Ch oji carried the last of the boxes inside and smiled at his new roommate. Lee shuffled through the stacks of boxes and led the way into their shared kitchen. This kitchen was a formidable size, considering it was a bachelor pad, but in truth was the selling point to Akimichi. Lee handed his new partner-in-crime a fizzy soda from their decent sized fridge, and after clinking the bottles together, took their respective pulls while they surveyed their new pad. They had to unpack, but in truth the two boys didn't really have a lot of possession: just enough to scrape by, which was fine for the two newly independent ninjas.
Choji's mom had insisted on him attending dinner at least twice a week back at the compound. With the pleading look in his mother's eyes and the way that she had so earnestly clapped her hands together until they turned white from lack of blood, he half-heartedly agreed.
He knew his mother would only worry about him if he didn't, even though he assured her that he had done his math correctly and would be more than able to afford the place as long as he was able to obtain a roommate. And groceries, Kame knew his mother was worried the man wouldn't be eating enough. He reassured her, again, that he would have more than enough as long as he could move in with someone else to split the rent.
Thus entered Rock Lee.
Now Choji loved his best friend, Shikamaru, mind you, but he just couldn't see spending every waking hour with the guy before he vowed to loath the man for all eternity. Space, his own space, is what he needed. Weather his mother liked it or not, he was becoming a man, and moving out was a surefire way to drive the fact further into his parent's brains.
He was feeling suffocated and needed some time away from the complex before his role as heir seeped in and he would never once be able to say that he made it on his own before the responsibilities of leading his clan engulfed his life completely. Soon, his parents would pester him to take a wife and produce little (ha-ha) Akimichis of his own. But for now, he was able to do what he wanted, and moving out was at the top of his list to get himself out from under his parent's thumb.
Lee was friendly and warm, and well suited for the job as roommate. He didn't seem to carry a lot of mental baggage like that Hyuga teammate of Lee's, or become extremely introverted and mysterious like Nara's new roommate, Shino. No, Lee was well mannered, polite, a descent conversationalist, and not a clutter bug.
As long as he kept those damn quick hands of his off of his snacks, things would be just fine.
…
Choji started unpacking the last box of chipped dishes (a hand me down from Asuma during his bachelor pad days, courtesy of Kurenai) when the doorbell rang.
Ahh, their first visitor. Choji just hoped to Kame it wasn't one of his parents come by to check up on him.
Lee, who came out of nowhere, answered the door with a flourish, and smothered the guest in an enormously tight hug. The person on the receiving end squeaked like a bath toy at the sudden loss of air, and nearly dropped what Choji could only assume was a house warming present.
Her wide eyes were pleading out from his firm grasp and she mouthed the words, "help me," to the Akimichi, who chuckled to himself concerning his overzealous flat mate.
He placed a large hand on Lee's shoulder and took the box of cookies that the young woman had nearly dropped from nothing short of lack of blood flowing to her extremities.
"Lee, please introduce me to your friend," Choji announced, and as soon as Lee was not looking, she mouth out a grateful, "thank you," as she rubbed her arms.
"Choji-san!" Lee began youthfully, truly the only way that Lee could begin anything, "this is my teammate, Tenten!"
The two respectfully bowed, knowing that Lee would appreciate the formalities, and Choji couldn't help but wink at her briefly, as if to playfully thank her for going along with the madness that was Rock Lee.
She beamed back a heartfelt smile, as if to say she was used to it, and Choji offered her box back to the twin bunned konoichi in a gentlemanly way.
"Oh no," she gushed out, "I brought them as a house warming present for you both."
"Quite thoughtful of you, won't you please come in and make yourself as comfortable as you can in our humble abode." He gestured with a hand wave.
He was surprised to see a faint blush buzz her cheeks as she meekly took off her sandals and ventured further inside.
Choji resumed his work back in the kitchen, making sure to start some tea on the stove for their first guest, before unwrapping more dishes and placing them carefully in the cupboards.
He smiled again to himself as he heard Lee beam about how he thought Sakura might enjoy visiting his new place as he showed Tenten every nook and cranny the place had to offer.
He was glad that Lee was so particularly enthusiastic about everything; it kind of made it hard not to smile and shake your head. He wondered briefly if Lee ever got depressed, and what a scary thought that would be to see. He settled in his mind that if that day ever came, he might be able to cheer him up the way that Lee seemed to always make the world around him now.
The whistle of the kettle drew him out of his thoughts and he quickly made up a tray for tea and invited the others to draw around their meager coffee table to partake in the celebratory drink of their new place.
Choji had shuffled some of the cookies on a plate and laid them out on the table for them to munch on. And he had to admit, they were quite tasty.
"Did you make these, Tenten?" Choji asked after sampling a few, "My mother would give her left arm for a recipe this good."
Tenten blushed again, sheepishly looked down, and swiped some hair out of her eyes. Choji noted how cute her modesty was.
"Thanks, I am trying my hand at baking; I have an assignment in a few months that will require me to be an expert baker as I work an apprenticeship in a forge in the fire country. I need to get at least a few dozen more recipes under my belt before I can go. My last batch didn't turn out so well."
"The ones wi' da nuhs?" Lee rushed out thickly as he chewed half of a cookie in his mouth. He quickly swallowed, "Neji and I were fighting each other for the last one, literally!"
"I burned them, Lee," she chided softly, accusing him of falsely praising her work.
"Yes, but they were so good that we were still fighting over them!" Lee pointed a bandaged hand in her direction. "That makes how many recipes to add to your collection?"
"Including this one?" Tenten perked up and Lee nodded. "That makes two," she finished in a defeated manner. "I need to find someone to teach me two dozen recipes within a month and a half or Tsunade is going to find another blacksmith to take my spot." She sighed and swiveled her tea aimlessly around in her cup.
"I can ask my mom," Choji piped in casually. "She would probably be completely flattered that you would go to her, and her schedule is pretty flexible."
Tenten perked up again, and a smile lit up her face with genuine gratitude. "Really? That would be awesome!"
"I was supposed to bring Lee over tonight to meet my parents," Choji shifted his gaze on his roommate, who seemed to blush ever so slightly by his focused attention on his sudden termination of the dinner, "but he asked Sakura on a date and she said yes." Choji couldn't help but chuckle at Lee's now hyped up behavior.
"The springtime of youth is upon me! My precious cherry blossom has come around to my affections!" Lee all but gushed to Tenten-apparently he had meant to tell her earlier but had gotten caught up in the whole moving ordeal.
"I see," Tenten smiled with approval; because smiling at Lee's happiness was completely contagious. Choji winked again at Tenten, and she blushed ever so slightly at his flirting and shyly looked away.
Tonight would definitely be interesting.
…
"Choji!" The tall woman beamed, opening wide the door to the Akimichi complex. Her face of kind of paled as it lingered on Tenten. "Who is your friend, son?"
Choji chuckled a bit before answering. "I see Dad isn't back yet?" He asked his mother, who wordlessly nodded, confused by where her son was taking her in this conversation.
"I ran into Dad earlier to explain that my roommate, Rock Lee, was unable to attend dinner tonight, but his teammate, Tenten, here, would be joining us instead."
His mother visibly relaxed at the news; her son had not moved out of the house to elope with some girl that he hadn't even bothered to tell them about.
"I hope that is okay, mother," he smiled warmly at his mom, who suddenly smiled back in kind and urged them both to come in. Choji kissed his mother by way of greeting on both cheeks and helped Tenten hang up her coat in the foyer as the apron clad matriarch disappeared back into the kitchen.
"What can I help with?" Choji asked, strapping on an apron and grabbing at the few odds-and-ends dishes around the counter to place them in the sink.
"Go entertain your friend, no need to fuss around here," she explained politely, bumping him with her hip away from his position at the sink.
"Actually, Mom, Tenten was wondering if you might be able to help her refine her baking skills," Choji continued to help clean up despite his mother's discouraging looks, "she is in need of someone to assist her so that she can be able to take the blacksmith's position in fire country in about a month."
"Oh, that is a very prestigious apprenticeship," his mother cooed lowly, "they only offer it to the best blacksmiths, but the catch is they have to be able to use that flame from the ovens to bake as well, or they won't bother taking them. It's so cold in the fire country they insist on having them learn baking before they take the position, or they send them back, because they have to be able to make good use of the flame at all times. If they are able to stay, the money, I hear, is very good."
"Is that a 'yes'?" Choji asked his mother with an askance look, playfully ignoring his mothers informational ranting. "Or do you need more time to think about it?"
His mother smiled proudly at her son, "Of course I am going to help her."
…
Choji, was not one to look the gift horse in the mouth; especially when those gifts were freshly baked goodies from a particularly cute konoichi. He found himself running into her constantly, which, in truth, he didn't mind at all.
If she wasn't dropping off baked goodies at their apartment for her newly discovered "guinea pigs," she could always be found at his parent's house, sporting an apron and offering to sneak him some warm pre-dinner treat before his scheduled dinner dates his mother insisted on having with him and his father.
He stopped by the complex, late one afternoon after training with his team, on a day he wasn't scheduled to have dinner, just back from the market. Taking the side door to the kitchen, he hauled in his box of flours for his mother, hoping to just leave them on the counter with a note explaining why they were there.
He was finding that even though he was socking his money away like a mad-man, he had quite a bit left over for more luxurious things, and what better way than to surprise his mother and Tenten than with a rather wide variety of flours to chose from for their many baking escapades.
As he opened the door, he could smell something heavenly baking in the oven. Placing the large box of fours on the counter, he spotted the twin bunned konoichi in a frilly apron mixing up a concoction in a large white mixing bow.
"Choji!" Tenten greeted him with a warm smile and crossed the kitchen with the bowl now hiked up on her hip.
"Try this!" she offered him the spoon half way up out of the bowl, and he helped guide the light yellow mix to his lips.
"Lemon frosting?" he said with an impressed tone, she nodded. "That is really good! What delicious treat are you making that will accompany such perfection?" he asked. Complimenting the young baking goddess until she blushed was Choji's new favorite passed time. And he was granted the reward of not only getting more baked treats, but she also graced him with another one of her famous blushes as she brushed the hair away from her eyes with a shoulder. He gave in to the temptation to gently tuck in the rouge strand behind her ear himself, after three more futile attempts on her part to tame it with her shoulder.
At his touch she had stared with wide eyes into his face for a second, and then continued to blush deeply, and look away.
Hinata, eat your heart out.
He fought the urge to smile at her blushing; for fear that she might think him laughing at her.
"So what is that?" Tenten changed the subject quickly, not wanting to linger on her sudden embarrassment. She pointed to the box that he had brought in on the counter.
"Just some fours that I brought for you and my mom to experiment with," he casually mentioned, "I just wanted to drop them off on my way back from training."
"You bough me flours?" she asked, moving to peer into the box, not even minding that she was now, exceptionally well into his personal space.
Now, when one got into the personal bubble of an Akimichi, one had to realize exactly what that entailed. Tenten was about to find out. The Akimichi held on to their space quite firmly, as they were constantly pulling in energy from the earth with their chakra, not moving unless engaged in battle for the sake of not taking a hit. As she turned to look at Choji after checking out all of the exotic flours in the contents of the box, she realized her so called mistake, and had rubbed up against Choji's very tree-like figure. She slowly looked up at his face as she did, half expecting him to jump back from the intimate contact. To her amazement, he simply offered without embarrassment, "I hope you like them."
Transfixed, she stood staring up into his eyes, like a deer caught in a spot light. He didn't break eye contact, even when the kitchen timer buzzed obnoxiously on the counter. She seemed oblivious to its warning, and Choji had to repeat himself twice before she slipped back into reality.
"The timer went off," he announced to the doe-eyed girl now resting her hand on his chest.
"Huh? Oh! Right!" she stammered out as she blushed again, tearing around the kitchen in a frenzy, trying to find the oven mitts to take out her newly baked treats.
Pulling one off of the tray, she quickly blew on it, frosted it, and offered it up to Choji to sample. She eagerly anticipated his reaction with wide eyes, and Choji was beginning to realize that he wasn't looking forward to the end of the next four weeks. Her apprenticeship lasted for nine grueling months, and Choji tried not to think about how he would really miss her while she took leave.
"Hot!" Choji announced suddenly after taking a larger bite than he had intended. Tenten frantically apologized and nearly tripped over her own feet to get him a glass of water.
"But really good," he finished taking the proffered glass with a wink.
She blushed prettily as she preened from his compliment, and Choji couldn't help but think he might have trouble letting his little baking nymph go.
….