In My Dark World

5

When Tenten pointed out how much of a fashion disaster Neji was he first laughed. Then he looked up at her with his iridescent eyes and asked quite nervously. "Is my fashion sense that bad?" It made Tenten coo internally, his unspoken effort to impress her. She didn't mention how she itched to get inside Neji's wardrobe and arrange his clothes in an orderly manner so that he would stop picking out the wrong things to wear. That just led to another concern though, one she would voice later. For now she would satisfy her curiosity.

"Anyway back to my question. You live at Kaguya Avenue right? That means you're big money and so you must do something big for a living."

"I wouldn't say big." Neji said almost shyly, scratching his cheek. "I'm an artist."

"Whoa- an artist?!" Tenten exclaimed in pure amazement. Just then Ayame came back with a tray of their dishes and tea.

"This is on the house. Regards from the chef." She explained upon Tenten's questioning and almost challenging look. Ayame chuckled. Trust Tenten to stubbornly want to pay for her meals even though they were on the house. "Enjoy!" Ayame cheered and promptly disappeared.

"Thanks for the food." Neji quietly appreciated and broke his chopsticks which Ayame had considerately placed next to his hand for easy access.

"Thanks for the food." Tenten repeated and did the same to her chopsticks. It amazed her how elegant Neji could be even if he was just sightlessly eating noodles.

"Wow, this is really good." The man, oblivious to Tenten's staring, commented and she hummed.

"Glad you like it." In fact Tenten was more than glad he liked it. She was more than glad that he thought of this rendezvous between them as a date and that he was enjoying her company. Was it possible to be attracted to someone as fast as she did Neji?

Well if falling into a self dug pit meant the fuzzy way she felt at the mere thought of the visually impaired man Tenten didn't think she wanted to ever get out. She was falling hard and she was falling fast for this man.

Before she got carried away by her self discovery Tenten picked up their conversation from where they left it. "So you're an artist." She was still awed by that piece of information. "That's so amazing, how do you do it? Which kind of art do you do?"

Neji's flush rose all the way to his ears bashfully but his chest was puffed up with unhidden pride. Pride that Tenten was amazed by his work even if she hadn't seen it yet. "I paint." He said it breezily as if that wasn't awesome in its own right. Tenten didn't think she could get even more amazed than she already was.

"Seriously? That's amazing!" She gasped, surprised. "I really want to see your paintings!"

Neji gave a flustered smile and ducked his head slightly at the praise but the proud way he sat up still remained. "I have some pictures on my phone if you're interested." He offered shyly.

"Really? I want to see it!" Tenten urged him to show her.

Neji couldn't keep the smile off his face as navigated through his smart phone with his phone's AI assistant. When he found the picture folder where he kept his art works he passed the phone over to Tenten and waited with a baited breath for the woman's reaction. Tenten didn't know what she was expecting but the art works she was seeing was far better than anything she imagined. Neji's artworks were carefully painted and contained so much abstract detail than she thought it would.

"Neji..." Tenten was breathless as she paused her scrolling on a particular picture of a very pale girl without eyes. Black holes were where her eyes were supposed to be. She was sitting hopelessly on the floor, naked with her long hair covering parts of her chest, while shadows surrounded her with their gnarly faces. The girl's pale skin had bruises and cut marks. Tenten looked from the picture to Neji and all of a sudden she realized that the girl in the picture wasn't a girl at all. It was Neji. What did this picture mean?