A holiday special that wound up being late, because i'm super cool like that.
i do not own naruto
Neji scrubbed one hand down his face tiredly, glancing down to check on Hui Na where she was passed out in the stroller. She'd insisted earlier that she was a big girl and would be walking around the mall the whole time they were there, but two hours in she was plodding after him exhaustedly, though she refused to go back on her word. Eventually he'd scooped her up and put her in the stroller with the seat back so she could lay down, and she was asleep in minutes.
She'd been asleep for almost an hour now while Neji kept shopping. Thankfully, they only had a few more things to get, and then they could finally go home. They needed to buy the brandy-filled chocolates that Hiashi wouldn't admit he liked, pick up a pre-ordered sculpture piece for Hanabi- she'd just moved into a long-term place and was working on forming it into her adult apartment- and Hui Na needed to pick out a special gift from her to her Uncle Sensei.
And because Tenten wasn't shopping with them like they had originally planned, now Neji could get her something extra. (She'd had a bad bout of morning sickness that lasted well into the day, and they'd left her stretched out on the couch with a cool compress on her head and a half-dozen carrots to eat, gifted from a highly concerned daughter.)
The stroller was already laden down with several bags of items for some assorted adult friends of his and Tenten's, plus Hui Na had picked some things out for Metal and Shikadai. They were close to finishing, but they'd been there for a long time and Hui Na undoubtedly would need to eat soon.
So Neji reluctantly directed the stroller towards the food court, where hopefully he could find a meal for Hui Na that was even the tiniest bit healthy.
It was packed, of course, but Neji nudged his way through the crowd to Ichiraku's (the place had skyrocketed to fame after Naruto accidentally endorsed it, and Teuchi was able to open a few different branches throughout the Land of Fire- but everyone knew the original restaurant, located in the scrappier part of downtown Konoha, had the best food) and ordered herring soba for himself and a kid's meal for Hui Na. As he waited for their order, he leaned down and gently shook Hui Na awake.
She stared up at him blearily, her face creased where it had been smushed against her blanket. "Hi, little bird. Are you hungry?"
Hui Na squinted up at him, then nodded in affirmation as she scrubbed at her eyes with her knuckles and struggled into a sitting position. Neji straightened the seat back up and she settled against it with a sigh, grabbing her water bottle where it had lodged against the side of the stroller and taking a gulp from it.
"Number 251," called one of the workers, and Neji pushed forward to collect their order with a curt nod of thanks. He wheeled the stroller over to an empty table and helped Hui Na out of it and onto a chair, then passed her the kid's meal and the training chopsticks from their bag.
She let out a happy noise. "Lookit dada, it's a panda bear!" She held up her ningyo-yaki to show to him, then made it hop around the table and sang in a funny voice, "Panda panda panda!"
He smiled indulgently at her, but reminded her quietly, "Don't forget to eat your food."
"Oh yeah," she said. She grabbed her chopsticks and carefully put her hand in the grip, then slowly scooped up a bite of onigiri and popped it into her mouth.
"Panda panda," she whispered around the mouthful, jumping the panda on top of her water bottle and then back down again. Neji watched as he ate small, quick bites of his own meal. He paused to hold up a bite of her chicken. "Here, bite."
Hui Na leaned forward and ate the chicken off the chopsticks with a chomping noise, still bouncing her new "toy" up and down around the table. "Ooh," she said suddenly, holding still. "Yummy."
"Yummy?" Neji repeated. "You want another bite?"
"Yep." Hui Na leaned forward, mouth open, and he deposited another piece of chicken into her mouth. "Here," he picked up some more onigiri and held it out to her, "This too." She opened her mouth again, and he caught a good long look at the slimy, partially chewed-up chicken that she hadn't swallowed yet.
(Having children was so fulfilling.)
They spent a very long time in the food court as Hui Na slowly ate her lunch, sometimes feeding herself and sometimes demanding Neji do it. Eating her ningyo-yaki panda was a slow and tragic affair, as she ate her way up from the feet and kept the head for last, making painful shrieking noises on behalf of the panda.
Hui Na threw the head into her mouth and chewed fiercely, screwing up her expression into a dark, adorable scowl as she played her part as the evil monster.
Meal finished, she reached for her water bottle and drank greedily, then set it back down and considered her palms. "I'm stickly, dada," she told him somberly, clenching and unclenching her hands to show him how "stickly" she was.
"I think playing with your panda made you 'stickly,'" Neji told her. He pulled some wipes from the bag and handed one to her to wipe herself off, which she did very carefully.
"There," she said, quite satisfied with herself. "Now I'm not stickly."
"I'm glad," Neji told her, and leaned down to press a kiss to the top of her sweet round head. "Ready to keep shopping? We're almost done."
"Okey dokey. Can I stay in the stroller? My legs are tiiired."
"All right, if you're tiiiired," he teased, and helped her sit back down. They headed towards the chocolate shop to get Hiashi's gift, where Neji also very indulgently got some strawberry and chocolate pocky for Hui Na to munch on.
Next they headed towards the place where they needed to get Hanabi's present, but Hui Na spotted a stuffed animal squirrel in the window of a shop and decided it was the perfect thing to get Lee. Frankly, Neji didn't disagree, and Hui Na soon had it tucked under one arm as they continued on their way.
They picked up the sculpture for Hanabi next. It was a tree made of pieces of driftwood, intertwined and polished to form one structure. It was fairly large, and rather cumbersome to transport. Neji had to wedge it (still inside its painstakingly padded container) carefully in the space between the seat and the handle.
"Okay, little bird. Want to help me pick something special out for mama?"
"For mama?" Hui Na turned to look up at him, nose scrunched in confusion. "We got her a present?"
Neji smiled at her phrasing- the two of them had picked out a few things for Tenten already, and Hui Na wanted to check to make sure he remembered. "We did get her something already, but since she'd not here we can get her a surprise present."
"Ooh," Hui Na let out a little gasp. "But you can't tell her, dada."
"Of course." Neji wheeled the stroller around a few preteen mallrats (what the hell were they doing at a mall at 1:30 PM on a Tuesday? Didn't they have school?) and headed towards a jewelry store.
Tenten always claimed she didn't want nor wear jewelry, but the simple fact was that she was a bit of a sucker for a pretty rock on a shiny bit of metal. Not rings- she didn't like when bits that stuck out caught on things, which was why her engagement ring was a few gemstones set into a band, nothing to stick out and annoy her- but she liked necklaces with tiny, delicate pendants, and loved statement earrings.
(And she looked absolutely enchanting in them, in Neji's undoubtedly biased opinion. On date nights, if they went someplace with low lighting, where every turn of her head caught her earrings in the light and made them glint- well, if Neji had a few drinks then by the end of the evening he'd be nuzzling his face into her neck, right there in public.)
Neji moved the stroller to an unoccupied portion of the store and pulled Hui Na out of it. "Let's pick something out. Your mama likes earrings and necklaces the most."
"Okey dokey!" Hui Na eagerly crossed to a glass display case and stopped just in front of it, carefully not touching the glass. "What color?"
"She likes red and pink."
"Red and pink, red and pink, red and pink, red and pink…" Hui Na chanted softly to herself as she contemplated the displays. "Oh, dada let's go this way." She turned to walk over to a display that featured a lot of red gemstones, reaching up to grab onto the side of Neji's slacks and cling on to him.
Neji followed her obediently, scanning a critical eye over the jewelry. Some of the pieces were very similar to things Tenten already owned, which he knew mostly because he'd been expanding her jewelry collection regularly since they'd been together.
They stopped in front of another display, and a pair of earrings caught his eye. "Little bird, what about these earrings?" He lifted Hui Na up from the ground and propped her on his hip, pointing out the earrings to her.
She leaned over to look at them, scrunching up her nose to consider them. "Pretty!" she chirped.
An accurate assessment, Neji agreed. The earrings were rubies the size of his pinky nail on a delicate silver chain that was about five centimeters long, with a solitary diamond sparkling just above the rubies.
They suited Tenten's often-concealed dramatic flair to a tee, plus they were similar in structure to a necklace she had. They were perfect.
"Hm wait, I don't like those." Hui Na said.
"Oh." Neji said.
"I like that," Hui Na said happily, pointing to a clunky, violently sparkling sapphire necklace.
"...Oh." Neji said.
They departed from the store about twenty minutes later with a more Tenten-style necklace that both of them could agree on, plus one discreet purchase of the ruby earrings.
They were finally finished shopping and started the walk to the exit, Hui Na trotting happily at his side as she chattered about all the things she was seeing in the mall displays.
"There's a shirt, there's some candy, there's a packpack-"
(Her words for backpack, and yes, it was adorable.)
"That's some pants, there's a hippo-" A quick glance revealed that the hippo was, in fact, a stuffed animal manatee, but most round gray animals were hippos to Hui Na- "There's a little house for birdies, there's some rocks, there's- oh, I don't know what that is."
Neji looked at the store in question. It was a bubble tea store and was fairly new to the mall according to Hanabi, who loved bubble tea and was always looking for a good place to get it. She also said they had good tea, so Neji turned to Hui Na and said, "That's a bubble tea store, like what Aunt Hanabi likes. Do you want to try some?"
"Yep!" Hui Na bounced excitedly on her feet. "I never had some before!"
Neji smiled down at her. "You'll have to tell Aunt Hanabi that you tried some the next time you see her."
They spent a while in the store as Hui Na ran around looking at all the pastel-colored cartoonish decorations on the wall, then very carefully considered the options for tea that Neji listed for her. They eventually walked away from the store with a decaf strawberry bubble tea for Hui Na, some surprisingly good sencha tea for Neji, and a decaf mango boba for Tenten.
Hui Na sipped eagerly on the straw, eyes round with excitement. She pulled it out of her mouth and made a gleeful noise, chewing furiously on a tapioca bubble.
"Oh, dada that's so yummy."
"Is it? I'm glad you like it. Maybe you and Aunt Hanabi can get bubble tea together sometimes."
"Yep!" She took another long pull from the drink. "Dada, do you want to try some?"
Neji contemplated the drink with an internal sigh. It was sure to be overpoweringly sweet. "If you want to share, then I'll have just a sip."
"Okay!" Hui Na patiently held the drink up for him to grab, and he took it from her with a sudden rush of affection at her sweet earnestness.
He took the tiniest of sips from the tea- though it would be far more accurate to call it a syrup, with the amount of sugar it contained. Neji let none of his distaste show on his face, instead meeting his daughter's expectant gaze with a smile. "It tastes just like strawberry."
"Yep!" Hui Na took the tea back from him and grinned. "Yummy!"
"Yummy indeed. Let's head home."
"Okey dokey."
Their journey through the mall was much quieter now that Hui Na had her tea to occupy her attention. She was clutching her drink tightly between her hands as she walked so as not to spill it, but she was so focused on it that her path meandered wildly. The third time she almost walked headlong into a stranger Neji pulled the stroller aside and plopped her down into it, setting her drink into the cupholder and pressing an affectionate kiss to her cheek.
She frowned petulantly up at him. "No, dada, I can walk."
"You keep crashing into things, little bird. This way you don't have to worry about your drink."
She gave him a displeased look, her lower lip extended in the pout she had inadvertently been taught by her mother. Neji was unaffected- at this point, he was mostly immune to them both.
They made their way out to the parking ramp and Neji quickly strapped Hui Na, still clutching her tea, into her carseat before unloading the bags and boxes into the trunk of the car, then the stroller. He sat down in the driver's seat and put his own tea in the cupholder with Tenten's next to it.
"Let's go home, hm?" Finally.
The ride home was fairly quiet except for the quiet slurps from Hui Na as she sipped her tea, punctuated by her tuneless but happy humming. (Tenten swore up and down that Neji did the exact same thing when he was working on something that required very little brain power, but he refused to believe it.) Neji checked on Hui Na in the rearview mirror every once in a while. She was staring out the window and watching the scenery go by, a happy little smile on her face.
(It almost hurt sometimes, how happy she was. Neji recalled bits of his own childhood, of glaring pale eyes and the weight of expectations on his shoulders- and compared it to how Hui Na's life was. He was furious with his family, for indifferently placing such a burden on him at the same age that his earnest, open-hearted daughter was now.
Had they cared about him at all? Had they ever once looked at him and seen anything beyond a means to an end?)
Before long they were pulling into their driveway. Hui Na, upon realizing they were entering the garage, suddenly spoke. "Uh-oh."
Neji's forehead creased. "What 'uh-oh'?"
"I really haveta potty."
"I see. Good thing we're home." He hurried to her side and unbuckled her from her car seat, then helped her onto the ground. She immediately ran towards the door and threw it open, storming into the house and yelling "HI MAMA WE'RE HOME FROM SHOPPING I HAVETA POTTY I CAN'T TALK." The door swung shut behind her.
Neji smiled after her for a moment, before starting to pull the bags out of the trunk. He heard the door open again, much quieter than the last time, and Tenten called to him, "Hey! How was the mall?"
"Not terrible," he responded, quickly double checking to make sure her gifts were hidden away in a non-labeled bag. "About as crowded as expected, but we didn't have any horrible incidents. There's a decaf bubble tea for you in the cupholder."
Tenten let out a soft, pleased noise. A few moments later she emerged from around the side of the car, tea in hand as she happily drank from it. Neji gave her an appraising look.
"You must be feeling better."
"I am," she responded cheerfully. "Threw up in the sink and took a nap. I feel great. Ooh, is this mango?"
"Yes."
"Mmmm." She paused and considered the load of bags that he was sorting into his arms. "Love, let me carry some of those."
Neji jerked to a halt, then cast her a quick look out of the corner of his eye. She sighed.
"Just a few bags. The lightest ones, even."
He stalled reluctantly. Tenten let out a little huff and walked over to grab a few bags, neatly looping them over one arm while the other held her tea. "There. This is fine."
"Fine," Neji acquiesced, a little surly. He pulled the box containing Hanabi's gift out of the car and shifted it to grip it comfortably on one arm before raising his hand and closing the trunk. He followed Tenten towards the door but stopped abruptly, remembering the two teas still sitting in the car. He considered the bulk of packages in his arms and groaned internally as he felt the imminent teasing Tenten would be giving him.
"Tennie, Hui Na's tea is in her cupholder and mine is in the front, can you grab them?"
Tenten turned to face him with a wicked smirk. "What, Mr. I-can-carry-everything, are you out of arms?"
He gave her a flat look. Her smirk broadened. "Oh, poor you. Having to rely on your wife-"
Neji frowned outright. "You know it has nothing to do with that."
"Yep, just your pride."
He pitched his voice low in irritation. "Just grab them, Tenten." Rather than the teasing retort he expected, an odd look passed over her face. He analyzed it carefully, but his attention diverted when the door opened again and Hui Na stepped out.
"Hi mama!"
"Well hello my little girl!" Tenten quickly bent down to Hui Na's height and started pressing kisses all over her face. "How was shopping with dada?"
"Good! I got strawberry bubbles! But I left it in the car."
"Oh-" Tenten blinked in confusion. "Uh, what are strawberry bubbles?"
"This!" Hui Na announced happily, fetching her tea and hoisting it above her head to show to her mother. "Lookit the bubbles!"
"Ladies," Neji interrupted. "As much as I adore you both, it's rather cold out and we have several presents to wrap. Let's go inside."
"Okey dokey!" Hui Na reached up to grab Tenten's arm as they began making their way back inside. Neji followed a few steps behind them, fighting back a smile at the way Hui Na's pigtails bobbed up and down as she excitedly bounced up and down on her toes, chattering to Tenten about their mall trip.
Once inside the house, Neji brought the bags into the master bedroom to eventually be wrapped, taking the time to hide away Tenten's jewelry in his side of the closet. (But not in his underwear, as Tenten had developed the habit of cheerfully sorting through it to put the tighter-clinging pairs in the forefront, where he'd be sure to grab them if he was in a rush.)
That accomplished, Neji headed back downstairs to where Hui Na and Tenten were sitting at the kitchen table, giggling at each other over their bubble tea. Neji paused behind Tenten's chair to rub her neck and press a quick kiss to her temple. A quick scan of the table showed that his tea had never made it inside, so he quickly stepped out into the garage to grab it.
When he came back in, Hui Na had left her tea on the table and was getting out some of her toys in the living room to play with, humming to herself in an increasingly shrill voice. Tenten was sipping from her tea and watching her with soft eyes, cheek propped in her hand.
Neji sat in the seat next to her and reached out for her hand when she put it down and looked at him. He brushed his thumb over her knuckles, then brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it.
She flushed a rewarding pink, but did not pull her hand away. Her eyes fell on his tea. "Did I leave your tea in the car?" There was a catch in her voice that he couldn't quite place.
"Well, yes, but I grabbed it."
"Oh." The word was short and clipped, and her gaze was still fixated on his tea, sitting on the table. He frowned at her unexpectedly emotional reaction.
"Tennie?"
Her voice cracked. "Pregnancy hormones really sneak up on a person, huh?"
"What-" She lifted her head to meet his gaze, her eyes filled with tears. His chest jolted.
"This is so stupid-" Tenten sniffled quietly, "I just was watching Hui Na play and thought she was cute, and then you kissed my hand and I thought that was sweet, and then you had to get your own tea after I made such a big deal about you asking me to get it-"
Her mouth formed into a pout as her chin wobbled, and she burst out, "And then I started thinking about how much you do for me, and much you love me and Hui Na, and then I was crying."
Rather abruptly she reached out and took a slurp of her tea. "This is really good," she sniffled. "Thank you for getting it for me."
"You're welcome," he replied slowly, searching his mind for how best to handle her turn of emotions- Tenten's last pregnancy was almost five years ago, after all. From what he remembered, most of the time Tenten found her own hormone-induced emotions rather trivial, and didn't like it when he took them seriously.
So instead of dropping to his knees in front of her chair and tenderly offering her comfort, he reached out to hold her hand in both of his own, squeezed her fingers slightly, and pressed another kiss to her hand.
"Oh, don't do that," Tenten said, and cried even harder.
Tenten cried quietly next to him for a minute or two, gripping his hand tightly and taking somewhat frantic drinks from her tea. Thankfully, Hui Na remained unaware as she carefully constructed a tower out of her Legos.
Finally Tenten let out one last whuffle, wiped away some snot with a paper napkin, and sighed. "Well, how was shopping?"
They talked lightly about their respective time apart, though Neji had a good deal more to say than Tenten, whose nap had lasted almost three hours. She'd also apparently eaten almost nothing for lunch- which got her a sharp rebuke of disapproval from Neji, to which she'd given him that same odd look from earlier- and he stood up to start making some late lunch.
Tenten followed him into the kitchen to help him make some quick stir-fry, talking about a phone call she'd had with Sakura the other day- apparently the surgeon talked a lot about kids, and Tenten was sort of wondering if it meant she already suspected the newest Hyuga was on its way. Tenten had let it slip in front of Sakura on a girls night out that they were trying, and while she'd sort of hoped that Sakura would forget amid all the other catching up they did, apparently she was onto them.
Fortunately they'd be officially announcing the pregnancy to close friends and family in a few weeks, so as long as Sakura kept her mouth shut for a little longer they'd be in the clear. Neji was just glad Tenten hadn't told Ino, who could hold a secret if she wanted to but rarely did.
Neji dished up some stir fry for Tenten and called to Hui Na, "Little bird, are you hungry at all?"
"No," Hui Na said, placing a Lego figurine inside the house she had made for it. "Mr. Pits needs to take a look at his 'vezmin."
"Important stuff," Tenten agreed, pressing a kiss to the corner of Neji's mouth as he passed her the bowl.
"'Vezmin?'" Neji asked quietly.
"'Investment', I think," she muttered.
"Ah." He put some of the extra stir fry on a plate for himself and sat back down next to Tenten, picking out the beef and putting it in her bowl. She enjoyed it with gusto.
"Oh," Hui Na suddenly said. She ran over to the table with her Lego figurine in hand. "Tea please!"
Tenten passed her strawberry bubble tea to her. "Food stays in the kitchen," she reminded her.
"Yep," Hui Na agreed. She took a slurp from the tea and chewed away at the tapioca happily. "Yummy," she told them. Tenten grabbed her own tea and tapped it against Hui Na's before taking her own sip.
"Yummy," she agreed.
They both turned to look at Neji and his tea, Hui Na standing on tiptoe and using Tenten's lap to balance herself as she peered over the edge of the table. She stretched out her tea towards him.
"Dada, clink!"
Neji obligingly tapped his tea against hers. Satisfied, she took another drink and put her cup back down at the edge of the table before heading off to play again.
Neji and Tenten ate quietly for a minute or two, before Neji remembered the question he had meant to ask his wife.
"You gave me an odd look earlier; what was that about?"
She swallowed a bite of food. "When?"
"First when I asked you to get the tea, then again when I reprimanded you for not eating when you should have."
"Oh." Tenten froze for a second before clearing her throat and continuing to eat. "Can I tell you later?"
He frowned at her. "Why would that matter?"
Her eyes darted over to where Hui Na was making rocket noises as she swooped some Legos in the air. "There are little ears present and surprisingly attentive."
Neji kept his gaze on Tenten as understanding hit him, followed by a long, intense study of her features. She looked at him for a few seconds and bit her lip with wide, dark eyes, before turning her attention back to her food.
Neji settled back into his chair, still watching her, and took a long draw from his tea. His gaze flicked over Tenten's body in what he knew to be a rather predatory way. She was wearing one of his old university sweatshirts with a pair of leggings, her hair thrown up into two messy buns and yesterday's mascara smudged around her eyes. She looked perfectly sexy.
He met her gaze for one last scorching look before rising to clear both their dishes and put away the leftovers. Maybe they would put Hui Na to bed a little earlier tonight.
i don't love how this ended, but its already very long, so i wrapped it up.
i hope you had a good holiday, and happy new year! 2019 y'all