[ direct ] your muse taking mine by the chin and telling them to look yours in the eye .
He descends on the ground with a huff of relief, releasing his weight from the arm that was looped around Neji's neck, and leans back against the tree. Neji settles to his right and just slightly in front of him so that they're facing each other, legs sprawled in opposite directions. The air fills with the chirping of insects. Leaves rustle overhead, overlaid by their heavy pants as they catch their breaths. Lee still has his ears out, but thankfully, they seem to be in the clear.
With his heart rate slowing and adrenaline fading, cognisance of the numbness in his lower torso returns. He's glad to be sitting down; his legs feel weak and heavy, yet jittery and restless, as if there's energy in them that can't decide where to go. A wave of nausea hits him, and Lee folds forward, groaning.
His teammate leans forward in concern. "Still?"
Nodding, Lee looks up at Neji with wide eyes. "Yeah. Neji, maybe you can help me take a look--"
He doesn't complete his sentence before the veins around Neji's eyes protrude. It goes like this fairly often, that neither of them really need to explain everything to the other. It hadn't even taken years for them to get to this point; even at the chunin exam, when Shino had surprised them all with the sudden dismemberment of Zaku, just a mention of Neji's name and he already knew what they'd wanted from him.
Lee keeps silent and still as Neji scans him from head to toe.
"Hm. You're..." Neji touches a hand to Lee's midriff, cool even over the spandex. "Your chakra pathways are clogged. Your chakra is circulating erratically, and there is nearly none in your legs. But..." He frowns. Lee shivers. "Your third gate. It's still open."
"I said your third gate is still open."
Lee blinks at Neji. "How is that possible? I closed all of them just now, and it's been nearly half an hour, I don't feel it at all, it's just in my legs that feel really weird, I think it's in--"
Obediently, Lee falls silent.
"It isn't a big deal at all," Neji explains. "It's not exactly wide open -- it's as if there's a wrench stuck in the hinges, preventing it from closing fully. I can fix it very easily. It is just strange that this happened at all, and now I'm wishing we had captured the enemy so we could understand his techniques and how he did this to you."
Lee nods. Neji's hand is warming up over his torso. "I'm closing the gate now."
A surge of chakra, and lightness washes over his body as he feels the tenketsu release. Neji was right -- the third gate was still open somehow. The Hyuga moves his hand upwards now, over Lee's chest.
"Now I'll balance the circulation of your chakra."
The way Neji manipulates the chakra in his body feels like worms writhing and untangling inside him. Squirming uncomfortably, Lee tries to still himself by dragging his focus, instead, to Neji. How Lee's flesh dimples lightly under his slender fingers. The angry bulge of veins at his temples.
There is a particular way that Neji's eyebrows tug when something's wrong. It's not the same as his focus-frown, his angry-frown, or his battle-frown. It's in the way he forces back the twitch, and in the way his lips press together.
Somberly, Lee's hand rises to brush against the veins on his temple. Neji's frown deepens -- annoyed-frown, don't-touch-me-frown, I'm-fine-frown -- but his labour doesn't falter. It's still uncomfortable in Lee's gut, but there's something soothing about the way his chakra is evening out in his body.
Lee knows that Neji is perfectly capable of multi-tasking, so he grasps Neji's chin with his other hand, and lifts it in a silent request. He doesn't need to explain. Neji accedes, and lifts his gaze to meet his.
"It hurts, right?" Lee murmurs, his dark eyes boring into the Neji's ivory-white ones. He could stare forever, seeking the ends of the depths of his gaze. "It looks like it hurts."
His silence is all the confirmation that Lee needs. Releasing his chin, Lee reaches to the back of Neji's head, and undoes his headband, drawing it gently up and away before setting it on the ground beside him. The cursed seal sits on his forehead, impassive and stark as ever. He feels the veins in Neji's temple throb under his fingers, and the seal is hot under his thumb when Lee brushes over it.
Neji sucks in a breath, but betrays nothing else.
Lee's body is growing pliant and relaxed while Neji balances out his chakra circulation, and his heart rate slows under the firm hand on his chest as he matches Neji's even breaths. His thumb is still running soothing arcs over the seal as he cradles the side of Neji's head, while his other hand rests below his jaw. He offers up a tentative smile -- sufficient for now, he hopes.
raw hands heart-beating to the smoky view
janainaart
yousharknotpass
theartofmadeline
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