or man, standing in the shadows with a shy or disbainful air. It was difficult to tell in this lighting. Grateful, Lee handed to it over.

"Please get rid of this for me? It's still good, strawberry flavored." Thus freed, he gave Tenten another quick hug.

"Hello! Oh wow. Us Konoha high school nerds, unite!" lee laughed. "Look at you! How are you?"

[dropofmetal]

This was Lee alright. His voice, face, personality...everything was there. It was almost like he had walked right out of her childhood, still happy and smiling, shouting things like 'youth' and such. Though, it had been awhile, so maybe Lee did change.

...And then he handed Neji his icecream.

Yes. Lee changed only a little, if not much.

Gently (and quickly), Tenten took the icecream from Neji and gave him a quick smile. "I'll eat it," She told both of them, knowing that this could erupt to something more (it always did, with Lee around...he always seemed to amplify things). Tilting her head to the side, she observed Lee. He was...different, somehow. He had grown up.

Tenten smiled brightly at that. "Neji, I would like you to meet my friend, Lee," She smiled at this. "Lee, this is my friend, Neji."

[silkcranes]

What.

Neji didn't bother looking at the obeject in his hand. It was cold and distinctly unfamiliar, but had he just been told by a mortal to despose of it? The great absurdity of it made Neji open his mouth, but when Tenten stepped in and took it away from him (saying that she would eat it of all things) Neji's mouth closed and the coldness in his eyes simply flickered to an oddly dull flame.

Lee, hm.

"I see." Neji said. He didn't say he was pleased to meet him, though as he had read in an etiquette book, that was the correct thing to say. But Neji couldn't lie, so he simply didn't say it.

Tenten certainly did have odd choice in companionship.

[winggate]

"Pleased to meet you, Neji! I am Rock Lee. Forgive my exhubernace. It's just been years and years since I've seen Tenten, and we sort of lost touch after graduation, I guess. We old school chums. Have you known each other long?"

I'll eat it.

Lee watched, curious.

"I'm sorry, do you not like ice cream?" Lee hazarded. But who could't like ice cream?? "Or maybe you're lactose intolerant. I have a cousin who can't drink anything but soy milk." This Neji's pale eyes were twitching in a distinctly familiar way. Very familiar way. Oh great.

Mouth, meet my foot.

[dropofmetal]

Have they known each other long? Of course not, Lee. Neji saved her from drowning in the ocean, which was sort of his fault in the beginning anyway. After all, who would stand on top of the ocean? Tenten was certainly surprised, so it was no wonder she almost drowned. Plus, he works in bookshop and has never tasted icecream before.

Oh, and he's also an angel.

"We've met in a bookshop, about two months ago," Tenten said with a smile, glancing at the melting icecream in her grip. The dango taste was still sitting heavily on her tongue, but if Lee didn't want it...Tenten resisted a sigh. Neji probably did not want some either.

"Oh, how was the fireworks Neji?" Tenten suddenly remembered him wandering off (and she wanted to avoid the 'you don't like icecream?????' questions), but momentarily directed her attention back to the icecream. Her tongue darted out to the side of the cone before it dripped onto her yukata. Strawberry. How...ironic.

[silkcranes]

Neji felt that answering that he didn't know what ice cream tasted like (was that what that was?) would be too much for this boy to handle, so he didn't bother, instead nodding once as if that would make up for his lack of verbose response. To Tenten, he said,

"I haven't seen them yet. I was watching some of the games."

He looked back to Rock Lee.

Rock. Lee. Sometimes he wondered about the human ideas of naming their children. Despite the fact that Rock Lee had attempted to use him as a servingman, he was difficult to find more than annoying. He just seemed very happy. Happy about what, Neji wondered. Though he did look oddly familiar.

"You look familiar." Neji stated abruptly.

[winggate]

"Man, there's something very magical about old bookstores," Lee smiled. He was determined to keep this conversation going. Tenten had a propensity to get easily distracted, and he was curious.

"They have an atmosphere of old world romance. All libraries do. Much like a movie I once saw -- oh, what's it called. The one where the romantic pursuer gives his love interest a library? And there's singing teacups?"

At that, Neji's blank look have softened into one of confusion. Lee was beginning to wonder if his new friend suffered from terminal confusion. Maybe he was from a different country? "Now I remember. It was Beauty and the Beast."

Lee blinked. Honestly, given his oddly shaped eyes, Lee was surprised to hear that he looked like anyone.

"You may have seen my name in a newspaper somewhere," Lee said doubtfully. "Does The Night Times, Night Edition sound familiar? No? Thought not. See, the newspaper I write for is great, but the readership is pretty small."

[dropofmetal]

And so Lee went onto this little rant about something he saw from a movie. He even went so far to be descriptive (well, as descriptive as he could be, anyway), making Tenten have mental images of singing tea cups and a big library. That would be nice. A big library. Tenten was not fond of those around here