Lee
Upon arrival to Neji's room, he was given a specific order by Hiashi: "Wait here until I am done speaking to Neji. As important as your subject matter is, mine far outweighs yours in terms of importance."
Lee agreed with a nod and left the Hyuuga man to speak to the young alpha alone, deciding that whatever it is he wanted to talk about to him had to be something of greater importance to set aside a potential mating offer. Waiting for his chance to speak to Neji again was not as anxious of an experience as he believed it would be. Instead, Lee was calm the entire time when thinking over his choice of words he would say to the young Hyuuga prodigy.
He supposes this was always going to happen…maybe Neji did have something right when he says he was always meant to be mated to an alpha. Maybe he wasn’t wrong about anything at all—maybe it was always for the better of things that Lee wound up mated young to an alpha he knows, one who won’t take him away from everyone and everything.
When Hiashi walks out of the room, he gives him a small nod and a guide for the talk: “Wait at least fifteen more minutes. Neji is dealing with a sensitive subject right now and he will be needing the time to properly absorb it all in before seeing you.”
“Yes sir, I will be sure to do that.” Lee doesn’t ask any questions, figuring it must be something sensitive or personal for Hiashi to be looking so stoic and yet pained in his own subtle manner.
He doesn’t know what is going on, though he has a guess it could possibly affect his response to his offer.
It’d be the worst case scenario, if he’s being honest. On one hand, it could propel Neji to want to mate him on the spot. On the other, it could make Neji reject the offer all together out of disgust, which would mean he will be put up for auction and taken away from everyone he knows and loves…
No, he won’t think like this! Guy sensei would be so mad at him for being so dour and pessimistic! He has to look on the bright side of things no matter how dire if he ever wants to come out of this with the core being of himself intact.
Fifteen minutes later, he had knocked on the door and was allowed in by a shockingly kind, “You may enter.” from Neji.
When in the room, he sees Neji’s eyes are a bit red and he wonders if this is a good time or not to bring up his proposition to him.
Neji, on the other hand, is overwhelmed with guilt at the very sight of Lee—the last person he wanted to face after everything that happened—his defeat and reading his father’s letter to him…his father would be so angry, so disappointed and disgusted with him for how he treated his own teammate!
He cannot stop himself from getting on the floor and bowing to him in the same manner Hiashi did to him earlier, his voice showing nothing but sincerity and vulnerability as he spoke to the omega he wants to make amends with, “Lee…I am so sorry.”
Hearing his response only increased as he felt the weight of his father’s gaze on his back from beyond the grave, already hearing the scolding in his head ‘you should have known better than to take advantage of someone like this, did I not raise you right’, “Why are you apologizing? All of what happened between us is my fault for not being able to stop you when I should have been able to.”
“No, Lee, it’s not your fault.” he is firm yet gentle when voicing his grievances to him, “It was all mine…I may not know if destiny can be changed or not, or if it’s even predetermined—all I know is, what I did to you was wrong and all I am asking right now of you is your forgiveness.”
“How was it wrong? You were just being an alpha and I should’ve known better than to be so stupid as to confess my omega status to you alone. It’s like what my mother says, ‘don’t tempt an alpha or beta with your status unless if you are able to face the consequences of such decisions’. I was being ignorant and I’m sorry for—”
“Don’t apologize to me, Lee. I was wrong, I stopped you from achieving your goals, I tried to manipulate your destiny to fit what I wanted because I didn’t think I could win you over otherwise!”
Lee is stunned at the admission as much as he is to the apology because, well, he never believed Neji to be the apologizing type, especially to him. Learning this was the reason why he did all that he did has him feeling a strange amount of pity for the young alpha in front of him as he approaches him, “Neji, you could have won me over if you were nice to me and listened to me. You never needed to leave a mark on me or stop me from fulfilling my dreams. All you had to do was be honest about your feelings for me and be a nice person who listens to me when I talk. I know you’re going to keep apologizing, but all I want is for you to stop. I’m not mad at you over what happened—I’m not one to hold a grudge against anyone, not even my own parents. There’s no need to apologize, so please, stop for my sake, okay?”
Neji raises himself off the floor, meeting his eyes nervously, only to find nothing outside of warmth and kindness in his gaze, “…I’ll stop for your sake, then. Is there any way at all that I can make up for what I did to you? Any way that would allow you to one day agree to be my mate of your own volition?”
He could be cruel and push for his wish to be mated off before the day ends, but he knows better than to be so cruel to poor Neji who is genuinely so apologetic for what happened to him, “I mean, all you really could do is be a nice person who listens to me, that’s it, that’s all I would want from you. I want you to see and treat me as your equal, Neji—I don’t think that’s asking for much.”
Neji nods immediately, agreeing to it without so much a complaint, “I’ll do just that then…hopefully one day, I’ll be worthy of you.”
Lee couldn’t stop himself from blurting it out, not even if he tried, “Worthy of me? Neji, you’re way too good for me! I am really amazed you actually like me at all…I always thought you never did before the mark, but to hear you talking like this—it still catches me off guard, I guess. I never thought I could get anyone to like me at all. I’m not beautiful like Deidara, I don’t have the same alluring scent Deidara had, and I’m nowhere near as interesting as him either. I’m as plain as can be, from a clan that is quite possibly the poorest in all of the village.”
Neji raises a brow to this and Lee concludes his thought with a resigned, “I guess I don’t see myself as anything special or attractive. I never thought I could get anyone as amazing as you to like me and even now, hearing you talk like this, it’s hard to accept.”
He looks at Lee curiously before concluding, “You really were raised to think nothing of yourself, were you? Because that’s the only reason why I believe you couldn’t grasp my affections for you no matter how obvious I could be at times.”
He moves in closer yet to Lee, but there’s a distance between them considerate of his personal space that the omega notes he wouldn’t have gone out of his way to give in the past, “You don’t need to be Deidara to be beautiful, interesting, or have a pleasant scent. You already had all of the above, you always have—you just never saw it.”
He was about to make a move to take his hand—Lee saw it coming from a mile away—and in the end, he didn’t, choosing to restrain himself instead, “You can get anyone to like you…anyone in their right mind would be mad to turn you down if they all knew you were an omega upon first meeting. I knew this to be the truth and I knew I had to mark your hand before anyone else could steal you from me. I know I fell back on a claim of tradition and destiny, but that was all for show, to make you think I wasn’t so afraid of losing you to someone else.”
He could use this to his advantage, he could bring up the mating proposition…and yet, all he does is shake his head, reassuring Neji instead, “I think you think less of yourself as well because of how you grew up in the Hyuuga household, then. You never had to worry about losing to me to anyone else; all you ever had to do was be a nice person who listened to me and I would’ve been yours. So please, don’t look down on yourself anymore—you’re a handsome prodigy of the Hyuuga clan. You are easily the most eligible alpha in all of Konoha, the pride of our village right after Itachi. You need to remember that from here on out, okay?”
“I’ll be sure to do going forward.” he takes Lee’s hand into his own and mutters a small, “Thank you for being so kind and understanding, Lee. I will treat you right from here on out, and one day, I will become someone you wish to mate.”
“I can’t wait for you to do just that, Neji!” the omega smiles widely, his spirits high, thinking he finally has a shot for the alpha to treat him as an equal.
He doesn’t bring up the offer to mate him.
He knows he should when he has the chance, but he can’t bring himself to burden Neji with such a proposition after all he has gone through mentally, emotionally, and physically. His teammate needs a break and a mating offer—after their wonderful heart to heart—would only insult him in the form of being a verbal spit to his face.
Lee knows better than to try to work in such an offer to someone after they have been so vulnerable and sincere to him.
Looks like he won’t be mating Neji then…auction really is the only option left for him and such a thought does more to distress him than any other event could at this moment.
After exiting Neji’s room and heading back to the stadium, he stops in his steps to find Naruto and Ino there, “Naruto, Ino, what is going on? Are you guys here to see Neji too? Because he’s busy right now with the medic nin and he won’t be able to see anyone for a bit.”
Ino shakes her head, telling him with a wave of her hand, “No, we’re here to check on you, that’s all! We were worried because you were gone and we had no idea where you went.”
“Y-Yeah, that’s why we asked Hiashi for directions to get here!” Naruto cheers in response, which has a spark of warmth forming in Lee’s chest as he realizes this very damn well could be his last day with people who care so much about him, “You really went so far out of your way to find me? I matter that much to you two?”
Naruto is the first one to say it, “Of course you do, why wouldn’t you? You’re our friend and fellow omega ninja! We have to stick together if we want to make history in our village!”
“He’s right, you mean a lot to us and we won’t ever leave your side!” Ino speaks with such confidence, he finds himself almost envying her in her amazing prowess of such an emotion when he himself doesn’t have much of it in anything outside of his capabilities as a budding taijutsu master.
He wipes a tear from his eye and raises his fist, his happiness hardly contained, “I’m so sorry, I never should have worried you! I promise, it won’t ever happen again. Next time I leave, I’ll tell you two where I’m going so you guys won’t be stuck wandering the stadium looking for me.”
While they are both relieved to hear this, unbeknownst to Lee, his friends are concerned for him.
Ino and Naruto both believe there is something else going on with him they aren’t being told of. As such, Ino asks him a question as selectively worded as possible to get the best answer out of him, “Why did you go see Neji anyway? Hiashi said you were here to speak to him, but I can’t figure out why you’d do that unless if it wasn’t clan related stuff.”
“He apologized to me… He says he’s going to treat me better so he can one day be the sort of person I want to mate.” Lee answers the first part honestly, but he’s not sure how to address the second part other than with honesty as well since lying about it feels wrong to do to someone he considers to be a true friend of his, “I was pressured by them to arrange a mating with him, but I couldn’t do it, not after he had been so sincere and honest with me.”
She isn’t sold on this for reasons Lee can only predict, “How can you trust him on that? Neji isn’t exactly the type of guy who’s proven to be considerate of you in any way.”
“She has a point there—the guy is a stuck up jerk who deserved to get his ass beat by me.” Naruto claims with such boldness despite the fact Neji’s room isn’t too far away and he’s pretty positive he can hear him.
It makes him admire his friend for being able to be so honest around him despite knowing his reaction could possibly upset any alpha or beta nearby, “I know he’s done wrong in the past, but I’m not mad at him for anything and I don’t hold grudges towards anyone, not even Neji. I know he was being sincere, he wouldn’t have apologized in the way he did if he wasn’t. I don’t expect you two to take it seriously, but I know him well enough to believe him on this. I’m not asking you guys to be nice to him or be his friend—all I am asking is that you both trust my judgment on this end.”
“…Alright, we can do that, right Naruto?”
“I can, but only because I trust your judgment more than I do in his ability to not be a jerk!”
It really does help to keep his morale up during a time where he is struggling to do such a thing. Having so much support from his friends has him on cloud nine for now, and as such, he won’t dwell too much on what will happen after his failure to get a mating out of Neji, “Thank you so much! Ah, we should be getting back to the stadium… We wouldn’t want to make anyone else worry over us.”
“Sure thing!” Naruto cheers, a grin taking over himself as he openly muses, “I’m thinking Sasuke will be back by then and I’ll get the fussing of a lifetime from him! It’ll be amazing, because he’ll be doing it in public and letting everyone know that I am his and his only, because only Sasuke can fuss over me not anybody else!”
“What about Iruka sensei?” Lee wonders to his fellow omega’s bold declaration, “Can’t he fuss over you as well? What of Kakashi sensei or any other sensei—”
“Alright, alright they can too, but not anyone else outside of them and Sasuke.” Naruto clarifies when leading them back to the stadium, “I swear if that teme doesn’t fuss over me, I will make him regret it for the rest of his life!”
Lee chuckles while Ino scoffs, “I can’t see why you’d want him to fuss over you…if any alpha or beta did that to me, I’d dump them on the spot.”
“Only because you don’t know the glories of being fussed over!” Naruto shoots back at her, almost purring at the idea of it alone, “Sasuke fussing over me is a sign that he cares about me, worries over me, and thinks about me whenever he can. Him fussing over me is simply a sign of him placing me first in his life, what can be better than that? Someone who doesn’t fuss over me isn’t someone I’d want at all—someone like that who doesn’t care enough about me to worry over me or think of me at all is not someone I’d ever want to mate. It’d be more like mating someone who hates you as opposed to loving you, you know?”
This hits very close to home for Lee.
Being fussed over in the manner Naruto describes is generally something he’s never experienced growing up. All he’s ever had is strict standards of beauty, conduct, and traditions to abide by that were enforced on him by his entire clan. Never once in his time living out of the home have his parents (or anyone else in his clan for that matter) ever written him letters wondering how he was doing, who he was with, where he was living, if he was safe or not, if he was sick or healthy, happy or sad… They never checked in on him, never contacted him at all until that damned letter a month ago.
This description of being fussed over from Naruto only serves to further remind him of what exactly it is he is to his parents and his clan overall: a piece of property to be sold to the highest bidder, consent be damned.
If they loved him, they wouldn’t see him this way. If they loved him, they would be fussing over him like so many people do for Naruto…instead, all he has are parents and a clan that couldn’t care less about him to the extent where he will be sold off at auction since he didn’t manage to get that mating with Neji like he thought he would.
No, now is not the time to dwell on this!
If today really is going to be his last day with his friends, then he wants it to be as good of a time as possible for their sakes. Because when the day is over and nightfall is upon them, he cannot guarantee he will be anywhere in the village come the next sunrise.