Capturing Beauty

"Would you like me to add more firewood? You're shivering."

"No, thank you, Neji. We need to make it last until tomorrow morning."

"It won't matter if you don't last until tomorrow morning."

"I'll be fine. Don't worry!" Gai flashed him his smile, bright enough to put the sun to shame.

"I'm not worrying. I'm stating a fact. Once your body temperature falls below 35 degrees you become at risk to catch hypothermia. You could be dead before morning hits if you continue the way you are now. Lee and Tenten are getting some things to burn from around the house, we won't run out. Lee would set himself on fire before letting the fire die."

"Why did you ask for my permission if you were going to do it no matter what my response was?"

Neji didn't answer him. He got up from his seat in front of the fire, went to the dwindling pile of dry logs next to the fireplace, and threw in a couple pieces. Gai watched as he rubbed his gloved hands to bring heat into his fingers, smiling softly at the fact that he'd managed to convince his student to wear some. Neji was stubborn when he wanted to be. (Which was most of the time, Gai had learnt quickly).

"They've been gone an awful long time." Gai commented after a comfortable moment of silence.

Neji shifted from his standing position in front of the fire, and slowly made his way back to the couch where his sensei was seated. "You know how curious those two are. They'll show up eventually."

Gai could only agree. They were in a large abandoned hotel and the two of them were currently in the honeymoon suit, where the only fireplace was, and the other two had gone off to see if they could find burnable objects. Gai had been displeased when Lady Tsunade had told him they would have a mission in the Snow Country, but his displeasure grew when they got stuck in a snow storm on their way back.

"Why do you dislike snow so much?"

"I don't dislike-" But the look of skepticism he received stopped him from objecting, and he sighed, "It's not the snow I dislike as much as the feeling of being cold that comes with it."

"I suppose it is quite unpleasant."

"Konoha is always so warm, that the sudden change is. . .Difficult for me to handle."

"Aren't you the one who usually says that change is good?"

"Yes, of course change is good! I simply can't force my body to adjust to the cold temperature, although I have tried."

"I'm sure you have."

Gai looked at his student out of the corner of his eye, delighted to see a calm, serene smile on the usually blank face. He'd realized recently that he loved seeing that smile, and attempted to make it appear as often as possible. He'd been pleased to find that he was quite successful, most of the time. Neji had become more at ease with himself and the world as he grew up, and Gai was proud to see that.

He must have been caught staring, because Neji looked towards him and the smile grew in sincerity. Before he could stop himself, his eyes flew away, towards the fire. There was nothing he wanted to do more than to slap himself awake, to force his heartbeat to slow down. Awake, to pull himself out of his imagination. There was perhaps one thing he wanted to do more, but that thought belonged in his imagination and dreams.

His clearly over-active imagination.

"You say you like change, but yet you haven't changed at all since I first met you."

"You have." Gai shared a smile with Neji, who grinned softly.

"I'm hoping in a good way."

"Of course. Now you let me win arguements every once in a while instead of never."

Even Neji couldn't hold back his laughter at the honesty in his teacher's simple statement. He was much less stubborn than he used to be, and he'd learnt to back down sometimes. Although he knew he was always right, he allowed others to think they had won because he was just that good of a person.

"Well, you've learnt to defend your cause a little better."

"That is most certainly the case."

"Or perhaps I simply got tired of winning all the time..."

"I have no doubt about that."

"Or maybe because I've learnt to see your side of things."

"Hm...Somehow I'm not convinced about that one."

"I'll admit, it isn't often, but everything happens at least once right?"

The slightly mocking, yet in a kindly manner, smile he received was dazzling, and he smiled with twice the intensity. How he loved to see Neji smile! Their knees touched and he took note of their close proximity. He hadn't noticed him get closer, but it was nice. Neji was warm, and it felt good to his still shivering body. The extra firewood had helped, but this helped much more.

"It's impossible to prove otherwise."

"Then you musn't be afraid to go after what you want. I mean, if everything happens then what you want to happen should happen, right? Since you agree, and like you said, statistics can't make it known to be anything else, then you believe everybody should do what they want to do because they'll end up doing it eventually. Right?"

"Well, I um...I guess so." Gai blinked several times, seeing if it would help him make sense of what Neji had just said. It didn't.

"People should go after what they want. That's what you've always told us, isn't it?"

"Yes..." Gai was wondering where Neji was going with the conversation. He didn't know if Neji was going through his roudabout way of getting himself a pep talk, or he was giving Gai a pep talk. He couldn't tell.

"Then you should go after what you want. Advice goes two ways you know. I would go after what I want, but then I know you're a little bit reluctant so I thought I'd let you take the first steps. But you really aren't getting anywhere."

"What are you...?" It clicked all of a sudden, and he felt his cheeks redden and he was unable to keep their gazes locked.

"Sensei, Gai, I'm twenty now. I'm more than old enough and since I'm a jounnin, I'm tecnically not even your student anymore. Your morals are respectable, but you don't need to worry about this."

"Neji, do you know what you're saying?"

"Of course I do."

It was a soft pressure, almost timid. Gai didn't look at the hand Neji placed on his leg, only watched with mixed feelings as he drew closer. He wanted it, but knew he shouldn't, and it was like a war battling in his mind. A war he really didn't know the outcome of.

Neji stopped where the distance between them was almost as short as it could be. His eyes closed and he was waiting for Gai to make his choice. Either to get closer, or to pull away. Gai closed his eyes as well, feeling compelled to do so, and he was drawn to move forward because he wanted it so much. But he hesitated.

Their breath mixed, and their lips were almost touching. Gai could feel his heart beating like a drummer at the superbowl. Neji was old enough to make his own decisions, but Gai still couldn't decide wether or not it would feel right. He knew the best way to find out was to give it a try, if only he could push back his morals. Would he be taking advantage of his most likely confused student? Or would it all be alright?

"Sensei! Neji! Come look at what Lee and I found!" Tenten's voice called to them from somewhere far down the hall.

Neji pulled back slowly, and looked at Gai searchingly.

He felt terrible when he saw the hurt in those imploring eyes.

"I'll go see what they're doing." Neji stood up, voice completely monotone and took a couple steps away, "You should stay here. Get closer to the fire even. You're still shivering like a wet dog."

"Neji, wait." Gai called out to him before he could leave the room and got up.

"It's okay, Gai. Look, I usually know what I'm doing, but when it comes to this I clearly don't. I thought I was reading you right, but obviously I wasn't. You don't need to try to make me feel better, or whatever. I really thought you...I can't force you to feel something you don't. I do wish you'd told me that you don't feel the same before I made a fool out of myself, but what's done is done, right?"

"Neji, are you-"

"It's okay, really."

"Are you coming?" Tenten called out again.

Gai stepped torwards him, ignoring his female student for the moment, and started again, "Neji, are you-" Before he could be interrupted though, he put his finger over Neji's lips in a 'shush' manner. "Sure about what you feel?" He removed his finger to allow him to respond.

"Of course I am, but I haven't allowed my feelings to interfere with the friendship already settled between us and that won't change. I know it may be awkward for you at first, but just try to pretend this whole thing never happened."

"You know how you think you're right about everything?"

"Apparently not everything...But I know what you mean. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, you still are right about everything."

Gai swooped in and planted a kiss upon his lips. His hands went to cup his face and pulled him closer. Neji slowly melted in his arms and pressed up against him. Time disappeared. Gai knew with all of his heart that nothing else had ever felt so right. It was a sweet and gentle kiss, one that Gai knew he would treasure. Perhaps he had taken it, but he knew it was also given to him.

He could have had a million kisses up until then with others, but none of them held a candle to the one he shared with Neji in the honeymoon suit of a hotel they were stuck in thanks to a snow storm.

It was with regret that they parted, but he knew there would be more. There was never too much of a good thing after all.

"When we get out of this infernal snow storm and return home to Konoha, would you like to accompany me to dinner?"

"I'd like that."

"Are you deaf or something?" Tenten's voice was growing nearer, and they knew she was approaching.

"I'll go, stay warm alright?"

"Will do."

Before he left, Neji gave him a light kiss on the cheek and flashed him one more smile that left him utterly breathless.

God, he was beautiful.

AN: Hello! Here's another fic I wrote because it has begun to snow this week. Although it's mostly gone now... I despise snow, and I like to express that. Seeing as last year I did a fic like that, I thought, why not continue the tradition? Make a GaiNeji one-shot surrounding snow. Here you have it! It could follow the other, like it could be read alone.

Thank you for reading! I sincerely hope you liked it! If you wish to flame, go ahead. I really do need a good laugh.

Thank you,
-MewMew