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The soft chirping of morning birdsong was drifting in through the open window when Neji shuffled in to the kitchen, exhaustion leaking from every pore in his body. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d bothered to keep up with his endurance training and he truly should have known better than to let himself fall behind on that sort of thing before accepting Lee as his mission partner.
Quiet humming and the scent of pancakes brought him out of his stupor and Neji blinked rapidly to clear his vision so he could inspect the room around him. TenTen stood at the stove in one of the plain yukatas she had preferred to wear throughout the middle stages of her pregnancy. A quick glance to one side showed the result of that pregnancy, their three year old daughter, enthusiastically coloring at the kitchen table with her tongue sticking out between her teeth in concentration. Neji didn’t realize he had released a soft, contented noise until TenTen heard him and turned around to offer him a smile.
“I didn’t think you would wake so early,” she said. “When you got in last night you looked as though you were ready to sleep for a week.”
“Yes and I rather wish I had,” he replied dryly. TenTen chuckled at his misery and turned back to flip her pancakes.
Sniffing the air, Neji asked, “Blueberry?”
“Mhm. If I knew you were awake I would have set aside some batter to make a few plain ones for you – I know you prefer them without fruit – but I’ve already mixed them in to the bowl. Sorry, babe.”
“No, that’s fine. Anything at all sounds heavenly at the moment.”
“Lee really ran you in the ground, huh?”
“He always does.”
Outright laughing now, TenTen didn’t even pretend to have any sympathy for him. She had grown up on the same genin team as he had and she was more than familiar with the crazy levels to which their mutual friend pushed both himself and those around him – but that didn’t mean she felt sorry for him. All it meant was that her laughter had an edge of knowing behind it.
At the table a small crunch drew his attention just before quiet whimpering came from the table. Neji looked over to see his daughter holding the remains of a yellow crayon, snapped clean in half. Her bottom lip was wobbling dangerously while he shuffled over to wind his hands under her shoulders and haul her up in to his aching arms, bouncing her on one hip.
“My goodness,” he said solemnly. “Whatever happened here?”
“D-daddy it brokeded!”
“Ah, yes, I see that now. But do you know what that means?” He waited until she was staring up at him with shimmering eyes before gently pressing his nose to hers. “That means that you have two yellow crayons now. Isn’t that wonderful?”
She took a moment to consider his words with all the concentration her toddler mind could muster. After a few moments she broke out in to a smile and Neji relaxed while she began to giggle, squirming a couple of fingers against her belly to make her squeal before depositing her back on her chair. Because of the fact that she was only half descended from the Hyuga bloodline she would never wield the Byakugan but Neji found that he was just as happy to see her gazing up at him with her mother’s eyes instead.
When he turned around to face his wife again she was only just turning her head away from him as though trying not to get caught watching.
Narrowing his eyes, Neji harrumphed delicately and perched himself on the chair across from his daughter, embarrassed to have been caught in such a soft moment. It didn’t matter how much time passed since he was allowed to move away from the influence of his clan, open displays of affection were still an issue he had difficulty with. Raising a child confronted him with that difficulty on a regular basis yet he couldn’t bring himself to regret even a single moment of it all.
“Alright,” TenTen chirped. “Who’s ready for breakfast?”
“Me! Me mommy! Please!”
“Here we are!”
Three plates hit the table at the same time TenTen’s bottom hit her chair, already licking her lips in anticipation of one of her favorite foods. Neji watched the motion surreptitiously for a moment then tucked that thought away for later and peered down at his meal.
She’d been right that he would have preferred to have nothing added in to his pancakes but considering the depleted state he found himself in after getting home from his mission he wasn’t about to turn his nose up when TenTen had actually been kind enough to cook. His wife hated cooking, only doing so when it was her turn to stay home with their child. Neji reached for the butter and syrup without saying anything about the menu.
“Hinata asked me to go with her and Kiba on that run to Kiri next week,” TenTen mumbled around a mouthful of fluffy pancake. Neji lifted one eyebrow at her, prompting her to swallow and flash an unrepentant grin.
“I was supposed to help Shino with a demonstration for his class sometime next week.” He paused at her downcast look. “But I’m sure Gai-sensei would be more than willing to babysit while I do that. Please do tell Hinata-hime to be on her guard, love. She will be travelling with…precious cargo, as it were.”
“Awww, babe!”
Neji raised his fork in aggressive protection when TenTen attempted to reach over and pinch his cheeks, glaring until she laughed and returned her hands to where they should be.
“Well, you got one thing right. I suppose I am carrying precious cargo – again.”
“Hm?”
“I’m pregnant.”
“You wha–!?” His eyes widened as he tried to gasp and instead inhaled a mouthful of pancakes, coughing and choking until batter had been sprayed across the table in a disgusting sweep. Neji took no notice, pounding on his chest until he was able to breathe again and blinking his watering eyes at the woman beside him. “You’re pregnant!?”
Calmly wiping food off her face and delicately pushing her plate away from herself, TenTen nodded. “Yep. Baby number two! I thought one last mission before I get all fat again would be good.”
“I…we’re…having another child.”
“Uh-huh!”
“Two of them.”
“For certain. I got Sakura to do the tests twice.”
“Oh.” Neji went still, his eyes wide and unseeing as he tried to picture it.
He’d never really imagined himself with any children when he was younger, knowing that they would suffer the Caged Bird Seal as he did and not wanting to be responsible for putting another child through that. But then he’d fallen in love and gotten married, Hinata and her sister had started a revolution within the Hyuga clan which culminated in several days of celebration after they convinced their father to abolish the practice of the Caged Bird Seal, and Neji had somehow found himself holding a little baby girl in his arms.
Suddenly that small human being had become his entire world. Now he stared across the table at his daughter and imagined another child sitting beside her with his hair and TenTen’s chin, giggling with that hint of mischief always hidden behind his wife’s smile.
“I don’t know if I’ll survive another,” he breathed at last. TenTen patted him consolingly on the wrist.
“No choice now,” she said. “They’re already on their way.”
Neji caught her hand and turned to her with an earnest expression. “I love you.” There were no other words he knew of which could express the combination of utter terror and uncontrollable joy rushing through him at the moment.
“I love you too,” she replied simply.
“And me!” Their daughter piped up.
TenTen laughed and leaned over to bop their first-born on the nose while Neji stared at the both of them in awe. After a while he slowly reached out to pick up his fork, blindly shoving another bite of pancakes in to his mouth. There didn’t seem to be much else for him to do at the moment but to eat his breakfast, watch over his family, and look forward to the future.