Day 6: Star

Pairing: NejiTen
Words: 698


The star on top of the Christmas tree is a lot like the candles on top of a cake. Both give off a warming glow. Both finish decorating things which don't necessarily need them, but are nice none-the-less. And both can have special significance to the people who see them.

Tenten's Christmas star was extraordinarily special to her.

It was one of the few things left from her parents. The glass on it shone like a real star, glittering whenever light touched its smooth surface. It looked like an antique with the gold trim to the edges, but it didn't look old.

Each year she would delicately take it from its box and put it in place as the last of her decorating concluded. However, this year her tree would have to go without because of one careless act the previous Christmas season. While putting it away Tenten hadn't been paying attention to the boxes scattered across her living room floor and stumbled, dropping the precious decoration, shattering it.

She remembered how tears dripped down her face as she gathered every fragment of it she could find and saved them in a box. At least she could set the box on her mantle each Christmas to help bring her parent's presence into her apartment. But now that the time had come to bring it out, she couldn't find it anywhere.

"It has to be here somewhere!" Tenten cried, pulling open every box, drawer, and cupboard in sight. "Where is it?" Tears began welling up in her eyes. Losing the star once was awful but losing it twice would be unbearable.

A knock resounded on her door. Instead of answering it she kept digging through stuff. The knock came again. And again. And again.

Finally it was too much for Tenten to ignore and she swung the door open. "What?!" In front of her stood Neji with a wrapped gift in his hands.

He noticed the tears streaks on her face immediately and pushed her inside to the sofa. She curled up into him as he sat down. The tears she'd been trying to hold back began to flood down full force.

"Shh. It's okay." Neji attempted to sooth her. He had no idea what was wrong other than he had a sobbing girl in his arms. "Tell me what happened."

"I… I can't find it!" It came out as a wail.

"You can't find what?" He didn't like to see her in such a state. He'd seen her in battle, seen her kill even, but nothing had ever affected her like this.

Tenten took a few gulping breaths of air before answering him. "My parents Christmas star. I accidently broke it last year and put the pieces in a box. I was going to put it above my fireplace." The words came out faster than intended. Saying those words out loud brought a new assault of tears and she clung to him again.

Upon hearing her dilemma Neji's eyes went wide. Then his face broke out into a grin. He pushed her gently away from him and wiped at the tear racks on her cheeks.

"Here." The gift he had brought was placed in her lap. "Open this." It was a blunt statement.

She glared at him. "How can you smile when I'm so upset?"

"Just open it." It was a demand now.

Slowly she ripped the paper from the package. A gasp escaped her mouth. Then she threw her arms around Neji's neck, her lips finding his.

Crushed in between them was her Christmas star. Whole and intact.

"Thank you Neji." Tenten managed to get out after a few minutes.

He smiled. "I knew you broke it and how much it meant to you. I took it from your closet back in February."

"How is it fixed?" The last time she saw it, it was in a million pieces.

"I glued it back together. I only finished it yesterday." He had been lucky to get it done in time. She didn't say anything to this. All she needed and wanted to say were clear on her face. Neji pulled her back into his arms. "Merry Christmas Ten."