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"Ok, this is bullshit, you have to be cheating," Tenten accuses, eyes narrowed. The wine in her glass sloshes as she sways. Neji prays it doesn't get on his carpet.
Lee gasps in hurt. Honest-to-God hurt. "Tenten, I would never! You know me!"
"Yeah, but I know Monopoly too and this is impossible. Now go to jail. What the fuck." The last part is said in wonder rather than anger.
Lee pouts. "Fine, but I will disprove your allegations later."
Neji rolls his eyes at the theatrics. Lee whimpers before moving his Scottie dog to the section of the board with the jail in it. He snorts when Tenten leans over to push it precisely into the In Jail portion with Neji's top hat rather than the Just Visiting part of the square Lee had gingerly placed it in. Petty. Very Tenten. "That was unnecessary," he tells her.
"No, that was justice. My turn."
Lee miserably hands over the pair of dice. Tenten places her glass on the table before snatching them in one fell swoop and throwing them violently at the middle of the board. Neji and Lee look at her, unimpressed. In the background, the sound of the dice hitting the floor echoes.
"What? More power, better luck. You never know."
Lee actually considers her words. Neji scoffs as he rises to locate the cubes. He thinks he'd seen them bounce under his bookshelf. Which is great. It's not like his bookshelf weighed tons or anything.
"I don't like it when we play this while you're drunk." He hears Lee tell Tenten.
"Too bad." He thinks Tenten sticks her tongue out at him. Neji has no evidence, but the gesture would be very onbrand for her.
"Neji," Lee's tone is accusatory, "why did you give her alcohol?"
"You were winning," he manages to grunt out as he reaches underneath the bookshelf. His fingers make contact with nothing.
"No, she was just losing."
"I'm right here!" Tenten exclaims.
Neji ignores this. "You know that's the same thing."
"This is my second time in jail." Lee pouts. "How am I winning?" He sounds genuinely confused.
Tenten glares at him. "You've monopolized more than half the board!"
"And I've been in jail nearly the entire time," Neji adds, still on the floor.
Lee crosses his arms. "I'd rather be able to explore than keep wasting away in jail! No offense, Neji!"
"And I'd rather make money than keep losing!" Tenten's words are starting to slur.
"Then play better, Tenten! I told you both I wouldn't hold back!"
Neji finally manages to the grab both dice from the dusty confines known as The Space Between His Bookshelf And The Floor. He walks back to the table and proceeds to wipe the things clean, tuning out Lee and Tenten's bickering. When he's done, Tenten presses against him and, christ, he'd told her to wear a bra. Lee is right there.
"What did they land on?"
"I didn't get to see." He tries to maintain a controlled tone.
Tenten pouts. "Let me roll again then."
"Only if your promise to roll them properly."
She scowls. "No."
"Then it's my turn."
She makes several attempts to grab the dice from him, but the fact that she's drunk and he's Neji ultimately leads her to fail. He rolls them unceremoniously to the sound of Tenten's irritated huffing. A five and a six. In other words, not doubles.
"Ah, that was so close, Neji! It looks like you'll be staying in there for another turn." Lee gives him an apologetic look, as if it were his fault.
Neji shrugs. He'd never really cared about winning in the first place. They'd only played Monopoly to appease Tenten and he's her boyfriend (the word is still so foreign to him) now, he's supposed to do that. Make it a priority, he'd been told and he'd politely refrained from telling everyone it didn't need to be said. That a happy Tenten has always been his end goal regardless of their status. "It's just one more turn anyway."
"Yeah, and only another one before you end up back there again."
Neji gives Tenten a blank look. Although said under her breath, he gets the impression he was meant to hear that. So much for a Happy Tenten tonight. He hands the dice over to Lee's waiting palms. There's fire burning in his eyes as he gears up to roll the things and, as always, Neji wishes he'd just get on with it.
When the dice fly across the air, he buries his face in his hands.
Tenten rises from her seat, affronted. "Hypocrite! You judged me for throwing them too hard, but look at you!"
To Neji's endless agony, Lee gets up as well. "It was an accident! I was merely too excited!"
"Bullshit!"
"I swear on Guy-sensei's good name!"
"That barely means anything, you cheater!"
Lee is aghast. "Tenten, how could you say that!"
Having resigned himself to being the dice boy, Neji gets up again to look for the plastic cubes. It shouldn't be hard. It's not like the damned things had sailed across the expanse of his living room. God, he hopes they aren't under the bookshelf again.
"Check the kitchen," Tenten pipes up at him mid-argument after seeing him mill around unsuccessfully. Such a wonderful girlfriend, she is. Neji doesn't find them in the kitchen though, even after looking through the dirty dishes piled in the sink. (He preferred drying so no work could be done if Tenten didn't feel like washing.)
"They're not here," he calls out before returning to the living room. He's not even surprised Lee and Tenten are in their fighting stances, his couches and table pushed aside in favor for... whatever this is going to be. "No one is fighting in my living room."
"There's no more dice. This is the only way we can settle this." Tenten doesn't even look at him, already invested. It would be a good look if it didn't involve property damage or violence in general.
"And I will never back down from a challenge," Lee says because he's Lee. He's cracking his knuckles and Neji doesn't like the sound of it at all. He sighs.
"You know I have extra dice, right?"
"Too late-"
"Wait, what?"
To his relief, Lee's stance relaxes. "We can continue the game then!"
"Yes. Tenten has always known I have extra dice," Neji says pointedly.
Tenten pouts, looking away from him. "Maybe I wanted to fight him instead of playing."
"You're only saying that because you're losing," Lee and Neji say simultaneously. Tenten huffs, irate before plopping back down on the couch.
"I hate both of you."
Lee pats her head before returning to his own seat. "We all know you do not mean that, lotus flower."
Tenten makes a sound of disgust as Neji grabs the extra dice from their spot on the shelf. He takes his seat back next to her and he's only mildly fazed when Tenten crawls over to settle on his lap. "Yes?"
"I want to sit here."
"Ok." There's really nothing else he can say to that.
Lee doesn't mind the display. Tenten being clingy is to be expected when she is drunk. Just like how him being violent is the norm.
"Neji, may I roll again?"
He hands Lee the dice. Tenten glares up at him. "So Lee gets to roll again, but I don't?"
"Lee didn't throw the dice on purpose."
"Maybe that's what he wants us to think," she stage-whispers.
Lee frowns. "We are having a serious talk about how you view my sportsmanship when you are sober, Tenten."
"Whatever."
Neji feels her relax against him and proceeds to wrap his arms around her waist. It's starting to come naturally to him, he thinks as he breathes in her scent, holding her like this. She is soft and warm in his arms and he never wants to let go.
Lee stares at the dice determinedly, eyes blazing more intensely than before. Neji wants to tell him that's probably just going to make the dice go flying again, but he holds his tongue.
They finally escape his hands.
Double-sixes. For the eighth time during the duration of their 30 minute game.
Tenten detaches from him so quickly her head smacks his chin before she flips the board.
As money and property cards rain from the sky, Neji thinks about how he isn't in jail anymore at least.