Spaces in Between

[endless_scrolls]

Title: Spaces in Between
Type: Fanfic
Fandom: AU!Naruto
Character(s): Tenten, Aburame Shino
Pairing(s): Slight Shino/Tenten if you kinda squint
Warning(s): Fluff. Adorable fluff.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but these words.
Note: ...Because this is what happens when you feed the plot bunnies too much with cute and love. 8|... ♥ Takes place in the same universe as last_stretch
Dedicated to: semchance. They can be cute together any time you want. ♥

At first, she had thought it nothing more than her imagination. A phantom sound created by the deep subconscious of her dreaming mind. Dreams were known to be realistic, after all, so much so that sometimes they manifested themselves into reality, leaving behind physical evidence on the body. Bruises. Aching muscles. The rapid beating of a still frightened heart. Tenten had experienced them all and more at one point or another. but never had she ever managed to bring to life the resounding ring of her phone let alone that particular tone.

Still groggy and half-asleep, she fumbled around in the dark until her fingers closed in around the source of the disturbance. And as the young woman pulled the phone closer, the blare of the ringtone only became louder, assaulting her sensitive and still dazed hearing.

"Nuh... hello?" she mumbled, her voice a bit hoarse from misuse during sleep, the words cracking slightly in the middle of the greeting. Not that Tenten had made any attempts to hide her grogginess.

"...Tenten?"

Humming quietly in reaction, Tenten took a moment longer as the voice registered in the fog of her mind. Were it anyone else, the process would have no doubt been slow and muddled while her conscious struggled to return from the world of dreams. But even though a few weeks -- months really -- had passed since they last spoke to each other, there was no forgetting the deep and soft-spoken tone that she knew all too well. "Shino?"

"...Tenten."

It might have been the static connection, or simply an incoherent figment of her imagination. But for a brief moment, she had heard a note of fondness and relief in the way he had uttered her name again. As if she were the one who had left on some grand adventure instead of him, thrust into some grave peril to only now return after years of being lost. Ridiculous, the young woman thought with a mental shake of her head. Aburame Shino was hardly a man to fall prey to his emotions when they had been living in the same city. The same apartment. Surely, that facade could and would not be broken now after a few words over the phone. Even despite now long it had been.

Still, there was no fighting the small pull of a smirk at the corner of Tenten's lips. Or the light flutter in her chest at the notion.

"Hey," she mumbled softly, her excitement fairly lacking and contained due to the hour, no doubt. Probably not the greeting he was expecting, the young woman mused, but one Shino would probably prefer given his quiet character. And then she took the opportunity to wipe a few specks of sleep from her eyes before continuing. "What time is it?"

"Two in the afternoon, here."

Tenten furrowed her brows at that as the other end of the line went quiet, seeming to wait for a reaction. Willing away the last of her blurred vision, the barista glanced up from the warmth of her pillow at the clock set on the nightstand beside her bed. And tried not to groan too loudly at the numbers that flashed across the faceplate.

"...Is this a bad time?"

Yes, she wanted to say. And if it had been anyone else, Tenten had no doubt that she would have without hesitation. But Shino was half-way around the world pursuing his dream and it had been so long -- forever it seemed -- since they had a chance to talk. It was hardly his fault that there was a bit difference in time between Tokyo and Sao Paulo, All the same, although less harsh and blunt, there was no helping the hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"No, of course not," the young woman replied with a light chuckle, "Not if you consider phone calls at one in the morning a bad time."

Even as the words came out in the kindest and most gentle way as possible -- even though Tenten was only half-joking when she responded -- there was nothing that could take away the slight sting that they held. No matter how minute it had been. Something that was made apparent by the silence that came from his end of the line. But though that seemed to double her anxiety on the matter, the young woman had to quickly remind herself that brief pauses with Shino were normal in a conversation. Just because there was no immediate response did not mean that she had offended him somehow with her jesting.

"...I apologize."

Or, perhaps, it had.

"No, that's not..." -- But that was not quite right, she thought, and stopped the words there. Because the better part of her that was still slightly drowsy and tired certainly did. -- "I was just..." -- Just what, Tenten wondered, unable to fill in find the right phrasing to complete that statement. -- "Uh..."

Letting out a heavy exhale of breath, the young woman slumped over onto her back and simply stared up blankly at the ceiling. She listened carefully for any crackle of sound on the other end of the conversation. All the while, the words kept playing over and over again in her mind, like a bad home movie that was perpetually placed on repeat to highlight her most embarrassing moments. And there had been many. Doing her best to resist groaning into the phone, Tenten threw an arm over her eyes, as if in an attempt to hide from the world and her most recent mistakes by doing so.

"Look, it's ok," she started again, more calm and collected that before, "You didn't know."

Line buzzing with static, no word of response came. And for a brief instance, Tenten feared that the connection was cut off... or perhaps, he had simply hung up on her. But then there came a soft cough or sigh of breath from the other end that she knew to be some sort of Aburame code indicating that he was still there. Still listening. So she continued on.

"Just... next time call me a little later, like when it's night there. Sao Paulo is... eleven hours behind Tokyo this time of year?" A little unsure of that fact, herself, the young barista turned over towards her nightstand to click on the lamp -- and she winced at how bright the roomed seemed now compared to the pick blackness that had engulfed the room only seconds before -- Her bleary quickly eyes scanned for the scrap of paper with the proper schedule of time differences she had printed out earlier in the week and carefully took it between her fingers for a better look. "Or... at least that's what this sheet says..."

"...Sheet."

"Yeah," Tenten affirmed without hesitation. And then suddenly felt the need to explain as a sense of embarrassment slowly spread throughout her conscious. "...I looked up the time differences."

"And... printed it out for reference." There was no tone of accusation or teasing, only that of clarification. Shino was not the sort to tease, as far as she knew. And if he was, the neutral inflection in his voice never gave away such an impression so that Tenten was free to ignore it. All the same, there was no helping how more nervous it made her feel to hear him repeat her thought process.

"Yeah, well," she started. But soon found herself struggling for any words of explanation that were satisfactory. And by then, it was already too late to feign any sort of emotion other than the genuine longing she felt for his companionship, which embarrassed her more than anything, although Tenten could not quite understand why. "...Shut up."

"You are irritable when you are tired," he responded. And she swore, if Shino were the type to actually express emotions instead of training his face to remain relatively neutral during social interactions, the young woman would have thought that he was smirking into the phone while he spoke.

"I've a feeling you would be too if you were awakened by phone calls in the middle of the night from halfway around the world," the young woman snapped in return. Not out of anger, though, so much as an instinctual need to humble the other a bit. Tenten was, after all, a playful if not prideful individual. Sometimes, though, that did not quite translate out so clearly to Shino. Especially over the phone where he could not rely on the facial cues and inflections he so habitually and comfortably sought out during conversations.

"...I will... let you get back to your rest then?" More intended to be a statement than a question, she assumed, there was still enough hesitance and uncertainty in the delivery that indicated that the young man was unsure of what she wanted. And doing well to give her every opportunity to amend the assumption if he had been wrong.

"No!... no." Which she did, a bit too quickly if he paid enough attention. And Tenten had no doubt in her mind, that he had. "Don't bother, I'm already wide awake now, anyways. Besides, I suspect you called for a reason."

"Indeed."

"And... that reason would be...?"

"Class was canceled this afternoon, so I had some free time," he reasoned. A valid excuse, she thought, and took a moment to admire the young man for his careful planning with a light hum of approval. But while it was thoughtful for him to sacrifice the extra time to catch up with old friends he had not spoken to in months, it was also slightly out of character for him to do so. Shino prided himself in academic excellence, after all. And the road to perfection equated to several hours devoted to his studies. Time and money he was wasting by calling her. So, there must have been some other reason - "And... I had not spoken to you for a while."

She had not been expecting that reason though.

It was a hard struggle to keep from laughing outright at the sentiment -- because, indeed, it was a very innocently sweet sentiment compared to the thousands of others that had been ringing up in her mind -- and a soft chuckle did manage to escape. But the weight and honesty of the simple confession had further endeared him in her eyes, pulling a broad smile to her knowing lips. "...I missed you too, Shino."