Warnings: cursing and shounen ai
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters
Author's note: I'd like to thank my Beta for her very fast work.

Chapter 1

He wondered how women could act so unreasonable and never seemed to use their brain when in love with someone.

They would get very giddy and the worst of all was that it seemed that they just couldn't stop blushing.

No, he wasn't pondering on what his fan-club could be doing right now. He was reading one of Ten-Ten's treasured books. The downright horrible fact about it all? He liked it.

No, not Ten-Ten, he liked the book. And why would Neji Hyuuga, prodigy of the Hyuuga clan, be reading a girls-only book? All because of a mission.

It had been a fairly easy mission to start with, just a simple "get the seemingly innocent, rich, flirty girl from A to B within the day" sort of mission.

They hadn't expected to be attacked on their way back to Konoha.

They also hadn't expected their enemy to have the newest, state-of-the-art poison ready for use.

What they could have expected was that Neji would be the one on attack. Not because he was a Hyuuga, but because of his personality and pride, he felt obliged to protect Ten-Ten.

Not because he was madly in love with the girl but she had bruised her ankle and thus wasn't in the condition to jump around throwing weapons.

Tsunade had said Neji was lucky, because it wasn't a deadly poison. Neji simply felt unfortunate because he was confined to a bed for a few days.

It was the sort of poison that caused a malfunction. A nasty malfunction in his muscles, which was indeed quite unfortunate.

Neji was carried back to the village on his teachers' back, much to his own disgust.

Tsunade had taken care of most of the poison, also attending the ribs he had broken when he was flung against a tree by his enemy.

Now Neji was stuck in the hospital with broken bones and sore muscles. Nothing too serious and he was expected to be dismissed from the hospital the day after tomorrow. But that didn't mean he was having the happiest time of his life.

To top it all off, his teammates and his teacher hadn't even come by to see how he was doing. He frowned at that and wondered if people really thought he was that much of an asshole. Because honestly, nine of ten times he didn't mean to be.

A soft and hesitant knock on the door made him look up. He was grateful someone actually came to visit him even though his injuries were trivial. He almost smiled but in the end stopped before his lips could quirk upwards. He had changed, yes of course. But what would it do to his image if someone actually saw him smile?

"Uhm, Neji nii-san, a-are you awake?" A nervous voice sounded through the door.

Neji did smile when he realized it was his cousin, Hinata.

"I'm awake." He called out, his tone much more gentle than most people were used to.

Unknown to other people, because they simply didn't pay attention to him, he was quite fond of Hinata and Hanabi. He also cared a great deal more about his uncle now than he did at the Chuunin exams four years ago.

"Neji nii-san, thank goodness you're f-fine!" Hinata smiled brightly at him as she entered the room.

Immediately she walked to the chair next to his bed and sat down.

"It's nothing. Just a few scratches. Don't worry about it, Hinata-sama." He said, trying to sound reassuring.

Because if he had been completely honest, he would've told her he had a serious head-ache and that the pain in his muscles was killing him.

"Broken bones and poisoned muscles don't count as scratches." Hinata told him, a stern look on her face.

"Besides, how many times do I have to say it's Hinata?" She chided.

Neji nodded and as he did all those times before, promised: "I will try."

"Good," Hinata nodded with a slight smile.

"You should try to keep your promise this time."

Neji turned towards the door and tried to make a respectful bow. But he stopped mid-way and slowly sat up again as he felt his muscles protest in a very painful way.

Instead he just nodded to the man by the door and said: "I certainly will, uncle."

His uncle, Hiashi Hyuuga, sighed at the somewhat uncomfortable attitude of his nephew.

Neji had changed a lot over the years. He not only came to respect both Hinata and Hanabi, but treated them as family as well. That was already a miracle to Hiashi.

Yet it seemed that, even though things were cleared up between them years ago, Neji still felt uncomfortable around him.

But Hiashi knew better than to try to change that forcefully. He would just have some patience and one day, when Neji was ready, they could all live as a family.

"I am sorry to disappoint you, uncle." Neji said in an almost timid voice. He curled his fingers around the blanket covering him, staring at them quite intently.

"Have you disappointed me?" Hiashi questioned him when he stood near the bed Neji was currently occupying.

"I got hospitalized during a fairly easy mission. That must have disappointed you in some way," Neji explained.

Hiashi just raised an eyebrow and in a strict voice said: "The only thing that disappoints me is that the blow against that tree didn't knock some sense into you."

Neji stared at his uncle in bewilderment, not knowing what to say.

Meanwhile, Hinata turned to her father and looked at him a bit horrified. "Father!"

"Yes Hinata? Did I say something wrong?" Hiashi asked his daughter.

"Ah, I… well, you see-" Hinata stuttered. A blush appeared on her cheeks and she fidgeted with her fingers while trying to think of something to say.

Neji was trying to gather his thoughts on how to react to his uncle's words. But he couldn't think of any words to say or another way to react than just stare at his uncle in complete and utter puzzlement.

Hiashi, understanding Neji's confused state, smiled fondly at his nephew's expression for a second. "You're family, Neji." He simply said.

Neji frowned. Of course he was family, he knew that. Hiashi didn't have to point out to him they were family; the curse-mark on his forehead was proof enough.

"I know that." Neji spoke slowly, carefully picking his words. "But I don't understand."

"You were never known to be dense, Neji. So don't start that now." Hiashi said in a bit of a harsh tone. But his look softened as he continued. "You are family. I worry about you when you go on a mission and I fear for your life when you return injured."

Neji felt his eyes widen at the caring words. He opened his mouth to say something but closed it immediately as he found he didn't know what to say. He turned his head away with a slight blush of sudden shyness on his cheeks.

"Thank you." He whispered and Hiashi and Hinata were lucky to hear the soft whisper.

Hiashi and Hinata were both smiling and enjoying the fact they finally seemed to have gotten through to Neji.

Meanwhile, Neji was staring down at the sheets with a blush on his cheeks. His uncle had just said in actual words Neji was family and that he worried about him. He blinked and smiled slightly.

He knew his uncle cared about him but never found out to what degree. He felt warm inside and realized it was the happiness that he had denied himself for a long time. Perhaps now it was the time to grow up emotionally as he had done mentally over the few years.

Neji closed his eyes and thought that getting poisoned wasn't such a bad thing after all.

Two hours later both Hinata and Hiashi had left. Neji was now alone again with his borrowed book.

Over the years, Neji had come to appreciate reading more and more. It had started out with a fascination with books about birds for a reason he'd rather not think about anymore.

The books about game tactics followed because he had been set on defeating his fellow genius, Shikamaru Nara. After failing three times Neji had decided he had embarrassed himself enough in front of the other man and settled with teaching Hanabi how to play Shogi.

One time, Naruto had shown to Neji one of the "dirty-books" that the Toad Sage Jiraiya wrote. Neji remembered quite well how he had chased Naruto down the entire village when the blonde had claimed to a poor passer-by that Neji actually read the book.

Well, to say that Neji loved to read books would be an understatement. Although it was quite embarrassing to him it was a girls' book that he was reading right now.

So when the door was thrown open he couldn't be fast enough to hide the book. He shoved it underneath his pillow, keeping an eye on the intruder.

To his own surprise it wasn't Lee or Ten-Ten and it wasn't even his teacher proclaiming that because he was in the hospital he wasn't a Youthful and reliable ninja anymore.

No, it was Ino Yamanaka, a girl which he only knew by name and looks. He had also heard the rumours about the fact she was the source of all the gossip that went around town.

Neji had to suppress the urge to sigh. He wondered why she was visiting him anyway. Last time he checked Ino was working very hard on getting over her crush on the runaway Uchiha.

He looked at Ino, then at the small bouquet of freesias in her hands and immediately thought the worst.

He hoped she wasn't too set on catching his interest or using him for a rebound romance. He certainly wasn't interested in Ino's kind of girl.

While Neji was somewhat angsting on finding the best words to tell Ino he certainly held no interest in her and probably never would, Ino was looking at Neji with a raised eyebrow.

'Boys can be so single-minded sometimes,' she thought with a sigh.

Neji was beautiful, anyone could see that. But she knew it wouldn't be such a good idea to go for another guy very soon again. Not after her first crush had betrayed the village.

Ino smiled brightly as she remembered the flowers in her hand. "These are for you!" she exclaimed while shoving the bouquet in Neji's hands.

Neji looked shocked for a second before looking up at Ino with a frown. "Why?"

"Probably because you are in the hospital," Ino giggled and Neji could swear she was inwardly laughing at him.

"Uhm…" He paused for a moment to think about a way to bring the news to her gently and found one he thought very suiting to his personality. "I don't like you."

Ino raised an eyebrow at his bluntness and in an irritated voice said: "That's nice to know. I don't like you either."

"Then," Neji glared at the flowers for a second, "why the flowers?"

"I work at a flower shop. Someone wanted these flowers to be delivered to you," she said with a shrug. Why couldn't this guy ever try to make a conversation?

Understanding dawned upon Neji and he bowed his head with a grateful quirk of his lips. "Thanks for bringing them. Do you know who they are from?"

"Not the brightest crayon in the box when it comes to being wooed, are you?" she asked with a giggle. "There's a card attached to it," she said, pointing to a small card dangling from one of the flowers.

"I hope you can get out of the hospital really quick. Bye Neji!" she waved with a smile before leaving him alone.

With a frown Neji looked at the flowers in his hands. Someone had sent him flowers.

He wondered if it was really girly that he felt a warm and giddy right now.

He couldn't help it, not really. No one had ever given him anything besides a birthday present and those were almost mandatory.

But now someone had sent him flowers on their own free will. He was nervous to look at the card because what if they were from Ten-Ten?

He almost knew for sure that the girl didn't like him "that" way but he could always be wrong.

No, he decided, if Ten-Ten was going to do something for him she would come by and ask how he liked the book she gave him.

After a few minutes he nervously grabbed the card and turned it around so he could read it.

His eyes widened slightly at what he found written on it though.

No name, no small-talk, not much of anything actually. Just a few words written neatly on the card.

"Get well soon."

Neji took a small breath of surprise and could only wonder who would send him flowers.

TBC.