Neji didn't want to keep doing this. He absolutely hated doing this.
Naruto was back again, laughing and joking and just generally being himself, playing with the boys and reliving little anecdotes to get a smile out of them. Normally, this wasn't such a huge deal with Neji as it had been quite a large part of his life when he and Naruto were a thing.
But now, it seemed like it was a huge deal. Because he and Naruto were no longer a thing, and were instead, living in separate homes with separate jobs and, it seemed, separate friends. There was an interesting story that came with that. Not Neji's favorite, he had heard better, but an unfortunate fact of reality.
Naruto was the kind of guy who just attracted all sorts of people to him, people with every kind of personality imaginable; stingy, clever, funny, smart, quiet, timid, disconnected, disinterested, obnoxious. It all migrated towards Naruto. Neji was fine with that and always had been because Naruto responded to every single one of those personalities in the same way, and responded to him (Neji) in a special way. And, until a few short months ago, had only responded to Neji in that special way.
However, on that fateful day five months ago, all that had changed. And Neji hated change. Hated it with a burning passion. Change always meant bad. His father dying was bad, his self-imposed isolation from his family was bad, all of it was bad. Just about the only good change that had occurred in his life was Naruto, and that was why he had given so much of himself to Naruto, because he trusted that idiot to keep the bad change away from him.
So much for that.
Naruto had been out at the local bar doing god knows what when he apparently ran into an old friend of his; Uchiha Sasuke. Neji had never really given the guy much thought and didn't even when he found him standing with Naruto in front of their apartment door talking with him as though it were an everyday occurrence.
At the time Neji had thought nothing of it and had gone about his business, assuming merely that Naruto had wanted to catch up with a good friend of his and just generally himself not caring. It wasn't as though he knew Sasuke.
Sasuke began to come over more and more, and the two twin boys Naruto had insisted on adopting had taken such a shine to him; it didn't matter that he was probably one of the most antisocial people Neji had ever come into contact with, they just loved him. To make things worse, this was all going on during the busiest season for the Hyuuga Corporation and Neji was vital if the business was to be conducted smoothly. Thus, he was rarely home and when he was, it was late. For six months, it was like that, and on the day he was finally finished with all of it – the last report had finally been filed – he came home to an unusual sight.
Naruto was sitting on the couch, elbows on his knees, head in his hands. Neji, being worried for his idiot, had asked him what was wrong and if there was anything he could do to help. Naruto had shaken his head and flinched away from Neji's helping hand. Neji would try unsuccessfully to deny to himself how much that simple action had hurt. Neji asked Naruto several times what was on his mind but Naruto remained stubbornly quiet. In the end, all Neji could do was give him a kiss and wish him pleasant dreams.
When he woke up the next morning the bed was cold and Naruto was gone.
After that, Naruto began to act a little unusually. He began to take Neji out more and he complained less when Neji would ask him to do something. He even offered to help Neji with chores that he'd never known needed to be done before. If Neji didn't know better, he would have guessed that Naruto was acting out of a guilty conscience.
Six months later, Naruto had taken Neji into their room, shut the door and told him that he was leaving him; told him that he wanted to end their relationship, he was in love with Sasuke. Neji distinctly remembered standing there in that first frozen moment of utter surprise before his defenses erected themselves immediately. He listened silently as Naruto apologized to him again and again and offered him full custody of the children, offered him the entire apartment and everything they had. He explained to Neji over and over again that it wasn't anything Neji had done, that Naruto just didn't want to be with him anymore. Neji accurately guessed the embarrassment that came with falling in love with someone when you were otherwise spoken for. Neji knew that Naruto hated to lie. Sasuke probably would have been fine with keeping their relationship covert, but Naruto was the kind of person who couldn't do that without feeling guilty. He had to be up front with those he cared about.
And, as convenient as it would be if it were otherwise, Naruto still cared about Neji. And Neji knew it.
So they had ended their relationship civilly; Neji got to keep the apartment and the car and the boys and Naruto got Sasuke. He viewed it as a trade that was more than fair. Neji withheld all comments on the situation.
Neji couldn't just cut Naruto out of his life, though. He still loved Naruto, as much as it hurt, and he knew that the boys needed Naruto and that Naruto needed the boys, at least in some form. So he let Naruto come over to visit them whenever he wanted. He'd gotten a huge and rather crushing hug for that.
That led to the current arrangement; that is, Naruto coming over to the apartment every weekend and usually every Tuesday and Thursday. On the weekdays, he would sometimes eat dinner at the apartment and on the weekends he would sometimes stay through the night into Sunday. The boys seemed happy with that and Neji managed to bear the arrangement admirably.
But it was taking its toll on him. Not having been given a proper amount of time to distance himself from his breakup with Naruto, this arrangement was naturally not the best thing for Neji, but he would put up with it if only because it made Naruto and the boys so happy.
Which led him to this day at this moment. Naruto had been coming over more and more often. The first few times he'd brought Sasuke with him but that had stopped very quickly because he knew it made Neji uncomfortable. Now he just came by himself to spend some time with his kids. To Neji, though, that was hardly an improvement.
"Wait, wait, wait, lemme get this straight," Naruto was crowing from his spot on the couch, one twin on either side of him, "She rejected you two? Just like that?" The older twin, Soichiro, nodded and looked to his brother, Keitaro, for confirmation.
"She didn't like the idea of dating both of us simultaneously," he explained in a mock long-suffering voice.
"She must have known by now that we come as a pair," Keitaro cut in with the hint of a wry smile on his face. Neji chuckled to himself from his place at the table, trusting Naruto's guffaws to keep his laughter hidden.
"Wow, what a rigid chick!" Naruto said through his laughter. "Ah, you guys'll find someone special soon, don't worry. Plenty of gorgeous girls out there." He ruffled the twins' messy jet black hair and they rewarded him with two very rare, very genuine smiles. Neji watched silently from the table, momentarily breaking his concentration.
"So, what else is new, kiddos?" Naruto asked, pulling the twins closer to him. They snuggled up against him willingly and answered his question with what they thought was well-concealed eagerness.
"Keitaro made the basketball team," Soichiro explained.
"Soichiro made the chess team," Keitaro interjected.
"Keitaro's failing math class."
"Soichiro's failing P.E."
"Even though he's taking a very simple algebra."
"Even though all he has to do to pass is show up."
"Neji says we're moving." The boys said this in unison and turned their eyes to their adoptive father, staring at him with an unreadable gaze. Neji stopped writing mid sentence and closed his eyes. He'd been hoping to avoid this. Naruto turned to Neji as well, confusion written all over his face.
"Neji?" Naruto inquired, still a little mentally winded from the onslaught of information. "What are they talking about?" Neji closed his eyes and massaged his forehead, habitually biting the bottom of his lip to fight off the headache. Naruto, sensing some serious trouble that had been brewing for perhaps a bit too long, gently extracted himself from the twins' hold and rounded the couch to the table. He pulled a chair beside Neji and straddled it almost carelessly, using the chair back as an arm rest. He looked at Neji seriously.
"Neji?" he tried again. Neji sighed and put his pen down, understanding that this needed his full attention. He looked at the twins, who were obviously not going to be moving anywhere soon, and leaned back in his chair.
"We are moving," he said firmly, folding his arms. "I really don't think that two growing boys should be raised by a single parent in an apartment as small as this." The twins scoffed in the background.
"Dad raises us just as much as Neji does," Soichiro said to Keitaro, who nodded solemnly.
"He always helps me with my homework and you with your social blunders," Keitaro added. Neji closed his eyes and bit back a second sigh, absolutely hating the twins' unusual and obnoxious method of getting their point across to him. Naruto gave an admonishing look to the boys.
"Hey, chill out, okay?" he scolded. "Neji's right, you guys do deserve better than this. You should be thankful that he's willing to do this for you." The twins quieted and shared a look before turning away from the table. Neji nodded his thanks to Naruto, ignoring the small rush of broken pride that threatened well up in his stomach at the thought of Naruto defending him like that.
"Sooooo…" Naruto started, clearly waiting for further explanation from Neji. The young Hyuuga rolled his eyes and cradled his head in his hand.
"It's a house about five minutes from here with two floors and a basement," he extrapolated. "They'd still be going to the same school, they can still see all of their friends as easily as if they were living here, and you can still visit them whenever you want." Naruto blinked and shrugged, his fears alleviated.
"So, what's the problem?" he asked. "I'd think they'd be excited about that! What's with the assish-ness?" It took virtually everything Neji had not to laugh at Naruto's made up word and he shook his head to push the laughter away.
"I don't know, they won't talk to me about it," he confessed. He broke off to wipe a drop of nervous sweat from his forehead and Naruto opened his mouth to speak.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Neji stood quickly to his feet and muttered a "dinner's finished" before he rushed off to the small kitchen space to pull the pans from the burners.
They all sat down to dinner and Naruto took it upon himself to be the life of the party once more. His hope was to distract the twins from Neji's apparently cruel decision, and it seemed to be working fairly well. Soichiro and Keitaro were laughing and joking crudely with Naruto while Neji watched with a small smile in the background. He rarely contributed to the conversation and was about to excuse himself when Naruto spoke up, his voice suddenly nervous.
"Um, I can't come over to see you guys on Thursday, okay?" he started, fidgeting with something in his lap. Neji watched with a furrowed brow, his curiosity piqued.
"There's, um, there's something that I was, um…" he broke off and looked at Neji as though for support. But Neji knew as much about his unusual behavior as the twins, and couldn't offer anything except an encouraging look. Naruto smiled gratefully and forged onward bravely.
"I wanted you guys to be the first to know," he said, putting the item in his lap on the table. Neji's heart began to speed up as he saw a very notoriously shaped black velvet box sitting before them all. An impending sense of dread formed in his stomach as Naruto opened the box to reveal a beautiful silver band with an inscription that he couldn't read from where sat.
"I'm – I'm going to do the gay equivalent of proposing to Sasuke," Naruto said with a laugh and a goofy grin. Even though he was nervous at the moment, Neji knew Naruto's determination would not falter when it counted. He was serious about this.
The twins were silent and their gaze shifted to Neji, their mouths parting simultaneously. Neji's eyes were on Naruto, who was looking around at all of them with a fiery expression, as though challenging any of them to question his intended actions. None of them did.
Finally, after pushing every single one of his emotions into the farthest recesses of his mind, Neji mustered a smile and reached out to take the ring.
"May I?" he asked in an embarrassingly soft voice. Naruto nodded, still so hopeful and impassioned. Neji held the box carefully in his lightly shaking hands and looked over the beautiful silver ring. It was simple and perfect and the proof of a loving attempt at representing all that Naruto and Sasuke had together. The inscription read a very simple Always Yours on the inside and Neji forced himself not to swallow.
The best part about this band, as far as Sasuke would be concerned, was that it couldn't represent even a small segment of Naruto's feelings; they were too great, too vast, and too encompassing to be manifested in anything tangible.
"He'll love it, Naruto," Neji said, handing the ring back to him. Naruto's face exploded into the biggest beaming grin Neji had ever seen. Their hands brushed as Naruto took the ring and Neji tried not to pull his hand back as though it were burned. He tried to keep his smile in place and he tried to push down his rebelling emotions as Naruto's joy seemed to tear him in half.
The twins soon found their voice as well and said together, "Yeah, Dad. He'll love it." Somehow, they didn't seem all too enthusiastic.
They all watched a movie together before Naruto left and on his way out the door, Neji stopped him, suddenly remembering something very important. The twins were playing video games in their room.
"Naruto, I need you to take the twins tomorrow," Neji said. Naruto looked at him quizzically.
"Why?" he asked. "Is something wrong?" There was already worry in his voice but Neji refused to acknowledge it.
"Because I need to pack," he responded easily. "They don't need to be reminded that we're moving, and I'd rather not – have to deal with their… disdain. Could you pick them up after school?" Naruto cast a glance at the twins' closed door and gave Neji a sympathetic smile.
"Neji, come on, they're smart kids," he said. "They're probably gonna know why you're sending them to see me, anyway. Why don't I just help you pack while they're at school or something? That'd be better." Neji shook his head and went over to the table, wishing he had some more dishes to put away.
"No, you need as much time as you can get with Sasuke," he said stubbornly. "I know the boys have been commandeering a lot of your time from him and this way, at least you'll be able to see both the boys and Sasuke, instead of choosing to see one and then the other.
"And I can take them from you on Thursday so that you can have that night with Sasuke; I'll probably be finished by then, anyway." Naruto was watching Neji move about the very clean apartment space, a little baffled as Neji foisted their twins off on him; not that he would call it foisting, he loved spending time with the boys, and he knew that Sasuke did too, no matter what the asshole said.
"But—" he started.
"You'll not persuade me let this go, Naruto," Neji said coldly. "The twins love spending time with both you and Sasuke and they have plenty of things to do to occupy themselves when you two want to be alone. It's a perfect arrangement." He stopped and added as an afterthought, "Although, I am sorry for taking away a Wednesday evening you could've spent with Sasuke… If they get to be too much, you can call me and I'll come and get them." Naruto tried to speak again but was cut off by a very familiar ring tone. He winced. He knew what that song meant; he had stayed too late and Sasuke was wondering why the hell he wasn't home yet.
Neji looked pointedly at him, then his phone, then back at him. Naruto's happy mood was inexplicably diminished as he bid Neji goodbye and left the apartment that evening, Sasuke's voice in his ear.
Alright, this is my first KibaNeji fic (I'm so happy) and it was inspired by this one article I read on Yahoo while checking my email. It was basically about these two people, a man and a woman, who left their families to be together. The man's account of things was particularly interesting to me because he said he felt guilty the whole time, even though he never actually had a physical affair with the woman he had come to love. After a few months of going back and forth like that, he finally left his wife and children and expressed that he was not proud of the manner in which he left (keep in mind this is the abridged version, there's more to the article that I just can't remember). I felt that there was a story there and so this was born! My music inspiration for this chapter was the song "Send in the Clowns", which I love.
I do not own Naruto and shall return the characters once I have finished with them.
I hope someone likes this enough to look out for the next chapters and thank you in advance to all who read/review/whatever this story. Greatly appreciated. :) Oh yeah, and the KibaNeji comes later. Think of this as a rom-com on the more serious side of things.
